Self-Control and Spiritual Growth Insights

Hey guys, we hope this video finds you doing well. I'm Abby and this is Charles, my husband, and we get to serve as your campus pastors here at the Tulsa campus. And we just want to let you know right now something that's happening at the church. Absolutely. It's a super special time of year and it is because it is our end of year offering. It's had many different names, but this year it is our crazy fruit offering. It's because that's our word of the year. But this is a time where we come together as a church community and we pray and ask God, what would you have me give financially as we end this year? year. It's a time where it's very easy to become focused on what we get, but we want to intentionally end the year focusing on what we're going to give. And I want to encourage you, this is not about a certain amount, but simply obeying what God asks you to do. So we want to invite you in this journey. If this ministry has blessed you or impacted you in any way, we want to invite you as this is another part of our spiritual journey of trusting God with our finances. You can give online at our website. You can text GIVE to 828282. However you give, it makes a difference. And I'm so excited to see what God does through our generosity. We appreciate each and every one of you. And we pray that this message blesses you today. Today, I wanted to preach. a message and I simply want to give you the title now and I'm going to remind you of it in just a second. Um, I want to, I want to preach a message called why do I feel so out of control? And I know this is something that we don't talk about often, but there are areas of our life that we feel like we just can't get control over. Okay, we're a hot church, humble, open, and transparent. Does anybody in here have at least two areas in your life that's like, why can't I get that under control? Okay, all right, all right. Thank you, Holy Spirit. I'm in the right place. Why do I feel so out of control? And this year, God told us this is a year that we would maximize and focus on the word fruit. And as we do that, I was like, all right, Lord, how do we get fruit? He said, you have to sow the right seeds. And I'm not just talking about finances. I want you to hear what I'm saying. You cannot get fruit in the area of your marriage. If you do not sow seed in the area of marriage, you cannot get fruit in the area of health and not sow seed in the area of health. You cannot become everything that God has called you to be in a healthy manner and not sow seed in that area. And I would just like to come up to many believers and ask them, are you nuts? Because you are believing for something in an area that you have sown no seed in. Many of us want friends and we do not sow seeds of normal You not normal! You won't even say hello when they say hello! You won't answer the text message when the two people you was trying to befriend text you! You busy and booked like that? No, but for some reason, I'm just giving a very frivolous example to let people know this is not the year to believe for where you have not sown. Yes, God can supersede and step over boundaries and do things that you didn't deserve. That is not the common practice. That's why he gives us principles in his word. He gives us principles because sometimes he'll pop out and do the unexpected. So you know he can. But he's not about to pop out every time and do the unexpected when you won't steward what he gives you all the time. Okay. So why do we feel out of control so many times? It's because we have not sown. The right seed in the area that will give us watch what we're talking about today self Control Okay Okay, I need you to lock in I need you to check in with me for the next 40 minutes Because this one is going to scrape against your flesh Because when anybody starts talking about self-control They're actually coming at the parts of us that comfort us the most. The areas that comfort us the most are the places where we usually don't have self-control. Where do you go when you're emotionally outraged? Where do you go when you don't feel like anybody sees you? Where do you, where do you get a snuggle? When you lose, that is the place where usually we have not figured out how to let the Holy Spirit empower us, even when we have an excuse to do it, that we don't do it. So today I just want to let you know, if something comes up in your mind like that, and you like start feeling that on the inside. All of those faces you won't make but you feel? All of those things that make you want to click out and go watch somebody else's message that's going to speak to your blessing? what i'm saying to you is god is blessing us in ways we can't even feel it because we won't get self-control we won't let the spirit do the work on the inside of us to actually live and walk in self-control so today i'm gonna try to gently walk us through what the holy spirit provides for us at salvation galatians 5 22 but the holy spirit produces this kind of fruit in your life you Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You didn't even say it. Say it with me. Self-control. Say it like you want it. Self-control. Say it like you need it. Self-control. Why would the Holy Spirit produce self-control? I started to look at this thing and I begin to be confused because just by the mere word self-control, it feels a little confusing. It feels like... Self-control should be initiated by me. So is it spirit empowered or is it me? Is it my self-control? Is it me just saying I'm not going to do this no more? I'm not going to do this no more. Michael, look at me in the mirror. I'm not going to do this no more. Because honestly. I've done that before. Okay. How many people told yourself you not doing it? Told other people you not doing it? Wrote it on your mirror, put it on your refrigerator, set an alarm. And somehow, I'm in the right place today. So, self-control? But the spirit produces self-control. So I went on a deep dive of trying to think, how could I explain? And how could I never let God's people be seduced by the lie of the enemy that God cares more about what ourself wants than what the spirit wants? And I really do believe I have clarity and I found it in the word of God. I'm gonna give you a couple of scriptures that if you have this thing in your back pocket at all times, it's gonna save you. It's gonna be a way of escape for you. Let me give you one that helped me and helps me to this day. Proverbs 25, 28, the wisest man that ever lived according to the Bible, Solomon wrote this and he says this, a person without self-control you It's like a city with broken down walls. Get a mental image of a fortified city back in the day, which was the only means of protection. No cameras, no ring doorbells, no guard dog. It was your city was actually known by how strong its walls were. Because there was always an enemy trying to take your land So if you did not have fortified walls You were very vulnerable and could actually be taken advantage of at any moment because you did not have everybody Listen to this word protection This scripture says Having no self-control is like being a city with no protection. All your value vulnerable at every moment. You ain't got no self-control. One text message can set you back 10 years. One! Because you have no self-control. What you doing? Nothing, what you doing? 10 years of mental, emotional, and physical, sometimes abuse. because there is no self you're at the doctor for diseases that don't even run in your family asking god for a miracle for something that happened while you worked at the mall And every day for three years you ate at that food court. Okay, I'm talking too real right now. Because you didn't have self-control to walk past any ants. She said, oh my God, oh my God, you've been following me. Because you didn't have self-control not to get the sugar-dipped pretzels with the sour cream And the strawberry lemonade Come on y'all You become vulnerable. Watch it. Your vision becomes vulnerable. So God can have asked you to do something, but because you were vulnerable, you were like a city without walls. You had no self-control. You literally get pillaged, plummaged. and stolen from all the time. Not because you're a bad person, not because you don't hear from God. It's because you have not allowed the Holy Spirit to work the fruit in you of self-control. And I want you to think about the area of your greatest robbery and ask yourself, do I have self-control around that area? Where is God trying to build watch this protection for you? So when I read this, this is what came out write this down as a point self-control is safety If if if you would view self-control of being able to actually not do everything you feel like doing Not buying everything you feel like buying Not going every place you feel like going If you actually could get that practice this in your life, God says, you'll be protected. You're going to be safe. Self-control is safety. And the reason I wrote it down like that is because I've never thought about self-control being a good thing. Really. because of the word controlling it. Can we be honest? Anytime anybody talks about control, unless it's Janet Jackson singing the song, I don't want nothing to do with it. You want to control me? You want to tell me what to do? You don't know what's best for me. And now I bring a worldly thought to a kingdom principle. God said one of the nine receipts I want you to have is self-control. He said he wants us to have self-control. And because we have been controlled by people, controlled by systems, controlled by other things that weren't in our mind, in our best interest, then we apply worldly experiences to kingdom principles. And so many of us shy away from self-control. because I'm actually free to do whatever I want to do and God said are you really because if you have to drink are you free if you can't deny the sale No, no, no, no, but you understand Bath and Body Works candles are $10 right now. They're $10. Somebody was just convicted for real. You got 400 candles for an apartment. You have a candle for every square foot of the place that you live. Think about it, y'all. Then God asks you to do something with resources and you don't have cash you have candles and you're and you're too prideful to get on the side of the apartment complex with a table See, they don't know what real obedience looks like. God told you to do something and you're sitting there rich in candles. Paid in candles and months burned 20 days at a time. I'm just trying to paint the picture of sometimes our obedience is delayed because we have not been protected by self-control. 2 Timothy 1 7 here's a revelation check this we've said this scripture a lot of times but we've not correlated to self-control look at this God has not given us a spirit of what but what kind of spirit did he give us power and uh if you look that word up in the original language And you can even read it in the ESV version. It says God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control. Why would God give us self-control instead of fear? The opposite of fear. I didn't give you fear. I gave you self-control. Because what fear is, is undisciplined thoughts. All fear is is thoughts without self-control. So you walk into a dark room, somebody's about to come off the ceiling, somebody's about to kill me, there's a sniper on me right now, oh my god, I'm dying right now, I'm dying right now. None of it happened. None of it happened. You just walked into a dark room and all you need to do is flip on the switch. You had a power. To turn the light on. I feel this thing. But without an undisciplined thought life. You automatically. God did not give us the spirit. The spirit of. So self-control is a spirit. Empowered. By the Holy Spirit. Like, do y'all see? The spirit of fear needs to be replaced with the spirit of self-control. You're afraid of the future? I need to train my thoughts around what God says about the future. I'm afraid to get married because what I saw happened to so many others. I need to train my thoughts. I need self. control this good already y'all this feel real good okay so proverb 1632 i'm just trying to give you a lot of bible it's better to be patient than powerful i could preach a whole message on that just right there but check out this second part but it's better to have self-control than conquer a city a kingdom principle write this down is self-control is better than success Hear what I just said to you, because some of us, we can look at your Facebook feed and see all you want to do is be successful. Every other quote, what a millionaire would do with his day. What? Starting a new podcast, Millionaire Mindset. By me. Like, ooh. Okay, you need to cash at me still. You need to pay me back. I'm sorry y'all, I feel good up here. I'm not trying to come against anybody's dreams. What I'm saying is, God says, success should not be more important to you than self-control. because whatever the men of this world and the women of this world deem successful does not equate in heaven money's nothing in heaven oh god houses are nothing in heaven bitcoin and investments and 401ks the bible says it like this why would you store up your riches and all this earth stuff you can't take this with you instead why didn't you put it in the kingdom why wouldn't you put it in something that will last eternally i'm saying we all need money to to live and to actually help people and all that stuff that's not what i'm saying i'm just saying is if it's in priority over god god said it would be better for you to have self-control in your little apartment than to run the whole city This made me check my motives, desires, and wants. Because a lot of times I don't be asking God on my crazy faith card for more self-control. If I go back to the building and pull them cards off of there, I bet I'm gonna see houses and debts paid off and be able to bless my mama with a car and do all the other things. How many people put, God, I want to be able to not talk crazy? God, I want to be able to see somebody that I knew did me wrong and treat them with kindness. Oh, that's something money came by. Holy Spirit, I want to be able to walk in a room and sense the needs of the people and be led to the person you want to speak to and give them accurate words of knowledge and not weird way, but that will encourage them to live and not die. I've seen people write sonnets on things, but not on transformation. And God's saying it's better for you to have self-control over this than to run the whole city. Okay, why is this important, Pastor Mike? Because self-control, write this down, is the only thing that combats compromise. When you have self-control... You are fortified and you do not get played by the enemy when compromise tries to come in. Oh God. See, most people don't understand what compromise is. Has anybody ever gone to a game or gone to a play or gone to something and somebody will give you a comp ticket? Like a comp ticket. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You want to come to the fair? Oh yeah, I'll run the fair. Let me give you some comp tickets. Like, what it means is free. and then that word compromise the word in there is promise when you experience compromise what it means is you give the promise away for free you are compromised So the reason God doesn't want you in that relationship with them is because when you get with them your purity is compromised You about to give away your promise for free He won't even take you to Cheddar's and he has you sneaking through a back door of his frat brother's house He don't even own a house can't come pick you up. He sent you $15 for Uber and he has you about to give your promise away compromise got people in the church manipulating people to stroke their ego because they won't actually do something of value and they're sending people in cycles of depression and and and an allegiance and all these different things don't you realize being a part of that got you compromised The only thing that can combat compromise is self-control. You know what? I do respect you. And I believe that you are fine. Not I believe, I have faith. Matter of fact, I have seen with my own eyes. Come on, you don't gotta be ridiculous. I would like to live in harmony with you. As Adam and Eve did in the garden. With nothing but leaves in between us. Come on y'all. Let's be real. You don't have to deny. But every time I talk to you, something in me weakens. And the conviction I have kept that this would only be for the person I marry becomes very... What were we talking about again? You know what I'm saying? Y'all acting like that don't happen? Some of y'all are the people that I say you're wear down people. That the first time you'll know is super strong. But if they just ask you enough times. If they ask you, watch this, at the right time. We will give away the promise. for free how do we not compromise we get everybody say self-control ah okay so again the sermon title was why do i feel So out of control, let me tell you what control is to have power over influence to direct people's behavior or the course of an event. My question to you is what is controlling you? And I need you to answer that question. Honestly, right now in your life, what is controlling you? Is it food? Is it finances? Is it people's opinion? Is it an image you made in your head when you were 13? What's controlling you? Is it social media? Is it, is it, is it a desire that's secret? What is controlling you? Is it fear to not ever live the life you came from? Okay, let's be honest, because sometimes... The thing that's controlling us is not a thing. It's an idea that we'll never go back to. And so we'll run ourselves ragged trying to be something that we're not. And statistics tell us that what you're running from usually is what you become. And I know there's some people, I ain't nothing controlling me. I can do whatever God tell me to do. Whenever I tell, what God tells me to do it. Is your past relationship still controlling you? Because you're married but you're on Facebook looking at your high school sweethearts. I wonder what Daquanda doing. Oh, she got three kids now? Oh, look at her. Look at her little muck muck. I just know there's an area that all of us may need to be real about right now that's controlling more of our actions than the spirit is. I did all this talking to bring you to the point to at least let you know you may need some self-control. You may need to let the Holy Spirit work in you at a whole another level. so that he can fight for you in the areas that you failed in over and over again because some things let me be very clear some things are a decision some things are just you need to decide i ain't doing this no more everything don't need prayer oh god everything don't need a prophetic If you have a propensity towards something and you go to a place that says that thing on the outside of it, on the marquee, you don't need to pray about that. But there are other things that are more, how can I say this? They're strongholds. I don't just see it in me. I saw it in my dad. It's generational. And today I want to let you know that there's a remedy for that, that has been given by the Holy Spirit. Let me lighten it up right now, because some of y'all think that y'all about to get exposed. And you are, but let me just bring it up for just a second. How many people were alive when the Atari Pong came out? How many people, Atari, like video games, okay? I need to know, okay, some of you, okay. How many of y'all, um, yeah, because I wasn't alive when that came out either. But how many of y'all was your game system when you were a kid, Nintendo? How many people on Nintendo? Come on, Super Nintendo, okay, okay. All right, some of y'all weren't here yet, so there's some people in here that's like, what are you talking about? Okay, maybe this will get you. How many people knew about a Sega Genesis? Yeah, Sonic, all the rings, okay, yeah, yeah. How many people knew about the Sony PlayStation? I ain't talking about this new thing that stands up. I'm talking about the great one, the box with the circles. Y'all know, when you had to take the CD out and lick on it, and then, y'all know nothing about that. Okay, y'all know what I'm saying. And then how many of y'all know about the Nintendo 64? When the 64 came out, okay? And then we go Xbox, and then we go, uh, what's the other one? GameCube. People who have a GameCube I have questions about. Anyway, and then Wii's, and then, okay, Wii's, and then, and now it's gone to, like, the PSPs, the personal computers, the Switch, the Get, yeah, like, wow. PS5s! You know what? We can all agree that no matter how much the technology and the graphics have Upgraded from the Atari pong all the way to the PS5 every system still has a controller What it means is it doesn't matter how much you upgrade, something still will have control in your life. So this is what I'm going to tell you. Write it down. The fight of your life is versus sin control or spirit control. This is what's fighting every day you wake up to control you. And my question is, who is controlling you? Do a serious evaluation on your life right now. When you wake up, ding ding, it's a battle. Who gonna win today? My spirit controlling me or my sin nature controlling me? And some of us have been living in one so long we didn't even know it was an option. We wake up and it's like this what I do. Oh, that's natural because we were all born into our sin nature Okay, how can I show y'all this Galatians 517 Listen to this. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite or the opponent of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what our sinful, look at this word, nature. That word means natural. Our natural ideas will be sinful. Our natural wants will be sinful. It's because of the world we were born into after Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Well, I am a good person. Yes, you are a good person. Yet, your nature is sinful. I need everybody to hear me say this so clearly. These two forces are constantly fighting each other. Watch this. So you are not free. I just want to stop right there. The sin nature and the spirit nature are fighting every day. So you're not free. So you're not free to carry out your good intentions. Oh, this is good Bible. Intentions don't matter if you have the wrong controller. Can you put my example on the screen real quick? I need you to see this because I was like, how can I depict to you what it looks like when you are controlled by the spirit and when you are controlled by the flesh? I need everybody to hear me say this real quick. Your spirit man has to actually get strong enough to be able to defeat your flesh man daily. Not at church. Not once a week, not once a year, every single day. Some of y'all need to change your alarm to a boxing bell. Ding, ding, ding. Y'all don't hear me. Just to remind yourself. It's a fight. I don't hear it. Some of us wake up so nonchalant. Like, oh, today's gonna be a great day. Depending. on who you let win. This is what I call the battle for my life. And every day that I wake up, I gotta decide who's gonna win. See, the problem is, we all start here. Everybody starts being led by the flesh. And this is the thing I came to actually tell you, is that when you get saved, your spirit man, your spirit comes alive. It doesn't win. It's the first time it says, but it's a newborn baby. This is why we read the word. This is why we come to church. You've been led by your flesh for 32 years. And you're like, why do I still struggle with these temptations? It's because your spirit man comes alive. But every day, if you do not feed it the right things, it gets beat the hell up. I need to say it just like that because some of y'all come to prayer But that 45 minutes of prayer has not been leading your thoughts all day. The shade room has. So you know more about what rapper is sleeping with what rapper. And what government official has cheated on their wife. And you know more about all of these different things that is feeding a nature. Gluttony. Just nasty eating. And it doesn't have to be that salacious. It could be a text message that says something like this. Did you hear about them? Hear about them? I'm over here trying to read songs. Siri, text them, tell me more. And at that moment. Well, I don't know if it's true, but or if somebody starts a sentence to you like this, I don't, I don't really, I don't really be gossiping, but if they tell you what it's not. Last night, my daughter Gigi came to me with white stuff all over her hands. And I was cleaning up something else and I said, Gigi, what is that? She said, Daddy, it's not paint. And that's how many times we look because I'm trying to hide what I'm telling you it is. And so when I wake up in the morning, I have good intentions. But I may be sin controlled. Watch this. Sin control is making decisions based on what feels natural to your flesh. So your sin nature wants to do evil. Your sin nature gives desires. And your sinful nature is fighting for control. That's where pride and selfishness and gossip and throwing shade and judgment comes from. But spirit control is, watch this, write this down. It's making decisions against ourselves. If you are spirit-controlled, you are making decisions against your natural inclination. I want to cuss you out, but pastor talked about kindness last week, and you better be glad I watched that surface. And guess who won in that moment? Your spirit won. My question is, how many battles do you forfeit? because you don't even try to let your spirit fight you've already decided this is just the way i am this is how my family is and i came to tell you a person without self-control it's like a city with their walls torn down it's just a moment's notice that everything valuable in you can be pillaged Because you have not allowed the Holy Spirit to develop self-control in you. I heard this poem said one time, it says, Two natures beat within my breast. One is foul and one is blessed. One I love and one I hate. The one I feed will dominate. There are certain movies I can't watch. Not because they're not creative and not because I don't like the trailer. I actually love the trailer. That's why I want to watch the movie. I think sometimes Christians be like denying reality. Like that's stupid. Like that aroused my flesh. I want to see it right when they was about to take the thing off and then it cut off and then somebody punched somebody. I want to see how that all ends. I want to see how that. Materializes in real life, I wanna actually know. Can we be honest? You wanna go see that? Nah bro, it's all good man, I don't wanna see that. Let's go see Moana. Oh this is real? Bro, I'm not going down, you a grown man, I'm not about to go see Moana with you. Alright, cool man, I mean I can't go. Why? You don't understand, I used to be controlled by my sin nature. And my sin nature, I don't know about yours, it doesn't need much to eat to get very strong. Oh my God, I only need a little bit. I don't need a feast, I just need to taste. And when I live on that line... When I get that close, I become compromised. I'm in a place where I can give away the promise for free. All that God has done in my life and one website could take away my credibility to stand up here and transform millions of people's lives. The reason why everybody in my circle got the codes to... my phones, can go in my email, not because I'm a grown man, I'm the pastor, I'm the leader. Mo could ruin me today. I'm putting it on camera just so y'all know if anything happens to me, Mo did it. call him um but i need to be honest i live so open with the people around me and they can tell you because all my flesh needs is a little secret all my flesh needs is a little side money I don't I mean this ain't wrong other people do this all the time but because of the call on your life many can but you cannot and without self-control you mean I would throw away my marriage for 15 years 24 years of knowing her to satisfy my flesh when I'm angry I'm gonna throw away the model I've been to my daughters of how a man is supposed to treat and protect him you mean I'm gonna throw away what I've built for Ava, Bella, and Gia, and MJ for a moment at a club? But that's where everybody's that's where everybody's connecting at. I guess I'm not supposed to connect with them Oh, these are real decisions i've made oh, no the after parties at the club can't go there Oh, because you're a pastor. No, because i'm a man of god. See this is a difference There's a difference between my position and my person. There's a difference between my convictions my calling and without self-control i am like a city and my walls torn down and the saddest part about most believers is you can see where the walls used to be i can i can hear in your voice where you used to have a conviction i can hear in your voice where you used to have a boundary I can see in the way you live where you used to draw a line and all I see is rubble where there should be righteousness. Church, today I'm giving you an opportunity to choose. What is the choice? Every day you wake up, you start in neutral. This is why I start every day praying because when I pray it honestly becomes a habit but habit can be a bad thing too because every day I could get up and scroll. Okay come on y'all if the first thing that I do is see what everybody else is doing and not ask God what I should be doing so maybe I don't need a habit. that's negative maybe i need accountability maybe i need that little bible i have to be like ding ding jude four and maybe before i open up my phone or maybe before i turn on the news or maybe before i do this i just thank god and i pray and i spend a little time not because i'm trying to be religious because i'm trying to be protected oh my god i need everybody to hear there's a difference between oh i gotta pray i gotta pray i gotta god god father god he don't care nothing about that your heart was not in that at all but just saying father today i'm tired and i know i'm susceptible to anger Father, I have been on edge about the financial situation I'm going through. So your word says that you're a prince of peace. And today I'm asking that you would lead me to make decisions that would rest in your peace. And God, also, I don't feel good about myself right now. I got on the scale yesterday and after the holidays, it had, I don't know if it's broken or not, but... No, I'm talking about real prayers, like it had a few more numbers than I was expecting and that actually has nothing to do about me being healthy. It has everything to do with how I see myself. And since I was young, I've always had self-esteem issues based on the way I look. And today, could you just remind me that I'm beautiful? Father, I never had anybody tell me that I was beautiful without wanting something in return. So today, God, could