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.
Amen.
Praise the Lord.
You can uh Take your seat for just a moment if you need a if you need a break from the Pentecostal praise.
Amen.
Praise the Lord.
God is good all the time.
Amen.
I want you to turn with me, if you got your Bibles, to 2 Samuel.
Chapter 11, we're going to get into the into the Word of God this morning.
This is the story of David and Bathsheba.
David and Bathsheba, and I didn't realize it until yesterday that our kids would be in here with us worshiping.
So I'm gonna try to keep it as PG as possible.
But this is a really good plug for our PNEUMA Kids ministry.
If you got your little one with you.
And they're sitting next to you and and you're like looking at them and you're like, why are you here?
Why aren't you over there?
Um it's because Once a month, we uh our our kids, our PNEUMA Kids, our amazing, amazing PNEUMA Kids ministry, um closes uh one one Sunday a week. to allow our worship uh to to be done with the whole family.
Um but it it it m in more reality it's because we don't have enough teachers, right?
And so we're always looking for more teachers, lead teachers, and um and our our great pastors, uh Michael and Jackie, if if you're interested, man. uh talk to them um because we we need we need help amen we need some more help um i know everybody wants to be in sunday morning church um but our our kids need to be fed as well And they need to be poured into as well.
And that takes that takes work, that takes volunteers.
And while I'm while I'm here, while I'm on the subject.
Wednesday nights, our our boys, man, are our young boys, they need some love, man.
They need some love.
And we've got too many men of God um who are being discipled themselves to not disciple young boys.
We got too many we got too many of y'all.
You here Monday nights and and you're here getting discipled with all all kinds of things and you're getting fed.
But I would challenge you if if you have something.
And so let's let's find something for them.
We've tried it before. with one person stepping up saying, man, I I I got you, Pastor.
I don't want to do that.
I don't want to do that because that just creates burnout.
So I'm looking for about four or five people To establish a good team of men who can get together and say, What can we create for our young boys?
Amen.
So if you're up for that, please uh talk to me, see me afterwards, and we'll we'll get you plugged in.
Amen.
We're not just a consuming church.
We are a serving church.
Amen.
Come on.
2 Samuel chapter 11.
We're going to read just five verses if you would stand with me.
Amen.
It says, in the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.
It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from a roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.
And David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, Is this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.
And now she had been purifying herself from her uncle uncleanness.
And then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, my God, for this word that you've spoken over your servant, my God.
I pray that as I have received it, Lord, I would deliver it, my God, to your people.
I pray that we would receive it, my God.
Lord, I pray through this word you would bring edification and conviction, Father God.
I pray that you would, like I said, Lord, expose what needs to be exposed, Father God, to bring us back into alignment with you, Father God.
I pray, Father God, against every plan that the enemy has to get us off mission, Father God.
I pray in Jesus' name that like gravity, Father, your Holy Spirit would pull us back.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
You can take your seat.
I'm going to speak this morning using the title The Wrong Place.
The Wrong Place.
If you're a Christian, you're probably very familiar with this novela Right, uh soap opera type of drama in in mo David's life.
This is this is the time in David's life uh for that for the very first time We see him like like out of pocket with God.
Like he's he's he's out of alignment with God.
Normally, David is pursuing God's heart.
He's fighting the cause He's this mighty warrior.
He's full of faith and humility and passion.
And David's always going to do the right thing because he loves the Lord.
He serves God.
But here, something kind of shifts.
And it causes this chain of events to unfold, and a lot of people get hurt, a lot of people get killed, and God is disappointed with David.
It's just this big mess, and if it wasn't for a true repentant heart, it could have ended very badly for David and his household.
That's the danger, church, of being out of alignment with God, even a little bit.
I don't know if you've ever felt that way.
I assume most of us have.
You're out of alignment, you're distracted, maybe you're tired.
And so you start to slack in certain areas of spiritual disciplines.
It's been a while since you've talked to God.
It's been a while since you've opened up the Bible.
It's been a while since anybody's seen you at church.
