When Law Is No Longer Necessary | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

stand to your feet with me thank you worship team i love the new song wasn't that an awesome song jira i'm so glad we got a provider we can depend on amen amen and amen so good to see everyone out on a midweek bible study and what an awesome church what a great church that shows up every service we have had some some church growth the last couple weeks and i got to see i saw that mama is holding [name redacted] and she is a pr a proud we call her great stands for great grandmother but we just just kind of pass the grandmother off there we just call her great and um she uh she is holding the beautiful the doves had a beautiful little girl and then also ross and hannah monroe had a baby girl i believe sunday night while we were at church is a little bit past get out of church [name redacted] put your hands together for these new parents and there's this church growth we're having i love whether it's spiritual or physical i love church growth amen god has been god has been so good to us turn with me in your bibles to john chapter 1 and verse 17. i'm going to start there and then i'll read one verse and then go into galatians chapter 5 and verse 18. and i do want to say uh can we want to just say to the rob morris family um we're praying for them and we love brother rob and sister angela morris are some of the hardest workers i know they volunteer some of you may not realize this but they volunteer at both campuses which means that they are in church sunday morning sunday afternoon sunday night tuesday night wednesday night and i promise you if we have a rally if we have any special event brother rob and sister angela are there they are faithful as the day is long and we're going to be sharing the arrangements for for the funeral for his father um i think it would just mean a lot to him and to her and to their whole family if this church would just show out and just show our appreciation amen for them and of course their father he he has been at the sevierville campus uh for uh longer than we have been there and it's been our our campus he was there uh probably two or three years before even we took the campus in several so he has been a strong pillar in that church and we want to honor him and honor his life and probably early early next early next week john chapter 1 verse 17 says for the law was given by moses but grace in truth came by jesus christ look at galatians chapter 5 verse 18 it'll be on the screen if you don't have time to move to that scripture simply says but if ye be led of the spirit ye are not under the law this evening i just want for a few minutes to teach on the subject of law and grace and i want to entitle tonight's message when law is no longer necessary when law is no longer necessary let's put our bibles down let's pray together father we love you and we're so thankful lord for your house lord for this is a house of prayer this is a house of hope this is a house of healing lord i'm thankful lord god that we can come into this place and have every need supplied as brother hammond said lord god you're the provider lord the singer sing about it lord god we're just here lord we're anticipating to receive something from the provider tonight god i pray that you speak to every mind every heart lord teach us your word oh god that we might hide it in our hearts so he might not sin against you though we pray all this in the name of jesus and everybody shout amen amen and you may be seated amen give honor to pastor and sister carpenter and pastor always uh a man of prayer a man of faith he said make sure we announce may we pray our month of may we've been meeting here every sun every morning from seven o'clock until eight o'clock and we've been having a time of prayer together monday through friday if you can be here at all during those times just slip on in here and uh just have some prayer with us and uh we're just gonna have revival together amen beginning in the opening chapters of the book of genesis the bible teaches the law not always a good word there's a lot of people that don't like the word law i hope nobody in this place but law is not always a good word sometimes it's a bad word and also called the commandments and there's a lot of people that aren't crazy about the word commandment but god gave us these laws these commandments for our good we got to understand this was not uh these were not given as punishment they were simply given for our good the laws or rules helped mankind to understand god we have got the only way for us to understand god is by his word is by the man whether it was moses whether it was god writing on tablet or moses on tablets it was the commandments of god that let his people know how he wanted to be worshiped to know what kind of lifestyle that man should live and even how we ought to treat one another and all this was for our good i'm going to say it one more time because a lot of times again the law or commandments they get a bad rap because we think of laws that maybe our government might hand down to us that we don't understand or maybe not even agree with uh i think it's apparent there's some speed limits we don't agree with there's some no u-turn signs we don't agree with well i guess i'm all by myself sir he told me to turn around i just turned around sir i'm sorry i do what women tell me to do obedient deuteronomy 10 and verse number 12 kind of explains this to us it says and now israel what does the lord thy god require of thee but to fear the lord thy god to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul to keep the commandments of the lord and his statutes here it is which i command thee this day for thy good i promise you now listen i know we're no longer under levitical law but there are some levitical laws that if we would follow if if i would follow me preach to myself if i would follow some of their dietary plans that they follow i could probably get in the smaller suit or i might be able to button this suit tonight right you start reading about what they were allowed to eat and what they weren't allowed to eat you're going to find out really quickly that god was protecting them from things that would harm their bodies if it were if it were to be written today it might say thou shalt not eat mcdonald's right thou shalt not eat taco bell thou shalt not i'm about to preach in here thou shalt not eat krispy kreme donuts i know i'm stepping on people's toes today hey come on somebody anybody thankful we're not in the levitical law now romans 7 12 says wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good and to hear some people talk you would think