CLCC REVIVAL WK#3 / ORPHAN SPIRIT / PASTOR NEIL HOPPER

Victory begins when we deal with an orphan mentality, often referred to as an orphan spirit. When we receive the love of the Father it changes everything. We can't do enough to earn God's love because His love is freely given. But insecurity, fear and  self-rejection can be signs of a deeper spiritual conclusion that you must work harder to earn God's love and favor. Nothing could be further from the TRUTH and that TRUTH will set you free.    

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to Cedal Lake Christian Center Podcast. Our church exists to see lives transformed through a relationship with Jesus. We pray this message helps you continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior. You can find us online at clc.church.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

In line with God's Word. So, those of you who've been here for years, you know that I have said over and over, when you sow a thought, you reap an action. And when you sow an action, you reap a habit. And when you sow a habit, you will reap a lifestyle. And when you sow a lifestyle, you reap a destiny. And the sad thing is, is that some people spend years and years and years and years, and then they come to you and they say, Pastor, I don't understand where everything went wrong. And I'm able to say, When you sow a thought, you reap an action. In other words, it all started with your thought processes. That's one thing. I talked about this Wednesday night. Uh I'm sad to say we don't have uh we don't have the the uh audio for that, but I've I've preached this many times here because I think your thought life is that important. Your thought life is gonna take you places. It's it's either gonna point you in the right direction or the wrong direction. Your thought life, uh, what you believe about God is so important that uh if you believe a lie, you're gonna be in a bad position. Let me say it like this. This is really gonna get you, you just hold on to this. I didn't say this. A man by the name of Francis Franjapin said this. He was a pastor and really uh uh an important part uh of a lot of people's lives and teaching. He had a training center for many years. Uh but I remember this quote he said, Any part of your life that doesn't glisten with hope, you're probably believing a lie. Yeah. Amen. So you say, well, how can I glisten with hope when I'm facing hopeless situations? Because there is no situation that you're facing where God is not able. If you have a wrong belief system, if you believe wrong, if you think wrong about God, about the situation, about how just how bad it is and how hopeless it is, then you're saying, I want to get this right, if I say every place in my life that doesn't glisten with hope, you know, we we have these things according to scripture, we have faith, hope, and love. And so if if if we've got to get our thoughts in line with God's word. Uh let me say it like this. Heard a lady say this one time. She said, uh, I was praying about something, and the Lord said to me, She said, I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me and say, Do you believe I can meet your need? She said, Of course, God. I know you're God Almighty. You can do anything you want to do. He said, if you believe I can meet the need, then why are you worried? Because you don't really believe. Amen. We we so when we start looking at that, so we're talking about victory, and and I'm not gonna spend a ton of time just on our thought life, but I am gonna remind you of a couple of things where your thoughts are concerned, and then I'm gonna jump down to something that I think is equally as important. I want to talk to you this morning about an orphan spirit. And so if you have a wrong thought process about God, then you're gonna you're gonna live life in a deficit. Instead of feeling like you are connected to him, you're gonna feel like you're disconnected, even though the Bible says, John chapter 15 says that we abide in him and he in us. He said, I'm the vine, you're the branches, my father's the husbandman. I can't be any more connected to him than I already am. Yeah, but I don't feel so close to him. There, now we're making headway. I don't feel too close to God. Why? Why don't you is it because you feel like you're distant or you're an orphan or you don't measure up? I heard a lady say this one time. She said, I stopped trying to be a good Christian because I just realized I couldn't. After trying to serve God all these years, I just realized I don't think I'm good at this. But the skill set is more than just I don't think I'm good at it, or I don't think I measure up. When we come from that standpoint, you're always going to see yourself as less than because we are human. But God said, You're my child. He says, You're welcome. He said, You can always come. There's nothing outside of his scope. So I want to just remind you today that there's a couple of scriptures. So victory should always be our portion. Victory's always our portion. I don't always feel victorious, I don't always look victorious, but I am a victorious overcomer in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 2.14 says, Now thanks be to God, which always, always, always causes us to triumph in Christ. And maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. Now that's a real fancy word to say. When people look at our lives, because we are overcomers, he always causes us to triumph in Christ. And then he makes manifest the savor of his knowledge by