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Good morning, Cornerstone fam. So happy you guys are here to worship with us this morning. It is the Lord's breath that fills our lungs, and the only thing we can do is to give it back to him this morning. So sing this out with me. When God inhabits our praises, heaven knows everything changes. So get it ready now.
Oh, get it ready now. So let everything that is breathing enter in with praise and thanksgiving,
We don't praise from a place of feelings. We praise from the Holy Spirit. So whether you're feeling like it or not, this morning church, we are gonna sing this out in faith because we serve a faithful God. Amen? Come on.
Lord, we've seen all that you've done in our lives, and you are the only one who's worthy of all the praise, the glory, and the honor. We thank you, Jesus.
So I owe you prayer. You're the author of my story. When I thought that it was over, your mercy kept me going.
Worthy of all the praise, the glory, and the honor? You're so worthy, God. You're so worthy, God. Can we sing this out as a declaration of faith? All over the room, we sing praises.
You're
Come on. This is the song we're gonna be joining with the angels singing. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. He's not looking for a perfect. No. He's looking for a surrendered heart. So this is the opportunity to surrender to the king of glory.
Church, I wanna encourage us and remind us this morning, there's power in repetition. So when we're singing this out, it's not just because of the things he done. It's not just for the ways that he's going to make. We crown him as king and we call him holy because holy is who he is.
He will never be anything else other than holy. God is not looking for a perfect note. He's looking for a surrendered heart. So I want us to sing this all together. And if you are willing and able to lift up your hands, this is a sign of surrender. This is saying, Lord, I am not but you are. Let's sing it all together.
You are holy.
My name is Emmy Abington. This is Anton Abington, and we have been married for eight months now. We decided to do the premarital counseling because there's a lot of other couples telling us to do it. We just really wanted to get an idea of,
you know, things we might expect coming, you know, into marriage for obviously the first time for both of us. It kinda gives us an introduction into marriage and lets us know some of the things that we'll be doing inside of there. To help us understand what marriage was, you know, like in a biblical context and kind of how God intended marriage for us. But I feel like it was very spot on, like to the point where they were talking about like who's gonna take out the trash or who's gonna do the dishes or or even just like dinner ideas or stuff like that. I feel like it was just like spot on. Who is gonna take out the trash? Oh, I always take out the trash.
Every night. Yeah. I take out the trash every night. You know what mean? She cooks dinner as well, so that's Yeah. You know what mean? There's one thing that I always remember coming back to and
that was that the main idea of marriage was that we were winning together because a lot of people find problems within their marriage because they're like competing against each other. We find ourselves a lot just remembering that one thing like the goal is to win here, the goal is to not you know one up each other so. Whoever you are, what age you are, if you're thinking about being married, you should take premarital counseling because it gives you a great introduction into what marriage is all about. I think you should never wanna go into marriage blind. I think it helps you know it's like the one two threes,
what you should do, what she's expecting, what God is expecting from us, and what he's expecting from me as a husband and a leader. I think it's an amazing thing.
What is going on Cornerstone Church? Happy Sunday.
So good to be in the house of the Lord worshiping King Jesus with every single one of you. My name's Joel. I get to be the young adults pastor here and I wanna start where I always start which is if you're new with us this weekend, I just wanna say we're so glad you're here and just by walking through those doors, man, you are already an answer to prayer. And our heart is to get you connected, whether this is your first Sunday with us or you've been coming for the last few weeks and just dipping your toe in. Our heart is to get you plugged in. And so if you're new, do us a favor and text the word new to 21999.
Someone from our team will reach out to you and give you some info. And here's our promise to you. We will not spam you. We will not steal your identity, and we won't show up at your door at 6AM on a Saturday morning. Okay? All we wanna do is get you connected because we believe that there is something for everyone here at Cornerstone. And so text new to the number on the screen or stop by the welcome center in the lobby. Lobby. Our team of people would love to meet you. Same thing, they have a gift for you just to say thanks for being here and help you get connected.
Now here's something I need you to know, Cornerstone Church, we care deeply about gathering to worship together like this every Sunday. We love it. It's amazing. We care about it a lot. But I also need you to know that we care about what happens in your faith walk with Jesus throughout the week.
