Choose to Succeed

2020 if you ain't see the vision, I think I work in sales where I keep the great commission How you gonna love your enemies if you can't love your neighbors? How you gonna say you in the game if you ain't been a player? How you gonna know what freedom is if you ain't taste the flavor? How you gonna create if you don't even know the true creator? 1, 2, 3, 4, Satan knocking at my door 5, 6, 7, 8, told him I was saved by grace 9, 10, 11, 12 This is my fight song Take back my life song Prove I'm alright song My power's turned on I'll be strong, I'll prove my fight song And I don't really care if nobody else believes Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me Good evening, welcome to Celebrate Recovery, the best place to be on a Tuesday night. Who's excited to be here? Yes, we are so glad to see you guys today. Welcome, welcome our online community, the over 800 correctional facilities that are watching. We are so blessed to call you guys family. My name is Katie Hawk. Thank you. Hi. Grateful believer in Jesus Christ, I celebrate recovery from fear and shame and brokenness and other things. And I just love, love being here with you guys. For those of you who don't know what Celebrate Recovery it is, maybe it's your first time here or maybe you were like me, you were a little bit afraid to come in because you weren't sure what it was all about. We are a 12-step faith-based program. That means we have, similar to some of the other programs, we have a higher power. But in this building, we only believe in one higher power, right?

Which is who? Jesus. Jesus Christ, amen. We believe Jesus can help you get through whatever it is that you're going through, whatever you need to recover from, whatever hurt, habit, hang-up, whether that's addiction, whether that's codependency, whether that's shame, whether that's brokenness, whether that's abuse, alcohol, whatever it is, we believe Jesus Christ is the answer and that he can help you heal from that, the deepest wounds of your heart, right? Not just start acting different, not just start behaving different, right, but transform you because the Bible says you are a new creation, right? And so we want you to recognize that you are that new creation and start walking out the life of being that new creation, the very person, the son, the daughter, the dad, the mother, the brother, the sister that you were created to be. So if you are new here and you see cameras, we just announced we're streaming, right, into a whole lot of correctional facilities. There's a couple things I want to tell you about that. We fully respect your confidentiality. So if you don't want your picture taken, that's totally fine. We fully respect that. The altars up here, when you come up to pray, like this is not being streamed. So there is nobody online that can see you if you're having an intimate moment with the Lord up here, if you're praying, if you're praising God, if you're praying over someone else, like that is private. We respect that. And our chip ceremony is not streamed. However, we love celebrating chips and we would love to take your picture. Who's getting a chip tonight, anybody? Oh, I see all sorts of hands. That's so exciting. Awesome. Well, we want to celebrate that. So we usually do pictures up in the front over here.

If you get a chip, you grab it up here at the front and you walk over here, and then everybody that wants to comes and takes a picture with you, and that's a lot of fun. But if you don't want to do that, we're not going to make you. Just tell us that you're not interested. All right. I was going to say, any questions? No. Anyway, tonight is going to be a great night. We are going to do the eight principles. We are going to pray. We're going to worship. And then we have Pastor David Morgan here tonight to teach a lesson. Yes. We love the nights when he comes and shares with us and teaches us. Before we get started on all of that, though, I understand that we have some birthdays. And so every other week or every couple of weeks, we try to do birthdays. So if it's your birthday this week, last week, next week, or since the last time we did birthdays, don't be shy and start making your way up here. And if you don't and your friends know it was your birthday, they're going to call you out. So start making your way. Come on. All right, Lori. All right. Anyone else? Come on. I hear some name calling. And some pointing, is there anyone else gonna be brave enough to come up here? Okay, tell me your name and what your birthday is, but you don't have to say the year or how old you are,