that god did it in a way that he totally nullified it in the new testament but that's not that's not true he did it for a favor matthew 5 new testament 5 17 says think not that i have come to destroy the law or the prophets jesus said i am not come to destroy but to fulfill the law jesus himself he didn't he said i'm not coming in here to take over or to cast anything away i'm coming in here to fulfill the very law that's been written the law defines sin clearly showing us what actions are right and wrong and we as a society must have clear direction but the problem is even if we could technically keep and obey all the commandments of the law perfectly i want you to think about this that wouldn't be enough to change our hearts it's not enough not to commit theft if your heart is filled with greed it's not enough not to commit murder if your heart is filled with hate it's not enough not to commit adultery if your heart is filled with lust we understand this we we hear people all the time they talk about uh you pentecostals you you you try to change the outside and try to wear the right clothes and try to be holy and and that's not holiness holiness is on the inside and there's truth to that holiness does begin on the inside but the outside should reflect what's happening on the inside so so although although i can't tell you who is holy in this place and who is not because only god knows the heart i can at least halfway distinguish if somebody could possibly be holy does that make sense matthew 5 and 27 says ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shall not commit adultery but i say unto you this is jesus speaking that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart so yes there are commandments in the new testament just like the old testament and they're they're actually higher and harder laws to live by because in the old testament they just had to refrain from an action where in the new testament all of a sudden now our spirit is on trial more than just what we do is what our thoughts are what we're thinking about what what our motives are that's why it might be harder to live in the new testament than it is in the old testament god's people fail repeatedly in the old testament so what's different in the new testament how can we keep the law of god in the new testament simply the difference is grace god's grace we've seen the song amazing grace how sweet the sound for it saved a wretch like me it's it's enabling grace it's empowering grace it is indescribable grace and i don't know about you but i'm thankful because grace is what helps us to keep the law but not a physical law a spiritual law far beyond just physical law and grace are not against each other they actually point us in the same direction they actually work together for our salvation because law says you can't get there on your own but grace says if you follow me i can take you there law says you're not good enough you'll never be good enough you'll you'll always come a little bit short you always come just shy of hitting the mark but grace says i can help you to hit the mark jesus told the woman taken in adultery he said he said you're forgiven and he was speaking of grace you're forgiven and now now she needs to keep god's commandment that says neither do i condemn you but go in sin no more so he leads her he gives her the opportunity to get out of sin now now jesus not only forgave her but he identified the spirit of lust within her and listen it wasn't just a command for her to stop sinning it was simply this it was simply saying i can feel the spirit of lust within you and i'm telling you you can go on and you can be released from that bondage of lust he said go in sin no more grace goes farther than just helping us grace also can deliver us from things the law dealt with the act but grace dealt with the spirit behind the act in romans 6 chapter 14 and if you don't have time to get there they're going to follow me on the screen the bible says for sin shall not have dominion over you i'm going to read that again for sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace what then shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace he said god forbid see god changes hearts the law tells us that we're going to do wrong or that we're doing wrong and we and we know it and we understand it but grace tells us that we can do right because of what jesus did at calvary romans 5 and 20 moreover the law entered that the offense might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound the law shows us what disobedience looks like and old disobedience is ugly and the law reveals to us exactly what we did wrong in the and the law condemns however grace grace shows us what obedience lives like now it looks like the law shows us what it what what it looks like but grace shows us how to live in the new testament in in a dispensation of grace the law shows us the penalty of eternal death where grace shows us the promise of eternal life we knew the law but we need grace much more so god's law is not a burden to our lives but a blessing somebody said amen the book of galatians i want to kind of move into galatians chapter five and we're going to kind of kind of exegete a little bit through this but found paul this is paul's earliest epistle and i'm just going to let you know that he's not happy at all matter of fact if you read the book of galatians i mean he's fired up he's matter of fact he is furious not only with those who are trying to use religious tactics but also with the christians for caving into such blatant intimidation if you read the book of galatians this amazing book to read and it's really a help to really understand god and grace but the issue that paul is faith faced with is trying to keep the gospel of jesus christ unadulterated the issue at hand is the judaizers who have created their own blend of christianity all right they're trying to get others to believe it in order to justify themselves the jewish religion of that day they were trying to blend christianity with moses's law remember that that's the the the jews and the gentiles as they were being saved as they were being filled with the holy ghost being baptized coming into the church remember how there was there was a a sect of jewish even disciples and christian leaders that had issue with others joining into this new christian this great move this great church had issue because what they weren't circumcised because they weren't following the feast days of the jews and so paul is fired up because not only do you have do you have those who have an issue with others but also you have those that are okay with people having issues with others we're