Youth Week - When Jesus Interferes

i think we need to respond just a little bit more to the presence of god i believe someone needs to reach out in faith maybe you've got some things you've been praying for i believe you need to have the faith to believe that god can do it this is not what i'm preaching tonight but i feel like someone needs to hear it do you know that jesus didn't always respond to need jesus didn't always respond to need when he healed the blind man chances are there was other people that had needs around that man jesus doesn't respond to perfection he responded to the man on the cross next to him what does jesus respond to over and over the one thing i find the common thread is that jesus responds to faith so you may have a need tonight and you bring that knee but my encouragement to you is to let your faith rise because jesus is walking by and he knows our needs but he's looking for faith he knows what you have need of but he's looking for just a little bit of faith so for just another second whatever needs you brought in here on a friday night could you just let your faith rise to the level of that need and say god i have faith enough that you can meet me at the place of my need whatever it is you're going through i believe we serve a god that can meet every single need but he's looking for faith

let's pray just for a moment oh god i thank you tonight for your presence that's already here god i worship you tonight and i believe lord that you're here to move on our behalf god but you're looking for faith god you're looking for just a little bit of faith god that we believe that you can do it that we believe that you can move oh lord i pray that our faith would rise in this place that our expectation would rise god that you're here to meet us lord in jesus name in jesus name i truly believe if you have faith tonight god can meet you at the place of your need amen amen i'm going to jump right into the word of god tonight i'm thankful to be here with y'all for youth week got to spend some great time with the youth team last night and talk about vision and student ministry some great things god is doing and i just love what i i see and i hear and i experience and so i'm thankful to be a part we're going to be reading in mark chapter 5 and we're going to look at a passage of scripture where jesus heals a demon-possessed man and we see in mark chapter five beginning in verse one i'm reading new living translation tonight said so when they arrived at the other side of the lake in the region of the gerasenes when jesus climbed out of the boat a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him this man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained even with a chain whenever he was put into chains and shackles as he often was he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles no one was strong enough to subdue him day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills howling and cutting himself with stones but then we see in verse six it sets up the the life this man is living it sets up the the place that he finds himself in it sets up his behaviors his strength all of these things but it says when jesus was still some distance away the man saw him ran to meet him and bowed low before him with a streak he screamed why are you interfering with me jesus son of the most high in the name of god i beg you don't torture me for jesus had already said to the spirit come out of the man you evil spirit my message tonight is this when jesus interferes when jesus interferes you can be seated tonight

i'm going to read another passage of scripture i'm going to read several different things tonight but i'm not going to ask you to stand again but we see another uh passage where jesus casts out an evil spirit and kind of a similar interaction we see this in mark chapter 1 and in verse 21 and i'm going to pick up and it reads like this jesus and his companions went to the town of capernaum when the sabbath day came he went to the synagogue and began to teach the people were amazed that his teaching free taught with real authority quite unlike the teachers of religious law suddenly a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out the same phrase why are you interfering with us jesus of nazareth have you come to destroy us he already knew what was going to happen eventually could read that in scripture i know who you are the holy one of god but jesus reprimanded him be quiet come out of the man he ordered at that the evil spirit screamed through the man into a convulsion and then came out of him amazement gripped the audience and they began to discuss what had happened what sort of new teaching is this they asked excitedly it has such authority even evil spirits obey his orders the news spread about the news about jesus spread quickly throughout the entire region of galilee when jesus interferes we see this man when we come onto the scene the bible describes him as unclean i would dare say we've got some unclean people in this place if you are a junior high boy talking to you i'm not going to look at anybody i greeted some people everyone smelled nice look nice so i think it's not in here but just a painting with a broad brush but i want to remind us of some things and i i really believe that god has sent me here to challenge us is that okay i wanna i wanna issue a challenge to us in our walk with god and some things that i believe in the scripture that is going to challenge our faith and our walk with god tonight and this is what i love about being a guest speaker i know that being on staff at a church when you have a guest speaker what happens is a lot of times they will say something that you're like man that's great i could never say that as a student pastor but the guest speaker can come in and say something because i can step on whatever totals i want because i leave and i say god bless you i'm out of here so i believe that a little bit of my job this weekend is