Deliverance From Cycles | Bishop S. Y. Younger

I want you to open your Bibles to Galatians. Galatians chapter 6 is where I'll be coming from today. Galatians chapter 6, verse one. I was between which version to use today. I think I'm going to read this in King James version because it's just how I know it. Galatians chapter 6, verse number one. Thank you. The deacons are already standing with me. If the rest of you just stand with us. And, um, um, I'm sorry, that's not the scripture. What, what scripture I give you? Galatians chapter 5. Thank you. Galatians chapter 5. I'm still up in that cloud. I like Galatians chapter 6 too. Galatians chapter 5. When you have it, verse one, say, "I have the bread. I have thead. Stand therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debor to the to do the whole law. Verse four, Christ has become of no effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace. Verse five, for we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ, need neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. You were doing good, you did run well, but who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaventh the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that you will be none otherwise minded. But he that trouble you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. Verse 11, and I, Brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer circumcision? Then is the offense of the Cross ceased? Verse 12, I would they were even cut off which trouble you. Verse 13, for Brethren, ye have been called unto what liberty? Only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love do what? Serve one another." And all of God's people said, "Amen." You can be seated.

I usually would have stopped at verse one. Um, I did want to read the rest of those verses and, and hopefully before the end of the message, I will unpack some of those, uh, verses for the context surrounding the message today. As we're preparing for this, uh, time of consecration, I would like to share the message with you entitled today, Deliverance from Cycles. Deliverance from Cycles. Without going into a deep definition or examples of cycles, I think we know what a cycle is. It's when we find ourselves going around the same circle, doing the same thing, and often times it is characterized by something toxic or dysfunctional. The Bible and the narrative of the Israelites show us that you can be chosen by God and at the same time be entrapped in cycles. No, he gave us, uh, the historical narrative of the Hebrews, not that we would look on them in judgment, but that we would look at them in the scriptures and see ourselves. The whole book of Judges is all about cycles. I mean, the scripture says Israel is chosen of the Lord, but it came a season of their lives where they didn't have any leadership. Had no leadership in their lives. They started doing what was right in their own eyes, and the Bible says that they started worshiping other idols. They started being polluted by the people around them, and they start worshiping those gods. And then what would happen? They would get overtaken by the enemy. And then when they would get overtaken by the enemy, they would cry to God. And when they cried out to God, what would our faithful God do? He would deliver them. But then after God delivered them, and they were out for a little while, they started worshiping other gods. And when they worshiped other gods, then the Lord would allow their enemy to overtake them. And then when an enemy would overtake them, and it started getting really bad, they would cry out to God. And when they would cry out to God, what would our faithful God do? He would deliver them again. But then once they were out a little while, and things begin to go back to normal, they started worshiping other gods. Somebody shout, "Cycles!"

There are different points to cycles. Number one, cycles start when you find yourself moving toward freedom, moving toward the promise, moving toward your calling and your purpose. When you start moving toward the promised land, like the Israelites, and then all of a sudden a test comes. I want you to look at the person beside you and tell them, "You should expect a test." I've been, uh, renovating, uh, an a really old house, and as soon as I started, I, I looked at it, I said, "Okay, I should expect a test, right?" Because nothing is ever what it seems like on the surface. Once you start digging into it, once you knock down one wall, something that's supposed to be something simple has layers to it. You should expect a test. You know, pack lunch. The Israelites are going toward the promise, the promised land, and while they're going toward the promised land, the Bible said they're faced with the test. The test of the enemy behind them, the test of the Red Sea in front of them, the test of being hungry, test of hunger and fear. Here. And when you're faced with a test, you will be soon faced with the temptation to return back to the place you came from. After the test comes temptation to return back to what you know, to return back to what's familiar. Now, I know what some of you going to say is, "Bishop, the Israelites never went back to Egypt." But I beg the differ. They may not have gone back with their legs, but they kept going back with their minds. A sign that you've gone back is when your language changes to the past. When you find yourself comparing your present to the past, and you start looking at the past as better. And they found themselves consistently in the wilderness for 40 years. Something that should have been a few days' journey, they found themselves trapped in a, somebody say, "Cycle."

