Set Apart

It was a good time. Well, if I haven't met you yet, my name is Clay Stewart. I'm the high school pastor here at the Refuge and I have the honor of bringing the Word today. I'm thankful to get to bring the Word and I know that the only reason I'm able to this morning is on behalf of our lead pastors, my parents, mom and dad, thank you guys for all that you do. Thank you for entrusting me this morning with the pulpit.

I'm grateful to be bringing the Word and I know that it's a testament to the faithfulness of you two. So I'm grateful for that church. Would you give it up for our lead pastors this morning? Amen. I honor you guys this morning.

I remember I was in elementary school, I was probably like 9 years old at the time, around that age. And I remember my sister Yaya was picking me up from school one day. She pulled her car around the car rider circle there and I came bebopping out of the car rider line. And this particular day I was looking just more chipper than normal. I had kind of a radiance about me that after school wasn't that typical.

And my sister picked up on this. I got in the car and she started asking me kind of how my day was and trying to prod a little bit into like, what's going on with him today? Because I just had a smile on my face, the sun was shining, I felt good. And she started prodding a little bit. She started asking if there were a particular reason that I was feeling so happy.

And eventually she started asking, is there a girl that has made you feel happy? Right. She starts heading down that. And I was trying to kind of hide things and not let in anything. And she kept asking me, kept prodding, and eventually I said, well, there's not one girl, but I actually have five girlfriends.

I was probably like nine at the time. And the look on her face when I told her that I had five girlfriends was shock. And the first question she asked me was, do these girlfriends know about each other? And I was like, yeah, they know about each other. Like they're cool with it.

Like we're all friends. And obviously I had no real idea or concept about relationships or what that meant at the time. And. And Yaya, my sister, proceeded to explain to me why I couldn't have five girlfriends at one time and why I could only have one and two. A nine year old, that didn't really make sense to me.

So, you know, I was having a Hard time understanding that. But now as I've grown up, obviously something like that, a mindset like that today would not work, right? I love my wife. She's beautiful, she's amazing. She's a little crazy.

She would mess somebody up. Okay, so I understand now, right. It is honestly kind of sick of me to think an idea like that could work, right? To have five different girlfriends and, you know, that's a funny story, but it kind of leads into my main point today. I'm gonna give it to you up front and then we're gonna break it down together.

But when I was preparing for this sermon, I felt God give me this. This was kind of the main point out of the passage of scripture. We're gonna go to in just a sec. But I felt like the Lord spoke this to me is that God desires a people without duplicity. See, I had five different girlfriends as a nine year old, right?

And understand now that the idea of love is cheapened whenever it's spread amongst many different people or things, right? And I felt the Lord speak this to me, that God desires a people without duplicity. In other words, God desires a people that are holy and set apart for him.

God desires a generation of students that are holy and set apart for him. God desires a generation of kids that are holy and set apart for him. A generation of young adults, a generation of parents discipling their children. God desires a generation of people who are holy and set apart for him alone. This word duplicity is one I'm going to keep coming back to.

So that's the word you're going to hear me talk about a lot. But it's defined as this definition of duplicity is contradictory doubleness of thought, speech or action. Especially the belying of one's true intentions by deceptive words or action. Alright, so we're gonna get at this idea today of duplicity being double minded. And I felt like as I was preparing, as I was praying into this sermon, that I felt like the Lord has given me to preach.

I felt like the Holy Spirit urged on my heart that he wants to wage war against duplicity. He wants to wage war against the double mindedness acting one way at church and another way somewhere else. Now let me just tell you, this is a difficult word for me to preach. And the reason it's difficult is because the Holy Spirit has been really convicting my heart about some areas that I've had duplicity in. So what you're going to hear today is the message the Holy Spirit has given to me.

And I am passionate. I'm intense when I get up here and speak. But it's because of something I heard Pastor Schuyler Farley ask one time. He said, if you were going to preach this sermon knowing that you were gonna step off the stage and pass away right there when you stepped off the stage, how would you preach that sermon? So it's out of that place that I bring the passionate intensity that I often bring, but it's out of love.