not just to give you a good message it's not just to give you a good sermon what i hope to do is preach to you but also challenge you in the way that you respond to the sermons you hear every week to challenge you with the way that you absorb and digest the word of god and the preached word of god and the teaching of god so i may step on some toes but at least i'm acknowledging it that's got to count for something right so in this story we see that this man lived in burial caves he could no longer be restrained the bible says when he was put into chains and shackles he often was he would literally snap it so that no matter what anybody did he could not be restrained could you imagine the terror that that would wreak on this town absolutely unbelievable that this man could not be stopped could not be imprisoned could not be chained and i i just can't imagine what it would be just to be a normal person mom can i go down to the park and play dad can i go and do something fun and in the back of my mind i know that there is this demon-possessed man that no matter what i do i have nothing in my strength to stop him and i believe that sometimes in our life there are many situations circumstances things that kind of we feel the same way about things that they just plague us no matter what we do i just can't get away from this thing it bothers me it it torments me it just seems to pester my life and i just can't do anything about it and yet i want to just look at what happens when jesus comes onto the scene because i want to give you some encouragement tonight that we see this man that could not be restrained the bible goes to great lengths to describe just how much he was basically impervious to any technique or any ability of any man to stop him but look when how it happens when jesus shows up the bible says in the new king james it says when jesus when he saw jesus from afar he ran and worshiped him what an absolute change of his posture what an absolute change in this entire situation nothing that man could do could stop this man but the first thing that i want to tell you tonight no matter what situation you find yourself in no matter how dismal things may seem in your life the presence of jesus changes everything when jesus just shows up on the scene absolutely everything changes and that same jesus is here tonight to interfere with your demons the things that you fight with in your life when jesus shows up that unclean thing knows that it's time is up maybe you weren't going to come here tonight maybe we're going to come here on a friday night there's lots of options lots of things to do but you decided to come here tonight and i believe that because you decided to be here tonight because you brought yourself and your spirit and your mind and everything going on in your life into the presence of jesus there will be an interaction with the most high god because you need to know that jesus is here to interfere jesus is here to interfere on our behalf and we need to understand this simple truth we haven't even got to the part where there's a big exchange yet we haven't even got to the part where we say the right prayer we haven't even got to the part where we sing the right song we haven't even got to the part where we go through all the motions no simply getting into the presence of jesus is enough to absolutely alter your situation i talked about it wednesday but you may not feel anything but let me just tell you you are in the presence of the most high god and when you're in god's presence everything changes when you're in god's presence everything has to change when jesus shows up he needs no introduction the demon-possessed man says why are you interfering with me jesus son of the most high god jesus doesn't have to introduce himself the demons know exactly who he is and it said when jesus was some distance away the man saw him ran to him and bowed low before him what i love about that is it just reminds me that when jesus shows up our problems bow low when jesus shows up our problems have no choice but to bow low at his feet when you go home don't forget that when you walk into your situation with jesus on your side your problems have no choice but to bow at the master's feet if we look we'll continue in our key passage tonight in mark chapter five picking up in verse nine says then jesus demanded what is your name and he replied my name is legion because there are many of us inside this man then the evil spirits look at look at this interaction wants to zero in on this the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place there happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby send us into those pigs the spirits begged let us enter them so jesus gave them permission the evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs the entire herd of about 2 000 pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned into the water i want you to look how in just a few verses at the mere presence of jesus this interaction everything before jesus shows up reads one way the situation looks one way the forecast looks one way everything looks one way but after jesus shows up everything changes about the situation and about the demon-possessed man himself look how powerless these demons are now now they are begging jesus to allow them to do things they have no power they have no authority they have nothing now that jesus is interfering the demons have no ability to operate in fact they're begging for permission and so we live like unfortunately i feel like so many times students you fall into the trap of living like the devil has more power than jesus because sometimes those difficulties are more tangible than god seems to be in your life but let me just tell you this when i look at this i'm reminded when jesus interferes hell has no power only permission the enemy only has the permission to operate in your life to the extent that you allow him to so i believe somebody needs to wake up their faith