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Pastor Jeff Shipley takes a dive into talking about grace
We're going to be in Psalms chapter 40 and we're going to be talking about grace today. In our world that we live in now, it has gone absolutely crazy. But I love the fact that no matter how crazy it gets out there, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever in here.
It doesn't matter what the world's doing. It doesn't matter what they say. It doesn't matter that they go against biology, science, and 6 ,500 years of recorded human history that now says men are women and women are men.
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that Walt Disney is rolling over in his grave and what's happened in his legacy of what he built. It doesn't matter that our country keeps going to the injustice and keeps going to the godlessness and the pagan humanism.
It doesn't matter. Because Jesus Christ said all of this would happen and then I'm coming back. Guys, do you understand that peace? Do you have the peace of God that passes on understanding? Well, if you don't, I'm here to tell you from personal experience, I found that peace in the word grace.
I finally got that it was not my efforts or my holiness or my Christianity or my whatever that is where I found peace. I found peace by letting go and dropping into the lap of God's grace. Because guys, I tell you, trying to live the perfect Christian life is exhausting.
Because here's why. It is insanity and it is impossible. In Psalms 40 here, we have David who was called in Hebrews a man after God's own heart. And here we have in his opening line, he says, Listen unto me, incline unto me, and hear me, O God.
I have waited patiently for you to answer. Now what's really unique about this psalm is in Psalm 40 verses 1 -10, David has talked about God delivering him from a pit. And then he rejoices. But then you go to verse 11 and he's saying, I'm back in that pit again.
You all know what he's talking about? Does your spiritual life do that too? Mouse Rat wrote a song about this called The Pit. But really? Where are my nerve? Mouse Rat, you know, Andy fell into the pit.
Alright, moving on. Moving on. David is finding himself again in the pit. And he comes to this conclusion. He comes to a conclusion in where he talks about Christ's compassion, God's compassion. And then he talks about his choice in the lap of that compassion.
And then his call. In other words, his duty when that grace has been extended to him. So let's look at those three things today. First, I want to talk to you about the compassion of God's grace. His compassion.
Verse 1 says this, I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me and heard my cry. When I was first converted, I was converted out of a bad life. That's all that needs to be said. And I grew up in a Catholic Episcopal mindset.
Meaning that there was certain duties or certain rituals that I could do to merit God's favor. Okay? Now, we all say, well, we're not Catholic. Yeah, but us Baptists do the exact same stupid things, don't we?
We do. Come on, guys. Religion, no matter what you call it, demands an adherence to a policy that God never ascribed. And then we look at ourselves, and we look at our failures, and we keep our eyes on the storms and our failures in this life.
And by default, if we're looking at that, we are not looking at God's grace and God's compassion. Look here what it says. David, a man who failed miserably in adultery, in murder, in so many things. He uses personal pronouns.
About God the Father, Yahweh, El Shaddai, he says, He inclined to me. There was not a church. There was not a denomination. There wasn't even a family. It was a personal compassion that David understood.
Guys, if you're trying to live your life, how many of you feel guilty because you don't do a morning devotion? You were brought up, being taught, maybe some of you, that you had to do that morning devotion.
And if you didn't do it, somehow, God would not be satisfied with you. Or if you didn't wear the certain clothes or have the certain haircut, you would not be acceptable to God. Listen to me today. The power of God's grace is this.
It is full of compassion that no matter where you have failed in, He still loves you. Your worst 15 minutes of your Christian life are not beyond the compassionate grace of Almighty God. The biggest shame that you remember right now is but a fleeting thought in the eternity of God's grace and love.
You have to understand, for us, when you're in the pit, when you're in the midst of a trial or tribulation, or even, yes, a failure, it is to God's grace and God's grace alone that you must turn and understand that it is very personal.
Second thing, it says he turned. On this mission trip, I was very pleased with Pastor Josiah. This is the first time in 30 years of teaching, preaching, and traveling, and mission trips that I wasn't in charge.
You're talking about stress. Man, that was the hardest. I'm serious. I know for some of you, you're like, what was so hard about that? Those are my babies. This is my flock. I, and I alone, am going to protect it.
I can do the best job. I can... That ain't true. But it's hard to learn that lesson, ain't it? Some of you mamas turning them boys loose, and them little girls loose, daddies. It's a hard thing to do, isn't it?
