SECRETS OF THE SERCRET PLACE / PASTOR NEIL HOPPER

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

That's so good. All right. Well, good morning, good morning again. It's uh it's good to be back. Good to be amongst God's greatest people. Can you say amen? Amen. Um want to look into the word today. I want to I want my goal this morning is to change your goal. We are a goal-oriented people. We we uh we don't frown upon having goals. Uh setting goals and achieving things uh is a is a great thing, if that's if you go to college. But in spiritual life, oftentimes the goal that you think is the goal isn't the goal, right? So what I want to try to do is is take a few minutes this morning and take my time and just talk to you about uh about spiritual life and and help you maybe think about things in a different way. Today I want to talk to you about some secrets of the secret place. So, Psalm 91, our verses are gonna be Psalm 91, and I'll also share, these are what I will call foundational verses. Psalm 91. Um I'm gonna find it very quickly because right now I'm in Psalm 49, which is still another awesome psalm. But let's go to Psalm 91. Most of you, if you haven't prayed this or studied this out, it's a great uh psalm to just take a look at and study. But I want you to pay particular attention. When we look into the Bible, we see, you know, the word is there's not something that's just, well, we just take a look at it and we just pass right by it like it's you listen, you you start figuring some things out. It took me a while, but you start figuring out that every word means something if it's in the word. Amen. Like God, God doesn't make a mistake with his word. So Psalm 91 is so pivotal, and it has been so many times for me. I have I have lived out of it. I have during COVID, uh, it was the verse that God gave me that we that I felt like we needed, the people of God needed. There were a lot of other pastors that I was hearing saying God was giving them the same verses. And so Psalm 91 says this in verse 1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The secret place of the Most High shall do what? He's gonna abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The second verse that we will look at is 1 Peter 3, 4. 1 Peter 3, 4. And the this verse uh in 1 Peter talks about the uh the inward, the hidden man or the inward man of the heart. So 1 Peter 3, 4 says, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God a great price. Let it be the what the hidden man of the heart, the inward man. Y'all ever heard the story of the little boy who his daddy told him three or four times to sit down. He was kind of acting up and doing whatever he wanted to do, and his daddy told him three or four times, he said, son, I you're gonna need to sit down. The little boy wasn't listening, and after about the third time, the daddy said, Son, if if you don't sit down, I'm about to spank your bottom. Which is still okay, by the way. I know we're in the south, we're not. But he said, if you don't sit down, I'm gonna spank you. So what did the little boy do? The little boy sat down, and he mighty quickly let him know. He said, I need you to understand, I'm sitting on the outside, but I'm standing on the inside. That's that's a lot of people, you know. You you you don't know what's going on on the inside. I I can't accept by the Holy Spirit, I have no ability and you have no ability to discern or see what's going on in somebody's inward life. But trust me this morning when I tell you that we all have an inward life. And if we have this, what the Bible calls the hidden man of the heart, that that thing that that we can't see in the natural, that thing that's in a private place, the secret place, that the thing about it is, is that what they started with in our first song this morning is so appropriate, just because I think we fight our battles not with a lot of rickamaroar, not with a lot of uh natural things, but we fight our battles by staying in the secret place. I just said a mouthful. We fight our battles by staying in the secret place. Well, let me let me define that for you so uh maybe this would uh make more sense to you. Uh the secret place of the Most High is a state of spiritual intimacy, it's a state of trust, it's a state of divine protection, and we find it in Psalm 91. Now, to be fair, those of you who know the Old Testament, in the Old Testament, Psalm 91 is a reference to the Ark of the Covenant, to this thing called the mercy seat. Y'all know about the Ark of the Covenant where there was the presence of God. See, in the Old Testament, the presence of God was uh on a thing. There were times and seasons where the presence of God was on a thing. This particular scripture is referencing uh the Ark of the Covenant, what was called the mercy seat. So you'd have uh you would have the ark, there would be an angel facing this way on the top of that ark. It was built on the ark. It was uh an angel, a cherubim or a seraphim, and there would be one facing this way, and in the middle of those two angelic beings that were carved on that ark, that were there, that were created on that ark, there was something called the mercy seat. There was a mercy seat. Oh, we all need mercy. Yes, we do. You you may not, if you're gonna do what I'm talking about today, you're gonna need some mercy. You're gonna need some grace, you're gonna need some help. But this is Psalm 91 is a