How do we get in these cycles? We get in these cycles because we find ourselves following a familiar scent. I spoke earlier about, um, triggers. Did you know you can be triggered by a person's presence? You can be triggered by a song. You can be triggered by a word, and you can be triggered by a scent, a certain fragrance, a certain perfume, a certain cologne. He could be a, a, a good memory or a very traumatic memory. I told Morgan to put this, uh, image on the screen. The Book of Proverbs says to us to to look at nature, to look at ants. And that's, you know, the Bible say look at them. When I was young, I played with ants. I did. Poured water on them. I just try. Come on, y'all. Why, why y'all looking at me like I'm real cruel? I mean, I was a kid. I was trying to see where they were going because like they were always on the way somewhere. You know, in my mind, they were going to an ant convention. But said, "Look at ants." I don't know if you've ever seen this before, this spiral movement with ants where they start going around in circles. Some call it a death march, an ant meal, an ant spiral. How does this happen? Where these ants keep going around in circles? It's because first of all, they follow each other. And when one comes across a familiar scent, it smells like the scent they were following. So instead of going straight, they start making a turn. And when they make a turn, the other ants behind them make a turn. And then they smell the ant smell that was in front of them. And then they find themselves going around in circles. It's a phenomenon. Cuz you know how long they go around in circles? Until they die. Wow. Following a familiar scent, not the right scent, a familiar scent, not, not the right fragrance. But that's why the Bible tells us, even evil spirits in the scripture, deceiving spirits, witches, and warlocks were called those who had familiar spirits. Sounds like God, looks like God, but as you cut it out, it's not God. It's when they're following the scent of the past. Oh, my goodness. So how do some of us find ourselves in cycles? Following from me, sin.

So, just want to tell you, Jesus called it in Matthew chapter 15, verse 14, "The blind leading the blind, and they both end up in the what?" Ditch. In the ditch. Well, our English Bibles translated ditch, but I want to lift to you that it's not in our aspect of ditch because even if a blind person falls in a ditch, they can get out. You know, the Bible says, you know, you know, if if your ox get caught in a ditch on a Sabbath, when you get the ox out the ditch. Well, the English translation it translates it ditch, but it's really the word pit. Because an animal that's four legs can get out of a ditch, but an animal with four legs can get out of a pit. And not only, and I want to tell you what this pit is. This pit is a cistern. In the, in the, in the ancient days, that's how they collected water. They collected rainwater. So when it rained, they would have on their property, they would have pits or cisterns to collect the rainwater. The only challenge is, sometimes people didn't have a cover over their cistern. And so if you're blind and you're going for a walk, and there's no, there's no lid over a person's cistern, then you can find yourself trapped in a cistern. And it could become deathly if the cistern has water in it. And that's why Jesus says, "Be careful about following people who have no vision, people who have no sight. They can't take you somewhere they've never been." In other words, stop getting advice from people who are not getting victory in their own lives. Stop getting marriage advice from people who don't like being married and don't want to be married. Stop taking financial advice from people who are not doing well with their finances. Stop letting people who don't go to church, they don't attend church, they don't like church, give you advice about ministry. You look at somebody, shout, "Deliverance from Cycles!"

