THE UNDENIABLE POWER OF CONNECTION

Praise God. Good to see brother and sister Brandt back. Hallelujah. We miss you and you're not here, and we're grateful that you're here. I'm thankful to the Lord for his presence in this place right now. He's so good to us.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we have media fast this week. And then, uh, Wednesday, we'll be fasting together from food. Uh, just a meeting here Wednesday evening at 6:30 for prayer together, and I'm looking forward to that. It's good to see, uh, brother Bruce and Sister Betty here. Praise God. It's awesome. Praise the Lord.

John 15 and 5. "I am the vine." Everybody say, "I'm not the vine. He is the vine." The life comes through him. It doesn't come anywhere else. Doesn't come any other way else. Doesn't come through your own plans. It only comes from him. "I am the vine. You are the branches. However, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing." Apart from me, you can do nothing. Does that mean that we're not doing anything if we're not connected to him? No, it's what matters. Somebody say fruit. Fruit comes from the vine. It doesn't come from the branch. It's not the fruit of the branch. It's the fruit of the vine. It shows up in the branch, but it comes from the vine.

Genesis 2 and 7. "Then the Lord God formed the man of the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." Where did the life come from? It didn't come from the man. The life came from the Lord. "And the man became a living creature."

Romans 6:23. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." Praise God.

Romans 3:23, more comforting verse than I'd like to admit, but it is. "For all have sinned." Everybody say sinned. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

I just want to preach for a few minutes today. Teach something the Lord's been, been giving me on the undeniable power of connection. The undeniable power of connection. Would you just, uh, lift your hands and lift your voices and just ask the Lord to minister to you today and to minister through me to you? Would you ask the Lord to speak through me to you? Lord, we ask you, Lord, just to help us in this room today to walk away with something of substance from you that's going to help us, Lord, to be what we need to be for you and through you and by you. We need the moving of your spirit above all things in our hearts and minds. We need you, Lord. Help us to put aside everything that we are to embrace what you're wanting to do in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Praise God. You can be seated in the name of the Lord. Thank you for worshiping today. Thank you for gathering in this place today. I, I'm grateful for every person, uh, that's in this gathering. And it's, um, it's a blessing to me to be here.

Matthew, in the book of Matthew, Peter pulls Jesus aside and looks at Jesus and says these words, "This shall never happen to you." Now, Peter is speaking from his human mind, and he's saying, he's talking about the cross. He looks at Jesus and says, "This is never going to happen to you." Jesus is talking about, "I'm going to be given over. I'm going to go. I'm going to die." And Peter says, "That's not happening." Peter's view was he wanted to protect. He wanted to avoid suffering. He wanted, uh, he wanted to reason his way through this. But Jesus looks at Peter and says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan. Uh, you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Now, Peter wasn't evil. We know that Peter wasn't Satan. But that word Satan there is actually the word adversary. In other words, what you're thinking right now is not being sourced from me. What you're thinking right now is coming from you. And that is adversarial when it comes to the kingdom of God. Peter was going to think what he wanted to think until he connected to Jesus in that level in his mind. He wasn't evil. He was just thinking from the wrong perspective. And after walking with the Lord, after connecting with the Lord, Peter then becomes a man who then afterward he can embrace suffering and he can embrace purpose and he can embrace truth.

Here's the thing. When you connect with the Lord, it shifts your perspective. And, uh, every one of us has a knee-jerk perspective. Look at your neighbor and tell them, "You're human. You're going to think like a human. That's going to be your default. You're going to think like a human." And that means you're going to have your own plans and your own ideas and you're going to think default. I, I'm just telling you, the first thing you text, you probably should just back out of that. Just, just don't send. I know I have a stack of emails I just never sent. Don't send it. Someone say, "Don't send it." Your human thinking is your knee-jerk reaction. It's the pause to connect to the Lord that changes everything. Somebody say connection.

The disciples in Mark, they're in a storm. They panic. I'm not going to go through all of these verses. You're familiar with the story, but the one phrase there that I want to focus on is, "Don't you care that we are perishing?" Has anyone been there? "Lord, do you not care that this is falling apart? Do you not care that, like, we even have to ask that question?" But didn't Jesus, when he was on the cross, did he say, "Father, why hast thou forsaken me?" Has anyone had the humanity enough to ask those kind of questions to the Lord? So their view is, "We're alone." Were they alone? No. But they thought they were. "We're going to die." That's what they said. Did they die? No. "God's not helping us." Was God not helping them? No, it's not true. None of it's true. See, it doesn't matter what the truth is. You don't live by what the truth is. You live by what you believe. And when you believe something, that determines your actions. So when you believe something, you got to go to him. You got to wake him up in the boat. Everybody say, "Wake up the master." When Jesus wakes up, then he begins to speak peace. He had plans in that situation that they were not aware of, but their perspective was off. "Why are you so afraid?" He said to them, "Do you not have any faith?" Nothing changed externally to begin with. But after they connected with him, everything changed. I'm trying to help somebody see the undeniable power of connecting with the Lord. Disconnection will produce fear, but connection is going to produce faith.