reference to that place. So what he's saying is, is he saying, if you want to win these battles, if you want to see God really move, the thing you have to do is stay in his presence. You have to stay in his presence. Now, I'm not talking about you have to, you know, turn your favorite worship service on and speak in tongues all day, which is okay by me if you want to do that. But I'm talking about learning how to live from the presence of God. Learning how to understand that when sometimes when you feel like you're being least productive, you're living in a most productive state when you're connected to the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit and your spirit are in oneness by the blood of Jesus. You understand how that works? So you got born again. We call that being born again. So what happened was is when you were washed in the blood, your spirit and the Holy Spirit came into connection, and now I have the ability to live out of the presence of God. Now that don't mean I'm a classic Pentecostal guy. That don't mean I go around, woo, you know, doing all that, which is again, I say it's fine with me because I grew up in classic Pentecost and Pentecostal circles, and it was okay with me. Um, I think I've told y'all there was an old lady that prayed for me. She was a pastor lady that lived across the street, and she pastored a church in Adairsville where I now live. But we were rabble rousers back in the day, that's putting it mildly. You know. My wife says, mildly. And uh she would say, I would look out over there and I would pray, God, raise up one of them boys. Now we were up to foolishness in the yard all the time. By this time we we were grown, or we thought we were grown. We were acting like grown folks anyway. And up to but she would say, God, raise one of these boys up to share the gospel and to preach. She didn't know what she was doing. Or maybe she did. But this this was just an understanding of like what God did in and through the prayers of my grandmother and a lot of people. But what I believe there are people like that, and whenever I would see uh Miss Daisy, anytime y'all know these people that when you used to shake their hand, you got a little, ooh, you got a little, you know what I'm saying? You come up and you go, How you doing? I say, How you doing, Miss Daisy? She goes, ooh, ooh. She had a quickening. She had a quickening. Did y'all, y'all grandmama didn't have no quickening? Right. So, but that's an outward thing, and that's good for me. I think it's great. But I'm talking about something for some of you that aren't so outwardly Pentecostal, I'm still talking about an inward place in you. I'm talking about what's going on inside where where you're internally connected with him all the time. I'm not trying to be connected. I'm not trying to live out of my own strength. I'm not trying to live out of my own will. I'm talking about this inward man, this secret place of the Most High, living from the presence of God and living with an understanding of how important this is. So listen, the secret place is a spiritual state of intimacy. If you're born again, you already have access. I'll talk about that in a minute. But if you're born again, it's the secret place of the heart where you can't see pain and we can't see trauma and we can't see. So here's how people say, well, how can God take somebody whose heart is all messed up? And how can he start working? He works on the inward parts. He works on the, he works on the inner man. He begins to, he begins to do a work in you. Uh I used to do an illustration a number of years ago where I would take a rosebud and I would, uh I did this in the old church, that's how many years ago it was, but I took a rosebud that hadn't opened up and I tried to open it from the outside in and let people see. When you try to work from the outside in, that rose is not beautiful. It's a mess, in fact. When you start peeling something back from the outside working in, I can't make it like he can make it. But when I leave it connected to its source, and I just let God open that thing up from the inside out, there's a beauty that's displayed that can only come by the hand of God. When you look at things like that, you realize this is how God works. He worked from the inside out. That's the reason he said to us, work out your salvation. He's he's look at your neighbor and say, You still working out? You looking good. You look like you've been working out. You look like you've been working out. You working out. Yeah, on a seven-day cruise, y'all can imagine I was working at fork. You know, you feel like you pay that money, you gotta go. I gotta, look, I gotta eat my, I gotta eat enough money. I mean, you know, they making all this for me. I just, you know what I mean? If they're gonna make it for you, you know, yeah, I'll take the bread pudding and the chocolate lava cake. I'll I'll take, I don't even mind when I go. I go, yeah, I'll have both of those. I'll have the steak and the lobster. Yeah, just bring them on both. They'd be upcharge for that. And I'm looking at them funny, like, so? I don't care. Yeah, what can it be? $20? I mean, yeah, put me down. So that's what that's the the weight. So my goal is to get you to think differently about your goal. And your goal is to live from the inside out, to live from spirit and presence, and begin because spirit and presence will begin to affect everything around