History's First Sin Looks Like THIS in 2026 | Same Demons. Different Day. | Week 5

All right, all right, I'm glad you're here. Hey, what you think of Pastor John Jenkins last weekend? What do you think about him? (audience cheering) Okay, you outed yourself a little bit because I found out you got some soul in ya. And so I'm not gonna beg for it today. Amen? Amen. Come on, Grace, come on. I mean, nine o'clock, you kicked butt, man. You were like angel butt. I mean, you kicked, like, it was so good, but I, I'm not gonna beg for it anymore. I'm just gonna expect it. (audience laughing) Come on. (audience cheering) All right, all right, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, before we get into this, if you have a Bible with you, we're gonna end up mostly in Genesis chapter three, right? The front of your Bible. I'm really gonna ask you one more time, start bringing your Bibles to church 'cause you can't take the screens with ya, and it's just not the same on a phone, but it's better than nothing. But you're gonna wanna write margins and stuff in the notes. I wanna tell ya, before we get into this,

at the end of today, I'm gonna give you an, I'm gonna give you an invitation to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior if you've never done that before. And last night, we saw a couple hundred people stand up and say, "I want Jesus to be my Lord and Savior." And it's like, (audience cheering) I just wanna, I wanna pray for that, 'cause it's a supernatural event that I can't manufacture or you can't manufacture. The Bible actually says if somebody comes to Jesus 'cause the Father has drawn them, there's no other way for that to happen. And last night, I got to witness that. And so, I don't know how long you've been here at Flatirons. This might be your, you might be a guest for the first time. You might got stuck in traffic and thought it was Walmart, I get it, you know? Welcome, but I think everybody's here 'cause they have an appointment. So let's just pray, and then we'll jump into God's word, right? So father, by the power of your name, Jesus, by the power of your word, by the power of your spirit, we just ask you to do whatever you wanna do in our lives. Whatever you see that needs to grow, then you're gonna grow it. If something needs to change,

we open our hearts and say then change it. If we need some wisdom from you, we need to hear from you. If we need some healing from you, we're desperate for it. And if we just needed to come in here and be reminded that we are loved, will you tell us? And remind us how much you love us. And nothing could ever change that. So God, fill this room and do your thing as only you can do. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen, amen, all right, here we go. So, hey, before we get into the last two weeks of this series, where the next, this week and next week, we're gonna look at three events, okay? Three rebellions, three falls, that will require and necessitate a future messiah, a savior that God's gonna send. We now know that was Jesus. Jesus is gonna come and fix, pay for, bridge, overcome, redeem, reconcile us back to God, not just for the one that we all think about, but he has to get involved in all three. But before we get into that first one today, I wanna stop and do some review why we're doing this series, all right? And then briefly what we have covered that will play a really crucial part in truly understanding the three events that Jesus will need to come and remedy. So the first question I wanna look at today

is why are we doing this study, right? Why are we studying the falls? Why are we studying the first, we've been studying Elohim and we've been studying demons and we've been studying angels and all the, so why? So the why has several answers and they all, they all tie together. The first one, if you have the, you're by when you go to the book of John, John is one of Jesus' first disciples. He wrote several books in the Bible, including the famous book called Revelation. But we looked at this a few weeks ago and he writes this to us or he actually warns us. First John chapter four, he says this. He says, beloved, let's stop right there. We don't use that word a lot, except in Valentine's Day or something like that, right? Just break it a half, be loved. It's just, he's writing to the church, so he's just gonna start by going like, "Hey, I just wanna remind you how loved you are." So I'm talking about the love people of God, right? So church, right? Do not believe every spirit, but test every spirit to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets, many deceivers have gone out into the world. By this, you know the spirit of God, right? So here it is, right?

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus, not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. So the first why or the goal of this series is for us to develop, to give you an ongoing filter, or John uses the word a test to run any and everything through that all week long you see or you hear anything in your life that's saying this is what you should believe is true. This is how you ought to run your life. You've got a lot of voices in your head, right? John points out that there are many spirits out there, and there's a spirit behind every voice, every message, telling you what to do. And he says, be careful, 'cause they're not all good, they're not all true. Some are lying to you, promising you something that isn't true, promising something that they can't deliver. So how do you know which spirit to trust and to follow? If you're taking notes or taking pictures of the screen, the first one goes like this, right? Does it point to and agree with who Jesus is and what Jesus said is true? Does what you're seeing and hearing and being invited to embrace and accept and then go, dude, does it, right? The spirit behind it, does it confess that Jesus is who he said he was?

He's God in the flesh. He died for our sin. He was buried in three days later rose from the dead. If it points you to trusting and aligning your life with that Jesus, it's the spirit of God. You can trust it, you can follow it. John calls it the spirit of truth, the spirit of Christ, the spirit of God, all right? But there's another test you have to run it to also. Does it lead you away from Jesus and embrace and pursue something different than what Jesus says is true? Let me put it a different way, it'd be really important for later today. Does it suggest a different way claiming to be a better way, better than God's way, apart from and in conflict with what Jesus said, it's the only way, the only truth, and the only life which can only come through him does it point to something else. If so, John says it's not just not true, it's just different, he doesn't say like, okay, it's not as good as Jesus. No, he says it comes from the spirit of the Antichrist. It's anti-Jesus. John calls it the spirit of error and it will lead to destruction and loss. And here's why we need to filter, right? We live, at least in America, we live in a very multicultural world, right?

