Matter of the Heart | Better Together | Chris Hodges

good morning everybody thank you so much for joining us at all of our campuses and online it means so much that you are there and and you we are a church that is United I know we're enjoying this brand new series Better Together We need to focus on our families and focus on our marriages it is one of the enemy's greatest targets and we need the whole armor of God on like never before to say Satan you can't have my marriage and you can't have my family family and I'm going to enjoy my family and enjoy my marriage and enjoy the goodness of the Lord and I don't know about you God's word that is being brought every week in this focused time when we say Lord Heal every home strengthen every marriage we're agreeing with you for miracles today we are so honored this is a busy man he has a fabulous church one of the largest churches in the world actually and in certainly in America his name is Pastor Chris Hodges I have known him for many decades now and we are great friends I appreciate him he's the founding pastor of the great church of Highlands in Alabama and they have many campuses and under his leadership they have touched millions of lives around the world and they're having thousands and thousands and thousands of people at every campus that are coming together and being saved and delivered and so we're very honored to have him with us today his precious wife and he have been married many years Tammy and they have five children and eight grandchildren so he's certainly qualified to get up and teach us an amazing lesson I can't think of anyone better that we should listen to on the subject of marriage and family than Pastor Chris Hodges would you stand to your feet and would you give a warm welcome to the one and only Pastor Chris H oh come on give Jesus some Praise In This Place oh that's not good enough come on give him what he deserves woo oh praise God well who's glad to be in church today anybody anybody anybody me too stay standing for just a minute and let me greet you and uh let me say thank you to Pastor Jensen it's always an incredible honor uh to be in this pit it's kind of it's the only place probably I get a little nervous because this is the place that I watch every week I actually go to church on Mondays everybody um I watched some sermons and this is the first place I go can we show some love to Pastor Jensen everybody he's probably watching come on let him hear you it's awesome and stay stand again everybody and let me look straight into the camera and say Hello uh to all the locations at free chapel and to those that are watching online can you show some love to your church family that just happens come on to be on the other side of the camera God bless you guys and one more time I know I got you clapping a lot but you you guys do know that there are people in the room right now who are here for the very first time and I I think we ought to show some great love to everybody here come on yeah we're so glad you came I'm going to do my best but you come back next week and you'll hear a real preacher everybody all right how about we open up our hands and receive from God today Father we thank you for the power of your presence we're so grateful for the authority of your word and Lord right now God we're making room in our hearts for you to do something and and God um we have trust issues all of us do I know I do God but we trust you Lord and we'll let you in and we trust you to touch Us in ways that we never dreamed and Lord we given you a room Lord have your will and have your way we pray and we give you all the thanks in jesus' name and the church said a good all right high five your neighbor tell them do you always look this good come on tell them just tell them I think that brother over there just got a date congratulations sir all right I'm glad to be here again and I'm very delighted to be in the uh Better Together series I do like talking about marriage and family and I stopped talking about parenting after I had kids come on somebody everybody right they say when you're in your 20s if you're a preacher you preach on parenting and in your 50s you preach on prayer come on everybody right so I stopped I'm gonna let God take care of the kids anyway we do have five kids and I know that's a lot I always get a reaction five kids in fact I I was just preaching in California and this guy came up to me at the end and he and I don't know why he did this but I mentioned how many kids I have and he goes my God five kids you must really like kids and I said no sir I don't actually that's not why I I love my wife come on everybody right so you got that all wrong but anyway so and I have to make one correction we don't have eight grandkids we have nine and one on the way come on everybody I know now that's the best part of life if you all don't have grandkids yet listen to me this is great advice don't kill your kids better ones are coming everybody come on just hang in there just let them live trust trust me it's it is awesome and uh again I'm I'm thrilled to be in this series with you today I have an interesting thought and I think it's going to lead us to a Ministry moment uh I'm not really a classic preacher I'm a I'm more of a teacher I like taking complicated things putting it in uh you know in a way that's very very simple so everybody can grab it I've got one of the best compliments of my life in our church when a lady came up to me and she says Pastor you put the cookies on the bottom shelf so everybody can have one and that's what I want to do today I want to take some complicated thoughts and make it very a applicable and by the way the reason why I do that is I'm not very smart okay everybody I kind of have to do it that way I'm I'm not from Alabama I'm a Cajun from south Louisiana all right everybody yeah and I say that as a disclaimer that you might not learn anything but we are going to have a good time everybody all right I promise you we always say if you can't have fun with a person from Louisiana it's your fault all right so here here we