Goodness, this morning, we thank you for that blood that Jesus shed on the cross. Father, we thank you for that blood. Father, that even us in our sins, you sent your son to take our place, God. Father, we thank you for that blood. Father, we thank you for that love. We thank you, God, for the fact that you sustain us and you hold us. We thank you, God, for you're our healer and our deliverer. Thank you, God, for you are the one. It's all about you and all for you.
Father, we thank you for the work that you're doing in our lives this morning. Holy Spirit, we say, have your way. God, we thank you. For by the blood of Jesus, not only do we have access to you, and we have access to salvation and eternal life, but God, through the blood of Jesus, we have access to deliverance. Father, you free us from bondages, God. Father, we thank you for through the blood of Jesus, we have healing, God.
And Father, even this morning, we declare healing upon our bodies in Jesus' name. Father, even all around this room right now, God, as we lay hands on ourselves in areas where perhaps there’s ailment or there’s something, God, we declare your healing. Father, we send the word of healing, Lord. We pray for those in the hospital. We pray for our brother, Alexis, declaring healing upon his body in the name of Jesus. Father, you are healer.
Father, we thank you for you are doing a new thing in us, God. Father, we thank you, God. And no matter what we're facing or no matter the trials or the tribulations, Lord, we continue with our eyes fixed on you and you alone, God. Father, we recalibrate right now to put our eyes to you. God, our eyes are not on circumstance and our eyes are definitely not on man. Our eyes are on you, God.
Father, we thank you for you stir our faith to believe again. And Father, right now, in the name of Jesus, I come against anxiety and I come against depression. I come against depression. I have to go in the name of Jesus. Father, we walk in the freedom. Lord, we come against different disorders of the mind and we declare freedom in the name of Jesus. Father, you are healer.
Lord, we come against fear in the name of Jesus. We say fear, go. Holy Spirit, come. Father, we thank you for you are working in our families. You're working in our children. You're working in our grandchildren. And God, we speak life right now in the name of Jesus. Lord, we speak life right now in the name of Jesus.
Father, we thank you for the new things. And we thank you, God, for no matter what we've gone through, you are the one that sees us to the other side. And, Father, we thank you for you never leave us or forsake us. God, we thank you this morning for preparing our hearts. We thank you, God, for tilling the hearts of our mind and our understanding to be able to receive from you, Lord. Father, we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.
Come on, church, can you give God a hand of praise this morning? Turn to your neighbor this morning. Tell them good morning. It's good to see you.
Check one. Hello. Can I get more juice on my microphone? Javi. Hello. Can I get more juice? Amen. One, two. One, two. Hey, can you hear me? Still somewhat? No? There we go. All right. There we go.
Man, no matter what it is that we face, our hope is in Christ and in Christ alone. Amen. And sometimes we go through stuff. But no matter what we go through, our eyes have to be fixed on God and on God alone, and he will see us through always to the other side. Amen.
If you're here for the first time, we want to welcome you. We're so excited that you're joining us. If you're watching online, welcome to our online campus. And I encourage you, close every other window and just pay attention. Be connected to what God wants to speak to you, even right there in your home. Amen.
And as a church, we always remind you as a church, we exist to get people to a place where they will acknowledge, trust, and lean on God daily. Getting people to a place where they will acknowledge, trust, and lean on God daily. We need him every single day. Amen.
When we wake up, God, I acknowledge you. I honor you. I worship you. I trust you. I lean on you today, God. Let it not be on my understanding. Let it not be on my strength. Let it not be on anything of me. But God, I lean on you and you alone. Amen. Praise God. Come on, can you give God one more hand of praise this morning?
I want to jump into the word this morning. We've been in a series. Today is part four. And the name of this series is called Room for Growth.
And I said it last week, and I'll repeat it this morning. As followers of Jesus, we are to strive to be like him. And I don't know about you, but I am not enough like him. But we need to strive to be like him more and more each and every day. Paul writes and says, I have not attained it.
And so I want you to say it with me this morning. If you're online and you have the comment box, throw it in there. But I want you to say this: I have not attained it. I have room for growth. One more time. I have not attained it. I have room for growth.
Look at your neighbor and say, say it louder. Ready? I have not attained it. I have room for growth. This is the reality and this is the truth. Every single one of us have room to grow. We have not attained it. We fall short of the glory of God. And it is our responsibility to pursue him so that every day we can be a little bit more like him.
And here's a newsflash. We're going to mess up. Now, a relationship with God does not give us a license to mess up. We strive to be better every single day. Because there's a lot of people that misuse grace. They take advantage of grace. Well, God is going to forgive me, so I'm just going to do it.