tonight and say you know what devil i've given you enough permission i've given you enough permission to torment my mind so i no longer give you permission to do anything to me anymore you no longer have a stake in my life you no longer have the ability to torment my spirit i no longer give you permission stop acting like hell has power and take away his permission when jesus interferes hell has no power only permission these demons begged jesus because they knew what will happen later they'll be destroyed when jesus interferes whatever power demons think they have is been destroyed they only can move by the permission of jesus i'm afraid you've watched too many movies that give too much power in our culture to glorifying the devil i'm afraid that we've watched so many things that we give the devil far too much credit but the truth is if we begin to absorb and believe those things i think it affects the way we view our faith i believe that it affects the way we view the devil and his power and that's all to his advantage because really the only power the enemy has over you is the power you give him that's why his favorite tool is fear because fear is your mind attacking itself because he has no power except the power that you give him and allow him to have so if we become fearful of our life if we inhabit uh if our mind is inhabited by a spirit of fear then that's the ability that the enemy has to get a foothold in our life you've got problems that have power over you the most important thing you can do is get those problems into the presence of jesus say god i give this to you when you do watch your problems from having going from having power to needing permission and when you're filled with the holy spirit you have the power to revoke that permission you have the power to revoke that permission in your life i give you permission to leave my life that's the only permission i give you hell has no power only permission now let me just stop here and let me just recognize something up until this point there's probably at least one person in this room that you're like you know i'm with you but you make it seem so simple you make it seem like i stand up clap two times snap my fingers and all of a sudden the devil doesn't bother me anymore seems like you just you're preaching that oh if i just get into god's presence i come to church then everything's perfect right i recognize that and so what i've laid a foundation for is to to remind you that the power that god has and the power that's at your disposal to operate in your life because many times when when we look at stories like this we look at this and and we we say oh we see this man that's possessed by an unclean spirit and and we put ourselves in the position of this man that he's been afflicted by a spirit he's been afflicted by an outside source he's been tormented by an outside source that that he is the victim and the demon is the perpetrator and we say oh i hate that and yes i'm just like that man i've been afflicted these things are happening to me i'm so frustrated and i've just been tormented and we see jesus here to fight on our behalf we see jesus here to fix our problems jesus is on the scene it's going to be all right now but here's the thing that i really came to tell us tonight this is the thing that i came to speak to tonight and the thing that i need you to know that the honest truth of your situation and your life and maybe the thing that you don't want to hear is that maybe jesus is here to interfere with you sometimes we call on god to get the devil off our back to get the devil out of our lives and nothing happens because here's the truth sometimes the unclean thing is me but if i constantly cast myself in the position of the victim and the devil is the perpetrator i always look outside myself for the unclean thing but my challenge tonight and the thing that i i believe i'm here to challenge you with is i believe that jesus is here to interfere with us sometimes jesus comes to comfort us but other times he comes to confront us again we read this story we read about the man with the unclean spirit we we see the role of the victim and the perpetrator and that's true but we look at ourselves that same way but maybe tonight my habits may be the unclean thing that jesus desires to cast out my thought process may be the unclean thing that jesus is here to interfere with the secret sin that i've hidden so well may be the very thing that jesus is here to interfere with maybe it's a broken relationship that i refuse to give up because of the comfort it brings that jesus is here to interfere with jesus is here to interfere listen you can come to church but never actually expose aspects of your life to the presence of jesus when i told you the presence of jesus changes everything i intentionally relayed that to you as a very blanket statement but to dig a little deeper it's almost like inviting jesus into your house but locking half the doors and then expecting him to fix everything how many times do we do that in our life i'm going to pray about this thing i'm going to ask god to help me with this thing but this thing is my thing or this isn't really an issue or this isn't really a problem but i i don't have the time to walk through tonight but bait the basic truth the scripture says it in many different ways it basically says if you claim to walk in the light with jesus but you have darkness within you how deep that darkness is it's worse for you if you think oh i'm walking in the light but you're actually having fellowship with darkness that's the worst thing possible the bible speaks about like two masters saying that you can't serve one the bible speaks about as being hot or cold but being lukewarm all of these different things are the same truth the fact is we many times live with unclean things in our life but if they go unaddressed nothing changes in our spirit let me say it this way because i don't want to diminish what happens at a church