go uh I do want to talk about relationships and I want to I want to give you this thought um about conflict so we all all of us have conflict all of us have fights in fact y'all want to hear a buo joke about a fight everybody you want to hear that yes or no yeah okay Buro by the way is the stereotypical Cajun uh it's the it's the most common last name in Louisiana it's kind of like Smith and Buro and Tibido anyway we tell these these these crazy little bu jokes but Buro decided he was going to go to a husband conference where only husbands go to learn how to you know get their wives just kind of kind of you know line up a little bit now this is a joke don't get mad at me this is just a joke okay and so so he met a guy from California in New York and they said hey let's let's go home and try everything we learned and then when we get back after a couple weeks let's call each other and compare notes and see see if it worked so they got on the phone two weeks later and the guy from New York said man I'm going tell you I went home and I told my wife darling things are going to have to change around here you need to cook more clean more take care of these kids he said I didn't see nothing the first day I didn't see nothing the second day and by the third day she was doing everything they taught me they said oh my goodness that's amazing and then the guy guy from California spoke up he said man same thing for me I went home I said lady you GNA have to you going have to do better you have to cook more clean more take care of these kids he said man I didn't see nothing the first day I didn't see nothing the second day and third day she was doing everything that I learned in the seminar they said Buro how'd it work out for you he said well I went home and told Marie things are going to have to change around here you going have to cook more clean more take care of these kids he said I didn't see nothing the first day I didn't see nothing the second day he said the third day I could see a little out of my left eye anyway so don't write that down that's not that's not good at all right so um but it is funny I don't care what y'all say that's hilarious um I want to talk about something let me give you the idea behind it first and that is whenever you're in any type of a conflict whether it's with your kids or at the office or with your spouse or whatever it is it's very very easy just to focus on the circumstances of the conflict like that's the problem the problem is you didn't do what I asked you to or you you did you did this too much so he's really focused on that I and I want to give you a thought I wonder if a lot of the things that we're facing really don't have to do with what's going on in that moment I wonder if there's a lot of things that are happening because of a heart condition in other words and I'm not talking about your physical heart I'm just talking about that you're actually living your life through a filter of things that happened years ago what what if some of the ways that we react or respond or don't respond are because of some heart issues and the Bible is very vocal on this topic in fact in Proverbs chapter 4 it says above all else that's kind of a strong verse Above All Else my goodness Above All Else Like guard your heart for out of it one translation says flows all the issues of life it's it's everything that you're doing is coming out of this heart filter even even Jesus when he was dressed uh he was asked one time it was it was it was intended to be a trick question and they asked him about divorce um and they said you know can a can man and woman get divorced and he basically said Moses permitted it um because uh we have hard Hearts so the divorce wasn't the issue the reason why it had to be allowed is because there's some things going on the inside not on the screen just a verse that's popping in my mind right now uh in Ephesians chapter 1 Paul's praying for the church and he prays he says he said my first prayer is that all of you just I wish you could know God better and the second line in the prayer this is in Ephesians chapter 1 he says and I also pray that the eyes of your heart are enlightened and what in the world does that mean because your eyes don't on your heart and what if they actually are what if you're actually not looking through these and you're actually looking through everything that's happened to you up to this point what what if what if we really are the sum total of not only uh the people that we've experienced but all the experiences we've had what what if all that's in there and so that's why in this room right now all of you are seeing the exact same thing but seeing it differently why because we're looking through a filter of our heart and so if that's the case then we're bringing that filter good or bad by the way into every experience every fight every situation how do we get better together I think it's a matter of the heart that's the title of the message say a matter I think it's a matter of the heart I think we've got to decide that we're going to deal with some things here I want to show you a verse that's very very interesting uh in Exodus chap 28 if you have a Bible you can look at it or we'll put it up on the screen for you of course and this is the part of the scriptures where they're still in the Exodus so Moses and the children of Israel of course crossed the Red Sea came out of Egypt of course they get the Ten Commandments and if you know anything about the story now they're going to do this wandering thing in the desert for 40 years while they're learning some lessons because they're traveling He's A Cloud by day Fire by night God is he they didn't never knew when he was moving so uh whenever he God moved they had to follow him so they had to set up what I call portable church it was the setup and takedown Church U was called The Tabernacle when it was portable and it was called the temple when it became permanent anyway so they're in this portable Church situation right and and you saw this last week in the message where they had this these pieces of