Generational thoughts become generational behaviors. Generational behaviors become generational actions. Generational actions can become generational sin. Generational sin becomes iniquity, and then iniquity becomes identity. And your identity in sin opens up the door to the demonic. Do you see what I just did there? This is why you've got to read the book, because it goes very deep into the generations and even gives you diagnostic tools to determine these things.
So somebody on both sides of your family was presented with stress, anxiety, and fear, worry. They were presented with pressure. They were presented with trauma. Things happen, and they had to make a choice when they were confronted with those things. So let's be honest. The problem is not alcohol. Alcohol is a bad solution for a problem. The problem is not heroin. Heroin is somebody's choice that they made to solve a problem.
So we got to go to the root, because at a point, I thought I had an alcohol problem. Alcohol wasn't the problem. It was a bad solution. So. And it really goes back down to your thought life, because show me your thought life, and I'll show you your whole life. Because your life is a reflection of your thoughts. Everything your experiences is a result of your thoughts. And you have much more control than you think that you do.
And the Holy Spirit said, one of the fruits of being in relationship with me is self control. So the more you come into alignment with the Holy Spirit, actually, the more control you will have over your whole life, and it won't be what was done to you. It's what you're doing to life. Because I started in a trailer park in extreme poverty. I started with a broken marriage between my mother and father, and then my father committed murder.
I inherited nothing in a material way, but everything in the way of trauma and sin and the demonic. But my life is a story of saying that I am not a victim. I am victorious through Christ. And you will eat your words and you will have what you say. Does anybody believe that we're all prophets? Are you a good prophet or an evil prophet? Because the Bible says that your tongue is like a small rudder that actually determines the whole ship in which direction it takes.
But then if you go deeper, the Bible says that out of the abundance of the corazon, the mouth speaks. So the problem is not even the tongue. We've got to go deeper than the tongue. We've got to go to the thought life. And in the Bible, the mind and the heart are synonyms. Somebody say, guard the gates. Oh, the Bible says that your eyes are the window to your soul. Does it not guard the gates. Somebody say guard the gates. Your eyes are the windows to your soul.
So matter of fact, even on a biological level, this is kind of gross and even weird to say it out loud, but your eyes are literally an extension of your brain. Have you ever seen a picture of it? It's like the nerve comes out of your brain and then you. So when you're looking somebody in the eyes, technically in a roundabout way, you're looking them in the brain. And some of you have made a resolution that you're going to buy organic food and you're only going to eat organic food.
And you're doing the best thing you can for a body that's going to die no matter what. But your soul is eternal and you've not guarded the gates of your eyes. You've chosen what goes into your mouth. But you still have not figured out that what's more important is what goes into your eyes. Because what. Come on. You'll buy organic food so that you for your physical body that's temporary, but not think twice about everything you'll blurring through your eyes.
You got to learn how to guard the gates. You got to learn how to guard the gates. Everyone's clapping real slow here on Long Island. I don't know how it is in Brooklyn, but everyone's like, what did I sign up to today? Let me just tell you. We have to guard the gates because our phone is a menu too. And it funny that they call it a menu when you're in the app because you're eating through your eyes. What are you consuming? Young men.
You should have never been allowed to see 1263 women in bikinis before 3:00. Oh, come on. I'm speaking to somebody. What happens when you. When you eat through your eyes and then you have a wife and you are comparing her body that bore your children to 10,000 women who never did. We got a problem. I'm speaking to somebody. We gotta guard the gates. And I think the devil, one of his biggest ploys was to get us having a phone in our hand and consuming and consuming.
And we don't understand the implications of what we consume. And so there's something about the level of the mind. So I'm gonna break down Romans, chapter 12, verse 2. I'm gonna read it. Then I'm gonna ask how many of you know it? Do not be conformed to this world. Let's do King James for my old school, folks. But be ye transformed by the renewing. Come on. Do you guys know The Bible be. You're scaring me. We're gonna start doing memory verses for adults.
