 Question that comes up a lot, whether it's with you, whether it's me or anybody that you know, relates to us as Christian and our sin. All of us as Christian, let's just be honest, well, let's really be honest, because some people don't sin. There are some people who don't sin, so this message is not for you. This video is not for you all who don't sin. This is for the rest of us, us people who are struggling, us people who just really, really, really, and I hate to use this word, but I think it's a good word to use in this case, for those of us who really suck at being Christian. We're just not that good at being Christian, and so for us, how do we respond or how do we deal with it if we have to ask ourselves internally when we sin, how much we sin and so forth? Because oftentimes, have you ever noticed that when you look at certain things, the way you look at it, depending on the perspective that you look at it, it looks vastly different? For example, you all can, I'm gonna give you this little analogy, you'll be able to understand it because you've seen it yourself. For example, let's say you are in a crowd, okay, and from your vantage point, you see heads, you see bodies, you see enough people in front of you, and so there's a person here, person here, person here, person here, person here, and you can't really see a lot unless you're seven foot five, you really can't see over and even still you see a lot of people. However, if you were to take a look up top and look down, you might actually see that there's a lot of people in front of you, but they're all scattered, they're dispersed, and so it's not as compact, it's not as clustered as it looks. Well, depending on how we actually look at our lives and look at sin, hopefully, hopefully our sin looks like that, where from our vantage point, you see a lot of it, it's right there, here's some, here's some, here's some, I did this, I did that, lied about this, went over there, watched this, said this, thought about this, all these different things, but when you look at it from a bird's eye view, you might be able to see it's here, and here, and here, and here, it's sparse, but if you put it together, you look at it, it looks like it's a lot. I'll never forget a guy told me this, I asked him, we were talking about the population of different cities, and we were just talking about the largest cities and so forth, and this guy was from Mobile, Alabama. This is nothing against Mobile, Alabama. It is against this guy though, he wasn't the brightest, but I'm using this analogy to kind of help the story. Actually, not even an analogy, it's an actual story, but he said that he thought that, he thought that Mobile was a big city, and I said no, Mobile would be categorized as a medium-sized city. He said, no, Mobile's a big city. We're talking about 800, 900,000. I said, no, Mobile, Alabama does not have beautiful city, beautiful people, but it's not that big. Guy from New Orleans chimes in and says, yeah, New Orleans is a giant city too, it's a big city too. It's a little bit bigger than Mobile, but Mobile's a big city too, I think. Well, because he grew up in Mobile, but now lives in New Orleans. Well, the problem is, they're looking at things from their perspective, however, if they were to step out and actually wanna look at a, look at an Almanac, but then two, in comparison with other cities, he was shocked to find out the population of Mobile. The other guy was shocked to find out the population of New Orleans. Thinking that because that's where they're from, that's all they know. And so sometimes perspective needs to be added. Sometimes we just don't have very good perspective. So that being the case, I wanna look at perspective, not well, from our vantage point, from others vantage point, and also from God's vantage point, in terms of sin, in terms of salvation, in terms of sanctification. All of this is what we should be dealing with in our lives. Now, we don't think about it that way. We don't sit and think about it. I wonder how sanctified am I? Some folks do maybe, but most of us we don't. Some folks thinking wonder, how much, how saved am I? You shouldn't, but maybe you should. How much sin am I, does my sin, what does my sin have to do with my salvation? Have you ever thought about that? What does my sin have to do with my salvation, but even more to the point, how much sin does it take for me to not be saved? Now, I want you to hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying how much sin causes you to lose your salvation. I'm saying how much sin causes you to not be saved. Well, wait a minute, Corey. It sounds like you're saying the same thing. Nope. I'm not saying how much sin will you have to do to make you lose your salvation. I'm saying how much sin do you have to have in order to say that you're not saved? Now do you understand my point? And this happens, this comes up an awful lot. How do I know? Because I've been talking to people and seeing people discuss this about not just myself, but with other people. People are constantly wondering, well, is this guy saved? Is that guy safe? Am I safe? You have no idea how often I get that question asked about how do I know I'm safe? I'm struggling. How do I know I'm safe? And there are some things that you're gonna have to look at. Now, it's possible. It's possible that when you ask yourself this question or about the person that you might be thinking about, it is possible that the person, either yourself or the other person, isn't saved. But it's also possible the person is saved. Because again, what you might be doing is looking at a ground floor level and you see sin. But if you step up and look down, you might see it kind of dispersed a little bit. Which is why Jesus says, let the wheat and tear grow together. Let the wheat and tear grow together. Why? Because you don't have any idea of what you're doing when it comes to separating the two. You have no idea what matter of fact, you know how I know you're no good at separating sin, the sinners from the saints, because you have a hard time separating the sin out of your own life. So you should not be worried about so much. Now, do we worry about sin? Sin bothers us. If we're saved, sin bothers us. It should bother me. It should bother you. Who sinned? My sinned and your sinned. Everyone sins should bother just the fact of doing wrong. If you can sit and watch some clip on Facebook or whatever, some social media clip, and they're posting all sorts, you know, so I gotta, I've got some friends who aren't saved. When I say friends, I mean people who are associates, acquaintances, some acquaintances, some people that I picked up that I met in foreign places. When I say foreign places, I mean prison. And I'm friendly with them. And listen, I'm always after ready to share the gospel with them. Matter of fact, they get tired of it sometimes, but we're still good. We're still cool. And Facebook friends just saying who did what. Most of them, we've kind of just, our conversation is Wayne, but you friend them on Facebook, you get out of prison. Hey, what's going on? But man, I'm glad to see you out. Glad to see you doing good. And a couple of them, they post stuff that you, okay, why are you posting this? Posting somebody getting beat up. Somebody getting shot. I don't know how this stuff survives on Facebook. I guess they take it down after a while, but they show all sorts of just crazy stuff. Like who likes to see this stuff? Who likes to see this kind of craziness? It's kind of, but some people do. Some people do. Now I don't, if you're watching a movie and then the movie has this, that's fine. But this is acting. When you want to see the play actings, I mean the real life stuff and you want to see somebody getting beat up or whatever, it's just ridiculous. I saw a clip, what's the guy's name? Rashad Richie or Richard, I forget the guy's name. He's extra liberal. And he's showing a video clip of an older white man challenging a younger, heavy set, I think she's a black woman. And she hits him and he falls down. The fall down was really what did more damage. And so he's posted, it's like, why? You take glory, you like to see that kind of stuff? He got what he had coming. That is not how you're supposed to be, especially when the name's the name of Christ. And so the question is, does sin bother you? Well, it should, even in the lives of other people. So what asks this question? Is there a certain amount of sin that we can look at and see and say that guy's not saved? Are there some things on the outside that we can look at and say that that person's not saved? There are some times, there are some things that you can look at and say that person ain't saved. For example, you place your allegiance with Allah and Muhammad. Okay, you're not saved. That's pretty easy. You are an atheist, you're not saved. I'm a Hindu, I'm a Buddhist. Well, you're not saved. Well, I'm a charismatic, I'm a Pentecostal. Well, that's different, you are saved. I'm a Methodist. I'm a Piscopet. Well, okay, that's different. I'm a Baptist, okay? That's different. Now, we're not talking about doctrine, but then what about when we're looking at someone's pattern of life? That's where it gets a bit tricky. And if we're honest, nobody, nobody wants anyone dissecting. Let me just, wait a sec, let's look here for, let me look and see, okay, let's pull that out. Wow, I'm seeing a whole lot of, yeah. If everyone were to have an autopsy performed for the whole world to see, and I mean a spiritual autopsy, it's not gonna look good. Cancerous, it's a whole lot of bad stuff inside of there. It's gonna, they're gonna have their mouths and faces covered because it's just gonna smell so bad. That's just us, right? But is there, is there ever an opportunity where we can see or a time where we can say, you know what, this person, because of their actions, is there ever a time where we can say, you know what, they're probably not saved, or I'm probably not saved. There are, we're gonna look at that though also, but you wanna not be so quick, so quick to jump to it. Now, by the way, as we're going through this, I wanna make this as interactive as possible. So make sure that you ask questions by putting a big cue or question but make sure the questions are relevant. We're not talking about the trinity. We're not talking about all this other stuff. We're not talking about tongues. We're not talking about dispensationalism or Calvinism. We're not talking about any of that stuff, okay? So if you have a question, if this relates to you, now some of the questions I might actually get to later so I'm gonna have to answer immediately, but if you got a question, put a cue or a question in front of it and we'll go ahead and get to it. I wanna go to a couple of things. There, by the way, as we look through this, we're gonna look at some things that we might be able to figure out. I'm not a Christian or I am a Christian after all. I'm a Christian that's been drugged through the mud, facedown over some rocks, but I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. So the Bible tells us this. Let's start in the passage that brings a lot of problems in the body and it shouldn't be that Christians can point to a passage that brings a lot of problems in the body, but here's one of them. First John three, and let's start in verse four. How about that? Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness and sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin. Question, when the Bible says that he appeared to take away sin, what does that mean? Because that's the important part right there. He appeared to take away sins. Well, first of all, who? Well, Jesus took away sins. How? Yes, man, I got you. Took away sins. How? Now you all should know this. In which way, how so did he take away sins? Well, he was the object of sins punishment. In other words, it's not that how Todd White would say, and others have said lately as well, it's not that he became pornography on the cross. He became all these sexual sins on the cross. He became all the, no, that's no, no, no, no, no. He just was the object of wrath that God put his wrath on. He didn't do it, so therefore he didn't become that, but he took the place of that. So when John says, look y'all, the Lamb of God, I said it in the Southern way from Texas. Look y'all, the Lamb of God, which takes away sin. Well, this is what, by the way, John was the one that said that in John 1. Here he is, said in 1 John 3. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins. And in him, there is no sin. So if you are in him, couple of things. If you are in him, do you sin? Well, the obvious answer, the easy answer to that question is yes, but he just said in him, there is no sin. Well, in him, there is no sin, meaning that you are not viewed or your sin is not looked upon, your sin is not judged. He just said he takes away sin, so therefore by being in him, there is no sin. Doesn't mean that you don't sin. How do I know so well? Let's go to 1 John 1, chapter 8, start there. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleans us from all unrighteousness. Now, let's stop there for a second. Let's stop there for a second. And that's a good question, Jermaine. I'm gonna get to these strongholds in just a little bit. This passage here is used in conjunction with another passage. That if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us. If we can, does that mean we have to confess our sins to other people? Think about that for a second. Do we have to confess our sins to other people? Matter of fact, let's type it in. Let's type it in. James 5, I think it's, there it is. James 5, 16. This passage is used sometimes. Therefore confess your sins one to another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Are we too, am I to say? All right, lovely, Tyra, Brian, Denise, and Deacon Chris. Come on, give it to me. Come on, all of yours, what'd you do? Come on, confess your sins. Confess your sins. Is that what that means? You need to tell, Deacon Chris, 1037 last night. What were you doing? And you never know, I might've been peeking in your curtains. What were you doing, Chris? I might've said, I shot the sheriff. But as long as you didn't shoot the deputy, we're good. Lovely said, sleeping. Okay, Miss Lovely, since you wanna chime in, Miss Lovely, you were sleeping, what were you dreaming about? Come on, sister, young lady, confess your sins. All of them. That's not what that passage means. First of all, we don't have that kind of time. I don't have that kind of time to hear it, and you don't have that kind of time to one orderly give them to me, and then we're gonna get this other point, repent of those sins. Hey, we're now like, how you put that? Acknowledge your sins. But wait a second though, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second though, wait a second, Missy Pooh, wait a second, you said acknowledge your sin. Yeah, you put, I don't know if you did that on purpose, you put singular. You put singular, let's go back here. This says, and now this word confess is to acknowledge, to admit, but it says sin, zuh, plural, plural. And do we, is this plural? This absolutely is the plural. So is it all your sins? Acknowledge all your sins? No guys, and you guys have it right. We acknowledge that we sin. We acknowledge that we are jacked up. We acknowledge that we got issues, because me confessing my sins to you does what? How about somebody in the chat says absolutely nothing? Me confessing my sins to you doesn't do a whole lot. Now, if I need you to help me, I'm struggling with something, well that's different. That's different. But in this regard, we're talking about something salvifically, so we're saying, because it's not that you're saved by admitting that I did this, this, this, all these different things. That's not how you're saved. That is not how you're saved. You are saved by acknowledging that you are full of sin. Going back to 1 John 1-8, if we confess, if we said that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he, that is to him, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. Is that plural sins? And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How does he do so? Well, he puts it in right standing. That is if you confess. Now, we understand how a person is saved. How is the person saved? That if you place your faith in Christ, that's it. Trusting in him, you shall be saved. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Continuing chapter two, my little children. I am right and this is to Christians. Technia move, this is children of mine, little children. Now, does John understand that everyone that reads this letter, even if they call themselves Christians, that they are Christians? No, it's not what, no, no. But he is speaking to a Christian audience. The intended audience is Christians. I'm writing these things so that you may not sin. So that you may not sin. I don't want you to sin. Please do not sin. And this is what's called the subjunctive. So it is that you may not sin. Please don't sin. But, but if you do, Ian teased if certain a person were to sin, you have an advocate. Oh, what is that advocate doing? That advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteousness and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not only for ours, but also for the whole world. I won't go into this point here, but also for the whole world, we're not gonna deal with that topic today. But you sin, you mess up. Question is, there is a difference between the person who is saved and sins and the person who says they're saved, but is not saved and sins. So person A, so if y'all can follow me with me on this, person A is a Christian. He sins. Person B is not a Christian, but he believes he is a Christian. So he's a false convert. He also sins. Question is, question is, I'm thinking of the one is now, question is, is there a way that you and I can judge that this person A or B is saved or not saved? Is there a way? There can be sometimes, ultimately you won't know, because sometimes person A might sin more than person B. The true convert might have more sins that we can log and notice than the false convert. That can happen. Person A sins away up here, person B sinned the false convert, sin down here, and we might judge person B. That guy is, that's a Christian. He's, yeah, we know for a fact. Person A, off with his head, he's out of here. That's why Jesus says, stay in your lane. Stay in your lane. Stick to getting all the sinful scabs off yourself first. But we can't just live like sinners. We can't live in sin. What does that even mean to live in sin? Because the truth of the matter is this, now don't say it, don't put it in the chats. Don't put it in the chats. Matter of fact, let me just go with CG real quick. He says, is it possible to struggle with an addiction for your whole Christian life? Yes, it's called sin, that's one addiction. Matter of fact, you're going somewhere with me though. Let's say for example, and now don't name it, don't put it in the chats guys, don't put it in the chats, but what sin do you struggle with? And it might be two sins or three sins. What is something that maybe you feel like you don't struggle with? Cause sometimes you don't know, you don't think that something is a struggle and it is, it's just dogging. Because if it were me, if it were me and I was Satan and I wanted to help someone to live a fallen life and I wanna, and if I have the ability to kind of melancholize and he does and I don't want him to deal with sin A all the time. Nope, I want him to deal with sin A every now and then. Why? Cause if he deals with sin A every now and then then he won't think that sin A that he deals with every now and then. Why am I doing every now and then like that? I don't know, but I just got caught in and I'm like walking down the hill fast. I'm stuck. But if you get caught in a sin every now and then you might think that it's not something that you're addicted to. You might think that it's not a stronghold which we'll come to in a second. You might think that you're not living in sin cause it's