Tim Ross: I want you to go with me to the book of Romans 8, remain standing. We're ending the series on winning season, and my assignment can be found in Romans 8, when you have it say amen.

Starting at the 31st verse, Paul, ask a question. The question begs for context, so let me read the question. I'll give you a little context before I read further. "What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?" Such wonderful things as what, Paul? Well, Romans 8 is Paul's beautiful breakdown, Verses 1-17, talking about what it is to live a Spirit-filled life, verses 18-30, what it is to be adopted as sons and daughters based on the seal that we have in the Spirit.

It's talking about what it is to be adopted to have true sonship, the Spirit of glory, living on the inside of us, the Holy Spirit helping us in our weakness with groanings that we cannot understand. This is where we get to know about the foreknowledge of God, the predestination of God, the election of God, him choosing us, calling us, making us righteous, and then giving us his glory. "What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?"

If God is for us, who? If he stopped right there it would've been enough. He didn't even need to finish the sentence. If God is for us, who? Name the person, name the location, don't matter how big they are, doesn't matter how many weapons they have, doesn't matter how intimidating their voice is. If God is for me, who? Giving me our vibes. Who? Who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?

Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one. For God, himself has given us right standing with himself, who then will condemn us? No one. For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? As the scriptures say, "For your sake, we are killed every day. We are being slaughtered like sheep. No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us."

It's my assignment to preach to you from the subject on our seventh anniversary. Nothing can. Holy Spirit proved to us nothing can. The book of Romans is a theological treatise. It is in New Testament canon one of the most powerful books ever written by one of the most powerful writers that ever lived, Saul, Hebrew name, Paul, Roman citizen name, is not just one of the greatest apostles and contributors to what we now have as the Bible. He is quite frankly one of the best literary agents God has ever used to pen scripture. His pen was actually mightier than his words. He said of himself that I'm not really a good preacher.

Cephas and Apollos would've been the best preachers of Paul's day. Paul did not have a lot of sophisticated words that he preached with, but when he put pen to paper, couldn't stop him. What's powerful about Paul is that his selection by Jesus would go against the grain of most Christians in our time. Jesus had 12 men that followed him for three and a half years, hand selected. Out of those 12 men, He had some that were amazing.

Peter is somebody that after filled with the Holy Spirit would look Annas and Caiaphas in the face, the ones who put the hit out on Jesus. Peter looked them dead in the eye and said, "You're the one who killed him," knowing that he could have been killed himself, but when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, stuff that would intimidate you just don't intimidate you no more. You can't do something with anybody who's not afraid to die. There's nothing you can scare them with anymore. If death doesn't scare them, what you going to do?

He had Peter, he had James, he had John, he had Levi, also called Matthew, he had Thomas. He had some great disciples, and Jesus overlooks all of those and says, "There's a person that I need to penetrate the hearts of really stubborn Jewish people and really heady philosophical Gentiles." I could make a supernatural deposit of wisdom into the ones that I already called, but you know what? I want somebody. I'm not sure after he ascended to heaven if he conferred with his angels or if he was just talking to his Father, but they chose Saul, a Benjamite rabbi trained by Gamaliel, a Hebrew if there ever was one, who hated Jesus.

He chose a murderer, someone who armed with papers, given permission by the religious leaders of his day was on his way to Damascus to knock on every door to find out who believed in the way. Had they been bold enough to stand at the door and say, "I do," Paul would have them arrested instantaneously, tried, and he would choose for them to be murdered. Jesus said, "I want that one." Imagine the angels who can't understand God's interaction with us anyway. "You still in love with that dirt? You still in love with them dusty people with all their inconsistencies, and their rebelliousness, and their idiosyncrasies, and their leanings, and they get into all types of trouble?"

God is up there like, "But I love them, though." "Well, how come you just don't love the nice ones? There's plenty of nice ones. You going after the nice ones, but you also be going after them nasty, ratchet ones too. What is wrong? How come you just don't stick with nice people? Now, you looking for a writer for scripture, and you want the mind of a murderer?" "Yes, yes, yes. I want him," "He thinks he has a relationship with you, but he actually doesn't." "I know, I know, I know. I'm going to fix that, but I want him." "But he hates Jesus." "I know. I want him." "But he's murdering people that love Jesus." "I know, I know, I know. They already up here with me."

