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00:00 Hey family, Pastor Darius here. Man, really excited about this message. This is something
00:06 really near and dear to my heart. And I'm going to tell you right now, I want you to,
00:10 you hadn't even listened to it. Oh, I want you to share with as many people as possible. I'm
00:14 telling you that before you listen to it, because I think this is a message that is literally going
00:19 to revolutionize some people's spirituality. It's going to set them free from the pressure
00:24 to practice their Christianity in a way that aligns with Saul's armor. I'm going to explain
00:30 to you what that means in this message, but God's about to set you free. And he whom the son sets
00:35 free is free indeed. I love you. Enjoy the tea, child. All right. How many ready for the word?
00:40 If you're ready to say yes. Okay. I want to read a few couple of verses of scripture found in the
00:47 book of first Samuel chapter number 17, beginning at verse number 38. Let's do this. We are one
00:53 church in multiple locations. Let's say what's up to our New Jersey family. Let's welcome them in
00:59 the room. What's up, New Jersey. We're in a week two of this brand new series called it's up
01:07 first Samuel chapter 17, verse number 38 says this. Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic.
01:17 He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the
01:25 tunic and tried to walking around because he was not used to them. I cannot go in these, he said
01:30 to Saul, because I'm not used to them. So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand,
01:37 chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag.
01:43 And with his sling in his hand approached the Philistine. I want to stop right there
01:48 and talk from this subject in our time together. Very simply. I can't win that way.
01:53 Clap your hands at every location. If you're ready for God's word,
01:59 as a church family, we have dubbed and designated the year 2024 as the year of the upgrade.
02:11 Somebody say it's up and upgrade refers to an improvement or an enhancement.
02:20 It's when you experience advancement, not because you added something new,
02:27 but because you improve something old. And this rebel, this revelation is based on the reality
02:35 that God doesn't have to do, listen to this. He doesn't have to add something new to do something
02:44 new. God can do a new thing with an old thing. And I'm just believing that's going to be your
02:50 testimony this time next year, as you reflect in 2025 on what happened 2024. My prayer is that
03:00 you're able to look at what was a old thing and say, God made it a new thing. He improved it. He
03:08 enhanced it. He upgraded it. God can do a new thing with an old thing. And that's what we're
03:16 believing for this year and upgrade it, not just an ordinary upgrade. We're believing for accelerated
03:24 upgrades. We are a people that believe in biblical quantum leaps. We reject the notion that all
03:33 growth has to be incremental, that even though there may be some things that happen incrementally,
03:40 when we read our Bible, we see that God can do some things exponentially. In other words,
03:46 just because God's doing it big, doesn't mean he's got to do it slow. I just want to say this
03:53 just in case somebody needs to hear it at any location. I want to say it just in case it
03:58 resonates with your soul. I want to say it just in case I'm giving language to what you feel in
04:05 the recesses of your heart. There's some stuff that's going to happen this year. That's going
04:09 to happen big and fast. Okay. Only 37 people at every location receives. God said just because
04:18 it's big, doesn't mean it has to happen slow. I can do some stuff big and fast. I'll make your
04:25 phone ring and it'll change your life. You'll open up your email and it'll change your life.
04:31 I'll send you a text and it'll change your life. There are people watching you that you don't even
04:37 know are watching you. There are people vetting you that you don't even know are vetting you.
04:42 And sooner or later, I feel it, it's going to turn in your favor. It's turning around for me.
04:49 Somebody say big, fast. Big, fast. Big, fast. Yeah, you can wait on God. God said in this season,
05:02 in some areas, I don't have to wait on him. He's giving me the green light.
05:08 When my new year's eve, he's giving me the green light in some areas. I'm not waiting on him.
05:15 In some areas. He's waiting on me.
05:20 And in this first series of the first month of the new year, we are attempting to initiate
05:32 an upgrade in the most consequential and catalytic area of our life. We are attempting
05:39 to initiate and inaugurate an upgrade in our spiritual life.
05:44 Watch this because listen to this. Our spiritual life is not the only important part of our life,
05:55 but our spiritual life is the most important part of our life because it affects everything
06:01 that's important. Did you hear what I just said? I said, our spirituality isn't the only
06:08 important part of our life, but it's the most important part of our life because it affects
06:12 everything else that's important. And God is aware of this because he wired us this way.
