Skip to content Guest Message - Gary Wilkerson Apr 21 · 49 min ...more
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
156K followers
Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
156K followers
0:00 You are listening to Waters Church podcast. Waters Church is a multisite, multigeneration community of faith on the East Coast of America. Now for a message from our pastor.0:21 Thank you. That's very kind. Most people don't stand up for me when I'm getting up to preach, but that was kind of cute. I'd like to take a moment to welcome those who are came into this building0:32 today, as well as those who are joining us from locations around, really, and now you guys can say around the world, right? Not just here in Rhode Island or the northeast and Florida.0:45 When pastor Tim first invited me to speak here to you can I can I just start with a confession? Bible says confession is good for the soul. And so when pastor Tim and Cheryl0:57 I met them last weekend in in sunny California, sunny warm California. And then, because of the events of the family that I got a call, I think it was on Monday or Tuesday,1:09 and they invited me to come to speak. Well, pastor Tim and Cheryl told me they lived in Florida. So I told my wife, hey. I just got an invitation to go speak in Florida. I live in Colorado, and and it's cold all the1:21 time in Colorado. I told them, why? I'm going to. And my wife couldn't go with me, so I was, like, boasting. I'm going to sunny Florida. You know? And and then I then I called,1:33 Linda, and she said, oh, it's actually in in Rhode Island. And I went, yeah. No, I went, look, I got my jacket out and I thought, well, just1:45 stay in cold. But you got to I tell you what, but even though it's outside, it's cold. I sent some really warm people in this place, a lot of love for 1 another and already just standing1:56 up here, a kindness towards me. That's so cool of you guys. I really appreciate that so much. Anybody in this room interested in how to change?2:08 Yeah. And don't raise your hand here because you could get in trouble. Any of you wives in this place interested in how your husband can change?2:20 Excuse me. Any any of you, reverse it. Wives, husbands, wives could change. How many parents and you can raise your hand here if your kids aren't in the room, if they're in children's church. How many of you parents2:32 wish you could figure out how you could change your children? Can you just wave at me a little bit? And I have 4 kids, 11 grandkids. A couple of my kids became prodigal children and for years we prayed over them.2:44 1 of them became an addict, which was really rough on me because my dad started a ministry called teen challenge many, many years ago. And so he was helping tens of thousands of drugging and alcoholics2:56 get set free, and I couldn't even keep my own son free from and I felt guilt and shame and discouragement. What's wrong with me? Why wasn't I a better father? And 1 day my son called me and said,3:08 after many years of addiction, actually became homeless for a short amount of time. And he called me 1 day and said, dad, last night I was in this room and I was laying on the bed, totally pitch black. And all of a3:19 sudden a light came on. Not a light like this up here, not a physical light. But he said the room was illuminated by the presence of Jesus, and I instantly gave my life to Christ.3:31 And, yeah. He was set free from drugs, set free from alcohol, set free from sleeping around. It just got radically3:43 changed. That's been 8 years ago. Now he is married, has 3 beautiful children. His children love the Lord. He lives near me, and we get to pray together all the time. How does change3:55 happen? It's a miracle through Jesus. And when when you meet Jesus, so much so many miracles take place in your life. Your your sins are forgiven. You have new hope, a new start in4:06 life. Right? You can say amen if you want to. Amen. But the problem is, I don't know if you have the same problem with me, as I4:18 have, but, even after Jesus changes you, have you noticed there's still a few things left to be changed? Like attitudes, grumpiness,4:31 pride, probably the worst sin of all, selfishness. Every sin is rooted really in selfishness. I don't feel good, I'm gonna drink or use drugs or sleep4:42 around. You know, I don't feel good, I'm gonna get angry at other people. Selfishness, addictions, pornography, immorality. Or or or how do we change4:54 the you know, Jesus changes us when we meet Christ. But sometimes I I'm a pastor. I've been a pastor for, gosh, longer than most of you who've been alive, 40 something years. And,5:07 you know, the instant we meet Jesus, old things are