2819 Church - WISDOM AND WONDER | Grace Under Pressure | Matthew 16:21-23 | Elder Arik Hayes

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

In Season 5, Episode 4 of “WISDOM & WONDER,” Elder Arik Hayes shines a light on a crucial principle found in Matthew 16:21-23. Welcome to the official Youtube channel for 2819 Church. This channel features powerful and life-impacting messages from Philip Anthony Mitchell and guest communicators. As you listen to these sound biblical messages you can expect to be challenged, stirred, matured and inspired in your faith and walk with God. For more information about us visit 2819Church.org.

Welcome to 2819 Church. Amen. Amen. Amen. Welcome. Welcome. My name is Eric Hayes. I'm one of two elders here. And it's just a blessing and a privilege to be able to be before you today. We are a church that is a house of prayer, proclamation, and presence. I just want to welcome our online community as well the digital disciples and then our pastor is actually uh he was at least one time I was following him on I still follow him on social media he was in London and he was saying that he was running into digital disciples over there. Right?

Listen, family, I just, one of my, I would say a charge that I have at this house is when we experience stuff like that, we can't just act like it's normal. I'm not asking if you give like an applause and that like that, but let's not act like there are houses all over the planet where people are just checking in from London. Where I met a brother last baptism, he just flew in from Jersey or New York just for that. People fly in from Houston. I met a brother, I want to say almost 10 years ago now, that came over from London and just flew over there. That's not happening everywhere. And we're preaching

what we believe is the full true gospel. So it's not like we're trying to appeal to itching ears and stuff like that. So digital disciples want to give you some love. Alright. Also want to

welcome the unbeliever. So whether you're looking live so whether you're looking live or whether you're looking at a recording or you're here locally or if you're in the overflow room I just want to welcome you we really do believe you can belong before you believe because as most churches

it should be this way we actually prepare for you because the commission the great commission is about getting this glorious gospel in the ears of unbelievers and that the Holy Spirit prick the hearts so we want to do our part so that the Holy Spirit could do his part amen and you are welcome I just want to give an honorable mention and I'll continue to do so as long as I I on this platform. I want to honor our pastor, Philip Anthony Mitchell.

Amen. You can stand and clap. And this is why, right? Being a pastor is a hard job, y'all. Being a godly pastor is a hard job, y'all. Being a godly pastor is a hard job. Being a godly pastor that is married is a hard job. Being a godly pastor that is married with four children, with two leaving the house, is a hard job. With a staff, with the growing churches, growing so much we need to have meetings every week.

For him to continue to keep his hand to the plow, I believe that he deserves honor. The scriptures say, give honor to whom it is due. I believe he falls into that category. Okay? Real talk. We honor you, sir sir if you're looking my god we are continuing

in season five in the series that is called wisdom and wonder I have the honor and privilege of delivering the fourth episode of this series to you. And the title that I've given it is Grace Under Pressure. Grace Under Pressure. Please bow your head and allow me to pray for us. Holy Father, you know the soul

of the believers that are here in the building. The ones that are watching live. The ones that will look at the recording. You are the omniscient one. You are the great I am and it is you that has a plan of salvation for men right now I ask that you would dispatch the Holy Spirit that is already here to do the work that you would have

to be done that you would till the ground to prepare the soul for this message and that ultimately Jesus would be glorified and you would be honored. Help the man serving, the person that's even holding the mic, that I would decrease, that you would increase, that I would complete the assignment

that you have assigned for the people that will hear this message. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Thank you, brothers. All right. I came down to Atlanta in like 2015. It was March 2015.

So now that's going to be a little over nine years. So we're in a situation where we're blessed to have so many new people that some of you know me and some of you don't. Right? So I'm going to describe myself to, I guess, introduce to some, and I guess hopefully there are others that know me that would agree, right? So I'm a pretty laid back, pretty cool, I would say kind person, right? Whether I'm here, in the lobby, whatever. I even asked my wife. I was like, baby, am I kind? Now, she took a little longer

to answer this question than I thought that she would try to stay out my feelings about it but she did end up answering she was like yeah you know you don't really be going in on people yeah you know you kind right so it's an honest answer we give honest answers in our marriage amen amen all right so and one of the reasons I I'm like that because of course the Lord Amen? Amen? You would probably guess that's one of the reasons that I want to be kind and loving. But one of the things you probably don't know is one of the main reasons that I move like that is because I absolutely hate, I despise, intentional disrespect. My God, exactly. I'm with you. I'm talking about I hate it. Right. And I'm the type,

