Great to see you all! If you're joining us online, glad you could be with us in church today. Good to see everybody live in the house. How many of you are glad to be in church? Amen. How many of you are excited that the kids are going back to school in two weeks? Yeah, there's a few. A few honest folks in the house, amen.
All right, right after we arrived, we got there Friday night about 1 or 2 in the morning, and then we drove that next morning early to the orphanage, and we had church immediately with them. While we were there that day having church with the kids and some of the families in the community, I shared with them a very simple message in the form of a children's sermon. This week as I prepared, I felt to share that same thought, but I expanded it into a sermon for us today.
I read one verse to the kids, but I have a few more verses for us today. So if you have your Bibles, let's go to Romans 7, chapter 7, verse 14. How many of you love the word of the Lord? This is the Apostle Paul talking. And let me tell you something, Paul breaks it down in these verses, and he gets really real with us.
Here's what Paul says: "So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good." Everybody read this next line with me: "The trouble is with me." How many of y'all know that's real? Where most of your trouble lies, right? And here's the reason why: "For I am all too human, a slave to sin."
Verse 15: "I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good."
Verse 19: "But I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it."
By the way, if you want a good tongue twister, read those verses in the King James Version. It is really good. Amen.
Verse 21: "I have discovered this principle of life, that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me? Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God." Everybody say, "Thank God."
"The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord." Hallelujah. So you see how it is. Everybody say, "This is how it is." "In my mind, I want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature, I am a slave to sin."
Now, the verse that I shared with the kids was just one verse, verse 19. And it kind of sums up what I want to talk about here today. You ready? Romans 7:19, here it is: "I want to do what is good, but I don't. And I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway."
Is there anybody in the house that can relate to that verse? Come on, some of y'all ought to memorize that verse, right? And just put it on. So I want to do, thank God for Paul, telling the truth. A preacher that tells the truth, amen. He said, "I don't want to do what's wrong, but I do it." That's what happens. I want to do what's right, fail. Don't get it done.
Here's what I want to talk to you today about, and it's real life: A tug of war. A tug of war. Amen?
The book of Romans, from which we get our verses today, was written by a man named the Apostle Paul, right? Paul had an amazing conversion testimony. Paul was quite the inspiration to all of us here today. Paul was a huge part of God's plan to share the gospel with all the non-Jewish nations, the Gentile nations, or in other words, us. Paul was an amazing man of God. He ended up being responsible for writing about two-thirds of the New Testament.
But all that great testimony, all those great accomplishments were the after-Jesus version of Paul. Paul wasn't always a good man who was sitting around writing letters that became part of the Bible, amen? If you dig into his story, Paul, who was originally known as Saul, before his conversion, he was actually somebody who persecuted Christians.
As a matter of fact, it was worse than that. Before becoming a believer, not only did he dislike Christians, his life purpose, his mission, was to destroy them. He would have them arrested for serving Jesus. He had many of them jailed and beaten and persecuted. He even had some of them killed in his pursuit of what he thought was the right thing to do. He was a man of God.
So suffice it to say that Paul did a lot of bad things before he had a personal encounter, a life-changing conversion with Jesus. But now, here's what I want to point out to you today. Don't miss this. This is what I want us to focus on.
When Paul wrote the words, "I want to do good, but I don't," when Paul said, "I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway," guess what? That was nothing. That was not written when he was killing Christians. That wasn't written when he was standing and seeing Timothy stoned to death. That wasn't written when he was being a Christian bounty hunter.
Those words, "I want to do good, but I don't," Paul, were written by a guy after he had been preaching the gospel around the world. After he was spreading the gospel. After he started writing letters that ended up being a part of the New Testament. He said, "I want to do good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway."
That was the Paul that we love and emulate in the Bible. See, Paul was very much aware of something that we need to be reminded of today. And that is that even after becoming a Christian, hear me, it is not always easy to make the right choices.