us. By us in every place. In other words, he's saying, You're so victorious, and I'm gonna work and move in your life in such a powerful way when you're walking with me every single day, and you can, that people are gonna look at your life and they're gonna say, Man, I don't know about that guy. He just he seems like he always lands on both feet. You could drop him upside down and he's gonna land on both feet. You know why? Because he makes manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. So what he says is, is he says, you're always an overcomer. You're always triumphant, you are always a child of God. What if I tell you all the time? Every time you see me, I'm either up or I'm getting up every single time. Don't mean I don't fall or that I'm perfect or any such thing, but when you see me, I'm either up or I'm getting up every single time. And so we but in order to understand this, you have to understand that you are always an overcomer. I uh I don't have time to go into a ton of it, but somebody shoved a book in my hand many years ago, and the subtitle of the book was A Handbook for the Overcomer. It was by Dr. Kelly Varner, and it made me begin to understand that I was called, we are called, you are called to overcome. You live in a world that's broken and fallen down, and you live in a world that has issues, but my friend, you are always overcoming. Right? Let me show you how I know this. I like to say I don't have time to dig deep into this. I taught it on Wednesday, and I taught it, uh, there's a I did a little short podcast on it at the radio station last week. It's on the radio station's website. But here's what I here's what you need to understand. The Bible says this in uh pull up, if you don't mind, pull up Romans chapter 8 and verse 37. Romans eight and verse thirty-seven is a pretty powerful verse. We always go back to the word. He's in that chapter, which you can go back and read in your spare time, or maybe in your Bible study this coming week, he's gonna list a bunch of things, and then he's gonna get down to verse 37, and he's gonna say, In all these things, you are more than a conqueror through him that loves you. Now, let me make this clear. You don't conquer because you love him. You love him. I praise God, you're here today, says, I love the Lord. But you don't conquer because you are all that. You conquer according to this, you're more than a conquer. Like I said, I don't have time to drill down, but I want you to understand the word more than a conquer there is the Greek word. It's hooper nakio. It's where we get our word Nike, right? It means hyper. We get our English word hyper or hooper. Nikeo is the Greek term. It means I'm above a conqueror.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

I'm not just a conqueror.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

I am more than a conqueror. I'm hyper-Nike. I got on my Johnson Murphy's this morning, but if I'm wearing my Nikes or not, I'm always more than a conqueror through him that loved me. Now, thank God you love him, but if you're gonna conquer, you've got to understand his love. Now, this is gonna take me into what I'm gonna say in a minute, because sometimes you don't feel so loved because if you have an orphan spirit or if you deal with an orphan heart, you will you will feel like you're a little unsure of whether he loves you. Everybody else around you, they crying in worship. It's God's just so close to them, and you're looking going, I don't know, they don't feel so close to me. You don't feel like you're a conqueror. You don't feel like, but the Bible clearly says, you believe the word, don't you believe the word? You're always, you're always triumphant, you're more than a conqueror. Now, I didn't just come here to give you a pep talk this morning. I came here to give you God's word and to say to you that you are hyper Nike, you are hooper Nikio, you're more than. Through him that loved us, you are a conqueror, you are victorious. Can't nothing keep you down. But your thought life will keep you down, your belief system about God will keep you down. If you un if you don't understand all that he has for you, this this then then it will it will be lost. Everything I say this morning could be lost. So we are more than conquerors. So Romans 12, 2, you know this verse, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. If we don't here's the thing, if we don't get our thoughts in line, and this is a huge issue, it'll be an issue. I'll always preach on it. Every few months, if you come to this church, I'm gonna preach on your mindset. And the reason I'm gonna preach on your mindset is because God's not keeping you down. What you believe about God is keeping you down. God's not stopping you, you're stopping you. Your belief system is stopping you. You're like the woman who said, Yeah, but God, I'm praying about all these things. And he said, Why are you why are you worried about that? Didn't I say I was gonna take care of you? Yeah, but I find it hard to believe. You know why? Because sometimes your daddy didn't. Uh-huh. Sometimes your daddy didn't take care of things, and sometimes things emotionally, physically, or spiritually, things went undone in your life. And you begin, this is where I want to make the transition into understanding how important this is. By the time I was in first grade, I felt the pressure to perform. By the time I was in first grade, I knew how much work had to get done. And if I wanted somebody to pat me on the back and say I did a good job and I