How, how do we get in these cycles? When we start exalting our preferences about Jesus and our personal experiences about Jesus, and we start making it God's barometer. What are you saying, Bishop? I am so thankful for your experience with God, but don't make your personal experience God's barometer for everybody. Yeah, I'm about to dig into something. It's going to be a little tense for some of you because, because some of you, if people don't have it like you got it, you consider that they don't have it. But Jesus says, "I have sheep of another fold. I have people you ain't never met yet that got a relationship with me." They may not shout like you shout. They may not sing like you sing. But don't think you got a monopoly on the Holy Ghost. Don't exalt your experience above God. Because when you use your experience, you start making an idol out of it. And your experience becomes a limitation to God, even in your life. See, to the point, many of us, we are, shout, "God is going to do a new thing. God is going to do a new thing. God is going to do a do, do a new thing." But the, the rest of that scripture says, "But shall you not know it?" In other words, I'm going to do a new thing, but when it comes, will you know it? Why? Because it'll be possible to be saying you're looking for a new thing, but expecting it to look like the old thing. Look at somebody, tell them, "You got to be open." Got to be open. To the point, the Bible tells us that the law was the shadow of what things to come. The law was a what? Shadow of what? The law was a what? Shadow. The shadow is not the reality. The shadow is not something for you to hold on to. The shadow means something is coming. The law was the shadow, and Jesus was the fulfillment. But there were people who were so, so obsessed with the shadow that when the one that was cast in the shadow came in the room, they dismissed him. I want to lift to you that you could be dismissing the very thing you've been praying for. You could be turning away the very thing you've been asking God for.

Don't exalt your ideals above the power of who Jesus is. I'm going to tell you how you can get trapped in a cycle. It's when you have the wrong idea about salvation. When you have the wrong idea. I know I read that scripture. I read a lot of scriptures today. And maybe during consecration, you take the time and go through it. Paul was talking about circumcision. And you know, it seemed like a whole bunch of random reading, but there was a lot of powerful statements in which Apostle Paul was making during that time. What keeps us in a cycle is when we have the wrong idea about salvation. When you consider salvation is something you did, it's not instead of something that He did. I want to say this, because consecration for us, that's not supposed to always be starting over. It's supposed to be starting again, advancing. If I'm going down the road and I start to give out of gas, amen. I pull over at the gas station. I'm not starting my journey over. Once I get the fuel, I'm starting again. If I give out of gas and I'm on my way to DC, I'm not going to have the tow truck to come grab me and bring me all the way back to Lynchburg. I need fuel from where I am so I can keep going to where He assigned me to. And this is why I was even sharing, and I want to say this to you all, and I want to speak this to you. And I was sharing with some of the preachers that are coming. Sunday, we're going to repent over into Monday. We're going to lay on our face, and we're going to ask the Lord, "Bring to the surface anything in our hearts that's not like You. Take out the root system. Forgive us from all of our iniquities, known and unknowing." But I've said to the preachers, and I say it to you, by the time we get to Tuesday, by the time we get to Wednesday and Thursday, do not be calling me to repentance because I repented the first day. Once I have repented, I don't need to keep digging up dead works. I don't need to keep being reminded of what God forgave me of. I don't need to be, because some of us are more sin-conscious instead of being God-conscious. We're more self-conscious than God-conscious. You got the wrong idea about salvation. Now, I'm not saying don't nobody need to repent on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yes, the Lord brings something up in your spirit. Get it right with God. But as a church corporately, as a matter of fact, I didn't already start. No, no, no. Now listen. Now, I know there's, there's some people in the new theology now, advanced theology, that they feel like believers don't need to repent. Now, if that's you, now, if that's you, and I don't come to debate you, it says repentance is old covenant. Well, my only challenge is, is that when you look in the Book of Revelation, when he was talking to the churches of Asia Minor, he says, "Repent quickly, lest I come and remove the candlestick." Now, repentance is not just saying, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Repentance is rethinking. And some of us need to repent with