Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

Say thank you to everybody this week who came to the house of God and served.

I want to thank our, our kids ministry.

I want to thank our amazing children's pastors who are here eight days straight.

They were here every, every night.

There was some sweat, there was some tears, and there was probably a little bit of blood.

And I want to honor y'all.

I wanted to say thank y'all for y'all's vision.

Thank y'all for loving the kids the way that y'all do.

Thank y'all for leading.

It's not easy guys.

Leadership is not easy.

Ministry is not easy.

And they, they, they have done as much as they could with, with excellence and with diligence and with love and a heart of passion and, um, God sees that and he honors that.

So thank you.

Give it up one more time just for the servants that God has sent his house.

Praise God.

I was told, um, that it was 10 kids who said yes to Jesus during this VBS.

I believe we even have some people who are here today because, um, they told mom and dad, Hey, I want to go back to that church that did the fun stuff.

And, and, and there's no octopus hanging here anymore.

So maybe the kids are like, what the heck?

Uh, but this man, if this is your first time visiting, if you brought your family for the first time, this is a great, this is a great church.

I don't say that because I'm the pastor.

I say that because we really are.

It's great people here.

Great people.

We're not perfect, but we love God.

We love God and we love people.

We make mistakes.

We stumble, we drop the ball sometimes, but we're human and we're always trying to go from glory to glory.

As the song says into the image, into the image of God.

So I just want to honor our, our, our children's ministry, man.

Um, also I, I do want to just remind you, um, we, again, I said this last week, we need help in the parking lot.

We, uh, we continue to be a growing church and we feel it and we feel it more so in the parking lot.

And I don't want anybody to leave because they can never find a parking.

And our, our parking team has been stretched very thin.

It's only two or three guys week after week.

And so last week I made an announcement, um, asking for help and about a good 10 of you responded.

So praise God for that.

So after service in the back, we're going to have a quick, a quick meeting.

I want to introduce you to, uh, to our, our, our top flight security, our team leader and all that stuff, brother Josh back there, um, hustling all the time.

And we want to put some orders and structure to this, to this team.

And we're also going to provide some, some pizza for y'all.

Okay.

So, uh, if you're not planning on being a part of the parking team, don't, don't come.

Don't you're in church.

All right.

Um, uh, praise God.

Let's, let's get into the word.

Thank you.

Worship team.

Thank you for your anointing and your ministry this morning.

Amen.

Praise God.

I want you to go with me to Matthew chapter 12, Matthew 12.

We're going to read 40, uh, 43 through 45.

New Testament.

Um, I I'm sorry.

I also got a, I got a text, um, from pastor Bobby, uh, saying that our, our young adults are having a night of worship here on Friday.

Amen.

So come on.

Amen.

I remember when I used to be a young adult, now I'm just an adult, but praise God.

Uh, yeah, come, come through man.

Night of worship is going to be, is going to be fire.

Um, and, and God's presence is going to be evident.

This Friday.

Um, Matthew 12, 43 through 45.

You have it.

Amen.

This is what the Lord says.

The word of the Lord.

It says when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, but finds none.

Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came.

And when it comes, it finds a house empty, swept and put in order.

Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits, more evil than itself.

And they enter and dwell there.

And the, and the last state of the person is worse than the first.

So also will it be with this evil generation.

Amen.

Let's pray heavenly father.

I thank you for this word that you have spoken over your servant.

My God, Lord, I pray that you speak it.

My God, I pray Lord, uh, your authority.

My God would be on my lips this morning.

My God, that nothing that is said today is because I said it.

Father God, I have nothing of value to give my God, but, but your word father.

And I just pray that we would be open to it.

My God, receptive and that our hearts and minds would listen to your word.

My God, that is transformative and, and, and, and convicting father God and powerful in Jesus name.

Amen.

And then you can take your seat.

Amen.

By the way, um, we do have, we do have our nursery is open.

If you have infants, our little fishers is open.

If you have toddlers, our four 12 is closed today, um, because we just need to give the teachers a break.

Amen.

Uh, so, um, but, but if you're, if you're here and you're wondering if we have something for your kids, yes, we have some amazing for your kids week after week.

Um, so I have to preach this sermon because it was, it was put on my heart last week to preach, uh, but so was the other sermon that I ended up preaching.

So I basically told God, Lord, I'll preach this one this week.

You know, the next one next week, if that's okay with you.

And, um, so praise God.