wanted to go home and be pleasing to my mom, I was gonna have to, I was, I feel the pressure. I would know that when the lunch, when it came lunchtime, because our first grade teacher was a good teacher, she said, here's what we're gonna do, here's everything you need to do today. I don't even care what order you do it in, this is all the work that needs to be done, and I'll be coming by and checking on you. So I knew if I could get my letters done and I could get this done and this done before lunch, but if I didn't, now that's that's where pressure started. Now all of a sudden, we take that to our Christianity and you say, I feel the pressure to perform for my father so that I get an attaboy or I get a, hey, you've already got an A plus. Let me tell you something. In Christ Jesus, you already got an A plus. In Christ Jesus, if if if we understand the pressure to perform, now if I'm performing for God or I'm doing it to earn favor from God, I'm still just performing. So we don't do things out of a performance mentality or to earn it. It's a free gift, and I get to walk with my daddy every single day because of what Christ did for me at the cross. Right? So I'm not trying, but what happens is if you're like me and you dealt with an orphan spirit, um you you begin to get this mindset, even where God is concerned, that you have to perform to please daddy. And I'm telling you, he's already proud of you. He's you're already his beloved child. You're already accepted in the beloved according to scripture. You're already, you're already a part of the kingdom of God. You're already his favored child. Here's the question. Don't raise your hands. Do all of you always feel like you're favored? You know how to raise your hand? I'm just saying. Do you feel favored? Do you feel like you're blessed? Man, you feel like, man, he just can't wait for me to get up in the morning to talk to me.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

No, I'm just I'm just telling you, I'm talking about me now.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Right? So what happens is that our thinking has to change from being our thinking has to change from being performers or working to being sons of God. I'm already a son. I'm already a son. Now, sons serve, but some of you serve so you can be a son, and you've got the order mixed up. I don't serve, I don't pray because I want to be a good Christian. I don't pray that way because that doesn't work. Now I'm spending time in prayer to earn his favor, and now I've got it out of order. But when I know he loves me, and I go to that prayer closet and I come to worship because I know I'm already loved, I know I'm already blessed, I know I'm already favored. Now all of a sudden, things begin to fall in line for me because I got the order right. See what I'm saying? So there's some characteristics of this, uh, and an orphan spirit is a very real, very part of what's been a problem in society and in families and in Christianity for a long, long time. Amen. I could point out a handful of people in here today, if and some of you had good dads. That's the thing. You can have a good dad. You could have had a really good dad, and yet you you maybe he took really good care of you, but there was no love and affection. So while he paid all the bills and did all the right things, there was never any emotional connection. And so now for now I live my life looking for emotionally what I didn't get as a child. And it it just, you see what I'm saying? Now, let me let me show you this so that you don't um so that you don't think I've lost all of my mind. Sheila, can you get me John chapter 14? And I'm gonna go to verse 18, John chapter 14, and you'll see this. Um I I see it, I I can see it on people, I can see it working in my life where I should have felt the security and the identity of the Father. I should have known that God was going to take good care of me, but I felt a little out of place. You didn't know your place. Remember, you don't know your place. That's what happens when sons aren't. There's not a family structure that provides this, there's not a godly structure that provides this. And so what happens is, as we we feel like, well, I don't fit in, I don't know where I belong, and I don't know what God has for me, so I don't know my people, and I don't know my place, and I don't know my purpose, because I don't understand what's going on here, and I need God to be a father to me. Right. More than anything else, he wanted a family. So look at this. In verse 18, here's what I want you to see. He says, Uh, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. I'm not gonna leave you comfortless. The word in the Greek comfortless is the Greek word orphanos. That's where we get our word orphan. He said, Now see, now when you read that passage, and I I'm I'm not the the translators did the best they could, but what he said is I'm not gonna just go away and leave you comfortless. Let you know that when the Spirit of God is in our hearts and in our lives and he's working in us, we we don't have to live a comfortless life. You ever known anybody that anytime you start talking to them, they are something that they feel fidgety all the time. They are 900 miles an hour on the inside all the time. They fidget. I'm not saying everybody that fidgets, sometimes I fidget because I fidget, but sometimes I'm not comfortable. I'm not at ease, I'm not at rest. People who understand the Spirit of God and how He works in our lives, you begin to just be at peace and be at rest. That