It's been a while since you really fed yourself.
Spiritually.
Those are some of the symptoms of being out of alignment with God.
And being out of alignment with God, it is caused by all kinds of things.
Sometimes life is just lifeing.
Sometimes you're just stressed, and there's so much work and there's so much busyness, and there's there's there's your your spouse and and there's kids, and and being out of alignment doesn't necessarily mean that you're in sin.
But maybe you're a few steps away from where God would have you.
That's where David is finding himself in the beginning of this story.
And it all begins with him being in the wrong place.
He's not where he's supposed to be.
And so, my desire for every believer, first of all, is that we would want to be where God wants us to be.
Like you gotta want to be there.
Because if you don't want to be there, it's gonna be very easy to not be there.
So you have to long to be in the will of God.
You've got to long to be in the presence of God because when you're in the wrong place, you make yourself susceptible to the enemy.
See or no?
When you're when you're not as in tune with the spirit as you were before, when you're not as fired up uh uh in your spirit as you were before, when when when the things of God become become routine and Bible study becomes boring.
You might be in the wrong place.
And in the wrong place, it can be a spiritual place, it could be a mental, uh, an emotional place, or it could be a physical place.
One of the things that I tell a lot of A lot of men, like new men uh in Christ, when they're they're coming and and they're fired up and they're getting the community that they've never had and they're getting discipleship.
It's happened many times where they'll say, Pastor, I'm scared because work called and they're sending me away for three to six months.
And I tell I I'm real with all of them.
I tell all of them the same thing.
Like I can't I can't tell you not to go.
I ain't gonna tell you not to go.
You gotta do what you've got to do.
You're you're a man, you got a family to provide for, you got yourself to provide for But I want you to know it might be tough out there for you.
Yeah, like you just you you gotta know because you're gonna have everything trying to distract you from the thing that God has had you in.
And you're not going to have the community out there that you have here.
And you're not going to have the discipleship.
And you're not going to have people building you up like you do here.
And if you're working every single day, you're probably not going to find a local church to plug into.
It's going to be very very hard and I I say this not to discourage them but simply so that they know that they gotta be on high alert.
You need to be aware.
You got to be discerning.
You're going to have to be intentional.
If you wake up at 5 in the morning to go to work, brother, you're going to have to wake up at 4.
30.
To make sure you get into the word and you spend some time in prayer with God.
You're gonna have to make sure that you get some brothers on your side to hold you accountable to some things and check up on you Sometimes you can't help being in the wrong place.
Sometimes the wrong people are gonna follow you.
Sometimes you're gonna be in the wrong room.
Sometimes life is gonna throw distractions at you.
But my caution for you today is that you would be aware of your surroundings.
At all times.
Be aware.
The enemy is on the hunt, man.
I say this all the time.
He's hunting men and women of God.
He is after anointing.
He is after the calling that you have as a child of God.
He's after your identity.
And so even when that window is small, he will lure you in and attack you and make you stumble.
And not everybody has a repentant heart like David had.
So, you know, it would be nice for me not to even have to preach this sermon Because none of us would ever be in the wrong place, right?
As children of God.
Maybe it would just be better to preach, never go into the wrong place.
Like like Mufasa told Simba.
You never go there, right?
That would be easier.
But we're knuckleheads.
We're gonna be in the wrong place.
Maybe you're in the wrong place right now Maybe you're gonna be in the wrong place tomorrow.
And so I think it's it's wise for us to prepare.
For what happens when we find ourselves in these wrong places.
So I want to I want to follow this progression in David's story.
And again, my hope is that we would simply recognize the symptoms of being out of alignment with God so that we can kill it before the wrong place leads to the wrong actions.
Now we're gonna start um with verse one.
It says In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rama.
But David remained at Jerusalem.
Somebody say that word remain.
So the first thing to notice is that this was the time when kings went out to battle.
