Connected to Self

And we trust you. It's in Jesus's name that we pray and all guys's people said nicely: amen, have a seed, you can have a seat, you can have a seat. You don't have to have a seat, you can have a seat. You don't have to have a seat, but you can have a seat.

I don't know.

I got. I got the Bible, I got a permanent marker and I got my iPad. Today I'm preach. We've been in a series called interconnected.

The idea of this series is that that there are various aspects of our life that we need to be more effectively connected.

In our first sermon, we talked about the idea that all the things are connected, right, like the things you eat. It's a simple right. Things you eat, the things you do-, how much sleep or not? That affects your emotions, it affects how you feel, it affects how you operate.

Your spiritual state, has a crazy impact on the way that you live your life.

I mean every everything is connected and so often what we try to do is we try to compartmentalize and say, if I work on this, then it'll be better, if I work on this, then it'll be better. But the reality is, if you work on this, that means you're putting effort and time into one thing, which means you can't put effort and time into another thing. You may be feeling like a great parent one week, but then you're like I need to be a better husband o I need to be better at work, I need to develop some, some friend groups. Everything is connected, and so you're never going to find that true balance.

The only way to get where you want to be is in Christ Jesus.

Last week, we talked about connecting with God, which should be the first thing, that we do if we want to connect at all other levels: the idea that we can lift our eyes to the hills, recognizing that our help comes from the Lord. But let's be real, our health comes from him too, and so our connection to God is Not some weird theological Ascent where we go up on top of a mountain and recognize all the little truths about God and can use words like superlap, arianism and all the other theological terms. No, it's, it's. It's shifting our posture and our attention, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, trusting that he's going to add what I need in my life, and this week I want to talk to you about being connected to self, connected to self.

I think there is a level where where self forgetfulness is important in your faith, but I think sometimes we have H A high level of theology about self forgetfulness, but sometimes we fail to comprehend the importance of knowing who we are.

You might call this self-awareness, . You might call it, just general social skills, understanding who you are in relation to other people. There there are books out there that are fully devoted to the self, and in the Christian world it's not as if God calls us to forget about ourselves. In fact, his, his commandment says this.

In the Old Testament it says: love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and love your neighbor as yourself.

There is something crucial in our walk with God about understanding who we are. Jesus understood who he was like. He's the best example of it. He was so in tune with who he was that when someone who's been ill touches the Hem of His Garment in a crowd, he feels energy.

Leave him that.

When his friend, cousin John the Baptist dies, he goes out into the Wilderness because he knows the emotional impact that's going to have on him. He knows when to rest, when to focus. Jesus was very self aware, and so I don't think self forgetfulness is the route, though sometimes it's helpful, I think, truly embracing who you are and understanding who you are not not collectively, not like who are you like? What has he called you to?

What are your gifts?

Why has he placed those desires within you? How was he going to get you from where you are to where he's called you to be? One of the saddest aspects of the world that we live in is the fact that sin has marred our true selves, and now we almost perpetually live at a lower version of our self, and so we are in despair. Saen kard, existentialist philosopher, would say that he says that despair is the difference or the gap between Where We Are, are and where we desire deeply, at the deepest levels, to be.

All of us struggle in despair because who we are called to be.

There's a gap between there and where we are, and I believe in Christ we can get there, and I believe without Christ I don't want to. I don't want to wait to say I don't want to save this till later. I believe without Christ you'll never get there. In fact, just like I said last week, looking at Jesus is the first thing you need to do, in order to understand who you truly are, the genuiness of your Humanity, you have got to look at Jesus and allow him to develop you and transform you into who he's called you to be.

So we're going to be in a text today talking about the self- 2 Corinthians, 3: 12- 18- and I'm going to present a problem, quickly present a solution, but then I'm going to give you the nuances of that problem and hopefully you'll leave here with some practical application.

We're going to be in 2 Corinthians, chapter 3. If you have your phone Bible, you can go to The New American Standard Version, or nasb. You'all ever get frustrated about that, like there. Like a million translations.

There are a couple I use.

I'm going to give you a real Pro tip there, a couple that I use. The one that I preach here is the NIV, The New International Version. That's a really good blend between something that is like formal translation of the Greek versus something that is thought for Thought, meaning you can actually apply it more quickly. NIV is a good version.

When I go into deep study- and I went into deep study this week, I apologize up front- I use the new americ Standard Version.

