That's Damage

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the message podcast of High Ridge Church Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here, and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways. Let's listen in. [00:00:19] Speaker B: We are glad that you're here. We appreciate all of you who are tuning in online and watching us. We're so grateful because you're such a generous people. Today. Pastor Tim and Tina and Pastor Chris and Julie are out at High Ridge Church in Rockland, California, serving our one of our sister campuses there and giving their staff and volunteers a break. We're able to do that because you're such a generous people. So, so grateful. Thank you so much that we can serve others and be helpful like that. Well, the treat I was talking about is that we have Pastor Zack Greider all the way from High Ridge Church and Parker county, going to bring us the word today. Let's give him a High Ridge Longview welcome. [00:01:03] Speaker C: Thanks, brother. Than. Thanks, brother. Come on. Are you excited to be in church today? Yes, I'm excited to be here as well. How Ridge Longview, help me welcome all of our friends and family joining us online. Come on. Can we give this some love? Welcome. Hi, Mom. Love you. Also want to do a shout out to Pastor Tim and Tina. Thank you guys so much for trusting me. This is how you know you're loved. When the senior pastor leaves and trusts you with his pulpit, you just know you're loved. And so, Pastor Tim, I love you. I'll do the best I can not to mess this up, but if I do, you'll be back next week, so we'll see where it goes from there, man. Love you, brother. Love you, Tina. And again, thank you guys for having me. It's always a privilege and honor to be here with you guys, and I'm always excited to come and preach to you. And so I hope you're ready to study the Bible. I've only got 29 minutes and 29 seconds left, and so we're gonna get busy real quick. All right, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to the New Testament. Philippians chapter 2. This is where we're gonna be at today. Philippians chapter two, or where we're gonna start for sure. And as you're turning there, let me just kind some context to why I chose this particular message. You know, Pastor Tim reached out months ago and told me he would love for me to come speak today and told me I could preach on anything. And you know, the temptation for a preacher when they're told that they can preach on anything is to preach the last thing they preached, right? Because it's fresh, you just did it, you're studied up, etc. But I chose not to do that this time. Instead, what I chose to do was take something that I'm really, really passionate about and share with you guys something that's near and dear to my heart. For me, this is not just another message today. In fact, if the Lord sent me on a preaching tour across America, this would be the message I would preach to them because I believe in it that much. What I'm going to preach to you today is not theoretical. It's. It's biblical. And I know that it works. And I know that it works because it's changed my relationship with Jesus. And I truly believe, if you'll lean in today, that God's going to use it to do the same thing in your life. All right, so let's get started. Philippians, Chapter two. And begin to set this up for what God wants to share with you today. Philippians, chapter two. And again, if you're new to church, this is the New Testament. This is a guy named Apostle Paul that wrote this. He wrote the majority of, of the New Testament. And so here's what he says in verse 12, therefore, my beloved. Now, before we continue reading, you need to understand this. He's using this term, beloved, which is a special term that shows us that Paul is not talking to the world when he says beloved. When he says therefore, my beloved, he is specifically talking to Christians. He is talking to people who are, who have given their life to Jesus. Know Jesus as Lord and Savior. He's talking to Christians. That's important for you and I to understand, for context. So for every single one of you here today or those that are watching online, if you have given your life to Jesus, he has changed your life, you've repented of your sins. He is your Lord and Savior. This is specifically talking to you. So let's continue on. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. Work out. Everybody say work out. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Interesting. For it is God who works in you both the will to will and to work for his good pleasure. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I remember when I was still a new believer and reading the New Testament, came across this particular passage. And it confused me a little bit because I thought, okay, wait a second, the Bible's telling me to go and work out my salvation with fear and trembling. And the reason it confused me is because it sounded like it was contradicting what we read in Ephesians chapter two. So now let me read to you another passage of Scripture written by the same God, the Apostle Paul, about your salvation. Many of you know this verse. This one's famous, Ephesians 2:8 says this, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not on your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one shall boast. So again, I remember being a new believer reading this in Philippians Chapter two, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. But also I had Ephesians 2:8 memorize. So I was confused. And if you're new to church, here's what Paul just said in Philippians 2. He said, hey, go work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Then in Ephesians 2, he says, but wait a second, your salvation, it is a gift from God by grace you have been saved through faith so that you shall not boast. It's not by your works. And so for me, I was confused because it seems like it's contradicting each other right over here. Work it out over here. It's not your work. Are you confused yet? Good. That's exactly where I want you. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. God, just speak to us today. Help us understand what you desire and have for our life. Holy Spirit, I invite you to use my voice to build and encourage your people in Jesus name. And everyone said, amen. I'm going to show you a couple photos here on the screen, and I'm going to ask some questions, and I want you to respond, okay? So we can talk in church during this time, all right? And so I just want you to react with me. Okay? So this first photo. Here's the question. Just shout out some things you see in the photo. You see a house. All right, so we see a house here. Actually, we see a couple houses on this street. So we see trees, right? We see grass. Anything else? A stop sign, asphalt, a street. All right, so let's pause for a moment because we've named a lot of things. So here's what we can assume from this photo, right? We have a house here. So we know there's probably people that live within it. They're probably living there now because the grass looks nice. And cut and clean somewhat. Right. We can see that the trees and the grass are green. So we can assume this is not wintertime. It's probably spring, maybe summer. We see there's a street there. And so again, we know this is a community. We can assume that at some point, a kid learned how to ride a bike for the very first time on the street. So what can we gather from all those different things that we see in this photo? We can simply gather this or conclude this, that this picture communicates or is showing us life. Right. Like, we've got a community that lives here, people that live there, the grass, the trees, et cetera. And so we can again conclude this picture is showing us life. All right, now let's look at the next photo. Oh, this one's way different. Right. All right, so let's look at it. So we have a little bit of grass in here. We can see where there used to be trees, there are no longer trees. We can see a couple of vehicles that have been destroyed. And for most of that damage, we can see that where there used to be houses, there's just nothing. Right. And so what can we conclude from this photo? That there's a lot of damage. Right. And we live in Texas, and so we know what caused this. What caused this tornado. Right? So again, the first photo, we see life. In the second photo, we see a lot of damage. Can we agree that's a mess. Okay, now check out this next photo. Now, I want you to notice, it's the same street. Yeah. Now, notice when I showed you the first photo, there's not a whole lot of reaction. Nobody ooh and ahhed on the first photo because it's just a Google street view. Right. And it's not very clear. Sorry about that, but that's what it was. Showed you the next photo. Oh, interesting. A lot of damage. Not a lot of ooh and ah in the room. But then when I showed you this, you heard the reaction in the room. Why? Because even when we noticed in the second photo that was damaged, we didn't completely understand the degree of damage that had been done until we saw what life should look like. And by the way, this is the Joplin tornado in 2010, considered the worst tornado in the history of our country. Okay. It was an EF 520 that came through this town. Why did I show you all this? As a Christian, here's what begins to happen to you and I. We say yes to Jesus. We begin studying the Bible, and the Bible begins to show us what A life should look like how we should act, how we should be, how we should think. Whom the sun sets free is free indeed. We should find joy. Not that we're not gonna have hard times in life, but there should be a joy about us. And so the Bible shows us what life should look like. But for many of us in the room, the problem is if we were to evaluate our soul. And by the way, when I say soul, the Bible means your mind, will and emotions, your spirit, soul and body. Okay? Your triune being, your soul, is your mind, will and emotions. And so the Bible shows us what life should look like. But if we were to examine your soul, what we would see for many of you is that there's a lot of damage that's still on your soul. And though the Bible says your life should look like this, for many of you, if you were honest, this is what your life actually looks like, despite the fact that you love Jesus. And so here's the problem with that. It confuses a lot of you because you