you. Do you you ever seen anybody that that you know live in such a way that they could be going through some of the greatest storms in life? And and they have a peace about them. That they they they just have a peace about them that you you just know, like there's something, there's a calm on the inside that that God is working in the situation. They don't stay in a state of panic all the time. They just they they can be going through hell, but they got that calm, sometimes a little smile on their face. But you know what they're going through, and you know it ain't easy. So, you know, you you this is what I'm talking about. It's learning how to live a different way. Because if we just focus on our goals, I want to get this thing and do this thing, and you know, I want to see this change. There is nothing wrong with using faith to get things. But the main purpose of faith is not to get things, but to get you in a situation where you are being formed into the image of Christ. Here's what happens when you stay in his presence and you live from presence and word, and you begin to stay in the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, you begin to be transformed. And let me show you how this works and why I think this is important. Stay with me here. This is vitally important, and I've preached this so many times, but watch the difference. When I say we need to be spirit-led, you assume we're going somewhere. And that's okay. We are. We're all moving in God. But you understand when I say you need to be spirit-led, you know, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit. You do need to be led by the Holy Spirit. But in a Western mindset, people that say, I need to be led by the Holy Spirit, assume I've got to be moving 90 miles an hour or I ain't making progress. Because I've got to be led. And you get up every day, you can be like I was for a lot of years. I'm trying to be led. I'm gonna go through the gyrations and the motions because I need to be led by the Spirit. But when I start saying to you, we need to be transformed, we need to allow Him to put His hands on us, now all of a sudden, we need to be Spirit formed. Now the Spirit of God begins to form us and transform us. So it's but in but in Western mindset and the way I preach for all those years, which isn't wrong, is that we are moving somewhere. God's moving us somewhere. As a people, we're we're we're moving along in life and we we do have things that we want to accomplish even in God. But understand when I say the difference is when you begin to, when Holy Spirit, when you allow Holy Spirit to put his hands on you, and now all of a sudden, what is happening is I'm being spirit formed. He's working, uh He's working on the inside and working some things on the outside, and he's transforming me. How? By the renewing of my mind, by the washing of the water by the word. There's all of these things that happen when we allow God by His Spirit to work in us, and and we Pentecostals, of which I'm proud to be, we kind of major on the outward, you know, of woo-woo. And I look, shout, have a good time. Let's be expressive. I don't, I never want dead worship, I never want dead prayer service. But I also, when when it comes time, I want you to stay still and stay quiet long enough to let him speak to you. That he can still, you can shout and praise and still be quiet enough in your own times with him that he can speak to that hidden man of the heart, that he can still speak to you in a still small voice. Right? Are y'all with me today? You understand what I'm saying? It's not always about a lot of hoopla. So let's go and let me just read a few things to you, just things uh that I wrote down as I was thinking uh this through. So uh, spiritually speaking, your faith life begins and ends with walking by faith. When culture Christianity, when cultural Christians begin to realize that the end goal is not what you were told the end goal of it all is. See, I was told that all we have to do is get saved so we can go to heaven. Well, you don't want to miss that. But what you're gonna do with all the days you've got down here on earth? You you've got you've got to understand the goal is found in the book of Romans, chapter 8. And the goal is, I want us to look at it. Romans 8, 29. The goal, I told it to you a few weeks ago. I used the story from Jack Hayford's mother when she was passing with cancer and her talking about her life and her goal was to be conformed to the image. So Romans chapter 8, here's the goal. And I want you to change the way you structure your life and the way you live your life to make this happen. I think the most important thing I could say to you this morning is that lay aside all of the religious activities and all of the religiosity of the world and begin to spend some time in his presence. Begin to spend some time with the Lord every day and let him work on that quiet man of the heart. Spend that that few minutes with him, if even if it's just a few minutes. Spend the few minutes just in solitude and in silence. You realize that most of you pick up your cell phone, the first thing you do every day is pick up your cell phone. You see, I wonder why God don't speak to me. He's not gonna shout over that cell phone. He's not gonna shout louder than your scroll. I know that's coming down a little hard on you, but you understand we have to be disciplined in the way we conduct our lives. If we if we want to have a spirit-led, spirit-formed life, we we've got to, there are some disciplines and some habits that we can that we can that we can do to make that happen, right? So Romans 8.29, here's the goal, and this is what I want your goal to be for this year, for your life. Uh I want this to be our uh far-reaching, far most important goal. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conform to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now let me break that down, because it's it sometimes the King James, he wants you to be, whom he did foreknow. He did predestinate to do what? To be conform to the image of his son. This is talking about God. He wants you, how's that gonna happen? You can't conform yourself to the image of God. You you you can't make you look like Jesus. But he says, this is the goal, he says, to be conform to the image of his son, that he might be, he's talking about Jesus, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. In other words, he wants us to be like him. We want to do, what did I say earlier? John chapter 6, we want to do the works of God. Okay, well then believe on the one that was sent. And then in New Testament Christianity, we allow the Holy Spirit to begin to work on us so that when we talk about being Christ-like, it's a it's a Holy Spirit work that conforms us. It's say it another way so that you understand. I wish I had brought Plato this morning because I like Plato for this illustration. You ever remember when you were a kid and you would take Play Doh and you would put it, you you would push it down into something, and you'd peel off the edges, and you would peel the play-doh out, and you'd say, Oh, look, a duck. You remember that? A duck. So, what did you do? You you took that and you formed that, you pushed that play doh, that play doh, down into something. And when it came up, it bore the image of what it was forced into. So, what does the word say? Be not conformed to the world. Lest don't do it like the world. Don't allow the world to push you into its mold. I'm gonna go a step further and say, don't allow culture of Christianity that says this is the goal that doesn't line up with the word goal and allow you to become conformed to the image of religious people. I just said a mouthful. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I know what I'm saying. You're not to be conformed to the image. Don't allow, what does he say? He said, uh, don't be conformed to the image, or but be transformed. How? By changing your mind. By the renewing of your mind. You be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's what Romans chapter 12 says. So when we're talking about how this is going to happen, it's going to happen because you're going to allow the Holy Spirit to work in you and work on you so that you can be conformed into this particular image. Why is that important? Because you're already a son by birth, right? If you've been born again. But we don't always present ourselves as sons. Sometimes people don't know the difference between, I am a son, but I think I'm just a servant. I am a son, but I feel like I'm just a slave. I am a son, but in Hebrew culture, in that day, what did they do? They gave you tutors or what they called governors when you were young. They put you under tutors and governors until you could grow up to a certain age so that you could become a young man or a young woman. So what happens for us? The Holy Spirit works in us to grow us up. Now I know this is going to be a stretch for some of you, but let's look at this verse in Ephesians 4, verses 15 and 16. This is the kind of Christianity that is it's uh it's spirit formed, it's uh it's uh it's faith and grace working together. This is uh again, this is how God wants uh to mold us, make us shape us and break us. Did any of you ever pray that back in the day? You'd know if nobody ever told you to pray, Lord, make us mold us, shape us and break us into what you'd have us to be. It's a great, it's it's a great prayer, but be ready when you pray the prayer. If you mean it, be ready. Make us mold us, shape us, break us. I dare you to pray that prayer today. It's like saying, Lord, I thank you, give me patience. He may not give you patience, but he's gonna give you a lot of stuff that'll make you have to be patient, and that's how he's gonna teach you patience. So, Lord, mold me, make me, shape me, break me into what you want me to be. What does he want me to be? Well, the end goal is to be like Christ, to be Christ-like. So look at this verse. Let this kind of just stretch you a little bit. Ephesians chapter 4, he talks in the early part of this chapter about ministry gifts and other things, but in verse 15, he says this, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things. I may grow up, it doesn't say grow up unto him. People misquote this verse when they read it, but he's talking about this in so you understand the context. He's talking about the body of Christ working together, each joint supplying what the other has need, the pastors and ministry gifts supplying what they need. And he said, again, here's the end goal. It's just stated differently. But speaking the truth in love, do you know it's okay for you to speak the truth in love? Do you know if God gives you a word or a truth for somebody and it seems harsh, you don't have, you, you, you don't, you can let your speech be seasoned with salt