 Today we are in part 3 of break 3. I believe today's message might be the most important message you will hear in your life. I rarely make those statements and I pray for God's grace upon each one of us here today and those who will be rewatching it and re-listening. I want to answer and help people. This is not going to be for every person. People who keep falling into the same sin. This message will deal with that issue. A few months ago I was in the place getting ready to get my haircut done. As I was waiting in the lobby, a young man approached me and he asked me the question. He says, can I talk to you? And I said, well, of course, yes, sit down. I'm waiting to get called in. As he begins to sit down, he begins to tell me about his issue. He says, hey, I need to tell you I'm struggling with this sin. It's crazy. The moment people find out you're a pastor, everybody starts to think you're a priest. I'm like, you need to do it officially. How does it go in the Catholic Church? Father, I have sinned. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. Come on, Catholics. Help me out. He didn't start like that. He didn't start, Father, forgive me, Father, I have sinned. And he just began to say, I'm struggling with this. And I kind of, right away, discerned what it is. And as he goes in and he's like, I go to church. I'm a Christian. And he says, I keep falling into it. So I asked him a little bit more information. And I could see, you know, great shame and guilt on his face. And so when he told me what it was, and I asked him if he prayed about it, if he told somebody about it, if he confessed it, if he renounced it, he said, Vlad, he says, I've done most of these things and it keeps happening again. And this guy's about to be breaking tears right before I get called in. And so, and I start to minister to him, start telling him what I'm about to share with you on how to find freedom. But most importantly, how to overcome that struggle of repeated sin. His biggest issue, of course, was with guilt and with shame. And how can I be a Christian and still fall into this issue? How can I be a Christian and still struggle with this problem? And I told him something that the Bible says that the righteous man falls seven times and he gets up. Are you with me? The Bible says the righteous falls seven times and rises again. Somebody say rises again. But the wicked stumbles in times of calamity, meaning a wicked takes one fall and he never gets up again. And so I tell this man, I say, what makes you righteous is not your inability to fall. Righteous people fall, but righteous people get up and you can be righteous and still fall into the same thing in the same place once a day. What the difference is between righteous and the wicked is the righteous doesn't stay down. Righteous, he gets up. But it's difficult to get up if you fell into the same ditch all over again. Because of the fear that I will fall again, what's the point of getting up? And I'm telling this young man, I say, you have to see yourself not from a religious perspective. You have to see yourself from the perspective of a father and a child. I said, when you were a kid and you were learning to walk, you fell again and again and again every single day. Did you give up on walking because you couldn't learn to walk? Did your parents pull out a belt the first time you took a step and you fell and they whooped you? No, they didn't. And if they did, you need to call police. A father and a mother stands there with the child falling into the same floor, takes one step, bam! They pick him up and they don't simply say, well, our child is not destined to walk. Our child is not meant to walk. He's tried seven days already. He already has blood in here. He fell. He cries. The child doesn't want to try to walk. Our child is not meant to walk. No, a daddy and a mommy understands one thing. It's a process of walking. You fall more, but later on you learn to walk so good that you fall less in 10 years than you fell as a child in 10 minutes. But when you're a kid, when you're learning to walk, the devil is there to remind you. You will never walk. You will never be pure. You will never be smoke-free. You will never be free from alcohol. You will never be free from the tormenting thoughts of your abuse. You will never be free from the nightmares. You will never be free from anxiety. You will never be free from depression. The fears and the phobias, you will never be free from that. You're in security? That is who you are. Why? Because look at how many times you've fallen in these many times. But what the devil does not know is God doesn't stand and check if you stand or fall. God is a father, stands with his hands stretched forward, and he says, come on, take one more step. You fell, but God says, come on, come on, get up. He is a father, not a religious dictator, measuring