When you look at Paul at this moment, he's Saul. He is a religious zealot. Uh, my wife and I were discussing this this morning. He was a religious zealot. He's convinced that he's right. You ever been that way? You've been convinced that you're right. No one in this room, right? Just convinced you're right. You ever met someone thinks they're right all the time? Every day in the mirror, brother. That's right. I'm looking at him. Okay. He's persecuting believers and he thinks he's right. Someone say, "He thinks he's right." Come on. He's defending his beliefs and he thinks he's right. He's fully committed to this and he thinks he's right. But then he encounters the Lord. This is what changes everything. Everything inside of him breaks. Everything shifts when he connects to the Lord. His view changes. Before he actually says, "I am serving God by doing this." That was his reality. But the fact is he was opposing God, not serving God, because he got his "I'm serving God" from his religion rather than actually hearing from the Lord what serving God was. He connected with the Lord and then he becomes one of the greatest voices that have ever preached the gospel in the known world. You can be completely sincere and you can be completely wrong until you encounter the Lord, and then you shift in your thinking because you connected with him. The undeniable power of connection.

Every one of them had a perspective. They felt like it was right. Every one of them had a view, but it wasn't truth. It was just what they believed. Connection with the Lord. When that happened, every one of them got uncomfortable with the truth. Every one of them got uncomfortable with the truth. But the truth made every one of them free. It made every one of them free.

Martha, she is distracted. In the book of Luke, she's busy serving. She's frustrated. She looks over and says, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?" Anybody ever felt that way? Okay, that's her view. That's the way she sees it. "I'm doing the right thing. I'm justified. I'm better than her. I'm better than Mary. Others should help me. Jesus should fix this situation." And then she connects with the Lord. And when she connects with the Lord, the Lord says, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen the better part." Connection exposed the truth about the situation. You don't know what's right until you talk to the Lord. You don't know which way to go until you talk to the Lord. You don't know which way to go. You say, "Well, I have a plan." Listen, your plans, it doesn't mean that that's what God wants until you actually have a conversation with him. Talking to the Lord is what produces what needs to produce the kingdom of God. Everybody say, "Much fruit." If we lack fruit, it's because we lack connection. If we lack fruit, it's because we lack connection. And we got to be careful because, guess what? Don't, don't be condemned. We're all separatists until we're not. We all isolate until we don't. We all disconnect until we connect. It doesn't take any faith to disconnect. It doesn't take any faith to isolate. It doesn't take any faith to think, "I'm better than her and better than him and I'm, I'm more special than she is and he shouldn't have a right to speak and and this one's better than that one." It doesn't take any faith to compare, to criticize, to shut down, to hurt, to destroy, to separate, to isolate. Doesn't take any faith. But it takes an intentional act of faith to say, "Father, what is it that you're wanting right now?"

One thing I love about brother Thomas is he gives me the extremes. I'm going to tell on you, brother Thomas. He'll start texting and he will text me 47 text messages in one day and he is blowing my phone up. It's smoking. I can't even touch it. It's hot to the touch, and this is what's going on and that's what's going on and this is what's going on. But one thing I know, it'll die down. And when it dies down, that's when I say, "Okay, Lord, now talk to him. He's done steaming, Lord. He's done, Lord. Now talk to him." And I know that all brother, all brother Thomas has to do is just say, "Lord." That's it. Once he says, "Lord," God starts talking to Thomas and he lines out every single time. Uh, he ain't doubting Thomas. He's believing Thomas. He's also human, Thomas. I got news for everyone here. If we leave it up to ourselves, we'll stay disconnected. But if we'll connect to him, then we'll connect to one another. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Well, how do I connect? I tell you what, don't come up with your own plan to connect. "I'm going to buy, you know, 100 loaves of bread and go give them to everybody in the church." That may not be how God wants you to connect. Why don't you just ask the Lord, "What do I do to love my brother?" and let the Lord guide you and let the Lord teach you and let the Lord talk to you. Here this last week, and I'm not trying to tell everybody's business, but a brother came to me in the church and told me that he was walking by someone, uh, sitting in their car, and he went, and the Holy Ghost spoke to him and told him to go up and knock on the window and give a word. And that was the exact word that that individual needed because they were at the crux of walking away. That's fruit. That's what fruit does. See what we have. You can know who you are. We're sons of God, but if we know we're branches, but don't connect to the vine, we're still not going to have fruit. You can have an identity, but if you don't know how to connect to the Lord and to one another, we're still not going to produce the kingdom of God. Sonship alone doesn't manifest the kingdom of God. But the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Praise God. Praise God.