passed away and all things become new, but but there are certain things left in the heart to need to be deal with. That's what the Bible calls the process of5:17 sanctification. Right? He he's chiseling away at things that that don't belong, and he's looking to to move in new ways in your life and mine. And I5:29 so so as a pastor, if it's okay with you, can I have your permission this morning just to give a little bit of pastoral care in the room today? I mean, yeah. That's okay. Can I5:42 can we sort of use a a a sanctified imagination and say, you have come say say I'm the pastor of this church and I have an office here? Let's just say you come in and spend5:54 an hour with me, and and you tell me, here's some things I'm dealing with. Here's here's what my marriage I'm gonna be honest with you. I walk into church on Sunday morning. Everybody asks me how I'm doing, and I go6:04 like, oh, praise God. Hallelujah. I'm just filled with joy and life. And inside you're saying, like, why am I lying? Because what I really wanna tell this person is my marriage is falling apart. I6:16 I I can't get rid of this lust in my brain. I can't get rid of a lack of confidence. I I these voices in my head. Right? They keep telling me, you're no good. You're6:28 worthless. You'll never amount to anything. And so come sit in my office for an hour, would you? And let me let me talk to you about the thing that you would say. What would you say to me? Here's the first question I6:40 have for you. Think about it. Don't just don't just just be interactive a little bit, and I'm not gonna call on you and come up with a stage, and please tell us your deepest, darkest secrets, okay? I won't do that. But6:51 if we were talking 1 on 1, what would you tell me? What would you say would be the core of the deepest trouble that you're facing in your life? I've got sweet.7:03 Somebody's already telling me what it is. Thank you. The the the these are things that we wanna talk about today that I believe the holy spirit sent me here today, not just to talk to7:14 you, not just to give you some information like, here's 10 steps. But the holy spirit is in this room to actually thoroughly fully contend7:26 with the issues of our heart to bring that thing that you're longing for. There's a longing in your heart. I wanna be free. I wanna be delivered from this.7:39 I don't wanna treat my kids like that anymore. I I don't wanna come home from work and with my with my spouse feel these certain things and talk these certain ways. I7:50 don't I don't want when my wife's falling asleep, I don't wanna go into the other room and open up my computer and look at some things I shouldn't be looking at. Right? You wanna you wanna change? So8:02 Jesus, we invite you to come in this room and and through this message, power to the holy spirit to bring real true change in our life and and do it today. Let it start today. It's a process, but let it8:14 start. Let there be a commitment. Let there be a a deliverance. Let there be life in Jesus' name. Everybody said together, amen? Amen. John, if you have your bible with you, if not, it's up on the screen. John8:26 1, excuse me, 1 14 17 through 19. It says, by this is love perfected so that we may have the next word there is8:38 what? Confidence. Confidence. Wouldn't that be great to leave this building today? Excuse me. I'm just getting over a cold. Wouldn't it be great today to leave this8:50 building different than you came in? Maybe you came in wondering how long, oh lord, how long will these hang up and and hurts and wounds and habits stick in my heart? How9:01 long? And and now here, the bible's telling us that there's this thing called perfect love, and this perfect love gives us confidence. How many of you need a little confidence? Just wave me. I need I need a little fresh9:13 confidence. 7 of you in this church need confidence. What a confident church. Oh my goodness. Let me just go home now because I'm preaching the wrong message. This you don't need this. No. I'm I'm telling9:25 you the truth. Everybody in this room. I I got saved when I'm 65 years old. I got saved when I'm 6. I'm almost 60 years in Christ, and I and I still pray every day. Lord, change this thing9:37 in me. I need I need confidence. I need boldness to believe that I can be a different man, that I can love more and sin less, that I can be less selfish and give myself away to others. I I can9:49 deal with stress and anxiety without dipping down into a depression. I need to change and I need that kind of confidence that that love perfected works10:01 in us. Here's a there's a clue already to what I'm gonna be talking about this morning. Something about love builds confidence