Between Sundays, throughout the week, we hope that you're not staying in one place, that you're not stagnant, that you are growing as a disciple and a follower of Christ. And so we've created this thing called a growth assessment.
Essentially, what it is is it's a way for you to tell us where you're at. If you text growth to 21999,
it'll take you right there and you just answer some questions and there's no right answers, there's no wrong answers, just tell us where you're at. And then as a church, what we wanna do is meet you where you're at, plug you into community, and help you continue to grow as a disciple. And this is a really good time to do this because in January,
so many of our ministries kick off and launch, and so this is a great time to get plugged in. Now, I'm a little biased, but my favorite ministry here at Cornerstone is our young adults
ministry. This is our 20 ministry. See, they know. For 18 to 29 year olds. K? And here's here's why. Not just because I get to lead it, but because I know the importance of it. When I was 20 years old, I walked into a church on a Sunday morning a lot like this, and God, for the first time, got ahold of my heart, and he saved me on a Sunday. My life and my eternity are forever changed, and that all happened on a Sunday. But if I'm honest with you, I found my purpose
and my people on a Thursday night at a young adult's ministry. And so I it's changed my life and I just believe in what God wants to do in and through a generation of young adults right now. And so we work really hard to create that same space every Thursday at 7PM in the student center here at Cornerstone. So if that's you, if you're 18 to 29 looking for some people to run after Jesus with and to step into why God created you, I would invite you to come with us. Text You to 21999.
We have a booth on the patio. I think they got Red Bulls out there. So go say, hey. We'd love to get you connected today. Honesty time, Cornerstone Church. New Year's resolutions. How we doing?
If you're if you're still going strong, can we raise our hands your resolutions? Some of us. Okay? The rest of us, I won't make you raise your hands. It's okay. Prayer team will be available after service. Okay? But here's what I know.
I know that for so many of us, especially at the start of the year, we have these goals we wanna get to. We have these things we want to achieve. We have this version of our life that we want it to look like. This thing that we're praying and hoping that God will do, but if we're honest, sometimes we're not there yet.
Sometimes it feels like we're doing our part, but God isn't doing his and it feels like we're stuck
in one place. If you've ever felt that, I just wanna tell you that you're not alone. And so we're starting a brand new series next weekend called between here and there where we're gonna talk about just that. How do we wait well?
How do we how do we navigate life in obedience even when it feels like God isn't doing what we've been asking him
to do? And I don't know if you felt that, but if you haven't, someone in your life probably has. So this is a great series to invite someone to, your friend, your neighbor, your coworker. Invite them. I believe it's gonna be really helpful, practical, and impactful for them.
Lastly, Cornerstone Church, we get to say yes to so many opportunities to follow Jesus, where he's moving, how he's working to bless and serve his people. And the reason we get to do that is because you are a generous body of believers. You give faithfully and you trust God with what he has entrusted
to you in your finances. And so we want to say thank you. If you haven't yet started giving here at Cornerstone, here's our heart. We never want to twist your arm or guilt you into it. Because here's what we believe, God does not need our help.
Like he can do whatever he wants, however he wants, with whomever he wants. He doesn't need our help but the beautiful part is the heart of our savior, he wants our help. And he invites us to contribute and be part of what he's doing to move his kingdom
forward here in Chandler and beyond. And so I just wanna invite you to challenge yourself to look at what does it look like to be generous with what God has entrusted to me as we head into 2026. If you wanna start giving today, the buckets are being passed. You can drop your gift that way or text give to 21999.
It's the final week of our stranger being series and pastor Lynn's got a really good one for us. He'll be out here right after this.
Hey. Hey. Hey. Cornerstone. How are doing? Alright. We're in a series called stranger beings. We've been talking about all things angels, demons,
all of the supernatural that so often we don't even account for. We don't even realize how deeply and strongly we end up getting influenced. So we've just been exposing it. We've been saying, hey, it's there. It's real. You and I as Christ followers need to be aware that we have a real, real enemy who does not like us
at all. Real quick, you probably just heard in the announcements that next week we're starting a brand new series called From Here to There. Last week I told you that we were gonna have a message about how do you know if it's actually spiritual warfare.