He put me on a work crew. The senior pastor of a church was a work crew. I felt like a Cool Hand Luke movie, man. We, I took, I don't know, we had 12, 14, 15 people over there. And Rebecca Dillon was with me.
So he put me on a work crew, and he put me with Rebecca Dillon. Now, you might say, why is that so bad? Well, let me preface this by saying this. The most valuable player on our mission team trip was Rebecca Dillon, without a shadow of a doubt.
She is clutch, baby, clutch. Now, let me tell you why that's bad. Because I had not even cracked the door of the van to get out of the van to start the work. Then Rebecca starts doing this, Pastor, here's what we need to do.
Pastor, we ain't got to do this. Pastor, Pastor. All day long, I'm trying to run 15 people, and I keep hearing, Pastor, Pastor, Pastor, Pastor. It's like it was hitting the back of my head. Every time I turned around, Pastor.
I got a question. Pastor, I got a question. It was so annoying. God, Matt. I love you, brother. Where is Matt today? Omnio Deus Espiritu Sancti. Free pass right into heaven, man. My Lord. God. You know what one of the pastors there said?
He said, your women work harder than our men. I went, that's right, baby. They're horses, man. Yeah, Clydesdales, Clydesdales. They want me to stop calling them horses. Clydesdales. Every time she said, Pastor, though, you know what I did?
Every single time. I looked at her and answered. Because here's why. If I didn't answer her then, it builds interest. You know why God answers us? It says here in this verse, He turned to me. He turned to me.
When we call on His name, He turns to us. Not because we keep nagging, because our God is not a liar. And He said, all that will come unto Me, I will in no wise cast out. He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
You see, God is bound by His Word of grace and compassion. It's not based on what we have done. It is based on the promises that He has given our fathers. It is based on the promises that prophetically He said, I am going to build this church, and the gates of hell itself will not prevail against it.
You see, God not just turns to us in a personal way, He turns to us in a powerful way, because no matter how you have failed, it is not your works is the reason He turns to you, it is the promises that He made about Himself.
Look at this next thing. It says, He turned to me and He heard my cry. He drew me up, verse 2, from the pit of destruction and out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock. Man, you're talking about power.
God's compassion is personal, but it is also powerful. If you have never lived in the state of Georgia, and your kids have never played in the mud, you have never experienced the greatest testing for a washing machine known to mankind.
It is red clay. You can build a house out of the thick mud that happens in Georgia, along with the fire ants. Man, I got a picture of my three oldest playing, making mud pies. I can remember that. I remember my wife going, I mean, who listens?
But she's like, something about their clothes and they're going to be ruined and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, woman, let them play. It doesn't matter, let them play. Let them play. And so they're making mud pies, and they get out of the mud, and so what does any good father do?
Line them up in front of the garden hose. Turn that sucker on like a fire hose, baby. Hence, parents, let the hot water get out of the hose before you spray your children. So I'm hosing them down. But it's amazing, that red clay, because once you get in it, even if you got hunting boots on, it is amazing the suction and the power it takes to lift your leg up.
Christians, God is faithful in His attendance to you. But sometimes we don't, here's the word, feel it. Man, me and God used to be close, but I'm judging His love and His promises and His grace for me now based upon how I feel.
If you use your feelings to measure God's faithfulness, it is an insult to Him, and it is a recipe for destruction for you. I am so thankful that God is faithless in my faithlessness. That's what I meant to say.
Guys, listen to me. We reach a time in our Christian lives, we do not naturally drift towards holiness. We as Christians, we don't do it. We don't naturally drift there. We drift towards compromise and call it tolerance.
That's what we Christians do. We drift towards disobedience and call it freedom and free of legalism. We drift towards apathy and call it relaxation. That's what we naturally do. But no matter how mired you get in that filth, no matter how long you've been there, whether it be a year, a month, a day, or half your life, God's ear and His compassion is ready to save today.
And He will lift you out of that uncertainty and out of that fear and insecurity that you live your life by, and He will set your feet upon a rock. Guys, I don't guess or worry about where I'm going to go when I die.
I know. You know why? Because in 1 John 5, verse 13, God said this to me, These things have I written to you, this entire Word of God I have written unto you, now listen, that you may know you have eternal life and that you can continue to believe on the name of the Son of God.
Guys, it is not a gamble. I'm not going to get into heaven by the skin of my teeth or by the works of my flesh or by the many times I sat in a church service. I'm getting there by the solid rock of Jesus Christ who loved me and gave Himself for me.