just the birth, what day? It was yesterday, I think. Yeah, it was yesterday, yeah. And her name's Lori. My name is Lori. My name's Shauna, and today's my birthday. Yay, happy birthday! Okay, so normally we say happy birthday, dear everyone, but do you think you can remember Lori and Shauna? That's kind of easy, right, two names? Lori and Shauna, Lori, Shauna, okay? All right, let's sing happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Lori and Shauna. Happy birthday to you. Wow, you guys are amazing, that was so good. No, no. Yeah, yeah, that was great. Happy birthday, ladies. Okay, all right, while they're making their way back, would you guys stand, please? Down. I just can't say that. Okay, I'm glad someone from the back shouts it, I just, okay, all right, we're gonna say the Lord's Prayer tonight. So together we start with whose father? Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, amen. Amen, that was way better than happy birthday. Good job, you guys. All right, you can sit as the guys who are doing the eight principles or 12 steps make their way up. I just have a couple of announcements. It says re-entry meeting, but that's not current, is it? No, forget that. Okay, so if you've been taking our testimony class, how to share your story class that we've been doing the last four weeks, we are meeting for our final session tonight. If you want to show up right over here at the end of the service, we are gonna have our final class tonight. And if you haven't been coming and you were interested in what it was, it's really too late for you to join us this time. But if you wanna come here, a couple of people are gonna be able to, they're gonna be sharing their short little testimonies tonight.

So you're welcome to stay and listen. That would be fun. But it's too late for you really to go through the whole process because it's our final night. But you're welcome to stay and listen. I don't have any other notes. Were there any other announcements? No, well, that's easy. All right, Joseph, Tommy, grab that other mic. Okay, come on up. Jesus. Jesus. I'm Joseph Goins. I'm with, hello. I'm with Epperson Ministries. I'm a son of God. I'm Tommy Dolan. I'm a faithful believer in Jesus Christ. I'm with Epperson Ministries as well. So step one, we admitted that we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors and that our lives had become unmanageable. Happy are those who know that they are spiritually poor. Oh, sorry. I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature for I have desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out.

Romans 7.18. Amen. Step two. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Okay, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to fulfill his good purpose. Philippians 2.13. Step three. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and purpose worship. Romans 12.1. Step four. We made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves. Let us examine our ways and test them. them and let us return to the Lord. Laminations 340. Step five. We admitted to God, to ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongdoings. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. James 5 16. Step six. We were entirely ready to have God remove all of these

defects of character. Okay. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up. James 4 10. Step seven. We humbly asked him to remove all of our shortcomings. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. First John 1 9. Step eight. We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. Due to others as you would have them due to you. Luke 6 31. The golden rule. Step nine. We made direct amends to such people whenever possible except when to do so would injure them or others. Okay. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother. Then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5 23 24. Step 10. We continue to take personal inventory

and we were wrong, properly admitted it. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful you don't fall. First Corinthians 10 12. Step 11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God. Praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Colossians 3 16. Step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all of our affairs. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6 1. Can we get Steve and D's up here to pray over the offering please? Come on somebody. One of them's got 30's anyway. Hey, who's serving with me tonight? Could y'all come up here please and take your spots. One, two, three, come on. Hey, how you doing? Long time no see. I see a lot of fresh faces in here

that I haven't seen in a while going around and shaking hands and welcome back home. It's good to see y'all, amen. So we're talking about tithing before we go into prayer. But real quick, I'd like to talk about the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea had an inlet but no outlet. All it did was take, take, and take. Well, it got so dead that it was nothing could live in it. And that's the same thing it is in our lives. Sometimes we just take, take, take and we fill ourselves up with all these things, but it's like there's no life in it. It's when we start giving back that we start having life. It's a biblical principle. You reap what you sow, right? And so I've learned the art of giving. Guys, I'm just gonna say this. God has blessed me and my wife tremendously. We have learned the art that you can't out-give God, okay? We've learned that principle that you can't out-give God. I'm not gonna say too much because all right, I won't, thank you. Just wanna say that I'm grateful to God for what God's done in my life this week. And I truly believe it's because of tithing. I truly believe it's because of giving. And God, he's just poured out blessings on us left and right and I just wanna thank him for that. And guys, I can tell you story after story, but I won't. We're just gonna go in prayer.