that you ever known anybody, you may have been there before where you come into the worship service and we're all raising our hands or doing whatever they do in your church. If you're watching, maybe they don't do that in your church. But you just feel a little bit disjointed and out of place. All these people are singing God's praise, and you may be even mumbling the words, but you feel a little out of place. You're just not really comfortable with that. Well, I understand that. Some of that's just how you were raised and those type things. But listen, we should be completely comfortable in his presence. We should be completely comfortable in his presence. So I don't go there to perform or to check on all the things I need to do today or all the things he wants me to do, because now I'm not doing things for him, I'm doing things with him. So he said, I'm not gonna leave you orphaned. That's what the word means. Orphanos. I'm not gonna leave you as an orphan. So what is he saying? He's saying what Romans chapter 8 says, and that is there's a spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. So if you don't think this is real, over and over again in the New Testament, he says there's gonna be a spirit of adoption. Now, also in in Romans chapter 8, don't have time to go that this morning, but if you went back and read Romans chapter 8, what you'd find is you'd find a spirit of fear, you'd find insecurity there, and you'd feel you would see where he says, No. Now there's a spirit of adoption. You're adopted. And here's the thing: when he went to that cross and he said, hanging on the cross, think about this. Jesus is hanging on the cross, and he says to the people that are standing there on the ground, he says to the disciples, son, behold your mother. Mother, behold your son. He said, while he was on that cross, he was saying, We've become, we're part of a family. We've become family. Now she's not just my mother, she's your mother. Now we're family. And what he's looked for all along is family. But here's the thing: most people that are sitting here this morning, they're looking for family and don't know it. Amen. If you're struggling, most of the time we're looking for belonging, for family. Where do I fit in? Why am I here? And what does God have for me? Well, we find our belonging and our identity in Christ, in knowing who we are as a child of the Father. So that's how are we going to walk in victory if we have a wrong mindset? So let me say it to you this way. Maybe this will click, because this is the one that really got me when I heard it the first time. So, in order for me to be a good Christian, for me to be a good Christian, right? I don't know exactly what that is. How do we classify them? You're a good Christian and I'm a better Christian. I don't know. Are we competing now? How's that work? Because what happens is people who have an orphan spirit will compete. People who have the Spirit of God, we just complete others. We go in and we go, I'm just seeking what's best for you. We complete other people. We have something within us that says, I'm already comforted. I'm already a child of God. I don't have to compete with you, but I can complete you. Right? I don't have to do any such thing. So where do I want to go from here? I think here's let me explain it this way. Then we'll look at a few scriptures. So here's the way I saw my Christianity, and you may be feeling the same thing. So I wanted to be something in the body of Christ. I wanted to be somebody. I wasn't necessarily looking for bright lights in big city, but I did want to be recognized and I did want to be uh thought of as a man of God. This is way before I was ever a preacher. And so I realized if I want to have, I have to do. I've got to do. Some of you came from do families. You gotta do. You gotta do to be, and if you do, you'll be, and if you be, you'll have. Does that make sense, y'all? Some of you don't get that at all. So I've got to do. I've got to do so I can be. Because God knows you ain't just gonna be a child of God because He said you're a son of God because you believed, and He said you were, because in some families that's all well and good. We appreciate your, we appreciate your confession, but we want to know what you're gonna do. So I said, in my orphan spirit, I'm hearing this through my own orphan spirit filter, right? So I said, Well heck, if they're just gonna pray five minutes, if they're just gonna pray five minutes, all I got to do is pray ten minutes and I'm gonna be better than you. All I got to do is pray ten minutes and I'm gonna be better than you. It's already yours. Now, so here's here's the problem. So we get born again. We we we come out of the world. Some of us were delivered from drugs and alcohol and all kinds of things that you were delivered from. And so what happens if you're not careful is you'll go from living in the world and doing things your way to saying, okay, I'm a Christian, but I'm gonna earn it. And so now, when you look at the two brothers who stayed behind in Luke chapter 15, you remember the we always talk about the prodigal son. What about the religious brother? What about the religious brother? So if we're not careful, we don't we we see the prodigal because he goes away and we know he comes home, and the father sees him and meets him. He puts a robe and a ring on him and some sandals and he does all those things, and we go, wow, that's awesome. And now we got the religious brother that said, I've been here all along, and you ain't never had