I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. Hey man, my man didn't really, you know, if you come to me with a situation, you may get mad. Cause I'd be like, well, maybe they didn't feel like that. Right. Maybe they didn't, maybe you caught them on a bad day. Something's going on, man. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Right. Cause I want to get up in a bit, Give them the benefit of the doubt, right? Because I want to give you the benefit of the doubt because if I come to the conclusion that it was intentional and you directed it towards me on purpose, can I talk like I'm family right now? We family, right? Right? Because you think I'm a punk and you just think you're just gonna treat me and handle me any type of way we got a problem well you the hell do you supposed to go that way whatever that's how I feel he's still saving me I don't

like it man on top of that did y'all know that men are wired to receive respect? Okay. It actually says in Ephesians 5.33, it's talking about the marital union. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, speaking to the husband. And it said, let the wife see that she respects her husband. Y'all see that? Love, adoration. Ladies, y'all like that? Okay. Men, respect and honor. Y'all see that? Love, adoration. Ladies, y'all like that?

Okay. Men respect and honor. Y'all like that? We're wired for what we're commanded to get from the other person. Real talk, just give you a little, I do premarital class. If you're thinking about getting married, you'll see me in a little bit, right? And I say that if you're dealing with a man and you intentionally disrespect him, I don't care what type of food is coming off the stove. Oh, baby, I bought you a flower. Take your flower and care nothing about your flower If you're dealing with a man he is going to want respect You can take your so-called love and throw it in the trash

All right, man, I jumped out we don't worship together I'm gonna be a little vulnerable. I'm going to be a little vulnerable with you. I'm going to tell you a story, okay? So one of the other families is actually the Browns. They're actually not here today. I think they're on vacation. Their middle son and my we do life on life, husband, husband and the wife come over, we fellowship together, we're friendly, have a relationship, life on life together, right? So a lot of times they'll come over and then a lot of times me and Lizelle, the husband, we'll ride out to get something to eat, right? We'll finally decide what we're going to do and we'll ride out to get something to eat. So this time, I was probably a little over a year ago, between one and two years, I tried to track down the time. We decided that we were actually going to go get some pizzas

from a local spot called Pisano's in Kennesaw, right? So I jump in the truck. I'm actually riding. I'm driving. Vazell is in the front seat. And we get on the main drag and we are driving down the road. Now, it's set up where there are two lanes going that way. There's like a ditch, there's grass,

and then there's two lanes going that way, set up like most U.S. highways, right? So, and I admit, now I'm speeding. I just want to give context, right, so you know what's going on. I'm speeding, right? So I'm driving, I'm in the left lane, which is the fast lane, amen?

Okay, all right, all right, okay. And I'm driving. I'm in the left lane, which is the fast lane. Amen? Okay. All right. All right. Okay. And I'm driving, right? So we're coming up on an intersection. Now, you know, if we're at an intersection, there's turning all ways. So from the two lanes that are coming this way, there's like a 10 to 20-yard turning lane where they can turn across from me and go that way. All right? So it's green, can they can do that but there's somebody in the turning lane and he decides this gentleman to

make a slow u-turn and go in the same direction as me okay all right now I'm telling the story I get a chance to describe the car, right? Isn't that fair? Okay, alright. It was a small Steve Urkel car. It was like probably from here to the end of the podium. It was one of them small cars, right? One of you can just put in your pocket, right? So, so he's going to do a slow U-turn and head in the same direction. Me, seeing it, alert driver, also speeding, I see him like 100 yards out. Now, to be honest, family, I laid on the horn. No, it wasn't a eh, eh, eh. I laid on it. He's telling the story, right?

So what made it tough was, it was one of those U-turns where I didn't even know which lane he was going to get into. So we finally gets into the right-hand lane and I had been laying on the horn. I've admitted that to you, right? So now we got a situation because you know and I know when they do something like that, you know when you get up beside them we in the building we in the building this morning right right it's time to see whether you're gonna look or not ain't that the fight So I still got some speed on me, so I catch up to him, right?

Him and his little Steve Urkel car over there, right? And when I got to the gentleman, I looked. And I looked intently. Because I wanted eye contact. Because I wanted to send a message just like you that, yo, that was crazy, fam. Why would you do that? The slow U-turn like you didn't see me? I'm trying to make eye contact.

But I didn't get the chance to. I'm going to tell you why. Because when I got there, and I looked over to make eye contact with him. The gentleman, I'm doing good, right? The gentleman had his longest finger up. The longest one. You know what I'm talking about, right? The longest finger

waiting on me to send me a message. This was tough. He didn't even look with it he was just like now now you not like me i i don't know if i got hot in my chest but but i was in a conundrum because, and I also didn't tell you this, one of the worst ways that I see disrespect is if you curse at me. You can cuss around me. People are like, oh, I'm cussing.