every now and then. Ah, it shows up its ugly head. Well, let me prove a point to you guys. How many of you all sin? Raise your hand. That's all of you, good. All 300 of you and however many is gonna join later. All of you sin, every last one of you. Which one of you guys that you sin, the sin that you thinking of, is it a brand new sin? We're gonna walk our way through this for a second. The sin that you deal with that bothers you is it a brand new sin? Well, no. Is it, you know what, I just picked this sin up yesterday. That the grocery store and they were in their own cell picked up a sin. I got rid of my old sin and I got a new sin. No, this sin has been there before. Now, do you commit this sin every day? No, you don't commit this sin every day. Well, maybe you do, I don't know. Maybe you do. But what if you commit this sin every other day? Every week, every other week. Whatever the sin is, and it's not gonna be just one, but we're just using one. Whatever the sin is, you die with that sin. So let's say between, let me go and find a young person. Is there anybody in the chat who is 20 years, in their 20s, let me find, or it's a teenager, a teen or 20. Is there anybody in the chat that's younger than 30? How about that? That's a better way to put it, Corey. Look at there, Nathaniel said 17. Wow, we got some young, listen, you guys are messing up my demographics. We got a bunch of old heads in here. We got these young folks in here. Look at these young folk. Look at this, I know Devonte 24. I don't know why I thought you were old in that Devonte. Nathaniel 17, amen, praise God, branded 20. 21, 29, wow, wow, just, I'm pushing the button. I don't know if all these are popping up. All of these young people, I feel old. I actually just forgot about what I was talking about now because I'm, wow, wow, these young, where the old heads at? You know about Gabby, Gabby is still the baby. Gabby is still the baby. Shiny, you're only 29? I don't know why I'm thinking you're okay. Wow, okay. And I just knew, I just knew, I said everyone 30 and under. And so what happens? Everybody else wants to start putting their, oh, let's look at the old folks want to put theirs in, 50. So, look, Dirty Pat is 53. I'm so 50. Everybody, everybody, that's okay. Daniel C is 56. Jake is 29. Okay, some of you people are old. Let's just tell the truth, shame the devil. Some of you folks are some old people. Wow, wow, more than you're 68? I didn't realize that. You, listen, you seem young. Now, Al, Al's been around the block a few times, more than a few times. Let's keep it 100, Al. Lovely, you are not 50. You are not 50. Of course, no, again, nobody's old as Al. Praise God for Al, though. Praise God. Al, you guys keep my numbers up in terms of older people. But here's my point. And I don't care if you're old, if you're 71 like Al, if you're 60 like, lovely, you're 54. Wow, okay, praise God. If you're 17 like Al and are 15 like Gabby and everybody in between. Everybody's throwing their ages in there. I love my, by the way, best YouTube family on the planet. Lorraine is 64. By the way, Lorraine is a young white lady. If I told you Lorraine, you would think that's a black person that you sure would have. But if you go back a little bit, some of the white folk, they had names that some of us colored folk have now. I said colors, am I the only mad at me? But yeah. I know that because I've met some, some of my favorite people are white people. I love white people, just like I love the black people. Love Hispanic folks. And I've met a lot of white folks who are like, that's your name, huh? You'll find a lot of drones and Lamonts that are white. Yeah, Leroy's. Back to the topic. But here's the point. BJ is gonna be 33. Oh no, no. Well, we might, you know what? I don't know. I don't know. I don't wanna be 33 in heaven. I know I wanna be, listen, me at 19? Yeah, I'll go back. I'll take that any day of the week. But take, now you're getting ready to die. Gabby's 50, 15, let's say Gabby, we're gonna give you a date, a date of death. You're gonna die at age 95. You're a Christian. So you got 80 more years to live. Do you all think that over the next 80 years, and I'm sorry, you probably had plans on living to 105. Let's just say 105. Over the next 90 years, will Gabby have sin in her life? No, I was not bald at 19, Francisco. I had hair. Y'all bad in Francisco, please. No, actually, I would have been cool if I was bald. I would have been more mature then. Never would have went to prison then. But in the next 90 years, will Gabby sin? Sure. Whatever that sin is that Gabby deals with, she's 15 right now, so hopefully it'll be a lot less. But in 90 years, she'll have sin. And some of those sins that she deals with at age 105, like wow, I've been dealing with that sin since I was 15, since I was 25, 35. Now follow me guys, it's the point I'm getting at. How many times, let's say it's, let's, we're gonna give Gabby a sin. Let's say Gabby has some wrath in her. She gets angry quick. I mean quick. I mean quick. She has a hot temper. That's a sin. At age 105, she still has a hot temper. How many times will she have sinned in that particular sin? 10 times? No, a lot more than that. Road rage. How many hundreds or thousands or millions of times will Gabby have committed that sin? Think about that for a second. It's in a numberable amount. Prop, it might, it may literally be in the millions. Definitely in the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of times, in between the next 90 years that she would have gotten angry and I'm talking about like a sinful anger. I can promise you that she will not have personally went back and repented for that individual. I'm sorry for that Lord, I'm sorry for that a million times or a hundred thousand times, no. Now again, remember my setup. We started looking at Gabby's sins. They're right in our face. And it looks like wow, Gabby is just, she's living in sin. Do you all see my point? It looks like you are living in sin. Now if we pull back, come up high and look down, it's spread out. It's spread out. But now we don't have that ability to stand. Well, actually we do. We actually do have the ability to stand back and look. There's a little bit of judgmentalness in all of us. All of us, let's be honest. All of us can be judgmental. Let's just, come on, let's be honest. We can be judgmental. But if we can just look back and just see how it is, I don't care what the sin is, if it's lust. I had a discussion with someone and I said, I can promise you, because he was like, well, my sin is not like yours Corey. I mean, heck Corey, you committed adultery Corey. Heck Corey, you stole. All right, what's your sin? Well, it's not as bad as yours. Okay, well let's compare though, how many times you've done your sin versus the one you're getting on me about. I can promise you it's not as many times. Yeah, but Corey, yeah, but Corey, yeah, nothing. Now, thankfully, I'm not the one telling scores like you do. So therefore, it's not up to me to justify you or to penalize you for the billions of times you sinned. But what I am saying is how do we determine if you are innocent? How do we determine if I'm innocent? If you're innocent? Stevie, Stevie's in sin. How do we know? How do we know if Layla's in sin? What about you, Vine? How do we know if Sheila is innocent? No, actually no, Sheila, actually it's not shot as far. I promise you, I promise you it's not shot as far. I promise you, I promise you it's not, it's not. If I can just look at the email, show you guys emails, I can't show you those emails. How many people say, hey listen, I'm wondering, am I innocent or the comment section? I'm just wondering, how do we know? I promise you I'm not, I promise you I'm not. I promise you I'm not. As a matter of fact, someone else's video that I saw yesterday, earlier today, I forget when it was, you know what? Yeah, I need to go ahead and dress it. I said I was gonna do it anyway. And I wanna cover different things. As a matter of fact, so much so that I'm probably gonna end up making extra videos out of this video. So, going back to first John three, everyone who practices sin, practices lawlessness, and I want you all to focus on this word practice. I want you all to focus on this sin, I mean, this word practice. Does God judge all sins the same like murder, judge say? If you kill somebody, if you steal from somebody, if you lie on somebody, if you covet after something, if you lust, he does. It's a sin. We need to step back and look at what God judges and puts us in the category of unrighteous and then also what he puts in the category or cause the person to be in the category of righteous. There's something that is not us, but it's on him that determines that. We'll come back to that just a little bit later. So, you know that he appeared in order to take away sins. No one verse six who abides in him sins. Huh, what's that mean? If you abide in him, does that mean that you won't ever sin? That couldn't be, that could not be that because we just read earlier that a couple chapters earlier that all of us sin, if you say you don't, then you are a liar. So, we gotta figure this point out. If you abide in him, and that's all of us, if we're saved, we are abiding or remaining the word, may know if we are remaining in him. That's what he calls us, those of us that are remaining in him, then he says that those of abiding him does not sin. No one who sins has seen him. Wait a minute, now, okay, John, John, this is confusing. No one who has seen him or no one sin has seen him. Nobody who has sinned has seen him, but that's us. Matter of fact, everybody that's seen him, meaning Jesus, has sinned. We're gonna have to drill down a little bit further. Has either seen him or knows him, but us sheep, according to John 10, or as we like to say here, us sheepesses, we do know him. We do know him. Verse seven, little children, make sure that no one deceives you. The one who practices poion, righteousness is righteous. Just as he is righteous, the one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. We gotta