You can read the word for yourself. And it says in tithing, it's not about robbing God, it's about robbing God from the opportunity to give back to you in Jesus' name. So dear heavenly father, we just come boldly to your throne of grace today, thanking you for your love and your mercy. Lord father, we thank you for what you've already done here tonight. Lord father, I thank you for the faces that I haven't seen in a long time being here. Lord father, I thank you for bringing family back in. And father, thank you for this being a blessed night. We thank you for our speaker. And Lord father, right now, we thank you for these buckets being filled up from the hearts of these people that wanna see this ministry grow in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. ♪ This goes out to every outcast ♪ ♪ To the just don't quite fit in ♪ ♪ Every wrong way runaway rebel so ashamed of where he's from ♪ ♪ Where you've been, this goes out to every searcher ♪ ♪ Trying to fill that empty space ♪ ♪ Well, your searching days are over now ♪ ♪ Everything's about to change ♪ ♪ Come on down to the living water ♪ ♪ Waves of mercy washing over you ♪ ♪ No more strangers, only sons and daughters ♪

♪ Come down to the living water and rise up anew ♪ ♪ Have you heard about a man named Jesus? ♪ ♪ He's the way, the truth, the life ♪ ♪ Stretched out his arms on a rugged cross ♪ ♪ And paid every sinner's price ♪ ♪ So when you're tired of all your running ♪ ♪ You don't have to run no more ♪ ♪ You can leave it all behind you ♪ ♪ Just believe and be reborn ♪ ♪ Come on down to the living water ♪ ♪ Waves of mercy washing over you ♪ ♪ No more strangers, only sons and daughters ♪ ♪ Come down to the living water and rise up anew ♪ ♪ Oh, this is your invitation ♪ ♪ Oh, no more lost and alone ♪ ♪ Oh, this is your invitation ♪ ♪ Hear your Father say it, welcome home ♪ ♪ See that cross upon the steeple ♪ ♪ Hear that sweet forgiveness song ♪ ♪ Come and join the Jesus people ♪ ♪ This is where your home belongs ♪ ♪ Come on down to the living water ♪ ♪ Waves of mercy washing over you ♪ ♪ No more strangers, only sons and daughters ♪ ♪ Come down to the living water and rise up anew ♪ ♪ And rise up anew ♪ ♪ Come down to the living water and rise up anew ♪ ♪ Come down to the living water and rise up anew ♪ Good afternoon, church. Will you all stand to your feet and work with us tonight?

Let's do it. ♪ We've come for a move of God ♪ ♪ We've come for the holy one ♪ ♪ All we want, all we hunger for is you ♪ ♪ We've come with expecting hearts undone ♪ ♪ Knowing who you are, Lord we long for what only you can do ♪ ♪ For what only you can do ♪ ♪ So we sing Holy Spirit come like fire on the altar ♪ ♪ Fresh wind blow it through ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here until we encounter you ♪ ♪ Make us an offering, make us an offering ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here until we encounter you ♪ ♪ Until we encounter you ♪ ♪ Make us desperate, tear our idols down ♪ ♪ We're repentant, this is still your house ♪ ♪ Yet you're maintained when you said you'd pull your spirit out ♪ ♪ So we sing Holy Spirit come like fire on the altar ♪ ♪ Fresh wind blow it through ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here until we encounter you ♪ Stay here, until we encounter you Make us an offering, make us an offering We're gonna stay here, until we encounter you Until we encounter you Until we encounter you Come on church, I just want you to lift up your hands and sing out praise to our heavenly father Lift up your praise, come on We need a move of God We need a move of God We need a move of God We're hungry, we're desperate Lord open the heavens We need a move of God in this city We need a move of God in this church We need a move of God We're hungry, we're desperate Lord open the heavens We need a move of God in our families We need a move of God in our hearts

We need a move of God We're hungry, we're desperate Lord open the heavens Fly on the altar Fresh we're blowing through We're gonna stay here, until we encounter you Make us an offering, make us an offering We're gonna stay here, until we encounter you Fly on the altar Fresh we're blowing through We're gonna stay here, until we encounter you Make us an offering, make us an offering We're gonna stay here, until we encounter you We need a move of God We need a move of God We need a move of God We're hungry, we're desperate Lord open the heavens We need a move of God We need a move of God We need a move of God We're hungry, we're desperate Lord open the heavens We need a move of God in our hearts We need a move of God in our families We need a move of God We're hungry, we're desperate Lord open the heavens We wait here in the silence When there's nothing left to say And where the promise of a breakthrough Is just a breath away And we lean into your presence As your glory fills this place And where the power of your spirit Leaves nothing here unchanged We want more, we want more, more of you And we won't move, we won't move, until you do And there's no limit, there's no ceiling To all that you can do The possibilities are endless When our God is in the room Oh, cause where you are there is freedom Yes there is, and where you are there is light And where there's hunger and surrender You'll be there every time Oh, we want more, we want more More of you, yes

