Confessions 04-10-2026

Good morning everybody. Happy Friday. Welcome to the grace gang and uh love you guys so much and all is well. God is a good God and uh I pray that he will share and show his goodness uh on your life this morning. And um yeah, man. We're going we're going to talk about a serious serious subject today.

Worldly worldliness uncovered. I mean, what does that mean? And I'm not talking about what you've heard somebody say or traditionally heard somebody say. Um but man, we really we really need to dig into this. I think it'll help you out going forward. and just we're just trying to uh dismantle some of the traditional religious ways of thinking that um may seem like it's just a small part, but it just kind of takes people farther and farther away from God's will.

And um I tell you what, God is so good. Amen. So, where are you guys uh joining me from? Uh let's find out who's in the house this morning. who is in the house this morning. Uh we want to welcome you to the grace gang. Uh South Africa is joining us this morning and Tucker, Georgia, Sagena, Michigan and love you guys in India, they're in the house with us this morning.

Lancaster is in the house with us. College Park in the house. America's Georgia, Massachusetts and Houston and McKenna, Texas. We welcome you guys to the Grace Gang. uh New York. Uh we welcome those of you in I think it's Egan, Minnesota to the house this morning. And uh Snailville, Georgia, uh Fedville, Georgia, um uh Orlando, welcome to the Grace Gang this morning.

Austin, Texas in the house. Ellenwood, Georgia, Tanzania, we welcome you. Uh, San Diego, Sweden is in the house. Like I said, Tanzania, the Netherlands is joining us today, they're in the house with us. Welcome to the Grace Gang this morning. Trinidad, Zimbabwe, uh, is joining us this morning.

Welcome to the Grace Gang. Memphis, Tennessee, St. Louis, uh, Fountain Inn, uh, welcome to the Grace Gang this morning. George is in the house strong this morning. Praise God. Uh, and I just, uh, South Bend, Indiana, Buffalo, New York, Panama City, Florida. Nigeria is in the house with us this morning.

Uh, yeah, I miss you guys in India as well. Hope to see you soon. Liberia is in the house. Durban, South Africa, Aurora, Los Angeles is in the house. Tanzania is strong in the house this morning. Uh, God bless you guys from Tanzania. Uh welcome to the grace gang.

We send blessings to you guys today as we celebrate this Friday. Nova Scotia uh is in the house this morning. Switzerland is in the house with the San Antonio. The UK uh College Park is is showing up great this morning. Welcome to the Grace Gang. Um Arizona is in the house.

Locust Grove, Carolton, Georgia, Sylvester, Georgia. I tell you, Georgia's strong here this morning. Um, we just we just give you praise this morning and we we thank God for you. Welcome to the Grace Gang. Cincinnati, Ohio, Charlotte, North Carolina, Albenny, Georgia, uh, in the house this morning. Welcome to the Grace Gang this morning.

Um, Hattisburg, Chicago, Shreport, welcome to the house. Southern California in the house this morning. Praise the Lord. Um we welcome you guys in Chicago, uh Edinburgh, Texas, Cleveland, Ohio, Denver, Colorado, and uh yeah, College Park is strong in here. The international city, God bless you guys. Uh New Mexico is in the house this morning.

Uh, Richard's Bay, South Africa is joining us this morning. Uh, the BC in Canada, Austin, Texas. Hey, we want to welcome the world to to the Grace Gang this morning. And, uh, I just believe that God's riches and best will will continue to be yours. The Philippines is in the house with us this morning.

Uh, Ko, Mississippi, Fort Worth, Texas. Uh yeah man, we are we are excited to have you join us for the grace gang this morning. Uh Ghana is in the house. Ptoria, South Africa is in the house this morning. Tyrone, Georgia, God bless you guys and uh we pray that all is well in uh in Malibu and uh Johannesburg's in the house with us this morning.

College Park again on another platform. And uh I I just I so appreciate uh my city, College Park. And I also appreciate the Grace Gang. Last night I was doing a podcast with these two amazing young men who are just really just using their gifts to to help their community and their and their society.

Um and um you know, I heard the Grace Gang showed up. Appreciate you, Grace Gang. you showed up. You're just awesome. Praise God. Manila is in the house this morning. The Philippines is joining us. Welcome to the Grace Gang. Uh we talked last night about a lot of relationships.