gonna read about it just just just a few minutes the jewish religion that day blended christianity in the law of moses the same thing has taken place from that very moment until now but not with the jewish belief think about this mormonism the bible plus the teachings of joseph smith very similar jehovah witnesses the bible same bible plus the teachings of charles russell christian scientists the bible plus the teaching of mary baker eddie catholicism the bible plus the teaching of the catholic church we understand this this is this is an age old problem that paul was trying to fix way back in the first century church when the jewish culture and nation were becoming christian yet they wanted to hold on to some of their old traditions and old beliefs and the law in each case these sincere people are applying a filter when they read their bible it doesn't make it listen they're sincere but they're sincerely wrong i mean these people the mormons the jehovah witness the christian scientists the the catholic church they're all sincere believe me they are sincere they're they're they're teaching and believing the same thing their grandmother did and their great-grandmother did and their great-great-grandmother did but the issue is they're sincerely wrong because why you cannot put a filter it's just like humanism humanism is just the bible plus your ideas of political correctness that's what humanism is materialism here's a good one this one kind of slides into the church sometimes materialism the bible plus your expectation of blessings legalism the bible plus your attempt at good works well if i do if i do these five things every day that that's legalism that you're trying to do good works to be good you can't that's not how it works liberalism think about this liberalism this is something we face too in the church it's it tries to tries to get get its get its calls into the church the bible plus your own interpretation of god's standards it's your own philosophy on on what god likes and what god doesn't like plus the bible you you have the same the same scriptures but you kind of add in there your philosophy on what god desires and doesn't desire so in galatians 5 and 11 the bible reads and i brethren i want to start right here in my brethren if i yet preach circumcision circumcision this is paul speaking why do i yet suffer persecution then is the offense of the cross ceased i would they were even cut off which trouble you for brethren you have been called unto liberty only use here it is use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another the opposite of legalism is not license it's not a license to sin or license to make your own rules the opposite of legalism is love we don't stop obeying the law of god we just obey it for a different reason or i'm not preaching and my title might seem like i'm preaching against the law i'm not gonna we're gonna find out what i'm preaching about but it's not that you're preaching against it we just learn how to obey it for a different reason kind of like your children when your children are young when they're uh young and adolescent there's some times you got to take them behind the woodshed and they probably obey you not so much because they love and respect you they obey you because they don't want to feel pain on their backside or maybe i'm i might be living in the wrong generation they don't want their device taken away exactly don't take my cell phone away don't take don't take my ipad away however when they get older there's an issue with your children and with your family unit if at the age of 20 they still don't respect you or love you it's just a fear that you might take your car back away from them or or you might kick them out of your house you follow me there's there's an issue there because now a child should mature into loving and respecting their parents in a way that you know what if brother schnitzer is my father and he asked me to do something i'm not doing it because i'm afraid of what he's going to do to me if i don't do it i do because i honor him as my father the bible talks about honoring your father and your mother i got news that's not talking to children it's talking to us kids out of the home honoring our father and our mother when they get up in the years and and we get to where we can defend ourselves and we can make a living for ourself we don't just cast them away right we still honor them because it's the love it's it's the it's the respect we have for our parents and the same thing when you go from law to grace it's the very same thing people that think under the terms of law and legality all they can think of is well you don't go there because if you go there you're going to get kicked out of the choir if you go there you're going to get kicked out of ministry if you go there if you go do that if you're caught with her you're caught with him you're going to be kicked out of this or kicked out of that and that that that's legalism that that's not who we are we don't we don't do what we do because we're scared of something happening a punishment happening to us now we got to correct situations we got to correct there's always got to be correction but the same time we do what we do because of our love for god i love god i live the way i live i separate myself from the world because god hates the world not the people but he hates sin and so i want to i want to be as separate as i can from the things that god hates it's at this point that paul begins to list the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit and i want you to notice this works is plural because just one of these is enough to condemn you before god and we're about to list them here in a moment there's some there's some there's some bad ones in here and then we also have the fruit singular the fruit of the spirit just one of these fruit are not enough it's not it's not right it's not fruits plural of the spirit it's it's all these have got to be growing within you this it's a fruit it's it's it's it's who you are the fruit of the spirit christianity is not a religion of of do of not doing bad things or or religion of doing good things it is a relationship of being a real child of god through the cross look with me in galatians 5 13 and just keep your bible open in galatians we're just going to kind of move through here for brethren ye have been called unto liberty only use not liberty for then occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another verse 14 for all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this or means really one statement thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself very simple we can't be self-centered we got to