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Courage to Commit
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We're in the midst of a series called Courage to Commit, now in volume two. This series has been life-changing, helping people take their commitments to the next level. Within this series, we're exploring the principle of having the keys—not multiple keys, but understanding that when you fall in love with God, you need only one master key that opens every door in the whole house.
The first principle we've established is generosity. Generosity means having a heart willing to give that lives a life which freely gives. If giving is not in your heart, nothing will ever leave your hand. You will never give an offering if you won't give your life.
The greatest thing I can give you isn't money, position, or power. The greatest thing I can give you is me. This is why people who have left you want you back—they realize it wasn't what you were giving them, it was who you are. Favor isn't in what you drive, where you live, or what you wear. Favor is in your presence. The greatest present I can give you is my present—my actual presence.
When I remove myself from your life, you realize that half of what God was doing in your life wasn't even because of you. God was blessing you because you were connected. You may have sat next to someone, and there's so much favor on that person's life that you received overflow blessing just by proximity.
Here's what I've discovered: We don't compete, we collaborate. I'm not going to hate on what God is doing in your life, and I don't expect you to hate on what God is doing in mine. If He blessed my neighbor, that means He's in my neighborhood.
I'm proud of what Pastor Hollis did in Nashville. We sent two bus loads of people to Nashville to worship with him. That's his church, not a campus of Rock City. My heart's desire is to set people up. Whatever your vision is, let me see how I can help you become everything God created you to do.
There's a generation rising who can say, "God, even if it's not my season for You to do it for me, if You can just do it for them, I'm excited." There are two types of people sitting in every row: those who only shout when they get blessed, and those who are crazy enough that when they see God bless somebody else, they get excited because they know if God can do it for them, He can do it for you too.
This is the season of the alley-oop. When I have the rock and the enemy is trying to shut me down, the people I'm connected to love me so much that if I can't score, if I just throw it up, everybody around me is going to get something off this next blessing.
You should shout for your neighbor's breakthrough while they shout for yours. Shout for their children while they shout for yours. Shout for their promotion while they shout for yours. This is the principle of generosity.
"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Your mindset determines your reality.
When God steps into something, He multiplies it—He doesn't just add to it. Two plus two is four, and two times two is four—they look the same when you start. But two plus three is five, and two times three is six.
You can't figure out how you're skipping steps. They told you you were supposed to go from point A to point B, but you went from point A to point C. That's because you serve a God who multiplies. They said, "Get yourself a nice apartment, be faithful in your apartment, then rent a house, then buy a house." But you skipped steps because God multiplied your blessing.
They said you're supposed to date for six months, fuss for six months, be together for two years, then get married after six years. But God said, "I'm going to bless you in such a way that the moment they see you, they're going to say, 'This is everything I need.'" Because God multiplies.
Freedom is not doing whatever you want to do. Freedom is doing what you were created to do. Freedom is important because love cannot exist without freedom.
God says, "I put before you right now death and life. You choose wisely." In other words, God gives you the freedom of choice. He doesn't want a nation full of robots. He wants you to choose Him. When you say "I love you" because you chose to, versus because you were forced to, it feels different. You chose to.
Whether you're sitting in the sanctuary, in one of the overflow rooms, or watching online from Canada, Connecticut, or California, here's your first shout of the day: God chose you. As messed up as we all are, God chose you.
Please understand—this isn't Easter. Easter is a pagan holiday named after the pagan goddess Ishtar. The pagan festival involved practices that culminated in sacrificing children to the goddess. That's why we have eggs and hatching and matching outfits—the eggs represent fertility.
But God said something different. He said, "You ain't got to sacrifice your baby. I'll sacrifice mine." For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus died for us.
Resurrection means to revive something. This weekend celebrates the fact that dead stuff can live again. I've had seasons where my money was dead, my emotions were dead, my feelings were dead, my financial situation was dead. But this is proof—welcome to the resurrection. Dead stuff can live again.
Here's what frustrates me about the modern church: we spend so much time celebrating that He got up that we ignore the fact that He went down. We celebrate the eschatological impact—the study of end times—but we breeze past the existential reality.
When you see my glory, you don't know my story. I walk like I walk because I survive what I survive. Yes, He got up, but He also went down. I've been down. I know what it's like to not have money and not know where you're going to eat. I know what it's like when people ask you to go eat with them and you have to act like you don't want to go because you don't have any money.
