Damaged by Religion – Todd White

Lifestyle Christianity exists to see a generation walk in their God-given identity by equipping people to encounter Jesus daily and walk like He says we can. Founder and President Todd White was a drug addict and atheist for 22 years before he was radically set free in 2004. Todd’s heart is activating people into the simplicity of who they really are in Christ and equipping them to live a 24/7 Kingdom lifestyle! Lifestyle Christianity provides multiple ministry tools to equip everyday believers to live out this lifestyle, including: Power and Love and Lifestyle Christianity University.

Lifestyle Christianity University (LCU) is an equipping program designed to disciple you in your God-given identity and equip you to extend the love of Jesus in your day-to-day life! LCU offers a two-year program with an optional third-year internship.

Are you ready?
Are you ready? That was pretty amazing. Your worship was, oh, so good.
I just thought we were gonna keep going and not stop.
And I’m good with that because when we get to heaven, that’s we’re gonna do it for a long, long time.
Right? I said, could the keys could they stay up with me? Would that be okay? I’m sitting there going.
Oh my gosh. It’s so good, right? It’s amazing.
Thank you so much for letting me come today. You guys are amazing. I just love you.
Thanks for what you’re building here. And, um, So thankful.
They told me about this 166 hour during the week.
You have 2 hours that you’re here, but you got a 166 other hours that somewhere else.
And I’m like, woah. And I kept seeing the sign in the back, jeez taking Jesus everywhere.
And I’m like, come on. That’s like the gospel. That’s the gospel.
Jesus never said, just keep him inside a building. He never said, come on guys.
Go to church and just be with him there and then leave him there and go home.
Are you guys with me? How many of you have never heard me before? Wow.
Raise your hand really high and weigh, but if you never heard me before, man. Wow.
How many of you were like, Who’s that guy? What is that?
You know what this is? It’s a fishing lure. Because I’m a fisher of men.
You can’t believe what this brings. It brings religion, It hates me.
And it brings people that are lost. Dude, cool dreads.
It brings it everywhere I go. A it’s a it’s a topic of conversation, but every time it leads to Jesus.
No matter what, no matter where, no matter where, I’m at, I will use anything I possibly can to talk about my king.
I’m in an elevator. People get on cool dreads, bro. I go, Jesus lives inside of these dreads.
And they go, woah. I get on an airplane and sit beside people, you know, on the Sometimes I travel with, like, a guitar because I like this drum.
I don’t know what I’m doing, but I love to worship.
And people are like, bro, what kind of band do you play in?
You know, and I’m like, yeah, you wouldn’t believe it if I told you. And they go, no, serious.
I would, but I love music. Seriously? I love Jesus, man. They’re like, Woah. Were you being serious?
I told you you didn’t believe me. I told you you wouldn’t.
And I start sharing my heart with them, and I get to see people come to Christ.
Every day of my life, wherever I go, because god didn’t call just the evangelist to be the witness.
Do you
know that the word witness, do you want it translated as? Marter.
Can I come down there? Really? Is it okay? Okay. I’m free.
The word witness, Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes, then you will be in power.
You will you will be you will be in power. See, we’re supposed to be walking in power.
We all actually, we have the power of god unto salvation.
We have this word of righteousness, which is super powerful. And it is the foundation for everything that we believe.
And if you understand what it means to be right with god, you’ll be confident with people. Why?
Because if I’m confident with god, that means I’m god I’m confident in who he’s created me to be.
If I’m confident with who he’s created me to be, I can love me. Yeah.
It’s the hardest thing for Christian to get to, to be able to love themselves. It’s weird.
I mean, in the Bible, when it says deny yourself, he’s actually saying, think of yourself first.
It’s like that’s weird. And now yourself, think of yourself worse than first.
Now when you’re on an airplane, and they say the oxygen masks are gonna drop.
They say first put it on yourself, and then put it on the person beside you. Why?
Because if you’re not here, you can’t do that.
And then the gospel, the truth is is to deny yourself, to not deny yourself means to think of yourself first in your intimacy, in your relationship, in who you are before him, and who he is before you so that you get hooked up to the real oxygen of Jesus so that you have something to give away to people.
But first, you have to see who he says you are.
Or you’re gonna live by what society says you are.
Who knows that the culture is really not okay right now.
Who knows that the culture is not good? The culture in America, American culture is like It’s not pop culture.
It’s demonic culture. Are you with me? But the culture around me should never influence the culture within me.
The culture within me, I am the light of the world. I am a city on a hill.
I am the light that lights up my own house.
So if I’ve got darkness in my house, it’s because I got a basket on my head.
If I’m in my house and I’ve got unbelievers there, and I’m afraid share my faith.
It’s because I don’t know who he’s created me to be.
I need to know who he says I am. Your identity is utterly important.
You have to know who he says you are because if you don’t know who you says who he says you are, you are gonna listen to the liar, and he’s gonna tell you who you’re not.
Are you guys okay? I’m just gonna preach the original gospel one that sent me free from you.
Jesus sent me free from you.
So I can be free from me.
Uh, what if you never were more concerned about what people thought about you, what people said about you, what people were thinking about you, but you were more concerned about what god thought about you.
Because when you think what god thinks about you, you know what god thinks about others.
It says to love god with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength.
Somebody needs to smile in here.
I’m serious when I come into a place, and they’re like, I understand.
I’m okay. They never heard me before. It’s kinda weird. You got a colored shirt on.
It looks like Joseph’s coat. Crazy. I preach the word of god.
