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Music Morning. We're in John chapter number 16. John chapter 16 in the Bible reads, These things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that you do with God's service. These things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For ye shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. Ye shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me. And again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. And said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us? A little while, and ye shall not see me. And again, a little while, and ye shall see me. And because I go to the Father. They said therefore, What is this that he saith? A little while. We cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me? And again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow, because her hour is come. But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you, hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in Proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you, but the Father himself loveth you, because he have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now we are sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Let's pray, dear Lord God. Thank you again for this opportunity to assemble in your house. Just ask that you would meet with us here now this morning, and please bless Pastor Mahieu with your Holy Spirit as he preaches your word unto us. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in John chapter 16, and look down at your Bibles at verse 20. It says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. And the title of my sermon this morning is The Negative Effects of Christianity. The Negative Effects of Christianity. And you know, there's this common misconception amongst Christians that once you become a Christian, once you get saved, or even once you start serving God, and you've been faithful to the Lord for a certain amount of years, that everything should just be positive. Nothing bad should ever happen, and everything should be hunky-dory, and you know, no evil will befall you. And the reality is this, is that we obviously know when we read the Bible, when we hear preaching, that Christianity is filled with a lot of positive outcomes. The number one being that we're going to go to heaven when we die, Amen. But even aside from that, there's plenty of blessings that come with being a Christian. There's a lot of positive things that happen to you. Obviously, the Christian life is superior to any other way of living in this world. It's the best life there is, and you know, obeying the Word of God, and implementing its principles will give us just a greater life, an abundant life, as the Bible puts it. But here's the thing, is that it also has a lot of side effects. Negative side effects. And when people hear that, it's just like, whoa, hold on a second, you know, what do you mean it has negative side effects? That sounds kind of bad, you know, why are you speaking about Christianity in that way? Well, let me just tell you that that way of thinking is completely wrong, okay? Because people are assuming that just because something is negative, it's bad. But here's the thing, is that negativity is very good. And in fact, we need negative outcomes in our personal lives. We need negative outcomes throughout our Christian life because it works together for good, but it also teaches us life principles, it humbles us. There are certain things that happen when we go through negative circumstances, evil circumstances, that are necessary in our lives. If only positive things happened to you in your life when you became a Christian, you'd be a horrible Christian, okay? If you only experienced positive outcomes, you've never experienced evil, or failure, or what it's like to be defrauded, what it's like to be sick, what it's like for your health to be compromised, what it's like to have God's hand against you, you'd just be a very arrogant and prideful Christian, you wouldn't be able to condescend with men of low estate, and you'd be completely useless in this life. You see, Christianity, although it has a lot of positive things about it, it's filled with a lot of negatives, and the negative aspects of it are very good because it helps us to balance out the positive things. And in fact, in order for positive outcomes to continue to happen in your Christian life, you need a good amount of negative. Why? Because it keeps us humble. Because of the fact that if only good things happened to you, you would think, well, there's nothing wrong with me, you know? I'm doing everything that I'm supposed to do, I have no deficiency in my faith, and I'm always doing that which is right in the eyes of the Lord, but when you have a negative outcome in your life, it causes you to kind of take inventory of your spiritual life and recognize, maybe I'm not all that I thought I was cracked up to be, and then it makes you kind of reevaluate your spiritual life, search the scriptures, pray, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and then what happens? Well, then you have a positive outcome outside of that. And so I want to talk about this morning about some of the negative effects of Christianity. Number one, because of the fact that, you know, when you first get saved, you can have that attitude, but even if you've been saved for a long time, you can often also have this attitude. Because, you know, think about a Christian who's been saved for decades, and they've been serving God for a long time, they win souls, they're faithful, and then they have a lot of bad stuff happen to them, they can have the temptation to point the finger at God and say, well, what's going on? Why is all this bad stuff happening to me? You know, if I'm serving God, I love the Lord, I'm reading the Bible, I'm coming to church, I'm not like, you know, backslidden ex-person over here, I'm not like living a carnal life, I'm trying to do the best that I can to live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord, and yet this stuff is happening to me, why is that? And so this is essentially just the kind of a reminder that, along with the positive that comes with being a Christian, you need to embrace and accept the negative as well, okay? Now we see this in John chapter 16, so it should come as no surprise to us why negative things happen. In fact, Jesus said in verse 20, that ye shall weep and lament. What does that mean? It means you're going to cry, you're going to be sorrowful, you're going to have pain, you're going to have grief, and to add insult to injury, and verse 20 says, and the world shall rejoice. What does that mean? While you're in grief, while you're depressed, while you're discouraged, while you're going through a hard time, you're going to see someone who's not serving God, who's not a Christian, everything's just going great for them, and they're like rejoicing, and they're posting their selfies, and how great everything's going in their life, and they're getting the raises, they're having a great marriage, their kids are turning out to be functioning members of society, and no bad is happening unto them, and it's just like, why is the world rejoicing? Well, because Jesus said right here that ye shall weep and lament, and that the world shall rejoice. That's just a way of things in this life. He says, and ye shall be sorrowful, but here's the promise, here's the outcome, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. So it's not a matter of God just telling us, hey, your life's just going to be completely miserable this side of eternity. Enjoy. You know what I mean? You've got to serve me, and you've got to live a godly life, a holy life, and you're just going to be miserable while you're doing it, and that's pretty much how life is going to be for the rest of your life, and so, you know? No, he's obviously giving us a promise that at the end, our sorrow will be turned into joy, and it's one of those things where you have to recognize that the Christian life works in intervals of positives and negatives. You go through seasons of positive outcomes, then you go through seasons of negative outcomes. You'll go through positive again, negative again, but at the end of the day, at the end of your life, it's all going to turn out great. We have the last laugh, so to speak, okay? Now, you know, you have this sect of