The worst part isn't not having money—the worst part is that the people you thought would hold you down, you don't even feel comfortable telling them because you've seen how they talk about other people. I've been down in love with somebody who didn't love me back. Everybody told me not to love them, but I had too much pride. Now things aren't going as good as I want them to go, but I'm too embarrassed to ask you to pray for me because I don't have anybody in my life who will pray without judging me.
That's why I'm grateful that none of y'all helped me when I was down. If you had helped me, I'd be testifying about you. But since only Jesus could pick me up, I can say, "If it had not been for the Lord..."
You cannot fully embrace the power of the resurrection until you embrace the totality of the crucifixion. You cannot shout about Him getting up until you embrace the fact that He went down. Jesus sat at the table knowing one of them would betray Him. He went to the Garden of Gethsemane and looked into a cup—and in that cup, He saw everything He had to go through.
Here's what I love about God: He's not half man, half God. He's all man, all God. He understands the fullness of what it means to go down so that we can celebrate getting up.
You cannot fully embrace the power of the resurrection until you embrace the totality of the crucifixion. You cannot shout about Him getting up until you embrace the fact that He went down.
Let me take you back to Genesis. When God says, "Let us make man," He's not making what you see. He's making a spirit. The Hebrew word for man is ish—a spirit being. Any spirit operating on earth without a body is illegal. That's why God had to put that spirit in something. He took dust from the earth and wrapped that spirit in flesh. Over time, we stopped calling it ish wrapped in humus (dirt). We just call it human—which literally means spirit wrapped in dirt.
Within you is an anthropological duality. You are righteous and raggedy. You've got a spirit side and a dirt side. That's why Paul says, "In my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. The good I would do, I do not. But the bad I find myself doing." I know I should be praying, but I keep cussing. I know I should be doing this, but I keep doing that. That's because you've got a saved side and a dirty side.
This is why we celebrate resurrection Sunday—not just because He died for your saved side, but because as dirty as you are, He loved you anyway.
Our worship has become too cute. We sing these polished spiritual songs, but our grandmothers sang dirty songs—songs about cleaning up what they messed up, starting their lives over again. Those songs ministered to the dirt side of them. But the church has become so focused on appearing righteous that we can't even be honest. If I asked, "Who is anointed?" the whole room would jump up. But if I asked, "If you're dirty and you know it," only three of us would jump up.
You think Sunday morning is a witness protection program. But we need to look at each other and say, "Dirty as I am, He cleaned me."
God didn't even use the full thing to make you. He made you from dust—what's left over after dirt has settled. Dust is what rises up when you stomp on dirt. God said, "I'm not even going to use the full thing. I'm going to make you from what was left over."
If God did all this from leftovers, what is He going to do when you step into your full potential? When anybody tries to stop you, tell them that if He created you from leftovers, He's got the power to do anything in your life.
When God made man, He didn't blow into him. If God had blown, you'd still be flying around. He breathed into man. He spoke a word—one word—and that word became being. That's why we call it uni-verse—one word. He spoke effortlessly because that's what He was created to do.
When a police officer pulls you over for a DUI, the first thing they check is your breath and your walk. Your breath represents the ruach—the breath of God. Your walk represents how you live your life. Many of you can't make it to your next level because you keep flunking your spiritual sobriety test. You've got too many other people's spirits attached to you.
The devil is just a spirit without a body, which makes him illegal on this earth. That's why he jumped into a snake. The snake used to walk upright, but because he let the devil use his body, he now slithers on his belly. When the snake talks to Eve and Eve talks to Adam, Adam bites the forbidden fruit, and we have the Adamic fall.
Because dirt made a mistake, dirt had to fix it. God looked for someone righteous. He found Noah. "Noah, you are righteous and blameless. I'm going to destroy the world with a flood and let you start over. You're going to be the second Adam." But there was one problem—Noah became an alcoholic.
Since dirt broke it, dirt had to fix it again. God looked at the Holy Spirit and said, "You need to fix that." The Holy Spirit said, "I can't—any spirit operating on earth without a body is illegal." So God said, "I'll fix it myself." He emptied Himself of His deity, wrapped it in dirt, and called it flesh. That's a process called kenosis. He's 100% God and 100% man. He's man enough to fill it, but God enough to heal it.
