 It's time to put the sin, the past behind you. Maybe you've battled with guilt and shame for decades. That can be a horrendously tormenting bondage that you just can't shake. And no matter what you do, as you go throughout your day, you can't help but have that mistake in your mind, even if it's in the back of your mind. You can't enjoy daily activity with your loved ones. You can't enjoy even the blessings of God. And it's hard for you to receive blessings because you continually tell yourself, I don't deserve this, I don't deserve this. Now, the truth is none of us deserve the blessings or the grace of God, but there is hope for you if I'm describing you at all. Or maybe you wanna learn to minister to those who struggle with receiving God's forgiveness. This is for you as well. Bottom line, everyone can benefit from these insights that we're about to glean from scripture. Here's what I want you to write. These three simple words. Let this be a public declaration of faith. Even if you have trouble believing, because many of you are gonna have trouble believing what I'm about to say. Even if you have trouble believing this, I want you in faith to write it. I'm serious because sometimes the cynic in us just says, oh, I wanna quit. I wanna give up, I'm done. I've tried way too many times and I just don't think I can go forward. Well, I believe that God is going to transform your life. And that's not hyperbole, that's not me exaggerating. I believe that this is gonna be life-transforming for many of you. So, write these three simple words in the comment section, God can restore. God can restore. Whether you're watching live or on the replay. Those three simple words, God can restore. He can restore. And I know it's difficult to believe that sometimes. I know that sometimes our emotions seem to endorse the lies of the enemy when the enemy tells us that God has rejected us or God can't forgive us or that we can't truly walk in the blessings of God because of the past. But I want you to write that in faith and I want you to write that without shame. God can restore, even if there's hesitation in you to write that. Number one, number one, you have to repent. Repent of your sins. Medinaeo, that is Medinaeo. That's the Greek word for repent. Medinaeo means to change one's mind. We see it here, Matthew 3.2. Repent of your sins and turn to God for the kingdom of heaven is near. Matthew 3.2. Now I want you to notice something here. That there is a distinction being made between repentance to change your mind and the turning to God. So first you repent and then you turn to God. And I'm gonna describe this in a moment as to why believers have trouble genuinely repenting. Why they keep going back to the same sin again and again. Why they can't seem to have true transformation. We're gonna go over that in a moment. But first we have to understand that to repent is to come first in agreement with God, to come into alignment with the truth. That is to say that I believe what God believes about my wrongdoing. I believe what God believes about my sin. Because sometimes we may feel sad or we may feel regret for our wrongdoing but that's not the same thing as repentance because many believers will say, okay God I'm sorry, God forgive me. And they want to have the torment of sin removed but they don't want the actual sin removed. They want to be free of the shame but they don't want to be free of the sin. They want to be free of the consequence but they don't want to be free of the cause. So they're saying to the Lord, Lord take away my pain, the pain of sin but let me keep the pleasure of sin. And we may not say this outright. This is how deceptive the flesh is. We are so self deceiving. We lie to ourselves and we have to be willing to admit that. We lie to ourselves. We'll say to God, God I'm sorry, I'll never do it again. God I regret it, please forgive me. And then we receive the soothing because of the forgiveness of God. The mind is calm, the peace comes back, the guilt and the shame are removed but in the back of the mind the flesh has a plan to return to the sin. The sin nature has a craving still and so the sin nature will cause you to lie to yourself and say to God, God I'm done with that and then the sin nature whispers for now. You say, God I'm finished with this sin and then the sin nature whispers for now. You say, God I want you to completely remove this from my life and then the sin nature whispers but leave just a little for me. And this is the battle, the internal struggle. We have to come into alignment first mentally. We have to think about sin the way God thinks about it until we are disgusted by our own wrongdoing. Until we are repulsed by what we crave, we cannot come into alignment with God's will. We must learn to come into agreement with God and say to God, God I'm not just gonna regret this, I'm not just gonna feel bad for this and I'm not just gonna put aside the sin for now because again we say things like that, God I'm done and then we tell ourselves, well I can go maybe a couple weeks and here is how incredibly deceptive the flesh gets. We say, okay, God I don't want to live a lifestyle of sin but I still want to keep the sin. So what do we do? We say, okay well I went two weeks without the sin, I think I'm okay to do it now because now it doesn't count as a lifestyle because I only do it every so often. That is how deceptive the flesh is. That's how much we crave. We crave it so much that we deceive ourselves. So we have to come into agreement with God first, change the mind, repent. We change the mind and we say to the Lord, Lord I agree with you that this thing that I'm doing or thinking this way that I am, this way that I behave, it's wrong. And not only is it wrong but it violates your holy standard who you are. And Lord I agree that this sin has to go not just for now, it doesn't have to go just for the next two weeks or the next six months or until the cravings get really strong and then I go back to it again. But Lord this sin has to go permanently and it can't be allowed in my life in even little portions where we say to the Lord, Lord I'll get rid of the major components of this sin. I'll get rid of the major aspects of the sin but allow me just to keep a little just to keep the flesh happy. And so that's not repentance. Repentance is to say God I agree, this is wrong, it violates your holiness, it has to go, it has to go completely and it has to go permanently. And I have to accept the fact that never again should I allow myself to go back to that thing that displeases you. And this is really where the struggle is because again it's easy to turn from the action and then allow ourselves some compromise so that we don't feel the pressure of giving up our fleshly ways. We say well okay I'll turn for it from it for just a little bit until it becomes such a strong urge that I can no longer resist it and in that we find some type of peace, comfort, knowing well I may give this up for now but at some point I'll get it back. We cannot give the flesh any peace. We cannot give the flesh any leeway. We cannot make deals with the flesh and say listen flesh, I'll give you 20% if you give me 80% or I'll let you sin a little if you let me live holy for most of the time. We must say to the flesh you have no place in my life. I will not allow you even an inch of ground. I will not allow you to have even a portion of my mind, even a portion of my lifestyle. I am working, I am trying, I am fighting, I am resisting, I'm saying to the flesh you have no place you are not welcome in any instance, at any point in my life. You have to go, that's repentance. Now, number two after you repent from your sin, number