Christianity that preaches these positive only sermons, right? And these are the health and wealth gospel preachers, and obviously it's a false gospel, but they're the ones who constantly promote this idea that if you serve God, if you give your life to him, then you're going to be rich, you're going to be wealthy, healthy, and everything's going to turn out great. And obviously they're defrauding a lot of people because of the fact that that's not true, and that's not biblical Christianity. And it's funny that when you confront these people with the testimony in the lives of those in the New Testament and how bad it went for them in certain instances, you know, they don't have nothing to say about it. Last time I checked, you know, Stephen was stoned to death for preaching the word of God and was killed. Last time I checked, Jesus Christ was crucified, and the Bible says if they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call they of his household? In other words, if we as Christians are part of the household of God, and they're calling Jesus the devil, they're calling him a false god, they're calling him a demon, then how much more are they going to call you if you're serving him because you're part of his household? In other words, don't have this attitude that everyone's going to love you, everything's going to be hunky-dory, it's all positive, and when negative things happen, oh man, I must not be serving God. No, in fact, when you serve God, you're going to have a new element of negativity entering into your life. One of the most annoying comments that I see is just like, someone watches a video and is like, I claim no negativity from this video or something. It's a video. They think like someone's going to reach out and like, touch them or something like that, you know, and it's just this weird superstitious view that negativity is wrong or something. You know, preaching is negative at times, and I love negative preaching, because it fixes my life, it helps me to stay on track, and it tells me what I need to hear about sin, and it's absolutely necessary. If you only had positive, only preaching, then we would just be a really horrible, heretical church. Okay? Because the vast majority of what preaching needs to be is negative. Preach the word, be it in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with long-suffering and doctrine. So it tells us to reprove and rebuke, that means correct them, you know, tell people that they're wrong, and then yell when you're doing it, and then you build them up. So you got to tear them down before you build them up, right? That's basically what he's saying. So let's get into some of these negative effects of Christianity. Now go to Romans chapter 7, if you would, Romans chapter number 7, and I'm going to start really basic this morning, because of the fact that, you know, we have new people in our church that need to learn these principles that once you become a Christian, or once you start serving God, maybe you have been a Christian for quite some time, you've been saved for a long time, but you haven't necessarily started serving God. And, you know, it's important to learn these things so that you don't fall by the wayside in the coming months, because, you know, sometimes when people get back into church, or they start getting serious about serving God, they go through a honeymoon stage, right? And the honeymoon stage is that, like, everything's just positive. Everything's just great. I love life! But then you get, like, nine months into it, or a year into it, and sometimes even shorter at that, and then, you know, people are just, then you start realizing that there's a lot of negative stuff, because the pastor starts preaching on your sin, and you don't really like that now, do you? You don't really like me stepping on your toes and calling out your sin, and then you realize that, you know, you gotta do this for the rest of your life, and it's just like, oh, man, I don't know about this anymore, and the honeymoon's over, and then you can fall by the wayside because of the negativity, you know, but what I'm here to tell you this morning is claim the negativity, amen? Claim all the negativity from this sermon, okay? Now, the first negative effect of Christianity is that you won't be able to enjoy sin the way you used to. You can't enjoy sin the way you used to. Why is that? Well, because when you get saved, you get what's called a new nature, and that new nature can be described as, the Bible puts it, the new man, along in conjunction with the Holy Spirit that indwells you, because once you get saved, the Holy Spirit of God comes to indwell you. He is the earnest of our inheritance. He's there until you die. He's never gonna leave you nor forsake you, but when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell you, he basically resurrects your dead spirit. All adults, to a certain extent, unless there's like an exception to this, someone who doesn't have the faculties to be able to understand the laws of God, all adults have a dead spirit, and so that's why people in the world can just sin and not really blink an eye, bat an eye at it. It doesn't bother them. They can continue in adultery, fornication, drunkenness. They can continue in, you know, covetousness and greed and defrauding, and yeah, they might have a little prick in their conscience that says this is wrong, but you know, it doesn't really bother them that much, which is why they can continue in it. You understand what I'm saying? And that was probably you, but when you got saved, the Holy Spirit, your dead spirit, and now you have a new man dwelling in you, okay? And that new man rejoices in the truth. It rejoices in doing that which is pleasing unto the Lord. It rejoices in sowning and coming to church and singing the hymns. It just rejoices in the things of God. There's no sin in the new man, and in fact, it can't sin, okay? It's been redeemed 100%. But the problem is this, is that the new man is encapsulated within the old. So the new man is in here, but the old man is still, it's right here. You know, you're looking at the old man that's encapsulated, or the new man that's encapsulated within the old. And so just because you get saved doesn't mean your old desires go away because the old man is still there. Now look at Romans 7 and verse 14. It says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. Now try to say that five times fast. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that what I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Now what is Paul the apostle saying? He's not making excuses here. And he's not trying to give you like a riddle or something like that. He's explaining the conflict that he experiences as a believer on a day in, day out basis. And what he's basically describing is these two natures. Essentially saying that the carnal aspect of his being, meaning the old man, wants to do evil. It wants to do that which is not good. It wants to do that which the new man hates. And then the new man rejoices after the law of God inwardly. And then so they're constantly combating, they're constantly fighting. There's no reconciliation between the two. He says in verse 21, I find in the law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. And what is he referring to? He's referring to the old man. Now let me just take a break here and explain to you why Paul Washer is a damnable heretic. Aside from the fact that he believes in a repentier sin's gospel, he literally says that there's no such thing as a carnal Christian. And yet one of the greatest believers that is exemplified in the New Testament, in the Bible, is the apostle Paul, who said, number one, I am carnal. But somehow Paul Washer's better than him, of course. He is able to repent of all his sins and all those things, and he doesn't do that which he hates. Evil's never present with him because his ideology and his false doctrine, which he probably doesn't even believe himself, he's a damnable heretic, he was a charlatan, but the ideology that he claims to espouse and that he's promoting is that once a person gets saved, you're never going to desire to do wrong. But that is stupid because of the fact that the Bible's clearly telling us here through the apostle Paul, who's one of the greatest examples of Christians in the New Testament, and we would say, man, this guy knows the Bible, he's used greatly of God, he