i don't want to diminish what happens at an altar call but let me tell you this students no altar call will ever deliver you from what you go home and decide yourself back into an altar call is not a fix-all for bad habits this is the catalyst this is the change agent that jesus can fix and change everything but you've got to go home and make clean decisions you've got to go home and develop healthy habits you cannot pray yourself through here and then go home and make the same decisions so i'm challenging someone here tonight that i believe jesus is here yes and i'm thankful for it but i believe that he is here to interfere with me i believe that he's here to interfere with my life with my habits but do i have the faith to say oh god inspect my heart oh god look at my spirit oh god search me and know me when jesus interferes the demon in your life may not be a demon at all but the demon of your habitual decision the unclean thing of my spirit may be an unclean decision again i'm not saying altar calls don't matter not at all what i'm saying is that this is the starting point but what do we do when we go back home what do we do when we go back to our routine to our life first john 2 15 and king james version says love not the world neither things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh left of the eyes the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world and the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of god abideth forever i'm not here to use scare tactics tonight that's not my point but i need you to know that jesus may be here to interfere with you in your life and your choices and your decisions why because i truly believe that the devil has laid traps for you in your life everywhere you go now when we used to talk about things like pornography we were talking about things that were difficult to access what i'm saying is that the enemy pours pornography into instagram into tick tock into every medium that you're expected to use every single day now things that were once reserved for a dark and hidden room are immediately accessible the second you walk out of this room so what do we do so what do we do when i can have all the great intentions but a simple lapse in judgment here's the thing when i was even when i was growing up before the the digital age of social media all these things if i made a decision i could say no and walk away from that and say no and let that decision have power and weight the difference is now i'm not saying sin is different what i'm saying is where i only had to say no once or twice you have to say no every single day 50 60 75 times you have to say no at 10 am you have to say no at 11 15 am you have to say no at 1 30 pm do you understand what i'm saying the enemy has laid traps for you more than ever before the world wants to tell you that things like vaping won't destroy your life won't lead down a path and a habit that's that's difficult but i want to tell you that there are so many things that the enemy is trying to pour into your spirit that god wants to cleanse us from we have the ability to be anonymous online you have the ability to engage in conversations behind your parents back i know that you're smart i understand that no matter what kind of safeguards your parents put up for you you can find a way around to do some of the things that you want to do i'm just being super honest with that i hope that's okay so it's not just about trying to follow the rules or or come and pray and also what i'm saying is i believe that god wants to get down into those habits wants to get down into your dms wants to get down into the things that other people don't understand and he wants to interfere with that because if he can get you there then he can change you here but if he changes you here and you don't change out there then you're going to walk away unclean we struggle with it so what do you do when jesus interferes with you what do i do when jesus tries to work on me how do i see it when jesus interferes i love to preach it god will fight for you no matter what happens god will step in jesus is our mediator but what do you do when the word of god confronts the decisions of your life what do you do when the man of god preaches something that's unpopular to your habits what do you do when jesus interferes with you and that's a very very very important question and we see it play out in this very story how do you see the workings of jesus because i believe if you are focused on the wrong things it will skew the way you see the work of god i'll prove it let's continue reading in mark chapter 5. look at this the herdsmen fled in verse 14 the herdsmen fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside spreading the news as they ran so first of all jesus just healed this man man that was tormenting the city so if i'm reading this i would be excited to tell everyone of the amazing things that have just happened my my city has been restored we have been saved we can go about normal life this is wonderful this is incredible but let's keep reading a crowd soon gathered on jesus they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons he was sitting there fully clothed and perfectly sane and they were all afraid look at verse 16. then those who had seen what had happened look what they told other people about told the others about the demon-possessed man and the pigs interesting the crowd began pleading with jesus to go away and leave them alone now if you look at other scriptures a lot of times jesus doesn't just come and do one thing and then leaves a lot of times he comes and works a miracle and that kind of is an anchor point the news spreads and then that gives jesus opportunity to continue to do other works and he goes throughout the town so this story is unique and so when i read that i'm like why are the pigs worthy of an honorable mention in the in everything that just happened why we're telling about the demon-possessed man significant