love Jesus, but yet you still have some thoughts, you still desire to do, some things you still mess up. Sometimes that contradicts the love that you have for Jesus. And a lot of you get confused with that. And what I want to propose to you today is this, that even though you love Jesus and have a relationship with him, there's some damage that's been left on your soul from the sin in your life. Because sin, like a tornado, whatever it touches, it's going to damage. And some of you in this room, no matter how much you love Jesus, you've got damage on your soul from the sin that you've done or the sin of others that they've done to you. So what begins to happen for us as Christians? We meet Jesus and we say yes to Jesus, and we believe everything's going to be great and everything's going to work out. And I'm always going to be full of joy, and I'm always going to feel like I'm on the right track and doing the right things. But yet we get on that journey and we get confused. Because, man, I'm still tempted to do certain sins. Sometimes I still have these thoughts that I know are not okay. And I don't understand why those temptations are there. I don't understand why when certain things happen, I respond emotionally in a way that's not biblical or good, and it confuses your brain. And you're trying to figure out why is this. There's this contradiction inside of me, of man. I want to do what's right. I want to follow Jesus. I want to love him, and I desire to do so. But then sometimes in my life, man, I just choose to do the wrong thing. Sometimes I just respond the wrong way. And what I want to propose to you today is you still love Jesus, but the problem is you've got damage on your soul that has not been dealt with, friend. That damage has to be dealt with so that we can experience healing and become the men and women that God's called us to be. Amen. And so before we continue on this journey, I need to talk some theology for you real quick because we need to make sure we define some things before we continue on this journey of discussing the damage on your soul. In the Bible, there are three. Everybody say three. There are three biblical concepts that the Bible talks about when it comes to your salvation. The first one, this theological word we find in Scripture is called justification. Okay, now let me explain that to you. Justification is the moment you met Jesus. When you repented of your sins, you said yes to him. You were instantaneous, saved and forgiven. Justified is a legal term, all right? And so when we see it in the Bible, what it's saying is, at the moment of salvation, the moment you repented of your sins, for some of you, maybe it was at Easter, maybe it was at a church camp, maybe it was on a Sunday or with a friend. But the moment you gave your life to Jesus, you were justified, which means you now stand before God, the ultimate judge, justified, which means as if you had never sinned. Makes sense. Now, here's what's beautiful about this moment. This moment you are forgiven of your sins. Past, present, future sins. Not because of your church attendance, how much money you give, how many mission trips you go on, or how good you are. This moment is true for your life. Because of the death barrel and resurrection of Jesus, you can't earn your salvation. There's nothing you can do about it to earn it. You can't be good enough. This moment right here can happen for you and me because of Jesus and how awesome he is, not because of how awesome you are. Right? But this moment's instantaneous. Now, this is not the end of your spiritual journey. It's the beginning. So the Bible talks about this moment justification. Then it talks about another moment, which is a actual lifelong process. And the term it uses for this process is called sanctification. And sanctification is the process. Everybody say process. It's not a switch, it's not a button that you can Press. It's a lifelong journey that you and I began when we met Jesus. And this again is called sanctification. It's the process of becoming more like Christ friend. Three to five years from now, you should be able to look back on your life and see some progress of becoming more like Jesus and falling more in love with him. That's sanctification. Then there's another term that the Bible uses, and it's called glorification. And glorification is when Jesus in the new heaven and the new earth come, and your spirit and soul are united with a glorified physical body. And we live in eternity with Jesus in a place we cannot fathom in our wildest imagination. Right? So again, we have three terms that we see in Scripture. Justification, sanctification, glorification. Here's another way to think about it. Justification means you are saved. Period. You're saved. Sanctification is the idea of you are being saved. Glorification is the fact that one day you will be saved. All right? So that's the way to think about it. So now let's go back to Philippians chapter 2. In Ephesians, chapter 2, in Ephesians 2, when the apostle Paul said, you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not on your own doing, not by works. Which one was the Apostle Paul talking about? Justification. It's not by works. It's only because of how good God is and what Jesus accomplished for us. Now let's go back to Ephesians chapter. I mean, Sorry, Philippians Chapter 2. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Which one is he talking about? Sanctification. Right. That's the beauty. Ain't the Bible awesome? And so it's not contradicting itself. What Apostle Paul is talking about is different stages of this process of experiencing salvation. And here's what I want you to understand and why this is important. What I'm talking about today is the process of sanctification. And I want you to understand that this is a lifelong journey, a lifelong process. And here's the thing. We did nothing to save ourselves. This is. Only Jesus can get glory for this. But in this process of sanctification, there's a responsibility that falls on us to engage and work with the Holy Spirit for sanctification. In fact, here I'll read the definition of sanctification. So we're all on the same page. Sanctification is the ongoing transformation of a believer into the Christ likeness. Again, you're already a believer. This process right here does not save you. You're already saved. Okay? So make sure you understand this process of sanctification. Listen to me, friend. This isn't you trying to earn your way to heaven. That's already done for you. So then some of you thinking, well, Zach, what is the point of sanctification? So that you can be who God's called you to be and your life can glorify him. That's what it's about. Your eternity is already set. Jesus did that for you. We are not earning our salvation here. What we're trying to do is be who God's called us to be for his glory and for his name's sake. Okay? So again, it's turning a believer into the Christ likeness through the power of the Holy Spirit and everybody say and the active participation of the believer. Okay? So listen, I need you to understand this sanctification right here, this is all Jesus. You get no credit for your salvation, Sanctification, becoming who God's called you to be. You have to be active and participate with the Holy Spirit. You are joining in with him. And it's important you understand that, friend, because it keeps you from one of two very dangerous ideas. One of these dangerous ideas is this. This phrase, and you've heard it said before, let go and let God. Have you heard it before? I've preached it before. We see it on social media. We see it on T shirts seen on coffee mugs. And listen, there's nothing wrong with that phrase, let go and let God in and of itself. But in the context of sanctification, you can't use that, because let go and let God suggest that you're gonna go sit on the sideline and just let the Holy Spirit fix everything in your mind, will and emotions, because that's what we're talking about, your soul. So there's damage that's been left behind by your sin or the sin of others that they've done against you. So that means there's some work that needs to be done through the power of the Holy Spirit. And if you have this idea of, I'm just gonna let go and let God, that means you're gonna be passive in this. And it doesn't work that way in sanctification. It does in justification, and it does in glorification. In sanctification, you have a responsibility to work with the Holy Spirit. So that's one dangerous side of it. The other dangerous side of it, and we have some crazy cousins out there that do it this way. The other idea is Holy Spirit, you sit on the sideline. I'll handle this. So the other side says this. I'm going to go to church. Every time the doors open, I'm going to be good enough. I'm not going to listen to this type of music. I'm not going to talk like this. I'm going to wear my hair a certain way. I'm going to dress a certain way. I'm never going to cut. I'm not going to have bad thoughts. And so what they do is they white knuckle their way through sanctification while the whole Spirit is sitting on the sideline. Both thoughts are wrong. True sanctification, again, is us working with the Holy Spirit to deal with the damage that's been left on our soul by sin. Amen. And so we want to work with Him. And look, here's what I want to point out to you. That when you said yes to Jesus, you started this journey of knowing God, right? That's why you're here today at church. You want to know more about God, how good he is, what his plan is for your life, right? That's why you came to church. But there's something else that happens in this journey of knowing God. As we begin to know God, we've also got to know ourselves. In fact, the Bible talks about how it refers to scripture like a mirror. And what I've discovered in my relationship with God is that the closer I get to God, the more that I learn about him, the more I realize my own brokenness. And so we've got to be willing. As we go on this journey to knowing God, we've also got to know ourselves. I believe it was Socrates that said, know thyself. Now why does that matter? That's what we're going to look at today. Let's answer this question. How do we clean up the damage left by sin? How do we clean it up? The first thing we gotta be willing to do is we need to accept that there's been damage done. Okay? So Christians, listen to me. Before