Surrounded by lots of belief systems, religious systems everywhere, lots of, there's no shortage of experts and authorities out there telling you what you ought to believe is right and true and best, you got a bunch of people telling you this would actually be more loving. There's no shortage of voices in your world telling you what you should believe, what you should do, and what you should feel and pursue. So how do you know which is the one that you can trust and run after? Oh, you run it through that test. Does it point to and does it align with and agree with Jesus we find revealed in God's word, spirit of truth, or not, spirit of error. So that's the first reason why we're doing this series, like why you're here today, right? We must have a filter, a test to run everything through. Everybody understand, say, yeah? Okay, all right, so, secondly, the woman of, you'll get, you'll get, all right. So the second reason is directly connected to the first reason as to why we need a test. So, again, Pastor John unpacked us so well last week, all right. We've come back to these verses that we're gonna look at. Every week in this series, Paul's writing this to a church in a city called Ephesus, all right. It's located in what we now call modern day Turkey. This past summer, we study these seven churches in the book of Revelation.

They all come from this area of the world. They're not there now, they've been taken over, all right. But Paul writes this to this church. He says, "For, this is to be really familiar to you, "for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood." Like your battle's not your wife, battle's not your kids, battle's not your parents, all right. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against, here we are, the rulers against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Paul reminds us this, that even if it feels like our fight, our resting matches is with people in front of us like at school or at work or even our own families, Paul says there's so much more going on in the hidden unseen spiritual places than simply what is happening to you or around you. There's a lot more going on. Paul says the same thing that we just read from John. And you know, this is true for you came in here. Every day you will be in a spiritual battle. Anybody feel that? See, there are spiritual forces that work around you, above you, and trying to get in you. And they aren't all from God. They're spiritual, this is not all good. And they may appear innocent. You may look at it and go, Jim, it's not that bad. It doesn't make a difference. But in John chapter 10, John writes what he heard from Jesus.

He says, I mean, Jesus says about all the spirits, their thieves, and they have won only one agenda, no other agenda, steal, kill, and destroy. So be careful. Paul not only identifies who these enemies are in the spiritual realm and where they come from, and what they do, he also, if you keep on reading, he also identifies the only armor or weapons that are able to defeat these bad spiritual forces together, his armor makes up the whole armor of God, which again, passage John says so well, like Paul says this multiple times. You have to put it on. You have to, God's not gonna put his armor on you. I mean, it's right there, but you're gonna have to put it. You're gonna pick it up and put it on. If you want it, you're gonna have to go get it, learn how to use it, particularly the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, right? See, John, John, this isn't John one. Jesus is the word of God who became flesh and lived with us. Spirit of truth is pointing to Jesus, right? Which brings me to the second reason, or goal of this series. This is so deep, we're gonna go like, he's like a yoda, just listen, all right? to see if it aligns the degrees of Jesus if the second one's not in place. Here it is, ready? We must know what the Word of God actually says is true in order to have a filter to run everything through. Duh, right? All right? Big question, not a hard one, just a big one.

How do you know if something aligns with the Word of God or not? If you don't know what the Word of God actually said? It's like, I don't know. How do you know what Jesus said was true and what you should do with your life if you don't know what he actually said was true and what he told you to do with your life. Here's what won't work. It's not working for us. My house is not working for me right now, but anyway, simply, oh, you laugh at that. That's great. All right, there's a spirit of anti... Here's what won't work, and this is what a lot of us are trying. It's not working. You know, we sit down and skim read the Bible a couple of times a week and check off a box. Yeah, I read the Bible. Or we get to a part of the Bible and we skip over it because that's It's boring, or it's confusing, or it's weird, so it mustn't be important, and we just keep on going. Here's another thing that won't work. You just show up to church every once in a while, and have me or one of the other teachers say, hey, this is what the Bible says, and I read it, I hid it in my heart, so you don't have to. You cannot know the word of God vicariously through a pastor. Now you gotta take up your own sort of the spirit, which is the word of God. You have to do it, you have to take up, you have to read it, you have to know it, you have to study it, you have to consume it like what is the bread of life. You gotta hide it in your heart, you gotta practice it, you gotta listen to it, you gotta follow it like it's a light into your path. John tells us God's word is the test, the filter. It must be the lens that you see everything in the world through, and then when it has that place in that priority of your life, and not until then, will you be able to look around your world and know?

Not just hope, or wish, or assume, or think, you'll be able to know with confidence. I know what that's a lie. See, God's word, Jesus will lead my life. And this other thing that's different than what Jesus says is true, it's the spirit of anti-Jesus, anti-Christ, and I want nothing to do with it because it is sin, and if it's sin, then it's wrong. It's not just different, don't dumb it down to it. Well, I mean, it's a little sinny, you know? I just made that word up, all right? It's not an alternative belief system. Well, it is, it's alternative, but if it's alternative to Jesus saying that he alone is the way, truth, and life, then it's false, and it will, it's evil, and it will lead you to a place that's alternative of Jesus, right? Paul says there is a some spirit behind everything all week long in your life, and if it leads you away from Jesus, it's spiritually, it's gonna sound like overkill, it's spiritually demonic, and it has one goal, I'm gonna seal, kill, and destroy you, and everything attached to you. If it's not from Jesus, if it's not of Jesus, if it's different than Jesus who said, I'm the way, the truth, and life, I'm the only one to get to the Father,

