A Revelation of All

I want to preach about the revelation of all. The revelation of all. It's such a simple word, three letters, A-L-L. But I've been trying to do something since the beginning of the year. I've been doing my best to keep one of my New Year's resolutions. So we're almost in August, I'm still talking about it, so I'm feeling pretty good. One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to stop making absolute statements. Things like, "Well, everybody's doing it." Well, the truth is, everybody's not doing it, you just try to do that. Or to say things that would make an absolute statement. Try to be better, especially if it doesn't apply.

I feel like somewhere along the way, our understanding, comprehension, and use of the word "all" has been skewed. And if you give me a chance today — I may go a little bit slower to try to set some things up — but I do feel strongly that the Lord has a word for us today.

Luke 22, and I'm going to read from the, from The Message Bible. I don't often do this, for many reasons, and if you have questions I can explain to you later. For the biggest reason is, there's a lot of things that Eugene Peterson, when he was putting together the The Message Bible, I feel like he took some liberties with. But for today's purpose only, I do feel like the wording here is appropriate for what I'm trying to do, being led by God.

So The Message, Luke 22:31, says: "Simon, stay on your toes. Satan has tried his best to separate all of you from me." Everybody say "all." "All, like chaff from wheat. Simon, I've prayed for you in particular, that you're not giving in or give out. When you have come through the time of testing, turn to your companions and give them a fresh start."

Romans chapter 7, Paul writing to the church at Rome. Again, I'm reading from The Message, and this is going to be a little bit lengthier reading. I'm going to go for 10 verses, from 15 to 25. I talked about this this past Wednesday night, if you're with us. This passage has just been in my mind and been in my spirit for a few weeks here. Don't read — it says this: "I can anticipate the response that is coming. I know that all —" Everybody said "all." "God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Did you catch that? He saying, what God's trying to do, it's a spiritual thing, but I'm struggling. I'm not. Isn't this also your experience? Yes, I am full of myself. Well, somebody had to say Amen there. After all, I have spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another. Bo, anybody witness there? Doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. In other words, I need it, because I get lost in myself. Left by myself, I do the bad thing. Left by myself, I do the things I hate. I do the things I despise. So I need God's word to guide me, to instruct me.

"Verse 17: But I need something more, for our know the law but still can't keep it. And if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help. I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it. I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me, get to the better of me every time. Well, anybody else besides me identifying with some of this right here?

"Verse 21: It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. Now this is where I want to get to. This is what I want to focus in today. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Everybody say, "All of me." All of — parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. Now, I want you to catch this connection that's going on here. Catch this: because of God's command — but it — to me it's pretty obvious, okay? He says, not all of me joins in.

"Verse 24: I've tried everything. Nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? Verse 25: The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ came, can, and does. That Jesus Christ can and does."

And for just a few moments today, I want to preach on the revelation of all.

Jesus, I love you so much, and I'm so thankful that you're with us here today. God, for the next little while, I just turn myself over to you. God, use me to fulfill your purpose and your plan for this service today, I pray. God, that our minds will be anointed to hear your word, which already is anointed. That your will be done, in Jesus' name. Everybody say amen. Amen.

Paul here, in his talking to the church at Rome, is trying to set things right, in this life of contradictions, to where I feel like many of us can identify — whether even someone who professes to be a follower of Christ or not, you're just a human being. I think there's a big part of what I just read to you that we all can grab a hold of and identify with: that there are times in my life where I want to do what's right, but for whatever reason I seem to always do what's wrong. I determine, I make my mind up, I have best intentions, I set up, I even make a list, or I have priorities and have all the things to set that I want to do. And maybe for a day or two it works out, but at some point along the way I end up resorting back to the old way. I end up defaulting back to a position that I'm not happy with. I'm less than I know that I should be.

So, in doing this, in my subject today, this revelation of all, one of the things that I feel like we all struggle with, in one way or another, is coming to the grips with the real you. You, the real me. We're not always completely honest with oursel. We have what is our public persona. A lot of us in the room, we have our social media persona. And then there's the private person that we really are. Now, here's the deal: those things can be somewhat normal, as long as there's not a huge gap between one area and another. In other words, who we are in public versus who we are in private, if there's a massive gap between the two, often times that causes there to be problems in your life.

I want to preach today. I'm reaching for all of us to tune in to who we really are. Who we really are.