And if you can identify with that statement, I want to help you here today. Because even after having a very real conversion experience, we must recognize you are still flesh and blood. You are still part of fallen humanity. And you do not become a spiritual superhero who flies above all the junk and all the fray that we deal with on a day-to-day basis. Life, even for believers who really love Jesus, is often a tug of war. Right?
Now, some of you may not be able to relate to that, but I'm going to tell you right now, I can totally relate to Paul. When Paul said, "I want to do good, but I don't always do it." Anybody else can relate to Paul? Amen? I can totally relate to Paul when he says, "I don't want to do what's bad, but sometimes I end up doing it anyway." Amen?
Now, when I was a teenager, before I found the Lord, I made a lot of bad choices, just like a lot of other teenagers did. And not only, though, did I make the normal bad decisions that come with being a teenager, but I got involved in a lot of things that I shouldn't have. Amen?
I got involved in drugs. I used to drink. I used to smoke. Now, by the way, let me just, for all you in my generation, nowadays when somebody says they smoke, they ain't talking about Marlboros. Amen? They ain't talking about something else. Amen? They ain't talking about Winstons and Salem Lights. Amen? But I used to smoke those too. Amen?
And I used to party. I got in trouble with the police. I got expelled from my school. But thank God, when I became a Christian at the age of 16, my life changed. Come on, kids. Anybody else testify? Amen?
Folks, when I got saved, I got radically saved. I didn't just become a believer by professing my faith in Christ. God filled me full of the power of the Holy Ghost, and it changed my life. I stopped doing drugs and alcohol. I stopped smoking weed and cigarettes. I stopped making a lot of bad choices that I used to make.
And God didn't just clean me up on the outside, but He started working on me on the inside. Amen? I started cleaning up my thought life as best as I could as a 16-year-old. Amen? I changed the music that I was listening to because I understood worldly music led me to worldly thinking. Are there any old-timers in the house that can say amen? Come on.
I started trying to love other people instead of just myself. But guess what else I found out as a new believer? Just because I love Jesus didn't mean it was always easy to make the right choices. There were a lot of times when even though I wanted to do what was right, I felt like I was torn between making good choices and making bad choices. I sometimes still did the wrong things. I often thought the wrong thoughts. Many times I said bad things. Many times I got unrighteously angry.
It also didn't help that I grew up in a really strict faith tradition that didn't really allow very much grace or very much wiggle room as a human being. Amen? To who's just trying to love Jesus to the best of my ability with this human sinful nature.
So what happened? Every time I messed up, every time I had a lustful thought, which was about every six minutes. Amen? Every time I said something that was not godly, I felt backslidden. I felt beat down. I felt like a hypocrite. And guess what? I was right where the devil wanted me to be. Come on.
See, the truth of the matter was I really did love Jesus a lot. But my life was often a tug of war. Amen? Amen? And I often felt like my spiritual journey looked a lot like this.
Now I'm gonna get a little help from some people here today. Kevin Howard, you look a little Jesus-y today. Come on up here. You got a little spiritual vibe coming off of you. Come on up here. All right, this is gonna be the good me loves Jesus. All right?
But how many of you know it's not just the good you? Right? Kevin Coley, come on up here. Now see, Kevin loves Jesus, but I'm gonna let Kevin be the bad me today. Are you ready, Kevin? Yes, sir, I'm ready. All right, you're looking good, bro. You always look good, man.
Okay, here it is. And I think some of you can relate. Sometimes my spiritual life just felt like a tug of war that was going on. The spiritual side of me, one day, let me get this kind of in the middle here. Yeah, this is kind of close. One day, it feels like the spiritual, the spiritual me, the good me is winning. Go ahead, give that, yeah, you're winning.
Then there were other days, for any number of reasons, it felt like the bad me was winning. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Amen?
Now, by the way, let me just tell you right off the bat, this is also part of the problem. We think there's a bad me and there's a good me, when in reality, there's just me. My identity. My identity is in Christ. Come on, somebody. I am a child of God.
