Thank you, sir. This is, like it's
Friday night. Right? I have to keep reminding myself this is not
Sunday morning. This is Friday night. I am so nervous
right now. Like
like, if you know me, you're like, Justin doesn't get nervous. And I'm like,
I am so nervous. And it's Tammy Sweeney's fault. I promise
you. Because Tammy Sweeney, the first time I was gonna
ever speak on this stage, it was not even anything like I say it wasn't
anything. I mean, it wasn't a message. It was like, I'm gonna, like, invite
somebody for a cookout or do a tithe message or something. And
I was like, I'm so nervous. And she said, I pray you never lose that.
And I swear, look. And it has been like a decade
and I'll be in the back going, oh, God. Like, oh, God. What is happening
right now? And I'm so I'm like the most extroverted
extrovert, and I'm back there in a panic every time. I don't know how
to explain it other than, like, I care
about the word of God, and I care about
you guys, and I care about standing
before the Lord and having to give an account for words
that I spoke on his behalf. That's a kind of
a big deal to me. Right? So it's no wonder why I'm back there
like, please don't let me die. Please don't let me die. Please don't let me
die. Be one of those moments like, yeah, well, you
know what not to listen to if he died tonight.
It'd be easy. You might you wouldn't have to do much weighing. You would be
like, nope. Got it. We're good. Moving on.
I'm just being honest. That's where I'm at right now. It's Friday night. Okay? And
we're here at church at this conference. This is amazing. You guys have
committed to this. You've given up your time. You've, you've
been set apart for this time, and I believe that God does have a word
for us tonight. And so I'm honored to share. Do we stand
and read? Is it is it it's Friday? Let's stand, and let's
read the word. I, got a lot of Bible
tonight. You know, I feel like it's better than what I bring. So we're just
gonna start with two verses now, and then you'll get to sit down as we
read the rest. So if you could oh, I have it. Here we go. It's
Friday, y'all. Therefore, since
we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight and
sin which clings so closely, and let us
run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of
our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne
of God. Oh, Jesus,
help me tonight, and help us
to hear clearly from you. We've come and gathered
in this place to hear your word, and I pray that it would
transform us radically more into the image of your son.
Father, we love you. May your anointing rest on me tonight. In Christ's
name, amen and amen. You can be seated, guys.
Have you ever said to yourself something along the lines of,
man, I'm just not where I wanna be in my walk?
Have you ever done some self evaluation and been like, man, I'm
making progress, but I feel like there's more, or I
feel like I'm in a season where I'm just spinning my
wheels, like I'm not making much progress. Right? And
if you're anything like me, once you have that
question released into the atmosphere, then
you begin to self destruct and self reflect
on all of the ways that you're probably not meeting up or making
the mark. And I do wanna start by giving, an encouragement or
hope to you guys that it is okay to be in progress.
Okay? It is okay to be in progress.
In fact, sometimes it is not a what it's holding
you back, it is who is holding you back, and it's the archer himself. I
was reminded this week of a teaching that Barbie did by
arrows in the hands of the master archer.
And in order for the arrow to fly, it has to first be
drawn back. Are you hearing me? K?
It has to be drawn back. And sometimes we feel like we're
being held back and like we're not making much progress. God, I'm
doing all the right things. I'm I'm praying all the prayers. I'm
fasting. I'm I'm making the checklist items. I'm
doing all the Christian things. I've confessed all known sin and I
still feel like I'm being held back. But just like pastor Barbie
said, remember the arrow is closest to the master's
ear when it is drawn back. And the further it's drawn
back, she reminded me this week, the farther that
arrow flies. Isn't that amazing? So sometimes
the setback is by design. We just walked through the
greatest story, ever told about the story of Joseph,
and every position in his life felt like a
setback. Did it not? He's like,
man, I'm doing great. God's given me dreams and visions.
I'm gonna tell all my bros. And they're like, we hate you. We're going to
kill you. Right? And he come out
flexing his coat. He was like, look at what dad got for me. And I
was like, we hate you. Right? And we're going to kill you. And then
the one brother felt bad. He was like, we can't kill him. Right? Let's
sell him. Like, that's it. He no. Help him.
Help him. Right? You know what I'm saying? He was like, we can profit off
of this, but and then I my conscience is cleared. So and then and then
he goes and he sold, and he's in Potiphar's house. Right? And
then and then it gets worse for him even there. Right?