We won't move, we won't move Until you do Oh, we want more, we want more More of you, yes We won't move, we won't move Until you do Cause we want more, we want more More of you We want more, we want more More of you Fresh fire, fresh wind Come and do something new in us again Do something new again Revival within Come and do something new in us again Do something new again, yes Lord Fresh fire, fresh wind Come and do something new in us again Do something new again, oh Revival within Come and do something new in us again Do something new again, oh Fresh fire, fresh wind Come and do something new in us again Do something new again, oh Revival within Come and do something new in us again Do something new again Cause we want more, we want more More of you And we won't move, we won't move Until you do No, cause we want more, we want more More of you And we won't move, we won't move Until you do Cause we want more, we want more More of you We want more, we want more More of you, yes Cause we want more, we want more More of you We want more Would we want more, more of you, yes Here and now I draw a boundary Against every weapon that's formed The thief and his plans will pass over When he sees the red on the door

I plead the blood, I plead the blood of Jesus The enemy can't take my family This home belongs to the Lord So I'm not afraid to remind him That he has no claim in this war I plead the blood, I plead the blood of Jesus My future is glory, glory My freedom's been purchased in full For all of the weight of his suffering The lamb will receive his reward I plead the blood, I plead the blood of Jesus More than enough, I plead the blood of Jesus My shield and my shelter, it's my defense I claim it over and over again I plead the blood, I plead the blood of Jesus What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood Nothing can force sin atone Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood Nothing good that I have done Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood Nothing can force me not to Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood

Nothing good that I have done Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood Knowledge saves all my hope and peace Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood For my future is my plea Nothing but the blood I plead the blood I plead the blood of Jesus It's more than enough I plead the blood of Jesus My shield and my shelter, it's my defense And I claim it over and over again My shield and my shelter, it's my defense I claim it over and over again My shield and my shelter, it's my defense I claim it over and over again I plead the blood I plead the blood of Jesus It's more than enough I plead the blood of Jesus I plead the blood I plead the blood I plead the blood Thank you for the blood, Jesus Thank you, Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for that blood that you poured out. You poured out for us so freely, God. And some of us, God, we've come today with some heavy hearts. But, God, we will claim that blood that you poured out for us over and over again.

We thank you for it now, Jesus. God, whatever it is that the family in this room faces, Jesus, we know that you are bigger. And we know that you hold the victory. Thank you, Jesus. Help us to claim that victory in our hearts, in our minds. God, you've given us all the tools we need to overcome. God, help us choose that victory, to choose to walk in that victory that you already have claimed. You've already won. God, we're not fighting for victory. We're fighting from victory. Help us remember that today, Jesus. Stir in our hearts tonight, Jesus. Remind us of who you are. And give us a passion to choose you over and over again. To claim you, Jesus, over and over again. I plead the blood of Jesus over everyone in this room. We thank you, Lord, for the work that you're doing, the work that you're going to continue to do through Pastor David. God, we thank you. In Jesus' name. Well, all right. Let's give it up for the worship team. They did a wonderful job leading us into God's presence. Amen. Well, good evening. Celebrate recovery. How are you tonight?

Reach over to a couple people next to you. Give them a good high five and tell them, I'm so glad that you're here tonight. Well, I just want to tell you, I am so glad to be here tonight. It is an honor and a privilege to come and share with you. There is no better place that I would rather be on a Tuesday night than here with God's people, with front-line soldiers that are winning the battle for Jesus Christ. Amen. Just appreciate each and every one of you. We are working our way through the prayer. Tonight, we're on lesson number six, and the title of lesson number six, my teaching title is a little bit different, but the title in our study guide in lesson number six is action. Everybody say action. I believe God has called us to action, amen? He's called us to action. In principle number three, it says, to consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ's care and control, to consciously choose. Everybody say choose. To consciously choose. The title of the lesson that I want to share with you tonight is choose to succeed. Our choices matter. It matters what we choose. Anything that we want to be successful with in our life begins with a choice. If you want to physically get in better shape, it requires a choice. If you want to grow spiritually, it requires a choice. If you want to get your finances in order, it requires a choice. If you want to get your relationships in order, it requires a choice, and choice is more than an idea. Choice involves action.