furniture one of them was the Ark of the Covenant and anyway they had to move all of this and so they had have priest who actually basically did church and they called them priests in the Old Testament New Testament says we all are we all our kingdom of priests uh there there aren't two different classes come on everybody we all get access to God get close to God can know God can minister to people yeah it's that's a good message by itself but in the Old Testament the priests had to get dressed uh and in Exodus 28 they're talking about what the priests wore and there was things like they had this turban which was really basically a tall hat they had this gold plate on the front that cross right in front of your mind that said holy to the Lord and it was a symbol of make sure you're guarding your mind with holiness because the devil will come after it and they all have all these symbols in them they wore an undergarment like underwear but it was was like our underwear it was like an undergarment of linen and they said that's because the priest was never supposed to sweat it a Ministry was supposed to be easy he actually had this outer garment that there was this blue long long flowing robe it's kind of like a Santa Claus robe except it's not red it's it's blue and Josephus the extra biblical writer said there were 72 Bells the Bible says there were Bells it just doesn't say how many but Josephus said it was 72 bells that were sewn at the hymn he was jingling all the way everybody all right so um and that was because the priest was always supposed to come in with joy and supposed to leave Ministry with joy and that kind of get gives us a picture of that but there's there's one other part of the what the priest had to wear that I want to show us today it's fascinating to me and I want you to notice the language in the text and I'll describe it first and we'll read the text so it was what's it was called the breast piece of decision and it was something you tied around your neck it was one of the last things you would put on because it would be on the outside and it it was kind of square like this and it was like a plate um that that names were written across it and it was the the names of the 12 tribes of Israel and if you didn't know any better you would think oh it's just to remember the guys that started this whole process right we're going to remember the tribes of Israel but it's actually bigger than that and hint it's in the name the breast piece of decision so let's look look at the text together it says whenever Aaron enters the holy place and that's the place where the Ark of the Covenant was he will bear the names of the sons of Israel notice where they're where they are they're over his and here's my topic today over your heart on the breast piece of decision as a continuing Memorial before the Lord thus Aaron will always bear watch this the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord in other words he's making decisions based on what's written on his heart and my question to you is what's on your heart and could it be that you're making your decisions and acting and like you are who you are and your family and job and all that because of what's written there and I wonder if there's something written there that's not supposed to be there and now it is this filter that you're making all these decisions he's making decisions based on what's written in his heart now this is my story uh I was raised I was actually raised in church uh in Baton Rouge Louisiana my my parents were very big faithful Baptist people mom sanging the choir dad played the Oregon it's on this side which we sat right here about seven rows back with with my grandmother and now so Dad could keep an eye on us I hated Church um we were there every Sunday uh my my preacher talked about hell like he was born and raised in Hell come on everybody right and he always pointed over there you know like right at me like oh so when I was seven I walked the aisle I was seven years old and I walked the AIS uh and cu the communion table and everything and and and God saved and I didn't I didn't get saved I just didn't want to go to hell you know I'm seven but I ain't stupid but anyway um still didn't like church for a long time uh and so but but I'm I'm 61 I've never missed the sunny in church in my life um to date uh I but uh I I when I was 15 I got radically saved U but I wasn't radically healed so I'm going to heaven but I still have issues because when I was in junior high I I was bullied quite a bit uh we changed we changed sides of town right in the middle of a when I was when I was going through puberty and it was a hard time for me so I had no friends and I ended up in a PE class of uh they didn't have room I was in eth grade and they didn't have any more room in the eighth grade class they put me in the ninth grade class and uh and these were like fully grown men in this class right you know I'm there hey guys you know like I was just and and they they pulled my shorts down they they actually tied me to the fence with their jackets um I know like picked me up held me up like I'm off the ground legs dangling used their coats to tie me to the fence and then the bell rang to go the next period and I'm stuck I'm on the fence and then the coach the coach comes out and says Hodes what are you doing and I just said I was trying to be funny I was trying to lighten the M like just hanging around coach you're like hey know and uh and he pulled me down and paddled me like he he took me to his office and paddled me he says you're causing you're causing trouble with all the guys aren't you like no sir like that's they did this to me and it it Mark it's SC it like stuff got written and I'm only telling you this because I'm wondering what happened to you like what what what is in your story you maybe you're saved going to heaven but there's some stuff written there right and it's now it's a filter that's become your breast piece of decision you're you're making decisions based on not the situation not not on the fact that she was late or he was you