Here's what happened. I was studying ahead and when I did, what I came to realize is an awful lot of what I was gonna say in next week's sermon is actually gonna be covered in the next series and it's gonna be covered more thoroughly. And so rather than you and I going, hey, Lynn, this is just the same thing over again,
we're gonna move into the next series. Here's what I am gonna do to be helpful because I wanna keep my word, we're gonna print a card that has three questions on it, and if you answer those three questions, you'll know for sure or not, am I in spiritual warfare or
is it something else? And so we're gonna make that available, you can stick it in your Bible, you can put it somewhere at home or you can grab it when you need it, because we want you to have that tool. But here's why I'm excited about the next series from here to there. I'm convinced
that one of the most frustrating things in our life as Christians is that we've had a moment where God moved, it was really obvious what he asked us to do, we lived that moment in obedience, we did what he said, God showed up, it was really cool. And then we're in that moment, we go, okay, so God, what's next?
And it's as if God goes silent and you go, God, if you would just tell me, then I could go and it's almost as if God pushes pause in our life and we're stuck, we're stuck going, God, come on, I'm ready, let's do this.
And then we get frustrated. Then we're like, God, why? Why is my life on pause? And here's what we're gonna discover together, that actually the moments from here to there, that in between time, When we look back later, we're gonna discover that it's actually one of the periods in which God grew us the most.
And what he's doing in the in between is he's preparing us for there. And so what does it mean to cooperate with God and to get ready for there? And so it take a lot of the frustration out of that experience. So guys, I would be here, I think it's gonna be a super exciting and super enlightening conversation.
All right, today, if you remember last week, talked about this idea that that God puts a hedge of protection around us. He says to Satan, hey, look, look, look, there's only so far you can go and then and then I'm gonna limit you. You you can't do anything beyond
what I've commanded. You can't go past the hedge of protection that I put in people's lives. Well, you realize this wildly limits Satan because Satan is already a defeated foe.
He's already lost the battle. So then he comes back and he says, okay, so here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do my best to distort and destroy everybody's life I can and his number one weapon, deception.
Deception, if I can lie to you, if I can get you not to experience the life that God has for you, because you believe my lie, then he wins. And so we're just gonna unmask the lies that Satan tells the deceptions that keep us from living in the freedom of Christ. It's interesting in circuses,
one of the challenges that they have is how do we control, how do we contain elephants because they're massive. They're incredibly incredibly strong. How how do we keep them under control? And here's what they do. They take that elephant when it's a baby. They drive a massive stake into the ground,
and then they they tie a really sturdy rope to the baby elephant's leg. The baby elephant doesn't wanna be in captivity, so the baby elephant's pulling as hard as it can on the stake, but after a while, it realizes it's futile. He'll never win. I guess, I guess I'm caught. Here's the interesting thing,
as the elephant grows up, he still believes he's caught. And now the circus people can actually put a very small stake into the ground and put a very fragile rope on the elephant and the elephant has stopped trying. He still believes he's stuck. And if you think about it in a minute, it's deception.
That elephant has the power and the ability to literally just walk away and pull that stake out of the ground, he just doesn't realize he's being deceived. This is exactly what the enemy does to us. He's gonna tell you and me lies that are gonna cause our lives to be diminished, to cause us to be caught up
and to live less than we could have lived because we believed the lie. We believe the rope is still holding us. And so here's what we're gonna do, we're gonna expose four of Satan's best lies. I'm gonna ask you as we go through it,
would you great just go, which of those four lies is the one that has the most ground in my life? Which is the lie that I'm most likely to believe that Satan has used on me over and over again. Here we go.