you just remind me in your word that I'm beautifully and wonderfully made. And last thing, God, today, Thomas is going to be at the office and I hate Thomas. Come on, y'all. See, y'all don't want a real relationship with God. God, I know we're not supposed to hate, but if the line is strong dislike, I really hate Thomas. And today, God, I can feel it now if he says one thing to me out the side of his mouth. But I desire to be like you and look like you. And so it is going to be difficult. For me to be kind to Thomas today, I'm not asking for the weak, Lord. That would be too much. That would be an outrageous request. But today, Lord. Come on, y'all. But today, Lord. Our Father, who art in heaven, holy and hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. Give me this day. Enough for Thomas. Did you just see, like I actually displayed for you. what a life led by the spirit looks like and i'm just giving you an example but all i'm saying is if you do not listen to the spirit of god it then leaves you vulnerable we're getting out of here if you get accountable watch this your accountability turns into discipline and what you do in a disciplined life i'm gonna have to do a whole series on this I'm gonna have to do a whole series on this thing and bring this chart back every week because I need to teach all of these but what I'm just trying to get you to see today is the value there are certain things that have happened on my health journey that I would not have been able to do without a trainer I had accountability watch this that turned into me being controlled by somebody else for an hour and a half every day you There is nothing that Victor tells me to do that I want to do. There has never been one time that he was like, all right, do the burpees. And I was like, yay, that he was like, all right, 20 pounds more. And I was like, amen. Every time my flesh wants to rise up, but the accountability turned into discipline. So much so that last Sunday, me and Pastor Will work out every Sunday morning together. And last Sunday morning, early in the morning, my coach called me and told me he wasn't going to be able to be there. Now, this is like three o'clock in the morning because we work out at five on Sundays. I almost called Will and told him, coach is sick. The gym at my house, all the weights still work. But it was a test had the accountability turned into discipline and I said will I can train us if you you down and I was That he said you unqualified men of God, but he's like I'm down and for an hour and a half At 5 a.m. with no trainer, my discipline turned into my desire. So this is where we go on the last one. I don't know when it happens. I'm not sure of the magical moment that God says, oh, the switch flipped. But if you are accountable long enough in the things that the spirit tells you to do. It will become a discipline long enough that at some point it becomes your desire. And everybody wants to know when it becomes a desire. I have no clue. I don't know when you will desire to actually be content in the season God has for you to be in. But if God is telling you right now to be accountable with a budget. And he's saying, ah, that means you're going to have to be disciplined with how many times you Uber eat this week. Well, God, I don't want to leave my house. You know what I do. I don't want to. And the truth of the matter is you're tired of being single, but you don't be nowhere to meet nobody either. It's all connected. I just want you to know maybe Wingstop has you. I'm trying to make light of a very large subject, but I'm saying maybe God is trying to call you to something to give you something else. And at some point, that discipline is going to turn into a desire. It works the other way, too. But I feel like I've said what God wants me to say today, because I'm going to show you one more scripture. And this thing blessed me to the point where it has become a life scripture for me. Let me just let me just show them the two examples of the spirit empowered in the self-empowerment. Okay, because somebody just needs to get this y'all give me seven minutes and then we're going to move to our crazy faith offering and we're going to get out of here. Okay, is this helping anybody? Can y'all just okay? It's a lot to unpack but I feel I feel very called to finish this. Okay, so listen self-control. Does everybody see it self-control? This is what I'm going to say a self-control can be a spirit empowered life of faith when you are self-controlled that is spirit empowered life of faith or you can have self-control which put it up it would be a sin empowered life of the flesh you choose Either every day I'm gonna wake up and do the things that let me live a spirit-empowered life of faith so the spirit controls me or I'm gonna live a sin-empowered life of flesh and Sin controls me. This is why it's important what you listen to. Well, I'm in the gym I got me I got to turn up I got to put there are certain stuff the reason why TC has started making music and we just didn't do worship music is my Plan is in the next five years to give people so much good content that does not lack excellence and creativity, but still can replace some of the things that lead me to sin. There's only so many times you can listen to lay your body down before you are no longer vertical. I don't care. And I'm using just example. There's only so many times. that you can listen to certain sonics with words and you're putting your spirit man in unnecessary fights. You're going through real stuff, but you're like, I'm gonna clear my head. And what you put in your head, what is it leading you to? Why are you so angry? But you put on every. Why are you ready to fight everybody? Every time! What are you feeding? If you're depressed, I understand it. I have empathy for you. I know it's a hole that you feel like you can't get out of. if you continue to put in sad songs, if you continue to stroke, That does dis-ease. The reason I love this artist is because they just, I identify with them. Do you want to keep identifying with them? Is this where you want to stay? I mean I get that it feels good to be known and noticed but... And sometimes we'll settle for connection which turns into compromise. Some of the things that comfort us are connections that end up compromising us and God is telling you it's time for you to get up. It's time for you to be everything. I'm sending people in and every time you get up just a little bit you bring down. Because an artist has creatively personified your season. I'm just asking everybody. I'm telling you there's a better choice to live a spirit-empowered life of faith. That's self-control. So break it down practically, Pastor Mike. Today when I'm giving in this crazy faith offering, this was not a decision that was informed by my sin nature. Matter of fact, my sin nature had been trying to tell me, boy, That's the dumbest thing you could do. You know it's Christmas time, right? And you know what's going to happen next year. And do you know what God said he was going to do the last time you gave? Have you seen all of that? Oh, maybe I'm the only one that feels trepidation sometimes when we step out in faith. But I bet Peter felt it too. When Jesus said, come over. Come over the edge of the boat and do what nobody else is doing. If it's you, I don't know, it's raining out here and everything. If it's you, tell me to come. He didn't say, it's Jesus, son of David. The Bible records that Jesus gives a one-word response without identifying who he was while Peter was on a boat with others. They all heard him ask the question, If it's you, tell me to come. All Jesus says, come. He didn't say Peter, come. He said, come. Which leads me to believe he was talking to everybody on the boat. He wasn't just talking to Peter, but Peter was the only one with crazy faith. Y'all all heard, and he didn't go like, guys, didn't y'all hear? Jesus asked us all to come. Like, what are y'all doing? Like, get up. I'll go if you go. Probably trembling. I've watched somebody drown in this stuff before I would have tested it y'all Jesus, this is real. Y'all this is really working. This is really working This this This this and Jesus says why you stop looking at me I told you to step out in crazy faith and you started looking at your situation. I told you to step out in crazy faith, you started looking at your account. I told you to step out in crazy faith, you started looking at other people and what they were doing. Why did you stop looking at me? And he saved him. He said, when are you going to get the faith that I know you have? This is what it looks like practically to live a spirit-empowered life of faith. I might not have any evidence from anybody else, but I still have to obey God. I believe that God is telling many of us in this room and area that the Holy Spirit needs to be allowed to develop self-control on the inside of us. Can you get that last scripture on the screen so I don't have to run up there that says, let the Holy Spirit, I'm forgetting the address right now. Um, there's one more scripture because this is the key to the whole thing. And then we're going to give and we're going to go home. But I believe this is going to transform people's entire lives. Because when I saw this scripture, it changed the way that I found out that I could live a spirit empowered life. Galatians 525. Since we are living by the spirit, everybody say this next word with me. Let. Say it with me. Let. One more time. let since we are living by the spirit say it with me let that means somebody has to allow it since we are not living a life controlled by our sin and we're gonna live a spirit empowered life of faith since we live about a spirit that's what it is he said let which means you have the control And some of us have not allowed ourselves to follow the Spirit's leading. Since we are living by the Spirit, everybody say let. Let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. I'm going to tell you something that is very exposing to me and the Holy Spirit's relationship. I let the Holy Spirit dress me. This outfit today was not the outfit I wanted to wear. I had another one that was a killer. I'm gonna be honest, every time I get on this platform, I ask my wife and I ask the Holy Spirit, what am I supposed to wear? Because when I read the scripture put it back on the screen I see some of y'all think this is too big but I just want to be honest with you like of how I actually live this Out since we are living by the Spirit Let us follow the spirits leading in Every part of our lives I haven't perfected this I don't I don't I forget sometimes. Matter of fact, sometimes I wake up and I let my sinful nature control. I'm angry. I'm frustrated. I'm all that. But what I'm saying is in every area I can remember to. My bad. Spirit, what am I supposed to do here? Today, I told my daughter Ava, who's... Is she sleeping? I said, yeah. I love you. She was laying down. She was like, oh, daddy, appreciate it. Okay. Hello. It's okay. I love you, man. Ava, she rocks with me almost every Sunday morning from my 5 a.m. workout. She get up. She loves being with her daddy on Sunday morning and she make me hold her in praise and worship. I only got 30 more days of doing that because she is getting heavy. But I love it. So today I told Ava, I said, today is our crazy faith offering and we're believing God for crazy fruit. And she was like, okay. Ava has been carrying around a box of money she got for her birthday. And she is very quick to tell anybody how much money she has in cash and how much money she has in Target gift cards. And today I said, hey, baby, you know, we give as a family every year. Like, I want you to pray. This is the first year you've had money. When it's time to give to God, her eyes getting big. And I said, Ava, I said, I want you to pray and ask the Holy Spirit what you're supposed to give in the offering. Okay? And she was like, okay. So then she came to the church. I was getting dressed. She came to the bathroom. She said, she said, hey, Dad. I said, hey, baby. I said, did you pray about? What God told you? She's like, $20. I said, oh, you prayed about it? She said, no, that's just kind of what I... She was my daughter's gonna tell me the truth. She said that's what I you know And I said, okay if that's what the Holy Spirit told you to give I just want you to be obedient she said $50 I said, what? $50, dad, $50. And she said it with an attitude. I started doing it. I'm being all gentle and quiet and software. She just yelled at me, $50. I said, baby, this is what I said to her. I said, daddy just wants you to listen to the Holy Spirit and obey. And if he doesn't tell you to give anything, don't give anything. And she got surprised when I said that because what I'm trying to teach my daughter is that it is a pleasure To be able to hear from the God who created the son And the fact that he would still talk to his son I'm privileged that you would ask me for anything when the very breath that I breathe in is the breath you gave me and so I said baby just obey God I'm gonna tell you like I told my natural From now until the end of the year, if God asks you to give something over and beyond your tithe to participate in this season where we believe that God is doing the work, not just on the church and the people on our hearts in a season where everybody's thinking about what they gonna get we've decided to change the priority of what we're gonna give and if that means we gotta sacrifice something to obey God, it's worth it. Maybe the key to all of this is self-control. Maybe the Spirit wants to lead us in a way that has nothing to do with an amount. But he's like, will they even listen to me? Last story. And the reason I share these things is because I'm really walking this out with you. This is not Pastor Mike. Paid in a shade. Got a $17 million contract to pass the transformation. This is not. I do not have an MBA contract. This is me believing God every day. to do what he's called us to do. There was one time when we first got in this building that the Holy Spirit challenged us to give the largest amount that we had ever given. And I remember coming off this stage and coming right over here and giving that amount. I looked at Natalie, tears were in my eyes. Not because I was hurting, because I was scared. I'm not even playing like, Lord, either you going to come through or we going to be living at this church. Sometimes you just got to be honest with God. Scott came and got me. I don't remember if you remember this. Scott came and got me and said, there's this guy that came from Maryland. that needs to put something in your hand i said oh man god bless him and you know people sometimes like god told me to do this and he's like i didn't know if i was gonna get to see you didn't unassuming everything it was literally 60 seconds from the time i put the money in the bucket to the time i met this guy He said, I don't need anything. I don't want a picture. I don't want nothing. I just, God just told me to fly up here and be obedient. I go to the back. It was to the penny. The exact amount. the truth the he deposited the check the exact amount that I gave 60 seconds earlier okay I don't want you to clap because I got the amount because it could have been three dollars you don't know what I gave you're assuming it was large it was large for us It wasn't the amount, it was because I was obedient. I realized that God had already spoken. He had already