Death To Denial

Well, good evening, everyone. Let's try that again. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. All right. It is so good to be together with you tonight. I thank each and every one of you for being here. And I am honored to be here with you tonight to share lesson number one. And we are officially, for this year, beginning our journey through the eight principles. And I'm just honored to share God's Word with you tonight. Now, the principle number one says that we realize that I am not God, admit I am powerless to control my tendencies to do the wrong thing, and that my life is unmanageable. How many of you have been in that situation right there? Amen? I think we've all been in that situation. But God's Word has good news for us. Matthew chapter five and verse number three says this, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So what does that mean? What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It literally means to come to a place in your life that you recognize that you are spiritually bankrupt, that you are empty on your own, that you can't change yourself, you can't fix yourself, you can't make your life better. But it's when we come to that place of recognizing our absolute emptiness that it gives God the opportunity to begin filling us up with Himself, and He's the one that changes us. Can you say amen to that? How many of you have experienced the supernatural power of God in your life to change and transform? I am so thankful for that, that even though we can't fix ourselves, we have a God who can fix us.

I titled the teaching or the lesson for tonight, Death to Denial. Lesson number one is about denial. What is denial? Denial is a self-protecting behavior that keeps us from honestly facing the truth. Denial is blaming it on somebody else. Denial is saying it's somebody else that caused this. This is not my fault. Somebody else did this. Or denial is looking around and find somebody that's struggling more than you and saying, well, I'm not like that. Have you ever been there? You know, I'm not like that. Denial is a false reality. Do you know when you're living in a false reality, you'll never really see transformation in your life? When you're living in a false reality, you're really wearing a mask. You're putting on a good front, but on the inside, you know that things are not the way they need to be. You know, I've been around church for a long, long time, and I've discovered that people that go to church are really good actors. Come on. You know, some people use the word hypocrites. I really prefer to use the word actors. People that go to church are really good actors. I mean, I've known some folks. I'm not going to name any names or point fingers in any direction. I've known some folks that fought all the way to church, and then they pulled in the parking lot, and they go, hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. They walk through the foyer after they've been cussing each other out, and they see the pastor, and they go, oh, pastor, I am blessed and highly favored.

Come on now. Am I telling the truth? You know, we are really good at putting on masks, but masking doesn't get you fixed. It's only when you come face-to-face with reality, stop denying, and start accepting your weaknesses, your vulnerabilities, and your flaws, that God can begin working in your life. Proverbs chapter 28 and verse number 13 says this, whoever covers their sins do not prosper. Let me say that again. Whoever covers their sins do not prosper. How many of you have a little experience at hiding stuff, hiding it from friends, hiding it from family, hiding it from everybody around you? Whoever covers, hides their sins will not prosper. You see, God wants to bless you. God wants to do wonderful things in your life, but that can only begin when you come face-to-face with reality. That can only begin when you begin taking ownership for your flaws, your imperfections, your tendencies to do the wrong thing, and your tendencies to not do the right thing. Whoever covers their sins will not prosper. But, everybody say but, but the one who confesses and renounces finds mercy. Somebody say, thank you for mercy Lord. How many of you are glad that God doesn't always give us what we deserve? I'm sure thankful for that tonight, that God didn't give me what I deserve, but he showed mercy. I'm thankful that the mercies of the Lord are renewed every morning. How many of you know God has fresh mercy for you tonight? But, mercy begins when you are honest and open before God. As long as we keep trying to cover it, we don't find mercy, we don't find blessing, we don't find success. But, when we confess and renounce our sin, God pours mercy out upon us. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number 1 instructs us to throw off the weights and the sins that so easily encumber us. I begin to look at that verse of Scripture there in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number 1. It says throw off the weights. Do you know what weights are? Weights are things that hold you back. Weights are things that hinder you. How many of you know you'd have a

hard time running down the road with a hundred-pound sack on your back? That's a weight that holds you down. Do you know what else is a weight? Unconfessed sin is a weight. Unforgiveness is a weight. Judgment is a weight. Bitterness is a weight. The writer of Hebrews says, get rid of those weights. When I was in junior high school, I was on the track team and ran sprints, and I don't know if they still do anything like this now, but back then the track coach would have us wear ankle weights all day long during school. And I remember walking around with these five-pound weights strapped on each ankle, and I'm thinking, why in the world am I walking around with these weights on? But you know what would happen when I would go to track practice and take those weights off? I felt like I could fly. Do you know what happens when you begin to get the weights out of your life? When you begin to get the unnecessary things out of your life? When you begin to eliminate the things that you know God doesn't have for you? Suddenly, you can make progress like you've never made progress before. It said, cast off the weights and the sin that so easily entangles you. Let me tell you what sin will do to you. Sin is a trap. The Scripture says in Hebrews that Moses chose rather than enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season, he chose to suffer with the children of Israel rather than enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season. Now, we would be lying if we didn't say in the natural there's some pleasure in sin. Now, I'm not asking you to look back and remember your good times in sin. Let that be in the past. But one of the reasons that people fall into sin is because it feels good, and they like it, and their flesh is fed by it. But do you know what sin does? It's like a trap. It's like a snare. It wraps you up, holds you. You think you've got control of sin. It only takes a minute and sin has control of you. And when we're in that place, that's the place that we have to become honest with God. That's when we have to say, Lord, I got a problem right here. I struggle right here. Do you know how you overcome something? By identifying it and bringing it to the Lord in repentance and renouncing that thing in the name of the Lord Jesus. So the writer of Hebrews says, cast off the weights, those things that