we do anything, we've got to be willing to admit damage has been done. So look, I'm gonna ask you some questions. I want you to be honest. I want you to raise your hand, I want you to participate, and I want you to tell the truth. All right? And we've got cameras in here right now, so we're watching you tell the truth. I want everybody to participate. Okay, let me ask you this question. How many people in the room and online have ever sinned? Raise your hand. Great. That's an easy one. If you didn't raise your hand. You just lied. Now you're a sinner. Welcome to the team. Glad to have you. Okay, next question. How many of you have ever had someone sin against you? Raise your hand. All of us. Right again. Sin like a tornado. It damages everything it touches. And by your own admission, you've sinned, which means there's probably some damage on your soul from your own sin. You've admitted that other people have sinned against you. There's probably damage on your soul then. So before we can continue on this journey of becoming who God's called us to be, we've gotta be willing. There might be some damage. There might need to be some things in my soul that I need to deal with. And again, and this is why I'm pointing this out, I've been in ministry for 16 years now, and I see so many Christians who, when faced with damage, maybe they've got habits, maybe they have certain sins they keep falling into. Maybe they have certain emotions that keep taking over their life. When faced with that damage, they'll sprinkle Jesus on it and say things like, well, it's under the blood now. Is it? Under the blood? Yes, that's justification, which means you're not gonna have eternal consequences for that sin or for those emotions. That's true. But what you can't do is keep saying it's under the blood and never deal with the damage. Listen, the tornado was gone, but how crazy would it be for those homeowners to show up and go, man, the tornado is gone and not be willing to admit their house needs to be rebuilt so they can experience life again, and they can't do that on their own. They're going to need some help. Yes, you've been saved. Yes. All of your past, present and future sins are under the blood of the Lamb. You will not have to pay eternal consequences for your sins. That's the beauty of Jesus in the gospel. But just because that's true doesn't mean in this process of sanctification, you don't need to deal with some of those thought patterns that you have that are damage left over from your sin. Just because you're saved and nothing can change that doesn't mean the damage that that man left on your soul doesn't need to be dealt with. So we've got to be willing to admit, man, there's probably some damage that's been left behind. And let's work with the Holy Spirit and let's experience freedom and healing. Amen. Jesus said this in Luke 9, 23. And a lot of you've heard this verse before, and he said to them all, and this is Jesus, if anyone would come after me, if anyone decides to give their life to me, let him deny. Everybody say, deny, deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. So you said yes to Jesus. Saved, done, justified. You started a journey, a daily journey of following him. And Jesus says, if you're going to go on this daily journey, which you absolutely are, if you've met him and you've experienced salvation, you're going to have to be willing on a daily basis to deny yourself and take up your cross. So now let me ask you this question. In following Jesus, how can you deny what you won't define? How do you know what to deny? Jesus says you gotta be willing to deny yourself. Well, what part of me is that? Because the Bible also says that God gives me gifts and talents, that the Holy Spirit lives within me. How do I know that these thoughts I'm having aren't the Holy Spirit versus myself versus the enemy? So how do I know which part of me to deny? You've gotta be willing to define it. You've gotta be willing to look at the damage in your life and define those things and lay them down and allow the Holy Spirit to bring healing. And here's the problem. For so many Christians and what I've seen, a lot of Christians can't tell where the damage ends and where the Holy Spirit begins. And so you have emotional reactions, you have thought patterns, you have behaviors in your life, and you can't tell again where the damage ends and where the Holy Spirit begins. So how in the world are you going to deny something you can't define? You've got to be willing to admit there's been damage. And again, if you've sinned or you've been sinned against, it is possible that there is damage on your soul. Unless you've already done the work with the Holy Spirit and have found healing in that. And not just sprinkled, it's under the blood, over it. Because what I'm talking about today, this sanctification process, the damp, it takes work. And so some of you are wondering, well, I wonder if it's been healed. I wonder if there's still damage there. Have you done the work? If your answer is no, it's still there. Now, let me talk to men for just a moment, because some of you are thinking, Zach, like, I'm good. Like, why in the world do we need to dig up the past and Talk about what's