that it might minister grace to the hearer, but you have to say what he said. But speaking the truth, how? In love. In love. You always do it with love. May grow up into him in all things. Y'all ever read that verse? That I may grow up into him in all things. Now that almost seems, that almost seems like I mean, that you go out of here and say, Pastor Neil said that we were gonna grow up into Christ in all things. Some pastor down the road is gonna say, you better get away from over there. And then you're gonna share the verse with him, and he's gonna try every which a way to tell you that don't mean what you think it means. I'm just reading out of the Bible. I'm am I reading, has y'all got it in the King James Version, or will you want to read? Let's we can try it in another version if it makes you feel better. But it does say that when we speak the truth in love, that we grow up. You're still growing up. He's still working on you to make you what he wants you to be. He's still, we're still learning and growing every single day, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. I mean, we're we're growing, say it another way, make you feel better, at least. Maybe it's even a little more theologically accurate. I don't know that I can grow up into him, but we can grow up into him. We keep growing until we are, we become, as the body of Christ, a representation of who he is. We are, say it another way, an expression. We as the body of Christ. That's not just this church, that means the church down the road that believes we become an expression of who Christ is in the earth. It's the reason the body of Christ needs to come together. Another sermon for another day. I'll finish with this. I have three things that I think are important. These are secret number one of the secret place is that believers live from the presence of God. We live from a place of trust, from a place of divine protection. This is not just a passing mention, this is a lifestyle. Rather than a physical location, it's described as being hidden in the presence of God where believers find refuge from fear and evil. I'll share this quick story. I tell it every time I talk about Psalm 91 because it is what I prayed and it is the truth. Elder Browder and the rest of you that were here during that time. So, Elder Browder's uh daughter, she woke up one morning and she had Guillon Beret. If you don't know what Guillon Beret is, it's a very scary, scary thing. She woke up paralyzed. Didn't know why. So, if those of you who've been here a long time and you know Ashley, you will remember this. Ashley was a dancer and she was a strong girl, and she got married, and literally within just a few weeks, she woke up and was paralyzed. She had something called Guillon Beret. And I said, God, I'm gonna need, I don't even know how to pray. Anyone ever said, I don't know how to pray? I don't know how to pray. I said, Holy Spirit, I'm gonna need a prayer strategy. And God gave me Psalm 91. And here's what I prayed. Here's what you can pray for your family too. Or you can ask the Holy Spirit to give you use mine or get one on your own, he'll give you your He'll give you a prayer strategy too. I started praying, Lord, I thank you that Ashley is so hidden in the secret place of the Most High that Guillain Beret can't find her. That she's so hidden in the secret place of the Most High that Guillain Baret don't even know her address. It it can't find her. Now I know that sounds uh maybe a little strange to some of you, but just trust me. It wasn't just my prayers. There were prayers of people all over the country praying for her and family. I'm not suggesting, but I do believe a prayer strategy works, and the prayer strategy over that particular situation was Psalm 91. Lord, I thank you that they're so hidden in the secret place of the Most High. They're so hidden in your presence. Sickness, disease cannot touch us, find us. That I'm so hidden in the secret place of the Most High that I don't have to make myself anything that you get to mold me, make me, shake me. Because here's what's going to happen. You know what changes your life when you get in his presence. It's a reason we spent weeks and weeks here a number of years ago just basking in the presence of God because we realized that God can do in his presence in about two or three minutes what a hundred sermons can't do. One moment in his presence, one moment in his very presence. We're talking about the manifest presence of God. God can do more in a moment, in his presence, than hundreds of hours worth of study. It's all of that studying is good, and I encourage it. But God can do just when his presence rolls in and fills the house, and the priest can't stand to minister, and God begins to do something, it's so glorious. So number one is we live from his presence. That's one of the secrets. You live from his presence. The second secret is you've already got an invitation. Your invitation has already been given. You know, because we're born again, we have, we live in the kingdom. Righteousness, peace, and joy. How? In the Holy Ghost, in the Holy Spirit. So you have an invitation. You're righteous, your righteousness doesn't come from you. You don't have to feel bad. You have an invitation into his presence. You have you have an invitation into the very presence of God when you wake up in the morning, when you ride down the road. Now, here's where the battle comes