Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message. This morning.
[00:00:08] This may have been different than every other service that we've been in.
This may have been different than every other service you've ever been in.
And maybe you've never seen a pastor in a T shirt or maybe you've never seen people lift their hands. Maybe this is something that you've never experienced emotionally.
But when there's true freedom being given, when there's true freedom being exemplified, when freedom is being expressed, it feels different than any other time in your life.
And I believe this morning that freedom in mind, freedom in finances, and true freedom in life is being presented to you as a gift this morning from God.
That you've been too bound up in what other people think and what you got to do next and what they said, where you've been and where they've been. You're too bound up in all those things.
You're too bound up in all those things. But it's not about what you gotta do next.
It's not about how you felt yesterday. It's not even what you did last summer or last night.
It's literally about this moment right here and now. To be in this moment, this moment in life will never happen again.
And God presents you these beautiful gifts every day that sometimes we miss because we're planning for tomorrow.
Sometimes we miss because we're thinking about yesterday.
But learn to live now because God's doing something new in your life.
Amen.
God is presenting the beautiful gift of abundant living, that your relationships will be richer because of how beautiful God is in your life. Amen. So Father, we thank you this morning for the beautiful gift of life, of family, of friends and the things that we take for granted and overlook and try and make better every day and make perfect that the imperfections are just as beautiful, the mess is just as plentiful.
So Father, we thank you for this beautiful gift that we have in you.
It's in Jesus name we pray and we all say amen. Give the Lord a hand clap of praise.
We'll let them get cleared out. And we thank the worship team this morning.
Eli, I'm impressed, guys. I'm impressed, Mia. You took me to a place I haven't been in a while. Each and every one of you worship this morning. Thank you guys so much for that worship.
So for those of you that don't know me, I'm Kyle and Self, I'm the senior pastor here.
If you've never heard A last name like Self, you'll never forget it. And if you try and say a joke about my last name, I've already heard it.
Amen.
But for those of you that know me as Kyle, some of you know me as PK A lot of you know me as Pastor.
I prefer you call me friend and brother in Christ. Amen.
This morning, as I gather myself, I've got a message series to start called Trapped.
And I think it's a good message series.
It's about the things in life that we get trapped in and how we get trapped in those, in the mundane and the everyday.
But I want to take you on a journey about where it actually begins.
See, the traps of life actually can start as programming early on in your life. Does that make sense?
And see, a lot of us think we're just born with morals. Actually, we're born with instincts. Morals, habits are formed out of what has happened in our life. So if we've seen our parents poor, we formed habits not to be poor.
If we've experienced trauma, we form habits not to experience pain. And we actually create barriers against other people in our lives. And I want to tell you that for most of my life, I lived with a ceiling over my life. I would get to a certain point with people, that, man, it was like, full on, you know, love hanging out with Pastor Kyle, love hanging out with Kyle. He's so fun. And then all of a sudden, we just reached this ceiling, and you just couldn't get any closer to me. You could get right about here to my heart.
And that's about as close as you could get.
And people be like, man, I thought things were going good. We're bros, we're buds. We're this, we're that. And I'm like, yeah, you know, you've reached the point where it's not safe for me.
Does that make sense?
And that's a trap of the enemy.
He creates things in our life. Life creates things that keeps us from allowing people in because we're afraid of what they may do to us, because of what someone else has done to us.
That make sense?
And even in business, we do it in business. We literally, in business, we create methods and strategies that protect us from loss. And our risk analysis are all about making sure that the risk we're about to take will not bring too much of a loss and that we can recover in our profit. Everything is designed to protect in a world full of fear.
And that's a trap.
But for me, it started. It started with my real Father and my mother.
So for me, and I don't think I've ever talked about this publicly, for me, my mother, from about the time I could talk, would tell me how bad my dad is and would sit there and say, he never wanted you. And then one day when I was about six, I said, I want to see my dad. And she said, well, he didn't want you.
Now, she thought she was doing a good thing.
She thought she was protecting me. But what she didn't realize is that she was creating a trap for my life with her words. Does that make sense?
And so she began to tell me how, when I was 18 months old and my brother was 7, that my dad didn't want me because I couldn't take care of myself, but wanted my brother because of the simple fact that my brother could make his own sandwiches.