loves the Lord, yet he's saying, but sin dwells in me. And he's like, I'm trying to do right, but then I do wrong, and the wrong that I do, I hate, and that which I hate, I end up doing. I mean, what's going on here? Well, he's referring to his two natures. Yet Paul Washer wants to gaslight Christians into thinking, well, if you're saved, you're never going to do wrong, and if you desire to do wrong, then you're not really saved to begin with. No, Paul Washer, you're not saved. Because you're only carnal. There's no new man in you, okay? You're completely unregenerated. You say, well, how do you know? Because the works of the flesh are made manifest, and one of them is heresy. And that man embodies heresy by teaching that false doctrine. There's no new man there. You know why? Because the new man would actually be honest. Who's the one speaking here? The new man. The old man is the one who wants to justify himself. The old man is the one who wants to make excuses and claim that he's perfect, and that he's not condemned, and all these things based upon his works and his righteousness. The new man is actually honest with himself and recognizes and observes that conflict between two natures. Whereas you have Paul Washer who believes there's only one nature, apparently. And here's the thing, folks, is that, you know, what is the answer to our fleshly problem? You know, because we have this inward man, but what is the answer? The answer is not repent of all your sins because you can't do it. The answer is the resurrection. That's the answer. God has already provided the solution to your problem, which is your sin nature, and the problem is we need to discard that old man, that flesh, and you need an upgrade is what you need. It's not like the old version doesn't work. It will never operate. It's a different iOS. It's not going to operate well. It's not going to work. You need a new phone, okay? And you need a complete different upgrade that's completely absent of sin. It doesn't have the viruses. It doesn't have all the whatever bots or whatever that they need to fix. It's just completely, you know, deficient of sin. It doesn't have any of that. It's absent of it, and that is the answer. Now, obviously the Bible teaches us that even though we have the resurrection as a promise, God expects us to live a life of sanctification this side of eternity. So that's not an excuse to say, well, I'm just going to live however I want because there's obviously consequences to your actions and God will whoop you this side of eternity if that's how you want to live. And of course you're going to have a terrible judgment seat of Christ if that's how you choose to live. But the point that I'm making here is that one of the negative effects of Christianity is that, you know what, if you try to go back to that particular sin that you were committing in times past and try to revel in it, you're not really going to enjoy it much because you've got a new man living within you that's going to be grieved, it's going to be bothered, your conscience is going to bother you. It's just going to constantly be like this cloud hanging over your head. Now look, go to Galatians chapter 5. Here's the thing is that obviously there's Christians who can blot out that voice. Right? If you are living a life of just unfettered sin, you're not repenting, you're not getting right with God, you can become hardened. But let me just say this is that you can turn down the voice but the voice doesn't permanently ever go away. Because in your bed at night when you're sleeping, you know what's right. So you can do everything you can, everything you can to drown out the voice of the new man, the promptings of the new man throughout the day, but once you go to bed at night, he's still there. He doesn't sleep either. Let me keep reading from Romans 7. You're in Galatians 5. I'm going to keep reading from Romans 7. It says in verse 22, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. So, you know, I hate to break it to you, but the only aspect of your being that actually likes the Bible is the inward man. So if you ever find my sermons boring, you're just being carnal. Kiddos, there's a bunch of seats. Yeah, just sit next to Miss Kelly right there. All right. You know, if you ever don't like something that I'm preaching that's from the Bible, it's because you're just a carnal person. So you've got to come to that conclusion on your own and not come ask me because I'm just going to tell you that. Like you're just being carnal. You're being a fleshly person because, you know, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. The inward man is just like, I love it. It's great. It's the flesh that's not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be, the Bible says in Romans 8. He says, But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. He says, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? And the question is obviously rhetorical because he teaches us what it is which is the resurrection. God's going to deliver us from this body of sin at the resurrection and we will no longer have to suffer this constant battling in this world, okay? But look at Galatians 5 and verse 16. He reiterates this concept once again. In verse 16 he says, This I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now if once you got saved everything was just great and you just served God all the days of your life, there'd be no need for verse 16 whatsoever. Why would he tell you to walk in the Spirit if that's just what you do naturally? He's telling you because of the fact that we need to be reminded of that because we're always in and out of the Spirit because we have the flesh and we have the Spirit. He says, For the flesh lusteth, meaning desires, against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to what the Bible says. These are contrary to one to the other so you cannot do the things that you would. Now what's interesting is that Romans 7, it says that these two natures war against one another. So the picture that you have here is like they're fighting each other, right? Whereas here in Galatians, it seems to imply that the flesh lusteth, meaning it desires, against the Spirit, meaning it's pulling away from the Spirit. The Spirit pulls away from the flesh. And I think that's a great way to describe what it's like to have that conflict within us. It's like we're being pulled apart in two separate directions, right? You're just like, Man, my flesh wants to do this, but then my Spirit wants to do this. They're never going to be in accordance one with another. And that is a negative effect of Christianity because prior to being a Christian, prior to getting saved, you're only going in one direction. You didn't have anybody guilt-tripping you and telling you this is wrong and making excuses. You never had that voice. You never had the word of God abiding in you. So you're just going in one direction. But now that you're saved, here's the negative effect is that you're being pulled apart every single day. It's just like, Ugh! And you know what? That's how it feels sometimes. But the way you can minimize that pull, listen to me, the way you can minimize that pull, not eliminate it, but the way you can minimize it is by walking in the Spirit. What does that mean? Pull with the Spirit. You know? The Christians who just don't read their Bibles, they don't go to church, they're not feeding the Spirit, they're constantly feeling that and then they're feeling a tug more towards the flesh, whereas the one who's walking in the Spirit is pulling with the Spirit against the flesh. And then it makes the flesh do the things that it doesn't want to do, but you want to do. You know, you get up in the morning and you're supposed to read your Bible, that's you pulling against your flesh with the Spirit to read your Bible. Pulling your carcass out of bed to go read the Bible. I see a bunch of people this morning that pulled against the flesh to come to church. You know? Instead of sleeping in and I don't know, watching football or whatever it is that people do on Sundays. What do people do on Sundays? I don't know. Barbecues or go to the park and you know, go look at the sky or something, whatever it is that you do. You know, I see a lot of people who just said, no, I'm going to pull against the flesh. I'm going to lust against the flesh with the Spirit and I'm going to pull myself into