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You look good. As a matter of fact, you look planted. You look planted. If you're new to Social, you need to know that we have a word every single year that we shape our year with. And the word this year is planted. And we believe we're going to flourish because we're planted in the house of the Lord. And so we're going to declare our scripture of the year that's connected to this word. We've been reading this every single Sunday of 2025. We ain't going to stop today. Amen. Y' all ready? Psalms 92, verses 13 through 15. Let's read it with uplifted, energetic, caffeinated voices. Come on. One, two, three. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Oh, y' all sound good. You sound good. Never gets old to me.
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Watch.
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Party room. I hope you're doing good, Social globe. I hope you're doing good. You are in not just for a treat today. You are going to be transformed today. You know, at Social Dallas, we take it very seriously who speaks into this house. And you're going to hear from somebody today who is not family. She's been here before. She was family the first time she came. But she's for real. She is our auntie all the way from California. She is a brilliant thinker, she is a powerful communicator, she is a New York Times best selling author. And she has helped literally thousands of people, if not millions around the world by her incredible and acute ability to merge solid biblical truth and the power of mental health. She's a licensed therapist and I'm so glad she's here today. Social Dallas, put your hands together for the amazing Dr. Anita Phillips as she comes to bring the word of God. Oh, Social, y' all could do better than that.
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Come on, somebody. Have your way today. Well, hallelujah. Man, that sounded good for me. I appreciate it. But can we just give a little praise for the one who gave his life for us? My Jesus. My Jesus. Father, thank you always for the opportunity to share your word. Hide me behind it and only let what you have for their hearts come out of this mouth. On today. Change us again. Transform us again. You are an eternal well. You never have given us all of you. There's always more, which means we can always be transformed more, change more, strengthen more. Grown more. And we are desperate for you. So speak to us today that we will walk more boldly, with more assurance into this life that you have ordained for us. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, I am so happy to be here. All the way from. Much sunnier than this California, and much cooler, too. Dal is so hot in the summer. God bless y'. All. God bless y'. All. But love being here. And I'm gonna read a verse for you and then let you sit down. And I'm gonna read a whole lot of other verses. How about that? So. But stand up for this one. Stand up for this one. Stand up for this one. This is a good one. Hebrews 11, starting at verse one. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things seen, not seen. There we go. For it is by the elders. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Skip down to verse six. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. Oh, Pastor, I just want to please God. I want to do the right thing. I want to please God. This is it. Have faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Amen. Amen. Grab your seats. Faith is why we're all in the room. Today my got out of bed and came to church. We believe that our faith is so central to our life. And if this is your first time here, somebody believed it enough to drag you with him. There's a lot of faith in the room. But what does this word faith mean? Because we use it in a lot of ways. People who don't know Jesus use it. It's used in many ways, but specifically our faith in Hebrews 11. 1. That word faith means persuasion. I am persuaded, fully persuaded. It speaks of our moral conviction about who God is. It is our constancy in that profession. But here's my favorite definition, reliance upon Christ for salvation. That's the central point. I could plug that back into Hebrews 11:1. Now, faith is now. Reliance upon Christ for salvation is the substance of things hoped for. Without reliance upon Christ for salvation, it is impossible to please God. We have to make sure we keep Jesus at the center, because that is to whom our faith is attached. And so how do we get that faith in Jesus? Well, Romans 10:14. Starting at verse 14, says this, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? You gotta believe them. And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? I love being a preacher, but there's a little bit of preacher in all of us because we are responsible for sharing who Jesus is. And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Well, you have been sent to tell people about Jesus. There you go. If you were wondering if you were sent, you've been sent tell people about Jesus. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. Skip to verse 17. So then faith comes by what? Hearing and hearing by the word of God. We have to recognize that faith begins with us hearing the word of God. There's a story that Jesus tells called the Parable of the Sower. It's one of my favorites. Y' all know I'm a garden girl, and I love that planted is your word for this year. I'm the right one for this job. That we know that. When Jesus explains this to us in the Parable of the Sower, he explains it, saying that a sower went out and put seeds everywhere in a garden, in a big field, and that the seeds fell on different kinds of soil. And so it had different outcomes. It fell on hard soil, it fell on rocky soil, it fell on thorny ground, and then it falls on good ground. It says the word good. And those different types of ground actually represent different emotional states. Sadness, anger, fear. And then hope and peace is in that good ground and faith, and so where the impacts what happens to it? So we hear that faith is something that comes in your ear, and where it lands like a seed, it changes things. And so imagine when you hear God's word, that seed is going in your ear and landing on your heart. That's how it gets to your heart, straight there, not into your mind. The Bible's very clear about it being heart. And in the Parable of the sower, in Matthew 13, when Jesus talks about it, he identifies different emotions. It says, this one had joy, and then there was fear in this one. And so where we are in our hearts and the other seeds that have been planted there by our own ears, again determines what happens to that faith. I use this example often, and today I forgot not to use it because it's about my kid. And now my kid is here. Hey, guy, I'm gonna show off a little bit. Stand up. There's my Son, look at that. Look at that six foot, six inch man who loves God. Sit down. So they don't get you. I know, but we. When I first found out that I was pregnant with him, when I saw that line come up on the bar, I was like, oh my gosh. And then immediately it was, oh my gosh. Not because I didn't want to ever be a mother, but in that instant, I heard inside of my own mind, I am not going to be a good mom. I'm going to be a terrible mom. I feel sorry for this kid. God, why would you even let me get in there? Because I didn't think that I would be a good mom. Now, where did that come from? My family, when we were growing up, many of you know I had an older sister who had a severe mental illness. Early 80s. We didn't know what mental illness was. Pastor, family. So we're just praying about it, praying about it, praying about it. And she's getting worse and worse and worse and spiraling into addiction and living in the streets. My parents are preaching the gospel and not knowing where their daughter is at that moment. My father driving to crack houses after church to look for his kid, it was terrible. And we didn't understand why the prayers didn't seem to be making a difference. And so my mom, like most parents would do, began to blame herself. And so she walked around often saying, I guess I'm just not a good mother. I wasn't meant to be her mother. And in her own lament, I didn't realize as a kid that the seeds of her words were falling on my heart and they had been dormant, because seeds will stay dormant in soil until the soil is in the right condition to wake it up. You know those weeds you pulled three years ago that just started growing back? It's because the seeds were always down there. But until the soil is in a condition to be fertile for that seed, it won't grow. And so when I got pregnant, boom, the seed woke up and that word started playing. I was fertile ground for that word. So in the parable of the sower, when it says good ground, what it means is that fertile. It's fertile for that particular seed. And so it woke up. Now, today, if someone walked up to me and said, I met your kids and I think you haven't been a very good mom, I'd be like, you crazy. You crazy. Why? Because I worked through that fear. I took that thing to God. I worked against the lie that the enemy wanted me to live by based on the experiences that I had, and I did some therapy and hard work and Was I a perfect mom? No. But I'm a good one. I'm good. But my heart is. So for that reason, my heart is no longer fertile ground for that. See, that's why you don't believe everything you hear. Somebody could just walk up to you and say, hey, the sky is green. You'll be like, yeah, it's not. And you're not gonna be like, give me some evidence. What you saying? You're like, it's not. We're done. Your heart is not fertile for that. And so when faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, when the seed of the Word goes into the ear and lands on our heart. My heart is not always fertile for everything that the Bible says it's always fertile for. He'll give me the desires of my heart, but it's not always fertile for forgive 70 times, faith seven. Sometimes I'm not fertile for that. And so if you've been trying to get a word to take root in your heart and you're repeating it and writing it and affirmation and post it, and nothing's happening, check what's going on. Is your heart fertile for that? Is there some emotional stuff you need to work through that's making you less fertile for that? Or are there competing truths that have taken root from seeds that were sown previously? Because we want that seed to be good ground. And even when we share the Word, I know that you all are actively sharing your faith in Jesus with other people. You make sure that you're checking the cheek. Is this person's heart fertile for what I'm sharing right now? Because we aren't called to debate and argue. And you can do that with good intentions. Well, I need to show them that the Bible says this is wrong. And the Bible says that's wrong. The Bible says this is wrong. Honey, that is not how we sow seeds on hearts. 