spoken to my answer while I was still in trepidation about obeying him. So much so that that man had to buy a plane ticket. Get off. for work, go to a bank in a different state, draw out the money. He had spoken to the solution while I still was deliberating about my problem. And I dared to think what would have happened if I would have at the last moment be like, Matt, we can't do this. It wasn't that the man wouldn't have gave me the money, he probably still would have. I would have missed an opportunity to understand God's faithfulness. What I know now, can't nobody take from me. The way I give today, the way I obey God today, it's from experience. So today, if nobody's ever given you the opportunity to believe God on this level, today's the day. $600,000? $6. Obedience is more valuable than the value of the currency. Would everybody stand all over this building? Today, I want to pray for you. I'm going to ask the worship team to come up. Listen, we're going to leave in just a moment. I don't want anybody moving right now to please not distract anybody unless it's an emergency. We understand emergencies. I just want you to just take this moment. I know we're a little over. Next week, we'll be right on time, but I just wanted to let you know that this is a special thing, and I felt it was worth communicating in this way. Today I'm believing for every family, for every person, for every inmate, for every addicted person, for every person that just gave their life back to Christ, for every person that's trying to figure out this journey. Today I just want to let you know that our God is in the business of blessing you beyond. what you think is possible. And today I just want to pray one simple prayer. Everybody listen to me. I want to pray one simple prayer for you. Is that in the area of self-control, when God asks you to do something, you would be, one word, obedient. Some of you, he's going to ask you to stop going to that place. And you're going to have to re-figure out your life because your life is centered around this place. And you know it's going to lead you into sinful things. And sinful things is not an everyday thing. It's a drift. If you take an anchor off of a boat, you can come back in 45 minutes and I promise you it won't be in the same location. Not because a huge wind came in. It's just a current. that allows you to drift to the wrong place today we're dropping an anchor on our firm foundation and if god tells you to do anything i need to be specific right now i'm not talking about the offering yet if he asks you to do anything If he asked you to give up that fast food, if he asked you to go on a fast, if he asked you to start the Bible study, if he asked you to submit, if he asked you to do anything, you need to make a decision to obey. And when it comes to this crazy fruit offering, if he asked you to do anything. I just want you to do one word. What is it? Obey. When you obey God, the consequences of obedience with God... See, everybody thinks consequences is a bad word. Consequences are not a bad word when you do the right thing. The consequences of obeying God... are so amazing i'm a living testimony y'all he don't do all the things you want him to do he never will that would make a must and not god but he does stuff that i don't even think i would even pray for Today I'm believing that as we write down on these cards, watch this, not just things, put your things on there, I'm fine with that. But today I'm asking you, would you add to your crazy faith card online and in the room? Would you add the things and the areas you need self-control in? And see if by this time next year, by this time next year, God hasn't given you more peace where there was grief. God has not actually let your words line up with the word instead of your words line up with your experience. Let's use this moment to mature. Can I pray for you? Would you lift your hands all over this place? Father, for every person that is under the sound of my voice in this room or online, watching on rebroadcast or from a penitentiary right now, asking that your Holy Spirit would invade that place. Not just the room they're in, but their heart and their mind and their spirit. Today, God, I'm asking that you would be so evident with them, not just in a church service, but you would be evident in every area of their life. Today, after hearing this message, we are deciding to let. We are deciding to let you lead us. Lead us in our marriages, lead us in our finances, lead us on our jobs, lead us in our relationships, lead us, Father, in what we watch and what we listen to and what we wear. Lead us, Holy Spirit. Because when you lead us, you lead us from things to things. You are God that leads us from sin, God, into freedom. you're a god that leads us father from the pain father into the promise you're the god that brings us from isolation into family you are the god that can bring us from a dry place to a place with an abundance of rain today lead us holy spirit i'm asking for every person that needs self-control that what they really need is a spirit-empowered life of faith let them take journey in their faith father that they will never recover from like this crazy faith journey you've taken me on god i thank you for strengthening me to believe you Today, even as me and my family are going to give God, the only reason I have faith that you can heal any other area in my life is because I see you do it before. You are a God that has moved before. And today, God, I thank you that I do not have to wonder if you're still moving. I got proof all around me. Seen you move mountains and today I believe you can do it again So for anybody that is leaning into fear right now You have not given us a spirit of fear But one of power love and self-control Make our mind sound today. We trust we believe you and we thank you that you are a firm foundation transform us and father for anybody that wants to receive you as lord and savior i feel like i need to do it in this moment there's anybody in here that has been controlled by their sin nature You didn't even have the option to choose freedom. You've just been controlled by sin. Today, God is coming to set you free. No longer does that addiction or that abuse or that mishap have to define your life. Today Jesus enters in because of a sacrifice that was made. And if you just receive it, your whole life can be transformed. I need the church to be praying right now. The war that has been going on for your life, the enemy thought he had you. But today Christ is intervening. Today you will no longer be controlled by the sin nature. Today you're making the decision to be controlled by the flesh. Today, if you want to make a decision for Jesus, I just want everybody to pray this prayer with me. I want you to say, God, thank you. Sending Jesus to interrupt the plan that was set out for my life. Today, I need you as my Lord and Savior. I believe you lived. you died and you rose again with all power. Today, I give you control. Change me. Renew me. Transform me. I'm yours in Jesus'name. Amen. Can we thank God for every person that made that decision? Glory to God. This is what freedom is about to feel like for you. Listen to me. No longer will you be controlled by your flesh. You will be controlled by the spirit. If you made that decision, I want you to text SAVE to 828282. If you're watching online, you're in the room. And now we're going to walk into a moment of faith. Today we can give some of you like man, I wasn't gonna do it But this week I'm actually gonna go to the bank tomorrow and I'm gonna actually do the thing and I'm actually okay All right, Lord. I heard you. Dang. You ain't had to be so loud. We could have talked about something else, you know, I know Wednesday night we're gonna be right here Giving. Next Sunday, the boxes will be out. You can give. But right now, this is a sacred moment for many. And I want the team to come. And there's boxes right here. There's boxes in the sides. There's boxes in the back. And today, what do you got to do? Some of y'all, God's changing the amount right now. Some of y'all are watching online and you wrote the check and you already went to the website and typed it in. The Holy Spirit been talking to you the whole time. Obey God. And however you want to come, this is going to be the time where some of y'all are just going to worship because God's going to give you clarity for other things. The biggest thing about this moment is not money. It's obedience. Obey God. Some of you need to write down what he's been telling you to write down. That's going to be more valuable. And I'm so proud of people that are taking the opportunity to start tithing and be consistent, be disciplined with what God has told you to do. Whatever God's telling you right now, it's time to move. Father, bless every seed that will be sown. Amen. And I thank you, Father God, that you would do what your word says. Would you open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing? I didn't say money. I said blessing. That they would not have room enough to receive. Prove that you God. And what you can do with a little bit of faith. Would you be the miracle working God that takes mustard seeds and moves mountains? Today we trust you. And we believe that crazy fruit can only be eaten by the Lord. only come from a crazy seed. So today we sow in crazy faith. Have your way. In Jesus name, we agree. Somebody say amen. From all over this building as we worship, let's come and let's give. Miracle signs and wonders follow me, follow me. Come on we say, I have faith to believe. Put it all in your hands. Here we go. I trust they will follow me. And she'll get me. Believe it. I have faith. I have faith to believe. You have all that I need. Miracles. Miracle signs and wonders. I know they will follow me. Oh yeah. Follow me. I have faith. I have faith to believe. When I'm sowing it to you, you have all that I need. Miracle. Yeah. Miracle signs and wonders. They will follow me. They will follow me. I have faith. I have faith to believe. You have all. You have all that I need. Miracle. Miracle sight and wonder. It will follow me. Follow me. I have faith. I have faith to believe. Jesus, you have all. You have all that I need. Miracle. Miracle sight and wonder. They will follow me. I have faith. You have all. Miracles inside. They will follow me. I have faith. I have faith to believe. You have. You have all that I need. Here it goes again. Here it goes again. Follow me. Yeah, come on, keep it moving in the room. I have faith. I have faith to believe. You have all. You have all. Here it goes again. I know they will follow me. Follow me. To be real You have a Oracle Goal Side To one It's We I did grieving, being with the dead wonders, I know that's the miracle. No sudden warmness, it will rise This shall follow me, this shall follow me Take generations for your family Children, Every, every, every sigh of the right Can you enjoy this sweet peace for you? Girl, it's for you And now I see you do it again You made a way There was no way And now I see you do it again, say it, you move the mountain, oh yeah, I see you do it again, you made a way, there was no way, I believe, I believe, I see you do it again, I see you move, move the mountain I see you do it, I see you do it, you made a way, made a way, when there was no, there was no way, now I believe, now I see you do it, I see you do it, I see you move, I see you do it, I see it do it, I see it do it, I believe, I believe, I see it do it, I see it do it, sure way maker, miracle worker, sure way maker. 2 2 1 Watch him work it for your good For those that I believe and trust He's not done with what he started No, he's not done until it's good Come on, speak it over your head, let him turn, let him turn it in your fame. I'm gonna watch him do it. Watch him work it for your good. He's not done with what he started. He's not done with what he started. He's not done until it's good. He's not done until it's good. So we say hello to our fruit. We say hello peace, hello joy. Hello love Hello strength Hello hope It's a new life If you serve the Lord of the harvest Lift it up, come on, say Hello peace Hello joy Hello love Hello strength, hello strength, hello home to the horizon Cause here is not my future, you know Come on, say, sickness is not my story. You are. Heartbreak's not my hope. Yes, I know. You are. And empty is not the end. I know you are. Last time, make it count. You are. You are. And empty is not the end. I know you are. Last time, make it count. You are. It's not fun, So we sing hellish, and short, and God, we thank you that you are our future. The Lord, what we see here on this earth, the situations we may find ourselves in is not the end of our story, but it is ultimately you. And for that, we're grateful. I'm going to take a moment. We're going to close our service. I know we've got a bunch of people who are still watching online. I just want to say thank you for joining us for service today. And I want to encourage you. Pastor Michael said it, but this is just the start of this season. Some of you, God is going to continue to speak to you. We'll still have opportunities for you to give. You can go online and give. And I want to encourage you to just. Do exactly what pastor said. Be obedient in what God would have you to give. I'm going to take a moment to pray for us as we close out service. God, I thank you for every gift that was given today and that will be given. I thank you that you see the heart. You see the sacrifice. I thank you, Lord. I pray against any remorse or any guilt walking out of here. Any lies that the enemy would try to send of you shouldn't have done that or look what went wrong. No, God, I thank you there will be joy and peace as we walk out of here. I thank you, Lord Jesus, that the seed that is sown today, Lord God, may we be able to do this. we see a return, Lord, in ways that we can't even imagine, in peace, in joy, in contentment, in confidence. God, I thank you that what happens today, we will see the fruit of in our life. Lord, I thank you for every person who gave their life to Christ today, and it'll be a fresh start. And I thank you, Lord, I pray over this holiday season, Lord, that grief would not be the portion, but it would be joy. Lord, we give you all the praise, all the glory, and all the honor. It's in Jesus'name we pray. And everybody said? Amen. Come on, everybody said? Amen. Hey, listen, we love you so much. Thank you for being here. Go out and live a transformed life. We'll see you guys. Hey, I want to take a moment again before we jump off and say thank you. Our church is not built on one individual, but on the sacrifice of so many. And you being a part, it means the world. So thanks for watching the message. I also want to say thank you to the thousands of people. around the world who are generous. It means the world and we are able to represent, we're able to be generous and meet the needs of people because of your giving. If you haven't taken the step to give, trust me, there is no pressure at all. But if you feel led, you can text the word give to 828282, or you can go online. When we partner together, God uses our generosity to make a difference. Again, if you haven't, take a moment to subscribe to the YouTube channel. And more than watching on YouTube, join us on Sundays. Every single Sunday we're here, 1045 CST AM. We would love to see you. And like we always say, go out and live a transformed life.

