Grace Under Pressure

Welcome to 2819 Church. My name is Arik Hayes, one of the elders here. We are a church that is a house of prayer, proclamation, and presence. I want to welcome our online community—the digital disciples—who are connecting from around the world. Our pastor has shared that he's met believers from Jersey, New York, Houston, and even London who are part of our faith community. That's not happening everywhere. We preach the full true gospel, not messages designed to tickle ears.

I also want to welcome the unbeliever here today. You can belong before you believe. The Great Commission calls us to get the gospel into the ears of unbelievers and let the Holy Spirit do His work in hearts.

About Me and Respect

I came to Atlanta in March 2015, so it's been a little over nine years now. I'd describe myself as a pretty laid-back, kind person. But one of the main reasons I move like that is because I absolutely despise intentional disrespect. When I'm certain someone has directed disrespect toward me on purpose, we have a problem.

Here's what many don't know: men are wired to receive respect. In Ephesians 5:33, Paul writes about the marital union: "Let each one of you love his wife as himself...and let the wife see that she respects her husband." Men are commanded to receive what we're wired for. In my premarital counseling, I tell couples: if you're dealing with a man and you intentionally disrespect him, no amount of love or food will fix it. He's going to want respect.

A Story About Pressure and Temptation

Let me tell you what happened about a year or two ago. I was driving with my friend Lzelle to get pizza from a local spot called Pazano's in Kennesaw. I was speeding in the left lane—I'll admit that. As we approached an intersection, a small car in the turning lane decided to make a slow U-turn right in front of me, heading in the same direction.

I saw him coming a hundred yards out. I laid on the horn hard. He finally got into the right lane, and I caught up to him. I wanted to make eye contact to send him a message: "That was crazy. Why would you do that?"

When I got beside him, I looked over to make that contact. But instead of looking at me, that gentleman had his longest finger up—you know what I'm talking about. The longest one. He didn't even look at me; he just sent me that message.

I got hot in my chest. I was in a real conundrum. In America, we all know what that gesture means—a four-letter word starting with F. Now I was rattled. Before I knew it, I hit the brake and we jerked.

I want to pause here. You laughed because you recognized that human emotion—the frustration, possibly the rage that accompanies a situation like that. It's a human condition. But here's the thing: when we read the Bible, we often zoom by without recognizing that the apostles, even Jesus Himself, had to deal with human emotion.

What Jesus Had to Embrace

Let me read Matthew 16:21-23. From that time, Jesus began to show His disciples plainly that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.

Here's what I want to extract from this passage: even Christ had to submit Himself to the good news that He is the Christ and Son of God. What does that mean? Because He was the prophesied Savior, He had to choose to situate every iota of His being—fully God and fully human—to fulfill the prophecy and do all that was necessary to save us.

Christ knew what He would endure on the cross. He told His disciples. Christ was also fully human, which means He could be tempted. Yet He had to submit to the plan of God for salvation.

If Jesus submitted to the plan, what makes us disciples think we have the option to opt out? When you situate your life according to who Jesus is, you run all your decisions through that filter. That is the life of a disciple. Anything outside of that—we'll talk about that now.

Peter's Rebuke and Satan's Involvement

Verse 22 says: "And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, 'Forbid this, Lord. This shall never happen to you.'"

Another translation: "Far be it from you, Lord. May God be merciful to you. May this never happen to you."

The tone is passionate, maybe stern, but overall out of love. Put yourself in Peter's shoes. He was always speaking out. But they were human. Put yourself in his shoes. Take the person you love most—a grandmother, a child, a sister—and imagine they tell you, "Because Jesus is the Son of God, I'm moving to Kansas. You won't see me on Sunday evenings. You won't be in my small group. You can't fly in for holidays."

Wouldn't you have a human emotion that says, "Hey, man, maybe you should rethink that. You don't even know anybody in Kansas. Are you sure you heard from the Lord?"