You want — I want to commend you this morning, because you're a good, good-look group today. Look at your neighbor s, now you're pretty good-looking. Now, don't get in trouble if you're not supposed to say that, right? Yeah, we're a good-looking bunch. Now, I feel like most of you probably were like me when I woke up this morning. My hair was all jacked up. What little hair I got — I don't know what happens at night, but for some reason, somehow, the way that I sleep, it ends up becoming — I have this like fauxhawk when I wake up. Like, I guess it's because I go to bed and my head's one way, head's the other. I get up every morning, what little hair I have somewhat standing up and a little turned. But that was me. I woke up — I don't know about you, but I woke up this morning, I had bad breath. I know, it's how I feel: bad breath. I woke up this morning and I had eye crusties. Anybody else? Little drool in the corner of my mouth. I just go in there, you know, and when you turn that light on and you look in the mirror right off the bat, I doubt there's any of us that are like, "Boy, you're really good looking right now." And I've learned with age that as I go in there, I turn the light, I'm like, "Whoa, you're looking rough." But we don't stay that way, right? Most of us — again, I'm trying not to use absolute statements — most of us, we wash our face and comb our hair and brush our teeth, thank God, and we go out in the public. And we don't look — most of us here today don't look like we looked when we got out of bed. Now, if you need to see that, you can go down the Walmart and you're going to run into somebody that just got out of bed. I don't understand that either. I have a lot of questions in life. But most of us, we tend to try to make oursel better. So I want to commend you today for doing that, because I feel like we should put our best foot forward. I feel like in church services it's even more important, because what we're doing when we come here is we're also honoring and respecting the person we've come into worship. So we put our best foot forward. You know, for me — not everybody — you don't have to do this. You don't have to wear a tie to go to heaven, thank God. I don't really like them. You know, you don't have to do a lot of these things. But I do what I do out of honor and respect for who I'm trying to represent. That make sense? Everybody okay with that? All right.

So in this, though, we got to make sure that we keep a right mind in what we're doing, and we don't get lost in the shuffle of trying to fix ourselves up. Somewhere along the way, though, we can come to a point to where we can be a little bit out of touch between the public and the private life that we live. I don't know where it begins, but somewhere in life we all come to a moment where we end up compartmentalizing certain parts of our life. And that's not all bad. In fact, in a lot of ways it's necessary for you to function properly. You know, I have to tell everybody everything about your life? Regardless of what people do on social media — I've said this before — it's okay for you to do something and actually not tell anybody about it, right? You can do that. Try something: you can go have a whole meal. You don't have to take a picture of it. You don't have to post it. You can do it, and it will be just as satisfying to your body without anybody knowing that you had that meal. Am, yeah.

Now, where we get into is, I want to make sure that I don't miss my point. I'm talking about a revelation of all. God says he wants all of you. He wants all of you. He doesn't want part of you. He doesn't want a piece of you. He doesn't want half of you, or three4 of you, or 99% of you. He wants all of you. God says "all." And often times we end up responding, "God, I'll give you some." God says, "I want everything," and we say "almost."

In our opening passage in Luke 22, as we're seeing this dialogue, to me I feel like was one of the hardest things that Jesus ever Dead, when he was trying to get Peter to see himself as he really was. Many of you know, but for those of you that are not aware, Luke 22 is an interesting chapter. Because just before the verse that I read you, there's a conversation going on amongst the disciples. And they're arguing over which one of them is the greatest. Which I find very laughable: you're sitting there with the king of kings and Lord of lords in the room, and then you're going to bicker with your brother about which one's greater than the other. But it's in the midst of this conversation about who's the greatest that we see Jesus looked at Simon, and he says to him, "Hey, I just want to let you know, bud, the enemy — the enemy is trying to get you. The enemy is going to come at you. He's trying to sift you as wheat. He's trying to separate. In fact, the words that I read in The Message Bible to you was that he's trying to separate all of you from me. He doesn't want you to be connected. Because the enemy, our enemy, our adversary, understands the power in causing there to be division between us and God."

Now, many times we're really good about noticing the big things that happen in life — the big sins, or the big no NOS, or the big situations where we can avoid those. But we fail sometimes to realize the revelation of all, that God says he wants all of us. All of us. Jesus was trying to teach Peter, along with the rest of the disciples, about the great message that they had to carry out in the kingdom, and let them know that it was not about them. It was about him. And that's where I feel like often we end up struggling in life, is when we really think our life about us. Your life's not about you. If to truly follow after God, your life becomes about him, right? What he wants to do. Why he created you to start with. And that's where there has to be a mind shift in our relationship with God, we need to have a revelation of all.

Usually what happens for many of us is, we have our moments of conversion, or our moments of coming into a deeper relationship with God. More often than not, many of us had been in a situation that we were ashamed of. We had done things we were not happy with, proud of, and we were looking for some way to deal with the guilt we had in our life. And if you've been around here for a while, you hear me teach from time to time that we're not built for guilt. We don't like guilt. We want to push guilt off. That's where we usually get into trouble, is I try to push my guilt off on somebody else, or to a place where it doesn't belong, instead of taking that guilt and giving it to God and asking for forgiveness.