look at others and care and have empathy and have sympathy and have love one for another in verse 15 now you gotta understand when paul is writing this he is he's not a happy camper he's not happy at all he's very irritated he says but if you bite and devour one another take heed that you be not consumed one of another have we seen that happen it's it's sad when that when that sort of thing happens within the church and i know this is not a fun subject by any means but in that sense it's one thing when the world attacks it's another thing when we attack within verse 16 this i say then here we go walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh love lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary we understand this one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would people that can't even function because their flesh and their spirit are in strife all the time but if you be led of the spirit you are not under the law and the key word here is the word under because if we're led by the spirit we don't have to have the burden of the law weighing us down i want you to think about this verse 18 is not saying that the law of god is no longer in effect it simply means that the spirit of god leads us in a manner that makes the law no longer necessary legalists they say i have to right under the burden of the law they're they're under that burden of of i've got a list of things that i have to do in order to be holy libertarians they say i don't want to right they want they want out they don't want any law they don't what they want out of it they don't want anything to do with it but then christians we say i get to because because we understand right that if we're led by the spirit the law is no longer a burden and i i can prove it to you because i guarantee that if you have lived if you're in this place and you've lived a lawful life up to this point here in tennessee i i bet you're like me we don't know a tenth of the tennessee laws i mean you get outside of like driving laws i can't brother lawless i can't name a lot of tennessee laws i'm sure if i went through a book there'd be all kinds in there that i'd be like that's the law i had no idea but i also guarantee you that if you have a pass that you're not proud of and you've been in the court system quite a bit there's probably a lot of laws that you know that you've memorized that i will never know that you probably had some nice judge explained to you on the bench do you understand why i'm going with this if you live by the law if you live a lifestyle that doesn't require laws you don't even have to worry about it that's what paul is saying right here he's simply saying when you're led by the spirit of god you're no longer under these laws and restrictions i don't have to tell you to love one another if you're already loving one another that's not a restriction i don't have to tell you not to hate one another if you love one another there's no restriction there's no law there there there's no commandment that we live under because why we're living we're walking in the spirit verse 18 but if you be led by the spirit you're not under the law now look at verse 19. now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these eureka oh he's gonna he's gonna start naming and believe me there's a whole lot more than he named adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variants emulations wrath wrath strife seditions heresies anybody have any trouble yet not really envyings murders drunkenness revelings and such like and i like how he says that because he says like and a bunch of other stuff of the which i tell you before as i have also told you in the past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of god now i want to read this from a different translation that it's more where we're living in american english okay here we go it is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time repetitive loveless cheap sex sorry a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness trinket gods magic show religion paranoid loneliness cutthroat competition all consuming yet never satisf satisfied wants wow i could preach on that a brutal temper an impotence to love or to be loved divided homes and divided lives small minded and lopsided pursuits the vicious habit of de-personalizing everyone in arrival uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions ugly parodies of community he says i could go on this isn't the first time i've warned you you know if you use your freedom this way see that right there if you use your freedom this way you will not inherit god's kingdom i believe that that 90 of what paul just wrote there and of course that i just read in our language today you're probably not dealing with i'm not dealing with but it's that 10 that we got to work on it's a it's at ten percent that that we gotta we gotta step back and say am i allowing am i walking in the spirit enough that that stuff is not getting inside of me those voices aren't getting in my head and causing me to think thoughts that i don't need to think causing me to have have motives that aren't pure look at things listen to things watch things it talks about families and and dysfunctional families and god help us help us to walk in your spirit the lord god we don't have to even live under this law we don't have to have pastor carpenter get up and give us a list of things that we can and cannot do we we talk about this with our young people all the time pastor hammond we'll we'll we have a passion for purity every and most by the majority of this congregation in your teen years have gone through this passion for appearing in the last 20 years but we tell the students if we have to list out things not to do if we have to list websites not to go to if we have to list out movies not to watch well then we're gonna have a bunch of young people looking at a list and marking off and saying well oh this movie over here is not on that list this web oh they didn't pastor ham is talking about tinder and talking about all these different apps and he didn't mention this app so therefore it must be okay you're living under law you got to get out of that because there's a lot of pressure in that there's a lot of you got to always check your back and and find out what you're doing right what you're doing wrong if you allow yourself to walk in the spirit you allow conviction to get ahold of you you'll get on that phone and you'll you'll see you'll go to your app store and look at that app and you'll read the description that app and brother hammond don't have to tell you not to get on there you'll read the description and go oh well that sounds a lot like other