if it's different than that, then it's anti-Jesus, it is of Satan. There's no middle ground, here's the middle, all right, here's the lawange. Jesus, not Jesus, and there's nothing in between, and if you don't believe that, your disagreement is with Jesus, email him, all right? So, the first thing is we need a chest to run everything through, Jesus, not Jesus, and second, in order for that test to be trusted, we must grow in knowing what the word of God actually teaches us about Jesus, and every word of Jesus, because God's word is our sort of the spirit, that's the only way we're gonna make it. It's the only effective weapon against the real enemy, and here's where I'm gonna, okay, I'm gonna dig in a little deeper, here, I'm gonna hurt some of your feelings, 'cause it's my spiritual gift. So, how you come, I hope you hurt my feelings again, right? Not knowing the word of God, would not explain why so many of us experience deception and defeat over and over in so many parts of our life. See, I'm coming on, see, see, here's a reality, all right? Okay, if you're not a Christian, just sit back, I'm gonna just blast Christians for a minute, all right? Here's what's going on, hey Christians, we know what the word of God says.

I know what Jesus says is right and true, I'm just not gonna do it, and we choose to do disobeys, now that we're ignorant of it, I know what Jesus said to do and not do, I'm just gonna do something different, that's called sin. We're gonna look at that in a minute, I know what God's word says, but I think I have a better idea how to run my life and I'm gonna do something different. That's part of us, or here's what a lot of us, especially in 2026, are doing it, right? We take parts of what the word of God says is true, and then we combine it or we put it through the filter of our personal political slant, or our governments, and what we want to be true, even though it's different than what God says is true. You know what, okay, I'm gonna preach, here we go, right? You know what one of my most frequent email topics I get this one, Pastor Jim, I'm not sure we're gonna come to Flatirons anymore. I thought Flatirons was a me too church where everyone is welcome. Flatirons is changing. Yeah, no we're not, I think you might be, right? So just so you know that this is the same old Flatirons and this is the same old, getting older Pastor Jim, all right? Here's what I'm gonna say, I said this 10 years ago, I said this 20 years ago, and if this is a surprise to you, then you have amnesia. Or you haven't been paying the $10,000.

Can't say that in church anymore. Look, so if that hurts your feelings, I don't care, right? So if you think that I or we are Flatirons, have ever or will ever let go of God's word or dumb it down 'cause it's gonna hurt somebody's feelings or make them feel uncomfortable. I've said this multiple times over the last 20 years. If you've been here more than six months and you're hoping that we would be a Bible light politically correct, don't talk about that sin because it might feel political, here's what I've always said before, ready, write it down. Please go find another church. (audience cheering) And here's why, all right, I'm really digging here, right? This would be really offensive, right? But I'm gonna quote the Apostle Paul, right? 'Cause if you stay here, we're the body of Christ and you'll be an infection and you'll spread to the rest of the body of Christ. I'm paraphrasing what Paul said to the church in Corinth, all right? Email the Apostle Paul. So if you're hoping we're gonna dumb down the Bible so we don't offend anyone, again, really, please go find another church. There are plenty of Bible light churches in Denver all over the place. I gotta better. And.

(audience cheering) Like, let go of your false doctrine, rededicate your life to Jesus and commit to following his word. All of it. Even the parts are going like, ah, that sting and that they intrude and they don't, I don't like those teachings 'cause they make me feel uncomfortable or here I get this one a lot. What if my friend might come here someday who believes something different and be offended? All right. What if they come and get convicted by the Holy Spirit and get saved? Amen? (audience cheering) Here's why I'm so passionate about this, all right? I'm not being defensive. I'm being offensive, all right? I'm on the offense, is what I mean? I have given up. I put up a white flag on hope and everybody likes me or likes my teaching. Here's where I landed. If Jesus likes it, we're good. I'm good, all right? But here's what drives this. This is the number that goes off God's word and teach something different than what Jesus said was true.

God will remove his blessing from this place. And if we add to it or we rip pages out subtract from it, God will remove his spirit, his blessing, his lampstand, his presence as he should do and will be destroyed as we should be. See, every church conference I've ever attended and that's the pastor's code of church conferences all about church growth, referring to how to get more people to attend your church. All right, I said, it's not my soapbox, all right? I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am in a season right now of deep inner searching and personal repentance and some of my postures and some of my tones and the way I've looked at some stuff in the world and it has led me to clarity around my mission as pastor of this church as long as I'm pastor of this church. Here's what God is teaching me right now when it comes to church growth, at least when it comes to flat ends. Here it is, right? Our church growth needs to be in the growth of the deepening and of knowing and understanding God's word. (congregation applauding) We've got to know God's word. And sometimes for something to grow, it has to go through a season of pruning, of removal 'cause not everybody wants to go. But I believe once you, no guardian, if you prune your branch, free moral come.

