From Survival Mode to Kingdom Mode | Ephesians 4:28

Church, you know, we are. We are looking at days ahead. I said, a few years ago, when we were going through Covid, or just before we went through Covid, God just put it on my heart to say that there's going to be a shaking. And some people said to me, don't say that. Don't say there's going to be a shaking. But I said, no, I feel there's going to be a shaking. And then Covid came. And then after that, I didn't really share this much. I didn't know what to do with it. But I said to my wife, you know, I think something that comes next is war. And right now people are talking about war. We've got Christian leaders and people gifted in the prophetic that are saying, you know, I think something's coming. And that shouldn't put fear in our hearts, but that should make us think, you know what? Physical war is just a manifestation of what is happening in the spirit. Jesus said there'd be wars and there'd be rumors of war. But you know what? The church has been at war for 2,000 years. And sometimes we forget that we are at war. And we think that we are just coming to be blessed and entertained. And we forget we're in the war of the ages. And unlike any other war, we know. We know who wins. We know where the victory is. Hallelujah. Let's give a shout for Jesus, the victorious one. Praise you, Lord. Praise you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let's just stay standing for the word of God, shall we? I think that'd be a really good thing for us to do. Let's just stay standing for the word of God. We. We want to read today's verse. And just as I. As I turn to that in my Bible, let me ask you a question that we're going to look at and we're going to answer later. And it's this. Are you living in survival mode, Guys? Are you living in survival mode? Well, we got some answers on the way if you feel like you are living in survival mode. But let's just real quick, let's just read our scripture of the day and see what it says. We're in Ephesians 4, 28, and it says, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. God bless his word in Jesus name. Why don't you grab yourself a seat? Hallelujah. Clap for Jesus Hallelujah. You know, when I read a scripture like that, you think, well, let the. Let the thief no longer steal. And all around the room there are people saying, well, that's not me, and starting to tune out. But let me tell you, there's more to it than that. And that's why this morning's message is called, are you living in survival mode, or are you living in kingdom mode? Amen. Are you living in survival mode or are you living in kingdom modes? You know, I opened up my phone the other day and there was a notification there, and it said, there's an update available to download. You know that notification? I got that notification and I turned there. I thought, I'm not going to install it right now because I'm busy. I'll do it later. But, you know, that thing was automatically downloaded. That thing was there. I didn't have to download it. It was there waiting. All I had to do was click that button that says install and it would completely rewrite my phone and install the latest version of the operating system. There's nothing I had to do. It was just there sitting on my phone. And I think that speaks to what we've been talking about the last few weeks, when we've been talking about the book of Ephesians, chapter four, and we've been talking about what Paul has been saying about putting on the old, putting off the old, and putting on the new. That's what we've been talking about. And, you know, we've been reading all the way through this book of Ephesians how God has been downloading something onto our spiritual hard drive. We read at the beginning that he has given. Not that he will give, but that he has given. It's already downloaded. He has given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place. It says that he has not. He will. He has seated us with Christ in the heavenly places, and he rehearses all the promises and all the things that God has done to us. He has caused us to be gifted. He has caused us to be part of a family. He has done all of this. It's downloaded. But what Paul's saying here is he got a hit that install button. It's already there. You already have it. But you've got to hit that install button. He says, put off and put on. So all I had to do was press that install button so that I could put that new software, that new operating system on the phone. That's the same here. That's what we've been talking about. It's not something You've got to work up to, but it's something God has already done, and you've got to hit install and start walking according to that new operating system. Amen. Put off and put on. Now, as we read Our Scripture, Ephesians 4, 28, it said, Let the thief no longer steal. So just so we're clear who I'm talking to this morning, if you could put up your hand if you're a thief, just so that we can identify you. And also we can tell the security team they can just follow you around the building. But you know something about a thief. What is a thief? What is a thief? A thief is a survivalist. You see, in the first century, if there was a thief, you could be very poor. And I know places in the world where I've been where people are thieves not because they choose to be thieves, but because they are surviving. They're in survival mode. Mode. Amen. They are in survival mode. They're just getting through. And so you might not be a thief this morning, but it