This sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding and embracing the power, victory, and boldness available to believers through Christ. It challenges listeners to shift their mindset from self-pity to a victorious attitude, reminding them of the strength and power of the Holy Spirit within them. The message encourages a focus on overcoming trials, temptations, and sin through faith in Christ's resurrection and the power of God's Spirit.

I mean, I don't know about you, but for me, if I can't impact the world, then I don't want to live in it. You know, like, there's a reason why we're actually on the earth, and it's so fun to be a part of a place where we go, you know what, we're here, we're going to make a difference. This year we're going to do some things a little bit differently. Remember last year we had, like, one lump sum, and we said, you know, let's give a million dollars to Children's Hunger Fund this year, and we were able to pull that off, in addition to all the missionaries and different agencies that we support. This year, what we're going to do is, we decided that every month we're going to pick a cause, and we're going to give a hundred thousand dollars to that cause every month. So this month, in July, we're going to focus on the inner cities, the urban poor, and the reason why we're going to do this monthly is not only are we going to be giving the lump sum to various agencies that we'll talk about. In fact, Keith Phillips from World Impact will be talking to us, you know, a month from now, and sharing what's going on in LA and everything else. We're going to, but we want to raise awareness. We want to, each month, give you even opportunities for different projects according, you know, like this month will be about the inner city, and we'll give you different projects where you and your community could possibly go into the inner city, and maybe remodel some apartments, or, you know, help do some prayer walks, or outreach, and those types of things, and so each month we just want to raise awareness for a different cause, and we're not even sure what all those causes are going to be yet. You know, others are praying through that, and this month we said, you know, let's focus on what's closest, which is LA, which is the inner cities, as sometimes we can drive to Mexico on a mission trip, and pass right through LA, and forget, and there's a huge need out there. In fact, last weekend, I took about 10 guys, and we went up to San Francisco. My brother directs the World Impact chapter there in San Francisco, in the inner city there, and so we went, and we poured concrete, and laid a driveway for them, and stuff like that, because what he does is, he runs this place where guys that are like nine months sober, that are off the streets, once they've been nine months sober, and they want to go into ministry, he actually trains them, and teaches seminary courses. In fact, some of the guys have already been through the seminary courses, and now you've got these homeless guys that are clean, and sober now, and they're actually teaching other homeless, and the whole idea is to get them to start pastoring the homeless in San Francisco, and so we went, and fixed up that area for them, and then on a Saturday morning, we drove out to Richmond. If you heard of Richmond, it's that movie, Coach Carter, that's where it was filmed. Richmond is just based on that, and we had a homeless breakfast there, and we're at this church where they were ready to shut their doors a few months ago. I mean, it was a pretty thriving church, but what happened is, as Richmond became more and more of a lower class area, and more and more homeless moved in, the middle class, and the upper class people moved out of there, and so all of those people left the church, and just got dilapidated over the years, and there's many churches like that in Richmond, and so we went over there, and did a homeless feeding. It was just such a great, amazing time of teaching a bunch of homeless people, and cooking breakfast for them, but it was the pastor that came to this church. I mean, there was like eight people at this church now, and they're trying to revive it, and everything else, but he was sharing how a church came. He was just so encouraged. He goes, you know, a church from one of the suburbs here in San Francisco actually called and said, hey, we're going to come, and we're going to pray or walk your area. We're going to walk through the neighborhood, and pray that God brings revival to this area, and so he's all excited, and this group of people from this church then drive over to Richmond, and once they got there, and drove through the neighborhood, they got to the church, and told the pastor, hey, we're really sorry, but we don't feel comfortable walking in this neighborhood, and so they took off. I thought, no way, you know, and I know it's, you know, different people are going to respond differently to that. Some of you go, well, that was smart, you know, and others are going, you know, others are going, man, you know, losers, or whatever, and different thoughts go through your head based on where you are in that area, and let me just say that the reason why I'm on the board at World Impact, and why I got involved over there with the inner cities is, as I heard Keith Phillips speak at the mayor's prayer breakfast in Siena Valley like seven, eight years ago, and I remember him talking about the inner city, and at that time, I thought to myself, you know, I always prided myself on thinking I