 You don't often hear preaching about sin anymore. It's a taboo topic. People stay away from it. But here's the reality. The believer, though he or she is forgiven, though he or she is justified, though he or she will spend eternity with God, the believer still will face consequences for their sin, for their wrongdoing, for their disobedience, consequences both in this life and the next. My goal is to use the scriptures to bring spiritual sobriety. My goal is to show you from the Word of God the consequences of sin so that your heart would turn from wickedness. And not just blatant sin. Look, every believer knows to avoid blatant sin. But I'm more so going to be addressing compromise here. Compromise in the life of the believer. Now again, let me emphasize this. We are justified. We are justified when we place our faith in Christ Jesus. That's how salvation comes about when we believe on Jesus. That's what the scripture teaches. Ephesians chapter 2 is very clear on this. But this does not mean that the believer won't face consequences for their disobedience. And sadly, many are preaching messages that seem to encourage sin. Any teaching, any sermon, any message, any doctrine that makes you more comfortable with sin is a doctrine of devils. Any teaching that encourages you in your sin is a doctrine of devils. Any teaching that makes you more apathetic or dismissive of or more relaxed with sin is a doctrine of devils. We have to look at the scripture so that we can receive the truth. But first, I want you to make a promise. I want you to make a declaration. I want you to purpose in your heart that you'll be a believer who's serious about holiness, who's serious about serving God, who's serious about forsaking the devil, forsaking this world, forsaking sinful pleasures. If that's you and you're saying within yourself, okay, I may be struggling with sin. I may be battling some issues. There are some things that I know that I need to get right. But you're saying within your spirit, I don't want compromise. I'm ready to go after everything that God has for me. I'm ready to serve the Lord wholeheartedly. If that's you, I want you to write these simple words in the comment section. Write no compromise. Write those two words. Let that be a public shameless declaration of your intention to serve God wholeheartedly. To give Him all that you are. To give Him your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength with every fiber of your being pursuing what God has for you. That is the life of the believer. So let's look now at some of the consequences of sin. We've already talked about the fact that we're justified freely when we place our faith in Christ Jesus. I've already mentioned to you that we are secure in His love. But this doesn't mean that we can just go on sinning, living in disobedience and doing as we please without there being any consequences. There are still consequences, yes, even for the believer. And yes, even in eternity. I'll show you right now. So number one, sin diminishes your heavenly reward. Sin diminishes your heavenly reward. Justification is your final verdict. Your legal standing before God is justified. Because of the work of the cross, when God sees you, He sees the perfection of Christ Jesus. And when He looks at the cross, He sees your sin. It was at the cross that the worst man had to offer was met with what the best God had to offer. And at the cross there was redemption because at the cross there was a great exchange. Our sinful ways for Christ's perfection. You and I cannot stand directly in perfection, not yet. But we can stand in Christ who Himself stands in perfection. And when we place our faith on the sacrifice that Jesus made, when we place our trust in God and receive His free gift of salvation by faith, then we are justified. And the accomplishments of Christ become our accomplishments. But again, this doesn't mean that the Scripture doesn't talk about the fact that there are things that happen when we sin. There are consequences to your compromise. And my prayer is that as I show you these, that you would be encouraged to live a holy life. That there would be a healthy, godly fear and reverence that comes on you. We need the fear of the Lord. We need the fear of the Lord. As society drifts further into darkness, we need to hold the line. We need to keep the standard. We cannot keep changing and compromising because the world demands it. Yes, the pressure against us is increasing. The antichrist system, so to speak, is beginning to develop even more so than we've ever seen before, and in fact is now here. So we need to stand firm. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 9 and 10 say this. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please Him. 4, and remember this is to the believer. 4, we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. Now remember this message was written to Christians. And Paul the apostle writes, we will each, that includes you and I, each of us will receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. Now this is not judgment in which God is determining whether we are saved or not. This is talking about heavenly reward. Romans chapter 14 verse 10 says, so why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. The judgment we receive will be rendered in consideration of the cross. So all true believers will escape hell in separation from God. But this doesn't mean that we're freed of all consequences. In fact, the scripture says in 2 John chapter 8, watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Watch this now. Be diligent so that you will receive your full reward. In other words, this is implying that the believer can receive a partial reward. Some of what God intended for them to have in eternity. Think about the fact that it took God only six days to create everything we know as reality. On the seventh, he rested. It took him six days to create all that we can see and experience, more than we can see and experience in a lifetime, six days. Yet Jesus said, behold, I go to prepare a place for you. So God has been spending all of this time preparing a place for you and I. And when things are ready, then he comes to get us. So if we're not there yet, it means our place isn't ready. So God created all things that we see, the universe, the cosmos, the world, the systems of the world. I'm talking about like the biological systems of the world and the animal kingdom and the ocean. And you can go on naming many wonderful things that God has created, but that only took him six days. Yet all this time, the Lord has been preparing a place for you and I. There is so much more to the beyond or to eternity than we could ever comprehend on this side of eternity. Look, when we cross over into eternity, and I'm not using that term in the New Age sense. I literally mean it in the crossing