I was enlightened with a lot of the things that came in last night and um yeah, it was so so so good. And my hats out to those gentlemen. They are just uh they're they're doing a work to help their community. And I want to encourage all of you.

You have a gift, you've got a talent, uh use it to be a blessing uh to somebody. And uh yeah, all is well. Sarasota uh yeah, Saratoga Springs, New York is in the house with us this morning. And um uh God bless you guys. God bless you. Amen.

Well, let's go ahead and and get Psalms 91 equipped. Um, remember it's stuff that flows from your heart that makes all the difference in the world. I mean, you know, you can give even money and your heart's not in it, but you can't have God in your heart and not want to give in into lives of people and bless people and help people and um support people.

It's it's just one of those things that when your heart is in it, this whole New Testament is all about heart motivation. God's really looking for you to do things out of your heart. Amen. Um more than um doing things out of obligation. You're sometimes as Christians, we can only get into doing what's required.

Okay, I'm going to do it because it's required. And what God's looking for is, you know, what what's coming out of your heart. You know, the Bible says out of your heart flows the issues of life. He wants your heart, man. He wants your heart. There is a place uh I believe in all of our hearts where God resides.

And so everything's going to be checked out based on, you know, heart. Heart. It's out of your heart. So, uh, let's go ahead and do Psalms 91 and quip and and let's get into this today. Repeat after 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. Praise God. You're my God in whom I trust. Wow. And with great confidence in whom I will rely. God will rescue me from every trap and protect me from every disease.

I'm covered and protected by his outstretch 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. 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 all my troubles. He will deliver me from all my fears. And he will honor me with his presence and power. He will reward me with long life. And he will show me his salvation.

I declare now that I am Psalms 91 equipped in the mighty name of Jesus. And everybody said, "Amen." And amen. Hey, I want to give you two quick scriptures that I want you to check out with me. Uh the first one is in the book of Titus, chapter 2.

Uh Titus chapter 2, that's a little book right after 2 Timothy. So find 2 Timothy and take a right. Titus chapter 2 and I'm going to read verse 11 and 12. We're studying out of the King James this morning. He says, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath already appeared to all men."

So the grace of God that brings salvation has already appeared to man. So salvation is a grace gift, right? And what is this grace doing? teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. Now, we know what ungodliness is. It is um a total disregard for God. It's not even, you know, to disregard God, it gets you to a point where you don't even think that you need God to bless what you're doing anymore.

I mean, he's completely out of the picture. It's your plan, your program. You're not consulting God. you're not regarding God. And that can happen with a bunch of uh wellto-do Christians who are morally uh right, but they just don't regard God in any of the things that they do.

So, the Bible says grace is teaching us uh that uh uh that denying ungodliness and worldly lust that we should live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world. So, we should live godly. Grace is going to teach us how to live godly versus being ungodly. But then he talks about worldly lust.

Look at the book of uh first John chapter 2. First John chapter 2. So we already know the answer to uh to overcoming worldliness and that is uh the grace of God. But we need to find out what this is and not go by some uh definition that you know people are just talking about and don't even know if it's it's it's it's it's uh it's Bible or not.

So 1 John chapter 2 verse 15 through 17 love not the world neither the things that are in the world. So he's talking worldliness here. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. Wow. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the father.

So he kind of defines worldliness here. He said worldliness is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Um verse 17, "And the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." All right. So, what is all this about?

I mean, I' I've I've read these scriptures and being acquainted with these scriptures for a minute, and I remember me just studying and saying, "Man, we got to make this plain so people can really get a hold of this." All right. Now, let me let me present let me present a a um a statement for you to think about this as we we move on today.

If you're lost, if you if you have lost your joy, and see if this is you. If you've lost your joy, uh, and if you feel far from God, uh, if you've lost your joy, you feel far from God, you're you're busy, but with no purpose. You're busy, but with no purpose. you're bored with spiritual things, right?

Then maybe, just maybe, you're too attracted to this world. Maybe you've become worldly. I'm not saying you have, but these are these are normally signs, you know, lost your joy, feel far from God, you're too busy, but without any purpose. Um, you're bored with spiritual things. Maybe you're too attracted to the world.

