Hey, it's so good to connect with all of our campuses throughout South Mississippi and also all the people that are worshiping online around the world. And I wanna do something a little different to start this message. I wanna pray for Israel and all the things that are going on in the Middle East. I know probably like you, I have been stunned at everything that's gone on in the last week, and there's so many things that are happening there that we don't even know all the details, but I think we've kinda crossed a Rubicon and I'm gonna talk about today. It's interesting how this is connected, how it's time for us as Christians to kinda step into the next level of our faith with regard to what I think is going on around the world. I think the lines are being drawn, and it's an opportunity for you to get serious and me to get serious about, about my faith.

And so let's pray for Israel and for the Middle East. Father, I thank you today that God, you have a heart for every area of the world that you love people. But Father Jesus, when he wept over Jerusalem, had a special love for the lostness of Jerusalem and the brokenness, and he saw all that was gonna happen. And Father, we pray today for protection of all the innocent, especially the children. Father, we pray that God, your will would be manifested across the world with all that's going on there, that God, you would help us get more serious and be more sensitive to your spirit in our life. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

You know, I've loved being in the book of Romans and our team, our teaching team, the way they have taught through Romans has been stunning to me. I mean, I sit there and take notes and I'm like, man, yeah, that's what a way to say that. That's incredible. And you've heard already about Romans one through three, the reality that nobody likes to talk about. Uh, but that is that you're separated from God until you come to know Jesus personally. Now, I, I don't know if you know this, that's not very popular, but it's true that when you come into the world and you know, hey, this is not, not the right thing to do, that God didn't just say, well, you know, I boys will be boys, girls will be girls. The Bible says that you're actually separated from God. And, and I love what Grace said, he said, you know, you need to realize that when you're separated from God, like, like that God like, and you come to know Jesus, he's not gonna ever put wrath on you. Like, like when things happen to you in your life. It's not because of the wrath of God. It's the reality that our world is broken. That when you come to know Jesus personally, he used a big word called justification where you've been made right with God, not because of anything you've done, but because of everything that Jesus did on your behalf. And as simple as that sounds, most people don't understand that you, you can't work your way to heaven. You can't be religious enough to go, Hey, I deserve to go to heaven. And the reason you're separated from God and, and Paul calls you an enemy of the cross of Christ, is because when Jesus in his son to die for you, and you say, you know, I think I'll do it on my own. Yeah, I believe in Jesus. He's a good, God's a good prophet, but I'm gonna do it on my own. Then you're separated from heaven. You're separated from God.

Now, when you come to know Jesus, this is the part we've not talked about enough, is that salvation is just the beginning. That when you come to know Jesus, then you begin to understand all that he's given to you and all that he wants from your life. That salvation is not the end, it is the beginning. So in Romans chapter six, I want you to open your Bibles or go to your app, and, and I want you to hear these words because we've not preached on this passage a whole lot. We sometimes we take it for granted. You know this, that, uh, when you come to know Jesus, you, you don't get to say, well, now I'm saved. I can go however I want to go and do whatever I feel like doing because God's not gonna be angry because he knows I feel this way and I feel strongly about this and he's gonna be okay. And, and if we're not careful, we'll bedazzle Jesus to make him into our image rather than allowing God to make us into the image of Jesus.

So I know that's heavy duty, but Romans chapter six, beginning with verse one, gonna read some of these verses. What should we then say? Then verse one, shall we go on sinning that Grace May increase? He says, no, by no means we are those who died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized in his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism and death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new kind of life for if we've been united with him and death like he is. We will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like this. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body rule by sin might be done away with that we should no longer be enslaved to sin, habitual sin because anyone who has died has been set free of sin. Then skip down to verse 12. He goes, therefore, since you are brand new, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Don't offer any part of yourself, uh, to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness for sin shall no longer be your master because you're not under the law. You're under grace. What then shall, shall we sin? Because we're not under the law, but under grace, he says, by no means, he says it again, don't you know that when you offer yourself to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you're slaves to sin, which leads to death or to obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you've come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You've been set free from sin and you've become slaves to righteousness.

