Women Who Worship Conference -Pastor Hope Carpenter

I remember the first time I heard that song. And it was right after I was coming through one of the darkest times in my life. I was in the hills of North Carolina at Living Waters Ministry Retreat Center. My husband and I had just been separated and I thought my life was over. I thought I'd never hold a mic again. I had no idea if God could ever use me. And I had to do a whole lot of hard inventory and I had to figure out why and how I landed where I landed. And I found out after being in church a very long time and being in ministry a very long time that I loved so many things so much more than I loved Jesus. That was a huge rude awakening for me. That was very sobering for me to have led worship and led Bible studies and preached conventions and preached conferences and grown a church from three people to however many people and campuses here and campuses there. And you know, I ended up at the very bottom and all I had was, alright, God, you're gonna have to strip me all the way down and you're gonna have to show me what's really on the inside of me. Because, God, I have gotten it so wrong up until this point. How many of you know you can be deceived? How many know you can, you can deceive yourself and you can think you are something that you are not. You can get so caught up in doing the work of God that you don't even know the God you're doing the work for. And I was at a place where I really didn't even have a choice to cut the friends out because I didn't have any at that point. You know, if you had to choose, of course you're going to choose your employer over her. So I didn't have a whole bunch of friends to even say, you know, I can't communicate with you. But I had to make a choice. I was at a fork in the road and I was at a crossroad to where I said, okay, I've got to make a choice today. And you know, if you've ever been in a car accident or you've seen people come into the er, we've heard. You ever watch the tales of the ER and you see all the stories and all the gross things that happen in the emergency room and they will tell you, every ER doctor will tell you anytime a trauma victim has been brought into the emergency room, there's one thing that they have to do first before they can fix the problem is they have to do something called debriment. They have to get all the junk out. They have to get all of the. The gravel that happened, all of the glass that was put inside in the accident, all the trauma that happened. They have to try to clean you up right before they can put you back together. And that's where I was. That's where I was just. Just four years ago. I was in God's hospital, and I had. I was at a fork in the road, and. And I had to make a lot of decisions. And it was a hard place. It was a really, really hard place because, you know, I could have chosen. I could have said, you know what? I'm gonna put on my bikini and I'm going down to Mexico and I'm gonna sell margaritas on the beach. Okay. Cause it's just not gonna get any better than this. Right? Right? I mean, really. Come on, let's be real. Tell the truth. Shame the devil. I mean, I had a lot of choices. You know, a lot of people might have said, well, she don't have a lot of choices. Oh, I could have done anything I wanted to do at that point, really. I could have moved anywhere on earth. I could have started over. I could have found somebody else. I had a lot of choices because I was at a crossroads. But I love Jesus. I've loved him since I was a little girl. I was saved when I was 8 years old. I was filled with the Holy Spirit when I was 12 years old. Been in church all my life. I sang my first solo when I was 2. They didn't ask me. I just jumped out of my mama's arms and ran down the aisle into my pastor's arms and grabbed his mic and started singing. So I've loved Jesus all my life, but I still got it so wrong. Have you ever been there? Have you ever found yourself where I really do love Jesus. But, you know, I'm really floundering over here. And I'm 45 now, and now I'm 50, and now I'm 56, and God, you know, I still don't. I'm not doing right. I just. My life doesn't look like what it's supposed to look like. When I first heard that song, it broke me. It broke me so bad. And the words that. Anything that I love with all my heart. Anything. Ice cream, pizza, the beach, my husband, a tan, nice booty, blonde hair, my grandchildren. Anything that I love with all my heart has the potential of being an idol. Anything that I want with all my heart has the potential of becoming an idol. And it Broke me. You know, sometimes God will use the simplest things. He can take just the most simple things that can speak to your spirit. You can hear a thousand messages, but he can use one phrase in a song. And I say, God, that's where I did it. That's where I did it. It's when I started loving things more than I loved you. It's when I began