your righteousness based on how you fall or not. Somebody give God praise right now. Hallelujah. The Bible says a righteous man falls seven times, but he gets up. The Bible also says that the righteous man has many afflictions. Are you with me? But the Lord delivers him out of the mall. The righteous man has many afflictions, but the Lord delivers him out of the mall. Jesus said in Matthew, he says, when you pray, our Father who is in heaven. That means we are children of God. Your kingdom come. You will be done. And then it inserts this prayer, deliver us from the devil. Now how many of you know if you're delivered, you don't pray that prayer. That means that you can be a child of God and still be needing deliverance. See, the religious world will tell you that if you need deliverance, something is wrong with your Christianity. But we see in the Bible that you can be righteous and fall. You can be righteous and still need deliverance. And so I'm telling this young man, I said, the reason why you fall is not because you're not righteous, you're just not free. The reason you keep repeating the same sin is not because you're not a Christian. It's because you're not free. And don't let anybody just tell you that just because you're a Christian or just because you are righteous, that means you're automatically free. You're automatically righteous, but you're not yet automatically free. Just because you were born as a child and you got two of your legs on the same day you were born, they were not shipped by FedEx two years later, just because you got your legs. How many of you know you did not learn to walk the day you got your legs? Just because you got salvation and just because you're a gift of righteousness, your name is a book of life, it doesn't mean you're actually walking in that freedom. That's why you got your mama, you got a daddy who doesn't beat you when you fall, who pick you up and say, try it again. Try it again. Give me a little bit more juice on my microphone until we get this thing warmed up and then we can lower it down. Try it again. And I told something to this young man, I said, the challenge happens with us. The reason why we, many of us don't get free. It's not just a power of sin. It's the culture of church we are in which stones people who fall. When I was addicted to pornography and I struggled with insecurity at my teenage years and on top of that I had extremely migrant headaches during the summer. Put all of these three things together and going through the puberty, talking about a World War III inside of you. Literally, you're confused, you're scared, you feel shame and guilt, you got demons screaming and whispering because the devil knew that God had a plan for my future and he knew that the best way to knock this guy out is in his infancy. It's when he's confused, when he doesn't know, he takes one step and he falls two steps. But I thank to God that I had a church and I had a pastor and I had a church that did not throw stones when they found my sin and didn't publicize it and punished me for it but they restored me gently and the pastor didn't remove those sins from me but he said listen, you got it boy, you're gonna do better, you're gonna recover from this, you're gonna be fine, God is still with you, you still have ministry inside of you. I know you're bound by those things but you're still righteousness, you're still God's child and we love you and everything is gonna be alright. It gave me a sense of I'm gonna be fine. Did it make me enjoy my sin? Heck no. I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that. It's a bad word. No, it did not let me enjoy my sin because the difference between a swine and a sheep is the swine enjoys the mud, a sheep cries in the mud. I cried in my mud but if somebody washed me off of it and somebody said listen, you can be, you will be recovered maybe not today but you will be free. The churches today exist, they're more like hyenas or somebody falls and bleeds and they attack and everybody goes for a pound of flesh. They're like sharks and they see, when they see blood they go and attack. They publicize things, it's kind of like what happened to the judge, you know, where stuff just became bloated up and we go in like Pharisees and we want to attack, we want to publicize it, why? Because it gives a sense of self-righteousness. The church that you come into today, I want to tell you something, we don't shoot our own wounded soldiers because church is the only army at some places where it shoots its own wounded soldiers. We shoot one enemy, his name is the devil, his name is demons and his name is sin. We protect our people, we fight for our people, we pray for our people, we restore our people, we love our people, we forgive our people, we raise our people, we encourage our people, somebody give God's shout in this place. You may say, you can