You're the elder. I'm like, what? I'm not terrible. I'm not like offended if you start cussing around me, but if you cuss at me, I got a problem. So in America, we all know what the longest finger, we know what the translation of that message is, don't we? For those that don't, it's blank U. It's a four-letter word that starts with F so now I'm already rattled I'm looking to make eye contact, maybe that'll release the pressure a little bit

then I look over there, he ain't looking at me, he just sitting there with a message and before I knew it, I hit the brake and and we went we like jerked a little bit and time out we're gonna come back to that story now uh I'm also a comedy head and what one of the things I love about comedy is while y'all were laughing there's truth in the joke and by probably hundreds in y'all I heard enough laughter to know that you understood the human emotion, the frustration, possibly the rage that can accompany a situation like that. It's a human condition. But the thing is when we read the Bible, y'all, we don't

really, and some of us do, but a lot of us don't. Like we read the Bible, y'all, we don't really, and some of us do, but a lot of us don't. Like we read the Bible, we just zoom by. We act like the apostles, even the Pharisees, even Jesus, like he didn't have to deal with human emotion. Okay, now let's jump into the scriptures with that frame there. to deal with human emotion. Okay? Now let's jump into the scriptures with that frame there. Now to catch you up,

Pastor Brandon preached last time we were together and he really did preach, by the way, that Simon Barjona had received the revelation from the Spirit of God himself that Jesus was the Christ, Son of the living God. And this is where we jump into what I'll be covering, verses 21 through 23. Okay?

We'll put 21 up. And it said, from that time, after the revelation was given, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go say must go he must go to jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. I'll say that again. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples, plainly in one of the translations,

that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. You can take that verse down. I think one of the things I want to pull and extrapolate from this particular passage is even Christ had to submit himself to the good news that he is the Christ and he is the son of God. What does that mean?

Because he was the savior that was prophesied, he had to choose to situate every iota of his being, being both fully God and fully human which means he can be tempted to fulfill the prophecy and do all that was necessary to save us christ knew what he was going to endure on the cross so much so he informed his disciples christ was also fully human So much so he informed his disciples. Christ was also fully human. Even he had to submit to the plan of God for salvation. What makes us as disciples think that we have the option to just opt out of that process.

Jesus, our Lord, got the news that he is the Christ and he had to situate, since I am the Christ, this is what I need to do to fulfill prophecy. Right? And I'm saying, do you situate your life that since Jesus is the son of God,

this is how I need to live my life. Do you run all of your decisions through that filter? That is the life of a disciple. Anything outside of that, we'll talk about in a second okay all right let's go to verse 22 and it says and Peter took him aside speaking of Jesus and began to rebuke him speaking of Jesus saying far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you.

Peter rebukes Jesus. Another translation of that, far be it from you, Lord, is may God be merciful to you. May this never happen to you. So the tone of this exchange is a passionate. It could be stern, but it's overall out of love. Okay, again, again, put yourself in Peter's shoes. He was always speaking out, right? Right?

But they were human. Yes, Jesus is the Messiah. He was the Messiah then, but he's also human. Put yourself in his shoes. Take the person that you love the most. For some of you, a grandmother, it's a child, it's a sister. And then they come around and tell you, hey, man, because Jesus is the son of God, let's not even go deaf. Hey, man, I got to move to Asia.

Jesus, I shouldn't even have said that because half of y'all are scared the Lord is going to send you overseas anyway, right? Right? Right? Say Kansas. The Lord is sending me to Kansas. You won't see them on Sunday evenings anymore.

They're not going to be in your small group. They're not going to be able to fly in for all of the holidays. Wouldn't you have a human emotion that says, hey man, hey, you might want to rethink that, man. Kansas, you don't even know nobody in Kansas. Who you know in Kansas? You sure you heard the word of the Lord? Kansas? They seen missionaries in Kansas? By the way, I don't know if you guys know that. I want to say I heard

a while back that China was sending missionaries to America. You've only heard of Americans going overseas, but Chinese Christians have said America needs the gospel. Let's send missionaries there. Back to Peter though, right? Don't you understand his human emotion? They were walking with Jesus. They were talking with Jesus. They sat down with Jesus.