I'm telling you right now, if y'all don't start quoting these scriptures with me, we're gonna do memory verses. I'll have you come up on the mic and do it in front of everybody. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. That by testing, you may discern what is the will of God. The perfect and acceptable will of God. Well, I don't know if God wants me to move. I'm thinking about going to Florida. I don't know if God wants me to do it.
I don't know if God wants me to marry him. I know he's not saved and doesn't have a job and he has a drinking problem, but, man, he's cute. This is how I hear it when people are coming. Oh, I know he kind of has an anger problem and broke five holes in a wall in his house. But he's got so much potential. I don't know if it's the Lord or not. I don't know if I should go to V1, because at that other church, I just get mildly abused by that narcissistic leader.
But we have a history, and I just feel comfortable there. And I like little churches. I don't know what the Lord's will is. Well, the problem is that just got a little too real. Somebody's already traumatized by this sermon. They were like, did he bug my house? Was he tapped? Was he wiretapping? So here's the thing. How do I know it? Because there's so many Christians that are regenerated but not renewed.
See, when you get saved, when you accept the finished work of the cross, your spirit that was dead is brought to life. But, see, there's a command in Romans chapter 12 to renew your mind. So Jesus regenerated you, but you renew you. And this is the problem, is we have Christians that are regenerated but not renewed. So they can't discern the perfect will of God because in their mind, they're battling out with God. How can you fight him and surrender to him at the same time?
Or let me put it another way. How could you hear him talk if you don't? Because you're talking while God's talking. And if you stop talking, you might actually be able to hear what he has to say. So there's a form of surrender. Instead of me telling God what I want, he tells me what I need and I say, okay, I'll do this thing.
And then that might mean that for some of you ladies, you need to stop duping yourself and try to convince yourself that this guy's going to get saved and you need to let him go. And some of you got to stop. You know, the Bible said a double minded person is unstable in all their ways. So double mindedness doesn't just affect your relationships, it affects your finances, it affects your future, it affects your creation, affects every aspect of your life.
A double minded person is unstable in all their ways. And we have double minded Christians. You know, you can't have two churches because then two means double. You'll be double minded. Which pastor do you listen to? Probably the one that you agree with, but that's not what you need. You need somebody that will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. So in the early days of Long island, that was the bane of our existence.
Everybody had seven churches out here and we're like, well, which one do you submit to? And what we found out it was the one that said what they wanted to hear. And then if we didn't say what they wanted to hear, they'd go to all the other six until somebody did, like playing the Christian slot machine. Come on, Pastor, let me fornicate. Come on, Pastor, let me drink, but not get drunk, even though I know I'm getting drunk. Is this on?
And so what happens is when the reason why I'm really saying this is I want to help it make sense on a deeper level. The thing that you need about your mind is your thoughts are inherited. This is what I'm trying to help you understand. And you probably didn't inherit biblical thoughts. So people all the time say, I don't like what Pastor Mike says about this subject or this. What they don't understand is that my goal as a preacher is to not say my opinion.
My goal is to get up here and tell you what his opinion is in the Word, as clear as I can make it. Matter of fact, there's some things I wish I could change in the Bible, but I can't change because God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And if he said it in his Word, I have to submit to what he says, not what I think, because what I think I got from a man, but what he says came from the throne. And I don't need. See, if you do man's thoughts, you get man's ways and you get man's results.
But if you do it, God's way you get God's results. So there's a submission that has to take place to his ways. But how can you submit to a word you don't read? For my people perish for the lack of knowledge. Well, Pastor Mike, I'm too busy to read the Bible. But you're not too busy to scroll, Pastor Mike. But I'm tired. But you stayed up all night. Scrolling Pastor Mike, My kids are too loud. Buy some headphones. Come on, devil. Stop making excuses and start making moves. Move into his presence.
Move into daily discipline. If you can shower every day, you can pray every day. If you can brush your teeth every day. Some of you need to. That's a daily thing. Twice a day would be even better. You can pray. Come on, devil. You know, so we've got to. I think being a Christian, what happens with the, with being a Christian is the deeper you get, the more basic you become. Everybody thinks that the deeper you get as a Christian, the more profound you come. You know what's profound?