It's a super special time of year and it is because it is our end of year offering. It's had many different names, but this year it is our crazy fruit offering. It's because that's our word of the year.

But this is a time where we come together as a church community and we pray and ask God, what would you have me give financially as we end this year? year. It's a time where it's very easy to become focused on what we get, but we want to intentionally end the year focusing on what we're going to give.

And I want to encourage you, this is not about a certain amount, but simply obeying what God asks you to do. So we want to invite you in this journey. If this ministry has blessed you or impacted you in any way, we want to invite you as this is another part of our spiritual journey of trusting God with our finances.

You can give online at our website. You can text GIVE to 828282. However you give, it makes a difference. And I'm so excited to see what God does through our generosity.

We appreciate each and every one of you. And we pray that this message blesses you today. Today, I wanted to preach.

a message and I simply want to give you the title now and I'm going to remind you of it in just a second. Um, I want to, I want to preach a message called why do I feel so out of control? And I know this is something that we don't talk about often, but there are areas of our life that we feel like we just can't get control over. Okay, we're a hot church, humble, open, and transparent. Does anybody in here have at least two areas in your life that's like, why can't I get that under control?

Okay, all right, all right. Thank you, Holy Spirit. I'm in the right place.

Why do I feel so out of control? And this year, God told us this is a year that we would maximize and focus on the word fruit. And as we do that, I was like, all right, Lord, how do we get fruit?

He said, you have to sow the right seeds. And I'm not just talking about finances. I want you to hear what I'm saying. You cannot get fruit in the area of your marriage. If you do not sow seed in the area of marriage, you cannot get fruit in the area of health and not sow seed in the area of health.

You cannot become everything that God has called you to be in a healthy manner and not sow seed in that area. And I would just like to come up to many believers and ask them, are you nuts? Because you are believing for something in an area that you have sown no seed in. Many of us want friends and we do not sow seeds of normal You not normal!

You won't even say hello when they say hello! You won't answer the text message when the two people you was trying to befriend text you! You busy and booked like that?

No, but for some reason, I'm just giving a very frivolous example to let people know this is not the year to believe for where you have not sown. Yes, God can supersede and step over boundaries and do things that you didn't deserve. That is not the common practice. That's why he gives us principles in his word.

He gives us principles because sometimes he'll pop out and do the unexpected. So you know he can. But he's not about to pop out every time and do the unexpected when you won't steward what he gives you all the time.

Okay. So why do we feel out of control so many times? It's because we have not sown. The right seed in the area that will give us watch what we're talking about today self Control Okay Okay, I need you to lock in I need you to check in with me for the next 40 minutes Because this one is going to scrape against your flesh Because when anybody starts talking about self-control They're actually coming at the parts of us that comfort us the most.

The areas that comfort us the most are the places where we usually don't have self-control. Where do you go when you're emotionally outraged? Where do you go when you don't feel like anybody sees you?

Where do you, where do you get a snuggle? When you lose, that is the place where usually we have not figured out how to let the Holy Spirit empower us, even when we have an excuse to do it, that we don't do it. So today I just want to let you know, if something comes up in your mind like that, and you like start feeling that on the inside. All of those faces you won't make but you feel? All of those things that make you want to click out and go watch somebody else's message that's going to speak to your blessing?

what i'm saying to you is god is blessing us in ways we can't even feel it because we won't get self-control we won't let the spirit do the work on the inside of us to actually live and walk in self-control so today i'm gonna try to gently walk us through what the holy spirit provides for us at salvation galatians 5 22 but the holy spirit produces this kind of fruit in your life you Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You didn't even say it. Say it with me.

Self-control. Say it like you want it. Self-control.

Say it like you need it. Self-control. Why would the Holy Spirit produce self-control?

I started to look at this thing and I begin to be confused because just by the mere word self-control, it feels a little confusing. It feels like... Self-control should be initiated by me. So is it spirit empowered or is it me?

Is it my self-control? Is it me just saying I'm not going to do this no more? I'm not going to do this no more.

Michael, look at me in the mirror. I'm not going to do this no more. Because honestly. I've done that before.

Okay. How many people told yourself you not doing it? Told other people you not doing it?

Wrote it on your mirror, put it on your refrigerator, set an alarm. And somehow, I'm in the right place today. So, self-control?

But the spirit produces self-control. So I went on a deep dive of trying to think, how could I explain? And how could I never let God's people be seduced by the lie of the enemy that God cares more about what ourself wants than what the spirit wants? And I really do believe I have clarity and I found it in the word of God. I'm gonna give you a couple of scriptures that if you have this thing in your back pocket at all times, it's gonna save you.

It's gonna be a way of escape for you. Let me give you one that helped me and helps me to this day. Proverbs 25, 28, the wisest man that ever lived according to the Bible, Solomon wrote this and he says this, a person without self-control you It's like a city with broken down walls.

Get a mental image of a fortified city back in the day, which was the only means of protection. No cameras, no ring doorbells, no guard dog. It was your city was actually known by how strong its walls were. Because there was always an enemy trying to take your land So if you did not have fortified walls You were very vulnerable and could actually be taken advantage of at any moment because you did not have everybody Listen to this word protection This scripture says Having no self-control is like being a city with no protection.

All your value vulnerable at every moment. You ain't got no self-control. One text message can set you back 10 years. One!

Because you have no self-control. What you doing? Nothing, what you doing?

10 years of mental, emotional, and physical, sometimes abuse. because there is no self you're at the doctor for diseases that don't even run in your family asking god for a miracle for something that happened while you worked at the mall And every day for three years you ate at that food court. Okay, I'm talking too real right now.

Because you didn't have self-control to walk past any ants. She said, oh my God, oh my God, you've been following me. Because you didn't have self-control not to get the sugar-dipped pretzels with the sour cream And the strawberry lemonade Come on y'all You become vulnerable. Watch it.

Your vision becomes vulnerable. So God can have asked you to do something, but because you were vulnerable, you were like a city without walls. You had no self-control.

You literally get pillaged, plummaged. and stolen from all the time. Not because you're a bad person, not because you don't hear from God. It's because you have not allowed the Holy Spirit to work the fruit in you of self-control.

And I want you to think about the area of your greatest robbery and ask yourself, do I have self-control around that area? Where is God trying to build watch this protection for you? So when I read this, this is what came out write this down as a point self-control is safety If if if you would view self-control of being able to actually not do everything you feel like doing Not buying everything you feel like buying Not going every place you feel like going If you actually could get that practice this in your life, God says, you'll be protected.

You're going to be safe. Self-control is safety. And the reason I wrote it down like that is because I've never thought about self-control being a good thing. Really.

because of the word controlling it. Can we be honest? Anytime anybody talks about control, unless it's Janet Jackson singing the song, I don't want nothing to do with it. You want to control me? You want to tell me what to do?

You don't know what's best for me. And now I bring a worldly thought to a kingdom principle. God said one of the nine receipts I want you to have is self-control. He said he wants us to have self-control.

And because we have been controlled by people, controlled by systems, controlled by other things that weren't in our mind, in our best interest, then we apply worldly experiences to kingdom principles. And so many of us shy away from self-control. because I'm actually free to do whatever I want to do and God said are you really because if you have to drink are you free if you can't deny the sale No, no, no, no, but you understand Bath and Body Works candles are $10 right now.

They're $10. Somebody was just convicted for real. You got 400 candles for an apartment.

You have a candle for every square foot of the place that you live. Think about it, y'all. Then God asks you to do something with resources and you don't have cash you have candles and you're and you're too prideful to get on the side of the apartment complex with a table See, they don't know what real obedience looks like. God told you to do something and you're sitting there rich in candles. Paid in candles and months burned 20 days at a time.

I'm just trying to paint the picture of sometimes our obedience is delayed because we have not been protected by self-control. 2 Timothy 1 7 here's a revelation check this we've said this scripture a lot of times but we've not correlated to self-control look at this God has not given us a spirit of what but what kind of spirit did he give us power and uh if you look that word up in the original language And you can even read it in the ESV version. It says God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control.

Why would God give us self-control instead of fear? The opposite of fear. I didn't give you fear. I gave you self-control.

Because what fear is, is undisciplined thoughts. All fear is is thoughts without self-control. So you walk into a dark room, somebody's about to come off the ceiling, somebody's about to kill me, there's a sniper on me right now, oh my god, I'm dying right now, I'm dying right now. None of it happened. None of it happened.

You just walked into a dark room and all you need to do is flip on the switch. You had a power. To turn the light on. I feel this thing.

But without an undisciplined thought life. You automatically. God did not give us the spirit.

The spirit of. So self-control is a spirit. Empowered. By the Holy Spirit.

Like, do y'all see? The spirit of fear needs to be replaced with the spirit of self-control. You're afraid of the future?

I need to train my thoughts around what God says about the future. I'm afraid to get married because what I saw happened to so many others. I need to train my thoughts. I need self.

control this good already y'all this feel real good okay so proverb 1632 i'm just trying to give you a lot of bible it's better to be patient than powerful i could preach a whole message on that just right there but check out this second part but it's better to have self-control than conquer a city a kingdom principle write this down is self-control is better than success Hear what I just said to you, because some of us, we can look at your Facebook feed and see all you want to do is be successful. Every other quote, what a millionaire would do with his day. What? Starting a new podcast, Millionaire Mindset. By me.

Like, ooh. Okay, you need to cash at me still. You need to pay me back. I'm sorry y'all, I feel good up here.

I'm not trying to come against anybody's dreams. What I'm saying is, God says, success should not be more important to you than self-control. because whatever the men of this world and the women of this world deem successful does not equate in heaven money's nothing in heaven oh god houses are nothing in heaven bitcoin and investments and 401ks the bible says it like this why would you store up your riches and all this earth stuff you can't take this with you instead why didn't you put it in the kingdom why wouldn't you put it in something that will last eternally i'm saying we all need money to to live and to actually help people and all that stuff that's not what i'm saying i'm just saying is if it's in priority over god god said it would be better for you to have self-control in your little apartment than to run the whole city This made me check my motives, desires, and wants.

Because a lot of times I don't be asking God on my crazy faith card for more self-control. If I go back to the building and pull them cards off of there, I bet I'm gonna see houses and debts paid off and be able to bless my mama with a car and do all the other things. How many people put, God, I want to be able to not talk crazy?

God, I want to be able to see somebody that I knew did me wrong and treat them with kindness. Oh, that's something money came by. Holy Spirit, I want to be able to walk in a room and sense the needs of the people and be led to the person you want to speak to and give them accurate words of knowledge and not weird way, but that will encourage them to live and not die. I've seen people write sonnets on things, but not on transformation.

And God's saying it's better for you to have self-control over this than to run the whole city. Okay, why is this important, Pastor Mike? Because self-control, write this down, is the only thing that combats compromise. When you have self-control...

You are fortified and you do not get played by the enemy when compromise tries to come in. Oh God. See, most people don't understand what compromise is.

Has anybody ever gone to a game or gone to a play or gone to something and somebody will give you a comp ticket? Like a comp ticket. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

You want to come to the fair? Oh yeah, I'll run the fair. Let me give you some comp tickets. Like, what it means is free. and then that word compromise the word in there is promise when you experience compromise what it means is you give the promise away for free you are compromised So the reason God doesn't want you in that relationship with them is because when you get with them your purity is compromised You about to give away your promise for free He won't even take you to Cheddar's and he has you sneaking through a back door of his frat brother's house He don't even own a house can't come pick you up.

He sent you $15 for Uber and he has you about to give your promise away compromise got people in the church manipulating people to stroke their ego because they won't actually do something of value and they're sending people in cycles of depression and and and an allegiance and all these different things don't you realize being a part of that got you compromised The only thing that can combat compromise is self-control. You know what? I do respect you. And I believe that you are fine. Not I believe, I have faith.

Matter of fact, I have seen with my own eyes. Come on, you don't gotta be ridiculous. I would like to live in harmony with you. As Adam and Eve did in the garden.

With nothing but leaves in between us. Come on y'all. Let's be real.

You don't have to deny. But every time I talk to you, something in me weakens. And the conviction I have kept that this would only be for the person I marry becomes very... What were we talking about again?