Now, the truth is, there is a spiritual side of me and there is a fleshly side of me, but in the middle is just me, loving Jesus, loving life, wishing I could do better, but some days I do, some days I don't. Some days it's easy, some days it's not so easy. Some days it's Sunday. Woo-hoo-hoo! Woo-hoo-hoo! Hallelujah!
But guess what I've learned? About every seven days, it's Monday. Amen. There's always something or somebody pulling at you in this tug of war. Amen.
So here's the heart of the issue today, and I want to talk about this for a moment. Why is it so hard for some of us in this room who love Jesus, why is it so hard to always make the right choices? Paul admitted that he struggled with it prolifically. He said it was the regular part of his daily battle.
And I know that some of you are better at this than other people are, amen? And so if you don't have this battle, if this doesn't apply to you, God bless you, please pray for the rest of us. Amen?
But why is there a tug of war? Well, the Bible has a very clear answer. Are you ready? Let's go to the Scripture. Here's what Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17 says: "The sinful nature wants to do evil." Go by, there he is. "Which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants." Amen?
"And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires." Amen? These two forces, look at what the Bible says, these two forces are what? Constantly fighting each other. Constantly fighting each other. Constantly fighting each other. Constantly fighting each other.
You're not a failure. You're not a backslider. You're not a hypocrite. You know what you are? You're a human being who loves Jesus and you're in the battle of your life every day. Amen? Some days it feels like we're gonna win and some days it feels like we're gonna lose.
But you know what those days look like? A lot of times we got things that just come out of nowhere to attack us. So I'm gonna get some more volunteers here today. Come here, Jordan. Some days, the spirit of lust comes on you. Now, I'm just using Jordan as an example. Amen? He's good looking, so maybe he can represent that for us today. Amen?
Some days, the spirit of anger. Come on up here, Adam. Some days, the spirit of anger just comes. You know, you ever had those days where you just wake up mad? Like, what is wrong with me today? What's wrong with me today? And you got this spirit of anger.
Some days, oh yeah, yeah, that's a strong spirit of anger right there. Some days, there's just this spirit of envy and jealousy. Come on up here, Evan. And we got some big old spirits up here. Look at this one. Amen?
Some days, it's the spirit of those old addictive habits that you used to have. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Come on up here. Amen. Come on up here, James. Amen.
And guys, let me just say something. I want to stop right now. I want you to look at this image. Is it any wonder that sometimes you feel like you're in the fight of your life? Come on, somebody. Amen?
Sometimes, it's that old spirit that wants to get a hold of you and pull you down and tear you down. Amen. Those addictive habits trying to coax me back to my old hangouts, to my old lifestyle. Amen. Amen.
"One beer won't hurt." So, I think I'll have two. See, I'm going to go ahead and meddle a little bit today. Some of y'all ain't going to like it. Can I just tell you, I never thought I would live long enough to pastor in a day where I have to tell Christians it's wrong to smoke pot. Can I just be real? Amen?
I never thought I'd pastor this long to see so many saints dabbling in things that they ought not be dabbling in. Can I get a little help in the house today? See, I never thought I'd see a day where we would be so prone to want to go back to the things that God has called us out of.
And yet, we got all this going on in our lives and we wonder why we're having such a hard time. Amen. Little old spiritual me over here fighting the devil and all these big old mean ugly spirits all by myself.
People say, "I got Christian freedom now." Until you don't. Amen. Amen. Let me, let me, can I just meddle for a minute? Amen. Ask any addict or anybody in recovery if it's okay to have one drink. Ask anybody who's ever gotten a DUI what it can do to your life or your job or your career.
Ask anybody who's ever had a family that was destroyed by alcoholism what that can do. Ask anybody, and I'm telling you, I used to party, okay? You say, "Pastor, you're just picking on us. You're just a killjoy. You're robbing us of everything fun in life. Why can't I smoke? Why can't I smoke? Why can't I smoke?"