They had to figure out plans. He saw miracles. They talked with Jesus. They sat down with Jesus. They had to figure out plans. He saw miracles. They talked with him. Like there was, I would say, a kinship, a friendship there, even though he was Lord. There was an affection there. All right, now before we pull up verse 23, I need you, I need to slow down. I'm already going slow, but I need to slow down and teach already going slow but I need to slow down and teach verse 23

can I have that grace? alright I'll put up 23 it says but he Jesus turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan you are a hindrance to me

for you are not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of man Turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Again, but he, Jesus, turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Take that down. One of the most particularly interesting or troubling thing

about this text is that if Jesus himself didn't explicitly state that Satan was involved in this exchange, we could go from verse 22 and jump into 24 and just say that Peter loved Jesus. You know how Peter is. He was just concerned

and keep on moving. Ain't nothing odd about him saying, hey man, I love you. I don't want you to die. I don't want you to get crucified. Let's find another way, Jesus. Isn't that a very human emotion? Second point, it says, now this verse can be a little confusing.

It says that he, me and Jesus turned towards Peter and then addressed Satan, right? Now, it does not say whether Peter was momentarily oppressed by Satan or was that Satan whispering in his ear and maybe Peter thought it was his own thoughts. It does not go into detail about that right however What we do know is that Jesus addressed Satan and Jesus didn't all of a sudden forget Peters name Like Jesus was not mistaken Y'all with me Okay, what we also know is that here in this sentence where it quotes Jesus We know who Jesus is addressing what he is, and how he is being that hindrance.

All right, let me read it again. These are the red words of Jesus, right? Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Now, in context, I'm still trying to drive this point home. We're still talking about very human emotions. Right? We're talking about verse 21.

We're talking about Jesus needs to do everything he needs to do on the earth to secure salvation. That's verse 21. And 22, when he's talking about not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of man, he's referencing Peter's strong human emotion of love and his want to protect Jesus from what's to come. Jesus addresses Satan and he lets us know that Satan is involved there. The point I want to land on very, very profoundly and stay there. To have very natural, strong human emotions like we've all had, like we all just demonstrated. And then let them drive you or influence others to go against the will, purposes, commandments, and plan that God has.

And not submit yourself to his will, purposes, commandments, and plans is nothing short of satanic. It's satanic I'm not saying your emotions are satanic matter of fact the scripture says be angry and it's when you let your emotions, your feelings, your passions, your proclivities look at the commandment and the scriptures and trample upon it and go on about

your way and not submit to the scriptures and the will of what the father has for us and has clearly outlined. it is satanic it's satanic i don't like the way that sounds elder neither I, but it's still true. When we see the will of God, look at the commandments and be like, forgive. Nah, man, I ain't doing that, man. You don't know what they did to me. It's satanic. Can I hit home for myself? When my wife ticks me off and I don't want to love her in the way that I should. And I say, well, I don't want to right now.

You know what that is? Satanic. when you just sit there and let your heart stew in jealousy and i want that i should have it they shouldn't have it and and green with evie and you just sit there and meditate on all of that you know what it is satanic so my question is how did the people of God get so comfortable being satanic how how do we get there? Right?

Because we'll come here and we'll just, I'm telling you that the worship pastor is tuned in. We'll come in and during the high praise, you are holy, you are kind, you are worthy of honor, you are worthy of worship. Which means the way that you live your life, just not here on a Sunday morning. And then when temptation gets too hot in the kitchen, we tap out. And I gotta release this pressure valve. And I gotta cuss them out.

I ain't got a husband yet. I ain't got a husband yet. I ain't got nobody on deck. So I ain't had none in a while. It's been a long time. So I'm just going to, I got to release that pressure valve. And I just got to, I got to scratch that itch. Satanic. Satanic. I didn't even tell the rest of the story.

Y'all want to hear the end of the story? Okay. So, he got in front of me. He gave me the message. And listen, man, I'm hot. I'm hot. I'm upset. I'm angry.

I'm going to tell you what went through my mind. Can I tell you that? And this is the thing. This happened real quick. Give no foothold to is the thing. This happened real quick. Give no foothold to the enemy, stuff can happen real quick. There's people in prison because it goes real quick when you're mad. Right? I'm thinking, pull over.

No, no, no, no, no. You want to tell me that? Let's do it face to face. No, no, no, no. Pull over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blank me. Let's get a little closer and you say face to face. No, no, no, no. Pull over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blank me. Let's get a little closer and you say it to me. You got something to say?

You get off your chest. I need opportunity. That's what's going on all in my soul. And listen, I'm a little wise. That's the thing, man. We can be cunning in our sin. I'm saying, listen. Now, I'm going to get close enough.

I know the law enough to know that I can't touch him first. But if he touch me, I can beat the brakes off of him. Right? Right? And I can say something to make him want to do something he don't push my button i can push his button and we can make something happen right y'all don't feel that way y'all don't never feel that way it's just the elder up here it's just the elder up here right right right right praise god i got a saved brother in the front seat and And if you know the sale, he real cool

Listen when I tell you I hit it I hit it and we jerk he said no, I don't do that He didn't even look at me he was like no I, nah, don't do that. He only said it once too. That's key. Nah, don't do that. And I had to get my, it was enough to make me snap out of it. I was like, yo Yo, you my guy That was about to get bad You like me, right? You like me You think you can get close to temptation And still remain your cool I'm strong enough.