Martha, you're anxious. Amen. He told her what she was feeling. She was justified. He said, "You ain't justified. You're anxious. You got, you're anxious." You know what anxiety is? It's fear. Fear of not being enough. Fear of not getting things done. Fear of being seen a certain way. "I'm not enough. I'm not enough. I'm not enough." Let me tell you what God can do with "I'm not enough." When you feel like you're not enough, when you got 5,000 out there and they haven't eaten and all we have is a few fish and a couple loaves and we don't have enough. Your idea, disciples, may be, "Send them home. They can eat in the house." But the Lord says, "Give me your 'not enough' and let me work in ways you've never seen before." Come on. God is wanting to feed a multitude, but we got to come to him and say, "We don't feel like we're enough." And then let him have a conversation with us about who we really are and what he can do with us. Here in Salina, Kansas, she wasn't wrong for serving, but she was disconnected in how she was doing it. At that moment, serving actually looked like sitting at his feet. But she had a way of serving that was not from the Lord. You can be doing the right thing and you can do it from the wrong place.

When you look at Emmaus, okay, when you look at the, the disciples of Emmaus in Luke, they're walking after Jesus' death. They're discouraged. Someone say discouraged, confused. And they said, "We had hoped that this had been it." We hoped that that would have been the, they had hoped. They were discouraged. They were confused. In their view, everything's over with. In their view, "We were wrong." In their view, "Now there's no reason to hope." But here's the thing. Jesus walks with them. And when he walks with them, he begins to explain everything to them from the beginning all the way till now. And then the Bible said, "And he opened their eyes." And they said, "Did not our hearts burn within us? Did not our hearts burn within us?" Nothing changed in the story, did it? But everything changed in their understanding once he opened their eyes. Could it be that by default we are blind and we walk after our own ways? But when the scales fall off, when we connect with the Lord, he'll give us a way that we're not comfortable with. But it will be the way of the Lord. It'll be the way of the Lord. Hallelujah. When Jesus walks with you, that's what happens to confusion. There's an exchange. Someone say an exchange. See, I don't get to just say that what I think is right because I'm a believer. Well, I'm the pastor, so everything I say, that's the will of God. Well, we live that way. Come on. The Lord is, the Lord is helping us to remind ourselves the undeniable power of connection. "Without me, you can do nothing." So if I'm doing it without him, it ain't nothing. Without him, I can do nothing. So if I'm doing it and it's not, and it's without him, I haven't been with him. I'm not sourcing it from him. You know, that sounds super spiritual. We're spirits. We're in Christ. Christ is in. Why do I say when I say, "Well, we're seated with Christ in heavenly places," is no one says, "Well, that sounds super spiritual." When I say, "Man, the devil's been talking to me," no one says, "We're super spiritual." But when I say, "Man, the Lord's been talking to me all morning," we believe the devil can talk on any day that ends in Y. But tell me God's talking to you about everything. Now you're super spiritual. Is this okay? Come on, church. Hallelujah.