Pray every day. That's profound. Read the Bible every day. That's profound. Matter of fact, the deeper you go into Christianity, the more simple you become. You actually forgive people instead of holding grudges. You actually reconcile. You actually tell the gospel to the person that's walking in the grocery store by you that the Holy Spirit gave you a word of knowledge for. You actually pray for sick people when they're sick.
You actually come into work and you work with all your might in a way that honors and glorifies God. So to go deeper in the Christian faith is to become more simple. And that's why we have itching ears that are like, give me some crazy prophetic word, you know, give me some Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic word. Give me some kind of. It's like we're always seeking. We're always seeking the, these, these crazy experiences.
But I think, when I think, when I look at renewing your mind, what it is is just simply submitting to the fundamental truths of the way God thinks. And it sounds so easy, but actually it's so hard. It's easy. It's. It's easy to understand, but it's hard to do. So like, understanding forgiveness is easy, but actually forgiving the person who sexually assaulted you is very hard. It's. It's easy to understand. I shouldn't be walking around angry.
But when you feel angry, switching your, your, your, you know, the whole. Have you ever done that? Where you try to switch out of an emotion? That's hard to do. Cause you're like, well, but I know why I'm angry, and it's super justifiable. So switching out of that is the hard thing, right? It's like, you know, understanding how you should honor God in your finances and make a budget that includes seeking the kingdom first, and he'll add all this unto you. That's easy.
But then that moment comes to sign up for reoccurring, and you're like, no, I'll be an emotional giver, and I'll give when I have a lot of money, and I won't give when I don't, and then I'll give when I feel like. It's. It's like what we do is we go the way of least resistance, which is why Jesus said, it's a narrow road, It's a narrow gate, and many won't walk it. It's not because they don't understand how to walk it. It's because they don't want to actually do the commands.
And this is why you fill up whole conferences with people who want prophecy, but you can't get people to distribute food in Brooklyn. Because we don't want to do the commands of Jesus. We just want to hear about him and make ourselves feel better. So we have to. Renewing your mind is much more about saying, I've inherited multiple generations of attitudes, behaviors, and thoughts that I need to demolish and renovate and destroy, and then I need to rebuild in my own mind the mind of Christ.
And that is hard work. I don't have a six pack yet. I'm on my way, though. Come on. Don't be laughing. But it becomes the equivalency of when you see somebody with a physique and you admire it, you knew that it took work. And so to acknowledge a man or woman of God is not to make an idol of them, but rather to acknowledge the work they put in to get to that point. Does that make sense? Because people are like, oh, I look at the way they idolize Julie. You know, she's not all that.
She's just a humble servant. And it's like, well, no. Julie's been on a journey to say, not my will, thy will for so many years that it transformed her into the kind of woman that can lead with grace under fire and under pressure. And so we're not honoring Julie in the way that the world honors celebrities or makes an idol, but rather we're acknowledging, lord, maybe one day I can be as submitted as that. Maybe one day I can be as committed as that. Maybe what does that make sense?
So in the Christian faith? Because Julie was telling me that the other day, I was like, it's kind of weird when people want to take pictures with me. And she said, no, these young guys who are taking pictures with you are the same guys that nobody has a problem taking a picture with a basketball player.
But how much more somebody that's devoted their life to the gospel to say like you're not, you're not making an idol, but rather you're acknowledging, wow, I want to be, I want to work myself into that level of submission. Does that make sense? So renewing your mind. So this is my point. Nobody can see in my mind, but you can see the effects of my mind. Oh, I'm talking to somebody. Nobody can see in my mind, but you see the results of my mind. And that is the point of working with this.
Do not be conformed to the world. So let's go into the Greek. The Greek word for world is world is schema. And schema sounds like what schemes. So do not be conformed to the schemes, the scheming, the schematics, the plans, the blueprints of the world, the visible that you can see with your own eye. I just want to do a little test. Let's do a little test.
When you go back home to your apartment or to your house, you have a place for a bed to sleep, you have a place for a table to eat food, you have a shower to rinse your body. Can I just submit to you? Probably every part of your house has been partitioned to meet some physical need. But very few of us have any space in our house that was devoted to the eternal.
