Don’t poo poo on your Anointing

Character Matters!

Romans 11:25–36 “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

Paul is eloquently stating that Israel as it seems is not in the site of God as he is writing this. But Paul makes sure to state that God’s gifts and callings are irrevocable. This means that even though Israel was the branch that was cut of it is not forever because God’s call on their lives will be full filled. He would not take back what He has declared for them, and thank God He is that way. Because that means that we can stand in confidence that what God has declared for us will come to pass as well.

Last week we spoke about the anointing. We would label this as part two of the sermon. Because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

The phrase "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance". Biblically, this actually means God does not change His mind or revoke His gifts once given, but the practical idea that "there is no anointing without repentance" speaks to how power and character walk together in spiritual growth.

While a gift can remain present even in a flawed life, true spiritual authority, moral weight, and deep fellowship with God require a humble, repentant heart. This is where character comes in. You see you can be the most anointed person around but if your character does not align with it you will not be able to carry it.

I have seen many times when the anointing was great in someone’s life but because they never allowed God to cultivated their character their anointing never got off the ground, or it crashed and burned the moments it was brought into the light.

Character functions as the container of God’s anointing, and God places His anointing upon people of character.

Character is fundamentally “the ability to endure pressure,” and this capacity develops through testing. God allows His children to experience pressure so their weak areas can be exposed, enabling them to bring those vulnerabilities to Him in prayer for His strength to be perfected in their weaknesses.

2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Without this foundational work, any anointing would rest on an unstable base.

The connection runs deeper than mere qualification. When God’s Kingdom manifests through upright behavior and character, and God honors that life by pouring His anointing upon it, the combination of character and anointing produces an explosion of God’s power. The anointing itself is divine enablement—God’s efforts superimposed upon ours, enabling us to accomplish more than is humanly possible.

This principle extends to leadership. In the Old Testament, most leaders failed not because of incompetence but because of weak character, and those who cease growing in their knowledge and relationship with God are insufficiently committed to receive God’s trust and anointing. Character is about who we are and how we behave in private—when no one else is watching.

Catch This:

If we practice good character in private, we’ll avoid embarrassment in public.

The power of God’s anointing without character becomes destructive rather than redemptive, which is why Scripture consistently emphasizes that authentic spiritual authority flows from a life of integrity, faithfulness, and genuine devotion to God.

When we try to operate in the anointing without the right character we put the souls of others at risk. We have seen over and over again people who heal others and speak powerfully because of the anointing on their lives but when you look under the hood at their lives they are train recks.

Listen God knows that we need help in this area. Because the world’s definition of character is different than Gods. The world over looks things that God places high on his list. So God is always looking to bring us deeper in character so that we can hold the anointing. Like I said earlier the anointing needs something to hold it. If you do not have the right container to hold your anointing it will ooze out like if you tried to hold water in a wicker basket. The proper container for the anointing is character. Character is able to hold the anointing and character becomes the foundation of which the anointing sits on. This is why God is continually refining our character. He does this by testing us in our most venerable places. This is how He grows us and it is amazing that God thinks of us like this. This is why Paul the writer of Romans says who can search the mind of God.

This is why it is not wise to put people in leadership to soon. Because they can get puffed up and if their character can’t hold the anointing it can cause big problems in the body. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Because character is refined in our ability to repent of our sins. If I can be honest and transparent with you all this was an area where I failed in the past. I have always had a great anointing on my life. But my character had been warped by the world. I had an idea of if you hurt me I will hurt you worse. If you lie to me I will lie to you. If you got angry with me no problem I would beat you mad. You see these are the things that the world says you can do and still be a person of character. The world says hey if I don’t steal or hurt anyone and if i pay my taxes and do what is right i am an honorable person. This was me in a nut shell. I would not steal from you or do my best not to hurt you, but if you crossed me all bets were off. I had no capacity to forgive and show mercy. So God had to do some work on me. Some big work and hard work and my heart had to go through a crucible of change. Before God got a hold of me I was wise in my own sight.

Paul said that God sees us all as disobedient no one is good or right. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. This is why to me He is worthy of my praise, because even though I have fallen short He still sees fit to work with me and in me. I am a beautiful work in progress and so are you. Look at your neighbor and say you’re a beautiful work in progress. If we allow God to do the work in us that He wants to do He will correct our Character and send the anointing. Is there anyone in here who wants to truly see the power of God in their lives?

Romans 5:3–5 “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

This is how God works in us. We go through hard times which means we go through some suffering, but that produces perseverance and that produces character. How beautiful is that because through character we get hope. This is when you can count on the anointing coming in power.

I know that I have started this sermon off by talking about character. But the true refiner of character is repentance. So really this sermon is about repentance. Paul said that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Meaning no repentance means no character, which means no true power in our anointing. This is a subject that not many pastors talk about because it is unpopular. It does not tickle your ears, but I am not trying to be popular to you. I am trying to get you into Heaven. If that means that sometimes I am unpopular than I’ll be that. Your soul is way more important to me than what you think of me. Can we talk about how character and repentance work hand and hand this afternoon. I know there were many of you last week who felt like you do not have any anointing in your life. Can I help you today so when the anointing comes you will be able to handle it and stand firm and honor God.