our theology concerning salvation. Because anytime I ask you about how you got saved, it starts with "I." How did you get? "I, what I did this, and then I did this, and I did this." Hear me. If you start with "I," you probably going in the wrong direction. I'm going to say this, and I'm going to say it boldly: You can't live right enough to get saved. I said, "You can't live right enough to get saved." There were 613 ordinances, laws, and commandments. And if you could have kept them, then you could have been righteous. But because men could not keep them, because man did not have the ability to not mix the garments and not eat the wrong thing and not say the wrong thing and not do the, because man was born in sin and shaping iniquity, because of the first Adam, the second Adam had to come. Hey, and He that was perfect came, and He perfected us, and we are righteous in Him. Yes, sir. So how did you get saved? Jesus. Tell your neighbor, "It always starts with Jesus." Tell your neighbor, "It starts with Jesus, and it ends with Jesus." Anything I did in my, in the plan of salvation, was a response to what Jesus did. It is an expression of my faith. The Bible says we grow in grace, but you can't grow in what you're not in. You still trying to keep the rules to be close to Jesus. But my standard is because of my proximity to Jesus, I live right. Because of my relationship with Jesus, I pursue holiness. Because I love Jesus. Hallelujah. I'm trying to treat people right because of my relationship with Jesus. If I didn't have a relationship with Jesus, I wouldn't have a desire to do it. If I didn't have a relationship with Jesus, I wouldn't pursue to do it. I need to say this. Somebody said, "Well, Bishop, what when you, you talking about cycles, what this got to do with cycles?" When you have the wrong idea about salvation, and it's you, you find yourself in a consistent cycle of never feeling good enough, always feeling condemned, never walking out your purpose, never praying for things beyond, "Lord, I'm sorry." I'm going to quote a scripture here that sometime you quote, but I don't believe some of us believe it. What the word, "Therefore, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." The Holy Ghost will convict you, but it is not the job of the Holy Ghost to condemn you. He came into the world not to condemn the world. We were already condemned. The wages of sin, I'm, I'm preach the gospel this Sunday morning. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God. Who in here has not sinned? Who in here, please tell me, who has not sinned? I need the person right now who has not sinned since you've been saved, please raise your hand. That means all of us are worthy of death. But the reason why we have eternal life is because Jesus. It starts with Jesus. It ends with Jesus. Jesus. And if you don't have the right mindset, it's just a cycle.

So when we quote the scripture, verse one of Galatians chapter 5, it said, "What it say?" What it say? Come on, say, "What that mean?" That mean you have to fight to stay here. Y'all, y'all looking at this, you got to fight in your mind because everything in the culture tells us it's a merit system. Everything our church culture tells us a merit system. Our work culture tells us a, it's a merit system. Marriages tell us it's a merit system. I'll do for you if you do for me. I'll do for you if you do for me. I'll do for you if you do for me. You work for me, and I'll pay you. You be nice to me, and I'll give you some sex. Come on. Everything is, "You do, I'll do." But when we had nothing to offer Jesus, oh, my, oh, my God. Tell your neighbor, "I had nothing to offer Jesus. I had nothing." Oh, you think God saved you because of your singing voice? You think God saved you because of how pretty you are? No. I was a wretch undone before I had sense enough to choose Him. He chose me. Hallelujah. The Bible says it wasn't when I decided to come after Him. When we were yet sinners, Christ. He said, "Stand in the freedom wherewith what?" Christ has made us free. And be not entangled again with the what? As soon as we said that, oh, yeah, yeah. Don't be entangled again with pornography. Yes. Don't be entangled with pornography. Don't be entangled again with adultery. Don't be entangled again with intoxication. But right here, that's not what He's talking about. He is not talking about adultery. The yoke of bondage. Now, y'all going to have to go behind me now. You going to have to go behind me. You either got to agree with me or prove me wrong. He was not talking about all of the sins that you want to label. He said, "Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." How is it that we are saved, and some of us, because of our mindset, we're so bound? We're supposed to be the happiest people. We're supposed to have the most joy. We're supposed to be the most smiling people, you know, because of what Jesus did. But it's hard for you to celebrate what Jesus did when you still trying to do it. It doesn't work for you until you let Him be God. Him be God.

