We Are We Label

We really need it. Amen, you need prayer too, buddy, Pray for you too, grow up and be a mighty man or woman of God. I couldn't tell from your cry which one whatever applies Romans chapter four, you already thank you Jesus. Romans chapter four. Let's go to verse number sixteen in the NIV translation of the Later Bible. Therefore, the promise comes by, Oh y'all, stand up. Y'all too sleepy sitting for the scripture. Stand up. I thought y'all were mature enough to be enthusiastic sitting down, But I

was wrong. Stand up, Yeah, get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, Therefore, the promise comes by therefore, so we know what comes and we know how it comes. The promise is what comes. Faith is how it comes. We don't know when it comes. That's the hard part when we're waiting on God by faith to do something that he promised by grace. And we spoke about that last week from this passage how Abraham was one hundred years old when he finally saw

everything that God had spoken to him. So it's not too late shout that out. It's not too late. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and maybe guarantee. If it's by human effort, then it's going to depend on my behavior on any given day. If it's by grace, then it is dependent on God's character, which never changes. I like what you said during the offering. That was good. He said, God's not changing. So if you encounter him, you must change.

You need to preach that whole thing before before the next time I see you. Now look at this, I might preach it today. I might steal that on the spot and act like I prayed about it. It said that it may be by grace, may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, which is a strange faith. He had to set out on a word from God without God giving him a map or a destination. All God said was

go to the land, then I'll show you. So the faith of Abraham is the faith to keep going, not knowing. How's this going to turn out? When's this going to turn around? Is it gonna be all right? Is it gonna lift? Am I ever gonna feel better? Is it going to clear up this time? What's the doctor going to say next Tuesday? The faith to keep going not knowing, that's the faith of Abraham. It was also the faith to put his son Isaac on the altar and believe that God was able to raise the dead, the faith

of Abraham. It was also the faith to make a mistake and still have God move him into the right position. The faith of Abraham. It's a complicated, complicated faith, but it's simple if we believe. Look what it says about Abraham. He is the father of us all as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not against all hope.

Abraham in hope believed, and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be. Let's lift right there from that verse. Abraham in hope believed, and so became. And look at the person next to you and say, I'm not done becoming. You may be seated. Whoo Hey, y'all know what, in the spirit of keeping it a hundred, I need to admit something to you. There was a time.

There was a time about five years ago that I had gotten so upset with preaching sermons that I thought were impressive that I lost my focus on preaching sermons that would be impactful. And through a series of confirmations and impressions that God gave me, I realized that I needed to spend a little bit more time on preaching from my heart, not just from my head, to really flow with the Holy Spirit. I wanted to be a

preacher who was more spirit led than mentally dependent. That doesn't mean I don't want to think through what I'm going to say. God knows. I don't want to get up here like I'm naked on the first day of school talking about, Uh, what y'all want to preach about today? Anybody got a scripture? What y'all think that means? I

don't know. Let's pray. But I want to be in the flow, in the moment with the Lord, so that whatever he speaks, that I agree with that because if I come into agreement with what he speaks, his authority will be behind it. If I say what I think, I have no divine backing. So to be in the flow with God means that He could give me something to say in the moment that wasn't in my notes. And that's why when I'm up here, I bring notes and I don't look at him. I bring them like

what was the character that had the blanket? Was it Linus? And I bring these messy little notes up here. And when I tell you these notes are illegible and unusable, I mean, I don't even know what I wrote when I wrote it. It's just therapeutic to write something down. But really, I'm just trusting in God. Can I keep it a hundred with you? I need God. I need God. I mean I have a structure, I have outline, I have a script sure, in fact, I have more scriptures

than I could preach. But I need God. Yeah, this is what I want to tell you about that, because I'm not trying to teach preaching seminar here today. How many of you do not want to be a preacher? Right, that's a lot of y'all that do. I was shocked by that. Trust me, don't do that now. It's great, It's the great privilege in the world. And it'll give

you a stomach ulcers. So there's that. But look, the thing that I had to do to become what I wanted to be, which is a more spirit led preacher, was the last thing that I do after all the study, preparation and seeking God, whether go on a walk, or take a cold shower, or lay on my face or listen to Gira, you know, over and over until God speaks or listen to Metallica, is Giro won't get the job done. Start preaching about wrath, whatever it takes, you know, I want to say what God wanted me to say.