over. You leave this world and go into the next. When we enter into eternity, we are going to enter more than we ever could possibly imagine here. There is so much more to that world than there is to this world. And think about the fact that when we go and stand before God, when we finally are removed from this earthly body, that it will feel more like waking up than falling asleep. I think we have it backwards. We imagine that when we die, we're going to go stand in this, you know, ethereal, floaty, cloudy existence where our senses are dulled and we're sort of in a dreamlike state looking around and half recognizing and half hearing and half sensing. No, my friend. The heavenly realm is so much more vivid, so much more alive, so full of life, teaming with energy and love and joy and peace. The eternal realm, the supernatural realm is so much more grand than this realm. And so think about the fact that God placed humanity on this planet to act as his partner. Now when I say partner, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying because some people become offended at that term thinking that I'm talking about God needing us. God does not need us, but he shows us as his representatives here in the earth and he gave us the responsibility of stewarding the creation. Now I believe that God placed us here on this earth to steward this creation as a training ground for what he would have us steward in the eternal realm. I believe that God placed us here to see how we would handle these responsibilities. In fact, the scripture says when speaking of finances, that if you can't handle the material thing, how can you handle the heavenly thing? And so that's the law of stewardship. When you take care of what you have, when you do well with what God has given you, he gives you more. He adds more to your responsibilities. And so here on this side of eternity, we've been given responsibilities. He's given you breath. He's given you life. He's given you connections. He's given you influence. He's given you energy. He's given you talents and time and so many things. He's deposited a lot in you, though you believe it or not, though you feel it or not. There's a lot deposited in you right now. There's something in you that God has placed and he wants you to use it unto his glory. And he's watching. He's looking to see how we might use what he's given us. And those who live sinful lives, hear me now. Those who live compromising lives of secret sin and habitual sin and of, I'm not even just talking about the things we can blatantly label as sin. I'm talking about the character issues and flaws that we just let continue in our lives. Make no provision for the flesh. Don't give it an opportunity. Don't give it any strength. Don't fuel the sin nature. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 12 through 15, Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials, gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each believer has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value. Wow. Verse 14, If the work survives, the builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved. This is by the way that phrase, the builder will be saved. This is how we know that the builder will be saved. So this is in reference to believers. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames. The Bible clearly tells us here that the things that we do for God, the things we do in the body, the things that we do in ministry, what we do here and now will be weighed. And if you live a lifestyle of compromise, my friend, you are losing responsibilities. I don't want to, I don't know, I don't know about you. I don't want to get to heaven and find that there was so much more I should have done and could have done for the glory of God. Every compromise has a consequence. Every sin has a result. Every time you do something in disobedience, God is taking note of that. Now again, you're going to be saved. Again, I'm talking to true believers here. Sure you'll be saved, but every true believer desires to live holy. Every true believer attempts to do good. Every true believer has a new nature and with that new nature comes new cravings, spiritual cravings, not of the sin nature. Yet every act of disobedience counts toward your eternity. This is not to say that God puts it on our record of whether or not we're justified. This is a totally separate kind of judgment that we're looking at here. I showed you several verses just now. Written to believers, by the way. So this is not a salvation issue and I'm not trying to inspire fear where we should feel confidence. Of course, the Holy Spirit is that inner witness who will never leave us and who assures us of the salvation that we have in Christ because we believe. So this is not a works-based gospel I'm preaching. I'm not talking about works for the sake of salvation. I'm talking about works for the sake of heavenly reward. Think about the fact that this lifetime is so incredibly short compared to what you and I will experience in eternity. You think there are wonderful things on this side of eternity. Think of all of the things you can accomplish here. Think of all of the treasures you can acquire. The properties you can gain. The success that you can have. There's nothing wrong with success in and of itself. We all love to accomplish and to build and to expand and to spiritually conquer. Of course, we all want this. We all want to become better versions of ourselves. But how much more will there be in the heavenly realm? How much more is there to the heavenly realm? And what will we think when we see what we could have had and for all eternity know that because of the way we lived here on this earth that we missed some things on that side of eternity. There's a joke that I heard that someone once told me. I don't know about its theological roots, but at least in principle it can apply. There's a joke about a man who dies and goes to heaven and the Lord is showing him around the heavenly mansions. And he looks and he sees the streets of gold and heaven is teeming with life and activity. It's like a busy city. He sees often the distance a beautiful mansion, many rooms. And he says whose mansion is that? And the Lord tells him that's the mansion of King David. And as they move down the streets of gold he begins to point out other mansions. Whose is this and whose is that? And the Lord is telling him well that's Esther's or that's the prophet Jeremiah's or that's Paul the Apostles. And as they're moving down the streets of gold the mansions are getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. So he begins to become concerned. Now they're no longer looking at mansions. They're looking at like heavenly apartment complexes and duplexes. And he's going well Lord this is a little troubling. Are you taking me to my mansion? He says yes