One time, Jesus, great story, saw a fig tree and appeared to be big and healthy, like full of leaves and everything. But when he got up close to it, he looked at it, he didn't have any fruit. So he cursed that tree and the next day it was dead. And somebody going, well, that doesn't sound very nice. That doesn't seem like the Jesus, I know, I know. 'Cause you don't know Jesus. 'Cause you skip over the parts where he cleans house, all right? Not on sinners. You never see Jesus going after and attacking sinners. Even when he told them what they were doing, that's a sin and he got to stop. He never threw a stone at the girl committing adultery. But we don't read the last verse. He did tell it to stop committing adultery, send no more, right? Well, we leave that part out. No, where Jesus, where Jesus gets righteously angry, is when religious people, and I'd say today, when Christians turn God's house and God's word into something different than it was meant to be. And then if we do that, I've seen what he does. He makes a whip and he drives them out and he throws furniture around to make a point, all right? When Jesus going knows and knows with religious people, this is great, this is Jesus, all right? People who change God's word for their own political power or purposes or personal comfort, when they did that, based on the distortion of those religious people's

selling out of the Word of God, Jesus says those religious leaders make that new convert twice the child of hell that they are, which is why he called them adenavipers, and they were children of their father, the devil. Baby, Jesus has left the manger. He's also left the too many. All authority belongs to him. You wanna see Jesus get fired up? Change his word into something that it's not. Even if you claim to do it in the name of love and tolerance and inclusion, it won't go well. 'Cause if you change this word, it will lose his power. And when you change what Jesus says is true, it won't save anybody. For the next 20, all right? I'll be, I'm not a hundred, not one, probably one, all right? I will not stand before Jesus one day. I will stand before, I'm gonna be there, all right? When I stand before Jesus one day, whew, all right, can we edit that out for you? Nevermind, all right, it's live, all right. So when I stand before Jesus one day, I'm not gonna tell him I changed his word or left some parts out because I didn't want anybody to feel uncomfortable or bad or unwanted or unwelcome. And I didn't want to make him feel guilty like they're doing something wrong. I wanted him to feel loved and accepted just the way they are.

No need to change anything. You just be the best version of you. So to do that, Jesus in love, I changed what you said was true. I'm not gonna do that, have him look back at me and go, "Hey, Jim, bless your heart." This is never a compliment when somebody says, "Bless your heart," right? Hey, Jim, changing my word wasn't loving. It's the most hateful thing you could ever do to a person because when you faithfully teach my word, like I told you to do, more is going on than the words coming out of your mouth. Something happens between here and there, right? What do you mean, Jesus? I'm there. I'm in it. My spirit is working. Jim, all I told you to do is teach what I taught you. I got the rest. In other words, I'm not gonna have him tell me I was lovingly hateful. I just made that up, thanks for the woo, all right? Loving, that's what we do because that person put their faith in the false gospel that I was teaching and it can't save them and they're lost 'cause they never heard the truth, according to Jesus, 'cause I put it through my, can't we all get a long filter? No, we're not gonna do that.

This is profound. Light and dark can't coexist and some things are incompatible. So flat ons hasn't changed. The world sure has, make this clear. You can belong here before you believe, but make no mistake about it. If you don't believe in who Jesus is and what he has promised, this place exists so that some day you will believe and call in the name of Jesus and be saved because without him. And today, today's your day, some of you. I'm telling you, today's you're gonna be saved today. Me too, we had the t-shirt before culture hijacking, right? Me too means this, we're all sinners and there's only one savior and his name is Jesus. He loves us and he wants good for all of us. He wants us to know that God loves you. If you haven't told that all, or you're wrong, he wants you to know God loves you that you can by faith be forgiven of any and all sin and be saved through the blood of Jesus and you can live in God with perfect community starting right now forever, right? Me too means this. I'm not gonna ask, well, what's your sin? We ask regardless of your sin, who's the only one that can save you? Answer, Jesus, you have me too, amen?

Now, I know here's what some of you are going like. I looked at Jesus three, I thought we were gonna talk about Adam and Eve and that snake. (congregation laughing) This doesn't feel like that. We're getting there, all right, we're getting there. As a matter of fact, honestly, in light of everything I just unpacked, it's gonna be a short teaching for you to get out here on time. I'm really mad at Pastor John, I said you're killing me down here, buddy. We got out here on time, every service last week. Don't not get used to this, all right, all right? But when we look at what we just studied together, when we look back on what happened in the beginning, you're gonna go, ah-ha, it's the same thing today. Same path, same rebellion, same sin, same temptation, just 2026. Well, I'll show you, Genesis chapter three, if you have your Bible, your app, get it out. All of our campuses, we're all connected right now, there's free Bibles in the back, get one on your way out or get some kid on your road to go get you one right now. So Genesis chapter three, this is the first rebellion, it's the most famous and really, that Jesus will need to address back then and it's the only one who can address it 'cause it still goes on in our life today. So Genesis chapter three, verse one,

we hit this a couple weeks ago, we're gonna hit again real quick. Now, the serpent was more crafty And he said to the woman, all right, time out. Again, we covered this two weeks ago, which is why you need to be here every week, or you'll miss this week. It's built upon earlier teaching, but I don't have time to rehash it every week. Especially if you only come here 1.2 times a month. This is the average church attempt. See, I'm rehashing it. (congregation laughing) All right. The average Christian in Colorado comes to church 1.2 times a month. And I challenged this, like, hey, listen, we gotta do better. God's word just deserves it, all right? So you do need to be in church every week. I'll simply say this, and this is pressure, right? Hey, if knowing and growing in God's words, important to you, you'll be here. And if you believe that Jesus has the words of life, you'll invite your friend to hear from Jesus and be saved. So that is true, all right? So that's all I'm gonna say about. Real quick, let's review, okay? Just chapter three, all right? It's not a snake, it's a serpent, but it's not a reptile. Well, you know what it is, according to Ezekiel 28,

right that down you look at it later, it's a supernatural being, an Elohim, an anointed guardian cherub, kind of like an angel, but different, who at one time was in close proximity to the one true God. And at some time before this tree conversation with Eve, his character, his character said to himself, this is what we find in Isaiah chapter 14, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. Here it is, I will make myself like the Most High. Now we now know that that Satan, in the Old Testament, he's referred to as the Satan, the accuser, the adversary, which is really his job description. Jesus doesn't like him at all, all right? Listen to how Jesus describes him in John chapter eight. Says this about Satan, he says, he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. How much truth is in Satan? None, all right, when he lies, he speaks out of his own character. One verse that says it's his native language. For he's a liar and he's the father of lies. See, Satan, a spiritual being created by God with free will decided that I want to sit on God's throne. I want to run the show, I don't want to share anything, especially with these God's people.