figure this out. This can be a little bit concerning, because it's getting kinda confusing. The son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. Hold on, he appeared for what reason? Well, you got those that do sin and those that practice righteousness, but this issue of sin, those that practice sin, those that are in sin, those that sin, he came to destroy that. Yeah, but everybody that is named by your name, Jesus, sins, because that's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about the action of sin, but he is talking about, I'm getting ready to confuse you. I'm gonna un-confuse you in a second, though, but I'm getting ready to confuse you. DT Riches, what's going on, friend? I'm getting ready to confuse you, but I'm gonna un-confuse you. He's not talking about the act of sin, he's talking about practice and sin. Huh? Corey, you just threw another monkey wrench in the thing. I'm gonna show you what I mean in a second, though. I'm gonna show you what I mean in a second. No one who was born of God practices sin. Now, question, when were you born of God? If you're saved, when were you born of God? Well, the Bible tells us that we were caused to be born in 1 Peter 1-1, I mean 1-3, and that this causation happened as a result of the Holy Spirit touching our heart, we're being born from heaven. We have no control over that. We were caused to be born. And if we drill down what we found out that this act, this decision to do so happened before there was a world. So if you're born of God, you don't practice sin, but we know some folks that seemingly do so because his seed, that is Jesus's seed, abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. Oh, wait a second, John, now you really messed up. You thoroughly confused us because now you threw in another element and also loves his brother. Well, how about if we just started saying, here's how we can know you're saved or not if you love your brother? Then a lot of people's heads will go down that want, want, want. A lot of people will be upset and bothered because I don't love my brother like I should. I don't love him at all. Matter of fact, I can't stand, yeah. I don't have a problem with Christianity. It's the Christians I don't like. And by the way, don't do this thing where you do something to somebody, hurt them, but you say you love them. As though you being 50, you being 40, you being 30, you don't know what love looks like or feels like. 15, 20, different. Yeah, I know what love feels like. I know what hate feels like. I'm thoroughly familiar with that. But he threw that in there, didn't he? He said anyone who does not practice righteousness is not a God, nor the one who does not love his brother. Doesn't love his brother? Huh, one day we might just have to go and look at what it means to love. Matter of fact, you would think though that the Bible would even tell us what love looks like. The Bible ought to, if he's gonna tell us that we have to love our brother, you would think that this Bible would tell us somewhere in this Bible that we should love and we should love, but not only that, what it looks like. Because he just said, he just said, he said, nor the one who does not love his brother. Whoa, whoa, what does love look like? How about we let Paul tell us? He says, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become, you're just running your mouth, you're just talking. Verse two, if I have the gift of prophecy, if I give all these revelations, and I know all the mysteries and all knowledge which no one has, by the way, except for Jesus. And if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, I can touch this computer screen on that camera and you all can fall out. I can slay you in this, I wish I can't do that. No one can anyway. And if I give all my possessions and feed the poor, if I surrender my body to be burned but do not have love, it profits nothing, nothing, nothing. Nothing. Love is patience, love is kind and is not jealous. Love is not brag about itself, love is not arrogant. Love does not act unbecomingly. What do you mean? Love does not act unbecomingly. Again, we know what love looks like. It does not seek its own, love is not revoked. You can't push love. Love doesn't have buttons for you to push. You can't trigger them. You can't cause him to respond. That's what love does. Love does not, I've not shooting shots before but I am shooting shots now. Love does not take into account, keep account, keep records of wrongdoings. No. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. But what I said earlier, if you, something bad happens, you don't wanna see that. I saw something the other day. I don't, I never watch these guys stuff. I just figured out who was who. There's people called fresh and fit. I've seen, heard the name before and maybe seen them but I didn't know which one was fresh, which one was fit. I imagine the one that looks fit is probably fit, I guess, I don't know. But they might've just been playing games. But they got demonetized. They got demonetized and I see people that don't like them gloating. That's just, and I felt bad. Don't gloat. I don't care what happens. Don't do that. Listen, apparently these guys are jerks. Apparently they have, they're sewing. I mean, they're reading what they sew. But you don't have to be that person too because guess what? It can happen to you too. Or something worse. Don't be that guy. Don't be that guy to where something happens a person loses their livelihood or loses this or whatever and then you cheer for that. You have, no, no. Don't please them do that. We as believers are much better than that. Don't do that. Don't do that. I was so bothered by that I almost made a video about it but yeah, what the heck, not gonna do it. Not gonna do it. But just for you guys, don't do that. When something bad happens to someone, understand that in many cases it could be the beginning, the rumblings of the judgment of God and it can happen to you too. Matter of fact, it has happened to you. And it doesn't feel good when, I know what it's like, listen, listen. When I went on my federal tour, a whole lot of people was like, ah, ha, ha, you're whispering, ah, man. Yep. And I heard about it. Now it is what it is. I put myself here, but I'm not gonna lie. It bothered me to know that folks who were supposed to be cool with me now, hey, yeah, I'm the butt of their jokes now. Okay. Okay. Okay. And when you get out, hey buddy, how you doing? Glad to see you out. Well, if I would have kept record, who you talking to? I'm not gonna do that. You shouldn't do that either. You shouldn't do that. You should not do that either. So love rejoices with the truth, whether it hurts or not. Love bears all things, believes all things. And that'd mean that love's like, hey, this guy said that he can walk through walls. No, that's not, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hopes all things and do it. And this is in relation to God, these last beliefs, hopes and endures. That's what love do it. And love is in it. Love is in it for the long term. Love is in it for the, send me an email, who's your proud? I'll give it to you. What about when they pray in the Old Testament for people to get what they deserve? There are times where you pray for your defense. Listen, let's just be honest. There are times where David went a little bit overboard. David, but David was, it was a David's in the Bible. We can't say anything bad about David. It's David Perfect. Everybody in the Bible messed up. As a matter of fact, can I tell you, can I tell you something else? Everybody in the Bible, not everybody, but most people in the Bible, most watch to say the more prominent people, the apostles, the prophets, we can see their mess ups. We can see where they did something wrong. And sometimes the wrong is not a sin, but it's wrong. Peter did something wrong. Peter was wrong on occasion. Paul was wrong on occasion. John was wrong on occasion. James was wrong on occasion. It just, so too was David. So too was Moses. So, so too was getting people do wrong. And God uses a steal. So that's what love does. And so if we are going to be believers in Christ, we should exhibit love. Love should not, to your point, Christina, cause you to want to even, you know what? I want the worst for this person to happen. Knock his block off God. Now you could say, Lord, hey, I'm suffering. Can you help me in this suffering? Because if you really want to just do the right thing, pray for those that evenly spite you. Because in doing so, what do you do? He had colds upon their head. But you've got bigger fish to fry than about getting vengeance on somebody. But the question is back to living in sin. How do you know you're living? How do I know that I'm in sin? How do I know that I'm living in sin? How do I know that, because I want to know, I absolutely have to know. And I heard this question, there are people. Now, first of all, what we tend to do is we tend to pick up the sins of other people that aren't involved in the sins that we're in. Yet what you're doing is a sin and it's a gross, egregious sin because it's not what I do. And so therefore, I don't sin like you sin. Let me give you the easiest example that we can point to sometimes. Somebody who is in a sexual sin, homosexuals, can a practicing, and this one will kind of make this a little clearer. Can a practicing homosexual go to heaven? You answer me, you tell me. Can a practicing homosexual go to heaven? Everybody's saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And guess what? You guys are correct. A practicing homosexual cannot go to heaven. Nor can a practicing liar. Nor can a person who practices wrath. Nor can a person who practices deceit. Nor can a person who practices dishonesty. But wait a second. What determines if a person is practicing? Because the Greek word that's used there doesn't help either. It's the word play, which is to do, the person is doing, and I sin. And when I sin, listen, I take my sin serious. I do it. I get involved with it, right? So how do you know? How do you know