In life, we do things and say things like, well, it's better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission. Have you heard such sayings like that? Well, I'm just, I'll just say, I'm sorry. That's actually, you are going to act on something knowing that you probably shouldn't be doing it, which is why you're saying, well, it's easier just to say, I'm sorry.
And we live our lives like that sometimes. And here's the truth. We need to strive to be more like Jesus. Any of you ever heard a comedian? He's been around for a long time. The guy's name is Jeff Foxworthy. Any of you ever heard of Jeff Foxworthy? He used to do that show, If You're Smarter Than a Fifth Grader.
And he's got all these jokes and all these things that he talks and says, well, you just might be a redneck if. And he does these because he's a redneck, and so he can do that. I'm a Cuban. So I wrote my own this morning. And here's mine. I don't know how true it is, but I think it's pretty true.
If you've got a big Statue of Liberty in front of your house, you just might be a Cuban. Now, I don't know if you've seen them here in Miami. Down 137th Avenue, 66th Street. There's a house. I mean, it lights up at night and everything. Mrs. Statue of Liberty, 127th Avenue is his other house. Big old, about seven-foot tall, Statue of Liberty.
And I would bet that if I knocked on the door, that was a Cuban that said, "La libertad que cogí." You know? Like, I need the Statue of Liberty. He's a representation. And here's what I wanted to say. I say that jokingly, but here's what I want us to look at this morning.
If there are areas of our lives that we chalk up to, "It's just who I am," you might have room for growth. See, this is a lot of things we curse ourselves with. Well, this is just who I am. This is just what I deal with. This is just me. This is it. And here's the reality of it. It's not you. It's who you were before Christ.
1 Corinthians, sorry, 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5:17. It says this: If you are in Christ, therefore, if you are in Christ, you are a new creation. Watch again. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. And behold, the new has come.
So what is this telling us? If you are in Christ, if I am in Christ, the old is removed. What does that mean? It's not who I am. It's who I was. And many times we will just curse ourselves. Well, I'm just this way. This is just my temperament. This is just the way I was made.
But the reality is this. You and I have room to grow. Go to Colossians chapter 3. This is where we're going to be this morning. Colossians chapter number 3. Colossians chapter number 3. When you've got it, say amen. If you've got your Bible, wave it at me. Let me see who's got physical Bibles. I love physical Bibles. I encourage you. If you don't own a Bible, get a Bible.
Colossians chapter number 3. Get highlighters. Mark up your Bible. Okay? Colossians chapter 3. This is what it says, starting in verse 1. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of God, the peace of Christ, rule in your hearts, and let the peace of God, the peace of Christ, rule in your hearts, and let the peace of God, the peace of Christ, rule in your hearts.
We need to be intentional in what we set our minds on. We need to be intentional on what we set our minds on. It's so easy for us to just go down the rabbit hole, thinking of one thing that leads to another. It's so easy for us to find the faults and flaws in people.
As a matter of fact, you don't got to look very hard. I'm a flawed person. You don't got to look hard to find flaws in me. I am every day trying to grow to be more like Christ, but I haven't attained it. I got room to grow.
And many times, we just spend focused energy. We spend bandwidth on trying to figure out the things. We put our mind on the things of this world instead of on the things of God. And I want to be real with you. Nothing wrong with watching a football game. I watched the first quarter of the Dolphins game last night. That's all I watched because it's preseason. It doesn't count, and they take the starters out after a few drives.
Nothing wrong. You know what is wrong? When you can't spend time with God, but you make five hours a week to watch a football game. You know what's wrong? When you can't seek God every single day. But you don't miss a day of going to the gym. You know what's wrong? When we set our mindset to the things of this world and ignore the things of God.
So what the scripture there is telling us, if I read it just one more time, it says, set your mind on things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. And again, there's things that we do on earth that are fun. I enjoy going to play racquetball. I enjoy going to a batting cage and hitting a ball. I enjoy. There's things that I enjoy.
But that can't be my end all be all. Intentionally setting my mind on the things that are above. Philippians talks about to think about whatever is true and noble and pure and praiseworthy. To think about, to meditate on those things. And many times we lose it because we begin to focus on everything but God.
I said it. If we look for fault in people, we're going to find it. What are we setting our minds to? What are we setting our minds to?
Then look at what it says in verse number five. Put to death. And it starts to list things. And then in verse number eight, it says, put them all away. I wrote it down this way. Put to death the old me. Put to death the old me.