And then he's in prison, and then he's like, hey, I'll interpret this dream. Remember
me when you get out. And the guy was like, if you've ever been to
jail, they don't remember you when you get out. Put
some money on my books. And like, I got you. I got you. And they
don't they're not. They're not. Y'all were friends in jail.
K? That's it. You were friends in jail. You got out. You might see him
at a gas station, but, hey, man. Thanks for putting $20 on my
account, bud. Right? No. Because y'all were friends in
jail. It got worse for him. Right? But then he finally gets
out, and then and then we find that even in the
reconciliation with his brothers, Joseph said, hey. What you meant for
evil, God meant for good. You see what I'm saying? And
so his season of being held back, the
things holding him back wasn't necessarily a what, it was a who. So
sometimes be encouraged to be in progress.
Okay? That doesn't give you permission to wallow,
and complain and cry about your
plight and your situation. Okay? Because
there are stories of people in here who had it way worse
and didn't complain about it, and they were in progress. And we're
gonna look at some of those tonight.
So the question of what's
holding me back, God? Or why is this happening in
my life? Or I I just wish I was further along. Those questions are
not inherently wrong. I don't feel like it's wrong for us to
ask those type of questions because we are trying to When
we ask that question from a genuine place, what we're really trying to say is,
God, I wanna keep growing. I wanna keep working. I wanna I feel
like I wanna be holy like you were holy, not
perfect. I don't wanna be perfect because then I find
my righteousness in myself within my own
body or within my own mind. But I wanna
strive to be like you, Jesus. It's a good question. I feel like it's the
wrong question. I feel like it's the wrong question or not necessarily the
wrong question. Maybe it's not the right way to ask it.
So here's what I wanna propose to you tonight. Do
you believe? Do you believe?
Do you believe? So chapter
12 begins with a powerful directive
and some very interesting phrases. Look at this twelve one.
It says this. Therefore, since
we, you and me,
are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
Let us also lay aside every
weight and sin, which
clings so closely. I really love the way the King James puts
it. He says, which so easily entangles us.
Whoo. What a phrase. The weight and sin that
easily entangles us. Let us lay it
aside and run with perseverance the race that is marked out for
us. Isn't it interesting that the Holy
Spirit chose to delineate weight
and sin? Have you ever looked at that? He said,
here's what I want you to do. I want you to lay aside the weight
and the sin. They're two different things. I'm not gonna
talk about sin tonight in your life because sin needs to
be dealt with. Got
real quiet on that one. Start talking about
sin instead of a shortcoming, a habit, a
struggle. We love that one. Struggling, bro.
I probably said it this week. I got
buddies in the back fact checking me on text message. Like, here you go. Screenshot
this. Screenshot that. Post it on your Facebook, not mine.
Don't tag me. I'm
struggling, bro. Both the
weight and the sin are to be laying aside. Why?
Because they hinder our walk. There
are things in our in our life that are holding us back and
weighing us down that are not sin, and yet they are just
as detrimental to our walk. The Holy Spirit
knew this and knows that, and that's why he said, you have to
lay them both aside because you can be walking
with the Lord with a load of unforgiveness on your back
and thinking you're making progress and wonder, what's
holding me back? God, I'm
not walking in sin, but you've got unforgiveness strapped to your
back like a weight. You've
got fear that rises up in your heart or insecurity,
complacency, or this deep anger that if anybody
micro crosses the line. Like, you're just wait, knock this pen
off my shoulder. You know what I'm saying? Like,
what? You know
what I'm saying? That's a wait. Nobody wants to live like that.
We're just always on edge ready to explode. And if you're
around that type of person, it's
misery because you're not free because you don't know
when the next time they're gonna lose it. Could it be
in the parking lot of church? Could it be at the grocery store?
Could it be at home when nobody's around to hear you blowing up
on them?
Contentment. Contentment can be a wait.
Failure can be a wait. And we're told
to lay these aside. The Lord
says, lay them aside, and
he gives us the reason. The answer is
therefore. When I read this passage, I'm like, you can't start a
whole chapter with therefore. Because I'm
like, what for? Right? Imagine
look. Somebody just sends you by verse twelve one. This is
the start. And you're like, what does that mean? Therefore.
Right? Like, what are we talking about? How do I know? Whenever you
run into that English word therefore, that means you need to go back to what
there was before that. You hearing me? It in
order to understand what because this is the conclusion.