There's your evidence, and I'm not saying that to convict you, but to make a point when, when you go to a Jewish person's house that you'll see on their doorposts, something. Do you know what I'm talking about? Because they said, keep these promises at your doorpost. If you come into a Muslim's house, you'll find mats that they roll out so that they can adhere to their daily prayers.
So the problem with Christians is we've become so natural minded and our whole world we've built around what we can see with our physical eyes, that schema and what Paul the Apostle was doing because he was ministering to two groups of people. He was ministering to pagans that didn't know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and certainly didn't know Yeshua Jesus, but he also was ministering to, in addition to Pagans to Jews as well, who also did not know Christ as messiah.
And what he was trying to explain in a lot, and we're looking at the book of Romans, is get your eyes off of what you see, because what you see with your physical eyes is temporary. But then you have to put your eyes on what's eternal. But then he's going a little bit deeper and he's saying, don't mold your life after that which is visible. And so instead be transformed by the renewal, or the word in Greek for renewal is the same as renovation, by the renovation of your mind.
So if I could help you understand this right now, in this era, everything is the physical. I have to wear clothes, I have to buy a car to drive around. I have to get an apartment to shelter my physical body. I have to get food for my physical body. I have to educate my physical brain. Everything in our life is relegated mainly to the physical realm.
But in order to be a Christian, you have to actually reverse the entire order of our existence to where the spiritual is number one and everything follows after that. The eternal is number one and every. So when you go to a church and they ask you to give your finances, if you are a Christian that's regenerated but not renewed, then you are thinking about the physical and not the spiritual. And you don't even understand spiritual rewards.
And so you haven't read the book of Hebrews that says when you give your finances, it's as if you laid it before the feet of Jesus. But you. So you're thinking that you're giving your money to a church because the church needs your money, because you're a Christian, that hasn't renewed your mind. So you don't understand the spiritual. Actually, according to the book of Hebrews, you've never given to a church. You've given directly to Jesus.
But if you don't believe that, you're going to be offended every time the offering happens. So. And then you're going to want to assert control over it. Oh, I'm speaking to somebody. So it's the same way, like when you're going through various trials and different temptations. If you're looking through the lens of the natural realm, it makes no sense. I'm just suffering because of other people's mistake.
But if you're like Joseph, you can look at your brothers who betrayed you and say what you meant for harm. I could see into the spiritual realm. God had to do all that and allow it to happen through you for the working of my good because the only way that I get to the palace is through the pit and through the prison. And so it makes total sense to Joseph because Joseph is looking through the spiritual realm. But what happens when you have a victim mindset? Oh, it's Long Island.
If I wasn't on Long Island, I would have a house. If I wasn't on Long Island, I would have a car. If I wasn't on Long Island, I would have more. If I wasn't in Brooklyn, Brooklyn's the problem. It's New York City. If I wasn't in. You're a victim. Because the spiritual realm doesn't play by the same rules as the US Economy. So in the natural realm, Long island is more expensive than Indiana. But in the spiritual realm, the most expensive place to live is the one that you don't sow into.
Oh, you are. You are. You guys, do you want to revelate with me? The Bible says if you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. And if you sow generously, you reap generously. And so it's not about the region, it's about the seed. And some of you are paying more attention to the soil, but it doesn't say anything about the soil. It says everything about the seed. And so the soil of Long island is the same as the soil of Indiana. The difference is the seed. But that's a mindset.
So I'm not a victim in Long Island. I'm not a victim in New York City. I sow seed in New York City and I sow seed in Indiana because I am submitted to the spiritual reality which supersedes the physical reality. Does this make sense? Are y'all normally this quiet in 12:30? Probably you're like, just pray for me. I just need deliverance right now. Now, if you're feeling convicted, that was not my intention. My intention was to simply expose to you that when you.
If you call yourself a Christian, the standard by which you live is the word of God. So the more of the word of God you know, and the more of the word of God you obey, then you are going to have to renovate your mind. So let's talk about renovation. Renovate. My favorite part about renovation is demolition. Come on, say that with me. Demolition. The root word of demolition is demolish. So in order to renovate your mind, you have to demolish some things.