And I promise, if you'll stick with me, this word gets really, really good. But I want to preach today about this idea of duplicity out of Matthew, chapter 11. So if you have your Bible, that's where this concept of what the Lord has spoken to me comes from. It's out of Matthew 11. And like I said, this is a difficult word.

And it was an even more difficult lesson that God has been teaching me, that he's continuing to teach, that he's driven home in me time and time again. But I promise it gets good. So hang with me. Matthew 11:20, 30 is where we're reading. If you have your Bibles, flip there.

If not, it's going to be on the screen behind me. But why don't all of us just stand in the building to honor the word of God this morning? Matthew 11:20, 30, it says this. Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so many of his miracles because they hadn't repented of their sins and turned to God. What sorrow awaits you, Chorazin and Bethsaida?

For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, the their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their head to show their remorse. I tell you, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on Judgment Day than you. And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No. You will go down to the place of the dead.

For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today. I tell you, even Sodom will be better off on Judgment Day than you. And at that time Jesus prayed this prayer. He said, oh, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.

My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father. And no one truly knows the Father except the Son. And. And those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Watch. And then it ends this way. Then Jesus said, come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I'm humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is light. It's good news this morning, Church. Would you repeat this declaration or say this declaration with me that we say every week? Ready, go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God.

This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I will be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. And I am confident of this that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it. In Jesus name. Amen.

You can be seated this morning. We're gonna break this passage down in a moment, but let me pray as we open our time together. Holy Spirit, thank you for being present with us here in this place. Holy Spirit, today I recognize my lack, my need for you. I pray that you would come, that it would not be words that I've written or articulated, but it would be words from the Holy Spirit that would speak all through the room today to hearts, including my own God, that you would change us from the inside out.

We pray today that our ears would be open to hear you, our eyes open to see you, and that you would do whatever it is that you desire to do in the place. God, I step away, I step to the side, and I make room for you to come and inhabit this place. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen.

So in the scriptures we just read, we see people that are operating in duplicity and Jesus rebukes them for it. Right. In other words, these people were acting two different ways. And we're gonna get into that in a moment. And Jesus denounces them.

And from the Scripture, I believe there are three different signs that we can kind of pull out this morning together that ensure that we're operating in duplicity. So maybe you're sitting here and you're like, I don't really know what duplicity means. Hopefully I. I've laid that out for you. That's the word you're going to keep hearing. But sometimes we have to evaluate and examine, is there double mindedness in me?

So these, these I feel like were three things. Three signs that ensure that we're operating in duplicity, that show that there's some of that in us, number one is this. Number one is that we're around the things of God, but we look just like the world.

You can be sure that there's duplicity in your heart if you show up on Sundays, maybe on Wednesdays, and you're around the things of God, you're around the presence of God, but you look just like the world every other day of the week. Matthew 11:20. That verse that we read in the beginning, it said this. Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so many of his miracles. Why?

Because they hadn't repented of their sins and turned to God. See, Jesus here in this passage that we read, he's denouncing the lukewarm. He's denouncing the apathetic. He's denouncing the people who are in his presence constantly, maybe every Sunday and every Wednesday, but are not transformed by it.

See, I was thinking about this concept as I was preparing and praying into this message. But I find it so crazy to think that we can come into the presence of the all powerful, all knowing, all loving, not created by anything or anyone, just forever eternal existent God and not be transformed by his presence. We can come, we can experience signs and wonders and miracles, we can have powerful worship, and then we can leave the same way that we walked in. And I felt like the Lord wanted this morning to wage war against that casualness towards his presence. See, it was something I got really good at doing.

It's part of my testimony in middle and high school. Got really good as a pastor's kid of playing the part, showing up to church, acting one way, and then leaving and going somewhere else and not allowing myself to be transformed in his presence.

I think that the takeaway from this particular verse that we read is that experiencing his miraculous power and presence should always lead us to a place of repentance. He denounced them because he did all these signs and wonders and miracles. And then what does it say? It says that they didn't repent of their sins and turned to God. See, God's presence should lead us.

It should move us to a place of repentance. Why? Because it's in his presence that I come up against something. In the words of C.S. lewis, we'll talk about this later.