I love Jesus with all my heart. But you must be thankful.
That young man shared about thankfulness today. Isaac, which means laughter.
He shared about he shared about on this. He shared about what it means to give.
God so loved the world that he gave. Gave. Why do we give?
Because god so loved the world that he So what do we do in thanks because of what he’s done?
We give because of what he’s done. So we represent him properly to a lost and dying world.
We give What do we do? We give of our finances. We give of our life.
It says that we are supposed to give of everything we are.
As a matter of fact, you are in living sacrifice.
The Bible says that when we come to Jesus in Romans 121 to offer your body, your body.
That means everything from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet now does belong to you anymore.
It belongs to him. You’ve offered your body as a living sacrifice.
Holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable and pleasing service before the father.
And Romans 12two follows it up because if you don’t do Romans 12two, you’re just gonna know who you know who you are on the altar, and you’re gonna jump off.
As a living sacrifice, you have the opportunity to go, ah. Are you with me?
Living sacrifice, you’re not dead. Although you’re supposed to be, dead to you, dead to sin, reckon yourself, dead to sin, dead to the things of this world.
But alive in Christ, we are supposed to be crucified with Christ and no longer live, but the life that we live, we live by faith and the one that gave himself for us.
We are supposed to be walking dead people. Uh, but we have to have Romans 12 too.
We have to be renewed. We have to be not conformed to the culture.
But be renewed, be transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we can approve what is and what is not god’s will.
That’s what the Bible says. So the whole fight for this thing is reestablishing our identity and the reality of who god says we are.
I was lost now. I am found. No. Wait.
They you don’t pass the you don’t sit in the middle. Lost and found. I was lost.
Now I’m there’s no place for you to sit and now I’m. Come on. Come on.
You gotta understand this. Like, there’s no fence in the middle, and you can’t afford to sit on offense.
You can’t afford. Jesus said, I wish that you were either hot or cold.
He didn’t say or is a place to stay. Hot or cold. He gives you 2 options.
And he says, but because you’re lukewarm, the word spit is actually bomb it.
Jesus says, I will bomb it you out of my mouth. What does that mean?
And I thought to myself like because I didn’t know Jesus, and I’ll share a little bit about where I came out of, because you won’t even believe it.
Why? Cause I don’t wear that guy. He’s dead. Now I wear Jesus. I put on Christ.
I put on a robe of righteousness, and I look good to him.
Do you understand?
You look good to him. Doesn’t matter about your makeup. Doesn’t matter about your clothes.
Doesn’t matter about your your dress attire. Doesn’t matter about your tattoos.
Your hair, your earrings, none of that stuff.
God sees you for your heart because it’s with a heart that men believe under righteousness, Now I’m not I’m not against wearing your Sunday best.
I mean, I love to dress up. I do. But god’s not looking at your shell.
He’s looking at your heart. Men, in the Bible, it’s not that we believe with our brain. No.
We confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is lord, and it says we shall be saved.
That word saved is pregnant. That word saved is so so saved. He’ll deliver protected.
Made whole kept safe and sound. To do well to be kept safe from harm.
That’s a whole lot different than just getting to heaven. Yeah. Man, I wanna get to heaven.
I’m gonna get to heaven. It’s gonna be amazing, but I wanna bring a lot of people with me.
I don’t wanna just go to heaven by myself. That would be selfish.
See, to deny yourself is to actually consider yourself first when it comes to being filled by your father’s love.
But in order to be filled with your father’s love, you have to believe that what god says about you is true and what people say about you.
Doesn’t matter. Guys, are you okay? Are you here?
I saw you in worship jumping around, bouncing around, I’m telling you, Jesus said, then you will no worship, and the worship will set you free.
He didn’t say that. He said, then you will know the True.
And, uh, will Truth is a person.
Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life.
He didn’t say no one comes to heaven except by me. Although heaven is the destination.
If heaven doesn’t become the if heaven doesn’t become the destination, if it becomes the mission, That means that I’m prayed.
He’s come in. Now, I can’t wait to get out.
But can’t wait to get out is not what he asked you to do.
When you read the Bible, it’s not just about getting to heaven.
It’s about heaven getting into you and repossessing what was lost.
Jesus paid a price to restore that, which was lost. Come on. What was lost? Identity.
What was lost? Who we are as sons and daughters? What was lost relationship with our father?
Come on the devil has done whatever he could, and he does anything and everything he can to destroy the word, father.
He does? I just came back from Brazil. I was down there preaching for like a week.
It was amazing. I did, like, 9 sessions and 5 days so powerful led outreaches of 1200 people to go and bring the gospel to everyone that they 8, saw miracle signs, wonders, salvation, deliverances, people get out of wheelchairs, blind eyes, seeing deaf ears, opening.
Why? Cause it’s part of the kingdom.
There are no deaf ears in heaven, and they’re not supposed to be here. Yes. Great.
He said on earth the same as it is in heaven. Well, how do I know it’s his will?
I look at the life of Jesus. Everything he did was the will of god. Yep.
Everything he said was the will of god.
Well, I I don’t understand because I prayed for people and they didn’t get healed. Okay. Bring again.
Well, no. No. I did that. It’s not my gift. You’re wrong.
Since when is this a been there, done that, got the t shirt.
You’re gonna be possessed by 1 of 2 things.
Spirit of the world or speed of spirit of Jesus?
You’re going to be possessed by one of 2 things.
The spirit of the world or the spirit of Jesus.