And so I felt like an accident. I felt unworthy. And for most of my life and most of my adult life, I went through life proving myself to everyone.
Trap one. Does that make sense?
And then when I wasn't able to see my father and the hate that my mother had was poured into me, because hate is a trap.
My Uncle Charlie stepped into my life when I was about 12.
And you just couldn't hurt this man. Does that make sense?
You couldn't hurt this man.
And I thought, that's who I want to be. He was tough, he was rugged. People were afraid of him. But behind closed doors, he'd love you and slap you all at the same time. That's a trap.
And so he taught me at 12 that I needed to make my own money. So him being a bootlegger, in case you don't know what that is, a moonshiner. And if you don't know what a moonshiner is, it's like a drug dealer, but with alcohol.
Okay. And a bootlegger is nothing more than a loan shark. And so I had this family of criminals that I grew up in.
And so at 12 years old, he thought it'd be a good idea to teach me how to drive. So he sent me up to this place in Rosman, and he filled the back of the truck up with certain items, since this is going out on podcast.
And I drove there, learning how to drive. But by the time I was 14, I was a delivery person for my uncle. And every time I took a delivery, I was supposed to collect money. And every time I was supposed to collect money, I got into a fight. So I thought, I need to learn martial arts. So I learned martial arts. And at 16, I became a very violent young man. And I was protecting myself from grown men. Trap two, all created by people that they thought were protecting me and helping me live a life they thought I wanted.
Are you catching anything yet?
And so at 16, I had gotten a fight with five grown men. I broke my first bone in a grown man's body at 16.
That's my life. That's where I come from. And that's who Jesus saved. Amen.
And I went to my uncle, and my uncle looked at me and says, finally, you've learned your lesson. I've been paying them boys to beat you up for three years.
He wanted me to be the toughest, meanest man in the world. And he got that result. That is what I became.
And in around 16, my stepfather started stepping in because he could see where I was going. And through that whole time was trying to get me to do PTs and do military. And so he was training me all that. And by about 16, they found this heart murmur and flat feet. And my stepfather looked at me because he'd been training me to be something better. He looked at me and he said, well, you might make a good clerk or cashier, but you're useless to the military.
Trap 3. So for the rest of my life, I spent the rest of my life trying to prove that I was worth something.
I spent the rest of my life up until my late 30s, trying to prove to Christians that I was godly, trying to prove to my wife that I was a good man, trying to prove to my sons that I was a worthy father, trying to prove to everyone around me that I was a good person because my fathers had told me I was no good.
I don't know about you, but there's a lot of people speaking in your life, whether it be on the job or in your life, and they're saying some simple words like, that's not good enough.
Can I tell you something that is a trap and a lie from the enemy.
When you have done your best, that is your best.
When you are being exactly who you are, that is who you are. And the only thing you can do is grow.
You do not have to keep being a failure and looking to prove yourself to people.
So, Pastor, what does this have to do with the word of God? Everything.
Salvation comes along and says, you are God's masterpiece.
Salvation and Jesus come along and says, you are the precious jewel. Salvation comes along and says, my beloved. Salvation comes along and tells you everything. Opposite of what man and women and boys and girls have told you your whole life, you're trying to be like somebody when God says, I love who you are.
Amen.
The trap starts when we don't know who we are in Christ.
And we keep letting the program of life tell us who we have to be. We have, most of us men, we've had girlfriends come in our life, and they want us to look better, to be more fit, to be taller, to stay in shape, to have our hair cut a certain way. And we're told by Men's Health what we're supposed to look like. We go to the gym and we compare, like Jeremy preached about the other week. And we're robbed of all the joys of life because we're trying to be like somebody else.
That's a trap.
You are born and gifted to be exactly who you are right now, in this season in your life.
And there is a place for you in the world that exactly everybody around you needs.
Am I talking to somebody? You know what I'm saying? On your job site right now, they're telling you you need to work harder at your job. They're telling you you need to do more. Why don't you work like I do? I can't. Let me say that another way so I don't create strife.