You're like, what does all that mean? Well, it answers a question they were having in Rome. It's a question a lot of people are gonna have for you. And it's a question you need the answer. And this is simply this, when when I get saved, can I do whatever I please? I mean, I mean, can I live like however I wanna live? I mean, like, if, if I'm saved by grace through faith, then then I, I've got my ticket punched to heaven. Can I do whatever I wanna do? And and Paul says, no. He says, you need to understand that, that like God has a plan for your life and his plan is for you to become more and more like Jesus. You say there's no way. Yes, there is a way through the spirit of God that lives in you.

Paul. Paul says, when you come to know Jesus, when you've been buried, I love baptism. We've had Him every, like, every Sunday, 250, I think in the past six or seven months, you're buried with him in baptism. It's a metaphor, okay? That this is like an illustration. You're buried, the ou is buried and a brand new you is raised to walk in a new kind of life that God has given you through his spirit. We don't talk a lot about the spirit in our church, but, but it comes, it's a package deal. When, when you're saved and you've been made brand new, and I can't totally explain this, but, but you have different desires. You, you have different feelings. All of a sudden you want to go to church, all of a sudden you want to read your Bible, all of a sudden you're like, Hey, I don't need to be doing that. I need to be doing this because you're changed.

You say, well, well, why do I have so many problems that have stuck around with me from my old way of living? It's, it's, let me tell you why. Because if you, have you ever seen a dead snake? I don't know if you were in the country, kinda So if you ever killed a snake, I called my neighbor to kill a snake one time. Alicia said I was chicken, but I didn't have the right stuff. Like, I mean, the snake was right there. It's a long snake. And my, my little deal was like this. I'd had to almost catch it, you know, be a snake handler to kill it. And so he killed it. And here's the thing. I learned about a snake, even after it is dead, it still has a reflex to bite. Do you know that if it's a venomous snake and and you've killed it, you've cut it in two there, there's still something about the reflexes of that snake because of the way it's designed to still bite you even after the snake is dead. And, and it's the same way with the old you, the old you has been killed, okay? Because it died like Jesus was died on the cross. But, but there's still a part of you that the reflexes and the attitudes and the thought processes, they don't just go away. I, I talked to a guy one time, and I don't really get into this, but, but he was like, man, you know, he got caught by his wife cheating. And, and, uh, that happens a lot. I get to talk to those guys a lot. And, and here's the reality. They're like, well, I thought when I got saved, I wouldn't have those temptations. No. When you get saved, that's when you're really tempted. I mean, before you're saved. I mean, you just give into things because you don't know any better. You don't have the spirit of God in you that when you get saved, you've been given a brand new spirit, a brand new life to walk in a way that pleases God. And you can say no to those old things. Yes, they drag you back in occasionally and you keep fighting and you get away from it. But, but it means that, hey, you're new now.

Now, two weeks ago, I took a part of my family, we have to take 'em in stages to Orlando on a mission trip because it is so expensive trying to save Mickey and Minnie will cost you thousands of dollars. And so we went to Orlando and we had a part of our family, and, and we were there. And man, it was crazy, as you can imagine. And, and, and I realized, hey, we get, we get these little, uh, bands. You get 'em in, you get 'em in the mail. Like, like they like, like they kinda gets you fired up. Like the bands came today. And I'm thinking about, you know, what, what do you, what do you mean the bands came, you know, the bands to get in. And so, so sure enough, we get in there and like, we got our whole like, little, little group and, and, and you walk up to this Mickey Mouse head. If you've not been in a while, you walk up to a Mickey Mouse head and you put this on the Mickey Mouse head, and if it turns green, you get to go and somebody, there's like power in this thing, you know? And so we go to these rides and we went to Tron. If you ridden Tron, unbelievable, man, I I was gonna put a picture of me up there, but I'm going and it looks bad. Yeah, it looks bad. He goes, okay, yeah, yeah. Garners the galaxy. Anyway. Anyway, all of them, you, you put this, you, you, you wait in line, you wait in line, you wait in line. Now, if you're rich, and this is the same way with sin, if you're rich, you get to go to the lightning lane, okay? So you get up there quicker to do the two minutes on Tron, and then you're done. You know, oh, we gotta go to the next one, and then you bang, and then you go, go, go to the next one. And a lot of people take their salvation and they do that with salvation when it comes to sin. Well, I'm saved. I mean, I got my ticket punched, I got the, I, I got got the magic band. And so when it comes to something, I really feel like I was made to do this. And I mean, like, I want, like, you know what's so wrong? I mean, you know, everybody got man, bang, bang. Paul says, that's not the way this works. That when you come to know Jesus and you are saved and you are changed, it's not a sin free card where you get to go to heaven no matter what you do. Y yes, if you're saved and you choose to keep ba, ba, ba, he says, yes, you, you, that can happen as a believer, but he says it's gonna hurt you.

