My Resurrection Story - Become (4/26/26)

Good morning, Crossgate family. You made it through the rain. You're here. We are so privileged to be in the house of the Lord. It says in Psalm 95, shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. So let's lift up our song unto the Lord and praise him today. This is the day you have made. So we'll rejoice. So I'll rejoice and be glad. Rejoice and be glad. It is, declare what we believe this morning, Oh, this is where I believe. It's more than enough. That you are more than enough. You're more than enough for me. Sing you are faithful to your promise. You are strong when I am weak. And when I'm standing in your presence, I have everything I need. We say that the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Thank you, Lord. Oh, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, my soul, we bless his name. So let all that is within me say that the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, thank you, Lord. We sing Jesus, come what may.

He's always worthy. You are worthy of all. You're worthy of all my praise. So you are faithful to your promise. You are strong when I am weak. And when I'm standing in your presence, I have everything I need. Oh, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, my soul, sing, oh, my soul, we bless his name. Let all that is within me say, oh, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Lord, you are our joy. We bless your holy name, Jesus. Let this be our song this morning. Well, let it rise up like a river. It's overflowing, Holy Spirit. Pour it out to him. Well, let it pour out with no limit. Overflowing, Holy Spirit. Let it rise, let it rise up like a river. Overflowing, overflowing, Holy Spirit. Pour it out, let it pour out with no limit. Overflowing, Holy Spirit. Let's clap our hands in praise. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. ♪ Sing oh my soul, oh my soul we bless His name ♪ ♪ Let all that is within me say, sing oh my soul ♪ ♪ We bless His name, let all that is within me say ♪

♪ Sing oh my soul, we bless His name ♪ ♪ Let all that is within me say that the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh we bless Your name Jesus, You're worthy of all our praise ♪ Let's praise Him, church, He is worthy. Come on. Let's go, let's go. Man, we are so glad that you are here this morning. Man, I hope you've had a better week than I had, as you can obviously tell, right? Somebody was asking me what happened, and I said, man, I'm not as good at fighting as I once was. You ought to see the other guy, not true, not true. Hey, honestly, I wanted to tell you that I had a carpal tunnel and a cubital tunnel surgery, so that's my hand and my elbow, which only means I'm getting old. So I liked it so much, in about a month, I'm gonna go on and do the right arm too, so that'll be in front of us. So today I won't be preaching because I got seven staples, and they said you don't need to use your hands a lot, and I don't know if y'all have ever seen me talk before, but I don't know how to talk without my hands. So Brother David's gonna bring the word this morning. If you're a guest, if you're a guest, man, we're so honored that you're here this morning. And I just, I got news for you. God has some things that He wants to share with you today,

that He wants to speak to you in a personal way that will help free you from yourself, free you for the future. So if you're a guest here today, would you take out that welcome card in the seat back in front of you? We just wanna get to know you a little bit, and for everyone, would you just anticipate God's presence? When you walk out, there's some red buckets, some smiling faces holding those buckets. You can drop that welcome card in that bucket as you pass by, and it's also a chance to remember our first fruits giving. And I wanna tell y'all something that's gonna blow your mind, you ready? Because of your faithfulness in giving, an opportunity came to us recently through something that's called the Pando app, that in all the prisons in the state of Mississippi, they have these tablets now that they are using as a part of rehabilitation, but they've given churches some opportunities to put services, to put worship gatherings, to put resources on that. And so we made a decision to get into all 13 of the prisons in the state of Mississippi, right? Come on. Come on. This is awesome. So they get our, it started at Easter for us.

We had our Good Friday video, then our Easter services were on there. It actually is not just in our state, it's in multiple states across the US. And so we've been on there three weeks. Can I tell you what's happened in the last three weeks? In the last three weeks, our services or our Better Man gatherings have been viewed 77,805 times. Oh! Thank you. Thank you. Inside of those views, there's opportunities for people to respond. 31 people have put faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. So God has given us an opportunity and we would just say to any of those that are in the correctional facilities, we are honored, honored, to take some time and worship with you. And to our church family, thank you for your faithfulness and giving that is giving us an opportunity to reach people that Jesus is madly, madly in love with. Like I said, Brother David's gonna come and bring us the last part in our My Resurrection Story series. And just a quick charge to you. Man, what we've looked at in the last couple weeks