The winter time was a terrible time because it was very rainy and it didn't make the roads very uh ideal for travel, uh especially marching uh an army marching on foot To the battlefield, and so the springtime was dry, the sun was out, the the ground was dry, everything was good, and so that was a time when kings would go out and they would battle And again, David is depicted in all previous chapters to this as a man of war.
He's the man who defended his flock From a lion and from a bear.
This is a man who defended the Lord's army from Goliath and defeated Goliath and he defeated the Philistines.
And this is a true king that the the the people of Israel asked for when they said, we want a king who would go out and fight our battles for us.
That was David.
David did that.
But for the first time, we see a day a different David emerge.
And the author of the text really points this out by saying: this is the time when all the other kings went out to war.
David did go And he's telling us that David was napping and sitting on his couch.
He's hinting at the fact that David was not where he should have been.
It says, but David remained at Jerusalem.
The word remain is the Hebrew word Yoseb.
Yoseb.
And it's translated many times in the Hebrew Bible as sit or stay.
It's a word associated with inaction.
So when David is sending out his army to be in action, David is inactive.
Everybody else is going and David remains.
Everybody else is in battle and David is napping on his couch.
Now, notice that David hasn't sinned yet, right?
He hasn't even been tempted yet.
But he's already out of alignment because he's in the wrong place.
He's pulled away from his community.
He's got no accountability.
He's pulled out of his assignment.
Again, when you're in the wrong place, you make yourself prone to an attack from the enemy.
When the Holy Spirit is over here and you're over here and the Holy Spirit is like where you at?
And you're like, I'll be there in a minute.
That minute could cost you.
That minute could cost you.
This this is why this is why I strongly believe that Christians need to be immersed in the presence of God.
Like so much so that You might look weird sometimes.
You know what I mean?
Like like we gotta get so deep into the presence of God that Even when you start to lose a little bit of depth, depth, you're still a long way from the surface.
Like that's how much we got to get emerged in the presence of God.
Man, I can't remember the last day that I didn't talk to God.
I've been talking to God ever since I was a child.
At least once a day.
And it started when we I've told this before, when we moved to Colorado, my parents were running from the Lord, and I was like, God, I don't know what my parents are doing, but I don't want to go to hell.
So You and me are still cool.
So every single day, every single day since then, I've been talking to God.
I feel like if I go a single day without talking to God, it would feel like I forsook him.
I feel so empty.
But there have been days where I haven't opened up the Bible.
There have been days where I haven't done a deeper prayer session.
There's been days where all I've given God is those few words.
And it makes my spirit feel so misaligned with my father.
And I know it's in those moments that I'm the weakest.
Don't allow yourself to stay there for too long, church.
Again, it would be better if you didn't get there at all, but you're human You're gonna find yourself in the wrong place from time to time.
You're gonna have the wrong attitude.
Someone's gonna get get you ticked off.
You're gonna have the wrong mindset.
You're gonna You're gonna have your feelings, the wrong spirit, but do not remain in the place that God has not assigned to you so long that it makes you sit there and become inactive.
I don't know who I'm talking to today, but I I believe the Spirit of God is talking to some inactive Christians today.
Now listen, temptation can come even when you're at your post.
Bathsheba could catch your eye from the pulpit.
Potiphar's wife can try to tempt you when you're full of the spirit And you're speaking in tongues and you're praying.
But the difference in those moments is that at least you're already in the battlefield.
You're already armed up when you're in the word, when you're in the spirit, when you're full of the spirit, when you're in prayer.
The devil might come at you, but you've already got your body, your your armor on You've already got the right community surround you.
You've got the right help.
You're in the right place, which means you got the right arsenal.
You got the right influence.
And you know what?
It's a lot easier to tell the devil no when you've been telling God yes all day.
Look like for you, but if you find yourself out of alignment with God, maybe maybe every Sunday it's a battle to get you to church, man.
The amount of times I hear people say I I wasn't gonna come today But I'm so glad I did let me tell you you're always gonna be glad you did.
You're always gonna be glad you did, okay?
Always And if that if that's something that you you find yourself saying Sunday after Sunday, I don't know if I really want to go.