He put the, he put his word back to back on my heart.

Um, make it a little bit easier for the preparation.

Um, today's message.

I don't, it's not going to be so much about demons and unclean spirits.

Um, when we read passages like this, we, we tend to miss the forest for the trees as this, as they say, um, that's to say that we, we zoom in so closely to the, to the details of the content that we miss the message.

And the message that Jesus was teaching here was not on how demons and unclean spirits operate.

It's in here, but that's not the point that Jesus would have us draw from.

Um, this is about a generation that Jesus calls evil because of its unwillingness to repent.

Now we're a church.

We're, we're not this evil generation.

We were children of God saved by grace, but there are things that the church needs to repent from.

So, you know, there are things that, that people in the church need to repent of.

I think repentance doesn't get preached enough to the church because, you know, we, when we think about repentance, we think about, uh, turning away from a lifestyle of sin.

That that is what repentance is.

That's big picture repentance.

When Peter preached to the crowds and he said, repent and be baptized.

He was talking to a group of people who did not have a relationship with Jesus.

When Jesus was talking to this, uh, evil generation, he was talking to religious leaders and Pharisees and Sadducees, all who refused to believe in who he was.

They were blind.

They were misguided.

Some of them were possessed.

We don't think about the church in this way.

We're following Jesus.

We're doing his will.

We're pursuing him.

We're, we're in his presence with our, with our hands lifted up and, and our voice is held high and, and, and we're singing his praises, right?

But I would argue that repentance can actually be a little bit more for the Christian than the sinner, because the Christian still falls short of the glory of God every single day.

We still sin.

And because we have the humility and because we have the desire to please our repentance is just a natural part of the Christian life as we go from glory to glory, pursuing the image of Christ.

So, you know, growing up, I, I never really, I can't think of this moment where I like repented of this lifestyle of sin.

I didn't grow up in a lifestyle of sin.

I, uh, I wasn't raised in a lifestyle of sin.

I was raised in the church.

I was raised in ministry.

I didn't have this moment where I told God, Lord, I'm done with this life.

I should be dead.

No, I should have never been dead.

I didn't have that moment.

I don't, I tell people all the time, I don't, I don't really have that testimony.

That's like really powerful.

Like some of y'all have, you know, I, I didn't grow up in a lifestyle of sin.

What is repentance to a person who never knew a lifestyle of sin?

What is repentance to a, a Christian who no longer lives a lifestyle of sin?

That's where the enemy likes to keep the church comfortable.

He says, Hey, you're already saved.

Hey, you're, you're, you're already good.

Just keep doing what you're doing.

But for those of us who are actually trying to grow and trying to mature spiritually, the closer you get to God, the more you notice the things that are shutting the move of the Holy spirit in your life, the closer you get to God, the more you get to, uh, to his presence, you start to notice the things that are having an adverse effect on your spiritual health.

You start to see things that you should be giving to God.

That's the repentance that the church needs to have its eyes open to.

Yes, we are saved by grace.

Yes, we are on our way to heaven, but the Christian life isn't just about getting to heaven.

It's about looking like Jesus.

Tell the person next to you, you need to repent.

I entitled the message, true repentance, true repentance, as we are being called to holiness.

There's that word again, holiness, repentance needs to be an active part of our life, and I want to talk really quickly to those who have been dealing with just like the same issues for a long time, people rarely deal with all kinds of different things and struggles.

Most of the time people are battling a certain spirit, a specific temptation, or even fighting the same demon, the same one for some people.

It's, it's the pride.

The pride continues to creep into your life.

Other people, it's lust.

Other people is jealousy.

Other people it's insecurity for other people.

It's, it's the same issues in your marriage that have been haunting you for the past 10 to 15 years, and every time you think you're past it, you're not, everyone deals with something and we also, we often deal with it for a very, very long time.

Now, some of these things are sins.

Some of them are not, but every struggle, if, if not, if the struggle isn't put directly by God, that struggle, um, comes from something that is broken.

If you get to the root of it, something isn't properly working and you know, every, every sermon that we preach, man is meant to build.

It's meant to edify the believer little by little, right?

I mean, one sermon rarely does a job that it probably hopes to do.

I would hope that every single Sunday sermon would, I mean, just be life changing for everybody in the room, but that's not how it works.

Just like one prayer doesn't, doesn't work to the, to the degree that you would want it to work.

