Transcription
Hey, what's up, YouTube family? It's Pastor KJ from Radiant Church, and I'm so excited for you to join us for today's sermon. We have such a powerful sermon and story. I believe it's going to strengthen you, challenge you, and encourage you. So get ready for this message.
Also, share this message with friends, family members, co-workers, everyone you know. I believe it would change their life. Get ready to jump into the word of God with us today.
The only, the only thing that can change you is the thing that made you. In other words, the thing that can change you is what made you and made everything else. I want you to know something: this world was created by the word. This world was created by the word. The author of Hebrews says it this way: he says, "The world was framed by the word." The word framed the world. Everything you see in the world was made by the word.
When you look up into space and you see the beautiful Milky Way, and you see the different planets, and you see the stars, and the sun, and the moon, when you see the splendor of God, and the majesty of God, and the grandeur of God, all this was created by the word of God. When you see the great Grand Canyons, and you see the rocks, and you see the rivers, all of this was made by God. When you see the majesty of the lion, it was created by God. When you see the fruit, when you see, when you see the bird flying in the air, this was created by God. The big things, the high things, and everything else in between was made by God. Everything was made by the omnipotence and the sovereign power of our King. Everything in the world, the beauty, the splendor, the adoration, all came from God, and it came out of his mouth. And not only did that come out of his mouth, but you came out of his mouth. You was created by the word of God. He said, "Let us make man," and bam, there you was created. He created you with his words. So the only thing that can truly change you is the thing that made you, and you were made by the word of God.
Now, let me tell you something about his word. God said he exalted his word above his name. What does that mean? It means that his name has to submit and hold his word into high reverence. The highest thing in the universe is God's word.
So, here's the order, here's the order of creation. God, the Bible says, God created man. God put everything under man's feet. So everything on the earth, the animals, everything is under man's feet. We're the only living thing on the earth, the only living thing that can stand. Every animal has to crawl because he gave man dominion over everything that Christ on the earth. And even the animal that they try to say we descended from, when he gets ready to go somewhere, he has to crawl because everything has to bow to mankind. God put everything under our feet. And then man is to submit to the Holy Spirit. He's our comforter. He's to come down. We're to submit to the Holy Spirit. And once we submit to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is submitted to the Son of God. And the Son of God is submitted to the Father. And the Father is submitted to the Word. And the Word reigns over all. God says that my word will come through. He said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will stand." My word will be here. My word was here in generations past. My word will be here in generations future. My word will not fail.
And then the Bible says his word doesn't return void. What does that mean? It means that when he sends his word, it never comes back empty-handed. When God sends his word into a thing, when God speaks, "Let there be light," his word goes and gives light, and you see light. When God speaks and says, "Let us create man," his word goes and makes man. Whenever God speaks a thing, it will come to pass because his word doesn't return void. When he speaks his word, when God says you're going to be healed, his word goes and gets healing, and it heals you, and it returns to God not void, not empty-handed. His word never returns empty-handed. His word is good. His vow is good. He never breaks his promise. And that's why the Centurion soldier told Jesus when his servant was sick, he said, "Jesus, you don't even have to go heal my servant. Send your word." Jesus sent his word, and his servant got healed without Jesus physically going there because God's word has power. God's word has might. It can deliver and set free. That's the power of God's word.
And the power of His word is, it's not only good as unto life, it's also good as unto death. Let me explain. Y'all, I'm gonna show you all this thing. Elisha asks Elijah, "Can I have a double portion of your spirit?" And Elijah said, "If you see me when I ascend, then the answer is yes. And if you don't, the answer is no." Well, Elisha saw Elijah ascend. And Elijah threw his cloak, he threw his jacket down, and that was symbolic to say, "I'm passing the mantle to you." When Elisha got the jacket, he went to the river, he threw the river, he threw the jacket down on the river, the river parted, and he walked on dry ground. That was God saying, "I will keep the promise. I'll give you what you request. You will get the double portion blessing."
Now, there's a problem. Elijah did 14 miracles. Elisha did 27 miracles. For him to have a double portion, he would have had to do 28 miracles. But he did 27, and Elijah did 14. So he was one short of double. But the good thing about God's word is, his word is not only good as unto life, it's also good as unto death. Because when Elisha was dead, there was a war going on. And then all of a sudden, they had a dead guy. Another army was coming towards them. They got the dead body and they threw it on Elisha's grave. When that dead body hit his bones, that dead body popped up the grave and came back to life. God said, "I told you you're gonna get your double." And even though you didn't get it in your lifetime, the anointing rested on your bones. So when that body touched your bones, you raised someone from the dead while you was dead because my word will not return void. And he did his 28th miracle from the grave because when God makes a promise, it has to happen. When God gives a word, it has to happen. Oh, come on, give our King a shout of praise! And God promised you double, you will get double.