Maybe you're too attracted to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Maybe you've become worldly. Now, I know some of you may be thinking, "Well, wait a minute, brother Dollar. I don't cuss. I don't cheat. I don't steal. Uh, in fact, I attend church.

I give offerings. I serve. I love the preaching of the word of God. I'm not worldly. But there's one thing. These are not the things that determine worldliness. Okay? You know, those things don't determine worldliness. What does it mean when he talks about love not the world? All right, get ready to write this down.

This is huge, guys. Love not the world. Love when what he means is this. Love not the fallen wicked system that leaves God out and lies under the influence of Satan. So, we leave God out of out of our lives. We leave God out of our decisions. We leave God out of whatever we're doing and we we are under the influence of Satan.

There is a scripture I want to read to you out of u 1 John 5 and 19. If you'll flip there real quick before we really get into this. Um 1 John 5 and verse 19. He says, "And we know that we are of God and the whole world lith in wickedness."

Wow. We are of God and the whole world lies in wickedness. Now, worldliness refers to the harmful values that Satan spreads throughout humanity. the harmful values that Satan spreads throughout humanity. It's his system of operating without God. That's what worldliness is. It's a system of operation without God.

Now, let's look at some things real carefully because some of you are probably like all over the place and I need to reel you back in. All right. Um, does entertainment like movies and games count as worldliness? Not necessarily. No, not necessarily. Uh, could entertainment be used to teach harmful values?

Yeah, they could be used to teach harmful harmful values. But do you have to believe everything you see in entertainment? No. You have to believe everything you see in entertainment. So to love the world literally is to ignore God. To love the world is to ignore God. Wow.

That's pretty plain, isn't it? Took all them years to get that statement. Uh so much worldliness is blamed on the externals and yet sometimes externals are no indicators at all of worldliness. Someone for example may look worldly or be you know have little outside external things of worldliness and yet they have a passionate heart for Christ alone.

What's what's going on in here? Do you have a passion for Christ alone? The externals are not the issues, ladies and gentlemen. For worldliness stems from a heart that desires anything but the Lord first in all things. Wow. I I Yeah. Yeah. Let me just let you just think on that for a moment.

I'll say that again. Worldliness stems from a heart that desires anything but the Lord first in their life. And like I said, to love the world is to ignore God. Okay? So, you're a Christian, but you disregard God. And and that's according to um what we read uh in Titus, that's ungodly.

Ungodliness is not about again the externals. It's more about do I do I ignore God? Am I disregarding God? to the point where you're doing something but you're not even paying attention to God. You don't think about it. What must it feel like to say where what does a person have to be to say, "I'm getting ready to start this endeavor, but I'm I'm not even going to ask I'm I'm I think I don't even need to take time to ask God to bless it.

I don't even want him involved." Wow. uh craving for physical pleasure, craving for everything we see, pride in our achievements and possessions as as if we did it without God. Okay? So most of that worldliness is the craving for something else other than God. You're craving for physical pleasure, but you're ignoring God.

You're craving for everything you see, but you're ignoring God. You have pride in your own achievements and possessions, but you're ignoring God. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, that's worldliness. Worldliness is turning your back on God. Wow. And what you long for in your heart is what makes you a lover of the world.

What do you long for in your heart? Do you crave Jesus? See, this is this is the thing that's so important. People will judge you and shame you and condemn you for all the external things and they have no idea that they may be more worldly than you are.

But it's right here. It's right here. Have you turned your back on God? Understand? Well, what do you mean? See, you crave pleasure. You fantasize over sin. You lust over possessions. And you become envious of the unsaved. In other words, worldliness is a wrong focus in that which can never satisfy.

Worldliness is a wrong focus on that which will never satisfy. See, you look at stuff on the outside and you want to you you want to you want to judge somebody's heart on the inside. You can't do that. And that's what I'm saying. For years, we have we have misjudged people because of the external things.

And you don't know their heart. And you don't know, you don't know their heart. The these people love God. They depend on God. They trust God. I mean, they ride with God. They do everything with God. And And you, you don't know that. And you take the blessings of God for worldliness.

You you take how a person dress for worldliness. You know, you're critical of their hairstyle and say they must be worldly. And yet, while you are judging that person for those external things, you're the one that ignores God. I mean, when God tells you to do certain things, you're ignoring him and do what you want to do.