unbelievably amazing absolutely incredible and the pigs like they're on equal footing they even pleaded for jesus to leave even though he just done the miraculous and here's what i draw out of that if i'm looking at this there they they mention the deal business man but then they they speak just as much about these pigs this thing that seems to me to be so meaningless but i believe they pleaded for jesus to leave even though he had done something amazing because they were more concerned about the pigs than the man who had just been redeemed their perspective was so messed up that they prioritized the temporary over the eternal when you are more concerned about your temporary loss than you are your eternal gain just like these people you will hate it when jesus interferes and you won't let him come into your home you won't let him do more of what he wants to do if you care more about the loss of the pigs in our life these things that that don't matter these things that may seem to bring some sort of monetary value in the moment these things that that will fade away but yet we put so much stock into in our life if you're so concerned about that if you're more concerned about that than the miracles of jesus look what happens jesus leaves it's not written in scripture but i don't i don't think that that's all he wanted to do i think he was ready to do more other stories play out that same pattern of behavior but but if you're not careful i believe that we will kick jesus out just like the people in this story because we're not liking the way he's interfering with our lives so jesus is here tonight to interfere but if you've got your eyes on the wrong thing you will miss and dismiss him before he even gets going you'll kick him out after the first thing you hear after the first thing he does because you don't see him as working you only see him as interfering the price of sin is a life without god and the voice of god and a future in god but if we've got our eyes on the wrong thing listen to me students if you have your eyes on the wrong thing sin will always look like the right thing that's why we can't always trust ourself that's why we can't always trust ourselves when we find ourselves at odds with the man of god or uncomfortable what's what's being preached to this is what we do when preaching challenges us we look to what we value oh it brings me comfort i don't like what he said oh but this makes me happy uh i'm not so sure about if i want to do that all this this uh i'm okay oh i don't know about this jesus but i've got these pigs i've got this thing that i can put some some value into all this this is good for me but at the end of the day those things are meaningless in the face of everything that jesus wants to do so what i'm submitting to you in your life is that you have to allow god to say you know what lord there's some things that may be uncomfortable in my life but i've got to let you interfere because if all i see is just you interfering and not working i don't want to just kick you out of my life god i want you to work i want you to move but if i have the wrong perspective i'll never see what you're doing as working i will only see it as an interference i will only see it as an interference i don't have time to go into it tonight but there's a passage of story in john chapter 8 and it's a famous scripture that people use and misuse out of a religious context and they say and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free and in the story it's so powerful i was reading this just again the other day just kind of in some personal time and i came across this in john chapter 8. if you'll just bear with me when when jesus he's talking to people and if i can just paraphrase him he says you know if you're truly my disciples you remain faithful my teachings you will know the truth and the truth will set you free he's talking to people and they said we're the descendants of abraham we've never been slaves to anyone what do you mean you'll be set free they're so literal they're not getting it so jesus goes on and he says you know if you're if you sin you're a slave to sin a slave is not a permanent member of the families but a son is a part of the family forever so if the son sets you free you are truly free he says yeah i get your descendants of abraham and yet some of you are trying to kill me because there's no room in your heart for my message this is john chapter 8 verse 38. he said you're following the advice of of your father and they say our father's abraham goes no your father's the devil this exchange jesus basically what's happening is jesus is saying look let me just tell you you know jesus spoke in parables right sometimes jesus would just like just let it rip right and he does here in the in a second but he's talking these people was like look if you if you believe me i will send you like oh we are free the sins of abraham is like guys you're not getting it listen listen if you're the son who sets you free you'll truly be free forever they're like no what are you talking about we're you know we are free he's like no you're acting like your father and like oh our father's abraham what do you mean he's like no your real father is the devil and and this they go on back and forth and they and they fight and they fight and and what we see here is at the very end of this this chapter look at this verse 58 they're getting getting so angry jesus answered i'll tell you the truth before abraham was even born i am but look what their response these are people that didn't want to believe the words of jesus at this point they picked up stones to throw at him the last part of this chapter i'm not saying it's theology but i'm just saying that it struck me it says this but jesus was hidden from them and left the temple jesus didn't leave because he was afraid of some stones jesus left because at some point they rejected him so much he had no other method of persuasion he'd said everything it