Now, understanding what Jesus did at Calvary: he went and he died for you and I at Calvary, to take our place. Because the word of God says that the penalty for sin, or the penalty for doing wrong, is death. That you and I deserve to die. But God, in his wisdom, decided — I'm giving you a very, very condensed version of the Bible right now — but God, in his wisdom, said, "You know what, there's no way for you to take care of the debt that you've inced, so I'll take care of the debt for you." And he robed himself in flesh and came to Earth, and he walked among us. And when the time was right, when the Fullman, when the Fulfillment of time came, he went and died for you and I. He took our place. He paid the penalty for the sins that you and I committed, from now and forever more. You and I didn't earn it, and we sure didn't deserve it. But he did it anyway. And I thank God for that. I thank God for his grace, and I thank God for his mercy.

But here's the deal — and you've heard me say this, if you've been with me for a while — to understand grace and mercy is to understand it's calling me to a higher life. It's callusing me to live differently. And I feel like grace is such an abused word in Christianity today. It's been pulled and stretched and turned into something that was never intended, to me. And the best way I know to say this — and I feel like it's the best example — is: if you need to understand grace, look at the cross. That's grace. He gave all for you and I. He didn't give part. He didn't put half his body on the cross. He gave all of his himself for you and I. And I love that, because he doesn't ask us anything in return that he's not willing to do himself. He gave all first, and all he asked in return is for you and I to give all back. But all means all. Everybody say "all." All. All. He wants all of us. He wants every area and aspect of our life.

And I feel like so many times, the things we often struggle with — as we were reading about Paul's account in Romans, when I want to do good, I don't do good — is because there's some piece of our life that we're withholding back from him. Now, just give me a minute, okay? You guys okay? I know I'm not doing my normal cartwheels and hooping, hollering. But everybody okay? I feel like it's important for me to go slow and do this, to make sure that we get it in our spirit. We're going to get there in a minute. But there's some powerful teaching that we need to get around our head.

I'm going to go back to Luke 22:31: "Simon, stay on your toes. Satan has tried his best to separate all of you from me." I love this, because he says, "Simon, I've prayed for you." How powerful is that, that your lord prays for you, that he prayed for you, Simon? He — Satan has tried his best to separate. I'm going to read it from the King James version. It says: "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, satanath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brothers."

And Peter seems to be just like you. He's misunderstanding the words that are being said to him. "You don't understand me, Peter. I know what you're saying. I know you're going to be with me then. I know that wherever I go, you're going to go. I know that's what you're thinking in your heart. But I'm telling you, Peter, before this night's over, you're going to deny you ever even knew me. You have good intentions, Peter. But I'm telling you, there's still a piece of you that has not been fully committed over to me yet. I'm warning you, the enemy is there, and he's desiring to keep all of you from being committed to what I know that you need to do, what I have planned for you to do in my kingdom and for the Kingdom Purpose. But you got to be careful, Peter, because you can get so built up in yourself, you can miss the point. It's not about you. It's about me."

The reality was that Peter couldn't see himself. The reality was that you and I, we have blind spots in our lives. I read across — I ran across this not too long ago, this information: did you know that every human being has a blind spot? We do. This isn't me being evangelistic, okay? This is me telling you a truth. We all have blind spot. The area in the back of our eye, where the optic nerve is attached there to the retina, that spot creates a blind spot. You can't see in that. Now, there's a way you can test that, if you want to. If you want to just check me out later this afternoon, you can do a Google search for human blind spot, and there's a whole test you can do. You take a little 3x5 white card, and you put a little mark on there. And you hold out in front of you, and you close one eye, and close the other eye. And it'll prove to you that there's a blind — you have a blind spot. In fact, I got a really creepy photo for you to look at. I know. I know, it's the best one though. I can see that, the show, you can see where the optic nerve attaches and the blind spot it creates.

Now, here's the deal, okay? What happens is, majority of us everever never even realize that we have a blind spot. You know why? Because our brain makes up for it. Our brain makes up for it. Now, that's dare: all of us have a spot right now in our vision, that there is a blind spot. But our mind overrides that and tells our mind to create an image inside your brain, so that you don't see it.

Now, many times what correlates in the natural also correlates over into the spiritual. We have spiritual blind spots. That's why it's important that you are regularly digesting the word of God. That's why it's important to be a part of a worship service, a part where you have a pastor in your life and people in your life who can help you with those blind spots and point out some things. Now, here's what's important, is you need to listen when someone points out something, too.

You ever had somebody that you've been sitting with, and then they just have a hunk of broccoli in their teeth? Or maybe a piece of black pepper, you know, sometimes that gets right there. And they're talking to you, and the whole time they're talking, you have no idea what they're saying, because you can't focus on anything but what's hanging in their teeth. Or, you know, to step this up a little bit, you know they got a booger hanging in their nose, and every time they breathe it does this. All right, F, I got you. I was worried I had a few people sleeping, but I got you there.

Now, a true friend — l span's a true friend. He's helped me out a couple of times. A true friend will say, "Hey, man, I let you know, you got some in your teeth." Or, "Hey, you know, you need to go get a tissue. You need to —" Yeah. Now, somebody's not your friend, they're just like, "Hey, man, I got to go. I gotta —" Somebody that really loves you helps you with your blind spot. So somebody that really loves you helps you in the areas where you can't see the real you.