If you have your Bibles, go to Philippians chapter four. I got to preach fast. God, I got a lot to cover. Philippians chapter four. He got double from the grave because when God speaks the thing, God does a thing. The power of the word. And if you're going to get set free, it's going to be from the word of God. From the word of God. We cannot be set free. We cannot get rid of our abundance and shame if the word isn't etched on our heart. If we don't know the word, if we don't read the word, if we don't have the word.
Philippians chapter four. Well, you guys are there, say, "Ready." Y'all ain't there yet. Y'all just looking at the screen. Philippians chapter four says, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Someone say, "Always." It says, "Again, I will say, rejoice." "Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." It says, verse six, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." And "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Verse eight. "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue or if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things." Let me say it again: "Meditate on these things." Verse nine. "The things which you learn and receive and heard and saw in me, these things in the in the God of peace will be with you." So he's saying the things that you learn from me, the things that you receive from me, the things that you heard and saw in me, do these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
I'm going to show you something, church. I want to give you the prescription to redemption. I want to give you the prescription to redemption. The first thing that Philippians 4 said is this: it said, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Rejoicing in the Lord always. If you want to be set free from depression, anxiety, fear, shame, guilt, worry, it says, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Not sometimes, all the time. You want to rejoice in the Lord when it's good. You want to rejoice in the Lord when it's bad. You want to rejoice from mountaintops and valley lows, in all circumstances. When you can pay the bills and when you can't pay the bills. When you got what you wanted and when you can't get what you want. When you got the miracle and when you didn't get the miracle. You got to have, "Even if He doesn't come through, I'm still going to worship Him. Even if I don't get what I look for, I'm still going to trust God." I'm going to trust God when I can't trace God because the goodness of God is not based on me, it's placed on me by the hand of Jesus. And I'm gonna trust God when I don't have it figured out. I'm gonna trust God when it doesn't make sense. I'm gonna believe it, make faith, and I'm going to rejoice always. I don't care what it looks like. I don't care about your story. I don't care about your storm. Rejoice always.
The Bible says, "Be anxious for nothing." Or "Be anxious for nothing." It's saying, "Don't be anxious for nothing." I don't care if it's the job. I don't care if it's the kids. I don't care if it's the 401K. I don't care if it's your future. Don't be anxious for nothing. It could be a medical report. You're like, "Is the report going to be good? Is it going to come back okay?" Be anxious for nothing. I don't know if I can pay the car note. Be anxious for nothing. I don't know if I can pay the rent. Be anxious for nothing. Or nothing. There's never the right time to be anxious. God said, "Do not be anxious." And here's why he said, "Don't be anxious." It's because anxiety is expecting Satan to move, and faith is expecting God to move. Anxiety is expecting the worst, and faith is expecting the best. Anxiety is expecting death, and faith is expecting life. Be anxious for no thing.
Okay, let me put it this way. Uh, there is this, there is this little small plane. It had about 15 people on it, and they were flying. And as they were flying, a storm ended up hitting the area they were flying through. And when the storm hit that area, the plane went through unbearable turbulence. The plane was shaking, and it was shaking really, really bad. The winds were strong, it was raining, it was going through turbulence. No one could see out the windows, and everyone was afraid, everyone was stressed out, everyone was going crazy, except for one person. And the person that was sitting calm during this storm was a 12-year-old girl. And all of these men and women, they were like, "We are afraid. We feel like we're gonna die. Why is this 12-year-old girl sitting here smiling like nothing's wrong?" And then someone had to ask. One lady said, "I got a question for you. Do you not see what's going on, little girl? Why are you so calm?" And she said, "It's really simple, man. She said, 'My dad is the pilot.' And I know my dad's got this under control." I'm asking for you, church, why are you spazzing out? Where are you going crazy? Why are you scared of the storms of life? I got news for you, right in church: your dad, your Father God, is the pilot. He's the pilot of this planet. He's the pilot of this universe, and he's the pilot of your life. You don't have to spazz out and go crazy because you know who's in control. God is in control. I'm telling you right now, God has wrote your story. The devil can read your story, but he can't write your story because God has wrote your story, and he said that you're victorious, and you're called, and you're above only and never beneath. Why are you going crazy because of the storms of life when your dad is the pilot? And the enemy will bring the storm to discourage you. He will bring the storm to make you lose heart. But I will not lose heart. I will not be anxious for nothing because I will worship my King. My King has it under control. My King owns the cattle on a thousand hills. I would not be begging for bread because the word of God said, "I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread." I know who my Daddy is. Oh, come on, somebody, give him a shout of praise!