we have to keep going. And then they pass several different heavenly properties and he starts to notice that the properties are getting smaller and smaller until finally there's just this little plot of dirt and two pieces of heavenly plywood balanced upon one another. And the Lord stops him there and says well here we are. This is your heavenly reward. He said Lord how can this be? I mean think of all the mansions we just passed. Think of all the different things that we just saw. Is this where I am to abide for all of eternity? And the Lord says well with the way you lived this is all you sent to us. Now again those theological implications I'm not saying are exact but in principle the joke applies. What in fact are we losing on that side of eternity? And I want you to ask yourself this. What are we losing on that side of eternity because of our compromise on this side of eternity? What heavenly responsibilities won't be handed to us because we lived lives of compromise? What heavenly rewards and wonders won't we experience because we lived lives of compromise? And again I know people may get upset. They may say well that doesn't sound right or that doesn't seem like something God will do or that doesn't seem fair but here the scripture makes it very clear that there are degrees of heavenly reward. How exactly this looks? What exactly those rewards and responsibilities are? I don't know the Bible doesn't give us a super ultra clear picture on this. So what we do know is that the builder will be saved but that the work will be burned up in some cases. So that's number one sin diminishes your heavenly reward. Now that's on that side of eternity but there are other consequences to sin on this side of eternity. Let's look at number two. Number two sin grieves the Holy Spirit. Now look I'm going to be honest with you and I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit this so just bear with me. When I first started in ministry I was very much concerned with people's opinions. I'm just going to admit that to you, okay? When I first started like 13, 14, 15, 16 by the time I was 18 or 19 I learned to not care so much about what other people said. I used to respond to every criticism. If someone made a video about me I would respond to them maybe not in video form but at least in the comment section if someone criticized me to my face I would get offended and I would carry it in my heart for days and even weeks and I was very concerned with man's opinion. And the more I've been involved in the Lord's ministry the longer I've served him. Not that I've arrived at any, look there's a lot of work he needs to do in me but at least in this area I can say I've had a lot of practice because there's been so much criticism. There has been a lot of criticism against me over the years and that's been a great opportunity for my patience and long suffering and so forth. And so I've learned to just not care what people think. Now I do care what people think to a degree like for example you, I care what you think in the sense that I don't want to confuse you with the teaching or I don't want to lead you astray with something that I say and maybe get you on the wrong path because of something I said using scripture or even misusing scripture unbeknownst to me. I care about what you think because the Bible talks about having a good reputation. So to some degree I do care what the saints of God think but my identity is not based on the compliments of man or even the criticisms. I've learned to not fear people. I care about you but I don't fear you. I care about your well-being but I don't fear your criticisms and that's how every believer should live and so in learning to live this way I've learned that I don't have to be afraid of what people say. I've had so many things said about me and done against me by preachers and atheists alike but I'm not worried about their opinions. I'm not concerned with what they're going to say. I'm not saying that in a condescending way. I'm not trying to be facetious or trying to be controversial nor am I trying to irritate anyone. I sincerely can tell you I just learned to just kind of say, okay I have to let that go so I'm not afraid of the opinions of people and then I'm also embarrassed to admit that when I began in ministry I was really afraid of demonic manifestations. Now talking back when I was like 14, 15 years old and I started casting out devils around that same time but I remember seeing the first exorcism that I had ever witnessed and I was terrified. I didn't know what to do with it because I'd never seen anything like it in person up to that point. I remember I went to this church, this pastor invited me. He said, hey I want you to see an exorcism. I said, great let's go check it out. I even brought my video camera. I still have the footage by the way but I'm not going to post it. I don't even know they'd let me. But I'm watching this and he's casting this devil out of the sky. This guy's like talking with several voices at once so I'm thinking this is just, this is insane. And I was a little nervous, I'll be honest with you. I kind of backed up and I was at a distance when I saw this but over the years I've learned that demons are more like dogs than anything. You have to just be real aggressive, like go, no, don't. And they respond. I mean think about the fact that the Bible says resist the devil and he will flee. A lot of people and believers they picture demons like as these super strong powers against the Holy Spirit and that there's like this wrestling and that you have to fight and fight and fight the devil. No, the Bible says that the devil is in, the devil is at such a disadvantage that if you just resist him he runs. Think about that. That's not very confident. I mean I don't understand if he ran if you fought him with the power of the Holy Ghost but the Bible doesn't even say to fight him in that way. It says resist him like pull away, resist. Resist him and he flees. So I'm not really concerned with demonic powers. In fact, I don't even think there's such a thing as stubborn demons so to speak. The problem is not stubborn demons but faithless men and women. We as believers step into that victory. So I'm not afraid of demonic powers. I have a healthy respect for spiritual warfare. We should not scoff at supernatural beings and I recognize that they can be very powerful if you're not walking with the Holy Spirit but I walk with the Holy Spirit so I'm not afraid of that. People threaten me all the time. I'm putting a curse on you. I'm doing this. I'm speaking that and I say if I'm walking with the Holy Spirit there's nothing you can do. So I'm not afraid of demons and I'm not afraid of the opinions of people. Do you know what I'm afraid of? I'm afraid of grieving the precious Holy Spirit. I'm afraid of hurting him. Now some might