Every time, and I have a list of mistakes, and if I allowed those mistakes to just weigh me down with shame, they would be mistakes. And the root of all of them is I just didn't connect with the Lord about it. I got urgent. I got anxious. I, I, I said, "I got to make something happen. I got to do this. I got to take care of this. I got to do that. I'm in the boat. We're going to drown. I don't want to drown. The storm's all around. Jesus is obviously sleeping. Like he don't give two flips of a cow's tail whether or not I get out of this mess anyway. So if he's at nap time, I'm going to have to make it happen, right? Like this is what I have to do." But the fact is, every time I get ahead and I don't inquire of the Lord and I don't move forward, that I disconnect from him, I guarantee you I'm going to disconnect from you. Listen, church. I promise you right now, if Sister Tara has an, an issue with Sister Jan, and Sister Tara goes to the Lord and connects to the Lord, she's going to handle her right. Am I right? If you have an issue with him and you go to that, that written Bible and you find the way that God deals and you allow the Lord to convict your heart and stir your heart to righteousness, you're going to, you're not going to mistreat him because God is about connection. He is not a separatist. He doesn't want us divided. We're always trying to find out how everyone is. You know what my problem is? My problem is I have this vision problem. Okay? Outside of my blind eye, I have a vision problem. I see all the gaps. I always see where stuff's broke. Now, that's a gift and a curse. It's a gift and a curse because I can always see what's, I can always see what's off. I can always see what it's got. It's just, it's a, it's a thing with me and it gets on my Evan living nerves. And here's the thing, if I'm not careful, I'll see what's off and then I see a reason not to connect to those people or I see why they're a problem or I see why they're creating an issue instead of saying, "Lord, now talk to me about how to navigate that or getting them to get to the Lord and connect to the Lord." That's what we're really all about here. If we can get one, if we can all connect to the Lord Jesus Christ and then connect one another and help each other to go to the Lord, I mean, that's really where the issue is because you can have identity, but if you don't have connection, we are not going to operate by the spirit of the Lord. Everybody say, "Walk after the spirit." You're either going to walk in the spirit or you're not going to walk in the spirit. The spirit of the Lord speaks. He said, "I'm going to be your teacher, not just your comforter, not just your glossolalia, not just your tongues, not just your gifts of the spirit, not just talking in tongues." He said, "The primary thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to cause you to operate in love and I'm going to cause you to operate in peace. And not just toward the lost, but toward your brothers." That's what God is doing. If I go to the Lord, I'm going to find love and I'm going to find peace. He is God love. And what's he the prince of? No, he, no, he ain't the prince of peace. He's the prince of Israel. He's, he's the prince of peace. That's how he operates.

Are there going to be issues between us? Here's the problem. And I'm, I'm going to pastor this congregation for a minute. You have issues with your brother, but you never let them leave your mind. You hold them in your heart and then you create a little group and you think this about that one and that about this one and that about that one and that. And then you call it discernment. It's not discernment. It's not discernment. It's fear. It's anxiety. It's humanity. You have to take your humanity and take it to the Lord. Because at the end of the day, if the Lord has, if the Lord has his way, the, you know what this congregation is going to have among it? Love, peace, joy, goodness, meekness, temperance, humility, longsuffering, kindness. Is that okay? Is that the kingdom of God? No. The kingdom of God is winning souls. No, it's not. That's not the kingdom of God. That's not the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not meat or drink. That means it's not of this earth. It's not jumping up and down and it's not winning souls. Do all of that. Please eat and drink. Sister Lucky, I, I saw, I saw you dancing out here today. You know what? Sister Lucky can dance. If she wants to dance before the Lord and to the Lord, she can. Now, she's not going to grab the microphone and force you to dance. But if she wants to dance, she can dance. And if you want to stand there, you can stand there. And you can be as much in love with Jesus standing there as she is dancing. Just keep your eyes on your own paper and make it about him. Everybody say, "Unto the Lord." Sing a song unto the Lord. That's the whole thing. Make it unto the Lord. But here's the thing. What should reign in this house is grace and mercy. Is anyone here without mistakes? Oh, I'm going to drill down. Is anyone here without mistakes? How does God deal with mistakes? Oh, nope. Harsh judgment, criticism, ridicule, accusation, punishment, threat, intimidation, fear, and control. The nine fruits of mistakes. No, that ain't my book. That ain't my Bible. That this God that deals with me. See, here's the thing. Do you deal with mistakes the way God deals with? Now, under the law, that was how mistakes were dealt with. But who got beat for all of that? Okay. He was wounded for that. That's right. You, you made a mistake and my knee-jerk reaction is going to knock you upside your ever-living head, talk about you to my wife and put you under the bus and allow my perspective of you to be skewed. And now we have disconnection. Why? Because I'm doing all that in my human spirit. And I am not the undeniable power of connection. When I connect to the Lord about your mistake, the Lord's going to show me your humanity. He's also going to show me the mercy and grace he's had toward me. And now when I come to approach you, I'm not doing it for my humanity, but I'm doing it through God's mercy and grace. The grace of God abounds where sin doth abound. It abounds even more. And we're going to talk about sin here in just a minute, but I'm going to tell you what I want. I want a church where the grace of God abounds. I want a church where we can make mistakes and failures are professors rather than failures are, are now your identity. You are a mistake. You are a failure. You are a mess up. That's shame talking. Now, shame has a purpose. It can do its talking. But if shame talks, it ought to just get us to connect to the Lord. Is that okay? Hallelujah. We shouldn't shame one another. We got to love one another. We got to hold up one another. We got to strengthen one another. But if I'm not getting that from him and connecting from him, I'm not going to have diddly squat to give to you. It's got to come into me. So that tells me, listen, that tells me one of the keys for this church is posturing ourselves to receive these things from the Lord. You cannot give what you don't have. If you're not taking time to connect to the vine, then you can't be surprised when there's no fruit for other people to eat. Because there's no tree that eats its own fruit. If you're producing fruit, it ain't for you. Anybody see a tree eat its own fruit? Run. But when I connect to him, when I connect to the Lord, see, that's the thing. We are separatists by default. How many here gets up every day and you go about your way unless you purposely connect to the Lord? Am I the only one? If I don't, if I don't intentionally do it, I'm not, I'm not nailing anybody. I am overwhelmed at the humanity that we have. But it is what it is. Ain't no preacher going to, I've, I've tried that. I've tried to will people to pray every morning. I can't make you pray every morning. I've been here 15 years. I, I can't make anybody pray every morning. But you can make a decision to connect with him. I, I can't make you give tithe and offering. I can't make you do that. That's going to come out of your connection with him. I can teach you, but if you do it from me, you're just doing it because I told you to do it. Why don't you do it? Because do you, do you have this? Talk to the Lord. Don't open this up without the author being there. Come on, invite the author. Connect to the Lord. Is this okay today? We've got to connect to him because that's when our confusion leaves. Connection is the answer.