wanting things more than I just wanted to be in your presence. More than I just wanted to hear your name and have that tear. You know what I'm talking about. When you're driving down the road and you hear the name of Jesus and a song comes on and the tears just begin to pour, you know, we can get away from that. We can lose that. I lost it. And it has taken time. I don't think we wake up one day and we. Poof, we're there. I don't think we wake up one day and poof, we got it. And we got it all figured out. And, man, I'm good now. I think it is a lifelong learning process of becoming more like Jesus and letting him shape us and mold us and make us and chisel on us, and that hurts. And taking this away and causing us to obey and surrender. It is a lifelong process, this. But I think we need to establish one thing today. We need to establish this thing. God is not like man. God is not like man. God's not like your husband. He's not like your children. He's not like your boo boo. He's not like your best friend. He's not like any of those people. He doesn't want a casual lunch. He doesn't want a random phone call. He doesn't want to date you. He doesn't want to have breakfast with you. He doesn't want to see you on Thanksgiving and Easter and maybe show up real good on Christmas. God is not like man. He is a jealous. A very, very, very jealous God. And he wants all of you. He wants all, all the time. The good, the bad, the ups, the downs, the ins, the outs, the broke, the rich, the sick, the healthy, the confused, the sane mind. He wants all of you all the time. And you got to recognize who God is. God is holy. He is not your best friend. We don't talk to him like we talk to our husband. We don't talk to him like we talk to our grandkids. We don't talk to him like we talk to Santa Claus. Come on. He is not a genie in a bottle. And he is not. He is not a Fairy at when you lose a tooth. We don't talk to him like we talk to each other. God is holy. He's in a class all by himself. He is separate. He's different. He is other. Nobody can come up beside him. Can't nobody compare to Him. But he's jealous. He's jealous. Exodus 34 and 14 says, do not worship any other God for the Lord whose name is Jealous. That's his name. His name is Jealous is a jealous God. See, there's so many things fighting for your attention, right? There's so many things that fight for my attention. Your attention, all God, children, attention. Every single day, we are on sensory overload, right? Especially this day and age. We are on sensory overload. How many of you already checked your Facebook and your Instagram four times this morning? Come on. How many of you pulled your phone out, checked your text messages? Yes, yes, yes. Our time. So many things are fighting for our time. Things are fighting for your money. Things are fighting for your possessions. It's your phone, your calendar. How many of your calendar looks like markers just threw up all over it, Right? Thank you, brother. Brother, Brother. My calendar is ridiculous. We are busier than we have ever been. I figured by this time, almost 50 years old, I mean, we'd be putting the brakes on a little bit, but we have not. I need B12 shots regularly, right? I mean, and I thought the more the kids would get out the house, the easier. No, they divide, then they multiply. I mean, I took a breath, and then they just ran all over me again. They all want to come over at least twice a week and eat. I thought I wouldn't have to cook again, but I'm having to cook again because they all want my cooking. And they all put in their requests. They think I'm a diner mama. This is what I'd like tonight. And then they get in fights. I didn't want that. I don't want to go there. I'm like, oh, my God. So many things are vying for your time and for your attention, your career. Everybody just wants to be successful, right? Don't you want to be successful? Yes. Everybody wants to do great in what you put your hands to do. Our careers, your reputation. What about your reputation, man? We got to keep that up. Can't nobody know, right? What happens in this house. What do you know that's dysfunctional? How many of you came from a dysfunctional home then knowing that information? We all came from a dysfunctional home. Because when you say, what happens in this house stays in this house. And we're not going to talk about this, and we're not going to share this, and we're not going to rock the boat. Do you know what that does? It immediately blocks you from your healing. It immediately blocks you from your healing because you have to. The truth is what makes you free. So you have to speak the truth in love so that you can get free. That's a whole other message. We teach that at healing the heart here. But here's the thing. We are all wired for worship. Every one of us. We are all wired to love things, to enjoy life. We are all wired for worship, and we're all going to worship