may well be that you are living in survival mode. And that's what we want to talk about this morning. You know, survival mode. You're just trying to get through. You're just trying to pay the bills. You're just trying to get that application through. You're just trying to put forward food on the table. You're just trying to fight the fires. So many of us are firefighting. I wonder if you feel that this morning that you're going through life firefighting. You know what? We were firefighting when we got in the building this morning. You know, we even had to pray about it. When I got in the building this morning, you know what happened? We got all this media stuff that we use on a Sunday morning. Right now we're going out live to our livestream audience because of that technology. And we've got the sound and we've got all sorts of stuff going on. Well, we got in this morning and suddenly we had a network failure and nothing could operate. So that's okay. We dealt with that. We fixed that. And then another problem came up. And that problem was entirely unrelated. It's part of the media, but it wasn't related to that problem. Another problem came up, so we fixed that problem. And then when we fixed all the problems, everyone got on stage and there was no sound. And we couldn't figure out why there no sound. We looked at all of the connections and then we found that a piece of software had been corrupted. You see, we were just fighting Fires. One fire came up, we fight it. Another fire came up and we fight it. That's firefighting. And sometimes our life seems to be like that. Maybe your life seems to be like that. Now you're just firefighting your way through life. You know, once something happens with your and you fight that fire and then you turn around and you look at your job and there's a fire started in your job. You know, maybe someone has accused you of something. So you put out that fire. And then just when you put out that fire, you look at your phone and there's a notification from the bank and you. There's another fire. And you try and put that fire out. And then many of us that are here in the room, this is not where you were born, and this is not where your family are. Well, suddenly now you look down and you get a message from home, that's another fire. And then just when you put that fire out, well, something else has to come up as well. You're going through life fighting the fires, dealing with the problems, dealing with everything that's coming at you in life. You're just surviving. You're just surviving. And you can hardly take a breath because you're just surviving. You are in survival mode. And we need to get out of that place where we're in survival mode and get to that place where we're in kingdom mode, where we're in Jesus mode. You know, Jacob was a man who lived in survival mode. Do you know that Jacob was in constant survival mode? In fact, God changed the operating system several times. You know, there before he crossed over to meet his brother, God gave him an operating system upgrade. And he went from being Jacob to being Israel. We upgraded. I get that on my, on my laptop sometimes, you know, we go. They give them different names. And so he went from Jacob operating system to the next level of operating system. That was Israel. Well, now he went through that. The problem was, we find out that after several hundred years of using that operating system called Israel, that there was some corruption in that software. And so they had to get Jesus in. And Jesus is all that Israel was supposed to be. And so now nowadays we don't have Israel mode. We have Jesus mode, not survival mode, but Jesus mode. But Jacob was in survival mode. Now, Jacob was a man who believed in God. Jacob was the child of promise, but he was in survival mode. And survival does something to you. Survival takes you into a net taker rather than a net giver. Survival mode turns you into someone who grasps Jacob was in survival Mode from the moment of his birth. He came out grasping, he came out holding on. And Paul today is talking all about what you and I do with our hands. And what we do with our hands will depend whether we are in survival mode or whether we are in kingdom mode. It will determine how we behave, how we act. Are we survival survivalists or are we kingdom people? Are we in survival mode? Well, Jacob was in survival mode. He was in survival mode all the way through. He believed in God, he even prayed to God. He called upon the name of God, but he was living in survival mode. Look at what he did. Look at how Jacob lived his life. How did Jacob live his life? Well, Jacob was a cunning man, wasn't he? Who here would want to do business with Jacob? Doing business with Jacob is dangerous. But Jacob is a believer. But Jacob is a believer in survival mode. And when you're in survival mode, you become a taker because you become. Look at what Jacob did. What did he do? He met his uncle and he began to work for his uncle. And what did he do? He's in survival mode. He says, if I'm going to survive, I need as many cattle and, you know, sheep and goats as I can get. I need as many as I can get because that is my security. And he did whatever he had to do to get there. He was in survival mode. Without God, all that is left is survival of the fittest. Now he believed in God, he knew about God, but he was in survival mode. And when you're in survival mode, you are putting God out of the picture. God is not in the picture. God is there somewhere. But when you're figuring