So here's the reality. Here's the truth: all of us have blind spots, spiritually. We all have places in our life that we're not fully aware of what's going on. That's why we got to be careful, because the enemy likes to make sure that we don't fix the blind spots. Because if he can't make you bad, he'll try to make you at least not be all committed, in that there's some area, that there's some peace, there's some — there — some aspect of your life that you haven't fully given over to God yet.

Now, we'll justify. That's what happens, is often times, without somebody able to point those things out, we end up justifying the blind spot. "Am, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not that way. I'm not that way." And just give me a second. Let me unpack it. I don't feel like I got everybody on board yet.

Sometimes in the spirit realm, we're not fully aware of our faults. But Jesus makes this powerful statement to Peter about where Peter really lived, beyond his boast in about everything he was going to do. He was telling, like, "Peter, you don't even understand. In fact, before the sun rises again, you're going to — you, Mr. Exuberant, you, mister, you're going to do everything, you, mister, I'm going to cut an ear off, you, who's going to walk on water, all this stuff that you're going to do — Peter, you're going to deny you never even knew me. Because you're going to be faced with a challenge that's going to be so stressful in your life, and you're going to have such a pressure hit you out of nowhere — it's going to come in unexpected. Oh, would I have anybody with a witness on that? Out of nowhere, it's going to hit you so hard. And the very thing you say you're going to do, you're going to do the opposite."

I'm here to tell you, you need to be aware of what's going on in your life. But I love the fact that he says, "But I've prayed for you. I've prayed for you, that when you're —" The word there that is used in King James language is "converted." Now, that word "converted," that's an interesting word right there. It's not the way you and I, you would use the word "converted" in our English language. If you go back to the Greek word there, it is literal translated, is "when you turn back." Peter, when you turn back. When that moment happens, I've prayed for you that when you turn back — when you turn back — you'll be changed. In fact, he says, "I want you to go and to encourage your brothers." Why? Because there are times in our life when we have humbling situations, that we looked at life differently on the other side.

Anybody ever been humbled before? Yeah, yeah. I've been humbled many time in my life. Most of them I needed to be humbled on. And when you get on the other side of humility, often times you have a whole different way of viewing when other people were facing the same situations. You were kind of hard Ling, hard noosed, until you yourself fell. And then you get up on the other side, and you have a new appreciation. You're like, "Well, maybe I shouldn't have been so hard Lin, because hey, I fa myself."

That's what he was trying to tell Peter, is: "Peter, you're trying to be pretty Hardline. You think that the rest of them are going to fall away, and you're going to be the only one that's going to stand. 'I don't care what anybody else is. Lord, I'll go with you anywhere you go. That's where I'm going to be.' You don't even understand that your own arrogance and your pride is going to cause you to fall, Peter, because there's still some of you, you haven't committ it over to me yet. The enemy is trying to separate all of you from me, and he's found a weakness in your armor, and you're going to be exposed tonight. But I've prayed for you, that when you get on the other side, that you'll be an encourager."

I'll come back to that in just a minute.

See, the sifting process happens in our areas of life, both good and bad. And it can be pretty. It can be ugly. It be holy. It can be — it can be all these things. But we are expected to separate our every part of life, so that the best will come to the front. That's what we do. We always want to put our best foot forward. We don't come out and say, "I'm weak." No one wants to admit they're weak. No one wants to admit they're ugly. No one wants to meit those things. So we always put our best self forward. But we got to make sure that there's not a gap between the real you in the public you. Because that, in that gap, is where we lie to ourselves.

And I love this fact: Second Peter 3 says, "The Lord is not concerning, not slack concerning his promises as some men will count slackness, but as long suffer to us were, not willing that any should perish."

Who wrote that? The same guy that denied him. Peter, writing these words. Peter, who was warn. Peter, who was humiliated. Peter, who seemed to walk away, is the one who says, "God's not slack concerning his promise. He's not wanting anybody to perish." Peter, who remembers when there was a hot breakfast cooked for him on the seashore, after he had walked away and went back to his old ways. Went back to fishing. Went back to the boat. Went back to all the stuff. Went back to the life that he had been delivered from. And Jesus still called him back and said, "Peter, do you love me?"

I'm reaching for somebody today: he loves you. I don't know the mistakes you've made. I don't know where you are. I want you to know that, look, life happens to us all. And sometimes we get ourselves into a mess because we're not willing to listen to someone tell us, "You got a blind spot in your life. You got some place that you're not being honest with yourself. You got some place that you're justified, that you shouldn't be justified, because you don't have a proper revelation of the word. All he wants, all of you. He wants every piece of you. He doesn't want you to withhold anything back from him, because his desire is to take all of you and to do something powerful for the kingdom. But he can't do something powerful until you relinquish all of you."