What was, quit something about this, what was Satan's original sin that led him to do what he did? Pride, pride, he left his position under God and said, I'm not good, I want to be God. I ought to be God, I deserve to be God. I'm as good as God if he used the same strategy, same temptation on Adam and Eve back then and he used it on us all week long. Watch what he does, all right? He said to the woman, did God actually say, you still not eat of any tree in the garden? Time out, right there, strategy. Did God actually say, what's he doing? He's trying to get Eve to question God's word. Is it true? See, if he can get her to question God's word, then maybe he can get her to let go of it and this she won't have a sword to defend herself with. The woman said to the serpent, all right? Well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. Here he goes, but the serpent said to the woman, you won't die. It's not true, second step of the strategy. She started, well, come on Eve, let's go. Oh, here's what God said, keep going, right? And it's met with this.

Well, that's not true. Well, God says, it's gonna happen to you. It's not gonna happen to you. Translation, God's lying to you. You can't trust the same. He doesn't want you to experience all that is good and possible and beautiful. God's actually holding back and limiting what is possible for you. That's not fair. I thought he created you in his image. Why doesn't God want you to have what he has? What kind of God? Never heard that. I just can't believe in the God. What kind of God wouldn't want you to experience all that you deserve to have? I'm on your side. Oh, here's why. And this is Satan still talking. He's gonna speak for God, but he's a liar. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. In other words, he appeals to her pride. You don't need God to tell you what to do. You can tell you what to do. You can be God. Does that sound familiar? It's what he wants.

And God knows that you can be like him and he... I do. You can decide what's good and what's evil for yourself. He gave you free will, Eve. Use it. And Eve's sitting there going, "This is a good point." Hmm. What kind of God wouldn't want me to be happy? I mean, it makes sense when you say it like that. And I'm not stupid. I can tell if someone's good or evil. So she turns from God's word, she knows what he said and starts looking at what God said. We'd kill her, verse six. So when the woman, now she's got her eyes on. was to be desired. You ought to want this to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her. It's not like he showed up later. What happened? He was right there. And he ate. Verse 7. And then the eyes of both were open and they knew they were naked. Look at that verse, right? Here's what always happens when we abandon God's word and choose to do something different. God's truth is written in you. Every person on the planet. Somehow, intuitively written in our hearts and in our minds and our souls. I don't care what island you live on, what country. There's something the way we are created that God has written in here. I'm here. I grew up calling it the God-shaped hole. Anybody hear that Christmas song when you're, all right? And when we, or how about this? Right after we try to fill that God-shaped hole with what we're hoping will be good, will be satisfying, will make us better, will fulfill what we feel is missing in our life. When we try to fill it with something other than God in his word, as soon as the moment, the millisecond that we take a bite, we go, that didn't work. We instantly know, I bought a lie. Don't raise your hand, but have you been there? Our eyes

are open and we're exposed. Oh no, what have I done? What have I done? And so what am we going to do? And here's what they do. The same thing we do, right? And they sewed, they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. First camouflage ever, right there. So our pride gets busted and then we're revealed, but rather than repent and run back to God, we pridefully try to fix it and cover it up without God. They did what we always do when we realized that we listened to and went with a voice that wasn't from God. We try to cover it up and hope nobody will, especially God, nobody will notice or find out about it. Never happen, never happen. And maybe if we cover it up or camouflage it or pretend it didn't happen, then maybe it won't matter. I'm fine. We'll get away with it for the record. If you get away with it, you will do it again and again and again. And if God is gracious, you'll get caught. Same demons, same lives, same temptation, same sin, pride, 2026. Pride is what is behind every sin in our life. It comes out differently, but underneath all sin, there's one spirit of the Antichrist. It goes like this. We reject God's word and do something different because we pridefully tell ourselves we know better than God. We ought to sit on the throne. We should run our lives and we replace God with, not Satan, us. So I was thinking, what are a couple of obvious examples in our lives today? These are just top two, but there's a thousand more, right? So I think we agree on this, even if you're not a Christian hypothetically, God determines what is and is not a sin. You agree that? Okay, I mean, he's in charge of that, right? And one of the areas of life, at least in our culture, that gets a lot of attention and a lot of controversy in our world is the area of sexuality, right? But I'm just going to tell you this. We're not going to dig deep into this, right? Sexual sin, just think of yours, right? That's not your biggest problem. It's actually the consequence and result of a deeper upstream root sin. What? Pride. See, in order, just think of your own stories, right? In order to pursue what God's word, not Jim, but God's word has defined as sexual sin, gay, straight, affairs, pornography, before you ended up in that bed, before you locked yourself behind the door of the screen, before you got there, you had a conversation with God in your head, in your heart, and it ended up like this. Hey, God, I know what you say is true. I just don't believe you. I'll decide what I'm going to do, and I'll be fine. See, when we stand before God one day, I don't think, and you don't have to believe this part, this is just Jim head, all right? I don't think

