How to Lay it All Down

Okay. So, after last week's message, I'm talking to Kerianne that night, Sunday night, and uh she was talking about how there are some things from her past that are still, you know, come come back to haunt a little bit. And and I said, "Well, then you haven't laid them down." And she's like, "Well, what do you mean lay them down?

It's not a physical thing. You lay down, right? What do you mean laying down?" I'm like, "Okay, that's this week's service."

So, that's what this sermon is on. It's called How to Lay It Down. And there's three things I'm going to share. Uh the first and and I'm going to use a prop and I hope this works well.

Um because there's all sorts of things that could go wrong with this. Um all right. And so um the first thing you got to do is you got to actually identify that there's a sin in your life. Okay?

And and and I I brought some rocks here to kind of to symbolize different sins. And [sighs] don't just think ten commandments type sins. Those sins are sins absolutely. But there's so many other sins we commit that we don't realize just how grievous those things are to God.

Okay. Um like the sin of unforgiveness. Okay. Unforgiveness can sit there in your in your soul and it and it can it can twist you.

I've got a a child that's got unforgiveness towards what his mother did. And and uh it it it it can change you. Okay. And and you got to forgive yourself, too, right?

And we got to lay these things down. All right. That went okay. All right.

Um what are some other sins? I was thinking selfishness, right? We can be so self-absorbed sometimes. We could be so focused on what we want in life and and and all these things instead of forgetting that Jesus came and died for us and we have to tell others about that great great love story, right?

So, we got to lay that one down. There could be This is fun. All right. What What What are some other sins?

Name one. Someone name one. Huh? >> Ego.

>> Pride. Pride. Ego. Yeah, pride is a big one.

Um, anyone who's in a position of leadership can fall to pride. Okay, much of these when you hear about these megaurch pastors that get busted, keep in mind small church pastors get busted, too. It's just not a big deal because they're not mega, right? But but what happens is the pastor can get caught up in, you know, what people people looking up to them and and it's any leadership role, right?

Pride is a big one and that needs to be laid down. Okay? [sighs] And the reason we have to identify these different sins guys is because sin separates us from God. All right?

Um Isaiah 59:2 says this, "But your iniquities, your sins have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. [snorts] The [clears throat] power source for us is Jesus working in us and through us, right? And if you don't lay these sins down, this sin can keep that Holy Spirit out of your presence." Okay?

So, so lust. All right. Someone who can look at uh and it's not just people who look at porn, although the statistics say 50% of Christians do, which is horrible. Okay, Karen.

Um, but it's just with your eyes looking too much at that one girl, you know? Oh, wow. Look at the way that dress comes down. You went too far.

Okay, you went too far. And it's not just women. I mean men. Women, too.

Okay. Um, they can be worse than guys, man. Legit. Okay.

Legit. You don't think so? You don't know women. Um, and so that has to be laid down.

Okay. These sins have to be laid down. Um and and and whatever sin that's prompting your your mind right now, there's everyone in here has something that they need to repent of right now. Every single one of us.

None of us are are running perfect, including preacher boy. All right. Um but what cleans you up? The blood of the lamb, right?

The blood of the lamb cleans us up. You can't do it. the blood of the lamb has to do it. All right?

And and it's the blood of the lamb that washes us white as snow. But there's a there's a problem is people aren't being taught repentance. They're being taught grace, but they're not being taught repentance. Okay?

And that's a big deal because yes, when you came to that cross and you laid your your your sins down and you asked Jesus to forgive you and you asked him to be Lord of your life and you rose up, yes, you were saved at that point. Okay? You were washed in the blood. Um, anyone ever take a really good You had a really big work day and you you and then you went took a really hot shower at night, right?

And you just feel so good and now you're clean, right? Was that the last shower you ever took? Probably. Come on, Todd.

[laughter] We got to have our Charlie Brown in the front the front row, right? Um, no. Why? Because you sin and that gets you dirty again, right?

You're not losing your salvation, but now that guilt and shame is there and the devil can can poke you and the devil can guilt you and the devil can can prompt you and you feel like you're not where you need to be in front of the Lord. All right? And [snorts] the way to fix that isn't by trying to be righteous or trying to be whatever. The way to fix that is through repentance, through laying it down once again.

Getting washed in the blood once again. It's really important to to repent and take another bath in the blood. Okay? There's seven churches in Revelation.

Five of them he's telling them to repent. Okay? two of them, one's uh a remnant church and one's a faithful church. They weren't told to do anything.

But the other five church churches, lukewarm churches, uh compromising churches, compromising people, we're all told to repent. Okay? We've got to clean ourselves back up. You don't have to get saved and rebaptized, but you need to bring that that judgment that's against you, that that sin that you did, that unforgiveness in your heart, that anger that you still have towards that person, and you need to lay it down.