is one, we all have a story that starts in brokenness. What we hope is that at some point in your life, you come to a place where you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What I talked about last week. In this week, he's gonna show us, hey, what does it mean from that place? What kind of person are we becoming? I wanna encourage you, if you haven't taken the time, a bunch of you already have. If you haven't taken the time to fill out that form, it's on our website, it's in the Church Center app. Man, we'll push it out again today if you're in our database to capture your story, your resurrection story. Because here's the truth. If you have one, you need to know it so that you can share it. If you don't have one, it's time to get one. And we would love to be a part of that with you. So take some time, even this afternoon, to do that. Let's take a moment and let's pray together. Would you just turn your face? Lord, the heavens, won't you welcome his presence this morning? Just welcome him. Maybe you don't even know how you quite got into the room this morning, but you're here. Why don't you let him know

that you would like to meet with him today? If you're here today and you still got questions about faith in God, we're so glad you're here. Why don't you just say to the Lord, Lord, if you're real, would you make yourself real to me? He'll hear that. So Lord, we come this morning through the authority of your name, Jesus, and I ask with your banner above us, you being the firm foundation beneath us, Lord, that you would come. We're here for you, Lord. That's our declaration this morning, that we're here for your presence, God, to hear from your word. Would you come and speak? Wind of God, would you blow? Living water, would you flow? Would you do in this service exceedingly abundantly more than all that we could ask or think? We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen, let's worship him together. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. ♪ I've been looking to pay so great a cost ♪ ♪ And all my life my heart will sing the answer ♪ ♪ Only the love of God, come on, sing it ♪ ♪ Oh how great is the love of God ♪ ♪ He paid our debt on that rugged cross ♪ ♪ For all my days we will sing our savior's praise ♪ ♪ How great is the love of God ♪ ♪ And it's so kind, it leads us to repentance ♪ ♪ And it's so bright, the darkness has to flee ♪ ♪ And hallelujah, it cleared my guilty sentence ♪ ♪ For I was bound, but now I stand redeemed ♪ ♪ For what could break the chains of any prison ♪ ♪ What force could rob the power from the grave ♪ ♪ And what would trade my rags for heaven's riches ♪ ♪ Only the love of God, come on, sing it ♪ ♪ Oh how great is the love of God ♪ ♪ He paid our debt on that rugged cross ♪ ♪ For all our days we will sing our savior's praise ♪

♪ How great is the love of God ♪ ♪ And though I try, my mind can't comprehend it ♪ ♪ And it's so high, too marvelous for words ♪ ♪ And I could sing a million songs about it ♪ ♪ And barely scratch the surface of your worth ♪ ♪ And this, all my life, the banner I'll be waving ♪ ♪ I ain't gonna cry, no matter what may come ♪ ♪ And when I rise to walk the streets of heaven ♪ ♪ I'll still be singing my savior's praise ♪ We're singing this song for everything that you've done. Heartbreak, the love of God. Yeah. We're singing, oh, heartbreak is the love of God. On that rugged cross, for all our days, we will sing our Savior's praise. Heartbreak is the love of God. We're singing, oh, heartbreak is the love of God. He paid our debt on that rugged cross. For all our days, we will sing our Savior's praise. Heartbreak is the love of God. Heartbreak is the love of God. Heartbreak is the love of God. God, I live to worship you. All my life I offer you. With simple melodies of sacrifice. With open hands and open heart, you're the only one I want. Your presence is a treasure, my delight. So all I pray, Holy Spirit, all I pray, Holy Spirit, have your way. Let your glory fall down.

Let your glory fall down. One thing I ask, one thing I seek, so much more than anything, to dwell within your house for all my days. Knowing you is everything, so I let go of lesser things. You alone are worthy of my praise. So stir in me a passion for your name. And all I pray, Holy Spirit, all I pray, Holy Spirit, have your way. Let your glory fall down. Let your glory fall down. May I never lose the wonder of your presence. May I always stand in awe of who you are. Oh, the beauty and the gift of your friendship is unlike anything I've ever known. May I never lose the wonder of your presence. May I always stand in awe of who you are. Oh, the beauty and the gift of your friendship is unlike anything I've ever known. So all I pray, Holy Spirit, all I pray. Have your way, O Holy Spirit, have your way. Let your glory fall down, let your glory fall down. And may I never lose the wonder of your presence. May I always stand in awe of who you are. And may the beauty and the gift of your friendship bestow like anything I've ever known. Fall, I pray. Holy Spirit, fall, I pray. Holy Spirit, have your way. Let your glory fall down, let your glory fall down.

