(upbeat music) - Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you. (upbeat music) - Amen, God is good all the time.

Amen, praise the Lord.

Like I said, I came to church a little tired this morning.

Ellie, our youngest, she's been sick and she kept us awake last night.

We were gonna try to make it, our Melissa was gonna try to make it to church with her.

We were all getting ready.

And then I don't know where Ellie throws up.

So she's there and it was a rough night.

But there's nothing a little bit of praise can't fix, amen.

So praise the Lord.

I wanna just, once more, I know Angel already mentioned it, but I wanna thank you to everybody who helped, who bought a plate, who supported the ministry, who was here in the kitchen working.

A special, very special shout out to Keaton and Tita for making the meat.

It went hard, bro.

It was delicious.

It was delicious, amen.

So guys, thank you all.

Thank you for your yes.

Of course, Claudia, who I call our administrative pastor or director.

We don't have an official title, but she gets all the logistics done and she did well, amen.

Praise the Lord.

I wanna get into the word this morning.

I wanna take you to the book of Judges.

Judges chapter two.

Anybody ready to receive the word this morning?

Amen, praise the Lord.

We are in February.

That means hype month is gone, right?

January, where everybody commits to new things and tries new things and says, "You know what, we're gonna go to church.

"We're gonna go to church every Sunday in 2024.

"We're gonna eat better.

"We're gonna exercise.

"We're gonna read the Bible more.

"We're gonna pray more.

"We're gonna fast more.

"We're gonna do all these things."

January is a good month for that.

And then February was like, "We'll do it next year."

So I wanna challenge you to continue with those commitments that you made.

If you haven't missed a Sunday yet, praise the Lord.

Keep on coming, man.

Keep being in the house of God.

So Judges chapter two, we're gonna read from verses 10 through 12 and we're gonna read a little bit.

So I'm gonna use the NLT this morning so I don't lose any of you.

Most scholars are convinced that the book of Judges had multiple authors from different time periods.

This is a book that spans about 350 years from the death of Joshua to Israel's monarchy.

And this section that we're gonna read is believed to actually be the first introduction to the book, which predates chapter one.

So the book's a little out of chronological order.

You probably don't really care about any of that, but I like to insert it into my preachings just so that we can better understand the book.

And this section highlights the overall condition of the Judges period.

Throughout the book, you'll see repeatedly the phrase that says, "And in those days there was no king," for the people did what was right in their own eyes.

And this is a, I think this is a point that we often miss that even though there was no king in Israel, there was still God, right?

And God was to be their king, just as Jesus continues to be our king, amen.

Doesn't matter who's in office, it doesn't matter who's president, doesn't matter who's governor, it doesn't matter who's, it doesn't matter any of that.

Jesus is our king, amen.

And we can have an anti-God country and anti-God government, but I will not be anti-God, God lives in me.

That's something that the Israelites forgot about.

There was no king in those days, but there was still God and God was to be their king.

This is a point in time where the Israelites, they had the law, they had the instruction, they had generations of forefathers who were men and women of faith, but because the people were no longer in relationship with the Lord, they did what was right in their own eyes.

And before we get into the message, I just wanna start there, you know, that is the danger.

Somebody say danger.

That is the danger of losing communion with God.

Even though you know what is right, you don't do what is right because you're not living for God.

You're living for yourself.

You've made yourself king in your life.

And that is the condition that the Israelites find themselves in.

And so the author begins talking about the death of Joshua.

And then in verse 10, it says this, I'm gonna ask you to stand.

Verse 10, it says, "After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord, or remember the mighty things that he had done for Israel.

The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord's sight and served the images of Baal.

They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt.

They went after other gods, worshiping the gods with the people around them, and they angered the Lord.

They abandoned the Lord to serve the Baal and the images of Astoroth.

This made the Lord burn with anger against Israel.

So he handed them over to the raiders who stole their possessions.

He turned them over to the enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them.

Every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought against them.

Man, you don't want God fighting against you, just causing them to be defeated, just as he had warned.