One Bible study, one time coming to church, those things one time doesn't do it, but with consistency, with intentionality, the believer grows in spirit and immaturity.

And I say this, but I want you to know that man, every sermon that the Lord speaks is really meant to have an impact and build your spiritual life.

Paul says all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So I say this because I want you to never approach the word of God.

Listen, never approach the word of God like it's a chore, like it's just, Oh, I gotta read it.

Oh, I missed my, I miss one of my days.

I can't cross it off the, off, off my calendar.

I never want you to think about a Sunday sermon as just another piece of the Sunday service agenda.

No, this is the word of God being preached and it's for the edification of the saints.

And so I want you to hear this message today because this is how deliverance and healing and growth takes place.

For those of you dealing with the same stuff and you've been listening to the sermons and you've been coming to the house of God, but you still leave with the same struggles, the way that deliverance happens, the way that growth happens is through repentance.

That's it.

Repentance.

I don't think the church understands, realizes the power of repentance because I hear ministers all the time talking about deliverance, but they don't talk about it with repentance.

I know people who like, I don't know if people think it's cool to talk to demons, to battle with demons, but I hear people only speak to the demon and never stop to speak to the soul.

When, when, when Jesus would cast out demons, he wouldn't just cast them out and be on his way.

He will stop and have a conversation with the people that were affected by these evil spirits.

Why?

Because Jesus knew the danger that an empty spirit can leave a person.

There's too much at stake to just clean you out, but not fill you with something.

One of the greatest harms, one of the greatest harms that we have done to the altars, man, the Lord was ministering this to me and he, he broke my heart when he said it.

One of the greatest harms that the church has done to the altars is, is, is to, to constantly have people leave something at the altar without taking Jesus with them.

Jesus told his disciples, if anybody would come after me, let him deny himself and let up, take up his cross and follow me.

And I'll tell you this.

I see a lot of people deny themselves, see it all the time.

People cast their cares and their burdens and their anxieties and their tears and their doubt and all of their sin right here.

They leave it at the feet of Jesus, but they don't pick up their cross.

That cross that is supposed to form you into the disciple that God has called you to be the, the cross that is supposed to keep that mind and heart occupied with kingdom things so that it doesn't have enough time to entertain worldly things.

That's what the cross is meant to do.

And so I see people deny themselves in one moment with Jesus, but because they don't replace all of that baggage with the cross that they were meant to carry, they always go back to the thing that they originally left at the feet of Jesus.

Don't come to the altars full of baggage and leave empty handed, replace the weight of baggage with the weight of the cross, replace the weight of those unclean spirits with the weight of the Holy Spirit, replace every burden that has been on your heart with the burdens of God.

That's what it means to take up your cross.

Are you hearing me?

God is constantly reminding me constantly saying, Ryan, don't be so impressed with a growing church that doesn't grow spiritually.

And I know that I know that he reminds me of this because, you know, we need to be a church that is always keeping transformation at the heart of what we do.

Always, it doesn't matter how much we grow, it's exciting to to see growth.

It's exciting to see new people.

It's exciting to get good Google reviews.

That's great.

I love it.

But a church that isn't transforming, what are you doing?

I am not here to be a social club leader.

I don't I don't even have good social skills.

I'm socially awkward.

That is not my calling.

I am called to lead people to the feet of Jesus for true life transformation.

That's what we're here to do.

And we can look great to Instagram and to other churches and and even to ourselves, I've been I've been pastoring long enough to see people come and go.

I don't even get that excited anymore when I see a new person come in as sad as that is, I can't even celebrate without thinking, how long are they going to be here?

I'm telling you, the pastoral struggles, I've seen people fired up, I've seen people just excited for the things of God in one moment and then watered down the next.

I've seen people receive a touch from God at these altars, and then they're off to the same issues just months later.

And so a growing church and active church is great.

And I love seeing people full of these altars full of people, but more crucial to the life of the believers, the transformation that has taken place in that believer's life.

And so hear me on this transformation doesn't happen without deliverance, but deliverance doesn't happen without repentance.

I'm going to say it again, just if you're taking notes, transformation, which is the goal, doesn't happen without deliverance and deliverance doesn't happen without true repentance.

You can't be set free from something when you're still holding on to it.

Even when you want to let go of it, maybe you have told God, Lord, I don't want this.

How many of you have told God that every y'all raise those hands?

I have told God that so many times, Lord, I don't want to deal with this.

I don't want to struggle with this.