I've been saved long enough. I know I ain't gonna reach out and hit him first. You don't know that. And this is the thing, beloved. This is one of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If you ever had any time with the Lord, you done tried to get up and geared and you done worked yourself up to do something that you know is wrong. I'm talking about while you saved.

You done planned and plotted and you done packed your little spend the night bag and you done went over there and you done got in that fight guess what this is gonna happen you know what I'm saying you know what the Holy Spirit can do you know what he can do you just nah don't do that. And this is what's key. This is why you have to be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit. And this is why

the Holy Spirit is known for not repeating himself. He will give you his warning and he, that's the thing, circumstances and pressure is yelling at you. Go do it. Release the pressure valve. Go do it. Go do it.

Please your flesh and the Holy Spirit be like, no, I don't do that. And if you're not sensitive, you won't even catch that you'll go into ruin spiritually and physically watch who you got in the front seat of your life. What if I had somebody else's life? Oh, nah, let's get them. Check me out. Check me out. I'm going to let you see what my ruin can look like.

I'm a whole elder, man. It's like 2,500, 3,000 people here. My pastor has assigned me to preach the word of God. I'm a breadwinner of a whole family of six, man. I got a whole wife at home. I got one-year-old twins and I got a two-year-old and an almost six-year-old son. I'm a part entrepreneur. I'm starting a non-profit. There are people that are depending on me. Can I bring the cultural context in there? I'm also a black man in Georgia. And the context of that is

we're not known for that judicial system to lean our way. That's just a cultural experience. Okay? That's what I look like on the side of the road. On the news. Reaching through the window. Trying to pull this. You know what?

I look crazy. Say it with me crazy crazy crazy so do you don't we look crazy I just put my situation on front street if God were to pull back the veil

and show on the screen where you out here overriding the voice of the Holy Ghost. You know what you look? You look crazy. And it's satanic. Because we want some type of neutral spiritual ground, don't we, Elder? I'm not serving the Lord. I'm not doing what Satan wants. We want like a neutral spiritual ground.

It is not there. It is not there. either we live our lives to please the Lord or we are in rebellion and committing high treason against the most high God this is what's twisted about it while being in his kingdom. Nah, you expect that from your enemies.

Not one that you saved, that you gave your son to die for. To adopt him and bring him into the family of the kingdom of god you don't expect high treason from that person that is satanic it's sponsored by Satan. Peter had good intentions. Peter loved Jesus. Peter, I believe, wanted to protect Jesus from what was to come. Peter's intervention to stop Jesus from going to the cross was satanic.

And this thing, we find ourselves in a culture that gives you some messages, right? That give you some messages, right? Like for instance, all feelings are valid. Does it matter? It's a feeling that came out of the human heart. It's valid. Feel the way you want to feel. Do what you want to do.

We're in election season. We're coming up on it. This message was sponsored by Satan. You with me? Got a couple more. You should just be happy. Whatever makes you happy. Life is about the pursuit of happiness.

Do whatever, whenever, however. As long as at the end of the day it makes you happy this message was sponsored by Satan and it would freak you out if he just flashed on the screen and just showed you real quick and then cut off. It would freak you out. But you know by the scriptures, it's sponsored by Satan. Got one more for you. Love is love. It doesn't matter what it looks like. Fall out of love with your spouse. Just go find another one of your DMs. Got a boyfriend or girlfriend you love them? Just have sex with them. You're going to marry them anyway. Same sex attraction. You love your girlfriend? Go ahead. We'll just affirm that. It's okay. No strings attached sex. Just go ahead and do it. Just go ahead. It doesn't matter. As long as it's consensual. After all, sex is just sex. This message is sponsored by Satan. And since we're already out here, I want to stop. I want to slow down again. And let's talk about same-sex attraction and homosexuality.

I'm going to slow down. Because I'm tired of Jesus being misrepresented. Tired of it. God does not hate gay people. I'm so sick of hearing it, man. He does not. If you are not saved, the primary message to you is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are all, we were all sinners because of sin.

Actually doing it and also inherited through Adam. Had been separated from God. And he had to send a savior to pay the price. For us even to have a relationship. And our belief in him. In Jesus gets us eternal life. And also relationship with the father. On earth and also in heaven. That is the message. If you are saved. And you deal with same sex attraction. That is the message.