That's why so many have often times frustrated themselves, because they felt a call, or felt a pull, or they felt the tug in the ministry. And that's right, because I believe everybody's a minister. Everybody has a position and a purpose and a plan that God wants to do for you. But it only works if you give him all. You got to give him all. If you give him less than all, you're going to find yourself frustrated. If you give him less than all, you're going to find yourself not fulfilled. If you give him less than all, you're going to find yourself being mad and walking away. And I know some of you know exactly what I'm talking about, because God has put big plans inside of you. But some of you, it's been 10, 20, and 30 years worth of you not committing yourself completely over to him. And you find yourself frustrated, and now you justify why you said and do nothing, when God is not repentant of the call he put in your life. The call of God is without repentance. What he's placed in you, you're never going to get past it. You can try to sooth it. You can try to medicate it. You can try to smoke it and drink it away. But I promise you, you are less than when you don't give yourself fully over to the God who created you to do powerful and amazing things for the kingdom. And I'm here today to tell somebody: you need to have a revelation of all in your life. It's not too late. It's not too late. If you'll get past your blind spot, if you get past yourself, God will do amazing things, even now, in your life for his kingdom. God wants all of me. He wants all of you. Everybody say "all."

I was reading this. I was thinking, recalled back to my mind, the story of Ivan the Great. I don't know if you remember studying out Ivan the Great when you were in school. But Ivan the Great, the Zar in Russia — he was also known as Ivan the Terrible, I guess it depend on who you were talking to. But Ivan the Great, he had conquered so much and had really unified the country together. And his popularity was at its Pinnacle Peak. And his advisors who were around him began to have conversation with him and tell him — said, look: "We appreciate what you've done. You've been a tremendous leader. You've done all these amazing things, and our country is unified, and we're a powerful nation now. But we just realized something: in the midst of you trying to put it all together, and fight all the wars, and do all the things, that you haven't taken a wife, and you don't have any children. There's no heir to pass this on. And like, we want to continue on what's going on. So we think it's important that we bring this minor detail to you: that you don't have an heir."

And he agreed. He's like, "I didn't even think about that. I've been so busy just trying to conquer, and trying to do all the things that I knew I was supposed to do, that I went there." He said, "I tell you what, I'm really going to —" That, this is not good advice, okay? This is what he did. He said, "I'm going to keep on doing the work. You just go find me a wife. And whoever you think is good, you bring them in, and we'll go from there." It's bad advice. Don't recommend that. That isn't even a part of my message. It was just free.

Well, they searched all of Europe, and they found what they thought was going to be the perfect wife for him. And he was — she's the daughter of the king of Greece. And they tell him about what they found. And he said, "It sounds like a good deal to me." He, again, sight unseen, he said, "I think it'd be good. Well, we can have an alignment there." So the king of Greece, he's on board, too. He's excited, because he's going to have an alignment with a very powerful nation. So we can see how these things are playing out. But he says, "I have one thing that you have to do." This is history. You guys can go read it later. He says, "The only way that you can marry my daughter is, you have to convert to the Greek Orthodox Church. Become a member of the Greek Orthodox church. And if you'll do that, then you can have the hand of my daughter."

Ian the great says, "Sounds good to me." So they sent priest up to Russia to educate him on what that meant, and the requirements he had to have in his life. And part of the requirement is that he had to be baptized by full immersion in water. And he's on board with all of it. So he gets his travel group together, and they leave, and they're heading to Greece for the wedding. And he had his own personal guard that was around him, was a prised of 500 men strong, fighting men. And along the journey down, they begin to talk to each other, and said, "You know, we go everywhere with our King. And if our King is going to get baptized, then we need to get baptized too. We shouldn't let him be by himself." So when they arrive there on the scene, they inform everybody that says, "We're here, and our King is going to be baptized. We are his private guard. We are all going to be baptized too." So that kind of threw things into a little bit of a tail spin, because they had not been educated. So they rounded up all the priests they could find, and they had big cram session for a couple of days, so that everybody knew exactly what they were signing on board with, and understand the baptism.

But they ran into a problem, as they're talking and teaching, that the Greek Orthodox Church would not allow any professional soldiers to be members of the church. So they begin to tell the soldiers what's going on. So the soldiers are having a conversation with himself, said, "Well, what are we going to do here? If we're committed over to this, we're going to lose our purpose. We're meant to protect the king. If we get baptized, and they say we can't be soldiers anymore, then what are we going to do?" So they came up with this little plan. So they went back and said, "Okay, we're on board with everything." So they get out there for the big Mass baptism. They get out there in the water. They got all these — got 500 priests, everybody's got their own priest. And from — they do this Mass baptism. And right as they're — say all the things they're going to say before the baptism — right before they dunk them, the soldiers all reach, one Unison, they grab their sword. They un sheath it and hold it in the air. And as they go backwards in the water, they hold their hand and their sword out of the water. It's signifying, saying: "You can have all of me, but this."