And then it says, "When prayer is supplication, make your requests known to God." Make your requests known to God. And a lot of us take this scripture out of context because we think if we make our requests known to God, he will grant our requests. And we treat God like a genie. We come, we rub the Bible three times, and we give God a demand, and we get angry when he doesn't do what we requested, as if God works for us. And you don't understand the power of prayer because the power of prayer isn't getting what you pray for, it's getting who you pray to. It's not getting what you pray for, it's getting who you pray to. And the power of prayer is not necessarily to change your circumstance, it's to change your heart. It's to change your heart. It's not about having favorable circumstances, it's about having favor with the King, and God above your circumstances. God said, "Make your requests known to Him."
And there's this beautiful exchange in prayer. It's a way of renewing your mind and cleansing your soul because you go to your God, and you go to your King, and you say, "God, I'm struggling. God, I'm hurting. God, I'm broken. God, I'm confused. God, I'm lost." And He says, "I am with you." And you can say, "God, I don't understand this pain." And God says, "Yeah, but I still got a plan." You say, "God, I don't understand this ache." He'll say, "Child, you don't know what I'm making." God, I don't understand this storm. He says, "I'm writing your story." You don't know why you had to go through, but just know I'm gonna bring you through. I'm gonna restore you and break the chain and reverse the curse on your behalf. Sometimes you don't get removed from the storm. Sometimes you've got to walk through the storm. Sometimes God doesn't pull you out of trouble. Sometimes God pulls you through trouble. Sometimes God doesn't make the pain go away because he's not just transactional, he's also relational. He said, "I don't want to just make the pain go away. I want to get down in the lines then with you. I want to get down in the furnace with you. I want to get down in the heat with you. I want to get down there to brokenness with you." Yeah, you might have to go to that hospital visit, but I'm going to be sitting next to you. I am with you all the time. God is saying, "I am with you. I've never left you. I'm always here."
And if you are experiencing emotions of fear, confusion, anger, and frustration, God says, "I'm not gonna leave it to you to decide what you need to meditate on." God says, "If you want peace that passes understanding, what is that?" That means peace that don't make sense. I can't even understand this peace. Why is it peace? You can't understand because it is contradicting peace. And contradicting peace means I'm experiencing a joy that my circumstances are not allotting. That's contradicting peace. And I'm telling you, some of you guys are called to walk in contradicting peace. I got peace in the storm. I got peace in a divorce. I got peace when I got fired. I got peace when everything was taken away from me because the storm is designed to take your peace and to remove the word from your heart. And Satan came to God and he said, "The only reason why Job is worshiping you is because Job is blessed and Job has everything his way. But if I was to touch Job, and if you move that shield from around Job, he will curse you." And God says, "You don't know Job. Go for it, devil." And Job lost everything, but he never cursed God. Even his wife said, "We should curse God and die." Job said, "Girl, bye. I ain't never cursing God because He's been faithful through generation through generations." I love David because David had a son that was sick. After seven days, his son passed. And they were scared to tell David because they thought he would fall apart. When he found out his son passed, he dusted himself off, he cleaned himself up, he anointed himself, and he went to worship. Here's what you got to do. Sometimes you got to dust yourself off. Sometimes you got to clean yourself up. And when it don't go your way, don't get offended at God. Run to God. Worship God. Praise God. Serve God. Love God. I'm preaching better than y'all. Amen. This morning.
So he said, "Meditate on these things." Everyone say, "These things." Everyone say, "These things." Telling you what to meditate on. He's giving you a prescribed prescription to your redemption right here. It says, "Meditate on what's true." The enemy's biggest tactic is the lie. It's the lie. He is always bringing lies. The Bible, the Bible says he's the father of lies. He doesn't tell a lie, he is a lie. And I have made a decision in church: I will not meditate on lies. So you can tell me someone said something about me, they didn't tell me that. And how do I know you're not twisting this? And how do I know it went that way? See, the enemy is going to always bring me a report to Christ me. And the way I got a report may not even be the way it went down. But because I'm so ready to be hurt and offended, I'm gonna take your word for it. I refuse to take anyone's word on anything that could potentially be a lie. I'm gonna think the best. I'm gonna trust God. And I'm not gonna meditate on a lie because it's gonna hurt my soul. So it's saying, "Whatever is true, meditate on that."