Don't you understand Peter's human emotion? They walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, sat down with Him, planned together, saw miracles. There was a kinship, a friendship, an affection there. Even though He was Lord, there was deep affection.

Jesus's Response: "Get Behind Me, Satan"

Now, verse 23 is crucial. Jesus turned and said to Peter:

"Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

One of the most interesting—or troubling—things about this text is that if Jesus hadn't explicitly stated Satan was involved, we could skip from verse 22 to verse 24 and simply say Peter loved Jesus. We could say he was just concerned. Isn't that a very human emotion? "Hey, I love you. I don't want you to die. I don't want you to be crucified. Let's find another way."

But Jesus addressed Satan. We don't know if Peter was momentarily oppressed by Satan or if Satan was whispering in his ear and Peter thought it was his own thoughts. The text doesn't tell us. But what we do know is that Jesus identified Satan's involvement, and Jesus didn't suddenly forget Peter's name.

Here's the crucial point: To have very natural, strong human emotions like we all have, and then let them drive you or influence others to go against the will, purposes, commandments, and plan of God—to not submit yourself to His will—is nothing short of satanic.

I'm not saying your emotions are satanic. Scripture says, "Be angry." But when you let your emotions, feelings, passions, and proclivities look at the commandment and scripture and trample upon it, going your own way without submitting to the scriptures and the will of the Father—that is satanic.

Do I like the way that sounds? No. But it's still true.

When we see the will of God and say, "Forgive. Nah, man, I ain't doing that. You don't know what they did to me"—that's satanic. When my wife ticks me off and I don't want to love her the way I should and I say, "Well, I don't feel like it right now"—you know what that is? Satanic. When you let your heart stew in jealousy—"I want that. I should have it. They shouldn't have it"—green with envy, meditating on it all. That's satanic.

How did the people of God get so comfortable being satanic?

We Come to Worship, Then We Tap Out

We come here. We worship. During the high praise, we sing: "You are holy. You are kind. You are worthy of honor and worship." Which means the way we live our lives—not just here on Sunday morning—should reflect that. But when temptation gets too hot in the kitchen, we tap out. We release the pressure valve. We cuss someone out. "I ain't got a husband yet. I ain't got nobody on deck. I haven't had anybody in a while. It's been a long time. I gotta release that pressure valve. I gotta scratch that itch."

That's satanic.

The Rest of My Story

Let me finish my story. He got in front of me, gave me the message, and I was hot. I was upset, angry. Here's what went through my mind, and this happened real quick: Pull over. No, no, no. You want to tell me that? Let's do it face to face. Pull over. Yeah. Come closer and say it to me. Let's get a little closer. You've got something to say? Get it off your chest. I'll gain opportunity.

That's what was going on in my soul.

Listen, we can be cunning in our sin. I'm thinking: Now I'll get close enough. I know the law enough to know I can't touch him first. But if he touches me, I can beat the brakes off him. And I can say something to make him want to do something. He pushed my button. I'll push his button. We can make something happen.

I got a saved brother in the front seat. If you know Lzelle, he's real cool. When I tell y'all I hit the brake, I hit it and we jerked. He said, "No, don't do that." He didn't even look at me. He just said, "No, don't do that." And he only said it once.

That's key. He only said it once.

I had to get my mind right. It was enough to make me snap out of it. I looked at him and thought, "Oh, I'm tripping." I was about to get bad.

Here's the thing: you might think you can get close to temptation and still remain cool. "I'm strong enough. I've been saved long enough. I know I'm not going to reach out and hit him first." You don't know that.

The Role of the Holy Spirit

This is one of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If you've spent any time with the Lord, you've tried to gear up and work yourself up to do something you know is wrong. I'm talking about while you're saved. You've planned and plotted. You've packed your overnight bag. You've gotten in that faith.

Guess what happens? The Holy Spirit can do this: "No, don't do that."