that the first thing God's going to do is go through all of our lists of sexual sins. Oh, you're homosexual. Oh, you cheated on your spouse. Oh, you had sex with. I was in high school and I thought we were in love. No, I don't think he's going to do that. What I think God's going to ask is this. I told you the truth. Whose word did you decide to trust over mind? That's what he asked Adam and Eve, right? Who'd you listen to instead of me? Who told you that? Why did you believe them over me? And here's the answer every time. Look at your story. I don't know what I was thinking. I listened to the spirit of error of anti-Jesus, and I just cited. I knew what you said. I just cited that I knew better than God, and I could be happy and fulfilled, and I can run my life better than God could. You let go of God's voice, and you listen to another, not God's voice, and you knew what you were doing. Well, I didn't know. If you keep reading in this story, the man said, "Well, I listen, I trusted the woman "that you gave me," you put that one in there. "I trusted a human voice over God's voice." I knew what he said, "God." But I thought that she or we knew more than you. And I listened to a different voice, and I believed, I put my faith in my trust in, not God's word, and his life got really hard. The woman, like, listen, I listen to the serpent. I listen to the lies of Satan, and he tricked me, tricked me, right? Same word, Ephesians, chapter six. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the tricks of the devil, same word. Put on the armor, what woman? The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

She let go, and she rejected what God said, what God said is true, and she said, "I'm a cheese, not God." And she sinned, and her life got very painful. And when that happened, they went from naked and unashamed intimacy to shame, hiding fear, secrecy, insecurity for the rest of their lives. What's the sin that leads to all sin? Pride. Pridefully deciding, I'm rejecting God's word in order to do what I wanna do. I know, I know best. And the thing that God says is gonna kill me, I don't think it'll kill me. And I'm gonna sit on the throne of my life, and run my life. How's that working for you? So we got sex money, those are the two big ones. Let's talk about money. Money's not a sin, all right? Let's get there, greed. I think, and I think most of what we agree is, like, greed in our lives is much more destructive in our world, in our church, in our country. I think that's more destructive than sexual sin. It's just more subtle. Same pride, package nicer. Jesus talked about, I'm not gonna turn this into a giving talk, don't worry, all right? Unless the Holy Spirit, no. (audience laughs)

Why church always talk about money? I don't know, 'cause Jesus talked about it more than anything else he talked about. 'Cause he knows how a person views and uses money in possessions. He knew money will be his biggest competition for our faith. For what we believe that we must have in order to feel safe and secure and be happy throughout the Bible, right? Cover to cover. We find scripture, teach that honoring God with the first fruits of our income. In the Old Testament, that was called a 10% dive. The first 10% of our believers' income was given to God as an act of worship, as a statement of priority in your life, the role of gratitude that you have and also it's the biggest deterrent of becoming a greedy person. Just so we're on the same page. Here's the definition of greed, my stuff for me. First. The Bible says correction, it all belongs to God. So I'm gonna put God first about my personal wants and needs trusting that God is my provider and supplier and I can trust him, that's Old Testament. In the New Testament, Paul writes this because if I stop there, I get a whole bunch of emails from Christians who don't wanna give. That's the law in the Old Testament.

You're right, you win, okay? Second Corinthians chapter nine says this. Each Christian must give as he or she has decided in their heart not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things, at all times, you may abound in every good work. So Old Testament, you're right. It was a law or a rule, you had to do it. In the New Testament, we give not under compulsion, not because there's a law, but it's a reflection, it's a demonstration of how much value we have placed in our hearts on God and what He has done through us for us through Jesus and how much we trust that God is able to make and supply all grace to us, believing and trusting that God is willing and able to sufficiently supply all that we need and all things at all times. And we hear that and we go, do I believe that or not? Do I believe God's word that He will supply all that I need to experience true content in all parts of my life? 'Cause it's really clear and here's what most of us do. We hear what God promises is true and we go, that doesn't work for me. I don't believe God's financial plan that putting in first will work in my life. So we privately say, I'll spend my money on what I think is important to me.

'Cause here's what I think. I think if I can get enough of it, how much, just a little bit more, it's always answer, I can achieve a level of financial independence that will ensure that I will be happy, safe, secure and content and so we run our plan and now look at us. I'm a prophet here, right? We will wake up one day and look around and realize it did not deliver what it promised to deliver. And that we wasted so much of our lives pursuing money and experiences and possessions, hoping to get from them what we can only get from God. Like he said in his word, we just look back and go, "I think I got a better plan, God." And our plan led to this where we're all going, "I got a big pile of stuff that started fading the moment I got at home, and depreciating, and we were left with an emptiness of life, of no contentment." "How'd we get there, God? I heard what you said was true and better, and I thought I knew better than you, and I did something different, and I was wrong. What am I going to do now?" Application time. Yeah, you're like, "No, this is enough, all right, right? This was written thousands of years ago, but nothing's changed, right? Right, same story ran in our lives all week. Let's don't raise your hand. How many of our biggest regrets in life follow the same path? All right, let's look at your story. I was someplace I should not have been. I knew that. I was looking at something, I was talking to someone that I knew I needed to walk away. They were pointing me and inviting me in a very different direction, what Jesus said is the way and the truth that leads to abundant life. But here's how it goes, and I saw him. So I saw her, or it, and I started thinking about it. I kept on thinking about it. And I thought, "Eventually, I want her, him. I need that. I'm going to consume that. I'll die. I will starve if I don't get that. And once I get it, once I have it, that's going to fix what's missing in my life. But to get there, you've got to do a bunch of spiritual, mental gymnastics. It starts like this." But did God really say that? And is that what it really means? And maybe it doesn't mean that at all. Here's a famous one. Maybe it's a matter of interpretation. It's not true. I think it's what I need. I think it will make me happy. I think this will satisfy what's missing in my life. Here's a big one. I think that's true for most people, but I think my situation, my marriage, my whatever, is different. I know it's not right, but it's not that bad. And it's just one time, and it's not going to kill me. I don't even think I'm going to get caught. I don't think it was going to be bad. So no, God, I will decide what's good and evil for me. I'll be my own God. And so you do, and you take a bite, and you discover, in that moment, you make a trash God. Because come to find out, in that panicky old crap moment when you realize it, it really was evil, and it killed more than I ever thought or imagined it would kill, and it separated me from the people in my life that I loved the most. Remember this moment? It feels like something died, because a way just ends death. And it put a wedge between you and God. We have all been in that garden, all of us.