That is infinitely superior than myself. When I come into the presence of God, I'm coming before a perfect Creator who fleshed out everything that you see around you with a word. And in his presence, I come into contact with the depravity of my sin. Right how low down I was, how broken I am. I come into contact with my sin compared to his perfect nature.

I mean, it is something entirely other than what we can even imagine, right? But in his presence I come into contact with my desperate need of a Savior. Right? When I show up at church, I'm not just showing up to check off a list or check off the religious to do list. Now when I show up at church, I am coming into contact with the One who can save my eternal soul.

And when I do that, his great. I recognize his great love for us in spite of sin. That's why it should lead me to a place of repentance. When I get in the presence of God, it's not because I start doubting myself and condemning myself and becoming a hater of myself. I don't harbor the self hatred in the presence of God.

No, it is this humble, reverent respect and recognition of how amazing God is that leads me to a place of repentance.

See, if you can come and you can sit in a service and you can experience the power and the presence of God and you can still operate in duplicity. There's an issue in our hearts church we have to examine. We have to ask God what that is in us that can sit in his presence and yet leave the same and remain unchanged.

Speaking of people that are in the last days, Paul talks in second Timothy and he says this in second Timothy 3, verse 5. He says they will act religious but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that.

They will act religious but they will reject the power that could make them godly.

See, just being around the presence of Jesus doesn't make us a disciple of Jesus.

Can I remind you this morning that Judas Iscariot the betrayer was around the presence of Jesus more than any of us were. Physically, tangibly, in person. But he wasn't a disciple of Jesus.

Why? Because there was a greed in him. There was a pride in him that he refused to allow himself to be moved to repentance in. So you can be around the presence of Jesus, but that doesn't make you a disciple of Jesus. We fool ourselves when we think we can show up at church and that's what makes us a good Christian.

We can just tithe and that's what makes us a good Christian. We can serve and that's what makes us a good Christian. No, you can do all of that stuff and still not be a disciple of Jesus.

See, we can't act religious, but reject the power that makes us godly. You know what I love there about that verse, the snuck premise there. If you look deep into that, it's that that power that makes us godly has nothing to do with you or me. It doesn't say we reject the choice that we have to become godly or to make ourselves godly. No, there's a power, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that makes us godly.

And our responsibility as the church is to receive that power and allow it and accept it, to make us godly, to make us holy.

So the first sign that ensures we have duplicity is that we're around the things of God, but we look just like the world. The second sign that we're operating in duplicity is that we feel like we've got it all figured out. Or at least that's what we show on the outside. We feel like we've got it all figured out. Matthew 11:25, from that same passage that we talked about, it says this.

At that time, Jesus prayed this prayer. O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever and for revealing them to the childlike. See, when we're operating in duplicity, in duplicity, we act like we've got everything figured out because we don't want people to see how insecure we actually feel. When you have a double mindedness, when you act to trust me, I'm speaking from experience here. When you have a double mindedness and you're acting two different ways, you have to put on a front that you've got things figured out because you don't want to actually let people in to see that insecurity, that inauthenticity.

Right. As a result of acting like we have it all figured out, here's what happens. We, we become accountable to no one.

We walk about unchecked in duplicity because we've not allowed anyone to come into our lives and keep us accountable for that.

See, if I'm on a journey to try to better my health and I tell no one about that journey, it is a lot easier when temptation comes my way. Right? Right. And there's all the Thanksgiving leftovers and I've already stuffed my face with pies, right? And I've already eaten way too much.

It is a lot easier for me to partake in that because I have no accountability. I have no one that I've told to say, hey, this is what I'm aiming for. This is what I'm trying to do. I Need you to help me with this because I know that I just need somebody to come alongside me and partner with me in that. See?

But if I have somebody who I'm accountable to, then I've got somebody in my corner who's going to come to me in love and say, hey, this was the goal you had. What's going on here? Like, are you doing okay with this? How are things going? Let me check up on you.

Hey, man, I've noticed that you're doing this. Like, is that really in line with the goal that you've set for your life? Is it really in line with what God spoke to you about, what you needed to do? I've got to have accountability. I have to be humble enough to.