That's it. That's all He says. "No, don't do that."

This is why you have to be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit. This is why the Holy Spirit doesn't repeat Himself.

He gives you His warning, and the circumstances and pressure are yelling at you: "Go do it. Release the pressure valve. Go do it. Please your flesh." And the Holy Spirit whispers, "No, don't do that."

If you're not sensitive, you won't even catch it. You'll go into ruin—spiritually and physically.

Watch who you've got in the front seat of your life.

What if I'd had someone else driving with me? Oh man. What kind of example would that be? Let me tell you what my ruin could look like. I'm an elder. There are 2,500 to 3,000 people here. My pastor has assigned me to preach God's Word. I'm a breadwinner for a whole family of six. I have a wife at home, one-year-old twins, a two-year-old, and an almost six-year-old son. I'm part entrepreneur. I'm starting a nonprofit. People are depending on me.

And I'm on the side of the road on the news, reaching through the window, trying to pull this guy out. What do I look like? Say it with me: Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

Don't we look crazy? I just put my whole situation on front street. If God pulled back the veil and showed on screen where you are overriding the voice of the Holy Ghost, you know what? You look crazy. And it's satanic.

The False Neutrality

We want some type of neutral spiritual ground, don't we? We want to say, "I'm not serving the Lord, but I'm not doing what Satan wants either." There is no neutral spiritual ground.

Either we live our lives to please the Lord, or we are in rebellion and committing high treason against the Most High God.

Here's what's twisted about it: this is high treason from someone who is in His kingdom. You expect that from your enemies, not from someone you saved, someone you gave Your Son to die for, someone you adopted and brought into the family of God's kingdom. You don't expect high treason from that person.

That is satanic. It's sponsored by Satan.

Peter had good intentions. Peter loved Jesus. Peter, I believe, wanted to protect Jesus from what was to come. Peter's intervention to stop Jesus from going to the cross was satanic.

Cultural Messages Sponsored by Satan

We find ourselves in a culture that gives you messages. For instance:

"All feelings are valid." Doesn't matter. It's a feeling that came out of your human heart. It's valid. Feel however you want. Do whatever you want. This message is sponsored by Satan.

"You should just be happy." Whatever makes you happy. Life is about the pursuit of happiness. Do whatever, whenever, however, as long as at the end of the day it makes you happy. This message is sponsored by Satan.

"Love is love." It doesn't matter what it looks like. Fall out of love with your spouse and find another one in your DMs. Got a boyfriend or girlfriend you love? Have sex with him. You're going to marry him anyway. Same-sex attraction? Go ahead. No strings attached sex? Just do it. It doesn't matter as long as it's consensual. Sex is just sex. This message is sponsored by Satan.

On Same-Sex Attraction and Homosexuality

I want to slow down here because I'm tired of Jesus being misrepresented. God does not hate gay people. I'm so sick of hearing it.

If you are not saved, the primary message to you is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are all sinners. Because of sin—both in doing it and inheriting sin through Adam—we've been separated from God. He sent a Savior to pay the price so we could even have a relationship. Belief in Jesus gives us eternal life and relationship with the Father on earth and in heaven. That is the message.

If you are saved and you deal with same-sex attraction, here is the message: that sin—to engage in that type of relationship—is sin, just as it's sin to fornicate with your boyfriend or girlfriend in a heterosexual relationship, just as it's sin if you're married and you want to sleep with somebody who's not your spouse.

God sees all situations as sin. When you stay jealous—sin. When you backbite—sin. When you gossip—sin. Excessive anger—sin. Unforgiveness—sin. A little white lie—sin. And all of it is satanic.

Here's what I see most of the time: we've got it in one ditch on one side of the road or the other. On one side, people beat and beat on that particular sin, killing it from the pulpit as if the sin the person holding the mic is doing doesn't stink before God. Wrong. Then you go to the ditch on the other side: "No, we affirm it. It doesn't matter. God doesn't care. Just come on in. He loves you."