He came down through 42 generations. He came through an immaculate conception. He started as a baby in a manger. He disappeared and popped back up at the temple. His mama said, "Why are you at the church?" and Jesus checked His mama but also prophesied: "I must be about My Father's business." She thought His earthly father Joseph was a carpenter, but He was talking about His heavenly Father.
At thirty years old, He turned water into wine at a wedding. His first miracle involved a cup. And when we transition to today's text, we see Jesus looking into a cup—His last one. His first miracle starts in a cup. His last one starts in a cup.
Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane and looked into a cup. In that cup, He saw everything He had to go through. He saw how many times He would be beaten. He saw that Judas would betray Him. He saw that His disciples would walk out on Him. He saw His mama on the altar about to lose her mind, screaming and crying because they were beating and crucifying her child.
The man side of Jesus was frustrated, irritated, aggravated. He felt lonely and betrayed. Judas—the same person eating with Him—was going to sell Him out. He'd healed people. That man He touched on the roadside wasn't even walking two years ago, and now he walks. That woman was bleeding and about to die, and He healed her. And now they had the nerve to turn their back on Him and demand His death.
He looked into the past—everyone He'd helped who walked away. He looked into the present—His disciples asleep, unwilling to help Him. He looked into the future—you, who He would die for, and won't even serve Him.
Jesus saw people who would say, "God, if You do this, I swear I'll never do it again." Then when He did it, they went right back to doing what they were doing. The man side of Jesus looked at all this and said, "This is some messed up stuff."
But then the Spirit side jumped up. The man side said, "I can't do this." But the Spirit side said one word: "Nevertheless."
I'm only preaching to those of you who've almost given up but had a nevertheless in your spirit. I'm preaching to those of you who weren't even coming to church today, but you said, "I refuse to let the devil break me this year."
He looked into the cup and started praying. He didn't pray cute. He said, "Father God, in Jesus' name, it's me. God, I got to go through this." The Bible tells us His sweat fell like blood (Luke 22:44). Imagine praying so hard that it's like a faucet on your head and water just flows down.
He prayed, "God, please. God, I can't do it. I can't do it." He was in agony, praying fervently. "God, I need You. Give me strength. Give me strength. I can't do it, man. I can't do it, bro. This don't make no sense. I ain't even mess up. They the one messed it up, bro. This wasn't part of the plan, bro."
This is why we have a high priest who can feel. This is why He came in a suit. Had He been all God, He couldn't relate to you.
Because He went through this, He has the power to carry you through yours. When they arrested Him and marched Him from judgment hall to judgment hall, trying to find somebody who would convict Him, here's what's critical: He never said a mumbling word. Some of you are going to miss your breakthrough defending yourself. Your fruit is going to speak for you.
He never said a mumbling word. Some of you are going to miss your breakthrough defending yourself. Your fruit is going to speak for you.
When people question you, when they say things about you, don't spend all your time explaining. The enemy will try to get you distracted with defending your name while your destiny passes by. Your life, your work, your integrity—these will speak louder than any defense you could mount.
They tied Him to a whipping post. They took a cat of nine tails—a whip with nails on the end of it. Every time it caught His back, it ripped His skin out. They began to whoop Him and whoop Him.
He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace.
They struck Him 39 times. His body began to break. He fell to His knees. They ran out of spaces to whoop His back, so they flipped Him over and beat every part of Him. His body became unrecognizable.
There are 39 root diseases—every disease in the world stems from a list of 39. By His stripes, you will heal. He was working on your cure before you even knew you were sick.
You may have a mother with cancer. You may have cancer yourself. You may have diabetes. You may struggle with anxiety. He already died for that. He already died for that.
Transgressions equal your sins. Iniquities are inherited sins.
He says, "I'm whipped for what you did and for what your bloodline did. I'm going to break the mess you started and the curses you inherited."
They said, "You're supposed to be the king of the Jews, right?" They made Him a crown—a crown of thorns. They placed it on His head, but they didn't just place it gently. They pressed it on His head.
This connects Genesis and Matthew in a way most people miss. In Genesis 3:17, after Adam's disobedience, God said, "The ground is cursed because of what you did." Verse 18 says, "Because the ground is cursed, it will now grow thorns and thistles."