if, because to use Gabby, who's gonna die at 105. So she lives another 90 years and whatever that sin is, she's done it over and over and over and over and over and over and over for 90 years. Now she doesn't do it as much because she's gotten older and once she's gotten slower, because you just don't sin like you used to when you get older, to you get a little bit more mature, more wise you have a little bit more control, especially when the spirit is in you. And I'm sorry to keep using you, Gabby, but I think you're a perfect example. Plus you're 15. I think you're strong to handle it. So how do we know if Gabby or Al or Grace Mercy or Tyra or Joan, how do we know if they are practicing sin? How do we know if Corey's practicing sin? I mean, you did the sin. How many times does it take to be considered you practicing the sin? How many sins does it take to get you to be considered not safe? How many licks does it take to get to the Tizipop? Some of you haven't heard that commercial in a long time. Three is the answer, according to the Al. Thanks, Mr. Al, three licks. How many sins does it take to us for us to recognize that you are not a Christian? You never were, you are not now. There's a question. Well, Stanford Davis said 490. If it's 490, listen, we've all long past that. I can promise you, whatever your sin is, you've done it more important. Well, I shouldn't say that you've done it because if your greatest sin is vehicular homicide, I hope you haven't done it more than 490 times. But the point is, what if it's lying? How many, you guys have lied more than 490 times. What about the Holy Spirit? What about growing in grace? We're gonna talk about that, Lady T. We are going to cover that. Some sins, hopefully you have not done a lot. Hopefully you have not done a lot. I got a temper problem, I like just slapping people. Well, hopefully you haven't done it 490 times, hopefully. But what is the determination of, or to determine what practicing sin is? Surely, if practicing sin, which is living in sin, surely if it's so important, we should have some sort of way to calculate it to figure this out. Because if you practice sin according, this is what the Bible says. According to, Mr., yeah, you are old. If you remember that commercial, you are old. You are officially old. But those were the good old days, were they not? As soon as you saw that commercial, you're going to get on your bike and go riding around the city, as long as you're back by the time the lights come on. And don't keep coming into this house. Use them by air conditioning. If you had air conditioning, we didn't have air conditioning. We just had a fan, so. But if it's that important to know if you're living in sin, and practicing sin is living in sin, and if you practice sin or live in sin, you're not saved, how do we figure this out? There should, there should, let me just help you out. We use example of a practicing homosexual. If a homosexual is practicing sin, that person can't go to heaven. But there is a difference between a practicing homosexual and a struggling homosexual. There's a difference between a practicing liar and a struggling liar. There's a difference between a practicing lustful person and a struggling lustful person. What's the difference? When we talk about someone living in sin, that person lives to sin. The practicing homosexual wants to practice homosexuality. The practicing homosexuality wants to be a homosexual. The person that struggles with it doesn't want to practice it, doesn't want to do it. The person that has this anger issue doesn't want to have it, they don't want to do it. They don't make plans to do it. Are you with me? How do I know that's the case? Well, let's go consult our good friend, Paul. Because Paul is going to use that same word as well. Paul in chapter 7 of Romans. Let's start in verse 14, before we know. No, you know, let's go to verse 18. That's where we pick it up. For I know that nothing good dwells in me. This is Paul speaking. Nothing good dwells in me. That is in my flesh. For the willing is present. I want to do good. You ever seen that little cartoon? I can remember what it was. The little kid says, if I do it, I get a whipping. Thinks about a few seconds. I do it. Right, you ever seen that little cartoon? That's not what Paul's talking about. If I sin, I'm gonna get in trouble. I'm a sin. No, Paul is saying, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. Let's continue. For the willing is present in me. I don't want to do it, but the doing of the good is not. Man, I want to do, I want to. Tweety Bird did do that too. It wasn't just Tweety Bird. I think it was just kind of common with the cartoon back then. I was not a big Tweety Bird fan. He was too soft. Anyway, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want to do. This word right here, let's go into our Greek. For the one wishing, ha-falo-poio. For the one that's wanting, that's wishing to do good. Ha-falo-poio agathom, the one that is wanting to do good. The struggling homosexual, he wants to do good. The person with lust, the person with envy, the person with wrath and anger. I don't want to do that. I want to do good. Are you with me? Where's Cameron at? Cameron, are you with me? Verse 19 again, for the good that I want, I don't do, but it's still the good that I want. Ha-falo, I'm desiring, I want to do best. And then there's a differentiation. Does this person want to? Answer this question, guys. If I'm looking at, let's look at Cameron. Cameron, are you with me, Cameron? So let's say we're looking at Cameron. I don't know if Cameron wants to do good. Now I used to do something that was kind of slick, but it really wouldn't. I thought about it, that was the wrong way to do it at Corey. I would say Yvonne's with me. I would say, and I use users in evangelizing, if you're hungry, what do you do? If you want to eat, you go in the refrigerator. If you want to go to sleep, what do you do? You go to bed. If you want to sit down and watch TV, sit down and watch TV. So if you want to get saved, you get saved. It's not that cutting dry, not that easy. Because here, if you want to do good, yeah, but you don't understand. You don't understand, I understand. I understand, but it's hard for us to know if someone wants to. My youngster says I'm with you. Thank y'all for being with me. Alfred, thank you for the soup, which I appreciate that too as well. Thank you. So now let's go to this. Verse 19, for the good that I want to do, and that's the key, you have to want to do it. Only you know, I do not do. But I, uh-oh, I practice, I proso, I practice the very evil that I don't want to do. I keep doing it. The thing that I don't want to do, I keep doing it, and don't go on and look at me. It looks like I'm living in sin. But I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. Thank you and butter for the soup stick. I appreciate that. I don't want to. Now it looks like it continuing, but if I am doing the very thing that I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. Well, whoa, whoa, Paul, wait a second. Fix that for us, Paul. What Paul is saying is, if I'm doing the things that I don't want to do, I do it, it's not me, it's this flesh. But how God sees me, because God knows if I want to. God, God, amen. Somebody in my pastor used to say, God knows for a fact if I want to. He knows my desires, that where if they know is wish or desire, you know it as well. And it's a struggle. And so what God is looking at isn't the sin. He's looking at the struggle of the heart. We've dealt with the fact that what sin can do, but salvation, your being saved and so forth, that is a condition of your faith, your love, your connectedness towards Him. So every time that you want to do what's right, you just don't always do what's right. Now, if there's somebody there that's sitting there with a calculator, okay, I'm gonna end up all these sins of this person, all right, that person, it would look like, yeah, I've stuck, I've stepped in it a bunch of times. I've stepped in it a bunch of times. But a person that's sin, because you gotta be repenting. And I just don't know if this person, I mean, I hear what you're saying, Cord, but this person, he don't seem repenting at all. He doesn't seem repenting at all. Matter of fact, I think he needs repenting. There are times where I want to take my cup of coffee, drink all the coffee and then I throw the cup at the screen because when I hear people just butcher and mess up the whole notion of repentance. It is made of two words, Meta and Noia. By the way, Meta can be two words, can be after or with in the Greek. Anybody studying Greek? But anyway, it is a changing, now the Noia, which is the mind, thoughts. You have now changed up your thoughts. Your disposition to sin is different. So let me ask you guys a question. How often I sin, how often do I have to repent? If I sin often, do I have to repent often? That is the $64,000 question and adjusted for inflation, the $64 billion question. How often do I have to repent? If I sin 10 times, must I repent 10 times? That is the question. Before I go to the scripture, let me just say this to you. If you have to keep repenting, then you haven't repented once. If you have to keep repenting, then you have not repented once. Because you're not gonna keep changing your mind about sin. You change your mind about your sinfulness, your fallenness one time. The struggle are still gonna come, but if you have to keep repenting for sins, then you have not repented the first time. Let's go to the Bible and let's talk about this. Godly grief, verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 7, for the sorrow that is according to the will of God, or Godly grief produces repentance. A person is truly sorrowful. What happens? That heart is bothered and I just don't like it. And we have this happen. So for Gabby, for the next 90 years that she's gonna live, there are gonna be a bunch of times when I just bothers me. That's good. That is a good thing. That's a good thing because it goes against your new nature. You are