That's Pastor Daniel said earlier this weekend flew by and
that's I think a good indication of a wonderful time and time
seems to just slip out of your hands.
And I don't want to say too much because I want to take the
remainder of our session in the word, but I think it would be
unjust for me, not to thank. So many people, I can't name You
by name but beyond the surface. There are people have been
working tirelessly in the background.
We have a shopping crew that had to go get stuff.
We have a prayer crew that has been praying, not just over the
weekend, but even the days leading up to this event, we
have the ushers. We have, we have people who are
doing so much beyond what we see the sound team.
We had a Sunday School going on through this whole weekend so
that people can come with their families.
And just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart and
we want to just now show appreciation to everybody just
say thank you. And so for those who took so
much of their time who missed these meetings even to serve so
that you can be here. We're so grateful, especially to
Bishop and Phoebe. Thank you guys so much.
Every year, they oversee this, they prepare this, and they have
done with so much excellence. What we get to experience every
single year and they do it because they love the Lord.
I see that firsthand and so we're so blessed by you
especially without further Ado today this morning at the end of
this weekend I want to speak to you from the word of God, of how
you. And I based on the principles of
the word of God can live a life free from deception.
In other words, how you? And I can be deceived proof,
deceit proof between now and when The truth capital T takes
us home. I hope you would be passionate
about what this has to offer. Because Jesus, as I now make
this a full circle, Jesus told us that we are only heading
towards greater deception. That even will have if possible
the elect to be to be tricked, will even have the elect to look
and question. If this is sincere, if it is of
god but we can be assured based on the word of God that you.
And I can have a shield a filter because our God loves us, and he
cares for us and he Longs for us to be prepared, he Longs for us
to be strong, he Longs us to have eyes Beyond these things on
our faces. And I want to prove that to you
from one verse and it's in the book of second Thessalonians.
In verse 3. In 2nd Thessalonians 2:3.
The Apostle writes to this group of believers.
Let no one deceive you in any way.
For that day will not come unless the Rebellion comes first
and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of Destruction
who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or
object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of
God proclaiming himself to be God.
Do you not remember, you not remember that when I was still
with you, told you these things? I want you just to look at that
first phrase, in verse 3, let no one deceive you in any way.
Now, when Paul wrote this, he is issuing a charge because of a
situation that is occurring with Isola Thessalonians.
They were alarmed. They were shaken by some
supposed Revelation or a misinterpretation of Paul's
teachings that the Lord had returned.
He had retrieved his bride and apparently they were numbered
among the redeem because here they are, they're still there
still here, they are left behind and this clearly shook them to
the core that news. Came to the Apostle and he seeks
to bring clarity about this Doctrine.
He wants to remind them of the sequence of events that have to
take place, even even before the Lord would return in judgment.
But we see here as Paul addresses this, as he seeks to
bring Clarity to the specific. Doctrine is a statement that
reaches beyond the scope of this particular situation at hand.
With this church, do not be deceived or let.
No one deceive you. You not just concerning the
doctrine of the return of Jesus Christ, but in any way in any
way, God Longs for you and I to be able to detect and diverted
from any scheme of deception, that comes our way that would
seek to lead us into Disobedience that would seek to
cause us to believe something that is untrue.
And cause damage as a result to be, unfulfillable if I can use
that word, and if you look quickly at verse 2, you get
another Insight of how deception can be so subtle, the means of
deception. Well, let's start from verse 1.
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus.
Jesus Christ and are being gathered together to him.
We ask you Brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarm.
Pause. See when you have a deceive
proof life. You're not easily feared anxiety
concern. Is diminished.
Verse 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarm either by a
spirit, or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us to
the effect that the day of the Lord Has.
Come. What impresses me about that?
Verse is not how his Spirit can directly deceive.
Even Believers. It's the fact that Paul warned
of the possibility of forged letters to be written in the
names of the Apostles, to have some kind of authority, and then
lead Christians into a Direction.
What? That tells me is that Satan even
at this time utilized the technology of Paul's day to
bring deception and his tricks are no different today.
And how much more should we be discerning?
With the engineering that is able to engage with all of our
senses. I believe, even if you read
Revelation, there are clues, that technology will be strongly
used by the system of the Antichrist.
And so, we have to be very aware that there are different means
by which Deception comes, and this should not cause us to be
feared or worry, but all the more alert the first step to
being deceived free. This isn't a point because I
have three points this morning but a Prelude.
Just a thought. The first step of being deceived
free is to realize of the possibility of being deceived
That's it's as simple as that. People in this world don't care
about truth. I think we're convinced about
that but not only, don't they care about truth.
They want you to believe a lie, there's no neutrality.