to help us to be perfected or sanctified,10:13 transformed in very deep inner ways inside of us. So the scripture continues on to say, the day of judgment for because as he is in this world, so are we. There is no fear in10:25 love, but look at this, perfect love cast out all fear. What does perfect love do? Cast Cast out.10:37 Now if you grew up like I did in a Pentecostal charismatic home, when you hear the word cast out, what do you think? Like, you know, and, like, and somebody throws up and demons go running for their room. Like, that's10:48 what I think of when I think of cast out. But this this passage is not really talking about that kind of demonic oppression that's cast out. It's talking about something inside your heart. Right?11:00 Something inside your mind. Right? That that that you don't want it there, but you don't know how to get it cast out. You you you want it gone, but it just it11:12 has lingered. And you go, lord, it's lingered too long. Right? Too too long in my life. I've been been feeling this thing that just doesn't belong in there. And so he he's saying there here's what he's11:24 saying. There's something that can cast out something. And and here, the text is saying it's perfect love cast out all fear. But you can put other words in there and it still11:36 works. Like like loving confidence cast out insecurity. Knowing who you are in Christ cast out a desire11:48 for sexual immorality. Knowing that you're accepted in the beloved by God cast out that sense of I'm nothing, I'm unworthy, I'm11:59 unloved, I'm unaccepted, I don't belong. Man, I don't know about you, but that excites me. That the power of the holy spirit can cast out things that are in our heart and in our mind right12:11 now that don't belong, and and he can do it in such a way that it starts here today in this room and other locations. It starts here, but but it continues. It's a process that continually gives12:23 us strength after strength after strength. So let me take you through a process of how to take that thing that you wanna be cast out. Have you thought about it right yet? I I've been ask12:35 I'm inviting you to be a little actor. Have you thought about that thing you'd like to see cast out? Maybe the core thing, that 1 main thing that still remains. Maybe it's a a foul tongue. Maybe you have, like they say12:45 here in New England, you have a wicked nasty tongue, you know, and it's wicked bad. We love saying that in Colorado. We love the the part of this world like, you know, oh, it's a wicked great day for skiing, you know.13:00 Alright. So so let me walk you through a journey of how to move from from from casting out something doesn't belong. And and just like remember, it's it's in this text here. Says perfect love does the work of13:12 casting out. So what will do, what's stronger than the thing inside of us that needs to be removed from our mind, our thoughts, our emotions, our behaviors? So it starts off with a word13:24 I'm gonna use. It's called accusations. Accusations. You probably see it on the screen here or you will. Accusations. It's this is when you hear a voice.13:35 It could be a parent. It could be a teacher. It could have been a friend at school. It it could have been a relationship you were in, and the person that you're in13:47 that relationship with left you and accused you and started saying nasty things about you. And and how many of you know words. Right? Words get13:59 stuck in our I mean, you can hear 10 good words. I was preaching in Poland not long ago. And after I was leaving, there was a a group of bishops. They call them bishops. They're head of, like, denominations there. And14:11 there was probably, 1000 pastors there. And I was meeting with the key leaders afterwards, and I was going down this road, and I was shaking all their hands, and they were saying, you know, a great message. Oh, that14:20 message changed my life. Oh, what a powerful word. And I was got I was feeling pretty good. I was getting kind of encouraged. And then 1 young pastor said, I did not agree with your message. I thought14:32 I thought you were saying something that was totally untheologically correct. I didn't like what you had to say. And then the next person like, oh, thank you for coming, Gary. That was great. So so, you know, 4914:44 grace. Right? 