Luke 9:23 says, "Take up your cross daily." It's a daily deal. He doesn't free you up to sin. He frees you up from your sin, but he doesn't then want us to go back and keep doing it.

But we're going to screw up. And when we do, repentance is the key. Sin limits you. It limits your joy.

It breaks your connection. It drains your power. It allows the devil to mess with you. And repentance cleans you up and restores your joy.

The end result of repentance is joy. It's not guilt or shame. It's joy. Wow, I am free again.

Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty. I am free at last.

So the Holy Spirit convicts you on a sin. Whenever it is, driving in the morning, wherever it is, when it convicts you on a sin, you got to go ahead and repent and lay it down. That's sanctification. That's cleaning ourselves up.

We're not cleaning ourselves up. We're taking it to God and we're letting God, Jesus, clean us up. Okay? That sin has no place in your life.

We must lay it down and we must repent. So step one is identify the sins that are in your life. Okay? Step two is to repent.

In my opinion, for me at least, I mean for me, I just get on my knees. If you're physically unable to get on your knees, then find a quiet place in your house, like a a prayer closet or something where you can go and it's just you doing business with the Lord. Okay? On a Sunday, this altar is where you can do business with the Lord.

All right? You can take it and lay it down right here and rise up and and and lead it, you know, in a new creation life. [clears throat] Becoming be coming before a holy and righteous judge. you got to lay it down.

So, possibly the greatest example of that is Psalm 51. Um, it was David who was someone that God called a man after his own heart. All right. What a powerful thing to be told that you're a man after God's own heart.

Wow. And and David was. And this psalm shows you why he was a man after God's own heart because he was humble. And so I'm going to read that for you and we're going to go through and talk about and then there's a third step that we'll hit right at the end.

So I'm reading now Psalm 51 verse1. Have mercy on me, oh God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, Lord. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.

Cleanse me from my sin. You can almost hear the desperation in his voice. He's broken by the fact that his sin is is is terri is is a terrible sin before the Lord. We think, "Oh, it's just a little sin."

No, there is no such thing as a little sin. Okay? To a holy and righteous God, all sin is sin. That little white lie is still a sin.

Just like adultery, okay? Just like lust, just like unforgiveness, they're all a sin. And and it should render our heart that that Jesus who we love so much, we're hurting him. We're hurting him when we when we harbor these sins in our lives.

We're we're hurting him. So verse three, for I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is always before me. That's what we just talked about identifying your sin.

And then this is one of the most powerful verses in the Bible. Verse six. 6 4 verse four against you and you only have I sinned. Now he's lamenting here over committing adultery and murdering the husband of the person that he committed adultery with.

Okay? And he was very convicted on it bec and and at the time because of pride because he was all that wrong. It was his birthright. It wasn't until Jonathan came to him and told him the story of a farmer who had just one little sheep and then another farmer who had tons of sheep and the farmer came over and stole that person's sheep and then killed that farmer.

And David was inflamed just how could someone do that? I would I would I would I would come and destroy that person. And and Jonathan goes, "It was you. It was you who did that."

And and he was just cut to the core. He was cut to the quick and he got down there. But even though he did those things to them, it was against God and God only that he sinned. Man, I know everyone in this place loves Jesus.

I just know it. I know you love him in your heart. When when we sin and we don't repent of it, we're nailing him to the cross all over again, man. And it and it it should it should rip our hearts out.

It should it should it should [clears throat] us. There are times I'm it I mean it should just make you cry. Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin.

Are you following me? Yeah. And in sin my mother conceived me. So we were born into the sin nature, right?

We know this. Behold, you desire truth in my inward parts, and in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom. Note here, the goal of God is our holiness. It's not our happiness.

It's our holiness. He wants us holy. We we cannot be concerned only about our happiness when God is clear that he cares about our holiness. Okay?

It should matter to us how we're living. Um verse seven and this is David's cry now. Purge me with hissup and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me hear joy and gladness. He's sad. He's he's distraught. He's I can't, you know, he feels horrible and and he wants to hear joy and gladness again.

Repenting will help him to hear joy and gladness again. Think that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit. People had the Holy Spirit, wasn't everybody. When we ask Jesus into our hearts now and we're born again, the Holy Spirit comes in. We've got the Holy Spirit in us.

And yet, he's lamenting that there's a separation now. Okay?

When Jesus was on the cross, him and for the first time he was separated from God the first time and he said my God my God why have you forsaken me all right there should be a constant connection with God but sin breaks that connection even for Christ on the cross he had to do it take it for us okay so David's seeing here there's a separation this closeness that he had with God is separated and he wants to restore that that that fellowship okay That's that's where we should all really want to be.