take your seats, you may say, how dare did you call people hyenas? They're worse than that. Because if I go to the doctor and I am bleeding and they bring me to emergency and the doctor of the hospital gathers the nurses to throw rocks at me, they're hyenas, they're not doctors. We're a church, we're not religious, crazy, perfect people, we are a hospital and we help hurting people. One of the reasons many people don't recover and don't get set free is because you can't grow bananas in Alaska. You can't be free if the religious environment you are in judges a sinner instead of restores a sinner. We know sin is sin, sin is bad, but the sinners need help. And if we all get really, really honest, we realize we still got some stuff we need help in. Come on somebody. Behind the religious facade, behind the religious mask and behind the perfection and the good Christian quotes on Instagram, we still got stuff. The only difference is my stuff is not as bad as your stuff, but it's still stuff. And I need help from God with it. Come on somebody. We want to build a church where people who are saints can struggle and find hope. Instead of pretending that the moment you come out and something happens and you fell or you're struggling, we all gather like a bunch of hainas and eat you for lunch. And my pastor, he didn't do that to me. He gave me compassion. I was scared. I remember the first time I confessed my sin, I thought I will be presented to the board of all the Pentecostal churches in the world. I thought that they're going to drag my name through the mud and this little poor teenager is going to be kicked out of the church. And when he showed compassion and he showed mercy, did you think I wanted to do that sin? No, I hated it more, but it gave me a sense of hope. People sometimes who hear me speak about deliverance and they say, well, there's one thing that we feel is we feel help. We feel that you're four people. And I said, the reason why is because that was extended to me and if it wouldn't be for that, I would never be in this place. There are people in this room today and some of you, you went through places where you fell and you've been in a religious institution that they dragged you through mud. They had everybody say their stupid opinion about what they thought about your issue and like that woman got in the act of adultery, everybody threw stuff at you. And your connection to God today is that experience. Listen, what you experience is bunch of hainas, not savior. It's religious world. It's vicious and it's mean and it's rude. Religious people could be the meanest people in the world. Jesus Christ is a little bit different. He looked at the woman caught in the act of adultery who didn't have a chance to respond to the altar call. And he says, listen woman, she didn't even repent. She didn't even apologize. She got caught. And he says, I don't condemn you. Go and sin no more. If we don't give people grace, if we don't give people help, we don't give them power to overcome the sin that they're stuck in. And so I want to tell you something that today in this church, I know I'm afraid sometimes people will misunderstand this message and continue their sin without understanding that the grace is not an excuse but a power to overcome your sin. But I'll rather err on grace than hurt people. Because while hurting people, I'm also hurting myself. Because I'm also people. Because somebody say amen. So with that said, I want to look at, I want to look at them. Oh my goodness, we got to finish it and I haven't even started. I want to look at one guy in the Bible. His name was Lazarus. And when Lazarus died, as you saw, the Bible says they put him in a tomb. I could not bring the tomb from Jerusalem. So I found a cheaper version of it. Thank you, Mike Melnik. And so when Jesus came to Lazarus' tomb, the Bible says Lazarus was dead. And not only he was dead, but he was covered inside of a tomb. And this is what Jesus says. Jesus called up some people. If I could have Bryson. And Jesus said, he says, I want you to open the tomb. Open the tomb. Open the tomb. Now the camera, who's the floating camera? Come over here so that the live viewers can see those of you who are not able to see. Lazarus is right here. He is dead. Lazarus, be dead. So close your eyes. All right. Jesus stood from a distance and the Bible says, Now Lazarus is dead. He's gone. The fact that he's wrapped up in grave clothes is one thing. And Jesus stood there and he said this. He said, Lazarus! And in that moment, Lazarus got raised from the dead. Now you don't see that right now, but I can tell you one thing. Come over here and help me. Lazarus, his eyes is open. Can you breathe? He's alive. He's alive. Now Lazarus is alive. I want you to watch this. His resurrection was such a big miracle. Everybody stood outside. We're amazed that he's raised from