He does love you, but He cares about all of humanity and what sin does to the soul. Wrong there as well.

Do you hear me pandering to either side? No matter what your passions, proclivities, or evil desires are—all of us, when we run into a commandment that Jesus or the scriptures clearly outline, we are to submit our desires to that truth.

This is the tough thing: you may pray and some desires may go away. Some might not. Wouldn't that be easy Christianity? "Oh, you don't want me to do that? Hey, God, take it away. Just take the desire away." Then it's gone and you're good.

But when they stay, when they don't move, when they get stronger, our response as disciples should be to bow under that authority and submit our desires. When we allow it to supersede what God has ordained, it is satanic.

All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us needed and still need a Savior.

The Way of Escape

Let me talk about temptation. Here's what 1 Corinthians 10:13 says:

"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it."

First, "no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to the human experience." You're not the only one feeling this. You're not the only one who struggles. That's a lie from Satan meant to seclude you, push you into the corner, and keep you in shame and bondage.

God is faithful to only let temptations reach you that you have the ability to overcome.

Second, God provides the way of escape. When you feel the pressure to bow to sin and idolatry, start looking for the way to escape. Where is it, God? You promised in Your word that it would be here. I'm feeling the pressure. Oh, there it is. God is faithful.

The problem is that too many of us, too many times, when we feel the pressure and go to bow our knee, we just succumb to the sin. I'm not judging you for feeling the pressure and feeling weak. No. But while you're on your knees feeling the pressure, look at the right altar. While you're down there, pray. Don't succumb to the temptation—that's satanic. Praying is what we're called to do, so we may have grace in the time of need. Come boldly to the throne of grace until you have enough strength to stand up in the middle of it.

Beloved, I can tell you with over two decades with the Lord, that is supernatural.

God Does Not Tempt

Let me give you James 1:13-14:

"Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God.' For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire."

Here's something important: God the Father does not tempt anyone. Jesus can be tempted, but not God the Father.

Check this out: when some of us are falling into temptation, Satan might not even be around. What is there is your evil desire. It's only a temptation if you have an evil desire that wants to acquire it and partake.

For instance, there are people addicted to gambling. No self-control. They get into a gambling situation and can't control themselves. They'll spend all their money. If that's you, I'm not trying to be insensitive. But me personally? I can walk into any casino on the planet and it won't touch me. Why? By the grace of God, that's not an evil desire I have. I do have something else I have to deal with, but that's not one of them.

The temptation is actually centered on you. What evil desire do you have in your members?

Some of you are really dealing with envy. You can't open Instagram without thinking, "I need that life. I got to have it." You can't even scroll without jealousy. You know what? You probably just need to delete the app.

No, no, no, no, no. Delete the app. Some people think that's a little too much. "Elder, you being too much." But Jesus said, "If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out." I'm saying if it's not necessary for your job, some of you need to delete all social media.

Am I giving you a law? No. What I'm saying is: why would you just facilitate the fornication between your evil desire and your temptation all the time? You're just facilitating it. You're packing them up and sending them on dates. "Y'all have fun." And I'm not being crazy. James 1:15 says:

"Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death."

We've facilitated the fornication of our evil desire and temptation and sent them off to spend the night together. Then we get surprised when a baby is on the way, and its name is sin.

That is satanic.

Do you see that satanic bloodline? No matter what the sin is, sin wants to grow up and kill. The desire is conceived. Sin is there. Then sin grows up and turns into death. Do you see the satanic plot?

Don't you still think God's rules are just a little too much? One of my jobs is to keep preaching this so you'll see God's commandments as a loving father—as protection. He's not trying to restrict you. He made heaven. He made the Garden of Eden. "At His right hand are pleasures forevermore."

I have a two-year-old baby girl. She has me wrapped around her finger. Everything she does is cute. She's sitting there screwing the top on a bottle and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, that's so cute. She's just so cute!" She comes up and says, "Hey, Daddy." What? Hey, hey, hey. How you doing? So cute.