We've all had that conversation, taking this mental, spiritual, emotional journey, all of us, the way the Bible says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And now we're sitting here going, "Well, what are we supposed to do now?" Let's go back and review some things we've covered in here before, right? Write this down, you don't remember that. First of all, you can never surprise or disappoint God. He knew what He was getting when He created you and saved you. You're not going to do anything. He's going to go like, "Well, I saved you, but I didn't know you were going to do that." Go to hell. That's not what He does, all right? It's not that when you sinned, it was God's will that you sinned. He just knew that you were going to do it, which is why in advance He had a plan prepared, ready for you, to come to your rescue. Look at this. You might want to turn to your Bible says Romans chapter 5. It's worn out in my Bible because I've been there so many times. Romans chapter 5, I'll go down to verse 6, I'll give you a minute to find it. It says this, and I'll tell you why these verses are so meaningful to me. It says this, "For while we were..." Go, go back, go back, go back. Yeah, okay. "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for who?" We all think He died for Christians. He died for ungodly. "For one will scarcely rarely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare to die." I've died for my kids, not your kids, but my kids. I'm just being honest with you, all right? Here's my favorite verses right in the same next two words together. "But God changes everything, but God shows His love for us in that while we were..." What's the next word? "Still sinners." That's when Christ died for us. for years, those were the Because when I, so, oh, Pastor Jim, you've always been, when I read in there while we were still sinners, it gets very specific for me. I've sinned a lot, and it's none of your business. It's like, are you going to confess? No, okay? My wife's sitting right down here. So, I've sinned a lot, but I know the sin, I know I'll sin the sin, right? But I know the sin that defined most of my life. I remember the wallpaper. I remember the smell of the room. I remember everything. My most shameful, dirty, you remember yours, don't you? Deserves you to go to hell moment, and in my mind, I don't know if this theology correct,

so this is just Jim, I had to write, right? I'm in that room, and I see me doing what I'm doing, and I see Jesus and his father over in the corner of the room watching me. And Jesus looks at his father and says, hey, Father, Jim is going to need me. So, I'm going to go ahead and die for his sin now, so that one day he will turn to me and receive forgiveness, and I'll start healing him. And eventually I did, and it was ready and waiting for me, and he did that for me, and he will, he has done that for you. When he did that for you, just the right time. Well, it was the right time. Well, before you came to church, before you paid attention, before you prayed your prayer, while you're still in the middle of your room. And he did that then so that when the day came, and maybe I'm praying today is the day for you, everything would be ready for you. From chapter three, this has always been God's mission towards us. Do you remember, read this rest of this chapter later, all right? Remember what happens right after they sin against God and they put on the fig leaves and hide? And they're hiding in the bushes because it says they hear the footsteps of God walking toward them. Go back to week one, which it should have been here for it, right? It goes this, to make footsteps, you got to have feet. It's not hard, folks, all right? To make footsteps, you have to have feet. This is one of the first appearances of God embodied, not incarnated, embodied as a man. This is Jesus walking through the garden, looking for sinners to save. And here's where he goes, where are you? Who lied to you? What have you done? When Jesus asks a question, it's not because he needs information, because he's Jesus, all right? He knows everything. What he does when he asks a question, he's giving you a chance, he's inviting you, come back in my direction so I can do what only I can do. I can forgive what you think is unforgivable. I can heal what you think is unfixable. It's just broken. I can even resurrect the dead parts of your life. I can pay the price that you can never pay. So let me close with this, all right? Here's what's happened right now in all of our campuses, all right? There's a spiritual battle happening in this room right now. There's spirits. And there's one spirit that is leading you away from Jesus. Here's the voice telling you that you do not need this stuff. You don't need Jesus. What you've done is not that bad. Don't worry about it. You don't need forgiveness. You don't need God in your life. You're fine. Just keep on hiding. Keep on lying. Just doing what you're doing. As soon as the song starts, just get up and hit the parking lot. That is the spirit of the Antichrist. And he wants you to die