So anyway, 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, we're going to start in verse 12. Therefore, everyone say: therefore, we say this when we read the Bible. If it says, therefore, that means it's therefore a reason you should pay attention. Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech and we're not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what is fading away.

I know I'll break that down in a second, but their minds were hardened, for until this very day, at the reading of the old Covenant, the same bail remains unlifted because it is removed.

In whom? Christ? Christ, The Veil is removed in Christ, but to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil Lies over their heart. But whenever a person turns toward the Lord, that bail is taken away, Away, now by the Lord, or now the Lord is spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty.

But we all with unveiled face, not like Moses, not like the ancient Israel, we with unveiled face, beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the spirit.

God, speak through me, speak through this text. God, I pray that this text is already spoken over some people's lives. Your word has power, without it even being extrapolated. God, your word is good.

I pray that it has already spoken and gone into someone psyche, so that by the end of this U morning they are transformed.

But, God, I pray specifically for the extrapolation or exposition of the Scripture that you would use it to make some practical steps, possible for people in this room who just need a little extra step. God, I love you and trust you. It's in Jesus name that we pray and God's people said amen, all right. So I want to be very clear with you.

There's a problem.

The problem is the despair we feel because we are living below our full potential. That is only realized in Christ Jesus. There's your solution. Paul says it two times.

He says, when you turn toward the Lord, the veils lifted two times, like.

He gives you the solution. The text tells you my entire sermon. Essentially, you are living below the calling that God has on your life, below your genuiness as Humanity. All of us, we're all marred by sin.

We can't help it.

It's just part of the game that. That's why the first words out of your mouth were no to your parents or Dad D, and then no is one of those things. Right, because we are marred by sin and so we are incapable of doing more than simply aspiring to God's will in our life. On our own, we're incapable of it.

So the solution is in Christ Jesus.

That's when the veil's lifted, that's when the despair we have can be mitigated, is when we approach Christ Jesus. There's your solution. Sermon done. All right, see you guys later.

All right, seriously, sometimes I think I just talk too much, don't say anything, don't do it.

Don't make me feel like I talk too much. I can make this sermon very simple, but I did a deep dive and I can't help it. I did a deep dive and I was reading existentialist philosophers and trying to understand self at a deeper level. I was reading, different literature on self-awareness, and I was also looking at all the self-help books.

Anyone read self-help books once in a while.

Yo, there's a whole Market. Surprised this, not people in this room reading self-help books. It's okay, you got the Bible book in here today. It's going to be good.

You going to work on it, but self-help books, they, they frustrate me and I enjoy them at the same time.

I read them because they help me incrementally, but they frustrate me because they never truly solve the problem. The reason is because, no matter what pop culture, no matter what society says, no matter what the self-help books say, you can incrementally get better, but you will never be where God wants you to be without the help of Christ Jesus. So what I'm going to talk to you about today are the things that prevent you from taking that step to remove the veil, because there are veils in your life that are causing you to hold back on what God will call you into. I just want to break those down.

I think it'll be helpful for you.

These are the things that prevent you from truly stepping into your walk with God and living up to the potential he has for you. I'm going to give you six to seven veils today. Six to seven veils. Now let me make it clear what a veil is, because I don't want you thinking I'm just jumping out of Scripture, because they said the term Veil, the term veil, was utilized in reference to the Old Testament.

Anyone ever heard of Moses?

Yeah, just a couple of you, Moses? Moses was the leader of the Israelite people out of Egypt. Right, he's the one who walked through the Red Sea. He's the one who stayed in the wilderness for 40 years.

He's the one who almost let him into the promised land, but then he died right before they went into it.

Right, that's Moses. He's the guy we hear about the ten commandments from, and then all of the other laws. Moses is a big deal. And you got Paul jumping in this talking to the Corinthian Church.

He's talking to them like, yeah, Moses was cool, that was cool Glory, but it was Glory that faded.

And what does that mean it? Here's something that happened in the Old Testament. Moses had a personal relationship with Yahweh, the God that we believe in. That personal relationship was such that when Moses would interact with Yahweh, he would not only receive Revelation in the term term of in terms of like stone tablets or Commandments.

He would.

He would actually glow, like Moses was first dude, with a real glow up. You know what I'm saying? So he's hanging out with God and, he would interact with them. Then he would go to the people and the people were like they couldn't look at Moses in the face because he was so bright- and I could take this like allegorically if I wanted to, but it's literal, he's literally bright- but he is so inspired and illuminated by Yahweh that when he went anywhere else it was too bright for the people, right?

