✗ Breaking out... ✗

"The first place we lose the battle is in our own thinking. You need to see everything that is holding you back as only temporary. It did not come to stay, but it came to pass. The moment you accept it, it takes root to reality. 

If you break out in your own thinking, you will see the area of your life improve. Your greatest victories are in front of you. God is limited in our own thinking. When wrong thoughts come, dismiss them. Don't give them a time or day."

Joel Osteen

✗ Eyes fixed, His that is ✗

"The gospel is radical and ridiculous in the most marvelous of ways, and I never want to forget that. The truth of 2 Chronicles 16:9a is audacious if you think about it. "The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth ..." Wow.

We live wrapped in the warmth of God's gaze.
We are watched by the King of Glory.
We are strengthened by the Author of Life.

Even when we fail to fix our sight on Him, God's eyes are fixed on us. And remembering that truth could change everything.

If God sees us, then we're not invisible.
If God sees us, then we're not invaluable.
If God sees us, then we're not unknown.

Those eyes aren't waiting to see us stumble. Those eyes are scanning this swiveling globe because the Creator of the galaxies wants to create something new in you and in me.”

✗ Hope not destroyed, nor Joy taken ✗

"A true believers hope can never be destroyed nor their joy taken."

Lecrae

✗ It's all about perspective... ✗

✗ Words of breakthrough and not just theories... ✗

✗ Power of Praise ✗

"Praise is the best protection for your heart and mind. The enemy can’t find your heart when it’s hidden in heavenly places! When you dwell in the secret place of the Most High, you can find rest for your soul!"

Victoria Osteen

✗ Bow down for Who? ✗

"Don't give in to the pressure to fit in when fitting in means bowing down and raging against the person God called you to be."

- Pastor Josh Kimes

(Hillsong NYC)

✗ Faith stands on your problems... ✗

that's what faith can do.

and so if problems are our level up,

our faith response likewise, going higher each time there's a situation.

✗ Let's be lifters! ✗

✗ The mask has got to go | Carl Lentz ✗

• When you meet Jesus you have the right to meet Him face to face so the mask in your life has got to go
• Even though we met Jesus, there is a lot of people who still put up the mask
• You have the right to know real freedom
• The moment you get saved, you have the right to drop who you were and pick up who He is - Real freedom, real security, real transparency, real calling, real purpose, real passion
• How can we leave a church setting and hit the streets and tell people to be real if you can't be real in church
• God is going to create a type of church atmosphere, where you are going to come as you are, you can be you, mask off, face to face in the living God
• Genesis 3:8-10
• You can do away all the old labels
• If God ever ask you a question, it is not cause He doesn't know
• People are fearful of exposing who they're really are
• When you get scared, you put on the mask
• 2 Corinthians 3:18
• "When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed... And where the spirit of the Lord there is freedom..."
• God can't work with your mask 
• Are you going to let God minister to you or your mask because there is no mask ministry in heaven
• You get behavior modification but God is about soul transformation and it can only happen when the masks comes off
• Multi masking is soul texting - It is hard work to be somebody who you are not suppose to be
• The mask came in and the peace went out
• You might be tired, but God is going to get you through it
• It is just not fun being somebody who they are not called to be
• It is so good to be free
• You have to resist the urge to reach in and pull out the mask (Eg. Strength mask - You are not the rock, Jesus is the rock, Happy mask, Sex appeal mask)
• Only in the real Jesus can you find the real you and if they see the real you they see the real Jesus
• Let the mask go, and then we get to see God move in supernatural power
• The masks exist because it covers up the need
• We need Jesus - Our relationship is on need
• Don't pretend that it is anything but Jesus
• When the heat is on, the truth comes out
• Don't get caught in the fight and find out you are a fake
• You can fake Christianity for awhile
• We go to church out of the love of Jesus
• Better than it comes out now
• Find out right now what is in you because God gotta need the real you
• The issues that you face tonight is not even about you but is about somebody who needs you
• To hold on to that masks is the most selfish thing you can do
• You get over your issue, and maybe you can help somebody else get over their issue - This is Jesus following
• The heat is on, and it should always be on - Get use to the confrontation
• He does not put on the mask of compromise ever
• Mask 1: Unnecessary complexity for the freedom of supernatural simplicity
• Mask 2. Drop the mask of selfish solo (me), and feel the freedom (Jesus) of supernatural yofo 
• After Jesus, life is all about the give - It feels good when you live for others
• Mark 1:40-45
• Jesus did not want to get the message get caught in the miracle - He was still consumed with other people
• I only live once, how can I bless somebody?
• There is still more to come - As much as He's done in your life, have a feeling that there is more
• Enjoy God's blessing but don't forget the burden for the lost
• If you have a collection, you better have a really good reason for it, because if you can't take it to heaven, why are you treating it like you can?
• James 4:13-14
• The masks of selfishness can be painful to peel off, but the result is too good to pass up
• Our God owns the world, He is above it all
• The question is not if but how much and if you are going to handle it well
• We can't have extra, when people have nothing
• You got to get over it, and people would need what God has put in your end
• Before you can do anything about it, your spirit leaps towards selfishness and that is why we would need Jesus to break that cycle
• I pray that you get to heaven with empty pockets
• What if what somebody needs in Jesus, you have?
• What you have in your hand it is more powerful that you think it is
• But you also don't know what other people have on them
• There is so much more to come in your life, there is more in your hands, more opportunity, more ability to reach people than you think there is, so Jesus gave it all so you can give it away - People need Jesus now
• The only collection that you want are the names of people that you gave money to that you never met, and you giving towards dreams that you see flourish