1 negative word. I go back to my hotel, lay my head on my pillow. What am I thinking about? Negative. Exactly. You've been there. Right? Thank you for agreeing with me14:56 there. It's like, I can't believe he said that. I can't believe he oh, man. I wish I could talk to that guy again. I'd tell him, I'd give him something to say. You know, I would take off my preacher badge15:07 and my Christian badge and start swearing at him. I mean, I was getting angry. We tend to believe the negative things said over us. It happened in the very first15:19 story in the Bible, Adam and Eve in the garden, peace and joy, intimacy, love, affection, meaning and purpose. And a snake comes up into the15:31 garden and starts accusing them, is God withholding something from you? And and and that is the surface word, but it's an accusation under it. God15:43 God doesn't trust you. You're not good enough. He's withholding something from you, and you have to go get it yourself. And they're and instead of the the could you imagine how many good15:55 words they heard? Because the Bible says that God came to the garden every day in the cool of the night and spoke with them like I'm speaking to you right now. Could you imagine the good things God might have said?16:07 Oh, my first 2 children, you're so beautiful. I love you. I love talking with you. I love encouraging you. I love being in your company. And now 1 accusation, and it just derails16:19 everything. What is the 1 accusation you hear in your in your in your mind? What what is the what is the voice that that comes against you? And most of16:31 these accusations don't start in your marriage or don't start when you're 30 or 40 and somebody in your in your maybe your boss or somebody on your job16:43 says something negative to you. It's it's usually starts where? In your childhood. In early childhood when you're when you're young, when you're forming your16:54 emotions and your understanding of who you are, you're forming your identity. And that's where our identity is most wounded and most most of our most of17:06 the junk we're dealing with now didn't start last week. It started a long time ago. And so we're to be attached to our parents. God designed17:18 our life in a certain way that your parents, the masculinity of your father, the femininity of your mother, would speak certain things into your life, building a secure nature. But so17:30 many of us have so much insecurity in our childhood. There's 3 types of insecurity that take place in childhood. The first 1 is traumatic childhoods. Don't raise your hand, but I'm sure there's some people in this room17:42 that had traumatic childhoods. A very close friend, 1 of my best friends tells me a bit about his childhood. He grew up in a home where his mother was a witch and his father was a warlock. And,17:54 they they he was the the last of 13 children. And and his mother was already if you have 12 children, you're probably not like, man, I can't wait for number 13. Right? And18:05 so, so he was not wanted. And because he was not wanted and because his mother was involved in demonic activity, she became very violent towards him at 4 and 5 and18:17 6, time he was 8 and 9 years old. She would she would actually grab him by his collar and punch him in the face till sometimes he would say, look in the mirror and my eye would be closed and blood would be dried on my18:28 nose and my ear would be ringing from her slapping me on the side of the head. And she would throw me in a closet and lock me in there and say, you are worthless, you are unwanted, and you are unloved. I wish you were18:39 never born. And he would be in that closet sometimes for 20, 30, 40 hours having to to go to bathroom in the closet by himself. And when he'd get out, she would just yell at him for his18:51 bodily functions. And, on and on and on, this abuse. Father just neglected him, didn't even think about him. And 1 day when he was 9 years old, he told me he he climbed up into a tree in his backyard with a19:03 rope. And he and he took that rope and he put it around his neck and he tied it to the tree and was getting ready to jump. Could you imagine wanting to take your life at 9 years old? And his 12 year old brother came out19:12 and ran out, Nikki, Nikki, no, no. Don't do it. I love you. Just that word, that 1 word was enough hope to to get him to take the rope off and get down. And I'm19:24 so glad God sent his older brother to speak that word of love. And it's a word of love I'm giving to you today that no matter how much trauma you've been through, the the the word of the Lord over you is that you're19:36 loved, that that God has a plan for you, that God has a purpose for you, that you're accepted, that there's meaning in your life. And so Nikki got down from that tree and eventually moved to New19:48 York City where he didn't know Jesus. He and because of that history, acted out. He got very violent. He he he began to be a leader of a gang in New York City called the Mau Maus. Anybody familiar with the20:00 story I'm telling you? The Mau Maus is was a