"Steven, you think we should get him?" Steven, looked, "Is that the dude that was holding the coat to the elders while those elders were stoning me?" He's like, "Yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm looking for him. You think we should use him?" He like, "I'm up here. I guess. Do you, fam. I made it. I don't know what else you want to do." He says, ''I want the murderer.'' It's going to be a great testimony because nobody is expecting the murderer to confess me.

I don't know if you know how much God doing this, but he loves using the foolest things to confound people that think they're smart. He chooses this murderer, and when he chooses this murderer and Acts 9, you can go read it for yourself, "Ananias goes into this man's house," Judas's house. I believe and he talks to him and he says, "Saul, God has a great work for you," and scripture says, "Something like scales pops out of Saul's eyes." That's all that's over the world's eyes right now is scales. Instead of arguing and debating with them, trying to win them to Christ because you've never won anybody to Jesus, just pray that the scales pop out their eyes so that they can see clearly.

You don't have to debate with a agnostic, just pray that the scales pop out their eyes. You don't have to debate an atheist, just pray that the scales pop out of their eyes. Have stimulating discussion, but when it starts getting heated and your blood pressure start rising, just walk away. You still believe in the invisible man. Just be like, "You know what? You just scaly up in here. I have perfect. 20/20 vision. I don't have cataracts. It's not physical, fam, it's Spiritual." I used to be the same way. I'm just going to pray that they pop out. I can't sit here fooling with you all day.

He literally has these scales pop out of his eyes, and instantly he can see. It don't take him two years. "I'm just a baby Christian. I'm just trying to figure it out." No, no, no. Them scales pop out, he was like, "Jesus Lord. I know I don't know the original disciples that became apostles, but he is Lord right now. I know I got some more relating to do, and he has some downloads to get me, but I know this one thing right now, I was blind. Now, I see. He starts putting pen to paper. Listen, if he didn't give us anything other than Romans, it would've been enough. Theologians are still grappling with the mysteries that were downloaded to Paul way back then.

When he gets to Romans 8, he just starts, I don't know, the Holy Spirit through him just starts showing off. His first line when he gets to chapter eight-- He didn't break it down in chapters. That's not how he wrote it, but the way we break it down, the first line, the first verse in chapter eight, "There was therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Listen, I have never wrote nothing that good. I've been with Jesus 26 years. You can compile all my text messages and emails and everything I wrote.

I promise you, 2000 years from now, nobody would be like, "Turn to the book of Third Timothy. Oh, this guy wrote some stuff and what kind of text messages was he sending? What is a GIF?" My text threads are petty. That's why they private. Can you imagine you just writing away and you write something so potent that 2000 years later, before I can finish the sentence y'all can? That man starts writing through Romans and breaking down what it is to have the Holy Spirit and how your flesh will always be at war with your Spirit, and they're never going to agree, and you going to be fighting for the rest of your life. He gave us more calibration than most pastors.

Churches got us out here, fool thinking that we not even supposed to be tempted no more, but Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13, "There was no temptation that is overtaking you, but such as is common, not unique." The enemy will keep you in silence thinking that your issue is so bad, you the only one going through it, but the Holy Spirit through Paul penned the word to free you from keeping a secret any longer. You don't have a unique situation, you don't have a unique temptation, you don't have a very special case of sin.

From the balcony of heaven, God says, ''That's just common to man.'' What you into? That's common to man. I was abused growing up, and he goes, "I have trauma from that, and I don't trust people. That's common to man. "I was exposed to some really ratchet stuff growing up, and as a result, I'm highly promiscuous. He said, ''That's common to man.'' "I have a same-sex attraction, and it's really strong on the inside of me," and he goes, "That is common to man.

"I really go off at the mouth. I pop back. I be trying to be quiet, but folks be testing me, and then before I know it, the thing done flew out my mouth, and then I'm like, 'Oh, Jesus, bring it back, but it's already gone.'" He's like, "That is common to man. "I have a fear of rejection, so when I get around people, I usually don't open up because of fear that I'm going to say something wrong." He goes, "That's common to man." "I'm a people pleaser, and at the expense of my no, I give them my yes even though it puts me in stress." He goes, "That is common to man." You ain't going through nothing that nobody else in this room is not going through. It is common to man.