religiously respond you can't hurt the Holy Spirit. Well the Bible says in Ephesians 4 30 and do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember he has identified you as his own guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Here the Bible is quite clear that the actions that we choose and we have to understand this. The actions that you and I choose can hurt the Holy Spirit. You may think all this sin isn't hurting anyone and here's the reality I'm just going to be real with you. There's this like Christian wives tale you know everything in the dark will be brought to light. Well if you read the application of that particular verse it's not saying that every single sin is going to be exposed. In fact think about all the unsolved murders that are out there. Sure on the day of eternity on the day of judgment there will be a reckoning and there will be a judgment and those things will be revealed but who's to say if we're all going to witness everyone's judgment? I don't know. Am I going to see the judgment of every human being and see all their sins? So in that sense it's not really true that everything you do will be known by everyone. Maybe maybe not but at least on this side of eternity in this world on this earth not every sin gets exposed. Not every sin comes to the light. There are some people here's the scary thing. There are some people who have died with their secret sins and no one else ever knew about it. So you may be able to get away with it maybe just for this lifetime. I'm not encouraging you to do that. Again you can diminish your heavenly reward and you may say okay it's not hurting anyone no one knows about it it all takes place in my mind or in my heart or in my emotions or it's all a sin of omission things I'm not doing that I know I should be doing. I mean how does that get exposed? How does sins of omission get exposed? Things you're not doing that you should be doing well nobody knows your heart. So no, not necessarily every sin will come out to the light in that regard on the day of judgment yes but on this side of eternity maybe maybe not it's to your benefit it does if you don't get it right but in these moments when people are getting away with their sin in their mind nobody knows nobody sees no one's being affected by it you're hurting the Holy Spirit you are hurting the one who gives you spiritual life you are hurting the one who empowers you and walks with you and abides with you and comforts you. Sin grieves the Holy Spirit that's a consequence that we rarely talk about all the consequences we talk about is basically embarrassment or you're going to get exposed and so people are afraid of embarrassment and that's a motivator for them but what about hurting the Holy Spirit? What about grieving the one who loves you grieving the one who abides with you faithfully time and time again who when you deny him or when you're ashamed of his work when you ignore him throughout the day he still abides and he still loves you with an everlasting love we grieve the Holy Spirit that's a consequence worth considering is it not it's a consequence that we should be mindful of isn't it? Love love is a much greater motivator than fear love is a much greater motivator than fear embarrassment they do things where they can hide it and many people hide their sin and look I know it's not popular to say but there are some people who are just going to get away with it and they're going to go to their grave with their secrets and no one will ever know but God but guess what when they stand before God there's going to be a diminishing of that heavenly reward and on top of that you've grieved the Holy Ghost there's no such thing as a sin that doesn't hurt anyone it's doing more to you than you realize I'm going to cover that in a moment it's doing more to you than you realize and on top of that you're grieving the Holy Spirit number three sin destroys your life King David was forgiven for committing both murder and adultery yet he still faced the consequences in his generation Samson's strength was restored I mean think about the fact that Samson told Delilah how to take his strengths he shaved his head and then the Philistines seized him and they were able to capture him they plucked out his eyes and yes okay he had his strength restored but he died in that restoration in that moment of restoration I should say and he lost his eyes Peter was forgiven for denying the Lord yet it's recorded forever in all of Scripture and we still read about it today sin has material consequences not just spiritual ones look I'm going to read something to you and I rarely share this but I want you to see this I have a list on my phone of things that I would lose if I were to fall into scandal and I keep it on and I check it regularly because it helps as men of God especially those in ministry to keep these things in your mind so that part of what actually causes people to fall into sin is they're not content with where they are they have no contentment for what God has given them and they're so mindful of the things they don't have that they fall into the trap whether that be sexual sin or whether that be a sin of finance in other words stealing money or misusing ministry funds this could be a sin of the lust for power and pride and lying there are more sins than just sexual sin that a preacher can fall into though sexual sin is a big one but here's a list of things I keep on my phone and I keep it in my mind I said okay these are the things I would lose if I had a scandal number one I could lose my marriage number two wife's trust three example as a father four friendships five respect that's important some people minimize that well who cares about respect respect is a natural human need income I would lose my livelihood my family's trust the studio that we work so hard on and that's a material thing but it matters I'm thankful this is a gift from God too the ministry teams trust I would lose financial freedom the freedom to travel the freedom to manage my own schedule I would lose the viewers trust that's what I put on my phone that's you the viewers trust could lose the channel I would lose all my book contracts too by the way because with book contracts they say that if you have I think it's called a moral clause you sign it where if you fall into a moral failing or if you have a moral failing that they can actually pull back your book contracts and just take you off their publishing my disciples trust the people I'm investing in personally and that's just the main thing but there's a whole list of things I have here that I would lose and I check that regularly it's on the top of my notes for that regularly look at that and it's one of the motivators to say I got to keep not just pure not just stay away from sin but even away from temptation even away from situations where I