06:18 And the enemy is aware of this. So he attacks us out of this revelation.
06:23 So the place I need to grow the most is the place he makes it the hardest to grow.
06:31 Come on here. Am I making sense here? Yeah. So, so, so, so, so this, this series is intended to
06:37 aid and assist us in upgrading our spiritual life. And on last week, we share with you that upgrades
06:45 require open minds. It means that we must be willing to consider new perspectives on ancient
06:54 truths. It means not that we change our spirituality. We don't do that, but it means
06:59 that we revisit the way we've been practicing it. And then we ask ourselves honest questions.
07:07 And that is, is the way I've been practicing it actually giving me the results that have
07:12 been promised in the scripture? Because last week we taught you that Jesus said in John 10, 10,
07:19 the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that you might have a life and have it
07:27 to the full come on church. And on, and on last week we communicated that that word life means
07:32 Zoe, the God kind of life. Come on life as God intended. And we gave you six traits of that life.
07:41 I want to know who won all six. Yeah. Yeah. Lord, I'm running, trying to make a hundred
07:49 99 and a half just won't do. Yeah. A full life is a storm resistant life, not a storm avoided life,
07:58 but a storm resistant life. It means I can be in a storm and the storm not get in me.
08:04 It means that my testimony is not just, I don't look like what I've been through.
08:10 My testimony becomes, I don't look like what I'm going through a storm resistant life,
08:17 a life where I've got a sixth sense. It means that I've got hunches intuitions, promptings of God
08:26 that enable me to make decisions beyond the data that is in front of my five senses.
08:34 It means that I've got somebody who is giving me nudges or giving me restraint, saying things like,
08:42 don't go there. Don't say that to them. Don't you sign that now's not the time. And sometimes the
08:50 sixth sense contradicts the five senses, but the sixth sense is more intelligent than the five
08:57 senses because the sixth sense is God communicating to you something that your natural eyes can't see.
09:06 That's a full life. It's a life where there's supernatural wisdom.
09:12 And one of the ways wisdom is manifest is in my ability to solve problems.
09:18 It's when other people panic and I start pondering.
09:23 It's when I operate with a degree of expertise and insight that didn't come from any sort of
09:33 education that even if I'm educated, I didn't get this from education. It's a sixth sense.
09:41 It's a wisdom that is supernatural. It gives me sensational relationships.
09:50 Full life helps me discern between Peter and Judas. Judas had a bad heart. You let him go.
10:00 Peter had a bad day. You give him grace. A full life gives me strong restraint. It helps me
10:11 restrain myself. So I'm not engaging in self sabotaging behavior. It gives me the ability
10:17 to successfully manage success so that I don't destroy my castle while I'm building my empire.
10:25 Right. It enables me to win. Watch this because outside the kingdom, you got to pick which area
10:31 you're going to win and whatever you're going to lose in. But inside the kingdom, all we do is win.
10:35 So it means I can have productivity and peace. Come on, talk to me. Come on. Come on. Yeah.
10:43 And so, so, so the point of this series is, hey, we got to have an open mind because I got to
10:48 revisit. Do I have all six things? And if I have them, am I full of all six? And if not,
10:56 if the answer to that is no, and I'm unwilling to make a change, then I'm spiritually settling.
11:03 It might not even mean I'm suffering, but it means I'm settling. But I believe
11:12 that when you look back over your 2023 and you see all you had to overcome and all you had to
11:19 endure and all you had to wade through, you did not get to 2024 just to settle.
11:27 No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Bible says they that sow in tears will reap in joy.
11:35 It means that I got seed in the ground from some heartache that I went through
11:41 and the enemy's got to give me a harvest for my heartache. Come on here.
11:46 I'm grateful for our open, open minds. And there are three areas, three areas where we've got to
11:57 be open-minded in. And here's, here's the first one. This first one is what I call,
12:04 the law of revelation. Here it is, family. God will expose something that isn't what you think
12:12 it is now in order for it to become what it can be later. God said, okay, if you're going to
12:21 spirits and upgrade, one of the first things that I got to do is I got to aid and I got to assist
12:27 you in accurately locating where you are. So watch this when you get, when you experiencing,
12:34 when we are experiencing this law of revelation, God, God gives us insight into underutilization.
12:42 In other words, God starts showing you how you are under utilizing what you already have.