Can I be honest for a minute? I was going to write down, put to death the old man. And then I was like, if I have that and somebody takes a picture of it and puts it out there, they're going to be saying, Pastor David wants the death of old people. And I was like, okay, how do we write this, Lord? Show me. We got to put to death the old me. Who I used to be. Before I was a kid. Before Jesus.
And many times, we grab a hold and lay a hold of our lives who we used to be. And what are the things that we need to put to death? If you look at it in the original language, this word there, put to death, this is what it means. To make dead, put to death, deprive of power, destroy the strength of.
It's not who I am anymore. It's who I was. It talks about certain things here that we need to put to death in us. It starts off by saying, put to death what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry.
Watch. Many times we think idolatry is just someone who's got a statue of Mary or of Santa Barbara. We think that that's what idolatry is only. But the reality is, anything that you put in the place of God is an idol in our lives. And here, he even says, covetousness is idolatry.
Watch. If you are the type of person, if I'm the type of person that every time somebody gets something, oh, I need that. I want that. Somebody gets a new house, oh, I need to get a new house. Somebody gets a new phone, I need a new phone, a new car. And you're coveting. You are strongly desiring that which someone else has, it's an idolatrous act.
We have room to grow. And some of these are big, right? Like, sexual immorality. That's a big one. Things like, oh, yeah, definitely. But then he gets in there and he says in verse number eight, but now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander.
Some of y'all don't know what slander is. Slander is when you speak a lie about someone in order to hurt them or destroy them. And as a matter of fact, slander is something that you can file a lawsuit against someone for doing. When they go out there and write a bad review when it wasn't true or speak bad about you and your character. You can actually file a lawsuit. But the Bible is telling us, don't do these things. Get rid of the slander.
How about this one? Obscene talk from your mouth. What is coming out of our mouths? I was listening to a pastor recently on a podcast who was saying that he has no conviction on using foul language. I'm sorry. That's not what my Bible says. My Bible says obscene talk from your mouth.
But you know what happens? Many of us, we want to keep the passport of the old man readily and available. And depending on who we are with is how we behave and the persona that we take.
I don't know how many of you were born in a foreign country, moved to this country, and became a U.S. citizen. But one of the things that you had to do upon becoming a U.S. citizen was renouncing the old citizenship. You don't keep a dual citizenship of I'm from there and from here.
But why do we come to Jesus and want to be citizens of heaven while citizens of the world? Why is it that if we're walking with these people who curse like a sailor, I curse with them? But in front of other people out there, I'm not going to. Guys, we've got room to grow.
What are we listening to? What are we watching? What are we putting in? And then what comes out? Course joking is one of these things that falls under obscene gestures or obscene talk. Many of us are here going around saying jokes that are double-minded or in Spanish. They got a hidden thing that that's dark and not for something that we should be a part of.
Guys, we need to put to death the old man in us. It must die. Then he goes on and says, do not lie to one another. As believers, as followers of Jesus, lies should not be coming out of our mouth. As a matter of fact, Jesus says that Satan is the father of lies.
Don't get mad at me. I'm just quoting Jesus. Don't lie to each other. There is no such thing as a white lie. Oh, I just I didn't want. I just. No, no, no, no, no, no. We speak truth. As a matter of fact, part of the armor is the belt of truth. We speak truth, the truth of the word of God.
That's why it says, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. Put to death the old. Put to death who we used to be. Eliminate from our vernacular, "I'm just like this. This is just who I am." No, it is who I was.
And then he says in verse number nine, as we said, do not lie to one another, seeing that you've put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Listen, I wrote it this way. As we grow in the Lord, there is constant renewal of self. As we grow in the Lord, there is constant renewal of self. You and I are constantly growing and renewing our understanding.
Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. What does it say? It says, I urge you, brothers, to present yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. Then it says in verse two, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You and I need to continually, as I said, as part of our vision here at 3W Church, daily pursue God, daily acknowledge God, daily lean on God, daily trust God.
You and I need to daily go through the renewal of our understanding and our mind because if we stop, we go back. And then we honestly believe to ourselves, well, this is just who I am. No, no, no, no. This is who I am without Jesus. And I got room to grow.
I have a question for y'all. What is R-O-O-T-D? You ever see on social media, hashtag OOTD? It stands for Outfit of the Day. And I wanted to make sure. Do you know there's over 429 million hashtags using OOTD?
And you know what happens? Many of us walk out of our house in the morning with the old man as the outfit for the day instead of putting on the new man as the outfit of the day.