could fall and that's you may say I'm being too strict but hey I'd rather be too strict than too you know apathetic toward these things but the Bible says in Galatians 6-7 be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap the consequences of sin though not necessarily always directly brought about by God are used by God for the sake of your discipline on this side of eternity sin leaves scars sin leaves scars and more than that it begins to wreak havoc in your life think about this you may be getting away with certain things but the person you become when you have secret sin will destroy your relationships I'm just going to be real with you here the person that you become you may say okay nobody knows about it I'm not suffering the embarrassment of exposure and that's not God's even first choice that's usually the last resort God uses is exposure because he's tried everything else to get your attention but then you say okay I'm getting away with it nobody knows it's not harming anyone first of all it's harming the Holy Spirit it's hurting him second of all as we mentioned at the top of the broadcast you're diminishing your heavenly reward on top of that it's causing you to become someone who will destroy your relationships nobody wants to be around a prayerful person sin makes you angry no one wants to be around an angry person is that not the truth they may not ever see the root but they will see the fruit they may not see the foundation but they'll see the structure they may not see the sin but they'll see the sinful character that develops in you and it begins to damage relationships begins to damage your reputation on the job it damages your reputation in ministry you know I'm just going to say this and again we have to go here guys I remember there were certain preachers I preached for when I was becoming an evangelist and there was a pattern I noticed with some and I noticed that there were some pastors who were very generous very they weren't controlling like trying to control every little thing in my life when I went to go minister for them there were all sorts of different things that I noticed that were positive and then I remember there was like two or three of them that stood out in my mind and they were all very similar I mean very very very mean spirited they were very very very stingy with their offerings now I'm not trying to put anyone on blast a low honorarium I mean that's not why I went to preach we do have a joke where we say well there was no honor in that honorarium or there was no love in that love offering and sometimes preachers are stingy and that's just a fact and so we as preachers need to bless one another too something I try to practice but I noticed something that the angry controlling stingy men years later were all exposed for having affairs I'm just telling you the truth now I'm not saying that if someone's tight with their money that they're having an affair don't hear what I'm not saying what I'm saying is all of them in my observation had developed this nasty character but just mean and angry and stingy and controlling and selfish and every single one of them who I mentally noted I thought and I even thought that pastor acted like that pastor and and all of them were later exposed for having affairs this is one of the destructive powers of sin it destroys your character so yeah you may never look let's just be real as I said you may never get caught for the specific sin that may never come but the character that develops in you as a result of it it's destroying your life it's destroying your marriage it's destroying your relationship with your children it's destroying your friendships it's destroying your ministry team pastor if that's you it's destroying your life Hebrews chapter 12 verses 8 to 11 if God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all since we respect that our earthly fathers disciplined us shouldn't we submit even more to the discipline of the father of our spirits and live forever excuse me verse 10 for our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years doing the best they knew how but God's discipline is always good for us so that we might share in his holiness no discipline is enjoyable while it is happening it is painful and afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way now look I know that the Lord gives grace periods first what begins to happen at least the pattern that I've seen is the Lord begins to deal with you personally starts to talk to you about that sin you feel it in your heart you're convicted but then what begins to happen is your heart becomes harder as you begin to permit sinful living and then you no longer respond to that conviction it's not weighing on you it's not something where you're saying I got to get this right look nobody's perfect we all have things we can work on myself included and of course everybody watching everybody here on this team everyone has something they can work on the question is are you working on it or have you just dismissed it and said well it's no big deal not harming anybody it's not going to really cause I'm still going to heaven right and that's where Paul had to write what shall we say then shall we go on sinning by no means we're dead to sin and so what begins to happen in the life of that believer who does this is there's a hardening of the heart and so then after the Holy Spirit has convicted you personally you continue in it and then what you're going to notice is that sin begins to seep over people catch little glimpses little things here and there and they confront you on it and they say hey this isn't right you need to get this corrected and then if you reject that the Lord may send a prophet or a leadership figure to come in and really bring some heavier discipline and if you reject that that's when the Lord brings exposure so I'm talking to some preachers now pastors ministers it's not too late for you you may be concerned about the embarrassment of exposure well my word to you is stop before the Lord has to take that route I'm talking to every believer now stop before the Lord has to take that route because there's no such thing as a sin without consequence even the sin that's forgiven can produce consequence we'll just ask those on death row who are born again I mean I saw several videos whenever there's like a trend in the world like something happens in the world I already know I'm like okay here come all the YouTube shorts and all the videos everybody's doing like October everybody wants to talk about Halloween Christmas I guarantee you come Christmas you're going to see a ton of videos on this Christmas pagan and all these debates on it so recently for some reason I don't know why but there was like this resurgence about in regards to talks of this murderer by the name of Jeffrey Dahmer and so soon as I saw that