would go anywhere in the world for Jesus Christ, like, yeah, I'd go to Africa, yeah, I'll go to India, yeah, I would live, you know, and then when he started talking about the inner cities, I thought, I didn't know that I'd move to Compton, you know, I started thinking about that, I don't know that I would go to Watts, and I started thinking, wow, Lord, I thought I was surrendered to you, I thought I really would go anywhere for you, and I really was fearless, but I realized I still am fearful. I remember just breaking down that morning, I was crying, I'm talking to Keith Phillips afterwards, I'm going, man, I just totally neglected this whole area out of fear, and many of us were in Simi Valley because we wanted to move away from them and that area and have the safe community, and I don't see that as the gospel. I see the gospel as, you know what, sometimes we take risks, sometimes we go where no one else will go, and it was so cool to talk to this pastor who moved to Richmond, who had many other offers, and says, you know what, I want to go to the worst of the worst. I want to go to the worst place and just see if we can't do something, and so it's just fun to be there and encourage him, and so we're going to talk to you about different projects, things that you could possibly get involved in. Speaking of inner city, on Wednesday, I was in Philadelphia, and I was speaking in Philadelphia, and there was this gal that was singing there before I spoke, and I had read about her. I kind of read the bio that her music's featured on a lot of TV shows that you watch, like Grey's Anatomy, Dawson's Creek, you know, movies like Never Been Kissed, that type of thing, and okay, see what she has to say. She's singing this song. The words were so powerful, like I was just looking at the lyrics on this screen going, man, what a great, great song, so I went back to talk to her because I wanted to play that song for you and have the lyrics on the screen because it went so well with what I was preaching on this morning, and so I was like, ah, you know, do you have that on CD, you know, can I get a copy of that? Is there a video, you know, that shows the words or something, and because I'd really like to play it for my church this weekend, and she goes, oh, I'll come sing at your church. I'm like, really? And I go, where do you live? She goes, Hollywood. I'm like, no way, and so Kendall's actually here, and this is Kendall Payne, and so just listen to the words of this song because it was just, I loved the depth of these lyrics, and I hope you enjoyed too. I feel the need to tell the slightest story before this song because I've had a couple of people say, that's kind of negative, isn't it? And I'm like, no. So the story goes like this, Mother Teresa story, and if any of you know any Mother Teresa stories, you know that they are legendary. This woman did not mince words. She sort of told it like it was and made no apologies, so this story is no different, but this American man felt the call of God on his life. He was sure that God was calling him to do something great. He just had one slight problem. He had no clue what that great thing actually was, so he figures he needs prayer, so he goes finds Mother Teresa, and he says, Mother Teresa, will you pray for me? And she says, sure, I'll pray for you. What do you want me to pray for you for? He says, I want clarity. I want to know in no uncertain terms exactly what it is that God is calling me to do with my life, and she looks back at him in her ever so Mother Teresa way, and she says, no, I won't pray for that for you, and he's confused and embarrassed, and he sort of blurts out, but why? I only want what you've had for your life. You seem to always know exactly what it is that God's calling you to do, and she looks back at him, and she says, I, sir, have never had clarity. What I have had is trust, so I'll pray that you learn to trust, and that's when I decided that it was my prayer life that needed to change, so the song's called Pray. I will pray for you now, for you have been my faithful friends, while the road we walk is difficult indeed. I could not ask for more than what you've already been, only that you would say these prayers for me. Now, may your hearts break enough that compassion enters in. May your strength all be spent upon the weak, and all the castles and crowns you build in place upon your head. May they all fall, come crashing down around your feet, and may you find every step to be harder than the last, so your character grows greater each stride, and may your company be of humble insignificance. May your weakness be your only source of pride, and what you do unto others, may it all be done to you, and may you meet the one who made us, and see him smile when life is through. La da da da da, la da da da da da, la da da, la da da da da da da da da da da da, may your blessings be many, but not one. You hoped they'd be, and when you look upon the broken, may mercy show you what you could not see, and may you never be sure of any plans you desire, but you would learn to trust the plan he has for you, and may your passions be tried and tested in the holy fire, may you fight with all your life for what is true. I have prayed for you now, all of my dear and faithful friends, but what I wish is more than I could ever speak, as the wave wanders on, I long to see you once again, until then would you say these prayers for me, or that you would pray for me. Yeah, that's what I thought about that song. It's like, that's so it. You see, because