the dead. How many of you know it's a big deal? I want you to come out. I want you to come out. I want you to see one thing. Is that Jesus tells Lazarus to come out. What we don't see a lot of times is that nobody helps him out. In his grave clothes, he's trying to come out. The crowd is standing there. And probably these clothes were not like these. They were maybe a little bit lighter. But nevertheless, I want you to see this, is that he had to come out of the grave with his clothes that were tying him up. And he slowly, it's just a struggle. Go ahead. Come out Lazarus. Come out. You're doing great. You're doing amazing. Now I'm going to give him just a little help. Would you help me to help Lazarus get on his feet? Let's get him on his feet. Jesus. Amen. Thank you Lord. Lazarus, thank you so much. Lazarus came out. Thank you Jesus. I want you to see this. The biggest miracle, such a big deal is that he's alive. But he doesn't feel that it's a big deal that he's alive. When Lazarus became alive, the first thing that happened to him, he got confused. What am I doing here? Why are these people gathered? Why is Jesus screaming at me? Why am I in these clothes? Who chose this right time? Why am I here? I want you to notice this. Your righteousness is a big deal. Your rags are not. They're only big deal if you're in them. For everyone outside, the fact that you're breathing is a huge deal. Everybody outside stands to say, oh my God, he's alive. But because you're on the inside, you say, this sucks. This is bad. This is hard. The fact that you have a new heart inside of you is a big deal. The fact that you are addicted is not. Your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life is a big deal. The fact that you're hurting is not. Now to you, it's the big deal because you're here. You're hurting. You're suffering. You're confused. But honestly, I want to put it into perspective of every person that is hurting and struggling right now. The fact that you have righteousness inside of you is the biggest deal. It's the biggest celebration. Hallelujah. You know, I don't pay attention to these things. If this would have been my brother as Mary and Martha, I would be stoked and excited the fact that he's alive. I wouldn't be bothered with the fact that he got robes. I want to tell you something right now. I'm not in any way downplaying power of sin. I just don't want to downplay the power of God. I don't want to downplay the power of sonship and the power of righteousness. I don't want to downplay the power of the forgiveness of sins and the power of the blood of Jesus on the cross. And I want to tell you something. These rags, yes, they're bad. Yes, they're horrible. But the power of death that's been defeated in you already is a big deal. It's such a big deal. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That is a big deal. The fact that 2,000 years ago Jesus crushed the head of the serpent, that is a big deal. The fact that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, that is a big deal. I know you still have a cigarette once in a while, but the big deal is that you're alive inside. That's why the cigarette doesn't feel comfortable in your mouth. That's why pornography doesn't feel normal. That's why sleeping with your girlfriend doesn't feel right because you're alive. See, religious people, we see this. But Jesus stands there and he's like, the guy is alive. God in heaven stands, you're alive. I want to tell you something right now. Because you're alive, you're not feeling comfortable with these things. Sleeping with your girlfriend is not the same as it was before you were alive. Doing the things that you're doing right now, it just does not feel right. Living a lesbian homosexual life seemed just fine. That's what everybody does. When you become alive, you realize that that's not right. And it's not just because the preacher told you, it's because something in you tells you that that is not how I was wired, created, fashioned and purposed by God. But what I want to show you right now is this. It's when Lazarus became alive. That's such a big deal. Take your eyes off of your bondage and your repeated sin and struggle. Look at the fact that Jesus gave you salvation and it's only because of the salvation that you're able even to feel that sense of conviction and the sense of this is not right. But I want you to see this. Jesus tells Lazarus not to become alive. He tells him to come out. Watch this. He doesn't send disciples and say, guys Lazarus is there, get him out. Jesus doesn't go to the tomb himself and says, Lazarus, let me help you out. He tells a dead man who is bound. Come toward me. And it was after Lazarus took steps. Lazarus, come, come, come, come, come. Stay here. It was after Lazarus took steps that Jesus sent people to help him become free. What I want to tell some of you here today