And Paul year is worried as he should be.
And this sounds frightening, but we can equip ourselves, we can
be strong and that includes not being deceived with personal
decisions in your life. I'm not just speaking about
Doctrine this morning, Everything from those major
decisions, those choices that will alter the rest of your life
to not being caught up with the friends, he's from the agendas
in the narratives of society. The past two years, in my
opinion has proven. How the Antichrist will be able
to deceive the world? You saw it firsthand, not just
because of one narrative but multiple narratives that came
crashing in from all directions and the things that I saw
Christians so quickly, adopt so quickly say yes to so quickly.
Join and partner with is a testament that deception can
easily swallow up. Anybody's judgment.
But before we get into the three points, can I show you something
inspiring about our Lord? Jesus Christ.
The lord Jesus is our Capital example.
And if you just study carefully, you would see how much of what
he does. In his ministry relates to our
day-to-day living, go to Luke chapter 20, in your Bibles with
me, Meet me in verse 20 of Luke 20.
Jesus is approaching his final days.
On Earth, he's reaching the point of why he came ultimately
to die on the cross. But before that, there was a
series of Investigations and accusations and the spiritual
leaders of this time sought to get him in trouble.
Before he does any more damage to their idea of who the Messiah
should be. So in verse 20 of chapter
twenty, look what we see. So they watched him and send
spies who protect. I love the way the ESV puts us,
who Pretended to be sincere. That they might catch him in
something, he said. So, as to deliver him up to the
authority and jurisdiction of the governor.
So they asked him teacher. We know that you speak and teach
rightly and show no partiality. But truly teach the way of God
that phrase touches me who pretended to be sincere.
There are pretenders in your life.
There will be Pretenders that will come into your life.
And those types of people are one of the greatest tools that
the enemy uses to try to Allure. And cause the people of God to
stumble to make decisions that will hurt their testimony to
make decisions that will hurt them.
And I love to see the details of how these people were when they
stood before. Jesus, they thought they were
clever, they thought that they have come up with this dilemma
that was really a lose-lose scenario because they would ask
him a particular question about taxes and in their minds, they
thought no matter how Jesus answers this, he's going to get
in trouble with at least one group of people.
If he says don't pay your taxes, the Jews, the Romans rather will
come against him as we just read.
If he says go, yeah, you need to pay your taxes and and you
should The Jews are going to think that he is siding with the
Romans. So this seemed like a perfect
plan, but here's the thing, you can't mess with Jesus.
And the Holy Spirit highlights something that ministers to me
as a follower of the same Christ that I read Up.
In this passage look at verse 23 quickly.
But he being Jesus perceived, their craftiness.
He perceived their craftiness and set to them and I won't get
into what he says perceived their craftiness.
He saw through the flattery He saw through the smoke screen of
sincerity. Oh, we know that you teach the
truth. We know that you don't care
about the opinions of men and they try to disarm him.
They try to let his guard down. And yet, Jesus, through all of
that had laser precision and discernment past the words, past
the actions and right into the mode of the whole thing.
That is the Jesus who is on your side.
The one who sees what you cannot see, the one, who perceives,
what? You cannot perceive he is for
us, and with us, And the best thing that you can do to endure
the deception of these days that will only intensify is hold that
hand who can see what, you can't see.
But this isn't only unique to Jesus.
Listen Satan uses craftiness. All the way from the beginning.
The very mess that were in today with our human nature, all
started with deception, and we have to read our Bible slowly
because in Genesis 3:1, we are told about one particular animal
pre-fall. So if you have this idea that
the reason why Satan used the snake is because it's hideous.
Sorry. If you like snakes.
You have to understand there is nothing frightful there is there
is no sense of evil at this point.
So that this this serpent was used strategically, the enemy is
not going to use something just like he doesn't come to you with
horns and a pitchfork. So he uses the serpent but why
the Bible tells us? Because the serpent was
craftier. And all the other animals.
Satan then, Satan today, loves to use crafty things and crafty
people to deceive. And his roster is wide.
He listened. He uses gifted musicians.
He uses mesmerizing artists, he uses people who can communicate
and almost put people under a spell.
Just, by the way, they speak Hitler did.
That it was demonic though. He uses crafty things and crafty
people, he uses people and he he has these individuals who don't
come off as adversaries who come off as sincere and genuine and
they know the words to use to to show you that they are for truth
or they are for justice and they even know how to intertwine
God's name and scriptures Satan uses craftiness.
He is not obvious, he's not Lead detectable.