I'm just going to have a seat here with you guys for a minute. I just want to let the Bible preach. Y'all go back to the Bible. Watch. Verse number 12, Colossians chapter 3.
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. What do we got to put on? Look, compassionate hearts. Put on kindness. Put on humility. Put on meekness. Put on patience. Put on bearing with one another.
Put on forgiving each other. Look at it. I'm not making it up. It says, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. It's not a recommendation.
Here I was thinking, well, if they say I'm sorry. Here I was thinking, I can withhold forgiveness because, you know what? What they did was so bad. Or, Pastor, you don't know what they did to me. And here's the reality. I don't know what they did to you, but I know what I did to Jesus.
That I crucified him with my sins. I crucified him with my words and my actions. It wasn't the Romans. It wasn't the Jews. It wasn't the nails. It was my sin. So Jesus tells us here, through the Apostle Paul, forgiving each other.
As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Look what else it says to put on as an outfit. And above all these things, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. There is an outfit that we need to wear as Christians called thankfulness. Thankfulness. We miss out on so many of the things that God has for us because we're ungrateful.
I'm preaching to myself. That's why I'm sitting here. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Church, what's our outfit of the day? What do we put on in the morning when we leave the house? Who do we represent with what we're wearing?
What passport are we leaving the house with? Do you know that? I don't know how many countries do this, but do you know that Cuba, if you were born there within certain years and you left, and now you may be an American citizen, even if you're an American citizen and you want to go back to visit, you're going to go visit family, whatever the case might be, you have to go get a Cuban passport.
And actually, you use a Cuban passport to get into the country and then your American passport to get back. Here's the reality of it, though. That Cuban passport ain't valid anywhere but there.
And there's many of us walking around with the passport of who we were before Christ, and we take it to the world, and that's the only place where it's valid. But as Christians, we need to walk with the passport of Christ.
The new creation in us allows us to go anywhere and live in a way that is right. Is it easy? Heck no. Can I be honest? I had a rough week in a certain area. Something happened the other night, and I was at the house, I was making dinner, and I get a phone call.
And I'm talking to this person on the phone, and we're going through different things, and they said, "Pastor, I got to tell you something that's been on the back of my mind. I just got to talk to you about something." I said, "Sure, go for it."
And they proceeded to tell me about some pretty bad things that were being spoken about me by a certain individual. And I was like, all right, cool. I was like, no sweat off my back. I'm just talking to this person, and we're going through these things, and I'm making dinner.
I didn't realize my kids were sitting behind me, and they understand everything, right? So we get off the phone, and we sit down to have dinner, and my wife says to my oldest, to Abigail, "Abigail, do you have questions about what Dad was talking about, what you just, you know, heard?"
And she said, "Dad, why is this person talking bad about you?" I said, "I have no idea." But this is what we're going to do. Let's read what we just preached about last Sunday.
And we got the Bible out, and we read Romans 12. And I said, this is what we're going to do for that person right now. We're going to do Romans 12. We're going to pray for them. And we're going to bless them. I'm not going to call them. I'm not going to try to go meet with them. I'm not going to give them a piece of my mind.
And I got my daughters and my wife, and we began to pray for this individual. My flesh didn't want to do that. Listen, if you pinch me, I'll scream. It hurts. My flesh didn't want to do that. My flesh wants to say, what the heck is wrong with you? Like, you know, but I sat there with them, and we prayed, and we interceded for this individual.
Because at the end of the day, I need to act like Jesus. Jesus had Judas among them. And he loved them anyways. And it's not an excuse. When somebody hurts us and speaks about us and does other things, it doesn't give us an excuse to act back. It's not a get up primero, it's not a get even. It's not none of that stuff.
As Christians, we bless and do not curse. We pray for our enemies. We pray for those. And here's like, Pastor, why are you calling me? Because actually, my daughter actually even asked this question. She said, is so-and-so actually a Christian? That's what she asked. The mouth of a 12-year-old.
If this person is a believer and they're out there doing this, are they truly a Christian? And I broke it down to her this way. Mama, do you ever do something that you know the Bible tells us not to do? Like, you know, have you lied and then have to repent? It doesn't mean you're not a Christian. You just messed up.
We need to pray for this person to encounter Jesus again and receive their forgiveness. But I can't stay bitter, people. There's no way I can preach from here in a bitter place. There's no way I can honor God.
And I'm going to tell you very honestly, listen, just look at me, please, just right here, every single person. I'm not perfect. And if you study me, it does not take much to find flaws in me. But I never try to say that I am.