when we pray, I was just thinking about this, and this is what my whole message is about, is we're always praying God change things, rather than God change me. We want God to change the circumstances and take away all this pain, all these trials, all these hardships, rather than God's plan, which is, no, I want to put some of these things in your life, and you need to be praying for yourself that you would grow through these things. You see, whenever we have decisions to make, we want God to make it easy, and say, God, why don't you close all the doors and just leave one open, rather than praying, God, why don't you make me incredibly wise so I know how to make good decisions. When trials come, we say, God, why don't you change it, why don't you fix the situation and take away all the pain, rather than saying, God, why don't you use this time to grow perseverance in me. Let me persevere during this time. Man, when temptations come, man, we're all tempted, and when we're tempted, we say, God, you know what, take the temptation away, rather than saying, God, give me the self-control, give me the strength that you asked for. God, make me into this person. But all our prayers are, they can be so focused on things that are unbiblical. Yes, there are times when God changes the situation, but so often, more than anything, God wants us to change, and we should be praying for these circumstances that God allows in our lives, as opportunities for us to grow in our character and our person. I love what, I mean, if you read in the Bible, you'll see that that's God's way of working. Remember the story of Solomon, when Solomon asked for something? I love this, in 1 Kings 3, verse 7, it says, Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, but I'm only a little child, and I don't know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong, for who is able to govern this great people of yours? So Solomon is taken over the throne, and he goes, man, I'm just a kid, and I've got this huge nation that I'm supposed to govern, and so we ask God to give him wisdom and discernment, and here's God's response, I love God's response, in 1 Kings 3, verse 10, The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this, so God said to him, Since you have asked for this, and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have you asked for the death of your enemies, but for discernment and administering justice, I'll do what you've asked. I'll give you a wise and discerning heart, so there'll never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. See, God says, I'm so pleased with you, Solomon. He goes, because you didn't ask for long life and health and for everything to be easy. He goes, in fact, you didn't even ask for all your enemies to die. And I've got to confess, I've prayed that before, haven't you? And you know, sometimes I just think, God, you know, this earth would be so much better, you know, everything else, and yet what God says to him, he goes, you know what, you didn't pray that. You didn't pray for the easier route. Instead, you prayed for wisdom to figure out these situations and make good judgments in light of them. And it says, God was pleased with Solomon. And he says, because you prayed for that, I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to give you, I'm going to make you the wisest person on earth. And I was thinking about that passage of how often we just say, God, make my life easier. Make the decisions obvious, rather than saying, God, give me discernment. And he doesn't say, take away my enemies. He just says, give me wisdom in how to deal with them. Don't just kill them. And God was so pleased with that. See, God's pleased when we take on the trials in the world and ask God, you know what, for wisdom. Like James says, when the trials come, that we ask for wisdom. Again, Solomon prayed, not change things, but change me. And when we talk about trials, I love what it says in Romans 5, verses 3 and 4. In Romans 5, verses 3 and 4, it says, not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings. We rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character, hope. So here, you know, Paul says, we actually rejoice in our suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance. So there's a side of us, like Paul says, that we ought to, as believers, we should be rejoicing when things are difficult. Why? Because we realize that this is the only way that we're going to build perseverance. And it's only with the perseverance that character is going to come. See, it's this mindset that says, I want to be a man of character, I want to be a woman of character. To say that about yourself so when trials come, you can actually get excited and go, okay, good, good. Here comes a trial, God, use this to change me. Use this to build some perseverance in me. And that perseverance, turn that into character. And that character, which will lead to hope. But when's the last time that when suffering came your way, you actually rejoiced, and you actually prayed and said, God, okay, use this to build some perseverance in me because I want to be a person of character. Change me. Not change the situation, not take away the suffering, but I'm rejoicing in this because I want to be changed. And then temptation. With temptation, temptation's always going to be in your face. And I've heard people so many times through my years as a pastor say, gosh, I prayed that God would just take that temptation away, but he hasn't. Well, he never promised that he would. You're going