But guess what? Even my two-year-old kid looks me in the face and tells me "no," and I burn up East Atlanta for her. Straight up. Something happens to her, somebody needs to call Elder Milton: "You need to check on Elder Hayes. He is not okay."

But she can't look me in the face and be like, "No, I'm about my way," and have me be okay with it.

Saying no to God is satanic.

Growing in Grace to Resist Sin

We especially as the American church are too familiar with the restoration and grace after sin. We're not familiar enough with the grace of God that can stand up on the inside of you—the grace and the ministry of the Holy Spirit—so you can stand up and not bow to sin. That's what we need to grow in.

Some of you don't need deliverance. You just need to see sin for what it really is. You just dabble in it because you think it's neutral ground. It's okay. No, it's high treason against God.

And here's the thing: some of you are in situations where you have full-on despair. "I tried, man. I tried. I fell away from the faith. I didn't get teaching like this." Some people fall away because they have respect for God. They're saying, "Man, I know that's what he said. I tried. And this Christian thing—it ain't for me, man."

But watch too many Christians sitting right beside them, fronting like they ain't falling too.

The Same Emotion

It's important to know that Jesus and Peter had the same emotion. Peter says, "May this never happen. May God have mercy on you." In the garden, Jesus says, "Can this cup pass from me, God?" Same emotion.

But here's the second part: one of your main weapons against temptation is prayer.

Think about the garden. Jesus took the disciples to the garden. Not all of them went in with Him. He took Peter and another disciple further to pray with Him. Jesus said, "Pray with me." Why? He was about to enter the passion. They were coming to get Him. He was about to go through the things He'd just told them about. Jesus said, "Come pray with me. Come pray with me."

What does Scripture say? They fell asleep. It happened two more times. "Come pray with me. Come pray with me." Another human emotion. They were sleepy. Or maybe it's a human condition: sometimes you need to stay up and pray.

But you've stayed up in sin. God has saved me. You've gotten the 2 a.m. text. Someone said, "What you doing?" And you said, "Nothing," but you got up, showered, and stayed up to sin.

Stay up and pray. Both times you were sleepy. You just fed your flesh instead of feeding your spirit.

I talk about what I know because God is delivering me. I'm about to fall asleep on the road driving. Got to get over there. You ain't got gas money to come to church, but you got gas money to text three people for a cash app: "Come on, hit me $5, bro." You're trying to get to her. She hit you up. She hit you up. "Hit me five." "I ain't—I hit you back." But you can't make it to small group this week because you're low on cash. "Hey, hey, hey." I'm not condemning you. I'm talking about the human condition.

Jesus Rebuked Satan; Peter Didn't

In verse 23, you hear Jesus rebuke Satan. You know who didn't rebuke Satan? We don't have a record of Peter rebuking Satan. We don't have a record of Peter praying in the garden. So when the pressure comes, Jesus is able to stand up in it. And you have Peter denying Christ three times.

Do you see that, family?

Even Jesus had to pray. And one of the things Jesus said—and we don't have a record of Peter doing it—He said, "Pray so that you do not enter into temptation." And he fell asleep.

Here's the thing, man: I'm not telling you that restoration is not there for you when you sin. It is. That's the character of God. Don't hear me say that. Forgiveness, restoration, love, grace—it's there for you.

I'm just addressing this: how many times as believers do we have a preconceived notion or limit on how much inconvenience we'll deal with before we tap out? If it gets too hot in the kitchen, I'm tapping out. If they say it one more time, I'm tapping out. If they do it one more time, I'm going to appease my flesh. If they do it one more time, I'm going to follow Satan's agenda.

I'm saying, beloved, become acquainted with the type of grace that helps you stand up in the middle of temptation.

So, like Jesus Himself, you can have grace under pressure.