To think you've made a choice and haven't taken action, you've just had a thought. You haven't made a choice, you just had a thought. Choice requires action, and our choices are critical to the outcomes in our life. I believe that God has called us to choose wisely so that we might succeed in our walk with Him and in our growth in Him, in our journey in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, if I want to get healthier, I have to choose to maybe change my diet, maybe start walking, maybe start exercising. I have to take some action along the way. If I want to get my finances together, it takes more than just a good idea. How many of you ever thought, I need to do better with my finances? Anybody ever had that thought, I need to do better with my finances? I was sitting last night on Monday evenings, I meet in a small accountability group, and one of the guys in the group was telling us how he's so frustrated in one particular area in his life, and I asked him if he knew the definition of insanity. How many of you know the definition of insanity? Insanity is keep doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. What I said to him is, you need to make some changes in your life. You need to make some adjustments in your life. You need to eliminate a few things from your life if you want a different outcome. If I want to get my finances together, I need to spend less and be more strict about what I'm doing with my money. Does that make sense? If I want to get my relationships together, if I want to grow in a relationship, whether that's in my family or in my friendship, I need to make some choices to invest in that. If I want to grow spiritually, how many of you know you don't grow spiritually by sleeping with a Bible under your pillow? I've known some people that have tried that. They called it meditating on the Word. That's not what meditating on the Word is. If you want to grow spiritually, you've got to spend some time in the Word.

You've got to spend some time in worship. You've got to spend some time around other believers that will challenge you in your spiritual life. It works that way in every area of our life. If we want to grow, we need to make the right choices because choices are critical to the outcome. I want us to look at Joshua chapter number 24. There's a couple verses in Joshua that I want to read this evening. Joshua at this time in his life was over a hundred years old. He was well aware that he wasn't going to live much longer. And so, Joshua called all of Israel together because God had spoken to Joshua, and Joshua wanted to relay that message to Israel. Joshua called all of Israel together, and he said to them, and I'm going to paraphrase it, but I'm going to read a little bit of this. He said that God has called you out of bondage. He brought you through the Red Sea. He led you through the wilderness, and He's brought you into the promised land, into a land to live in homes that you didn't build, to harvest from gardens that you didn't plant. What he was saying is God has a wonderful plan, and He's done great things in your life. But some of you have said, that it's too hard to follow God. Some of you said it requires too much to follow God. And so, Joshua challenges them in Joshua chapter 24, verses 14 and 15. Verse number 14 says, Joshua says, now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your forefathers served beyond the river or the gods of the Adorites in whom land you are now living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

How many of you are ready to make a good choice tonight? Amen. I believe that God has called us to make choices and those choices determine the destiny of our lives. There's two incredible and important ingredients in succeeding. One is choice and the other is will. It requires choice and it requires will. It requires decisiveness and determination. That's choice and will. It requires decisiveness. I have decided. You know, there was a song that we sang when I was a child growing up in church, I have decided to follow Jesus. I think we need to resurrect that song. I have decided to follow Jesus. If none go with me, I'm still going to follow. How many of you know you need to come to a place in your life where you go, I have decided, I've made a choice, I'm going to follow Jesus. Do you know where success begins? It begins with that choice. You want to get your life together? You want to get rid of some stuff that doesn't need to be in your life, that God never intended to be in your life? Well, you need to start with choice number one, and that's following the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no substitute for that. You can come up with a new concept, you can come up with a new idea, you can come up with new life principles. We've tried that and they've all failed. But when you fully surrender your life to Jesus Christ as not only your Savior, but your Lord, I can promise you, He will never fail you.