Let me tell you something. There's a gateway and the devil will use anything he can to get you to slip up. And hear me. He does not care how long it takes or how many enemies he's got to stack up against you to make you fall. He's in it for the long haul. He wants you to lose the tug of war. He wants you to lose the battle.
Now, let me talk to you for a minute because I'm going to park on this street for just a minute. I don't talk about this very often. A lot of Christians today are doing things in the name of Christian liberty that are not beneficial for your witness or for your Christian lifestyle.
Come on. If you're looking for a sloppy agape church, this ain't the one. Amen? And you're allowing some things into your life that are going to be the downfall and the detriment of you. Am I saying you're going to go to hell for doing it? Nope. Am I saying that the Bible strictly forbids it? Not necessarily.
But let me tell you what Paul said about our Christian liberty. Are you ready for the Bible? 1 Corinthians 10, verse 23. You say, "I am allowed to do anything." What does Paul say? "But not everything is good for you."
You say, "Pastor, I'm allowed to do anything." But not everything is beneficial. So let me just stop right here and say, some of the things, some of the things that we're trying to make excuses for in our lives, Paul says, guess what? Just because you can do them does not mean that you should do them.
So we've got the issue of personal sanctity, personal holiness, personal separation that ought to cause us to want to live at a higher level. But hear me, if that's not a good enough reason for you, guess what? There's another reason why Paul calls us to a higher level.
Go to the next verse. Put it on up there. "Don't be concerned for your own good, but what? For the good of others." Well, Pastor, my liberty tells me I can do this, this, and this. Yeah, but does your liberty also remind you you have an obligation and a responsibility to people that are around you not to be a stumbling block or not to pull them down or cause them to fail?
Come on, I'm just trying to help somebody right now. Let me tell you what that looks like in real terms. If I know Kevin's, let me go back to the bad side. If I know James has got a problem with alcohol, guess what? When we go to Applebee's, we are not sitting at the bar. We're going to sit back by the stinky table next to the bathrooms, amen?
If I know that Evan used to struggle with whatever it is, I'm not taking him out to the club. Come on, I'm trying to help y'all, amen? We've got to understand we have a responsibility not to allow our Christian liberty to become a problem. To become a detriment to somebody else's soul, amen?
That's what the Bible says. That's what the Bible says. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you what? Should do something. Some things in your life are a slippery slope that will lead you to destruction.
Folks, I'm not just telling you this. This is not hyperbole to me, amen? I've been doing this for a very long time. I've seen a lot of people end up in destruction because they allowed their Christian liberty to get to them. They're on a slope that they thought they could handle but they couldn't handle. You're not that strong, amen?
Lose her phone number. Change your habits. Decide you're going to abstain from some things even though the Bible says I don't have to, I'm going to for my own good and for the good of the people that I associate with.
See, I'm trying to pastor right now because you know what we've got? We've got a generation of Christians that are trying to be so close to the world that we don't realize we're setting ourselves up for destruction, amen? We're setting ourselves up for destruction.
And if that verse isn't good enough for you, look what else Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 24. "Don't be concerned for your own good but for the good of others." And then look at verse 33. Put that one up there for me. "I too try to please everyone in everything I do." But look at this, folks. Here it is. "I don't just do what is best for me. I do what is best for others so that many may be saved."
Did you know I can tell you right now, I'm not going to be more specific than I already am. There's convictions that I've made in my life. I've drawn lines that are not necessarily biblical lines but I've drawn certain lines in my life because I know I have an obligation to be a witness to other people and to help other people be saved.
Come on. Come on. I, as believers, have that same responsibility to our families, to our friends, and to believers who are struggling. Amen? I know some of you right now, you're feeling the weight of it. You're like, man, I just want to love Jesus. Leave me alone.
But here's the question. How many of those things are you going to let grab onto the rope until you realize there's too many of them and there's just not enough of me? It's a tug of war. It's a struggle for survival. Amen?