two is you have to renounce your sin. Now, there's a lot of misunderstanding around the subject of renouncing because many time believers are under the impression that to renounce something is to like get a list from your past and go down the list and verbally reject those different things that we do. Now, here's why that's a troublesome definition. That's a problem to see renouncing that way because number one, that's not the way the Bible describes renouncing. You don't even see the word renounce in the scripture used that often. And when it is used, it's usually translated to forsake. You have to go to a really obscure Bible translation which I'll show you in a moment, a really obscure Bible translation to even get the word renounce in the New Testament. But this is still an important aspect of what we have to do. Yes, we have to renounce, but we have to understand what renouncing actually is. Here's what Christians do. They religiously approach the subject of renouncing. They religiously approach the spiritual practice of renouncing sin. So what do they do? They get their list, they say, and they'll say it verbally out loud, I renounce all ties to Satan. I renounce all ties to the world. I renounce this sin. I renounce that sin. I renounce the sins of my generations. Now, don't get me wrong. There's nothing inherently wrong with verbally rejecting wickedness. By all means, you should do that. And I think it's healthy in some instances to verbalize your rejection of the wickedness in your life. You should say these things that's good. I mean, it's good that your spouse hears it. It's good that your children hear it. It's good that you hear yourself say it. It's another form of praying. There's nothing wrong with listing things and verbally rejecting them. But we have to recognize that the power is not in verbally rejecting them but in actually forsaking them in our actual lives. You see, we approach things religiously and we think that because we read off a list somewhere that we've successfully renounced something. But renouncing is not an incantation. Renouncing, biblically speaking, is not some script that we read off all of our past mistakes and the past mistakes of the generations that preceded us. Renouncing, biblically speaking, is to actually change, to turn. This is where people get confused, my friend. They confuse repentance for renouncing. We think that to repent is to turn from. No, repent is not to turn from. Repent is the change of mind, the agreement with God. Renouncing is turning from. Whenever you see that word forsake, that's where we get our word renounce. It's to actually physically act out what you agreed with God in your mind. So first comes repentance and then you renounce. First you repent and then you renounce. The problem is many believers think that renounce is repent. So they skip repentance and then go right toward renouncing and then what do you have? You have religion. Well, you say, how do you get religion out of that? Well, because religion tries to connect you with God by working from the outside in. But the Holy Spirit is connected to God and you and that connection affects you from the inside out. Religion works from the outside in. Satan works from the outside in. God works, the Holy Spirit works from the inside out. John chapter seven, verse 38, out of your what? Intermost being will flow rivers of living water. So the Holy Spirit works from the inside out. Again, in the world, the world works from the outside in. Religion works from the outside in. Satan works from the outside in. That's why when we talk about open doors to the demonic, we're talking about things in this world that are exterior that can affect you on the interior. But the Holy Spirit lives within you and if you surrender to him, he begins to work on the exterior as well. So when we repent, that is first the change in mind. And when you try to renounce before you repent, what you're trying to do is change your behavior before you've changed your mind. And if you try to change your behavior before you've changed your mind, you're gonna be very frustrated because you're always gonna go back to that original sin. You're always gonna go back to that sin that the scripture describes is that easily besets you, those easily besetting sins. Those are described in our lives because those are the sins that we continually go back to. So then, first you must repent. First you must change your mind. First you must have that transformation in thought where you align with God, to I agree with you here in my mind and therefore now I renounce. Religion has it backwards. Religion says change your behavior to change your heart but the scripture teaches that you must first transform the mind before you can experience transformation in your behavior. So first you repent. First you change your mind and then you can renounce. Second Corinthians chapter seven verse 10, look at the distinction being made here. Go to second Corinthians seven, 10. Watch this now. For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow but worldly sorrow, watch this now. Which lacks repentance results in spiritual death. You cannot confuse regret for repentance. Many believers think that because they felt bad for something that they did that that automatically counts as repentance. No, just because you feel bad for something that you did doesn't mean that you're actually coming into alignment with God's will. In fact, the conscience is to the mind what pain is to the body. So of course when you do something wrong naturally you're gonna feel that guilt because that's what you're doing. You're violating your own conscience. Now when we look at second Corinthians chapter seven verse 10 we see something quite interesting here. We see that there's no regret for that kind of sorrow. What kind of sorrow? The regret that actually brings you to repentance which is what? The change in mind. But worldly sorrow which lacks repentance what does repentance mean? To change one's mind. So watch this, let's read it with the original definition here. But worldly sorrow meaning sorrow of the flesh sorrow of the exterior. Feeling bad emotionally but not actually having an internal transformation. So we'll say it like this. Just feeling bad which lacks a change in mind results in spiritual death. Why is that? Because now you're condemned and filled with shame and you're left trying to come back to God by man's way which is religion. When you try to attempt reconnecting with God as if God ever disconnected from the believer then what you're left with is attempting again and again to work for that connection. You're attempting again and again to change your own behavior from the exterior. If I can just discipline myself to transform this and transform that then maybe I'll experience that life giving power to live clean but God says through the word that first you must repent change your mind and then you must renounce. Second Timothy 219. Now again I told you there are obscure translations of the Bible that give us the word for give us the word renounce. They're not really in any like NLT, KJV and so forth but watch this. Yet God's solid foundation stands unmoved bearing this inscription. The Lord knows those who really belong to him and this also, let every man or everyone who names the name of the Lord renounce all wickedness. Now what does this mean right here in Second Timothy 219? Renounce all wickedness. Does this mean let everyone who follows the way of the Lord or names the name of the Lord that you should compile a list of your grandparents sins and your sins and all the ways that you possibly open doors so the demonic read it out loud and then rejoice because you renounced it? No, you wanna do that, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that but that's not true renouncing according to scripture. True renouncing is to actually forsake, that's the word forsake to turn from. But before you can renounce you must repent. Write that in the comments section. First you repent then you renounce. First you need a transformation in the mind and then you can experience a transformation in your behavior. If you continually go back to the same sin again and again and again there's a part of you that still disagrees with God. That's gonna set some people free, I'm telling you. If you continually go back to the same sin again and again and again and again there's still a part of you that disagrees with God or there's still a part of you that's clinging to that sin and telling yourself, yeah, okay, I agree with God, I should repent but part of me still wants this. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you're struggling with. Let God be true and every man a liar. If you say something that contradicts the scripture you're a liar. That's what the Bible says, let God be true and every man a liar. And you're lying to yourself if you say, oh, but I've tried my absolute hardest and I just can't seem to overcome this or oh, I've been attempting to get rid of this thing time and time again but I just can't seem to get over it, my friend. You're trying to renounce without repenting. You're trying to change your behavior but you can't because somewhere in the back of your mind you're still saying, well, maybe just a little bit. Well, maybe just one more time. Well, maybe I'll give myself breaks in between. Three months good, one month bad. Three months good, one month bad. And then that should even out the record, right? Then it doesn't count as a lifestyle of sin. That's deception. That's self deception. So number one, you repent. Number two, you renounce. Number three, and this is important, you realize. Now this is where many believers get stuck. Believers repent, change the mind, then they renounce and now they're experiencing their freedom but here's where they struggle and here's probably where you struggle. They don't realize they're forgiven. I imagine that sometimes our conversations with the Lord goes something like this. Lord, forgive me. I'm sorry. I admit my wrongdoing. I'm asking you to cleanse me from all unrighteousness and the Lord looks down and he says, okay, I see that you've actually changed your mind. I see that you're turning from this sin. I forgive you and he washes you and he cleanses you and now you're forgiven and then you go back about your day and you're enjoying your freedom in Christ. When all of a sudden the enemy comes to you and says, hey, remember when you did that? Let me tell you, I'll give you a hint right now. Here's a good hint for you. Jesus is not the accuser. The scripture calls him the advocate. The Bible very clearly describes Satan as the accuser. Jesus is not the one who accuses you. God is not the one who reminds you of your sin. In fact, the scripture says that he remembers your sin no more. He separates you from your sin and him from your sin as far as the east is from the west. He doesn't remember it. He doesn't hold it against you. So if God doesn't hold your sin against you, if God doesn't remember your sin, who is it exactly that's reminding you of your wrongdoing? This is why by the way, I hesitate when people share their testimonies. Oh, I used to be this or I used to be that. And then they go talk about all the things that they did, all the horrible ways that they lived. And I'm thinking, why are you even going back to that? Why are you talking about it? Didn't the Lord forget about it? Why are you speaking about the past? Now, some might say, well, they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. The word of their testimony wasn't their life story. The word of their testimony was in fact their declaration of Christ. Now, I'm not saying that you can't share your story and some people might say, but my testimony helps people and that's great. But if you really want to help someone, give them the gospel. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't share your testimony, but what I am saying is that some believers still identify through their testimony. Some believers still identify through the past. They may say, oh, you know, once I was a drug dealer, but Jesus set me free and then they still act like drug dealers. Or once I was on the streets. Now, I know nothing about this, but you know, I've heard the testimonies before. You know, I was on the streets, I'm tough and I'm gruff and I'm from here and I'm from there. And then, okay, maybe God delivered you, but then why do you still talk about that as if you're proud of it? Or maybe people who had gone to prison or I'm from the prison life, you know, and this is what I come from. And then they're still talking as if they're still a prisoner. Or they say, once I was a drug addict and then they still see themselves as a drug addict. Once I was a blasphemer and they still see themselves as a blasphemer. And so they never really learned to identify with the new nature. And they're talking about their past as if that's somehow still a part of their identity. Sure, it's a part of their testimony. Sure, it's a part of what they share when they're talking of their salvation experience, but it shouldn't be a part of their identity, not even partially. Because we become completely new creations. And so I've seen some believers who constantly share their testimony. And as they're sharing it, and I'm gonna give you an insight and some of you may not like this, but I'm just gonna give you the truth. I'll watch sometimes people sharing their testimonies. Like when I'm preaching at conferences or go to different churches. And you know, sometimes I'm the guest speaker somewhere. And someone will get up and share a testimony. And I'll watch someone sharing their testimony. And as they're sharing it, you can see they're still in pain. Now this doesn't mean that you can't share your pain with others. Please don't hear what I'm not saying. But I can see as they're sharing it, and I can see by the spirit, sometimes when someone's sharing it, I go, ah, they still identify with their past. They still identify with the person they used to be. That's why they're so broken over it still. Now again, don't misunderstand me. There's a time and a place to share what the Lord Jesus has done for you. What I'm saying is that if you still identify with your past, it's sometimes manifest in the fact that you still talk about it as if it's a part of your identity. And so believers come to this place where they struggle realizing that they're actually new creations, that they're actually forgiven, that God's actually transformed their life. And so they come to the Lord, Lord, forgive me of that sin. And remember, this is the first sin that they confess to him. And he looks down at them and he goes, what sin? What wrong doing? He doesn't remember it. It's like it never happened. It's a new beginning, according to God, according to the one who formed reality as we know it, it never happened. It didn't take place. It's not a part of this new reality. It's a whole new timeline in the spirit. It didn't happen. And yet they come to God, God, please, I can't get over it. And this is what some of you are doing. You're saying, God, forgive me. And he forgives you and you move on and you repent. I'm talking about true repentance now. And you go in the other direction. You renounce it, okay? You start living right and then you still come back to God and you're