So Lord, we're just asking that you would fall like rain today. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would come and you'd rain upon us. Lord, that you would pour out the blessings of your presence. Lord, that you would speak. I know, Lord, you have a word for us today. Lord, I thank you for how you encouraged me early this morning in clarifying this word. And so as we step into this, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, Father, that you have a word for many of your children here today. God, you're ready to show us and walk with us and lead us to walk with you in ways that some of us here only have dreamed about. And so today, Father, I thank you that those dreams are going to become a reality. So speak, Lord, today. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You can go ahead and be seated. And listen, I know some of you are thinking that the student ministry just took over and hijacked the whole service here, but they didn't. And so I want to share with you today a message. I was telling Pastor Kyle earlier this morning that I'm not trying to be overdramatic, melodramatic, but I can say it with honesty that if I were to die this week, I want you to know this is the message of my life. What I'm going to share with you, many of you have been looking and longing for. You've been wanting to walk in a power, in an anointing. You see it on others, and you're wanting it in your life. And you're saying, how do I get there? How do I walk in this? As we were preparing it, I know Pastor Kyle just shared with you earlier about we're walking through a series of three messages called My Resurrection Story. And two weeks ago, Pastor Ben came up and shared an amazing message on the realities that we are broken, that we are literally broken.

In fact, he said it this way, that brokenness is the daily effect that the rebellion of sin has on our day-to-day lives. It's just where we are. It's who we are. We are broken. We are not just good people that make bad decisions. We are broken at the core with inside of all of us a longing to live something beyond us, but an inability to carry it out. That's every human. And so whenever we think about that, we think about, well, how do we do this? And then last week, Pastor Kyle shared about what it means to believe and the fact that believing in our culture and, sadly, in the church culture is an intellectual agreement to some information that we say I agree with, which is not salvation but a religious activity, which is why we see, by and large, the church in America anemic and, by and large, many in the church in America that do not know Jesus. And I can say that as a testimony because I was one of those. And praise God if he allows me to live until September the 20th of this year, I will have been saved 45 years, and I'm rejoicing in that. Amen. Now, listen, I was in church. I grew up in church. My dad's a pastor. I wasn't like Pastor Kyle. I was one who grew up in church. I was there all the time. I got dunked whenever I was nine. Did all the things. I was doing the right things the church would say was right, but I'm so rejoicing that God said,

but you're not right with me. And that because of that day, I won't stand before him one day and hear him say, depart from me, I never knew you, because he came to know me and I came to know him. And so as we're moving forward today, we're really moving into what the third part of that is, and that is to become. Now let me just say that I say this a lot is that at best, and this is the thing I think all of us need to get in our head, I'm going to try to clarify it today. That at best, we're all preschoolers before God. I mean, whenever you think about what it means to walk with God, what it means to live for God, what it means to, to walk in his presence and, and live in his presence. I want you to just think about that basically at best, God sees us like this. Now I know that some of us say, Oh, but you don't know brother David, I've learned Greek and Hebrew. And I'm like, well, okay, you're just a, a preschooler that's learned how to read another language. Okay. That's fine. But in God's eyes, until we see ourselves like that, in fact, Jesus said it this way, unless you become like a little child, you have no part of me. And there is something about not being childish, but child like that is transformative in our lives. This morning, as we step in this, really my question that we're going to be looking at today is how do I live the Christian life? How do I live it? How do I do this thing? In fact, some of you have come to Christ recently and here's what most of us do. It's kind of like going to a new job. You go, you start a new job and you get there and as you walk into the job, you don't really know what you're supposed to do. They hired you, but you get there and so you start watching the other guys and you say,

well, what are we supposed to do? And say, come on, follow me. And so we just start following them. We start doing what they're doing and, and they're, they're picking up this or they're moving that. And so we just pick up moving. What are we doing? We're not really doing good until one day the owner of the company comes in, says, what in the world? That's not what I asked you to do. What have you been doing? Well, I've been doing what they're doing and that's what's happened to a lot of us. We started going to church. Maybe you gave your life to Christ. You jumped in. You said, well, how do I do this thing? And people said, well, just come on, let's do like we do. And that's what I did. God saved the 22 and then I jumped in, man, I was all in and everything in here changed, but I knew church. I just thought, well, now I'm going to do church a little bit better until the Lord had to show me that's not me though. And so as we step in today, what I'm going to give you is I'm gonna give you four words. I'm going to show you how to live the Christian life. And I'm going to tell you this. God has a word for many of you here this morning. I got up early this morning. You know, I read my Bible every morning, spend time with God. I've got to get time with him before I get time with you. Okay.