Lie number one, if I'm gonna obey God, I have to agree with God. And in other words, if God gives me a command, I need to understand why that command is helpful before I obey. I'm gonna be crazy, right? Just to obey God when it's silly and it doesn't make sense to me. Example of that would be,
I've been deeply wounded and then here comes God and He says, Hey, I want you to forgive that person even before they ask for forgiveness. And you and I would say, that's just silly. I mean, it would be a big thing if I actually forgave them after they asked for forgiveness, but you want me to forgive them even
before, why would I do that? That just doesn't even make sense to me. You're in a marriage and it's struggling and God says, I want you to be selfless with your spouse. And you would say, well, that is absolutely insane because here's the deal, the reason we're struggling in the marriage is because my spouse is unthinkably
selfish. And if I were selfless in the marriage, they would only take advantage of me. Why would I ever do that? It makes no sense. And so we choose not to obey because we don't understand, does it make sense to us? It's the couple that's living together
And they know that God has said, Hey, you're supposed to wait till marriage. And you'd say, well, no, you don't understand. It's not like we're dating casually. Actually love each other. We're gonna get married and everybody else is living together. Why would we wait? What's the benefit of that?
And because it doesn't make sense, I'm not gonna obey. It's when God comes and says, I want you to give the first tenth, the first of your income. And we say, I don't have enough the way it is. And if I were to give God the first, I'd have less. How does that make sense? So my answer is it doesn't compute it. No,
I'm not gonna obey until I can understand.
How many of us have lived in perpetual sin because what God asked us to do didn't make sense to us and so our answer was no, no. Grab your Bibles, Go with me to the book of Isaiah. And if you're not familiar, if you just open your Bible right about in the middle, you're probably hitting the book of Psalms,
turn right and you're gonna get to this book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 55.
Isaiah chapter 55 verse eight, this is God having a conversation. Here's what God says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, as far as it is from outer space down here to the ground,
as far as the heavens are from the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. You get what God is saying. Even if I explained, you still wouldn't agree, you wouldn't understand.
Think about this for a minute. I want you to imagine you have a 14 year old daughter
and she asked you, hey, can I go over to my friend's house for studying for the exam? And you go, okay, that makes sense, go do it. Now it's getting late in the evening, you call the friend's house and say, hey, how much longer are you guys gonna be there studying? The friend says, your daughter's never been here.
So now you sit and wait, it's way, way, way past curfew, she comes in, you go, okay, what's going on? Because I know you lied and then she confesses. Well, I was with my 17 year old boyfriend. He's dropped out of school. He's drinking under age. He's not a Christ follower, but I love him. And you say, hey, no,
no, you're 14 years old, you're not gonna date a boy who's 17. He has seen things you have no business seeing. He has done things and he's gonna try to drag you into things he's done and it will be darkness. So here's my answer, no. And she says, you don't understand, you don't understand we love each other.
Just because you love somebody, if it was stupid before you loved them, it's stupid after you loved them.
And so you say to her, look, I'm your parent and I know you don't agree, but you're gonna do it anyways.
What if? What if she applied to you the same principle that so many of us as Christians apply to God and she says, here's the deal, I don't agree. I don't understand why you would make that rule, so I'm not going to obey you and we know where that leads. There will be a day, there'll be a day that she comes home and she says,
you were right, but that day is gonna be when she's 40 and that young man has taken her into all sorts of darkness and then he broke up with her and tossed her to the side and now there's been four men, Her life has been nothing but disappointment, but now she agrees. And guys, I'm just telling you,
you won't agree because here's the deal, understanding why God said it happens after you obey. It's when you forgive that person who wounds you and all of a sudden unbelievable peace comes across your heart and you go, oh, that's why God said it.
It's when you go to your marriage and you go, man, is terrifying to me, but I'm gonna live it selflessly and suddenly your selflessness causes your mate to feel convicted and start thinking about God and then you go, oh. And guys, I'm just telling you, in so many of the commands of God, understanding
happens on the other side of obedience and if you wait until you understand or until you agree, you will live an absolutely diminished life. It's one of the Satan's favorite lies to catch us up and bind us to the stake. How do you defeat a lie? You defeat a lie with the truth and here's the truth,
Obedience isn't determined by agreeing with what was asked. It's determined by who asked and you and I as Christ followers have to be the ones who says, I don't understand God, I don't agree God, I don't know how this works. But because you asked, I'll obey. And in that moment, you break free from the lie
that Satan has proposed. Lie number two, you deserve this sin. I mean, look, if you think about how far you've come since you became a Christian, how much of your life has changed? Look, it's okay, you can have this one little sin that you hold back. It's alright, even God would understand
because you've done so well up until now. So it's just a little sin you deserve, you deserve to hold on to your favorite little sin.