And the people were in great distress.

Verse 16 says, "Then the Lord raised up judges to rescue the Israelites from their attackers.

Yet Israel did not listen to the judges, but prostituted themselves by worshiping other gods.

How quickly they turned away from the path of their ancestors, who walked in obedience to the Lord's commands.

Whenever the Lord raised up a judge over Israel, he was with the judge and rescued the people from their enemies throughout the judge's lifetime, for the Lord took pity on his people who were burdened by the oppression and suffering.

But when the judge died, the people returned to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them.

They went after other gods, serving and worshiping them, and they refused to give up their evil practices in stubborn ways.

So the Lord burned with anger against Israel.

And he said, "Because these people have violated my covenant, which I made with their ancestors and ignored my commands, I will no longer drive out the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died."

Amen.

Let's go to God in prayer, Heavenly Father, I thank you for this word that you minister to your servant, Lord.

I pray that you would speak it through my lips, Holy Spirit, I pray that I would be sensitive to what you wanna say, what you wanna do, my God.

And I pray that you would give us a heart that is receptive to receive your word, to receive correction, encouragement, my God, edification, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen, you can go ahead and be seated this morning.

Pastor Danny was preaching this morning, his sermon really, it really related a lot to what God is gonna say this morning to us.

And the title of my message this morning, very easy to remember, I entitled it, "Judges."

Judges, just like the book.

And though the book of Judges, it records the acts of the judges, it records the period of the judges, which again is about 350, 400 years.

This is not a book about judges.

This is a book about the people of Israel who were given the land of promise, who began to turn away from God, who took them out of Egypt, and gave them this land of promise.

It's a book of the rebellion and the moral failure of Israel.

I just read chapter 19 the other day and man it's just a, it's a sad and wicked story that embodies the entire culture of the Israelites during this time.

And you read it and you're gonna wonder why it's there.

Because it does nothing to edify your spirit, it does nothing to correct you, it does nothing to convict you.

It's just this evil story inserted into the book of Judges, but it's there to show us how spiritually desolate the people of Israel had become.

And so throughout the book, you'll see these ups and downs for the Israelites.

And you'll see this very common cycle, just allow me to just give a little bit of background first, okay, and then we'll get into the Holy Ghost fire, right?

But the common thread here in the book of Judges is the people suffer at the hands of their enemies, and then they cry out to God and God hears them, he raises up a judge to fight for them.

And then when the judge dies, they go back to their wicked ways.

And the cycle just repeats itself and repeats itself over and over.

And it's really sad when you think about that because if you think about the history of Israel this far, starting back at Abraham, Abraham was given a promise by God, by Yahweh.

And he said, God said to Abraham, "I'm going to make you into a nation, I'm gonna give you many descendants, and I'm going to take you and your people into the land of promise."

And so Abraham's descendants, they begin to multiply, ultimately they end up in Egypt for the next 400 years.

And then God raises up Moses to take his people out of Egypt and into the promised land.

And then for the next 40 years, they spend time wandering in the wilderness, waiting to get into the promised land.

Then after the 40 years, God raises up Joshua and the generation of Joshua to go in and conquer the inhabitants of the promised land.

And God is with them.

And after all of that time, all of that history of Israel, the people of Israel are now standing and walking and living in the land of promise.

But they're forgetting about the covenant that God made with their ancestors.

They're forgetting about the covenant that God said, "If you obey my commands, if you love the Lord with all your heart, you will be blessed."

Imagine having all the blessings that God promised your mama, your dad, your grandparents, everything that they waited for.

Now you are a product of, but you've turned your back on the Lord.

Imagine that.

Sometimes we don't realize that we are living in the realities that were once the dreams and the promises of other people.

And we're just taking advantage of it.

And we're just walking in the promise nonchalantly, right?

Complaining about everything and wishing things could be better.

You know, I am, I always say this, but I'm really proud to be a fourth generation Christian.

I am, you know, I'm proud that I had parents and grandparents and great grandparents who raised a godly family.