So being mindful that people who are gifted, people who are
smart, people who have abilities, but don't have
Christ. Are who Satan recruits to
deceive God's people? And Eve failed to do what Jesus
was able to do. She could not perceive the
craftiness before her, but Jesus could and Jesus through his
word, gives us the tools to know how to build the ability to
discern. And so, I want to give you those
three points and we're going to try to do this quick.
Number one, if you want to live a deceived proof life.
If you want to be able to amplify your ability to discern,
then do what we see here in the same chapter of second
Thessalonians. Love the truth, no matter what
it costs, you Love the truth, no matter what it cost.
You second Thessalonians chapter 2, 9 and 10.
The coming of the Lawless one is by the activity of Satan with
all power and false signs and wonders. if you're a signs and
wonders person, That believes a Ministry, has Authority based on
the Miracles. They seem to present an offer
and claim you're in trouble. verse 10 and with all Wicked
deception for those who are perishing, because why will
people Embrace Wicked deception, Why will they be open to it?
Well, he tells us because they refused to love the truth and so
be saved. You may have an intellectual
grasp of the truth, you may be intrigued with the philosophies
around truth. You may even be able to explain
elements of the truth, but none of that equates to loving the
truth. Paul did not say because they
did not know the truth and so be saved.
He said, because they did not love the truth and so be saved.
There's a difference. So the deception that was easily
received was not because of the lack of exposure to biblical
Revelation, it was due to the lack of willingness to surrender
to the claims that the truth makes.
How do you know if you are a person who loves the truth
again? It's not because you can quote
it, not because you enjoy hearing sermons, not because you
have podcast that you listen to, that are biblical the way, you
know that you love the truth, which is the way to be protected
from deception is that you joyfully and willingly submit to
whatever claims the truth, make of you.
That's what it means. And because of the refusal to do
that deception, had a way to enter into these Hearts.
It was the stubbornness it was the refusal to ultimately bow,
the knee to the revealed will of God.
And here's the thing, many people can say, I love the truth
and you would be amazed to know how God will test that and very
challenging ways. someone clearly said, in light of this
scripture, one example of how the love of the truth can be
proven in US, Is by just thinking about your own church
background. Think about the way you grew up
think about what you've learned about God.
Many people in here grew up in that kind of a culture.
I think about the things that you've adopted in your theology
and in your church practice and in your Christianity.
That was based on tradition or maybe even a misinterpretation
of certain scriptures and what do you do when you come to the
point where you personally study the word of God?
And you compare scripture with scripture and you dig and you
pray and you learn something as you grow in this knowledge.
And this is what you realize. This is teaching me something
that I thought was true for so long in my life.
This is, this is, this is saying something.
Contrary to what my parents told me contrary to what my Seminary
professor said, contrary to my church denomination, and what
they Proclaim for centuries, when God by his Mercy, opens
your eyes to a clear, truth in the word of God.
And yet, you have come with presuppositions in your heart
and not because you had a desire to be in anything that is false.
But because you were just raised in a certain way or because you
just easily digest. The certain things, what?
Do you do after 25 years of believing a certain thing in
that moment will determine if you love the truth, more than
your tradition more than your reputation more than the fear of
people saying, you believe this for so long and now you couldn't
see it. Now you do see it.
Love for truth is seeing in your willingness to surrender to it
even if you believe it to be something else.
I believe that is extremely challenging.
And that is one way. You can ensure that you
yourself. Love the truth.
No matter what God's word says, I will do it.
Even if it's been so long since I've heard or believe something
else, if this is the truth, I will submit to it.
Additionally love for the truth is ultimately proven by a love
for all the truth. If there was a sure way to
invite deception into your life, it is by claiming that God's
word is authoritative until something in the word touches.
A nerve or challenge is something that you really,
really, really, really want to hold on to And here's an example
of how even followers of Jesus Christ who claimed who even
confessed to love the truth. Cannot love all of the truth and
that literally is a foothold for Satan to enter into your
thinking and then persuade you to certain actions, there was a
time when Jesus was walking with his disciples and he many times,
but his initial attempts was telling them I must suffer at
the Of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and I
will be killed and I will raised on the third day, and on a
particular day, Peter heard this and he felt a little extra
confident because he just had the Revelation that Jesus is the
Christ. He is the Son of God.
And so, Peter does something very bold.
He takes Jesus aside, not a good move, Peter Jesus moves.
You you don't move him, he takes Jesus aside and he rebukes
Jesus. This shall not happen to you.
And in Matthew, 16:23, we read, but he turned and said to Peter,
get behind me, Satan. We talked about you all talk
about highs and lows in your Christian Life.
Get behind me. Satan.
And now he gives the insight to how Peter came to this point of
taking Jesus, and rebuking Jesus.