I dislike and get frustrated with bosses who make you feel like you need to be like them, work as hard as them. Well, honey, you started this business. It's your job. If you need somebody to work late, it's you because you own this thing. Amen. I've been talking to Alex and myself a lot lately that when things need to be done, we can't look at the people that work for us and say, do that. We're the ones that decided to take on the job, and we're the ones that have to stay behind and do it because we own the thing.
Sometimes even the people you work for are trying to get you to work harder because of what they need.
And you just gotta stand your ground and say, I've done all I can do.
Because you know what? You die, your marriage falls apart, your health falls apart, your mental health falls apart. Guess what's going to happen when you can't show up to work? They're going to hire someone else.
So all that hard work you've been doing to show them that you're a good worker will mean nothing if you stop showing up for what they need. There has got to be a boundary that we set for everything in our life that says, I can go this far. And after that, it's Jesus. And after that, devil be known. I ain't going any further than that. You understand what I'm saying? Come on, somebody. Thank you. Thank you.
One little clap in the back. Praise the Lord.
So we gotta look at who we are so that we don't keep falling into these traps, these scandals of the enemy. So let's look at Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 10 through 18. Now, I don't have any notes.
I live this message.
I've been avoiding traps since 27. Well, you've been saved since 22. I didn't say I got it perfect when I started.
In Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 10, in the amplified version, it says. In conclusion, be strong in the Lord. Be empowered through your union with him. Draw strength from him which his boundless might provide. So let's look at that for a second. Go back.
In conclusion, be strong in the Lord. Be empowered through unity. Draw strength from him, that strength which he is boundless.
Life is about realizing that the strength and the fight that we fight from is from the Lord.
You keep fighting from your strength, you're going to be exhausted all the time. You keep trying to do it your way without leaning on the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the people around you. You're gonna be tired all the time.
Let me show you an example. I don't really have anything. Really… Give me my bag real quick.
Who's strong? Who feels strong in here this morning?
Come on, Jeremy.
I saw this example last night. I thought I'd use it today. Now, just hold that bag. You can hold it with both arms. Just hold it out. Now do it with one arm. That'd be good.
All right. Now, Eli, come here. Simon, come here.
Yep, just stand next to him.
Now, Jeremy works out. He's strong. He does pushups every morning. You might want to do it with the other side, though, Jeremy, just for your own sake. Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, by Jeremy, by himself, that's probably starting to get a little heavy right now.
The trap in men and in women is to not ask for help.
The trap is to literally go, I've got this. I'm going to prove to everybody that I'm strong. I can do this by myself. I'm going to be the one that holds it up for 20 seconds. Now, you can tell that it's starting to shake a little bit. But he hasn't asked for no help yet. He's waiting for me to give instruction.
Do you need help? All right. So no. Yep, just hold that back Yep, there you go. Now hold. There you go.
That is an example of what Christianity. Nah, man, that's an example of what Christianity should look like.
Amen.
But we keep. Now let go, boys.
We keep trying to do this and that's the trap. Our pride. Go back, boys.
Won't even lean on the Holy Spirit. All right, you can put that down. You can go back to your seats. The thing about it is, is that you are trying to do everything on your own because the world told you that's the way you have to do it.
I'm in the park. I'm coming from grocery shopping with Tina and shopping with Tina yesterday and she's asking me, do you want to. Do you need some help with all those bags? Now I've got probably 20 kilos in one hand and 15 in the other. And I'm sitting there going, no, I'm good.
Now, I think this arm today is a little bit longer than the other one because the world tells us no, you need to be a strong man.
You ask for her help. You're weak.
Who told you that?
The trap is always up here. We've got to rely on strength that comes from God to succeed in everything in life. So whether you're starting a new business, whether you're about to get married, or whether you're about to go on an adventure, or whether you're just climbing a mountain called life, ask for help because God is there to strengthen you and he will send helpers into your life. Amen. Verse 11.
Put on God's whole armor, the armor of a heavy armed soldier which God supplies that you may be able to successfully stand up against all the strategies and the deceits, I'll hold there Timmy, of the devil. Now, God didn't actually equip you because some of you might go, I didn't have a post it note or anything shipped to my house of armor of God. You know, I didn't have anything.