Nicodemus, he comes at night. He's a teacher. Everybody say, "He's a teacher." Now, he didn't make himself a teacher. He was such a teacher that they voted him in as a teacher. He was literally a rabbi of the law. That means he was actually a lawyer. He was a master at the first five books of this, of, of this Bible. He knows the law inside and out. Now, his view is knowledge equals understanding and religion equals righteousness. And so he comes to Jesus with his law under his arm and he says, "We got something going on here because we believe these things and yet we don't produce the fruit you produce. Something's wrong. We thought we had the kingdom, but something's going on. What is going on?" And Jesus says, "Except a man be born again of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Nicodemus is confused. He says, "How can a man be born a second time when he is old?" Jesus shifts it. He said, "It isn't about behavior. It isn't about going into your mother's womb and coming out again. It isn't about entering into the law and having experiencing behavior modification. It's not about getting another nick. You all look at this and you think in this you have eternal life. You don't. I am the way and I am the truth and I am the life. And if you don't connect to me, then your way is wrong and your truth is wrong and your life is wrong. I'm it. I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life." He said, "If you want to get to the Father, it ain't going to be about this. This is not going to be about behavior modification. It is about transformation." And that connection with Jesus revealed that he did not need more information. He was looking for more answers. He didn't need answers. No, he needed a new life. He needed to be born again. Information doesn't change anybody. Transformation does. Transformation is what changes us. Well, how do we transform? Let me tell you, you have to have something greater than yourself to change your form. You don't get transformed by sitting, uh, uh, uh, Indian style and puffing air. You have to have something with a greater power than yourself to produce transformation. You cannot transform yourself by changing your behavior. You transform yourself by presenting yourself to someone great. Hey branch, you got to stay connected to the vine. Come on. God is saying, "Connect to me and you'll produce fruit for other people." There is a connection that God is wanting us to have and to experience. Connection is God's way. When you connect with Jesus, you don't just feel better. You see clearer. You see clearer.