To not act like I've got it all figured out, but to bring somebody into my life who's going to keep me accountable. See, because I've actually learned this about life as I've gotten older. I'm not very old, but here's what I figured out. The older I get, the more I realize that there's a lot of stuff that I know nothing about. As a kid, I used to tell myself that, you know, as I got older, I'd figure out more and more and I'd be more and more confident in things, and I'd have this idea and this confidence because I knew some stuff, right?

But as you get older, you come into the recognition that apart from the Holy Spirit there, there. There really is nothing that we can be confident or sure of.

So I have to be humble to recognize that and to bring people into my life who are going to hold me accountable. Listen, Because a lack of accountability gives way to duplicity. Duplicity gives way to lukewarmness and. And lukewarmness gives way to falling away. Do you see the progression here?

It starts with a lack of accountability. I'm gonna do my own thing. I've got it all figured out. I'm good to go, right? I've mastered this.

I know how to act the way I need to act when I'm around the certain people. And I know how to talk the way I need to talk when I'm around certain people. So because of that, I've got no accountability, right? That's the first progression. Then it leads to lukewarmness, right?

I don't really care about the things of God. I just act like I do because I'm duplicit and I have no accountability. And then that lukewarmness leads to falling away.

See, if I have no one that I'm accountable to. I can act however I want, depending on the setting that I'm in.

We see a number of examples of biblical accountability in Scripture, from Moses and Aaron to Jonathan and David to Paul and Timothy. But notably, Paul confronts Peter in Galatians 2 for acting in duplicity. He says this. This is amazing. Galatians 2, 11, 12, it says.

But Paul talking here, he says, but when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. So here you have an example of biblical accountability.

Paul is calling Peter out for acting in duplicity. In other words, for acting two different ways around certain people groups. And the lesson from that is that we need people in our lives who are willing to confront us in love.

I said this last service. It's not in my notes, but I felt led to say it again. The biggest lie that the enemy tells believers is that you can walk in sustained freedom without accountability. Can I just. Can I just let you know from personal experience, if you've not experienced that yet in your life, let me just let you know, so I save you some of that pain, that the biggest lie from the enemy is that we can walk in sustained freedom without accountability.

It's just not gonna happen, right? If I'm trying to get free from something, I need accountability in my life. I need somebody who's willing to confront me. So I wanna ask this question and pose it to you for you to think about. And the question is this.

Who has space in your life to correct you?

If you have a hard time thinking of someone, it's a good sign that you might need some accountability in your life.

The follow up to that question is, if you thought about somebody in your head, does that person actually know they have space in your life to correct you? Right? Because it's one thing for me to think of an awesome role model of mine or somebody that I really look up to and say, oh, yeah, they could always confront me anytime. They could call me out, but does that person know that? Have I said that to them?

Have I asked them to keep me accountable and submitted myself humbly to accountability from the people God has placed in my life? Why? Because Proverbs 26:12, it says this. There's More hope for fools than for people who think they're wise.

Listen, I would rather be a fool who has hope than somebody who thinks I'm wise with no hope. Church, we have to move back into a place of humility to recognize, hey, I don't have it all figured out. I need some accountability in my life. And lastly, third way, the third sign that ensures that we have duplicity in us is this. That we find ways to justify things we know are offensive to God.

Difficult word, but hang with me. We find ways to justify things we know are offensive to God. See, the Israelites demonstrate this for us when they construct a golden calf in God's Image in Exodus 32. In this passage of Scripture, Moses is up on the mountain. He's receiving vision and instruction for God's people.

And it starts in verse one. It says this. When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. Come on, they said, make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses who brought us here from the land of Egypt.

Make us some gods who can lead us. Things were taking a little too long for the Israelites. And as a result, they turn to false idols. They begin operating in duplicity, right even after God had done all these amazing miraculous works in their midst. He'd brought them out of Egypt, out of slavery for 400 years.

He brought them out of that place. And then things are taking a little too long. So they justify things they know are offensive to God. See, they justified crafting idols in God's place because things were taking too long. And I just felt this as I was preparing the sermon, that we have to be very careful of justifying our sin because of our circumstances.