just going, God, I can't believe I did that. I'm so sorry. And he's looking down at you going, what are you talking about? I've cleansed you. You're washed in the blood. What are you even talking about at this point? And still we do it. I remember I called this OCC, obsessive compulsive confession. No, that's not a joke, lest I offend anyone who deals with OCD. That's not a joke. It's a horrendous thing that actually affects true believers where they have this obsessive need to compulsively confess everything even after it's been forgiven. And then they worry and they fret. They bite their nails and they shiver and they go, oh my goodness. Did I forget to mention a sin? What if there was a sin that I forgot about that I didn't specifically mention because now they're stuck under the religious way of renouncing and they think they have to remember it, list it, say it in some specialized incantation or prayer and that's the only way that God forgives it. No, my friend, that's not how it works. We receive the forgiveness of God by putting our faith in the finished work at the cross not by remembering every little thing that we did wrong. In fact, God would rather you not go back to that place. Here's what the scripture says in 1 John chapter one, verse nine. But if we confess our sins to him, to who? To him. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness or as some versions put it, all unrighteousness. He is faithful and just to forgive us. So who was this written to? This was written to believers. So believers still make mistakes. Some might bring up, for example, I think it's Matthew 548 where Jesus says be perfect even as your heavenly father is perfect. But Jesus there is talking about forgiveness and being whole and mature in the area of forgiving one another just as God has forgiven us. The scripture teaches clearly that there's still gonna be mistakes that we make. And so 1 John 1 9 is an example of that. But if we confess our sins to him, this is the believer now. If we confess, this is present tense. This is continual. If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. He is faithful and just, interesting. He's faithful in that he does it continually. And then he's just to forgive us because he's doing it based upon the justification that was purchased by the blood of Jesus on the cross. So he's not just passing out freebies. He's not just saying, okay, I'll give you a pass. And he's not winking at sin going, okay, we'll let that one slide because I love you so much. No, he's able to forgive you justly because of the cross. He's able to look at the cross and be just in forgiving us because legally he can do so by the power of the blood of Jesus. So the scripture says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and that word is key here. Faithful continually, again and again. Now this is not an encouragement to sin. Paul himself wrote, shall we go on sinning? No, not by any means. We are dead to sin. We are alive to Christ. The old nature has been crucified, nailed to that cross. And so yes, while we still make mistakes, this doesn't mean that we persist in it. God is not necessarily looking for people who are perfect but who are willing to be submitted to the process of being perfected. And in this process, we see our true motives. In this process, we see actively the nature and the desires of the Holy Spirit working through us. So if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all wickedness. Watch this now, this is powerful. Psalm 103, nine and 10. He will not constantly accuse us. Wow, I want you to write that in the chat and I'll just say thank you Jesus. Just write it in the chat, live or replay. I'm telling you, he deserves some thanks right now. What a powerful verse. He will not constantly accuse us nor remain angry forever. Some of you had parents that were just nagging you all the time with your mistakes. Some of you had spouses or have spouses or no people who just nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, constantly accusing, constantly accusing, constantly accusing, constantly accusing. They'll bring up something from five years, 10 years, 20 years ago and they just won't let it go. You make one mistake and it's forever on the record book and they won't let it go and they constantly quote it. But here we see God, wow. He will not constantly accuse us. The only one who has the right to condemn you doesn't. The only one who doesn't, who has the right to condemn you doesn't. What a powerful truth. He will not constantly accuse us nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve. Now, lest you think I'm tickling ears with some sloppy grace message here, you can go back and reference the message that I did on, this is what happens to compromising Christians. And in that teaching, I talked about the various ways that Christians are affected, impacted by sin on this side of eternity and the next. But the other side of this truth, which is just as true, is the reality that God is gracious toward us. You see, some of you are carrying the weight of the past like right on your spiritual shoulders and you can't enjoy life, you can't enjoy time with your family. And again, this is why you have trouble receiving blessings. Someone compliments you, you can't receive it. Someone says how gracious you are, you can't receive it. People try to give you gifts and you can't receive it. Why? Because you're feeling condemned because you're seeing yourself through the lens of your past mistakes instead of number three, realizing that you're forgiven. And when you finally realize that, it really is a liberating moment. But here's where the battle comes, right? And again, back to religion, back to that religious mindset, me trying to earn my own way and me trying to do it on my own, here's what we do. Years and years ago, what they would do in some sects of Christianity what they would do is they would, or so-called, is they would whip themselves. And this is actually some people in certain cults would do this. I remember I saw like this documentary, I hope I'm not identifying anybody. I don't like to publicly speak against God's servants so I won't name any names. But I thought this was kind of interesting. This was years ago. I don't think it's very popular so I think I'm safe to say it. But there's this documentary about this guy who had a really bad past, like made some really bad mistakes and now he loves the Lord serving God. But one of the things that he would do is he would have like somebody like hit him with a chair. I kid you not, like a steel chair, like it was a wrestling match. And he said, this is part of my cross to bear. This is part of my punishment. This is part of me, you know, staying right with God. And I thought that was just really odd. Maybe I misunderstood what he was doing but that was really odd to me. And this is what some Christians do. They may not whip themselves on the back, give themselves their lashes so that they can say, Lord, this is me making penance for my sin and trying to earn your forgiveness. They may not do that physically, but they do it emotionally. They do it mentally. They whip themselves over the back every day and you're doing it again and again. Look, let's be real here. Abortion is murder. I'm gonna say that I don't care who that offends. We have to stand on the side of righteousness. Abortion is murder, but the reality is this too. Yes, abortion is murder. No, we should not allow it. No, we should not make excuses for people who out of convenience abort babies. That's just wrong, or murder babies. It's murder, okay? That's a fact and I'm not gonna move on that. I'm not gonna, don't even bother writing