Something about that story just struck a chord in me, as I was putting this together today. I wonder if there is some of us who are struggling today in our walk with God, because in a very same fashion and manner, we came to God and we gave him all but a peace. "God, you can have all of me, but my anger. I won't give you my anger. I'm not going to relinquish that over to you. God, you can have —"

You know where I feel like there needs to be — there needs to be a big move in the church. And please know my heart when I say this, cuz I mean it with just love. But I feel like there needs to be just a big understanding of God. I need to bring my tongue to you. Because I feel like a lot of people have committed all themselves but their mouth. Or maybe it's your pride. I don't know. But as I was praying about this and trying to work through this message today, I realized that often times in my own life, there's been moments where I feel like there was a piece of me that didn't seem to be in compliance with what I was trying to do for God. There was something that was some unbaptized temper, or some piece of my personality, you know. But I think what we have to remember is that when you come to God, he wants all or nothing. There's no withholding. We need to get it committed over to him. He wants to hold you. He doesn't just want part of you.

The devil will do the same thing to you that he did with Simon Peter. He's going to work hard to try to separate you from God. He doesn't care how many times you come to church. He doesn't care how many times you sing the songs, or you clap your hands, or you dance up and down. He doesn't care how many devotionals that you read, as long as there's a piece of you that's not committed to God. The enemy knows he's got you. Because when part goes under, all of you has to go under. That's the way it works.

Some of you have these uncommitted things in your life. There's only part of you, and it's sabotaging your life. It's sabotaging your peace. It's destroying your home. It's destroying your mind. It's destroying your hope. It's tearing everything down around you. What is it today? Because I feel like we need to have a revelation of all. Is there a desire lurking somewhere in the hidden part of your life that you're just not willing to part with? Is there part of your life that you're having a hard time yielding over to him? I don't know. Maybe it's your ambition. What part of you — this is personal. This is where you are. This is something you have to reflect on. What part of you have you yet to fully commit over to him?

Or maybe it's this: maybe when the early days came in — and what I mean by days, maybe when you were early in your walk with God, you were all in. You gave every piece of you. But somewhere along the way, you — something came out from underneath commitment to God. Maybe there's some peace now, that you realize that is just not there the way it needs to be. At one time, you were on fire. You were zealous. You were committed. You were all in. And everything you did, you talked about God to your friends and to your co-workers. And you were constantly pushing yourself deeper in his word, and committed. But somewhere along the way, you eased up a little bit. You relinquished some things that were one time such a strong commitment in your life. And because of that, now there's some things then that are just not the way they used to be.

Come on, we all have blind spots. I know. I know there's some people in this room today that have some blind spots. And if you were honest with yourself, if you were truly honest, you would say there's some pieces in me that are just not as committed as they once were.

Where are you at today? Is it your mind? Is it your temper? Is it your tongue? Is it your desire? Is it your wallet? Is your ambition? Is it your hopes? Is it your dreams? What is it? What part of you needs to be converted back? What part of you needs to be committed to God? What part of you needs to be turned around? What part of you is ruining your future? What part of you — I don't know who I'm talking to this morning. We all need to evaluate and make sure where we need to be. What is it that you need to change, when it comes to your way of thinking.

You see, here's the problem with so many of our little ID idiosyncrasies and personalities, and little things that make us who we are: we sometimes use them as an excuse for not really selling out to God. I've heard some of you — and I believe like some of it was even in a somewhat joking manner — then just say, "You know me, Pastor. You know, I just can't handle that. I just can't do that. You know, I just — I can't put up, when somebody starts that business. I just got to set them straight." When something's going along — and some of you — please, please, please, listen to me today. Please. I don't mean this in any other way but with love. I just feel like I'm trying to be a mirror today. I'm trying to reflect back, so that you can see your blind spots. But some of you have ruined your witness so many times, because you couldn't control your mouth. Because you couldn't control your temper. God gifted you with the ability to reach people that I could never reach. But in the middle of trying to reach somebody, they didn't do something the way you thought they should do it, and you just lost your mind for a minute. And the very thing he called you to do, which was be a kingdom Builder, you ended up being something that tore down the kingdom.

Please. Please. No, I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm trying to shine light. I'm trying to show you that there's still areas there that we all need to work on. We need to have a revelation of the word "all." It means all. It means, all of me belongs to him. Not part, but all.

Here's the reality. Here's the truth that I know: that if we were all fully committed to God, we could not contain what he would do in our community. Because we would be unified in prayer and purpose. We will be unified in our plan. We'll be unified in what we do. We'll be unified. But there's division, even in the church. And we have a wonderful church, but there's division. And there's some of you that you come, but you're not committed over here. And you come only for this, but not for that. Or you come and you're critical. And you come and you critique. And you come — that's not what God's called us to do. I mean, sometimes things don't go right. But if we're really where we need to be, we come in the unity of a body and the spirit, unified in what we do. And we're missing it, because we don't have a right revelation of the word.