church. Pull myself into the Bible. Pull myself into the soul and pull myself into walking in the Spirit and doing that which is pleasing in the sight of the Lord. And here's the thing, folks, is that you won the pool today, but tomorrow's another pool. You got to pool again tomorrow. And that's why it's such a negative effect because the battle that you win today is insufficient for tomorrow. It's like, oh man, I had such a great day on Sunday. I heard preaching. We sang the hymns. I read the Bible. I understood it. And then it's just like you think tomorrow, you can carry that over, roll over victories into Monday or something. You get into Monday and it's just complete failure. But it's because you fail to realize that you have to pool again tomorrow. And that's the negative effect is that we're just constantly in this battle. And you're like, man, I just get tired of fighting so much. Yeah, but here's the thing is that the person who's out there in the world who doesn't have Christ, who's not saved, he's not pooling anything, but he's going to hell. He's going to hell. So what good is it? What's the point? Oh man, they're having so much fun and they're just living life without consequence. No, they're not. It's just the consequence comes later on in life. If they don't get saved, they're going to split hell wide open. That's just the way it works. But we who are saved, now we have this new nature. Now we can understand the Bible. We can rejoice in the truth. We can become more intelligent, spiritual, live lives that are pleasing unto the Lord. But here's the negative side effect is that you're just constantly going to experience this battle of this pool between the flesh and the spirit. And you know what? If you find yourself being just a really carnal, fleshly Christian, where it's just you're not walking in the spirit, it's because you're pooling against the spirit and you're always giving into your flesh. That's why. You're just always giving into the flesh. You're just allowing the flesh to pool you in one direction. You don't fight back. You don't read the Bible. You don't quote scripture. You're constantly placing yourself in the presence of temptation. And that's why. And so that is a negative effect of Christianity is that you can no longer enjoy sin the way you used to. Now let me just say this is that I'm not saying you can't enjoy sin because sin is pleasurable, but hold on a second for a season though. And afterwards thy mouth shall be filled with gravel, the Bible tells us. So bread stolen in secret is sweet, but afterwards your mouth shall be filled with gravel. So the initial feeling of committing sin or whatever it is that you may be battling with, whatever sin that entices you, it may be sweet in the short term, but afterwards it's dry, it's disgusting, it's bitter, and the ramifications of committing that sin far outweigh the pleasures that you had when you initially did it. That's just the way it works. And those are the negative effects my friends. And so when you become a Christian don't think to yourself, oh man I just have this new desire and now I'm never gonna go back to alcohol. I'm just never gonna go back to smoking pot. I'm never gonna go back to my old friends or I'm never gonna go back to fornication. And you know what, for the short term that might be true because once you have that new nature, that new car smell, getting that new vehicle, you know when you get a brand new vehicle you're like no one is able to eat in my car. No one can eat in my car. It's like no trash, no one can eat. Nine months down the road, you're eating in your car. You're leaving the cups. You're leaving the trash bag. That's how it always is. And some people are more disciplined and they maintain that standard. But here's the thing is that the ones who are disciplined and maintain that standard are like those who maintain the discipline to just keep walking in the spirit even after they've gotten over the new car smell. So enjoy the new car smell of the Christian life but then just realize later on you're gonna wanna leave some trash in the car. Don't do it. And then you're gonna have a friend like hey can I just eat this in the car real quick? And then you just wanna make an exception for everyone and then all of a sudden now you have McDonald's bags all over the place. Cups are all over the place. That's just how it is. That's just how it is in the Christian life. Go to first Peter chapter five if you would first Peter chapter five. You're not gonna be able to enjoy sin the way you used to. And here's the thing is that here's another reason why I don't have this in my notes. Here's another reason why you can't enjoy sin the way you used to is because there's certain sins that you didn't even know was a sin. Right? So like you become a Christian there's some things that you already know is a sin but then you get saved and you're just kinda doing life and you're trying to like serve God but then you get preaching in and you start reading the Bible and you're like oh man I didn't know this was like a sin. And then you're like oh man that's another thing that God expects of me oh man he didn't know what to do good and do it tonight I just sinned it to him. Then you start realizing there's like a lot of sins that you could be committing and it's just like oh whoa this Christian life seems so negative. I guess I can't do a lot of things. But yeah you can't do a lot of things yeah you can't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil but there's a bunch of other trees you can't eat from. So obviously it's a matter of perspective. Now what's another negative effect of Christianity? Well number two number one we said that you will never be able to enjoy sin the way you used to but number two you will permanently have a target on your back. Permanently. What does that mean? Satan is your adversary from here on out. Now don't get confused and don't let these people in the world think that they're fighting Satan. You always run into people Denzel Washington putting out these inspirational videos like the devil wants to keep you down it's like you work for the devil. What are you talking about? These people in Hollywood these people who are not Christians they always talk as though they're in opposition to the devil or the devil really just has them and they're pawns of Satan is what they are. And I'm not saying that Satan is their friend or anything like that because he hates them as well but he's using them they're instruments in his hand they're not really doing anything to affect his kingdom they're not a detriment to him you understand? They're actually being used to promote his wicked devices. The true enemies of the devil are us. The true adversaries of Satan are believers. And if we want to get a little more specific about it it's believers who are actually serving God preaching the gospel and doing that which is pleasing unto the Lord because there's other Christians out there who obviously Satan would hate more than those who are in the world who are not saved but here's the thing is that they're so docile they're just not doing anything so they don't pose a threat to Satan Satan's not scared of them he's not working overtime to deceive them they're not doing anything they're just like a spiritual vegetable incapacitated, not doing anything so they don't really pose a threat the ones that pose a threat to Satan are those who are actually serving God and are awake to the things of God not this fake being awake or it's just like you know about every evil in the world no, we are wise concerning good simple concerning evil we know what the Bible says we are the actual ones who pose a threat churches that are preaching the gospel pose a threat because we are literally pulling people out of the flames of hell you understand? we are literally taking people who've been taken captive at his will and so we pose a threat once you become a Christian and you start serving God well you know God is no longer against you because before you were an enemy of God in your minds according to the Bible and now God's your heavenly father it's all these positive things but also I just want to let you know Satan is out to get you for the rest of your life he's not going to be able to take away your salvation but he will do everything he possibly can to make sure that number one if you are serving God and number two if you are serving