I really don't need you to feel good when I get done. I just need to feel like I obey God. Because even if you left and felt good and I didn't obey God, I wouldn't feel good when you left. And that's not fear that you feel good and I feel bad because I didn't listen to what he told me to say. So if we pray for Bobby, we pray for Bobby. If I say something crazy, I say something crazy. If they mean me, they mean me. You remember Esther said, if I perish, I perish. If they

cancel me, they cancel me. It's got to be that I stay in alignment with God so that I feel good about myself when you're not around. And so, in wanting to be a more spirit led preacher, there's something that began to happen, and it was that I spent more time praying and stuff ud, reflecting and meditating on the word of God. And I'm going to show you why this is important to your life in a moment. But the last thing that I do before I preach is decide what the title of the sermon will be.

It used to be the first thing I did. Okay, I'm gonna preach about this. I'm gonna preach about grace, and I'm gonna call it this and here's the notes and here's the points. But as I wanted to be more spirit led, I had to change certain procedures and processes. And I'm not saying that you should do this, because, like I said before, this isn't really even about preaching. But this is the method that really helped me is that I started deciding what to call it right before

I preach it. And here's the reason for that. The moment I decide what the message is called, it determines what the focus is going to be, and everything else that I was gonna say doesn't apply anymore. So the moment that I label it, I limit it. And I don't want to limit it while God is still giving it. You see where I'm going. If I decide too soon this is what I think it is, I might miss what God intends it to be as it is still unfolding. So I don't give a title at Saturday at six pm.

I don't give all my scriptures Saturday at eight eight pm. As a matter of fact, right before we preach. Sometimes right as we're singing the Lord to give me one more scripture, I'll run back, make sure everything's zipped up, buttoned up, tidied up, pulled up, tightened up, everything's good. Boom, and here's another scripture. But I don't want to cut God off while he's still talking, lest I miss his intention because I have my own agenda. I don't want

to say too soon. Okay, God, this is what I'm speak on. This is how I'm gonna speak on it. And God's like, that's not even true. That's just what you knew when you sat down to study. So what if I want to show you something you don't know when you sit down to study. What if I want to show you something that you don't know why you're reading your scripture to your congregation? What if I want to speak something? What if I want to say something to somebody's soul that you were too stupid to put

down in your notes. But see, the Spirit of God is smarter than I am, So he can give me stuff while I'm preaching if I'm open to it. But if I'm close to it, if I label it, I will limit it. And I have a system for this, you ready, This is a real high tech system. I have a black folder, and I have yellow notes, and then I have how many of y'all love this? Right here. I got some post it notes. I got so many

of them, so it's cheap to change the title. I don't want to put it on a parchment where it's expensive. I don't want to make somebody design a title that I'm going to change anyway. So I write it myself and as soon as I get done, I stick it on the folder boom, and I preach right there. That's what I do so right before I came out today. I do this every week. I know y'all care a lot about this. This is really interesting stuff, man, it's fascinating. The last thing I do is label it, because the

moment I label it, I limit it. Yeah. I might have an idea, Yeah I might have a path. You might have a hunch. Yeah I might have a lead. But I don't know what it is until God is ready for me to deliver it. That's what I want to call this sermon today. Are we label? Are we label? Put it in your notes? Don't y'all write down the titles that I work so hard in agonize over to preach? Yeah, look like so what nobody writing it down? Come on, Robert, write it down, man, it's a good title. We are

we label. You got to call a sermon something what he preached about today a Bible stuff. He was saying about God and stuff up there and how God is good and all that stuff up there. You got to call it something. We are somebody say we are we label. I think a lot of our labels God hates. And when I say label, you probably think about a label that's on some food or a label that's on some medicine.

Labels are great for products. Don't get me wrong. They got ibuprofen in the bathroom and the way I know it's not tic TACs is because of what it says on the label. I appreciate label when it comes to keeping me from taking the wrong medicine. I appreciate labels. When Holly puts leftovers in the fridge, she'll often make a little note and put a little post it on the note with a little heart, and it will say who the food is for. Elijah pays no attention when

that says for Dad. So now we specified do not touch, do not move, do not look at this food. This is for Stephen. The verdict. Now, when I say God hates labels, I need to counteract that in balance it by saying that as humans, we love to label. We can't live without labels. We'll be popping tick tacks and wondering why our head still hurts. This one girl, one time she came on the van we're traveling with the ministry team, and she was eating Friedo's. She said, I

hate the way these taste. Somebody said, why are you eating them? She said, trying to be help. We tracked that back. We tracked that back. We found out that somebody sometimes told her that Fridos are healthier than Dorito's, so she thought it was like the healthy alternative to

Dorito's was called Frito's. And when she was asked, how long have you been substituting Dorito's, which you love, with Frido's, which you don't like, thinking that it was better for you than it really was, she says, since I was nine. She was in college at the time. I thought that was so sad that she forfeited ten years that she could have been enjoying the nacho cheesy taste of her beloved Doritos for the Freedo snack, which actually, when we read the label, had a higher fat content than the