gang in New York City that that, then after he'd been in New York City from the time he was 15 to 17 leading this gang, my father, David20:11 Wilkerson, was pastoring a small church in Pennsylvania. He gets this call from God to go to New York City and preach to gang members, which when you're from the country, a little hillbilly kind of country in in outside20:23 of Pittsburgh, you know, you're not sure you're gonna be accepted in, you know, the streets of New York, but he gets there and he preaches to the gang and and Nikki Cruz gives his life to Jesus Christ and is totally20:34 changed. He lives near me where I live in Colorado Springs. We have lunch together about once a month. He's the most loving man I've ever met in my life because the bible says he who's forgiven much loveth much. And20:46 and those who are healed of many deep traumatic wounds in their life oftentimes become like the most dynamic, influential, strong, stout hearted, faithful followers of20:58 Jesus Christ. But trauma, excuse me, can be a hurtful thing in your life when when you have this kinda I call it trauma with a capital t. It's abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse,21:10 abandonment abuse, constant bombardment of this, and that's the traumatic kind of abandonment. Another one's called ambivalent. Ambivalent is sort of where things are attention 221:22 different ways. And some households, you grew up in households like this. Sadly, some of us are repeating the same mistakes our parents made and and now we're leading an ambivalent home. And what I mean by21:34 ambivalent is it's very confusing to the children because 1 minute mom and dad are hugging and kissing and friends, and the next minute they're screaming and yelling at each21:46 other. 1 minute mom is like, oh, I love you son. I love you daughter. You're so precious to me. You're gonna be a bright star in the universe and the world. And the next minute she comes, wakes up in21:58 the morning, you come out for breakfast. And for some unknown reason, she's yelling and screaming and calling you names and and dad's walking out the door slamming doors. And then he comes home and there's a family22:09 meeting and you say, mom and dad say, I'm so sorry. We didn't mean to hurt you. Please forgive us. We'll never do that again. And then they do it again and again and back and forth. What does that lead you to do? Be22:20 confused, right? Or uncertain. 1 of the core necessities we have in our life besides food and water and air, when it comes to our souls, 1 of the core values we need is22:31 security and certainty. And so these were raised up in this ambivalent situation. Like my friend Charlie, he told me his story is very similar to to to what many of you in this room might be have faced22:43 or are facing now with your own leading of your own family is is, man, this thing is so uncertain. And he would tell me, he's like, my mom was like I I wasn't sure what she was like because she was like the most22:55 loving woman woman in the world. And at other times she was she would come up to me and and just be full of anger and rage and and and she would she would tell him that your your father is the23:07 worst father in the world. He's a cheater. He's a liar. And just man, it was just he said, I got so confused. I I didn't know when I wake up, what am I gonna find? And that's23:18 another form of trauma as well. And the third 1 is avoidant. It's called avoidant. And this is another form of insecurity that we have when we're growing up. Avoidant is is23:30 1 where they're good parents. And I would assume probably as a pastor leading congregation for many years, would say 60 to 70 percent of people come from what they consider a good23:42 home. Nice mom, nice dad. Dad worked hard. Mom worked hard. They took care of you. They fed you. They clothed you. They they looked out for you. They they they asked you how you were doing.23:54 So what's wrong with what's what's the why would that be traumatic, an avoidant parent? It's it's where they do their duty to be quote unquote what you're supposed to get done to be a24:05 good parent, but they but they don't feed you. I don't mean physically, but I mean emotionally, spiritually. They don't they don't pour into you life. In other words, it's24:17 just all it's just kinda doing what you're supposed to do, bare minimum, but not showing affection, not showing real attention to you. And I told you a little bit about my father today. A man I respect him.24:29 He passed away about 10 years ago. I've never met a more powerful man of God, a man who prayed 4 hours a day. Ain't that incredible? A man who started teen challenge, which now has24:41 1500 centers. While