could he said these are my words these let me tell you i'm trying to tell you i'm trying to tell you i'm trying to help you i'm trying to help you i'm trying to save you and they argued so much to the point they got so frustrated they picked up a stone but when they looked up i believe when they looked up the bible said jesus was hidden from them and i bring that that message up it's not in my original notes but this is what i looked at when i read that again just personally i said oh god if you're trying to speak to me lord let me never reject your word let me never reject the word of god let me never reject the preaching of god to the place that i look and your presence is hidden from me what a dangerous place to find yourself in and the reason i bring that to us tonight and a look at this as an example is because these people's perspective was so skewed about who jesus was about what he was there to do about who they were about what it meant to be saved about what it meant to follow after righteousness it was so skewed that as jesus was trying to reveal to him his plan as he was trying to reveal to him the path to salvation they rejected him so many times that he finally said you know what i'm out and he disappeared will you stand with me tonight i know this is different i know that maybe for a youth service on a friday night there's a hope and an expectation of of energy but but this is my challenge and it really speaking this message if i can be candid was a challenge to bring this to you tonight to feel like this is what i should deliver but when i look at this again there's so many things that you've got to understand i believe look if you read in mark we read the first thing and it says always day and night he was in the mountains and the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones and then he ran to jesus and worshiped him and when i read that it highlighted this truth to me that you can worship god and still be unclean this is another danger i talked about the danger of our feelings students but let me tell you another danger of our feelings and i hope i can just i can help you with this tonight that the truth is that the presence of god being moved by the presence of god is not equivalent to god's stamp of approval on your life and this is important because this is what we do this is what i've done in my life at different points i know that i've got things i need to work on i know that there are things that god's got to cleanse out of my life i know the things that i struggle with but when i come to church it's almost like oh i can feel god's presence this feels great and in my mind what i say is let's be okay because we expect if you're doing something pastor preaches against then you should feel terrible and never feel god we we equate it to wow i should always feel bad i should never feel god's presence no the truth is you can come and feel the presence of god because god is good and god is just and god is merciful but let me just challenge you you look at this man and i see that you can cut yourself at night and worship in the day you can worship god and leave as unclean as you came and trick yourself into thinking well because i worshiped and because i felt god's presence i guess what i'm doing is okay but that's not what i see and why why am i saying this why is this important why it doesn't matter if jesus interferes you keep reading at the end of the story let's read the success of the story of mark 5 18. as jesus was getting into the boat the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him but jesus said no go home to your family tell them everything the lord has done for you how merciful he has been so the man started off to the ten towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things or i would say began to preach the man didn't desire a position he didn't desire platform he didn't desire promotion what did he want to do he wanted to follow jesus and out of that desire he received what god wanted for him so this is the reason i felt this was important because i believe there are people in this room there are students and they're adults in this room that god has a calling for your life god has things that he wants to instill within you god has things that he wants to do for you but what i need you to understand when you look at this man you cannot receive your calling before you receive your cleansing after this man was cleansed he immediately received his calling from god there wasn't a waiting period there wasn't a period of perfection jesus said no don't follow me go and preach the news of what i have done to this entire region and it says he began to proclaim the great things jesus had done for him and everyone was amazed at what he told him so you've got problems tonight you've been fighting have you brought them into church you've come to the altar and you've prayed and you felt great and then you went home and everything stayed the same and after a while it becomes more like a vaccination than anything it becomes more like a a flu shot you just become a little numb to it become a little numb to the presence of god why because you do all the things that we say to do and your life never changes you never move forward in your calling you never feel like god is doing anything in your spirit but what i want to tell you is that yes everything i i said at the outset is true when you bring your problems to jesus they have no other choice but to bow low before them they have to recognize his presence when jesus shows up your problems battle yes that's true but only if you really bring him the real problems and the danger is that the unclean thing that jesus desires to deal with and to cleanse us from is not some outside force that's out of my control it's the thing that i do when nobody's looking it's the habit i turn to when i'm weak in my spirit it's a thing i can't get away from when i'm trying to do something good for god but i believe that if you commit