You need to decide, you need to make a choice, I'm going to live for Jesus Christ, I'm going to live for His glory, I'm going to live according to His will and His purposes for my life. You see, success is not a matter of brawn or brain or beauty or breeding. Success is a mind made up, a direction chosen, a goal set, surrender to Jesus Christ. That's where success comes from. You know, we've been told things like this, well, you just need to pull yourself up from your bootstraps. Well, some of us couldn't even find our bootstraps, let alone pull ourselves up by them. It's not a matter of you willpower. It's not a matter of better self-help thinking. It's a matter of surrendering to Jesus Christ. The Word says, when I'm weak, He is strong, and my weakness, His strength is made perfect. You need to absolutely, 100% without any doubt, choose that you're going to follow Jesus Christ with all of your heart for all of your life, you're going to follow Him. I want to ask you a question tonight. What is it that you want God to do in your life? Can you think about that for a second? What is it that you want God to do in your life? You see, God wants to do far more than just pat you up. God wants to do far more than just help you get on your feet. The Word says that God has a plan for your life, that God has a purpose for your life, that you were wonderfully and perfectly made. Some of you lived so many years of your life with people telling you you were a mistake, that you'd never amount to anything, that you'd never accomplish anything, that you're never going to do anything. I want to tell you that's a lie, lie, lie, lie. God said you are wonderfully and perfectly made. I want to tell you something. There is nobody else. What else on earth that can take your place?

Not anybody. You say, well, you know, I'm not that smart. You're just as smart as God needs you to be. You say, well, you know, how many of you know we can all come up with excuses? Oh, it doesn't take much to come up with an excuse. I'm too old. I'm too young. I was preaching a couple Sunday mornings ago, and I shared a little story that morning. I said this past week I was visiting with a friend of mine that's about my same age, and we were talking about how fast life goes by. I mean, you know, when I was young, 73 was old. I mean, you were one foot in the grave and one out of banana peel at 73. I want to tell you something, 73, it's the new 42. I'm just telling you that right now. But I said to my friend, I said, you know, I have come to the place of accepting I'm in the fourth quarter. I mean, I accept it. I'm in the fourth quarter. I said that in church, and somebody sitting right down here on the front row, they yelled out, too many warning. I rebuked that in the name of Jesus. That's right. Pastor Paster, he was on vacation that week, and he told me he was watching it online when he was driving back, and he looked over at Miss Connie and said, well, you know, there is overtime. I said, I'll take that. I'll take that right now. Do you know God wants to do something incredible in your life? But it begins by you making a choice and acting on that choice. It begins by you making a choice.

What kind of a choice? Let me just take a few minutes this evening, I want to share three principles with you about choosing right. Number one, right now tonight, begin to seek God about the choices you should make. You see, I've come up with some great ideas in my life. What I thought were great ideas, they turned out to be real stinkers. I thought they were just wonderful. You know where they came from? They came right out of my head. They didn't come out of my spirit. But every time, I've taken the time to get before God and seek God for choices. I've made a good choice. I've made a choice that produced life. I've made a choice that had lasting positive consequences to it. Number one, seek God for the choices that you need to make. Seek God for the choices you need to make in your everyday life. Do you know the Bible is full of wisdom? The Bible is full of guidance. The Bible is full of instruction. And here, so often, we just go trying to figure it all out ourselves. Get in the Word and let the Word of God guide your steps. The Bible is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. Thy Word, O Lord, have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Get the Word of God within you and let God speak to you and guide you through His Word. Jeremiah 29, what a beautiful promise it is. God said, I know the plans that I have for you. Can you imagine? Just take a second with me and imagine. The Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, God who spoke the world into existence, has a plan for you.

For you. For every one of us. God said, I know the plans that I have for you. Get before God and let God begin showing you those plans. It's only when you press into Him, you say, well, you know, I've asked Him and I didn't get an answer. Well, let me take you to Matthew chapter 7 verses 7 and 8. Matthew chapter 7 verses 7 and 8 says, He that asks and keeps on asking. He that seeks and keeps on seeking. He that knocks and keeps on knocking. They're going to get the answer. That door is going to be open to them. You know, some of us need a little persistence in our life. We pray a simple little prayer, oh Lord, show me what I need to do and get on with my life. Need to get earnest before God. Be persistent before God. There was a saying when I was a little boy growing up in church. They called it praying through. What did they mean by praying through? They meant get before God. and I'm going to stay there till I hear from God. I'm going to stay there till I get an answer from God. I'm going to knock on that door and knock on that door and knock on that door and knock on that door. I'm going to ask and ask and ask. I'm going to seek and seek and seek. And God said, and you shall receive. Principle number one, begin to ask God for the choices that you need to make. Principle number two, reject all defeating thoughts. You know, the enemy can play havoc with your mind. Anybody got an HD player in your head? You know, what is it? 180 PQR, whatever them TVs are now, you know, high definition? The enemy's really good at playing those real reels in your head, isn't you? Your mistakes, your failures, your shortcomings, rebuke that in the name of Jesus.