12:49 Did you hear what I just said? He starts showing you, oh, you just been walking with that stick,
12:57 Moses. I'm going to show you how to use that stick to part of red sea. Oh, you just been walking
13:03 past those rocks, David. I'm going to show you how to use those rocks to knock down a giant.
13:08 What if I told you God is able to reveal to you and me how we have been under utilizing
13:16 what we possess. So the law of revelation, the law of elimination, your ability to release yourself
13:26 from emotional attachments to that, which has become a liability determines if you become a
13:33 greater asset. Am I making sense here? We got a long way to go. Here it is. Here's the next one.
13:42 It's the law of customization. We're going to spend the rest of the message talking about this
13:46 one customer. Here it is family. The law of customization suggests your ability to win
13:52 is determined by your ability to discern what doesn't work for you.
13:56 And this is where we've got to lean into as it relates to spiritual upgrades, because this text
14:05 that we just read is a text that I believe is a powerful picture of this law of customization.
14:12 It exposes us to David's exchange with Saul prior to his battle with Goliath. And I want you to see
14:20 this. David is getting ready to fight Goliath. And the text says that Saul wants to make sure
14:27 David is properly prepared. So Saul gives David his armor. So you have a king giving this man,
14:37 David, his armor saying, I want you to have the best armor. He gives David his sword saying,
14:44 I want you to have the best weaponry. And the text says that David puts it on,
14:51 he walks around in it and then comes back to Saul. I'm paraphrasing and says, I can't wear this.
14:58 Do you know how much courage it took for him to come back to a king and say, I know this is what
15:10 you wear. I know this is what everyone wears when they go to battle. I know hundreds of thousands
15:21 of battles have been won with people wearing armor. But David is in essence saying,
15:29 I can't wear your armor because your armor doesn't align with my wiring.
15:38 Oh,
15:38 you would have to fight Goliath with a sword. So I see why you giving me one,
15:48 but I'm not wired that way. The sword doesn't work with my wiring.
16:00 See, David's narrative reveals and exposes the truth that many of us need to embrace
16:08 and understand if we're going to experience spiritual upgrades. It's because we too,
16:14 must be able to discern what armor doesn't align with your wiring.
16:28 See the armor and the weapons represented the way one went about engaging in action.
16:35 And it can be a metaphor for the way we go about engaging in action. Also, it represented an
16:41 approach to battle. Listen to this. And David's discernment is what delivered his victory over
16:47 Goliath. What he models is something we can all learn to emulate as we attempt to upgrade our
16:53 spirituality. We must resist the pressure to take on spiritual approaches that don't align
16:59 with our spiritual temperament. Did you hear what I just said? And the reason some of us are losing
17:09 to Goliath is because you're trying to fight like Saul. And the reason some of us are not advancing
17:15 the way we could be advancing is because we've been trying to fight like Saul, because all we've
17:20 seen is Saul. And we've seen Saul get victories. We've seen Saul experience success. And we can
17:26 operate with the assumption that if that's the way Saul did it, then that's the way I have to do it.
17:32 And so now you're trying to conform to a way of practicing your spirituality that has been
17:40 helpful for others, but won't be helpful for you. You need to go to battle, but you can't go to
17:50 battle with that armor on. Come on here. And so you must be willing to discern what doesn't work for
17:58 you so that you can discover what actually does. And I know we talk about liberation and freedom
18:06 and deliverance in the context of the church. And we talk about how we need to get delivered
18:12 from vices and how we need to get delivered from issues. I came to tell you sometimes you've got
18:18 to get delivered from religious traditions. Are we here?
18:29 Many of us are not experiencing spiritual optimization because we're practicing our
18:41 spirituality in a way that doesn't align with our spiritual temperament.
18:46 Pastor, what's the spiritual temperament? It refers to an individual's inherent disposition
18:54 or inclination towards particular approaches, practices, or expressions of spirituality
19:01 that resonate with their unique personality, preferences, and ways of connecting with God.
19:06 What are you saying? I'm saying within the Bible. Somebody say within the Bible. Okay,
19:11 so we're not going outside the framework of the Bible, okay? That's flag on the play. I'm out
19:16 of bounds, all right? I'm not going outside the framework of the Bible, but within the framework
19:20 of the Bible, there are diverse methods and diverse paths that align better with certain
19:29 people's individual spiritual temperament. When they find their path, it allows them to deepen
19:37 their spiritual connection in a way that feels authentic. See, this is why some people say,
19:44 "This religion is fake." No, it's not inauthentic. The way you're practicing it isn't authentic to
19:51 you. Y'all aren't talking to me. It's because you're 26 trying to pray like somebody that's 66.