Doritos which she loved. So she could have just been killing Doritos the whole time. Somebody he deprived this girl of her doritos. And I pray you worked through it once we told her the truth, because for me, I would need therapy ten years, a decade without doritos, because one person planted a seed of deception in your mind and said this is better for you, and you never checked it, and you never read the label. It was on the label. It said on the back of Frito's,

this will make you fat, really fat. It was on the label. So I appreciate a label when it's by the FDA or something like that. Please do not send me messages about the FDA is a conspiracy of the Illuminati and came from Star Wars. I don't want to hear none of it. But I'm saying, like a lot of the times in our life, we will label something and limit someone while we are still figuring out what it is. And a lot of what God speaks over your life never happens, not because of your limits, but

because of your labels. There were those in the early Church that wanted to limit salvation to those who were circumcised. Paul says, I hate your labels, because in Christ there is no longer slave, nor free, male nor female, gentile non gentile. God doesn't run around labeling stuff like you label stuff. And the difference between you and God is you labeled things you didn't even make. You try to label stuff that doesn't even belong to you. We try

to judge other people. So I'm real bothered about it, and I don't want to talk about it much because I get angry and I get unfiltered when I think about it. I hate how our culture has become so eager to believe the worst about anybody the first time we hear it. I hate that so something somebody says gets taken out of context. Oh, now they're a racist. You didn't even see the whole sentence that they said. You just read a headline, and now they're a racist.

You're kind of scared to say something to that. We do it all the time, and that's not black people, white people. That can go any way you want to put it. We'll call somebody something because we heard a rumor from somebody that we didn't even verify if that person was the very thing that they were calling the other And especially during political season, when you see how

they make these ads. They are praying on our prejudice, trying to get us to believe a snapshot of somebody, so we will go out and categorize ourselves as enemies of something that we don't even understand. Paul said, don't get this twisted. Don't get this twisted in Christ. It's not about what it looks like on the outside. It is not about what you can identify somebody by that you can see and that you can understand. We love

labels because we have limitations on our understanding. So the only way we can get through our life is to safely categorize people, like we try to organize our pantry so we can know which shelf to put somebody on. Oh he's not qualified, she's not qualified. She's from this family. Oh they are from that background. We love labels and God hates them. Not telling you to go through and peel off everything on your soup and your green beans

in your pantry, some superstitious thing like that. I'm saying that God hates when we label something in order to limit something, Which is why I chose Romans four, or why I believe the Holy Spirit chose Romans four to talk to us about this today, because the greatest limitation on your life right now is not your potential as your belief. When we look at the Bible stories of characters like Abraham, we get into this complicated story and we see one example of his life, and he looks

like a man of great faith. But how many know. We could have labeled him a lot of things. We could have labeled him a liar because he lied. We could have labeled him an adulter because he slept with somebody who wasn't his wife, even though the cultural custom of the time was very different than ours. We could have labeled him a lot of things. We could have labeled him by the fact that he laughed at God. We could have labeled him by a lot of things.

But when God labels him, he calls him the father of many nations. In fact, it says something that really got my attention. You ready for this? It says, Abraham be believed and so became. Let's look at that with our own two eyeballs. I want you to believe it because I said it. I want you to believe it because God said it. He said in verse eighteen, Abraham against all hope in hope believed, and so became. Say that with me, he believed, and so became he believed,

and so became. I love that. I love it because you would think he became it so he believed it. Once he saw the evidence that God could do what he promised, then he believed it. That's how human hope works. You know, it needs to see something to believe it.

This is a very different kind of faith, this faith of Abraham, the faith by which God justifies us, the faith which has an ability to know that I can stand in the middle of something that I don't understand, waiting on a detail that I don't yet have, and still believe in a God that I haven't figured out, that I can produce a promise that is inside of

me that I can't even perceive with my senses. I feel faith in my spirit right now because sometimes I have to believe things that I can't see, that I can't feel, but that God has called me to be now. Often when we talk about believing, if you go by culture's understanding of belief in faith, we are believing to have something. I want to have a better job, I want to have a better body. I want to have a wife. I want to have a husband, I want to have a child. And that's fine because God will

give you things. He will give you the desires of your heart. So I'm thirty seven to four. And not only will he put the desire in your heart, but he will fulfill the desire. So He'll put the desire there, and he will fulfill the desire. He will give you things that you didn't even think you were worthy of having. Some of us are standing in a place in life today that we honestly never knew to ask God to bring us to. I mean, I didn't know to ask God that I could pastor this church. I made myself

available to him and He did it. But that doesn't mean that I knew that it was in me when I asked God to use me. But here you are, and here I am, and here we are. Here we are the greatest thing that God will give you. Faith for though, is not something that He wants you to have, someone that he wants you to be. Not what does God want me to have? Although that is a very important thing to your father. To you, Jesus said that the birds store up, yet they're never far from the worm.