And he says, "Restore to me," verse 12, "the joy of my salvation." Like when I first got saved. Bring that joy back again, man. Bring that joy back.

Today, we can repent and we can come clean and we can be leaving out of here joyfilled, man. Joyfilled. All right. And from that, verse 13, oh no, I'm still on 12.

um restore to me the joy of my salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you. That we learned last week the great commission. That's the goal, right?

To reach people for Jesus and to teach. All right? And when we are full of joy because our sins are laid down and the connection is firm and we've got Jesus flowing through us freely, that's attractive to people. People are going to want to come and and and and they'll want to know this Jesus that that that gives you so much joy when you [clears throat] lay down.

The joy of the Lord fills your heart and it's attractive. Let's finish this up now. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, oh God, the God of my salvation. And my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

Oh Lord, open up my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise. For you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You can't do anything. You can't clean this up by yourself.

A lot of little do a lot of help, you know, go and help the church, do a lot of good churchy things. That's not going to still clean up the hurt inside. You got to lay it down. Okay?

Good works isn't going to fix this. Only Jesus. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. these he does not despise.

This should not be a one-time thing. All right? Today is a day, that's a time to get clean. [snorts] [sighs] This entire service really is geared towards that moment when we ask for reflection and we hope that this altar fills.

All right? I got to be honest. You guys can say, "Oh, Brian, that was a good message. That was a good message."

When no one repents on a given Sunday, I I just it it hurts my heart and I just feel like what am I doing, you know? And and God, oh, God's so good. He gave me a lot of encouragement this week. A lot of encouragement that you all have free will.

All right? You can choose to do business with the Lord here and clean up the situation and move out of here in joy. Or you can choose to sit still and do nothing. There's nothing I can do to change it.

All I can do is preach the word of God. We just read Psalm 51. A man after God's own heart weeping and lamenting his sin and laying it down and getting the joy [snorts] restored. Um, Matthew 5:48 says, "Therefore, you shall be perfect."

This is Jesus speaking. Now, "Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect." We say, "Well, that's impossible." Right?

But if the Holy Spirit's in you, is it? That's the standard. And maybe we fall short of this standard, but that's the standard. And when the standard isn't hit, we take it to the cross and lay it down.

That's being broken. And for me, uh, I like to be on my knees when I'm praying and laying it down. Um, I have a place every house I've had, there's always been a couch somewhere that ends up being my spot, you know, and, uh, that's and and I put a pillow down under my knees. This is a cushy floor, but you know, put a pillow so that I can stay there because sometimes I'll be there 30, 45 minutes, an hour.

All right. Laying things down, praying for you guys. Um, praying and and weeping a lot of times, and laying it down and you just you take that sin, whatever it was, uh, unforgiveness. All right?

And you and you and you take it and you can almost think, gosh, maybe it's maybe you're not forgiving yourself from something that happened years ago. and and you still have feelings about, man, if you repented of it years ago, it's gone. Why are you still bringing it back? Okay, maybe that's the thing you need to repent of.

And you lay it down and you and you talk to the Lord and you do business with the Lord. Sometimes I'll imagine like like like I see him there and and in bright white and and like flames are shooting out almost of of white hot like beams and and he's just healing that that deep hurt and or he's taking that sin and he's taking it and he's moving it as far away as from the east as from the west. Okay?

and and and you're laying it down and you just be still and it it it can it can I knew there was something going to happen. I knew it, man. I knew it. [laughter] Whacked my head, man.

That hurt. Um and so you lay it down. Psalm 23:3 says, "He restores my soul." All right.

When you lay it down crying, weeping and you leave it there, [sighs] you can feel him come in. You can feel him heal you. And you can feel him and you can move forward in joy. Now, okay.

Now you identify the sin, you lay it down, you repent, and then the third thing is you leave it there. You leave it there. You know what the dumbest thing in the world is? For me to come and say, "Oh, unforgiveness.

Yeah. Um, thanks for thanks for forgiving me of that, God. But, you know, I I want to carry this one a little longer. I want to I want to still stay mad at my my person a little longer, you know.

Um, pride. God, God, thank you for for healing this this pride issue I have. Um, gosh, I'm I'm sure glad I'm such a good Christian. I'm not like those other people, man.

You're carrying that that thing again. And what happens? You're carrying this heavy load because you just didn't leave it there. If you repented to something 30 years ago and it's still dragging you, something your father did, something that you did that that that hurt someone really bad and you still haven't forgiven yourself or you still haven't uh laid it down.

you still keep picking it up, you're not trusting God. If if if if God is holy and God says he will forgive you if you lay it down, then it's forgiven. And if you pick it back up, you're not trusting Jesus. You're you're thinking, "God, it can't be that easy.

I I have to still beat myself up a little bit longer." No, you don't. You don't anymore. It's laid down.