know he didn't pick up his clothes it's not that it's something else that's going on in your heart right so that's a and I just want us to like look at it a little bit and see if that's not the case and so as I'm going on I I end up in at at LSU uh didn't know what I wanted to be um I'm about four years saved radically saved but my dad was in finance so I I I was an accounting major and I'm good I'm good with math and money and all of that and um but I I was trying to pass I'm not I'm not a very smart guy I'm making se's on my best day where my C people at by the way encourage your brother up here thank you very much love you back love you back where the eight people at eight people eight people we're not crazy about you just not crazy about you stay home once in a while you're messing up a curve everybody so so um that's true you really are um in fact I have to pause and tell you guys we have a daughter and four sons and my oldest son is real smart like he made a 33 on the ACT got a full ride academic scholarship to Alabama finished a four-year degree in three years went on to get an MBA now he has his MD I mean like he's smart and um so anyway we were in the kitchen one day when he got his final report C card from high school in the mail and so he opened it I'll never forget this and he opened up he goes Dad look at there look look look look all A's again I never I never made a B in my whole life I said that ain't nothing I never made a be in my whole life either just shut on just get on out of here I don't need to talk to you just move on just you just can move on right and so I'm that is funny I was I was I I was living with this like inferiority complex because it was something that was written on my heart you're you're you're you're dumb like you and so I was acting it out I was trying everything to try to make up for it by entertaining people I would I I was the guy who would take the Dare I'm getting in a lot of trouble because of that but I'm living out of a decision I I have names that are written on my heart that are that are the means by which I am now living my life and making my decisions until I get Spirit-filled and in God's starts to work in my life and slowly things begin to change and the bad names and the bad experiences get Unwritten off my heart and the good names and good people and good scriptures and good processes started getting written on my heart and I'll just tell you up front it won't happen in a moment sometimes it does people just get radically changed just one alter moment but most times it's this process where we're actually transformed by the by by the power of God uh my father-in-law um who was my best friend in the whole world uh he unfortunately died at 61 years old with melanoma little little tumor on the bottom of his foot that four doctors misdiagnosed and anyway when they figured out what it was um it was wasn't long after that that he went to heaven but he was a hero to me I mean um he actually introduced me to my wife I I I'll flat out that's the nice way to put it he proposed to me y'all all right everybody okay um he they were missionaries in Germany I'm bringing students over there um and he one day he just said have you considered my daughter Tammy I said no sir haven't he goes I'd like you to take her out I'd like anything for you I'm happy to do it and anyway we fell in love and got married just few months later and um but his story is when he was in eighth grade yes he they grew up Catholic he didn't um he really didn't know the Lord and in eighth grade super super smart and the math teacher calls him to the chalkboard uh to do a math problem so the teacher writes it out and draws the line and said Hornsby come up here and do this problem and of course the teacher wants him to you know go through the whole process of figuring it out like you're supposed to do with math he is so smart without doing any of the you know putting numbers up the top and figuring it all out he figures it out while he's walking up so he walks up and just writes the answer and turns around goes back to his seat and the teacher said that's wrong he said no ma'am that's right he she said it's right but you didn't show your work I hated that part of math you didn't show your work' he said it doesn't matter I got it right now he shouldn't have talked to her that way okay and this is this is back this a while ago you didn't talk to your teachers like that and it made her mad and she pointed her finger in his face and said you'll never amount to anything and it got written now that's not a big statement but sometimes it is and in his case he started Living out you'll never amount to anything he checked out of school not physically but never mentally or emotionally ever went back ends up dropping out two years later at 15 he's sneaking out in the middle of the night trying to make a little money to go play in bars country music and bars at 15 years old at 1:00 in the morning parents didn't even know he's living this crazy chaotic life because he'll never amount to anything gets his girlfriend pregnant she ends up being my mother-in-law that baby born out of wedlock is my wife and year they were 17 years old 18 years old they get married they have two other little girls very very quickly so he's 20 21 years old with three little girls and never will amount to anything now now he needs money but he then has no education and in Baton Rouge if you want a job you go to one of the chemical refineries a third of all employees in in in Baton Rouge area are working in one of those refineries along the Mississippi River and so he goes to Exxon and but it'll never amount to anything and he fills out the test and when he turns in he says hey don't even bother call calling me back and he walks out they said well we we'll let you know how it turns out in 2 days 2 Days Later The Examiner calls and said Mr Hornsby come in we want to talk to you about your results and he says don't bother just tell me I failed because he'll never amount to anything they said no sir please come in if you don't mind and when he got