If you ever want to know if you got a unique situation start reading from Genesis and just scroll all the way through to Revelation, you will find out you ain't done half the ratchet stuff as the people in the Bible. You mad because you cheated on your boyfriend, and he tells you to go see David and you're like, "At least, I didn't kill the dude in front of me, and then I wasn't looking through the apartment window at somebody and telling my homegirl to go bring him back to my house. David, you a little bit off."

He writes this stuff so that you will know that when you live by the Spirit, it's going to be a fight. Nobody told you it was going to be easy. You're going to have days when you wake up when the flesh is like, "I don't care about your devotion time, feed me, Seymour." I just dated myself, but if that reference good for you. You grew up on blockbuster, not Netflix. Good for you. It's 100 millennials in here right now. "Who's Seymour?"

He writes down all this stuff He's talking about the Spirit. Last week, we got to Verse 11 where he said, "The same Spirit that lives in Christ Jesus lives on the inside of you, and just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he would give life to your mortal bodies also that you may be able to live by the same Spirit living on the inside of you." He's just writing, he's just writing, talking about all the Spirit-filled stuff.

Then, he gets to the next section, and he starts writing about what the Holy Spirit's on the inside of you to, that he is the seal of approval, that he is literally the person that shows up to confirm your sonship, your heirship with God, the Father, that we are his sons and daughters, and we have access to him in a way no other creature ever created has access to him, not even the angels have the testimony that we have because we are the only created beings that he ever made that have the testimony, "We have been redeemed."

After you finish writing about that and the complexities that have caused all the cessationists to really grumble in their rooms while they're trying to read through exhaustive concordances, he says, ''The Holy Spirit will speak through you with groanings that cannot be uttered.'' This is going back to the old churches I grew up in where the saints even though they were Spirit-filled and was speaking tongues, sometimes, they would have so much pressure on them, they didn't have any words and all they could do was moan. [moans]

It seems like that moaning was anguish, and it was really the Holy Spirit going, "Shut up, I got this. Your words are confusing and you giving the devil too much information. You hush, and I'm going to take every moan that you just gave and bring it to the ears of your Father, and he'll decode what you just said, and he's going to come back with an answer. Don't you give up, don't you give in, he's coming back with your answer."

I know your generational curse is trying to fight it. I know your pride and your ego is trying to wall up as a defense against it, but I promise you, your Father in heaven is coming back with a word for your situation. You will not die like this. Put the knife down. Put the gun away. You will not commit suicide. You will not make a permanent decision based on a temporary situation. You shall live and not die and declare what God has done in your life."

[moans] "God, I don't know what you're doing, but [moans]. I don't know when you're coming through, but [moans]. I don't know how you going to fix it, God, but [moans]." Paul just breaking it down with his little pen. Then, after he finishes breaking all of that good stuff down, he goes, "You do know that whom he did for know he predestined and whom he predestined, he called, and who he called, he justified, and who'd he justified, and who he sanctified, he glorified.

Oh, Paul, your pen is so powerful. Put a period to that. He knew it was good when he wrote it, which brings us to Verse 31, "What shall we say about all these wonderful things?" All this stuff I just wrote going to bless me so much, I have to write before I even send it off to you. What are we even going to say about such wonderful things as these?" I'll tell you what, "If God is for us, who?"

Now, you got to understand. If the apostle Paul writes this, this is so much different than the context that we might have. This man is writing as someone who has been imprisoned. This man is writing as someone who has had his back beaten 3 different times, 39 times each. This is a man writing this who has been stoned and left for dead, a man that had to escape such persecution one time that they had to lower him through a window in a basket for him to roll out and get away to where he was supposed to go.

This is a man who was prophesied about him, somebody took off Paul's belt and put it around themselves, tied up their hands and their feet, that had to be a long belt, tied up their hands and feet and said, "The person that wears this belt will be in bondage just like me." Imagine getting a prophetic word like that. When he got the prophetic word with this prophetic example of this man tied up hands and feet, all the people would, "Oh, God, no. Don't go, Paul. It's a trap. Save yourself. They done beat up. They done left you for dead. You already had to get to a window to escape. You got to go."