in the past, leave it in the past. And especially men in the room. And I know how this feels because I used to be one. Here's what you tell yourself. My marriage is good, my kids are good, I got a job, I'm providing for my family. I'm just fine. And here's what I want to point out to you, friend. You're not just fine. You've just learned how to cope with it. You've learned how to cope. And I can tell you as a former coping addict, like, you get so good at coping that you don't even realize the damage that's still there and still impacting your life. And I'm just telling you right now, friend, from my own personal experience, from what I see in scripture and what I've experienced in 16 years of full time ministry for all the men in the room. And really, this goes for everybody, but I really just want to challenge the man for a second. If you have sinned and you've been sinned against, there was damage at some point. And if you haven't done the work, the damage is still there. And though you might be holding your life together right now, and though you might be great at coping, listen, what I want to tell you is the damage is absolutely impacting your life. And it might be small and maybe you don't see it, maybe you don't feel it because you're coping with it. Maybe your wife doesn't point it out anymore because she's been pointing out for 15 years and it's done no good. Whatever the situation, I'm telling you, unresolved damage on your soul where you have not found healing is absolutely impacting your life. And even if it doesn't destroy your marriage, even if it doesn't destroy your children, here's what I guarantee it will do. It will impact how you see your Heavenly Father and the journey that you're on with him. And you're here because you say you want to be the man that he's called you to be or the woman he's called you to be. And I am telling you right now, if you ignore damage, you won't be able to experience all that he has for you or be used to the to the degree that he wants to use you. Because you won't submit to the Holy Spirit for the cleanup to happen. Be willing to admit there's damage. Number two. Write this down. So. Okay, all right, Zach, we're here. We're willing to admit it. Now what? Here's what we need to do, we need to ask the question, how has this damage impacted your relationships with people? Because okay, great. Is that great? There's damage there? What does that even look like? How do I find it? Start with how has this impacted your relationship with people? Here's what Apostle Paul said in Ephesians, chapter four, and he's talking to Christians again. Okay? He's not talking to evil lost people here, he's talking to Christians, people who are saved. Listen to what he says. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. So the Apostle Paul, talking to a bunch of saved people just said, hey man, put away the anger, the malice, the bitterness. What is he? He's naming emotions that exist in human beings that are damage left over from sin. And he's saying, put it away, deal with it. Listen, the emotions that can take over you, that's damage, man. Some of you in here, when certain things happen, maybe your spouse says something to you, your kids act a certain way, your boss says something to you, you see something on social media, you respond in anger and go into an emotional tailspin and you say things that you know aren't biblical. You act and do things a certain way that you know don't line up with God's will for your life. That's damage. Some of you, when you see your spouse talk to the opposite sex, you begin to over be overcome by jealousy and you respond and begin to act a certain way. That's not biblical or right. That's damage, man. Some of you, when your boss corrects you, when your parent corrects you, or a coach or a teacher corrects you, you get upset and angry because you feel rejected. That's damage. Some of you sitting in here right now, you're going, pshh, I don't feel any of those things. That's damage. I mean, our God's an emotional God. He created us to be emotional beings. Our emotions don't lead us, we lead our emotions. But if you feel nothing, that's damage. So what's the point, friend? We are meant to feel emotions. But some of you, you overrun with emotional things in your life, and I'm telling you, that's damage. And maybe it's damage from yourself or damage from others, but it's damage. And so you respond a certain way when things happen in a way that God does not desire for your life. Others of you in the room when the pressure and the weight of life comes on you. You desire to sin and do certain things you want to numb. You want to abuse substances. You want to look at certain things you're trying to numb. Hey, friend, that's damage. Some of you, when things aren't going right in your life, you start thinking a certain way that you know doesn't align with Scripture. Hey, friend, that's damage. And it doesn't mean that you don't love Jesus or that you don't know him. It means you're in this process of sanctification. What I want you to be able to do is recognize, man. That's damage. And what I need to do is not just sprinkle some more Bible on it. What I need to do is partner with the Holy Spirit, do