And god didn’t give you a spirit of bondage. No. No. No.
He did not give you a spirit of fear. The world gives you fear. The world gives you bondage.
We’re supposed to come out of bondage and coming to freedom.
The Bible says
I mean, I’m I’m so excited because I read every day all day long.
I’m listening to the word when I’m at the gym.
I’m listening to the word when I’m I wake up in the morning. The word is on my lips.
He’s he’s my everything.
I found that the the church doesn’t really have a love for the word.
They have a love for a pastor teaching them the word, but they don’t have a love for the word.
The word’s alive. That word changed my life.
That word took me from lost. That word found me, and that word didn’t just find me.
That word cleaned me. That word wiped away all my chunky. He took away bipolar from me.
He took away borderline skits of friend. He took away his suicide from me.
He took away not knowing how to be a father from me. He took all that away.
The word’s alive. It’s sharp. It’s active. It’s sharper than any 2 engine sword.
It’s able to divide and separate your soul from your spirit.
So the first place the word comes to divide is the way that seems right to a man.
It’s alive, guys. It’s not just a book written by people.
All the word of god in 2nd Timothy 316 says the word of god is in inspired by god.
Oh,
yes.
It’s alive. Hebrews 4 12. It’s alive. Second Timothy 316. It’s inspired. It’s breathed by god.
It’s used to completely correct, to admonish, It’s used for training and righteousness.
The word is used for training for raining.
I am supposed to reign as a king in this life through the free gift of righteousness and the abundance of grace.
But so many people don’t unwrap the gift of righteousness. They think it’s too good to be true.
No. It’s so good because he is true.
And if you would see it, you wouldn’t think about your faults, your failures, your shortcomings, all the stuff that you’ve already been freed from, you wouldn’t listen to the voice of the liar that that completely meditates on your past all day long.
The devil never ever backs off. He’ll whisper to you if you listen.
And if you listen to the lie, you empower the It’s the real gospel.
Yes. It’s the real freedom that’s in Christ.
I know that my Bible says in your Bible says that whom the son says free, is free indeed.
That means that if we’re not free, we don’t know him.
He doesn’t want us to know about him.
He doesn’t want us to just listen to other people talk about him. Who is Jesus to you?
Who is he to you? And who are you to him?
Does he ever look away from you? Are you the apple of his eye? Is he your refuge?
Is he your strong tower? Is he the solid rock on which you stand?
Is he safe for you, or is he scary for you?
Do you know the father or have you met him or you repulsed by the name father, are you?
You know, I was at the gym today because today was leg day.
Leg day is a hard day with squats and all that great stuff.
Right now, I’m hurting. Jesus will heal me. I it’s self inflicted.
But I went to the gym, and I went down to this, uh, planet fitness and I don’t have a membership there, but I don’t know if you go, uh, you’re out in Planet Fitness, and I’m I’m just trying to be quiet in there.
So I’m doing squats and doing my stuff, and I see this lady with dreadlocks.
I walked over and I said, hey, girl. She goes, What? I said, no. No. No. No.
No. I just wanna tell you something. I said, I have the best thing ever that you ever heard.
The best news ever. She goes, what?
Cause she’s been hurt, destroyed, ripped off, lied to, thrown away, She’s a single mom.
She got 3 kids trying to fight her way through life. I said to her, I said, hey.
I said, Jesus, love sheep. She goes, oh, I said, oh, that hurt, didn’t it? She goes, yeah.
I I don’t got time for this. I said, well, you actually do. And I say, here’s why.
And I said, you know what?
And I shared my testimony with her, and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, because the guy standing in front of her isn’t the same guy.
Your testimony should be so ridiculously different from who you really are today.
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
When you share that, it impregnates the air for the very same thing to happen again.
So this lady is hurting. She’s been addicted to drugs.
She’s she’s squashed my life, and I’m sharing my heart with her.
And I shared it, and I said, and I just gotta tell you that you were a powerful woman.
She goes, what? You don’t even know? Oh, no. I know what you’re thinking.
I don’t know you because I haven’t been in your life, but I’m gonna tell you what god thinks about you.
I’m pouring a truth into her, and she’s like, It’s crazy. Crazy. You don’t understand.
I’ve been up all night contemplating this decision I need to make. And now you’re here.
She goes, and I know what I can’t do now.
I said, well, awesome. What was it? She goes, I can’t tell you. I said, okay. That’s alright.
Let me go a little deeper.
So I’m sharing my heart with her, and she’s like, what’s in it for you?
She’s waiting for the catch. What’s in it for you? Here’s my card. And that’s not that’s not it.
I don’t have a card. I have Jesus.
So I’m sharing my heart with her, and I said, you know what I hear in my heart?
I hear that you’re a single mom. I heard that you have a few kids.
I heard that you’ve been through a few relationships and the 1, the last one didn’t work, and he’s now gone.
And you’re on your own, and you’re fighting to go ahead and make sure that you provide for your kids.
And she said, I like it. I said, I know what you’re doing. You’d like survival.
But god doesn’t want you to just survive. He wants you to be an overcomer.
She looks at me and she goes, who are you?
Uh, so I’m actually from Texas. Um, just traveling through, chose this gym to work out at because you’re here.
She’s like, what? I said, yep. So I said, hey.
I said, I really hear in my heart that you have digestive problems.
It’s really giving you trouble stopping you from eating.
I said, you also have a neck injury from, like, a recent work accident.
I said, your back is messed up. I said, and you have a headache right now, and you can’t sleep.