God tells you how to love you. You do what you want to do. He tells you how to pray for your enemies. I'm ignoring God. I'm going to do what I want to do. That's worldly because now you're you're so tied into what the world is doing. Your influence is coming from the world and you're completely ignoring God.

That's worldly. It's worldly. You're ignoring God. And what happens? You have a wrong focus in that which can never satisfy. That's worldly. You're focusing on that which can never satisfy. Money can't ever satisfy you. Okay? Getting all the worldly things that you see with your eyes, it can't satisfy you. thinking that you're responsible for your success, that's that's not going to satisfy you.

Okay. So, um yeah, worldly lust is having an appetite or placing greater value on those carnal things, the things that you pick up with your senses, the things you can see, hear, touch versus spiritual things. So you've you've placed a greater value on the carnality of the world.

The carnal things uh carnal things are are things that that um are of the senses. One of the definitions of carnal is of the senses. So you're placing more value uh on of the senses. Uh yeah, man. Somebody just said something that was I'm just my I'm just so proud of them.

Um, let me see if I can remember what they said. They said, uh, in other words, they keep they keep judging themselves of their own hypocrisy. You know that you know how powerful it is when you can look at yourself in the mirror and say, "I got hypocrisy.

I'm judging myself of of of hypocrisy." That's that's strong. That's being vulnerable with yourself. Now, you're ready to be vulnerable with God. And then you can choose wisely who to be vulnerable with next. But think about that. Do you have a greater appetite for the things of your senses?

Or do you have a greater appetite for carnality than you do for spiritual things? You desire. Worldliness is when you desire and you focus on what you see. You focus on what you hear. You focus on what you feel. You focus on what you touch and what you can taste more than the unseen realities.

Yeah. What about those unseen realities? What what about all the gifts that God has already given us? Wow. So, we've got to live from the perspective of eternity, guys. And um so, how do I change my desire, my appetites, my focus from the world? You got to trust God to change your desires.

How? By believing in Jesus. That's how you do that. You accept what Jesus has already done for you. You stand on that no matter what happens. You stand on that no matter if you can see it or feel it or touch it. That's how you get delivered from the world.

I realize who Jesus is. I realize what Jesus has done for me. I realize all that stuff. And I'm standing on that. And I consider it more important than anything I can feel, see, touch. It's the It's the um statement we make. I am not moved by what I see.

I'm not moved by what I feel. Uh, I'm moved by uh about by about by about by about by about by about by about by about by about by about by about by about by by Jesus. I'm moved by what he's done for me. I'm moved by what he's finished for me.

I mean, he's finished all of these things and and and there's so many people that won't come to realize what Jesus has already done. Uh, and you you you'll be tested. You know, I had something to hit my body this past week and I just went around saying, "Well, my healing is already done."

So, I receive it right now. Oh, Lord, I realize that I'm already delivered and healed in Jesus name. I receive it right now. So when you go through those tests, make sure you have your mouth open to declare what Jesus has finished for you. Praise God. Uh you broke and you you open your mouth up and say, "Well, you know, my provision is finished.

My my provision is a finished thing." I realize right now, you know what that does? Brings great peace. Great peace, man, for you to stand. And I've just believed, you know, by trusting Jesus and by standing on the finished and dwelling in the finished, your focus is not on on on worldliness.

Your focus is on spiritual things. Your focus is not on carnal things. You're not ignoring God. I mean, every time something happens, that's the He's the He's the first thought. Um he's the first thought. Hallelujah. I'm not ignoring God. He's my first thought. Praise God. Woo. Y'all, I'm getting kind of stirred up thinking about this man.

And um when when he's no longer your first thought, when he's no longer considered in the situations of life, when when you kick him off the path that you're going to, when you're when you're ignoring him in the midst of the journey you're taking, and in place of that, I'm concerned about what I can the appetite and my craving of what I can see and the craving and appetite of what I hear and the craving and appetite. and then you boast about what what you accomplish.

Um then you're you're right in the middle of ungodliness and worldly lust. Uh let me tell you something, dude. Um the Bible says that the grace of God will teach us how to be godly and how to walk free from worldly lust. And I'm not I'm not saying to you guys, all right guys, uh go ahead and um you know, do this thing yourself.