God he's going to try to hinder you as much as he possibly can number three if you seek to have a godly family he's going to go after your children he's going to go after your wife he's going to go after your husband he's just relentless so I'm not trying to scare you or anything but I am trying to scare you and to tell you that once you become a Christian Satan is your permanent adversary and don't take it lightly look at 1 Peter 5 verse 8 be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour so the Bible is telling us that Satan can be likened unto a lion and you know we're likened unto sheep so we're always on his menu he always wants to devour us he wants to eat us up he wants to destroy us he wants to kill, steal, destroy he wants you to make as many bad decisions as you possibly can so that you are 100% incapacitated from serving God he wants you to be a useless Christian who doesn't do anything he wants you to be a member of the liberal fund center to give you this thought that maybe you are serving God when really you're just not he wants you to be a part of a church where you think you're serving God but you're actually not you're not soul winning you're not reading the Bible you're not doing that which is pleasing in his sight you're not furthering the kingdom of God he wants you to be like that and obviously you know there's other people other Christians that may struggle with vices he wants to keep you in that vice because if that's what it takes to keep you incapacitated then that's what he wants so aside from the fact that you have to fight your flesh for the rest of your life you have a target on your back and there's someone who's constantly campaigning against you you're like well what do I do well it says here you have to be sober and you have to be vigilant sober meaning no alcohol no weed and whatever other recreational drugs there are mushrooms that's all I know whatever it is whatever drug makes you drunken and it doesn't give you a sharp mind it doesn't allow you to use the faculties that God has given to you to consume and digest the word of God and know that there's an enemy God says I want you to be sober because of the fact that there's a lion out here who's trying to devour you who's trying to destroy you and if you're spiritually drunk you're not paying attention you're not being vigilant you're not being aware of your spiritual surroundings he's going to get you and the worst thing that a Christian can do is just think ah, you know not me though I can beat the devil I can beat Satan I remember years ago when I first got saved my pastor was preaching and after the sermon and it was like, I think I was just a couple weeks in and I just went to go talk to him and just thank him for the sermon but some guy had already beat me to him and he said, you know, I really like your sermon and I just want to let you know Satan's a wimp and he'll never get me and my father-in-law was just like well, you know, you don't really want to say that he's like, no, no, no I can beat him and it was just like and in my mind, because I was such a young Christian I thought to myself, wow, this guy's pretty bold you know? and my father-in-law was like yeah, that's not going to happen Satan is very powerful he can destroy your life he's been doing this for thousands of years he's taken down many mighty he has a very extensive track record of destroying Christians he has a very high success rate of incapacitating Christians so you don't want to have this attitude that Satan is just this oh man, he can't do anything to me yes he can, he's very powerful and therefore, we need to make sure that we esteem the word of God and the principles thereof, and listen to me esteem the warnings that God gives and not take them lightly and say well, you know, be sober, be vigilant but you know, I am he's not going to get me you know, take heed lest he fall heed that stand and take heed lest he fall he says in verse number 9 whom resist steadfast in the faith that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world so it's basically telling us that Satan is after all Christians not Catholics not Mormons you know not Jehovah's Witnesses not Pentecostals he's not going for any of those if we're to study the Bible we know who he's going against and it's always funny when like the Catholic community tries to gaslight the world into thinking that Satan is only against them the church you are Satan, you're the vicar of Satan you work for him you're one of his most successful religions he created Catholicism and he's very proud of you he loves you because you hate Christians and you've damned billions of people to hell so no, you know Satan doesn't hate men in long dresses claiming to preach the Bible you know when it says that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren it's referring to other safe people ok and so you have to understand that one of the negative side effects of Christianity is that once you become a Christian, it's not always roses and daisies it's not a bed of roses in the Christian life you have a legitimate enemy who wants to just destroy your marriage destroy your kids and he has zero mercy he will not spare you he will not spare your little ones he will not spare your wife he will not spare your church members he will not spare anybody if you're serving God he's out to get you you say, oh man, what do I do then? well, keep serving God and you'll be fine because here's the thing is that if God before us who can be against us so as long as you have God's favor and you're serving God and you are doing that which is pleasing in God's sight Satan can't really do much without God's permission and whatever God allows him to do it's still under God's protective cover understand what I'm saying? but here's the thing if you're just a backslidden Christian then you know what God does? He just unleashes Satan on you to destroy you and now you have no protective cover now that's scary I mean read the book of Job and obviously he wasn't backslidden but God essentially released Satan upon him to destroy him almost and you know he came out as gold because he's a godly man look at Luke 22 if you would Luke chapter 22 go to Luke 22, we're talking about the negative effects of Christianity negative effect number one is that you won't be able to enjoy sin the way you used to and instead of just kind of dwelling on that, develop godly desires, godly habits, change your appetites to desire that which is good and pleasing in God's eyes delight yourself in the Lord, hunger and thirst after righteousness and it's just a lot easier thereafter but number two is that you have a permanent target on your back which is Satan, let's look at an example here, look at Luke 22 verse 31 and the Lord said, Simon, Simon this is talking to Peter Satan hath desire to have you that he may sift you as wheat now think about how incredible that statement is that Satan because you know, what does he mean by that Satan, how does like Jesus know that? Well first of all he's God but we've actually seen a live action in the Bible, example of this where Satan went to God and you know, was essentially asking to destroy Joe so Satan went to Jesus he went to God and he's like I want that guy right there now that's like seems like an honorable thing like wow that's pretty amazing but it's kind of scary too is it not? like there's 12 disciples a bunch of apostles and Satan comes and says, I want him and I want to sift him as wheat I want to chop him down and the implication here is that he's going to be given an opportunity to chop him down now look at verse 32, but amen? but because that sounds really scary but hold on I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and I like the belief that he has in Peter and when thou art converted strengthen thy brother it's kind of like instilling within him like hey, once you come out of this once you're converted, once you're made stronger once you're made better strengthen your brothers now this is like the guy that you know went to my father-in-law he said unto him, Lord I am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death he's just like, you know, I'll die with you and then the Lord had to kind of like correct him and he said, I tell thee Peter, the cock shall not curl this day before thou shall thrice deny that thou knowest me now isn't that interesting is that Jesus knew that Peter was going to