And correcting Jesus, right after Jesus perfection.
Explain something that's going to happen.
For you are not setting your mind on the things of God.
But on the things of, man, That's how it all started.
Your mind is not completely saturated with the knowledge of
God and the will of God, you see, Peter believed in aspect of
Jesus, you know, which aspect he loved them believed and champion
A conquering Messiah, a triumphant Messiah.
A nation's ruling Messiah and guess what?
He was right to believe that because the prophets pointed to
that and so all he's doing is really just he just reacting to
something that he knew. But what Peter and the disciples
could not figure out not because of their lack of exposure per se
but of their lack of their ability to understand and be
willing to accept it is the suffering Messiah.
A messiah that will die. This can't be.
And so, he rebukes Jesus from what an imbalanced
understanding, and application of the word of God, I like the
Triumph. And Jesus, I'm not very
comfortable of the idea of him suffering.
And when you look at the word of God that way, I like the old or
the New Testament, I don't like the Old Testament.
You have Christians and talk like this, especially in Middle
Eastern Christians. I like the New Testament.
I don't like the Old Testament. We're not going to preach on the
Old Testament. I like the stuff about love and
social justice and the poor. I don't like the ideas of
Holiness, repentance and emphasis on the gospel you have
just opened a door for Satan to enter into your thinking.
When you elevate one truth and diminish another when it is
clear there before you Satan himself, can enter into your
thinking and he is merciless when he does that.
And soul of the truth. The safest place to be in this
is to Bow before the entirety of the scriptures, even the parts
that you cannot readily acknowledge at first perhaps.
But, you know, it's the truth and because of that, know this,
you give Satan very little to work with in your mind.
So, love the truth, no matter what it costs, you more than
just doctrinally. What will it cost you to follow
this word? What will happen to your
relationships? Well, happened to your job.
Well, happened to your future, love the truth.
And here's your inheritance, you will know an honor from God that
will keep you from being Hoodwinked.
Love the truth, no matter what it costs, you not know the
truth, not talk about the truth, love it.
Number two, there is one of the clearest illustrations of
deception at work found in the Old Testament.
And in this case, you see how even God's best men are able to
get dizzy in their discernment because of the ploys of enemies.
And in this particular case, I'm going to bring you there in a
moment. What you see is a very real
example, again of how even the most faithful of God's men and
gods woman, can fall you and I can stumble make mistakes every
day and this teaching is not to say how you can create a bubble
around you or you'll never know a mistake.
What will your never know, trials or difficulties or
afflictions or Temptations? That's not what I'm trying to
bring here. But what I am saying is that
When I can pull up a guard in such a way where we minimize
unnecessary self-inflicted harm. And decisions in life.
Very some decisions. If we get them wrong, have
little consequences like you know, you bought a bad mattress,
you didn't do the research, you didn't look at the reviews and
you didn't care. You just did it.
Now you got to return it, you wasted a whole day, right?
To decisions that can alter the rest of your existence on this
planet. And what we see here is that
there is a point in Israel's history, where the whole book is
really about Conquest in the land.
It's about physical Warfare where Israel comes into the land
of Canaan and they receive and they fight for their inheritance
in God. But what's interesting is in the
midst of all of that, you think it's all about swords and Spears
and strange commands to see miracles happen.
So walls can come down and Stones can fly from the sky.
But in the middle of all of that, you see this aspect of
warfare. That is very much familiar.
Today we don't use sorts today. We don't use bone arrows.
We don't use guns are weapons are not against flesh and blood.
What we do see is in Joshua chapter 9, deception in Warfare
and this deception, please, listen, it's not just limited to
Doctrine. This deception deals with all
aspects of life. Israel was commanded, cleanse
the land cleanse, the land. These people who inhabit the
land of Canaan are my enemies. They are perverted.
They have persisted in their sin for centuries and my judgment is
going to be through you, invading the land.
And removing those who are my enemies.
No mercy. They already had a chance to
have mercy read Genesis 15. Centuries of chances to be able
to come to repentance and so their focus was within the
boundaries of the land of Canaan and as they come.
A group, a mysterious group, approaches Joshua, and the
leadership by the name of the gibeonites.
The gibeonites were inhabitants of the land of Canaan and they
learned very early on. These guys are coming in to take
over and they're doing very well.
We heard what they did in Egypt, we are what happened with those
kings outside of Israel, just by the Jordan.
And now they're here. We got to do something, we will
fail, we will lose. So they have a scheme, they come
up with a crafty plan and here's the crafty plan.