Then it says, "Whatever is noble." Noble simply means honorable. Meditate on something honorable. Don't be having dishonorable thoughts. If you have dishonorable thoughts, you gotta cast down those imaginations. Your heart is for honor, not dishonor. Your heart is for grace, not disgrace. Your heart is for love, not hate. Meditate on things that's noble. In other words, you meditate on honor. What is honor? We honor up, we honor down, we honor all around Radiant Church. We honor up, we honor down, we honor all around Radiant Church. We honor up, we honor down, we honor all around. I love David. He was so honorable because when Saul threw spears at him, he protected Saul. And that's why God said, "You're a man after my own heart." Because he's a God of honor, and he wants his children and his servants to be honorable. David could have quickly killed Saul, but he understood something: "Touch not God's anointed." I will not test God's anointing because I am noble, and I will think that way.
Then it says, "Whatever is just." That means what's fair, what's right. I'm gonna think on what's just. I'm not gonna have unjust thoughts. I'm not gonna try to do things that's not right, things that's hateful. I'm gonna think on what's just. And then it says to think on what's pure. Everyone say, "Pure." The Bible says, "The pure in heart shall see God." You cannot have a contaminated heart and claim to see God. The pure in heart will see God. So if you feel like you're not seeing God, check your heart.
Then it says, "Whatever is lovely." This one was easy for me. I was born this way. I don't know why. I love lovely thoughts. I don't struggle being hard on myself. I know in marriage, sometimes, like, "Man, can you be harder?" I will literally drop the juice on the white carpet, and I'm like, "Oops, my bad. Clean it up." All right, anyways, what are we eating for dinner? She's like, "You just messed up the garment." I'm like, "It's messed up now. I gotta go with her." That's lovely. That's thank you for kicking tonight. That's lovely. I'm gonna think about that, not this carpet. Lovely thoughts, pleasant thoughts. If your mind was a movie, what kind of film would it be? And the sad part is, many of your minds wouldn't be a love story. It'll be a horror movie. You have horror. You think of horror. You have a very gory mind. You're thinking of bad things. "The enemy's gonna crush me. This is going to happen. The world is coming into calamity." I'm gonna trust God. I'm gonna bless God. I'm gonna love God. And I refuse to not have lovely thoughts. And I'm not saying there aren't ugly tragedies in the world that we have to and endure and embark on, but I'm saying that I'm going to find the best in the storm, not the worst. I'm not going to say, "Woo, look at the red sea." I'm gonna say, "My God can part the sea." The sea may be here. My God can part it. The lions may be here. My God can set the mouths of lions. The fire may be here. My God's all-consuming fire. It may be calamity, but I choose to focus on Christ.
And then the next thing, the next thing we have here is it says, "What's of good report." Good report. I love good reports. I'm this bad thing I noticed about myself in the last couple of months, I don't fully let someone finish a bad report. I can't. Like, they start telling me bad news, I'll just quickly sum it up because I like good reports. You know, there's just some people with bad, some of you guys are just unlucky, man. I don't believe in luck, but you only, some people just got bad reports. You got up this morning, you couldn't find your car keys, your coffee spilled on your shirt, your car wouldn't start up, the bird came down and it used the bathroom on top of your car. You went to work, and a squirrel fell on your desk. Your horror movie. Like, give me some good news, please. What's, what, what's where God moving? Where's God healing? Where's God restoring? Can you get a promotion? Pay raise? Something? I'm sorry you didn't text me back. Probably because it's bad news, man. I'm sorry. I just like good news. Good news. The gospel is the good news. There's the bad news is very short. The bad news is we were sinners. But then Jesus came. Then Jesus resurrected. Then Jesus had power. We were redeemed by the blood. That's a small snippet of bad news. Bad news is you're a sinner. The rest is Jesus and what he's done, and how he's restored you, and how he healed you. Good news.
"What's praiseworthy?" Can we talk about things that we can praise about? Good news. And if you keep focusing on bad, you'll keep experiencing bad because your focus sets your flow. Your focus has your flow. So if you keep flowing into negativity, it's because you have a negative focus. But if you have a positive, lovely, faith-filled, merciful, Jesus, sinner, holy ghost, man, if you have a focus like that, then that's gonna flow out of your life.
If you have your Bibles, it's going to Luke chapter 15, verse 13. Now, I'm preaching faster. I'm trying to get us out of church on time. You know what I'm saying? I ain't gonna rush it. Then, unfortunately, you're the only one of federal. Everyone else got to be a Roadhouse in five minutes. Amen. Pastor, finish next month. I gotta eat. You need to be eating the bread of life. Amen.
Because when you up in a midnight hour, Roadhouse ain't gonna do nothing for you, but this word has changed your life. This word can restore your soul. This word can break generational curses. This word can break the storm. Oh, come on, somebody. Luke chapter 15. It says, "Not long after that, the younger son gathered all he had and set off on a far distant country and there squandered his wealth in riotous living. After he spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself up to the citizens of that country, who sent him the him to the fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his summer with the pots that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything to eat. When he came to his senses, or came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death? I will set out and go back to my father's father and say to him, I have sinned against you and against heaven. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.' So he got up and went to his father quickly."