Here's what you need to know, little sins drag us into bigger sins. Little sins literally become the impetus, the gravity that pulls us even deeper into, we think it's gonna be one and done, but the minute I give in to sin, it calls for another sin. Grab your Bibles,
go with me to second Samuel, and the easiest way to get there is go to the front of your Bible, start working to the right. So Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, first Samuel, second Samuel. Second Samuel chapter 11, it's the story of a little sin leading to bigger sin.
Second chapter 11, it's a story that I'm guessing a lot of us are familiar with. It's the story of David and Bathsheba. But here's what I think we've missed. I think we missed how it got started.
So let me read it. Here we go. Second Samuel chapter 11. Here's what it says starting in verse one. In the spring at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and while the whole Israelite army, they destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rebah.
But David remained in Jerusalem. Do you realize what Samuel does? Samuel just said, hey, woah, woah, woah. Notice how this began and two times he tells us David is not where David belongs. That in that moment, it's the time when kings go off to war with their men and David stays home.
And I'm sure what David said is, look, look, look, I've been in plenty of battles with my men. And Israel, when I started was like here, and I've taken it to this whole new place. And so look, I deserve to rest, I deserve to stay home. And so while his men are out risking their lives,
he's sitting in the opulence of the palace. He should be there, he should be there making sure the tactics are right so that fewer men die. He should be there to encourage his men who are laying down their lives. While they're sleeping in tents, he's eating delicacies. And I'm sure David would have said, I've earned it.
Other kings stay home, why not me? It's just a little thing. Back to the passage. One evening verse two, David got up from his bed and he walked around the roof of the palace and from the roof, he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said she's Bathsheba,
the daughter of Elam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite and the David sent messengers to get her and she came to him and she slept, he slept with her.
You realize it started with David just not being where he belonged and next thing you know, he's on the balcony and he's seen a woman and then he's inviting the woman to come to his bed and the story goes on. I'm sure David thought in his mind, it'll just be one time and then it'll be done. Problem is Bathsheba gets pregnant
and so now he's got to figure out how to cover it up And so he sends word to his friend Joab, the general, and he says here, tomorrow when you go to battle, be sure you go up against the most dangerous part of the enemy's fortress
and be sure that Uriah is there and then blow a horn and have all the men run back and leave Uriah there by himself, make sure that he dies.
Matter of fact, as they did that, so many of the men who were with Uriah died that when Joab sent the word back, he said, hey, if the king gets mad about how many men died in the in the battle, remind him Uriah died too. And then he brings Bathsheba into the palace, he has a little boy and the boy dies.
So don't don't don't don't worry.
This slide is rated for a 100 pounds. I've been dieting and I've lost a pound and a half.
Stop thinking about the slide. You're you're gonna miss the principle. Okay? Here, think about what happened in David's life. He started off with a little sin that he felt he deserved, he didn't go to battle and once he did that,
the gravity, the momentum led him into, I'm on the rooftop, I see a woman, I have think about this, if David had gone to battle, the balcony never happens. Uriah doesn't die, the men around him don't die.
Stop thinking about the slide. You get the principle. One little sin always directs me to greater sin. Matter of fact, that's why scripture said, do not do not do not give the devil a foothold because he will not be satisfied with a foothold. He'll always come for more.
How do you beat the lie? You live in the truth and here's the deal, no sin, no sin is a sin by itself. It will always lead me somewhere else. And when it's done, people will be hurt. Bathsheba, Uriah, the men who went to battle, Joab who was complicit in murder and a baby who died. And when my sin is done,
chances are the people who feel the weight, the expense of my sin are the people I love the most. Sin is a slide. Lie number three. God doesn't want what's best for me.
This this lie is incredibly powerful in the lives of Christians. Here's why, because you and I have already decided what our life should be like. Hey, I'm gonna get married when I'm 19. We're gonna pop our first little puppy when we're 24.
We're gonna have this amazing, amazing house, and I'm gonna be a millionaire when I'm 36. That's the plan. And God, all I need you to do is follow the plan. And then when God doesn't do what we have prescribed for him to do, then immediately we go, God, wait a minute, I've been obedient, I've done with how come
you're not looking out for my best? Why aren't you doing what you're expected to do? Grab your Bibles, go with me to Genesis, first book of the Bible, chapter three.