So what is this armor of God? This armor of God that the Bible talks about is a posture. It's a belief system about who you are in Christ so that you can stand against the strategies of the enemy which will try and tear you down. Does that make sense? So when we walk through this, there's not a physical helmet, there is a physical sword.
There is defense weapons and an offensive weapon for who you are in Christ. But I want to point out one thing. Your identity has more defense mechanisms than it does offense mechanisms.
It has more ways to stand firm in faith than it does to wound?
Does that make sense? Am I? Am I? Everybody tracking?
So God gives us tools, posture, characteristics in our identity and our belief system so that we can stand up against all the tricks of life and the devil. Verse 12.
For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, contending only with physical opponents, but against the. What does that say?
What does that say?
Y'all aren't being loud enough. What does that say?
I know what it says, but I wanted to hear some accents. Despotism. What does that mean?
What does that mean?
I'm not dumb. I'm preaching this. What does that mean, huh?
Things that are coming against you, against the powers, the master spirits who are the world rulers of this present.
Keep going.
Darkness against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly supernatural sphere. Keep going.
Therefore, put on God's complete armor that you may be able to resist and stand ground on the evil day of danger. And having done all this, to stand firmly in your place. Now stay there, Timmy.
Traps are meant to trip you.
What God has given you helps you stand strong.
So there is these things in life that will trip you up.
A new opportunity could be a stumbling block for your life. Sometimes when we start a new business or we take a business adventure, sometimes a business adventure or the partnership is wrong. We need to know the difference.
When we get married, we need to be careful who we invite into our marriage, because certain mouthpieces in our marriage can be stumbling blocks to our relationship.
Our relationships and our heart needs to be guarded. So let's look at how we can stand firm against the tricks, the traps, and the things planted in our life so that we don't stumble anymore. Does that make sense? So let's go to the next verse. Stand, therefore hold your ground. God has said, stand, stand, stand three times in the Bible. Stand, stand, stand. Do you think we should listen?
Yeah. If a coach tells me something three times in fighting, I was like, I may need to do this.
When someone gives you instructions and they're saying, stand, stand, stand. What they're about to tell you is important to listen to, to be able to stand. Because the traps of the enemy, the strategies of the enemy, are going to attack these areas.
You understand? So the first area that the enemy is going to lay a trap is in the truth of your life.
Tighten the belt of truth around your loins. Let's stop right there. Tighten the belt of truth. Why is the belt of truth represented around your loins?
Because there is a seed there. And we're all adults here. We can be adults because Your loins will transfer generationally.
You're leaving a legacy with your loins. So if you lay a legacy of truth, you're leaving a legacy for those after you.
Yeah. Amen.
So if you are an integral person, then everybody around you will see that you're a truthful person and that your legacy will be protected.
The trap that the enemy wants to lay against you is against your legacy first. Does that make sense? He wants to attack your legacy, and the only way to fight and defend against that attack is with truth. And truth that comes from the word of God. Does that make sense? All right, is anybody learning anything? Y'all quiet today. Y'all must like this. So, and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral right, standing with God. Now let's go to the amplified text.
So put on the breastplate of right standing with God, with integrity, with God. So the next part of defensive mechanism in life is your heart. Now, a lot of us believe that our heart, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So what a person's philosophy is about life, what a person's belief system is about life will determine how they react and respond to everything. So when you guard your heart, you're guarding it with right standing with God. I'm in right standing with God. If God be for me, who can be against me? Does that make sense?
Well, you just don't know what I did. You don't know what I said. Honey, God died for you. Jesus died for you long before you ever did that thing anyway. And if he had a problem with you, you wouldn't be sitting here today hearing this, because you wouldn't even have the opportunity to hear about God, the fact that he died for you. It says, all that come to Jesus shall not perish and have everlasting life. It didn't say some.
So it don't matter what you did. I was a debt collector, a drug dealer, a gun runner, a fighter, a womanizer, a pimp. I was everything bad.
And if God's gonna save me, he can save you.
Amen. Well, I ain't never done none of those things. I was a good little person. Honey, we all got something on the inside of us. I've met some good Christians that are mean as (cough). Stand therefore, having gird up your waist for truth, having put on the breastplates of righteousness, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
So these traps are against your integrity. These traps, these things, these words, these phrases, these events in your life are meant to trip up in that area of what you think and believe, they're meant to trip you up with your words and try and be approved of. So sometimes you'll just tell that little white lie so that people like you. And having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace.