And, you know, I love my family.

I'm proud of my family for other reasons.

I'm proud to be a kanthu, you know, kanthu baby.

I'm proud to come from a line of handsome men, right?

With good hair. (laughs) That was funny.

What was, where's Abiyat?

Abiyat, he's up here, man.

He looks like the Mexican Justin Bieber, bro.

And he's beautiful hair.

And I'm like, bro, I love that hair.

I'm like, how much time do you spend on it every morning?

He's like about five minutes.

I'm like, bro, that's like four hours out of your month, bro.

That's a waste of time.

Me, zero. (audience laughs) That's how you make lemonade out of lemons, right?

But I'm proud of my family.

But more than anything, I am proud to come from a lineage of godly men and women.

I declare over my life, over my children's life, that they will be fifth generation Christians.

Pure bread, baby.

I'm praying that my grandchildren will be sixth generation Christians, right?

My last name, it dies with me, you know?

I'm trying to convince Layla to keep her last name and give it to her son, but I don't know how that's gonna fly with her husband.

But what worries me more than anything is that somewhere down the line, the generational blessings will be broken.

That's my worry.

We're always talking about breaking generational curses.

We need to talk about preserving generational blessings.

You know what I'm saying?

And what's scary is that I have no control what happened six generations down the line.

So my prayer is constantly, Lord, protect my family, protect and give wisdom, give discernment, give power, give authority, give an anointing over my family members who have not even been born yet.

Because I'm fourth generation.

I wanna keep this thing going.

And maybe you're first generation Christian.

And if that's you, that's a privilege.

That's a privilege that Abraham had to be the first of what would come.

That's a man, praise God for that if that's you.

Praise God for that.

It will have started with you.

But we have to work tirelessly, church, to ensure that those who come after us, they have the proper instruction in the ways of the Lord.

Angel just talked about it.

You have to be instructed in the ways of God.

You have to know God through his word.

You have to know him.

You have to have an intentional relationship with the Lord.

The text says that a generation was raised that did not know the Lord or remember what he did for them in Egypt.

My question is why the heck not?

Why didn't they know?

No one told them, right?

No one told, no one taught them.

No one discipled them.

That's my question.

Tell your kids your testimony.

Tell your kids what God did for you.

Tell them about the time that you were in the trespasses of your sin.

What God rescued you.

I love that I know my dad's testimony.

I love that I know that he was almost killed in an accident where his brother was killed and that was such a transitional moment for his life and his faith.

I love knowing that.

Tell your kids what God has done in your life so that they can see the love that you have for the Lord in desire for themselves.

Because the only thing that is going to preserve generational blessings, church, is the spirit of God indwelling their lives, indwelling the next generation.

That's the only thing that will preserve generational blessings.

This all reminds me of this concept that I heard long ago that comes from a brother, junior, pastor, pastor, junior, pastor, junior.

This idea of borrowed faith, borrowed faith.

I believe he gave his testimony several years ago and I wasn't there.

I didn't get a chance to hear it but I heard about it.

Everybody's talking about it still.

But as a Christian, I know exactly what that means.

Borrowed faith.

And he talked about how growing up he was raised in a godly home, godly parents, but maybe for a while God was never really in his life.

Instead he was being sustained by the faith of his mother which is a beautiful thing.

That's a beautiful thing.

But we gotta be honest, that's not sustainable, church.

I want you to hear me.

If you're not listening, I want you to start listening right now.

That's not sustainable.

That your kids are just borrowing your faith and you think, well, I have enough faith to share with my entire family.

No, that's not sustainable.

You can't do that forever.

And somebody needs to hear me today because someone might be thinking that that's enough.

But just because you're godly doesn't mean that your kids are gonna grow up godly.

Godliness needs to be passed down.

It needs to be instructed.

It needs to be modeled.

It needs to be taught.

Your kids need to be discipled by you.

Just like other Christians need to be discipled by other Christians.

Your kids need to be discipled by you, mom, dad.