1st Peter 3:15 says, but sanctify the Lord God in your heart. And always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is within you. The hope. Do you know what happens when someone asks me why I seem to have so much hope when they don't? I have a testimony for that, not a scripture. I'm gonna tell you what he did for me. I'm gonna tell you that two years ago this time I was suicidal, but today I'm not. And I have that reason to hope. You may not know every Verse in the Bible. But, baby, you know what he did for you. And so that is the defense. And do I want you to know scripture? Yes. Do I want you to share scripture? Yes. But not in some arm wrestling doctrinal. I gotta prove what's a sin and what's not. You're losing souls. Share your life. Your life. That's how we do it. But when those cause hearts are good ground for those stories about Jesus, and we saw Jesus do this, you don't see Jesus changing lives by telling people that they're sinning and raggedy, except for Pharisees. But when he met people who were outside of the religious circle. That Samaritan woman, when he met her, he didn't come at her, just telling her how bad she was. He told her she had them five husbands. But he must have been in such a peaceful, beautiful, loving state when he told her, because she just stood there and was like you, right? I perceive that you might be. She didn't get ashamed. She didn't shut down. So that's how I know he shared it in love. When he rescued the woman who was about to be stoned to death for adultery, after he saved her life, he said, now go and sin no more. He didn't say, will you stop sinning if I don't let him stone you? You catching it? You catching it? Because her heart was good ground. You saved my life, sir. Sure. What else? You don't. What else you got? Don't say, okay, what else you got? You just saved my life. And so that's why we go out and we share our lives and we share testimonies because we know what he's done for us. But when we start wrestling over the Word, not only is it bad for other people that we're trying to share it with, it's bad for us. Genesis, chapter three, verse one. A story we know now. The serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. This woman knows the Word. And it seems like she's doing good right here. That guy asked the question, she answered the question with the word. And that's sometimes how we think we should be talking to people in the world. They Ask a question, Boom. I give them the word, but it doesn't. It's not going in the right direction. What's the Next verse? Verse 4. Then the servant said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, when she did what? When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the what, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate. And she also gave her husband with her, and he ate. And then the eyes of both of them were open and they knew they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. So the serpent just came in with a sound that shifted them from hearing the word of God from the word they had heard through their eyes. They went from hearing to. To seeing. Because once he got her to look at what was in front of her, it was all downhill from there. She took on herself to try and perceive truth from the environment instead of standing on the word that was within her. Because as soon as she entertained a question, she was already in trouble. As soon as the enemy came and asked her, can you eat every tree? And she seems like she's doing good because she answered his question with the Word. But she should not have even engaged in that conversation because the question was not meant to learn, to edify, to know God better. It was a challenge. Don't allow anyone to challenge the word that is already in your heart, including yourself. Don't allow that challenge to the Word because it got her seeing instead of hearing, and her husband with her. Now go to verse eight. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. And then the Lord God said to Adam, called to Adam, and said to him, where are you? This is so important, because that word, where right there, is not used anywhere else in scripture. The original Hebrew word, it's only used in this spot. And it is not a location question. It is a relational question. It is a grieving question. It's as if I went to my child's bedroom when they were five years old in the morning to wake them up, and they weren't there. And I searched the whole house and they were missing. And by the time 30 minutes, I'd be screaming, where are you. That's what God said. He was grieving because distance separation had happened because they went from hearing to seeing. We cannot allow what we see to cause us to be at this distance from God. And when it says that their eyes were opened, it's more than just their sight. That phrase actually translates to their sight. And their senses were heightened. So now their senses being heightened means that their attention is turned to the external world. And so we're constantly pulling in information from the external world and then trying to figure through it in our internal world. When we were creating to hold the word of God in our internal world and then use that to interpret what was happening on the outside world. So the fall reverse the direction of the information flow. And that's why we struggle to know what to do with the word of God because we are always trying to get that corrected. It caused us to start to learn by our sight and our experiences. But 2 Corinthians 5, 7 says, what for we walk by faith, faith and not by sight. When you realize how much that ear is the place where the seed is planted, when you see that the woman's fall was predicated on seeing instead of hearing, you realize that fear and faith are not opposites. Fear and love are opposites. Faith and sight are opposites. What I see is always poised to challenge what I know, what I have held onto as absolute fact. Because you know, when you know something, you go past. If someone says, oh, well, you believe that. No, I know it. You get to that point. But faith and sight are opposites. So sight will challenge that thing. And not just what you see right in front of you, but what you see in your experience before this, what you have seen, what you see now, and what you suggest or