something. Right? I could ask you right now, what's your favorite ice cream? Go. What's your favorite pizza? Go. What's your favorite vacation spot? Go. We all know what we love, right? We all know we're all wired for worship, and we're going to worship something. There is a war for your heart today. We are in a war for our hearts, for our love, for our passion. The enemy knows this. Listen. The enemy knows that out of the overflow of your heart, what it's full of, out of the overflow of your heart, what it is so full of, what will happen, your mouth's gonna speak. The enemy knows this, right? Okay. That out of the overflow of your heart, out of the overflow of your passions, out of the overflow of your love, your mouth's gonna speak. Right? I can be around somebody five minutes, and I know what they love. I know what they're passionate about, right? Y' all know I love my grandbabies, right? I talk about them all the time. I think they're just the most wonderful grandbabies. They're better than yours. They're better than everybody's watching on daystar. I mean, they're more anointed. They're cuter. They are. I mean, they're just perfect. They don't do anything wrong. I don't know why Jordan spanks them. Because something's wrong with her. But there's nothing wrong with my grandbabies. I mean, I think nothing is wrong with giving them coke and pizza for breakfast. If you wanted coke and pizza, you'd eat it. So why can't they have it? I don't know. But out of the overflow, out of the passions of our heart, our mouth speaks. And when the mouth speaks words, your words produce life or death for you. Okay? So whatever's going on around you in your life, if it's good, bad, Chaotic, terrible, a failure, whatever's going on. The Word says that we have produced that from our passions. We have done this. We get ourselves in all of these messes out of what we love, out of what we pursue, out of what's important to us. John 24:14 says this. Now, therefore, fear the Lord. Serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side. See, we're supposed to have come out of this side out of darkness and into his glorious light. Put away the gods that your fathers have served on the other side and serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. Basically, what he's saying here, it's time to choose. If it's not going to be him, then make a decision and go this way. Okay? But if it's him, you need to make the decision, and you need to do it with all of your heart. Choose you this day who you will serve. Make a decision. Stop wavering back and forth. Stop being lukewarm. Stop being in today and out tomorrow. Stop being in when it's good and when it all hell breaks loose, you tuck tail and run. Stop saying one thing and doing another. Stop dancing at the altar after you've been dancing at the club all night. Come on, he's saying, choose you this day who you will serve. Because we're all going to serve something. It's time to choose. Look at somebody and say it. It's time to make a decision once and for all. Change is hard, right? Change is difficult when you've been eating fried chicken all your life. Biscuits and gravy. Come on, somebody. Whoo. And the doctor tells you, you better change your ways. It ain't looking good for you. I see your belly before I see you coming around the corner. Your cholesterol so high. But you come to the altar and want somebody to shamalama ding dong and pray over you. I ain't praying for nobody who won't do what's right. And the doctor says you gotta start eating grilled chicken to be healthy and live. That's hard. I've been given some of those instructions, and it is difficult. It is difficult. I do love French fries. I'm telling you, that's one of them items. I'm still working on them. I love them. I can't refuse them. I can't push them back. I'm like, well, I mean, I just got to do it, you know? It's one of those things I Love them good and crispy. I like the crinkly, okay? Y' all like crinkly? Who likes steak fries? Oh, hallelujah. Who likes them little be slim ones? Oh, see, don't y' all feel the anointing right now? Just talking about a French fry. But Ephesians 4:22 says this. It says, put off your old self. Listen, listen, listen to the next part. Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by those deceitful desires. I love French fries, right? But it's corrupting my arteries. Put off your old self because it's being corrupted by your evil desires. Stop eating fried chicken. It's killing you. Deceitful desires. Listen, you can't just read the word. You got to read the word, okay? It says, put them off. These are deceit. These aren't blatant. These aren't like, yeah, I'm going to sin. And this is awesome. Man, I must be serving God. No, I told him today with this. I said, my God, I feel like I need to be doing an interpretive dance today. Bring the 90s back, right? Get a flag out. Tambourine maybe. I don't know. Deceitful desires. See, we're not aware. We're not aware. Creeps in. Seems right. Seems okay. God doesn't care. God doesn't care that I want to spend so much time with my grandkids. That's a good, good thing crawled up in your kitchen, didn't I? God don't care that I want to spend so much time with my grandkids. But let me add it up. Do I spend more time with my grandkids than I do with Jesus? Do I go more out of my way for my grandkids than I do for Jesus? When my grandbabies wake up in the middle of the night, they wake me up. Come on, now. You know what they do, Chi Chi, I had a bad dream. Or they wake up and they don't go back to sleep for a couple of hours. 