Confessions 04-07-2026

Good morning. Good morning everybody. This is the day that the Lord hath made and we will rejoice and be exceedingly glad about it because God is good and he's worthy to be praised. Yes, he is good and he is worthy to be praised. Good morning. Yes, sir. It's going to be a great day today and I pray that God's riches and best will continue to be yours as you seek him first.

He is such a good God. And so we send blessings to um wherever you are today. You know, I just want to remind you where we get this from. MelzDC blessed Abraham by saying um he blessed Abraham by saying and and I wanna I want to bless you today.

You know, I just I just I'd rather use my mouth and my words to bless you today than to make you feel bad or or to curse you. I'm learning a lot of things even after a few years of ministry. I'm learning that uh sweet lips increase learning.

Do you know that scripture? Sweet lips increase learning. and it's about what God is showing me and what I'm understanding and uh how I can apply to my life and and um more than that see it make a difference in the lives of other people and so yeah this is the day that the Lord had made we will rejoice you know and be glad in it so I declare you're blessed right now those of you who are joining me let's see where you from uh first one up Colorado praise God, we send blessings to you in Colorado.

Set that thermostat today. That's what we're doing. We're not a thermometer. We're setting the thermostat. Barbados, good morning. God bless you. We send blessings your way. World Changers Nation, um uh we send blessings your way. Uh we send blessings to India and uh all of our office staff in India.

Dubai, we send blessings to you today. Um Mon, Georgia, we say you're blessed today. South Africa, Indiana, Englewood, California. We say you're blessed today. San Diego, uh you guys are so blessed today. It's an amazing Tuesday for you. The United Kingdom, praise God. Hampton, Georgia, Maryland, praise God.

We send blessings to you guys today in Jesus name. We send blessings to those of you in China. Those of you in Birmingham, uh, United Kingdom, we send blessings, uh, we send blessings to the haters, uh, this morning. We send blessings to all of our enemies today. I send blessings in the name of Jesus that God Almighty is turning things around, even in the lives of of hurting people.

We send blessings to uh Texas and and uh we declare that uh you're blessed in Louisiana, North Carolina. We say you're blessed in Jesus' name. Loganville, in Houston, we say you're blessed. Set that thermostat towards that now. You're you're setting the thermostat of your day. Okay? When you set the thermostat, everything will work together to make it happen.

Amen. Send blessings to Sacramento, Tampa, Florida, Los Angeles. We send blessings to Aworth, Memphis, Tennessee, Houston, Texas. Um, and uh we declare that you are blessed going in and blessed coming out. Murphy'sboro, Tennessee, you're blessed today. Milwaukee, Jamaica, we say you are blessed and highly favored in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. you are blessed today in Detroit.

And uh I just say and and conclude it here that everybody I believe that will join us this morning as we actually talk about self-control and uh you know it's a I believe it's a gift from God. I believe that u one of the major attacks of the enemy into your life is to get you to disregard this amazing gift of self-control that uh God has made available to us.

And um I tell you what the devil wants to do is just get you out of control and get you in your emotions. But uh we're not going to let him do it. Well, let's go ahead and get Psalms 91 equipped and then we're going to talk a little bit about this uh this self-control.

I mean, yeah, Christian people need to really look at self-control in our life because sometimes we can just we're just out of control. And um it it's not just in out of control being anger, but it's a lot of areas in our lives that we might be out of control that we need to examine.

Come on, say this out loud with me. I will dwell in the shelter of the most high God. I will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. God is my refuge and my fortress. You are my God in whom I trust and with great confidence in whom I will rely.

God will rescue me from every trap and protect me from every disease. I am covered and protected by his outstretched arms. God's faithful promises are my armor and my protection. I will not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor of the arrows that fly in the day.

I will not dread any disease that stalks in the darkness, nor any disaster that strikes at midday. Because God is my refuge and the almighty God of my home, no evil can befall me and no plague can come near my dwelling. I declare that God has ordered his angels to guard, defend, and protect me and my house.

God's armies of heaven will keep me from falling. I will walk unharmed and kick anything that is evil from my path. Because of God's love for me, I will call upon him. He will set me above my troubles. He will deliver me from all my fears and he will honor me with his presence and power.

I declare that he will reward me with long life and he will show me his salvation in Jesus name. I am Psalms 91 equipped ready for the day in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen and amen. Hey, listen. If you got your Bibles, go with me to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22- 23.

Let's let's see if we can define self-control. Um well, first of all, we know that it is a fruit of the spirit and that's most important thing. Self-control is a fruit of the spirit. It involves um allowing the Holy Spirit to help us to discipline ourselves. And I say we need the Holy Spirit to help us to discipline ourselves by um resisting temptation, resisting impulses that go against God's commandment, go against God's way of doing it, go against God's love, self-control.

It's that it's that intimacy that we develop with God that kind of gets us to the point where we just want to do what God wants us to do, you know. And one of the things in the New Testament, you say commandments. Yeah, the commandment of love. I'm always talking about the commandment of love.

And we need self-control to help us to walk in that commandment of love. And I believe that it takes a conscious choice to submit your desire and your actions to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I mean, you have to be intentional. You say, "God, I am submitting I am submitting my my my uh my choices to you.

I'm submitting my desires and my actions to you. You know, that's real uh relationship right there. I'm submitting it to you. You know, the Holy Spirit is also a helper. In fact, when Jesus was born, they didn't need a male man to get involved. You had the elder of a woman and you had the Holy Spirit.

And you know, the Holy Spirit is going to always help your objectives to be a lot better with him than by yourself. Okay? So, it's important for us to be a little bit aware, not a little bit, but a whole lot aware of this fruit of self-control. Self-control is a gift, and the Holy Spirit can guide you into this place of self-control.

Now, one of the reasons why I thought maybe this would be a good thing to talk about is because uh what happens what are the consequences when you lack self-control in your life? Uh and I'm and I'm talking right now. What are the spiritual consequences? Um well, one of them is when when you lack self-control, you have a tendency number one to stray from God's path. straying from God's path.

It's like, okay, how did I get here? I'm stray I strayed from God's path. I like Proverbs chapter um 25 and verse 28. It states that a person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls. Wow. A person without self-control is like a city uh without uh without is like a city with broken down walls.

And you know back in the day man walls were very important. And um you know when you don't have self-control, you you you don't you don't have boundaries. You don't you don't your your walls are broken and all kinds of stuff enters in. You see, without self-control, we become vulnerable to the to the attacks of the enemy, and we can find ourselves easily drifting away from God's will.

I I tell you, it's a gift, man. It's a gift. I I only Oh, man. Just wanted to be in a position where I could hear somebody say to me what I'm what I'm saying to you right now. I don't want to be a city without with with broken walls.

I don't want to be subject to to every attack of the enemy and then find myself being moved away from the will of God for my life because real success in life is all about knowing and achieving the will of God for your life. Okay. Um well, what else?

What's what are the consequences of of of lack of self self-control? Um I believe it will hinder your spiritual growth. I believe it will hinder your spiritual growth. Lacking self-control uh can result in a lack of discipline in our spiritual practices. I think that it will hinder our growth in faith and it'll prevent us from experiencing God's fullness in our life.

Let me say that again. It it consequences of of of lacking self-control. It it hinders your spiritual growth. I I don't want to be safe for 30 years and still spiritually like a a toddler. Okay. Lacking self-control, it results in a lack of of discipline in our spiritual practices.

Um you know, you you have no discipline in praying and reading the word and church attendance or even walking the way you need to walk. I know I know people don't like that word discipline but you know uh I think the problem with discipline is when you try to achieve it just with your own willpower and not submit yourself to God and through the Holy Spirit to try to help you to achieve that.

Uh it'll hinder the growth in faith and it'll prevent us from experiencing the fullness of God. I want the fullness of God. Don't you? I want to experience the fullness of God. But I don't I don't want to have this little halfcock experience, this halfcock religious experience. I want it to be more than an emotional high.

I want it to be more than a hop, skip, and a jump. I I I want I want to have this this this emotional um you know, experience with God, man. I I I And somebody says, "Well, it's wrong to have an emotional experience." No, I want to feel after God, you know, I want to know him spiritually, but I want to feel after him.

Uh, and so I think here's the next consequence for a lacking self-control. It will affect your emotional and relational uh situations, emotional and relational consequences show up that when you lack when you lack self-control, you do damage to to those relationships in your life. You know, you fly out the mouth.

You say things you don't I mean, you meant it at time, but you say things that you shouldn't have said. You damage relationship. The lack of self-control can lead to hurtful words. It can lead to impulsive actions. It can lead to broken relationships. All because of of words. relationships that are damaged because uh it affected our emotional side of our life which had an impact on our relationships.

I like what Proverbs 29 and 11 says and here's what he says. He warns fools vent their anger but the wise quietly hold it back. He said a fool will vent his anger but the wise know how to hold it back. Um, here's one thing I do understand.

When um when you vent your anger or you express your anger, you're actually expressing your fear. Because I've come to understand that anger is an expression of what you're afraid of. Anger is an expression of your fear. So, if you find yourself uh still getting angry and you don't have temperance where your anger is concerned, no self-control, maybe it's time for you to ask the real question.

What am I afraid of? What am I afraid of? Because let's say your wife is out shopping and she left you at home and she's been gone all day and she comes back in the door. Where you been? How come you're still late at home? You're not really concerned about that. you're really afraid that she spent a whole lot of money on your card and you just don't know how much it was spent on that card.

Uh yeah, emotional stability is something we need to talk about because without self-control, we're more prone to be driven by our emotions and it's a dangerous thing to live life governed by your emotions. You and that's what that's what the enemy wants. The enemy wants us to live a life based on our negative emotions.

And um you don't want to do that. God gave you emotions uh but those uh you have emotions but those emotions were never meant to have you. Okay? You have emotions but those emotions were never meant to have you. And without self-control, we're prone to be driven by emotions leading to impulsive decisions.

That's what happens when you're driven by your emotions. you're going to make impulsive decisions and instability in your emotional well-being will help you to get to a place where you just don't want to be. Okay. So, this is why uh self-control is is is such a you know is such a blessing.

So, when we talk about cultivating self-control, how do we how do we do that? How do we I mean, let's get practical. You you talk about self-control. Do we have it? you tell us about a few things that it can do when you don't have self-control. Um, well, what about cultivating self-control?

Here's what I think. Uh, then this is just my opinion. Um, one of the ways, one of the big ways you can use to cultivate self-control is um prayer and dependence on God. Prayer and dependence on God. Wow, that's powerful. When you pray, and you know, think about it.

The only reason I pray is because I'm dependent on God. That's why I pray. But it's just this dependent upon God. It's like uh learning how to seek God's help. That's a humbling thing. Learning how to seek God's help. God, I need you today, Lord. Lord, I got this proposal I'm supposed to present.

I got this thing I got to confront. I need you, God. I like what u Philippians Philippians chapter 4:13 says. He says and he uh he says, "For I can do all things how through Christ who gives me the strength." There's something powerful about cultivating um self-control when we learn how to rely on God's strength.

I can do all things through Christ. What gives me strength? Man, what happens when you pause and say, "You know what, God? I depend on your strength. I depend on your strength today to help me to walk in forgiveness. I depend on your strength today to help me to to love what's unlovable.

I just depend on your strength today to forgive. Amen. Um and so by relying on God's strength, we can overcome our weaknesses and develop we can develop self-control just by learning how to depend on God, learning how to rely on God. You've heard me talk about that for a few years now.

How vital it is to to learn how to depend on God. Uh here's another thing we should consider. Uh praying uh praying for the Holy Spirit to guide us. Uh when was the last time seriously I want you to think about this. When was the last time you paused and said, "Lord, I need you to guide me."

And I'm talking about you're willing to change whatever plan you had to go down that path and you said, "I need your guidance, Lord. I need you to guide me today." Um, Galatians 5:16 says something. Um, he says, "Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives, enabling us to resist temptations and make choices that align with God's will."

You know, the Holy Spirit will guide your life and a lot of times he'll guide you into a place where maybe your plan was going to guide you to the place of temptation. He'll guide you to, you know, I got to be honest with you, he may guide you to the place of temptation still.