Because your father knows they need them, so he'll give you a worm. But he is more concerned, infinitely more concerned about who you are becoming in the process of receiving. I don't know who this is for. But if you get it and God doesn't get you, you will not be able to sustain what you obtain, because it's going to take the same grace and the same faith to keep it that it takes to come into it. I want to lay this foundation. This is so important, This

is so important. In the passage I read, it said Abraham what believed, and so became against all hope, when it was so far past his time, when it seemed like there was no way it would work, when there was nothing pointing to the fact that he had the potential to bring forth this nation. He believed it, and so he became it. Certain scriptures are not prescriptive, meaning that they don't tell us what to do. They tell us what the character did. That's called descriptive. Not all

Bible verses are telling you what to do. For instance, Jonah ran from the Lord, So that don't mean you go and run from the Lord because you read that jonah ran from the Lord is telling you what he did, I get you a better one. Judas went and hanged himself. Don't do that. You'll read about the man start opening his bible. He said, God, speak to me, give me a word, show me what to do, and he pointed in it said Judas went and hanged himself. He said,

oh God, let me try that again. Flipped again, put his finger right down on the Bible. And they said, whatever they'll do is do quickly. Don't do that. That's old preacher Joe. But look at this. I wonder if this dynamic. I know I'm not Abraham. I know you're not Abraham. I know you're not the father of many nations. I'm not the father of many nations. I'm the father

of three kids. And I got my hands full and my quiver full, and my quiver is overflowing, and my cup is flowing over, and everything's running over, and I'm grateful and I don't want any more. But I'm saying, does the dynamic apply that we all become what we believe, not what God says. If everybody became what God said, then everybody would be the righteousness of God. If everybody became what God said, we wouldn't live a day of our life defeated because we wouldn't be addicted, because we

are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Because that's what God said. But it is not what God said over your life that determines the limit of what you will be. That limit is determined by your belief. And I just want to stand here and tell you I want to be all that God called me to be, all of it. I want to do everything he called me to do. I want to walk in everything he called me to walk in. I want to give everything he called me to give. I want to say everything

he called me to say. I want to write everything he called me to write, every song, every sermon, every conversation. I want to put it all out here while I'm here. As long as I'm here, I want to see what God can do through me. I want to get to heaven, and God show me a whole warehouse of who I would have been if I had listened to Him rather than listening to the labels of people whose own minds were limited. I don't want to get to heaven, and

God showed me the church. I could have passed her if I would have had the faith to stand flat footed and say what he told me to say. I don't want to get there and regret that God would speak something that I would refuse to believe. I don't want to go ten years not eating Doritos because you told me Fredo's were health food. Now I want you to get something in your mind. Let's make this a seminar today, because that's all wonderful. Oh, Abraham had faith

and that's wonderful. And Abraham set out and that's wonderful. And Abraham received the promise and that's awesome, and that's terrific, and that's spectacular. But if we just do that, this is a fantasy football service where none of us do anything but watch somebody do something and loosely associate with what they did and call ourselves a coach. The Lord said, a lot of people's faith is a fantasy realm. We don't know how to do this. Believe God? Okay, yeah,

I believe God. That's great. I believe even God he's directing my past. But what does it mean to believe until you become in order to do this. We're gonna all do this, everybody in the room, everybody on Epham. I want you to get one thing. Write it down, put it online if you're online, put it in your notebook. If you're on a notebook, put it in your phone.

If you can open your phone and not be distracted by the people who have been texting you, who should be in church right now, but are busy distracting you, trying to snatch this word while God's preaching it. I want you to get one thing on your mind. We're gonna make this so some you can't leave here today and be like, Okay, Abraham is the man. We're gonna talk about you. We're gonna talk about you, your label, your limits, your faith, your belief because he said we

are all the offspring of Abraham who believe. So God doesn't look through the room and be like, Okay, this sermon is good for her. She's at the eleventh grade Christianity level. He's at the fifth grade. She's at the third grade. He's gonna need some school. God doesn't look at the class like that. We all need the same grace. None of us need mini grace, bitty grace, any bitty little grace. We all need the same grace. So here's

what I want you to get on your mind. What is one thing that you want to be that you don't feel like you are right now? I want to be not what I want to have. And don't put rich, and don't put skinny, and don't put ripped. Put something that we can't pull up on TikTok or YouTube shorts right now. Put something deeper down. I want to be more. What is it? Put it in the chat if you're watching online. I believe God is calling me to be more. Somebody got one? Shout it out? Okay, okay, I get

I heard one. Confident, that's a good one. Write that down, Hall confident. What loving you said? That's kind of angry? Loving You really seem like you need it. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I just thought that was funny, loving God, God, confident, loving, put it. I want to be more wet. No, no, no, you can't pray for that one. She's that comfortable. He's that comfortable, because I'm gonna tell you why, because a lot of times your comfort zone is what kills you.