predict you will see in the future based on those two things. So it's more than just what I see. It's what I have seen. Now you have an issue. Maybe you're praying for it, you're believing God for something, but you have seen other people not get it. I saw my parents struggle to understand what was happening with my sister. And I saw her slipping through their fingers. And so I thought to her, how do you parent? I felt like parenting was a powerless Russian roulette wheel because it looked. Because what I had hadn't had a sonogram yet. But what I saw before was charting a course already in my mind. And this is going to mess you up. But there is another place in Old Testament, in Genesis, where this serpent comes up. How many people know who Jacob is? Jacob And Esau, the twins. And so those who know, we know that Jacob snuck up, tricked his dad, stole the blessing. Esau finds out. Esau is mad. He getting ready to kill him. And Esau was strong enough to do it. And so Esau is upset. Jacob's mom has him run away from home to hide. He goes to a cousin's house. The cousin's name is Laban. Laban is also sneaky. Let's talk about generational issues. The mama was sneaky. She convinced the son to be sneaky, sends him to stay with the cousin. The cousin is sneaky cause he tries to marry somebody at the cousin's house. The cousin flips the women on the wedding night. And then he has to work seven more years to marry the right person. Whole family, slick. We won't even get into this. Generational family patterns. Okay? That's another message. And so he finally gets through all of that. And Jacob is ready to leave Laban's house. And Laban doesn't want him to leave because he's noticed that since Jacob came to live with him, things have been going better. And so he says to him in Genesis 30, verse 27, he says, Please stay with me, because I have learned by experience that I'm blessed when you're here. The phrase learned by experience is translated from the same Hebrew word that is translated, serpent. Serpent in Genesis 3. Serpent learned by experience. That's how slick he is. Because who among us doesn't learn by experience? Laban was being as manipulative as the serpent, but it isn't just the obvious thing learned by experience. So what do we do with that? Because so often it causes us to struggle with missing the will of God. We're trying to hear God, but we have learned by experience. And so other things are challenging us. I believe God is telling me to do this, but I've seen these five things go wrong. And so we're trying to figure out which sound is which, but we have to discern the sounds. I brought a slide that I want to show you because I want to show you how challenging it can be to discern the sounds. What do those look like? What do those probably look like to you? But I'm talking about sound. Sound waves. What if I told you they were not sound waves? Those are drawings of what the movement of a snake looks like in different types of soil. So if I was standing over a snake, watching it move, these are different ways that it would look if I was looking at them. Now, a couple things about this one serpent I don't believe this is an accident at all. Number one, sound has to travel through a medium. That means that there has to be something for sound to vibrate against. Sound travels through pillows. It travels, some of y' all know, in your apartment, it travels through walls. It can travel through water. Sound travels in all types of mediums. There is no other creature on this earth that can travel through as many different mediums as a serpent. Serpents can go on sand, soil, underground, up a tree. They can jump from one treetop to another treetop so far, they call them flying snakes. They can swim. And if there's an area, if there's a medium, serpent is coming. And so he'll show up in your spiritual life, but he'll show up in your relationship life, honey. He'll show up in your physical health. He'll show up at work. He's traveling through all these different mediums, bringing another sound to your ear. And the only way to tell the difference between a positive frequency sound wave and a negative frequency sound wave is the direction of travel, because they sound the same. And so this is why the woman didn't catch that this sound was different. The only way for you to know is if it's taking you away from what God said. So if you're asking a question, oh, and this part, I gotta tell you this part. So that bottom, that straight line, that's when it does look like the serpent is moving in a straight line. But serpents don't have feet, so how can they really move in a straight line? Because when it is moving in a straight line, internally, its muscles are still making this movement. And I want you to be aware more of your internal voice than any other voice, because it can look like you're following God. I'm walking on the straight and narrow, but inside, is this what God has for me to do? Maybe this scripture can apply to this. Maybe this relationship will work out and they'll eventually give their life to the Lord. I'm not committing sin, so it's not really hurting me. So I can stay with them. I can stay in this unholy place with this unholy thing, doing these unholy acts. I can stay here because I'm still walking a straight line. But inside, we're not walking a straight line or inside. We're asking questions after question after question. And the number one question we wrestle with, did God really say, except as Christians, who are too smart to fall for that direct thing that we saw e fall for, we fought for it as questions about the will of God. Is it really his will for you to move there? Is it God's will for you to start that business? Is it God's will for me to marry this person? Is it God's will for me to