Oh, I don't know what's happened, but here, somehow, in our minds — out there in the dark of night, when I go back to Peter, I know when I read that story about him denying God right when it counted, when he had a moment, he was close by the fire, because he was going to be there with him to the end. But somehow in the moment, when it got down to where the rubber meets the road, when it got down to him really, really, really standing up and being the person he said he was going to be — he didn't. He denied.

Life brings moments like that. Life bring moments where it's going to cost you. And that's how you can always tell if you're really all in or not, is when the moment's going to cost you, do you pay the cost? When the peer pressure mounts, and all your friends are looking at you, in that moment, are you going to stay committed, or are you going to go with the crowd? In that moment when someone has hurt your feelings, are you going to stay committed, or are you going to let part of you go? In that moment when someone has angered you, are you going to be able to be angry and sin not? Are you able to have control? Because here's what I know: it's such a hard thing, but he asked for all.

Oh, somewhere in the dark of night, somewhere after that conversation on the shoreline, somewhere after Jesus said, "Simon, do you love me? And feed my sheep." Do you remember what he told him? He said, "Look, after I have prayed for you, that after you've been converted, after you turn around and go back, that you'll encourage your brothers." What's he telling him on the seashore, when he's feeding the fish for breakfast? What's he telling? "Do you love me more than these?" "Lord, you know I love you." "Then feed my sheep." What's he doing? He's reminding him about, "Hey, there's something bigger here. I know you messed up, Peter. I know —" Fact, there's another instance in the gospel recording, I think it's in John, where, after the resurrection, he specifically says, "You go tell the disciples and Peter." And Peter — why? Because Peter's hurting. Peter's struggling right now, because he's so caught up in his failure.

Oh, I've been there. I've been there, where there's been such shame because of my failure. Such heartbreak. So ashamed, they want to go back and face it. Don't want to, because I was bold. I popped my mouth off. I said I was going to do what I was going to do, and I didn't do it. I did the opposite. "You go tell the disciples and Peter." And on the shore, as he's cooking and breakfast — it's just this conversation going on between Peter and Jesus. And Peter's inting that moment, trying to pull him back in, and saying, "I know you messed up. I told you you was going to mess up, because you had a blind spot, Peter. But I want to know — I want to know, do you love me? Do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than looking bad in front of your peers? Do you love me?" "Lord, you know I —" "Then feed my sheep."

What was he doing? What was he doing in that moment? He was reminding Peter back: "You have a purpose, Peter. Don't let your failure keep you from your purpose." I know you — oh, I feel the Holy Ghost moving. I know you failed, and I know it's hard. I know it hurts. I know you don't like it. But please don't be so stubborn in your failure that you don't fulfill your purpose. "If you love me, you'll feed my sheep." Because that's your purpose, Peter.

I'm reaching for somebody in this room today, that you've allowed yourself to sit back, and you've allowed yourself to be less than, and you've justified why you don't, because of your actions. And I'm here to tell you, the same God that was asking Peter the question is asking you today: Do you love him? Do you love him? Because if you do, then get back to what you're supposed to be doing. Get back. He said, "I prayed for you, that when you're converted, when you go back, that you'll be an encourager."

Some of you have such powerful testimonies of what you could tell that God has done and is doing in your life, but you're not saying anything about it, because there's still a piece of you that's not committed to him. You need a revelation of all. Is there something you need to get back under the blood? Something that's kind of crept back up in your life. He didn't have problems for a long time, but it resurfaced, and you were weak, and it got you. And it's facing you in the today, and it's staring at you. You didn't think you would ever have to deal with it again. It doesn't matter. What you need to do is reach it up and grab it and pull it back in where it's supposed to be. You need to say, "You're not going to take me away from God. You're not going to make me a rep probate mind. You're not going to ruin my life. You're not going to try to steal my Kingdom Purpose and what God's plan is for me. No, I'm bringing it back under where it's supposed to be. I'm committing myself again today. I'm starting to freshen a new. Yes, I failed. Yes, I stumbled. Yes, I did this. Yes, I've fallen down. But I'm here to tell the enemy: Rejoice not against me. I may have fallen, but I'm going to get back up again, because my God is still on my side. He still loves me. There's still a plan and a purpose for my life."

I'm reaching for somebody today: it's time to stop being a pew warmer. It's time to get back in the action, and get back in the ministry where you're supposed to be. It's back to teaching Bible studies, and being a witness, and bringing people to the house of God. Get back to what you know you're supposed to be doing. Stop sitting on the sideline, justifying why you're not doing anything. Give it all to him today.

So I bring this to a close. I feel like God's going to do a restorative work today. You know, last week my sermon got cut short. God came in. He did awesome stuff. And there already been two miracles that's gotten back to me, that God has done at a last week's service. And I feel strong today that God's going to do a restoration in this place. There's going to be a restoration of ministries, and a restoration of hearts, and a restor ation of purpose in this place today.