I'm talking to you, well over 20000 people are in recovery right now getting healed and hope in life. Isn't that good news? Let's put our hands together. Thank God.24:54 Anybody here in this room, or, on other locations ever been to teen challenge or graduate from teen challenge? Yeah. Thank you, guys. I'm so glad. Yeah. There you go. He's standing up waving. That's so cool. Thank you.25:09 And and not only that, he started Times Square Church in New York City. Anybody heard of Times Square Church in New York City? Great church. He he wrote Crossing Switchblade and all kinds of powerful books. But but I25:21 and and this is not something I have is undealt with. It's something I've had a conversation with my father, and there was healing in our life. But I grew up in a home that my mother was sick all the time. She had 525:33 surgeries for cancer because of her physical body. Sometimes it affected her mind and she was institutionalized 3 or 4 times. So when I was a little boy, my mom wasn't there a lot. And then my25:45 dad had to travel. So he was gone sometimes 2 to 3 weeks every month. And so I grew up really Can I just tell you my core wound? Lonely. I felt alone all the time.25:57 And so even though my father was a man of love and grace and power, because of his own childhood, his trauma in his own childhood,26:08 it passed down to a next generation. And and here I am wanting my dad's love my mom was gone. I wanted my dad's love. I wanted his affection. I wanted him to look at me and say, good son. I'm proud of you. But he was so26:20 busy. And even when he was home Have you ever been around somebody? Like even when you're talking to them, you know they're not paying attention to you. They're distracted. Their mind is somewhere else. So I grew up in26:32 a home that was is what's called avoidant. And because of that, I thought there must be something wrong with me. I am not enough. Right? I'm not I'm not26:44 lovable. Because children, you know this about children, children, they don't have the capacity or the maturity to blame like, oh, my dad's distracted. He's or26:56 he grew up from a difficult home himself, so he's having a tough time giving love and affection. You don't understand that. You just don't feel it. And what do you do? You just say, I27:08 I'm not enough. And so that became a core wound in my heart. I said that that's the accusation I had for many, many years. I'm not enough. It affected27:20 my childhood. It affected my early days. It affected my marriage. It affected my ministry. You say, how so, Gary? How did it affect your ministry? Well, when you're not enough, what you27:32 try to do is compensate for that. When you're unloved, you you try to do something to get love. Some some some young men and women give27:44 themselves inappropriately sexually to try to find like I'm unloved. Why do people engage in fornication? Is it because they just wanna party? Not27:55 most of the time. Most of the times it comes from this core wound. I'm not loved. Maybe this guy, maybe this girl will show me love. Now don't get confused. That was not my problem as I was pastoring. Okay?28:08 My problem was, I don't feel like I'm enough. So so the compensation is I'm gonna show the world that I'm enough. And and my enough was28:19 starting a church. And for me, I thought I'm gonna be enough when I build a mega church or or when I preach to thousands of people, then I'll be enough. It's a trap.28:31 It's called the when I, then I. Have you ever heard that? When I when I I find a man to love me, then I'll be enough. When I find a woman to love me, when I make enough money, then28:43 I'll be happy. When I when I when I get the career I've been looking for, then I'll be happy. When I when I get the the PhD, then I'll be happy. When when people applaud me, then I'll be happy. When28:55 I when I get the new home, then I'll be happy. When when I get married, then I'll be happy. When I get rid of this woman I married, then I'll be happy. When I find a new woman, then I'll be happy.29:07 And how many of you know it's the when I gets the then I, the then I doesn't satisfy you.29:19 It's it's an external. It's called external validation. And many of us try to validate ourselves by things outside. When I'm when I'm successful, when I'm rich, when I'm famous,29:31 when I'm popular, when I'm loved, those are external value. And God is asking something different. Perfect love. The perfect love we're talking about today is not an external validation. It29:42 comes inside your heart. It it it it's it's your nature. It's who you are. It's in your DNA. I'm loved. I'm accepted. I'm worthy. I'm valued. I'm I'm I'm what29:54 what the father said