If you're if you're finding yourself keeping God at a distance, like yeah, he's he he's cool, you know, you love Jesus, right?
Team Jesus, but but you don't Let him into some of the more personal things because you know he's going to call it out.
If you're not doing what you know you should be doing, if if you're not avoiding what you should be avoiding.
You might be in the wrong place.
And so I want to challenge you to get back into alignment before you fall.
David remained in Jerusalem instead of being where he was supposed to be.
Now This is what happens when you remain in the place for too long.
This is verse 2.
David saw.
You look nothing like my wife, though.
It's okay.
She's looking at me like why'd you why'd you do that?
So look, David is in the wrong place, and I don't mean just physically, I mean spiritually.
He's already in the wrong place spiritually.
Where is the worshiping David that we hear about all the time?
Where is it David that that played the harp and simply by his anointing evil spirits were cast out of the room?
Where's that David?
Where is the mighty fighting warrior David That cut off the head of Goliath.
Where is he?
Where is the missional David?
Where is the psalmist?
Where's the songwriter?
He's not there.
This is this is a man who is completely in his flesh and he sees this woman bathing and he's and she's beautiful.
Men of God, can I just talk to the men of God real quick?
Wives are like, please talk to this man Men of God, we have got to protect our eyes.
We've got to.
You have to.
Not just when you get out of church, not just on a Sunday, not just when you're full of the Spirit, but even when you're at your weakest.
You gotta protect your eyes.
If she's showing too much on Instagram, unfollow her.
It's okay.
It's alright If i i i it's okay to to to fast forward a scene that you don't need to be watching.
You don't you don't you don't need to expose yourself to that.
You gotta protect your eyes.
Just the other day, man, I f I unfollowed George Lopez.
George Lopez is in no way a beautiful woman.
I mean Have you have you seen 'em have you seen 'em lately?
But And I was like, man, I don't I don't need to see that.
So I unfollowed him.
It's not even that funny.
But but that's what you gotta do.
Defend your spirit, man.
Like it really should.
When you see something that you know you shouldn't be seeing, it should cause a jolt to your spirit.
It should make you not even want to think twice about it like Joseph.
You flee, you keep on walking, you unfollow, you you keep scrolling.
That's what you got to do, man of God.
You got to protect those eyes Because here's the reality.
You're not always gonna be at your holiest.
You're not always gonna feel holy.
I know you get out of church sometimes and you feel like, man, give me a demon, I'll box them right now.
Like that's how we feel sometimes But that's not the reality.
You ain't always gonna feel like that.
You're not you're not gonna be able to conquer every temptation.
I don't care who you are.
We are people of the flesh Who constantly have to put on the armor of Christ and be in step with the Spirit because we're not perfect and we have these moments where the flesh takes over And when you're having a moment of the flesh and something catches your eye or your ears or your attention, you are that much weaker against the enemy.
And so what we have to do, church, is create boundaries that make it that much harder for us to sin even when we're at our weakest.
And when y'all get in the car with your wives, wives go go easy on your husband, okay?
I knew y'all are all the same.
You think she's pretty, you think she like Your role is to help your husband continue being the holy man of God that he is trying to be So help him help protect his eyes help him protect his boundaries.
You might have to have those conversations.
I I won't I won't counsel a woman one-on-one I won't do that.
If a woman wants to speak to me privately, I I'm gonna I'm gonna bring my wife or I'm gonna bring somebody else so that it's not just us.
I I don't even like to have a an extended dialogue with a woman when it's when nobody else is around.
And if that makes me less of a pastor, why so be it.
I got a testimony to protect.
I got a marriage to preserve And it's not because I think something's gonna happen, but I know how the enemy is slick, man.
And this isn't just for men.
This this is this is for everyone.
There's going to be times where you see something or when you hear something or where you want something or when you feel something.
See, see guys, it's the eyes.
Women, it's the feelings.
And so men, you gotta help it.
You gotta help your wives when they're having feelings that you're like, seriously, that's what you're feeling today.