a new creature. Now this flesh of disposition that you have goes counter to everything that the Bible tells you. You wanna go over here and read your Bible. You wanna live Godly, but your flesh and your friends, hey, come on, we got a party over here. We got stuff to do. You're young, let's have fun. We got some sin in the do. And then you do it. Oh, and it bothers you and breaks you down. It hurts you. I'm just looking at the people over here on the. It bothers you. Well, it should bother you. It's supposed to bother you. I'm gonna give you a short, not a surefire, but a good way to know that if you have been engaged in sin multiple times, how you can know you're saved. Because you would think the Bible would go to the links to tell you that there's a way that you can know that if you are saved, when you do sin and do a lot of sin, and it looks like you are living in sin, how can you know that you actually aren't living in sin, that you're living in Christ? How can you know that you actually are a believer? We're gonna hit that in a second. But this, a true, true grief and sorrow, it produces, Godly grief, it produces repentance. Ultimately though, this repentance comes from God. It comes from God. Now, in doing so, you want to, you know what, yeah, I'm a messed up person. The person that goes running says, yeah, I'm all right, I ain't that bad. Remember, Jesus has this conversation with Simon, the Pharisee, and says, you see this woman here? Listen, she's the broke openness alabaster bottle and been anointing my feet and drying my feet with her hair and all these tears. She said, but that's a sinful woman. That woman is, do you know how many times she's been sinning? Why are you using the calculator, calculate how many times she's sinned? Jesus says, yeah, you know what? Let me tell you a story about two people that overdead. One that owed a lot, one of those are less. Both were forgiven. Who was gonna love more? Who will be more grateful? Well, I suppose Simon says, the one who was forgiven more, he says, you answered correctly. You see this woman? She loves me more because she recognized that she's been forgiven more. Acknowledge your sins. She has acknowledged her sin. You, mister, you don't think you, you don't think you sin in much. And so therefore you don't love much. Yeah, well, Jesus, cause you didn't do much for me. Whether you came or not, Jesus, I'd have been okay. But this woman knows better. I needed you here. I needed you here. What about showing forth, fruits of repentance? If you are repentant, you are gonna show some fruits. Problem is the fruits don't always show up in front of the people that wanna see them. Sometimes the fruits don't just show up in front. This person, this gal, this group of people, they got their arms crossed on looking at me and you know how he ain't safe, prove it. But this happened, all the fruit that you, that you would like for them to see, they don't see it. Or the fruit that you would show, it's not good, it's not ripe enough. I was expecting a big old watermelon. Holy spirit watermelon, now I get this little bit of, this grape did gather. See, I know some people who would literally do some stuff to you, but then as the Lord working in their heart, they would do less to you. You think that's a small thing, but I can promise you it's a big thing. You would see these incremental steps in these people's lives. I used to wanna jump on people. Now all I do is cuss them out. Now all I do is say, you know, say bad stuff about them in my mind. They're making these steps and you have no idea how God is taking those things that's still a burden in their life, how he's using those things. This person has an anger issue. He struggles. People can see that struggling, that struggle that he has with this anger issue. Somebody else who also struggles with anger sees this person struggling with anger and they say, you know what, can I talk with you for a second? Man, what's going on? And this person can share the gospel with them because they identify it. They can relate. But you, Mr. Pharisee, they can't. You, Mr. Perfect, they can't because I can't identify with someone who has never sinned. I can't identify with someone who's just... But back on us, since we sin so much, how do I know? How do I know that I am not living in sin because it can be a difficult task to figure out the parts, a fine line between the person that's living in sin and the person that looks like it. They just do a lot of sin. Because, again, the person who's living in sin and the person who's not living in sin, it's possible the person who's not living in sin can sin more than the person who's living in sin. That'll make any sense, Corey? Yes, it does. We just talked about it. The person that's living in sin wants to sin. The person who's not living in sin, though he may sin, doesn't want to. Paul just says, the good that I want to fail, I desire to do. I desire to do good. The person that's living in sin, I don't desire to do any good. Nope. I'm in court. I'm not the man on the Bible, because I don't, I know, listen, my hand will burn up, so let's touch the Bible. I'm not trying to do right, not yet. But the rest of us, we want to do good. That's the differentiation. That's where God works. And so what happens to a person who can't do good on their own, all of us, and who wants to do good? So much so, so much so, that this struggle is there. That's where this godly repentance comes in. Because what does God's repentance do? This godly sorrow for the producer's repentance, what does it do? It leads you to a closeness with him. Your proximity, it just shrinks with God. You get closer and closer. I want to, Lord, I'm struggling with this. I'm sick and tired of struggling. I'm tired of my struggles interfering with other struggles. So Lord, what can you do for me? Can you help a brother out? Yes, come closer. I'm coming closer. I'm coming closer. I'm coming closer. That's how this works. Yeah, I know folks see my baggage. I know my tailpipe is dragging and sparks are flying. And they think, no, but they don't understand that I'm headed, I'm headed to the shop. I literally, I never get this. We were looking at a car, driving, making all this noise. And the tailpipe was dragging and sparks were flying and so forth. Not the tailpipe, but the muffler. Like this, what's wrong with this dude? Get your car fixed. He was on his way to the shop. We saw him pull in. Felt bad. I wasn't even Christian then. Felt bad. Dolly Corey, shut up. He's literally going to, he recognizes his problem. He's going to get it fixed. And what are you doing? Talk about it. The repentant person, though he struggled is going to the right place. He's, and there's sometimes he goes and he might pull back a little bit because what was God, what is God gonna do? Sometimes God works with you. And then, all right now, let's test you. And you struggle. All right, come to it. Let's test you again and you struggle. All right, let's test you again. And you struggle. Let's, oh, you passed that test. Okay, let's increase the severity of the test. You struggle again. You messed up. Tell me that's not how God works in every, I'm not a prophet, but I know that's exactly how it works in every last one of your life. That's how I deal with everybody in the Bible. That's how I deal with me. That's how it does with everybody. Now I'm gonna get to the second of how you can know that if you are a believer, a true believer and you're struggling, you're trying to figure out am I actual believer even though I got these sins? How can I, how can you know? I'm gonna show you in a second by the scriptures. I'm going to show you in a second by the scriptures. Why is this right here? I don't know why I had this passage right here. I got something on my screen. I'm thinking, this is not part of my notes. Is it before I delete it? Okay, yeah, I don't know what that is. I think I had something in there and I didn't know what that was. So I was getting ready to click on it, but then I thought to myself, wait a second. That's not me. Now, I wanna pull up something. I wanna talk about some things that hopefully you guys can identify with because a person can be saved and do some God awful things. You wouldn't save though, Corey. Okay, fine, if you say so. Say it enough time, you'll convince yourself of it. But all of you know you can be saved and do some bad things. But I'm willing to bet, I'm willing to bet that I can find an example of you guys being in the Lord, of someone being in the Lord who's done something worse than every last one of you have done. Before I go there, have any of you ever felt like you've done something so bad, so shameful that you do question yourself. How many times has it happened that you've done something so bad that you have questioned your salvation as a result of it? I have several occasions. Have you? Now, this is where I want you all, this is the classification, raise your hand, yes, one, whatever, put a number, put a date, put a letter, whatever. If you have done something so bad that you have questioned your salvation, all 300 or something of you, I know it. I know it, I'm not a prophet, but listen. I don't care if you are between Gabby and Lord who's an owl. It's between 71 and 50, everyone has done something. Everyone, that you felt like, wow, but I can promise you this, as a Christian, I'm gonna point something out that I know none of you have. Well, you know, I take it back, maybe you have, maybe you have. More than likely, more than likely you haven't done this bad. More than likely you haven't done this bad. Let's go to it. And you're familiar with the story too. You are familiar with the story. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan's demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Well, what did Peter do? As bad as I've been, I've never done what Peter did. And it sounds almost like area of me saying so. Listen, done some stuff. I'm in the sin hall of fame, but I never did that. Whoa, Peter, I cannot believe you just did that. I can't believe, wow, Peter, you did that? That's your, as they say in New York, that's your man's with a S, that's your man's right there. Look, Peter, you denied him. And it wasn't an accident, Peter. No, you didn't, it was not an accident. You denied him three times. Hey, look at my camera work too. I put my finger three times. You denied him face to face. Your eyes made contact. You saw him. So much so, well, you denied him three times. One of those times you swore to, I swear to God, I don't know Jesus. I swear to God, I don't know God. That's what he says where he began to curse and swear. Not using curse words, curse words. He began to swear on himself. Cross my needle, cross my heart, hope to die. Stick a needle in mine. That's what Peter was doing. I mean, Peter went all in and then left. How many of y'all done that bad? Most of us have done some stuff, but haven't done acting on that far. We'll say, you know what, Jesus, I don't even know you to your face. Forget you, Jesus. I'm out of here. Most of us haven't done that. But I wanna point something out to you because anybody that looked at Peter on that day, on if I was in church, I would say, if anybody looked at Peter on that day, somebody to turn your neighbor and say that day. If anybody looked at Peter on that day, he ain't saved. Ain't no way in the world Peter saved. You couldn't convince me, Peter saved. Peter saved my butt, or for you other folks, my eye. Peter ain't saved. No, ain't no way in the world. There's no way in the world Peter saved. Look what he did. Look what he did. Look what he did on that day. Judge me on that day. But again, thank God that there's more pages in the Bible. But we don't even have to go that far because somebody can say, well, Peter wasn't saved then, but he got saved later. Uh-huh. Okay. How many of you always say that Peter was saved on that day or that he got saved later? Who would say that Peter was saved now at that time or got saved later, now or later? Yeah, I know it's a candy, now or later. Who would say now? Who would say later? Now meaning that Peter was saved when he denied Jesus and who would say that he was saved later? Everybody wants him now and later. Well, let's look at what Jesus said. He said, Satan has demand to have you that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. That your faith may not fail. But look what Jesus says. And when you have turned again, when you, some of your verse may say return. This is literally the word return. When you return, Peter, strengthen your brothers. Hold up, wait a minute. Let's put some deep thought in it. Me over here with my bars, is that what it's called guys? Bars, I'm getting there. Jesus said, you're gonna leave and you're coming back. I've prayed for you. Now by the way, John also a couple of times, John 18, John 10, I think John 13, where Jesus let us know that Peter was already cleansed. So Peter was part of the fold. Peter was chosen. Peter was selected. And then Peter walked away. Did Peter lose his salvation? No, Peter didn't lose his salvation. He says, and when you return, can I stick there for a second? Let me drink my coffee, because it's gonna have to do since I don't have an organ here. And I'd like, like I want to be at a church with an organ, sometimes I do. Sometimes I do wanna be at the church with the organ so I can get my church of God in Christ preaching on. So I can get my holiness church preaching on. So I can get my Pentecostal Charismatic Free so I can lay hands on somebody and see who's gonna fall out. Let's stick right here. Let's stick right here, where it's highlighted. Epistrave side, which is when you return, return. Wait a minute, wait a minute. How can you return unless you turn away? Because that is not the determination of your salvation. The sin is not the definition of your salvation. No, it's not. Because if that's the case, you lost yours too. You're not saved. This person is told when you return. Jesus said, I know what you're gonna do. You're gonna deny me three times. Peter, you're not what you think you are. You're not. How about you start realizing, you guys, start realizing you're not what you think you are. That you are frail. Acknowledge that point, because then maybe then you won't fall as much. But he says, when you return, strengthen your brothers. Peter, I got something for you. Yeah, but did you say, Jesus, don't you know what he did? Or Jesus, Jesus, don't you know what he's going to do? Yeah, I know what he's going to do. I'm literally telling Peter what he's going to do. He is literally going to deny me. But I thought the word says that if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my father who's in heaven. I thought that's what the word said. You gotta understand what it means. Peter, you are going to return when you return. Notice he didn't go into the litany of do this, this, this so that you can return. No, when you return, because what Jesus did not do when he did return, when he came back, because notice Jesus said, go get my people and Peter, bring them back, go get them. He didn't say, Peter, I need you to get this right. I need you to, now he did question them three times, but it wasn't like Peter was the only one that left, because when Jesus looked around at that night, was anybody else there? No. Now, on the day of his crucifixion, John was there, the youngest was there, but they ain't no matter of fact, when he said that, he says, you all are gonna scatter. Every last one of you. Peter like, I'm gone. They said, us too, we going with you too, Peter. So when you are in him, when you are his, is it possible that you'll do some things that you should not do? Yes, it is. What about in an egregious fashion? Yes, by the way, by the way, by the way, only us human beings, only us Christians will say, yeah, but what you did was too egregious. That was horrible, what you did. Find that passage for me. Some of you guys with the calculators, find that passage where you got the calculated people, the calculated people with the, you did this many sins, let me add this up, this how much repenting you gotta do. Cause again, if you gotta keep repenting, you never repent in the first place. Where is that passage that tells us? Where is the passage that just, that tells us about these egregious sins? This sin is so much worse than mine. While you're looking that up, let's go and see how Jesus deals with this. Jesus tells a story in Luke 18,9. He says, and he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves. Huh, people who trusted in themselves. They didn't get it though, after I've told them though. Who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt and viewed others with contempt. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One Pharisee and the other, a tax collector. Tax collectors were considered the low of the low. Sinful, taking advantage of their own people, hurting other people for their own gain. That's what a tax collector is. The Pharisee stood and was praying to himself. Praying this to himself. Notice, praying to himself. God wasn't listening. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people. I think I'm thankful God. I'm thankful God that I'm not like him. Now I can make this more related to me. I can make this more related to me. Thank you, Lord God, that I'm not like Corey, the swindler that he is, unjust, the adulterer. I thank you, Lord. Now, by the way, I didn't write the Bible. News flashed just in case you didn't know. I didn't write the Bible. These are not my words. I'm sure you knew that, though. I didn't write this. I'm just simply repeating it. I thank you that I'm not like other people. Swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. You know this dirty, rotten, nasty tax collector. Thank you, I'm not like him. Lord, I praise your name for me, me who I am. Thank you, thank you for me, because I love me some me. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, yuck, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breath saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. No tax collector, you need to repent. No tax collector, you ain't there yet. Tax collector, the tax collector knows he's a tax collector. That's why he said, I'm just rotten. I'm, yeah, save me, Lord. Versus, I'm so glad I'm not as bad as that person over there. Who does that? Who does that? Well, Jesus tells us who would speak this way. Jesus literally tells us who would do something that way. He said to the people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, those people who view others with contempt, do you, Missy Poo, young fella, mister, do you view people with contempt? Do you have a disdain for people who either your brothers or not your brothers, those that call themselves in or not, and those that are? Is that you? I don't think that I'm self-righteous. Yeah, but you know how you, do you know how you know yourself righteous when other people's sins are more prevalent in your mouth than your own sins? I just gave an opening for somebody to be delivered. Let me say it again. Do you know how you are self-righteous when other people's sins are more prevalent in your mouth than your own? The self-righteous can confess your sin but will not confess their sin. The self-righteous can see your sin but can not see their own. I don't care if you disagree with what I'm saying, you are going to hell if that's you. Let me drink my coffee for a second. If my sin is your concern, then your sin is now his concern. If my sin is your concern, then your sin is his concern. That should not be us. Maybe some folks need to actually deal with people growing. One of the funny things happened to me on my way to prison. I told you guys before I was sitting and walking in a yard, Lord God, why in the world? Why in the world do you have me here with these? This is the worst of the worst. Why am I here? These people are crazy here. These folks want to rape some folks. These folks want to beat up some people. These people listen. It got so bad they took the microwaves out of the prison. Why? Because they would put some baby oil in a