out how to multiply and goats or sheep, God is not there. You turn to your own resources because you're just surviving, you're just getting through. And so you might not be a thief, but you're going to be someone who is grasping, someone who is self reliant. And look at this, look what Jacob did. Do you remember that story where he agreed with his uncle, all the sheep of one particular kind I'm gonna keep. All of the ones of another particular kind, you're gonna keep. And you remember it was the spotted and the speckled ones and so he got those sticks. Do you remember that story? Have you ever read that story and said, what's going on? Maybe you looked on Wikipedia or you went on Google or you Nowadays you ask ChatGPT or Claude and you said, what is this scientific? Does this work? You know, I'd like my child to have blonde hair. Maybe we can put some blonde sticks in there, or. No. It was well known. That was magic. Here is a believer in God, the God of Israel the Great. I am the only true God, high above every other God, and yet he's resorting to magic in the midst of all of his believing. Why? Because when you're in survival mode, you will do anything. Because when God is out of the picture, all that is left is that survival of the fittest. Sometimes people will say, you know, you'll say, why are you doing that, Brother, we're Christians. We don't do that. You know, you lie on a form or you do a little bit of, you know, twisting of the truth, or, you know, you take a few things. You know, you're somewhere and you. You see some pens and you just take. I don't know, whatever it is, it can be small, it can be big, but you're just doing whatever you're doing to survive. And so someone says, brother, we are Christians. We don't do that. We don't do that. Believers are honest. Believers are straightforward. Believers are transparent. We don't get into shady business deals. We don't lie on forms. We don't take. What is Caesar's belongs to Caesar's. We don't keep it for ourselves. We're believers, brother. Time and time again, people will say, you know what? God understands? God understands that I've got to do this to survive. What God understands, he does understand. But the question is, what is it that God understands? God understands that you're not in Jesus mode, you're in survival mode. He understood understands that. But he also understands that survival mode is not what he made you for. He didn't give you salvation, so you could just say thank you and continue on Jacob 1.0 and do what you had to do to survive. He gave you a whole new way of looking at life, a whole new way of living life. He was saying, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And yet we come and we keep striving in survival mode. And we say, well, God understands. Yes, God understands. God understands. What is wrong with you? I gave you something more than this. Tell your neighbor God has more. God has more for me than survival mode. Jacob was a man living in survival mode. And if you think we've forgotten about today's scripture, that's all about the thief. The thief comes to kill, to steal, and to destroy. And you think, well, that's not me. But let me tell you, when you're in survival mode, you may know the words to every song in church. You may be able to quote your Bible, but when you're in survival mode, you will become one who kills and steals and destroys, and you'll do it all in the name of the Lord, because you don't understand and you don't know yourself. That's why Jesus said to Peter, you don't know what, what spirit you're in. The spirit of survival mode. Let's call it that. You're in a spirit of survival mode. You are surviving. Hallelujah. You know, I'm always amazed. I've been in so many churches and I know that sometimes people just leave with stuff. People just leave with stuff. Don't tell me some of you don't know that. There's times in church where you're like, what happened to that? Yeah, one day we were in church and we said, where's the keyboard? Someone just thought, you know, that will be helpful. Survival mode will make you do those kinds of things. I heard we've been doing some training on church governance and I was hearing about a treasurer in a church. And you know what happened? He fell on hard times. So he said to himself, let me just borrow £500, let me just borrow £500 and when end months comes, I'll give it back. He wasn't planning on being a thief, but he was in survival mode. And so he was thinking to himself, what can I do? So he said, let me take 500 and when the month is over, I'll put 500 back, no harm done. The end of the month came, he's still in survival mode. Things are not working out. So he says, I'll tell you what, I can't put it back, but let me just take another one that'll get me through because I know next month things are going to improve. But by the time they found out that treasurer had taken over £100,000 from the church fund, and he was in so deep because of survival mode. I don't know whether he said, God understands, but survival mode took him somewhere. So Paul says, let the thief no longer. Somebody say, no longer. No longer. Let the thief no longer steal. And then he says, so that the switch is happening. We're going from the taking, we're going from survival mode, and we're going somewhere else. We're going somewhere that God always intended us to be. So that he says, he says, no longer, no longer be a thief. Put that aside, become something else. It's not just a shift in what you do. But it's a shift in your