Me and him got to have our time. It's an imperative. Not because I'm better than him, it's because I'm that messed up. And I know that you don't want David. You want the new man in Christ. And so this morning, whenever we met, I'm telling you, as soon as I began to read, the word of God put you on my heart because it was in the story of Gideon. And here's what the Lord told me, David, I'm giving out today a Gideon call. There's some men here today. Your homes are messed up. You're doing the best you know to do. You're scratching along, but you're not walking in the victory. There's some of you ladies here. Your kids aren't walking with God. Like you know, they should. You're struggling with what do I do? But I'm telling you today, God says, I've got a Gideon call for you. You no longer have to live where you've been. You can walk in a power that he has. Four words of this, real simple, awaken, alerted, let me give them to you, aligned and advancing. We all know we're supposed to be advancing the game. We don't know how to get there. So we're going to look today at how do we do this thing? How do we walk in this? How do we live for this? So let me just go into the first one here, and let me kind of say it this way, that the very first thing that we need to do is we need to awaken to God's standard. You need to awaken to God's standard, and here, just know this, here's kind of my thought I want you to get. The Christian life is a believer maturing and becoming who they already are.

You know, I showed you the preschoolers, anybody who's ever held an infant, one of the most amazing things about a newborn baby, they got all the stuff, got the hands, eyes, intelligence, got all the stuff. Can't do anything with them yet, but over time, they mature into becoming an adult, a man or a woman. And as Christians, the Bible says that we've been born again. And so we have to learn how to live this new life. And so how do we do it? Well, we have to awaken first of all to God's standards. You know that God has a standard? God has a standard of what it means to be a true and genuine follower of Christ. It's really quite simple and the Bible is unbelievably clear about it. Let me show you the standard. It's real simple. 1 John 2, verse 6 says it this way, those who say they live in God should live their lives as who? As who? As Jesus did. I thought I was supposed to live my life like the guy over here that's already going to church did. I thought I was supposed to live my life like this one over here. Now I know that many of you are going to say exactly what I say when I read that. Well, I can't do that. But you know what the Bible says? And here's, I know you don't want to, you know, some of us don't want to think this because we think, well, that's just, you're just showing us an option. No, I'm showing you the truth. We're going to talk more about it in just a little bit, but, but let me just say that the Bible says that you and I are to be holy as God is holy. But I know some of you are saying, oh, that's old Testament, brother David. You're right. It is old Testament. It's in Leviticus. But guess what? The apostle Peter also told us this in first Peter chapter 1, verses 15 through 16. He says this, he says, but you must be holy in everything you do. And he's talking to believers just as God who chose you is holy for the scriptures say you must be holy because I am holy. Now I know if you're starting to get nervous, it's okay. We're going to get there, but we don't lower the standard so that it makes us feel better. We need to, first of all, embrace God's standard. We need to awaken to his standard. You'll never ever walk in the power of God until you do it his way. You just won't. He has a standard. Even Jesus himself said this in Matthew chapter 5, he said this verse 48, he says, but you are to be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect. So you guys have heard me say this. In fact, I was sharing it this week and I was talking to Ben whenever we're talking, he, he finished the sentence for me. But basically

here's what I say. The Christian life is basically God proving to you that you can't live it. That is basically what the Christian life is. That's sanctification right there is he says, I want you to live holy. And you said, well, I can't do that. He said, okay, good. Now we both agree. I want you to start really sharing the gospel. Well, I'm just not good at that. Good. Now we both agree. It's I can't live it. I can't live this thing. There is a standard God has that I can not, I can not live. That's why we all feel like when we read Romans chapter seven, we all want to embrace it. He says this in verses 15 and then in verse 18, he says, he says, I don't really understand myself for, I want to do what's right, but I don't do it. Instead. I do what I hate. And then verse 18 goes on and even carries it farther. He says, and I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature. I want to do what's right, but I can't. Now everybody in here feels like, yeah, I get that. I know that you mean brother David, you're like that too. You better believe it. We all are. So that brings me to the second thing. First, we have to awaken to God's standard, but then we need to this, and this is what I'm saying. We need to be alerted to Satan's substitutes. You need to be alerted to the fact that the enemy doesn't want you to live the life that God has for you because when you do, you are his greatest threat. When you figure out what God has called you to and you begin to live it, you're his greatest threat. As a matter of fact, I'm about to say something that some of you might get a little mad about. That's all right. If you get mad about it, well, let me just say that. So did the Pharisees. All right. And here it is. Religion is the number one hindrance of Christianity. And let me tell you, the churches in America are chock full of religion. Whenever God called me to preach, I told you before I was a bad idea. I told him that. But then whenever he began to bring me in, in fact, I told Kyle this this morning again, I came to a point where I said, I'm going to have to go back into business because I can't pastor a church in America because what I believe about what it means to be a Christian is so foreign to the average Christian in America that we have embraced religious activities that make us feel good about ourselves, and yet we walk powerless when God is called us to walk in a victory that's already been won. It's in us.