So this is what's happening, and the longer Moses would go without interacting with God, that light or illumination would slowly start to di.

This is what Paul's talking about here. He's saying that the old Covenant, as you see in Moses, was amazing. Right, like the Ten Commandments are great, the, the words of Moses are great. That dude glowed up when he was hanging out with God, so much so that he had to Veil his face.

When he was around other Israelite people, he glowed up.

This is good glory, but what Paul's making an argument for is that the New Covenant, the one that we have in Christ Jesus, where, when we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead and we're saved, that- and I know this is strange, but this is what the Bible says- God places his spirit in each one of us and every day discloses to each one of us different Revelation about who God is. In fact, we can regularly be transformed by the renewing of our mind that comes from God's spirit. He's saying that Moses's Fades and ours doesn't. What the spirit provides each of us who have trusted in Jesus will never fade, and that's the veil that that Paul's talking about, the one that Moses would put over his face.

And what he does is he takes that situation in the Old Testament and brings it to the Corinthian Church and he says: you guys have veils too.

Anytime the law of Moses is read, your hearts are hardened. There is a veil between you and your full potential in Christ Jesus, and the reason you are not living up to your full potential is because of these veils that prevent you from trusting or turning to God. So there's your intro, there's your context. What are your Veils?

I'm going to use this.

Anyone know what this is? Say it out loud. Y'all are so confident. What did the first verse say?

Let me read it.

Let me read it for you again. Says: therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech. What is this? Thank you, I appreciate you guys.

The rest of you, we're going to remove the veil soon.

All right, I'm kidding with you. I'm kidding with you. All right, chill out. All right, I'm gonna give you my first Veil.

What happens is we want to live up to our full potential, so we start assessing who we are.

Maybe you had a bad social situation. You go home and you're thinking about it and you're trying to assess constantly: what did I do wrong? How can I do better in the future? Right, you're thinking about these things.

Why do I have to be this way?

Why are my genetics like this? You, you're trying to be something and there are barriers in between you and that. So when you look and try to figure it out, you feel like you're hitting a barrier and I want to tell you, if you don't have Christ, you will keep hitting those barriers and never live up to the full potential you have in Christ. So what are these veils?

The first Veil, I would say, is the veil of Personality or genetics.

I'm just going to write genetics. What do I mean by the veil of genetics? I mean you were born and I mean because of sin. Sin has a negative impact or even neutral impact on your life, such that you are not the way that you want to be, and you feel it like how many of you ever look in a mirror?

I'm just being honest, right, like how many of you ever look in a mirror at yourself and you're like: I don't like that.

Thank you for your honesty today. I appreciate that every one of us has done it. If you've been in seventh grade, you've definitely done it. You know what I'm saying.

So, cuz you got that acne, that acne is coming up.

It's like those. That guy didn't have acne, that dude looks like Brad Pit in seventh grade, but for me I've got acne and it's about to pop. And then it's going to stress people out at school and I'm trying not to be too close to anybody, and then you put self tanner on, even though you shouldn't, and anyway it's like I look at it. I'm like I was at.

I was at Cross one time and I was trying to do CrossFit.

You know why? I wish I could say it was all spiritual. I just wanted to be healthy. But you do a couple of those like I don't know what do they call that?

I don't know, squats or, I can't remember it.

I apologize. You start doing some of those workouts. You realize, no, this is just superficial and narcissistic. So I was there to get my six-pack and, I was sitting across from this guy dude was shredded and I said, man, dude, how do I get that?

He said, bro, genetics.

I wanted, I wanted to hit the dude but I didn't. I didn't. Sometimes, like my genetics are, are problematic and I want you to know, like it's not something you can fix necessarily, but it can be problematic, like there are things about my brain chemistry that are problematic, like I, I wish that I could lay in my bed at night, start reading the Bible and stay awake, but just because of who I am, it's not because I work too hard, it's because I have a focus issue. Right, That's genetics.

There are things in your life that make it harder for you to live up to your full potential and when we start looking at these things like genetics, maybe it's the way we look, maybe it's the way we act, maybe it's just our personality and the things that are natural to us that aren't natural to other people.

Those things, when we start focusing on them and trying to fix them, we recognize that there's some difficulty and those can be a veil. This is this thing called Original Sin. It means, because of what Adam and Eve did, all of us are marred by it, and so your starting point makes it difficult for you to live up to your full potential. Again.