And even with all that effort, you still have to pray to the Lord that they choose to walk in the ways of God.

It's a lot of work and I don't mean to scare you.

But you can't assume that just because you are a man or a woman of faith, that your kids are gonna have that.

You can't make that assumption because that's one of the biggest lies of the enemy.

Oh, just because I'm a Christian.

I got cousins that were a product of the same grandparents that are not walking in the ways of the Lord.

It takes intentionality to preserve those generational blessings, bringing your kids to church.

Look, that's a good thing.

If you don't know where to start and you're here, you're starting your faith journey, that's great.

Bring your kids to church.

That is such a vital place to start.

But eventually, if you never start to instruct your kids at home, if you don't start leading your kids at home, if you don't pray for them, if you don't pray over them in the bed when they're asleep at night, if you never tell them that Jesus loves them, they're gonna grow up in the church seeing other people get their transformation but never getting one of their own.

They're gonna grow up hearing of all the other testimonies from all the other people, but they'll never have one of their own because all they were doing was getting the leftovers of your faith, never developing their own.

They were only coming to church because you brought them to church.

They were only listening to golly music because you had it on in the car.

They were only ever around golly people because that's what you brought them around.

But if you never take the time to work on their character, to work on their heart, to tell them that Jesus loves them, that Jesus has a plan for them, if you never take the time to make sure that they look like Jesus, don't be surprised when they grow up and they depart from the Lord because all they had at home was a judge but no king.

They just had a judge, a righteous judge, a judge that was raised up to fight for them and to bring them out of the things that they were going through.

But judges don't change lives.

The king of kings, only he changes lives.

And you may be the greatest judge, the most golly judge in your home, but if your kids don't know the king, they have no foundation.

And don't tune out of the sermon if you don't have kids.

You can be the friend, you can be the spouse, you can be the person standing on somebody else's shoulders of faith.

And you're only here because she's here or you're only here because he's here.

That is not sustainable because judges were never meant to hold the same power as the king.

We're all surrounded by judges.

And I don't mean that in like a judgmental way.

I mean, the church, we're here to build each other up, to pray for people, to carry people, to be there in times of distress.

The Israelites, they had judges.

The Lord sent them judges, but they rejected their king.

Even when they finally got a king, they still rejected their king because they rejected God.

And God said in Deuteronomy, "I will be your king.

I will be your king."

Because it's Yahweh who took you out of Egypt.

Not a human.

It was Yahweh who made covenant with you.

It was Yahweh who brought you into the Promised Land, but the people rejected the king.

And I don't know who I'm talking today.

I don't know who's here.

Maybe you're here because your friend brought you to church.

You're only here because someone else brings you and that's great.

But it's only God who can deliver you.

It's only God who can save you.

It's only God who offers you a second chance.

It's only God who can restore that peace and that hopelessness.

It's not a person.

Praise God for the judges in our life who pray over you and who serve you and who pick you up when you don't have a ride and who spend hours on end on the phone with you in a time of distress, but without the king.

You got nothing.

Got nothing.

Tell the person next to you, "Get your own faith."

Get your own faith.

Get your own faith.

Yesterday, and I told him, you know, new Christians, the church is so essential for new Christians.

So essential.

Pastor Daniel, can you come up here for a second?

New Christians are like babies.

They don't know how to walk.

So you need the church.

You need the brothers to pick you up 'cause you don't know how to walk.

You little baby.

It's okay.

You don't have to go through all that problems.

Or maybe you're an old man.

Like Pastor Danny.

But you need, you need the church to help you out.

And when you're like, no, I ain't feeling it.

The church says, all right, come on.

Brother David, come here.

Come here, come here.

I need a little bit of help.

You have, no, no, we're not gonna carry him.

We're gonna carry you.

And now together we're walking.

Because that's what the church does.

And I can bring you to church and I can bring you to the altar.

But I can't take you into heaven.

Eventually you have to walk.

Eventually you have to cross the finish line.