Thorns exist because of the curse. That's why even something as beautiful as a rose will hurt you—beauty and hurt are now intertwined.
The ground grew thorns because of the curse. They made His crown of thorns. Had they just placed it on His head, it would have been enough mockery. But they pressed it down into His skin, and it made Him bleed.
When His blood touched the thorn, the curse was reversed. What the devil meant for evil, God flipped for His good.
What can wash away my sins? What can make me whole? Nothing but the blood.
That blood got on the crown. What was meant for His mockery became the key to your deliverance. The crown of thorns on His head purchased your peace.
I want to prophesy over your life: You won't lose your mind. I don't know who's been wrestling with anxiety, wrestling with doubt. Sleep hasn't been easy. You've been falling asleep instead of actually going to sleep. I want to speak peace over you.
The chastisement of His peace was laid upon Him. The chastisement of your peace was laid upon Him. Peace is laid upon Him. If you try to get peace without embracing Him, it won't work. In order to get peace, you have to embrace Him.
They put Him on the cross and nailed His hands. But here's what you need to understand: They didn't put a nail in His hand. If they did, it would have ripped—His hand couldn't support His body weight.
They put the nail in His wrist because there is a bone in your wrist that locks. When you lock it, the nail becomes a key.
Hands represent your productivity. The devil tried to lock your ability to produce, to succeed, to move forward. The enemy wanted you to struggle for the rest of your life. Lock. Lock.
But when Jesus rose from the cross and rose out of the grave, your ability to produce was unlocked.
First: You won't lose your mind. Stability in your thoughts. Peace in your anxiety.
Second: From this day forward, you will produce more than you have ever produced in your life. Don't measure success by how much you make. Success is what you have left after all expenses. You can make a million dollars tomorrow, but if you have $999,000 in debt, you're still broke. You can make $50 tomorrow with only a dollar in debt—and baby, you're paid. Success isn't what you got. Success is what you got left.
Third: You will be stable. When they nailed His feet, one nail went through both feet. The Bible says every time we do wrong, we crucify Him again. I decree and declare: You will be stable. Stability in your walk, stability in your decisions, stability in your life.
The last thing they did was pierce Him in His side. They pierced Him so deeply it destroyed the sack that surrounded His heart. Blood and water poured out.
The last sign that you are favored, the last sign that you are anointed, is when you have the ability to stand with a broken heart.
In the Garden of Eden, we lost our power. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we got it back. But there are four gardens you'll go through in life.
The First Garden: Eden. This is the season where you do something God told you not to do. You ever been there? God said, "Don't do it," but you did it anyway. The worst thing God has been to some of us is good. He's been so good to us for so long that we think we can do whatever we want and get away with it because He's always come through.
The Second Garden: Gethsemane. This is where you wake up and get your power back.
The Third Garden: Golgotha. Most people think Golgotha is just a hill. But the locals call it the Garden Tomb. That's where bodies were buried. That's where the curse is broken.
The Fourth Garden: The Heavenly Garden. The Bible says Eden will be restored. That's total restoration. That's the promise.
I don't know where you come from. I don't know where you've been. I'm not here to beat you up. The Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I have one goal this weekend: to get you back on track.
Resurrection weekend isn't just about nice clothes and Sunday dinner. It's proof that dead things can live again. I want to speak that all of our cities, all of our families will live again. Regardless of how difficult life becomes, this is what God has called us to be.
In your hand is a representation of God's body that was broken. He says, "This is my body that was broken."
Sometimes when God says, "This is my body that was broken," He means they had to break it to hold you in place. He says, "I'm doing this for you."
As often as you do this, remember me.
Remember is not an English word—it's Greek. "Re" means to do again. "Member" means members, parts of your body. When He says "remember me," He says, "You put me back together." What the enemy did by breaking Him, when you take communion, you put Him together.
Father God, I thank You for the body that was broken for us. God, You didn't have to do it. You came from heaven to earth to show us the way. Father, I thank You for the greatest sacrifice, the greatest offering, the greatest gift You've ever given us—Your Son.
We plead the blood of Jesus over every life in this room and online. Not only is Birmingham blessed, but every city connected to our church is blessed. Cover our families. Cover this world. Help us to leave this place and be better.