Genesis chapter three
starting in verse one, you realize this lie, hey, God doesn't really want your best is the very first lie that's recorded about Satan. Genesis chapter three starting verse one,
the bible's already told us that Satan has entered the serpent and then here it goes, now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the lord had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said, no, no, that's not what he said.
We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden but God did say, you must not eat fruit from the tree that's in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it for you will die.
Satan replies, you will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. So look, you know why God's withholding that right? Because he doesn't want the best for you.
He's trying to hold you down, he's trying to keep you from prosper. And so he wants you to always be unsatisfied and unfulfilled. That's why he's withholding that tree from you.
This is the couple that can't have children and they go, why? If God wants my why would he not allow us to have I I know of 10 families who've had children and they're horrible parents. Why would he withhold children from us? This is getting passed over for the promotion.
And you're like, there's no one in my department who has worked harder than me, stayed longer than me, understands what's going on better. How in the world would they pass me for that person? And if God really wants them, how would God allow them to do that if God wants the best for me? Explain that.
If God wants the best for me, how come we didn't get the loan?
I mean, right now our finances are good and interest rates are dropping and the the district, the school district would have been amazing for our kids. The house, the house was the house we always wanted to have and and we went in, we applied it and we didn't get if God is really
for me, if God wants the best, how in the world is it that we didn't qualify for that house?
If God is for me, how come I don't have a husband yet? Do you understand I'm aging up? There's only a small window here. And if God is really for me, then how come? How come there's no dates and there's no good God? How come if God is for me?
And I'm just telling you that one of the most insidious lies that Satan tells us in the moment when life isn't going the way we told God life should go is you understand God doesn't want your best.
In first Samuel, there's a story of a woman by the name of Hannah, and Hannah is childless. And you've got to understand the culture of the day. Being childless today is already heartbreaking. But if you're childless in ancient times,
then it's absolutely humiliating because here's the deal. One of the most important things you did as a woman was provide your husband with children, especially boys because boys could work the farm. They could your herds could get bigger, you could farm more land, it was gonna be generational
wealth for your family, and now you're childless. Scripture says that she had a rival who every single day would go to Hannah and say, look how worthless you are. At all my children and look how God has blessed me and look how God has taken his hand away from you and his favor away from you.
And Hannah is, think about if there was ever a woman who could have said, hey God, I thought you wanted my best. One day she goes to the temple, she's heartbroken and she prays this prayer. She says, God, if you would give me one child,
I would give that child back to you. I would dedicate that child to you all the days of their life. And so sure enough, Hannah becomes pregnant, she gives birth to a little boy and she keeps her promise, she dedicates that little boy to God. That little boy's name was Samuel.
He'll end up being one of the greatest prophets of Israel. He'll actually call the whole nation back to God. He'll actually they call him the king maker because he will actually coronate two of the first kings of Israel, Saul and David. He will be more prominent,
more powerful than all the sons born to all the other women in Israel. In the end, God wanted the best for Hannah. How proud do you think she was as she watched Samuel do his ministry? So why did God wait? Why did God withhold? Because in order for Samuel to be Samuel, he needed for Hannah
to get to the point where she would say, if you'd give me a son, I'd give him back to you. God wasn't withholding, he was waiting. If you're a Christian, this lie should never affect you. If you're a Christian, you should never fall for this lie. You know why? Because God has already proved that he wants the best for you.
He gave his son Jesus Christ. There should never be a doubt again. Imagine for a moment I come to you and I say, hey, you've got a perfectly healthy child, but there's 10 people in the hospital who are waiting for organs. So here's what I'm proposing. I'm proposing
that you allow us to take those 10 organs from your child. Now sure enough, your child will die, but 10 people will live in the exchange. And my guess is this, there's not a parent in this room who would say yes to that. And yet God gave his son.
And I'm convinced that if only one person had ever believed on Jesus Christ, God would have still given his son for you, because he wants our best. And guys, here's the truth, if God never did another thing for you, he's already done more than enough.