3:30 to 5:30. That ever happened to you in the middle of the night? And you know what? At first you aggravate it, but then you're up and they're your grandbabies. You can't be mad. What you want to watch? You want a donut? Sh. Man's asleep. But can God wake you up at 3:30? Can God wake you up from 3:30 to 5:30? And you're, what do you want? What do you want, God? What do you want? No, we say, lord, that can't be you, right? Deceitful desires. Deceitful desires. Chasing the approval of men. It's corrupt, it's deceitful, it's killing you. Chasing your career more than you chase God. It's deceitful, it's corrupt, it's killing you. Stop hoarding and loving money and building that bank account. And if God asks for something. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm saving. I got to pay off my car, which is depreciating anyway. You're putting money in something that's going down instead of putting money in the kingdom which provides 30, 60 hundred fold return. I mean, I don't know. We all want to change, we all want to be holy or you wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be here. You're hungry, you're thirsty for God. But how is it? How is it achieved? How is it achieved? This is what Jesus taught me four years ago. It's called this old time holiness word called sanctification. It's called sanctification. We don't preach that no more. Millennials don't know much about that. It doesn't draw in the crowds. Sanctification, how is it achieved? Sanctification is two things. It's positional and it's progressive. Positional. It's positional. It's instant. The day that you ask Jesus, in your heart, you are covered by the blood of the Lamb. You are hidden in Christ Jesus. God doesn't see you anymore. He sees the blood of Jesus when he looks at you. So that is your position. You are positionally holy the day that you get saved. Right? But on the other hand, it's progressive. It's progressive. It's a slow process of change where God transforms our heart into his image. It's a process of peeling back the layers of the onion of our heart. Everything that you have gone through, that you've been through, that you've seen, that you've experienced up into that point of that instantaneous transition in your life. But then from there, it is a progressive, it is a slow change where God pulls back all of those areas in your heart to make you look like him, talk like him and live like him and smell like him and love like him and give like. That's God's method to make us look like inwardly what you already look like positionally. Right? So this lifelong process is taking off of the old. That's what it says. Take off the old and what then you put on the new. You take off the old, you put on the new. Okay, what is it God Uses this. This is what God uses in your life. God uses failure. Children, husbands, your job, your family, your health, your pain. I told somebody one time, I said, you know, I do not believe that God designed marriage to make you happy. Nowhere is it ever said that he designed marriage to make you happy. But I do believe he designed it to make you holy. He uses everything in our life for his purpose and for his glory, to mold us and to make us and to shape us to be more like Jesus. It's not about what you start and stop doing. Get that out of your head. It's not. Okay, I got to stop doing this and start doing. That's a trick of the enemy. That's works. That's called works, right? But it automatically happens when you fall in love with Jesus. Remember, it's the overflow of your heart that produces everything in your life. So it's the passion and the love that you have for Jesus more than you have for these other things. And I think the most ratchet Christians are the most radical. The most ratchet people before Christ become the most radical Christians because the Bible says, he who has been forgiven much, loves much. I'm so thankful for Jesus because he found me in my lowest place. He picked me up when nobody wanted to talk to me. He loved me when I didn't have your phone number to call you. He loved me and he whispered, sweet nothing's in my ear when you didn't write me a card or a letter. He who has been forgiven much, it just oozes out. It's those self righteous Christians who ain't never done