to be tempted the rest of your life. Temptation's going to be in your face for the rest of your life. You think you get to a certain point in your Christian walk when suddenly sin doesn't look tempting anymore? And it's not alluring and that Satan's not after you anymore? No, that's not what the Bible teaches. Instead, the Bible explains that, you know what, the temptation's always going to be there. It's always going to be in your face. Satan's going to attack you until the day you die and throw things in your face that are very appealing. And we pray for strength. We pray for self-control. I love what it says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, where it says, No temptation, no temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can handle. But when you're tempted, he'll also provide a way out so you can stand up under it. I love that. He says, look, there's no temptation. Every temptation that you face, he says, is common to man. That means whatever you think your temptation is, like, oh, you don't know how difficult it is for me, God says, trust me, other people have struggled with the same thing. You're not the first one in history to struggle with a temptation that's in your face right now. Okay? He goes, it's common to man. And he goes, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can handle. That is such an important verse. God's never going to let you be tempted beyond what you can handle. So whatever temptation is in your face, and we're all facing them right now, don't think that you're the only one that walked in this room today and you were bombarded with temptation all week. Okay? We all faced it. But the truth of God's word is that whatever you faced, you had power to overcome it. He always gives you a way of escape. I love that because it gets rid of all excuses across the board. Because, I don't know, we're in a time in church history where there's so much whining and complaining as if you're the only one who's ever faced temptation. And my concern is that we empathize with those who are struggling with sin, which is the right thing to do, but then we stop there. And we don't move on to reminding them of the power that's within them. And we don't move on and we just put our arm around them, oh, I'm so sorry, yeah, it's so difficult. That's so difficult, that's so painful, that's such a tough struggle. I know friends that kind of go through that as well. But then we stop there. And we don't remind them, but greater is He who is in you. You've got power over that. Do you realize that every time you face that, you don't ever have to fall into that temptation? You don't ever have to sin. That with every single situation that you're put in, there's a way out without sinning, and you could have taken that. I could take that, and we forget to remind people. It's like we stop at the cross and we forget about the resurrection. We forget about the power that's available to all of us. And I want to talk about that this morning, because everything I read in this book, I mean, when you read the New Testament, I don't know what you see, but for me, I see victory. I see power. And that's not a theme that we see in Christians' lives. I mean, how many Christians would you label with the adjective powerful, victorious, and yet that's what I see here. You know, we're in this period where everyone's just feeling sorry for themselves, and we just talk about our problems and everything else, and we don't talk about this victory and this power that's available to us that I see all throughout the Scriptures. I mean, I just don't believe that believers are walking around with nearly the boldness or confidence that God desires for us. We're supposed to be victorious people, strong people. I mean, isn't that what you want to be? It's that thought. That's why I love that 1 Corinthians passage, because it shows that, you know what, I can win every time. Every time. And there's something about that. There's something about victory. I mean, those of you who are competitive, I'm not, but I know a lot of you guys are. But just that thrill of winning, you know, just the thrill of just, you know, when you have an opponent where you just know, you know what, I could beat him every time. Hey, Gary. I'm sorry. You're the first face I saw. Basketball League, I've got to bring it up again. I have to. I had the greatest game of my life. I mean, during our basketball league, was it last season? It was about a year ago. I mean, it was the first time in my life. I've been playing basketball my whole life, and for the first time in my life, my team was saying, just get the ball to Francis. I thought, no way. Did someone just say that? I've been playing my whole life. That's the first time I heard that. But I was on fire. But Gary was guarding me. So I want to, so thank you, thank you. You made my day. You made my basketball career. But it's that whole idea of, don't you love to win? Don't you just love that? And I think there's that sense in which God's built that into us. We're supposed to be victorious. And it's so nice to know that every time I'm faced with a sin, it's not an opponent that's too great for me. Like, I can win every time. And I need to walk around with that boldness, that confidence, because that's the boldness. I mean, look at this verse. It's 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. I mean, here's the attitude. I love this victorious attitude where Paul says, where, oh, death. He's talking about death. He's talking about sin. And as human