So if God makes you more comfortable, he's gonna make you more complacent. Because if you get comfortable, you get complacent. So God is never going to design a life for you that doesn't require him. He's always gonna give you something in your life where you feel like, oh, I don't deserve this, I'm not worry worthy of this. I can't do this. The moment that stops happening, you stop growing. The moment you stop growing, you start dying spiritually. And

God isn't like that. So he'll say, I know that at this point in your life, you've gotten pretty comfortable, Abraham. I know you're rich, Abraham. I know you're settled, Abraham. But I'm gonna give you a place in your life where you don't have that yet, that you still need me, so that you can see me for who I am, not who you thought I was when you labeled me when you first met me. So let's get another one available. Hole keep going, all right? You got confident? Whyse I

wish I could hear every campus right now? I wish I could. Okay, it sounds like the Tower of Babbel now, so I'm gonna just I'm gonna stop and do a few. Okay, So you got one I put down. I made my own list before I came somewhere in this yellow legal pad full of notes and it said joyful. I believe God wants me to be more joyful. I do see myself sometimes and I'm like, you know, like, what do you have to be so mad about? Stress? It's another thing I want to be stressed. I'm stressed a lot.

So I think God wants me to be more peaceful. I do. I believe the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, of patience, kind of goodness. Say to this general self control. So I believe God wants me to be more peaceful. I do. I don't think God wants me to get my heart rate up every time somebody doesn't know how to drive, because I know it's not me. This a bad driver. And funny we label somebody else a bad driver.

They're a bad driver. Couldn't have been you? No, no, no, no no, no, confident, peaceful, joyful, loving, generous, patient, Well you better be careful asking God for patience. When you pray for patience, God sends problems and people. I used to think every annoying person that I met was the answer to a prayer for patients I prayed in the season before I met him. All Right, so here's the second question. If I'm believing that God wants me to

be more joyful, patient, confident. I'm thinking the principle It said Abraham believed and so became, not he became and then believed. He didn't go take a personality test that said, oh, you're the father of many nations and then back into that from his God gave him a promise and a purpose. He believed that and became it. So here's the second part.

What would I need to believe to become it? If I want to be more joyful and I do, or if I want to be more confident and I do, or if I want to be more loving and I do, or if I want to be more patient and I do, what would I need to believe to be it? And that good question because if we say, like, well, how do I need to behave, then we're trying to do it by our own works, and then we forgot about grace. And any change that you try to make to be what God called you to be that's not empowered by

His grace, You're not going to sustain it. It's just going to be a fad or a phase. And a lot of you are here and you are frustrated because you can't change you can't change. You bought every book, you can't change. You subscribe to every email list, you can't change. You got an accountability partner, you can't change. You did every Bible reading plan they've got on the Bible. Now you're doing Spanish Bible reading plans and you're from Kansas and you never even took Spanish in high school.

And you can't change. You threw everything away, you bought it again. You went out and God threw out all the stuff that was causing your problems, and I found its way back in. You can't change. Any modification in behavior that is not matched by a change in belief will eventually hit its limit. I'm just telling you. You might be able to do it for a month, you might be able to do it for a year, you might be able to do it for five years, But you're just going to be trying to see how long

can I hold my breath? And the answer is you're eventually gonna have to come up for air unless you change what you believe. So, if I want to be more joyful and I'm currently not, what do I need to believe to have more joy? Well, Number one, I don't need to believe that it's a sin for me to be down, because then I'm gonna beat myself up because I'm down. And now, how am I gonna have joy when I'm beating myself up for being down? How am I going to experience the joy the Lord when

all I'm doing is wallowing in my own weakness. When I want to be more joyful, what do I need to believe to be it? Abraham believed and so became? What do I need to believe to become what I just said God is calling me to be? So if I want to be more joyful, maybe I need to believe that joy doesn't come from circumstances. Come on, That's what a lot of us believe that when a situation turns a certain way, we betray our belief in our language, they stole my joy, they stole it. Where's your safe?