bowl, put some cheese in that bad boy. You don't eat baby oil and cheese but there's a reason they put it in and mix it up real good, put it in the microwave. What you cooking now? I'm just putting a little something together. At about four or five minutes that bad boy is good and bubbling and then go to somebody that they don't like and throw it on their face. And I mean, you can't touch your skin then. Do not, they hold your hands back so you don't touch your skin because it just starts falling off. Those kind of people are around. They had to take out, they took out the microwaves for just that. They took out a lot of stuff because people just do stuff. It's amazing how wicked people can be but they took that stuff out. Thank you, Steve. Thank you for Super Sticker. Why am I here, God? Because that's where you need it. These are your people, Corey. You are right for two reasons. One, so you can grow too. I used to think that I didn't belong on the man, listen. People that commit certain crimes need to go to prison. I'm never gonna be there. I could just see Jesus like shh, but I prayed for you. But I've prayed for you. I can see Jesus saying, Corey, I've prayed for you. You ain't gotta pray for me, Jesus. I'm gonna be all right. I'm never gonna go to prison. There are a lot of folks in prison who are there for something that they thought they would never do. So, but it also showed me how truly repenting people behave when you have to, you're not putting on a show for other people because no one cares if you're repenting and not in prison, but God is there. And so, if my sin or if someone else's sin is more important to you than yours, Houston, baby. As old folks say, baby, we got a problem. But can I tell you how you know, because the question in so much them is really the question is on you. The question is really about you. How do you know? Because dog gone, I keep committing these dog gone sins. And does that mean that I'm not saved? Well, first of all, it's a good indication that you're asking if you're saved, but here's something else. Can I leave you with some good information? Something for all of us who got issues with sin. I got issues, all kind of issues. If that's you and you're saved. I wanna leave you with something as we had on out. That can help you to figure out if you are saved. Cause again, the false convert and the true convert when they sin, it looks alike. And the reason why I'm asked, cause I look just like Joe Blow. And I know he ain't saved. Matter of fact, he ain't even claimed to be saved. So he can't be saved. He's not even claimed to be saved. How is it that I'm still saved? Well, I wanna show you something in the Bible because I'm gonna show you something. It ought to be in the Bible. Before I do that, before I do, let me ask some questions first. Keep a little dramatic pause in there. Let's just look at some of these questions first. Can a non-Christian be forgiven without being saved? Well, forgiven by who? Ultimately not by God, because the one thing that God is gonna hold over your head. Let's say if you pushed a little old lady down. I'm sorry, I'm sorry God, but should I say? Well, it doesn't really matter if he forgives that or not. Because there's still one thing that is yet to be forgiven. That's your standing in him. What are my thoughts on strongholds? The great, I'm speaking about strongholds tonight. Every single sin that you've got is a stronghold. Some more so than others. No, it's not Corey, okay, okay. And you've been dealing with this sin for how long? Yeah, but I don't do it a lot. Yeah, but it's been 40 years. Sound like a stronghold to me. Laying aside those sin which so, weights and sins which so easily beset us. Yeah. There is one sin that I often resist, but lose from time to time. I hate it and now it makes me fit. Yeah. So what do you do? The same thing that everyone else has to do. Two things, Jermaine, two things. One, cut your head, shave it. Two, do what James says, draw closer to him. Amen. So I wanna get to this answer. I wanna get to this answer. Because you wanna know. How do you know that you're saved? Well, let's let God determine if you're saved. Let's let God determine. Well, how does he do that? Well, here's how. Hebrews, chapter 12, verse five. And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, as sons. Anyone here who's a son or daughter? Here's how you know, because this is what the father does to his sons and his daughter. My son or daughter do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him for those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines and he scourges every son whom he receives. God, why are you beating the living daylights out of me? Cause I love you. I don't know why I think about this, but I think about James Evans. He loved his kids and so he's gonna whoop him. I'm not going out and beating the neighbors. Those are not my kids. If I love you, I'm gonna deal with you. If I don't love you, I'm gonna leave it to yourself. I'll leave you as I found you. But he says, he says, he says, Scatterbrains, thank you for the super chat. He says those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. So here's my question, guys. Have you been disciplined not by the Lord? Because a lot of times you can identify this is God doing me. This is God getting on me. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If the Lord is disciplining you, it's because you're his son, because you're his child, because you're his daughter. If he's not, and we've seen Lord, how come this person, did you see him? God, I know you saw him. I know you saw him. I know you saw them. Why are you letting them get away with this, Lord? I'm storing up wrath, number one. Number two, they're not mine. They're not mine, so I'm not dealing with them. 240 months, well why? Because you ain't no good, Corey, and I'm disciplined. I'm about to beat you like, listen, I'm about to beat you like you stole something. What you did steal something. I'm about to beat you like it like ain't no end. I could imagine my mom, I'm so thankful, my mother and my father, that they didn't have red bulls back then. I could imagine me getting in trouble, and I got in trouble as a little kid. Can you imagine your daddy getting the belt off, and then drink a red bull? Get the belt off, drink a red bull. You're in trouble. You are in trouble. Well, that's what God was doing. It's like God just took a red bull and a belt and went to town, had all kind of energy. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If he don't discipline you, he's not your daddy. But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate. You are user, forgive me, forgive me Gabby, you're young, but still, you are a bastard. That's what I said, you are illegitimate children, not sons, not sons, not daughters. You are not the child, he's not your father. So when you getting it from God, and it seems like it's too much to bear and it's never ending, because what do you do? Here's the other thing, there's the other end. How many of you all, I know some of you young folks, don't get them. Gabby, I don't know if you get weapons anymore. If you get weapons, you're 15, they're not allowed to do so. But how can you tell, I'm so glad Shining Rivers asked this question, how can you tell it's God's discipline you and not just Satan bothering you? This is where you come in. We talked about what God comes in, but you're right. How do I know this ain't just the devil doing this? How do I know? This is your role. You're getting whooping, you're getting this whooping, you're getting spanked, you're getting beat. This how you know that it's God. This is where you come in. When you got a spanking, how many of you got a spanking? Got a beating, got a whooping, what have you? Some of you got put in time out. When it's bothersome to you, who do you call out to? When you were getting whooping, when you were getting a spanking, when you were getting whatever it was, getting beat down, some of you got extension cords, some of you got switches, some of you got a rod. Who did you call out to? Did, if it was your mother or your father, you called them, didn't you? Daddy, I'm sorry, daddy, I won't, daddy, mama. You called out to the person that was spanking you, didn't you? When God is disciplining his children, his children call out to him, father, could you please ease up on this? There's something intrinsic, something internal that's gonna work in you. Why? Because there's this relationship that you've established, that's been established between the Lord and you. You're now his. And so you only naturally know what to do to call out the name of the person that you know that's beating you. This case is father. So his children will recognize, you didn't have to study that. You don't think about it, you don't figure it out. You just simply know that I'm getting beat and father God, would you please stop this? You recognize. So God's doing his part because he's your father, you're his son, you're his daughter. And because you have a repenting heart because you know you don't, as Paul says, wish to do bad, but you did bad. So he's gonna discipline you. So when he does it, you also recognize because as Paul, as Peter said, or as told by Jesus, when you return, recognize that you've never left the fold. So Peter recognizes his shame. You recognize it and you call out to the father, father, would you please stop? And what does that do? It brings you even closer. So the next time someone has the mitigated goal, the audacity, the incredulous thought, the ignorance to say that your sin indicates that you are not a son of God. All you simply have to do is let him know, listen, I know who was beating me. I know the discipline. He must be my father because he's been disciplining me. But if you don't believe, that's fine. And if you wanna keep numbering and talking about my sins, that is fine also. I'm fine. You know why it doesn't bother me? Because I've acknowledged my sins. I've confessed my sins. I know it. And so I'm at peace even in the discipline process. Amen. Amen.