nothing wrong, who walk around with their nose in the air and look down on the rest of us who ain't got it all together. They might not have ever drank nothing or smoked nothing, but they mean as the devil. They might need a drink. You know, you go to loving everybody when you get a drink or two and everybody starts looking pretty. Here you want my car. Here you need $10. Habit. Maybe the church just needs to get drunk on the Holy Ghost a little bit more. We'll start loving right and acting right and treating people right. I'm sick of pretty church. I'm ready for people to look in the windows of redemption. I'm ready for people to look in the windows of our churches and say, my God, they going crazy. This is the craziest people I've ever seen. I ain't trying to look pretty for nobody. I'm trying to make him happy. Whatever's in your heart, remember, is what you Worship, it's what you love. Ephesians 4:22 says that you put off. Remember, you put off and you put on that you put off concerning your former conduct. Y' all got some form of conduct? We ain't gonna talk about it, are we? It's under the blood concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to what? Deceitful lust. That's how we get corrupt. It's because our heart is full of the wrong thing. We love everything so much according to the deceitful lust. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, in your thoughts, in your passions, in your desires, your that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Put off the old, renew your mind and put on the new. Say it, Put off the old, renew your mind, put on the new, say it again, do it again. And it's not a three step process. It's all happening simultaneously. It is that progressive sanctification. You never reach that place called. It's at the same time you start to put off an old habit. The spirit will refresh you and renew you and strengthen you by his word and enable you to put on new habits. Right. How many of you loved music just more than life. You knew every word to every. I'm talking about Bee Gees, I'm talking about Journey, I'm talking about Parliament, I'm talking about Michael Jackson. Yeah, I said Parliament. Michael Jackson. I'm talking about. You knew every word to every album, to every song. I mean, music was my world, music's my life. Right? So you put off an old habit. You see what the word of God says about that, about what you put in, about what comes out, and then you put on the new. So at the same time you're putting off this old habit. God's showing you and enlightening you. And then you got to say, well, I loved music, so I got to replace that with the new. Then you just engulf yourself in Christian music. You engulf yourself in praise and worship. And listen, at first it don't feel normal, right? Right. It feels kind of weird. Oh, hallelujah. Do you remember when you first started to do praise and worship and you thought felt weird, right? Felt like you were being a put on. You were. The Bible says put on, take off the old and put on the new. When it's brand new, it won't feel normal to you, it'll feel like you are put on. But you keep doing it over and over and over and it will become Just your new nature. It'll become your new nature. God's at work in you. God is at work in you. Somebody needs to praise God that you are not alone in this fight. You are not alone in your sanctification. It's Christ in you, right? It's Christ in you. He's your helper in this process. It's a process. Look at somebody and say, it's a process. The enemy. You better know who you fighting. We're in a war for our heart. We're in a war for the passions of our heart. He don't play fair. He does not like you. He doesn't care if you like to sleep late. He does not care if your kids are acting up. And you know, he does not care if you're inconvenienced. Matter of fact, he likes that. But you got to know who you're fighting. You got to know how he works. Satan tempts us through pleasures by portraying that those joys that. That if we're disobedient. Listen, you're not getting it. He portrays that those are really, truly pleasurable, fulfilling things. I thought at one time I could never live without my girls trip on the weekend. I thought, it's only right. I have these kids, Ron's kids, that I have to take care of all the time. It's only right that I should be able to do this right. These pleasures. And he frightens us that serving God won't bring us those joys. He deceives us that if we give it all that we won't be fulfilled or happy or laugh or have a good time. And after all, aren't we supposed to be happy? Isn't that why you were created? You're supposed to be happy, right? I know, God, I'm happier than I've ever been. But I did not seek to be happy, okay? When I was seeking to be happy, I was the most miserable human on the face of the earth. It's when I laid my life down that I found it, See? But he tricks you and he deceives