Let me just tell you, when I moved into our house in New York City, that bathroom was the one that I inherited. When I got that house was probably nice 40 years ago. Am I right, Jules? Our bathroom in our house now, it was probably nice 40 years ago. And I was like, we're renovating this thing. And in order to renovate it, we had to demolish it. And we just went in the bathroom, and, you know, you start gutting and demolishing everything out.
So what happens is you can't put something new on top of something old. Because if there's mold and decay in what's old, when you put the new on what's old, you end up losing both. So in your mind, you can't put new thoughts on top of old thoughts. You have to demolish the old thoughts and you have to build over. And some of you have tried to put together a secular thinking with a Christian thinking. And you think Christianity doesn't work. No, baby, God's Word works.
But you can't combine God's word with the secular way of thinking. That's why Jesus said, you've got to go all in. You've got to come 100%. Let the dead bury their own dead. Go sell off your properties. Do whatever you can to come 100%. Because if you put new wine into an old wineskin, the old wineskin ruptures and you lose all the wine. And so God has brought you to this place right now to say a done. Oh, well, we did it this way at our old church. Well, I don't care.
Behold, God is doing a new thing. It's time to do away with the old. Oh, but my mom taught me, taught me this. But your mom had debilitating depression. Who you going to listen to? I want to hear about freedom from a free person. I want to hear about blessing from a blessed person. I'm not taking advice from broke people about my money. You get what I'm saying?
And you got broke pastors talking about money and giving theology, but their bank account does not reflect the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I'm here to demolish a poverty gospel because we're going to need resources to flow through the nations. And there is a reason why God wants to set you free in your mind. Because you don't have a money problem. You have a worry problem. You don't have a money problem. You've got an anxiety problem. You don't have a money problem.
You have a budget problem. You don't have a money problem. You have a discipline problem. But see, when God begins to deal with that, why? Why? Go to the root, Go to the root, go to the root, go to the root. Some of you Watch this. You married a spouse. It's the same spouse you married. But what changed was your mind. What changed was their mind. It's in the mind. So God wants to go into your mind. God wants to do it says, by the transformation, but be transformed.
That word transform is metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is different than maturity. Maturity is. Pastor Mike is 12 years old, and I can't grow a beard, and I go through puberty, and I can now grow a beard. Praise God. So that's maturity. But maturity is not the same as transformation. So I want to take it the next step. When you have a cocoon, that cocoon, the caterpillar goes into the cocoon and actually melts down. And this kind of weird turns into a goo.
And then the DNA of that caterpillar shuts off, and another DNA expression actually is ignited. And then it goes through a process. And this is crazier. Pastor Danny, I'm going to credit him with this revelation because he came back to me and said, did you know that when a caterpillar is in its cocoon, science says when.
That when it turns into a butterfly, it has to go through the process of physically breaking out of the cocoon because it makes it strong enough so that when it comes out of the cocoon, it can actually fly. What's your cocoon? What's your cocoon? Our cocoon is prayer. We go into prayer, and we come in a caterpillar full of anger, full of malice, full of bitterness. But then we melt down in the presence of God, and another DNA expression happens. And then suddenly fear is turned into courage.
Suddenly bitterness has turned into forgiveness. Another genetic expression begins to be realized. And then all of a sudden, our wings come out. And then we got to break out of that prayer closet. We got to break out of that devotional time. And then we come out of there and we fly, and we're something different. God doesn't want to just mature you. He wants to bring you through a metamorphosis, to change you into something new. How many of you want God to change you?
How many of you want God to begin to bring you through that process of a metamorphosis? Because it says, renovate, you got to destroy that. You may test what is the will of God. So let's talk about strongholds. So when you talk about a stronghold, David ran into the stronghold, and he actually ran into the stronghold to be safe, because he was being pursued for his life to kill him. But when he ran into the stronghold, it was A safety.
But then you hear the other scripture that says that my weapons are not carnal, they're not physical, but mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds. So it's like I'm confused because we're supposed to destroy strongholds. But David ran into the stronghold and he was saved. Stronghold is a neutral term. When you talk about building a building, you build it brick by brick. In my book, I have a section that talks about the mind and the thoughts.