trending I thought okay here come all the YouTube videos from all the preachers but I saw a view of them and I noticed okay here's a guy who says he's born again now I don't know maybe he's saying that sincerely or maybe he's trying to avoid the death penalty I don't know I'd like to believe that he did in fact experience the saving work of Christ maybe he did but in doing so that didn't redeem him from death row let's assume that was a true genuine born again experience so that means in eternity he saved he'll be spending eternity with God wonderful but think about the fact that he's still in that prison or he was still in the prison think about the fact that those who commit murder and then repent of their sins still have to go to jail you tell a lie you may be forgiven but your your reputation is still damaged you commit adultery you may be forgiven but you still have to work on your marriage if in fact your spouse even wants to remain in the marriage consequences and then what happens with consequences of divorce God will forgive that absolutely but now it's affected the children for generations and this is part of the heartache of that particular issue not all divorce is sin the bible talks about certain how should I say caveats that's too loose a word in that context but anyway so sin can still have these consequences that affect the people around you just because you're forgiven of it doesn't mean that it doesn't produce destruction in your life but again not only do we see those material consequences we see those consequences within ourselves the character that's developed so sin is destructive in the life of the believer even if they're going to experience eternity in heaven with God so number one sin diminishes your heavenly reward for those taking notes number two sin grieves the Holy Spirit number three sin destroys your life and character now number number four here sin disrupts your peace of mind well this one's big sin disrupts your peace of mind the bible says in Isaiah chapter 48 verse 22 but there is no peace for the wicked well think about the fact that those who live on godly lives just seem to attract chaos they're like a magnet for chaotic things I mean one thing after another after another after another why because of the foolish decisions they're making because of the disobedience toward God now this isn't to say that people everyone who's disobedient has a chaotic life that happens yes but different people suffer consequences in different ways but one thing for sure that the one who sins loses their peace of mind or either they lose their peace of mind or they lose their ability to feel pain in their conscience and that is dangerous conscience seared with as it were a hot iron unable to fill unable to sense that that pain in the spirit that's a scary place to be people ask me all the time but the David that I commit the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit I said are you worried about it they said very I said you did not commit the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit because the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is committed by a heart that is reprobate that is sealed it can no longer fill you don't want to come to that point but if you don't come to that point the other consequences you lose your peace of mind Proverbs 28 one says the wicked run away when no one is chasing them talk about paranoia the wicked run away when no one is chasing them they are as bold as lions think about the fear the guilt the shame the paranoia wondering every day if you're going to be caught think about how that paranoia ruins every single moment of every day you're enjoying a day out with your family you're trying to enjoy in the back of your mind I hope I don't get caught I hope they don't find out is today the day and every single day that goes by every night you lay your head on that pillow that guilt is gnawing away at your mind and your peace and it's this tumultuous inner struggle this chaos within the mind that you just can't get over and you're not going to get over until you take it to the Lord and say Lord I need your forgiveness on this I need your help with correcting this that's paranoia of the highest order when you're living in that kind of sin Hebrews 10 22 says let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him for guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean and our bodies have been washed with pure water you can't approach God with a guilty conscience it's not because God won't receive you it's because you won't even approach him you know the last thing that you want to do when you feel guilty is go to church have you ever gotten in an argument with your spouse on the way to church and the last thing you want to do is lift your hands because you're standing right next to the person who knows what you just said and how you just behaved and you don't want to lift your hands and feel like a hypocrite with them staring at you why is that, that's shame sin produces shame sin destroys peace of mind sin produces paranoia and so you can't you don't even want to go to church the last thing you want to do when you feel guilt is go and pray the last thing you want to do when you feel guilt is worship the last thing you want to do is read the word why because you don't even feel worthy of it you're like I don't even want to deal with it I don't even want to think about it and you feel like you can't even approach God well I want to show you something here assuming now that we're all on the same page and that hearing this you're saying oh I need I need to get rid of compromise and that's a good place to start I want to show you something go with me take your Bible and go with me to Psalm 51 I'm going to show you something this is a powerful powerful Psalm I mean they all are but this one is especially powerful for the topic specifically at hand now listen I talked about the consequences of sin here you will diminish your heavenly reward that's a fact there's no getting around that the scripture is quite clear on this matter number two your sin grieves the Holy Spirit number three sin destroys your life even if you never get exposed for it it destroys who you are as a person and it wreaks all sorts of havoc and number four sin disrupts your peace of mind okay so you're watching this you're saying I need to get this right first thing I'm going to have you do is I want you just to begin to reflect right now lessons not done here I'm going to I'm going to read something to you but I want you to reflect here on for a moment I want you to be honest with yourself and I want you to as difficult as it may be I want you to assess the way you've been living and I want you to ask yourself is there anything in my life in my actions in my thoughts in my heart that contradicts God's standard and then