I hate this.

I don't want these feelings.

I don't want these thoughts.

Take it from me.

Let me tell you the truth.

You don't have the power to let go of the things that your flesh wants.

You don't have the power.

If I had that type of power, I would wake up tomorrow and I would say I no longer have a desire for chips and salsa.

But the truth is, every time you put a basket of chips and salsa, I don't care if it's like the best sauce on the world or if it's paste, I'm still going to eat it.

I can't do any.

I can't just make a choice to not desire those things.

I hate that I love it so much.

And that's how we are.

We hate the things that our flesh loves.

I understand that.

And so but this is the reason that we continue to struggle with it, because we still love it as much as we hate that we love it.

We still love it.

This is why repentance, metanoia in the Greek doesn't mean letting go of it means turning from.

If I want chips and salsa out of my life, I can't just let go of that desire, I've got to turn from the thing I'm desiring.

Now, are you hearing me today?

Come on, to repent is to turn from sin in such a way that is no longer in reach.

So that your spirit can begin to detox from the things that are unclean, and as you turn away from these sins, you're focused on Jesus, you're focused on pleasing him, you're focused on ministry, you're focused on your devotion to him.

And then it gets easier to deal with the temptations when they come your way, because by that time you've grown up a little bit spiritually, you've gotten a taste for what's better.

You've replaced an angry mind with a joyful one.

You don't want to go back to that anger.

You've replaced that anxious spirit for some peace and the addictions for a ruthless pursuit of Jesus.

And I just got to use my brother, Adrian, I'm sorry, but I just I have to because the Lord's spirit is so much over your life and I know what you came from and I know the things that you were addicted to.

And now he's got such a passion for the things of God.

Why?

Because he said, Lord, empty me, I give it to you, but I need you to fill me, because if I'm just empty, something is going to return.

That's what repentance is, and that's how transformation happens.

But too many of us just want to, I don't know, man, we just want to battle it out week after week at the altars, wanting God to just take the desire from us without us doing the work of turning away from it.

Too many people are just stuck hating their sin.

And it's good that you hate it, but you're stuck hating it.

You can never grow from it.

You can never get to the point where you don't even want it anymore.

It doesn't even bother you anymore.

You know, when you get to this point, like like we tell we tell like Leila, Leila, if somebody is bothering you, you just have to just you have to turn away from them.

Don't listen to them, ignore them, because the more you give them attention, the more you're never going to be able to grow from it.

And then there gets to a point where you've ignored them so long that every time they try to get your attention, it doesn't even faze you anymore.

That's how that's how we need to grow from sin.

It's to get to the point where the thing that we struggled with doesn't even really tempt us anymore because we've turned from it out of sight, out of mind, out of mind, out of desire, because I am fixated on Jesus.

I'm fixated on the things that he has called me to.

And I used to tell God all the time, Lord, I hate being prideful, I hate it, I hate this pride, I hate feeling the need to compete.

God looked at me, he said, what are you going to do about it?

That's what he said.

Go with me real quick to Matthew 27, verse three, Matthew 27, verse three, you're still with me, right?

Matthew 27, verse three says this, it says, then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.

They said, what is that to us?

See to it yourself.

And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and went and hanged himself.

The Greek word for changed his mind, if you have a King James version, it says, repent.

The Greek word is actually one word, it's metamelomai, it's different from metanoia, metanoia means to turn from, metamelomai means to feel remorse or regret.

And this, this church is how far too many Christians deal with their sin.

They just feel remorse, they just feel sorry, they just feel shame because they hate their sin, but they never turned from it.

And eventually, if you don't turn from that sin, all of that shame is going to kill your spiritual life in the way that it killed Judas physical life.

It's an ungodly grief.

The Bible talks about good grief, godly grief, the grief that leads to repentance.

That when we feel shame, when we feel the weight of what we're doing that is wrong because it's taken us off course to where God has us going.

It leads us to repent because we don't want to be disconnected from the father.

But others, they let the sin kill them.

Going through their life, just feeling sorry.

Oh God, I did it again.

I did it again.

I did it again.

I did it again.

And you're at the altars again, asking for deliverance again, but you haven't turned from it.

I just, I'm, I'm, I'm feeling this sermon as a pastor because I've seen it.

Like I've seen all of these things that I'm talking about, and I don't want to see you six months from now battling the same stuff at the altars.

I want my brothers and my sisters to be set free.