Where's your locks? Where are your protective mechanisms to see to it that people don't get to take from you what Christ paid for. Joy comes from Jesus, not people. Joy comes from Jesus, not events. There are at least three of you who have been on a beach at a time in your life and been sad on the beach, So you found out real quick you can move places but still feel the same way or worse that you were when you left. Because you know, joy doesn't come

from a place. Joy doesn't come from a possession. Joy comes from God. Now that's the first belief I gotta have if I'm gonna be more joyful, Because if I have to go to you to get the joy, you might not have any either. So now I'm coming to you asking you for something that you don't have. Make me feel good, make me happy. Oh, you got to make me happy. I left them because they weren't making me happy. I left that church because I wasn't happy. I left that job because I wasn't happy. Your joy

is your job. I don't care if you'll like me. I'm going to Phoenix. I'll be on the other side of the country by the time you get mad at this message and tweeted me your job. And if you don't believe that you cannot access what you don't have

the rightful permission to perceive. And if you don't think you're supposed to be joyful in God's presence at his right hand is the fullness of joy at his right hand or pleasures Forevermore so, maybe I would need to believe that God wants to give me joy that the world can't take away. What would you need to believe to become more joyful? Maybe I will believe that joy isn't an effective circumstance, but it is a product of my perspective. Y'all don't want me to teach today Abraham.

I just talk about him because that'll be easy, and we'd be like, oh, Abraham, he is a great man. He believed and so became. What are you becoming? Whatever it is, it's because of something you're believing. Eating Fredos. It doesn't have to be a truth to be a belief of people confused it to well, that's my truth. I'm just living my truth. That's so stupid. If it's truth, it's not yours, it's God's. There's one truth, it's his. Oh we'll see that person there, this there, that there

are another. God hates those labels because moment you label it, you limit it. It made me so mad. One time somebody told me something about our church, and I know they meant it in the nicest possible way, and I know they were probably trying to be constructive. But they said, elevation is the church where you catch the fish, but you don't clean them up. This brother in Christ, I'm gonna say it like that. The label, you know, it's poor.

He was saying it to me as if like, oh, because people come in this church and their lifestyle doesn't immediately change. You know, you catch them and we'll clean them. That's what he was saying. He was saying, I'll preach the word of God that helps them grow. You preach the grace that gets them saved. That is the dumbest distinction in the history of humanity. It really is. That's like saying, Okay, you eat and I'll drink. It takes

both to live. And I want to declare to you today that nobody really changes to become what God made them without the grace of God. So we don't get grace to become Christians. And oh now I'm saved by grace and I'll try really hard to earn it from God in the future. That is not how we change, not God, not in a lasting way, not in a sustainable way. That's ridiculous. That's our label that we want to do. Oh he's a baby Christian. Oh he's a mature Christian, and we measure that by how much scripture

they knew. That is not how God labels faith. I'll rather you know one Bible verse and do it. Old old Preacher James used to say, you can have your Bible so marked up, looks like a color and book, and it won't get you into heaven. You got to come into heaven by the door. You got to come into heaven by the grace of God. You've got to grow by the grace of God, the same grace you were saved in. Don't categorize people so quickly. You don't even know if they really said that. You don't even

know if they really did that. You don't even know if that's really how it is. You never even really talk to them. You never even really asked them how they grew up. You never really asked them why they do that. You never really asked them why they dressed like that. You never even asked them. You remember the lady that came into church and she'd never been to church before. She didn't have any church clothes, y'all remember, And she was dressed wearing what she had, and it

wasn't very modest. And when she was in there. Everybody was staring at her, and everybody was judging her, and everybody was whispering about her. And so afterwards the pastor met her at the door and said, you got to ask God before you come back here what you should wear the church. Now, don't come back here until you prayed about what you're wearing. So she came back the next weekend. She was wearing the same thing, and the pastor said, didn't I tell you to ask God what

to wear before you came back to this church? And she said I did. And he said, well, what did God say? And she said, God said he didn't know what I should wear to this church because he'd never been here before. God hates labels. He hates it. He hates it when we think we're righteous because we don't do this bad behavior. Well, you got some other bad behaviors, some bad beliefs. We can't just judge somebody based on a snapshot that we saw. We become what we believe.

And the problem with a lot of us is our basis of belief is in the wrong thing. So our faith is weak because we started with a weak belief. Who said confident, I want to be more confident. I love that one because I was thinking, what would I need to believe to be more confident. I probably need to believe what the Bible says, that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. I would be more confident if I believe that God started it. If I think I started it, I've got

to sustain it. I didn't ask to be born. I didn't ask to be five nine and a half with a pretty good beard. I didn't ask for any of that. But God put me here, and I want to see what I can be. But I don't want to label myself too soon because I'm not done becoming yet. So when I sit in the presence of God, I don't just want to tell him what I am, because what I think I am is what I label myself. And when I label myself, I limit myself. Oh I'm not good at that. Oh I'm not that kind of person.