yourself to receiving a cleansing from the spirit of god out of that cleansing will come your calling so i'm speaking to people that you feel like you have a calling on your life but you just feel like i don't know why it hasn't manifested yet i don't know why it hasn't come to pass yet what i want to say is let's not focus on the calling let's focus on the cleansing and following jesus and out of a cleansing and a desire to follow jesus i believe we will receive our calling and my challenge my my caution to all of us tonight when i look at the story i read in in john chapter 8 god let me never reject your word to the place that your spirit is hidden from me i'm not using scare tactics i just read this and it just it gripped my spirit once again that oh god let me never reject your word so i know that this is a different appeal tonight i know this is a different thing tonight but i hope my hope is threefold i hope that we pray tonight not because i've hyped you up because i've done the exact opposite but i hope that we pray tonight because the things that we need to pray about the unclean things i i may not know what it is maybe it is something that has plagued you that's not your fault and maybe you just need to bring it to god tonight maybe it's that simple but maybe it's a decision that you keep making maybe it's something that you struggle with in your life maybe it's something you struggle with in your heart maybe it's a temptation you struggle with and i believe if you commit to being cleansed by god out of that cleansing will come your calling that's the first thing the second thing is i want us to go home and make safe decisions i said it i want to say it again an altar call will not deliver you from what you go home and decide yourself back into so secondly being cleansed is walking cleansed staying cleansed and third my challenge is that i want us to be open and receptive to the preached word of god from the man of god in our life moving forward and commit to the fact of you know what god maybe i just maybe if nothing else i just need to say search my heart because if i've got some stuff in me that would cause me to reject your word god take that from me let me be open to reproof let me be open to cleansing i'm not above it this is a prayer that i pray in my life all the time god this is what i say when i step into a service and i'm not ministering i'm just there i say you know what god if you're going to do something tonight let it be done in me god if you're going to speak to somebody if you're going to challenge someone it's me if you're going to if someone's going to respond in worship god it's gonna be me if there's a word of god for someone you know who it's for god it's me and if i come in with that attitude then i believe when jesus comes to interfere even when it's uncomfortable i can say god i'm here for it god i want to receive your word god i want to receive if it's correction i receive it if it's encouragement i receive it if it cuts to my spirit i receive it because that's what god does when we come into his presence jesus interferes with every problem

so at this time i want to invite you to a place of prayer i want to encourage you to find a place of prayer these altars are open but if you want to come down to this altar maybe more than you need to pray you need to take some time and decide maybe you need an altar of decision maybe it's not really a motion that you need to seek it's consecration and decision to say you know what god what decisions do i need to change what people do i need to cut out of my life what direction do i need to go differently i know this is a different altar call but i believe it's in order because maybe the altar call you need to do is just a hard look at your life and your habits and say oh god i'm the unclean thing i'm the thing that you need to interfere with god it's not it's not some outside force it's me it's my decisions and all of us i encourage from from the youngest to the oldest could we just do a little introspection into our spirit and say god let me never reject your word lord if you're trying to ever correct me through the man of god lord let me be open to it god let my heart not be hardened to you let my let my perspective not be skewed like these people god that they were so concerned about the pigs that they lost god their their perspective was so temporary that they rejected the eternal value oh god let me not get so consumed with things that don't matter let me not get so consumed with things of this earth god let me see your kingdom let me seek your kingdom and your will o god can we take some time to pray tonight in the name of jesus lord you're here to interfere god but maybe not with the outside forces maybe you're here to interfere with me god with my mindset in the name of jesus i pray that we can find a place to seek god in jesus name i've been changed delivered peace and favor right now is the moment today is let it pass won't me back i can't go back sins forgiven today is i won't go back can't go it back to be before your presence the way it used to be before your presence came and changed me me never going back i'm never going back never going back is i believe god's renewing some callings even right now god's renewing some callings because you're seeking a cleansing god's renewing some purpose god's putting you back on track god's putting you back on track with what he wants to do in your life because you're seeking a cleansing of your spirit yes that's it be renewed in your calling be renewed in your purpose once you receive a cleansing god can give you a calling in the name of jesus god i won't go back to the way it used to be before your presence came and changed before your presence came and changed i want to do something a little different to close out tonight everybody say five minutes i truly believe that for many of you the radical change in your life is five minutes say one more time say five minutes i want you to