'Cause I've got my own finish line to cross.

And I will be a judge for you as long as I need to be.

But if Jesus isn't king, you ain't got nothing.

You ain't got nothing.

One of the most popular stories in the book of Judges.

Are you still with me? - Yeah. - It's a story of Samson.

Samson judged Israel for 20 years during the time of oppression by the Philistines.

The Philistines, man, they were like a snare to the Israelites.

Even after Samson killed many of the rulers of the Philistines, if you know his story, you kind of know that he had this big moment where he dies and he kills all these Philistines.

But the Philistines were always, they were still around.

It was only David, the man after God's own heart, the man who loved God, the man who made God his king.

He was the one who put an end to the Philistines.

Samson, he's this man with like superhuman strength, it's anointing over his life.

And his story begins in chapter 13.

And the chapter opens up saying, and the people of Israel did what was evil on the side of the Lord.

And the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years.

And so the angel of the Lord, he appears to Samson's parents and he tells them that the child that they're about to conceive is anointed.

He's going to be a Nazarite.

Nazarites were devout men who took a vow to be consecrated to the Lord.

You know, kind of how we dedicate babies to the Lord?

That's kind of our version of a Nazarite vow.

Like I'm committing to the Lord's service.

I'm committing my child to the Lord's service.

That was Samson.

And so Samson was set apart by God for his work.

In other words, Samson was anointed.

Anybody anointed in this place?

Come on, don't be ashamed of your anointing, bro.

If you're a believer, you've already been anointed.

You've been set apart.

And Samson's parents, they knew this about Samson.

They knew that he was anointed.

The Lord told them.

And so throughout Samson's story, we see his parents trying to guide him a little bit, you know, trying to lead him into godliness.

And so they'll say, "Son, "like you probably shouldn't marry a Philistine woman "because like there are enemies and you're a judge.

"It just doesn't look right, you know, "you're sleeping with the enemy."

But Samson was his own person.

He didn't listen.

And the reason I want to bring up Samson is because as a Christian, we all have a similar anointing over our lives.

We don't, you know, we're not called to be military figures, but when we come into fellowship with God, we're all called by God into spiritual warfare.

We're called into the body of Christ.

We're called to disciple people and to build each other up.

We're called to edify.

We're called to be holy.

You are called to be holy.

You're called to be holy.

You're not just called to be saved.

You're called to be holy.

You're called to be his treasured possession.

And so I bring up Samson because he is the perfect example of someone who can be anointed but not walk in his anointing.

You know, that's possible.

You can be anointed and forget that you are anointed because to be anointed literally means to be set apart for something.

Kings, when kings or priests were anointed, it was because they were set apart for a specific divine purpose.

I want you to hear me on this.

This isn't gonna blow your mind about anointing.

Anointing doesn't mean holy.

I'm gonna say that again.

Anointing does not equate holiness.

You anoint something to be holy, but just because you are anointed doesn't make you holy.

David understood this.

I'll give you an example.

You're like, give me scripture, pastor.

I'll give you scripture.

David recognized that even though King Saul was acting a fool, was trying to hunt him down because he was filled with pride and arrogance and jealousy and God had already rejected Saul as king, David recognizes that he's still the Lord's anointed one.

He ain't acting like it.

He ain't holy, but he's still the Lord's chosen one.

King David was still anointed when he sinned with Bathsheba.

And then when he murdered her husband, he was still anointed.

He just wasn't operating in the anointing.

This keyboard, man, let me, man, I wanna testify with this keyboard right here.

This is a fifth generation keyboard.

Since we're talking about generations, I bought this keyboard.

I bought it when it was Nord Stage Two.

First year when we got married, me and Melissa, I spent foolishly on this thing.

This is a, I don't want to tell you how much it is.

It's a lot of money.

And I went into debt the first year.

And I justified, I was like, well, we're, you know, I was in a band at that time.

We were playing a lot more.

So I was like, I could justify the money and I bought it.

So I bought it and, you know, it was here.