Scientists say, on average, minimum, there's a minimum of 6,000 thoughts a day. Just try to sit there in your seat and count to 6,000. Think about that. 2,163, 2,164. Do that till 6,000. You're thinking a minimum of 6,000 thoughts a day. But imagine each thought like a brick. Let's do this. Medical anxiety, death anxiety. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die early. Going to die early. I'm going to die in pain. I'm going to die with disease.
I'm going to die 6,000 times a day, brick by brick. And you build that stronghold so tall that when I'm on the other side shouting, it just sounds muffled. And I'm saying, you're not going to die. The Bible says you're going to live and not die. And you're going to declare the works of God in the land of the living. See, here's another thought you hear about what's happening. 43 monkeys escape from, I'm going to say in air quotes, escape from a facility.
When I saw that news, I said, what plague are they releasing on, on us today? Am I the only one? I heard about the monkeys. We. And they escaped from the facility. And I said, oh, Lord Jesus, what am I? But then all of a sudden I said, no. Though a thousand may fall on one side and 10,000 on the other, I will still be standing. See, what happens is you have two strongholds. It's either a demonic stronghold or it's a stronghold of the Word of God.
And what, what you do is you pull down the demonic stronghold and you say, that thought doesn't sound like my father, that thought doesn't sound like scripture. That thought's not his heart, that thought's not his mind. And the Bible says, take captive every thought that erects itself up against the word of God and pull it down, subjugate it, submit it to the Word of God. And so when I think about dying, I say, No, I will live. I not die. And I begin to declare the Word of God.
When I think about help, I say, no, the Lord has forget not his benefits. He will renew my youth. As the eagles see, the Word of God begins to come out. And so, garbage in, garbage out. But faith in, faith out. The Word of God in, the Word of God out. So then you begin to build this other stronghold. And it's a stronghold of the Word of God, a stronghold of faith. And then when things this.
I know that this is hard to even believe, but you could get to the point where now, when the world outside is chaos in your own mind, it's peace. And you go into that stronghold of the Word of God. Let me just tell you. The storm was raging around Jesus and his disciples, but Jesus was in the boat, sleeping. The boat represents your mind. If Jesus is in your mind, the storm around you can be raging. But, baby, I'm going to be sleeping through the whole thing.
Because Christ, I have the mind of Christ. And the external doesn't matter because the internal is habitated by God himself. And I know if he's with me, I can be courageous. If he's with me, I can face another day. There's something about building up your mind. So let's go back to the root, and we're going to be done, because I want to pray for you across all of our locations. Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23 says.
So Proverbs 4, 23 says, Keep your corazon with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Keep it says, guard your heart. For from your heart flows the springs of life. Now, your heart, and biblically is a synonym for your mind. So guard your heart. Guard your mind, because from it flows everything else. Can I just tell you, the person that flicks you off on the road, the problem wasn't you. The problem was them. Because there was something in their heart, that level of frustration.
When you squeeze a patient person, patience comes out. When you squeeze a compassionate person, compassion comes out. When you squeeze an angry person, anger comes out. It's out of the overflow of our life. It's who you are. And you can keep blaming the external, but the Bible doesn't talk that way. The Bible says it's the internal that comes out. And so keep your heart. Somebody say, guard the gate.
So back when 9, 11 happened, I was a teenager and I was working for the water department off of Lake Michigan, which is Chicago's Lakeshore. And it was a job that I was fortunate enough to get to help my family, where my single mother was in a very bad situation. And so imagine as a teenager, and the story is partially in the book, I'm working this job in this filtration plant to help support my family. Well, of course, the day of 9, 11, nobody saw coming.
And all of a sudden, I hear over the loudspeaker, signorelli, please come to the main office. So I come in from the yard, and they're like, hey. And they show me on this black and white tv, the first tower was smoking. And so, you know, there was just fear that was over everybody. What's happening to our country? We're being attacked on our own soil. So my boss looks at me and he was like, hey, we're getting internal information. Because they started to call the different.