stuff i don't need to be a part let me of you i read an article the other day that explains something called rums springa probably not even pronounce that correctly but the article i want to read the article to you it says if you are concerned that amish children are denied the chance to experience the outside world this is not the case many of you have researched many of you know about this our part of the country we don't really see a lot as much to say maybe in ohio in different areas but this but this red and of course we do understand how sheltered the amish they keep their community very sheltered um many times even even don't even allow electricity to come into their community they don't uh they don't use motorized vehicles and tractors and such and they they try to keep as separated from modern technology as possible and there is something within us who enjoys modern technology that we might feel sorry for them but let i want to read this to you it says when they reach the age of 16 amish children are encouraged to embark on rumspringa this is a rite of passage which gives the teenagers a chance to go out into the world and decide whether or not they want to continue life in the amish tradition naturally children become curious about the what goes on outside the community so this is a great opportunity for them to have their questions answered and come to their own decision and while this sounds like a great opportunity for these poor deprived amish kids to experience technology and experience what we would consider normal life it's it's kind of a normal that they have the same effect on all the teens who reject their amish upbringing now i'm not now majority of them don't reject it the majority of them go back into their amish way of life two years later however for every one of the amish children who reject their upbringing the door swings very wide drugs alcohol prostitution all kinds of sexual immorality why is that because why they have been under a law for so long that when they feel the freedom of getting out of that law they're not walking in the spirit it's there so therefore they come out they come out of the law and for two years they go so buck wild they never want to return and a lot of times their lives are are absolutely messed up and and i've seen that happen even even in apostolic churches that have held on to a standard no no they didn't they didn't allow holy and now i think somewhere along the way they lost holiness they held on for the order the standard but they lost what was on the inside so therefore when when they did begin to start opening the door you've seen this i'm preaching the choir tonight you see this they begin to open the door and the doors swing so wide why is it because they're truly not holy inside they've been just keeping a bunch of legalistic standards that's all we got to fight against that we got we got to preach holiness on the inside first because if holiness is ever lost on the inside it's not long before this church doesn't look like this church no more once you take the sin medicine you have to live with the sin side effects think about think about the last commercial you saw that was promoting a drug or medication we're talking about a one minute a 60 second 58 second commercial and for 20 seconds they're telling you how it's going to make you feel better and for the 80 of the time that it's on the air they're going to tell you what it's going to do to you and and they're really good because they computerized they can speed up the vocal the voice over they can they can speed that up so it's like make it take note of the literature it's even going to be understood and they got to have all that in there legally because they're going to get sued if they don't have all that in there but you know they're like it'll make your or you'll be able to bend your elbow like you've never been to before you won't be able to walk again but you can bend your elbow you know i'm saying i mean that's it's that bad and so we see we see that the side effects many times are worse than whatever it did to help your ailment somebody said amen and and sin sin is the very it's the same problem with sin because you could trace every issue of the world back to sin whether it's health problems disease we got we got we got a young cousin here brother ham is talking about got cancer again well where did disease begin disease began in the garden oh everything abuse hatred addiction you name it whatever the sin is it all began in the garden you can trace every one of these problems that are worldwide back to sin galatians 5 19-21 tells us about the side effects of sin we just read it but then paul i want to get i'm going to kind of lighten up a little bit because then paul begins verse 22 by telling us about the side effects of living righteous okay let's look at 22 but the fruit of the spirit love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law paul's saying listen if you want to get out from underneath this law you got to walk in the spirit and you've got to find the fruit of the spirit growing in your life when you have the fruit of the spirit listen the law is no longer necessary god i want i want love i want to love everyone i don't want to judge people i want i just want to love everyone i i want joy i want peace i want to live a life of peace i want to live a life of gentleness long suffering man people are going to do mean stuff to you we got to be long-suffering we got to be forgiving god help us the goodness the faith the meekness the temperance all these things are are so beautiful but but let me there's there's a reward to living right there's a reward to walking in the spirit there's also side effects of righteousness our side effects of righteousness are we live amazing lives we have health in our bodies we don't have to be looking over our shoulder every moment i just listen unless you have been in that lifestyle we can't even imagine what that's like to have done stuff i don't know you could have been a drug pusher you could have been whatever and to all live your life looking over your shoulder making sure somebody's not following you making sure somebody's not chasing you down or found in your driveway or my god listen the side effects of righteousness are beautiful we get to love people and be loved by people thank god for that listen we can add value to other people's lives around us and it has a way of coming back in return i read an inspiring farmer's story and i don't i don't read many farmer stories but but i was online and somebody sent me this this story and as i began to read it i i it blew my mind because it just made sense but let me read it to you says