That's why we need Christ, but your genetics are a veil.

The second Veil is the veil of what I would call- I wanted to call nature nurture, but I'll call it the veil of your environment, or, trauma, because all the good stuff we don't talk about, you know it's the bad stuff, the bail of your environment. Many of you, you struggle to understand who God is. You struggle to live up to your full potential, in Christ or not. You just struggle to live up to your full potential because of the trauma that you've encountered in life, and I don't want to like brush that under the rug.

If there's anything I've learned over the past week is: don't do a press tour when you're doing a, a movie and start talking mess or just randomly talking about trauma.

You know what I'm saying. Some people know what I'm talking about. Trauma is something that happened to you, maybe at a younger age, or it could be over time, could have been when you were a full-grown adult. Whatever it is, it's something that happened in your life externally from your environment that has caused you internal pain, or even just like a mindset that isn't optimal.

Those things you- you couldn't control necessarily what happened, but it has become now an inhibitor or a veil between you and God, and it sounds like it's like dang Matt.

Why? Why being so negative today? Yep, my genetics. I know I don't look like I want to look, but I guess, yep, that's a veil between me and God though.

Yeah, yeah, these thoughts that we have about ourselves, these thoughts that we have within us, our biology, by nature of original sin, is a preventative.

And then you got the environment. Matt, I didn't raise myself, and if you did Kos, do you good job, but, but I didn't raise myself, I was in that environment. I couldn't help it. My parents weren't there, like, other people's parents are, or they raised them differently, or they had a different financial situation or so, and so's boyfriend or girlfriend was in their life and they did this to me and they shouldn't have.

And I'm not negating that at all.

I'm saying those things now create a barrier between you and your ultimate potential in Christ Jesus. Why? Because they make it a preventative between us and God, so that when we hear the word of God preach like the Israelites do, or like the people in Corinth who are used to the law of Moses, do they? They don't.

They're.

They're glazing over because because of their frustrations, Maybe about genetics, or their Trauma from whatever environment it was that they came like picture. In the ancient world this is a very common thing. You've got people who were upper echelon of society and then you got people who were slaves in society. Now, if you were a slave, then it means you were captured, probably by the Romans, and you were sitting in a slave or in slavery, when you know, timately, that wouldn't have been the case.

And so they're hearing the word of Moses preached over their life, or they're hearing the Gospel and they're like, yeah, that's good for somebody else, but for me, I'm stuck in this position.

I can't, and genuinely, it's difficult to live up to your full potential when you're in an environment that has caused you trauma. Here's one that's going to be pretty relevant to you. You got the veil of nostalgia. This is the way things were always done, and this is why I think it connects with people in our day and age.

I also think it connects with the people: Paul talking to Paul's writing to people, telling them about the New Covenant in Christ Jesus and how the Mosaic law and Moses's writings actually show us who God is and Jesus fulfills what Moses talked about.

But when Moses's read over the people in Corinth, they're glazing over. Like it actually says, there is a veil over their hearts that is preventing them from seeing it, and I think one of those veils is a veil of the way things always were done before. It's funny. We started this church, right, would y'all say we're a new church.

Six, six and a half months, like six months.

We're pretty new out here in the valley. I think we're the newest one out here in Buckeye, unless it was one that started that I didn't know about. We're pretty new, right, I would say we are the embodiment of Isaiah, where it says: behold, I'm doing a new thing, don't you see it? I think we are a new thing here in Buckeye.

Yet everyone comes from their environment and all of their older things- not bad things, older things- and that is what they are familiar with.

The first event that we ever did here at the church was Christmas. Well, the first big event was Christmas Eve. Did anyone come to Christmas Eve? Yeah, I came to Christmas Eve.

Y yeah, okay, that's cool, though I'm glad y'all are here Christmas Eve.

And, there was one song that I knew we were going to have to do: Silent Night. Do I love silent night? I'm sure it's great s night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. Okay, cool, that's fine, that's fine.

Sleep in heavenly, all that stuff.

I like the song, it's good, but you know what? There's no way I wasn't going to do the song, because everyone gets in their fields with that Nostalgia, and the moment I choose not to do that song is the moment someone comes up to me and says: Matt, you really probably should do silent night. It's Christmas. And why are they saying it?

Not because they're sitting there every single day putting on the radio, worshiping silent night and it really moves in their spirit.