20:00 That's why it doesn't feel authentic to you. It doesn't feel authentic because you live in 2024
20:10 in America, but you're speaking language from 1611 King James in England. Y'all aren't talking to
20:18 me. That's why it doesn't feel authentic. Forcing a person to ignore their spiritual temperament
20:31 is the equivalent of forcing them to wear Saul's armor. So we do not go outside the Bible to find
20:43 a way to deepen our connection with God, but there are multiple ways within the Bible,
20:49 not because everybody is supposed to do everything, but there are multiple paths
20:57 to deepening our connection with God because there's something for everybody. I'm going to
21:05 say it again. We don't go outside the Bible to find ways to deepen our connection.
21:12 We don't go outside the Bible to find ways to upgrade our spirituality.
21:18 At minimum, the Bible becomes the filter through which you put practices that you're going to
21:30 incorporate. Some people might be so low script, so low scriptor, which is by scripture only,
21:39 or some are so low scriptor, which is by scripture alone. That scripture becomes the supreme court
21:43 to which I take all other religious ideas to. If it aligns with the reality of scripture,
21:50 then I utilize it, but if it doesn't, then scripture overrules culture.
21:57 Make sense? All right. But within the Bible, you got all of these different paths
22:01 to deepen a connection, not because everybody's supposed to do everything,
22:07 but these different ways are in here because, uh-oh, I'm trying not to, I got in trouble.
22:13 Everybody's not supposed to do everything, but there's something for everybody. And
22:27 what Saul, oh my, what Saul can represent is dominant Christian culture.
22:33 What Saul can represent is a denomination. What Saul can represent is people in your family.
22:43 What Saul can represent is people in your church who have been doing it one way,
22:52 and they assume because it works for them, it works for everybody. And now they try to impose
23:00 that methodology on you. And because you've seen it work for them,
23:06 you assume something's wrong with you.
23:14 Did you hear what I just said? And I pray that a spirit of freedom break out across every location,
23:27 including Change Global, where you shake free from the shackles of trying to do this thing
23:36 in a way that's not consistent with the way God wired you. Let me be me. I don't need your armor.
23:45 I don't need your sword. But if you give me my five smooth stones,
23:50 if you let me fight this thing my way, I'll knock that giant down.
23:56 Amen.
24:06 Amen.
24:06 So what happens is certain people, certain tribes, certain denominations, certain sects
24:11 assume that certain spiritual temperaments is the equivalent of spiritual maturity.
24:22 So if you don't have the same temperament as me, then you're not as mature as I am.
24:29 So there's this imposing of armor. And it happens in a number of areas. Here are a few that I see
24:42 where it happens a lot. Are y'all okay? We tilled hard ground this morning, right? But that's why
24:47 you come to a church like this, right? Okay. Here it is. Here it is. I see it happening in a number
24:52 of areas. One of the areas that happens is in prayer. Now I can take you through scripture.
24:58 I can show you so many ways to pray. You can't remember them all.
25:01 Now who you pray to doesn't change. Whose name you pray in doesn't change.
25:06 But I can take you to scripture and I can show you some people laying prostrate and praying.
25:10 That's Joshua. He was laying prostrate. God said, "Get up. Sit in the camp. Get up."
25:16 I'm not even going to bother that. He says, "Your prayer is not going to fix what principle broke,
25:24 Joshua. You didn't lose the battle of Ai because of lack of prayerlessness. You lost the battle
25:30 of Ai because of principle. You got to go back and fix that." Anyway, he's laying prostrate.
25:37 He's praying, right? I can show you people walking and praying in scripture. I can show
25:42 you people kneeling and praying in scripture. I can show you people praying audibly in scripture
25:47 with verbal words. I can show you people praying in their mind like mentally. And I can take you
25:53 to Psalms and I can show you tons of prayers that David wrote. Y'all aren't talking to me now.
26:04 So the pathway is prayer. My spiritual temperament determines the way that I do it.
26:12 And the reason some of us can't be consistent is not because we don't have the right discipline.
26:22 We can't be consistent because you're pursuing a pathway that don't align with your temperament.