She helps you, you help her.
We're gonna have these moments where where you're drawn into something that you know in your heart is not from the Lord, and how prepared you are to handle those temptations is going to make all the difference on what you do next.
So David was in the wrong place.
He saw the wrong thing, and then he inquired about it.
Verse 3: And David sent and inquired about the woman.
And one said, is this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
See, this is where David crossed the line, church.
When you go from your attention being caught To entertaining that attention.
That's when you start to play closer to the fire.
And I I know we're dealing with the very specific sin here, but this can be anything, right?
Gossip happens when you entertain what you hear.
Adultery happens when you entertain what you see.
Lying happens when you entertain how you can get away with it.
Rage happens when you entertain what you feel.
David was doing what Jesus describes as the lust of the heart.
The moment he inquired about her, he already intended to sin with her.
Just like Jesus told Judas, what you're gonna do, go ahead and do and do it fast.
Jesus gave Judas over to what was already in his heart.
He's already you're already entertaining it.
Maybe there's somebody in the room today already determined to do the wrong thing.
Come on, let the Spirit of God minister, man.
You might be here today already having determined to do the wrong thing.
Your heart is already hardened to a godly response.
Can I can I challenge you this morning just to can I just challenge you to change your heart?
Can the Spirit of God just challenge you to reconsider what you already want to do?
You already got planned.
To move in with your boyfriend.
And you're coming to church and you're serving God and you've read the Bible that we've all read and you know that ain't right.
But you've already signed the documents, you've already signed the lease, you've already got planned to do it.
You've already got planned to go on vacation to get you you're not you're not even married.
You've already determined to tell the lie because it's gonna be easier.
You've already decided to not forgive that person.
You've already decided that they're dead to you.
You've already decided to write them off from your life.
Can I just tell you From a loving pastor's heart, that you are in the wrong place.
You are entertaining the wrong thing.
And it might be a thorn in your flesh in the future.
Can I tell you that the devil's already got a hook in your mouth?
And he's reeling you in.
And he's laughing because you are exactly where he wants you.
But you know what?
There's hope.
Because even though you might be in the wrong place mentally or spiritually, you are in the right place physically, right?
You came to church today And maybe the reason that you came to church today was so that God could get a hold of you to tell you to stop doing what you've already resolved to do and come back into alignment with the Lord.
Come back to your knees.
Come back to the presence.
Come back to holiness.
This is this is why worship matters, man.
This is why worship matters.
This is why coming to church matters.
This is why Bible study, community, discipleship.
This is why we're we're always talking about the importance of these things.
We're not we're not trying to sell church to you.
I'm not trying to sell church to you.
I'm not trying to sell more seats in in the sanctuary.
I'm I'm man I'm I'm trying to tell you how important it is to get plugged in because when you're plugged into the right things, it connects you to the source This is why it's so important that you worship with intention and that you open up the Bible even when you don't want to do it.
And you say, God, you are good, even when you feel like He's not.
These things matter.
And if you don't care for the worship set, you know, it it's all good.
If you didn't care about the sermon, it's all good.
If you read your Bible and you didn't understand anything, you couldn't even pronounce half the names.
It's all good.
You do it anyway.
Even even when you're not listen, even when you're not entertained or intrigued emotionally and you're not stimulated by God, just being where he is, that makes all the difference.
Are you hearing me today?
Am I making sense?
We we we've got we've gotta stop treating the things of God as content to consume.
Like if it if it's not a good sermon, uh I'd rather not go.
It's gotta be the right worship set.
What what they singing today, Pastor?
Tell me It's gotta be inspiring.
It's gotta be fire.
I gotta feel fire when I come out, man.
If you're always chasing a stimulant, you are gonna dilute the true presence.
You're not you're not even gonna know what the difference is.
You're gonna see something that only appears to be fire and you're gonna call it presence and God's like I ain't even in that.
Stop chasing the stimulant.
Stop chasing the emotion.
Stop chasing the feeling.
And just learn how to sit in the true presence of God.