Now when we think about sin, somebody say sin. When we think about sin, when I say, when I say Eve, Adam and Eve sinned, when I say Eve sinned, what did she do? Okay. How did she break God's laws? She disobeyed. Okay. What did she do? Okay. She ate the fruit. She disobeyed. She broke God's laws. So that's where we start. That's where we start. I, I'm going to help something. I want to help you here. Okay. The word sin means to miss the mark. Okay? That means there's a bullseye. There's a target with a bullseye. Here's what the bullseye is. And when you don't hit that bullseye, you are removed from the mark. So you miss the mark. That's where we all start at and that is true. So we look at actions, okay? The things that we do. We look at actions. We look at thoughts. Can you have sinful actions? Yes. Sinful thoughts, sinful words, sinful motives, a sinful state of heart, sinful patterns of rebellion. Absolutely. When you look at 1 John 3 and 4, when you look at James 4:17, it says that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." You look, you read these, you find that sin is the action. I'm not denying that. But when you dig deeper into the definition of sin, you also find the reason for the action, which is actually where the sin begins. So we look at sin and we see the fruit of the sin rather than the root of the sin. In other words, when you look at the definition of sin in the Hebrew, there'll be two words there. The first is that it is to miss the mark. But the actual Hebrew people use the same word for the word separation. Separation. If you put the word separation in the place of sin, now you're thinking more like the scripture speaking. "For all have separated from God." Are you hearing me? Okay. Tell me someone who hasn't separated from the Lord. Huh? "The wages of separation are death." Separation is about a person. It's a relational term. I'm hoping to reframe sin for someone right now. See, because we think of sin as smoking, drinking, cussing, doing all these. We have this whole list of our little pet sins. But if sin is actually just separating from the Lord, then we all sin. Sinners, we are not sinners because sinners, that word is those who are dead to God in their trespasses and sins. They are sinners. They are not saints. So they are separators. They live in a separated state from God. So if sin just means separated, now we're in relationship rather than just a list of moral things we do or don't do. Sin shows up in actions, yes. But I'm going to show you that it first shows up in separation. Not physical separation from God, okay? But mental and relational separation from God. Let me ask you this. Here's a question. Think with me. Before Eve ever ate from the tree, did she begin to evaluate life without God? So where did the separation, where did the sin start? In her thinking, or was it eating the fruit? The sin was actually her separation from God before she ever ate from the tree. Separation produces the act. The act does not produce the separation. Anytime I'm going through something, if I'm tempted, who of us has not been tempted and been drawn away by our lust? But if we, in the moment of temptation, if you are separated from the Lord, if you don't connect to him, are you going to fulfill your lust or are you going to fulfill the law of God or the will of God? The power is in the pause. She started having thoughts and deciding for herself what is good, what is desirable, what is beneficial. She did all that before she ate. Separation is what produced her eating. It's her, what's going on in her mind before she ever grabbed a hold of the fruit. She began to separate from God before she ever ate from the tree. She started to disconnect from God. From God. She started saying, "Is he good? Is he withholding from us? Can he be trusted?" You see that? When you start asking questions about God and allow other beliefs to begin to enter in, you're starting to separate from the Lord. And when you separate from the Lord, you're going to begin to operate in your own will. Because now you're convinced that the will of the one who calls himself God, that he is not thoroughly good and he is not sovereign and he is not perfect and he is not loving and he is not kind. So now I no longer trust his will because I don't trust his character. I trust my own will higher than God's will because I'm convinced now that his character is off somehow. And that's what the enemy does. He tries to get us to believe God's not looking out for me. I'm alone in this. I'm, I'm off in left field. Like, if God loved me, he would dot dot dot. And we start questioning God's character. Well, how can you follow the will of someone that you're always questioning? You're separating from God instead of coming up next to him and