26:28 You're not cut like that. I'm going in a closet three hours. You're not cut like that.
26:33 Your mind is all over the place. You're going to have to take a walk and do it.
26:37 You're going to have to write it in a journal. Come on here. You're going to have to do it
26:45 cleaning the house. You're going to have to do it while you're washing the dishes. You got to
26:49 discover your temperament because I came to tell you if you do it in Jesus' name, it'll work in
26:54 the car. If you do it in Jesus' name, it'll work in the park. If you do it in Jesus' name, it'll
27:01 work in the living room. If you do it in Jesus' name, it'll work even if you write it down. Jesus!
27:07 I need somebody that feels free right now to just say, "I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free.
27:24 I'm free." I see it in prayer.
27:49 People are losing. They can't do it consistently because they're trying to do it a certain way.
27:54 I see it in prayer. I see it in worship.
28:02 I can go through scripture and I can show you tons of ways that the Bible says God's willing
28:14 to receive worship, which means not to feel gratitude. It means to express worth.
28:19 Worth-ship. If I'm not expressing his worth in my life, it's not worship.
28:26 Y'all not ready now? Y'all not ready? Okay. Here's the thing. Jesus said this.
28:41 "These people draw not on me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."
28:45 So this is what we do because we don't like dead services.
28:48 We force people into actions that outpace their relationship.
28:52 Because you can't worship beyond your degree of treasure. If it means to express worth,
29:04 I can only worship in a way that is consistent with my revelation of his value.
29:10 So the more I value him, the deeper my worship gets. And some of us, come on here, grew up in
29:18 spaces where they were trying to get deep worship out of people with shallow relationship.
29:24 If you help me fix my relationship, don't you mess with me. If you help me fix my relationship,
29:33 you don't have to get me ready when I walk in here. I'll enter into his gates with thanksgiving.
29:39 And into his courts with praise. When I get my relationship right, I come in here with a
29:47 premeditated praise. See, that's the problem with some of us. Your praise is not premeditated.
29:53 It's based on how you feel. But I believe. I got some people in every location that say,
30:01 "I came to praise him." This is why I came. I got in my car. Y'all aren't talking to me.
30:09 Got on my computer because I got every intention to give God praise.
30:29 So the Bible, all worship means is to express worth. And as long as it's done in spirit and
30:40 in truth, God receives every biblical expression. And although we might like
30:47 one expression more than the other, he doesn't receive one expression more than the other.
30:57 And so sometimes having the church experience that we want
31:00 actually undermines the opportunity to give God the worship he wants.
31:05 Because what we can do in some spaces is try to force people into expressions that don't align
31:15 with their temperament. The Bible says, I can show you what the Bible says.
31:20 Shout under, clap your hands. That's appropriate. Shout unto God with a voice of triumph. That's
31:24 appropriate. I can show you where it says, praise him in the dance. That's appropriate.
31:28 David danced in 2 Samuel 6. I can show you where that's appropriate. Singing is appropriate. Lifting
31:34 of our hands is appropriate. But I can also take you to Genesis and show you where it says,
31:38 in his old age, Jacob leaned on his staff and worshiped. Y'all better come get me.
31:49 He couldn't two-step the way he used to, but he leaned. His legs didn't work the way they used to,
31:58 but he leaned. His voice wasn't as clear as it used to be, but he leaned. And God received that
32:06 the same way he received David dancing out of his clothes.
32:15 So you're not forcing people into maturity by trying to force them to adopt a particular
32:22 temperament. You're forcing them into inauthenticity. You have just forced them out of truth.
32:29 So this is why in a church like this, we don't want uniformity. We want unity.
32:44 What does that mean? It means that if you're the dancer, dance.
32:47 If you're the clapper, clap. If you're the shouter, shout. If you're the runner, run. But the Bible
32:57 also says the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent before him. Sometimes I'm
33:04 not screaming because I'm thinking. And when I think of the goodness of Jesus, let me think.
33:15 Let me think. Let me think.
33:29 But when we don't see this, we'll be forced
33:32 into expressing. There's a difference between being stretched
33:37 in my temperament versus being forced out of it.
33:43 Right? See, I remember I used to spend summers in Atlanta. What was that, East Point? So in high
33:53 school, I had a cousin with the Morehouse. And so when I was in high school, I would come. Some
33:56 summers, Atlanta. Some summers, Dallas. And I would come. So we were in East Point. See, I was
34:01 back in the day where y'all had something. They had something in Atlanta called run and shoot.