Oh I'm not a morning person. Oh I'm not a worship person. I'm so tired of you telling God who made you, what label you need to wear. If you didn't make it, you can't name it. You don't get to label what it didn't make. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. That's who I am. So God doesn't label me based on what I am loyal to. Why are you loyal to a lie? Why would you be loyal to something someone said about you over something that God spoke about you. We become what we believe. We are.

We label, we are, We label, we are, we label. We label our lives on where we are. God labels your life based on where he knows he's taking you. So God does not label you by what you struggle with Right now. People will, that's fine, let them, don't even try to change their mind. The devil will. He'll say, you're down this far. Look at you, you're grumpy. Look at you, you're broke. Look at who you're living on the street. Look at you. You're in prison. Look at you,

you're in recovery. Look at you you lost it again. Look at you, you can't make it. Look at you, you're still in debt. Look at you, you can't get up. But God doesn't label being based on where him Right now, he stands in eternity pass and reaches it to eternity, kilts her and says, I've made you a father homedy nations. I've made you nor than a conqueror. Believe that. Believe that why you believe the Devil's so easy and believe God so harm If he set yours child yours child,

if he said you're forgiven, You're forgiven. I don't care what shame's been crawling up on you. I'm bringing right now. He's the mighty name of sees so so so does God hate your labels? Maybe he does. If you're walking around saying stuff about yourself that contradicts what He put inside of you. I think God hates you. You're labeled.

I think God hates some of our labels. As a matter of fact, I believe he hates it so much that he will do whatever he has to do to peel that label off of you so you can see what's really inside. Sometimes we label too quick, and we miss what was given. We miss what was given. You. Remember how God told Abraham, you're the father of many nations, and then he said, and I have given you this land for your descendants. Do you know what's so sad?

They never got to go into it until a whole generation had died because of what they labeled themselves in the wilderness. When you're in a wilderness, you're not there yet. When you're in a wilderness, you have left Egypt. Just because you leave Egypt doesn't mean you believe yet in what God sees you to be. So here they are, and I want you to picture yourself. This is not the faith of Abraham. This is the faith of Caleb.

I don't know if you remember Caleb, but Caleb was that one spy who when they got to the edge of what God had spoken to them. And I don't know who this is for, but you are right on the verge of becoming your best version. I'm gonna say it again. You are on the verge of your best version. Why are you so loyal to the worst version of you? Why do you go off on people and say, well, I'm just keeping it real. You're not keeping it real. You are keeping yourself in a rut. You are keeping

yourself in the first version. When God says you're a new creation, and then people give stupid advice, Oh, just do you do you? Okay, that's fine, but do the new you, not the old you, not the you that was labeled by the experiences of your life up to this point. Not the you that's all selfish all the time, just trying to figure out how it makes you look. Do the new you, Do the new you. Maybe that should be the title of this sermon. Do the new you, the one that's full of faith. Do the new you,

the one that's accepted in the beloved. Do the new you, the one that knows the Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want Do the new you, the one that is transformed by the renewing of your mind. So they get right up to the edge of the promised land, right up to the edge, just like you right now. You've been fighting, You've been frustrated. You've been back and forth and one step and two steps, and two steps

and one step, and why can't I change? And God brought you into this moment to change your label, To change your label. What you call an end, he calls a beginning. What you call over, he calls just getting started. What you call breakdown, he calls breakthrough. What you call a closed store, he calls an open window. I believe God's about to rip the roof off of somebody's life today and change your label because watch this, watch this,

I'm almost done. Can I have five more minutes, five more minutes to set somebody free, five more minutes to break somebody's change, five more minutes to preach down the glory, five more minutes to connect with your faith like a jumper cable and get you started and back on the road. To believe that you're gonna be everything God made you to be, and you're not gonna die in what you started, and you're not gonna stay down forever, because this isn't

even really you. This is not really you. You are the head is not to tell my love is not pasi has se is. You want to call me something, call me bless, You want to call me something, Call me saved, You want to call me something. Number thirteen thirty. All the voices are saying, we went into the land God gave us. There's some things God gave you you're not going into. There are some things God gave you you're not going into. There are some things God has

given you. He has promised you, He has spoken to you, and you won't become it because you won't believe it. You say, I want to be more disciplined. Well do you believe that greater is he that is in you than he that's in the world, because if you believe that, you can become whatever you need to be. Don't say I'm lazy, don't say I'm a procrastinator. I was, but