Paul said, "Not only am I ready to be in prison for this, I'm ready to die. I know I just made him Hood but go with me. I'm not just ready to go to jail, fam, I'm ready to die for this. It's the least I can do since I done killed off some of the people I now agree with. You want me to escape the same death I just put them through. You want me to disagree now with what my luck might be in life even though I agreed with what theirs was? The devil is a liar. If it was good enough for them, it's good enough for me. I'd be glad to do it." Paul starts writing and it gets saucy up in there. "If God be for us, who can be against us?

Then, he wrote something. When the Holy Spirit woke me up this morning, and I read this, I said to Juliet, I said, "I've read this my whole life, I've never seen it until now." "Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?" Now, I know we grew up on John 3:16. We all know it, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever shall believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." It's football season, you going to see it in the end zone sometime this year. You will not escape 17 weeks of football, I don't care what team it is, without seeing somebody.

Everybody else going crazy for the touch. "Oh, it's going to touch it." John 3:16. Paul gives us a different wrinkle to the nuance of God's love than John does. He says, "John gave it to you in a very loving way. 'God so loved the world,' I want to give it to you the way it's landed on me." God looked at the separation had between you and him, and he said, "Before I leave you out there like that, I will throw my word into the belly of a teenage girl, to come get you. I won't spare my own word to get you back. I'll make my word bleed. That's how much I love you that I will literally come through all the time."

The enemy thought, on a technicality, you locked yourself out in Genesis, "You said that you weren't going to interact in there unless you did it through a man or woman, which means you can't get down here. He said, "I bet you I can. I will impregnate a Virgin with my word. Make my word put on flesh and make my word bleed to get her back. You got me twisted if you ever think that you could put anything between me and the children I love."

"There ain't been a generational curse invented that I can't get through. There hasn't been ego high enough that I can't get through. There hasn't been any defiant strong enough that I cannot penetrate. There's never been a drug habit that's been so intense that I can't move back. I will come after my kids. I will get my babies." He said, "If he didn't spare his own Son, how much more would he do to get you?"

He goes on to say this, "Who dares accuse us from whom God has chosen for his own? No one, for God himself has given us right standing with himself." Can I just stop? He said, "Who's going to accuse us?" Nobody, because anybody that would bring an accusation against you has to deal with the fact that you didn't put you where you are. I'm trying to help somebody. You did not even give yourself the righteousness you have, which is why I can't stand self-righteous people because if you are righteous, it's not because of your works, it's not because you of your perfect attendance in church.

Let me submit something to you, ladies and gentlemen, whether you know this or not, when you gave your life to Jesus, you were made righteous the day you gave your life to Jesus, and you have not grown in righteousness. I'm going to let that marinate. You have not grown in your righteousness. You are just as righteous right now as the day you gave your life to Jesus. I've been saved for 26 years. I am no more righteous today than I was 26 years ago. I'm freer. I'm not more righteous because righteous is a position he put me in, which is why Satan can accuse me.

I got to break this down. Do you know that anything Satan accuses you of is the truth? Oh, I'm about to help somebody in this room. We down here talking about the devil is a liar. I rebuke the devil. The devil is a liar. He lies to you. He can't lie to God. Scripture says, "A liar cannot tarry in his sight," so when Satan presents himself to God, he tells the truth. He cannot lie. A liar cannot be in his presence. Go to Job 1 if you want to, you will read that when the angels presented themselves before God, Satan came also, and the conversation that God had with Satan, Satan told the truth about the entire situation that was going on with Job, which means whenever he accuses you, he telling the truth.

You know… you know she petty, you know she'd be lying for no reason. Because of her low self-esteem, she'd be lying about stuff that she didn't even got no business lying about, talking about trips she went on. She didn't go on that trip. You heard her when she said it. She ain't telling the truth. She's lying. I don't even understand why you have a relationship with a liar. You don't have a relationship with me. I'm the father of lies and I'm influencing her with some lie babies. The lies that are in her mouth should let you know that she is disqualified from being in a relationship with you.

God's looking and he's going, "You telling the truth, accusation duly noted, but you forgot to tell me where Tasha is." "Well, she right there lying." "She not free from that yet, but tell me where she is." "No, sir. She lying." "No, don't tell me what she did. Tell me where she is. Positionally, where is she? Tell me where I placed her." "Well, she over there with you in that righteous spot, but she lying though. I know she lying. I'm going to deal with that." "Your accusation is noted and it's invalid because the blood covered it." This is what is in Paul's mind when he writes this, "No one can make an accusation against me." Somebody can come up and be like, "You the dude that murdered all them Christians." "Oh, yes.