quit this job? And Christians spend an inordinate amount of time wrestling with this idea of whether I'm finding the will of God and questions and questions and questions that we're seeing, searching for it. And it's draining our energy. And the enemy is doing it slick because it keeps you from using your faith for what you really need it for. Is it his will? Is it his will? But they're like, but Dr. Anita, is it, Let me tell you something about God. Anytime a sound, because those questions feel like truth. You truly want to follow God. You truly want to do his will. But if it is bringing you anxiety, if it is paralyzing you, if it is confusing you, then that sound is traveling in the wrong. Because I serve a God of peace and love and provision, and he would not have me out here wrestling back and forth over something. I love my son, I love my daughter. I would never ask them to go on a scavenger hunt for a truth. I wanted them to have what I wanted them to have. I gave them what we wanted them to have. We gave them. We weren't just like, well, you need to figure it out. Why would your Father in heaven who loves you if me being an evil human? The Bible says if you being evil, give good gifts to your children. That doesn't mean we're evil as parents, but compared to him, he's so good, we look bad. And so if me being evil would give good gifts to my children, how much more would your Father in heaven? And so when you're wrestling back and forth about the will of God, you're really saying God is playing games with me. He's hiding his truth from me and I got to find it. And he just left me out here by myself to figure out what he wants. And there is no place in scripture where he has ever done it. No place. The Bible has no example of leaving people confused about what they should do and making them figure it out on their own. You cannot find what pastor am I like. There's not one story. God is always clear. The problem is we have made the will of God a plug in for our anxiety relief. Because I'm scared to make the wrong decision. Cause what if it goes wrong? If I take the wrong job and then it'll. And sometimes it is our view Of God. Like he's gonna punish me if I don't do his will. Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweetheart. I want some of you to give your life to Jesus fresh today. Because you gave it to a God that doesn't exist. You gave it to a God who plays games with your heart. You gave it to a God who wants to stress you out. You gave it to a God who doesn't love you enough to provide for you. I want to introduce you to a new God. One who absolutely loves you. My Bible says God is love. It says he's light and in him is no darkness at all. And there is no place in him that is fertile ground for that kind of anxiety. I'm not saying anxiety is a sin. I'm saying it is an indicator that I may be trying to use my faith to relieve an anxiety rather than I'm actually looking for his will. You are not powerful enough to disrupt his will. You think God's will not gonna get done? Friend, friend, my loves, my nieces and nephews and grandbabies. Hear me when I say God is bigger than you. He's going to get it done. But all you have to do two things. One, obey his word. Genesis 1:26 has the creation of humanity 26 through 28. It says, he made us in his image. Male and female made him, made them them in his image and gave them dominion. That means you have the authority to make decisions. Fourth floor apartment. First floor apartment. What you want. You want somebody not over your head? Then choose four. And you don't want to worry about tearing the groceries up, choose one. You don't have to lay down and be like, well, I need God to tell me which one. Because what if there was an evil spirit there before me? What if God don't want me to say, baby, you walk in any room and clear the devil. You have dominion. Stop allowing the external environment to come at you and go with the word in you to go out here. He gave you dominion. Walk in it. The abundant life he's designed for you is yours. If you hired someone to manage your business and they called you every day, 10 times a day, asking what they should do, I put you in charge. Don't steal my money. Don't treat my customers bad, you know, and then go make some decisions. But that's what we do with God. I just gotta. I don't know what his will is. I don't know what his will is. I don't know what his will is. This has nothing to do with his will. It is your Anxiety and is our fear of making the wrong decision. But you can't make a decision that will destroy the will of God from happening because he's alpha and omega. Honey, it's already happened. We're just walking it through. Think of Samson. I think Samson is a great example of this. The strong man. He had a destiny to destroy Philistines. Philistines. Y' all know that story. Samson, the big guy. Delilah. Y' all know the ultimate toxic relationship. He was given a mandate. This is what he's created for his destiny. He's gonna be destructive to the Philistines. He only had one word. God gave him a word. Do not cut your hair. When Samson died blind in prison, he killed more Philistines at his death than he did his whole life. Because God said he was going to destroy Philistines. It still got done. He didn't go wrong on that. The will got done. He went wrong because he directly disobeyed God. If you are not in direct disobedience to God, you are fine. You can choose between the options in front of you. The enemy wants to keep you stuck so that you don't use your power and authority against him. Because inside you're just. I got a couple minutes left. Let me take you to this chapter, to this verse. I want to read to you. 1 Thessalonians 5. Starting at verse 16. I'm about to tell you the will of God for your life. Is everybody ready? Rejoice always. Let me hear you rejoice. Hallelujah. Yes. You're on your way. Rejoice. Pray without ceasing. God, we thank you. We love you. You are the one who blessed us. Help us to see more of you in our lives now. We pray in everything. Give thanks. This is the will of God concerning you. Oh, my goodness, we're done. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing in everything. Give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Quench not the spirit. Do not quench the spirit. So when the spirit moves, move with them. Do not despise prophecies. Sometimes we hear things from God. Someone may come and say, God gave me this word for you. Or we may feel like God has spoken directly to us or given us a dream. If it contradicts the word of God, skip it. So it says, don't despise prophecies. Test all things. The first way we test is against the word or what instruction we know we received. In February, I received an instruction from God to step into a pastor Role did not see that coming. Plot twist of all plot twists. And since then, I've had to make a lot of decisions about which direction I want to see us go as a group. The only way that I'm jumping out the will of God is if I direct the group against what the Bible says or I say, I'm not gonna do what you told me to do. Goodbye. Other than that. Okay. Test all things. So sometimes we test first. We test by, is this in opposition to what scripture says? And then we test by waiting. Sometimes we just need to be still. And if it is not clarified, I am in dominion space and I get to make a decision. And then finally, what? Test hold things. Ask what is good? Abstain from every form of evil. I have delivered all of you who are wrestling with what God's will is for your life. If you have this checklist running on a daily basis, this is his will concerning you. And after that, walk in dominion. Walk in dominion. You are free. God is excited. He gave you a creative gift. He's excited to see what you create. I am too. He gave you an administrative gift. He's excited. I'm excited to see how you utilize it in the kingdom. What ideas do you have? This building is going up. There's going to be more space, more ministries, more opportunities. I know your pastors are excited. What will this gift do? If you sanctify God in your heart, you're walking according to the Word. You have creative dominion. Do the things. If you fuss against your pastor now you out of line with scripture. They didn't ask me to say that, but it must have needed to be said. Scripture talks about authority. If you're bucking that, then you're out of order. Now that's an issue. But as long as we are walking according to scripture, we got it. So then how do we balance these things? And this is my final point. Because it is challenging. Because of the fall, because those senses got heightened, we default often back into that external internal mode. We know we should be going from the inside out. How do we get that fixed? Because sometimes we do need to discern. If I'm not allowed to look at what I see ever, am I just walking around, tripping over stuff? Am I just acting like I never had any experience? That's not what we're saying. But it is gonna take some work and it's gonna take some spiritual maturity. Hebrews 5. Starting at verse 12, we grow in God, in our relationship with him and our understanding of God and the Word. Just like babies Grow into adults. And so if you are a new babe in Christ, you've been walking with Jesus for, I'll say, less than two years. You are a baby in Christ, and that is cool. Enjoy it. Babies get all their stuff given to them. It's great. So this is not an indictment against you, but this is me inviting you to maturity. Verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe again. It is okay to be a baby if you are a baby. But if you have been in here five years, six years, some of you might have grown up in church like me, and I first got filled with the Holy Ghost at 7. I don't have any excuses. So as we grow. But solid food belongs to those who are full age. That is, those who by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. You will have to exercise your eyes, your ears, your touch, your taste, and that vagal nerve that gives you that intuition on the inside that directs you. You will have to exercise that. Which means sometimes you're gonna mess up. You're gonna realize that when I had this feeling over here and I made this decision, it ended up not turning out the way I would have liked. It was not a good decision. I know that now. But when I felt this thing, man, that turned out to be God. And so then you start checking, wait, that wasn't this. That was this. You discern your senses. That word, senses literally means bodily senses. So your body is not your enemy. But when we walk in righteousness, we're not feeding the stuff that's messy so that it's stronger than the voice of God. When we go to therapy, where we clear out the trauma, so that our past experience doesn't skew this moment, as you mature, you will get better and better at it. And that's how you bear fruit into old age. I think I heard you confess that today I have gotten better and better at it. And I'm not claiming old age, but I'm older than a lot of y'. All. I'm over 50. I'm just on that side. I can look back and see what he's taught me. I can stand in confidence. No, I know that that's God leading that there will be good fruit in this area. But there were times when I did get it wrong. That's why I'm saying your fall. Failure doesn't change the will of God. That's just you exercising. And if you acknowledge it, God forgive me, but trust me, he will still get his will done. The only way that it will be destructive for you is if you continually choose to disobey God. If you are obeying him because you believe in his work and His Word, then you're pleasing Him. And so don't let the enemy keep you anxious about whether you're making God happy or not. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. This is the will of God concerning you. In Jesus name, Amen. Stand to your feet. Hallelujah. Man. I love Jesus. This life with Jesus is not complicated. Sometimes it's hard, but life be hard anyway. It's harder without Jesus. I'd rather have him in my heart than not be with Him. But a lot of times we make it complicated. It's not complicated. Sometimes it's hard for me to say I'm going to obey God and choose not to walk against his word. But the fruit of it, the fruit of obedience is addictive, man. When you start seeing how you are blessed by being obedient to God, it gets easier and easier to say yes. Because you're like, you know what? I saw that temptation. But you know what? Mm, mm. I've learned that there's so much good on the other side there. Jesus is the best thing that has ever happened to me. He's the best thing that happened to me today. He'll be the best thing to happen to me tomorrow. I have never been loved like I'm loved by Jesus. Understood, seen, heard, covered, led. Jesus is my man. My man. I love me some Jesus. If you don't know this Jesus and you want to just slip your hand up, if you're in the watch party and you don't know Jesus, slip your hand up. If you're online, type in the chat. I want to meet that Jesus that Dr. Nita's talking about because she looks like she really likes him. Life with Jesus is so much better. And I never want to assume that everybody listening knows Jesus. So if you don't know Jesus, or if you gave your life to a. To a different Jesus, one who was harsher, who's just giving you a hard time every day, that's not who he really is. I invite you to dedicate your life to this Jesus, this new moment, this understanding. I see one hand back there. Hey, you, do I see another? I see Another one. Oh. Made waking up this morning all worth it. Do I see any more? If you want to come down here for us to pray with you, I invite you. But if you don't want all these people to see you and that stress you out, that's totally fine. You can do it right there. I always say this. It's easy to know Jesus. My Bible says that if you confess that Jesus is the son of God, you are in the family. So I'm gonna just ask all of you a few questions, and if you believe the answer is yes, along with those, say yes. Do you believe that Jesus is actually the son of God? Do you believe that he came to this earth to save us and that he let people beat him to death and kill him? For me? For you. Do you believe that? Do you believe that he rose from the dead? Literally, like at a funeral, Dead person gets up. This is critical because we believe this? Yes. Then guess what? You're in the family. You're in the family. Amen. Jesus blood is washing away every sin that you brought in here with you. Now you're not gonna be perfect, and you may stumble and do something that's a little different than what Jesus wants. All you have to do is say, I'm sorry, and he's like, cool, and y' all just keep working together. He's a forgiving God. He's not condemning you for the things you did when you weren't even in relationship with him. That's like saying, I cheated on you before I met you. He just got here. Never have I not taken my children in because they didn't look sorry enough when they showed up. Oh, that's gonna get later. But now once you're in the house, you're gonna learn things and walk, and it's gonna change your whole life. He loves you so much. Welcome to the family of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Is there anybody else who wants prayer? If you do, come on down, just maybe for quiet in your mind, those internal questions and challenges, that arm wrestling about the will of God and what I'm supposed to do and what am I not meant to do and what is the right thing to do? And you're wrestling. Wrestling. Let us pray for you. Let us come and join in with you to crush the serpent's head so he doesn't have movement, asking those questions. If you're realizing now, wow, this wasn't my spirit. This wasn't God doing this. But anxiety has been trying to kidnap my faith walk. Let us Pray with you. I'm a therapist and I want everybody to go to therapy. I want you to us to all do our best to work on our mental health. I believe in that. And also, and first, I believe in Jesus. And so we pray. We pray here, we pray on the way to therapy, we pray out there, pray on the way back from therapy. Because there's nothing more powerful than Jesus. And so if that has been your struggle and you want prayer today, come on down. God has it. If you've been wrestling with grief around an experience that is hard, not to have that experience and form your faith in this moment, I get it. Grief is hard like that. I know about grief. We want to pray for you. All right. Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you for these hearts. Thank you for those who you drew to yourself and gave their life to you today. Thank you for those who are standing now in belief that you can bring greater peace to their lives, that we have dominion, that we can crush the head of the serpent who is trying to travel in every area of our life with lies and challenges about who you are. Thank you for revealing your will to us and that it is simply rooted in our relationship with you and that we can't get it so wrong that you don't have it right. We release our fears and we embrace our dominion. Thank you for changing us from this day forward. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. I love you. Social Dallas. Thank you for listening. God bless you. Hallelujah.