She goes, what is going on right now? I said nothing.
I’m just a guy traveling through loves Jesus. He loves me.
He loves you, and he wants to speak to you because you’re important to him. And she looks at me.
She goes, She’s tearing up. She doesn’t know what to say. See, she’s been through religion. She’s been there.
She got hurt in church. She she’s wounded.
Jesus was wounded for our transgressions so that we stop wounding people with ours.
And she’s crushed by church and crushed by leadership, and she’s stomped on and hurting.
And I said to her, I said, girl, listen. All that stuff aside.
I said, god loves you. She goes, Wow. And I said, I got something for you.
She goes, what’s that? And I reached it in my wallet, and I pulled out a $50 bill because I tried to my my wife forgive me.
I go to the ATM and withdraw money because I because I because I need people to know that’s not a thief.
He doesn’t come to steal kill and destroy That’s what she’s been hurt by.
She’s been hurt because people ripped her off in the church.
I mean, come on. We all got our own belief.
We all got our own stuff. Sometimes money is the weirdest thing because, oh, gosh. Here it is money again.
No. Money makes an amazing servant but a terrible master.
And You don’t really blow your town away.
If after church, you actually were nice to your waitresses. Oh my gosh. They would freak out.
If you actually tip them Yes. Instead of counting up what 10% would be?
Uh, we went to your restaurant, one of your restaurants.
Oh, we went to your restaurants a couple days and rocked the waitresses. Love them with Jesus.
They’re us they don’t even know what to say. Like, oh my gosh. Like, really? Oh, yeah. You’re worth it.
What? And they and even if they don’t do a great job, what is Grace?
People think that when you go out to eat at your waitress, you’re going to tip her if she deserves it.
Well, good. If you want what you deserve, go to hell.
Take what you deserve. What is grace?
Come on. People don’t like when I talk like that.
I don’t care if you’d like it or not. It’s the truth of what grace is.
Grace is not something you earned, You didn’t deserve this.
You didn’t do something to earn Jesus coming and dying for you.
You didn’t earn Jesus dying and resurrecting for you. Now, god paid a penalty that you could never pay
so that you could get free from you to finally burn and have something worth dying for.
That’s what he did. He paid a price for us to come alive inside.
To burn with something we’re dying for. God wants us to burn for him.
This is not supposed to be boring. This is supposed to be exciting.
Your worship service was exciting.
But your job on Monday should be equally as exciting because you’re not doing your job for people.
You’re doing it unto the lord.
Colossians 317 says whatever you do. Whatever you say. Come on.
Some of you are freaked out right now. Goodbye. Good.
I want you to be free from you. Yeah.
God loves to offend your mind to reveal your heart. He’s so good.
People were like, yay.
Oh, that hurt. But it didn’t hurt this. Yeah. Heard this.
Because we’ve got a misunderstanding of who he really is and how good he really is.
Because if you saw, you are good. Good. Well,
you are good. Good. You all are good.
Good. You all are good. Good.
Watch. Your never go to that. Never gonna let me die.
I’ll you’re never gonna let.
Never go Come on.
You’re never gonna let. Never gonna let me down because you are Good.
You all look good. Oh,
Uh-uh.
Never go to land. Do you believe it?
Did you receive it?
Can you
all.
Hello.
You all look good. All look good.
Look good. Oh, oh,
oh, do you believe that?
Do you believe that? Then represent that to a lost and dying world. Come on.
Go ahead and have your seat. I’m so excited. You don’t under man.
I got 2 speeds high and off.
He’s really better than you think.
So you have to change the way you think.
You were thinking this way, you think now his way. What did god say to you?
Jesus told the disciples to go preach what?
The gospel of the kingdom, but Jesus told them to go and preach repentance.
That’s what he said. What is repentance? I am gonna change the way I think.
Yeah.
Change the way I think. Mentanoya. I’m changing my direction that I’m facing.
I was headed this way, but it was a lie.
So when I hit here, I realized it was a lie, and I changed the way I think, but I can’t just stop thinking that way.
I have to put the truth in so I think his way.
But if you never get the truth inside of you, because you’re always listening to somebody else teach you, you never begin your relationship with the teacher.
The Bible wants us to have an intimate relationship with the teacher.
You know that the word anointing means little Christ like like Christian is a little anointed one.
A little one smeared with god, a little one filled with god. Jesus Christ was Jesus the anointed one.
And when you are a Christian, think with me you are a little anointed one, a little Christ like 1.
With the ability to anoint. First John, 227 says you need no men to teach you.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t need teachers. Men, the body of Christ needs teachers.
You’ve got pastors. Teach evangelist prophets. You’ve got the fivefold.
You’ve got all these different people that are valuable to the body of Christ.
So that me knowing that I need a teacher to teach doesn’t negate the reality of the truth of the teacher coming inside of me and training me from inside.
See, the anointing, it says you need no one to teach you for.
You have the anointing that teaches you all things that are true.
So when we say yes to Jesus, it’s in 1st John 2 27.
When we say yes to Jesus Christ in us, is the hope of glory. He’s inside of you.
He has come to it’s the mystery. It’s what was never revealed before has now been revealed to us.
Understand that profits, they knew about it, but they couldn’t have it. Yeah.
These these prophets, these men of all the Elijah, Elijah, Jonah, all these different prophets, Amos, all these prophets, they prophecy of about this day that was coming this exciting day when righteousness apart from the law was going to be given to you You didn’t have to work for it.
You didn’t have to fight for it. You have to fight once you have it to maintain it.
These prophets prophesied, and they were so excited, and they couldn’t have what we have.
And they died in faith believing that their lives matter. If you read Hebrews 11, it’s amazing.
You have a great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12. And it says this.
It says, let’s be very careful. Go to Hebrews 12 with me. Let me read this. Gosh.
13 minutes. Oh my goodness. Not good. Not good. I mean, it’s good, but it’s not good.
Because my message goes for days, months, years.
Oh, well, I am.
But I honor time because I know I have to get you guys out of here to eat.
Let’s try it.
Oh, before I go into this, I wrote a book I don’t have any books.
One book. I don’t have many. I have one. Someone had mercy on me and helped me. Do this.
And I spoke, and they put it down. But it’s my life story.
It’s the reality of what I came from, and I’m gonna try to share it and But this book has seen I’ve seen so many 8th we’ve seen so many atheists, so many protocols come to Jesus, It’s a power tool to equip you in the supernatural.
It’s it kickstarts. It’s baby steps, but I promise you that god will use you and flow through you.
So I have this Does anybody here have a prodigal that they want to come home? Come here.
Amen. Bless you. The lord, we thank you in the name of Jesus.
When they touch this book and they read the pages, they repent and say yes to Jesus.
Hey, man. Uh, we have him in the back somewhere.
So if anybody wants one, we have him here. Let me read this.
Therefore, it says, and this is after Hebrews 11, where he talks about all these great men and women of faith.
I love I love some of the, I mean, Abraham Abraham goes down as this mighty man of faith.
It’s he believed God and all this.
But if you look at Abraham’s life, like Abraham, he, he didn’t really do really well.
Like, when you see situations like Sarah, you know, she’s his wife, and they see this king, and don’t tell him, you’re my wife, tell him you’re my sister.
And then the king is about ready to sleep with Sarah, and god’s like, if you do it, I’ll kill you.
And the king’s like, why didn’t you tell me this was your wife? He was scared.
That’s not in Hebrews 11. You know what I’m saying? Like, Abraham believed God.
And, I mean, look, Abraham didn’t He went into Hagar Like, you’re gonna have a son.
You’re gonna do it. Sarah’s like, I’m not getting pregnant. We need help god.
So Sarah’s like, you need to go into my mate servant. Abraham didn’t go. I can’t do this. No way.
Abraham’s like, okay. Goes into Haggard. Do you understand where that’s where the nation of Islam came from?
Ishmael? That was a boo boo.
Not that Muslims are boo boos. But that was a boo boo.
But then, Sarah, like god said, you’re gonna get pregnant and you’re gonna have a son, or you’re gonna have a you’re gonna have a son.
You’re gonna have the air. Sarah’s like, and god don’t why did you laugh? I didn’t laugh.
I’m good. I I didn’t laugh. But, yeah, I knew you lied.
So she laughed and she lied. That’s not in Hebrews 11. It’s amazing the redemption plan of God. Yeah.
Because see, the blood changes everything. The blood changes everything. Samsung was a womanizer.
It was awful what he did. Awful. That’s not in there. Right. Do you understand it’s not in there? No.
Uh, like, It said that, you know, Noah Noah was a drunk. Like, that’s not in there.
It’s not in there. Why? Cause the blood changes everything.
So if you would see the power of the blood of Jesus and what he’s done, his redemption plan washes away what you wish you’d never done.
So that you can be free as if you never did it.
Uh, Jesus didn’t pay a price just to forgive your sin. He paid a price to remove your sin.
What does that mean?
That means that me, I I was lost, and then Jesus was like, not guilty.
Oh, it was the hardest thing for me because I was so guilty.
Guilt, and shame, and fear, and condemnation. All that stuff trailed me.
But when he rescued me, it was gone.
I dared to believe that the power of the blood Let’s read this Hebrews 12.
I’m kinda messing up. I got 9 minutes. Oh my gosh.
Since therefore, we are encompassed or we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance, the race that is put before us, and let us look to Jesus The author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, seated at the right hand of god.
At the throne of god, for considering him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself lest you become weary and your hearts give up.
For you have not yet resisted under bloodshed striving against sin, you have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as son.
Son don’t despise the discipline from the lord Don’t grow weary when you rebuke by him, the scares people.
For whom the lord loves, he disciplines, and he scourges every son he receives.
Indoor discipline god’s dealing you with you as sons. For what son is there that a father doesn’t discipline.
If you’re without discipline, of which everyone has partaken, then you’re illegitimate children, not sons. That’s heavy.
That’s intense. Why would you say that right now in the message?
We were doing so good, and now you’re gonna bring discipline into this thing.
That word discipline is a word called instruction.
God instructs those he loves, but we can’t be instructed by a god that we don’t trust, We can’t be instructed by a father that we don’t trust.
We can’t be. Because we’re gonna look at it as bad, bad, bad. It’s not bad. It’s good.
It says, let us let go.
Let us let go of that sin, of that weight of those things that so easily and snare us.
Right? Are you guys with me? Yeah.
In the beginning of Hebrews, he said he said, let us be careful lest we drift away.
Unless we drift away from the original intent. Guys, this is huge. This is important. This is powerful.
It all has to do with the blood of Jesus.
It all has to do with the price that he paid on the cross. Can I get 15 minutes?
Are you sure? I’ll put you in pressure right now. Are you okay? Okay. No pressure. Alright.
Are you guys okay? Can you give me 15 minutes? Okay. Uh, pray that that’s enough.