there they said Mr Hornsby no one has ever scored higher on this test than you just did and the examiner said and if you put your mind to it you'll really amount to something someday and said the very opposite of what the math teacher said that he broke the curse he he reversed the curse are y'all with me church he checks in bam becomes very very successful gets saved Spirit-filled becomes a State Trooper was bodyguard for the governor went to three FBI hand-to hand combat schools ends up planting a church in North Louisiana planted churches all over Europe and became the founder of what is called The Association of related churches that has now planted more than 1,200 churches all across America boy he really ended up amounting to something someday right there's the point and best of all he became the father-in-law of Chris hoders no I'm just kidding but the point what I'm trying to say is I wonder how many of us are living out something that's been written on our hearts because it's this breast piece of decision I'll show you one more story before I kind of get to the the solution I hope I have your attention on on all this but I'll show you one other story it's fascinating story it's the story of someone you likely don't know anything about in the Bible uh you know his son real well his son is Abraham probably not very many people in the room there's some that probably can who can even name me who Abraham's daddy is his name is Tara there's one chapter in the Bible on Abraham's Dad okay and I have a theory and you don't have to believe it it's just a theory I think the original call that ended up on Abraham's life to be the father of many nations Abraham Isaac and Jacob I think it was not on Abraham I think it was on his daddy I think I think honestly Abraham was the plan B it's just a theory you don't have to agree with me okay in fact I thought it I think it was supposed to be Tara Abraham and Isaac God is the father and I'm gonna show you why I believe that again just go with me either way it's a great story okay I think you'll enjoy it um it says in verse 27 this is the account of Tara Tara became the father of three boys Abram nahor and Heron notice with me that the baby in the family is named Heron and Heron became the father of lot watch this verse very carefully while his father Tara was still alive Haron dies so the baby's gone so we know it's premature because everybody older is still alive so either by disease or by accident the baby in the family is suddenly dead and anybody who's ever experienced that knows how painful something like that can be and he dies in a city called ER you are and it's in the the land of the calans skip down to verse 31 it says Tara took his son Abram his grandson lot son of Heron and his daughter-in-law Seri the wife of his son Abram and together they set out from ER of the calans to go to Canaan now that's the part where I get the theory the only thing that's missing in the text for me to be 100% right is this for to say God sent them all we know is just one day terara wakes up and said family pack your back we leaving ER and we're going to Canaan Canaan would end up being the promised land okay sorry is everybody with me yes or no you're with me okay so they set out from the ER of the calans to go to Canaan but when they came to Heron they settled there so between where they were look up here for a second where they were and where they were going was a city that just so happened to have the same name as the dead baby boy so in order to get from where he was to his Promised Land he had to pass through his greatest relational wound and when he got there he never left there he settled there and the next verse is a horrible verse it says that Tara lived 205 years and died with the same thing written on his heart he couldn't get past that and so he never got got to his Canaan and that's where we get the famous verses that you do know where God says okay I still need somebody to go be this so then God calls Abram he says why don't you leave because it doesn't even make sense if you know the text he says leave your family leave like what like if you're going to be a great nation why would you leave your family it's because they were settled in their relational wound they were settled in are y'all following me everybody this is a this is a an incredible thought that we we had this problem sometimes with what happened to us what people have done to us what we've done to ourselves with our wounds our hurts our names for me it was infer you're inferior I'm inferior I lived with it even in Ministry for years you're you're inferior you're you're you're a sea student from Louisiana and y'all Louisiana's 50th on every list there is maybe 49 thank God for Arkansas come on somebody right I don't know I don't know all I know is if you're in the bottom of of the 50th day you're in the very bottom bottom right and and and that was a name I lived they said ou'll never do anything either and so some of us we have some things we're living out but they need to get erased everyone can I get a better amen out there we need we need to deal with some of these issues because it's it it's it's a matter of the heart so what do we do about it let me bring it to a close by giving you a verse that I want to unpack slowly because I'm more of a teacher than a preacher um and I want so I've asked the team to put it lower thirds and leave it up there and let me just teach it to you and it goes like this it's in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16 18 sorry and it says but we all and I'm going to stop right there so this is an all play in other words I think all of us have something like that I think if we had time to talk to every one of you you could tell us what name what person with experience what thing is there that has become your filter that you are now making decisions that's affecting relationship and you think she's the problem and it's not you think he's the problem and he's not it's this thing and that's why it says so we we all need to play this we all and the next line says with unveiled face that's a fancy Bible way to say you have access to God the veil was the thing that kept people and God separated because we had sin but then Jesus came the Bible says and when he breathed his last breath on the cross the veil was torn and we no longer have to earn our way back to God you have direct access to God Take 5 seconds and give a Jensen Franklin praise break everybody all right woo all right and by the way you don't have to earn it because all your sins are paid for past present and future woo best thing you've ever heard all day long I promise you that okay okay so you so we all have direct access to God it says and we are now beholding as in a mirror in other words when you are close to God what he will do is he'll give you a mirror I call it a mirror moment it's a moment where you're going to see some things but when you look in God's mirror mirror you don't see you so all of you got up this morning and you you stood in front the mirror hopefully and checked your face and your teeth and your hair and you worked on and what you saw is who you are when you look in God's mirror you do not see who you are you see who you can be he tells you what's he tells you what's on the other side of all the things that are written on your heart for me it was I mean like y'all when I went at LSU my sophomore year I failed my speech class I was an accounting major and I had to take speech and I y'all I fail not not at the University of Connecticut at LSU y'all all right they don't even speak English there I failed speech at at LSU okay and then look what I do for a living so I so I was I was failing in something when God saw something else and I'm already saved right but I'm still failing something that was actually a potential and a purpose for me and that's what God do look in my eyes and God will give you mirror moments he'll say you know this is what your marriage could look like like this is what your attitude could look like you say no no no I can't my daddy was mean my granddaddy was mean my great- granddaddy was mean we just mean people no no no no you can have some come on somebody you can have some mirror moments where he says no no no this is what you can look like beholding as in a mirror what are we seeing the glory of the Lord the glory mean the word glory is the word kabad in the Hebrew and it literally translates the full weight of who God is in other words it's the full it's your full potential want me to say it this way you have full potential and it looks different what it looks like right now and you can still have it and what God does he'll give you glimpses of it in different moments in church services small groups whatever that's what all this is for this isn't so you can check your Sunday box it's it's for the potential for there to be a mirror moment where you go wow and it can happen in worship it can happen in prayer it could happen Okay but you'll get these and it's and it's not what you look like it's what you could look like it's the full weight of who God is and when it happens comma red verses again we are being transformed so now change can take place that's what the word CH transform mean by the way the essence of the Gospel is we're changed that that gets resisted in this culture today people want to go to heaven but they don't want to change I had a girl come up to me a several weeks ago after after one of our services and I was hanging out in the front here and um and she said hey this is my first time she's probably 20-some hey my first time I love it was so great she goes I just got one question she goes if I keep coming back are you going to try to change me and I said oh yes we are absolutely everything about you like and I hope it changes me we're not we're not in this just to be forgiven and stay who we are come on Church we're here to be changed in the presence of almighty God I'd be still failing my speech class if God hadn't changed me of course so open up your life to change we all who have this direct access with God are going to get some mirror moments where you can see who you can become and you can be changed into the same image you saw in the mirror so all the potential when I say to you your marriage can be the marriage everybody else looks at and models that's a mirror moment where you can say true and I'm gonna allow God to change me to that moment I can treat people like the best we're teaching the Song of Solomon right now at Highlands and woo it's spicy and um and it's really it's really great uh it's a great but the the whole the whole book starts with she's saying to Solomon you are the standard of human love nobody treats people better than you and and I and I I told our church last Sunday I want to be that person I want to say I want them to look at my marriage and look at how I treat people and say you have there's no equal the way you treat people your joy your peace your laughter your forgiveness the way like we're going to set that as an example that can happen when you allow God to change you into that image somebody say Amen right there I I think this is so great I get so fired up and it happens from glory to glory that means watch me church it's incremental it can happen all in one moment those are very those are rare though but they happen from glory to glory to glory so now I've been i' I've known the Lord for a long time now I'm 61 I got saved at 15 and the transformation is still beginning and I'm still not where I want to be but thank God I'm not where I used to be it's glory to glory to glory to glory all right you getting it and that's why you need to come back next Sunday and you need to bring somebody to sit with you in church and I think next Sunday we're going to have the renewal of vows and like let's just keep going from glory to glory to glory to glory to glory that's what it's all about and it happens by what look at the final part by the spirit of God the word spirit is the word Numa P Neu M A like pneumonia okay I don't know why the p is silent it just is okay and it's Numa and it means the the breath or the force or