me or anything. I'm not gonna move on that. I'm not gonna apologize. That's scripture, that's true. And more and more preachers need to stand firm on these things. But I'm using this as an illustration. You may have had an abortion and you may have asked for God's forgiveness and you're living into the condemnation of that. What are you doing? You're whipping yourself. Because you just can't bring yourself to believe that yes, even though it was wrong, you already know that. You already came into agreement with that a long time ago. Yes, you come into agreement with God's standard of holiness and then now he's forgiven you and what do you do? You still whip, you just can't forgive yourself. Or maybe you had a failed marriage. We understand that there are certain caveats for divorce. The scripture very clearly talks about that word which I believe in the Greek is pornea and that's more to do than just adultery. There's abuse included and I don't have time to get into the study there. We're talking about abuse. We're basically talking about the breaking of a covenant before God. And there are many different ways you can break that covenant but that's neither here nor there right now. But maybe you're struggling because you did get a divorce and you got a divorce when you knew better and maybe it wasn't for proper reasons. Maybe you just didn't wanna work it out. You got a divorce and you knew that was wrong and now you're here, that person's remarried already and you're here, you're going okay, how do I make this right? And you just live under this weight because of that past mistake and you see yourself through that lens and then you let others identify you through that lens. So that's the person who got divorced. So that's the pastor who was divorced. And then people see through that lens now and now you're seeing your identity through it and even though God may have forgiven you even though you acknowledged the wrongdoing even though maybe even you committed adultery and it ended your marriage and now you're carrying this weight and you're saying, I don't know what to do with this. I can't get past this and it's just weighing on you and maybe God forgave you. Yes, of course he did if you truly repented and maybe God is saying to you, it's time to stop. It's time to forgive yourself now but you don't do it, you're whipping yourself emotionally on the back. I deserve this. This is my penance. This is me making myself right with God because you don't believe that you're allowed to enjoy salvation. You don't believe that you're allowed to enjoy blessing. You don't believe that you're allowed to enjoy God's provision and every time God tries to bless you, every time you enter a season of good things, every time you enter a season of promotion, every time God sends you an act of favor or demonstrates his love toward you or you have a good day, every time you experience something that is good, you tell yourself, I don't deserve to be enjoying this and you go giving your penance. Whipping yourself spiritually on the back. I can't let that go. Yeah, I'll enjoy it a little but I shouldn't enjoy it too much because I did this. Maybe there are actual people here on the stream right now. Maybe you actually committed murder. I personally know people who've done this and they carry this guilt with them. That right there is a very deep violation of the conscience to take another human life but you know, God forgives murderers too. You carry that, you see yourself through that lens and even though you know you're forgiven, even though you know you're a new creation, you can't help but see yourself partially through that story, through that narrative. I know we're getting deep tonight but I'm talking to you about realizing what the Lord has done. Realizing the forgiveness and the grace of God. Yeah, other people may say you don't deserve to be forgiven. You don't deserve that. You deserve punishment. I have a friend of mine who very publicly, so I could talk about it, who very publicly is on the internet. I think he's trying to get a pardon for something so that he can stay in the United States and he's been asking for people's help with getting the pardon. Now I believe there are consequences to sin even in the natural realm but I was looking at some of the comments, Christians that they were making to him and they were telling him, you know what? Yeah, I forgive you but you deserve to be deported. Now I don't know what your political views are. We're not getting political here tonight but I'm watching that and I'm thinking, my goodness, many of these people commenting are probably Christians and here they've received forgiveness for grievous sins, for horrific things that they've done. They've all violated God's standard. Yet here they are telling someone else, now you don't deserve, well God will forgive you but you don't deserve any grace and we do it to ourselves and maybe it's easier for you to forgive others for their wrongdoing but you can't forgive yourself. You can't forgive yourself for what you've done. You constantly accuse yourself, you constantly allow the enemy to accuse you. Watch this now, Psalm 51, 7-10. Purify me from my sins and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be wider than snow. Verse eight, oh give me back my joy again. You have broken me, now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, renew a loyal spirit within me. I love this that he has the boldness to pray and this is quite bold of course. Give me back my joy again. You have broken me, now let me rejoice. What a prayer. That's boldness. Now here the psalmist is writing of adultery and murder that he had committed. And he's coming to the Lord, he's saying Lord, okay, yeah, what I did was wrong, I turned from it. You've been weighing heavy on me. You've been pushing this. I feel it, I feel the pain, I'm sorry. And then he has the boldness, guys. He dares, he dares to say to the Lord, Lord, give me back my joy now. Give me back my joy, I'm ready to be done with this. I've repented, it's in the past. I'm turned over a new leaf, so to speak. I'm coming into a new season. I'm leaving that behind. And then he has the boldness, the audacity to say to God, God, okay, now give me back my joy. Do you dare pray that prayer? Here we see a man who understood God's nature. Here we see a man who understood that God would not be offended or angry at this prayer. You need to get bold. And you need to ask the Lord to give you back your joy again. Yeah, you may ask, Lord, I'm ready to have my joy again. And then the enemy says, you don't deserve it. And the truth is you don't deserve it. But you wanna know the reality is, none of us deserve it. None of us deserve the joy of our salvation. None of us deserve to be forgiven, to be pardoned, to have the sin erased from the record. None of us deserve that. Have the boldness to believe what God says. Dare to believe that God is as good as he says he is. I'm serious, I'm daring you. Dare to believe that God is as good as he says he is. I'm not talking about winking at sin. I'm not talking about compromise. Remember, we've already talked about repentance and renouncing evil, actually changing your behavior to the transformation of your mind. So yes, we're talking about holiness. But once you've gone past that point, you need to realize that you're forgiven. And that means you can stop looking over your shoulder. That means you can stop seeing yourself to the lens of what you did. I really believe there's a pastor watching me. You had a moral failing and you still see yourself through that. So you say, yes, I was restored. Yes, I was forgiven. Yes, I've been brought back into ministry. But