If you are saved and you deal with same-sex attraction, this is the message. That sin to engage in that type of relationship as well as it's sin for you to fornicate with your boyfriend and girlfriend in a heterosexual one as well as if you're married and you want to sleep with somebody that's not your spouse God sees all situations as sin as well as when you just want to stay jealous sin and when you want to when you want to backbite sin when you just want to stay jealous, sin. And when you want to backbite, sin. When you want to gossip, sin. Excessive anger, sin.

Unforgiveness, sin. Sin. Little white lies, sin and all of it is satanic this is what happens, this is what I see most of the time when it comes to same sex attraction or homosexuality what happens is, we have it's on the one side of the road in

the ditch or the other. You get people to sit there and just want to beat and beat on that particular sin and beat on it and beat on it and kill it from the pulpit as if the sin that the person that hold the mic is doing does not stink before God as well. Wrong. Then you go to a ditch on the other side of the road and you're just like what? no we affirm it it doesn't matter God doesn't care just come on in he loves you

he does love you but he cares about all of humanity and what sin does to the soul wrong there as well do you hear me pandering to either side? Does it matter what your passions are, your proclivities are, or your evil desires are? All of us, all of us, all of us, when we run into a commandment that Jesus or the word, the scriptures clearly outline, we are to submit our desires to that truth.

And this is the tough thing. You may pray and some desires may go away. Some of them might not. Wouldn't that be an easy Christianity? Oh, you want me to do that? Hey God, take it away. Just take the desire away. Oh, it's gone.

Oh, I'm good. Oh yeah. Woo. Woo. That was easy. Go eat the pisanos again. And I'm talking about evil desires across the board. Some of them may be relieved from you.

And praise God when he does. But when they stay. When they don't move, when they get stronger, our response should be as disciples to bow under that authority and submit our desires. When we allow it to supersede what God has ordained, it is satanic. It is satanic. All of us has fallen short of the glory of God. All of us needed and still need a savior. Amen. Let's talk about temptation a little bit. Give me 1 Corinthians 10.13.

This is good. Because some of you are like, hey, Elder, I don't want to sin. I really don't know how to get out of it. Anybody here? I don't know. I don't know. Right? I'm going to help you here. Right? It says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, it says, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

What it says is, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to the human experience. I'm the only one feeling this way. I'm the only one that struggles like that's a lie from Satan it's meant to to clude you and push you off in the corner and keep you in shame and bondage

I'm the only one dealing with this you are not why? because the scripture says no temptation is overtaking you that is not common to man alright and it says

God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability that is good news to me so this is the truth of the scriptures this is really good so if a temptation reaches you That is good news to me. So this is the truth of the scriptures. This is really good. So if a temptation reaches you,

God is faithful to only let temptations reach you that you have the ability to overcome. That is good. That is good to me. That is good to me. Now you can't fall for the lie of, man, I can't do nothing about this. That's not what the scripture says. If it hits my front door, I have the ability through grace to overcome it. And God is faithful to restrain any temptations that maybe I cannot handle for you me going over there no no no

no no no no no no no mm-hmm again that one that one nope hey no and it also says after it says he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability he says but with the temptation say with the temptation say he will also provide the way of escape so that you may be able the way of escape. So that you may be able to endure it. It's good to me, Frank.

I ain't gonna lie. It's good to me. Right? Right? Because now I learned. This is good. We got a lot of new Christians. I learned that when I'm feeling the pressure

to bow to sin and idolatry, I just start looking for the way to escape. Where is it, God? You promised in your word that it would be here. I'm feeling the pressure. I know you're faithful. There it is. There it is.

It was getting hot in the kitchen, but you showed yourself faithful. There is the way. God is faithful. I said he's faithful. He's faithful. So going forward now, when you enter or you encounter temptation, know that there's a way of escape. The problem is too many of us at too many times, we feel the pressure and we go to bow our knee. We just succumb to the sin.

And I'm not, I'm not saying, I'm not judging you for feeling the pressure and feeling weak. Do you hear me? You hear me saying that? No, no, no. I'm not judging you for doing that. I'm just saying while you're on your knees for the pressure or feeling the pressure, I'm saying, look at the right altar. while you down there pray don't succumb succumbing to the temptation is satanic praying is what we're called to do so that you may have grace

in the time of need come boldly to the throne of grace until you have enough strength to stand up in the middle of it and beloved I can tell you with over two decades with the lord that is supernatural anybody testified that i should not be able to stand up in this but somehow the grace of god old school would say something on the inside, working on the outside, brought about a change in my life.

Because it's the thing give me James 1 13 and 14 because what I want to do is I want to be able to equip you with the knowledge of what is going on spiritually so you know how to fight. Right? That's one of my jobs, to equip you so you know what's going on spiritually so you know how to fight. James 1, 13 and 14. First, it starts off by saying, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one.