They're doing it because of nostalgia. Sometimes the barrier between you and God's new thing is the veil of nostalgia. Is what's always been done. Like the moment we do something different than somebody else did at their church, that they left at some point because they didn't want to be a part of it anymore.

Like the moment we don't do something that was done.

They're like: I don't know about this church y'all do it differently and I'm like, okay, cool if if there's a real conversation to have about you and your relationship with God, let's do it. But it sounds to me sometimes like this is just Nostalgia. It's like, hey, we stand up too much. We used to sit down quite a bit at my old church.

But let's go to other areas of nostalgia.

Some of you could really really benefit from some of the creativity that comes in music that has come out in the last 5 to 10 years. I know I know' 80s music was the best. I know '90s music was. Y'all can't even argue that one.

' 990s music was terrible.

All think Bitter Sweet. It's terrible, terrible stuff. We can skip the '90s but ' 80s music, 70s music? You know Eddie Van Halen, come on somebody.

Yeah, but the new stuff is cool too, some of it right like it's different.

But you're prevented from actually benefiting and listening to what God might be doing these days, not necessarily through secular music, but through the new thing. You're stuck in the old. And I'm not saying that there's nothing good about the old, I'm saying sometimes you have to trade off old traditions in order to experience God in the way he wants to work, and so that is a veil- Nostalgia can be a huge veil- in church and outside of church- and I've made the commitment- and this is more of a practical Point. I've made the commitment I'm going to embrace new while also honoring that which God wants us to keep from the old.

I'm trying, I'm trying to figure that out, but that is Avail for many of us, because maybe God wants to speak through a text that that you've read before, maybe just because you've been quoting for God so of the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever may believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Maybe since you've been quoting The Lord's Prayer your whole life, that doesn't mean you should just glaze over it. Maybe God wants to speak something directly through you now. The veil of nostalgia will prevent you from seeing Christ Jesus and your full potential, but in Christ Jesus you can remove that Veil. The next Veil is the veil of societal norms.

Societal Norms- that's what culture thinks is normal.

I don't even have to speak too long on it, but I'm going to be bold today, because that's what Paul starts the text with. I'm going to be bold. There's some societal Norms that are against you fulfilling your potential in Christ Jesus and when you become complacent or even content in these societal Norms, that is, you decid to perpetually live, live below the potential you have societal Norms. I'll give you an easy one.

We in America are different than the rest of the world.

I realized this when we were trying to order products from China. They take two months off in February for for Chinese New Year and it was a struggle because I wanted to get it by all this stuff by launch, but I didn't. So it is what it is, but they took a break. But we in America, busy, busy.

How many of you busy?

How many of you think a good response to someone asking you how you doing and you saying busy is a good response? How many you think that, yeah, yeah, I know some of you do. I know cuz I asked you and I'm like, hey, how's your busy? And you act like we're supposed to feel bad for you cuz you're too busy.

We are busy as a culture.

That is a societal norm, and often busyness is our excuse to not do something God might be calling us to do or what would be best for us reaching our potential. Here's another societal Norm: when I've been busy all week, there's nothing better than a Netflix binge, and so you go chill. You could pull down the TV and put up a whiteboard to address your goals and your future and get your finances straight. You could have a whiteboard instead of a big 56 in 56, in 60- I don't know what- in 75 in TV on your wall.

But you going to live below.

I'm not saying you should do this, I'm saying but, but because of the Norms, we live below our potential. Some of these Norms actually keep us in willful sin because it's just normal. It's normal for us to jump into that TV MA show cuz Game of Thrones happen and everybody like that. Is normal for us to operate a certain way or align ourselves unnecessarily with a specific political party, as was normal.

It's- I saw that there's something going to be on the AR Arizona ballot this year.

It's totally societ, Society wise, is normal. But I can't help but think that that if we're going to live to our full potential in Christ and allow others to live in their full potential, maybe we need to recognize that that societal Norm is a veil that's keeping us from God, and I know I was vag there, but some of you guys know what I'm talking about. I ain't trying to be political up here. I'm trying to be truthful about what God's word would indicate in our lives.

The veil of societal Norms will keep us not only from God, but also our full potential.

The next one is the veil of stubbornness. How many of you are stubborn? Look at all them hand rais. That means you're humble, kind of humble.

All the ones who didn't raise their hand.

They don't think they're stubborn, and it's like there's a veil right there. I'll being Savage today. I can't help it. Stubbornness is real man like.

The reason that many people don't trust in Jesus at all is because they want to f it themselves or they think they don't need help.