I wanna share where I came from so you guys can get the kind of full gamut here and understand why I’m so passionate about what I believe why no one ever shared the gospel with me for 34 years.
No one talked to me about Jesus. Everybody was busy with their life.
And I know I didn’t pass by you because I didn’t come here. But I was in America.
No one talked to me about Jesus. Everybody was not confident to talk about it.
And the reason why we’re not confident is because we don’t believe that we’re forgiven.
If you believe that you’re forgiven and you believe the blood has done what has done, then you’ll never look back.
You’ll never be tormented by who you used to be because that one doesn’t exist.
The power of the blood of Jesus sets you free from who you were so that you can be free with who he says you are.
The power of the gospel is a little different than just praying a prayer and at an altar call and then kind of going through life, trying to just get by.
God doesn’t want you to get by. He wants you strive to enter into the narrow gate.
He wants you to get inside that narrow gate.
Once you’re in the narrow gate, it’s way bigger than it was outside.
But it’s not just about being born again.
Born again is essential to unlock your potential, but potential unrecognized isn’t potential at all.
So what we need to do is we need to understand what does god say about me?
What does the blood speak? Because the blood speaks better words.
We are in a much better coven covenant with much better promises.
It says in 2nd Corinthians 3, uh, verse 17, it says the lord is the spirit where the spirit of the lord is, there is liberty freedom, right?
But where he’s not, there isn’t.
And we all, with unbilled face, beholding us in a mirror, the glory of God.
And we are being transformed back into that original image, moving from glory to glory. It’s amazing.
So the word of god is absolutely powerful, but it can be used as a letter to hurt you.
But when god breathes on that, it actually becomes life inside of you that transforms you from inside, not outside in.
Religion tries to get to you from the outside God gets to you relationally from the inside.
Now this lady at the end, I gave her that $50.
Let me finish that story, and the testimony, and she was trembling, and she couldn’t stand still.
I said, are you okay? She goes, not really. I said, you know what you should do.
You, you should give your life back to Jesus instead of holding it back from him anymore.
She goes, I’m not ready. I said, what do you think is gonna make you ready?
She said, I don’t know. I ain’t even gotta get out of here. I said, okay.
Can I give you a hug quick? She goes, yeah. She’s like, Gabriel Hoggin, I said, he loves you.
She goes, thank you. Out of the gym. Gone. I have to trust that that seed.
Is gonna tremble her soul, and she will surrender her life to Jesus.
And I told her what church I was at, so hopefully she’ll show up here.
Come on.
But I was really lost, and I was really, really deceived.
My parents got divorced when I was 11, and I was very angry because my dad left.
Now even though he didn’t really know how to be a great dad, he was still my dad. You know?
And he walked out, and I was mad at my mom, and then all of a sudden, My mom couldn’t handle me.
I’m rebelling. I started to use drugs. Started a party. She’s like, you need help.
She put me in a place called the Masonic Homes. I was raised by the masons.
For the beginning of my life for about 6 years.
If you know anything about the Masonic organization, it is not good. Right?
And so I’m starting my life off with that. Drugs full on from 12. I get kicked out of there.
I join the military. I go into the marines they’re looking for a few good men.
So I figured this will definitely break this stuff off of my life. It did break something.
I went into boot camp. I lost £76. I came out. Yes, sir. No, sir.
Everybody’s like, woah, dude. You are different.
But I was brainwashed with the wrong substance because unless my soul gets washed with the blood of Jesus, it won’t stick.
So I went out to bed, went home. Everybody thought I changed and went back. I started partying.
I was like, you know what? I don’t wanna be here. I wanna go home again. They said, no.
I said, see you. I went AWOL ran away. It’s called unauthorized absence, UA.
I went I went unauthorized home. I went and told all the people there, yeah, I got leave.
And all of a sudden, I’m stealing a bunch of money in a drug deal, and I’m driving out to Colorado to live the dream.
So I’m hiding from the military. I get busted 6 months later. I get put in jail.
All of a sudden, like, it’s the funds over. The dream is over. It’s a nightmare now.
So now the warrant, there’s warrants for my arrest back home from stealing stuff.
There’s also, like, this fugitive on the run.
When you get pulled over, they run your license, This guy’s a fugitive from the military, 5 cops, 9 millimeters.
I’m in jail now. Gotta I’m gonna try to fight extradition, but you can’t fight at your book government property.
You’re going. So bounty hunters, 2 bounty hunters come up and got me, put me in the plane, took me across in an orange jumpsuit, put me in military prison, I’m busted.
Now I’m in military jail. This is not good.
I’m facing possible time in Leavenworth if they catch me for all I really did. But they didn’t.
They let me out in 6 months, five and a half months. I’m like, alright.
See you, and I ran away again.
I ran straight out to the same place I ran to before, which is not a smart idea.
I got busted a year later. I got put in jail again. I get extradited back across the US.
I get put in the brig again the second time.
This time, they were gonna keep me for a longer period of time, but for some reason, they let me out 6 months later.
They kicked me out. Give me a bad conduct discharge.
Who knows that that doesn’t look good on your job resume?
So I’m not gonna tell anybody about that. So I’m getting jobs and quitting. I’m getting fired.
I’m stealing again. I’m writing bad checks. I’m doing bad stuff. I’m getting busted drug charges. Felony, another one.
Felony, another one. Felony, Not good. Plus, I’m kicked out of the military.
Like, this is not looking good for the home team. I’ll get another misdemeanor. Another misdemeanor. Another misdemeanor.