Salvation is the beginning, not the end. Salvation is you being changed on the inside and you have new desires. You, you have new behaviors. Uh, when I sin, you know, not people ask me, do you ever sin? Of course I tell 'em the truth. No, what kind of priest you think I am? Yeah, no, of course I sin. And and here's the thing. When I sin, you know what happens? I feel bad. Can I just be honest with you? Like you and I can sin? Well, I mean, I'm a good sin. I mean, I can do, but it's, but when I sin, when I give into my shape of my temptation and the things I like to go to that help me numb out and not think and not deal with reality, it always lands me in a place where I feel distant from God. And the issue is, God hadn't, he hadn't moved. It makes me lose some of my confidence. It makes me lose my peace. And I've never found one sin that felt as good as being right with God. And, and so the reality is when you get saved, it's not where you go, well, I can just do whatever I want. I'll just get more information. I'll just do this. No, no, it's a transformation. It is a walk of faith. As you becoming, God is working, even the bad things that happen to you, he is fashioning you and working in you to give you the best life. One, one of my grandchildren said, Bob, Bob, Bob, can we just live here? And I wanna say, honey, a lot of people are trying to live at Disney World. They've created their own reality and they're doing their own thing, and, and they're not having the kind of life that God has intended for them.

You say, well, how do I know if I'm living a life that's pleasing to God? Now, now listen to me. This, this is very important. The one thing you ought to be asking, you ought to, I'm sorry. The one thing I'm trying to ask now in my life more and more is, am I living a life that pleases God? Not, not, not. Is is it a life that pleases Alicia or pleases the church or pleases the community? Am I living a life that pleases God? This is what, this is what Paul says. This is why I'm asking this. And you ought to be asking, am I really living a life that pleases God? He says, therefore, since you are a brand new person, since you have been totally changed, you've been given a new spirit. That the spirit that, that, that resurrected Jesus from the grave, you've been changed internally. He says, don't let sin reign in your body. You know, the word he uses for reign, Lia, it's the Greek word for king. He says, don't make anything in your life that that's any kind of sin, any kind of desire where, where you make that your king, where you're a slave to that. And listen, there, there are good things that if you're not careful, like with me, they will slip into being, to, to enslaving you. You know, one of my challenges, I, I can't believe I'm telling you this. One of my challenges is performance. If you got a problem with performance and you're a preacher, man, you got a problem. 'cause guess what? You wanna perform? You wanna be funny. People are like you. And the question is, am I pleasing God with what I'm doing? He says, don't let that performance reign in you so that you judge your worth based on what you do. It's based on who you are.

Then he says this, he said, don't let evil desire get away from you so that you obey it. I'm like, what? Time out Hold, time out. You mean desire? You mean like desire? Yeah, desire like the word fia, it means it means burning. It means it means heat. And, and, and there's nothing wrong with desire, okay? It don't necessarily like, like desire for food is good, trust me, I know. Uh, a desire for sex is good within marriage, desire for work is good. God made you to work. Desire to take care of your body is good because you're supposed to take care of the temple of God. So, and there's nothing wrong with, with having pleasure. There's nothing wrong with that as long as it doesn't become epit Theia, did you get that? You know what that means? It means to, to let desire get out of control to EpiPen desire to let it boil over. You know, you get to two 12, that's boiling. No, you get to 2 20, 2 30, 2 40 in any area of your life, when you let desire rule you, he says it's going to destroy you. And you've been given power over that.