He's saying there are things that you need to understand so that when you
get here, you can recognize the weight and how to lay it
aside. Go back eleven
thirty nine through 40. Do I have it? Boom.
And all these, another mysterious sentence. Like,
I'm reading the Bible the wrong direction. I started in twelve and I'm
like, I don't know where I'm at now. Like, I keep
going back. And all these,
who? Though commended through their faith, did not
receive what was promised since God had
provided something better for us that apart from us they should not be
made perfect. All who was committed for
their faith? I was like, I gotta figure this out. So I flipped back until
I got a correct grammatical sentence And
I had to go all the way back to the beginning of chapter 11. I
went the wrong way. See, I don't even know which way I'm going anymore.
And this is what it says in eleven one. Now,
currently, faith is the assurance of things hoped
for, the evidence or conviction of things
not seen. Faith is the assurance
of what we are hoping for and is the tangible
substance, the evidence, the conviction, that deep I know that
I know that I know that I know that I know
of things that are unseen. You walked by faith the
whole night. When y'all went into there, how did you know that we
didn't poison the food?
How did we didn't, by the way, but how did
you know how did you know? How did you know?
By faith, you trust it. Right? You're like, this is it's a church
that I go to. Surely, there's not arsenic in the fajitas.
Right? That's laugh all you want, that's
faith. You sat down. You didn't think nothing about that chair
holding you up, did you? You just sat down.
Some of you sat down ten minutes early, but you sat down in
faith. Then we
read on. Says, by faith,
Abel offered to God a more acceptable
sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended
as righteous, God commending him by accepting his
gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still
speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not
see death, and he was not found because God had taken
him. Now before he was taken, he was commended
as having pleased God.
Then in seven and eight. Now by faith,
Noah, being warned by God concerning events
as yet unseen in reverent fear constructed
an art for the saving of his household? Build a boat. What's a
boat? Can
you can you trust God
when what he's asking you to do doesn't make sense?
Does it make sense when you can't logically put all the pieces
together and figure out how you're gonna do it?
By faith, Sarah herself received power to
conceive even when she was past the age since she
considered him faithful who had promised. You're gonna have a baby,
and you are way past baby having age.
I didn't mean for my eyes to fall on you.
I feel so bad now. I should probably close.
You're not way past baby making stage. Okay?
Jesus help me, God. She's pregnant. Yeah. I know. I just blew it up. I'm
sorry. It was on Facebook. It was on Facebook. If you put it on Facebook,
it's out there.
By faith. By faith. Abraham,
when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the
promises was in the act of offering up his only
son of whom it was said through Isaac shall your
offspring be named. He considered the
Jacob and Esau. Abraham was willing to go through with what God had asked him,
because Abraham was willing to go through with what God had asked
him because he said, even if I do kill him, God, you can bring him
back. What? What?
What kind of faith is that?
By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of
the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his
staff. By faith, Joseph at the end of his life made
mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions
concerning his bones. He said, when y'all leave this
place, take me with you and bury
me in the same cave you buried my fathers in.
And he believed that they would do it. By
faith, Moses listen to this. I'm
just reading the Bible. I'm not even preaching. Like, this is the Bible. I was
sharing I shared this with my wife, two days ago. I was like, babe,
listen to this. And she didn't know I was reading Bible verse.
And, she said, yeah. But how do they know that that's
what really he was thinking? I said, it's in the Bible.
And she was folding laundry. She was like, well, okay. Then then alright.
I swear. I swear. I was like, babe, look. I'm reading right out of the
Bible. And she was like, well, then keep reading.
Look at this. By faith, Moses, when he was
grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of
God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of
sin. Period. Have you made a
decision to be mistreated with the people of God or have
you made a decision to embrace the passing
fleeting pleasures of sin? This verse tells us sin is
pleasurable, but it's fleeting. It's not sustainable.
It doesn't give you life. He can
he considered the reproach of Christ greater
wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was
looking to the reward.
Come on, Moses.
By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for
he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the
Passover, sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer
of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith the
people cross the Red Sea is on dry land, but the Egyptians when
they attempted to do so were drowned. By faith, the
walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for
seven days. By faith, Rahab the prostitute
did not perish with those who were being disobedient because
she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. And
what more shall I say? For time would fail me to
tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of
David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith
conquered kingdoms, enforced justice,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of
lions, quenched the power of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness,
became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were
tortured, refusing to accept release so that they
might rise again to a better life.
Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and
imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. And
when I tell you they were sawn in two, not this way.
This way. They were killed with the
sword. They went about in skins of sheep and
goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of
whom the world was not worthy.
These are unnamed people who suffer for the kingdom,
and the writer of Hebrews says the world was not worthy of them.
Wandering about in deserts, mountains, in dens, and caves of the
earth, And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what
was promised. Since God had provided something better for us, that
apart from us, they should not be made perfect. Basically,
he's saying, they won't receive the full recompense for the reward
until we're all there together.
The what that we're supposed to do is lay aside the weight and the sin.
The why is because we're surrounded by such a great cloud of
witnesses. The how is by looking unto Jesus.
The way that you lay aside the weight and sin is by
looking unto Jesus, the author and
perfecter of our faith for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising its shame,
and he sat down at the right hand of the father. So I'm gonna ask
you again, what's holding you back? What's holding me back?
What's holding us back? And I'm gonna tell you guys, it's
the same thing that's holding every one of us back.
It's unbelief. We
just read story after story of people who live
lives of incredible faith. The
one thing that's holding us all back is unbelief.
Now it manifests itself in different ways. It's
not fear. It's unbelief. Fear says, I'm
afraid I'll fail or that you won't catch me.
You don't really believe that he is who he said he is.
You don't believe that he's gonna catch you if you fall, and you don't believe
that it's okay if you do fall. Some of them
didn't see the and time would
I wish I had the writer got so fired up telling
stories, and he was like, I wish I had time. He must have been on
a Sunday. Look. He was like, it's 07:44. I wish I had
time. I'm just gonna tell you about
the type of people they were. It's not anger.
It's unbelief. Anger says my way is better.
My way is better. It's not complacency. Complacency
says if I step out I might fail, so why not stay where I'm at?
You don't believe. It's unbelief.
It's not insecurity. Insecurity says, I believe what the world
says, not what you say, lord. It's not contentment. Contentment
says, I'm good with god. We have an understanding. I don't need to
grow.
Me and God are good. We gotta He knows that I like this tree stand
on Sundays.
So he did it now or whatever. Fill in the blank. That's not a shot
at my dad or any of the other guy. I
swear I've never Listen, I I promise dad, listen. He just bought a
brand new convertible. Dad, it's not about you. It's not
failure, it's unbelief. Failure says I've screwed up so many times, why should I
try again? And here's the thing, guys.
What if he doesn't come through in the way you expected him to? Is he
still good? What about them three Hebrew boys?
Right? Y'all like to call him Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
but I refuse to call them by their slave names. If Daniel
don't go by Belshazzar, then
then we are gonna I'm bringing back justice for Hananiah, Azariah,
and Mishael. K? Bring it back.
No. That It's either Belshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, or it's Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and
Mishael. You can't have both. I'm bucking. I'm
bucking. It's in there. K? And let let me just say a
disclaimer. I may have mixed up who is who, but those
so so Shadrach may not be Hannah. I gotta look at that. Just
disclaimer. Don't be like, man, that's not who they is. That's their names.
Go look it up. But look what they said. They said,
listen, they're gonna throw you in the fire. They're gonna throw you in this furnace.
And they said, throw us in it. We're still not gonna
bow because we believe we believe that god
can rescue us. And even if he does not, He's still
good. What about when He doesn't answer that prayer in the way you've been
expected? Can you see?
Unbelief is what's holding us back. We either don't believe He
can do it, or He will do it, or if He doesn't do it, then
He's still good. And some of us have gotten a hard
heart towards God because your mom died.
The baby died. The cancer didn't get healed. Now
we're hard against God. And then
we blame him because we feel like we're being held back and say, God, I'm
not holding you back. You're holding yourself back because you don't believe I am
who I said I am. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Abraham, son of promise. Isaac, son of promise. Jacob's a trickster.
He didn't say to God of Abraham, Isaac, Israel. He said, yeah, yeah, yeah. When
you were still pulling tricks, I was still that same God. When you were
still playing games around here, I was still good and I'm
still God. I
sat up here on Christmas and cried about a pardon. It wasn't gonna
happen. Right? Sat up here and cried, God, it's not
gonna happen, guys. I got thirty thirty minutes before the governor goes home
for the year. I did.