Listen Don’t poo poo on your anointing!

If character is developed through repentance than repentance matters. Can we talk about why repentance matters? Can we talk about how it is Character Protection? Can we talk about how repentance brings a closeness to God? Finally can we talk about how repentance brings Honesty and Growth?

Why Repentance Matters

Character Protection: 

For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.

Gifts can operate through talent, but character sustains the person carrying the load.

I bet you never thought that repentance protects character.

Repentance functions as character protection because it prevents the hardening and deterioration of the soul that occurs when sin goes unconfessed and unaddressed.

When unconfessed sin is allowed to fester, it hardens and desensitizes the soul, making the heart progressively harder and more resistant to God’s work. Repentance interrupts this destructive cycle by creating a pattern of immediate acknowledgment and turning from wrongdoing. True repentance transforms a person’s fundamental character and being—not just surface behavior—as repentant people leave their sins behind and radically change their hearts, attitudes, and actions.

The protective dimension becomes clearer when we understand repentance as an ongoing practice rather than a one-time event. Repentance is a daily way of life for faithful saints, persisting and developing in tune with God’s moral law—the grace of a lifetime like faith itself—and involves keeping short accounts with God and those you’ve wronged. This constant vigilance guards against the moral compromise that weakens character over time.

Additionally, when repentance moves us from self-protection to obedient trust, God moves in changing power, healing our waywardness so our compulsive desire to sin no longer masters us. Without this active turning from sin, believers drift toward patterns of rationalization and self-deception that gradually corrupt integrity. Grace disciplines believers to deny both sinful deeds and sinful desires, and any notion of grace that fails to turn sinners away from evil is not the grace of God.

In essence, repentance protects character by preventing the spiritual hardening that accompanies unaddressed sin, maintaining the alignment between your inner convictions and outer actions that authentic character requires.

lets talk about the difference between character and integrity. Character is the root system, while integrity is the fruit it produces. You cannot have genuine integrity without underlying character, because integrity requires a stable, virtuous dispositions to draw from. If someone’s moral compass is broken, no amount of organizational effort can compensate for that. Conversely, character without integrity is merely potential—it must be expressed through consistent, honest action to have any real meaning in the world. So these two walk hand and hand as God is developing our character He is also bringing us into the place of integrity. The way that Go does this is through our repentance we develop character and then integrity, then when the anointing comes we can contain it.

I have found that when I repent of my sins it causes me to do two things. The first thing is it makes me more aware of the things I can do to offend God. Secondly it makes me want to be more honest with God.

Look at your neigh or and say don’t poo poo on your anointing.

2. Closeness to God: 

For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.

Unconfessed sin creates a barrier in your walk, dampening the purity of spiritual service.

I like connections of things it helps me to get a better understanding. So repentance brings us close to God. If I can make a connection as repentance brings us closer to God, because repentance purifies our hearts. So here it is repentance purifies our hearts, thus allowing God to develop character in us, thus us walking in integrity as the anointing flows over us. God wants to give His power to this person.

As we draw nearer to God, His holiness becomes increasingly visible, exposing the darkness of our disobedience. This awareness of sin is precisely what makes repentance possible and necessary. Listen before Jesus came there was a barrier between us and God. One that we could not get passed or get over. Jesus came and took away the barrier and gave us access to God. The problem that we now face is that we keep putting our own barriers up between us and God by continuing to sin. Now let’s not get this wrong we are prone to sin. We will sin up until the day we stand face to face with Jesus. But that sin does not have to be a barrier between us and God. Because of Jesus now first He took away the original barrier that we could not move and because of that it doomed us to be apart from God for ever. But that has now been taken away but like I said we continue to put the barrier back up because of our sin. But the barrier we put is not like the original barrier because now all we have to do is repent and we are forgiven. Not only are we forgiven but God draws close to us. I am not sure about you but I know that when God is close to me the power of God is made manifest in my life. I am not perfect and to be honest I have stopped trying to be perfect. I know that my God is perfect and He has made me perfect in his eyes. When I go to Him with a true heart moved repentance He comes close to me. Man, that is different because what we are use to is people who do not forgive. They hang our wrongs over our heads. They remind us of our wrongs every chance they can. But this is not the God we serve. Instead He pulls closer to us and scripture says this.

Psalm 103:12 “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”

Jesus does not hold your sins over your head. He throws them far away and when our sins are far away from us He then draws close to us. This may sound strange to you but some of most intimate times with Jesus is when I am in the process of repentance.

Family when we harbor feeling and thoughts that are not pleasing to God in our hearts it causes a separation from God. Now I understand how someone can cast out demons, heal people in the name of Jesus, but when they stand before Him He will say I never knew you. Now I understand this, because we can’t get close to Jesus if we are not repentant of our sins. If we can’t get close to Him because of sin then we can never really get to know Him. Check this out like I said before some people have a great anointing they are healing and casting out demons because of their anointing. But because of what is in their hearts they cannot be close to Jesus thus never really knowing Him. Repentance brings us close to God!

This point could have been a sermon in itself. I don’t want us to miss the importance of repentance and why without it we end up poo poo on our anointing.

Tell your neighbor stop poo pooing on your anointing!

3. Honesty and Growth: 

For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.

Regular repentance keeps a leader humble and dependent on God rather than pride.

Repentance brings us closer to honesty and growth by establishing a lifelong pattern of truthfulness that prevents the self-deception and stagnation that accompany hidden sin.

A life oriented toward honesty and integrity is fundamentally a life-long orientation toward confession and repentance. Repentance involves the healthy acceptance of responsibility and accountability to others, embracing community, and taking personal steps to maintain relationships based on honesty and integrity. This means repentance is not about shame or self-diminishment—it requires a higher valuing of oneself by becoming radically honest before God, and involves honoring and clarifying one’s personal identity through candid self-confrontation.

The growth dimension emerges through accountability. When we hide sin, we begin to draw away from God, making it difficult to spend time with Him and pray, leaving us plagued by guilt and doubt until our spiritual growth is severely damaged. By contrast, repentance leads to forgiveness, cleansing, and relationship—when we confess our sin, we experience God’s grace and renewal, continuing our journey with God with new understanding and strengthened faith.

Growth requires honest self-awareness, which repentance cultivates. Repentance involves moving from one sort of person to another—the liar becomes truthful, the thief honest, the lewd pure, the proud humble, with the whole moral texture of life altered. This transformation happens through surrounding ourselves with people we respect who will listen to us, giving them freedom to ask about our areas of weakness and struggle, since their role is crucial if we are to mature.

Can I share something with you all that the Lord gave me last week as I was in worship. I think it has a lot to do with this point and with character. It is about honesty and growth. Because truth is we are not honest with ourselves at times. When I was worshiping the Lord gave me what I am about to say. If it convicts let it if it doesn’t then good. But this is something I have been seeing and feeling for a while.

There is a spirit that is going around the country and it is catchy.  It is a spirit of flakiness meaning people have caught a spirit to think that they have done enough and so they can come and go as they feel before the Lord.  The slightest event or thing can come up and we will put off the Lord and go do it.  We even make it seem like it is God saying it is ok.  This tells me that God is not the most important thing in your life.  Listen commitment is the most important thing that God wants from us.  We have gotten to the point that even things we believe we are doing for the Lord are tarnished because of our lack of commitment to God.  Really our flakiness is a disguise for self importance.  We don’t keep our commitments and we make it seem as if it is God, but God is not in it when we do not keep our commitments.  We do not want to commit to things that we are called to so we can be free to do the thing we desire to do.  We call it God but truth is we do it because we want to feel important.  Flakiness has to do with the heart.  Truth is we don’t truly want to honor God in our hearts because we desire to honor ourselves.  

This has to do with honesty and growth. The only way we can be truly be honest with ourselves is if we go into our prayer closets and repent with all our hearts. I believe this is why David said:

Psalm 139:23–24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

David wanted to to be honest and grow in his walk with the Lord. His character was built up as he repented of the things in his heart. Family we have to be honest with ourselves. One of the reasons it took me four years to leave Sacred was because I did not want to do this if it was my desire. I only wanted to do it if this was truly from God. So I stuffed the thought for an entire year. In that year I did not even speak to Marissa about it. I figured if it was my desire it would go away. If this was God it would stay. One of my pet peeves is I hate flakiness it drives me crazy. I would rather someone say yes or no. But the only way we cannot be flaky is to be like David and ask the Lord to search our hearts before we jump and do something that we think is God.

This is the honesty and growth that repentance cultivates. When we are not honest with ourselves our character suffers and we are not able to walk in integrity. Listen God’s gifts and calling are without repentance. He will not take them back, but haven’t we seen to many fakes out there. There are some who actually have an anointing, but because they never allowed their character to be developed they have mislead many.

God wants a pure church, one that walks in character and integrity. The only way we can be that is if we have a regular time of true heart felt repentance.

In this way we are not poo pooing on our anointing, we are building a firm foundation to hold it.

End with This:

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

Paul ends this passage by saying for Him and through Him, and to Him are all things. I think at the end of the day the reason why repentance is so important is that it keeps us going back to God. it keeps this phrase in the forefront of our minds. That this is all for Jesus and because of Jesus. Family if we are not careful we will make this whole thing about us. Anything that we hold on to any sin that we commit at the end of the day is really about us. We sin before Jesus when we make it about us.

Can we put down all pretense for the next 10 minutes. Can I ask you a question and can you search your heart for a true answer? The question is do you really have faith in Jesus ? This may sound simple but truth is our actions speak louder than our words. Listen it is all about Him, for Him and because of Him. If it is about anything else for you then you’re following a false God. Your following the god of self.

Listen I don’t want you to give me the answer to the question. I want you to give it to God.

Share about journaling yesterday!

5I want the altars to be full today with us repenting before Jesus. Bring your deepest secrets before Him and lay them at the altar. Be set free today let the altar be an altar of repentance.