you, thinking that you got to go after the pleasures of life so that you can be fulfilled and happy. I always tell everybody, when you first start saying, what about me? That is a huge, huge, huge red flag in your life that the enemy has duped you, tricked you in trying to deceive you, to derail and get off track, because it is not about you. You weren't created for yourself. You weren't created for your own pleasure. The Bible says we were created for his pleasure. And see, Satan can't tempt you and lure you to something that's not already in your heart. And that's why daily, we have to keep our motives checked. That's why the Bible says you sanctify yourself. How? Monthly Easter and Christmas. You sanctify yourself daily through the washing of the Word. That word will keep your motives in check. So I'm telling you, I tell my children all the time. I've always told him. And I have really been trying to teach this. My oldest son has been asking a lot of questions and really wanting to understand some things. And I said, son, you can't live without the Word. You can't live. Listen to your mama. You cannot live without the Word. If you got a sin problem, then you got a Word problem. The Bible says, hide it in your heart so that you do not sin. If you got a sin problem, you got a Word problem. You can't live without the Word. And we got to evaluate our heart, our desires. Don't be deceived by your own heart. Don't talk yourself into. It's okay. And we all know our weaknesses. We know what we're drawn to. Come on, who we fooling, right? You know what could derail you in five minutes? You know who could call you and you'd say, honey, you would waver between two opinions, right? We got to take a hard inventory. Where are we weak? What brings out the worst in you? What takes you back to old feelings? You better leave it alone. Put a bullseye on those things. You better know it, because Satan knows it. And I ask you, what do you want so bad? What do you want so bad that it drives you? You say, how do I know what the idols are in my life? What do you fear of losing? What are you afraid of losing? What can you lose and not lose your faith? What? What could God strip from you? And you still love him with all your heart? You still got a smile on your face. You still gotta dance in your step. You don't miss church. You still tap. What could God take from you? And you still love him with all your heart? Romans 8:13 says, for if you live according to the flesh, you're going to die. Period. But if you live by the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. You will live. You will have abundant life. You will have that fire and that passion and that happiness that we all want and we're all seeking. And just like most Moses, just like Moses, God took me back to the scripture. Where. Where Moses went up on the mountain and Aaron got impatient. He got impatient and he started constructing. He can started constructing his own idols. And just like Moses, you got to burn them with fire and you got to crush them into powder. I had to walk away from a whole lot of things. I had to walk away from a whole bunch of people. And I had to be content to be in all by myself, just me and Jesus. I had to be content with, if I never got back with my husband, if our marriage was never restored, that I could pick myself up and I could love him with my whole heart and that I could serve him like I had never served him. That my whole joy and passion in life was Jesus, not Ron Carpenter, not having family Christmas, not holding a microphone and being the pastor's wife at Redemption. I had to come to a place where I said, God, I'll do where whatever you want me to do, I'll go wherever you want me to go. God, I just want to be right with you. I just want to be right with you. And whatever we do in the flesh as an idol, whatever great grand idea that we come up with in the flesh is an idol. You know, we don't have these little Buddhas sitting around our house. We don't have these little idols that we worship. I don't have a gold sculpting of my grandchildren sitting on the fireplace. You know, I don't. I don't have bronzed french fries sitting in the middle of my table. I don't have gold plated sparkly shoes sitting up in my. Well, maybe I do, but somebody gave me that. I think, Lachey, you gave me a pair of shoes that sparkled. But we all have things that we rely on that we depend on, that we run to our habits and our lifestyle. Scream, God, we don't trust you. And you know how we know they're there? Because they produce sinful words in our life behaviors. So how do we get rid of them? How do we crush them? Number one, you got to recognize what they are. You really got to get real, okay? I mean, tiptoeing through the tulips, it ain't gonna do it. In these last days, it just ain't gonna do it. Raising your hands and all, that was an awesome service. But we leave the same. That's not going to cut