hold you back, and get rid of the sin that so easily entangles you. In the last couple weeks, I've really been thinking about this lesson and seeking Lord, and I'm saying, Lord, how do we do that? How do we do that in a practical way? You know, it's one thing to have a concept. And it's another thing to live it out. And I believe that true faith in Jesus Christ is something that we can live out each and every day. And so I began asking the Lord, how do we do that? How do we get past denial? How do we declare death to denial and how do we begin to walk in newness of life? How do we do that? And I felt like the Lord led me to Colossians chapter number three, and there's three sections in Colossians chapter number three that I want to bring your attention to. Let me grab my Bible here. We got a little behind and didn't get it on the screen, so I want to read it to you. Colossians chapter three, verse one and two. Now listen to this. Since then you have been raised with Christ. What does that mean? Since you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. How many of you here in the room tonight have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Amen. Let's give him a shout right now. Amen. Thank you, Lord. I love what the Bible says. You know, this past Sunday we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's my favorite time of the year. That's when people that hardly ever go to church come to church and together we celebrate that he is risen, he is alive.

Are you glad we have a risen Savior tonight? Amen. So, the Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Colossae and he says, since you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, since you have been raised with Christ. The Bible says that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. That resurrection power of God dwells in you if you've accepted him as Lord and Savior. Since then, you have been raised with Christ, listen to this, set your hearts on things above. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Verse number two, set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. I believe that step number one, I'll just put it in this term, it's about concentration. It's about focus. It's about where you're putting your attention. How many of you know it's easy for stuff to grab our attention? Anybody here besides me, your mind ever wonders when you're praying? I'll just, I'm going to confess this to you, I've had to apologize to God right in the middle of prayer. I've had to say, Lord, I don't know where I went, I'm sorry, I'm back. And reading the Bible, how many of you reading the Bible, your mind goes, you know, I mean, I'll be in the middle of reading the Bible and I'm going, I wonder if I need to check the air in my tires. You know, right in the middle of, you know, reading the Bible, I wonder if my checkbook is balanced. Do you know why? Because the enemy wants to attack your mind. You see, the mind is the enemy's workplace. You see, I don't believe the devil can read your mind, but I believe he can plant seeds in there. He wants to distract you, he wants to get your attention away, and it's terrible. I'm going to tell you something, I have never in my life had to rewind a football game because

I lost track of what was going on. Anybody with me? As a matter of fact, you know, I could probably tell you what happened the last 20 minutes because the devil doesn't care about me watching football. You know what he cares about? Me spending time in prayer, me spending time in the Word. That's why the Word says, set your mind, fix your mind, focus your mind on things above. Focus your mind on heavenly things. Do you know something? Let me tell you this this evening, you need to intentionally, proactively being focused on the things of God. You need to make up your mind right now, Lord, I'm going to spend time with you, I'm going to spend time in your Word, I'm going to spend time in worship, Lord, I choose to focus on things above, not on earthly things. Ninety-nine percent of the things that we pay attention to have no eternal value. Ninety-nine percent of the things that grab our attention are not transforming our lives, but the Word of God will. transform your life. Time in God's presence will transform your life. Time around believers will transform your life. Time in worship will transform your life. That's why it says, set your heart on things above. Set your mind on things above. Can I challenge you this evening to make some choices, to choose what you're going to be thinking about, to choose what you're going to be focused on, to choose where you're going to lean in? Come on now. Can I confess something to you? Do you know how easy it is for us to get careless? Am I just talking to myself or is anybody else here?

Do you know how easy it is for us to get careless? Many of you know this. I've shared it about 20 years ago. I went through a divorce and I was living by myself and I developed some bad habits. Kind of my daily routine is I'd go to the church, I'd spend a day there, do everything I had to be done. I'd go to the gym. After I got done with the gym, I'd either do one of two things. I'd either go to the grocery store and buy a big bag of salad or I'd go to the pizza shop and buy a pizza. I tried to rotate nights, you know, healthy diet, balanced diet that way. And then some of the nights right beside the pizza store was a video store. Anybody remember what videos were, you know, you went to the movie store, you know, I think it was family video or something like that. And I was particular about what I wanted to watch but over time I became a little careless and I didn't get into watching nasty stuff. But my parents came up to visit in Pennsylvania and I just watched this movie like a week before and my mother was going shopping and I said to my dad, I said, dad, I want to run down to the video store and get this movie. You'll really like it. And it's about five minutes into the movie and the character goes blankety blank blank. And I'm going, I didn't remember that. And a couple of minutes later he went beep, beep, beep, beep. And I went, I didn't remember that. And I'll tell you something, have you ever heard the term being taken out to the woodshed? If you ever heard the term a come to Jesus moment, I had one that night because I realized that I'd become careless. We need to proactively set our minds and our hearts on things above. And then verse number eight says, verse number eight says this, but now you must rid yourself of all such things as this, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