Don't give the enemy a place. You know, somebody said one time, well, you know, I can't stop a bird from flying over my head. Like, you know, the enemy just drops those things. I can't stop a bird from flying over my head. Well, I promise you, you can stop a bird from making a nest in your hair. Don't give him a place to take up residence. Don't give him a foothold there. Don't give him an open door there. You may have been told over and over and over all through your life what you can't do. Well, God is not in the can't business. God is in the can business. God's here tonight to tell you what you can do. You can be more than a conqueror. You can be victorious. You can be an overcomer. You can walk in sobriety from this day forward the rest of your life. You can in the name of Jesus. You know, if you've got people around you that are always just speaking negativity in your life, they're always bringing you down. Now, I don't want you to look at anybody, but how many of you know somebody like that? You spend a half hour with them, you feel like you got run over by a bus. You might want to think about not spending a half hour with them. You might need to make some adjustments in your life. Now, I'm not a high-tech person, so help me out here. When you're going to delete something from your phone, do your right sweep, sweep, sweep, swipe right. I can't even say it. Do you swipe right or swipe left? Which way do you swipe? Swipe left. Some of you need to do some left swiping. Thank you for the assistance there. You say, well, you know, these negative thoughts just come to me all the time. Well, you know what the Bible says? It says if there's anything pure, if there's anything holy, if there's anything admirable, if there's anything lovely, think on those things. I'm here to tell you, you cannot consciously concentrate on two things at the same time. If you fill your mind with the Word of God, with the promises of God, with the blessings of God, with the declarations of God, there's no place for that stuff in your mind anymore. Reject all negative thoughts. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 says, bring all thoughts captive unto the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, God's given us the ability to do that. Stop giving the enemy free reign in your mind. Take authority over that in the name of the Lord Jesus. Number three, if you fail, get up and go for it again. If you fail, get up and go for it again. How many of us would be honest enough tonight to say we failed? Yes, that's either every hand in the room or you've got a lying problem because we've all failed. Failing doesn't make you a failure. Quitting makes you a failure. We fail from time to time. We disappoint ourselves. We disappoint others, but don't be a quitter.

When you stumble, when you fall, get up and go for it again in the name of Jesus. Do you know what the cure for failure is? Repentance. God, forgive me. God, give me the strength and the ability. not to make that bad choice again. God, give me the strength and ability not to go down that road again. God, I am not giving up. I love the way that the Apostle Paul said it in the book of Philippians. He talked about everything he's gone through. He said, I've been knocked down, but not knocked out. I've been knocked down, but I've got up to fight another day. I've got up to go after the purposes of God again. My challenge to you this evening, for each and every one of us, is that we would make choices in our life that glorify God. God would give us both the desire and the determination to follow through on those choices. God desires success for you. Choose to serve Him and let your life count for Him. Make up your mind that you're going to follow Jesus Christ no matter what. God bless you. Amen. Praise God. Let's give him another round of applause. We honor him for continuing to come every month. I love what he said about you're not a failure if you fail, you're only a failure if you're quit. And I literally had a conversation with a guy yesterday, and we were talking randomly about failure and Thomas Edison and all the times Thomas Edison tried to create the light bulb and failed. And nobody knows for sure how many failed experiments he has, somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000, but he famously is known for saying, I didn't fail 10,000 times. I just found 10,000 ways that didn't work. Right? And I think there's something to that, right? Those times that we fell, those times that we turned around, that's not failure. You just found out what doesn't work. Right? And so let's just get up and keep moving toward what we know does work. Right? Which is Jesus Christ. Amen. Yes. So, all right. If y'all would stand, we are going to close out with our serenity prayer, and then we're going to go, we'll say goodbye to our online audience, but then we are going to move into our chip ceremony. So don't leave. But we're going to start with, we're going to do the serenity prayer, which starts with God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference, living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen. Amen.

All right. You may have a seat. Thank you to our online community for joining us. We hope to see you again next week. And if you get out and are looking for a Celebrate Recovery near you, you can just go to CelebrateRecovery.com and find a location. So thank you. you you you you you you you you you you you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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