in your sins separated from God. But there is another spirit in this room. Amen? That spirit is fighting for you right now. And that would be the Holy Spirit. And he is the spirit of truth. And while he may be convicting you right now of your sin, he is not shaming you. He's pointing you to Jesus as the only way, the only truth, the only life. This is the only path to forgiveness of your sin and freedom from the changing condemnation of your past. Listen, Jesus is your only hope. Choose Jesus. We've all, you're in a room full of them, right? We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We've all, every one of us, have pridefully rejected God and tried to be our own God. It doesn't work. But here's where a lot of us in this room, all right? All right? You've already given up. And you're just sitting and going, thanks. I'm unfixable. I've made too many mistakes. I've done so many things wrong. I've sinned. I don't even think I can be saved. Honestly, I don't think I deserve to be saved. And if that's you, you're sinning. All right? Wait, you're committing the same sin that's behind every other sin that's ruining your life. Once again, you're rejecting God's word and God's words that says, while you are still doing what you're doing, He demonstrated His love of love for you by sending Jesus to make all things ready for you to be forgiven today, this day. If you think that you're too far gone, you're pridefully disagreeing with Jesus and telling Him that He's not enough, that your sin is He loves you and his grace is sufficient. If you choose, for you will, if you choose to let your past define you and condemn your future, it's because you are pridefully rejecting God's Word and Jesus who came because he loves you. And today wants you to save you and forgive you and wash you and live with you forever. If sin does not have to condemn you any longer, Jesus can save you like right now. Your pride doesn't have to define you, the sacrifice of Jesus can. Amen? Your sexual sins don't have to be a stain on your life anymore, the blood of Jesus will cover you. The sin of your selfish grief doesn't have to lock you up anymore. Jesus can set you free. Lay down your false God of pride, lay down your politics, and declare that Jesus alone is my king and he will guide my life.

But go of pride, like go of shame, of fear, of anger, of hatred, of bitterness, of... I refuse to forgive that person for what they did. Lay it down. It's changed. Take hold of God's Word. Put on the whole armor of God. Call in the name of the Lord Jesus and be saved. Amen? Amen? I don't know who I'm talking to, but there are two spirits that work in this room and they're at war right now, both fighting for you, but they aren't both good, and they have different plans and ideas and destinations for your life. They're pointing in very different directions. One is the spirit of truth and he will lead you to Jesus, and one is the spirit of error who's saying, "Don't worry about this." You have free will, choose Jesus. Okay, that's what we pray for. We're going to watch a supernatural miracle and only God can do this. Nobody comes to the Father unless the Father draws him. I even believe this, if online, it's July and this came up on YouTube, this is happening for you. Same spirit that's in this room is in your living room, in your truck, where we are right now, right? If today's your day, I think I'm ready to trust Jesus. If you're ready to repent and let go of not God, turn from your sin, rejecting God, except Jesus as your Lord and Savior. In a minute, I'm, I'm a count of three, so you don't go like, is anybody else standing up? We're going to stand up, right? So if you want to become a Christian today, all right, I'm going to talk to another group

of people. I'm already Christian, but I let go of way too much of God's word a long time ago, and like that prodigal son, I guess I'm always saved and I'm always a child of God, but I've just been living in a pig pen, and I'm even afraid to come back to God because I don't want to have that conversation. If you're a Christian, church where it's backslider, a rebellious prodigal son, daughter, and you want to come home to your father, turn towards him, and the prodigal son is a beautiful part of that, is that he's ready to tell God I'm so bad and I'm really, really sorry you're all that guy, and the father just hugged him, he's welcome home. If you want to become a Christian, because you've never done that today, before today, if you're already a Christian and you want to come back to Jesus, you're already saved, but you want to come back home, I'm going to count to three, and in all of our campuses, I want you to stand and stay standing, you ready? One, two, three. Yeah, praise God. Come on nine o'clock. Stay up, stay up, stay up, stay up. Look at me, look at me. Don't look at the screens, look at me. Can't just look at the screen. I just want you to repeat. So Jesus, the Scripture says, "If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you will be saved." Jesus, look at Peter and says, "Who do you think I am?" So you're the Christ, you're the Son of the God, and if you believe that, man has not taught you that, right? So if you believe this, I'm asking you to confess out loud enough so that people in your general area can hear you, repeat after me, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and he's my Lord and Savior. Amen. By the authority of Jesus, not flat irons, not Jim, by the authority of the Word of God, you are saved, forgiven, adopted, brought into the kingdom of God. Let's all stand up, that's all stand up. We're going to stand a great song, an appropriate song, it's called "Run to the Father." This is just a beautiful picture. ready to pray with you. I think I became a Christian, what do I do next? We got all those people here. You can build the new here things out in the lobby. Three weeks from today, this baptism weekend. And it's a part, it's a celebration. And you can get online and find out more about that, or you can just show up at one of our campuses.

But let me pray for us. And then we'll worship one last time in song together. And if somebody stood up around you, don't be weird. Watch your sin, none of your business. But you can welcome them home. Welcome to the family, right? 'Cause they're your brother and sister in Christ. Father God, I get to call you Father. Through the power of your word and the movement of your spirit and in the name of Jesus, we are free. We're forgiven, we're saved, we're loved, and you're not done with any of us. As Matt, you're about to do things in our life that if you would have told us what you were gonna do, we'd say, I don't believe you. But we're gonna choose to hold on to you, to your word, to your son, to your message, you have grace and love and truth. And we got a bunch of stuff's gonna hit us all week long. It says, let go of it, let go of it. And we're gonna tell it to go back to hell where it belongs. 'Cause our eyes are fixed on Jesus, our hearts are fixed on Jesus, and our hearts are full of His word. We know the truth, His name is Jesus. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. (congregation applauding)