We have to be really careful, Church, of justifying our sin because of our circumstances. I was raised this way. My family's always talked that way. No, you don't know what happened to me. That's why I act like this.

Listen, I'm not saying any of that stuff isn't valid, real life things. But nothing on this earth can justify a license to sin.

Well, it doesn't mean anything bad to me. I don't really feel conviction when I do this thing. I don't really feel that guilty when I do this thing. It's not as bad as blank, right? When we begin to justify.

Listen, it doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter if I feel conviction or not about something. If the word of God says something is sinful, and offensive to God. It's sinful and offensive to God.

And it's not a matter to be taken lightly. Listen, I, I can't show up because of the fear of the Lord that's in me. I can't show up to church and, and, and, and be praying in tongues or lifting my hands and then Monday going and, and watching pornography and allowing myself to live in a pornographic state.

Just get real for a minute here, church, because I think we need to be real with ourselves. I can't lift my hands and send my friends Bible verses and be sleeping around on the side. I can't go party on Saturday and get drunk and then show up on Sunday morning and act like me and God are tight.

All of these things are messages the Holy Spirit has pricked me with. So it's not out of a place of some holier than thou delivery. It's out of a place of love. To admonish you today that we would get a grip and understand that we can't justify sin in our lives that we know is offensive to God. We gotta deal with it head on.

Gotta face it. See, an attempt to justify our sin indicates a lack of the fear of the Lord. What's the fear of the Lord, you might say, is the fear of the Lord being afraid of God? Is it turning away from him every time he comes around the corner because he's this big mean, fee fi fo fum God? No, that's not what the fear of the Lord is.

The fear of the Lord, in other words, is a deep reverence or respect.

It is a place of deep honor and respect and reverence towards God. It is a recognition of, of how amazing and just and powerful and big and loving and beautiful and merciful God is. And out of that recognition, it's desiring to love him by putting aside anything that would offend him. Anything that would offend God. No matter how I feel, no matter what it means to me or doesn't mean to me, anything that offends God I should desire.

There should be something in me that desires because of what he did to me. To put that aside and to leave it aside.

First Peter 1:1420 talks about this. It says, so you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.

For the scriptures say you must be holy because I am holy. And Remember that the Heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as temporary residents. For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors.

And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began. But now, in these last days, he has been revealed for your sake.

So why do I live in reverence of God? Why should I respect him enough to love him in a way that causes me to remove, to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to remove sin from my life? Why should I live that way? Because there was a ransom that was paid for your life that you could not pay, that your grandma could not pay, that your mom could not pay, that your brother could not pay.

There was blood that was shed for you. Perfect, spotless, precious blood. God didn't choose some human being, one of us, to make atonement. He sent his son, recognizing that it should drive me to a place of love for him because he rescued me from something I couldn't rescue myself from. He delivered me out of a place of bondage that I could never deliver myself from.

Listen, no other blood could have done that. Every single one of us in this room could die the same death Jesus did and do the same thing he did in terms of suffering on that cross. And it wouldn't mean anything.

But because he came and he lived a perfect life, he was sent. He was God in the flesh because he gave Himself up. Him who knew no sin became sin for you and me.

What God is this, and he didn't do that whenever you were in your best state. He didn't do it when you were coming to church faithfully and tithing and serving and reading your Bible and loving Him. Well, he did it when you were in the lowest place of your life, when you were the most addicted, the most depressed, the most in bondage, the most in chains. That's when he came. He gave his life up for you.

I was reading a book recently called the Story of Reality. Gregory Kukle is the author, and he talked about this sacrifice, and he compared it to this illustration of a king who finds out that somebody in his cabinet has stolen a bunch of money for him and demands justice from this person. So his cabinet sets out, they go to find this person who's betrayed them. They Find this person who betrayed the king, and they bring this person before the king. The king standing, sitting there on his throne and coming down the aisle in chains and shackles is the king's own mother.

The king looks at her, demanding justice for what had been done. He sentences her to be flogged. He commands her to be tied to a whipping post. And then before they begin the process of whipping her, this king sheds his royal robes. And the king goes and he wraps up his mother in his own body.