From whatever spirits that has been oppressing them, repent, be delivered, be transformed.

That's the formula.

We've, we've talked about unclean spirits before, and I don't want to go too deep into that again.

Um, what we'll say today is that any unclean spirit is not a spirit of God.

And, and any spirit that is not of God is not a spirit that should be inhabiting the child of God.

It's also not a spirit that Christians should be playing with.

And listen, sin, somebody say sin, I want you to hear this.

Sin is the breeding ground for unclean spirits.

Please hear me because I don't want you to think, well, I don't live as a simple lifestyle anymore.

I'm not talking about a simple lifestyle.

I'm talking about sin.

Christians still sin.

We still fall short of the glory of God.

We still have uncleanliness in us.

Sometimes we still have immaturities that need to be worked out.

Things like pride can invite unclean spirits when it moves beyond the thought or the feeling, and it becomes something that consumes you.

Same thing with jealousy, same thing with anger and bitterness and lustfulness and greed and contentment, like unclean spirits are attracted to this type of filth.

So if a Christian sins and he can stay, he continues to sin, unclean spirits can form and demons can begin to have more control than you might have intended to give.

There's, there's a never ending debate about Christians being possessed by demons, and I've shared my thoughts before on that.

I'll say it again.

I don't believe that a Christian can be a born again.

Christian can be demon possessed.

I think they can be tempted, influenced, oppressed by demons, but being possessed would indicate that the demon has ownership and not the Holy Spirit.

Scripture says that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, that we are not of our own.

We were bought with the price and greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world.

So I don't believe that a Christian can be possessed by a demon.

Come at me with some type of different scripture if you want.

I don't think you're going to find it, but it doesn't mean it doesn't mean that unclean spirits cannot creep into a believer's heart and mind.

That we all know is true.

See, the body of Christ belongs to Jesus, but there is still an enemy on the prowl, and at times he creeps into the church.

The church belongs to Jesus, but there's still devils in the church.

And just as the enemy can creep into the church, he can creep into the Christian.

He may not have full access.

He may not have full control, but he absolutely has influence.

And man, it is time that the enemy loses his influence in the lives of people who belong to God.

It is time for whatever we cast out and rebuke and fight against at the altar, be truly defeated and stop returning.

Look, I know some of you are tired of dealing with the same mess.

It's the same thing over and over.

It's the same thing that triggers you, same thing that offends you, same thing tempts you, it's the same thing that keeps you from from advancing.

It's the same drama, the same trauma, the same person.

And as many times as you have wanted to let it go, as many times as you have had a moment at the altar, it keeps coming back.

See, this is what Jesus is talking about.

He's talking to this evil generation.

This this evil generation is always looking for a sign.

If we go back just a few verses, we we read this verse 38 says, and some of the scribes and the Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.

But he answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Now, again, I'm not talking to an evil generation today.

I'm talking to the church.

OK, but for context, I want you to understand what's being said here.

The evil generation that Jesus is speaking to is one that keeps demanding more and more from Jesus.

You know what I'm convinced of, I'm going to get off my nose for a second, I'm convinced that the person who is always wanting more from God is the person that doesn't actually have God in them.

You're always asking God for a sign, I didn't do it, give me another one, give me something else, give me something else, what you got now, God, how are you going to let me be broke today?

I wasn't broke last week.

Give me something.

We're always asking something from God, never content with him.

That's what this evil generation was, they kept on asking more from Jesus, they had already seen the signs, the Pharisees have already seen Jesus cast out demons and what did they do?

They accused him of being used by Satan.

And God will give people everything that they need to take a step of faith and follow him, but some people are still going to be asking God for a sign and maybe God will do it, maybe God will give you what you need, maybe today you need provision and God gives you provision, maybe you come after service, you know, pastor, that was the word that I needed here, praise God, maybe you get a touch from God at these altars, maybe you read something in scripture that inspires you and moves you and it's enough to clean you out for a moment.

It's enough to rid you of the unclean spirits for a moment, it's enough to make you say, OK, I'm going to do better, that was a good word, pastor, you know, I'm going to do better.

It's enough to make a commitment to yourself to let some things go or at least try to let some things go.

It's enough.

A good message on forgiveness is enough to say, you know what, I'm going to forgive this person.

It's enough to say I'm done with this addiction, but listen, if you don't fill that void with the Holy Spirit, understand what Jesus is saying here, those unclean spirits will return.