identity. It's a shift in identity. It's a shift in purpose. You're going from taking to giving. You're going from an extractor to being someone who contributes. You're going from being someone that drains everything out to someone who can pour everything in. He says, let the thief no longer steal, but let him become something else. Let him take on the new identity that you remember has already been preloaded. You've just got to put it on, you've just got a hit install. You've just got to start operating on that new principle. He says, no longer a change in identity, a change in purpose, a change from taking to giving. It says in 2:10 of Ephesians, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared what beforehand that we might walk in them. Prepared beforehand that we might walk in them. It's been downloaded. It's who you are. You're no longer on Jacob 1.0. You're no longer on Israel 2.0. You're on Jesus inside. You know, all the time that app, that update was on my phone. It was on my phone. It was there, but so was the old one. And the old one was the one that was operating. He was in survival mode. The thief is in survival mode. Many of us are in survival mode. But now things are changing. We're getting to that. No longer we're getting to that. So that. And sometimes we misunderstand this. And I just want to talk to you a minute about prosperity and sufficiency. Can I talk to you about that? Prosperity and sufficiency? You know, we often hear about prosperity and I want to tell you that there is such a thing as biblical prosperity. Biblical prosperity has nothing to do with what you have and everything to do with what you do. We get it mixed up. We think prosperity is about what we have. But look at your Bibles. Prosperity is about what we do. When Jacob stood at the border of Canaan and God said, I will prosper you, what was it about? It was about what Jacob and Israel were going to do. He said, I have a mission for you. I have a purpose for you. You're going in and I'm going to prosper you. What was prosperity? Prosperity was having a mission and a purpose from God and it will prosper, it will succeed, it will break through. That's Jacob. What about Joseph? Joseph was the same in Genesis 39:3, God says, I will prosper you. Joseph prospers in everything that he does. That he does the same with Abraham. He prospered in what he did. You know 3 John 2. How many people know 3 John 2? It's one of the only verses anyone remembers in 3 John. I pray that you may and be in Hallelujah. Now quote me some other verses from 3 John. No one remembers Hallelujah. The word there for prosperity is to have good road. It's a Greek word that means to have good road. So in Colchester, there's no prosperity, only potholes. To have good road, that's about a journey, that's about where you're going, that's about what you're doing. Biblical progress. Prosperity is about what you have been called to. And God has called you to something. And when you walk in what he has called you to do, he's going to empower it. He's going to give it what is needed. He's going to resource that thing so that you can do what you've been called to do. That is biblical prosperity. But then there's something called sufficiency. Paul talks about sufficiency. Paul said, I have learned. He's writing to the Corinthians. Where is it? In 2 Corinthians 9, 6, 8, he says to the Corinthians that I have learned to be content in every situation. I have been satisfied. I have learned to be satisfied. I've learned to have contentment in every situation. Whether I am with my brothers eating fufu or ugali, or whether I am with my other friends eating cucumber sandwiches, I have learned to be content. And then he talks to them about having all sufficiency in all things. You see, the prosperity that you hear about, not the one I just talked about, but the prosperity that you hear about is a survival mode mindset. But sufficiency is a kingdom mode mindset. What do I mean? When you are in a survival mode, what happens? You gather. You gather, you grasp, you hold on, you hoard, you. You give 10% only so that you get a hundred percent, right? You're. You're gathering, you're hoarding, you're buying your private jets, you're filling your bank account, you're buying your cars, you're buying your houses. Now, no one says you can't, right? Don't go away and say, pastor said I'm a sinner because I have a nice car, right? But it's. Listen to the mentality. It's a gathering mentality. Why does anyone want to be a billionaire? Why? You can't spend it, but as long as You're a billionaire. You don't need to look up. You don't need to look up. You're in survival mode. I need to gather, I need to hoard. I need to pile it all up. I need to store away in barns because who knows what is coming tomorrow? That is a mentality of survival, not a mentality of the kingdom. But sufficiency says, I know a God who will meet me at every turn and in every situation. Sufficiency says, whatever God has called me to do, wherever God has called me to be, I will meet with provision. I can tell you we've tested this. We were missionaries for many years, and in that situation, we had to say, my God is sufficient to meet me in every situation with what it is that I need for that situation. That's a kingdom mentality that says, I don't need a barn to keep it all in because God's got it in his storehouse. And wherever I am, whatever I need for what I'm called to, he is sufficient. He is sufficient. We are no longer survivors. We are no longer survivors