now I can't help but see myself always as the pastor who fell. That's not who you are. And don't you dare let other people label you that way. If they want to do it, that's on them. That's between them and God, and God will judge them for that. But you dare to believe that that joy can be restored. Dare to believe that God really will wipe the record clean. This is bold, this takes a lot of faith, and there's gonna be that inner struggle between you and the lies of the enemy. But according to God's record, once you've been forgiven, it didn't happen. It's in the past, all things made new. And then once you realize you're forgiven, you must embrace that forgiveness. Believe it, stop identifying yourself by the mistake. Stop rejecting the blessing of God. And some of you, I may be getting too detailed here, but maybe I'm describing you, I don't know, let me know in the comments. Some of you are so plagued by your past that the moment things start going well in your life, like things become smooth, the chaos is gone, you start experiencing some joy and some peace in your life, immediately you become paranoid and start looking over your shoulder, wondering if your past sins are gonna come to visit you. And the moment you start to experience peace, you get afraid because you're thinking, oh, this is too good, something bad has to happen now. Because you just can't believe that it's actually done, that you're actually forgiven. It's time to come to the joy of salvation. So, realize, so far we've seen, number one, repent of your sins, metanaeo, that is to change your mind. Number two, renounce your sin, that is the turning from it, that's forsaking. Number three, realize, realize you're forgiven. That's a tough one. Number four, and this is gonna be important, especially moving forward. So now that you've repented of the sin, you've renounced the sin, you've embraced the forgiveness of God, okay, now we're gonna look forward into the future, because that's not restoration yet. That's forgiveness, but now let's talk restoration. These are steps to restoration. We've done the first three. Now you have to review. First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 12 says, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Review what went wrong. Whenever somebody comes to me and confesses a sin, not that I'm a mediator, they confess their sin for accountability or for help or for prayer. They don't confess their sin to me to be forgiven. That's not how that works. You confess your sins to God to be forgiven. We confess to one another to get help with overcoming these issues, prayer, accountability, and so forth. But now you have to review. When somebody comes to me and says, hey, I messed up here, I said, okay, what happened? Let's go over the timeline. I said, you don't have to give me details. In fact, I don't want details. I said, let's just go over a general timeline of what happened. I said, okay, let's say they made a mistake on a Friday night. I said, okay, you made that mistake Friday night. I said, let's review the week. I understand what you did on Friday night, but let's look at Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Let's look at those days and let's examine what happened each day, where you dropped your guard, who you were around, where you went, what you were watching, what you were listening to, what you allowed to influence your mind that week, were you tired, were you hungry, was your schedule off? Did you neglect prayer? Did you neglect the word? Did you neglect your usual schedule? Guys, it could be something as practical, especially men will understand this, it could be something as practical as not working out. And then all of a sudden, because you were so used to that, it does things in your schedule, it does things in your mind, that throw things off to a way where your schedule is off and now all of a sudden, your lustful cravings are intensified. And so this is why we as believers have to practically examine what the week was like. See, temptation is not an event. This is where many people make their mistake. They think that temptation is the moment where they give in to the sin. No, temptation is not an event, it's a process. Temptation is not an event, it's a process. Write that in the comment section. Temptation is not an event, it's a process. So if you fell into sin on Friday, something went wrong in the week leading up to it. You began to drop your guard long before Friday. You were looking at things online, even if it weren't, let's talk specifically in the category of lust. I know when I talk about sin, most people think about lust anyway. This could be lying, this could be pride, this could be greed, this could be all sorts of other different types of sins that we can commit. But let's take lust as an example since it's one of the most common ones. When you look at something like lust and you see you're weak, you actually can identify certain moments where maybe you went on an Instagram account. Maybe it wasn't pornographic, but my goodness, that was probably not the best thing for you to do. Or maybe you watched a movie that had maybe one or two scenes in it that you shouldn't have been looking at and you shouldn't have been watching that movie in the first place, but you let your guard down a little. You told yourself, well, it's mostly a good movie and there's just one scene real quick and I didn't watch that scene, but maybe you did. And then there are things that we do that make us tired or your sleep schedule's off or you're not eating properly. And before you know it, everything is thrown off balance and you have a fall. You would be amazed at how exhaustion can make you more prone to falling into temptation, but you have to review. You have to look what went wrong. Don't assume it can't happen again. Take heed lest you fall, take heed. Look, observe, pay attention. That's what the scripture says. 1 Corinthians 10, 12, take heed lest ye fall. Take heed means to observe, to pay attention, to watch. And so once we're taking heed, we're looking, we're observing, we're examining what went wrong lest we fall. It can happen again and we have to acknowledge that it can happen again. So that's number four. You have to review what went wrong. And finally, number five. So so far, repent, renounce, realize, review. Repent of your sins, renounce your sin, realize your forgiven, review what went wrong. Number five, resolve to do better. Now, this is gonna set you up for success because to repent and to renounce, repent of and renounce a sin. Okay, you've dealt with the past sin, but now let's talk about things in the future. Let's look forward now. Once you've embraced that forgiveness, you're walking in liberty, you're experiencing the joy of salvation again, you've forgiven yourself. That's a word for many of you. You've got to forgive yourself. I'm serious, it's time to move on. How many more months of tormenting yourself will it take before you say, I have enough lashes on myself that I've done? How many more months? How many more months of tormenting yourself before you say, okay, now I'm gonna trust what the word of God says about my sin? And again, I'm not talking about compromise and winging at sin and allowing sin. This isn't sloppy grace. I'm talking about after you've repented. It's time to accept God's forgiveness and it's time to forgive yourself. Let it go, God did. Number five, resolve. Resolve to do better. Watch this first Corinthians 9.27. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. Last, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. So here, Paul the apostle is writing of discipline of the body. Now, it's important to remember that the physical body is not evil unto itself. Sometimes in the scripture, in the New Testament, when you see the word flesh, it's describing the physical body. And other times, when you see the word flesh, it's describing the sin nature. Now, it makes it a little more confusing because the physical body and the sin nature are closely tied to one another, though they are not the same thing. Let's say that you are like a computer. Your mind is the software. Your body is the hardware. The sin nature is the old way of thinking. The sin nature is the old software. And when you were born again, there was new software loaded onto your mind. Here's the problem. The physical body was trained under the old software. The physical body picked up patterns and habits and inclinations under the old nature. So now that we're under the new program, we have to download it and we have to let it actually run its course. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So to see a transformation in behavior, the hardware, you have to completely load that software, the new mindset. And so here we see that Paul the apostle is doing this. He's disciplining the body under what though? He's disciplining the body under the spirit now. He's disciplining the body. He's retraining it. The body's old trainer was the sin nature, the sin cravings. And it learned a lot of bad habits under that old way of thinking. Now there's a new trainer. A new trainer called the spirit. And the spirit now is training the physical body to begin to do according to God's glory. And so first Corinthians 9.27, Paul writes that he disciplines his body. The body is not the sin nature, but the body is closely tied to the sin nature. And so we see here that now there is a transformation happening in the hardware. Romans chapter 13 verse 14 says, instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and don't let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires. In other words, don't even think about the ways in which you can indulge your evil desires. I love the way I believe the King James Version puts it. It says, make no provision for the flesh. Don't allow it an opportunity. Don't give your flesh the opportunity to do what it wants to do. Treat it like a different person, that sin nature. Now Jesus said something interesting in Matthew chapter 6 verse 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen. Lead us not into temptation. Some believers pray, God, give me strength when I put myself into temptation. But Jesus is saying, you should pray that you not even be led into temptation. The Bible tells us to flee from youthful lusts, not to debate with them. Now I wanna teach you something that you'll find very helpful. The enemy is an amazingly persuasive debater. Demons know how to tempt, and the sin nature, that old mindset, is an amazingly persuasive debater. Do not get into a debate with the sin nature. Do not get into a debate with demonic power. What does that look like? Well, let's say, for example, you're tempted to lie. Someone asked you a question right there. Did you, I don't know, did you take the car last night, whatever? They ask you a question, and instantly your mind goes, looking for a lie. Tell them a lie, tell them a lie, tell them a lie. And there are split seconds before you speak that lie. There are split seconds where you're going, should I say this? Should I say this? Should I say this? Should I say this? And it's at that moment that you've already lost. The moment you enter the debate, the moment you start asking, should I, shouldn't I? Should I, shouldn't I? You've already lost, why? Because the moment you begin to debate, you're under now the power of the persuasion of the enemy. He's a deceiver. Instead, what you should do is have a reflex to reject. I want you to write that in the comments. Reflex to reject. A reflex to reject wrongdoing. Allow the spirit to influence the split seconds of your decision making. And when you allow the Holy Spirit into the split seconds of your decision making process, you learn to reject the reflex of rejecting it. Boom, instantly. A lustful thought, instant rejection. A temptation to lie, instant rejection. You get invited to go somewhere you know you shouldn't. Let's say someone invites you, hey, come to this party. You know if you go to the party, there's gonna be drinking, there's gonna be drugs. You know there's gonna be a sensuality and you know you don't wanna be involved in that. The moment they invite you, you're gonna do this. Well, I can go but I won't get involved in this. Or well, I can go but I'm not gonna be that bad. Or I'll go for a couple hours and I'll be back before any of the bad stuff starts, right? There's that debate back and forth. That's your flesh. Your flesh is trying to lie to you to deceive you into getting what it wants. And so it's lying to you saying, hey, we'll be good. And you go, okay, maybe we will be. And you get there and the flesh is like a high line. Now I'm gonna get what I want. And that's why the moment you get that invite to go somewhere that you know you shouldn't. Don't even debate it. Maybe shouldn't I, should I, shouldn't I, should I? No, the reflex of rejecting. The moment you're scrolling on social media and there's something, a picture that comes onto the screen that you know you shouldn't look at, reflex of rejecting. Not, well, maybe it's not so bad or maybe it's not that big of a deal. No, no, no, the reflex of rejecting. The moment your heart becomes filled with pride and you begin to see yourself as better than others. Maybe instead of saying, well, you know, I worked hard to get here. Well, you know, I was really diligent to accomplish what I did. Well, you know, I am successful so I can see why people treat me. No, the reflex of rejecting. The moment you enter the debate you've already lost. The moment you enter that battle you've already lost. You have to flee from temptation. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. By the way, that's deliverance from temptation in that portion of scripture. So learning to reject instantaneously by reflex the things that the sin nature craves and not entering into that battle, that is how you resolve to do better in the future. So far we've seen, repent of your sins, renounce your sin, realize your forgiven, review what went wrong, resolve to do better. I want everyone praying in the Holy Ghost right now. Write your prayer request in the comment section. Write this very moment. Whether you're watching live or on the replay, write your prayer request so that others can see it and pray for you as well. I wanna believe God with you for breakthrough in this area. There are many of you watching right now that you've been struggling with certain things for a long time. And I'm talking about those of you who've repented, you've been forgiven, and you just can't break from the past. God wants to set you free. And he's gonna do so the moment you believe the truth. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. Father in the name of Jesus. Come on, begin to pray right now boldly, church. Pray in the Holy Ghost. God's doing something. Father in the name of Jesus. I pray right now. Father that you would begin to empower your people. Let that delivering power begin to set your people free. Thank you, Lord, for the truth. Thank you for the truth that sets us free. Father, I pray you would give your people grace and strength under temptation. Father, I pray you would help us to come into agreement with you. Give us the ability to surrender. Incline our hearts to your word, I pray. Incline our hearts to your ways. Bend us toward your will. Holy Spirit, thank you for your prayers and harmony with God's own will for our lives. Father, help us to be holy. Help us to be submitted to your process of sanctification. And I pray right now, Jesus, that you would break those chains that bind your people. Come on, pray in the Holy Ghost with faith believing right now. I believe that many are being set free. Many are being set free from the past and they didn't even realize they were bound to the past. I rebuke it in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord, that you're silencing the voice of the enemy. Thank you, Father, that you're giving your people breakthrough. I give you the praise, Jesus. I give you the glory and let your healing virtue flow. Wow, there's a strong healing anointing flowing here. And that means it's a moment where God is choosing to heal. Father, I thank you. Wow, somebody's problem with the right knees just been healed, I give you the praise, Jesus. Shoulder blades being healed, I thank you, Lord. There's a problem with the skin on someone's scalp. He's healing you right now, I give you the praise, Jesus. Wow, thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord. Father, we thank you for your healing virtue. Heal every sickness and disease. Break every addiction, I pray. I bind the works of the devil in the name of Jesus. I speak to every demonic power now and I command you in the name of Jesus to stop harassing God's people. Be set free people of God in the name of Jesus. I give you the glory and the honor. Just take a moment right now. Don't rush this, don't rush this, don't rush this. Surrender now to the power of the Holy Ghost. I thank you, Father. There's an individual watching right now, a critic of this ministry and you're watching just to criticize. We bless you in the name of Jesus. I bless your children in the name of Jesus. I bless your family in the name of Jesus. And I pray you and they would come to know the power of the Holy Ghost. I thank you, Lord. Bless them, Lord. Just overwhelm them with your goodness, I pray. Let this power that's here right now come upon their life by way of simply their curiosity. I thank you, Jesus. You're good, God, you're good. Thank you, Lord. Keep praying, church, keep praying. Just another moment, just another moment. Let that virtue flow, that healing power begin to touch your people. In Jesus' name we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it, say amen. Well, if you enjoyed this message and it really blessed you, don't forget to leave a like on this video because that's actually gonna help this video reach more people. Even if you're watching on the replay, it's gonna help big time in getting this message spread all over the internet. And while you're at it, don't forget to subscribe to my channel so that you can receive teachings and sermons on the Holy Spirit prayer, spiritual warfare and topics such as those. I also live stream our events from around the world and at these services, the power of the Holy Ghost is demonstrated. People are healed, delivered and empowered and saved and you'll see that all on the live stream. So, subscribe right now and make sure you click that notification bell when you do subscribe. If you're new here, make sure you do so and welcome to you. And now I wanna ask you for your help with something. I know that you, the people of God are generous, loving, kind people and I thank you for that. In fact, spirit family, that's what we refer to our viewers. Spirit family, you are probably the most generous online community I've ever known and I wanna thank you for that support. And so I wanna encourage you now, if this ministry's been a blessing to you and you can see how this ministry will benefit others, I wanna ask you to sign up to become a monthly ministry partner today by going to davidhernanisministries.com slash partner. Now you can sign up for a monthly gift of any amount, any amount will do. But there are different, I don't wanna say benefits, but that's really what we would call them. There are different thank you gifts that we give back to our partners. And Tim, you don't have to put it on the screen, the graphics, but you can just keep that lower third there. But you know, there's different options. We have a $15 a month partnership, a $30 a month partnership, a 60 and a 120. But really you can customize that to be whatever you want it to be. Now, at the $30 a month partnership, I send you a signed book just as a gift. I know that's not why you partner with us, but it's a gift, our way of saying thank you for your help. And all partners who sign up at 15 or more get a Dove lapel pin, which I think you'll enjoy because you can use it to show that you support the gospel. And just a good reminder that we're partnered in ministry together. But either way, I know those are those benefits. You can check out all the benefits and the current ones at davidhernanisministries.com slash partner. But I'm asking you to partner today for one reason. We need to win souls, soul winning work. This ministry is expanding, it's growing. Even in this season, this ministry is expanding. There's favor on this ministry. So I'm asking you to get involved. Now, you can also give a one time gift if you want. Not everyone has to partner monthly, but I'm asking you if you're able to partner with us monthly. Maybe you say I can't do it. I'm not able to partner monthly. I don't have the resources. I believe this, that all of us need to do our part in some way to support the work of the gospel. Now, maybe you're saying that that you can't support the ministry, but you have like a streaming platform like Netflix or Hulu or Disney Plus or maybe like a gym membership or a subscription to something. Look, everything's subscription based these days. I'm gonna challenge you if you're unable to support the ministry to sacrifice, to exchange one of those secular subscriptions for a spiritual one. Not only that, this subscription or membership or partnership won't just benefit you. You'll be blessing others by helping to fund the live streams, the content, the events, which we give away for free and we're able to give away for free because of your monthly support. So whatever you can do, one time or monthly, large or small, go right now and give your gift, your very best to the Lord, to his work so that we can continue doing our work. And by the way, if you're watching from another country and you're saying, hey, can I give? Can I get involved? Yes, you can. Go to the same website. The form should work for you. The form at davidhernanisministries.com should work for you. Now, if the form doesn't work, you can give through YouTube or Facebook and there's other ways to give, but if the form does work, great. So try the form first and if you absolutely can't get any of our giving options to give, then you can give through Facebook and YouTube. And I'm actually gonna go right now on my phone and I'm gonna be able to see some of you who are partnering with us and giving those one-time gifts. This is what it's gonna take, guys, right here to see this ministry growing and going strong. Thank you to Jeffrey for your generous gift to this ministry. Thank you, Margaret, for partnering with us. Mary Ann, thank you for your partnership. Kareli, Teresa, Iris, thank you for your monthly partnerships. I appreciate you. Carmen, thank you for your monthly support. Jessica, thank you for your one-time gift. We appreciate all of you giving, guys, all of you giving. It's a great, great blessing and in fact, there's more loading on my screen right now. It'll only take just maybe two or three minutes to fill that out. It's very easy to use that form. 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