✗ Hillsong Conf 2014: "Psalm 23, whether you like it or not" by Carl Lentz ✗

• A lot of leaders say they believe in Jesus for the next generation but not a lot of them do it
• If you came to leave different, Jesus Christ can change anybody
• Psalm 23:1-6
• The psalm is a great picture of emotion
• "The LORD is my shepherd, and I lack nothing"
• Prosperity is to know Jesus
• If you have Jesus, He is everything
• We don't camp in valleys -- We keep it moving in the valley, and walk through them
• There are better days to come for you to walk on through
• Whether you like it not, you are walking through the valley, God is your shepherd, He is still with you
• Even if you don't want to hear it, the truth is the truth
• Whether you like it or not, God is good, God is still for you
• It doesn't change the truth, the truth is still the truth
• This major truth in life is that we need a shepherd, and not do our own thing or be our own God
• Psalm 23 only matters if God is your shepherd
• If God is our shepherd, it makes us sheep in this equation
• Of all the animals He could have picked from, a hawk, a shark, or something awesome, but He picked sheep
• Sheep has nothing going for them, not great leaders, nor defend themselves, can't clean themselves, don't have a reverse magnetism
• Sheep desperately need a shepherd
• No matter how great, bad, or lost you might feel or great things might be, we need a shepherd
• You need to go back to the shepherd, go back to Jesus, go back to trusting the one thing that has never failed anybody, and He won't start with anybody right here
• The Psalm 23 Reality Check: If God is your shepherd, if Jesus Christ is everything to you, we no longer have to chase the right situation, identity from the world, or set up, we simply have to chase the shepherd everyday of our lives -- everything gets real simple
• John 10:14-15
• If I am your shepherd you should get to know My voice
• I am the only shepherd that would lay My own life for a sheep
• If you have been tempted to chase a situation, or been following Jesus and there is a temptation to chase anything but Him, you don't need to go anywhere else in your value, maybe you lost everything or get some identity back but chase Jesus cause He is the one that gave it to you in the first place
• Only Christians can have a shaky situation, but have a solid Saviour
• Things aren't great, but I am gonna chase the shepherd because there is more to come
• Sheep don't strive -- looks peaceful, not have any worry in the world, because it knows the shepherd
• If you feel tempted to strive, chase the Shepherd
• If you are feel like chasing a quicker fix, chase the shepherd
• The shepherd does what the shepherd does
• The story of a church has never been chasing a spotlight, it has always been chasing a shepherd
• Sometimes people don't know the journey but want what you have now
• Sometimes the Shepherd will lead you into the spotlight or into shadows which we don't have any control of anything but locking onto the shepherd
• Are you willing to follow the shepherd through the dark or shaky days
• We should be a Jesus honoring church
• Where are you at today?
• Rest your heart that the shepherd knows what He is doing
• We can rest easy and never strive a day in our lives because the Shepherd knows what the Shepherd does
• We have Christians comparing to others' highlight reels
• "My path is okay because I am following the Shepherd"
• There is security in the Shepherd
• People can say and do what they want to do, but we can stay secured in the Shepherd as He always remains steady
• The good shepherd will always do two things:



1. The good Shepherd always corrects



• Something to ponder, when you are tempted to wonder
• Hebrews 12:5-8 ("Do not lose heart when He disciplines you...")
• If you are not getting corrected, you are not legitimate 
• If you love Him, and knows He loves you, He is going to correct your life like a good Shepherd always will
• We got to change the way we look at correction
• They are a few that will remotely confront somebody
• When heaven can't correct you, let alone a pastor, situation or a good shepherd, it is not cute that God is trying to get through you but not to you because you do not allow Him to correct you
• When you feel His conviction, He is not being against you but for you
• If you don't know that correction is good, God is on your case and He is because He loves you
• If you realized maybe you have a purpose, that He loves you so much to accept, and loves you too much to leave you like this, let Him do what He wants to do 
• The same God that loves you will always correct that course
• Sometimes God will correct you by giving you your prayer request
• The Shepherd would not leave the lamb sitting there but picks it up with the broken leg
• God does not want to break something, but God is so good, that He can use a hardship, direct word, or your own sin to correct your course and keep you closer to the Shepherd
• What in your life might God be speaking to you?
• Maybe God is trying to correct you from the little, so He can save you from the big disaster
• Sometimes God tries to get your attention in the little
• I will never tell you what you can or cannot do, and never intentionally reject Your correction
• How many years have pasted that you rejected His correct?
• How many miracles have you walked by with a proud spirit?
• Fight over sensitivity leads to spiritual inactivity
• A lot of Christians are super sensitive which you cannot get through them
• God is searching the earth for humble people, as He exalts the humble up
• Jesus searched the earth to look for people to simply follow
• The influence and opportunity to reach people will be hindered and we need everyone here to be used by God and not stop the things of God because we are too proud
• Some of you are defending are yourself against the same heaven that loves you so much, that God sent you the one and only Son that you never get to know death but Jesus
• Would you allow the holy spirit to convict you?
• Would you allow the shepherd to correct you?


2. The good shepherd always protects



• Wherever you go, whatever you do, God's hand of protection will continue to cover you
• No matter what you do, no matter where you go, His hand of protection will be all over you
• The Shepherd will protect the sheep, cause the sheep does even know how to get protection from
• His protection is even better than you know it to be
• What if you know the King of heaven and earth was on your side?
• The wind of heaven is on your back
• He has gone before you and His protection is behind you
• You do not just hope that God is for you but know that God protects you
• You got to thank God for all those things that ended up being a bad deal or wanted to snap out  but He shut it, give Him some praise -- that is our God
• When you know how much God protects you, you are able to live with faith not fear
• You can worship like you got a Shepherd 
• You just lost your job, "I got a Shepherd", You're not doing well, "I got a Shepherd" -- There is power in that
• He's protecting you more than you know He is protecting you
• He's got your back more than you have given Him credit for
• But I do think you can rest a little bit easier knowing that God is protecting you from things you have not seen yet, or from forces you cannot fight on your own -- this is our God
• God has got more for you -- "My cup it overflows"
• It overflows with mercy and grace, we can sit in His presence day in and out, and He still is going to give grace and He still is going to give mercy
• You may know the psalm, but want to know the Shepherd
• It is not just good enough to just sing the songs, and know about the shepherd, you need Jesus, you got to know about His grace
• It is better than you think it is, you got to know about His love -- There is more than you think there is


• Church can't change anybody, only Jesus can
• Preachers can't change anybody but preach about Somebody which is Jesus who can makes anybody move
• He leaves a whole bunch of healthy sheep to look for the one that is wondering
• If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all, in your life
• Romans 10 ("The old has gone, the new is here")