is after God gives you righteousness, he doesn't always bring you freedom, but he does ask you to walk toward him in bondage. That's why I titled this message, struggle is real. God wants you, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. God wants you to struggle toward him. You're struggling but toward him. Jesus stands there. He could easily snap his finger and everything will be gone. But Jesus stands there and says, Lazarus, walk. He knows it's not comfortable. He knows it's painful. He knows that it doesn't feel right. But Jesus says, walk toward me Lazarus. And when Lazarus takes those steps, then Jesus says, now go and help him to be free. Between here and there is where most Christians spiritually die. And they go back to their grave and they say, this is too painful. I feel an inward conflict. I keep doing the same thing and I keep falling into the same sin. And then God forbid, you got some hyenas next to you there. They go in and start attacking you and say, how dare you not fast enough. Come on, hurry up, hurry up, come on. You should be better by now. And then they start pushing and then they start pushing. I want you to walk to Jesus when you struggle. Three things I want you to write it down in two minutes. And then three things to take home with you. Number one, when you struggle before you get free, learn to overcome your guilt before you overcome your sin. Write this down. Learn to overcome your guilt before you overcome your sin. The process of this struggle, the most powerful part in this struggle is not your sin. It's your guilt. Guilt is more powerful than sin because sin lasts five, twenty, fifty minutes tops. Guilt lasts five years, fifty years. Guilt is like a smoke machine. Sin is like a smoke machine. It releases smoke for about five minutes or, well, if it releases smoke for five minutes, this will have a big problem. It releases smoke like right now. It just releases smoke just a little bit. But the smoke stays way longer than the release of that smoke. Then you have to open windows to get the smoke out. I want to tell you something. If you fall into the same sin again and again and you ask God for forgiveness and He forgives you, your biggest battle is no longer just with that sin. It's with the guilt that sin brings. And I want to tell you this one big revelation. The guilt is not from God. It's from your sin. God, who took care of your sin, wants you to open the windows of your soul. Open your heart to His grace and get the smoke out. He's not going to take away the guilt. He wants you to overcome it by open the windows of your soul and get it out. Get your soul out to the cross. Get your mind open to the cross. You may say, how can I receive the freedom from guilt if it's the same sin I fall into? It's very simple. It's the same way a kid keeps getting up and the parents are standing there with stretched arms. It's very simple. God asks you to forgive one person over 400 times in one day. If God asks you to forgive someone, I'm pretty sure He can forgive you. God doesn't want you to live in guilt. For me to overcome condemnation and for me to overcome that addiction that I had, before I ever came pornography, I had to learn to overcome guilt. And it was very simple, but very profound and extremely difficult. When I fell, I got up and I asked Jesus. I said, Jesus, please forgive me. I am a wretched sinner. Wash me with your blood. And then I told Vlad that Jesus forgave you right now. Get up and pretend it didn't happen. And I played a pretend game. When I walked out of that room, my feelings were still all juggled up. You're weird. You're crazy. You keep falling. You're a sinner. But I told myself, I am a new creation. Jesus forgot it. And I choose not to remember it. It never happened again. I didn't fall into the same sin because I forgot that last time I fell. You may say that's a mind game. No, that's a renewing of your mind. You overcome your guilt. And that's how you overcome your sin. Number two, you stop seeking God for freedom. You seek God for God. After a while, you have to walk forward. Not so you can get free. You have to walk forward so you can get close to God. When you get close to God, God will start giving you freedom. Don't seek freedom. Seek God. I know it hurts to be bound. It hurts to fall into the same pattern. But I want to challenge each one of you. Stop using God to get freedom. Love God to get God. Freedom will come. Freedom will come. Now right away, but it will come. Maybe not right now, but it will come. Fall in love with God. Because if you use God to get freedom, many of you will abandon God after you get freedom. That's why you pray hard when you're in bondage. And don't pray at all when you're free. God never wanted to be someone you used to get free. God wanted someone you love. First commandment is not get free. Just love the Lord your