If anything, I'm always trying to remind people, don't look at me, look at Jesus. What we're doing as Christians is we're destroying each other full of self-righteousness and pride and arrogance, instead of looking at the Word of God and saying, ooh, I got to get rid of those lies in my mouth. Ooh, I get angry and wrathful and full of... Lord, help me stop. Help me grow.
Help me live more like you. Help me put on kindness and humility and meekness and love and mercy. God, help me. Help me not think that everybody's got it out against me. Because here's the problem. When we have unresolved issues that we have not submitted to God, then we look at everything through that lens.
So everyone's trying to hurt me. My wife has it against me. She's doing it on purpose, or my husband or my kids or everybody's doing it. Why? Because we've got a trauma that we haven't released to God. And those things, we then end up hurting people as a self-sabotaging mechanism of, I don't want to get hurt, so let me hurt first.
We got room to grow. I, me, David, David, David's got room to grow. I know this series has been gut-punching. But I wouldn't be fulfilling my call if all I did was tickle our ears.
We need to walk out of service and say, God, what are you trying to do in me? How am I growing closer to you? How am I going to go into the world and be a better reflection of you? And what's the truth? You're going to go play basketball with your buddy, and they're going to say, wow, you're different. Like, you're not cussing anymore. Yep, I'm trying to play basketball. I'm trying to be more like Jesus.
Oh, you think you're holier than me now? No, I'm not. And so I've got to be different than the world. And if I look and act and smell and do everything exactly like the world, and there's no distinction, then who's going to want to meet my Jesus?
We got room to grow. But then, but like, I got news, right? Like, this is good news. We can change our outfit. And then we look at verse 17 when it says, and whatever you do in word or deed, whatever you do in word or deed, whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
I wrote it this way. All that we say or do should be done in the name of the Lord. That word that's about to come out of my mouth, does it honor God? That action that I'm about to do, does it bring honor to God?
Does it bring honor to God? Does it begin to analyze and look and say, I'm going to do this. Does it honor God? Does it do this? When we go out of our way to be more like Jesus, renewing ourselves every day, renewing our understanding, renewing, we begin to grow.
And as we grow, we become more like him. And you know what happens? People can see. People can see the difference. And we're able then to testify. We're able to testify and say, hey, it's not me, it's Jesus.
We're able to acknowledge our mistakes. Every time we surrender our flesh to God and we stomp out, I'm not an angry person anymore. I'm not full of malice. I'm not full of wrath. I don't let foul language come out of my mouth. I don't do this obscenity. I don't do that.
I'm stamping out who I was and living a life of who I am in Christ, paid for with the blood of Jesus. Therefore, I am a new creation. The old has passed away. All things are made new.
Do we slip up? Absolutely. Do thoughts come in that are earthly and carnal and fleshly? Absolutely. But then I intentionally switch it. And think about God again.
Might you slip up and do something that you shouldn't? Absolutely. Repent and get right with God. Don't allow yourself to go, well, if I already gained back one pound, I might as well get two. And if I got three, it doesn't matter. I already fell off the wagon. I'm all in.
No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to get back. And start eliminating those things that cause us to go back to who we were. Stop listening. I mean, we can go verse after verse in Scripture.
This one's not in the Bible, but just let me say it a second. Tanta culpa tiene que mata la vaca como que la aguanta la pata. You ever heard that before? He who holds down the cow is as guilty as the one that killed it.
Watch. Don't judge the person that's slandering and speaking lies when you sit there and listen to it. Because they speak about you, don't go speak about them. See that guy up there? He's my defender and my vindicator.
It's why Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they look at Nebuchadnezzar and say this. In this situation, I don't need to defend myself to you. I don't need to explain myself. I'm just not bowing.
But you know, it's one of the things that we got to stomp out of the flesh of the old man that need to just be right. Explain why we did what we did. No, it was wrong. And I can just admit it's done.
You ever had that conversation, right? With somebody, they called out. He did something wrong. You're like, hey, I'm sorry. No, no, no. It's like, listen, you're right. I acknowledge. Like, we can just, we don't have to beat the dead horse. I am acknowledging. Acknowledging. You are right. I was wrong. Let's move on.
But the person has to continue to just, but I have to get my point across. No, you don't. I recognize I was wrong. We're done. Move forward.
You know, when we fall trap to, we want to get stuck in our pity parties. We got to get stuck in the mindset of this is, and it's easy to fall trap to it. Especially when things happen that are not what you planned.