There's this prodigal son, and his prodigal son went and he left his father's house. He'd done it in the most dishonorable way ever because he basically said, "Father, give me my inheritance." In that day, to get your inheritance was to denounce your father dead. So he was basically saying, "Dad, I wish you were dead. Give me my bread. I'm out." So he disowned his father. This is the picture of us and God. And then he got all that he had, he squandered it on wild living, and then he became in need. And here's what we do. We leave the father's house, and we go, we run into the world, and we squander all that we have, our peace, our joy, our love, our goodness, our hope, on wild living. And then all of a sudden, it banks wraps us, and this leaves us empty. There's pleasure in sin for a season, but when that season's up, it brings devastation. The Bible says, "There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction." So then, whenever you go into a life of sin, you will always end up in need.
So he ended up in need. And then the Bible made it very clear: he went to a distant country. The reason why the Bible made it clear he went to a distant country is because of famine. And was inaugurated. And God says, "I need you to know something: a famine is never inaugurated in the Kingdom. You will never experience famine in the Kingdom." All of a sudden, the famine hit that country because there's a famine in this world, but there's not a famine in the Kingdom of God. When that famine hit the country, he didn't have anything. Now he was in the hog pen, feeding hogs, eating out of the hog pen, eating with the pigs, the nasty, slimy, dirty, muddy, stinky pigs. And he's in there eating, hoping to fill his stomach, and they don't even want to give him the pig food. And then the Bible says he came to his senses, he came to his mind, he came to himself, and he realized. He said, "I am here starving, and my father's hired servants have food to spare." In other words, he said, "I'm starving, and my father has food to spare." I want you to know something: I don't know what you're starving for, but your father has it to spare. If you have rejection, your father has acceptance to spare. If you have fear, your father has faith to spare. If you have worry, your father has wisdom to spare. If you have depression, your father has happiness to spare. If you have brokenness, your father has wholeness to spare. So you don't have to live in lack because God has your back, and he has it to spare. You don't have to get crunched from the world when you can get a feast from your father. You don't have to be tolerated by the world when you can be celebrated by your father. He has it to spare. God has it to spare. And God is not here to be mad at you. He's madly in love with you. God is not here to beat you down and beat you up. He's here to love you and build you up, and he has it to spare.
They said the prodigal son came to himself. He came to his senses. In other words, he repented. The word "repent" in the Greek means "metanoia," it means to change one's mind. He changed his mind about his circumstance, and he returned to his father. He would turn to him. He came to himself. Tap your neighbor and say, "Come to yourself." Tap your neighbor you don't like as much and say, "Come to yourself." That was awkward. He came to himself, and when he came to himself, the hog pens couldn't hold him. Shame couldn't hold him. Guilt couldn't hold him. Fear couldn't hold him because he came to himself. And I want you to know something: your address doesn't have to change. Your car doesn't have to change. Your clothes don't have to change. Your hairdo doesn't have to change. Your job doesn't have to change. Your church doesn't have to change. The only thing that has to change is your mind. And if your mind don't change, you're gonna repeat misery in history. His mind changed, and I'm telling you, you have to change your mind. You have to change your mind about how you think about the storm. You have to change your mind about how you think about doubt. You have to change your mind how you think about fear. Some of you guys said, "I'll never be nothing." Some of you guys said, "I'll be like my family." Some of you guys said, "I'll cover, I would carry these generational curses." Some of you guys said, "I'll always be anxious." You have to change your mind.
The title of my sermon is, "Sorry, I Changed My Mind." Some of y'all need to go to the kingdom of hell and look Satan in his face and say, "Devil, I changed my mind. I am going to be set free. Therefore, I changed my mind. I am proud to do great exploits for the kingdom. Therefore, I changed my mind. These generational curses won't go to my kids. Therefore, I changed my mind. I will not walk around weary and scared and busted and disgusted. I'm a child of God. He broke the chain and broke the yoke. Sorry, I changed my mind." You have to change your mind. You have to change your mind. You don't have to change your address. You have to change your mindset. Change your mind. Change your mind about how you think about yourself. Change your mind about how you handle yourself. Change your mind about how you view yourself. You are called by God. You have been resurrected by the miracle-working blood of the Lamb. He calls you a son. He calls you a daughter. Change your mind. You are not what they said about you. You're who God says you are. You may have done what they said you've done, but you're not who they said you are. You are a child of God. You're a child of God. You have to change your mind. I got news for the devil. Sorry, devil, I changed my mind. I'm not repeating history. I'm not living out these lies. I'm not living out these storms. I will not walk in inadequacy. I will not walk in lack. I'm changing my mind now.