If you're a believer, the Holy Spirit dwelling in you is saying, this is right, this is right. And if I'm making you mad, just know this, that we need to go back to that first two weeks ago. You need to know that you are broken and religion is not going to make you better. It may make you feel better in the moment, but it'll send you to a Christless hell in the end. That's religion. C.S. Lewis wrote a book years ago called The Screwtape Letters, and it's literally a fictitious book that was written about a demon writing letters to his nephew, younger, more or less experienced demon. And it's just a book. Screwtape is the demon that is writing the letters. And he says in Screwtape Letters, this demon is writing to the other demon. He says, one of our great allies at present is the church itself. One of the greatest allies. In fact, some of you, you quit going to church years ago. You know why you went? You quit going? Because of church, because of church people, because you were hurt by church, because church people can be mean. We're quick on what we're against. We're just not too good about what we're for. And that's where many of us find ourselves.

And it literally is killing us. And we need to understand that. We need to see that. Now, you're saying, well, why do you have the basketball goal? Well, that's what I want to explain. I'm glad you asked. So here it is. In basketball, believe it or not, I know that that looks a mile up there to me now. There was a time when I was in high school, I could dunk a basketball. Now I can't touch the net. So that's just the reality. But this is the legal way that we can do it. The rule for playing basketball. The goal has to be there. Now, I have boys. And when they were little, bought them a basketball goal, put it outside and had it out there. And they were just, they were little. And they were doing like preschoolers would do. They were chunking it and they were getting it about that high. And one day I came home and here's what they did. Somebody had shown them that if you go back here and you pull, take that out, you can lower that thing.

And now, woo-hoo. I'm LeBron James, baby. I mean, just back here, hang on the rim. I came home and saw them doing it and they were out there and boy, they thought they were doing great. They found them a ball just big enough they could grab with their little hands. And they were, one of them was about fourth grade and he was jumping and he could dunk it. And I said, what are you boys doing? They were playing basketball, dad. And I said, you are not playing basketball. You're doing something that looks like basketball. But you're not playing basketball. And I raised that thing back up. I said, boys, that's basketball. And I took all the fun out of it, let me just tell you. Guys, let me tell you something. That's what religion does. This right here is religion. We lower the standard so we all feel better about ourselves. Oh, you need to go to church. If you go to church, then you're gonna be a good Christian. Well, you know, he's a good Christian. Why do you say he's a good Christian? He comes to church all the time.

Now, you're not supposed to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. But know that that is not what it means to be a Christian. Being a Christian is what you do out there. Being a Christian is what happens when you're at home. It's what you're doing early in the morning. It's how you live a life beyond. But I know that you need to know that Satan wants to give us a substitute that makes us feel better about ourselves because when I feel better about myself, then I'm okay. And I don't have to live those things. Because, hey, man, I'm doing it. And that right there, this right here, almost sent me to a Christless hell. Because I could do that. I could do that. I've lost, but I could do that. And that's the substitute. So how do we live this thing? Well, let me give you the third one. First one's what? Awaken to God's standard. Second, alerted to Satan's substitutes. What's number three? Aligned to God's power source. Line up. You gotta line up your life into the power source that he has placed within you. The power of God that raised Jesus from the dead

dwells in every child of God. And we have to line ourselves up to that. Now, I told you this back many, many times. I've told it for many years. What's the most often quoted statement of Jesus? It's quoted 15 times. You've heard me say it. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And here's one of them in Revelation chapter two, verse seven. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. That is the most often. What is the second one, though? This one's quoted 15 times. The second one's quoted five times. You know something? This is just in the Gospels. It's quoted five times. Now, if the Gospels, if the Holy Spirit saw that it was important to quote Jesus five times on something, I would say it's pretty important. Second most quoted statement that Jesus makes. What is it? Well, let me just give you one of them. It's Luke chapter nine, verses 23 and 24. And he said to all, if anyone would come after me,

let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. You see, religion wants you to be able to keep your life but feel good about yourself. Christ says, look, you are much more broken than you realize. You are more messed up than you know. And because of how messed up you are, I'm not only gonna save you, but I'm gonna put my spirit to dwell in you so that my spirit dwelling in you will produce the kingdom of God through you. And when we line up, and how do we line up? It's really simple. I just quit living. I've got to say today is not my day. Today is his day. I am making the choice. I'm choosing to follow him. Galatians chapter two, verse 20 says, Paul said this, I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up to me. He gave himself up for me. Here's the truth.