Let's stay right there for a second. The biggest thing that's ever been interrupted in my life is my peace.
Yeah. You know what I'm talking about.
Anybody? Oh, y'all just happy little folk.
Everybody happy all the time, man. Somebody can say to me, did you lock the door? And I gotta turn around to make sure I lock the door. Anybody else? Well, that's just OCD. No, that's just me. Amen. I don't have OCD. I have. I have. Sometimes my peace can be so interrupted. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
So when it represents the Loins, legacy, heart, beliefs and philosophy, feet, direction, peace is what guides us to spread the gospel. The good news. So if the Enemy wants to lay a trap, he's going to disrupt our peace so that we're constantly on all these detours, so that we're like a tumbleweed just being tossed to and fro, and our mind can't be made up because there's no peace in our lives.
Listen, if peace is not attached to it, I don't want nothing to do with it. Do you understand what I'm saying?
If peace is not attached to it, I don't want to do nothing with it. Because the greatest trap the Enemy can do is try and give you FOMO, Fear of missing out, and you jump into something you never should have.
That makes sense?
You know, even though I really didn't like the. I'm not promoting it. Not promoting Netflix. Even though I didn't like the Jake, Paul and Mike Tyson fight, The one thing I loved about Mike Tyson when he had his interview at the end, and I'm not promoting fighting either, was that Mike Tyson. He said, well, what did you do? What did you prove to your fans? He said, I don't care about proving anything to anybody else, I'm proving to me. Out of all the stupid I saw in that fight, the greatest thing I saw was a man that didn't care about what anybody thought and just knew he was proving something to himself.
He was at peace. You got to guard your peace. Next verse.
Above all things, taking a shield of faith that you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Listen. Without hope, a heart sick is hope deferred. So we have the breastplate that covers the heart. We have the shield of faith that covers the whole body. Because shield is hope. I hope, man, when there's like a thousand like, man, come on. If I saw the sky turn black with arrows, you're going to be behind that shield going, oh, please, God. Oh, please, God. You know, and when you don't die, you're going to be, oh, thank God. That's what hope is.
You put that shield forward because that is the only thing between you and what's coming. And our faith should be in God so they may stop and quench everything that comes at us to destroy us.
Man, that's good.
Praise the Lord. Next verse?
Yeah. Thank you.
My favorite one. And take the helmet of salvation.
So the shield covers the whole body. When we kneel behind it and rely on it to protect us. The truth is our legacy.
The heart is our right standing with God and our belief system. So now we have the helmet that covers our thinking.
The enemy wants to trap you in your thinking. Remember what I talked about in the beginning? I talked about my father, my uncle and my stepfather. They planted things in me that would shape my thinking, my philosophy about life. And if we don't look and redeem the thoughts in our mind and say, this does not line up with God. This does not line up with his word. This is not right. If we allow wrong thinking to come in, we allow wrong living. So put on the helmet that shields the thinking in our minds.
Now, these are all defensive weapons.
But then he gives us an offensive weapon, which is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
Well, how? I mean, I'm not going to throw the Bible, but how we use the Bible as a weapon.
When the enemy came to tempt Jesus in the desert, every time the enemy said something to Jesus, Jesus responded with, it is written.
You understand what I'm saying? When you can respond to life's trouble with, it is written that I shall not die and profess the works of the Lord. It is written that I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. It is written that he shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory. It is written that with good counsel I shall have great success. It is written that he's with me all the days of my life and I'll never be robbed out of his hands. It is written that he loves me and I'm in right standing with him. So no matter what is coming your way, it is written.
I'm going to calm down.
Give me a moment Got a little excited.
Tina said this morning in team huddle, she said this morning in team huddle, she said something very profound.
She talked about the angels. She talked about very different things, but she talked about the rhythm of grace. When you get into the rhythm of grace, the rhythm of God's favor, it's hard to stop you, the enemy. And these traps are meant to trip up your rhythm.
Does that make sense?
So in verse 18, how do we stay in rhythm?
Praying always. With all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful.