You know what I'm saying? Y'all acting like that don't happen? Some of y'all are the people that I say you're wear down people.

That the first time you'll know is super strong. But if they just ask you enough times. If they ask you, watch this, at the right time. We will give away the promise.

for free how do we not compromise we get everybody say self-control ah okay so again the sermon title was why do i feel So out of control, let me tell you what control is to have power over influence to direct people's behavior or the course of an event. My question to you is what is controlling you? And I need you to answer that question.

Honestly, right now in your life, what is controlling you? Is it food? Is it finances? Is it people's opinion? Is it an image you made in your head when you were 13?

What's controlling you? Is it social media? Is it, is it, is it a desire that's secret? What is controlling you? Is it fear to not ever live the life you came from?

Okay, let's be honest, because sometimes... The thing that's controlling us is not a thing. It's an idea that we'll never go back to.

And so we'll run ourselves ragged trying to be something that we're not. And statistics tell us that what you're running from usually is what you become. And I know there's some people, I ain't nothing controlling me. I can do whatever God tell me to do. Whenever I tell, what God tells me to do it.

Is your past relationship still controlling you? Because you're married but you're on Facebook looking at your high school sweethearts. I wonder what Daquanda doing.

Oh, she got three kids now? Oh, look at her. Look at her little muck muck.

I just know there's an area that all of us may need to be real about right now that's controlling more of our actions than the spirit is. I did all this talking to bring you to the point to at least let you know you may need some self-control. You may need to let the Holy Spirit work in you at a whole another level. so that he can fight for you in the areas that you failed in over and over again because some things let me be very clear some things are a decision some things are just you need to decide i ain't doing this no more everything don't need prayer oh god everything don't need a prophetic If you have a propensity towards something and you go to a place that says that thing on the outside of it, on the marquee, you don't need to pray about that.

But there are other things that are more, how can I say this? They're strongholds. I don't just see it in me.

I saw it in my dad. It's generational. And today I want to let you know that there's a remedy for that, that has been given by the Holy Spirit.

Let me lighten it up right now, because some of y'all think that y'all about to get exposed. And you are, but let me just bring it up for just a second. How many people were alive when the Atari Pong came out? How many people, Atari, like video games, okay? I need to know, okay, some of you, okay.

How many of y'all, um, yeah, because I wasn't alive when that came out either. But how many of y'all was your game system when you were a kid, Nintendo? How many people on Nintendo? Come on, Super Nintendo, okay, okay.

All right, some of y'all weren't here yet, so there's some people in here that's like, what are you talking about? Okay, maybe this will get you. How many people knew about a Sega Genesis?

Yeah, Sonic, all the rings, okay, yeah, yeah. How many people knew about the Sony PlayStation? I ain't talking about this new thing that stands up. I'm talking about the great one, the box with the circles.

Y'all know, when you had to take the CD out and lick on it, and then, y'all know nothing about that. Okay, y'all know what I'm saying. And then how many of y'all know about the Nintendo 64?

When the 64 came out, okay? And then we go Xbox, and then we go, uh, what's the other one? GameCube.

People who have a GameCube I have questions about. Anyway, and then Wii's, and then, okay, Wii's, and then, and now it's gone to, like, the PSPs, the personal computers, the Switch, the Get, yeah, like, wow. PS5s!

You know what? We can all agree that no matter how much the technology and the graphics have Upgraded from the Atari pong all the way to the PS5 every system still has a controller What it means is it doesn't matter how much you upgrade, something still will have control in your life. So this is what I'm going to tell you. Write it down. The fight of your life is versus sin control or spirit control.

This is what's fighting every day you wake up to control you. And my question is, who is controlling you? Do a serious evaluation on your life right now. When you wake up, ding ding, it's a battle. Who gonna win today?

My spirit controlling me or my sin nature controlling me? And some of us have been living in one so long we didn't even know it was an option. We wake up and it's like this what I do. Oh, that's natural because we were all born into our sin nature Okay, how can I show y'all this Galatians 517 Listen to this.

The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite or the opponent of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what our sinful, look at this word, nature. That word means natural.

Our natural ideas will be sinful. Our natural wants will be sinful. It's because of the world we were born into after Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Well, I am a good person. Yes, you are a good person.

Yet, your nature is sinful. I need everybody to hear me say this so clearly. These two forces are constantly fighting each other.

Watch this. So you are not free. I just want to stop right there.

The sin nature and the spirit nature are fighting every day. So you're not free. So you're not free to carry out your good intentions.

Oh, this is good Bible. Intentions don't matter if you have the wrong controller. Can you put my example on the screen real quick?

I need you to see this because I was like, how can I depict to you what it looks like when you are controlled by the spirit and when you are controlled by the flesh? I need everybody to hear me say this real quick. Your spirit man has to actually get strong enough to be able to defeat your flesh man daily. Not at church.

Not once a week, not once a year, every single day. Some of y'all need to change your alarm to a boxing bell. Ding, ding, ding.

Y'all don't hear me. Just to remind yourself. It's a fight.

I don't hear it. Some of us wake up so nonchalant. Like, oh, today's gonna be a great day. Depending. on who you let win.

This is what I call the battle for my life. And every day that I wake up, I gotta decide who's gonna win. See, the problem is, we all start here. Everybody starts being led by the flesh. And this is the thing I came to actually tell you, is that when you get saved, your spirit man, your spirit comes alive.

It doesn't win. It's the first time it says, but it's a newborn baby. This is why we read the word. This is why we come to church.

You've been led by your flesh for 32 years. And you're like, why do I still struggle with these temptations? It's because your spirit man comes alive. But every day, if you do not feed it the right things, it gets beat the hell up. I need to say it just like that because some of y'all come to prayer But that 45 minutes of prayer has not been leading your thoughts all day.

The shade room has. So you know more about what rapper is sleeping with what rapper. And what government official has cheated on their wife.

And you know more about all of these different things that is feeding a nature. Gluttony. Just nasty eating.

And it doesn't have to be that salacious. It could be a text message that says something like this. Did you hear about them?

Hear about them? I'm over here trying to read songs. Siri, text them, tell me more.

And at that moment. Well, I don't know if it's true, but or if somebody starts a sentence to you like this, I don't, I don't really, I don't really be gossiping, but if they tell you what it's not. Last night, my daughter Gigi came to me with white stuff all over her hands.

And I was cleaning up something else and I said, Gigi, what is that? She said, Daddy, it's not paint. And that's how many times we look because I'm trying to hide what I'm telling you it is.

And so when I wake up in the morning, I have good intentions. But I may be sin controlled. Watch this.

Sin control is making decisions based on what feels natural to your flesh. So your sin nature wants to do evil. Your sin nature gives desires.

And your sinful nature is fighting for control. That's where pride and selfishness and gossip and throwing shade and judgment comes from. But spirit control is, watch this, write this down. It's making decisions against ourselves. If you are spirit-controlled, you are making decisions against your natural inclination.

I want to cuss you out, but pastor talked about kindness last week, and you better be glad I watched that surface. And guess who won in that moment? Your spirit won.

My question is, how many battles do you forfeit? because you don't even try to let your spirit fight you've already decided this is just the way i am this is how my family is and i came to tell you a person without self-control it's like a city with their walls torn down it's just a moment's notice that everything valuable in you can be pillaged Because you have not allowed the Holy Spirit to develop self-control in you. I heard this poem said one time, it says, Two natures beat within my breast.

One is foul and one is blessed. One I love and one I hate. The one I feed will dominate.

There are certain movies I can't watch. Not because they're not creative and not because I don't like the trailer. I actually love the trailer.

That's why I want to watch the movie. I think sometimes Christians be like denying reality. Like that's stupid. Like that aroused my flesh. I want to see it right when they was about to take the thing off and then it cut off and then somebody punched somebody.

I want to see how that all ends. I want to see how that. Materializes in real life, I wanna actually know. Can we be honest?

You wanna go see that? Nah bro, it's all good man, I don't wanna see that. Let's go see Moana.

Oh this is real? Bro, I'm not going down, you a grown man, I'm not about to go see Moana with you. Alright, cool man, I mean I can't go.

Why? You don't understand, I used to be controlled by my sin nature. And my sin nature, I don't know about yours, it doesn't need much to eat to get very strong.

Oh my God, I only need a little bit. I don't need a feast, I just need to taste. And when I live on that line...

When I get that close, I become compromised. I'm in a place where I can give away the promise for free. All that God has done in my life and one website could take away my credibility to stand up here and transform millions of people's lives. The reason why everybody in my circle got the codes to...

my phones, can go in my email, not because I'm a grown man, I'm the pastor, I'm the leader. Mo could ruin me today. I'm putting it on camera just so y'all know if anything happens to me, Mo did it.

call him um but i need to be honest i live so open with the people around me and they can tell you because all my flesh needs is a little secret all my flesh needs is a little side money I don't I mean this ain't wrong other people do this all the time but because of the call on your life many can but you cannot and without self-control you mean I would throw away my marriage for 15 years 24 years of knowing her to satisfy my flesh when I'm angry I'm gonna throw away the model I've been to my daughters of how a man is supposed to treat and protect him you mean I'm gonna throw away what I've built for Ava, Bella, and Gia, and MJ for a moment at a club? But that's where everybody's that's where everybody's connecting at. I guess I'm not supposed to connect with them Oh, these are real decisions i've made oh, no the after parties at the club can't go there Oh, because you're a pastor.

No, because i'm a man of god. See this is a difference There's a difference between my position and my person. There's a difference between my convictions my calling and without self-control i am like a city and my walls torn down and the saddest part about most believers is you can see where the walls used to be i can i can hear in your voice where you used to have a conviction i can hear in your voice where you used to have a boundary I can see in the way you live where you used to draw a line and all I see is rubble where there should be righteousness.

Church, today I'm giving you an opportunity to choose. What is the choice? Every day you wake up, you start in neutral.

This is why I start every day praying because when I pray it honestly becomes a habit but habit can be a bad thing too because every day I could get up and scroll. Okay come on y'all if the first thing that I do is see what everybody else is doing and not ask God what I should be doing so maybe I don't need a habit. that's negative maybe i need accountability maybe i need that little bible i have to be like ding ding jude four and maybe before i open up my phone or maybe before i turn on the news or maybe before i do this i just thank god and i pray and i spend a little time not because i'm trying to be religious because i'm trying to be protected oh my god i need everybody to hear there's a difference between oh i gotta pray i gotta pray i gotta god god father god he don't care nothing about that your heart was not in that at all but just saying father today i'm tired and i know i'm susceptible to anger Father, I have been on edge about the financial situation I'm going through.

So your word says that you're a prince of peace. And today I'm asking that you would lead me to make decisions that would rest in your peace. And God, also, I don't feel good about myself right now.

I got on the scale yesterday and after the holidays, it had, I don't know if it's broken or not, but... No, I'm talking about real prayers, like it had a few more numbers than I was expecting and that actually has nothing to do about me being healthy. It has everything to do with how I see myself. And since I was young, I've always had self-esteem issues based on the way I look. And today, could you just remind me that I'm beautiful?

Father, I never had anybody tell me that I was beautiful without wanting something in return. So today, God, could you just remind me in your word that I'm beautifully and wonderfully made. And last thing, God, today, Thomas is going to be at the office and I hate Thomas.

Come on, y'all. See, y'all don't want a real relationship with God. God, I know we're not supposed to hate, but if the line is strong dislike, I really hate Thomas.

And today, God, I can feel it now if he says one thing to me out the side of his mouth. But I desire to be like you and look like you. And so it is going to be difficult.

For me to be kind to Thomas today, I'm not asking for the weak, Lord. That would be too much. That would be an outrageous request. But today, Lord.

Come on, y'all. But today, Lord. Our Father, who art in heaven, holy and hallowed be your name.

Thy kingdom come, your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. Give me this day. Enough for Thomas.