Okay, so that's God the Father. Okay, God the Son and Jesus can be tempted. I just want to make sure we're on the same page. All right. At 14 it says, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire hey check me out when some of us are following the temptation Satan ain't nowhere around the devil is tending to me he may be there he may not what is there is your evil desire

this is the thing it's only a temptation if you have an evil desire that wants to acquire it and partake okay like for instance and if I want to be sensitive here right if this is your struggle I don't want to come off as insensitive this is my testimony okay there are people that are addicted to gambling no self-control they get into a gambling situation they can't control themselves,

they're going to spend all of their money. Again, if that's you, I'm not trying to be insensitive. But me personally, I can walk up in any casino in the planet and that not touch me. Why? By the grace of God, that's not an evil desire that I have. I do have something I have to deal with. That isn't one of them. So the temptation is actually centered on you. What evil desire do you have in your members?

Right? Some of y'all really dealing with envy, man. Like you can't open Instagram without just, I need, I want that life. I got to have it. Like you can't even scroll without having,

you know what? You know what? You probably just need to delete the app. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If that's you, delete the app. Right? Raise your hand if you think that's a little too much. Like, oh, you're being too much.

Right? Right? Jesus says, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. I'm saying if it's not actually like necessary for your job, some of y'all need to delete all social media. Am I giving you a law? No. What I'm saying is, why would you just, I gotta say it, why would you just facilitate the fornication between your evil desire and your temptation all the time? You're just facilitating it. You're just packing them up and sending them on dates. Yeah, y'all have fun

and this just so you know I'm not being crazy right give me 15A I'm not being crazy, right? Give me 15A. I'm not being sensational, right? Because 15A says, then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. So we have facilitated the fornication of my evil desire and temptation and just sent them

off to spend the night together and then we get surprised when our baby is on the way and its name is sin that is satanic give me 15b it's the thing family it's not done there 15b says is B says, is it up? It says, and sin when it is fully grown gives birth to death. You see that satanic bloodline formulating there? Don't no matter what the sin is. The sin wants to grow up and kill. So the desire is conceived sin is there and then sin grows up and full term turns into death. Do you see the satanic plot still think God is just a little too much with his rules one of my jobs is to keep preaching this that you'll see the commandments of God

as a loving father as protection he's not trying to restrict you. He made heaven. He made the Garden of Eden. At his right hand are pleasures forevermore. That's a lie from Satan. Listen, I'm telling you, my two-year-old baby girl right there.

Listen, listen, listen. She has me wrapped around her finger. I was just telling my wife. Everything she, so many things she do is just cute. She was sitting there just spruing the top on a bottle. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's so cute. She's just so cute. She come like, hey, daddy.

What? Hey, hey, hey. How you doing? So cute. so cute. She comes like, hey daddy. What baby? Hey, hey, hey. So cute. So cute. But guess what? Even my two year old kid looked me in the face and tell me no. And I burn up East Atlanta for her, straight up. Something happen to her, somebody come check on me. Somebody call Elder Milton. You need to check on Elder Hayes. He is not okay, but she can't look me in the face and be like, no.

No. I'm talking about my baby girl saying no to God is satanic and just so you know this got me together over the last two weeks it's satanic because some of you don't need deliverance you just need to see sin for what it really is. You just dabble in it because you just think it's a neutral ground.

It's okay. No, it's high treason against God. Because this is the thing. We, especially as the American church, we're too familiar with the restoration and grace on the other side of sin. And we're not familiar enough as disciples of the grace of God that can stand up on the inside of you with the grace in the ministry of the Holy Spirit so you can stand up and not bow to sin.

And that's what we got to grow. And that can start with just letting you know that sin, you're dabbling in or you're laying down in. Some of you falling. Some of you just laying down. Or also some of you, I don't want to be insensitive, some of you guys and some of you ladies are just in situations where you just have full on despair. I tried, man. I tried, man. Some people can fall away from the

faith. They don't get teaching like this. I tried, man. It's the thing. Some people fall away from the faith because they got too much respect. Well, they have. It's because their respect for God. They're saying, man, I know that's what he say.

I tried. And this Christian thing, this ain't for me man watch too many Christians sitting right beside of them fronting like they ain't falling too yeah man you need to get your life together satanic Get your life together. Satanic. I just want to drop this on you, man. It's important to know that Jesus and Peter had the same emotion. They dealt with the same emotion. They dealt with the same emotion. Peter says, may this never happen.

May God have mercy on you. In the garden, Jesus says, can this cup pass from me, God? Same emotion. Right? But I'm going to give you the second one. So I told you, you know, how, you know, the conception of sin happens.