in. You don't always feel so spiritual. You know how I know that? Neither do I. Neither do I. I don't have to feel spiritual, and I don't have to feel any certain kind of way to know that I always have an invitation into the Father's house, into the Father's presence. I don't have to feel any kind of things possible. In fact, he even says in one verse in Hebrews where he talks about coming into the throne of grace so that you can find grace to help in your time of need. You have an invitation to live out of his presence. You don't have to feel any kind of way. You don't have to come in there feeling like you're not worthy or you're unrighteous. You know where real transformation happens? When you get right in his presence with all your mess, with the trauma, with the struggle. Yeah, but I got to I got to spend 15 or 20 minutes getting back to a spiritual state. Y'all know I love the working my way back to you. With a burning love. That's I'm telling you, most people live their Christianity that way. I keep working my way back to you, babe, with a burning love inside. I keep working my way back to you, babe. You can live that way if you want. That ain't Bible Christianity. It's not that repentance doesn't work, it's just that ain't Bible Christianity. But I live my life a lot of the time trying to work my way back to Him to get me to be accepted. You're earning it. You're earning it. You already have an invitation. Can you imagine if somebody sent you an invitation and said, Come on, we're going to invite you to come to whatever they're having. And you said, I'd love to, but I'm going to need to know exactly how much the buffet and how's how much is that going to cost you per ticket? Because I want to pay my own way. So you come into the wedding and you're going to pay your own way. Son of a gun, I'll let you. You know, if it makes you feel better, you've already got an invitation. And here's the thing about this thing, this spiritual thing, you cannot earn it. You have to accept his invitation into his presence, into his goodness, into his grace, into his blessing, all by faith. You have to accept it because by grace through faith did I get that invitation. You can give it to me, you can't take it away. And then lastly, is uh there's the third secret of the secret place is that you were created to abide. What I'm really discussing today, and what we're really talking about, is what John chapter 15, verses 1 through 8. John, the gospel, uh gospel according to John chapter 15. This is what I'm talking about, abiding. You don't always feel like abiding, but you have to abide in him. If you're going to make any difference in the world, same thing. Look at these verses. He's essentially saying in John chapter 15 the exact same thing. Watch this. John chapter 15, verse 1, he says this. I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now, it's it's interesting. I don't have time because of the lateness of the hour, but I just want to go over this verse, and I want you to look at me so you understand. Some of you that have heard me explain this before, you will understand this, and many of you that have not, this will mess you up because it's gonna mess up your theology a minute. But I want you to understand that every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. The word take away there, listen to me, the word take away doesn't mean he cuts it off and throws it away. The Greek word there doesn't mean that at all. The Greek word means every branch that doesn't bear fruit, he elevates it and lifts it up. Here's you so that that kind of messes up my send them to hell uh theology. Well, there you go. But that's not what I'm telling you, you go back and study it all you want. That is not what this verse means. Because I read this for years. He said, Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he takes it away. And in my religious mind, I used to say, That's right, you know, non-fruit-bearing son of a gun. You he needs to get rid of you because you're just holding us all back. If you can't produce fruit, you won't be on this team. But here's what the Greek word doesn't mean that at all. The Greek word, every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. That Greek word there means to elevate or to lift up. And the picture is of a vine, like a grape vine, growing on a trellis, that I don't have time, boy. I could really wear that out this morning because you all need habits. You need a trellis for this thing to grow on. You want to grow, build a trellis, build some habits. Another sermon for another day. The Greek word here that says taketh away means he lifts you up. He gets you up out of the mud so that you can so you can get sunlight. The Greek word, the picture of this Greek word right here, every branch of me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. The Greek picture is is of a vine that's growing in the mud, and he elevates it. He gets it up out of the dirt, out of the mud. Y'all ought to be shouting me down right now. He got you up out of your mud and out of your dirt and out of your mess. And he grew he picked you up, and every and every branch goes on to say, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it. Now we don't want to, if you want to talk about purging, that's a whole nother deal. I got you straight on the first part of it, but wait till he starts purging you and you will say, What's wrong with me? Nothing's