The different filtration plants off of the shorelines in America that there was a potential threat of anthrax being put in the water supply. Does anybody remember this? Some of the older folks might remember. So. So my boss literally says, signorelli there. We're. We're hearing reports from the government that there might be terrorists that try to put anthrax in the water supply. And so what we're going to do is we need you to go to the front gate, and we need you to guard the gate.
And when he said it, I'll be honest with you, I was filled with fear. I was absolutely terrified by this idea. So I was like, all right, if you. I mean, if I just felt like, if that's my way to serve, I'll do it. So here's me as a teenager sitting out at this gate, and now this was when I had a Nokia brick phone that was indestructible, and it only had one thing on it. It was. It was called snake. Anybody remember that? Some of y'all were wizards at snake just playing that game.
So it wasn't like I was on my phone on the Internet all day. It was like I had to sit at this gate every single day from 911 onward for weeks and weeks and weeks, just waiting in case a terrorist came to put anthrax in the water. Now when I look back to it now, I was thinking to myself, I bet you my bosses had a conversation, which one of these jokers down there can we sacrifice first? And they looked and they said, you know that teenager, Mike, we're not getting a lot out of him.
Put him at the gate. It's okay to laugh. So I promise you, they're probably, yeah, yeah, we'll sacrifice. Mike. First. And then when we see some commotion, we'll. We'll call 91 1. But my point is, the understanding was if. If somebody can throw anthrax in the water, that water goes from the filtration plant into every single home. And so what I think that you're not understanding is that when you look at pornography, you're saying, well, I'm not doing this with my child.
But what happens is your heart is the filtration plant of your family. And even though you're not doing it in the same room, you poison the waters that begin to flow into their life. It's called impartation. And some of you think, well, I only smoke in private. No, the Bible doesn't say that if from your heart flows the waters, it's trying to help you understand is you've imparted addiction into your family. It flows.
And some of you are like, but I want to give my kids water but not cyanide, water, but not anthrax. It's all mixed into one. You've got to go back to the source and say, God, purify my thought life. Purify my heart so that what I pass to my children is pure. I want to forgive everybody so they can live in forgiveness. I want to live free of addiction, being mastered by nothing so that I don't pass slavery to my children. Purify the waters of my heart. Lord, how many of you with me?
Because there is no such thing as I did it alone. And this is why Israel repented collectively. Are you getting a revelation? Okay, hold on. On the music. You'll never read in the Bible a private oh, Lord, forgive me. It's always forgive us. Even when Jesus taught them to pray, did he not say, us, forgive us? Israel did everything collectively because they understood if it's in my heart, the rivers, the channels of rivers flow from my heart.
And it's impossible for me to give you water with without giving you anthrax. So what God wants to do is he wants to go into your heart in a few moments, and he wants to deal with your thought life. Because you can be saved but be in chains. You can be regenerated but not be renewed. You could. You could be a spirit that's going to heaven, but you could be a soul that's still in bondage in your mind.
The man who confessed Christ as Savior on the cross went to heaven, but was still tied to that cross physically. There were still some areas in his life that never got worked out. And so salvation is independent of total Freedom. And so we have to deal with the whole being, your body, just the woman who has hunched over for almost two decades. He said, spirit of infirmity, come out. And she stood up straight. So the issue is within her body.
So God wants to look now and say, okay, there's different aspects of you that I want to heal, I want to deliver, but you've got to let me in. You've got to let me all the way in. Philippians, chapter 4, verse 7 says this. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Let me. Let me give you good news as we close, and we're going to pray for you. It's just like when I was terrified guarding the gate. What if the terrorists show up?
What if I'm not enough to protect this water supply? See, I was thinking about this scripture. It says, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. It will actually guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. It's almost as if the Lord was saying, my peace will actually come up to the gate, and my peace will help you protect the gate. So when you feel that thought of anxiety, when you feel that thought of fear, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will.
Will push you aside and say, let me step up in there. I'm guarding the gate. I'm guarding. It's not going to make sense to you, but I'm guarding the gate. God's going to meet all your needs according to his riches and glory. God's going to make way where there seems to be no way. God's going to bring up rivers in the desert. You see, the peace of God helps you guard your mind, and you're not fighting alone.