to the son Jesus, he says to you in this room today, you are my beloved daughter. In you, I am well pleased.30:06 Right? He says it to to you, my son, in whom I am well pleased, pouring out his love on you, showing you his mercy and grace. And so30:18 you don't need external value validation when you have the internal perfect love inside of you. That perfect love casts out the desire, I'm gonna prove, I'm gonna30:30 show, I'm gonna be a success. And then you're always striving, and you wonder why you're anxious, and you wonder why your body shuts down, and when you wonder why you have physical ailments, you wonder why you have high30:39 blood pressure, the stress of trying to be something you're not, to try to prove something to the world that's not really truly who you are, missing out who you really are. Man, I spent years in30:51 foolishness trying to get crowds like you if you would applaud me enough, if you would laugh at my jokes. I and I would stand up here on the stage saying, I need you to tell me I'm31:02 somebody. And you know what happens? Loving people like you, when I'm doing that, you subconsciously, you know that. The guy on the stage doesn't really love31:14 me. He doesn't really care about my issues. He's he's up here on the stage trying to say something about himself, prove something about himself. And and we subconsciously know that. And that's why a lot of31:26 ministries is is an inch deep. It might be a mile wide, but it's an inch deep because there's not love for and and the same thing for marriage. There's there's like I'm I'm trying to my31:38 my my my when I went to seminary, 1 of the when I was studying counseling, the the the the the professor said, a lot of marriages are like you know what a you know what a tick is?31:50 Like, you know, they get on a dog or a horse or or you and me. And and so he said, a lot of marriages are like 2 ticks with no dog. Think about that for a minute. Just sucking life out of each32:02 other. Just give me, give me, give me. Why? Because the there's not been the cast out of the fear, of the loneliness, of the sense of unworthiness. And so you're trying32:14 from your spouse, you give me. Could you imagine perfect love casting out that? And all of sudden that marriage now is not 2 ticks on no dog. It's 2 people feeding 132:25 another. Looking out, as the bible says, looking out for the best interest of the other, for your children, for your friends, for your church members. There's a new energy inside of us. So that's So that32:37 happens when the enemy accuses us with all of these words. What is your core wound? Mine was, I'm not enough. Do you know what yours is?32:48 Would you mind don't tell me what it is, but would you mind just raising your hand if you know what your core wound is? Okay. And others, I wanna invite you, if you don't know what it is, you may say, why go there? Why33:00 dig up things inside, deep inside? Well, because Jesus asked us to. He said, you you Pharisees and Sadducees, you clean the outside of the cup. You wanna make things look good. You wanna you33:12 don't and you don't wanna deal with what's inside. It's too painful. It's too much brokenness and so you repress it. Problem with repressing brokenness inside, you know what the problem with that is? The problem33:24 with the repressing brokenness inside is it shows up some other way. Shows up in anger, anxiety, fear. It shows up in most people that are have are dealing with addiction problems are33:36 dealing actually, that's a symptom of something deeper in the heart that they aren't dealing with. And so if you don't know what this core wound is yet, I invite you over the next weeks or so to take some time and ask33:47 the Lord, is there areas of my life that are yet unhealed that you would like to address, that you would like to touch? Okay. I've been talking a lot about accusations, but there's33:59 there's a second part of this and also starts with the letter a if you're taking notes. It's called agreements. Agreements. Accusations are awful. When I was in Poland, I hated hearing that.34:11 But worse than accusations. See, accusations are gonna come. Right? I mean, you can even get accusations a stranger on the road if you cut them off and they cut in front of you and roll their window down and call you34:22 whatever. I don't know what kind of names they call each other in Rhode Island, but probably not very nice. Right? And, so so you can get accusations anywhere. Satan is gonna accuse you. Right? How many of you have34:34 been accused by Satan before? Other people can accuse you, right? All right. I'd say the worst 1 is when you accuse yourself. And why34:46 do you start accusing yourself? It's