I'm not doing that version of me anymore. I got an upgrade from the manufacturer my goal just plus, there's a down law, Caleb saying, Caleb silence the people standing on the edge of the blessing and said to Moses, let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are hold on, we are. I came today to change your label. God said, today is the day you'd change you're labeled. See we are weak, but He is strong. We are we label But if you know God is able to do immesserably more than we ask. Don't label

it yet, dolabel it yet, dolabel a yet. God's not through with you yet. Who receives it, Who receives it, who receives it? I'm one of those Christians. I'm not done becoming. I plead the blood. I breathe the blood. I plead the blood. I plead the we are well abled, we are well abel. I'm going in, I'm going forward, I'm loving in it, I'm walking in it. I'm flowing in it. We are well able. I'm little, but I'm able. Eh, I'm crazy, but I'm able. I got his spirit, I

got his promise. That's what I believe. If he called me, he'll complete it. I am well, Abel, and I am finished. Stand up on your feet and clap your hands for the word Holley. Put a praise on it. Don't slip out the back. Put a praise on this word. We are well Abel. You want to die out here in this wilderness of what you think you are? Do you? So? We're gonna believe better. Baby, We're gonna eat Dorito's. I'm gonna lick the cheese off of this dorito now I

found out I can eat it. They say you are what you eat, and a lot of us have weak faith because we eat weak information, weak data, weak beliefs. You gotta eat better, baby. FreeDOS are making you fat. And it's not FDA approved. The Faith and Destiny Administration does not approve all of your doubts and condemnation. So God, in this place today and all over the world, I just see you with walking around with post it notes, just given new labels to people for the rest of

their life. New labels, no limits, new labels, no limits. I only chose Abraham to preach this message because he was so old. I thought if God could do it through him after a century on this earth, that he could do it for me and you too. Don't label it yet, even the situation you're going through yet, don't tell people yet that it was a betrayal. It might be right now, but it might also be an upgrade in the making. Don't label it. When you were telling me how you felt the other day, I was like,

stop right now, this story is to be continued. That's how we see it right now. That's not how God sees it. Your labels are limits, and God wants to redeem some things that you will not release. Damn. So right now I want you to buy your head, close your eyes all over the room. Let's just have one minute of ministry by the Holy Spirit, not by me. Lord, show me something about me where I need to change the label. Show me something about me that I don't

like that you intend to use. Show me something I need to believe to become who I really am. Show me that Lord. Only the Lord gets to label you. It is He that made us, not we ourselves, for we are the clay, he's the potter. Abraham didn't look like the father of many nations, didn't feel like the father of many nations. Doesn't mean he wouldn't. Hey, Hey, sometimes I know you don't feel like the best dad,

the best mom, the best person, the best Christian. Just because you don't feel like that doesn't mean that God has become frustrated with you. And he's not casting you off, So why would you He's not through, So why would you be Lift your hands? Lord? I receive what you speak over me. That's what I receive. What you say about my situation. I come into agreement with you right now. What would it take for me to be more peaceful? What would I have to believe? Somebody said, I want

to be more peaceful? Well, what would you need to believe? You would need to believe that all things work together for the good of them that love God. And if I focus on loving God and called according to His purpose, then not that shall be able to stop me. We are well able. Christ lives in us. We are well able. Put that label on your life. God is able to do anything that he wants to do. Heads bowed, eyes closed,

You can put your hands down for a moment. There's somebody in this place and God wants to change you today and make you a new creation in Jesus Christ. This is my favorite moment that I ever have of doing ministry because now this isn't about you writing down something in a notebook. This is about you having any

eternal change. And there is somebody, there's at least one person watching me online or here in this room that today he is today, that God wants to change your name and change your life and give you his grace. So right now, in this moment, I'm going to pray a prayer. The whole church is going to pray this prayer with me in agreement, and it's for the benefit of those who want to give their life to Christ. This is not a magic prayer, this is not an incantation.

It's a confession of faith to tell God that you know that you're a sinner and that you receive his grace to save you. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Right now, in this moment, heads bowed eyes close. If that's you, I want you to repeat this prayer after me. Heavenly Father, I am a sinner in need of a savior, and today I receive

Jesus Christ as my savior and Lord. I believe Jesus died so I could be forgiven and rose again to give me new life. I receive this new life. This is my new beginning. I am a child of God. On the count of three, shoot your hand up. If you prayed that one, two, three, shoot them up. Shoot them up online online, let us go into chack. God bless you. Amazing, amazing. Well. If you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love for you to do.

Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org. Slash GiB and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.