Now, I want all you bad influencers, I want you all to stay up here. You four, step back right here. Just step right here. And Kevin, you stay on the end. Hold that rope because I'm not done with you guys yet.
Let's bring this right back to the middle. But sometimes after you mature as a believer, now I want to talk to some of you in the audience. You're like, I don't struggle with drinking. I don't struggle with smoking. I don't struggle with porn anymore. What are you talking about?
Now, sometimes, hear me, the big things are not the big things in your life. Sometimes, you know what we do? We think that the little things are going to be okay and they're going to accommodate us.
Come here, Mika. She's the most saved little thing I know right now. Amen? Come on up here. Y'all look at her shirt. Turn around and let them see. I love my husband. That's her husband.
See, but sometimes as believers, we think we're all that. We've gotten so strong. We've gotten so holy. We've been doing this. We've been doing this long enough. The little things, get on in there and grab that rope, little thing.
We let the little things in and we think we can handle it. Amen? Or instead of those big things, there's other things in our life that we say, you know what? I'm not struggling with that.
So here's what I'm just going to, I don't struggle with porn anymore, but you know what? I'm going to stretch that truth into a lie because it's going to get me ahead at work. I don't deal with drug addiction anymore, but you know what? I'm going to cheat on my taxes a little bit because it's going to save me a few thousand dollars and Uncle Sam's got more than enough.
You see, I don't struggle with addictions anymore, but you know what? I get a little angry sometimes, but I've got it right. They've got it coming. I'm just going to tell them what I think about them and I'm going to tell them about what I think about Trump and about Kamala and about the Olympics.
I'm going to tell them about what I think about them. I'm going to post, yeah, I'm a pastor now, amen. I'm going to post all kinds of stuff on Facebook. Then I'm going to wonder why nobody wants to hear about my Jesus.
Come on over here. I'm saved, but I got a stinking rotten attitude. And you see, folks, hear me. Don't miss this. See, the struggle always goes on. We just replace it with different things.
Just because you've been in church a long time and you don't see it, you don't struggle with booze and premarital sex and alcohol and fighting and lying and stealing doesn't mean you don't still struggle with a bad attitude or lustful thoughts or envying and jealousy or unrighteousness or unfaithfulness.
Come on. I've been saved a long time. Let somebody else serve. I want my weekends to myself. Somebody else can work the parking lot. Somebody else. Somebody else can watch the babies. Amen.
I need to check out. I need to take care of my retirement. Somebody else can give their tithes and all. Come on, somebody. Somebody else can serve at the community center. Somebody else can let somebody else step up for a while.
And yet, we wonder, and we allow those things to come into our life, and we wonder why we're losing the battle. Y'all stay right there for a minute. The tug of war never ends.
It just gets replaced with different things. Yes, you may not be tempted to smoke pot or drink a beer right now, but do you struggle with issues of ego or pride or selfishness? You may not remember the last time you said a cuss word, but when was the last time you got snarky with your wife or were rude to your children or you treated somebody like they were less than you because they were waiting at your table or serving you your groceries?
The Apostle Paul said, "I don't understand why I'm this way," but yet he understands. He understood. He had a spiritual side, and he had a sinful nature. He convinced us that the battle was natural and normal, but you know what the enemy tries to do? The enemy will jump on you.
I want to help you right now. When you struggle, he'll tell you that if you really love Jesus, you wouldn't be dealing with this stuff. I had somebody come to me after the first service, and they were practically crying. They said, "You have no idea how much I needed to hear this today."
The devil will tell you, and he'll convince you that if you did something bad or you thought something bad, or you said something bad, that you must be bad. If you really were spiritual, you wouldn't struggle with your carnality or your selfishness.
The Apostle Paul's life, though, hear me. The Apostle Paul's life proved that that is a lie straight from the devil. If Paul can say, "Oh, what a wretched man that I am," I'm pretty sure it's okay for Buddy Thompson to say, "Oh, what a wretched man that I am." Amen?