The king stands there and orders the whippings to take place because they had to happen.

And that whip came down. And every whip that came down came on the back of the king who was fully embracing, enveloping his weak, fragile mother, Right? It's this picture that you and I deserved. The death that Jesus died, you and I deserved. That was our lot.

That was our punishment.

It wasn't meant for him. And yet in his great love for you, he wrapped you up and he took every blow that was meant for you.

So when we talk about reverence and we talk about the fear of the Lord, it's not a. It's not a duty, it's not an obligation. It's not something I talk about because it's what I shed from the pulpit.

It's because, man, this king who took my beatings, this king who took my punishment, if he did what he. If he did what I hear people saying he did, I have no choice to live double mindedly. See, that's not an option. If he did what everyone claims he did, then he's worthy of my life. Sold out, set apart, wholly consecrated for him.

And it's out of that place, that fear of the Lord, that holiness that we walk in, and that desire to love him based on our. Based on that holiness, right? Based on who he is.

It means acknowledging his power and his presence by operating in repentance.

CS Lewis said it this way. He said, in God, you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that, you do not know God at all.

So again, to recap the signs, we're operating in duplicity, Number one is that we're around the things of God, but we look just like the world. Number two, we feel like we've got it all figured out. And number three, we find ways to justify things we know to be offensive to God. So maybe you've sat in here during this sermon, you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit and you feel this desire to get right with The Lord. But maybe there's even some sort of burden or feeling overwhelmed at what you have to do in order to make this right.

This is where the good news comes in. Here's what Jesus says in response to that. As we finish looking at Matthew 11 together, he says this, that last verse that we read. Then Jesus said, come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.

Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart and. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is light.

See, the good news today is that you don't have to get rid of the sinful things in your life. You don't have to get rid of the duplicity all by yourself. Why? Because Jesus carries that burden for us and teaches us to live holy lives if we'll let Him. This message can be intense.

It can be weighty, right? But I want to end on a positive note because the Gospel is good news, and the Gospel says that it's not a matter of your own effort or strength to live rightly with God. No, all we have to do is come to Him. We receive the power that makes us godly. We don't work it up in ourselves.

We don't serve enough to get it. We don't come to church enough to get it. We don't read our Bible enough to get it. We receive it by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And today it's available to you and me.

If you don't get anything else out of the service, I want you to hear this. That God desires a people sold out for him, and he provides the grace for us to live sold out. It's not something you and I have to conjure up in our strength. No, he does it. That's what's so amazing about him.

If you're weary and exhausted from living a double life, if you've allowed sin to have a hold on you, I want to implore you today, come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Allow him to take the burdens. Listen. From somebody who has lived in a duplicit lifestyle, where I've acted one way at church, a different way other places, it's exhausting.

And can I just tell you, today there's rest found here in his presence. His yoke is easy. His burden is light.

So if you felt convicted today, if you've recognized there's some duplicity in you, that God needs to work out. There's some ways that you've been operating in that are double minded in nature. Maybe there's some sin that you've been justifying that you know is offensive to God, that you want to allow the Holy Spirit to come and change and transform you. Today, I want to give you a chance to respond. But let's posture our hearts in prayer as we do that and then we're going to close.

Father, we recognize your presence in the place right now. God, I pray for every soul in this room that's weary, that's burdened because of the grip of sin, because of the duplicity that so easily plagues many of us. God, I pray right now, Father, that you would come and you would give us the strength and the grace that we need to respond to. Say yes to what you're doing in our hearts. Let us not be distracted by something else going on.

Lord, it's not about somebody else that's sitting next to us. It's about us and you right now in this moment. Father, we just confess before you that we're sinners, God, that we have a depravity, that we have a lowness, a brokenness in us that we couldn't fix. And we need you today. We need the mercy of Jesus to wash over us and restore the fear of the Lord in your house, God.

We pray that a humble heart would be given to each of us to examine our own hearts and to see if there be any area in us that's contradictory to you. In Jesus name. Hey, thanks so much for joining us for this message. If God spoke to your heart in a special way, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out to us@testify.

There.

I look forward to you joining us again, whether it's in person or online. God bless you.