deny him but yet he said that his faith would not fail and that he would be converted and that he would strengthen his brother, now how do those two ideas, how do we reconcile those two ideas if he's also telling them like you're going to deny me, well here's how we reconcile it, you know, a just man falls seven times, but hold on a second he rises up again so you can't allow yourself to just be characterized by some failures in your life, in your Christian life you know, if you've failed once before, that's not going to, that shouldn't be your identity for the rest of your life because the Lord's praying for you the Lord's praying that your faith fail not and the Lord is assuming that you will be converted and that you after your conversion to serve him, that you will strengthen your brother so yeah, Peter did deny him and he went in a dark place but you know what, he ended up doing great things for God thereafter because at the end of the day sometimes we do fail sometimes we do mess up, sometimes we do sin, we do that which is not right in the eyes of God, but you know what God is praying for you, Jesus is praying for you and so get back up, don't put yourself under the juniper tree and say well I've sinned so therefore I'm going to take a break from church for another nine months or something and when I'm converted I'll strengthen my brother and it don't work that way the point that I'm making with this is that Satan has these devices and you know one of the negative effects of Christianity is that he's going to use them all against you throughout your life now the Bible tells us that if we resist Satan he will flee from us resist what? His temptations his you know persecutions, everything that he throws at us we just have to keep resisting resisting, resisting and then he flees, he runs, but the Bible tells us that he flees for what? a season so you'll take off for a little a little bit and then you'll come right back again and guess what you have many seasons in this lifetime you're going to experience a lot of seasons, you'll have a season of peace where you're reading the Bible you're serving God, you're growing in the Lord and then BOOM he hits you again and then you just got to use the same formula over and over again you're like man I thought like the Christian life was just like learning the Bible reading the Bible, going to work, serving my family, it is but you know there's some negative things to it too though the devil wants to kill you he wants to devour you, we're not you know there's Christians out there just like there's good God good devil, good everything it's like nothing's ever bad and you know you know it's not like that, I don't know why you got to explain it that way that's how the Bible explains it but you can't overcome the wicked one if the word of God abides in you the Bible says okay go to let me see here go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 so negative side effect number one is that you'll never be able to enjoy sin the way you used to negative side effect number two is that you will always have a target on your back Satan will always fight you to the bitter end yeah he may take a break, he may take a season off, but he's going to come after you and look, one of the challenges for me as a pastor listen to me, one of the challenges for me as a pastor is to try to peel back the spiritual world, the realm and show you that the problem in your marriage isn't you two, it's just Satan trying to get in between you two the problems with you and others is not you and others, it's just Satan is stirring things up like I have to constantly try to peel back and show people hey, the problem is not your husband, the problem is not your wife really it's just Satan just kind of stirring things up and you have to have enough spiritual discernment to see that you know the problem is not your brother in Christ, the problem is Satan is probably trying to turn you against your brother in Christ and so know your enemy, amen but here's another negative side effect of Christianity and that is listen to this, God will put you to the test as a Christian, now this is apart from Satan wanting to kill you that's a different part here's a negative side effect of Christianity is that God's not like alright, you're saved now enjoy your life no, as you grow in the Lord he's like okay well let me put you to the test let's see how strong you are and you know Christians don't like that Christians don't like when you put more weight on the bar Christians don't like when they ask you to run another mile Christians don't like when you go an extra why, because it puts us to the test but you know what, God is always adding more weight to the bar as the years go by he continues to add more weight because he wants to put you to the test he's not happy with you just being where you're at right now, you know the command is to grow in grace so that means like you got to like change but the way you change is by God testing you, pruning you putting you through really hard trials that you've never experienced before to kind of see what you're made of and you know what, no one likes that we don't like to be challenged like that, like why you got to say it like that what do you mean what I'm made of want to see if you're a wimp or not want to see how strong you are you know he wants to know where you're at you've been reading the Bible you've been coming to church talking a big talk winning souls to Christ alright, here comes the season let's see how you do and you know what that's going to happen for the rest of your life and it's one of the most unpleasant experiences that you'll ever have because trials and I'm referring to trials that God allows you to go through they review who you really are and who you really are you end up becoming surprised you end up becoming surprised because you're like I thought I was better than this you know, it kind of reveals yourself to you like wow, I kind of suck dang I'm a punk and then you realize I'm not all that I thought I was cracked up to be that's what trials do to you they humble you and God is in the business of always putting believers to the test now I'm not talking about those who just don't do anything if you're not growing in the Lord if you're not consistently reading your Bible and just checking off the basics of the Christian life you know, you got to get past that you have your own set of problems to deal with which is just governing yourself but if you've governed yourself you're a disciplined person you're spiritually disciplined you have your priorities in place your spiritual priorities are in place the tendency of a Christian is to when they have their priorities in place they're just like easy we're at 10 chapters today coming to church Sunday morning and Sunday night and Thursday and I'm going soul winning and I'm listening to sermons throughout the week and I got 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 down the 4th chapter and I got 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 down the 1st week good amen but here's the thing you know, you keep that up God's like, okay nice time to put you to the test let's see what you're made of time to put you in hot water because all of us are like tea bags right? we're all like tea bags we're all like tea bags and you don't really know what's inside the tea bag until it's placed in hot water and then the contents of that tea bag are revealed and you know sometimes people don't like what they blame the water but it's not the water's fault it's just revealing who you really are so here's a negative side effect of Christianity is that throughout your life if you really want to get serious about these things if you really want to grow in the Lord you're going to go through some really painful hardships and trials because God is going to put you to the test because he wants to know what you're made of I'm going to read you a couple of verses here Psalm 66 verse 8 says silver is tried thou broughtest us into the net thou laidest affliction upon our loins thou hast caused men to ride over our heads we went through fire and through water hold on, but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place what he's saying is like God you just like put us through the fire you made us go through some hard times and you know what he called it? proving you he wants to try you Psalm 17 verse 3 says thou hast proved