because this next word I'm using here in my ministry to you today, it's agreements, Agreements. Here's here's what an agreement is. Satan comes to you and says here I'll I'll34:58 use me. Okay? Satan comes to me and said, Gary, you are not enough. You are unloved. You are not worthy of affection and love. That's an accusation. But you know what's more35:10 difficult than the accusation or or causes more wounds is agreeing with what was said over you. So Satan comes and says, you're worthless, you're unlovable, you're an outcast, you'll never change.35:22 And you know what we do? We agree with him. Ain't that strange? God says these great things about us. We go, yeah, no. That's not me. You don't really love me. How could you love me?35:34 You you haven't really called me. Satan comes along and says, you're worthless. You're no good. And say, yeah, I'm I'm that's right. I'm we have more faith in what Satan says over us than we do over what God says over35:45 us. And so there has to be a casting out of agreements in our life. I was in Africa not long ago, and and, when I travel, my wife and the team35:57 that I travel with that helped me when I support team that I travel with said, Gary, you don't multitask well. A lot of you in here are great multitaskers. Right? But but I'm not 1 of them. Like, I can do 1 thing36:09 at a time. You get me the second thing, and I go like, oh, I'm so confused. What am I supposed to do? And so my wife and my team tell me, Gary, you have 2 things to do when you're traveling. Number 1 is to preach, and36:19 number 2 is internationally, don't lose your passport. Alright? So it's pretty simple. Right? Preach, don't lose your passport. I'm in Africa. I've been there 3 weeks. Tough ministry. I mean, it was we were36:31 ministering in an area where there's a lot of poverty, a lot of demonic oppression, a lot of sickness. And after a few weeks being there, I I was so ready to get home to beautiful Colorado. I wanted to just go for a walk36:43 in the woods and just get rested and recuperate. And so the night before I'm leaving, Kenya, Africa, I'm in my hotel room and I'm packing up and I say, okay. I've already preached.36:55 Only thing I have to do now is get my Passport. Exactly. Passport. What do you think happened to my passport? Lost my Yeah. You're tracking really well. Thank you. Lost my passport. And and I'm looking I'm37:06 looking in the room, in the bathroom, in the hotel room. I there's a little balcony there. I go out there. It's not out there. I go in the hallway, looking down the hallways. I go to the front desk. Have you guys found a37:15 passport? And he goes like, who loses a passport? So I'm like, and I'm going, oh, I'm such an idiot. And and and as I'm walking back to my room, I hear this voice that says,37:27 you're such an idiot. You can't even do 1 thing right. You preached okay, but you can't even keep your own passport. You're such an idiot. And you know what I did? I said,37:39 I am. I'm such an idiot. And then there's this other voice said, no, you're not. But then the the it sounds like I need counseling. Right? Like, I have all these voices in my head. Like, one's telling me I'm an idiot,37:50 and then I'm saying, no, I'm not. Yes, I am. And it's like, oh, schizophrenia. You know? Roses are red, violets are blue. I'm schizophrenic. You know? I like, I don't sorry.38:02 So so I'm so so I'm walking down the hallway just going so stupid. I I was really I just hated myself in that moment. Like, think part of it was the pressure we were under from the conferences we were doing and the38:13 ministry, but, man, it was just like, I'm just I'm just an idiot. You know? What was that? The devil. The devil? And what did I do? I agreed with him. Right? I I38:25 what does he think of that? Like, yeah. I got that that knucklehead to agree with me. And what is God thinking? Oh, my son, you don't understand who you are. You don't understand how38:37 I feel about you. You don't understand what I'm doing in your life. You're not an idiot. You're not a fool. Whose voice will you believe? Or maybe like the old song sung in gospel churches a lot of time, whose38:49 report will you believe? And the response to that is I will believe the report of the Lord. But for many of us, the agreement is I'm gonna believe what the enemy says about me. And and so there's these39:01 agreements in our life. Later on, I unpacked my suitcase and so nobody would steal my passport. I had stuffed it down39:12 inside my shoe. And and I find that, oh, there's my passport. But I'd been through all that trauma, all that that difficulty. You see, trauma trauma is is isShow more
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.