there was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn every year he won the award for the best grown corn this is not doing anything for me yet one year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting of how he grew this record corn the reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors he said how can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in the same competition that you're entering into the farmer slowly replied he said why sir didn't you know that the wind picks up pollen from the ripened corn and swirls it from field to field if my neighbors grow inferior corn cross pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn if i am to grow good corn i must help my neighbors grow good corn just makes sense something something clicked something clicked and i kept on reading it said it's such a good moral the story says so it is with our lives those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others around them for the value of life is measured by the lives you touch and those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness for the it is for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all think about that that's why listen i'm gonna be like a broken record but that's why small groups are so important we empower one another we add value to one another we care for one another i wish and my wife even told me to do this and maybe i forgot but a very prominent very prominent pastor one of the greatest one of the greatest christian authors out right now his his very own son committed suicide and he went in and there's this interview that was being done on christian television and he began to explain the experience of what it was like now listen this man pastors probably the first or second largest church in america tens of thousands you know rick warren you know you know who he is purpose driven life his own his own grown son he tried to help him in every way he he talked about how he had tried to help him and he had he had brought him to the greatest of the greatest counselors and he he had tried oh he had he had he had spent rick warren was telling we had spent so much and even my son he said my son understood how much we loved him and how much we tried and in the the hours the flights across the world even to speak to different counselors trying to help him out of his depression and help him because they knew they knew from uh from a young age that he had major mental issues of of depression and hopelessness he said i i felt i felt like a failure he said he said we knew he said when we went we had the police do a welfare check because we couldn't get him to answer the door we couldn't get in his house they came they busted the door down and he said our greatest fear was right there in front of us we walked into our greatest fear son had taken his life and he said he said what i remembered most he said i have gotten he said i've received my wife and i've received no less than 500 pieces of mail sympathy cards letters he said we have gotten letters he said probably five six seven presidents of different countries have sent us letters dignitaries ambassadors he said some of the some of the greatest people in the world the most powerful people in the world have heard our story have read my book and have sent me a letter tell me of their sympathy he said but none of those compared to the 10 people that are in my small group rick warren he and his wife are in this small group he said he said none of those letters compared to those people that i knew were there for me all the time i'm talking about adding value to each other's lives i'm talking about understanding why are there small groups he said he said every person in my small group within 30 minutes of word getting out that my son had taken his life within 30 minutes he said every member of my small group were standing in my driveway sister helms he said they didn't say a word to me they didn't say a word to me they didn't have to their presence was all i needed he said i could feel their presence he said finally he said he said it was ours they were just kind of just standing he said um he made this and i hope i don't have this written down i hope i can i can tell you close enough to how he said it but he said the greater the disaster he said the less words you use the greater the tragedy the less words you use he made a statement he said he said if somebody's having a bad hair day talk to him for an hour he said but if somebody's son just took their life he said don't say a word he said they don't need it they you don't have you can't there's nothing you can say to help them he said but your presence and he said i can't i can't even tell you what it meant to have my small group he said he said more than anything he said matter of fact he said they told me we're gonna sit up with you as long he said if they said if you don't go to bed till five a.m if you don't go to bed at all they said we're going to sit up with you we're not going to talk to you we're not going to ask you questions we're not going to pat you on the back patch on the head we're not going to do any of that we're just going to be here in case you need us we're going to be here as a support and i say all that to say this it's so important if we if we're going to have lives that are filled with value we've got to make sure we add value to people's lives and and who better than the people that sit around us the people that go to church the people that are like-minded of the same faith our brothers and our sisters god help us when we are truly walking in the spirit if we're not going to be under the law the greatest thing we can do that that's what god does if god if god decided he was gonna set up a kingdom he became man dwelt among man the savior he was come jesus christ came to set up a kingdom and what did he do he added value to everybody's life because he understood if my kingdom is going to be great i've got to make sure the people around me are great god help us to walk in the spirit i need to hurry i'm going to read through just a few more scriptures verse 24 and they that are christ's have crucified the flesh with the afflictions and lusts if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another envied one another move into galatians 6 and 1. brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such and one in the spirit of meekness consider thyself lest thou also be tempted bear you one another's burdens oh my word i i'm back into small groups again so fulfill the law of christ for if a man thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself but he but let every man prove his own work and then shall we