beings, I mean, as followers of Jesus Christ, I just say, we should be fearless. I mean, really, there shouldn't be nothing we fear except God himself. And here we take something like death, which so many people on the earth are just terrified, like, oh, I don't want to die, you know. Let me do this, let me do this. Let me protect myself. Let me ensure everything I can. Get those germs away from me. And this fearful, fearful attitude, whereas as believers, death isn't something we need to fear. Well, that's the scariest thought for some people, that, wow, this might be the last day of my life. For us as believers, it should be, wow, this might be the last day of my life. This could be my last day on earth. Like, I don't even fear death anymore. I mean, look at this attitude. Where, oh, death is your victory. Where, oh, death is your sting. I love that. It's like, what are you going to do, kill me? Ooh, scary. You know, it's just, that's the attitude that God, it's just victorious and this boldness, because what do you have to fear? Because he goes on, he says, the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that the best? It's like, I don't have to, I'm going to win. I'm going to win. There's nothing, what's going to go wrong? I'm going to win. It's almost like, and I know life's going to get challenging, but it's almost like when I was younger, I used to love watching sporting events. So if I was in church, I would use this thing called a VCR, and record, you know, like a game. But every once in a while on the way home from church, I'd have like the radio on and it would tell me the score. I'm like, oh man. You know, have you ever had that happen where you Tivo a game and then you hear the score and your team won, but you watch it anyways, and you see when it gets to a difficult time, they're still like, big deal, I know they're going to pull it off, but it's still fun and you see the struggle and everything else. That's the way life ought to be for us. We know what happens in the end. And so yeah, there'll be struggles, but you know at the end you're victorious. And so you go around life with that boldness, that confidence of, I know he wins in the end, and I know I'm on his side, and so yeah, I'm going to go through some trials and there's going to be some difficult times in life, but I'm going to be victorious. Second Corinthians 4 verses 8 and 9, it says this. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Persecuted, struck down, but not destroyed. He says, look, it's going to be difficult. There's going to be times, but it's this fighting attitude. He goes, I know I'm hard pressed on every side, but I'm not crushed. I'm perplexed, but I'm not in despair. I'm not like, oh, I'm a little confused right now, but I'm not freaking out to the point where, oh, it's hopeless. He goes, I know that. And he goes, and I'm persecuted, but I'm not abandoned. So all these people are against me, but it's okay, God's by my side. I'm not abandoned. I'm struck down. Yeah, they knock me down. I'm pretty messed up right now, but I'm not destroyed. It's that attitude of the fighter that's been knocked down over and over again. He just gets up. He goes, I'm not going down. I am not going to go down. That's the attitude that we're supposed to have is not sitting there in despair and feeling defeated. Otherwise, what did Jesus die for? What did he rise for? It's this attitude of, I know life gets difficult. I know some of you guys feel like you've been knocked down. But in my prayers, that you would just feel confident this morning and go, you know what? But I'm not destroyed, and I can't be destroyed. You're not going to take me down because I know how this thing ends, and I win. Death has no sting. I have no fear of it. The victory is gone. The victory is on my side. I love what it says in 1 John 5. 1 John 5, verses 3 through 5. This is love for God, to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome. For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. He says, those of us who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, he goes, we get the victory. We overcome the world. Yeah, we can sit here and talk about how bad the world's getting and all the temptation and what everybody believes, but you know what? If you believe in Jesus Christ, the Bible says you overcome the world. See, when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, he goes, you repent, and you'll be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you, for your children, for those who are far off. He promises us that you know what? If you believe in Jesus Christ, if you believe that Jesus died on that cross for your sins, then the Bible says, you know what? For those of you who have entered the waters of baptisms and you said, you know what? I'm following Jesus Christ, whatever he wants, and his first command is we'll get baptized. You get baptized, the Bible says, you know what? That belief, that belief in Jesus Christ makes you an overcomer because my spirit will come into you, and I'll give you power. That's why he told his disciples, you just wait. Wait in Jerusalem because when my Holy Spirit comes, then you're going to receive power. And when's the last time you dwelt on that power? When's the last time you just said, you know what? He's in me, so what's going to happen to me? I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, so I will overcome the world because the spirit of God is in me. I'm just going to read some different verses to you because I feel like we get bombarded