You know what that does? Some people think that is cockiness. No, it is confidence in something other than myself. If you're a control freak, Rebecca, Vicki, God, the women of this church, we got studs in this church, man, I swear.
You could kick our women out of a plane, they could hit a desert island, there'd be a shopping mall there tomorrow. Stop! Guys, if you feel a certain way or you doubt God's forgiveness and grace for you, it has nothing to do with God.
It has to do that you've been walking in the mud and you have become stuck. What do I do now? The same thing you did. The same faith that saved you is the same faith that sustained you. It's the same faith that's going to take you home.
God's compassions fail not. Lamentations 3, it is this, it is of God's mercies that we are not consumed. Listen, His compassions fail not. They are new every morning and great is Thy faithfulness. Guys, that's God's compassion.
That's how strong His grace really is. And listen to me. James tells us that... I just saw everybody turning. Is everything alright? Is Angela a little toot this morning? I mean, a little nose candy? I mean, come on baby, it's church time.
Listen to me. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. You struggle with anxiety and depression? Listen, I am the poster child for anxiety and depression. Y 'all don't see it a lot. But trust me.
Okay? I've been a Zoloft baby and a Mipramine baby. I've been all that. I had psychiatry for seven years. Okay? I know the depths of depression. I get it. And it's not as simple as pull yourself up by your bootstraps or any of that other garbage Christians say.
It's real. It is real. I heard one lady tell me one time, well man, depression's not that bad. I don't struggle with it. Because you smoke a dime bag a day. Duh! But man, when you're trying to live right by Christ, you're going to have certain pits and certain strongholds and certain struggles.
That trouble and that struggle is what defines you. It's what molds you. It's what forges you into the man or woman of God He is calling you to be. What you need to rely on is the compassion and grace of God even when you don't think you deserve it.
That's when grace happens, when you don't feel it. That's when grace happens, when you feel unworthy and God is done with you. That voice still calls from Calvary, come unto me all you are heavy laden and weary, for I will give you rest.
That is the compassion of God. Now, the second thing is, what do we as Christians do? What is our choice in the face of such great love and compassion? Well, look here in verse 4. In the face of such grace, when you're in the pit, the first thing you do not want to do, this is not a sermon, guys.
This is a life lesson for some of you. Listen. The first thing you do when you get in a bad situation is, you don't turn to yourself. Read verse 4. Blessed is a man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.
Two things. Number one, here's what we do constantly. We will try to find peace in our pride. Listen to me, church people. How are you doing today? Oh, I'm fine. God bless you. It's good to see you today.
And you ain't fine. You jacked up. If your spiritual life had a metaphor of either a searchlight or a burn match, there'd be burn matches all over this junk. Guys, you need to be honest with where you're at.
Don't turn inward, turn outward. Ah, but here's the second key. Don't make camps of affirmation. What are you talking about, Pat? You know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about.
I had a lady here who had stayed dry for two years. She was in here all the time. She had been homeless. She actually had come from a women's battered shelter place, had joined our church. And man, we were constantly on her because, man, her drinking was bad.
She started doing weird things. She started isolating herself. In other words, the lady in praise and worship and the woman who was glad-handing and loving people and inviting them to show up started becoming more demure and quiet.
For those of you who know what I'm talking about, that's one of the first signs. So I asked her, Hey, how you doing? This is what she said to me. Don't judge me. And at that moment, I knew she was drinking again.
I absolutely knew. You see, a person who loves the Lord and is walking in obedience to His grace loves accountability. Because we know, without a shadow of a doubt, without accountability, we're jacked up.
Okay? Those Christian churches who sit around... It's just Jeremiah and Christian, guys. It's okay. Focus right here. Focus right here. When we don't have that accountability, when we turn to ourselves and think we can handle our sin or our problems, you are going to go right back into that clay and you're going to be trying to pull your own foot out.
It ain't going to work. But then what you do is this. You get other people to validate you in your sin. So I said to her, well, here's how it's going to be. If you want to keep coming here and doing the things that you're doing, you're going to rehab.
She says, you can't tell me to do that. And she had like five or six people that, listen, watch this, loved her. Loved her. I said, baby, you need to get into rehab. You need to dry out because you got that old drunk on you again.
I can't believe you're saying that. I have one drink. About two weeks later, she's walking down the hallway of that office. She and I get into an argument and I'm jumping on her pretty good. I look down into her purse and there is a bottle of mouthwash in her purse.