That was me, but you can't accuse me because he's put me in a different position," "But you are a murderer." "Yes, and?" Oh, God, thank you, Holy Spirit. If anybody's taking notes, you need to write this down. I need to get rid of my buts, helping somebody right here, I need to get rid of my buts. We need to remove the majority of our buts and start using and. So many of us are going, "You know what? The devil been fighting me, but the Lord is still-- No, two things can be true at once. The devil's fighting you, and you're righteous. You're the righteousness of Christ Jesus. You be lying and you're the righteousness of Christ Jesus.

We're uncomfortable with that tissue, God is not. He has way more time than you do. He can iron out your wrinkles. He is long-suffering. He is never going to keep you where he find you, but he will deal with you where you are. Just show up wherever you are right now, I've had people join this church come in smelling like weed. They don't even know they smell like weed. That's how used they are to their own scent. They think that their cologne and/or perfume did something like marijuana. It did nothing. It just made it a mustier scent because now you have these notes of cinnamon and jasmine mixed with weed, fam. What is your problem?

I love it. I love people that come in here smelling like cologne. I love people that come in here smelling like cigarettes. You know why? Come just as you are. Get up in the building. I don't care if you got on a sweat suit, pajamas, get up in the building and let God handle the transformation. "No one can accuse us," so let's go to the next verse, "Who then will condemn us? No one for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand pleading for us," so who can condemn you? Nobody.

Let me tell you why because Christ died for you, died for you fully one time, did it so good, he ain't going to do it again for the rest of all human history and eternity put together. He ain't never going do it again. That's how efficacious the blood is. It was so good once, he never has to do it again. The blood still works. It will never lose its power. The blood that Jesus shed for me way back on Calvary, the blood that gives me strength from day to day, it will never lose its power, did it once, and for all. That blood is still working. He said, "Who's going to condemn us? Nobody." Why? Jesus died for us and died so good that he didn't have to die again but didn't stay dead.

He loved the fact that he took away our condemnation so much that after he died, he got back up, gangster, It's not even Easter and that feels good. Got up, and not only got up, went and sat next to his dad to plead our case to him. If he's pleading, that means you don't have to.

Jesus is sitting next to his daddy going, "Hey, dad. Don't worry. I know Chris is crazy. His anger is crazy, but you remember Peter's was too, and we worked that out. Remember the whole sword thing when he cut off the dude's ear, and then I just had to put it back on. We know how to deal with people with anger issues. Remember, I know the enemy's trying to accuse him of all this stuff and he feels crazy, but you remember, he didn't have a dad, so his neuro system has been spiraling out of control, trying to figure out what it means to be a man and never had a man to teach him. Although he loves you, he still pops off at the mouth and his aggression is crazy, but don't worry about it. Chris is going to be okay."

He's just daily making intercession for you, unbeknownst to you. You just, and he's like, "We're going to get him," because remember, he has more time than you do. You keep going in your anger, you keep brooding in your anger. He already knows that on February 17th of 2023, you going to get a breakthrough and be crying like that baby. I'm so aware of the room, you have no idea. I am so aware of this room. He's patient enough to plead and intercede on your behalf, knowing that you're going to have the breakthrough that you need to be the person he has always designed and created you to be. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us? I love this part.

This part I want to read for everybody that thinks they're taking an L right now while I've been doing this whole winning season. You're like, "Man, no, I know everybody-- and crying, "Winning season. My house ain't paid off. I still got a mortgage. Dang. I'm in an apartment we have done put five bids on houses. Every time we come with a little FHA loan, somebody from California just pays." That hurt. Y'all started groaning. The Holy Spirit's going to take those groans. Y'all be, "Oh, Jesus." [groans] "We had to wait seven extra months for that house." [moans]

Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? As the scriptures say, "For your sake, we are killed every day. We are being slaughtered like sheep. No, no matter how much trouble you've had. No, no matter how many calamities you've had. Oh, we need to bring that word calamity back. Somebody needs to post that the next time they get in trouble, on your Instagram and your Facebook.