And I would take it, you know, whenever we'd go play.

And then about two years later, it was stolen.

But thank God for insurance, right?

Insurance paid for another one.

And about another two years later, it got stolen again.

Thank God for insurance.

But now our premium is a little bit higher.

Then a year later, it got stolen again.

And that's how we didn't even tell the insurance company.

We're like, you know what?

It's going to be more expensive.

And then a month later, it got stolen again.

This is the fifth generation of this keyboard.

And I remember when we got it, and I don't know if you remember, Pastor Danny, we were here, we were setting it up.

And I looked at Pastor Daniel and I was like, bro, let's pray over this keyboard. (audience laughing) And so I got the anointing oil and we rubbed it.

And we dedicated this to the Lord.

We said, Lord, this is your keyboard.

This belongs to you.

This is here to be an instrument of worship.

Now, when people touch these keys, ooh, there's anointing.

Now, sometimes this is used for something else other than the purpose of which it was anointed for.

Sometimes people use it as a table. (audience laughing) The fourth generation keyboard of this had two keys that were stuck because some of the communion juice got into it.

And it was stuck.

You can use this keyboard to, I don't know, write a song to your boyfriend or your girlfriend.

You can take it home and you can use it as a decorative piece.

You can use this thing for something other than what it was anointed for, but it was still anointed to be used in the service of the Lord.

And that's what we use it for, Sunday after Sunday.

That is the Lord's keyboard, consecrated, set apart for his service.

You can be anointed and not operate in your anointing.

You can be a Christian and not operate in the purpose God designed for you.

That was Samson.

Samson reminds me of one of those pastor's kids.

You know, they say PK is all the worst, right?

He reminds me of a pastor's kid because he grew up in the service of the Lord.

He grew up with parents who tried to, you know, teach him and lead him to godliness.

He grew up with a very obvious anointing and gifting over his life, but he became careless with it.

The Bible says that oftentimes, particularly in times of trouble, the spirit of the Lord would rush upon Samson.

And that phrase, spirit of the Lord rush upon Samson, it doesn't have to mean what you think it means.

In our Pentecostal tradition, we could easily misinterpret that for Samson being a spirit-filled believer, but Samson was not, he was not a spirit-filled believer.

Samson wasn't spiritually mature at all.

He didn't exhibit God's character or holiness.

He was called to it, but he was never walking in it.

And so Samson is an example of what God can do through a person who's not even walking in the fullness of their calling.

God used Samson's weakness for a greater purpose.

The Bible says that he killed more Philistines with his death than he did with his life.

And that's just a testament of the sovereignty and the mercy of God, but that's a whole other message.

What I want you to understand is that we shouldn't be used by God in spite of what we're doing or who we are.

We should be used by God because we are willfully submitted to the King.

I don't want to be, I don't want the spirit of God to have to rush to get to me.

I want him to be dwelling in me at all times.

The spirit of the Lord would rush upon Samson, but he wasn't filled with the spirit.

Instead, Samson was a man who believed in God.

He believed in the power of God.

He's got all the potential.

He's got all the gifting in the world, but the character's not there because even though Samson was anointed by God and had godly parents and came from a godly lineage, he never made God king.

God was never his king.

And so what happens every now and then in the story of Samson, you're still with me, right?

I'm almost done.

Trouble will come upon Samson.

We talked about trouble last week.

We talked about suffering.

Everybody suffers.

Everybody's gonna go through a season of trial.

Samson was always facing some type of adversity.

The Philistines would attack him.

A lion would attack him.

Delilah would try to deceive him.

And then the spirit of the Lord would rush upon him in moments of trouble.

That's it.

It's almost as if it was some type of defense mechanism where Samson's like, wait, something's not right here.

Let me go back to my anointing.

Let me exercise the anointing over my life.

It's like in time to trouble.

That's when he's reminded of who he is.

That is when he calls upon the Lord in times of suffering.

And I'll tell you what, man, I see that a lot in church.

I see that a lot with Christians.