some work, and let's do some cleanup and let's deal with it. Because coping brings more coping, but healing brings freedom. Let's get it, man. Let's get it. Well, Zach, I don't know how to do that. Go talk to your loved ones, Zach. I don't realize. I don't recognize any patterns or those emotions. Go talk to your loved ones. Go ask your spouse. And we're looking for patterns, not mistakes, patterns. Is there a certain emotion that keeps popping up in your life? Is there a certain sin or desire or temptation that keeps popping up when things get difficult in your life? Look for the pattern. And then let's write it down. Let's begin praying about it, and then let's go get some help. Let's figure out what the root of that is, the damage. And look, not all damage is the same. An EF1 tornado is not the same as an EF5. Right? For some of you, when you identify the damage, maybe you just need to go talk to a friend, have someone pray for you. Maybe you need to talk to a pastor. But some of you, like me, you've had an EF5 tornado go through your soul. And you're gonna need to go to a professional, a counselor that is biblical and knows the Bible. Let me pause and say this for a moment, because counseling and psychiatry and mental health is real popular in our society right now. Listen to me. I'm all for that. With the Holy Spirit, the power is in the word. Be careful not to just go find a counselor or psychiatrist that doesn't bring the word of God into that. Because then again, you're just telling the Holy Spirit to sit over there and you and this person are gonna figure it out. We Work with the Holy Spirit. But some of you, man, you got some damage. That a friend isn't gonna be enough. A pastor. You're gonna need a professional. Okay, look, if an EF1 tornado comes through your yard, you can invite me over and I can help you. I can pick up sticks with the best of them. But if an EF5 comes through and takes your house off the foundation, you're gonna have to call a professional to help you with that. I can't help you. So talk with your loved ones, talk with your friends, look for patterns, write them down. And then let's go get help. And let's begin working with the Holy Spirit. And let's bring healing to that so we can experience freedom. Amen. Amen. Y' all are listening way too slow. Speed it up. Here we go. Number three. Number three. I'm out of time. As of right now. Last one is this. How has this damage impacted your relationship with God? That's where all this is leading. I'm not trying to give you a self help message. I'm not trying to make your life better. What I'm trying to do is help you be who God's called you to be. What I'm trying to do is help you remove anything from your life that would skew your view and understanding of who God is. And there are a lot of things in this world that can become obstacles between us and our Heavenly Father and us understanding him. And one of the biggest things is the damage in our soul. And so we've got to be willing to admit there's damage. We got to look at our relationships, talk with our spouse, our kids, our friends, co workers, teammates, et cetera. Let's identify the damage, begin working on it, and then what we've got to follow up with is ask the question, has that damage affected the way I see God? Because listen to me, friend, if you've got damage on your soul, it creates a worldview for you. It creates a perception of life for you. And if you don't recognize that damage, it will affect the way you see God. So let me just give you an example. Let's go back to rejection. If you're in here and you've experienced rejection at some point in your past and that created some damage on you, maybe your parents left you, maybe you had a spouse that cheated on you and decided they didn't want you anymore, maybe you got rejected by a close friend. Whatever the rejection was, it's a wound. Now there's damage left on you by that rejection. And so now, if you don't recognize that damage and bring healing to it, here's how it will impact your heavenly Father. You'll be praying to God, and you'll be asking God for something and begging him to fix something in your life, to change something in your life. And then God won't respond or answer your prayer the way you want him to. And what you'll do is because you're not willing to admit that there's damage and because you're not willing to admit how it's impacted you, what you'll feel then, because God didn't answer your prayer the way you wanted him to, here's what you'll God, you're just like everybody else. You're just like my parents that left me. You're just like my spouse that walked out on me. You're just like the friends who rejected me. And what happens is when you don't realize and recognize the damage, it will change the way you see God and who he really is, and you won't even realize it. So we've got to admit the damage. We've got to find it, and we've got to partner with the Holy Spirit in this process of sanctification, and we've got to find healing and freedom from that so that we can make sure that the God we're serving, the God we're following, the God we're praying to, is some God that we've manufactured and created in our own minds. But it is the God