Now, what do we do to win this war? Real quick. I'm going to share three things. And by the way, I'm going to continue this sermon next week, so don't stay home from church. Amen.
Real quick, I'm going to give you three things. Are you ready? I'm going to give you something so profound, you need to get your notes, get your pen ready. Here's the first thing you need to do to win the tug of war. Are you ready?
Number one, pray. Pray. Pray. Ask Jesus to help you make right choices every day. Ask the Lord to come into your heart if you haven't already done so. Ask the Lord to give you strength when you're faced with temptation. Right there in that very moment.
Look at her. Woo, help me, Jesus. Right now. Help me, Jesus. Help me, Jesus. Here comes that temptation, that struggle. "Lord, I need you right now." Sometimes, you know, you got to pray and you just got to walk away. You need to be wise enough to know what your weaknesses are, what your strengths are. Pray. Build up that spiritual man.
Here's the second thing you need to do. Are you ready? You need to resist. You need to resist. You need to resist. Pull back. Pull back over that way, guys. Hear me, folks. Winning requires effort. Amen? There are no shortcuts.
You can't just roll over and give in to every temptation that comes your way. Every time you feel spiritually lazy, you got to fight. And here's what I want to do. I want to challenge you today. I know I've been getting a little specific. I want to challenge you to quit living in the gray and develop some black and white convictions in your life and say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
I'm going to live at a level that I might not have to so I can help bring somebody else along the way. I'm going to live at a level that I might not have to so my children will be blessed. Resist.
Resistance is a skill that some people lack because it requires discipline. You want some more gold from the Bible? Check this out. Ephesians 4, 21 through 27. Here it is. "Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off. Throw off your old sinful nature. Get out. Get out. Get out. Throw off that nature, your former way of life which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature created to be like God, truly righteous and holy."
"Stop telling lies." There's a rhema word for somebody right there. "Tell our neighbors the truth for we are all parts of the same body. Don't sin by letting anger control you. Don't let the sun go down. Don't let the sun go down while you're still angry."
Here's what I want to point out in this passage. For anger gives a foothold to the devil. Paul says since you've heard of Jesus, he said you've got to throw off your old sinful nature. I might say resist. You've got to let the spirit renew you. That means submit. Amen.
And then you've got to put on, he said, or in other words, walk in your new life. Resist. Submit. Walk. Amen. In the walk that God has for you. Verse 27 said, he said we've got to do this so that you do not give the devil a foothold in your life.
Now here's what I know. In tug of war, hear me, there's two things that are critical. Are you ready? Your grip and your footing. I'm going to tell you right now, it doesn't matter how tight you have the rope. If you don't have your feet planted, come on. If your feet are not planted, they'll just drag you right across the line. Amen.
Your grip but also your footing. And here's what's happening. The Bible says many of us are giving the devil a foothold. The devil a foothold or a stronghold in our lives. And you know what it comes from? It comes from thoughts or emotions or destructive behaviors that we continue to embrace when the Holy Spirit has told us to reject those things in our life that we're still holding on to.
Some of this, we keep embracing lies instead of rejecting them and you wonder why you're stuck. You wonder why you're on the wrong side of the rope. In this passage right here, he mentions anger, right? He uses the issue of anger. But guess what? It doesn't have to be anger. It could be worry. That's a stronghold in your life.
It could be fear. When you hold on to fear, it creates a foothold, a stronghold in your life. When you hold on to resentment, when you hold on to bitterness, when you hold on to a grudge, those create strongholds in your life and guess what? You are always gonna lose the battle because these things, they become ingrained in your mind and they pull you and every time this situation comes up, guess what? You just go back to what you always do and how you always deal and how you always cope.
Strongholds. The Bible says resist. When you hold on to loneliness, when you hold on to guilt, when you hold on to shame, when you hold on to regret, when you hold on to anxiety and you don't deal with those things in your life, Satan gets a stronghold in your life.