What is the yoke of bondage? To every community in Judaism, they have a rabbi, right? And the rabbi has an interpretation of the law. Remember the Sabbath and do what? Keep it holy. So what does that mean though? What? Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy? No, no. What does that mean? Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy? Well, somebody got to interpret what keeping it holy looks like. Yeah, yeah. No, for real. I mean, somebody. Well, just do what the Bible said. Okay. But somebody got to interpret that because what you consider keeping the Sabbath holy and what I consider keeping the Sabbath holy can be two different things. Yes, sir. Because you could say, "Well, on the Sabbath, because I got to keep it holy, I'm not going to cook because that's working." Then somebody else says, "Well, no, that's not working. I enjoy cooking, and so Sabbath is a time for family, so I should cook, and we can cook together." Somebody says, "Keeping the Sabbath means don't drive." Did somebody said that's crazy? No, keeping the Sabbath, we can drive. You hear that? It depends on your, your interpretation. So who interprets it? It's the rabbi. Yeah. And when the rabbi interprets it, it's called the rabbi's yoke. It's called the rabbi's what? Yoke. A yoke is something you put on an animal so you can control it and turn it so you can plow the field. Hear me. So the Bible said that. So when, when depends on how strict the rabbi is, we determine how heavy the yoke is. And some of us, we grew up under some heavy yolks. Yes, sir. Some of y'all who think I'm strict, you, I, I should take you some places. I wish I could take you to my childhood, just for 24 hours. For everybody who says, "I want to go back to the old time way." That's right. Yes. I want to go back and visit. Hear me. If, if the rabbi said, "Oh, no, you can cook on the Sabbath," then that's a light yoke. But the rabbi said, "No, no cooking, no heating up, no nothing." That's a heavy yoke. Jesus said, "Take my yoke and learn of me, for my yoke is easy." Easy. And my burden. It's like, "Come unto me all you that are working to be saved. All of you who are working to be right with God. All of you who are working to try to be good enough for God and good enough for the church people. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you, I will give you rest." Because this is how we supposed to be functioning. I'm finished. I know this Sunday morning, I went a little too much in this. I know this. How we supposed to be. Jesus created first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, and then on the sixth day, who did He create? He created man. Who did He create on the sixth day? Man. Who did He create on the sixth day? Man. And then, then the next day is Sabbath. Yeah. That mean on the next day, He gave men all of this assignment, dominion over the earth, name all the animals. And Adam says, "Okay, I'm ready to do it." And then he said, "Let me go." Then God says, "No, the first day after you've been created and given the assignment is Sabbath." That mean your first day is rest. In other words, God was saying, "I don't want you to work to try to earn rest. I want you to start in rest." That mean everything you do is because you rested in Jesus. You're living holy because you rested in your holiness is rooted in Him and not because of something you earned. Yes, sir. Cycles, cycles. And, and to the point, we never get a chance to pray about what's on God's heart. We never get to talk to God about what's on His heart because we can never get past our guilt.

Now, Paul goes on and says, he says, "Now, if you holding all this stuff up as your trophy of why you so righteous with God, he says, 'Well, you making the gospel of none-effect.'" If you say, "Hey, I've been circumcised. I've been circumcised." Paul's like, "Okay, then. So you bragging about that? That mean you didn't need salvation. You didn't need Jesus to come because you did this and you did that, and I don't do this, and I don't smoke it." I don't. Everybody who holds that up as a trophy, there'll be a season in your life where something will come up. Yes, sir. You better learn to have grace with people because the worst thing that happened is when you've been judgmental about everybody else, and when you end up falling, and you will, then you're in so much condemnation that you can't recover because you think everybody is looking at you like you looked at them. You may not come back to church, but I'm going to preach this gospel before I get out of here. Said, "Be not entangled. Don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Now, he said, "Now, listen, listen." As he goes on, he says, "I'm not talking about a liberty and a freedom to sin." He says, "So for all of you who think that I'm saying you are free, so don't have no conviction, do what you want to do, you missed the message." The message is, it starts with Jesus. Because if it's, if it's you, you're going to be in a cycle of never getting there, never growing in God. I need you to look at your neighbor and tell your neighbor, "God is changing your prayer language. God is changing your prayer request." Come on, tell them, "God is, you are now about to tap into God's heart. You're about to tap it." Yes, you. Your sins are forgiven. You have been washed in the blood. If you make a mistake, if you sin, you have an advocate with the Father. Now, let's go on. He said, "Not keep laying again the foundation of repentance, not keep laying again baptism." At some point, I want to see what else God has in the kingdom. So we find ourselves, we find ourselves in, somebody shout, "Cycles!"