Because I'll tell you this, man, when you are alone and there's not a screaming Pentecostal church behind you, and there's not crazy worship music, and there's not tears, and there's not lights, and there's not an atmosphere of worship, when you are alone. and you see something or you hear something or you feel something that is not in alignment with God and then you inquire about those things If you've never learned how to just invite the quiet, gentle presence of God into your moment, It ain't gonna go well for you.
It's not.
We have to learn how to sit in the true presence of God.
Sometimes that means not saying anything.
Sometimes that means there's no music playing on your iPhone.
Sometimes it means you're just sitting.
You're just sitting.
Sometimes I come into this into the sanctuary when I'm here And I'll just sit here in the presence of God, knowing that he is here with me.
And just knowing that he is here with me is enough to sustain me.
That's the true presence.
I hate how they took my steps here.
So my message for you today is simply to ask you to come back to the right place, man.
Come back into alignment with God.
Because you know what David's story very tragically is like a lot of stories that we hear about today.
Stories not from the world, stories that come from the church.
What a shame, man.
But it all started because David started out in the wrong place.
And then he saw the wrong thing.
Then he inquired about the wrong thing.
Pastor Abram, he said the other day at our men's um at our men's uh breakfast.
He said lust is about taking.
Love is about giving.
And so many times when we're lusting in our hearts, and it could be, it doesn't have to be adultery related, it could be just something that we desire.
It's something that we desire to take.
When in reality we should love God enough to leave it alone and give Him our faithfulness.
And I know that's not always easy to do because again, we fall into these moments where we're human and we're not perfect and we're not spiritually aligned.
But once David took Bathsheba and lay with Bathsheba, there was no going back.
That was it.
It was done.
And if you know the story, you know that it's only half of the drama.
Sin brings forth more sin.
And it all begins with a simple misalignment.
You don't even notice it.
That's not a big deal.
But it's a simple one, two steps away from where God wants you to be So I I've got some practicals for you as I as I wrap this up.
You still with me?
I'm almost done.
Some of you might Be in this first phase.
You're in the wrong place.
You're not exactly where you know you're supposed to be.
You know where you should be, but you're not there.
Maybe there's a little bit of resisting on your end.
You're resisting the will of God over your life.
You're not giving God full control.
You're making excuses.
Even as I speak, you're like, oh, he ain't talking to me.
Maybe I am.
Maybe you're in the wrong place emotionally and you're thinking that God exhortation to you, you're ready, you might want to write this down.
Snap out of it Tell the person next to you, step out of it, man.
Remember who you are.
Remember That you are a child of God who belongs to God.
Remember that you're loved.
Remember that God has plans for you.
You're only a few steps away from where you should be.
Get back to your post, man.
Snap out of it.
Get back to where you're supposed to be.
Some of you have moved from the first phase to the second phase.
You're in the seeing phase.
Something's got your attention Someone's got your attention.
And it looks good and it sounds good and you know it might feel good.
And you're still on the fence on what you should do.
You know that it's not right, but you you know that you want it.
Here's my super profound spiritual advice.
Cut it off.
Cut it off.
Jesus said it.
If your right eye causes you to stumble, get it out of there.
You don't need it.
Cut it off, dismiss it, throw it away, rebuke the thing that's got your attention, and then snap out of it to get back to your post.
Okay, some of you are in the third phase.
You're inquiring.
That was deep.
You've already decided what you're gonna do.
Some of you you're hearing me speak and your heart is already hardened.
You don't care what this message is about.
You've already made the plans.
You've already signed the documents.
You've already bought the plane ticket to Mexico with your girlfriend.
You're asking about the details of the sin that you're thinking you're gonna commit.
Here's my advice.
You ready?
Repent.
You say, Pastor, I haven't even committed the sin yet, but in your heart you have.
At this stage, the only thing that's missing is the actual consummation of the act.
And if you don't have a true moment of repentance where you turn away from the thing that you're inquiring about, you're leaving the door open for sin for later.
You're saving the date to your sin.