Did you just see, like I actually displayed for you. what a life led by the spirit looks like and i'm just giving you an example but all i'm saying is if you do not listen to the spirit of god it then leaves you vulnerable we're getting out of here if you get accountable watch this your accountability turns into discipline and what you do in a disciplined life i'm gonna have to do a whole series on this I'm gonna have to do a whole series on this thing and bring this chart back every week because I need to teach all of these but what I'm just trying to get you to see today is the value there are certain things that have happened on my health journey that I would not have been able to do without a trainer I had accountability watch this that turned into me being controlled by somebody else for an hour and a half every day you There is nothing that Victor tells me to do that I want to do. There has never been one time that he was like, all right, do the burpees. And I was like, yay, that he was like, all right, 20 pounds more. And I was like, amen.

Every time my flesh wants to rise up, but the accountability turned into discipline. So much so that last Sunday, me and Pastor Will work out every Sunday morning together. And last Sunday morning, early in the morning, my coach called me and told me he wasn't going to be able to be there.

Now, this is like three o'clock in the morning because we work out at five on Sundays. I almost called Will and told him, coach is sick. The gym at my house, all the weights still work. But it was a test had the accountability turned into discipline and I said will I can train us if you you down and I was That he said you unqualified men of God, but he's like I'm down and for an hour and a half At 5 a.m.

with no trainer, my discipline turned into my desire. So this is where we go on the last one. I don't know when it happens.

I'm not sure of the magical moment that God says, oh, the switch flipped. But if you are accountable long enough in the things that the spirit tells you to do. It will become a discipline long enough that at some point it becomes your desire. And everybody wants to know when it becomes a desire.

I have no clue. I don't know when you will desire to actually be content in the season God has for you to be in. But if God is telling you right now to be accountable with a budget. And he's saying, ah, that means you're going to have to be disciplined with how many times you Uber eat this week. Well, God, I don't want to leave my house.

You know what I do. I don't want to. And the truth of the matter is you're tired of being single, but you don't be nowhere to meet nobody either.

It's all connected. I just want you to know maybe Wingstop has you. I'm trying to make light of a very large subject, but I'm saying maybe God is trying to call you to something to give you something else.

And at some point, that discipline is going to turn into a desire. It works the other way, too. But I feel like I've said what God wants me to say today, because I'm going to show you one more scripture.

And this thing blessed me to the point where it has become a life scripture for me. Let me just let me just show them the two examples of the spirit empowered in the self-empowerment. Okay, because somebody just needs to get this y'all give me seven minutes and then we're going to move to our crazy faith offering and we're going to get out of here. Okay, is this helping anybody? Can y'all just okay?

It's a lot to unpack but I feel I feel very called to finish this. Okay, so listen self-control. Does everybody see it self-control? This is what I'm going to say a self-control can be a spirit empowered life of faith when you are self-controlled that is spirit empowered life of faith or you can have self-control which put it up it would be a sin empowered life of the flesh you choose Either every day I'm gonna wake up and do the things that let me live a spirit-empowered life of faith so the spirit controls me or I'm gonna live a sin-empowered life of flesh and Sin controls me.

This is why it's important what you listen to. Well, I'm in the gym I got me I got to turn up I got to put there are certain stuff the reason why TC has started making music and we just didn't do worship music is my Plan is in the next five years to give people so much good content that does not lack excellence and creativity, but still can replace some of the things that lead me to sin. There's only so many times you can listen to lay your body down before you are no longer vertical. I don't care.

And I'm using just example. There's only so many times. that you can listen to certain sonics with words and you're putting your spirit man in unnecessary fights. You're going through real stuff, but you're like, I'm gonna clear my head.

And what you put in your head, what is it leading you to? Why are you so angry? But you put on every.

Why are you ready to fight everybody? Every time! What are you feeding? If you're depressed, I understand it.

I have empathy for you. I know it's a hole that you feel like you can't get out of. if you continue to put in sad songs, if you continue to stroke, That does dis-ease.

The reason I love this artist is because they just, I identify with them. Do you want to keep identifying with them? Is this where you want to stay? I mean I get that it feels good to be known and noticed but... And sometimes we'll settle for connection which turns into compromise.

Some of the things that comfort us are connections that end up compromising us and God is telling you it's time for you to get up. It's time for you to be everything. I'm sending people in and every time you get up just a little bit you bring down. Because an artist has creatively personified your season.

I'm just asking everybody. I'm telling you there's a better choice to live a spirit-empowered life of faith. That's self-control. So break it down practically, Pastor Mike.

Today when I'm giving in this crazy faith offering, this was not a decision that was informed by my sin nature. Matter of fact, my sin nature had been trying to tell me, boy, That's the dumbest thing you could do. You know it's Christmas time, right? And you know what's going to happen next year. And do you know what God said he was going to do the last time you gave?

Have you seen all of that? Oh, maybe I'm the only one that feels trepidation sometimes when we step out in faith. But I bet Peter felt it too.

When Jesus said, come over. Come over the edge of the boat and do what nobody else is doing. If it's you, I don't know, it's raining out here and everything. If it's you, tell me to come. He didn't say, it's Jesus, son of David.

The Bible records that Jesus gives a one-word response without identifying who he was while Peter was on a boat with others. They all heard him ask the question, If it's you, tell me to come. All Jesus says, come. He didn't say Peter, come. He said, come.

Which leads me to believe he was talking to everybody on the boat. He wasn't just talking to Peter, but Peter was the only one with crazy faith. Y'all all heard, and he didn't go like, guys, didn't y'all hear?

Jesus asked us all to come. Like, what are y'all doing? Like, get up.

I'll go if you go. Probably trembling. I've watched somebody drown in this stuff before I would have tested it y'all Jesus, this is real. Y'all this is really working.

This is really working This this This this and Jesus says why you stop looking at me I told you to step out in crazy faith and you started looking at your situation. I told you to step out in crazy faith, you started looking at your account. I told you to step out in crazy faith, you started looking at other people and what they were doing.

Why did you stop looking at me? And he saved him. He said, when are you going to get the faith that I know you have? This is what it looks like practically to live a spirit-empowered life of faith. I might not have any evidence from anybody else, but I still have to obey God.

I believe that God is telling many of us in this room and area that the Holy Spirit needs to be allowed to develop self-control on the inside of us. Can you get that last scripture on the screen so I don't have to run up there that says, let the Holy Spirit, I'm forgetting the address right now. Um, there's one more scripture because this is the key to the whole thing. And then we're going to give and we're going to go home. But I believe this is going to transform people's entire lives.

Because when I saw this scripture, it changed the way that I found out that I could live a spirit empowered life. Galatians 525. Since we are living by the spirit, everybody say this next word with me. Let.

Say it with me. Let. One more time.

let since we are living by the spirit say it with me let that means somebody has to allow it since we are not living a life controlled by our sin and we're gonna live a spirit empowered life of faith since we live about a spirit that's what it is he said let which means you have the control And some of us have not allowed ourselves to follow the Spirit's leading. Since we are living by the Spirit, everybody say let. Let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

I'm going to tell you something that is very exposing to me and the Holy Spirit's relationship. I let the Holy Spirit dress me. This outfit today was not the outfit I wanted to wear.

I had another one that was a killer. I'm gonna be honest, every time I get on this platform, I ask my wife and I ask the Holy Spirit, what am I supposed to wear? Because when I read the scripture put it back on the screen I see some of y'all think this is too big but I just want to be honest with you like of how I actually live this Out since we are living by the Spirit Let us follow the spirits leading in Every part of our lives I haven't perfected this I don't I don't I forget sometimes.

Matter of fact, sometimes I wake up and I let my sinful nature control. I'm angry. I'm frustrated. I'm all that.

But what I'm saying is in every area I can remember to. My bad. Spirit, what am I supposed to do here? Today, I told my daughter Ava, who's... Is she sleeping?

I said, yeah. I love you. She was laying down.

She was like, oh, daddy, appreciate it. Okay. Hello.

It's okay. I love you, man. Ava, she rocks with me almost every Sunday morning from my 5 a.m.

workout. She get up. She loves being with her daddy on Sunday morning and she make me hold her in praise and worship. I only got 30 more days of doing that because she is getting heavy.

But I love it. So today I told Ava, I said, today is our crazy faith offering and we're believing God for crazy fruit. And she was like, okay.

Ava has been carrying around a box of money she got for her birthday. And she is very quick to tell anybody how much money she has in cash and how much money she has in Target gift cards. And today I said, hey, baby, you know, we give as a family every year.

Like, I want you to pray. This is the first year you've had money. When it's time to give to God, her eyes getting big.

And I said, Ava, I said, I want you to pray and ask the Holy Spirit what you're supposed to give in the offering. Okay? And she was like, okay. So then she came to the church. I was getting dressed.

She came to the bathroom. She said, she said, hey, Dad. I said, hey, baby.

I said, did you pray about? What God told you? She's like, $20.

I said, oh, you prayed about it? She said, no, that's just kind of what I... She was my daughter's gonna tell me the truth.

She said that's what I you know And I said, okay if that's what the Holy Spirit told you to give I just want you to be obedient she said $50 I said, what? $50, dad, $50. And she said it with an attitude. I started doing it. I'm being all gentle and quiet and software.

She just yelled at me, $50. I said, baby, this is what I said to her. I said, daddy just wants you to listen to the Holy Spirit and obey. And if he doesn't tell you to give anything, don't give anything.

And she got surprised when I said that because what I'm trying to teach my daughter is that it is a pleasure To be able to hear from the God who created the son And the fact that he would still talk to his son I'm privileged that you would ask me for anything when the very breath that I breathe in is the breath you gave me and so I said baby just obey God I'm gonna tell you like I told my natural From now until the end of the year, if God asks you to give something over and beyond your tithe to participate in this season where we believe that God is doing the work, not just on the church and the people on our hearts in a season where everybody's thinking about what they gonna get we've decided to change the priority of what we're gonna give and if that means we gotta sacrifice something to obey God, it's worth it. Maybe the key to all of this is self-control. Maybe the Spirit wants to lead us in a way that has nothing to do with an amount.

But he's like, will they even listen to me? Last story. And the reason I share these things is because I'm really walking this out with you.

This is not Pastor Mike. Paid in a shade. Got a $17 million contract to pass the transformation.

This is not. I do not have an MBA contract. This is me believing God every day.

to do what he's called us to do. There was one time when we first got in this building that the Holy Spirit challenged us to give the largest amount that we had ever given. And I remember coming off this stage and coming right over here and giving that amount. I looked at Natalie, tears were in my eyes.

Not because I was hurting, because I was scared. I'm not even playing like, Lord, either you going to come through or we going to be living at this church. Sometimes you just got to be honest with God. Scott came and got me. I don't remember if you remember this.

Scott came and got me and said, there's this guy that came from Maryland. that needs to put something in your hand i said oh man god bless him and you know people sometimes like god told me to do this and he's like i didn't know if i was gonna get to see you didn't unassuming everything it was literally 60 seconds from the time i put the money in the bucket to the time i met this guy He said, I don't need anything. I don't want a picture. I don't want nothing. I just, God just told me to fly up here and be obedient.

I go to the back. It was to the penny. The exact amount.

the truth the he deposited the check the exact amount that I gave 60 seconds earlier okay I don't want you to clap because I got the amount because it could have been three dollars you don't know what I gave you're assuming it was large it was large for us It wasn't the amount, it was because I was obedient. I realized that God had already spoken. He had already spoken to my answer while I was still in trepidation about obeying him. So much so that that man had to buy a plane ticket. Get off.

for work, go to a bank in a different state, draw out the money. He had spoken to the solution while I still was deliberating about my problem. And I dared to think what would have happened if I would have at the last moment be like, Matt, we can't do this. It wasn't that the man wouldn't have gave me the money, he probably still would have.