God. Fall in love with God. Is it easy to love God when you're in bondage? I want you to jump. Is it easy to walk to God? It's interesting how he's not free, but because he took the step you're already celebrating. You're reflecting the nature of Jesus. I want to tell you something that is not easy to love God when you're hurting. You will struggle. But I'm going to tell you one thing. Value progress, not perfection. One step closer to the Lord. And you will see, I don't want our church to be in love with freedom. I want our church to be in love with the deliverer. To be in love with Jesus. Whether we are free or not, we love Jesus. And in loving him, we find freedom. We find healing and we find deliverance. And lastly, I want you to write this down. Your problem will be persistent. Therefore, you must be consistent in your relationship with Jesus. What I like to say is your issue will be persistent. Therefore, your intimacy must be consistent. The story comes from Esther. Is when Esther had an enemy in the palace she stopped being invited to the king. She had to overcome this feeling of not being loved. She had to overcome sense of guilt. That's the first point. The second thing is when Esther met the king, as I mentioned, she didn't ask for freedom. She asked for lunch. She wasn't asking for liberty. She was asking for lunch. Don't be a person who uses God to get what you want. Even if what you want is something that God really wants from you too. Holiness and righteousness. Always come to God and say, I need your freedom. I need your help. But I'm here to worship. I'm here to love you. The way I am. What I got right now is what I'm going to give you. And thirdly, Esther, when she asked for lunch with the king. The first lunch, she didn't tell him the problem. She asked on the first lunch to have a second lunch. Meaning she said, I'm going to get this thing consistent. I'm not just going to pray one time and seek God. I will pray consistently because your problem is persistent. You must be consistent. Somebody say that. Jesus says to Lazarus, Lazarus comes. Lazarus overcomes these difficult steps. And then this is where the Lord says, can I get some home group leaders? Lazarus' home group leaders to lose him. I can get some guys who tie him up. This home group leaders are not here. But if you have home group leaders, almost home group leaders, can we just lose him right now? Right now? I want you to see this. Lazarus was not lost by Jesus. He was raised by Jesus. He was lost by people. Jesus will raise you. Home group leaders will lose you. Your believers will lose you. Your family members will help you. That means the freedom is not always dependent on the anointed man of God. Sometimes it's anointed. It's the body of Jesus that brings freedom into your life. Somebody say amen. Come on Jesus. Let's celebrate Omar right now. Thank you Lord Jesus. Renewing your mind is such a big difficult thing. I want you to see this. He got everything except let's go Omar. Hold on. Hurry up. His face is good. Have you noticed that? Everything you see right now is perfect. But there is one more area you don't see. It's his feet. A lot of times this is where we stop. We get free from the things that we're embarrassed of and the things that other people know of. But there are still things that nobody else knows. That you and I got. That what they do in our spiritual life. People don't see why you're still struggling. Let's go. You're slow. Because you're struggling. Because there are still areas nobody else sees that you know. And what I want to challenge you with right now is don't only clean up the areas other people keep pointing to you. Clean the areas you are hurting in that nobody else knows. That your spouse only knows. Your kids only know. Or your parents only know. The areas that no longer get talked about by your friends or maybe some home group or something else. The areas that only you know. Because these areas can still hold you back. During this break free series our desire through home groups and through our services is not to punish the hurting but to help the hurting. Those who are struggling. And to let you know help is on the way. Some areas God will send somebody to help you. Some areas only Jesus will raise you up. But there will be areas you're gonna have to use to give freedom to yourself in other areas of your life. Omar set yourself free. Start waking up for morning prayer. Start fasting. Start reading a Bible. Confess your sins to someone. Listen get a discipline. Do something. There are areas of your life Jesus can set you free. But there are areas where Jesus gives you enough freedom where you can use to get yourself free. Shanda Glory Jesus Come on somebody. Come on somebody. Give you a round of applause without Omar. Omar you're free. Jesus name. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus.