Touré Roberts - Rules of Engagement

God bless you. What you went through in 2017 brought you to a place of alignment. You had to cut off certain things and give up others. Once you had the faith to step into and embrace it, it was all about positioning. What if I told you that the hell you experienced in 2017 was structured in such a way that you could take the next step? Don’t play with sex; it isn’t cute. Sex isn’t fun when you’re bound to something that God is trying to free you from, but you’re struggling to let go. You’re trying to leave, but your heart is still attached, and I feel like God is saying this at the beginning of the year because maybe that’s the issue—perhaps it’s the last thing God wants to get in order: your perspective and understanding of sex. Every time you take two steps forward, your sex life pulls you five steps backward. I want you to be stronger than that. I want some people to reclaim their lives; I want you to regain your clarity, your strength, and your power. I think that God is sometimes more committed to what He has for us than we are. It’s so funny—on New Year’s Eve, the Lord released a word in His house about this being the year of becoming. 2017 was a year where you had to be placed, sometimes even painfully, into a position of alignment because things can’t grow in the way God wants unless everything is in the right place. I started the New Year’s Eve service with that message about this being the year of becoming. Then, as I prayed about what God would have me speak as the first actual message of the new year, it was about sex. Holler at me if you were here for that message, or if you saw it. If you didn’t, you need to go immediately to YouTube, download the One LA app, go to the podcast, and get this message in your life. It’s almost like you’re not even ready for destiny until you have this revelation about sex. It was on that level. Go and get it! I’m serious; I’m not playing. I was thinking, «God, why would you have me preach the first message of the new year about sex?» It was called «Sexual Wholeness,» and it was like it was because sex is one of the things. It’s not that my dream isn’t intact; it’s just that people have too many things keeping them from progressing, and sex is one of those things. You can get quiet if you want, but it’s true. If you don’t know how to handle sex, navigate sex, or understand sex, most people don’t even know what sex is. Almost like reproaching it, you’re like, «He normally doesn’t talk about that.» No, I encourage you to go and watch it because unlike any other time, I believe that God is so serious about you winning now—not like other times when you were this close. In this season, I feel like maybe it’s because the world is crazy right now, and He wants us to accelerate and grow into all that God has for us. My heart is not just to tell you what God has in store for you but to really give you tips, wisdom, and principles so that you can walk these things out daily and avoid the traps that will ultimately distract you. You don’t want to find yourself in April talking about how 2019 is going to be your year. So this week, I was moved to post some tips on Instagram, which I called «Rules of Wholeness for 2018.» It was five days long, from Monday through Friday, and I shared these tips on my Instagram—you’ll find me at Toure Roberts. T-O-U-R-E R-O-B-E-R-T-S; the same goes for Twitter and Facebook. Anyway, I posted these five things because I genuinely believe that as we step into this new year, we need some ground rules. To be honest with you, the familiar will be there saying, «You’ll be back.» Your past and the old version of you will creep in because they don’t have faith in your moving forward; they think, «By February twenty-seventh, you’ll be back.» But I don’t know about you; I’m not going back. It’s only forward from here. I’ll do whatever I must do; I’ll fight whatever devil I have to confront; I’ll even confront my own self if necessary, but I’m going to hold on to everything that God has for me. I want to give five tips—five thoughts—as we step into this new year and make plans to embrace all that God has for us. These five ideas, I believe, are going to help shape our walk and truly allow us to be, as the Bible says, like trees planted by the rivers of water. I want to start with Psalm 1, verses 1 through 3. This is why we went on New Year’s Eve; I believe this is your word for the year.