I’ve got this record, and I’ve got $14,000 in court costs to pay back.
Now, if you’re a drug addict, paying court costs aren’t on your top priority list.
So I’m jacked up, and I’m hurting people, but I meet this girl in a barn.
I trick her in the thing. I missed her. Amazing. How you doing? And she falls for it.
She comes and she gets with me, and she’s an atheist and I’m an atheist.
I have no Christians in my whole family. None. I come from a line of atheists.
I have 11 puritan years at, I mean, like, his name was Oliver Cromwell over in England.
He caused the big ruckus over there. That’s the only guy that ever, like, believed in god.
He was a puritan. They have a statue of it Westminster Abbey with a sword and a Bible, and I’m like, that’s fitting.
Because that’s what I feel like. So anyway, I I’m lost.
No one’s talking to me about Jesus. She gets pregnant. We have our daughter. I become suicidal.
I’m hearing voices every day. Kill yourself. You’re never gonna be a dad.
You can never be a good father. You can never be a provider. You can never be this.
I go to psychologists. I am now I’m bipolar. I’m borderline like schizophrenic. I’m manic depressive.
I’ve got all these social dysfunction stuff in my head. I’m labeled by society.
I’ve been given all the medicines for this, but they don’t help the drugs help.
So I’m doing everything I can to make this thing be quiet.
And I’m with this girl, and finally, like, she’s like, I am leaving you to find another someone will take care of me.
And suicide, homicide hit me so strong that I thought, if you leave me, I am killing whoever you’re with.
Killing you. First, I’ll make you watch, then I’ll kill myself, and we’ll leave our daughter with anybody with nobody.
You go ahead and do what you wanna do. You go ahead and do it. You pulled the trigger.
It’s your fault. Now who knows that that came from the garden? Are you with me?
Come on. They ate the fruit. Adam, what’d you do? The woman. You made her.
She made me do it. Yeah. Woman, what? Yeah.
But the devil that you made so obviously, it’s all your fault, god. Right?
So here I am, blaming everything, never taking ownership. So, man, this was a very big struggle for me.
In 9 years, we’re still together, seven and a half year old kid. I am hurting and destroying people’s lives.
I’m out there one night. I come home. She’s gone. I come home.
And, man, I see a letter from my daughter. Mommy left, she’s never coming home. So I’m like, that’s it.
It’s over. So I’m driving over to her stepdad’s house. I’m gonna get a rifle because he’s a hunter.
He’s got all these guns. I couldn’t own a gun. I still can’t. My testimony is real.
When you have felonies, you can’t own a gun.
So I went over there, and I was gonna go get that gun.
I was gonna put it in my mouth and just write a letter goodbye.
So I passed by a phone book. I flipped open this phone book. It opens to churches.
I’m like, oh, you gotta be kidding me. So stupid, but I drove to this church.
I made a check at 1 of the 586 churches in the hometown. I drove by.
I said, I need to talk to somebody right now.
And this really happy guy, he goes, come on in, buddy. I’m like, oh, I am not your buddy.
He did. He looked just like you. I’m not kidding.
Because every time I see him, he has a smile on his face.
That’s how we’re actually supposed to live. But your smile should be on the outside.
It should be coming from the inside. And that’s where your smiles come from, and I know that.
But I’m like, angry. Like, what do you have to be so happy about? He goes, oh, no.
He goes, let me tell you about Jesus. I said, I’d not come here to hear about Jesus.
He said, this is a church. But in my mind, what did that matter?
Yeah. Because churches were filled with people that were hypocrites. In my eyes.
That’s what I thought. I thought these people, they’re all about themselves, and not one of those people ever talked to me about my life because they were afraid of me because the spirit fears on the church.
I’m talking about just saying, Hey.
I just wanna tell you God has a plan for you. He loves you. That easy. Hey.
He really loves you. What? You have no idea what that what you prevent suicides.
You just don’t know how powerful those words are.
No one told me, but this man is trying to tell me.
I’m a I didn’t come here about you, Jesus. He’s like, this is the church.
I don’t care.
I don’t believe in, jeez. I don’t believe in church. I’m believing.
And I just threw up on him, all my stuff, and he just kept smiling.
Like, man, we’ll stop smiling now. I said, what is wrong with you?
You’re not even listening to me.
He said, no, I am, but what you’re telling me isn’t helping you at all.
He said, let me tell you what will help you. I said, I don’t wanna hear it.
He goes, well, here’s what we’re gonna do. Here’s the deal.
And he shared the cross with me, and I’m like, Dude, I’m over this. I’m over it.
Have you ever heard that before? I’m over it. Yeah. That was me.
He says since you don’t want your life, why don’t you give it to somebody that does?
And I looked at him and I go I feel it.
Who would want this?
Who would want my life?
He said, Jesus, I said, come on, man. Uh, he’s dead.
Everybody knows the guy died, man. He
goes, Oh, no. He’s alive. That went. He’s a lot.
Really? And he shared his testimony. And I went, there ain’t no way, dude. There’s no way.
You gotta be kidding me. So he shares this, and it’s absolutely not who I’m looking at.
And I went, there’s no way he goes, he wants to do it for you.
I went, bro, get listen. If he wants my life again to have it, bear. I did it.
You happy? That’s what I did. He goes, amen. I said, what is that?
What is amen? He said, here’s my number.
I said,
I don’t need your number, dude. I’m good. I’m good, man. I don’t need your number. Come on.