34:04 It was more than basketball shooting going on over there.
34:10 So I would go. So I remember. I remember. I can't believe y'all be having me telling my business.
34:24 Y'all make me feel so safe. And then I tell my business. Then y'all start judging me.
34:28 Y'all feel like such a nonjudgmental crowd. Then when I started telling my business,
34:35 y'all judge me. So anyway, I'm y'all. I'm in high. Somebody say high school.
34:38 So give me a break. Don't judge me. I'm in high school, right? So we stay all the way on east
34:42 side. And there's this me and my cousin. So we go and run and shoot. We just stand on that side.
34:46 And then my cousin's friend, who was also a friend of mine, he was also from Mississippi. He had an
34:50 aunt that stay over in Decatur. And I think there was this church. It might be called the Cathedral
34:55 of the Holy Spirit or something like that over in Decatur. Right. And so he was like, Hey,
34:59 my aunt go to this church and they got this youth service on Thursday and number girls in there.
35:06 See, wait, I'm not even about to tell y'all judging me.
35:20 See, never girls over. I say we go to church.
35:24 We go to church. So we go over there for girls, but we get ambushed by God.
35:46 And I remember sitting at youth service on a Thursday night. We were challenged, but not forced.
35:52 It was a little somewhere. It was like that was my first time experiencing praise and worship.
35:59 That's my first time seeing like gospel rap. And it's because I'm coming from rural church. So I'm
36:04 seeing all of this. And all of a sudden, I remember, you know, you know, first, you know,
36:07 first week you just there standing. Right. Then, you know, over the next couple of weeks,
36:15 they singing, you rock a little bit.
36:17 Right there after a while, it's like you clap.
36:33 And I remember the first time I lifted my hands, it was like this.
36:41 But by the time I got through the summer,
36:43 if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw
36:54 all men under me.
37:08 They didn't force me to adopt a temperament.
37:13 They ushered me into his presence and my temperament responded. His presence showed
37:28 me my temperament. Watch this. This is why I like on super Saturday, super Saturday. I mentioned
37:33 we got something we're doing something called transformation labs, and we're doing a spiritual
37:38 pathway assessment, which means there's an assessment we created to help you determine
37:42 your spiritual temperament. Because some of you like, I know my temperament. No, you know,
37:44 your personality. Because if you would have asked me if I was a hand lifter before that time,
37:52 I would have told you no, because that's my personality. But once I got in the presence,
37:57 the presence revealed the temperament. Did you hear what I just said? So,
38:03 so here's my point. My point is, if you're trying to force yourself
38:11 to adopt particular expressions, then you've slid out of authenticity.
38:24 People wear salsa on them in prayer. They wear it in worship.
38:27 Am I making sense? We wear it as serving.
38:33 There's so many times where I'm talking to people like, and I think everybody should serve
38:40 their local church in some way, but that doesn't mean everybody serves their local church the same
38:46 way. But there'll be people who would feel condemnation about not serving in a way that's
39:01 consistent with Saul's armor. Am I making sense? But that's not even some people's wiring. We need
39:15 more people in next gen. But some of y'all, you know, it's not that you don't look, some of you,
39:29 you got kids. He's like, I have kids. That's all I got grace for pastor. That's.
39:41 Now, now watch this. Somebody would say, I'm done. Somebody say, pastor, don't,
39:47 don't, don't say that. You're going to demotivate people to go back. I'm
39:49 going to demotivate the wrong people.
39:50 This is Saul's armor. We feel this pressure. Does that make sense? So I would see these people who
40:04 would pray a certain way. And I'm like, man, prayer matter to me. I practice the daily office.
40:07 So there's three times during that I got my morning devotion. There's two other times during
40:10 the day I'm positive. I'm connecting with the father. I learned my spiritual temperament that
40:15 worked for me. Does that make sense? I got to get by myself. I can't do it in a bunch of noise.
40:20 And it's the feel I try to force myself into these expressions that don't align with how God made me.
40:31 I'm like, God, you made me this way for a reason.
40:37 And you accept what I give you from the purity of my heart.
40:41 And I got free and it changed everything for me.
40:50 See, when you really wear your own armor, it, it, it accelerates your spirituality.