Now, for you drunks, you know what I'm talking about. I called her out on it. She left. Never came in this place again. About a week later, four or five concerned women came into my office. And they're going to share with me their concerns about my level of compassion.
That was not a happy and pleasant conversation for them because I was hot. Because, listen to me, not because I'm a tough guy, but because I know what's at stake. And you little suburban wives who gossip on the phone, you do not understand the power of alcohol in someone's life who's an addict.
You have no idea. You can't play with it. I actually have a guy tell me, I want to reach a point where all I can do is just have a social drink and have fun. Drunk, it ain't going to happen, baby. It ain't going to happen.
Well, that's offensive. Because you were drunk, and you're trying to rationalize, and you will bring people into your life who will tell you it's okay, and they are lying to you. They're wanting you back in that pit, and you're wanting to put that muddy, mirey clay around your legs again.
About a month later, I get a phone call from her sister. She had moved. She didn't just leave Whitton. She left Memphis, baby. She's back in Indiana living her life. They found her in the yard with her legs sliced open and her femoral artery cut in half, and she bled out like a dog in the front yard because she got drunk, locked herself out, broke a window, and tried to climb back in.
And yes, I gathered those four ladies back in my office again. Guys, our call to God's grace is not the absence of obedience. Let me say that to you again. If God's grace has called you and set you free, you have to stay on that rock and obey His Word.
You play with sin, and trust me, I got my doctorate in this. It will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer to stay, and it will cost you more than you wanted to pay. Mark my words. It will jack your brain up.
It will jack your heart up. It will jack your soul up, and for some people, it'll jack your body up. You cannot play with it. Guys, our call, our choice is not to turn to pride, but to turn to obedience.
Look at verses 7 and 8. Look at verses 7 and 8. Listen to what David said. Then I said, Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God. Listen, your law is within my heart.
It doesn't mean he went to the RA Bible memorization program. It literally means that God's Word is such a centric part of his life that it is in his heart and on his mind constantly. Do you know what the word meditation means mathematically?
It means to look at something in a 360-degree phase, three-dimensionally. You look at it all the time. Guys, that's how God's Word is. Some of you, you read a Bible through in 2022, and you're still as stupid as you were in 2021.
You won a Bucky Beaver badge because you read the whole Bible in a year. Stop it. Stop. Quit reading Psalms and a proverb corresponding with the day of the month. Stop it. Read one verse, and if that's all you can read until you understand every word of it, you have done well.
If your life is spent in the pursuit of not just knowing the Bible, but knowing the heart of God as displayed in the Bible, of knowing His grace and His call to obedience, your life will not be a waste.
Oh, man. God's call of compassion is a call to us choosing not to listen to pride and to be obedient to His Word. Last thing is this. His call or His grace should be our call. How many of you in this room are truly born-again Christians?
Raise your hands. Okay, put your hand down. When that happened... Someone answer the phone. It's okay. It's just a phone, guys. When that happened, was there a change in your life? Hold on a second. Some of y 'all are going, oh yeah, it happened.
Man, it happened. I walked down this aisle right here. I walked up here and I felt this on my arm because Miss Sarah Baker was singing that song my mom used to love when she died. It's sung at her funeral.
I was thinking of getting chicken skin on me. And I took that pastor by the hand and there was a warm tear that rolled down my face and I asked Jesus Christ, my heart, Lord and Savior. Okay, that's not the change I'm talking about.
I'm talking about after that. I was sitting down with the pastor. I said, hey man, how long have you been a Christian? 35 years. He has a doctorate from the Southern Baptist University. The. The. The.
Because there's only one. I said, tell me your testimony. He actually went back 35 years ago. My... Dude. In 35 years, the height of your experience with God was your conversion? Really? Really? Jesus told the apostles after they were following him, hey buddy, you're going to do greater things than I'm doing.
Let me say it to you again. Go look it up. Jesus, who raised people from the dead and fed 5 ,000 people, looked at the disciples after they had chosen to follow him and said, you think these things that I'm doing are cool?
You are going to do greater things than me. So your testimony is 35 years? What has Jesus Christ and you done last week? Here's how most Christians are. They get saved. They get converted. They take a little bit of the world, a little bit of church religion, and a little bit of the gospel, mix it together, and come up with some formula that if they follow that, they're in good stead.
Ain't no peace in that, is there? Come on, be honest. Those of you that are doing that, is there peace in that? Some of you ain't shaking your head. Look, every person in here is a Christian. You need to be shaking your head one way or another because every one of us experienced that, including me.