But then here's the third thing I wanna tell you real quick. I'm gonna close with this. Musicians, come on up and come on behind us. No, stay right there. Stay right there. Here's the third thing you gotta do. You ready? You gotta get help. Everybody say help.
Sometimes you need a little help. Come here, pint-sized counselor. Amen. Come here, Davina. Fun size. I mean, that's what she has on her license plate. Sometimes you're wondering why you're struggling, but you know what you need? Some of you might just need to talk to a counselor. She's a counselor, so back on up. Right there.
Sometimes what you need is a Christian friend. Come here, Belinda. See, we think we gotta fight this battle alone. But sometimes you need a Christian friend. Sometimes you need your small group leader. Come here, Robin.
Sometimes what you need is the voice of a pastor. Come here, Pastor Rodney. And let me tell you, Belinda's the good friend right here. Sometimes you gotta be careful about some of the friends that you pick. Come here, Lauren. I'm going to use Lauren so nobody gets offended.
Sometimes when you call on a friend, you need to stop them real quick and go, wait a minute. Yes, you're my friend. But you're not a friend that's helping me pull the rope in the right direction. Ah, can I help some of you right now?
Some of y'all need to go through your contact list. And you need to realize and acknowledge that some of the people that you're hanging out with, although you think they're pulling this way, what they're really doing is they're pulling this way.
So you know what? I love you, and I'm going to love you from a distance. Goodbye. Goodbye. And hear me, if you get enough help, pretty soon, you're gonna have more days that you win than more days that you lose.
Let's give all of our helpers a big hand right now. Thank you. All right, we're going to have an altar call. I want you to stand with me. The struggle is real. I've been living for Jesus since I was 16. I'm 57. And guess what? The rope tug is real every day. Just different stuff, different cycles, different seasons.
And you know what I've learned? I've gone to way different levels in my walk with God. But guess what? New levels bring new devils. And every so often, an old devil will try to slide right on in there because I've left a little crack in the door.
Or there was this area in my life that I was like, you know what? I got victory over that, amen? And all of a sudden, just slide right back in. Cozy ride on up next to you. Rub on your shoulders a little bit.
But here's what I've learned. If you pray, if you resist, and if you're humble enough and honest enough to get help when you need it, you can win the tug of war. Hallelujah. Because, guess what? There is an X factor that we have. There is an X factor that we have. There is an X factor that makes this an unfair competition.
Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. Me and Jesus make a majority every single time.
All right. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm giving a very specific altar call right now for a couple of things. First of all, if you have not asked God into your life, if you have not repented of your sins and asked Jesus to be Lord of your life, that's the first step you need to make if you're going to win this battle.
If you've already made that commitment and made that decision and you've stepped over the line, but you've never been baptized with the Holy Spirit, Acts chapter 1 and verse 8 says, "You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost comes upon you."
I'm not preaching about the Holy Ghost today, but that's how I stopped drinking and partying and smoking and acting like a fool because the Holy Ghost helped me overcome. But today, if you're struggling at all in your walk with God, I want to tell you something very clearly. You are not a fool. Paul wasn't. You are not a bad person. Paul wasn't. You are not a hypocrite. Paul wasn't.
You're somebody that loves Jesus that sometimes has a bad day. But today, you know what we're going to do? We're going to come to this altar and some of you, the Holy Ghost is already talking to you about some commitments that He wants you to make to get out of the gray and get into the black and white.
Do I have to do it, Pastor? No, you don't have to. But you can flounder around the rest of your life too if you want to. I want you to have the courage and conviction to step across the line and say, "Lord, today's the day I draw a line in the sand. I'm not just living for me, but I'm living for other people. I'm not just living because I want to be at a higher level. I want to bring some people with me on this spiritual journey."
I'm living at a higher level because I got kids and I got grandkids that are looking at my example. The Holy Spirit's going to help you right now. So as the praise team begins to sing, I want you to step out from where you are and come to this altar and say, "Lord, I'm stepping across the line today because I want to win this tug of war."
on Aug 05, 2024