have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another for every man shall bear his own burden let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things be not deceived god is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that sowed to his flesh of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth this is such a powerful verse but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting and let us not be weary and well doing for in due season we shall reap if we think not as we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men especially unto them who are the household of the faith listen we gotta treat people we gotta treat our waiter good our waitress good we gotta treat the person that's checking us out at the store good we got we gotta we gotta we gotta treat everybody around us our co-workers good but paul's saying of all things dear lord at least treat each other good you've heard the statement that you can't get good enough to get god however once we get god we ought to get good right why because god is good what makes god good is because god is love and god's love is not reactive god's love is proactive he loved us before we loved him he did not wait to see if we would love him in order to decide if he would love us in return his goodness is proactive i want you to think i'm going to bring this back to the fruit of the spirit his mercy is proactive his kindness is proactive his love is proactive god doesn't expect us to grow any fruit in our life that he doesn't already possess 100 percent of come on think about that he's just trying to get us to walk in his spirit that's why we receive the holy ghost because the spirit of god is going to cause us to want to be like god matthew 11 30 jesus said for my yoke is easy and my burden is light listen i thank god for the law but i also thank god that i don't have to live beneath under the law i'm thankful that i have the spirit and i can walk in the spirit i'm thankful i don't serve a a big bad god who's looking for an opportunity to punish and abuse his children do you know those people that have that viewpoint jonathan edwards on july 8 1741 preach one of the most famous messages of all times entitled you know it's sinners in the hands of an angry god in the vast majority of the message i agree with it was the message that launched the first great awakening however i do have a problem with the way he portrays god in his message as if he's some upset fierce unkind angry god who's looking to punish those who disobey his commands that that's not the god we serve that's a messed up idealistic thought of a god who is he has a big stick and he's looking to to hit anybody who doesn't obey what he says to do that's not what kind of god that is and if you share that kind of opinion of your god maybe we don't serve the same god but i prefer to describe my god as a psalmist described god he said surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life he was talking about the goodness of his god the mercy of his god he said it's gonna follow me all the days of my life and i began to study this word follow here in the hebrew and it's a hunting term and it's saying simply this goodness and mercy and and it's sometimes i'm sorry because i have this weird imagination but goodness and mercy is not like like a couple of creepy old men that are following you you know what i'm saying that's not and sometimes i kind of see it is that like like just behind you just kind of kind of following you around that's not what it's saying it's saying it's almost like hunters that no matter where you go goodness and mercy is going to hunt you out you can try to escape the love of god now i'm trying to paint a picture opposite of what jonathan edwards painted because jonathan edwards painted this this this picture of this god who's holding you out over fire over hell's fire gonna drop you in hell's fire and i want to paint the same picture the psalmist painted which simply says you can go off to the ends of the earth and goodness and mercy are like a couple hunting dogs and they're going to come sniff out your trail they're going to find you no matter where you go i don't care what you do i don't care how you do it i don't care where you go to do it my god is a god of love and he's looking for people who are straying who are wayward and if he can find you and i promise you he will find you if he can hunt you out and i promise he will hunt you out he will give goodness and mercy to your life i want you to stand with me are you thankful for a god of mercy in this place tonight i want to just lift up your hand this for a moment and say god i thank you lord that you're a god of love proactive you died on a cross centuries oh god before i would ever be born and you love me enough to love me without even knowing if in fact i would even care that you die for me god i thank you lord god god i thank you for your goodness i thank you for your mercy o god your kindness your long-suffering come on you got to think about the fruit of the spirit that god is expecting us to grow he's already he's already shown us that he is a god of love and a god of mercy and a god of faith and a god of goodness and a god of long suffering and a god of kindness he's already shown us that he's a god of all those things and he's just simply saying if you act like me if you live like me if you walk in my spirit you're not going to have to worry about a law hanging over your head you're not going to worry about legalism hanging over your head you're going to live the greatest life the best life a life of grace a life that draws you towards god and doesn't push you away from god oh come on somebody just lift up your hands i feel the holy ghost in this place if you've been suffering if you've been struggling with condemnation i promise you you need the holy ghost inside of you because the holy ghost is going to lead you out of condemnation now you're going to be convicted and conviction's okay conviction is just god's spirit telling you you need to act right and do right but it's going to take you out of legalism in in condemnation it's going to take you out of being underneath a law that's going to judge you by according to levitical things and old testament things but instead of grace it's going to draw you closer to god come on somebody i want you to pray that you'd have more love that you'd have more peace come on some of you need peace that you haven't had in years some of you living lives and you're worried about this and you're worried about that and you need peace and you need to also cause peace for those around you you've been causing stress and you've been causing drama i was in this place