Prayer is our conversations with God to shore up the chinks in our armor. Does that make sense? Is this good?
And why do we need to do that? Because in First Peter 5, 8, 9, if our weaponry against traps is defensive mainly and offensive when necessary, why is it that we need to pray and shore up our armor?
Look at these first three words.
Look at these first three words. Be well balanced.
I can tell when I've been working too much, I'm off balance. I can tell when I'm going too much, I'm off balance. This isn't about temp-, you know. This temperate and sober of mind. This isn't about just lifestyle. This is about well being, okay?
Have you ever noticed when you've been working for seven days, 14 days, or going, you know, when there's a bunch of people in your house and you have no time to charge your social battery, that you feel out of balance?
Be well balanced. Make sure you are of a sound and sober mind. That means you gotta rest.
That means you gotta protect your heart. That means you gotta watch your words. That means you gotta protect your thinking. That means that when hell breaks loose in your life, you gotta trust God. That means when nobody else is for you, know that God is for you, and you respond with the word of God. Be well balanced.
If you're disciplined in every other area of your life, but you're not disciplined spiritually, you're losing because you're out of balance. Be vigilant and cautious at all times. For the enemy of yours, the devil roams about like. Look at that word, like. Everybody say like. Like a lion roaring in fierce hunger, seeking someone to seize upon and devour.
Next verse, verse 9. Withstand him. Be firm in. We just learned this, our shield of faith. Be firm in faith against the onset. Rooted, established, strong, immovable and determined. Be strong and immovable in the area of faith. Know that the same sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood, the whole body of Christians throughout the world.
Two things I want to point out in this scripture, when it comes to traps, how often do we say this is unfair, why is this happening to me if I was born into a different family or if that deal would have went through? How often do we use words that are based around fairness?
Well, if I was just. If I just had a better mentor, if I just this, if I just that man. You can be a CEO of a company and have $4 billion and still feel worthless.
You can be homeless and feel worthless because it's all about your faith.
But the first thing you got to realize is that the blame game, blaming everyone, thinking that you're the only one in the world going through it, is the biggest trap of the enemy.
You are not the only one going through what you're going through.
And when you begin to realize that God is for you just as much as he's for them, you'll begin to stand firm in faith.
The second thing, let's go back to verse eight, is when it comes to traps, most of your weaponry with God, your identity.
Is about identity, it's about who you are, right? And it's about defense. The enemy's looking for permission. He's looking for a way in.
Whether you know the wrong girl in your life, the wrong guy in your life, the wrong job, the you know something. He's, he's looking for a way in. He's looking for permission. See, he doesn't have right to your life anymore. We, oh, you know, you know, in Job, you know God allowed this and you know this. Since Jesus the enemy doesn't have permission to come into your life anymore. We have to make room for him.
And that's why the Bible says that we need to shut all doors that allow the enemy in. We need to make sure we gird up our thinking. We don't need to be letting our ears be trash cans or our eyes to be outlets of sin. We need to not become these over religious dogmatic people that are telling everybody, you're going to hell. Turn right or turn left, you'll get left. Turn or burn. We don't need to do that stuff. But what we do need to do is live better.
We need to love.
But there's something more to this life than just being good. Cause there's a lot of good people that died and went to hell.
And hell was not created for good or bad people. It was created for the devil and his angels and all those that denied God. Hell was not created for sinners.
It was created for those that denied the authority of God. Big revelation of the day.
Sin will not send you to hell. Your lack of belief in God will.
You do not believe God. You do not receive him as your personal savior. It doesn't matter how good you are and how many pencils you didn't steal and how many post-it notes you returned back to the office, still going to hell.
So it's more than just being good. It's about knowing who you are in Christ.
I don't want to be like Patty.
Patty doesn't want to be like me.
See ya'll thought I was going to make a joke there. But Patty is the only Patty Patterson in this world.
I cannot be like him.
I cannot be like Glen. I cannot be like Jeremy. So even though I try and live up to their standard, the trap is trying to be like somebody else.
God is wanting you to realize something beautiful today.
That is who you are in Christ.
No matter how you grew up, rich or poor. I grew up po. We couldn't afford the “r”.
No matter where you came from, no matter what your cuisine was throughout life, whether it was hot dogs or whether it was caviar, doesn't matter where you come from.