mine heart thou hast visited me in the night thou hast tried me and shall find nothing I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress what I have here in 2 Corinthians so the apostle Paul for example was used greatly of God I mean one of the greatest missionaries of the New Testament if not the greatest in comparison to the other apostles and let's look at what he said look at verse 7 lest I should be exalted above measure what does that mean? lest I should be prideful that's just another way of saying that alright through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me meaning to beat him to wound him to afflict him lest I should be exalted above measure he was giving him all these revelations he was giving him all this scripture and so God's like so just to make sure you're not proud I'm going to give you a thorn in the flesh to keep you humble says in verse 8 for this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me he said turn with me if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 8 go to Deuteronomy chapter 8 Deuteronomy chapter 8 I'm going to read to you from Job 23 and verse 10 as you're turning there I'm going to read to you from Job 23 it says but he knoweth the way that I take this is Job speaking when he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold my foot hath held his steps his way have I kept and not declined neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary foods so what is the common denominator with all these men who went through these trials that God has put in them through well when God puts you to the test he wants to see so are you going to keep reading the Bible when you're in a hard time are you going to keep memorizing the scripture are you still going to go sowing and tell others about the gospel and how to be saved even though you're crying at night because you're in pain are you still going to show up to church when you're going through that's his way of trying people you see uh when God proves us and tries us he wants to see if we can maintain the weight we were doing before plus other weight you understand what I'm saying yeah you can rep that one out ok great let's put some other weight on there and see if you can continue to perform those reps he wants to see how far you can go and let me tell you you're going to go through some really hard times extremely hard times times in your life where you're just like I don't even know if I can handle this anymore like what am I going to do you say well what should I do pastor keep reading the Bible keep coming to church keep sowing keep repping the weight that you were doing before the trial as he adds more weight cause here's the thing eventually the weight comes off and then you realize oh dang I'm a lot stronger now look at Deuteronomy 8 verse 2 and now shall remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart he said whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no he's like I put you through that just to see if you know you would still obey me even though I'm like afflicting you right now I want to see if you would still keep my commandments even though you have a health issues I want to see if you keep my commandments even though now you're broke even though people are forsaking you and you're going through hardships I want to see if you can still walk the walk even when I'm allowing this to happen in your life and he says there to prove you and he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna which thou knewest not neither did thy father's no look at verse 3 that he might make thee to know that man doth not live by bread only but by everywhere that proceed out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live what's another reason why he proves us to get us closer to the Bible cause when you go through hard times you have one of two choices either go back to your vices your other things that you use to drown out the pain or you go to the Bible so what is the negative effect of Christianity God's like putting you to the test he's like a really hard coach he's just going to push you to your limits and I feel like I have to remind the church this every couple of months because I don't want anybody falling away you know to the wayside because you are going to go through a hard time and it's often something that blindsides you that you would never expect and it's going to hurt bad it's going to be very difficult but just keep doing it just keep serving the Lord keep at it and to never have this attitude is just like yeah well I can do it though I can do it you know I can handle that way I've done it before I'll do it again you know I can do it I guess we'll see and that is the negative effect because the Christian life is not just God allowing you to just be comfortable and everything is hunky dory nothing ever goes bad no he's trying to build you up he's trying to strengthen you and part of strengthening you is like allowing bad things to happen to you to make you stronger mentally, spiritually and emotionally go to Matthew chapter 10 if you would Matthew chapter 10 here's my last point here's my last point then I'm going to give you a squat illustration and don't worry you'll be able to understand even if you don't squat if you're tired of these illustrations too bad I'll probably come up with another one next week here's the last negative effect and obviously I think we could pull out a ton of other ones but these are just very general and again I'm addressing this to new Christians and Christians who just got either saved or you've just gotten into the Christian life and you're serving God here's the last negative effect of Christianity you're going to be hated people are going to hate you and what I mean by that is they're not going to want to be around you and you know some people have problems with that because in general we just want to be liked and don't be like not me yeah you do everyone wants to be liked but the truth is is that if you serve God a lot of people are not going to like you hey if you start believing the Bible and actually embracing what the Bible says and even at its most basic level you just live a Godly life a lot of people are just not going to like you whether at your job your family your spouse your adult kids your friends cousins uncles neighbors I don't know where it's going to come from it's just fact some people are just not going to like you and here's the thing is that we're to live as much as lies within us to live peaceably with all men but you know what I am for peace but when I speak they are for war the Bible says and sometimes you just can't help someone just not liking you because you're a Christian and here's the thing it's not like being a Christian a lot of people just don't like Christians in general and sometimes people attack Christians who aren't even doing anything for the Lord you know what I mean? just because they said Jesus on their Instagram or something they get attacked or something now just imagine you though because we say more than just Jesus we try to say everything in the Bible if people get offended just at the name of Jesus how much more of the stuff that he spoke about if we start talking about the things that he actually talked about what if we actually start talking about the things that are in the Old Testament all the things in the book of Leviticus and in Deuteronomy we start going over the story I mean people are just not going to like it and people will separate you from their company that's a negative side effect of Christianity and you know obviously strangers who cares what a stranger thinks but you know what often the most painful feeling is when it comes from someone you actually love and care for or close to but that will happen because ye all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution look at Matthew 10 verse 17 but beware of men just in general beware of men in general for they will deliver you up to the councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues verse 18 and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles but when they deliver you up take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour ye shall speak for it is not ye that speak but the spirit of your father which speaketh in you and listen to this the brother shall deliver up the brother to death that means your own blood brother will hate you so much this is what he's saying even to