because we have come into the economy of God and we don't need to lie, we don't need to steal, we don't need to cheat. We don't need to listen to that brother or that sister that's telling us to join this scheme where you, I don't know, you pretend to do something that you're just lying on an application or you're just supporting someone that you don't even know them. And you're. You're saying that. Oh, you're validating them. What's the word I'm looking for? You're endorsing them because you know that you don't have to do all of these tricky things. You don't have to join the pyramid scheme. Why do we fall for that every time? Survival. Survival. You drink the glass of water, you don't even ask what's in it. You'll deal with the parasites later. You're thirsty right now. You're in survival mode. But now God wants us to move out of that survival mode to no longer be survivalists and become kingdom people who are walking with the Lord. And you can't shake us, you can't rock our integrity, you can't turn us into thieves because we know we've got a God who provides for us. You know, sometimes I've been on mission with people who think they're better than the people we're going to. I don't know if you know this this. Hallelujah. Anyone from. I mean, almost all of us, right? Not from the uk. Ever been in a situation where you've had a visit from a missionary team and they've just come to teach you? No. They've just come. They've just come to. They've just come to save you. Those lovely people, they come all this way to tell you how you're supposed to. To live. And there's that kind of savior complex. There's that kind of, I'm gonna. I'm gonna teach you this, I'm gonna teach you that. And so sometimes we would go with people and they would challenge. You know, these people, they are doing all sorts of funny things. You know, they're. They're even stealing, they're even lying. And. And I used to say to them, you know what? If. If I could. Because we were working in Kenya, I to. Used. Used to say, if I could drop you in the northernmost part of Kenya with no clothes and no luggages and no wallet and no credit card and no whatever, how long do you think it would be before you steal a loaf of bread? And you know what they'd say? Those high and mighty holy people? They'd say, God understands. That's what they'd say, right? They'd say, God understands. I had no choice. I would have died. Right? But God wants us to no longer be survivalists. He wants us to be people that know what it is to trust in him. Because your faith is never tested when you're succeeding. Your faith is. Is tested when everything is failing. And your faith is not proven by you doing some dodgy deal in order to make the money and saying, hallelujah, God has done it. No, the devil did it. And you entered into a partnership with the devil, and now you're giving God the credit. But he wants us to be people that in every situation, someone can look and say, that brother kept his integrity. And in his integrity, something happened. I don't understand. God broke through. God did it. And so when we read this passage and it says, let the thief no longer steal, it's not just, stop stealing. He's not just saying, stop stealing. He's not just saying, stop surviving. He's saying, have you not read from chapter one, The God who has given you all of the power and the resources and the authority that you need to live a life of integrity because God's got your back. And not only has God got your back, but God has given you an advance, a deposit of the Holy Spirit that you might walk with him in integrity and know that in all things at all times, I have the sufficiency of God. I don't need to lie because I have the sufficiency of God. So that. And that's the good news. God's got you. And when God has got you, things change. Your purpose changes. You're not just working to survive anymore. I don't know how many of you are in a job. If we were to ask you, why are you doing that job? Money. I'm just thinking of that TikTok video. I don't know if you've seen it. Guy goes for an interview and they're telling him, why do you want this job? He says, money. What is your vision for the next five years in this job? Money. You're just working to survive. You're just working for money. But you see, when you know you have the sufficiency of heaven, the job is irrelevant to that. Heaven's supply is there. So why am I working? I am working that God will work through my labor, that I might be a resource to others. Let the thief no longer steal, but let him labor with his hands. Let him labor with his hands so that he might have something to give him who has need. Hallelujah. Suddenly now there's a new purpose because you become a new person. You already have the resources, you already have the authority. You already have the backing of God. So why are you working? You're laboring with your hands that you might be a blessing, that you might be a giver. And I'm not just talking about giving to that one that tells you God has said you give 777 pounds. I'm talking about giving into the kingdom, giving into the lives of your brothers and your sisters so that they might have sufficiency. Because you know what? When God begins to provide, most of the time he's going to use somebody to do it. When you're in your hour of need, he's going to use somebody to do it. How many people here you've had an hour of need, and a brother or a sister in Christ has come and held up your hands. Let me see. You've been in an hour of need. A brother and sister in Christ or sister in Christ has come along you. That's what I'm talking about. They discovered that God had called them not just to be surviving, but to be laboring with their hands in the power of the Holy Spirit. And you can labor with your hands in God's power at anything. You can be cleaning the toilet in the power of the Holy Spirit. It has no purpose on its own. It's a misery on its own. But now, suddenly they discovered that what they were doing in their strength, in the strength that God provides, what they were doing was that they were laboring with their hands, that they might be a blessing, that they might be able to help their brother or their sister. And you receive that because of that reality, because of that calling on their life. And right now, you know, God is wanting believers who know what it is to labor with their hands. With that attitude, you're saying, well, you know, you don't know my financial situation. I do. Paul had that financial situation. Paul was in that situation where he said, I have sufficiency in all things. That was when he was low. He just had some brothers and sisters help him. He said, I'm so grateful, but I didn't need it, but thank you, because I have all sufficiency. Even if you had not done it, I had all sufficiency. He understood that. And therefore Paul was free. But as long as you think that your paycheck is the bottom line of your economy, you'll be in survival mode. You'll be in survival mode. We went all through Covid as a church, other church groups, and not a criticism of other church groups, but just things people were saying to me, oh, you know, the money, the finances have been down and everything. And we just knew that we're going to be in trouble here because the church is not meeting, we're not taking collections. How are we going to pay the bills? How are we going to pay the salaries? How are we going to do that? And yet we went all the way through that because I our sufficiency is in the Lord. And you see, once you realize that your sufficiency is in God, and you've gone from being a survivor to being a kingdom person, walking with the Lord and saying, lord, what do you want me to do? That's really important, by the way, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, not by our presumption, but by saying, God, where do you need me to be? Because you might think the need over here is great. So I need to be there. Because what kind of Christian would I be if I'm not there? But you see, God's got a lot of people, and God might tell you, be over here. That's why when you look at the evangelist Philip, you remember the evangelist Philip, he had a good thing going on. He had a good thing going on. Was it Macedonia? He had a good thing going on. There was a lot of need. There was a lot of people who needed praying for. There was a lot of people who needed ministry. And God said to him, go to the desert. And he might have said, God, but this person needs me here. This person needs me here. This person needs me here. God was like, no, I've got that covered. I've got that covered. You're not me. I've got this brother here, this sister here. I have the body of Christ, and I know where I'm going to assign the resources, and I'm assigning you there. And so he stood there in the desert wondering what was going on. Why am I standing in the middle of a desert when I'm an evangelist, right? You know, take me to the city, give me a crusade platform, Give me a PA system, because, you know, they had those, right? So take me there, but you've got me. And then suddenly, chariot. God said, attach yourself to that chariot. And he thought, well, obviously there's no one else here, right? So he attached himself there. And you see that one man strategically became the birth of the Ethiopian church. Isn't that amazing? So you think when you help a hundred people, you're doing God's work. And maybe you are if God's called you there. But sometimes God wants you to help one person, and that one person is where the fruit comes from. Where was I? You're a channel for blessing. You're a channel for blessing. Your work is not about surviving. God's got you covered. God's got your back. He's given you the resources. You have all sufficiency in all things. And so he says, let the thief. Or let me paraphrase it for our sermon today. Let the survivalist no longer survive. Hallelujah. But let him. Let him labor for other things. Let him labor that he might be a blessing. Let him labor that he might meet the needs of others. Because God's got you. God's got you. Why are you just surviving? This means that on Monday morning, church on Monday morning. Everything changes on Monday morning. Tomorrow, if you've got this message tomorrow, everything in your life is different. You realize that you don't have to do things the way you were doing them before. You don't have to say things the way you were saying them before. You don't have to twist the truth. You don't have to skim something off the top. You don't have to turn up and do the minimum. Because, you know, some of us have been doing the minimum, right? This guy, this. This Boss, I'm just going to do the minimum, right? I know you've never done that, but maybe I have in my younger days. I'm just going to do the minimum that I have to do to survive, and that's it. But now, you know, tomorrow you're going in with a divine purpose that through your labor, your boss might learn what God is like. That through your labor, God might look down and say, you know what? It's time for