And then when you have a church like this, they put their hands on you and they begin to pray for you. And they help you believe what you can't believe on your own. And they help you receive what you can't receive on your own. Because God will send guardians at the gate. And I want to be the kind of church that's not gossipers at the gate. We are guardians at the gate. I want a church that will speak the word of truth and will prophesy a better story.
I want a church that'll look you in your eyes and say, your husband will be saved. Your husband will be delivered. Your children will come to the cross. Your children will come. Come on. We're not gossipers at the gate. We are guardians at the gate. And I align with the peace of God. Your body will be healed. You will be delivered from that. God is going to promote you. You will preach and do your ministry. I want to be a guardian at the gate.
Come on, jump to your feet and give me a 15 second praise break. If you're ready to be transformed. Metamorphosis. If you're ready to be transformed. So this is what God will do. When I first got married, I didn't know how to be a husband. Julie didn't know how to be a wife. We had to have a cocoon called counseling. Oh, I said it. I said it. Come on, manly men. A cocoon called counseling. Because every time we got into an argument, I would say. I would say, come on, let's work this out.
We got to work this out. We got to confront. And then Julie would say, I gotta run. And she'd go to the bedroom and slam the door, and she would lock it. Then I would open the door. Come on, we gotta talk this out. She was like, I'm not talking this out. And we would go to counseling, and they would say, julie, you have to learn how to confront. And Mike, you have to learn how to de escalate because you're a little crazy.
And they taught us these skills, and they said, we're going to make a word a safe word, and it's going to be Eskimo because you're going to go from hot to cold like an Eskimo. And then I would be talking to Julie, and we would be talking about something, and we'd start getting a little heated. She would say, eskimo. And I'd be like, eskimo already. What? Eskimo now? But we didn't know how to be. What? But the problem was our mind. Physically, there was no problem. Am I right, Jules?
Come on, girl. I'm being real. But this is why marriages fail, because there's no problem physical, but the problems in the mind. And what happened was, see, when Julie was being raised, her parents had a great marriage. But there also was not a healthy confrontation that she saw. And some things were ignored. So guess what? She learned a lot of good things and a few bad things. Then when I watched the relationship, I saw confrontation. And I thought I was going to confront. Confront.
And isn't it so stupid that you're saying the right thing, but you're saying it in the wrong way and it nullifies it? Come on, don't you want to work this out? Come on, don't we love each other? She's like, I don't know do we Eskimo? But I needed a cocoon called biblical counseling, and I needed to learn what I did not learn before. And now Julie's the crazy one. Praise God. I'm teasing.
So. But the reason why I say that is because in order to experience renewal of the mind, there has to be a process that you submit to. There has to be a journey that you go on. And so I think this is a call to the cocoon. This is a call to the cocoon. This is a call. This is why we go to church every Sunday. This is why. It's a call to prayer. This is. This is why we meet in groups. This. It's. We got to go into the cocoon because there's something.
There's a lot of things right, but there's a lot of things wrong. Just like that bathroom in my house that needed renovation. Technically, the toilet worked. Technically, the shower worked, but it all had to be torn out. When we tore it out, we found out it was all molded. And if we would have put something new on top of the old, everything would have been lost. So God's calling you to renovate right now. Do you feel this? This is a call to renovation.
Some of you have a spirit of religion that always gives you condemnation and guilt and shame. And we need to renovate and rip that condemnation and shame out of your soul where you're beating yourself up. Some of you still think, I can't wear makeup. I gotta. I can't wear a pair of pants. The devil is a liar. That's legalism. Rip that thing out. That's condemnation. That's shame. We don't do that. Some of you like, I'm not praying enough.
No, we're not called to prayer out of an obligation like say three Hail Marys and go through a formula. Prayer for a believer is going into communion with the Father and saying, father, I'm here to meet you. Lavish your love on me. Speak to me, God. Let me put my head to your chest. Let me hear your heartbeat. Father, it's not an obligation. It's an opportunity to come to the throne, to be in my father's living room, to hear his voice.