I think part of us are afraid. I think somehow we have convinced oursel in our mind that there's some part of our life that God would be embarrassed to be associated with. That I've done something that's disqualified me, to the point that God would be ashamed. Of course, when we get to thinking like that, the enemy — he's relentless. He'll just pour it on. Because the moment you try to start doing things right, he's going to say to you, "Who do you think you are? What do you think you're doing? They all know. They all know. They all know you run your mouth. They all know you got a temper. They all know you've said time and time again you're going to do — they've all seen you get in, back into church, for a couple of months or a couple of years, but just to fall back again over. They all know. They're all talking about you." That's what our enemy — he does that. He likes to pounce. Again, remember, his desire is to keep you from being fully committed. And I feel like we allow that fear, that fear of shame, to cause us to do what we do.

But I've never seen one time — knowing everything I know about Simon Peter, I never seen one time him turning away from Simon and saying, "Simon Peter, I'm ashamed of you." It's not here. It's not here. Not one time. And all the stuff that he did, did he look at him and say — now, he got on to him one time and called him having a little faith. But he never told him, "I'm asham to you." So I don't know where that shame is coming in to you at right now. But in the authority, in the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke that shame from this place right now. Be gone, devil. You have no place in this room. Be gone.

What I pray today is that you would feel that liberty that comes where his spirit is. There's liberty in this room today. Than you, Jesus.

Here, here's what I need you to know. And I'm going to — back to a word I said earlier: Grace is never afraid of your dark secret. It's not. Grace is not afraid of whatever mess you've gotten yourself into, whatever thing you've done, whatever decision you — Grace is not afraid of it. It's not afraid. It's not afraid to be involved in your life. It's not afraid to reach out to where you are. Grace is not afraid of my darkest secr Secrets. It's not afraid of the ugliest parts of my life, are yours. Grace is sufficient to cover all of those things.

Romans 5:20, my last verse: "But where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound." How powerful. I don't know what sin's in this room right now, but I'm here to tell you, Grace is more. Grace is more. I don't care how dark it is in this room right now for some of you. Grace is more. His love is more. He's not ashamed of you. He loves you now as much as he has ever loved you. There's never been a moment he's loved you less, and there's never been a moment he's loved you more. His love is pure, and it is true, and it is here for you today, in this place. See, that's the power of God's spirit. It's not about how dark my sin is. It's about how great his grace is. His grace is greater than all my sins. His grace is greater than all the dark places in my life. So I don't have to be afraid to be a part of him.

I was reading in Judges — I believe it was chapter 2, maybe chapter 3. And the children of Israel — Joshua had led them through the conquest that was there, and, but Joshua's died. And the word of God says that those that were there with Joshua ended up dying as well. And there arose another generation that knew not, knew not the stories or the Deliverance that was there. And every man that started doing what was right in his own eyes. And it says the Lord God was frustrated with them, because they kept turning away. So he sent judges in. And the judges would come in. And the judges were — this: they were there for the blind spot. They were there to say, "Hey, you got to stop doing this. You got to stop. You got to stop worshiping that. You got to get this out of your life." And they would make a course correction, right? And then God would come in and deliver them. And they would come back out. But they get down — I think it's the towards the end of chapter 3 — to where it finally says, then God's like, "You know what, I've been driving these things out of your life for a while, but I'm not going to do it anymore." The word says that he tested them, to see if they really were going to stay committed to him.

Now, why — why do I feel to end this way? CU I'm end. In fact, if you want to stand with me right now: the Lord realized that there's some things he just needed to leave in their life, because it was the only way they were going to stay true to him. Cuz every time he took it away, they ended up going right back and were bad again. But as long as the things stayed, they stayed committed to him.

They may think, "Well, that — what does that have to do with me, Pastor Kevin?" I've learned in my own life — and I feel like this is what Paul was talking about when he said, "I had a throne in the flesh, that I sought God after, and God said, 'No, I'm not going to remove it from you, cuz my strength is made perfect in weakness.'" I'm reaching for somebody today: you've tried to excuse away every why you're not committed to God. I'm telling you that some — for some of you, God's not going to take away the thing that's there, because it's a thing that's there that's going to keep you where you need to be. Yes, Paul went on and said, "I will therefore glory in my infirmities, for when I am weak, then I am strong."

This altar is open. A revelation of all is simply this: an understanding that God's desire is that he wants all of me. Not part. All of me.

I feel like there are some individuals who need to make a recommitment in your life. Don't let shame play in you. Don't let shame get a part of you. Don't let the enemy keep you in your seat. I'm telling you, there is a powerful Kingdom power that's in this room today, and I invite you to come. If you need salvation, I invite you to come. If you need a restoration, I invite you to come. You need a healing, I invite you to come today. We need to get back to where God has all of us. A revelation of all. Let's pray.