you begin to say god give me peace let me promote peace let me be bring peace into my family unit let me let me bring peace to my husband in peace or peace to my wife oh god lord let me oh let there be truth within us oh god i pray lord for faith give me faith like i haven't had faith let your word oh god means something more to me today than it's ever meant to me before lord i want to believe in you you're a god that never fails come on somebody i just want you to worship him you're a god who never fails you you've never failed me yet you never will fail me you've been faithful through the thick and the thing you've always been faithful oh holy ghost moving this place right now we need some people to understand they've got to be long suffering the short temper it's got to go out the window we need long suffering we need people that things are done to them and they continue to forgive time and time again jesus are we supposed to forgive seven times and jesus said oh no it's multiple times you can't just think of it as a number this is not legalism it's not a certain number jesus said with grace you can forgive over and over and over again because god said i forgive you over and over and over again come on somebody you got to get out of under the law if you're dwelling under the law it's because you're not living right if you're dwelling under the law it's because you're allowing satan to talk you into things that you ought not be doing but if you can walk in the spirit he who walks in the spirit doesn't have to live beneath the law he who walks in the spirit jesus said my yoke is easy my burden is light don't you think that you're going to have to walk around here with your shoulder stoop and all bent over because i put so much on you jesus is simply saying if you live right your life is going to be easy come on holy ghost just move and speak in this place i'm gonna let you go in just a moment i just want the holy ghost just to speak we don't need music we just need people who say god i want you to lead me oh god i want i want to walk in your footsteps that's why we have the holy ghost the holy ghost is god simply walking before us and we can follow in his footsteps the holy spirit we walk in the spirit oh god i want to go where you go where you lead me i will follow wherever you go father i want to go lord if you're going to do great things lord god in this end time i want to do great things in this end time wherever your holy ghost is poor being poured out i want to be there where the holy ghost is being poured out oh in jesus name i feel the holy ghost it feels good in here i i feel there's a release there's somebody here that's been bound up you felt like there's all these all these rules and regulations and i don't even understand why this church does what they do there's no rules and regulation it's all about relationship oh god we love you come on he loves you why don't you just tell them you love him in return father we love you bible says we love him because he first loved us oh we love you tonight jesus we're so thankful we're so thankful that grace defeats the law we're so thankful that grace defeats law it doesn't give us an excuse it doesn't give us a wild card to live carnally it just defeats the law and helps us to live free and to live without baggage or await upon us oh thank you jesus oh thank you jesus um oh church family just give me about one more minute i'm just feeling the holy ghost and i just want to stay right here just for a moment ah somebody nearby you come on if it's if it's appropriate lay your hand upon somebody next year we don't even have to fill this halter just make your pew an altar right where you stand and pray for your brother pray for your sister oh in jesus name god i'm just believing lord god we can do this together we can make it together oh we can make it together together we can do this together revival can take place like it's never happened before oh together oh god we're going to win blunt county together oh god we're going to live lives oh god of freedom we're going to give the best of life oh i'm living the best of life now i i believe the best is yet to come come on somebody if you've been depressed if you've been if the devils had a hold of your mind i want you to be released in jesus name i want you to rebuke those spirits of depression those spirits of oppression i rebuke it in jesus name this is the best life you could ever live if you've got the holy ghost down inside of you if you're walking in the spirit just continue to walk in the spirit and you're going to find the fruit of the spirit growing and developing in your life in jesus name in jesus name in jesus name oh church family i got to thinking about i i just got to thinking about how good god is today his ways are higher the bible says his mercy is new every morning i'm going to leave you with this with that what that means there it means that it's always changing his mercy never is stagnant new mercies i began to think about that i thought you know what every morning how many more how many mornings have i had new mercy and i i got my phone out and i got to calculate i'm dear god i'm 45 years old and multiplied days in a year 365 times 45 and i came up with someone like like around 16 000. i got to thinking god you are you're an amazing god that you have changed up your mercy for me 16 000 times in my lifetime don't don't leave this place and feel please don't feel hopeless leaving this place i hope you don't feel hopeless after a message like this your god is for you he has an expected end for you he knows where you might not know where you're going but he knows where you're going you might not know what your plan is for your life but he knows what the plan is for your life and his mercy every day is changing it's new it's fresh never grow stagnant god have mercy every day wake up and think hey it's a new day i've got a brand new mercy brand new mercy come on let's love him one more time father we love you father we're grateful oh god because you love us because you care for us lord god i'm just believing lord god as we as we live throughout the rest of this week and lord god we go back to our workplaces you're going to bless your people like you've never blessed us before lord you're going to be as good to us as you've always been and you're going to be faithful like you've always been faithful to us and because of that we're going to give you praise we're going to show up tomorrow morning for prayer we're going to show up on on friday we're going to show upload again on sunday to worship you in the sanctuary in jesus name we pray everyone said amen you're dismissed in jesus name god bless you