I want you to ask yourself why you've allowed it to continue maybe you were just kind of settling in your mind well at least I'm making it to heaven okay you may go to heaven but you're diminishing that heavenly reward you're hurting the Holy Spirit you're destroying your own character in life whether you see it directly you will never see the root of that sin and no one may ever see it but they will see the fruit they will see the manifestations of that which you keep in the dark and number four it destroys your peace of mind now what came to your mind when I asked you that you don't have to write it in the comment section you don't have to write it I want you to write this though in the comment section every single one of you whether you're watching live or on the replay in simple words search me Lord search me Lord that's your prayer don't be ashamed write it publicly now search my heart God search the depths of who I am get to the root of these issues and help me remove anything that's not of you now at the end of this video I'm going to tell you about a lesson that I'm working on soon you can actually click on it and watch it at the end of the video here it'll be out at the end of the lesson I'll show it to you it's a teaching I have on what to do if you've had a fall or what to do if you've allowed compromise I give you five keys to being restored but I at least want to give you something in this video now too so we'll conclude by going to Psalm 51 but stick around to the end of the video I'm going to give you a teaching that's going to help you now be restored and verse number one have mercy on me oh God because of your unfailing love because of your great compassion blot out the stain of my sins wash me clean from my guilt purify me from my sin for I recognize my rebellion it haunts me day and night against you and you alone have I sinned now let's stop there for a second that's verse four hold on hold on hold on hold on didn't David sin against Bathsheba's husband I mean he had the man killed yet here he is saying against you and you alone have I sinned I think we have it in our minds that we have to confess our sins to everyone around us in order to be forgiven I call it OCC obsessive compulsive confession and I don't say that jokingly it is very much like OCD but it's a term I made up to talk about this type of confession every little thing has to be confessed to everyone no no no my friend we confess to one another to be healed but verse John 1 9 says we confess we're given so there's no mediator so David says against you and you alone have I sinned I have done what is evil in your sight you will be proved right in what you say and your judgment against me is just whoa what a statement for I was born a sinner yes from the very moment my mother conceived me but you desire honesty from the womb teaching me wisdom even there purify me from my sins and I will be clean wash me and I will be wider than snow now watch this here this is where most Christians skip okay they pray that prayer they ask for forgiveness and then they stop short right there watch verse 8 oh give me back my joy again what a bold prayer you just told the Lord that you continued in sin you violated his holy standard you did what he told you not to do you walked in blatant disobedience forgive me and by the way can I have my joy back that's a man of faith right there give me back my joy again it's okay to pray that it's okay once you've repented to allow the burden of sin to be lifted from off of your shoulders you may think that you owe God a debt after you've repented you don't and some of us in a very twisted religious but sincere and well intentioned way seek to punish ourselves not realizing that Christ already absorbed the punishment so back in the day they would whip themselves and give themselves lashes while you're giving yourself these emotional lashes by not forgiving yourself you won't let yourself let go of the past that's not what the Bible teaches it says oh give me back my joy again you have broken me now let me rejoice don't keep looking at my sins remove the stain of my guilt verse 10 creating me a clean heart oh God how beautiful renew a loyal spirit within me and verse 11 it's not saying that we can be banished but he's praying this nonetheless just out of where he is at that place this is what he's thinking do not banish me from your presence and don't take the Holy Spirit from me well how many times have we prayed that you know the Lord didn't take the Holy Spirit from him verse 12 restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you that's a turning point now and maybe that's where you are right now maybe you need you needed this wake up call remember spiritual sobriety that's what I'm after today to wake you up and to wake you up I gotta shake you up and we had to confront some real intense issues no sin is not without consequence I believe in salvation by grace through faith believe in your saved that's that's what the Bible teaches but that doesn't mean that we should go on sinning I want to make that absolutely clear and now you see the truth and now you're confronted by that truth and so I'm pleading with you get this right make it right before the Lord confess it to him forsake it by his power and then live in the the ability and the grace that he gives you to overcome this I want you just begin to thank the Lord right now begin to to write and Tim don't put it on the screen but I want you to begin to write to the Lord right now in the comment section make public prayers maybe you can just put what we talked about search me God and I'm talking to both live and replay people so Lord in the name of Jesus I pray that you would give your people strength and grace touch their lives I pray help them father to forsake the evil within their lives within their own hearts Lord we thank you for the precious blood of Jesus we ask you father to cleanse us forgive us and empower us to live without compromise for the hour is late in the spirit Lord we discern the times the hour is late the hour is late and so we come to you now redeem and restore I pray in the mighty name of Jesus I want you to say it because you believe it say Amen well in a moment I'm going to talk to you about another teaching I have I'm not going to teach you right here right now but I'm going to give you another video in a moment on how to be restored after a sinful mistakes I'm going to give you five keys a sinful mistake I'll give you five keys but before you go and you do encourage you real briefly leave a like on this video so that more people can see it and also share it and while you're at it make sure you're subscribed to my channel click that notification bell when you do subscribe so that you don't miss any content that we release you don't miss any of the live streams do click the notification