You know what's that? First number one is concentration, number two is elimination. There's some stuff in our lives we need to eliminate. Now I'm not really good at this and I think I messed this up the last time I brought it up. When you delete something from your phone, do you left swipe or right swipe? Somebody help me. Left swipe. Thank you. I'll try and hit the try scan. Some of you need to do some left swiping. Come on. How many of you have already recognized and maybe already done some left swiping? There's some people you don't need to spend time with anymore. Come on. There's some places you don't need to go anymore. There might be some invites to be part of this and you need to left swipe. It said eliminate those things that do not produce godliness in your life. Concentration, elimination, and then verse number ten says this, and put on the new self which is being renewed in the knowledge of the image of its creator. Put on the new self. Three things I want to share with you tonight. Number one is concentration. Make up your mind where you're going to set your heart and your mind. Number two is elimination. Can I give you some, a suggestion tonight? Get before God and pray a prayer like this. Lord, show me anything that's in my life. Show me anything in my life that's not helping me in my journey with you and give me the ability, Holy Spirit, help me to discard it.

Help me to get it out of my life. I want to tell you, anytime you make a sacrifice for spiritual advancement, it pays dividends multiple times. And then the last thing it says is, put on the new man. Hands were raised all over this room saying that you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. I celebrate that with you. I rejoice with you in that. But let me tell you something, you need to begin acting like the new person. Come on now. You need to begin living it out. It's not just a good thing. It's not just enough to go, well, you know, I'm saved and I'm ready for heaven. The question really is not, are you ready for heaven? The question is, are you ready for earth? Are you ready to live for the glory of God right now? Are you ready to let your light shine for the Lord Jesus Christ right now? I believe you are. And you know what you need to do? You need to put some things on. You know, I've been running around doing a whole lot of things today, and so about, I don't know, two hours ago now, I got a shower and I got dressed. I put this on, I put these on. We need to put some stuff on. You need to put on the garment of praise. Do we have any praisers in the house? You need to put on the garment of praise. I love what our worship team does. Didn't they bless us tonight? What a great job they did.

I'm so thankful for them. But let me tell you, you need to praise Him during the day when you're not here. You need to praise Him at home. You need to praise Him at work. You need to praise Him down the highway. If you're over near the airport, you really need to praise Him. Put on the garment of praise. Put on the servant's towel. You know, Katie asked for people to help with the children. There is a blessing that comes from serving. There is a blessing that comes from serving. I have never, ever stepped up to serve that God didn't bless me over and over and over. I always get more out of it than I put into it. Put on the servant's towel. Put on the garment of praise. Put on the armor of God. Put on the armor of God. You know, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. God wants to take us from a place of denial to a place of acceptance, a place of repentance, and a place of growth in our life by focusing on things above, by eliminating those unessentials in our life, and by clothing ourself for the glory and the honor of God. Thank you so much. God bless you. Thank you so much, and Pastor David, would you stay right there for just one second? Guys, I don't know if he would want me telling you this or not, but I'm going to. He has surgery tomorrow, and I just feel like the Lord said we should just pray over him. Would you guys just stretch your arms out? There's any men that want to come up here and lay hands, you're more than welcome to. We just want to pray over his surgery tomorrow.

It's a long time coming, and what a blessing that he was here the night before that, right, to serve us. So we just want to say, Lord God, thank you so much for Pastor David. Thank you for his heart, Lord God. Thank you for the way that he serves you, Lord God. I just pray for his surgery tomorrow, Lord. I pray complete healing and restoration of his body, Lord. I pray that the doctors know exactly what they're doing, that the angels guide their hands, Lord God, that you give them wisdom, Lord, to see what they need to see and do what they need to do, Lord God. I pray for the hospital. I pray for the nurses, Lord God. I pray complete peace over him and his lovely wife, Lord God, and I pray that the peace and trust that they have for you would be so evident, Lord, that it would bring others to the knowledge of Jesus Christ that don't know you that are walking through that hospital tomorrow, Lord God. I pray for a quick healing, Lord. I pray that his body works exactly the way that it's supposed to and that nothing from the enemy can penetrate any more, Lord. God, we just love you, and we thank you, and we praise you, and we give you all the glory and all the honor. In the name of Jesus, amen. Thank you, guys, for that. And if the rest of y'all would stand, we're going to go ahead and close out with our serenity prayer as well. So together, we start 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. All right, you may have a seat. We're going to do chips in just a minute. But first, I just want to thank our online community and remind you that if you're looking for a meeting and we're not close, that you can go to celebraterecovery.com, look at the locations, and find a meeting near you. I encourage you to get to a CR. Thank you for joining us. And for those.