of the universe who loves us, and we want to find healing so that we can glorify Him. Amen. Admit that there's been damage, talk to your relationships and then evaluate how has this impacted your relationship with God and begin the journey of healing. Right? Let me pray for you. God, we thank you so much for who you are. God. I just. I thank you for your word, God. I thank you for your patience, God. Even as we talk about damage today, God, and the fact that every single one of us in this room and those watching online at some point, we've experienced damage. What I love about this subject in the Gospel is that even though we're damaged, we're not damaged goods to you. Because despite the damage that we've experienced because of our own sin or the sin of others, you still chose to love us anyway. And the beauty of the gospel is if we don't fix any of this damage in our life, you still love us and it doesn't change anything for our eternity with you, but instead what you desire for us is freedom and healing. So you invite us on this journey of sanctification. So, God, my prayer for everyone here today and those watching online that you would help them identify the damage in their life from their own sin or the sin of others, and they would go on this journey. This is a very difficult journey, but go on the journey nonetheless of partnering with the Holy Spirit to experience healing and freedom for your glory and for your namesake in Jesus name. And everyone said, amen. Amen. Amen. I love you guys. Thank you. [00:39:29] Speaker B: Amen. Thank you, Pastor Zach. It's a great message on the sanctification process and our part in it, but some of us in the room may need to start a step earlier than that. Maybe you just take a moment, bow your head, and close your eyes. And what precedes that sanctification process is coming into a relationship with God through his son, Jesus. We always want to give an opportunity for people to respond, come into a relationship with Jesus. And if you're here today and say, bill, I don't have that relationship that was being described, I don't have that. But I would like to. Maybe you're watching online, you're thinking, I know about church, but I'm not sure I know Jesus the way he's been described. We want to just give you an opportunity. We're going to pray a prayer, and I'm going to ask you if you want that relationship with Jesus to just pray this simple prayer. I'm going to lead you in it. If you'll just pray those words after me. It's not magic. It's not a magic formula. It's. But if you pray it and believe it in your heart, God will hear. He will answer this prayer. It goes like this. Lord Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God. I believe you came to this earth, lived a sinless life, that you died on the cross for my sin and the sins of this world. You rose again, conquering sin and the grave, so that I could have life eternal. I ask you now to forgive me for my sin. I ask you to come into my life, change me, save me, and I will follow you the rest of my days. Thank you for hearing my prayer in Jesus name, friend. If you prayed that prayer, I'm just going to ask that while everybody else's eyes are closed and their heads are bowed, he said, bill, I prayed that prayer with you. I really did, and I meant it. Would you just lift your hand wherever you might be here in the service, say, I pray that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank You. I see you. I see you. Thank you, Lord. If you prayed that prayer and you raised your hand or you're watching online and you prayed that with me, we have some resources we'd like to make available to you. If you would just simply text us. Text the words I prayed all one word to 844- HRC-Text. That's coming up on the screen behind me, but it's also there for you watching online. We have some resources we'd like to send to you to help you know what your next steps are. We rejoice in the decision that you've made, and the scripture tells us that all heaven is rejoicing as well. High Ridge family, would you stand with me? We're gonna celebrate the fact that five people in this service prayed that prayer to receive the Lord. We're very grateful. Great decision. We're so excited. We're gonna invite our elders and their wives to come forward to be available to pray with you if you have any need. Maybe this is your first step of cooperating with that sanctification process. Maybe it has nothing to do with today's message, but we want to make prayer available to you. Let me speak a blessing over you and let you go. Father, thank you so much for your people. Thank you for those, every household and family represented here and online watching. And we pray, Lord, that we would go out of this place today with the acknowledgement and knowing you are with us. We're not alone. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you. Have a great afternoon. [00:43:45] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening. If you want to be a part of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv. Or you can check out our [email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give. We appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will see you next time.