I said all that to get you to this point. All that's good, it's inspirational. Change your mind. Woohoo! Pastor, awesome! Praise God! Glory to God! But how do we change our mind? What's step one? Go back and listen to the other four sermons. I didn't preach for y'all. That's step one. And of course, read the Bible. That's really step one. Listen to the terms. Step two. Um, but we're gonna go to James chapter one, verse. We're gonna go to James chapter one, verse 21, and I'm gonna teach you how to change your mind, and it will close. You can get the Roadhouse because that food is a lot more important than your spiritual food. But we ain't gonna come for you this morning. We ain't gonna come. We ain't gonna be petty this morning. It says, verse 21, "Therefore, I heard whenever you see 'therefore' in the Bible, you need to see what it's there for. Just therefore." It says, "Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and receive with meekness the grafted word of God, which is able to save your soul. But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." Wow, wow, wow, wow.
Let me show you something, church. It's saying, "Let go of filthiness and wickedness." In other words, it's saying, "You are holding filthiness and wickedness, and you cannot hold filthiness and wickedness and hold the grafted word of God. You can only hold one." You can hold the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light. You can hold the will of God or the will of yourself, which is the will of the devil. You can hold bondage or you can hold freedom and liberty. So it's saying, "Lay aside all filthiness and wickedness." Your biggest problem is you think you're a good person. I have bad news for you. I have a bad report. Good people don't go to heaven. Forgiven people do. You can be very good and be very much in hell. Don't shoot the messenger. Shoot the author. But unfortunately, he's eternal. They tried that, and he got up in three days.
So it's saying, "Lay aside filthiness and wickedness." And it says, "Pick up the engrafted word of God." And then it says something so polarizing. It's not up there no more. I don't need to be. It's fine. It says, "I'm so polarizing." It said, "It's the engrafted word of God that's able to save your soul." See, I love the Bible because it's so specific, and it's so accurate, it's so pinpoint, it's infallible. I love God's word because it didn't say it's able to save your spirit. See, if it's not able to save your spirit, we would have a problem because your spirit is saved by the working power of the blood of the Lamb. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your spirit is saved. But your soul is your mind. It's your emotions. It's your chooser, your ability to choose. Um, it's your emotions, it's your intellect, it's your feelings. All of that is your mind, which is your soul. Your mind, your emotions, your intellect, all that is your soul, right? So it said, "The engrafted word is able to save your soul." It's able to regenerate your mind. Your heart is able to renew you. The Bible says, "Be transformed by the renewing of the mind." Right?
So why does the word have to be engrafted? Engrafted means the carbon or etching. Why does the word have to be engrafted? The reason why it has to be engrafted is because the Bible says in a parable of the sower that Satan comes to steal the word immediately. In other words, the moment you get the word, you guys are getting the word, and the devil wants to immediately, when you walk out of here, steal the word out of your heart. Now, here's how he steals the word out of your heart. He steals the word out of your heart with the storm. Everyone say, "The storm." He uses the storm of life. He steals the word with the storm. Um, it showed us in the parable story. The storm is two things. The storm is the troubles of life. "I can't pay my bills. I need a new job. I just, I can't make it. I just need a new way." You're leaving God. You're trying to find worldly ways to get rich and successful. You just, you're on Instagram, you're trying to be like everyone else. You can't pay bills, and you're tired of church, and you got to do something better for your family. It's the cares of life. The words of life trying to keep up with the Joneses. So he brings the trouble of life. In other words, you're just happy and doing good. Your friend gets a new car. You're like, "Oh my gosh, I need a milk carton. Let me just quit going to church and work on Sundays for a new car." Like, it's the cares of this world. And then it's persecution. Pressure for being a Christian. Pressure to bend. Pressure to not stand. We live in a really wicked day right now. We have our government and everything in the world telling us about the need to say, "Devil, you're a liar. We're not bowing our knees. We will stand for the word of God and the things of God, and we will stand tall, and we will not flinch, and we will not be in." So now it brings pressure to try to get you to cave in. And that's the storm. And the storm is composed of rains and winds. Rain and wind makes a storm. And the devil always brings the storm to steal the word. And that's why it has to be engrafted.
So this is a lot of you guys's heart. And on your heart, you just got all kind of stuff. Pastor KJ, priests are good. Where I'm a conqueror. God covers me. My head's anointed with oil. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm the heading, not the tail. Above only and not beneath. I will walk in my purpose. God loves me. Matthew 6 and 33: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." That's that's a few verses down. Praise God. I got the word. And and a lot of you guys' mirrors look like this. Your car looks like this. Your wall looks like this. And it's okay to have this on your wall, but you better make sure you got it on your heart.