Including me. See, this is that part, confess your faults one to another that you may be healed. The other things that other churches don't actually do. You need to talk about how much your stank stank.
Okay? You need someone in your life all up in your business. You see, when God's compassion shows up, we have a choice to make, but then we have a call to answer. Look at what David said. Look at this.
Look, look right here. Watch this. Now, this is in the midst of his failure in the past and in the midst of his failure in the present. Look at verse 10. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart.
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. You know how you talk about God's glory? It talks about your failures by necessity.
Amen? Hello, are you there? If you are too scared or too intimidated to talk about your Myrie-Pitt moment, then you're never going to be able to talk about God's glory moment. Some of your worship and praise is so dry because you're worried about the song and its song selection and the beat of those stupid drums that you are giving glory to God who has delivered you time and time again.
When's the last time you actually praised God? I'm not talking about singing. I'm talking about praise his name. Well, pastor, it's been a while. But me and God have been this far apart. No, dummy, that's your feelings.
Either that or God's a liar. It's one of the two. It's one of the two. Now, if you want to stand there and call God a liar, that's fine. Let me evacuate the rest of the people out of this sanctuary. You call God a liar all day long.
But there is this one passage that said, God is not a man that he should repent, nor is he a man that he should lie. Have I not said it and shall it not come to pass? Guys, your call is to declare his greatness.
I ask every week, hey, man, bring someone to church. Now, Cindy and Paul did. They brought a social servant, a cop. Basically, what are cops? Violating people's civil rights. That's what they do. That's what we got four or five of them in here.
They have a secret handshake. I'm going to figure it out. When's the last time you invited someone to worship with you? When's the last time you invited someone who is absolutely destitute and you want to give them a hug or give them some advice from your vast knowledge of wisdom as a failure and a loser?
But you don't share with them the Word of God. You share with them little epithets of man's wisdom to try to get them built up. You sit there and go, it's okay, baby, they don't understand. Yeah, he's such a mean husband.
You do nothing wrong. Instead of going, hey, baby, where you at? Where you at? Because it's easy, right? Because you get to be the hero. Oh, I love true friends. They make me feel better. If they're a true friend, they are not going to make you feel better.
They're going to sit there and go, dude, you need to get in there in that bathroom because you stink. You need to change that diaper and stop being a baby. You need to grow up a little bit. I come to church, but I feel offended or, oh, I'm sorry, let me be a millennial.
I'm triggered. Maybe you're struggling with being gay. I don't know. But please stop saying the word triggered in men for the love of God. If something shocking happens, men, young boys, quit doing this.
Oh, please stop doing that. You look so feminine. Please. Go to Bellevue. God, it's an embarrassment. Or First Baptist Fisherville. One of them places. Guys, God's call is a call of declaration. Now look at verse 16.
Last verse I'll read to you. Look at verse 16. Not only does he tell us to go and tell people truth and invite them where they can hear truth. Look at verse 16 that says this. But may all also seek you, rejoice, and be glad in you.
May those who love your salvation say continually,.
Great are You, Lord. It sounds bad coming from me, but that's what he's saying. That's what he's saying. Well, pastor, I do that.
I do that. You know what? Someone asks me all the time, how do you think worship goes? I really can't gauge because honestly, I ain't looking at you people. Okay, and you know what? I don't know half the songs we sing.
I really don't. But I don't need to know them. You know what I do? I'm praying. I'm praising. I don't have to sing the melody of a song to praise God. I start quoting Scripture. I do. I start praying for people.
That's how I praise God. And I'm not saying my way is the right way. I'm just telling you how I do it. I don't really care what we sing. I really don't. And no one's done it in a year, and I'm thankful for it because I haven't had to kill anybody lately.
But please, please, can you please, there's like 2 of us still, and I'm asking you to join the rest of us. Please, stop worrying about the type of songs we sing. Seriously, I would really appreciate it if you'd pull that PASI out.
Maybe take a couple of baby aspirin or something, I don't know. But actually, mature past the milk that you should have matured 20 years ago. Because I guarantee you, we could start praising and worshiping God right now without one instrument, and this place would be an incense of offering to our God Almighty.
Show somebody some truth. There's a story in the 50s. There was a church, God bless them, that went to different parts of the world, and they took, I can't remember the name of it. Honestly, I can't. But they would take different specialists.