it. Come in, listen. It's not going to cut it. We got to get real. You got to identify it. You got to really say, okay, all right, let's look at my life. I say, I'm this. But let's look at my life. Got to recognize it, and then we got to repent. Repent means turn and go with the other way. Don't ever go back that way. You change your mind about that and you ask for God's help daily and you ask the Holy Spirit to convict you for what? For righteousness. Do you know, one of the teachings that I had to fall in love with when I was going through my healing was the love of the law. See, we don't preach that. We don't talk about it. The lady pastor, Denise Boggs, said, hope, I need you. I need you to go back and I want you to study the law, and I want you to see what the psalmist had to say about the law. He loved the law. I had to admit, number one, that I ran from the law and that I hated the law and God's requirements of me in my life. Do you know how humbling that was? And I said I had to pray a prayer. I had to pray. God, you got to help me love your righteousness. God, you got to help me fall in love with it. You got to help me see the benefits of your righteousness, of my right standing, of my right living, of my. My holiness unto you. And I had to write God's Word on my heart. And as I grew in my love for Jesus daily, His grace, his mercy, his faithfulness, all of my old ways of trusting in these old idols just seem to fade away. It's not that I intentionally said, okay, all these works, okay? X. I can't listen to that anymore. X. I can't hang out with her anymore. X. I can't drink that anymore. It's not how it works. It's when I fell so in love with Jesus, and I fell so in love with the law, and I fell so in love with the person, and I fell so in love with his faithfulness and his goodness and his kindness and his mercy. And then I turned around and I looked back and I said, my God, look how far I've come. I'm not even the same person. When people get around me, they're like, you even look different in your face. You know, you're not even the same hope that I knew 10 years ago. And it wasn't that that was what I was trying to do. It was that I was going so hard to fall in love with Jesus. And that's how Paul said, and everything else pales in comparison with the treasure that I have of knowing Him. Not that these things are bad. Yeah, my grandkids are good. French fries are great. But that's how he could say everything else. It just pales in comparison with the treasure of how I know you, who you've been to me, how faithful you be. How could you been, how you seen me through, How I wouldn't have made it without you. How your love is better than life. Oh, I've tasted and I've seen that you are good. I tasted you. I've experienced it. I know you're good. Can't nobody tell me you ain't good. Because I've tasted it. I've experienced it. I've seen it. Philippians 3:8 says, yet indeed I also count all things. Loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, from whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And I count them as rubbish. Why? That I may know Christ. That I may know the anointing. See, without knowing Jesus, you'll worship anything. And you'll be deceived to think it's okay without being in love with Jesus, you'll just fall in love with anything. You'll be passionate about everything. Solomon knew that our hearts needed to be inclined to worship God. Why? Because our sinful nature, because we're born to worship. And what we do first is we worship the creation instead of the Creator. This is what he said in Kings 8. He says, May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us that he may incline our hearts to himself, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments, to keep his statues, to keep his judgments. Every woman I know wants to serve God. Really, we all do. But we all get so tripped up in every day. We get so tripped up in the things that are pulling and vying for our attention. And God asked me to come here today. And to the people who are watching on Daystar and watching online, he's asked us to take a hard inventory. This is where the rubber meets the road. We're all women who worship. But what do you worship? What do you worship? My grandkids can't save me. My french fries don't give me peace. It gives me indigestion, gas and cellulite. What do you worship? I'll tell you how to do a real quick inventory of what you worship. Talked about it last night. Pull out your checkbook, get your bank statements out. Because where your treasure is, that's where your heart's going to be. This isn't hike. This isn't rolling around on the floor this isn't throwing hankies and shouting. This is rubber hits the road. This is how you change. This is how you shift. This is how your life forever changes. And you begin to walk in the blessing of God. You begin to walk in the peace of God. There were days up prior to my healing