41:00 Here's what you start getting. You get number one, authentic spiritual growth,
41:05 authentic. Now, does that make sense? Like authentic spiritual growth, like, man,
41:10 we got a long way to go, but the kind of growth where you,
41:15 you look in the mirror, you say, man, you got a long way to go, but I'm proud of you.
41:18 I'm more like Jesus, not just the, you know what I mean?
41:27 Number two, you get accelerated spiritual transformation.
41:33 It's like, man, you look at yourself in different seasons and you're like,
41:38 I hadn't just grown spiritually. I'm a new person.
41:42 I got the greatest to me, most encouraging compliment a few weeks ago. And I ran into the
41:54 children of a person who's a part of our spiritual family. The kids have been here, but they don't
42:01 come, come on the greatest. It was so encouraging to me. It came up to me to adapt me up and they
42:08 said, thank you for what you're doing for my mom. I said, I say, no, you can't, you can't do that to
42:17 me. Yeah. Since I, yeah, you can't do that to me. So it's I think you would do with my mom.
42:30 I said, I say, okay. He said, I say, nah, she a different person. She's since she'd been coming
42:38 there. That's an accelerated spiritual transformation. We only been open a year
42:56 at this location, at least
43:03 number three, you get abundant spiritual confidence.
43:05 There's this him blessed assurance that when you got assurance, you blessed
43:16 blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Like I've got
43:21 that when you got the assurance that you and God are good, that's a blessing.
43:32 So when you're, when you're practicing spirituality in a way that's authentic to you,
43:37 you have the blessed assurance me and God good.
43:40 Why? Because you're presenting to him the real you.
43:45 And last but not least, it produces altered spiritual speech.
43:50 There's a significant,
43:58 there's a significant shift in the way we speak to God, in the way we speak to ourself
44:05 and to others. It's your speech changes. It becomes characterized by conviction
44:12 of the credibility of God. You talk to God differently and you talk to yourself differently.
44:25 I will praise you because I am fearfully.
44:31 See, that's all to spiritual speech. That's not arrogant. That's David saying, I will praise you
44:37 because I am fearfully and wonderfully made your works. I'm looking at your works are wonderful.
44:49 That only happens when you align. And I'm a pastor and I only experienced this shift about
44:58 nine, 10 years ago. I was in, I saw a pastor early. I remember the very first time, babe,
45:06 I don't know. I don't know why I remember weird things. I remember the very first time I came in,
45:10 I was in New Jersey. It's a whole story, but I was in New Jersey and I was picking pastor
45:13 me up for the first time. We hadn't, we had been married on, on maybe six, seven months at this
45:17 point. And so nine, one, one, it happens. She had, she was supposed to come to New Jersey.
45:20 The economy went crazy. She had to stay back and keep her job. And I had to still come to seminary.
45:26 Then the seminary didn't have a apartment for us. So I had to go into a dorm and I'm married. It was
45:31 all sorts of stuff. God will test your dream. That's all. That's a, that's a completely different
45:36 stuff. He going to test that word he gave you. Cause when you go through that kind of adversity,
45:41 after a shift, it started making you wonder, did I hear right? Now, God, you told me
45:47 not to go to loss. I was clear. Now I done jumped out here and this is not going well.
45:54 All that's going through my head. It's like, yes, it's, it's, it's not because of the word,
46:06 the enemy. Anyway, I remember picking her up. I'm 21, 22, 22. This time I, I go to the airport.
46:16 Y'all not listening to me. I go to the airport in black slacks, black Stacey Adams, white shirt
46:29 and a black and pink tie and a Kango hat to the front. You 22. Why?
46:40 Why?
46:54 Armor. Yeah. Armor.
47:01 That's how I thought you knocked Goliath down in ministry.
47:07 God wants to upgrade you, but you got to know what you're not supposed to wear.
47:22 And this year we're going to help you not just know your personality. You know that already
47:27 next week, I'm exposed to you nine types of spiritual temperaments.
47:31 Next week, I'm gonna show you nine types of spiritual temperaments
47:36 so that you can locate yourself so that you can develop practices that align with how God wired
47:44 you father. I pray every location that you set your people free from the pressure
47:54 to wear something you didn't create for them.
47:59 I pray that they would have the courage and the clarity to be their authentic selves
48:11 because you want the real us in Jesus name. Amen. Clap your hands if you receive it.