Cleaning your temple doesn't make you a spiritually clean person.

Oh, somebody needs to hear that.

Cleaning up your temple doesn't make you a spiritually clean person, it doesn't make you holy, just because you clean your house doesn't make you a clean person.

It just means you got tired of seeing it a mess.

So, you know, look, check this out, man, since we're talking about being cleansed out, Pastor Damaris has a juicing company, a juicing business, and I try to cleanse, you know, my digestive system, I don't TMI, but I try to do a cleanse, you know, once a year and I just tried hers and it's great.

So I would I would recommend Dee's Garden.

But every time I do a cleanse, I don't I don't do it because I want to become a clean eater.

I do it because I'm about to go on a beach vacation and I want to I want to keep my muffin tops from muffling at the beach.

So I I do I do a little cleanse and, you know, three day, five days.

But I don't do it because I want to be a clean eater.

Just just the other night at BBS, I was downing some chili cheese potato chips, trash, man, trash food.

Cleaning up your temple doesn't make you a spiritually clean person.

It just means that you notice there was a mess that needed to be cleaned up.

That's all.

That's it.

And people come to church when their marriage begins to be messed up.

People people come to church when they're they're noticing that their kids are being influenced poorly and they come and they get fed and they get they get they get filled and they get they get preyed on.

And that's wonderful.

But if you haven't addressed the root of the problem, if you haven't repented, if you haven't taken up that cross, all you're doing is cleaning up a mess once a week.

But your soul is being left empty.

And Jesus is saying an unclean spirit will depart for a moment.

Maybe the spirit got a little bit uncomfortable in church.

Maybe the spirit didn't like the worship song they were jamming.

Maybe maybe the spirit didn't like that there was so much joy in the room.

Maybe he didn't like that there was so much presence of God in the room.

So he left for a moment.

But let me tell you, it has every intention on coming back.

And I don't say this to scare you.

I say it to prepare you.

What happens when you miss church for a few weeks?

What happens when you can't find that one worship song?

What happens when there's no prayer team to pray for you?

He's going to come back and he's going to find it clean and swept up and everything's in order because no one else is inhabiting that person.

And he leaves again.

And the Bible says he brings back seven more, even worse than him.

You can't clean your way into holiness.

Only Jesus can do it.

You can't do it.

You don't have the capacity to do it.

Everything I touch is dirty.

Everything I touch gets dirty.

You cannot clean up your way into holiness.

Only Jesus can, man.

And I say this as a pastor, but don't look, don't even don't even don't even think about me being a preacher right now, I say this as a pastor, I've seen too many times in my pastoral ministry, all of this I'm talking about.

We go to war at the altars.

I spent hours on the phone counseling people in my office, the church rallies around these people, loves them.

They get fired up for a season, but then that spirit returns.

And the worship songs no longer are enough to keep that spirit away.

The Sunday sermon is not impactful enough to do the job.

The community of the church is no longer enough to keep that person coming back to church because there was no transformation, because there was no deliverance, because there was no repentance.

Just like this evil generation.

Always looking for more, always looking for more.

You don't need more from God, you just need God.

That's it, because when you have God, you know that he is enough, you know that he can sustain you, there is nothing else that you need when you seek his presence before his provision, when you seek his presence before the solution, that's when a returning spirit doesn't want to return.

And I felt the Lord saying this this morning, and I'm about to wrap up.

As I was going through this sermon, I said, the Lord said, stop trying to look clean.

I don't know who this is for, but just pay attention the past the last five minutes.

Stop trying to look clean and repent.

Stop trying to to bring your best and put on the makeup and put on the eyelashes and put on the all the stuff and stop trying to look clean to people and just repent.

A clean room is not fooling an unclean spirit.

And the Holy Spirit ministered this to me this morning.

He said a messy room that is spirit filled is better than a clean room that is empty.

Did you get it?

Did you get it?

A messy room that is full of the spirit is much better than a clean room that is empty.

I had that I had this thought Friday night during VBS, I had this thought I was running around, you know, helping out Pastor Junior, make sure that the kids didn't bust their heads down the slides and everybody was having a good time.

And there was there was laughter everywhere.

There was joy.

There was also exhaustion.

There was frustration.

And I had a quick thought, Pastor Junior, Pastor Steph, I was looking around and I came in here and I was like, what a mess.

The chairs weren't in here, they're all stacked up, had an octopus hanging from the ceiling.