All right? is gone. You're just not trusting God. We should take it to the Lord.

You know what? If you're still struggling over that, something keeps coming up. You keep feeling guilty, you keep feeling like you can't just get past the past, okay? Lay it down again.

And if the next day you're still beating yourself on it, lay it down again. Keep doing it until you finally believe what Jesus has done the first time. You don't have to. He did it once.

But if you can't seem to get it through your fixed goal, do it again. Do it again. Do it again until you no longer beat yourself up over something God's forgotten all about. >> He's not beating you up on it.

He's forgotten all about it. But you got to lay it down and then rise up your new creation. All right. [clears throat] If you need to write down a scripture verse because what'll happen is something will come up and then and then you may have thoughts.

All right. The devil try tries to mess with you. Okay. How did Jesus deal with the devil?

Quoted scripture. So, write a scripture or two down. You know, um he who is in Christ is a new creation. Get behind me.

Satan. Okay. Um, there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Right?

If you're sitting there con feeling condemned, feeling judged, no, no, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We need to experience the joy of the Lord again. And it's only possible by laying that stuff down. Stop accepting a mediocre Christian experience.

All right. I I it grieves me that so many people are being taught that what God cares about is that you get what you want in life and and it's just not true. He just wants you holy. He wants to clean you up.

And it's so free. It's so full of joy. It's it's where you want to be. The altar is so beautiful.

And and if it's here, if it's in a place at home, you've got to have a place where you can go and lay it down. I mean, I've got to repent at least four to five times a week. Okay? And and I think I live a pretty clean life, but but there's a thought here.

This there it could be me still beating myself up over something that happened weeks ago or the thing this week of me feeling like it's a numbers that numbers matter. Yeah. No, only my actions matter, not not not the results. The results are the Lord.

I had to repent of trying to to to take God's pl not his place but but to put a number on whether I'm being successful as a Christian or not. Right? That's that's putting some sort of thing on God that doesn't need to be there. All right.

God is all powerful and he's responsible for the the all you're responsible for is waking up and living as close to Jesus as you can. And when you fall short, you lay it down. It's really a pretty easy gig. It's not hard, but we have to lay we that repentance piece has to happen.

If I'm not experiencing joy, if you're not having your prayers answered, if you're not experiencing joy, then there's sin in your life that's separating you. And you got to remove it. You got to remove it. All right?

The joy has to be there. That's a subfunction of a of a of a saved person is you should be in joy. And if you're not, you're letting the cares of the world come in. That's something to repent of.

That you're letting the cares of the world in. You get it? Like, like you should be repenting of that because Jesus said, "Do not worry." So if he you worry, guess what?

You're disobeying Jesus, which is a sin, which then you have to repent of. And then rise up and try to learn how to trust Jesus with everything in your life. If the joy of the Lord is not present in our life, we need to lay it down. Okay?

As the band comes up, we're going to do things a little differently this time. Where am I? Going to sing, we're not going to sing a song. We're going to play music.

And I want us to do business with the Lord. Okay? I want I would really want for the altar to be full of people that are have identified that sin and are going to lay it down and then they're going to leave it there and they're going to rise up for new creation. Okay?

and and and [clears throat] leave here full of joy because this thing that's been har bothering them, they're finally laying it down and leaving it there. That's my hope and that's my prayer that that if if you can if you're not physically able to come up, that's a different story. All right? Then just do it in your seat.

But but if you can come up, I just think you should be coming up weeping and laying it down. Um what sin is there? You guys should start playing. What sin is there?

What area is there? Okay. What thing is [music] it that you haven't laid down? Come on up and bring it down.

Come on up. Okay. There's something. There's something that's tearing in your heart.

I know there is. I just pray that you will come and have boldness and lay it down because that glorifies the Lord. and I can pray over you [music] and we can rejoice together in in what's happening in your life. Okay, it's time to do business with the Lord.

All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, Lord, I know there's people here that are struggling in a sin. I don't know what that sin is and it doesn't matter. Any sin's a sin and any sin separates us from you, Lord.

And Lord, I just pray that during this time of reflection that they come down, that they lay it down and that they [music] leave it there, Lord, and that they come and embrace your healing forgiveness. Let that blood wash over them, Jesus. Let [music] them let them rise up from here just fired up to [music] go out and reach and teach. Lord, you're coming soon.

You're coming so soon. It's time to get serious [music] about our relationship with you, Lord. We can't keep putting it off. We've got to get moving.

And Lord, I just pray this [music] day that you will move in the hearts of the people in this place. You'll move in power in this place. You will do a work that only you can do, Lord. I can't [music] do it.

They can't do it. But you can do it, Lord, in our hearts. Go deep in our hearts now, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen.