All right guys we are going to talk about why it is you feel so stuck why it feels like you cannot change

Because you can and I'm going to tell you how let's go this is made for this podcast podcast.

If there is one message I could give to the whole church, it is going to be what we are going to talk about today.

If there was one message, this is what I would say to them, to specifically to the Western church,

to the American church. This is what I would say is you don't actually really

believe in the supernatural power of God. That is the message I would give them.

Why? Because you know we have gotten very comfortable in our sin we have gotten very comfortable

with our struggles we name them we talk about them every day some of us we are comfortable in them so much so that we've stopped believing that God can heal us and

God can change us and I think we've gotten comfortable with our Christianity

to where he's a God that you attend church for, not a God that you risk your life for.

He's not a God that you give up things for, right? He's a God that is an addendum to our Christian safe lives. Therefore we don't depend on him, we don't need him every single day for life and breath and hope, we just kind of play along with the game of religion. And I would say, oh, this is scary because that's not what the Bible calls even being saved, right? It's surrender. It's lay down your life and follow me. Pick up your cross. Follow me. Pick up difficulty and let's go and and don't care what it costs because you are single-minded while you're on earth to to live as Christ, to die is gain.

Now, why don't we live this way?

Because for us, our rights and our Christian rights, our religious freedom, has largely been

protected and therefore we depend on that. We think that's actually what makes

us Christian. We think it's what's going to make our grandkids and our great-grandkids

Christian is if we can protect our religious rights but the story is actually

really different than that.

Persecution has always grown the church.

So when you look back at the history of the church,

I remember being in church history class and seminary

and learning this, that persecution always grows the church.

It grew it in acts, it grew it after Jesus, and it grew it in acts it grew it after Jesus and it grows it today

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