bell that's important those of you who haven't done so yet make sure to turn on that notification bell now I want to ask you to get involved with this ministry maybe you received from the word tonight maybe you're receiving from the word on the replay maybe you've come to one of our ministry events where you've experienced the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit like never before maybe you were saved in one of our services maybe you read a book that blessed you from this ministry perhaps you consume the content I get messages all the time and I love hearing from you when you tell me that you binge watch the teachings and that encourages me to know that you're being helped and I love to help God's people but you know we release all of that for free the Bible says freely you receive so freely give more specifically Jesus said freely you receive so freely give so that's what we do we don't charge for the videos we don't charge for the live streams we never charge for the events the miracle services that we do around the world we don't charge for the Holy Spirit school which is an online training course we don't charge for any of it why because we want to freely give it away now the gospel is free absolutely the gospel is free but the means to deliver it on a mass scale that gets very pricey very fast especially when you want to reach millions of people and so we have a way that you can get involved with helping the ministry many of you have already signed up to become monthly ministry partners partnership for this ministry is so key now you may be watching this and you might feel disconnected maybe because it's a live stream or maybe you're watching it on the replay and you're like well I just so happen to click this or just so happen to enjoy their ministry and sometimes there's that disconnect right that we feel because it's online content but you don't realize how much your support matters you don't realize that I'm talking to you the one watching this right now you may say oh someone else some other time no it's you I'm talking to and I'm talking right now I'm asking you to sign up to become a monthly ministry supporter this ministry is growing faster than ever before there are so many things that we're doing as a ministry I want you to get involved with it now we have a partnership program it's very simple I'll put it up right here for you right now there's different levels of partnership now I understand that it's not the amount that matters it's the heart but we do different levels because we want to make sure everyone can be involved in helping the ministry partner plan number one is $15 a month now I know that you give because you love the gospel you love Jesus you love souls and so forth we like to give back to our partners too as a way of refreshing you for your giving partners receive 10% discount at the DHM store that's on all the books and it includes the limited edition merchandise too monthly partner zoom calls this is where we take just a small group of partners and every month I talk to those partners on zoom and we have a great time of fellowship and we do Q&A and we pray with one another and so forth you also get a cool looking devil of help in where to show your support we also give reserve seating at DHM events now some might say wait I thought you're not supposed to give the rich preference this is not giving the rich preference because not all of our partners are rich we're not honoring the money we're honoring the heart the connectivity of people coming alongside of us we do partner meet and greets at some of these events and then you also get an invitation to partners only our partners only annual retreat which we do here at the studio now those are all great but let me point out something to you that is the most amazing part of being a partner you see right under there where it says reach 225 people a month that is in our estimation how many people you will reach at the $15 a month level you will reach 225 people with the gospel now you may say well that how is that possible well that's possible because all of us together putting our gifts together each individually reach 225 people we're reaching millions of people every month and so if we break that down by the partner support each partner is actually responsible for this many people so the $15 a month level you're reaching 225 people now the benefits also increased but I just want to look at that for a second how many people you're reaching go to partner plan 2 you're reaching 450 people at the $30 a month level partner plan 3 you're reaching 900 people at the $60 a month level partner plan 4 you're reaching 1800 people at the $120 a month plan so go right now davidhernandezministries.com and sign up for a monthly gift you only have to sign up one time look you may be watching this and you'll say well you know I don't know if I can do it any Christian who says I don't know if I can support that ministry but then has Netflix and Hulu and gym membership and gaming membership and whatever there's so many memberships and subscriptions today everything's subscription based but this is different because not only do you get to receive the content but you're also helping to pay for others to receive the content because it helps us to produce it so I challenge you if you are unable to partner with us cancel one of those streaming services and instead sign up to become a monthly ministry supporter hey maybe you can keep all those streaming services and additionally sign up to become a monthly ministry supporter but whatever you do I'm asking you to do it now whether you watch live or on the replay I need several of you to go now and sign up for a monthly gift if everyone watching were to just sign up for what they were able to do monthly our reach would grow exponentially and so I'm asking you right now when you believe in what we're doing go right now davidhernandezministries.com of course you can also give a one-time gift and those of you who are unable to use that form you can also give through Facebook and YouTube but I do ask that you first try to give through our website and only if we don't have the form adjust to your currency or your region if your country giving doesn't work at our website then and only then do we ask that you use Facebook and YouTube to try our website again davidhernandezministries.com slash partner I'm looking for monthly ministry supporters to help us continue doing what we're doing so whether you give one time or monthly small or large everything counts help us do it today now if you enjoyed that message and you're looking to be encouraged now in your restoration now you're ready to commit to the ways of God now you're ready to get this thing right without getting back up make sure you check out the teaching how to be restored after a sinful mistake five keys