the power of God he'll put wind in your Sals to be able to do it so everybody in this room right now who's saying I can't do it you're right but you can if the spirit of God gets involved and propels you all the way and that's what that verse says all right you got it don't you I know you do okay so I want to close with a story uh that I heard from the pastor of this house Pastor Jensen actually because I I go to church on Mondays I was watching him preach and I have told this story in this moment I fact I texted him I said when's the last time you told this story at Free Chapel he said probably seven years ago I said can you mind if I retell it he goes help yourself uh there's a lot of new people so uh if you've been around a while seven years or more you probably know the story if not this will be new to you but I Pastor Jensen told this story true story about a lady named Marina Chapman who um some 60 70 years ago now was a little four-year-old girl in Bogata Columbia or the nation of Columbia in South America uh her their house uh bordered the jungle and so she's out playing in the backyard at four years old and she gets abducted and a man all she remembers because she writes this in a bestselling book National Geographic has done documentaries on it this has all been verified um but she was uh tied hands behind back hooded uh he used some kind of chemical to take her in and out of Consciousness um she vividly one of her Vivid memories is is being drugged into the jungle and the little branches cutting her little arms and legs and um he drags her deep into the jungle has his way with her uh in every way you can imagine and then leads her for dead um he leaves she somehow is able to get the her hands untied and of course the hood off she remembers I'm gon to stay right here because somebody will find me if I won't go any anywhere from here and then nightfalls and she talks vividly about the horrors of that night the the monkeys and the insects and the you can only imagine as it'd be hard as an adult much less a a four-year-old little girl who just was violated in every way and so um the the day comes for the second day and she's sure somebody's coming and nobody does and she said in some ways even though all that happened on the first first night the second night was the worst because uh she realized nobody's coming nobody's coming Third Day Rose around and a troop of monkeys come out and they were kind of hostile toward her at first uh you know growling at her and when they realized that she was not going to hurt them they relaxed and started foraging for food right there around her she remembers one of them licking a leaf that had Dew on it and and that's how copying the monkey that's how she got her first drops of water she doesn't know if they did it on purpose or not but uh when they left they left food and that was her first meal that third night the next day they came back same kind of story but those three or four days turned into a week and the week turned into a month and are you ready for this the the the month turned into a year and the year turned into 10 years before she was ever rescued she's now 14 years old and she's been hanging with the monkeys and she can you know somewhat communicate with Grunts and growls she learned from them she went through all her formative years in the jungle and by this time watch this she thinks she's one of them she actually learns how to to a certain degree climb trees obviously not to the level of a of a monkey but she would climb the trees sleep in the trees she's literally living what had been now branded on her heart she thinks she's one of them until one day she sees something in the jungle floor when she was up in the trees climbs down and it had eyes and the closer she got she realized those eyes were hers because it was a mirror that was left in the jungle floor and when she picked it up and looked at it she didn't know who she was yet but she knew who she wasn't she had a mirror moment she had a moment where she said maybe maybe I can have a good marriage maybe I can treat people better maybe I can and she didn't know yet how she was going to get there obviously but she did say this that once she had the mirror moment she was never satisfied with jungle life ever again my hope is that you as you heard this message that you never get satisfied with your marriage as it is or your relationships like they are or how you treat people or how people treat you or the unforgiveness or the hurt or the pain or the experiences or the whatever it is that's it's kept you in her and and settling there she had a mirror moment and the rest of the story is not totally good she actually was rescued by a group of hunters who ended up trafficking her for a number of years she gets out of that um and then I think she ended up living the rest of her life in England uh and had grandkids and lived a very happy life and wrote this book but my hope what I was trying to do today was not just preach to you I just wanted to bring you you the thought that whatever it is that you don't like about your life the part of you that's thinking this is just the way it's always going to be doesn't have to be you don't have to fail speech class you don't have to be inferior you don't have to never amount to anything no the the curse can be reversed in jesus' name everybody and you can be free and God can do a great work in your life and I want to speak that over you in Jesus name I want to say it to you and how do you do it it's in the verse we are being transformed like it's a process we're going to pray today I'm going to pray for you today but also I want you to be back to next week and I want you to get in a small group but I want you to perhaps get up tomorrow morning and read your Bible and pray and talk to God that if you'll go through this process of glory to glory you're going to notice that your marriage is the best marriage your life's the best life as God works on the inside of you so let me give you a few thoughts of what that could look like I'm talking about like go all in with God I'm speaking to every nominal Christian in here and you show up kind of when you feel like it and check that old box and you you'll hear spiritual things again next Sunday no I'm saying go be an all-in Christian that's my story when I finally gave my life to Jesus I realized I was not satisfied with just being baptized owning a Bible and going to church and hear heing about hell that I wanted I wanted to be like I needed I wanted real salvation don't be a fake Christian be the real thing go all in with God by the way you'll never experience the best of God until you go all in with God ever and then the next step of allowing him to touch the issues of your heart the ones that right now you preferred for nobody to touch so you're going to heaven but you're not enjoying the ride there and you can actually be healed in your heart if you'll allow God God to touch that part of your life I call it finding freedom but there's even more beyond that you can actually be a participant in the body of Christ you can actually what I call worship one serve one you can find your gift and not just be a spectator but be in the game of the thing that's called the life of the local church like be involved in next steps and find out what it looks like and don't take my word for it talk to somebody who was in the earlier service that is now serving you in this service and they'll tell you they like the service they serve in more why because purpose has replaced their pain and a new thing got written on their heart I am a part of the body of Christ and now I mount to are y'all following me everybody and your life can actually count for something and so father I pray for the people today and I'm asking for healing to take place and Lord I pray God for every wound every hurt every bad experience every coach every teacher every parent who said stuff that just wasn't true but it hurt and it got written by the power of the Holy Spirit I pray Holy Spirit erase the bad names write the new names I pray God on our hearts as we go through the process of being transformed grow us as we lean into to you and all that you have for us grow us I pray in changes in your image to the full weight the full potential can you receive this I speak the purpose of God over your marriage and over your life and over your children God Bless the people of God today in Jesus name with your heads bowed your eyes closed can I ask you politely no one looking around for just a moment and I never like to close the service without giving people a chance to either get saved for the first time or renew your commitment to Christ I'm not going to have you stand up I'm not going to call you to the front but I do want to say something I hope you never forget you're never going to be able to do this without the power of God in your life and he loves you and if you feel distant from Jesus today it feels like he's a Million Miles Away you're one heartfelt prayer from the barrier being broken and you getting close with God and then you get his power and his anointing and his spirit and if I I just describ what you want can I pray for you right there in your seat right there where you are again I'm not going to call you to the front or make you stand up or anything but if you want to be involved in that prayer you're either coming to God for the first time or you're coming back home because he's so far away without hesitation lift your hand as high as you can right now and say Count Me In Count Me In literally hundreds of hands all across this room God bless you today maybe all online and those that are watching church can we support them right now and I'll pray aloud come on every voice let's pray together let's say it in full voice in fact stand up on your feet everybody let's pray this prayer together and I want everybody to pray it Out Loud come on in strong voice say Jesus thank you for dying on the cross paying for my sin what I did today I receive what you did for me by surrendering my life completely to you come on say it strong strong forgive me change me come live inside of me oh say it strong because I believe you are the Son of God who rose from the dead and today I put my faith in you in your name I pray amen and amen come on give God some Praise In This Place what a powerful message yes that was I don't know about you guys but I am so encouraged to evaluate some of the things that are written on my heart and maybe some of the things that need to be replaced with God's truth and I would encourage each of you guys to do the same yes and if you recently accepted Jesus please text the word yes to 510510 or if you are in need of prayer you can text the word prayer to 510510 this has again been such a powerful week of our incredible Better Together series but next week we're switching it up never before done and at the movie style message for better together but this is so important we need you to sign up at freechapel.org mov to watch online that is the only way to watch it we will not be playing it on Facebook or YouTube you have to go to fre ch.org movies so be sure you sign up today so there's not a single issue whenever you log in to watch service next week it's going to be so powerful it'll be pastor preaching you'll not want to miss yes and we just wanted to say thank you for all the generous generosity with the giving to this ministry the 100,000 that affected our California fires investment in our next Generation with our weekly kids and youth services and events like Board conference again just thank you so much for all the giving yes you guys help us do what we do across the globe so thank you for your generosity but before we go we want to leave you with the blessing again be sure you go to free.org mov so that you do not miss next week but we're going to leave you with the blessing now may the Lord bless you and keep you may he make his face shine upon you may he be gracious unto you may he lift up his count upon you and may he give you peace we love you all so much and we'll see you next week bye everybody 
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