Like they would take a general practitioner, and then they would take a dentist, and then they would take a pulmonary. Well, in this one particular mission trip, they took, what's it, the eye doctor dudes?
Yeah, they took one of them. So, they actually are in the area of China near Nepal. And this guy does surgery on this Chinese dude's eyes, and removes whatever, cataracts or whatever it was. And the dude could see.
And he was like, Dude! Like, You know, however they say it in Chinese. You know? Gave him some chicken chow mein or something. I don't know, but he goes off. He goes off. A couple of days later, he sees a rope of, he sees like a line of Chinese dudes.
And they're all tied with the right hand. They're all tied to this rope. And in front of that rope, is the guy he operated on. And he's leading all the other blind guys he knows to this doctor. Now, for those of you from Arkansas and Mississippi, let me explain the metaphor.
You see, when you're saved, you don't save anybody. You can't lead someone to Jesus. But you can lead them to the place where they can hear about Jesus. And then what you do is you tag team, and the Holy Spirit takes it from there.
Okay? How many people are you leading somewhere? Daddies. Does your wife have to nag you to get your butt in church? Does she? You ain't a leader, you're a child. And you're going to have marital problems, and then when your kids get a little bit older, they're going to rebel against your hypocrisy, and then you're going to have problems there.
Oh, and guess what? Then you're going to have less control, and that stupidity is going to transfer to your grandchildren. Mm-hmm. Mark my words. Music, peoples, whatever, come up. Pastors, get ready.
I love you. You're a good man. You really are. Listen, in today's world, the greatest failure that we do as Christians is we pursue success in things that have no eternal value. Whether it be your business, whether it be accolades, gold watches, or trophies, or whatever, you pursue that and let everything else die.
Listen, listen, if you're in here today, and you're the person that, well, now, now, but nothing ever changed in your life, and you've never understood the peace of God or the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, I'm begging you, help me.
I'd get on my knees. I'm not kidding. I swear, this is not a joke. I beg you, by the mercy of God, that today you know the power of salvation. Please, please. Because there is going to be a time where it's going to be too late.
Enough said on that. If you're in this room as a Christian, and you're in a pit right now, you need to do two things. Number one, number one, you need to repent where you're at. Number two, you need to trust in God alone.
Number three, you need to tell the great congregation. Now, a private sin, keep it private, but a public struggle, something that you're really hurting with, keep, you know, your little private thing, you've got two or three people, two or three brothers or sisters, they can take care of you.
Public sin, you need to take care of it publicly, but you do not need to keep it within yourself. Don't turn to yourself, turn outwards. Okay? Maybe you just need someone to pray with you. Grab, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone in here who's a prayer warrior, okay?
Get Cynthia, my gosh. She'll pray over you all day. I loved her prayer for our mission trip peoples, yeah? Hey, grab someone. If you don't know anybody or you're not comfortable with that, we got fat pastors up here.
Well, a fat pastor and other pastors up here. We got a women's minister right here. If you're into that whole, I can't tell a man that, that's cool, that's cool. Same spirit of God's in me, same spirit of God's in her, I'm nothing special.
All I'm asking you to do is to let down your guard, let go of the fear and the anxiety that is strangling you, and just say, God, here I am, here's where I'm at, save me, please. Maybe you need to join a church and get some accountability, because what you've been doing in your Christian life don't work.
Walk on up here, it's easy to do. It's easy to join this place, it's really hard to get up right out of it, okay? It's like the mafia, blood in, blood out. Last thing is this, maybe you're good in every way.
Maybe you're good in every way, and I'm not being sarcastic. You're in pits, but you know, you're mature, you got it. Then here's what I want you to do. Instead of looking at that stupid screen, holding on the back of a stupid chair, waiting for this stupid thing to be over, well, if that is your attitude, you do need to repent.
But, if you're good to go, go be the church and find someone who isn't, and don't wait for, please don't be one of those Christians, God, please send someone to minister to you. Hear that? We got everything in here, okay?
We got queers and gays and adulterers and adulteresses, and we got drunks and drug addicts. We got everything in here, okay? Just find one of them. Just find them, well, pastor, I don't know how to do that.
Open your mouth and go to them. It's real simple. And if they're offended by that, they picked the wrong church, okay? You're in the wrong place, alright? So, without emotions or a call to make a decision now on where you're at and what you need to do with the Word of God you just heard.
Stand up and let's go to work, church. Let's be the church today. You come as God leads.