with lies all week long, don't we? People telling you that you can't do this, you can't do that, you're stuck in this sin, you're stuck with that issue, and the sad thing is that so many of those statements are made by churchgoers, and people call themselves Christians, and they just make us dwell on our weaknesses rather than the strength of the spirit that's in us. Man, we can sit here and feel sorry for ourselves all day if we just look at the flesh, but if we believe these promises that are in scripture, and so all I want to do is not really dig into any verse. I just want to read a bunch of verses to you today and just let you meditate on them, and I want you to believe in the truth of these verses. I mean, do you believe that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me? All things. All things through Christ who strengthens me. Do you believe that they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength? They'll mount up with wings like eagles? They'll run and not grow weary? They'll walk and not faint? I love this passage in 2 Samuel. I love the way... I mean, listen to the attitude of these different people in the Bible. 2 Samuel. Here's David. Chapter 22, verse 30. He says, With your help, I can advance against a troop. And with my God, I can scale a wall. As for God, His way is perfect. The Word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him. For who is God besides the Lord and who is the rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle. My arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory. You stoop down to make me great. I love that. See, it's not this attitude of, oh, what am I going to do? I'm falling apart. It's just this attitude of confidence. You know what? With God. He goes, yeah, I can't do any of that stuff. But with God on my side, I can pull any of this off. I can be victorious. Let me read to you. Just meditate on these things. Ephesians 3, verse 14. For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches, He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Romans 8, verse 31. What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is He that condemns? Christ Jesus who died. More than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Don't you love these passages? It's just, you know what? I'm a conqueror. I'm victorious. I have a spirit in me. Nothing can separate me from His love. With my God, I can pull anything off. And this is the attitude. There's no temptation to overcome me except what's common to man. God's faithful. He's never gonna let me be tempted beyond what I can handle. It's just a great thought that no one's gonna separate God from God and I. Because I'm convinced death, life, angels, principalities, nothing's gonna separate me from the love of God. Romans 6, verse 1. It says, What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Oh, don't you know that all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we've been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we would no longer be slaves to sin. Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we'll also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life He lives, He lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness but rather offer yourselves to God as those who've been brought from death to life and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master because you are not under law but under grace. You believe these things. I know you're gonna hear all sorts of other messages during the week but do you believe that, you know what? You're dead to sin. It doesn't have to have mastery over you. If you're in sin right now, it's because you've chosen to be in sin. It's not because you're powerless. I'm not gonna believe that. See, I used to listen to people. I used to listen to people that would say, oh, I just can't do it. I'm like, oh man, I don't know what to say. But now I do know what to say. And it's to tell them, no, you're lying right now. Either you're not a believer or you're lying. Because either you're a liar or God is, and I'm gonna choose you. Because God says that he won't, I mean, I understand we all fall, we all screw up, but to afterwards say there was nothing I could do about it? That's just wrong. You're calling God a liar. And so I'm calling you one. That it's not God who lied. It's you who've chosen to fall into that sin because you had power over it. And we need to walk in that type of victory. And I just don't believe that our fellowship is based around that victorious attitude that I see in scripture. I mean, you read it for yourself. Read the New Testament for yourself. Try to get out of this mindset of the poor me mindset and read scripture for yourself and I think you'd see that this is about victory. This is about power. It's not about Christ coming into your life and the Holy Spirit coming into your life so you can complain about all the trials and just stay there. Yes, we need to care for one another and hurt with those who are hurt. But also we need to remind each other of the power that's in us. And I think you'd agree that we just don't see enough of that in the church. And there's not enough talk about victory and boldness and power which is available to all of us. And which should be, I mean, our God's a victorious God. He's a strong God. He wins in the end. And so we, as reflections of Jesus Christ, we need to portray that image and show that image of people who are true image bearers of Jesus Christ. And just like, yes, Jesus went through the suffering and everything