Food food's another one of my issues, like all these are my issues. Like, I walk in, like, I try not to go to movie star. When I go into movie star, man, it's like, like food porn. It's like, wow, you got a kid chicken and turnip greens and, and this like, I mean like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Get, get, get back. Okay? It's when you elevate that desire more than just to eat that you crave to have more and more and more sex. Uh, I just want, I just wanna hear this. If you're young, sex is a gift from God for marriage. And if you're married, you ought to be enjoying that gift a lot. But here's the thing about sex. You only spend 0.2% of your life with somebody intimately in that way. That that's, if you've been together 30,000 times, they did a study. Like, like if you're 30,000 times of the person you're married to, that's only 0.2% of your life. It can't be the focus of your life. And the problem is, when you get on any social media, if you're like me, no matter what I'm scrolling on, I wind up with hot yoga pants. And no matter what I, no matter what I do, I mean, why is that? Well, like you're going, what? Really? And, and you're like, well, what, what, what's going on here? Well, well, it's temptation. It's trying to amp up your desire that promises you total fulfillment that can't come through beauty and health. And, and listen, there's nothing wrong with, with taking care of your body, but when it rules you and the and, and epi theia where it just rolls out and boils out to where all you think about is how you look. And if you're in shape, listen, that is a cruel task massacre because at some point in time, it's gonna leave you Taylor Swift, you've been to Taylor Swift. Yeah, tonight, me going tonight, it's okay to tell me Taylor Swift. Yeah, I see mama. Yeah, yeah, I see you. It's okay. Yeah. $100 million. Listen, Taylor Swifty is not gonna always be a swifty. There's gonna come a time where that one piece ain't gonna be right on her. That is the cruel taskmaster of taking care of your body, where all you think about is how I look and what other people think.

Work, listen, our culture now is epit theia. It's boiling over to where you don't need to work. It's a wholly different thing. Now, like if that ain't a good job for you, like you don't need to work, you just need to hang out. Like, like you don't have to do this. Like, you just chill and it's epit theia. I deserve to have this and I deserve to have that pleasure. Any pleasure that you go to, that you say, I have to have this, I have to have more and more and more and more. It leads to addiction.

You say, well, how do I know like what I'm struggling with? You may not know. Seriously, you might not know. So let me ask you, what do you not just get angry about? What do you get enraged about? Or once this happens, you, you lose total control. Listen, sin, this is the crazy thing about sin. This is why I love counselors that understand a biblical background for counseling Underneath every sense of rage, there is trauma and shame. There is something driving that. There's a rootedness in that. Where in house church and in counseling, you can get to the bottom. What's really going on in your life? What are you very, very, very anxious about now? Now, what are you afraid of? Or what causes you a little concern? What are you, what are you anxious about? It is something that you've given yourself to that you say, I gotta have this no matter what happens in my life. See, one Peter four 12 says it this way. Don't be surprised when you are tempted as though something strange has happened to you, because that's how the enemy works. He works in conjunction with the old you and, and, and the culture, and he's looking to destroy you.

So where do I find the strength to deal with all the things that are kinda wooing me and calling me to say, Hey, you need this in your life. You, you, you gotta have this in your life. It's okay to, to kinda edge out here on, on the side. And, and you, it's okay to have that where you start by realizing who you are as a, as a child of God, that God has more for you, that he's given you his spirit, he's given you his word. He's given you the body of Christ so that you can say no to the things that are hurting you. One Corinthians 10 13 says it this way, there is no temptation that has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. In every temptation, God will make a way for you to escape. So nobody can say, man, I was tempted, but you know, brother Jeff, you know, it is like everybody's doing that. And they're like, my God understands I'm made this way. No, no, no, no. When you come to know Jesus, you've been given the spirit of God to help you say no to the things that are destroying you and maybe destroying your marriage or your health.

Um, I've tried to find a way to illustrate this that would kinda help us understand like the difference between coming to know Jesus and being changed and, and being someone that just tries to be religious and do their best. I if I told you with this glove, I said, this is a work glove. It's made to work. Of course. And, and I said, if you're, if you're not a believer, if you've never been changed, and I say, Hey, pick up this Bible, you're gonna have a hard time with that. I mean, it's just, it's just not gonna work. And that's where we are before we come to know Jesus before the spirit of God is in our life. But when you understand, when God comes to live inside of you, that the change that happens in you is where he says, Hey, I'm with you now. You've got power now. Now you, you can move now, now you can fight things off because you've got the spirit of God that lives inside of you. And the challenge is simply this. We go through times, we're like, Hey, I know that I'm a Christian. I know, but look, it's vacation. Hey, this is my time to do whatever. And that's where you are in terms of energy when you're far away from God. And Paul says, remember, you are filled with the spirit of God and set your mind on the, on the, on the things of God, not on the flesh, because it leads to death. Romans 1314 says, make no provision for the flesh. He says, stop snacking on sin and start feasting on the things of God.