I would have missed an opportunity to understand God's faithfulness. What I know now, can't nobody take from me. The way I give today, the way I obey God today, it's from experience. So today, if nobody's ever given you the opportunity to believe God on this level, today's the day. $600,000?

$6. Obedience is more valuable than the value of the currency. Would everybody stand all over this building?

Today, I want to pray for you. I'm going to ask the worship team to come up. Listen, we're going to leave in just a moment.

I don't want anybody moving right now to please not distract anybody unless it's an emergency. We understand emergencies. I just want you to just take this moment. I know we're a little over. Next week, we'll be right on time, but I just wanted to let you know that this is a special thing, and I felt it was worth communicating in this way.

Today I'm believing for every family, for every person, for every inmate, for every addicted person, for every person that just gave their life back to Christ, for every person that's trying to figure out this journey. Today I just want to let you know that our God is in the business of blessing you beyond. what you think is possible. And today I just want to pray one simple prayer. Everybody listen to me.

I want to pray one simple prayer for you. Is that in the area of self-control, when God asks you to do something, you would be, one word, obedient. Some of you, he's going to ask you to stop going to that place. And you're going to have to re-figure out your life because your life is centered around this place.

And you know it's going to lead you into sinful things. And sinful things is not an everyday thing. It's a drift. If you take an anchor off of a boat, you can come back in 45 minutes and I promise you it won't be in the same location.

Not because a huge wind came in. It's just a current. that allows you to drift to the wrong place today we're dropping an anchor on our firm foundation and if god tells you to do anything i need to be specific right now i'm not talking about the offering yet if he asks you to do anything If he asked you to give up that fast food, if he asked you to go on a fast, if he asked you to start the Bible study, if he asked you to submit, if he asked you to do anything, you need to make a decision to obey. And when it comes to this crazy fruit offering, if he asked you to do anything.

I just want you to do one word. What is it? Obey.

When you obey God, the consequences of obedience with God... See, everybody thinks consequences is a bad word. Consequences are not a bad word when you do the right thing.

The consequences of obeying God... are so amazing i'm a living testimony y'all he don't do all the things you want him to do he never will that would make a must and not god but he does stuff that i don't even think i would even pray for Today I'm believing that as we write down on these cards, watch this, not just things, put your things on there, I'm fine with that. But today I'm asking you, would you add to your crazy faith card online and in the room? Would you add the things and the areas you need self-control in?

And see if by this time next year, by this time next year, God hasn't given you more peace where there was grief. God has not actually let your words line up with the word instead of your words line up with your experience. Let's use this moment to mature. Can I pray for you? Would you lift your hands all over this place?

Father, for every person that is under the sound of my voice in this room or online, watching on rebroadcast or from a penitentiary right now, asking that your Holy Spirit would invade that place. Not just the room they're in, but their heart and their mind and their spirit. Today, God, I'm asking that you would be so evident with them, not just in a church service, but you would be evident in every area of their life. Today, after hearing this message, we are deciding to let.

We are deciding to let you lead us. Lead us in our marriages, lead us in our finances, lead us on our jobs, lead us in our relationships, lead us, Father, in what we watch and what we listen to and what we wear. Lead us, Holy Spirit. Because when you lead us, you lead us from things to things.

You are God that leads us from sin, God, into freedom. you're a god that leads us father from the pain father into the promise you're the god that brings us from isolation into family you are the god that can bring us from a dry place to a place with an abundance of rain today lead us holy spirit i'm asking for every person that needs self-control that what they really need is a spirit-empowered life of faith let them take journey in their faith father that they will never recover from like this crazy faith journey you've taken me on god i thank you for strengthening me to believe you Today, even as me and my family are going to give God, the only reason I have faith that you can heal any other area in my life is because I see you do it before. You are a God that has moved before. And today, God, I thank you that I do not have to wonder if you're still moving.

I got proof all around me. Seen you move mountains and today I believe you can do it again So for anybody that is leaning into fear right now You have not given us a spirit of fear But one of power love and self-control Make our mind sound today. We trust we believe you and we thank you that you are a firm foundation transform us and father for anybody that wants to receive you as lord and savior i feel like i need to do it in this moment there's anybody in here that has been controlled by their sin nature You didn't even have the option to choose freedom. You've just been controlled by sin.

Today, God is coming to set you free. No longer does that addiction or that abuse or that mishap have to define your life. Today Jesus enters in because of a sacrifice that was made.

And if you just receive it, your whole life can be transformed. I need the church to be praying right now. The war that has been going on for your life, the enemy thought he had you.

But today Christ is intervening. Today you will no longer be controlled by the sin nature. Today you're making the decision to be controlled by the flesh. Today, if you want to make a decision for Jesus, I just want everybody to pray this prayer with me. I want you to say, God, thank you.

Sending Jesus to interrupt the plan that was set out for my life. Today, I need you as my Lord and Savior. I believe you lived. you died and you rose again with all power.

Today, I give you control. Change me. Renew me. Transform me. I'm yours in Jesus'name.

Amen. Can we thank God for every person that made that decision? Glory to God.

This is what freedom is about to feel like for you. Listen to me. No longer will you be controlled by your flesh. You will be controlled by the spirit. If you made that decision, I want you to text SAVE to 828282. If you're watching online, you're in the room.

And now we're going to walk into a moment of faith. Today we can give some of you like man, I wasn't gonna do it But this week I'm actually gonna go to the bank tomorrow and I'm gonna actually do the thing and I'm actually okay All right, Lord. I heard you.

Dang. You ain't had to be so loud. We could have talked about something else, you know, I know Wednesday night we're gonna be right here Giving.

Next Sunday, the boxes will be out. You can give. But right now, this is a sacred moment for many. And I want the team to come.

And there's boxes right here. There's boxes in the sides. There's boxes in the back. And today, what do you got to do?

Some of y'all, God's changing the amount right now. Some of y'all are watching online and you wrote the check and you already went to the website and typed it in. The Holy Spirit been talking to you the whole time. Obey God. And however you want to come, this is going to be the time where some of y'all are just going to worship because God's going to give you clarity for other things.

The biggest thing about this moment is not money. It's obedience. Obey God. Some of you need to write down what he's been telling you to write down. That's going to be more valuable.

And I'm so proud of people that are taking the opportunity to start tithing and be consistent, be disciplined with what God has told you to do. Whatever God's telling you right now, it's time to move. Father, bless every seed that will be sown.

Amen. And I thank you, Father God, that you would do what your word says. Would you open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing? I didn't say money. I said blessing.

That they would not have room enough to receive. Prove that you God. And what you can do with a little bit of faith.

Would you be the miracle working God that takes mustard seeds and moves mountains? Today we trust you. And we believe that crazy fruit can only be eaten by the Lord. only come from a crazy seed. So today we sow in crazy faith.

Have your way. In Jesus name, we agree. Somebody say amen.

From all over this building as we worship, let's come and let's give. Miracle signs and wonders follow me, follow me. Come on we say, I have faith to believe.

Put it all in your hands. Here we go. I trust they will follow me.

And she'll get me. Believe it. I have faith.

I have faith to believe. You have all that I need. Miracles. Miracle signs and wonders.

I know they will follow me. Oh yeah. Follow me. I have faith.

I have faith to believe. When I'm sowing it to you, you have all that I need. Miracle.

Yeah. Miracle signs and wonders. They will follow me. They will follow me.

I have faith. I have faith to believe. You have all.

You have all that I need. Miracle. Miracle sight and wonder.

It will follow me. Follow me. I have faith. I have faith to believe.

Jesus, you have all. You have all that I need. Miracle.

Miracle sight and wonder. They will follow me. I have faith. You have all. Miracles inside.

They will follow me. I have faith. I have faith to believe. You have. You have all that I need.

Here it goes again. Here it goes again. Follow me.

Yeah, come on, keep it moving in the room. I have faith. I have faith to believe. You have all. You have all.

Here it goes again. I know they will follow me. Follow me. To be real You have a Oracle Goal Side To one It's We I did grieving, being with the dead wonders, I know that's the miracle.

No sudden warmness, it will rise This shall follow me, this shall follow me Take generations for your family Children, Every, every, every sigh of the right Can you enjoy this sweet peace for you? Girl, it's for you And now I see you do it again You made a way There was no way And now I see you do it again, say it, you move the mountain, oh yeah, I see you do it again, you made a way, there was no way, I believe, I believe, I see you do it again, I see you move, move the mountain I see you do it, I see you do it, you made a way, made a way, when there was no, there was no way, now I believe, now I see you do it, I see you do it, I see you move, I see you do it, I see it do it, I see it do it, I believe, I believe, I see it do it, I see it do it, sure way maker, miracle worker, sure way maker. 2 2 1 Watch him work it for your good For those that I believe and trust He's not done with what he started No, he's not done until it's good Come on, speak it over your head, let him turn, let him turn it in your fame. I'm gonna watch him do it. Watch him work it for your good.

He's not done with what he started. He's not done with what he started. He's not done until it's good. He's not done until it's good. So we say hello to our fruit.

We say hello peace, hello joy. Hello love Hello strength Hello hope It's a new life If you serve the Lord of the harvest Lift it up, come on, say Hello peace Hello joy Hello love Hello strength, hello strength, hello home to the horizon Cause here is not my future, you know Come on, say, sickness is not my story. You are.

Heartbreak's not my hope. Yes, I know. You are. And empty is not the end.

I know you are. Last time, make it count. You are.

You are. And empty is not the end. I know you are.

Last time, make it count. You are. It's not fun, So we sing hellish, and short, and God, we thank you that you are our future.

The Lord, what we see here on this earth, the situations we may find ourselves in is not the end of our story, but it is ultimately you. And for that, we're grateful. I'm going to take a moment. We're going to close our service. I know we've got a bunch of people who are still watching online.

I just want to say thank you for joining us for service today. And I want to encourage you. Pastor Michael said it, but this is just the start of this season.

Some of you, God is going to continue to speak to you. We'll still have opportunities for you to give. You can go online and give.

And I want to encourage you to just. Do exactly what pastor said. Be obedient in what God would have you to give.

I'm going to take a moment to pray for us as we close out service. God, I thank you for every gift that was given today and that will be given. I thank you that you see the heart.

You see the sacrifice. I thank you, Lord. I pray against any remorse or any guilt walking out of here. Any lies that the enemy would try to send of you shouldn't have done that or look what went wrong. No, God, I thank you there will be joy and peace as we walk out of here.

I thank you, Lord Jesus, that the seed that is sown today, Lord God, may we be able to do this. we see a return, Lord, in ways that we can't even imagine, in peace, in joy, in contentment, in confidence. God, I thank you that what happens today, we will see the fruit of in our life. Lord, I thank you for every person who gave their life to Christ today, and it'll be a fresh start.

And I thank you, Lord, I pray over this holiday season, Lord, that grief would not be the portion, but it would be joy. Lord, we give you all the praise, all the glory, and all the honor. It's in Jesus'name we pray.

And everybody said? Amen. Come on, everybody said? Amen.

Hey, listen, we love you so much. Thank you for being here. Go out and live a transformed life.

We'll see you guys. Hey, I want to take a moment again before we jump off and say thank you. Our church is not built on one individual, but on the sacrifice of so many. And you being a part, it means the world.

So thanks for watching the message. I also want to say thank you to the thousands of people. around the world who are generous.

It means the world and we are able to represent, we're able to be generous and meet the needs of people because of your giving. If you haven't taken the step to give, trust me, there is no pressure at all. But if you feel led, you can text the word give to 828282, or you can go online. When we partner together, God uses our generosity to make a difference. Again, if you haven't, take a moment to subscribe to the YouTube channel.

And more than watching on YouTube, join us on Sundays. Every single Sunday we're here, 1045 CST AM. We would love to see you.

And like we always say, go out and live a transformed life.

Transcript for:Self-Control and Spiritual Growth Insights

Transcript for:
Self-Control and Spiritual Growth Insights