the point where he's willing to just willing for you just to die now some of you might have a sibling who you know maybe they don't like hate you to that extent but you're like I can see my brother getting to that extent though and the father the child and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake but he that endured to the end shall be saved what is he saying have the expectation that people are just not going to like you and don't be fooled by this lame, limp-wristed Christianity out on internet land that seeks to be the friend of everyone and wants to please every Tom, Dick, and Harry it just doesn't want to make anybody mad it doesn't want to offend anybody because they want to please everyone and they don't want anybody mad at them it's wrong because they want to promote Jesus without all the negative side effects but folks they nailed Jesus to a cross think about that and he tells them if they called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more should they call them of his household he says in verse 24 the disciple is not above his master nor the servant above his Lord he's like you're not better than Jesus so you'll never like go beyond what Jesus did and you know what if they persecuted Jesus they're going to persecute you too and if they're not persecuting you throughout your life if you don't receive some form of persecution throughout your Christian life you're not doing it right you ain't doing it right like I just don't feel the I don't feel the burn yeah because you're not doing it right you have bad Christian form you have bad Christian form because you can't feel it you know when you do it right you get hated well not me you know I just have a lot of discernment on how to talk to people you know I just know how to speak to people oh what you're saying is you're above your master and you're a disciple who's above Jesus that's what you mean because that's what Jesus is saying here but at the end of the day you're going to piss off a lot of people and some of it will be unintentional it's just because you're just a Christian so don't be surprised that when men shall hate you okay these are the things that you should expect as a believer that at the end of the day you know these are the negative side effects and you'll never as a Christian you'll never be a person who just the world just loves if the world loves you there's a major problem and in fact the Bible says if the world loves you then you're like a false prophet I'm not saying they won't listen to you I have a lot of people who listen to me on Instagram but I guarantee you okay so I have like 8,000 followers on Instagram but I guarantee you 7,000 of them hate me and the other 1,000 are just like new ideas I don't know if that ratio is correct but I'm pretty sure it's close I guarantee the vast majority of people that follow me actually don't like me at all so even if it goes up to 10k, 20k the vast majority of those followers probably hate my guts you say well how do you know that? cause I literally have Catholics who hate me who watch my stories every single day they message me every single day and I'm thinking if you don't like what I'm saying why do you persist to follow me you're weird you're like a stalker but that's like a thing they just keep up with everything that's being said everything that's being taught cause they just hate you that's just how it is they're like oh man I don't like that well those are the negative effects of Christianity your sister might go against you your cousin might go against you your uncle might be against you your aunt, your mother, your father might be against you you just have to have the expectation that this negative side effect will happen to you one day if you do it right you say well man what's the answer then? well the answer to the negative side effects of Christianity here's the answer, Christianity now the way I came up with this sermon the way I got this sermon was that last Saturday I was squatting, it was my secondary squat day don't tune me out you listen I was doing my secondary squat and it was a lighter day and you know when you lose weight your leverages change a little bit so it was super light, it wasn't even anything crazy and I think on my second rep I came up and my back was like tweak, I was like wow that was painful, I'm like maybe it was just a hiccup, I'll just go do the third rep because I'm supposed to do six and I did the third rep and it was like tweak even more and then I racked it I was like that hurt a lot so I kind of walked around and I was just like maybe I'm just imagining just imagining I'm like I need to complete this I dropped the bar, tightened up brace, went down, tweak and then I stopped I was like I'm done and then it was one of those things I was just like ah oh man this is painful and it was like that pretty much you know Saturday Sunday I'm up here, I'm in pain well Monday is squat day again but Monday is the heavy squats I have to do like a top heavy heavy single and heavy reps and so you know the natural man wants to be like take a break just put some icy hot on it put some Ben Gay on here just relax and you need to just take a break for a little bit but I've learned something in powerlifting I've learned that the way to fix things is to do the same exact thing you know what I mean? it's often the cure to the injury believe it or not when it comes to powerlifting so on Monday I was like well I'm going to go for a top heavy single we'll see how far I can go brace well was very slow in my prep and then I think I did like 3 10 that day and then I did 2 95 for reps and as soon as I was done the pain was gone I was like well that's cool squatting was the cause of my injury but it also became the cure of my injury and that's what I've learned throughout these last few years that I've been lifting is anytime I have an injury I have to make sure I keep doing that same workout and it ends up fixing it and in fact a year ago I had a shoulder injury and it just was not getting better and then John's like you have to do lateral raises and I'm like I can't even do that he's like you have to do it and you have to do it like a lot very lightweight but just do it a lot he's like just do it those cable raises just keep doing it and then it's just now the pain is completely gone the cause of the injury is often also the cure the cause of your spiritual injuries which is Christianity is also the cure so if you ever get injured spiritually because you're offended or you're going through a hard time the answer is not sit out and put Bengay on it and don't go to church and just take a break and just listen online every once in a while and just put it on first gear and not do anything, get back under the bar perform some reps, get back out there soloing, get back in church, listen to preaching get back in the Bible and you'll realize a weekend it's gone get some blood flowing through that injury, movement is medicine and now I'm squatting again tomorrow that's just how it is but the problem is with Christians here's the problem, they go through a hard time and it's just like oh I quit I'm not going to read my Bible I'm not going to go to church, I'm not going to go soloing when they don't realize that Christianity is the cure to that injury yeah, yeah, it's the problem of course it is because there's negative side effects to Christianity but if you want to experience the positive ones, keep doing it now don't take my illustration too far, okay because obviously there's other details that go into that the principle still applies though is that you don't quit just because you got injured you have to keep moving you have to keep coming you have to keep serving God and the pain goes away and in fact you end up getting stronger spiritually because of it positives, ton of positives but there's a lot of negatives but embrace both, amen I claim all negative energy from Christianity let's pray, Father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the hardships of life and Lord may you prepare us for those that we're going to experience in the coming days, months and years Lord, may they not blindside us and when we feel like they became unexpected may we continue to exercise the principles that we've learned in times past that kept us on the right track and I pray Lord that you bless us as we go on our way, we love you we thank you, pray these things in Jesus' name, amen