They think that everything in their life is because they pulled up their bootstraps and figured it out. I'm not saying you didn't. I'm saying God helped, even if you don't think he did. And so where you are is a direct result of not just your labor but also your environment, your genetics and what God has placed in you, because he formed you in your mother's womb.

Right, you got help.

Stubbornness would say: I don't need help. Stubbornness prevents us. It is a veil between us and God. It is what keeps the mirror that God wants us to see dim.

And then the next one is the veil of fear, because while we say we want to live up to our full potential, whether it's in Christ or not, we don't really want to because we know that there would be a sacrifice involved.

I need you to know that if you want to live up to your full potential in Christ, you're going to have to overcome some fears, one of those being that you're going to have to start revolving your life around something different than you've been revolving it around. We say Jesus like if you want to live up to your full potential, then you got to start revolving your life around Jesus. Well, that's scary. It's scary because when I start revolving my life around something different, the things and the people that I used to revolve my life around don't like it.

Like your bosses were great when you got to work every Sunday.

Now that you're asking off once in a while so you can do the thing that you think God's using to bless you, they're like: hold. That's scary. It's scary to ask them it. It's scary to tell your family that doesn't follow Jesus that you're now following Jesus.

That means I got to shift some stuff and they're going to be looking at me the whole time to see if it's real.

It like that's scary. That's why a lot of people don't want to make their faith public through baptism, because it now means people know what what you believe, and when they know what you believe, that means they're going to look at you and see if if you're living in cohesion with your beliefs or not. So that fear, that's a veil. That's a veil that prevented a lot of people in the ancient world from trusting in Jesus, because they knew they'd get kicked out of the synagogue if they did it.

That's what half the Book of Revelation is about is people encountering trials and persecution because they made a belief statement public.

These are all veils that prevent us from knowing God, and while you can try to encounter any of them, the Bible offers us a very clear solution. It says: turn to the Lord and the veil will be removed. Turn to the Lord and the veil will be removed. It do it doesn't say: hey, go, go, do your 23 and me, figure out your genetics and you become more self-aware and then all of a sudden, you're going to work all this stuff out.

No, no, no, no, no.

Bible says: turn to the Lord and the veil will be removed. It doesn't say: go interact with all your trauma, which you totally should. You should revisit some of that stuff. You should do it with the help of, maybe, a counselor who's a professional and knowing what they're doing.

But even if you do that, you're not going to fully solve the problem of living below your potential.

Because it's only in Christ Jesus that the veil is removed. That Nostalgia you can. You can say, ah, the future is better than the past. And then what you're going to do is you're going to wholesale throw away the past.

But what God wants to do is redeem the past, not throw it away.

Because only in Christ Jesus will that Veil be removed in the proper way. Only in Christ Jesus will the societal norms be something that you can move Beyond. Only in Christ Jesus will that Revelation come. Only in Christ Jesus, can he help make you humble by gazing upon the person and the work of Christ Jesus.

He will make you humble.

Only in Christ Jesus can your fears be subsided. The Scriptures actually give us something different, but the problem is: without Christ Jesus we can try all we want, but we're looking into a dim mirror. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians that soon to be, we're going to be looking face to face. Well, how does that occur?

It occurs on the other side of trusting in Christ Jesus, because when he places his spirit in you- the Bible says it here- where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And what happens is when you trust in Jesus. You're not immediately going to fix all this stuff. However, you're immediately going to be able to receive Revelation about this stuff. So here's how it occurs.

It's I trust in Jesus.

I confess with my mouth that Jesus says Lord, and believe my heart that God raised him from the dead. There's some clarity. So now I'm seeking ye, first, the kingdom of God, his righteousness. All other things can be added.

I'm going to fix my eyes on Jesus.

He's the author and perfector of my faith. I'm going to keep looking to him. Romans 12:1 says that I'm not to be conformed to this world, but I'm going to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. Right, so I start with my mind, but then that's going to slowly evolve into the way that I feel and then my actions, and then I'm going to be able to tackle some issues of my genetics, some issues of my environment, some issues of societal Norms, some issues of my nostalgia or living in the past- when I don't need to because it's unhealthy- some issues of my stubbornness and all the other areas.

And what we recognize is that when we look at Christ Jesus, the Bible says the Light of Christ Shines on us and it illuminates us, and so it moves.