a party from me. Listen, now you see where now I'm working in the field. I'm a preacher. I'm working in the field already. I'm already doing my ministry. I'm already out here, but because I learned to work in the field, but still be pretty ticked off if some of y'all got a blessing. Not really, but just you know what I'm saying. If somebody gets a blessing and you go, I've been in church my whole life. I've paid my tithe and been in church my whole life, and they get more blessed than me. Yeah, but you're more religious than them. Now you're earning it, and God says, if there's one thing I won't do, I will not let you earn it by the sweat of your brow. It can be shoulder to the wheel and nose to the grindstone, or you can just say, I'm a child of God, and I have every right to everything. You remember that the end of that chapter? We don't have time to go back and look. Go back and read Luke chapter 15 sometime. What happens is we get down to the end, and the father says to him, Everything I had was already yours. You know why I get upset about that? Have you ever thought about this? So they in the first part of that chapter. The youngest brother says, I want the portion that falls to me. So he divides the portion, gives the portion to this brother, and he goes out and wastes it on riotous living. You heard the story, right? You know why he's so fired up about it? Because when the brother comes home, that ring, that robe, that music, that fatted calf, guess whose money that came out of? Guess whose money that came out of? There ain't but half of the inheritance left. So the father gives him all the money and he wastes it. Look, I'm gonna be honest with you. There's been a time in my life where I said, I don't care what you waste your money on, but by God, don't you waste mine. I won't have nothing to do with you. I don't want nothing to do with you and your old sinful self. You done bound down there with harlots and pigs and doing all your nonsense. I ain't helping you. Come back home and daddy's gonna spend money on your poor pitiful self. Forget you. I ain't coming in the house. I ain't making merry with you. I don't want, I don't even know where your friend. You ain't even got no friends. You went to another land. How do we have to pay friends to come over? With your crazy self, I ain't coming in your party. And I'm mad at daddy because he's blessing you. Y'all ain't helping me this morning at all. I I know none of y'all live your Christian life that way because y'all better people than me. I had to work through some things in my Christian life, but when you have an orphan spirit, you begin to be critical because here's the problem. Here's the problem with the doers. First of all, if you're a shoulder to the wheel, get it done, doer kind of a person, you will look at other people who don't do, and you will say, What the heck's wrong with them? And you know why you don't do? You know why you get drained? You know why? This is a whole nother revelation. Do you know why you get drained? You say, Well, I get drained all the time. You know why you get drained? Because you got a wrong mindset. It's not what you're doing that drains you, it's what you believe about what you're doing because you say, I'm just, man, I just Yeah, but you know what? If I don't do it, nobody else will. It's draining me, but I'm just gonna keep on doing it. I don't really see it changing any. It's been 32 years, and I don't think I'm on, I don't think. Maybe you're maybe you're doing to look at somebody and say, you might be doing too much. You might be doing too much. So it's not, it's not what you do, especially. So, well, come, you know, church is like another job. I understand that I've thought that too. Church is a blessing to me, not just because I'm the pastor. Do you know what God's done for me in and through his church? Do you know what I have learned by being in a corporate environment where people worship God and other men taught me? And I don't even know where I'd be if it wasn't for the church of the living God. So I don't look at it, it don't drain me. It shouldn't, it shouldn't drain you. It shouldn't drain you. It's what you believe about what you're doing that drains you. Well, if I I'm helping you, you you may not like it, but I'm helping you. Yeah, but yeah, but you I mean, Lord, it's something all the time. Cut your phone off. It's just something something all the time. I know it's something all the time. I'm well aware. Sometimes I cut my phone and my watch off and I say, I'm going back here to take a nap in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

In Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

You you know, it's it's because I got to charge the battery. I gotta, I see what I'm saying? If I'm resting in him, you see what drains you is you believe that resting in him isn't enough work because I gotta do more. I gotta pray more and do more and be more and fast more. I've got to do more. And listen, to be clear, I'm all about prayer and fasting when God tells you to fast. If you pray, say, Lord, when you want me to fast, you just show me, you tell me. Otherwise, I'm gonna say something's gonna make you mad. Otherwise, if you're fasting when you want to fast, you're just going hungry.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

You're just going hungry.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