you to level up. Because I see that you are laboring for a higher purpose, that through your labor, you might find a brother or a sister in need and begin to help them. You know one of my least favorite phrases? You want to know what it is? What is the church? No, it starts with pastor. Pastor, what is the church doing about. Fill in the blank. The people that are struggling. What is the church doing about the people on low income? What is the church doing about the people that are. That are sick? What is the church doing about the people that are lonely? And so my answer would be, you are the church. So what is the church doing about it? But then when you realize you have this calling that you are called to this Monday changes, tomorrow changes. Your whole attitude changes. You realize, I'm cold. I'm not just surviving. Because I think that's part of the problem, is that maybe some of us have been walking along with this heavy yoke on our back and we've been saying, I'm just surviving. Oh, God, help me to survive. And we've taken on the identity of a survivor. Listen, church, you're not a survivor. You're a man or a woman of God. You're a person with a calling. You have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You have been seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. You are someone who is anointed, someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit. You are someone that God has called to make a difference in Colchester. You are someone who is. Who's called to make a difference in your family. You're someone that God has called to make a difference in the life of someone who's struggling. And listen, you can do that. Look around you. There's someone in this room that is struggling. I tell you, find out their address. Get yourself a brown envelope. Put the money in the envelope. Don't write your name on the envelope. Don't tell them anything. Go to their house, open the letterbox, put it in and walk away. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing and say to God, you see, I'M getting it. This is why I work. This is why I'm doing that job. That's why I'm working for that horrible boss. Because I am called to be a blessing. I am called to be someone that God uses. Hallelujah. And when your boss shouts at you, when your boss treats you badly, you just go ahead and you say, I'm going to give this guy the best day's work he's ever seen. Because by doing that, I'm pouring coals on his head. What's your Monday going to look like? Church. How many hours away have we got until Monday? Not many. How are you going to enter Monday? Are you going to be a survivor or are you going to be a kingdom person with a smile on your face and an empty wallet because you just really got it? Hallelujah. You know, the Bible says that God loves a hilarious giver, right? Hallelujah. You know, some people are givers that you think they're out of their mind. They're just. They're just laughing. You know, some people laugh all the way to the bank. A scammer laughs all the way to the bank. But you're laughing in the other direction. You're. You're. You're laughing all the way out of the bank. You're saying, oh, if the devil could just see the damage I'm gonna do today. If you go into work tomorrow and. And you know it. Maybe it's a miserable job, but you say, if the devil knew the damage that I'm going to do to his kingdom today, I'm going to be a hilarious worker. I'm going to do the worst jobs. But there's something inside of me that is driving me on because I'm a kingdom person and I have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places I seated with Christ, I have the authority, and I'm no longer a survivor. I've moved from being a survivor to being a giver. I've moved from being someone who's struggling to someone who's living in victory. Hallelujah. If you're going to cast that off this morning, I want to ask the band to start coming because we're going to pray and we're going to shake off some of that survivalist spirit. Because some of us, I tell you, we've been walking under a heavy yoke of survival. You feel like you're just making it through. You say, you know, other Christians are thriving, other Christians are happy, other Christians seem to have a purpose. Hallelujah. But praise God, you see the weight that was on that man right there. Thank you, Jesus. Lift it off. Lift it off in Jesus. Jesus name. Some of us, we have a heavy yoke on us. I. I don't want anyone. Anyone. So if you want to get rid of that yoke, let's stand up and let's start praying. Let's start getting that yoke off in the name of Jesus. If you're watching online and you've got a heavy yoke on your shoulders, I want to tell you this morning we're going to pray with you as well. And let's come to Jesus, because Jesus said, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's his promise. That's not just something he said I might do. That's something he said I will do. If you come to him with your yoke and you say, I want to be yoked to you. I don't want to be yoked to the spirit of survival anymore. Let's just declare that before the Lord. Let's say it together. I am not a survivor. I am a Kingdom person. I have divine blessing. I have divine authority. I am seated in heaven. I'm not looking up. I'm looking down on my problems because God has lifted me up. I am victorious. And tomorrow I'm going to go and put the devil to shame, living for the glory of God. Hallelujah. Let's clap for Jesus. Amen. Amen. Praise and worship, team. Let's give him some glory.