One of your main weapons against temptation is prayer. Think about in the garden. Okay? It says that he took the disciples to the garden. All the disciples didn't go in with him. He took Peter and another disciple

further to pray with him. Right? Jesus said, pray with me. Why? He was about to enter the passion. They were coming to get him. The things that he was letting them know that he was about to go through, it was about to start. Jesus said, come pray with me. Come pray with me. What does it say in the scriptures? They fell asleep. It happened two more times. Come pray with me. Come pray with me.

Again, another human emotion. They were sleepy. Or maybe a human condition. Sometimes you need to stay up and pray. At times you have stayed up and sinned. Don't play with me. don't play with me don't play with me gotta save me you have gotten a 2 a.m. text and somebody said what you doing Oh nothing and got up and showered and you stayed up to see, stay up and pray. Stay up and pray. Both times you were sleepy. You just fed your flesh instead of feeding your spirit. I talk about what I know.

God is delivering me. I talk about it because I know about it. About to fall asleep on the road driving. About to get over there. Ain't got gas money to come to church, but you got gas money to... Text three people for a cash out. Come on, five dollars bro i'm trying to she didn't hit me up bro she didn't hit me up bro give me five i am i hit you back can't make it to small group this week man i got you know low on cash hey hey hey i'm not condemning you i'm talking about the human condition

it's called the human condition it's called the human condition Can I tell you something else? I noticed it. In verse 23, you hear Jesus rebuke Satan. You know who didn't rebuke Satan? We don't have a record of it. Peter. So check me out. you know who didn't rebuke Satan? we don't have record of it Peter so check me out

we don't have record of Peter rebuking Satan in 23 we don't have record of Peter praying in the garden so when the pressure comes Jesus is able to stand up in it and you have Peter denying Christ three times. You see that, family? Even Jesus had to pray.

And one of the things Jesus said, he said, and you don't have record of Peter doing, he said, pray so that you do not enter into temptation. And he fell asleep. So, and this is the thing, man. I'm not telling you that restoration is not there for you when you sin. It is. That's the character of God. Don't hear me say that right right it is absolutely

forgiveness restoration love grace is there for you I'm just addressing that how many times as believers we got a preconceived notion or preconceived limit on how much inconvenience that we're going to deal with before we tap out. If it gets too hot in the kitchen, I'm tapping out. If they say it one more time, I'm tapping out. If they do it one more time, I'm going to appease my flesh. If they do it one more time, I'm going to follow Satan's agenda. And I'm saying, beloved,

become acquainted with the type of grace that helps you stand up in the middle of temptation. So like Jesus himself, you can have grace under pressure. I'm closing, friend. Bow your head. Prayer team, I need you praying. Holy Father I've endeavored to complete this assignment

and you are the omniscient one you know who's looking on live you know who's going to look at the recording and you are the omniscient one. You know who's looking on live. You know who's going to look at the recording. You know who's in the building. You know who's in the overflow. God, I believe that there are people that love you that just need to switch altars.

Instead of bowing on their knee under the temptation to sin and indulge, they need to bow on their knee at the pressure of temptation to pray. To pray until you give them the strength to stand up in the middle of it. That's you, raise your hand.

If that's you, and you don't feel like you can do it by yourself and you need somebody to pray for you, raise your hand. If you're serious about this, man, and you want somebody to pray for you so that you have the strength to walk upright and in righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit come to the front man we're going to pray for you

listen I'm not listen I ain't doing no fake altar call man I don't have time for that but if you really want to endeavor to live a godly life and you're like man I just I, I need somebody to pray for me. Praise team, make your way to the platform. We're going to pray for you.

Lord Jesus. prayer team find your places yeah man listen as our pastor said listen this is not me man it's not me there is a satanic plot for a lot of you satan wants to wipe you out because you're indulging in your own sinful desires and some of you like me if you don't change you're gonna crash out indulging in your own sinful desires. And some of you like me, if you don't change, you're going to crash out. And it's not a game. Eternity is at stake.

So if you need prayer man we're going to pray for you I don't know man listen if can you put we're going to pray man can you put you know the

the tithes offer thing up if you want to give put it on the screen, man. All right. Prayer team, find somebody and pray for them. It's not about the man holding the mic. It's about the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit that Jesus says,

it's more expedient that I leave and that he comes to do the work of the ministry. Let's pray. hey man we're not doing announcements today okay we praying because we want to see yokes broken off under the power of the Holy Ghost. Tune into our social media. You'll get it there, okay?

Matter of fact, if you don't need prayer, you can hang around, you can worship, or you are dismissed, man. We love you. In the chat, we love you. We want to see the work of the Lord today. Amen? You are dismissed.

God bless you.