If he can tell you to do it, look, if you're fasting just for your physical, sometimes I go on a I went on a fast before, had nothing to do with nothing spiritual. My big self just needed a fast. Right? You just look down and go, yeah. I think I need to ease up. So what I'm saying to you is that if you can ever learn how to rest in who you already are, okay? If you can ever learn to do that, it it will absolutely transform your life. When you come out of performance mode, yeah, but I gotta be a good Christian, I gotta perform, I got to go to church. We hope you will come to church, but I don't want you to become to church to be a Christian. I hope you're you you do things from the love of God, not for the love of God. Do you understand that? What you're doing, you do it from who you already are, not for the purpose of trying to prove who you already are. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, I don't have to prove anything. And here's the thing, I don't have to prove it to you or nobody else. Because I have prayed a spirit of performance out of here in Jesus' name. We don't need a performance spirit. We don't need a performance spirit. Now, let me give you a few scriptures and then I want you to see this. Go to Romans chapter 8, Sheila, and let's look at verses 14 through 19. You're never gonna do enough to have enough so you can be enough. Doesn't work that way. Doesn't I'm gonna do so I can be. The problem with that is, is then I start saying, if I'm a doer, I look at my wife and say, What are you doing? Then you look at your kids and you go, Well, what are you doing? And now, next thing you know, everybody ain't doing enough to suit you because you're reflecting this image of God that says, I've just got to do more. God wants me to do more. No, he don't want you to do it for him, he wants you to do it with him. In fact, he just wants to do it through you. That takes the pressure off. Now I don't have to complete my ABCs before lunchtime. Now the pressure's off. I'm already pleasing before the tests rolled around. Verse 14 of Romans 8. As you can see, I could go for a while today just because I think it's hard to walk in victory with a wrong mindset. Hard to walk in victory with an orphan spirit. Hard to walk in victory. So look at this. Romans 8, verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Already, past tense, you already are. You say, Well, yeah, but I I struggle to be led by the Spirit. Really? I don't know that that's I I think maybe you ain't giving yourself enough credit. I think maybe you should rethink the text. As many as are led by the Spirit, um, it God in his sovereignty will oftentimes lead you in spaces and places and you don't even know it. Right? So we've been talking about the woman at the well for the last two or three weeks. So she shows up at the right place at the right time. She has no clue who she's about to meet. He knows who she he's about to meet. She don't have a clue. He has a way to get you to the right place at the right time with the right people to get you the right breakthrough, to get you the right, to get you the living water so that you can do what you need to do, so that you can be who you already are. And she had a totally messed up, mixed up identity. She'd have been married five times and she's lived with another man, and he that's the reason he says to her, Where's your husband? And then all of a sudden he done put his finger on something and she goes, I don't have one. And he goes, I know that. I'm well aware. So you you may be being led sovereignly and you don't even it's possible that you could be led sovereignly and not know it. I believe that with my whole heart because I've seen it happen too many times. So he says, if you're led by the Spirit, you are, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. Most people who deal with an orphan spirit have a lot of fear. Now, we all have fears, but we're talking about something deep-seated, a whole in us, a fearful place in us that we keep coming back to over and over again because somehow you believe the father. Notice that he says it's a spirit of bondage again to fear. You haven't received that spirit. But what you have received is this spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, I'm a father. Most people who deal with this kind of a spirit deal with, first of all, I don't feel like I belong. I've I fear. If perfect love casts out fear, and I'm fearing, where's this coming from? But yet somehow I better work hard because if I don't, he ain't gonna bless me. Doesn't mean, look, everybody in here, if you're able and you need a job, there's a lot of dignity in that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about for Christianity, for your belief system, for what God has for you. He says, we've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we received the spirit of adoption. And now I can call him my daddy. The God of the universe is my daddy. The God, I'm talking about, you gotta see him as bigger. You gotta see him as the God of the universe is my father. And the when the Holy Spirit comes, the Spirit itself, verse 16 says, beareth witness with our spirit. Something in you by the Holy Ghost in your connecting with your spirit. So now the Spirit comes and we have a spirit experience where our Spirit and the Holy Spirit come together because we are born again, and now all of a sudden the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit. Now there's something in my knower, and I know I'm a child of God. I know in my knower, something in here bears witness that I'm a child of God.

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And if children, then I'm an heir.