Fourth and final lie, I've done too much to be forgiven. Lynn, if if you saw the darkness, if you saw the things that I've involved myself in that I don't even wanna speak out loud, I don't wanna say out loud, then you'd understand why I say there's just no way. There's no way that God could forgive me.
Here's what you need to know. Some of the most vibrant Christians in the Bible had incredibly dark lives before they found Jesus. Think about the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul will end up writing most of the New Testament. He will turn the early world upside down for Jesus. But before he found Jesus, he led death squads
against Christians. He literally would go into a city, he'd say, do you loath Jesus? And if they said yes, he would he would literally put him to death. We we know at least by the hundreds, maybe by the thousands, he killed Christians.
I I I tried to think of what what would be like a modern equivalent to what Paul was doing and the closest I could come to would be the death camps with the Nazis. And it's as if he was the guy operating the ovens and putting literally hundreds and thousands of Jews into the ovens.
When Paul finds Jesus, he becomes one of the most vibrant Christians of all time, And if God can forgive Paul, he can forgive you. Mary Magdalene, before she came to Christ was a prostitute. And here's the interesting thing,
the people who have been forgiven the most usually love God the most. Grab your bibles one last time. Here we go, Isaiah. And again, if you're not familiar, go right to the middle of your bible. Isaiah, middle of your bible, turn right.
Isaiah chapter one.
Isaiah chapter one verse 18, this is God talking about this very issue and here is what he says, come now let's settle the matter. Let's just let's just get this done once and for all. Though your sins are like scarlet,
here is why he chose scarlet, because in that day and time and culture, there was no more powerful stain. There was nothing you could do that was harder to get back out than scarlet. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Here's the answer,
there is not too far. In the loving forgiveness of God, you haven't even come close to too far because there is no limit, There is no line.
Here's what I'd like us to do. If you're here and that last lie has been the lie that has held you captive, I'm just telling you there is forgiveness. And if you said, Lynn, I I I need that, that that lie has held me captive, then I'm gonna ask you to do
two things. One is when this service is over, you're gonna come to the front. We've got counselors here. They're gonna talk to you about how can I be forgiven? If you can't do that, then I'm gonna ask you to text Jesus to 21999. We'll get ahold of you. We'll pray with you. We'll help you find forgiveness in your life.
For the Christians in the room, you understand Jesus never intended for you and I to live enslaved by the lies of the enemy. Matter of fact, there's this amazing amazing verse. It's in Galatians chapter five. Here it is. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery. He's saying, don't be the elephant. Realize that that lie that Satan has tethered to you cannot hold you because you're free. So walk away. Step into your freedom. Defeat the defeated enemy.
So here's what I'd like for us to do. I'd like for us to bow our heads together today,
and I'd like for you to go before God and just say, hey, God. Here's the lie I've been believing, and today I'm exposing it to the truth. I refuse I refuse to be held captive by a lie. And for some of us in the room who we've been tethered because we believed, hey, I I don't have to obey God until I understand God. It's
not about understanding. It's about who asked you to obey. So whatever that sin is that you've withheld God and said no, not obey because he asked, not because you understand.
For those of us in the room that have said to ourselves, hey, deserve a little bit of sin. I mean, I've I've been so good and I've come so far and even God's gonna understand if I if I hold one thing back. Sin has a gravity. Sin always leads me deeper in sin.
And here's the truth. Ultimately, I'll end up hurting the people I love the most with my sin. And so I just announced the lie.
For those of us in the room who started to doubt whether or not God wanted our best because we've been in seasons where what he's done has been confusing. He didn't act when I thought he should act. He didn't do it the way I thought he should do it.
If God never does another good thing for you, he's done enough. Why would you ever doubt his love?
Dearest heavenly father, we we simply come before you and we refuse we refuse to be enslaved and to be held captive by the lies of a defeated enemy. And today, we just choose freedom. We we we renounce
the falsehoods and the things that Satan has told us, and we choose to live our lives in the truth and in the freedom that was bought on the cross of Jesus Christ. And God, I just pray over every person in this room
that their lives today would step into the light. They'd step into the truth, and they would break the bonds that have held them back. This I pray in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.