I just think it's a dope word that just needs to get back in circulation. You're going through a lot right now, man. The calamity is just overwhelming me right now, man. I can't deal with the amount of calamity that I feel like God's allowed me to go through. He's brought through so much calamity. I just feel like-- It's four syllables, man. That's delicious, calamity, so much better than drama.

Imagine Mary J. Blige like, "No more calamity in my life." It's time for me to stop. No, I do need to go lay down. "No, despite all these things overwhelming," not just victory, y'all, "Overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us." This is how you going to win for the rest of your life because you're going to have overwhelming victory, no matter what you go through for one reason and one reason only, God loves you. Oh, if you knew how much he loved you. He went through all of human history, crawled through, and put his word on a cross to bleed out so that you could have a relationship with him.

He knows your trauma, and he called you anyway. He knows how many times you failed, and he called you anyway. He knows that you've been on a losing streak, and he's still telling you it's winning season. He knows everything about you, and he still says, "I love you." Now, I know there are some people in here whose butt cheeks have been tight as I've been preaching this because when you preach about God's love like this without disclaimers, there's people in here that are legalists and justice seekers that are always like, "Someone has to pay. You got to pay for your sins." That has nothing to do with the love though. There are consequences for sin, but it doesn't change the love.

When the prodigal son came back, daddy ran out to meet him. Boy didn't get to the porch. Daddy ran out in the middle of the street, "Oh, my son's home," threw a robe over him, brought him in. "Kill the fatty calve. We about to have a party. Son's home." He was back, received by his father, but he didn't get another inheritance. His daddy didn't give him $2 million more. "Since you came home, here's extra $2 mill." No, the consequence for his ratchet behavior out there with them hoes, and them pigs, and everything else he was out there with.

That's the book, It don't say hoes. You're right. My bad. That's not the book. That's me. That's Inglewood in me. Prostitute, hoe, lady of the night, Jezebel, whatever. I don't know where you came from. I don't know what your background is. The promiscuous, whatever word you want to use. I choose hoe. I was born in 1975. I grew up with hoes around me. That's what I know. He spent all his money on all that stuff. He got to live with the memories of all of that stuff. He woke up around pigs. He has to live with that for the rest of his life, but the father's love does not change because of what he went through.

He might lose some relationships because of his decisions, but he won't lose his relationship with God because of his decisions. Your spouse might leave you because of your decisions. God will not leave you because of that decision. There are consequences to sin. I am not the legislator of that, nor am I the judge that's supposed to execute the sentence for you. You know what you got to pay for? It's just a consequence. It's not God. I'm trying to end.

If you cheated on your spouse and you got a divorce, what you cannot say is, "You know what? I wouldn't stop sleeping around, so God had to take my whole family away from me to teach me a lesson." God didn't take your family away from you. You took your family away from you. Your stupid behind forgot that your iPhone was connected to your iPad, which was also connected to your Apple TV, and you pulled up Netflix and these text messages came up and your pics came up and you was like, "Oh, no. I can explain", not to him not to her. It's over between y'all. That's their decision. They ain't got to stay with you.

The Bible says it. Don't, "The devil trying to tear up my family." You tear your family up. Your spouse has a decision to make. If she or he wants to say what you after all of that stuff, that's on them, but if they don't, you can't be mad at them. "See, you don't even want to see God do a miracle, do you?" The miracle is to get your promiscuous self to stop doing what you doing. They kept their vows, you didn't, so don't blame it on God, and don't blame it on them.

I had a young man come in my office one day when I was a young adult pastor, and he said, "He wounds up contracting HIV", and he was like, "You know what? I was out there and then I don't know why the Lord wants me to go through this, but I just say to the Lord not my will but thy be done." I said, "Hold on." We was both crying because when he told me the diagnosis, it was devastating. Then, he said that through tears and I was like, "Oh." Literally, I was like, "Welp, I'll have to cry later, sir, but you won't get out of here with that theology. Let me break it down. God did not give you HIV to teach you a lesson. You gave yourself HIV to teach yourself a lesson."