where I would get up and I would get dressed and I'd put my clothes on and I'd leave the house because my motor was running so fast. Because I was in search of something and I went everywhere to find it. I'd just get up with no appointments. I'd get up with nowhere to go. I'd go to Target. I'd go to the mall. I'd just ride around. Sometimes I'd end up in Charlotte. Sometimes I'd end up in Commerce. I mean, I was. I was a hopeless wreck searching for fulfillment that only Jesus can feel. Today I have no problem staying in pajamas and not shaving my legs for three or four days. Now my husband has a problem. But I'm telling you that to tell you. I mean, I'm telling you that to tell you how content I am. I am so content. I am at such rest and I am at such peace. It is almost hard sometime for me, even now, to walk through them all, because I can feel the restlessness and I can feel the distractions and the longings of people's spirit just sucking. And I feel so inclined and drawn to them because I can feel it. It's the God in me that's leaning to them because I have the answer. I have the water that they can drink and never thirst again. I can't even go find a pair of shoes without feeling like I got a minister to somebody in the mall because they pulling on me. They're so, so hungry. They're so thirsty. They're so desperate. And God can do the very same thing for you. But you got to crush everything into powder that you love more than you love him. And you got to put it in its rightful place. Today. Your life really could change forever. Do you know that consecration happens? I do a thing several times a year called a consecration weekend, where I take 10 ladies and we just go off into the mountains. Or we'll go to a secluded place and I teach them about consecration. And I teach them about crushing idols. And consecration is this consecration is like the very first scripture that I read. You've got to choose today who you will serve. Consecration is made one time for all time. There are. There are lines in the sand that you have to draw when God is calling you higher. And God is calling you, calling you to a level of holiness and sanctification and consecration that you never go back to. There are things other people can do that I cannot do. I can't go back there. It's not for me. There's some music I can never listen to. I have cried and begged God to forgive me. I remember 10 years ago, standing in this very pulpit, singing, just quoting rap songs or saying, you know, in raising our kids, you know, we had to learn a balance. And I first didn't listen to secular music, and now I think it's, you know, you got to learn to. Oh, the devil is a lie. It's so deceitful. It's deceitful. You don't think anything's wrong with it. There are certain things I can never do anymore because God's called me higher. He's called me to another level. There's some things I have to count as dung. There's some things I have to count as rubbish for the cause of Christ. And I said this years ago. I said, you know what people, since I've been through what I've been through, they say, oh, she's not fun anymore, and she's just this. And she's different. And she's a holy roller, and she preaches holiness and sanctification all the time. And you know what? Why not be radical and get what you aim for? Why not really live it? Why not really have it? I don't want to be God's spit. I don't want to be God's vomit. I don't want him to look at me and say, oh, oh, you taste awful to me. I'm gonna spew you right out of my mouth. You taste horrible. There's nothing worse than a lukewarm cup of coffee. Is that what you want to be to God? A lukewarm cup of coffee? I want everybody who gets around me to say, my God, all she's got is Jesus all up on her. Every time I'm around her, she's always got a word of encouragement. Every time I'm around her, she's glowing with the Holy Ghost. Every time I'm around her, she's got fresh revelation. Every time I'm around her, she's encouraging me. She won't let me tip my head down. She won't let me me give up. She's always spurring me on to be like Jesus. That's not just preacher talk. It's not pastor's wife talk. That's not apostle talk, prophet, all those things. This is what God has called us all to be. You're all going to worship something, what's occupying that space in your heart. And today we're going to come to the altar and we're going to give it up. Once and for all. Once and for all. Look at somebody and say, once and for all. Once and for all. If this message resonated with you, I want you to get up from where you are and just make your way. Just make your way down here. Once and for all. Once and for all. Do you know what this means? Your life's going to change. It's not going to happen tonight. It's not going to happen tomorrow. You're going to look back and say, my God, look how far I come. And I can point it back all the way to that women's conference.