saying, "Hey," and telling the truth. Somebody say, "Tell the truth." Come on, tell the truth. I dare you to tell God, "I feel like you're not for me." And then be quiet and let the Lord defend his own character into your spirit and cause you to connect to him. Because if you don't connect to him, your belief is going to guide your perspective and you're going to veer away from him. He's wanting to reconnect. He's, that's the thing. Everyone says, "Well, sin will separate you from God." No, separation produces the action. And then afterward, he was afraid and he was ashamed, and so he went further separate from God. God wasn't separated from him. In fact, God said, "Adam, where are you at, Adam?" When he sinned, God went looking for him. God is looking for you. When you separate, God is not on the judgment seat here of whether or not he loves you and wants you and thinks of you and cares about you and will guide you and keep you and speak to you and bring you into fellowship. That is not what's on trial. He is for you. That's settled. Why is it settled? 'Cause he said it. So if you feel separated from God, that's your perspective. But that is not the truth. He even came and said, "Now I'm going to be in you and I will never, never, I will never." Is God a liar? How many times have you separated from him? But he never, he knows your mistakes. He knows your humanity. He knows you battle with fear and overwhelm and confusion and unbelief and anxiety and discouragement. He knows that you felt let down and betrayed and backstabbed and hurt and wounded and scared. He is not surprised by any of that. And the reason he told his disciples, "I'm never going to leave you and I'm never going to forsake you." Because in their little finite human minds, they would be able to come up with a thousand reasons before their funeral to figure out God should have left me and God should have forsake me. But yet, he could see the end from the beginning. And he looks at them as the author, knowing the end of their story, and said, "I'm not leaving you or forsaking you, even until the end of the age." We make it real easy for people to feel backslidden. I'll tell you that. Who, who among us hasn't separated from God? As a matter of fact, probably everybody in this room because it's the human condition. You're separated from the Lord right now in some area. You're doing something God never told you to do. You're navigating a relationship without the love of God. There's something between you and your brother and you haven't gone to the Lord, connected and found out how to be a peacemaker by the spirit of the Lord. You're not blessing your enemy or doing good to them that do evil to you because you just haven't connected to God. But here's his promise. "If you'll draw nigh to me, I'll give you a word. I will help you. I'll help you to see me in the right light. I'll help you to see yourself the right way. And I will help you to love your brother." I am the God of connection, not separation. We are separatists, but that's not God's reality. He only has one lens, and that's connection. He's like, "Hey, if I had my way about it, garden, you, me, walk together every day, my voice, do my work, kingdom of God, eat from the tree of life, connect, connect, connect, connect, connect, connect." He said, "I want to seal the deal." So since you won't climb up the mountain and meet with me and connect because of your own humanity and your own fear and your own unbelief, he said, "I got, I got a deal for you. That's all right. I'm coming down the mountain and I'm going to go down the mountain. And when I get down the mountain, I'm going to go in a manger and I'm going to be born and I'm going to walk among you and I'm going to show you what it looks like to love an adulterous woman. To heal a brokenhearted man, to heal a blinded eye, to touch someone who's hurting, to minister where there's lack, to deal with denial, to deal with fear, to deal with adversarial spirit. Oh, I'll tell you what. There's nothing I can't do and there's nothing you can do without me." He is the connect point that Salina is searching for. I can't go any day. I can't work in any relationship. I can't do anything without finding a way to connect to him. But he doesn't love me. I guarantee you, you tell him that and just sit back and he'll say, "I can see why you think that." But I want to remind you of something. I love you. I gave my life for you. I care for you. And I have called you from before the foundations of the world. Well, God just don't want to use me. I guarantee you, you tell God that. And he'll give you something. He'll show you something. He'll bring you under his wing. He is a God of connection. He's dying to connect to you. He died to connect to you. He died to connect to you.