I mean, my wife and I and our children did not plan to have an injury this summer, right? It was not in our plan. And sometimes kids go to bed. We put them by ourselves. We'll sit down and Patty will look at me. She's like, can I just commiserate for a minute? I was like, no.
And so look at me. She's like, you're not just going to let me have like a pity party. No, we are not. And you can ask her like, and she does it to me when I'm in a low place because of stuff going on. She'll remind me, Hey, so what we do, we keep each other.
So easy. So easy to spiral out. Oh, and if they did that to me, wait till I get even. No, I'm not going to get even. I'm going to do. It's like we begin.
Yeah. Yeah. Y'all know practical jokes, right? You do a practical joke on Steven, then he's going to do a practical to me, but he's going to take it up a notch. And now I'm going to take it up a notch. And now I'm going to take it. And before you know, I think there's glitter bombs going off in someone's office.
Y'all know what a glitter bomb is? Look it up online. They send somebody a package and when they open the package, it's a little thing that goes and it sends glitter in the entire office. Glitter. But I believe the worst invention in humanity, um, it's personal opinion.
Worship team, come to the altar. Listen, you and I have room to grow. Don't try to get even. As a matter of fact, the person I was talking to this week, this is what I said. I spoke no ill of the other person.
And I said, when that person sees you again and they again, start to talk, tell them, "Hey, you know what? I couldn't. I couldn't just sit on what you told me. I went and talked to Pastor David and you know what? He didn't talk bad about you. And he just said, if you ever want to talk, you have his phone number. Let's go have a conversation."
But what do we tend to do? No, no, no. But that's not true. No, no, no, no, no. Let me tell you. No, no, no. Pablo, Pablo, Pablo.
As Queen Elsa thought what I shouldn't have. I said what I shouldn't have. Lord, help me be more like you. Lord, put a guard on my mouth that I might not sin against you. God, help me. God, help me see when I'm walking out of the house. If I've got on the outfit of wrath or anger or malice.
Lord, help me to go back inside the house, take that outfit on and put on love and put on compassion and put on meekness and put on love. Lord, that my outfits every day be outfits that honor you, God. Acknowledging that I need to grow. Renew my mind. Renew my understanding.
God, help me see the good in people. God, help me be the example you've called us to be. God, help me speak what I need to speak and stay quiet and remove obscenities from my life. God, help me. God, help me.
See, that's what we should pray every day. Lord, help me. Help me grow in you. Because I have not attained it. And I have room for growth.
Let's stand to our feet this morning. And my challenge for you as we begin just to worship for a moment. Can you repent? Can you repent? If there's an area in your life where you've been living the way of the old man, even though you've come to Jesus, can you repent?
If there's things in your life that God has convicted you with this morning and said, "Hey, you need to alter that," can you repent? Can you say, "Lord, help me honor you in everything. In everything I say, in everything I do, help me honor you. To be able to walk into the fullness of the blessings that you have given me."
To be able to walk into the fullness of the blessings that you have given me. Lord, help me honor you.
We worship you. You are here, Father. We worship you. Work in our hearts. Father, work in our lives this morning. God, we want to be more like you.
And God, we ask you that you strip away from us those things that do not please you. And Father, I pray that we would boldly declare who we are in you over our lives. God, that we are peacemakers, that we walk in peace and harmony.
God, that we walk in love and kindness. Father, that we walk in the fullness of the fruit of the Spirit in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. God, that we walk putting you on every single day in Jesus' name.
There's still things in our lives that we have room to grow. We're going to close in prayer. Just want to announce two things. First and foremost, every Tuesday we have prayer service at 6 a.m. I invite you to come on out.
And additionally, this Wednesday night we have our small group leaders' impartation night. If you are leading a group this next term, which starts the week of September 10th, please register. We host it in our house. And if you have questions on that, if you want to be a group leader, please talk to Pastor Ibai after service.
We're going to be creating all those different groups that people are going to be leading throughout this week so you can start registering for that. But let's pray.
Father, we just thank you once again for you are good and faithful. And Lord, we're leaving this building but not your presence. And God, I just pray even throughout the day and throughout every day this week, Lord, that we would renew our mind and our understanding as we spend time with you.
God, I pray. I pray that we would realize every day the areas in our life where we fall short and that we can grow in to be more like you. And God, let us walk with that outfit every day, putting on Jesus.
Putting on love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, kindness, humility. God, that we would walk like Jesus. And Father, the world will see the difference when we begin to walk like you. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. God bless you. God bless you guys.
on Dec 31, 2024