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Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. Now, there just to be clear, there may be things that you have to suffer with him. Not for him, but with him. Right? And if so be that you suffer with him, look, you're gonna also be glorified together. You're gonna be glorified. Next verse says, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed. Where's that glory gonna be revealed? In us. Where's the glory gonna be revealed? In us. It's gonna be revealed in us. Not when we get to heaven one day, this is now. It don't mean you're gonna walk around with a halo and glowy. You might. I don't know. I I don't I don't necessarily see the verse that way. The way I see the text is that people are gonna look at your life and they're gonna say, I see a certain glory on their life. I see a certain glory that's being revealed in, but it shouldn't just be one person that should be revealed, according to scripture, it should be revealed in us. In us, in all of us. We are his children. Now look at verse 19 and we'll start to wind down. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Now, boy, you could take a good thirty minutes or an hour on this one because this text has been abused and misused, but it also is a there's a truth here that you have to catch. This is still God's word. People can interpret scriptures certain different ways, but look at this one. He says, For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. So how if you have a father, you can be a son. And he's talking sons and daughters, right? So what he's saying here, here's the way I would explain it. All of creation is standing on its tiptoes, waiting on us. You know what the world needs? A manifestation of the sons of God. You know what people are looking for? I'm I'm I I don't want to I don't want you to freak out on me, but it's Him and me that they're waiting on. It's Him and me. So all for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation. Notice the language where he says, the sons of God. The sons of God. We're sons and daughters of God. He said, the reason I think orphan and sonship and knowing who you are and your identity in him is important, is because what people out there and in here are looking for are the sons of God to arise. And you can't do that out of doing so that you can have, so that you can be. Can't do it that way. It don't work. It never works. You are now I'm doing what I'm doing because I am a son of God. I can I can begin to uh uh function from that spirit, from what he's already done in Christ. Now I'm not doing it for, I'm doing it from. Does that make sense? I'll close with a suggestion. I grabbed this book up because uh my friend Bishop Marlon Williamson sent this to me. It's called Kingdomology, and his the second chapter in this book is uh a Bible study masterpiece on this particular issue. And I may even pick this up again on Wednesday, but this is this is what he says about being the the chapter two says sons, not servants. And here's what he says, and I love this. He says as we continue the pursuit of kingdomology, another foundational concept must be addressed considering God's original plan, the tension between servanthood and sonship. Much of what traditional religion has taught us over time has unintentionally produced a double-minded people. We're sons by confession, yet servants in our consciousness. One of the most significant areas of confusion centers on identity. Whether we understand ourselves primarily as servants of God or as sons of God. To resolve the tension, we've got to go back to the original text. It's simple and profound. When God created humanity, he did not create servants, he created sons. Luke's genealogy finishes with a striking declaration when it concludes in these words in Luke 3 and verse 38, which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. Adam is explicitly identified as the son of God. This is significant. Adam was not created to function primarily as a servant, but as a son, one who lived in relationship, intimacy, delegated authority. God's first relationship with humanity was not based on servitude, but on sonship. And he goes on to master flee. It is a Bible study masterpiece. And I just know how this has affected me. There's a lot of teaching on an orphan spirit. Some people call it an orphan heart. If you were to look at all the characteristics, you're going to find out that identity comes from knowing you're a son of God, security. You know everybody needs security. Men, if you don't know anything else, most women need security. Now, us, we men do as well, but I can tell you one thing: every woman in here needs to feel secure in your love. She needs to feel secure. She needs to know you're going to take care of her, that she's your wife and so forth. So we all need security. We all need belonging. We all need this. And it ought to flow from our relationship with our Heavenly Father. And the sad thing is that if you don't have a sense of belonging, if you don't have a sense of you being a son and daughter of God, if you don't know these scriptures and understand, you will get caught in a trap. I'm not joking when I say I listen to a lady who's a pastor's wife, and she said, I finally, after years of being a pastor's wife and serving God, I finally came to the conclusion I am a horrible Christian. I just can't do this. And you know what? You can't either. Without his grace and without his spirit, there ain't no way you can do this. You will be a failure at it every time. And if you're one of those who's got caught in the trap of, man, even my Christianity wears me out. It drains me at what I submit to you, it's a good chance you're doing it wrong. It's a good chance you're doing it wrong. I have come to the place after many years to just say, and I'm gonna tell you how it happened for me, and I'm gonna close. Um somebody prophesied the word of the Lord to me. They didn't know, they they had no clue. It was a few years ago, four or five years ago, and they said, for most of your ministry, you have struggled, and you know, so you you read and you study to get a sermon, and they said you you struggle with all those things. They said, it's gonna just flow from you like it's normal. Like this is just you're you're supposed to be doing this. And and this particular person was spot on because you can strive at anything. You can strive at being a prayer warrior, you can strive at being a preacher, you can strive, but the the lie we were told was, well, if it's easy, everybody