This is a daily choice to say no to the self-life and yes to the spirit life. And I don't care if you can speak in tongues or you can read the Greek, you are still broken in and of yourself. If you die every day on the cross and say, God, I choose this is not my day, but I'm carrying my cross. I'm choosing death today. Then what happens? You'll never live a Christian life unless you do. But once you do, he begins to flow. He begins to do things through your life that you could not imagine. I am still shocked to this day what God has done through my life. I still set back in amazement. I'm more shocked than anybody because I know me. Romans chapter eight, verse 11 says this. If the spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. You were born again. That means I became a new creation whenever I gave my life to Christ. And he wants to live that life through me, but he cannot live that life through me when I'm living my life myself. So every day we have to choose to say no to self.

I have to choose death every day. I've told you this many years. And for those that have been here, you've heard me say this. Ephesians chapter 4, 22 through 24 is my everyday prayer. Lord, I got to put off the old David because he's deceived and he's deceptive. I know that guy. That old David will deceive even himself to say he's doing pretty good. And he's deceptive enough to act like a Christian in front of other people and they'll believe it. Lord, I pray to be renewed in the spirit of my mind. Holy Spirit, renew my mind. And then I put on the new man that's been created in Christ Jesus in true righteousness and holiness. God begins to live through us. And that brings me to the last thing. Once you begin to align into the power of God, here's what happens. Once you align there, then what begins to happen is you begin to advance. You begin advancing God's kingdom by fulfilling your mission. You just start doing it. You don't have to try to work it up. It just starts working out. I mean, it just starts happening. I can tell you so I've got three sons and they're all three different, but I can tell you as a dad

It's just on one side. I'm sad Because they start doing things like me. I Watch them they'll start walk. I've got one of them. He'll start walking and I'm going oh man That's the way I do. They'll have some they'll say something and I'll go I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say. You know why because the genetic DNA within them came from me Know this child of God When you gave your life to Christ the DNA of the kingdom of God came in you you became a new creation in Christ And when that happened guess what he wants to start living through you and when you allow him guess what you're gonna start walking funny You're gonna start talking funny You're not gonna try to work it up, it's just gonna start working out you're gonna begin advancing the kingdom It's not putting on some kind of religious to-do list It's talking about a dynamic relationship that begins to flow like a river through your life. That's how it works now I Told you this morning. I woke up the judges chapter 6 the story of Gideon judges 612 You need to write this down some of you today. You didn't even know you're a hero. You're about to see that you are And you're about to begin to walk and how to be this hero in your home in your workplace in your neighborhood God's getting ready to do something through you This is what judges chapter 6 verse 12 says Says the angel of the Lord appeared to him talking about Gideon and said mighty hero the Lord is with you I want to say this to you as a believer mighty hero The Lord is with you Mighty hero the Lord is with you He said I don't feel much like a hero We don't know where Gideon was you know where Gideon was His entire his entire clan the entire nation of Israel was in captivity to a group called the Midianites He was so fearful that he was trying to just eke out a basic living He had taken the wheat that they'd had he'd gone down in a hole so that nobody could see him because the Midianites would steal It and he was kind of thresh it out so that he could have enough seed to feed his family for one more day And the angel the Lord appeared to him and said you're a mighty hero, and you know what his response was Why in the world would you say that here's exactly what he said he said if the Lord is with us