Let me break down a lesson. If I tell my boys they can go outside and play, which God blessed us, we have three acres. If we tell them we can go outside and play and don't go in the street, then we already told them where the boundary was prior to giving them permission to go outside. They went outside anyway, they're playing in the grass and then one of them is like, "I don't care about dad's boundary. The street looks fun." They run out in the street, pow, get hit by a car. They don't die, thank God, but they pinned under the car. While they're pinned under the car, I dare one of my kids to say, "Daddy sent this car to hit me to teach me a lesson." "I didn't send the car to hit you. Cars are in the street."

While there might be consequences for your behavior, God's love will never change no matter what you've been through. Mourn the loss of what your behavior cost you. Mourn it as a loss. I hate we're not on good terms, but that was me, and you ain't got to forgive me and you ain't ever got to come back. We ain't ever got to be friends no more, but just know I know what I did. That's on me. I'm going to live with that for the rest of my life. That's on me, but then forgive yourself and move on. Don't waste the next seven years, "You still don't want to be friends again? I apologized 11 times. Do you still want to be friends?" They don't want to because there's too much hurt that's happened.

Guess who still wants to be your friend? God. That joker didn't die for you. There ain't one drop of blood came out their body for you, maybe a tear but not blood. Keep the focus on the relationship that you do have and write an obituary for the relationships you don't have and move on with your life. This going to be unique. It's a little bit different from the first service. I just feel really impressed to pray for people that need to forgive themselves.

[music]

Tim: I don't know what you've done. I don't know what you got into, but the scales have popped out of your eyes. You realized, "Oh, my gosh, like Paul, I was murdering the same people that I became." Do you know Paul could have never wrote one letter if he was riddled with the guilt of what he did to those people in the past. The whole letter would been, "Dear Galatians, I'm so sorry for killing you all in the past, my bad." Can you imagine three chapters are just, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know back then what I know now. I grew up a little bit. God's been doing some work on the inside of my heart, so I got therapy, and then I found out something."?

We wouldn't get this beautiful stuff that he wrote had he not forgiven himself for murdering the people he became. You cannot have a winning season if you don't forgive yourself. You have to take yourself off of a punishment God never gave you. Oh, I'm in here. I don't know who I'm in here for, but I feel it. I want to pray for some people. This is the seventh year. This is where debts are canceled. God is saying, "I need to cancel your debt. You need to forgive yourself. You heard about loan forgiveness. You need to forgive yourself. Stop trying to pay me back for something I already paid for."

If that's you, I just want you to meet me at this altar right now. You need to forgive yourself, whoever you are. I just ask you to come. You need to forgive yourself. You're in a different frame of mind now. You need to forgive yourself. You can't change the past. You can't change what it is. You just need to forgive yourself. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Just forgive yourself. All right. There's consequences. I get it. Great. Forgive yourself. I'm not saying walking around like you didn't do nothing like, "Yes." No, but just forgive yourself. Own your mistake, forgive yourself, and let's go.

It's unbelievable, spontaneously, how many people just hit their knees? I don't know. Dang. Okay, Jesus. Wherever you are, just come on. Just fill in all the way around. Get as close as you can. Just forgive yourself. Just forgive yourself. Nothing you can do about it now. Just be forgiven. Just be forgiven. He forgave you already, so release it. Just release it. Just release it. Thank you, Holy Spirit.

Father, we thank you right now. Let's just start praying. Everybody that's seated, let's just pray for everybody that's up here right now. If you have a prayer language, use it, your native tongue, whether it's Spanish, if it's German, if it's Croatian, if it's Nigerian, whatever you speak, let's just pray. God, we thank you right now that you forgive us because you forgive us. Tears are good right now. I promise you, tears are good right now. Since you forgive us, we forgive ourselves. Since you forgive us, we forgive ourselves. We take ourselves off of punishment. We will no longer put ourself in a jail cell that you did not build.

I come against the enemy right now, who has lied to us, and told us that we don't deserve to be in God's presence, that he can no longer use us, that we are no longer worthy. Who shall condemn you? No one. Who can accuse you? No one. What can stand against you? Nothing can and nothing will. Father, I thank you for the restoration that you're doing in our hearts, I thank you for the restoration that you're doing in our souls, and I pray that right now in the name of Jesus, that you would take this message, let it sink deeply into our hearts so that we may never again lose but spend the rest of our lives winning because overwhelming victory is ours because of Christ Jesus. We give you praise.