ought to just get up and preach. Listen, if it's flowing from the Spirit of God, it can be easy. Everybody's seen the preacher get up and work hard. Everybody's seen me get up and work hard. But when you're flowing in who you are, you think Jesus sat down at the one with the woman on the well and said, Boy, if I muster up enough Holy Ghost here, I'll get a word for her. No, he just opened up his mouth and it just flows out. He just said, You don't even know you're talking. You want some water, I got it right in here inside of me. I'll give it to you if you ask. That's what he said. And so this person prophesied to me and they said, in the coming years, it's just gonna flow out of you like water. It's just gonna, it's gonna be there. Well, I don't think that's just my ministry. I think that has to be life. So it don't matter if I'm sitting at a restaurant or whatever I'm doing, I'm just being who I am. I'm not, I swear to y'all, I'm not trying to be spiritual. I came in, prophesied to somebody this morning. I knew God gave me a word for more than one, but I didn't have to get up and do that in front of y'all. But I came in, I just I just knew when I was praying for them this week what the word was. I knew what God was saying for the pastor to tell them. I knew. And I didn't try to conjure that up. That's a demonic word. We don't conjure up the Spirit of God. Stand on your feet, and let me uh let me say one thing to you. I believe in seeking the Lord. I believe in seeking God, but I believe in seeking him from a different standpoint than what you may think. Uh spending time with him, spending time in his presence, not to earn his blessing and favor, but just to to know what he's got for me. But do you know, uh, I looked this morning, do you know the Bible says the New Testament? Old Testament's full of seek God, seek God. Old Testament's full of that, and Old Testament's still valid. But do you know in the New Testament I how hard should I have to seek a God who's already on the inside? How hard should you have He do you know? It says seek first the kingdom, it's seek, it says seek your your brother's blessing, it says seek all kinds of stuff. But look, I used to spend hours. I just gotta get in here and seek God. I'm a I'm a real Pentecostal. So I'm just seeking God, I'm seeking God. And he's like, Neil, I've been here the whole time. If you'll stop being religious, I'll start talking. You trying to earn, you just like that boy out there in that field. You're in the field, but you're still religious. So now you go from relationship to religion. I ain't in the world no more, but I'm still trying to earn it. And I'm telling y'all, that will wear you down. Oh my gosh. You are you will fall out on God because you'll say, I can't do this. And then that's the point where he really says, I know you can't. I've been trying to make you see that. He said, You think I say, God, I don't think I could do this anymore. And he said, I've been knowing that a long time, Neil. What are you telling me for? You the one that needs to know that. See how your mindset begins to shift. Now you see the danger of people who are functioning as an orphan spiritually. And now they're trying to do and they can't figure out where they belong and where they fit in, all these things. Listen, God is a place. There's a place, he said, I I don't want to mess up your theology, but he said, I go to prepare a place for you. And I don't think he was just saying to prepare a place when you get there one day. That's true too. Let me give you the second understanding of that. He said, I go to prepare a place for you. There's a place inside the Father that's already been prepared for you. And all you've got to do is open up your heart and let him take you there. Just do it by his grace. But you there's so much more to this. I'm just not going to have time. Honestly, this is one of my all-time favorite topics because I think people work really hard to try to be good Christians. And even the term, I still ain't figured out what it was. 35, 40 years serving God. I don't know what a good Christian is. I know what you mean. They ain't doing all the stuff that the world calls sin. But some of them, they're striving so hard. Because they want you to know they're good Christians. I'll I'll outpray you by 15 minutes this week, you watch and see. That's a joke. I'm gonna outpray them all. I'm gonna be the most anointed thing in the whole congregation. Ain't that just bad theology altogether? All right, bow your heads, let me pray for you. We got to go. Anybody need prayer this morning? You just you say, Man, this is me. Like I think, uh, and it may not be every little point, but I feel a little insecure. I deal with a lot of fear. We all deal with some fear, but some of you, it is like a black hole inside of you. Anyone raise your hand and say, I need prayer for that. Maybe I functioned in that most of my adult life. People get to be 40, 50, 60, 70 years old and don't realize they still function spiritually like an orphan. Anyone need prayer? Anybody you'd say, hey, I think I need this, I think I need this. Father, we bless you and we thank you. Lord, I thank you that according to Scripture, now, beloved, now are we the sons of God. Beloved, now we are your children. And we thank you for that. We thank you for what the cross did for us, in that the scripture says, You that were once afar off have now been made nigh. You've been welcomed into the family. You have a father, you have brothers and sisters, and I thank you for that. I thank you for the blood of the new covenant, I thank you for walking in resurrection, life, and power. And I thank you that we're gonna flow in the Holy Spirit in such a beautiful way, not because we try so hard, not because we're so good, but because you're so good. Pray again, Lord God, stir us, move us, make us, shake us, anything you need to do to get us where we need to be. Lord, I thank you for a summer of revival, sparking a flame in your people because they already know they are loved and accepted in Christ Jesus. And everybody said, Amen. God bless you.

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You're dismissed, have a good, good afternoon.

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We pray this podcast has been a blessing. For more information about Cedar Lake Christian Center, you can find us online at clc.church. Our Sunday service begins at 1030 a.m. and our Wednesday evening Bible study begins at 7 p.m. If you'd like to contact us, our telephone number is 770 748 5750.