I am saying that you have a God who has given you grace and mercy and and I would rely on that. And you just you don't know the power of changing your thinking and your focus. And Satan is after your focus. That's what worldliness is all about. He is after your focus.

So what what what is he how what is he accomplishing in your life? And um you sit around focusing on this, you sit around focusing on that. You no man, I'm going to focus on the finished works. I'm going focus on Jesus. I'm going to focus on on what he's already done.

I'm going to realize that I'm healed, delivered, set free. That whatever issue I get in, God has already delivered me out of it. The battle's been fought. The victory's been won. Don't let the enemy today or this weekend steal your focus. Now, it's his job to try to come after it, right?

But just because it's his job to come after you, let him know you you picked the wrong one. I'm not giving up my focus on Christ. And and listen, if you're like me, that's all I got. I mean I mean, if Christ is not in my life, I I ain't got nothing.

There's no need to me living. I mean, that's all I got. I mean with every situation, with every circumstance, right, wrong or indifferent, that's the one who I depend on. The Garden of Eden and everything that happened in the Garden of Eden was the fact that they thought they didn't need to depend on God.

And all of all of God's creation knew they had to depend on him. And then man rebelled because he thought he didn't need God anymore. Uh, I hope this helped you guys. I was uh really led of the Lord to to instruct you with this. Uh, Jesus is my everything, man.

And I hope he's your everything. It's like we judge things in such a wrong way. People need to go to to a class on how to judge things properly. I mean, you have judges in and in and courts and they had to go to school for a long time and practice law for a long time so that they can know how to rightly judge a thing.

And as Christian people, especially lonely and mean Christian people, you you you got to stop. You have so much in your own life. I don't even know how you have time to judge other people. It's just, you know, okay, so somebody's not doing it as as right as you think they ought to be doing it, but you don't know them.

You don't know them. And uh and yet it ain't like you flawless right now and perfect right now. Stop it. It's just so we got to get rid of this division and this stuff. Stop it. Okay? And politics cannot be an excuse to ignore God. Okay, that's a that's another place where it's drawing people in uh into worldliness.

You're ignoring God. Okay, and God is like saying, "No, you know, love that Democrat, love that Republican, love that independent person, and you're ignoring God. No, I'm not doing that." And then you pull up all the reasons why you ain't doing it, bro. Stop. Stop. It's division. It's ungodliness.

And you need God. And you need to focus on God. That's right. Somebody just said, "Change your thinking. Change your life." So, um, no excuses. Uh, let's have an amazing weekend. Even if you don't agree what I just shared with you, think about it and allow God to take you to another level where you can thrive in his presence and the grace of God will teach you how to walk in godliness.

And uh yes, this is a part of renewing your mind. And uh you know, but some people think, well, I don't need to renew my mind. I'm just fine like I am. I've been like this for the last 30 years. And look at you little nappy hair. I apologize.

I wasn't sweet lips. Amen. Praise the Lord. But y'all know what I'm talking about, man. Come on. Let's Let's just Let's do this thing. Let's have a weekend uh and just challenge yourself. Have a weekend where you're focused on God. Have a weekend where you don't ignore him and um you know, you find yourself just focusing in on everything else but God.

Amen. Well, everything's going to be all right, guys. Uh, sweet lip. Praise God. Amen. Sweet lips increase learning. Amen. Yeah. I got I got salt of grace gang. All right, pastor. Remember, sweet lips cuz I told y'all y'all remind me. Sweet lips. Sweet lips. Praise the Lord. Uh, listen, if you need prayer this morning, um, we want to give you that opportunity.

If you're on Streamyard, you can hit that QR code. Uh if not, you can text prayer center to 51555 and that should get you connected. And uh that's again prayer center all caps to 51555. We're we're just we're pulling out everything we have in the ministry to h make impact in the lives of people all over the world.

And and we're going to pull that out. We're going to keep going forward. We believe that God's riches and best will continue to be yours as you seek him first. And uh I'm just trying to teach people how to receive a gift and that Jesus is that gift.

Well, God bless you guys. I love you so much. Um we'll see you this Sunday from the pull pit of world changers and uh all is well with