I was crying. I was like and y'all watched me come to to
Jesus in real time. Y'all literally could see it happen. He was like, he's
okay with it. I had to get to a place where I was okay with
it. Because I knew, because I talked to the governor personally, and he
said, I only do it in December. I'm like, it's the twenty first,
and Christmas is the twenty fifth. He is not sticking around.
But I had committed in my heart that even if it don't happen, He's still
good. If I gotta wait another year, another ten years if it don't happen. I've
been set free. I've been set free. I don't need I don't
need man's approval because I've been approved by God.
Do you believe? If you can really believe that, you're not holding you back.
Nothing's holding you back. We have a tendency to go, well,
is it this? Is it that? Is that? It's all some level of unbelief,
whether it's 2% or 20%, or
200%. There is some level of unbelief in your
heart that is holding you back in a situation or an area for
believing that God is who He says He is and He can do what He
said He's gonna do, and that even if He doesn't, He's still good.
What about when you when you're hiding in a cave or you're
sawn in two? Though he slay me.
Many of us have no problem believing for somebody else.
I ain't got no problem agreeing with Barbie,
but I don't believe that God will do it for me. You look at the
powerful testimonies, the exotic testimonies. I coined that phrase,
by the way, just just so y'all know.
Had to turn it around, make it by me at some point. Right?
Ain't that what we do anytime we get out? You
can be walking right there. It don't take but one slip step, and you're right
back in your flesh. Right?
Do I believe that He's enough? Do I believe the Word's enough? Do I believe
I can just get up here and read Scriptures to you, and that's enough to
feed you? I gotta add a whole bunch of things to entertain
you, and tickle your ears, and make you be like, Justin's so smart. That's such
a great word. I laugh so much. I feel so good. Or can I give
you the word of God? It'd be enough. Can it be enough
for you?
In Mark chapter nine, we read a
story about a little boy
with unclean spirit or a demon in him, and they're
explaining the situation to Jesus. They're explaining
what's happening to Jesus, and and this is
his response. He calls them a faithless generation.
It sounds like a rebuke, but it it is a
rebuke. A faithless
generation. They're like, Jesus, this this boy, he's been this way his whole
life. He said how long am I to be with you? How am I
long Bring him bring him to me. You don't
believe? Bring him to me because I believe because I know what my father can
do. And then Jesus asked the father
how long this condition has afflicted the boy. And if he believes
that Jesus can help and the guy I love, it's such a human response to
God's like, I guess, like, come back and read it. It's mark chapter nine. The
guy was like, Jesus, like, do you think I can do this?
Do you do you believe that I can do this? And the guy says,
I mean, I guess you can. Is
that is that our our interaction when we come to the Lord? When
God says, do you, do you believe I can do this, Kevin? Do you believe
that I can do this miracle in your life? Do you believe that I see
this small prayer request you're asking for? Do you believe that I hear this
prayer for your daughters? Do you believe that I see the tears
that you saw in this altar when it's a Saturday night and nobody's in
here, but you praying over the word trying to say, is this what
you have for your people, God? Because I care so much. I wanna honor you
and I wanna give the people that you've entrusted me to. He says, Kevin, do
you believe that I hear you? Do you believe that I see?
And the guy says, I guess. And then what we do sometimes,
God's like, do you do you think I see you, Cole? Do you
believe me? Do you believe? I'm just
asking, I'm not asking you anything else, but do you believe
that I can do this? And the
guy says, I guess.
And Jesus tells him in '23, if you
can, if I can, all
things are possible for the one who believes. And I love this
response from this dad whose boy has been afflicted
his whole life. He says,
immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, I
believe help my unbelief. I do
believe God, God, but there's a part of me that's got unbelief.
At the end of the day, I know there's a part of me that says,
yeah, but but will you really come through for me?
Will you really see my situation? Do you
really hear my prayers? Do you really see my
fears and my insecurity and the complacency that's going on in
life? And and he's saying, yes. All things are possible
to anyone who believes. It's not
fear. It's not insecurity. It's not complacency. Those are
the ways that unbelief manifests itself in our lives.
So as we enter in this time of worship, I want you to
reflect, and I want you to ask this question.
Do you believe?
And then I want this response. If it's true and genuine, then say to
the Lord, I believe. Help
my unbelief.
Let's worship, church.