And then for us that do have these toxic, these other toxic cycles in our lives, I want you to look at your neighbor. Tell your neighbor, "You have to learn a different way. You got to learn how to respond to your, your temptation, different." How do you break it? You first got to acknowledge that it's a cycle. I'm passing my time, but will y'all give me seven minutes? I just need, will y'all do that? Will y', can y'all stand with me for seven minutes? I need to see you nod your head. Some, all right. So if you get up and walk out, I'm going to call your name. All right. If you need to leave, I understand. You got to first acknowledge it's a cycle. You got to admit that it's a cycle. It's not a thing. Yeah, it's not a thing because we got a thing, you know, it's just this thing that I do. No, you got to start counting up how much money the thing has cost you. You don't have time for, "Bishop, I would come to Bible study, but, you know, we work, and I have to be at work in the morning. I would pray, but, you know, I would serve, but we just got so much going on." Calculate how much time the thing is costing you. You've got to admit that it's a cycle. It's not a thing. Tell your neighbor, "It's not a thing. It's a cycle." And then, number two, you have to acknowledge your inability to break it on your own. No, you got to admit it. You got to admit it because if I could have broke it on my own, I would have broke it by now. Look at your neighbor, tell your neighbor, "Let someone in." And if you're not saved, the person you need to let in is Jesus. I, I've, I've witnessed and evangelized different people and invited them to a, a relationship with the Lord, or invited them to come to church, but they got the wrong idea about salvation. You know what they say to me? They say, "Well, well, you know, I'm going to come to church when I get myself straightened out. I'm going to come to church, you know, I don't want to be a hypocrite." So I'm going to come to church when, you know, when I get myself fixed up. And I look at them and tell them, "You don't have the power to straighten yourself out. You don't have the power to fix yourself." The old church used to say, "I came to Jesus just as I was, I was weary, worn, and sad, but I found in Him a resting place, and He has made me glad." You got to let someone in. And then, number three, you got to speak truth and rehearse the truth. You got to break the cycle with the seed of truth. I don't care, a woman has a cycle every month, but all it takes is one seed to break that cycle. You got to take this message and keep speaking the truth. You got to speak that, "I'm saved by faith through grace, not by works, lest any man should boast." You got to start declaring when you start looking at the mirror and looking at yourself, say, "You so stupid, why did you do that again? You so stupid." You, you got to start looking at yourself. It says, "You are the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus. I am the head and not the tail. I am the beloved of God." You got to start rehearsing the truth because some of you have been using your own voice for self-sabotaging. You've been cursing your identity. The prodigal son said to himself, "I'm going back to the house, but I'm not worthy enough to be a son. I'm not good enough to be a son. I'll just be a servant." He was telling himself that he wasn't good enough. But when the father saw him afar off, he hadn't gotten to the house, he hadn't come through the porch, the father saw him afar off, and he says, "I see not a servant, I see my son coming back home." See, the church calls him a prodigal son, but the Bible never called him prodigal. He says, "That's my son." My prayer for you this morning is that you will start believing what the father said. You got a story you've been telling yourself. You got a story that people have been speaking over you. But I believe the words of the Lord. Scream at somebody, tell them, "Rehearse the father's voice. Rehearse the remind yourself of what the father said. Speak the truth and rehearse it."