You know, here's Jesus being led of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. What? Here's the thing that I I like though. Wherever he's going to guide me, um it's going to be for my good and for my growth. Uh there are certain tests that we we work real hard to try to avoid.

Uh but the spirit of God's guidance will get us to a place where we can grow. Uh I mean some of you going to have an opportunity today to forgive somebody. Uh some of you going to have an opportunity today to be a blessing to somebody. Some of you going to have an opportunity today to encourage somebody.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will guide your life and that he will he will equip you to resist the temptations that will come in your life. That's so so very important. Um, I think uh the word of God and meditating on the word is is a a good way to cultivate um self-control in your life.

Uh the Bible talks about renewing your mind. You know, a lot of times we like to try to change uh what the Bible says rather than allowing the Bible to change the way we think. We're trying to change what God said instead allowing what God said to change the way we think.

Uh Romans 12 and2, Romans 12:2 uh says, "Don't copy the behavior and the customs of this world, but let God transform you or change you into a new person by changing the way you think. By changing the way you think, he can transform you into that new person."

But as long as you go around thinking, well, you know, I don't want God to change my thinking. You know, I just don't know if I agree with that. You know, you just got baptized, dripping water all over the floor, and then you you going to try to you going to try to lecture God.

Let God let God be the one that will, you know, build you up and lift you up. And he says, "Here's how I can do that." He says, "I can transform your life if you will let me transform your thinking." My God, I can transform your life if you let me transform your thinking.

And um I think by studying the word and meditating in the word and allowing that word to change the way you think, you set yourself up for your life to be changed. Uh let's look at something. This is pretty practical. Accountability. Are you accountable to anybody or are you just accountable to yourself? accountability and community.

The Bible says, "Forsake not the assembling of yourself together." That's community. Don't forsake the assembling of yourself together. A community brings with it accountability. You need to surround yourself with godly influences. It would help us out a lot. You know, no man should be an island or go in a cave somewhere.

We should we should value accountability and we should value community. Um, Proverbs chapter 13 and 20 says something. And he gives us some great advice here. He says to walk with the wise and become wise. Wow. He said, "Walk with the wise and become wise." And you know the other part of it, walk with the fools and become a fool.

Okay. All right. So, you got to choose what are you surrounding yourself with every day. Are you walking with the wise or are you walking with the foolish? And sometimes how you carry yourself and the stuff that happens in your life is a result of what you're hanging around.

So you you might want to shrink your circle a little bit and you might want to choose to hang out with the wise so you can start walking wise. Engaging in a supportive Christian community, I believe will will provide some some um encouragement. It'll provide accountability. it will provide uh guidance and and cultivating self-control in your life.

But if you're if you're around a bunch of fools and all they do is, you know, lose their temper and, you know, cuss out everybody who, you know, don't give them just what they want. Um, then you're probably going to eventually end up doing that. And you, you know, you'll ask yourself, well, where did I get this from?

I've not done that before. you got it from hanging out with uh with u people who don't believe God. And so this is so very important for us to begin to to do this. But we have the gift of self-control. Self-control is an essential virtue for for for Christians, man.

It enables us to align our desires and our emotions and our actions with the will of God. And then if we seek God's help, renew our mind through the scriptures, if we, you know, are not afraid of being accountable, we're not afraid of com the community of believers, we will cultivate um self-control, and we we're going to experience transformation in our lives.

So, the word for this Tuesday is the fruit of self-control. The fruit of self-control. and the spirit of God wants to be involved in this. And uh so yeah, I pray you guys can use this. I pray that all is well with you and um yeah, it's good, man.

It's really good. So uh tomorrow we'll be in the pull pits. Uh and um we'll have a word for you tomorrow. It'll be great. I'll see you guys on Thursday as we uh continue to talk about some things that I think will just help you to grow. I pray you're growing.

I pray that um all is well with you and your house. I pray that you're learning how to love yourself and quit treating yourself bad and and then you'll find out you won't treat other people bad cuz you don't treat yourself bad. It's like some of y'all get up in the morning just slap the fire to yourself.

It's like why are you treating yourself like that? Stop it. So, uh, anyway, it's been cool. It's been awesome.