It's okay to be on your mirror, but you better make sure it's not a mirror of your heart. Because rains will come and winds will blow. And when rain starts coming, all of a sudden, if the word is not enested on your heart, rains are going to come and water is going to come. And when rain starts coming, it's going to pour on the word. The devil's bringing the storm. He's bringing rains. He's bringing water to pour on the word. And all of a sudden, what you believe, all of a sudden, what you was confident about, all of a sudden, you was jumping, you was praising, you was excited. But when the rain came, all of a sudden, now you're afraid. Now you're backtracking. Now you're moonwalking. Now you're giving up the promise. And the Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust. The devil can bring rain. And now all of a sudden, what the Lord spoke to you is being stolen by the devil and washed off your heart. And if the rain didn't do it, then the devil says, "I got you covered." Because if rains don't work, he says, "I will let wind blow." And then when the wind starts blowing, all of a sudden, this stuff is coming off your heart. He's blowing all this stuff off your heart. All of a sudden, you don't believe you can do it. Now all of a sudden, you don't believe you're a conqueror because winds are coming. And God says, "When rain comes and when the wind blows, all of a sudden, is this stuff going to remain on your heart, or is it going to start flying off?" You're saying you trust Jesus as your provider, but then rains come, and all of a sudden, you don't trust Him no more. Rains will come and wind will blow. And if rains come and winds blow, and if this is suggested on your heart, not sketching your heart, all of a sudden it blows off. And this is why the word don't last. And this is why your faith don't last. And this is why your power don't last. And this is why your glory don't last. And this is why your worship don't last because rains came and wind blew, and your life wasn't engraved in the word.
Oh, oh, but I'm not done yet. Because if you can flip this thing around, church, if you can flip this thing around, and you can go this way, if you would imprint this into your heart, and I'll give you one better, if you would go and engrave this in your heart, all of a sudden, you can say, "God hasn't given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind." And if you can engrave this, and then graft this on your heart, all of a sudden, when the devil comes, when the storms come and blows on your face, it ain't going nowhere because this is engraved. This is imprinted. Wind can come. Rain can come, but this is going to be on my heart because it's not suggested, it's engrafted. It's the engrafted word, church. It's saying, "Grafted word that will save your soul." It's not about having the word. It's about having the word engrafted. You can have as much Bible as you want. You can know as much scripture as you want. But how much of it can Satan take? How much of it can Satan take? You went to the conference, you were fired up, and three weeks later, rain came and blew. You were running after God, he dumped you, rain came and blew. You have to have the word engraved in your heart so when the storm comes, it can't touch it.
So now it leads us to my final point to close. How do we engrave the word on our heart? How do we engrave? Neighbor, church, said, "How do we engrave the word on our heart?" The Bible said in James 1, it says, "When you look into the perfect liberty, the perfect law of God, the perfect law of liberty, it says it's like a mirror unto you." The first thing the word of God does is it reflects you to you. The word is a mirror. The word is a mirror. Ladies, when you go to bed at night, you get up, you go to the mirror. When you look in the mirror, the mirror has a message for you. It says, "Girl, you had a bad night." And then once you look in the mirror, and you realize just how bad your night was, and you understand your condition, you know what to do to change it. So the Bible says the word is a mirror. You look in the mirror, and it's like, "Oh, girl, you said full. Oh, girl, you negative. Oh, girl, oh, dude, you lustful. Man, you need to quit drinking. Oh, you got a nasty heart. You need to forgive people. You're offended." And the word shows you your state. You're like, "Oh my gosh." Then once you go to the mirror, and you saw how bad your night was, you go to the next step. After you reflect, you go and you address what you reflected, which takes me to my next point.
The first one is reflection. The second one is meditation. Reflection is how you see yourself. Meditation is how you change yourself. So now you go and you meditate on the word. And let me tell you something about the Bible. Don't just read the Bible. Let the Bible read you. The Bible is the only book that when you read it, it reads you. And it tells you everything about you, your heart, your ways, and your spirit. And when it reads you, it changes you. It starts to remove guilt and shame and offense and bitterness off of your heart. Now you're meditating on the word. You're thinking on pure things, lovely things. You're thinking on the scripture you're meditating over and over and over. And as you begin to meditate on this word, it changes your life. Now the word has three different forms. Say, "What are they, Pastor?" Comes from the word "graphein," it means the writing word, or the, or the, um, or the, or the tag. The graffiti, the tag word, the written word. It's the Bible. The graphein is the Bible. It's the message of the word. Read your Bible. That's the first step. Reading your Bible. It's graphic. Reading.
The scriptures reading the words, but then you have the second expression of the word, and that's our Greek word logos. Everyone say logos. It means the animated word or the express word. Jesus is logos. The Bible says in John, John, that that that in the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus was the word in body. He was the word animated.
And then lastly, there's the Rhema word, which means the other word, the shattered word, the declared word. In Matthew 4, when Jesus was fighting the devil, he kept shouting, "It is written. It is written. It is written." It means the word of battle. It's the shattered word, the declared word. It's the word in use. It's when you walk in holiness, when you walk in purity, when you walk in faith, when you walk in love, when you walk in praise. That's the Rhema word, the shouted word, the uttered word.
It's like a movie. It's like most movies come from a book. So there's a book about this, that's the book, it's graph a. And then the actor is logos. He's that book animated. And then the message you take away from that movie is Rhema. It's how it applies to your life and how you use it.
So this is how you meditate on the word. You go to graphic, and you're reading the scriptures. You go to logos, and you're watching Jesus, you're studying Jesus, you're seeing the word animated. He's showing you your face. And then you go to Rhema. I'm shouting this word. I'm declaring this word. Devil, you can't have me. You can't have my kids. You can't have my family. And you're saying, "God has not given me a spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind." And you are shouting that Rhema word, and it is cutting your devil.
Then the next thing is, after you know how to meditate on the word, then you go to application. Application is unique because when you meditate on a word, it changes you from the inside out. When you obey the word and walk in application, it changes you from the outside in. So now you're bringing your flesh to subjection of God, and you're bringing your flesh to say, "Flesh, you will obey God. Even when my heart doesn't fully understand, I'm going to trust God. I'm going to walk in truth, and I'm going to obey God." And I'm going to bring my flesh down to submission. And when I do that, I'm applying the word. I'm applying the word. In other words, when you obey, that's like using the comb. That's you using the comb to change yourself.
See, here's the power of the word. The word is your mirror, and it's your brush. The word is the mirror, and it's your comb. That's application.
And then here's the biggest ingredient to engraving the word on your heart. Say, "What is it?" Repetition. Repetition. The Bible says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God." Faith comes by hearing and hearing over and over and over and over and over and over and over. You were told every day of your life, "You will never be nothing." And then you want to hear a sermon one time that says, "You're called and want to walk in victory." [Applause] You had the lie etched on you, and now you need the truth etched on you to x out the lies.
See, the word of God is suggested to you, and anything that's suggested can be erased by the devil. But he can't erase what's engrafted. He can't erase what's engrafted. So repetition, over and over again. Read the Bible over and over again. When I first got saved, the best thing I did, I bought this sermon, and I listened to it five times a day. Call me crazy if you want, but I got set free. Some of you guys need to listen to this sermon over and over all week, eight times, nine times, 20 times, 30 times. Some of you guys need to read these scriptures all week long.
And when I studied the Bible, I started doing something. I used to just try to read as much of the Bible as I can. I read sometimes the same scripture for two weeks because I don't want it suggested, I want it engrafted. And grafting comes by repetition, doing it over and over again.
See, you have to know something, church. Your mind stays renewed as long as your hair stays combed. Your mind stays renewed as long as your teeth stays brushed. Your mind stays renewed as long as your body stays bathed. For those of you that don't get it, when you comb your hair, it gets nappy tomorrow. When you brush your teeth, it gets stinky tomorrow. And when you bathe your body, I don't care how clean you think you are, you'll need a bath tomorrow. So why do you think you can read the Bible once a month and be okay? Over and over and over and over. Joshua verse 1 and 8 says, "God, I will meditate on your word day and night, day and night." I'm reading the Bible. They didn't write them to claim your promises. They are right on quoting the scriptures. Day and night, I'm meditating on the word. And the good times, I'm meditating. And the bad times, I'm meditating. In the storm, I'm meditating. In the fame, and I'm meditating. Day and night, night and day, day and night, night and day.
Wow. I pray you were blessed by that message. I pray it spoke to you and encouraged you, challenged you, and blessed you. Share with your friends, family members, co-workers, share with everyone you know, and I pray their life will be impacted as well. If you would like to be a part of Radiant Ministry, a part of Radiant Global, or get more information about our church, text 903-201-0606. Take some more information. We will tell you all about our ministry. And also, if you would like to partner with Radiant financially, you can do that at radiantchurchstk.com and hit the give tab. It is your generosity that fuels our mission and it empowers us to be able to do ministry all around the world. Thank you so much for your generosity and have a blessed day.