remember this sometimes they say it takes you say someone's name three times you remember it one more time say five minutes okay maybe you want to go in your phone and just write a note that just says five minutes maybe that's it when you go back to your seat i'm gonna tell you a parable if you will so man struggling with an alcohol addiction so he goes to a friend and they tell him you need to pray god will help you god will deliver you praise him can't get over it another friend man you need to pray about it god can help you god can deliver you you need to pray nothing happens he goes to his pastor and he's broken he says pastor i i have this this alcohol addiction i can't seem to get over it and the pastor says you know what you need he says what pastor said if you give me five minutes i'll change your life i said okay i said can you give me five minutes every day i said yeah if it'll change my life is it okay so i want you to draw a map draw a map on on on where where you purchase alcohol and where you go to work and so man draws and draws this map from home to work and and pastors show me where the alcohol where's the store that you buy alcohol me puts a little x on there goes okay he goes i'm not worried about you praying he goes takes his pen and draws two streets over two streets up two streets over says give me five minutes every day drive around that store i said well that's it he said yeah he said because i don't believe you your sin is a sin of intention i believe that you've mistaken the ability in the moment to resist temptation right we're flesh so what what this guy in this parable with the parable isn't that the point of this story or parable if you will is that instead of praying to god to give you the strength to say no to the decision take five minutes and make a decision that removes that decision does that make sense sometimes it's as simple as a five-minute commitment to change one key thing about your life maybe it's a person at school that you know if i go from second to third period and i go this way i'm probably gonna talk to them if i sit in this seat we're gonna hang out if i text them back we're gonna do that so what you're doing right now is you're praying for god to give you strength to say no in the moment what i want you to do is take a second step back reflect about your habits and ask yourself how can i remove that decision and put one more layer between that so i don't have to say no to that thing but i say no to the thing that brings me to whatever it is that makes sense and my argument to you is it may be as simple as five minutes but a five minute decision every single day what does it take all it takes is intentionality that this is what i want to do today i want to overcome today and that's why i believe you wake up and you say god today i'm gonna overcome but maybe you're overcoming power is not and again i hope i hope you understand what i've said tonight i'm not minimizing the power of prayer i'm not minimizing the power of an altar call but what i'm saying is i believe we use the move of god as a crutch to not make good decisions to think i can resist any temptation so one more time say five minutes so i want us to pray together but just for a second before we pray i want you to reflect on your life what five minute decision can you make that will maybe take you out of temptation's way what five-minute decision can you make tomorrow that will impact a bad habit what five-minute decision instead of trying to fight with the habit what five-minute decision like the man in this story driving a different way he didn't drive by that store which was the queue oh i gotta stop he thought today i'm gonna drive by and i'm gonna say no today i'm gonna say no the story in the story so just drive the other way where you don't put yourself in that position to have to say no so one more time say five minutes whatever that is i want us to pray now and this is different but i'm comfortable i'm fine with it because i believe that what god wants to do is shift your decisions and it may just i'm not asking you to make a radical change in your life you got to go out here and be a totally different person what i'm saying is give god five minutes to change a key decision and i believe god can help you change your life because we can be cleansed in this place we have to go out and make cleanse decisions

let's pray together god i thank you tonight god for coming to this place and i thank you for interfering with my thought process god i thank you for interfering with the way i view my life and so today god i pray for every student every young adult every adult in this room god i pray that we can have the strength and fortitude god to make a five-minute decision god that will change the habits of our life god that will help us god build upon your word because god if i come and i absorb your word but i never change it in my habits god then you're you're you're powerless to help me god because i don't give you anything to work with but tonight god i pray that by your spirit we can overcome because of your spirit i can be cleansed i'm not committed to the mistakes that i've made i can rise above those things because you respond to faith god so i have faith tonight that every person god we can make small decisions god that will change our walk with you that will change the rest of our life god and i thank you because i know that by your spirit we can overcome because we are more than conquerors god we are overcomers god because of what you did on the cross for us because the fact that you rose again lord i can have everlasting life i thank you for it in jesus name feel free to take more time and pray if you want to pray or consecrate yourself i'll turn this back over to the staff any other way we see fit to end this but i just want to encourage you that jesus wants to interfere in your life and sometimes all it takes is a five minute decision for things to be absolutely different god bless you