You're not walking in the manner of which God called you.

You're not being the person that God designed you to be.

You're not operating in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Most days.

But you know who God is.

You've been there before.

You've been spirit-filled before.

You used to be that Christian there at church every Sunday at the altars every single Sunday.

You would never miss a beat.

You would be there all the time with your hands lifted.

But somewhere along the way, you stopped operating in that anointing.

I know I'm speaking to somebody.

So what happens is when trouble comes into your life, when the Philistines of your day come to attack you to try to destroy you, that's when you go into fight mode because you know that's what you gotta do.

And so you start to come back to church and you start to be consistent and you start to pray a little bit and you start to worship a little bit and you start to invite God back into your home because you need to be rescued in this time of trouble.

And so that spirit of the Lord rushes upon you to remind you who you were called to be.

And all of a sudden you start to see a little bit of victory.

You start to see a little bit of favor.

You start to see a little bit of joy and some holiness.

But just like Samson, just like the Israelites, when the dust settles, you check the anointing out until the next time the Philistines come.

And I'm tired of seeing that.

And the Lord is tired of seeing that because you're wasting away the anointing over your life.

You are anointed man of God, woman of God.

I'm saying that, you need to know, you're like, who, me?

You are a man, a woman of God.

That's what you were called to be.

The moment Jesus called you, the moment Jesus saved you, the Holy Spirit, and dwell in you, and set you apart for a purpose.

But you get comfortable.

You get comfortable.

And you forget that you were anointed.

You forget that you have a purpose.

You forget that you have a calling.

You forget that that gifting isn't there for no reason.

It's there to be used.

And the only way to combat this church, it's not a three-point sermon.

It's not a three-point formula.

It's really not that hard at all.

The way that you do this is by submitting to the kingship of God.

That's it.

That's it.

More of us want God as the deliverer, God as the healer, God as the provider, God as the rescuer.

None of us want God as king.

That's why it's hard to worship God when everything is okay and when we're not in need of anything.

But the moment you need something, you're at the altars on your knees, crying your heart out, because Lord, I need you right now.

What about when you didn't need me as much?

What about when you had everything?

What about when the marriage was good?

What about when you had the house?

What about when you had the income?

God is worthy to be worshiped because he's king.

That's it.

Because he's king.

Because he's Lord.

This is how generational blessings get preserved when God is king.

When God is king, the church can hurt you, but you don't leave it because you're not here for the church.

You're here for the king.

When God is here, you can be rich.

You can be poor.

You can have everything.

You can have nothing either way.

You will be faithful because God is king.

The author of Chronicles, he says, "Yours, oh Lord, is the greatness and power "and the glory and the victory and the majesty "for all that is in heaven and in earth is yours.

"Yours is the kingdom."

And I'm here just to challenge somebody today to stop making God so small.

He's not here just to bless you.

He's not here just to bless you.

He's not here just to give you what you want.

He's here to reign.

He's here to Lord over your life, over the life of your family.

I have the band come up.

And the story of Samson, the Bible says that Samson finally tells Delilah, Delilah's undercover working for the Philistines.

And she's trying to trick Samson into telling her the secret of his strength.

And then the Bible says, "Finally, after all of this nagging," 'cause you know how, you know, I won't finish it, I'll just let y'all.

"After all this nagging and pestering, "Samson, come on, don't you love me?"

He finally gives in.

And that is equivalent.

It's kind of a funny story.

It's kind of a funny story when we read it, but it's equivalent to Samson giving up his testimony.

He's just handing it over because he's no longer protecting it.

When you get to a place in your life where you're no longer protecting the testimony, you've lost all fear of the Lord.

There's no conviction.

And it was at that moment that the Bible says, "The Lord left him."

And that is one of the scariest things that could happen.

That's one of the worries that I have over my family, two, three, four generations down the line.

Even though I won't be alive anymore, I'm gonna be in the presence of God.

My fear is that the Lord will leave my family as a result of rebellion and heart and hearts.

And there's so many people in the church, people that I love, people that I wanna see succeed in the Lord who have not allowed God to be king in their life.

And please hear me, look, come into church, singing worship songs, giving your tides, giving your offerings, that doesn't make God king.

God is king.

Are you listening?

God is king when you give him the parts of you that you don't wanna give.

God is king when you submit the things that you've been holding on to for such a long time, you haven't given them to anybody.

You don't even want, you don't even acknowledge the fact that they're a part of you because if you acknowledge the fact that they're a part of you, you know that God is gonna ask for it.

But that's when you make God king.

That's how generational, this is how generational curses get passed down.

When you hold on to things that God is asking you to give up, come on.

This is, we're always talking about generational curses.

And the way generational curses work, it's not that God is gonna punish you just because your father sinned.

No, generational curses happen when I am holding on to something that is sinful and I inadvertently pass it down to my children because I'm so bitter and they see it, it becomes a part of them because I'm always at home and I'm always screaming at everybody.

I got no sense of peace in me.

They grow up seeing that chaos, making it a part of their identity.

That's a generational curse.

And it needs to be broken, but it can't be broken until you, man and woman of God, submit it.

Give it up to the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

When you say God, I give you everything.

I know that's something that we say like in songs, Lord, I give you everything.

But how many Christians actually give God everything?

Everything.

God wants your best parts.

He also wants your worst parts.

It's the worst parts that God wants to have so that he can restore.

But we're holding on to these things, thinking God doesn't need it, God doesn't want it.

When you say God, have everything, have everything.

And you commit all of you to Him and all your family to Him.

And you begin to disciple your children and you begin to be intentional with your children and make sure that they are growing up with their own faith, not your faith.

That is the making of a family that will walk in the ways of the Lord for generations to come.

Not only that, that is the making of prophets.

That is the making of prayer warriors.

That is the making of preachers and pastors and men and women of faith.

When God is king and when you're walking in your purpose that God has planned for you.

We don't need any more halfway Christians.

If that's even a thing.

We don't need any spiritless believers.

We need a church submitted to the king of kings.

We need a church that breaks generational curses and protects generational blessings.

We need a church that walks in the faith of their own rather than the faith of others.

We need a church that stops depending on the judges and begins to submit to the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

That is the church that God is looking for.

That is the man that he's looking and calling out of you.

That is the woman that he is calling out of you.

You were called.

You were called.

The Bible says, Jesus says, many are called but only few are chosen.

Many are called.

When Jesus died up on that cross, he made salvation available to every single person.

Everybody has an invitation.

You have an invitation to your anointing but you gotta step in it.

You gotta walk in it.

You gotta protect it.

You gotta preserve it.

You gotta fight against it when the enemy wants to come and attack you.

You gotta pray over it.

You gotta protect it for your children.

You gotta disciple them because you, not only you, but the people that come after you have been called by the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

I need you to commit church.

I need you to commit.

I need you to commit.

No more half ways.

Go ahead and stand.

No more halfway Christians.

No more debating.

I don't wanna go to church.

No more going down.

Go to church.

No more staying awake when the Lord is calling you to pray.

Just get up.

You're anointed.

You're anointed.

You're anointed.

And I wanna pass you anointed church.

I wanna pass you anointed people, man.

Because anointed people, they know how to make more anointed people.

Anointed people know how to make disciples.

Anointed people know how to worship the king of kings in his presence when nobody else wants to worship.

Oh, man.

Can we just worship right there?

Can you lift up your hands right there where you're at?

Oh, holy God.

We worship you, name your name.

Come on, right there, right there where you're at.

Just be here to worship.

If you wanna come to the altar, if you wanna have a moment with God, I invite you, the altars are open.

But I just want us to go into the presence of God right now.

And I want us to be mindfully stepping into our annoyance in this morning.

Yes, yes, yes.

You are worthy, yes.

You are worthy, my Jesus.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mynumachurch.org.

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us @mypneumachurch.

Thanks again and God bless. (gentle music) [MUSIC]