Jeannie Allen said it this way, and I, I wanna encourage you with this. She says, you have spiritual authority, you have weapons. She says, your circumstances and your sins and your thought lives do not define you. She says, fight back. If you continue with petty addictions and petty goals and loose living, fight back, don't miss the very best God has for you. God is doing a new thing. Forget the former things and do not dwell on the past.

It's only to challenge you today as we think through this, what is it in your life as a believer where you're you, you're kind of on the edge where, where, where you're kinda snacking on sin, where the enemy is having some victory over your life? Would you be willing to give that up today again? 'cause here's the thing about the, the things I'm, I'm challenged with. I'm challenged with lost. I'm challenged with greed. I'm challenged with everything you're challenged with. And every day I get up saying, God, I want, I, I want you to feel me. God, I want you to work in me, God. God, I want to give these things to you so that God, you can be glorified in my life so I can have the best life and the best marriage and the best family. And I can honor you in every way. What is it in your life that has taken over some of your life where you've made it king in your life?

You probably recognize these verses in Proverbs 1412. It says, there's a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof is death. Proverbs 13, a friend of fool suffers harm. Proverbs five and six, it says, Hey, if you take hot coals into your life, you're gonna get burned. You know who wrote that? Solomon? Three books of the Bible written by a man who lived in compromise, who had a thousand wives, had all kinds of wealth, and got away from his relationship with God. So at the end of his life, he lost everything He said, well, he probably wasn't saved. Well, I I I think maybe he was. I mean, if you're writing some of the Bible, there's probably something going on there that's good. Now, easy it is to go through your life when it's difficult. Nobody's watching say, God, you know, I know I'm saved, but this is, this is about what I bring to the table. He said, Hey, it's your time. It's your time to get serious about your faith.

I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads for just a moment and close your eyes. And I, I wanna do something. And I was telling Alicia about this message, how, how challenging it is to say to believers, Hey, being saved, it's not the end. Being saved is the process of allowing God to have control over your life moment by moment, day by day. Because the things you allow into your life that are not of God will destroy everything you have built. I don't know about you, but I watched Tomas come in on those little gadgets they had, what they were dancing and partying in Tel Aviv. You could see them out in the distance. And I thought, wow, a physical representation of how the enemy can come into your life and destroy you and your family and your babies without you even being aware.

Y you know, I I I'm gonna take just a another moment of personal privilege here to say the lines are being drawn. You, you're gonna be required to decide, am I in or am I out? We've crossed the Rubicon. We're in a different day. The Old Testament things you read about are happening right now. And the one thing God's needs is not needs, desires. It's not an anemic church, but a church that says, you know what? I'm not perfect. And yes, I struggle, but I've got the spirit of God in me. And, and I want him to be in control of my life. I don't want any of my desires to bubble over and and destroy my witness, destroy my family. I wanna be strong. I wanna be courageous. I wanna take ground.

So whatever it is today, we're, we're gonna have just a moment and we we're gonna sing. And I would challenge you if you feel comfortable or, or if you feel uncomfortable, maybe even more. And there's something you just wanna nail to the cross down here. And maybe you want to come and come to the altar and say, God, you know, I know I'm your child, but I need help in this. It's bigger than me. Could be an addiction. It could be trauma. It could be, um, something you did last night. It could be something that's just taken root in your life that needs to be cut out And allow the spirit of God to work in you before it takes over and destroys you.

Father, we thank you today that Jesus died on the cross to save us From the penalty of sin, but he also gave us power over temptation. That God, we don't have to give into those things over and over again. And Father, I pray that there'd be people who'd be courageous enough to say, Hey, this, this thing, this person, this attitude has taken over my life. And I'm asking you, God, to begin to chop it away so that I can live free, so that I can live full, so that I can have the life, the peace that you designed for me to have. Father, we love you. We honor you. We thank you that you're so faithful. God, we keep going back to the same old things, broken cisterns, broken wells, have dirty water. And God, you still love us. You still care for us. Speak to our hearts. And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.