It moves us from this dim place where we lack understanding, La self-awareness and live below our potential to a place where we can look into a mirror and understand why God placed me here on this Earth. But it's not by figuring it out on your own, it's by looking at Christ first. It's by looking, oh, oh, the Light of Christ shine. Sorry, I just saw the reflection and I'm like I got to do.

The Light of Christ shines.

I can't help it. I took a serious moment and made it unhelpful, but the way to rid yourself of this philosophical despair you feel, because the gap between where you are and where you feel like at the deepest levels you're supposed to be, is by turning to Jesus. So remove the veil by trusting in Jesus and you will get to this place where God gives you a solution to these things that I listed, that were dim before. Now.

They're clear.

The genetics: he'll give you the value in your genetics, because the spirit of God has made me and the breath of the almighty gives me life. I recognize that God made me on purpose, for a reason and though sin has marred me, God is going to redeem it. Job 33: job 33: the deliverance from your trauma. The Bible says in Psalm 34: I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

So if you want removal of the trauma in your life, you're going to have to encounter it, and the way that you encounter It Is by seeking the Lord, him hearing, answering and delivering.

It's going to give you the truth about Nostalgia. Eclesiastes says: do not say why is it that the former days were better than these, for it is not from wisdom that you ask about this. Ecclesiastes tells you: real, quick, move forward, press onward toward the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul says in Philippians says: don't focus on the past.

It gives you the vision Beyond what's normal in society.

Romans 12:2: do not be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That the testing, that by testing you may discern the will of God in light, in spite of what the world would tell you. It gives you the understanding of setbacks when it comes to you being stubborn.

It's actually in humility the Christ brings us up to our potential.

1 Peter 5 says: humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you your fullest potential. Happens after you take a step toward him in humility, and it gives you the alternative to fear, because the Bible makes it clear to us it was died before we removed the veil. But the Bible reveals to us the spirit of God doesn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, self-control- that when we trust in Jesus, the veil begins being removed. In this process called sanctification, the spirit is speaking to us, it's convicting us of our sin, it's compelling us toward a different future where, where we live righteously and it all happens, the veil is removed when you turn toward God and then the Light of Christ shines upon you- and there are those in here who have trusted in Jesus and you're in this process where the veil is being removed.

It's not going to happen in one day, but the way to enter in Daily to that transformation process is by fixing your eyes on Jesus, by opening his word and recognizing that right now it still feels like some of this glaz, you glaze over it, but at some point God starts to reveal to you, through the Bible, who he is, to the point where now, when I read the Bible, it's not because I have theological education, it's because I believe the spirit of God resides in me and gives me discernment and pierces through to the crevices of my soul to help me live in a way that's different.

I believe the same spirit that exists in Christ Jesus, that existed in Paul, that exists in me, is the one that resides in you when you trust in Jesus, and so you can simply open the Bible, and the spirit will illuminate God's word over time, over time. That's what can happen, and those of you who have never trusted in Jesus, I want you to know that the process of sanctification or transformation is not immediate, but the process where God starts to illuminate you it's immediate. When you trust in Jesus, something different happens. I don't even know how to explain it.

I don't know.

I feel weird preaching the supernatural because I want to be pragmatic for all of you. I don't want you to leave here thinking Ma, just talking to the Christians in there. No, but there is something Supernatural that occurs when you trust in Jesus, because he places his spirit in you and now you're convicted. It's interesting.

It's interesting and for those of you who have never turned toward the Lord and you're still in despair, you don't have to be.

You can live up to your full potential, but only in Christ Jesus. So I want to inspire you in any way that I can today to make a decision. This decision is putting your faith and trust in Jesus, allowing him to illuminate your life and following him for the rest of your life. So we're going to pray this prayer right now.

So if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, we're going to pray this prayer together, out loud, for the benefit of those, those who are removing the veil today for the first time.

You might repeat after me: God, I believe God, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe he died on the cross. I believe he died on the cross and Rose from the grave, from: forgive me of my sin. Forgive me of my sin.

I turn toward you.

I turn toward you. Remove the veil. Remove the veil so I can follow you. So I can follow you for the rest of my life.

For the rest of my life.

Illuminate my days, illuminate my days. It's in Jesus's name that we pray, and God's people said, hey, if that was you? And? And you removed the veil by trusting in Jesus.

Today, I believe that this is an amazing opportunity for you to keep taking steps toward him, cuz he's going to inspire you.

In fact, can we celebrate those who just made that decision? Yeah, yeah, yeah.