else, but he was not crushed. And he rose from all of that and showed that he was victorious in the end. In the same way, we have to look at our trials. We have to look at our decisions. We have to look at our temptations and say, God, you know what? Make me that victorious person like you were because you were tempted and you didn't sin and I want to be that way. You went through the pain and yet you came out victorious and just like you died and rose, I want to die and I want to rise with you. I truly want to be like Jesus Christ. Here's a prayer I've been praying for you this week. It's Ephesians 1, verses 18 through 20. Ephesians 1, verses 18 through 20. He says, I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. Paul's praying for this Ephesian church and he goes, I just pray that you would get it. I pray that you would understand this power that's available to you. I pray that you think about Christ and his dead body in the tomb and imagine how much power it took to raise that body from the grave. And he goes, and I'm praying that you would understand that that power's available to you. That you would no longer say, well, I understand your power was great enough to raise Jesus from the grave, but my issues are pretty big. He goes, man, I just, because I'm praying for this church because I want them to see that you've got so much power available to you. Do you believe the promises though? Do you believe what Peter says, that you repent and you be baptized and you be filled with the Holy Spirit? And that promise was not just for them, but it was for their children and for we who are far off. Do you believe that? I don't know what it is that you're struggling with, but we are all facing stuff. We got temptations, we got trials, but we're still here, right? We're still here in this room and we're fighting it out, we're battling it out, and one day we're going to be victorious. But for now, we got to live day to day in victory and we got to stop just coming forward just to confess our sins, but also asking people, you know what? Pray that I would get the prayer, the power that's in me. I know that the Holy Spirit's in me and I want that power and I want to exert that power and put to death the deeds of my flesh like the Bible says I can. And I pray that as you just hear these promises of God that it stirs something in you, that as you read through the New Testament yourselves, that you see, you know what? This is all about power and what's available to me. And it's not power that, you know, like the health, wealth thing of, okay, I'll never get sick and I'm going to be rich and I'm going to have everything I want on this earth. No, because that's not the way Jesus lived. It's not the way the apostles lived. I mean, it was this power that's saying, you know what? I'm being persecuted right now, but I'm not going to be crushed and I'm going to just keep giving. I'm going to keep serving and everything else, everything that Kendall was singing about earlier. He's like, you know what, Lord? Bring it on because your spirit's in me and use these difficult times to build some character into me, some strength into me, some self-control into me. Give me wisdom because I'm going to make some decisions this week. And I really don't have the wisdom on my own to know which way to go. I'm not asking you to take away all options. I'm asking you, make me such a wise person that I can figure out what you would want based upon knowledge of this book. You know what? And as this trial comes, you know what? If you want to take it away, take it away, do it for your glory. But if it stays here, then give me the strength to make it through and make me strong through it. This morning, maybe some of you are going, you know what? I don't even know if I have that power in me. I don't know that I really believed in the power of the Holy Spirit. I don't know that I ever even gave my life and believed in the cross. And if that's you, you know, that's square one. I mean, this isn't some sort of self-help seminar that I'm giving this morning of believe in yourself, look in the mirror and say, I am powerful. You know, it's not that. No, look in the mirror and go, I stink. You know, I'm weak. I'm worthless. You know, I screwed up so many times. But then Jesus came. And Jesus came. And He died on the cross for all of my failures, all of my sin. And then He put His power into me. And it's with God. God has, I love what David says when he says, He has stooped over to make me great. See, for so much of my life, I thought that humility meant I was powerless. And humility meant I had to walk around going, yeah, I'm not a very good speaker. No, I'm always struggling with sin. I'm all this, that. That's not humility. That's, that's, that's, that's a direct contradiction of God's Word. That no, I'm a powerful person because God has stooped over and made me great. And so, I'm not going down. I'm going to be victorious. And what are you going to do to me? Kill me? Ooh, I'm scared. You know, that's the type of life that God wants me to live. And it's difficult. It's difficult. But I got to trust that God is by my side. And if you're not sure of that, then come pray with us. You can get baptized this morning. Some of you, maybe you just need prayer because you've been in this sin and you've believed all these lies and I'm just stuck. Rather than believing the promises of God. No, you're not. God's Spirit is in you. And if you can raise Christ from the dead, I'm pretty sure He can make you victorious over your sin.