Why is all this happened to us, and where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about how many of us in here today? Say those exact same words Brother David if God's really with me, then why is all this happening in my life? If God's really with me, then why am I not seeing all these miracles? Did you know that in that moment the angel the Lord didn't say well, you know it's because you're just such a jerk Instead he said this Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites I am sending you Know this believer The strength is already in you the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you the Spirit of God That has raised the dead has healed the leper has taken the blind and given them sight lives in you And he says I'm sending you out today and those that are watching Some of you are in prison right now But know this you are free in Christ, and he's sending you back and saying to you. I'm sending you out today Know this that's what God is saying to every one of his children. That's the word God has for you. There are some here today God is putting on you that Gideon call He's saying it's time to quit just digging around trying to eke out the spiritual life. Just kind of getting along on your own He said I'm with you after that Gideon said to him he says, but how can I rescue Israel? This is where some of y'all? Not me brother. Maybe that may be you that may be pastor Kyle or that may be some of y'all that's been doing this but not me Did you know what the one thing the angel Lord responded to him with? He didn't say sure you can buddy. Come on. You can do it. He didn't do that You can do it. He didn't do that. That's what the world tries to tell you. This is what God said. It's not about you brother. I Will be with you That's all he said you see I have found this to be true And when he sends me out to do something, I'm as scared as anybody else. I'm like oh, man These people ever found out just how little I know about anything. It's gonna be a mess And the Lord says, well, it ain't about you anyway, Dave.

I'm gonna be with you. Just know this. You say, but if I go home and I know my family's in a mess, but Brother David, if I don't know how to do it, it don't work. He says, I'll be with you. Brother David, you don't know what it's like at work. I mean, they're liable to say terrible things about him. If he's sinning to you, he said, I'll be with you. Leave the results in his hand. I just found it out that works better. I'm just gonna follow him. And if I follow him and fall flat on my face, he's teaching me something. If I follow him and he works a miracle, he's doing something bigger than me. Just begin advancing, begin walking with him. Watch him fulfill through you what only he can do. And then in Judges chapter 24, chapter six, verse 24, here's what happened next. Is that in this, Gideon went, okay, I'm in. Let's do this thing. And the Bible says this. God told him, he says, I want you to tear down the altars to the gods you've been serving. Some of you here today have got some altars. You're serving some other gods. I'm not throwing rocks. I'm just saying, let him show you. Let him show you, let him tear them down.

And when he tears them down, just take them and say, okay, God, I'm gonna offer all this. I'm gonna offer you a sacrifice. And when he did, he built this altar to the Lord. And guess what he called it? Here's what it says in Judges chapter six, verse 24. And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh Shalom, which means the Lord is peace. You know what? That turmoil in your home, God's ready to send peace there. That turmoil in your finances, God says, I'm ready to bring peace there. That turmoil in your family, God says, I'm ready to bring peace in that. How about walking with me? Let me live through you. Last week, Pastor Carl shared several verses. One of them he shared, though, is Ephesians chapter two, verse 10. It says, for we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do good things, the good things he planned for us long ago. God's ready to unleash his kingdom through you. Child of God, I know it doesn't take very long for us to just look and see that our nation is going to hell in a handbasket.

I mean, it just is. And it doesn't really matter when it comes down to the ultimate spiritual realities of the kingdom, who's in the White House. It's important, but not most important. What matters is what's gonna happen through the church house. Are we gonna bow down to lesser gods and choose to follow a standard that's not from God so that we can live a powerless existence and then one day eke our way into heaven? Or are we ready to stand up, rise up, and be the church? Because that's who God's calling us to be. And when we step into that, whether it's in your home individually, whether it's through this church corporately as we're functioning together and we watch God advance his kingdom for his glory, or whether it's in this nation totally. God, I know that God wants to do a work bigger than us. He's doing it. I know in the next weeks and months ahead, God's gonna show you through Pastor Kyle some things God's already planning in his heart for us and ready to do through us. What are those four words? They're simple. Awakened, alerted, aligned, and advancing. You wanna advance God's kingdom? Wake up.

Don't fall for Satan's substitutes. Align your life into the kingdom of God. And he'll live through you advancing his kingdom in ways that will surprise you. He will surprise you. Again, in September, I celebrate 45 years of being a child of the king. Of being a child of the king. And I didn't know how to do it any more than a lot of you do. I jumped in, whenever I got saved, I just jumped in with both feet. I went after it with everything I had and messed it up horribly until the Lord began to show me, David, you're still functioning on a lower standard. Just because you can dunk it harder than you used to on the goal, it's still gonna work. Still not the standard. And I begin to learn how to give my life to him every day. Get a word from him every morning because he knows I need to be fed through his word. Asking his spirit to guide me every day. And listen, I'm not perfect. I got a long way to go, but I can tell you that in the next service, my wife will be here and she could tell you for 45 years, I'm not the same man I was by the glory of God. And I can say to you, you can walk in something