Our weapons are against principalities and strongholds that are not of this world.
Our life is meant to be lived in abundance, to the full, till it overflows. Do not fall to the trap of the way other people think about you. Do not fall to the trap of what people think you should do. Listen, I've got people back home that are like, you need to do this. You need to invest in the real estate market.
It was a good opportunity.
I didn't have the money to invest, and a lot of people got rich.
Do I feel left out? No.
Because my provision does not come from this world.
But whatever your need is today, the greatest thing you can apply to your life is knowing who you are. Amen? Amen?
And anytime you add someone to your life, if they're asking you to change drastically, immediately, they didn't want a relationship with you. They wanted a relationship with the opportunity of you.
Does that make sense?
And sometimes you need to protect your value and you need to remember who you are so that when you invest your value into a relationship, it's not a trap so that you degrade your value. Amen.
So if you're here, if everybody could stand.
I didn't get but to like two sets of the scriptures. I guess this will continue next week.
Have you enjoyed this, this morning?
Have you learned something?
Every head bowed and every eye closed.
I don't care about your lifestyle.
In saying that, I have no opinion about it.
I have no. Here at World Changers, we have a famous phrase, no judgment here.
Okay?
So this morning, if you need prayer and you can realize that this is a safe space, I'm not going to call you forward.
I just want you to lift your hand right where you are and just say, I want to receive the full understanding of this message today. Can you just lift your hand? Say, I want to receive this. Thank you. Thank you for the hands. Thank you for the hands. Thank you for the hands.
If you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus as your personal savior, you've been in church your whole life and whatever, whatever. But you want to know Jesus for yourself. You want to be sure that you're sure that you're sure that you know Jesus for yourself. Just raise your hand right where you are. I'm not going to call you out. Just be safe to lift your hand right where you are and say, I want to receive Jesus as my personal savior. If that's you, can you raise your hand?
Thank you. Thank you for your hands. Anyone else?
Father, we thank you for those that raise their hands for salvation.
And you know what? You didn't miss the opportunity for salvation. Salvation is at any moment, at any time and anywhere.
Jesus is choosing you. You're not choosing him.
So, Father, we thank you for those that raised their hands this morning for salvation. And we pray a prayer together. Can we do that together? Father, I see your son Jesus.
I see him displayed today through this message.
And your word says that if I confess with my mouth and my heart that he is my Savior, I now receive salvation.
I have been redeemed.
I am going to heaven.
Lord, help me, guide me, direct me. It's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Now I've got one more prayer.
If you were like me, heads bowed, eyes closed. I need everybody to do it.
Heads bowed, eyes closed. Just trust me. You're safe. Nobody's going to come and rob you.
If you were like me and the words of your father or mother laid traps in your life, can you just raise your hand right where you are?
Thank you for the hands. Thank you for the hands.
Now, because that was the majority of the room, I'm going to ask you to lay your hand on your neighbor. Shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm. Ask for permission if you'd like. You okay if I put my hand on your shoulder?
Repeat these words after me.
I pray that you find freedom from the pain of your past. And the words of those that were just trying to protect you, they were doing their best.
Will you forgive them?
No matter if they're present on this earth or far from it?
Can you give forgiveness to those that spoke harm over your life?
Can you now be free from the pain of those that spoke over you? It's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Come on, somebody.
Now, I am the type of Christian that believes there needs to be discipleship with everything. And mentorship would be a word that most modern people would understand with everything you've learned today. So if you feel like you need counseling, if you feel like you need advice, if you feel like you need time with somebody to ask some questions, Claire and Patty will be over at the Connect desk after service and say, I want to spend some time talking to somebody about this so I can fully be free from it.
We do offer those services here and we can design something around your specific need. Amen. All right. Praise the Lord. Well, I have to relinquish over to Jeremy, who's going to do announcements and offering. It's been my pleasure to minister to you this morning about something that I have been free from in some areas of my life just a few months and in other areas of my life over 22 years. Listen, just because you're stumbling doesn't mean you're failing. It just means you're growing. God bless you.
[00:47:19] Thank you for tuning in to today's message. To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at worldchangers.life. Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team. And may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.