Before she ever ate from the tree, she said, "I am not, I'm not even, I, I am not enough as I am." "Are God knows if you eat, you'll be like him." And she forgot who she was. And God created them in his image. She was already like him. "I'm not enough." Now she has to strive. Now she has to perform. Now she has to take control. Now she has to reach out and take on something that God has said, "Don't do." And it all started not with the fruit. She's separated from the Lord in her mind, in her dialogue, in her conversation. I wonder what would have happened if the devil would have showed up and she, and he introduced the first line, and she would have said, "Not today, Satan." I wonder if she would have said, "Wait a second. Wait a second, Lord. This is what the enemy just told to me. Could you talk to me about that?" Oh, you better believe it. She began to disconnect from God. "I'm not enough." Is that what God is saying? But that is separation. And when you think you're not enough, that shifts everything. Because now you got to do something to be enough. You got to earn it. That's why Egypt had such a hard time learning who they were in the wilderness because they had to unlearn all that they learned in Egypt that said, "You're not enough. You got to make more bricks. You got to perform. What you produce in the marketplace is your identity." 400 years they learned that their occupation was their identity. So God gave Moses the book of Genesis because that's their identity story. When she started to believe a lie about God, she started to believe lies about herself. Listen, when you believe a lie about your, your perception starts to change. You don't live from truth. You live from what you believe. So if you believe, "I am not enough," if you believe, "I'm alone," what does that, how does that change your actions? If you believe, "God isn't coming through for me," how does that change your actions? If you believe, "I have to figure this out on my own," how is that going to change your actions? You're going to live separate from God and separate from everyone else. Even if God is present. Even if God is present. There is undeniable power when you approach the Lord with a lie. And the branch connects to the vine. I'm done, by the way. The branch connects to the vine and says, "I just want to connect with you." You say, "Well, I don't always want to tell God what I think." That's all right. Connect to him. Truth always comes anyway. Why do you think the enemy keeps you and your flesh keeps you from connecting with him every day? Why would that be such a battle? Why? Because your flesh wants to do what it wants to do. And the enemy wants you to do his bidding. And he don't even care if you're like, he don't want you out there at, he don't care if you're out there at the bar. He don't care if you're sitting right there as long as you're just not connecting. Just don't connect. He, he'll, he'll give a thousand people over to religion on Sunday. As long as you don't connect to the Lord on Monday, he'll let you sing and shout, quote Bible verses till your, and you fast till your belly button falls off. He is not, he does not care as long as you don't connect to the Lord. Here's the thing. Was that an act of Eve's will? It was totally an act of her will. She could. The battle is normal. You know what? Jesus was frustrated. Did Jesus get overwhelmed? Did he get over? Did he get upset? Did he have challenging days? Okay. Did, did he feel like he wasn't going to be able to do it? Did he navigate all that stuff? What was the difference between him and us? Connection is everything. I need him. Not only do I need him, I want him. I can't make it without him. Without him, I can do nothing. I wonder if our musicians would come right now. Someone go in the office and get my wife. If you would get those lights for me, brother Christian. See, why do that? Helping you, helping just connect. Come on. Something happens when you just close your eyes and block everything else out. I like to shut the lights off. We don't see anybody else going on. Right now, we're going to pray. I, I would hope that you just kind of stay in your seats and or in the altar area, whatever. I don't care. I don't care where you are right now. I just want you to connect to him. You say, "How can you conjure that up?" You don't conjure it up. You think conjuring it up because you think it has to look a certain way. So, you got to, you know, someone's got to run to the front, throw their hands up, and then they have to be screaming and hollering and spinning in circles before they're connected to God. That's not true. Sister Ashley, come on. Just talk to him right now. I'm saying, "Well, I, I don't really know. I don't, it doesn't matter. Just go to him." My kids come to me sometimes, they stutter. They don't know what they're saying. They, they just trying to, we just, they just trying to connect. It's okay. Come on. I've been dry in my spirit. You're, you're the vine. You're the branch, not the vine. Connect to him. Go ahead, Lord. I've been discouraged. Connect to him. I don't think I'm enough. Connect to him. Come on, Lord. I, I, I just don't feel like I can carry on. Connect to him, Lord. I just want to love you. Connect to him. I want to reach out and, come on, just reach out and touch him right now because there's an undeniable power in bringing your human condition. If Jesus says, "Without me, you can do nothing," that just reveals to me that I need him. That's the revelation there that I wasn't created to function without him. I wasn't created to produce anything without him. I wasn't created to function and operate without Jesus. Connecting to him. But I'm struggling with this individual. Take it to the Lord. Lord, what do I need to do? There's a, there's a great divide between this brother and me. Lord, I, I don't know. There's a, a disconnect between my, my wife and I and I, I don't know what to do about it. Lord, what do I do? Come on, ask him. Ask him. He'll show you. He'll show you what to do. He'll show you what to say. He'll show you what he wants to remove out of you. He'll convict you of righteousness. He'll teach you. He'll remind you of things he's already said. He'll speak a new word into your spirit. He'll wash your feet. He will wash your feet. That's what he does. He will wash your feet. He came to serve. He will serve you. He will wash your feet. He will cleanse you of unrighteousness. He will give you the words to say. He'll give you the path forward. He'll remove anxiety from your spirit. Go ahead. He'll remove anxiety from your spirit. Come on. He, he'll, he'll, he'll lift you up. He'll edify you. He'll strengthen you. He'll encourage you. And before you know it, on your branch, there will be some fruit from the vine. And then when others come by your life, uh, they're able to reach up onto the vine of your life and begin to pluck the fruit from the vine of your life and they begin to consume it and eat it. And they might look at you and say, "Wow, you produce some amazing fruit." And you can actually say, "That's not my fruit. That's the fruit of the Lord in me. He's been good to me." That comes from staying convicted. Does anybody else just want to connect to the vine? Oh, hallelujah. Oh, thank you Jesus. Oh, thank you Jesus. Oh, come on. This is how the Lord heals. This is how the Lord heals relationships. This is how the Lord heals brokenness. This is how the Lord helps you to recover quickly and cleanly from a mistake. Come on. All have separated themselves from God and gone astray. We all like sheep have separated ourselves. Come on. Hallelujah. Make a decision to head that way toward him right now. Come on, Mary. If you're anxious, uh, come on, Martha, if you're anxious, head toward him right now. Come on, Nicodemus. Uh, you're believing one way, but it's not working. And there's no power in your life but a whole lot of word. Go ahead and connect to Jesus right now. Come on, Zacchaeus. Come on. You see yourself as small. You see yourself as, as unimportant. I, I promise you the Lord is wanting to go to your house today. Come on. Hallelujah. Come on. That's it. You may have committed adultery. You may have been caught in the very act of separation from God. And you've been brought before him. But I promise you right now, you're going to meet a God who is going to push away your confusers and bring restoration to your life. Come on. This is the way of the kingdom of God. Near to us. You draw near to us. Lord, I feel like you've forsaken me. Come on, go ahead and connect. Tell the truth to the Lord. Let him exchange your fear for peace. Come on, let him exchange your mourning for gladness. Come on. Do you say, "Lord, I'm exhausted. I'm afraid." Come on. Just bring it to him. When you do that, that's where the transformation happens. When you present yourself to a greater force, uh, then the hand of the Lord can come upon you and begin to change you.