There was water everywhere, there was water on the floors, there was some mud, there were dirty towels.

I mean, I was like, how are we going to have church on Sunday?

It was it was it was a mess.

And I wasn't complaining about it because God immediately told me it is a mess, but it's a godly mess.

It's a beautiful mess.

Can I can I tell you, as a lifelong Christian, being a Christian is messy.

It's pure, but it's messy.

When I think about Paul's life, it was a mess.

Paul was in prison, flogged, beat, running for his life.

He was shipwrecked.

What a mess of a ministry.

Moses' ministry was messy.

How to deal with so many people complaining all the time, how to deal with his own insecurities all the time, how to deal with repairing himself all the time.

It was a mess.

Abraham's journey, it was messy.

He got a baby mama out of him.

It was that messy.

David's life.

Oh, my goodness.

Probably the messiest.

There is so much that goes into obedience.

There is so much that goes into faith.

There is so much that goes into trusting the Lord with all your heart.

We don't always have the time.

Listen, listen, I don't always have the time to clean up when God calls me to do something.

I don't I don't always have the time to get organized when God calls this morning.

Look, I'm I'm a pastor.

That's my that's my calling.

That's I'm a full time pastor.

That's that's also my my job.

But I'm also also I'm also in real estate.

I'm a realtor.

I'm a realtor's realtor's license.

And there was I have this client that I'm that I'm working with, and they asked me if I could go show a house today.

And I'm like, man, I'm, you know, I'm a pastor, bro.

You know, I go to church and stuff.

And I I was like, look, if you want to make it really early in the morning, like eight o'clock, I'll do it.

I was like, all right, bet.

So eight o'clock this morning, go show this house.

But I said, hey, man, I mean, during on Sundays, I'm I'm busy.

And I just I was just it was like a gentle tug from the Lord this morning.

It was like, hey, when I call, I know it creates a mess for your schedule.

I know it creates some disorganization.

I know you have to move some things around.

But hey, I called you.

I called you.

Obedience is it's messy sometimes.

It creates disorder in your life, in your schedule.

But it's beautiful, it's a godly mess.

And so whenever a spirit wants to come back to a house.

That is full of a mess, it knows that someone's living there.

It knows that someone is present and knows that somebody's home.

I don't want you to leave empty today.

I don't want you.

I don't want this to just be another sermon.

I don't want it to just be another Sunday.

I don't want this just to be another altar call.

I'm sick of that.

I'm sick of just another one.

God wants to heal.

He wants to transform.

He wants to do what he does, but he needs you to repent and turn away from everything that is keeping you from the more that he's got for you.

So I want you to stand this morning and I'm going to make this altar call.

And again, I just don't, I don't want this just to be another moment.

I'm praying for freedom.

I've done, I've done what I can do.

I brought the word, but I want to invite somebody this morning who needs to repent.

You have, you have struggled with that thing for far too long, too long.

I can stand here and list all the things that it might be, but you know what it is.

You know what it is.

And if that's you this morning, God is saying, child, I am ready to heal you.

I am ready to fill you.

I am ready to replace that void, but I need you to repent.

And maybe you're saying this morning, because this is, this is the lie that the enemy will tell you.

I'm a Christian.

I'm good.

I've got Jesus.

And I believe that that's true for many of you, but I also want you to think of your heart and your spirit as a, as a place that has many rooms.

Listen, just for the past few moments, last few moments, sorry.

In my spirit, there are so many different rooms, so many different areas.

And my goal, my desire is that God would fill every single one of those.

And so maybe you look at your life and you're like, okay, as a, as a father, I'm a godly father to my kids.

I'm a godly husband.

I'm a, I'm a, I'm a godly, I'm a godly friend.

Maybe you're not, maybe you're not a godly coworker.

Maybe you're not a godly business owner.

Maybe you're doing some shady things.

I don't, I don't know.

But there are, there are rooms in your spirit that God wants to fill because if they're empty, there's going to be something unclean in there.

Maybe you're not a prideful person, but you're a jealous person.

Maybe you're not a jealous person, but you're an angry person.

Maybe you're not an angry person, but you're always sad.

God wants to fill that, that empty room this morning.

I don't know what it is, but you do.

And so I'm going to invite you this morning to come and repent and don't, don't just let it go.

Turn from it.

That's the call this morning.

These altars are open.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA church, visit us on our website at mynumachurch.org.

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Thanks again, and God bless.