Get out of here. He was just taking. I go, I’m out.
I left. I went home and found that little note called my girlfriend’s mom’s house.
I said, you need to tell mommy that Danny found god, baby. She said, what’s he like, dad?
I said,
I don’t know. But
this guy says, his god’s gonna change my life. He hadn’t even began my god.
It was his god. What I did was I incorporated Jesus in. Maybe he could fix this relationship.
See, god’s not asking you to incorporate him, He’s asking you to surrender to him.
Incorporation doesn’t fix anything. It makes a mess of everything. Jesus Incorporated never fixed anything.
And so sure enough, my girlfriend’s like, she don’t wanna hear it. She comes home.
She goes, I hate you. Now you’re gonna be some holy rolling hypocrite. I hate you. Hate you.
Get away from me, and I earned it. I did. I did everything to deserve hate.
I did. I don’t deserve love. I deserve hate, and I didn’t know how to love my kid.
My daughter’s like, daddy, put her to bed that night. I’m so glad you found god. I said, me too.
She said, what’s he like? I said, I don’t know yet.
But I said, that pastor’s gonna help your daddy. She goes, Oh, good, daddy.
I put her to bed out on a cocaine binge. Hour and a half later. Why?
Cause god didn’t say go make confessing Christians.
He said go into all the world and make disciples.
I need to understand what it means to have a master.
See, when you confessed Jesus and you say, god, forgive me of my sin, and, and it’s it’s a rightful confession, but it does say that you confess that Jesus is lord, but most people confess him as savior.
Savior is included in lord, but lord sometimes isn’t included in savior.
See, Jesus’ savior mean he saves you from something, but Jesus’ lord means that he leads you in something.
See, Jesus says all of you who are weary and burdened down and weighed down by life come to me.
Matthew 1127, come to me and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you verse 28. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Learn from me. For I am meek and lowly in general.
Learn for me, and you will find rest for your souls. That’s what he says.
But how many people incorporate Jesus in for what they can get from him? Maybe he can fix some stuff.
Maybe he can patch some stuff up. Jesus doesn’t come into your house to put up new wallpaper.
Jesus doesn’t come into your house just to rearrange the furniture.
He comes to gut the house. Like, he comes to gut the house completely.
He’s he’s not looking at just putting up some new pictures. I remember this. No. No. No.
He wants to take away all the pictures you have, all the memories you have of who you used to be.
Jesus came into the tent pole.
He came in with a three strand cord, and he was in there.
And they were selling stuff in there, and Jesus isn’t playing.
Jesus is like, flipping over money changing tables. He is going off.
And he says, you made my father’s house a den of thieves.
And they said, what gives you the right to do this?
And he says, tear down this temple. And in 3 days, I’ll bring it.
I’ll build it back again. And he wasn’t talking about the temple. He was talking about his temple.
Why? Because when Jesus was gonna be crucified on that cross, your sins and your lawless deeds We’re gonna be nailed upon him.
We’re gonna be put upon Jesus Christ.
See, all the things I wish had never done, all the life I I’d never live, all the things I wished I’d never said, all the drugs I wish I’d never did, all the people that died that I wish didn’t, All the hurt and all the pain that I caused, all that stuff are all memories of things that I wished I’d never done.
It’s called guilt. Shame and condemnation.
See, Jesus comes to a temple like mine, a temple like yours, a house like ours, and he doesn’t just come up to put new paint on the walls.
He comes to gut the house.
He comes to gut the house and sturdy up its foundation so that that house can’t be moved and it leaves the sand and is found on the rock.
See, Jesus flips over the money changing tables, and he’s saying, you’ve made the house something that it’s not.
But when you tear down this temple, when I am resurrected, I am gonna create houses, spiritual stones all over this planet.
Oh, my gosh. And I am gonna come in, and I am gonna gut the house.
If they dare to let me, I will gut the house and we will make the whole house brand new as if it has never been lived in before.
It is going to be so super extravagant that people will recognize you because of what your outsides look like.
But inside of your eyes, because the lamp is the body, If your eye is single, your whole body is full of light.
When they look in your eyes, they will see light in you because you will become the light in the lord.
He wants to change the way you think.
He wants to rearrange the reality your thought life.
He wants you to stop thinking the way that you used to think and he wants you to think like he thinks.
He wants you to think with the mind of Christ, the newly renewed mind of Christ.
He wants you to get the word of god that’s alive and sharp and active inside of you to slice and dice the the the separation between soul and spirit.
Then he wants to judge the thoughts and intents of your heart and he wants to root out just like he did when he came into that temple.
Everything inside of you, and he wants to flip your tables upside down, get all the stuff that doesn’t belong inside of you out, so that the king can move in because he comes into a house that’s swept clean.
He wants to occupy you with his presence, with his passion, and with his glory.
So I am lost and I’m hurting those five and a half months that I incorporated Jesus in.
I did not surrender. I was destroying lives and including the image of who god was to my family.
Because now this girl is like, I hate you. You are a liar.
I’m doing it cocaine again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
I’m going to church on Sunday. Holy. Even in those five and a half months.
I’m looking around to see who’s looking at me.
And everybody’s looking at me like I got some gifts, but they don’t know how lost I really am.
I have saved her behind me.
But I don’t have a revelation I don’t want world as well, but now, uh, I’m foul I do now.
I was blind. But I didn’t know then, but I was playing like I did.
That would be scary to live your whole life that way.
That’s why moves of god fall flat on their face. Because adultery is there because pornography