Repent, cut it off, and then snap out of it and get back to your post.
And lastly Maybe you're in the last stage of all of this.
You already took it.
You already sinned.
You already did the thing And you're sitting here and you're like, man, I'm it it it's too late for me.
I I'm already too far gone, I already messed up.
And every single day you're feeling the weight of your sin.
And maybe that's why you're here because you feel like coming to church somehow.
Cleans you and you're looking for all the things that are gonna clean clean you because in your spirit you feel dirty.
Here's what I want you to do There's power in the church, there's power in the worship songs, there's power in Bible study, but more important than any of that is that your heart belongs to the Lord again Turn back to God.
Give him everything.
Because I'll tell you, even when you take of the forbidden fruit, he still has love and grace to give.
That is the God that we serve, man.
It's not It's not too late for you.
Turn back to God.
Have a real moment in the presence of God.
And learn how to just sit in his presence.
Man.
You know, God is a a God of second chances, God is a God of forgiveness, He's a God of grace.
And he wants to restore.
And he restores like new man.
And so if if you find yourself, I want you to stand with me.
If you find yourself in any one of these stages, Would our prayer team come up?
I've got a very specific altar call right now.
I want you, if you if you're in any one of these stages, stage one, stage two, stage three, or maybe you already committed the sin.
I would challenge you to come forward and with this prayer team, allow them to pray for you with where you're at.
Have them pray with you.
Maybe you're in the wrong place.
Maybe you're a few steps away from where you need to be.
And maybe it's just you you you you lack the spiritual Hunger again.
Now I don't know what it is.
Maybe you're you're tired.
Maybe you've taken too many beatings.
Maybe maybe maybe you're hurt by the church.
I I don't know what it is.
But something's got you a little off You're not you're not in sin.
You still love the Lord, but but you're not exactly in alignment with God.
If that's you, I want you to come up and I want you to present that so that we could pray for you Number two, maybe you are something's got your attention.
And as I'm as I'm speaking, you can come forward.
As I'm speaking, you can come forward.
If you find yourself there, I want you to come forward.
Maybe you're in stage two.
You're already seeing things.
Something's got your attention.
And you're like, man, I'm struggling with this one.
I'm struggling with this one.
And I and I really need discernment and I really need the power to tell it no and to cut it off And I don't know what it is.
It could be something that you saw, something that you heard, something that you feel.
You know it's not from the Lord.
You don't have peace about it, but you really need help to cut it off.
If that's you, come forward.
Let's pray with you.
The third altar call, you've already started the process.
You've already inquired about the sin that you're wanting to commit.
And you need spiritual strength and accountability to get you out of it.
This one, this one's gonna be hard.
This one's gonna be like pulling teeth.
Because if you've already resolved to do it, it's gonna be very hard to step out in faith and say, you know what, I know that I don't need it Listen to that ounce of Holy Spirit, man.
That's what I could tell you right now.
If there is even a sliver of the Holy Spirit speaking into your life right now, I want you to listen to it.
Because you've already made the plans.
You've already inquired.
You've already thought about doing it.
If that's you this morning, come out so that we can pray, so that we can we can keep you accountable and we can believe with you that you are gonna get back to where God wants you to be Finally, if you're in the fourth one, you already did it, and you feel broken, and you feel alone, and you feel like nobody loves you and you feel rejected And you feel like the church has rejected you and you feel like you don't even know if God loves you.
You you don't even know if you're too far gone because of all the things that you've done And you want to repent and come back to the Lord, I can tell you today that He will receive you with open arms.
If that's you today, will you come forward?
Will you come forward and have a moment with your God as a worship team?
Sing something Come on, these altars are open.
If that's you this morning, these altars are open.
Let us pray with you.
Let us believe with you.
Let us be the church for you.
If that's you this morning, don't don't wait anymore.
God wants you back into alignment.
God wants you.
Exactly where he wants you.
Holy Spirit, move in this place, my friend.
Thanks for listening.
If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org.
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Thanks again and God bless.
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