And then, number four, you got to find a holy replacement. You got to find a holy replacement. If you remove yourself from one cycle, you got to trap yourself into something else. You got to set a goal. You can't keep space there. You can't give space to the enemy. You remove yourself from one group of toxic friends, you need to find some people who are going in the direction that you're going. It may be awkward at first. It may be uncomfortable. But you need to get with some of the brothers, says, "Hey, my name is Jay, and I, I don't know all the church stuff, and I don't shout, but I need some brothers. I need somebody to talk to me. I need somebody I can be honest with." You need to find yourself pressing into some more circles. Press into it like you were pressing to get in touch with the weed man. Press into it like you are pressing to get in somebody else's DMs. Press into it. I'm talking about when you want to be delivered from the cycle. I need you to get the three people. Tell them, "Find a holy replacement. Find a holy, a holy." You need to set a practical goal. You got to set a goal, something tangible. You have to set up a metrics for yourself. You says, "I'm doing something different." So I'm going to start meeting with God. I get up usually at 6:30 to go to work. So now I'm going to start getting up at 6:20. I'm going to start giving God 10 minutes before I go to work. Hallelujah. If I got to sit in the car just for the silence for a few moments before I go in the house, I got to set a goal. I got to meet with God. The Bible says Adam met with God in the cool of the day. The Bible says Abraham entertained God and made a meal for God. I need you to grab your neighbor by the hand and said, "Neighbor, stay here if you want to, but tell them, 'I made a decision. I got to break this cycle. I got to break the cycle. There's more for me. God got somewhere He want me to be.'" And I'll be honest here, I'm behind schedule, but the Lord says, "When you come to me, He says, 'I'll restore back unto you the years that the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmerworm ate up.'" I need you to grab your neighbor by the hand and say, "Neighbor, I'm determined this year to break this cycle. I need to be delivered. I need to be delivered." And I realize deliverance is the portion of the people of God. He already brought me out. Come on, tell somebody, "He already brought me out. He already pulled me out. I've already come out. I came out of captivity." But now I need to be delivered. I said, "I came out of captivity." Some of us are in captivity, but some of us need to be delivered. Some of us are in captivity, but some of us need to be delivered. See, you can come out of captivity and still not be delivered. The way they were talking, told us that not in captivity, but they're not delivered. I'm going to finish with this. Amazon, the other day, I placed an order, and I have Amazon Prime. As soon as I placed the order, I got a notification that your package is being delivered. But the deliverance is not complete until my package gets to my house. I need you to grab your neighbor and say, "Neighbor, God is about to complete a thing. He put my picture on the screen. He's delivering me from the cycle. He's delivering me from the loop."

And I'll close with this. Paul said to the Church of Philippi, he says, "Forgetting those things which are behind me." Lay hands on your neighbor and say, "I pray that you forget the scent. You forget the scent of the last season. That you forget the scent of past relationships. That you forget the scent of toxic connections. That you forget the scent of abusive behavior. That you forget the scent of demonic habits. That you'll forget the scent." Oh, shot. Oh. He's reprogramming me. I've tried to change on my own, but He's reprogramming me. Everyone standing, I'm going to dismiss. Oh, hey. Prayer. You know, some of y'all want to throw your whole self out. You just need to be reprogrammed. Hallelujah. You downloaded something in past, in past time to start getting in your system. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't throw yourself out. God said, "I'm going to reprogram you. I'm a, hey, I'm going to reprogram you. I'm a, hey, going to start thinking different." And now I know some of y'all. Now, I believe in, I believe in drastic deliverance. Oh, my goodness. I believe it. Oh, my goodness. I believe it. When I was young, there was a man that came in church in a prayer meeting, and he was drunk. He was drunk. The saints got a hold of him, prayed for him, he got baptized, started speaking in tongues. And people like, "Oh, that ain't real. He was drunk." That man walked out his salvation the rest of his life. Oh, no, no. Walter Virgil in our church had smoked weed every day since he was 14 years old. Came in prayer meeting one night and got filled with the Holy Ghost and never smoked again. I believe in drastic deliverance. I believe dark can pick you up out of one place and drop you in another. And then there's some other things. Well, that stuff got to be worked out of you. And just because it ain't perfect doesn't mean it did not work. See, this is the hard thing with working out. Because as soon as you work out one time, you get in the mirror and be like, "Yeah." And it's come discouraging because you didn't did all that sweating, you didn't did all that jumping, and you like, "I mean, I expect." You got to start doing like I used to hear, hear some of the women in my, in my