that he already has for you because it's already who you are. You already, if you've given your life to Christ, this is who you are. And listen, if you haven't given your life to Christ, quit using those that have been living the substitute of religion that have made you mad and have hurt you as an excuse. Because guess what? You don't want to end up in the same place they're gonna end up. Give your life to Christ and he will come and change you. Let's pray together. Father, I just thank you that you are for us and not against us. God, that you are ready to do in us and through us far beyond anything we could ever, ever ask or think. Lord, I just know that today you have some here you have some here that are down in the barrel, scratching out just kind of a Christian life that is not, they know it's not what you have. They know that you want to do more. This stirs in them. They just didn't know where to go next. Hey, listen, with our heads bowed and eyes closed, some of you have been here for several weeks now and you know that you haven't yet given your life to Christ. And listen, I get it. I know what that's like.

I know how to live like that. I did. That's my testimony. But today, if you're saying, you know what, it's time. I'm no longer gonna use these fake and phony people that call themselves Christians as my excuse to live my life the way I want to live. And give Him your life. There's others of you here. You know you're saved. You know it. But you see yourself kind of like where Gideon was. It's bound up in a lesser thing. Powerless, but wanting to walk in more. Listen, that is your birthright. It is not something for the few. That is the birthright for all the children of God. So maybe for you today, it's time to say, God, I'm ready to line up. Maybe like Gideon, you just need to tear down some idols, build an altar before God and say, I'm ready for peace to come here. Maybe you need to go home today and you're saying, God, I'm building an altar here. God of peace, come down in my home, in my marriage, in my children, at my workplace, in my neighborhood. It's the call of the Gideon that He's giving to you today. Father, I know you're stirring. I know you are.

In just a minute, we're gonna be standing and singing. We do it every week. We don't do it just to end a service. We do it to give you an opportunity to now step out. Some of you need to come and have somebody pray for you. We've got our ministers down here. And the reason we do it is because we believe that when God is in the place and He is here, and you have been stirred and many of you have, He doesn't want us to hesitate because He knows how the enemy does. He doesn't wanna get you to think about evil things, just other things. What you got to do the rest of the afternoon, don't let Him do that today. Some of you need to come to the altar here to make an altar with God. Some of you need to come to one of the ministers. Just be obedient to the Lord. Father, thank you for this privilege. So now have your way in all of our lives, I ask in Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand together. Why don't you come, while we sing. Oh, but God, oh, but God, rich in mercy, how you love me, too much to let me stay lost. My salvation sent from heaven, nailing my sin to a cross. Oh, but God, you gave me a truth worth believing. And I traded my chains for your freedom, cause you were the one that I needed. Oh, but God, resurrected my heart from the ruins. My rescue came through like the morning.

And this is my sure testimony. Oh, but God, oh, but God, rich in mercy, how you love me, too much to let me stay lost. My salvation sent from heaven, nailing my sin to a cross. Oh, but God. And all the wreckage of my choices, you have turned to life from ashes. Lifted from death, risen with Him. Now I stand in confidence, cause I know that all the wreckage of my choices, you have turned to life from ashes. Lifted from death, risen with Him. Now I stand in confidence. Oh, rich in mercy, how you love me, too much to let me stay lost. My salvation sent from heaven, nailing my sin to a cross. Oh, rich in mercy, how you love me, too much to let me stay lost. My salvation sent from heaven, nailing my sin to a cross. Oh, but God, oh, but God, oh, but God, oh, but God. Crossgates family, I invite you to extend your hands and receive this blessing. Jesus teaches us in the book of John that we have an enemy who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But He, the Good Shepherd, has come to give us life abundantly. So allow me to first rebuke any lies the accuser has been whispering to you and against the orphan spirit. Our Father has not nor will He ever leave you. He leaves the 99 to chase the 1. I bless you with the truth of Romans 8, 15, that we have been given the spirit of adoption as sons and co-heirs to the power and abundant life that Christ promised. I bless you with a burning desire to meet with God and receive your true identity from Him as He speaks it over you. I bless you with a renewed mind daily and a devoted heart to pursue Christlikeness and fight off the darkness that surrounds us. And I bless you with the truth of Isaiah 64, 8, that our Heavenly Father, the potter, is shaping each of you into the vessel specifically for the purpose that He wants you to be. He knew when he knit you together in your mother's womb. So Lord, may we be vessels of your mercy, poured out daily, putting our hope on display as the priesthood of all believers, just as you planned from the very beginning.

We thank you for worshiping with us today. We look forward to seeing you again next week. ♪♪ ♪♪