wrong with you. If you're bearing fruit, he purges it so it can bear more fruit. Sometimes you think he's just out to get you. I guess I'm the only one that ever thought God's out to get me. He's bound and determined to get me. Boy, he's he's cutting me, he's pruning me back big time. You ever gone through a pruning? I guess I'm the only one. Well, praise God. Maybe why I'm the pastor. I don't know. I, you know. So I'm the only one that's gone through the pruning. I see how you want to be. Amen. Thank you, Arman. I love you so that I tell you what, give her a hundred dollars. Somebody help her out back there. But he says here, and every branch that bears fruit, you can be bearing fruit. I'm doing good things. I'm doing good things. And what will he do? He'll say, Every branch that bears fruit, I'm gonna purge it, I'm gonna prune it back. I'm gonna purge this bad boy and cut it back. Why? So that you can bring forth more fruit. And then he goes on and says, You're clean through the word that I've spoken to you. You're already clean through the word that he's spoken to you. And then here's the kicker, and this is where I'll finish. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. You know all you have to do by faith is abide in the vine. All you have to do by faith is abide in the vine. Well, what am I supposed to do? Abide in the vine. Yeah, but I need to do something. Don't I need to do something to abide in the vine? You need to do exactly what he tells you to do and stop doing what he told you, didn't tell you to do. That's all you need to do. In other words, you just be obedient to whatever he tells you to do. Yeah, but everybody at my church does it this such and such kind of way. You don't have to do it the way they do it at their church. Well, my sister's church does it like this. Quit listening to your sister and start listening to the Holy Ghost. Start doing what he tells you to do. Abide in me and I in you. We don't even have time for that exchange. He said, if I'm abiding in him, he's gonna do what? He's gonna abide in me. That's pretty cool. Abide in me and I, as the branch cannot bear fruit of except except it abide in the vine. No more can you except you abide in me. You remember the old old, y'all, y'all ever go to the old school church when they used to sing abiding in the vine, abiding in the vine? I can't remember it, so you're in luck. All right, I'd sing it to you. But I came from an old school church. They used to sing abiding in the vine. Abiding in the vine. What do you gotta do? Well, you gotta abide in the vine. Say it another way, you gotta stay connected. You're already connected. I said this one last way. You can stand on your feet, so maybe you'll listen. Stand on your feet. Come on, I promise I'm gonna let you go home. I'm gonna let you go home. So, what if what if I told you this morning what you need to repent of is feeling separated when you know you're a believer? What if I said, let me give you a thought. Here's a repentance for you. I repent, Lord, for going around thinking all day that I feel so separated from you when I know I'm born again. I repent for feeling like you're a hundred miles away when according to John 15, 4, you took up residence in me. You leave. I repent, Lord, for living that kind of a lifestyle. See, I repent because I'm in him, and he's in me. That is the way he shapes us. That's how, that's see, we get so into how am I gonna produce fruit. The fruit just comes from abiding, not from doing, not from doing. There'll be some times for you to do, there'll be some words for you to give and some things for you to say, and some ministries to be a part of, and some volunteering, and doing whatever he tells you and lays on your heart to do. But that ain't how you get saved. Well, I thought I was supposed to get saved to go to heaven. You you do, I don't want you to miss that train, promise you. You don't want to miss that. But letting him be formed in you, and let the spirit be formed in you, let God work in you, grow you up, and send you out. That's the reason he who began a good work in me will complete it. Right, that's what we're talking about. Y'all alright, this morning? Look at somebody and say, I'm gonna live from presence. I'm gonna live from his presence. It's here now. It's right here, right now. How do I know that? Because it's in you. It's in you. Father, we bless you, we love you. Thank you for your people, thank you for their attention. Thank you that you are part of God. Thank you that all the things are possible again that believe. Thank you, Lord, for signs, wonders, and miracles. Today, Lord, I wonder for Lily again. I thank you for a miracle for living. Thank you for a miracle for this problem. Thank you for a miracle for your people of God. Thank you for setting the capital. Everyone look at heart. Every wounded heart, every hurt. We take authority over a spirit of hurt. Over a wounded spirit. We just thank you that there's today we're pouring in the oil and the wine, the kind that restores the soul. For every bleeding, for every person that's found bleeding and dying on the Jericho Road, we pour in oil and wine. For every person who feels like they've been beaten down by life and by religion and by people, we pour in oil and wine. We thank you for refreshing, renewal, and revival. Touch your people, oh God. In Jesus' mighty name, and everybody say, Amen. Amen. God bless. God bless.