house used to say, you know, "I ain't lost a whole lot of weight, but I done lost some inches." My mama used to pull, my mama sometime used to pull on elastic and say, "Look." Now, I know y'all think that's crazy, but some of us need some short-term goals so you'll be reminded that you're not in the same place. Some of you need some short-term goals so you can start looking back and say, "Oh my goodness, look how far I've come." And I know for some of you, it don't sound spiritual. I'm Pentecostal, Apostolic, Holiness, and I don't apologize for it. But I'm going to tell you, if you a cigarette smoker in this church, God can deliver you from smoking. Smoking. I mean, do I got a witness in here that He can deliver? Do I got any folk that used to smoke and God delivered you? God, God can deliver you. But let me tell you something. Joyce Meyer said one time when she was in her journey, and she had got into church, but she didn't realize all the things you're supposed to do. And she said she went to the morning service, and she found out, "Oh, there's another service after this." She said, "Oh, my goodness." She said, "Well, I need to smoke a cigarette." You know, she was new in the faith. And they told her, "Wait, we don't smoke." She said, "Oh." So she said she went to the car and leaned her chair all the way back because she said, "Because I wanted God, I wanted church, but she said, 'But I needed a cigarette so I could go back to the second service.'" She said she knew somebody thought that car was on fire because the smoke was coming up. I don't, I don't know where you are in your journey, but don't let people make you feel condemned. Now, I'm not telling you to be wrong and strong. Now, don't be sinning and bold. But you better start celebrating. If you were somebody who used to smoke a whole pack of cigarettes a day, if you're down to two cigarettes, celebrate it. Because it's He that has put in you the will and to do what pleases Him. Now, I know, see, some of y'all, that don't mean nothing. But they tell you, you've had a habit that you feel like you could not break. I celebrate every victory. Come on, play some soft. Play some soft. Everyone saying, "I didn't, I didn't close out 10 times." Now, God is delivering me. I'm almost there. I'm acknowledging a cycle so I can be free from it. I prayed to something was said in the process. If you here today, and maybe you had the wrong idea about salvation, maybe you thought you had to be good enough for God. And when God wants you to know, no, He's made the way. He's made the way for you to come into relationship with Him. And so all you need to do now is respond to it. It's a gift. It's called the gift, gift of salvation. And you know what you do with a gift? Receive it. But you'll be surprised how many of us are like, "Oh, I'm not good enough for that." Oh, if, uh, if you are a parent, and you know your child wanted a special game for Christmas, and you stood outside of Walmart all night to get it, I mean, stood in line, and then on Christmas morning, you give it to them, and they're like, "Oh, thank you, Mama, but I don't deserve. I'm not going to play with it." You like, "Oh, no, yes you are. You can give it to somebody else." No, you going to take this game. And that's really how Jesus is about us. He's pursuing us to save us. You tell me God going to send people to hell? Nope. I don't believe it. Not the God I serve. The God I serve ain't sending nobody to hell. The God I serve, anybody that's going to hell is because they got to step over His dead body. And when you walk away, when you've been given the opportunity to receive the gift, you're telling them, "I know what you did. I heard what you did, but no, thank you." I pray today that when we dismiss service and people start walking out and going to lunch, I pray that when we dismiss this service, if maybe you had the wrong idea about salvation, and you said today, "I want to be saved because I don't have the ability to save myself, and I like to pride myself in what I can do for me and not depend on nobody else, but I don't have the power to save me." When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all He's done for me, my soul cries out, "Hallelujah!" I thank God for saving me. Out of all the things that I've experienced in life, nothing compares to accepting Jesus as my Lord and my Savior. If you are not saved and you have not experienced the saving power of Jesus Christ, right where you are, ask Him. Ask Him to save you, and He'll meet you at the point of your need. If you need to connect with someone or someone to pray with you, send your prayer request or call the number on the screen, and we will be there to share Jesus Christ and the message of hope with you. I want to thank all of you who have been supporting our ministry down through the years. It's because of you that we've expanded this YouTube channel. We've expanded all on the outlets that you're hearing of this message. So what I want you to do is make sure you share. Make sure you subscribe. And send this message to someone who needs to hear it. And for all of you who desire to support our ministry, there are ways to give on the screen. And remember, when you sow into our ministry, you're not just helping us do ministry domestically, but you're partnering with what we're doing all over the world. The seed may leave your hand, but it will never leave your life. This is Bishop S.Y. Yanger saying, "Go with God, because He's already going with you." God bless.