They approached Joshua, and they heavily emphasized to appeal,
pay attention now to the senses. They want to convince this
nation that we are not among the inhabitants of this land, we're
from a distant land and and some wonder if they knew somehow of
God's instructions to the nation of Israel, because God's
instructions were with the cities outside of the parameters
of Israel. You had a different negotiation
with these places but within no talk it's done.
If that is true, then that is a clear example.
How Satan knows the word and uses the word against the people
of God, but they come and so they seem like they're from a
distant neighbor, how are they going to do this?
And we're going for the rest of this time.
We're going to stay in Joshua chapter 9.
Look at what they do. In verse 14 of Joshua chapter 9,
Let's go back to verse 12, these are the gibeonites speaking to
Joshua, I want you to Envision it.
Here's Joshua lined up with the other elders.
And here, are these gibeonites, these ambassadors who are
approaching Joshua and are trying to now, convince them to
make a covenant so that they can be saved from judgment Joshua
912. Here is our bread, It was still
warm when we took it from our houses, as our food for the
journey on the day, we set out to come to you now behold.
It is dry and crumbly These wineskins were new when we
filled them and behold, they have burst and these garments
and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.
Unfortunately Joshua would make a grave mistake.
He would make a judgment simply because of what he saw.
What he saw, what he felt. What he tasted.
And there are times in life, when our senses help confirm
something. Right there are times when our
senses help us make sense of something, right?
But what we see here is that their critical moments in life,
where we need to do something much more than just agree with
what we perceive in the natural. I believe the lord gave this
chapter for his people, so that they would not make the mistake
of making serious confirmations unconditionally based upon what
you see and feel. See what I'm saying.
They're not that we are enemy against our senses but to make
unconditional judgments based on our senses, it's extremely
dangerous. and if you want to be humbled, By this truth, in a
simple way. There's something known as the
McClurg affect, anybody hear about the McClurg effect.
The McClurg effect is really interesting.
It's an auditory visual illusion that essentially reveals how
sometimes What you see can override and reinterpret, what
you hear? so what happens is based on your
visual sensory that can actually change the sound that you are
perceiving, So it's a conflict of the senses and you can
experiment with this. You want here, say thank you for
this. You're going to make your trip a
little bit more fun. You can actually experiment with
this. I want to experiment with it
because I'm a skeptical individual.
So there's a test go on, go on the internet.
There's a video online. Look it up and here's what it
is. You have a professor looking at
the screen, you watch it on your phone to the laptop and you see
his face. And all he does is repeat the
sound bad. Bye.
Bye.
And he's staring at the screen, bye-bye and you're hearing.
Bye. Now, what he does now in the
second clip is he changes the movement of his lips but he
doesn't change the sound that he's making.
So when you transition to the second clip, he's actually
saying bah, bah, bah. But what you hear is 555,
Immediately like this is a hoax. I see it.
He's going. Ah, he's doing that.
I know how words. Work, ba ba, there's no way that
this is a different. This is the same sound, so I
watched it again. I looked at the comments,
obviously, to make sure I'm and the consensus.
And sure enough. They were disagreeing with me.
So I watched and I watched you guys, so you know what this is
why I'm going to do. I'm going to rewind this thing.
But this time I'm going to close my eyes.
Let's see if this is true. Because here's what's crazy.
Even when the man at the end explains explains, the whole
phenomena explains, the illusion explains this bizarre effect,
even after he explains it, you watch it again and you still
don't see the difference. Where you see the difference?
Rather, it's your brain still tricks or even after the guy
tells you the trick some like this there's something wrong
you. So I went back.
I close my eyes and to my shock throughout the whole video.
You know what I heard bad. Still didn't believe it.
So now there's something weird here.
So this is what I said, I'm going to watch it.
I'm going to close my eyes but halfway through the second clip
when he I'm confident is saying fa.
I'm going to disprove this whole thing.
I'm gonna get the most likes for my comment.
So I close my eyes. Here's this man by bah-bah-bah
Or rather bye-bye. And I open my eyes and to my
greater shock immediately 555 lat, I try to look at different
points in the second clip that yeah.
Baba baba 555. Bye, bye.
Bye. My old convinced.
And I believe God. In his wisdom uses.
Things like this uses, science to prove a spiritual truth.
You can lie to yourself, man. You can trick yourself.
You can actually believe something to be true when it is
not true at all. And so as I kept contemplating
on this, I realize a spiritual principle.
How true is it that we interpret truth not with the conflict of
our eyes and our ears, but our flesh.
Divine revelation. How much of this do we
reinterpret? And actually believe to be
right. When in reality, it's saying
something completely different. I was convinced that it was two
different sounds. The reality was one and you have
people who are so strongly, convinced that some aspect of
Truth, some aspect in their life is right, or it's wholly or it's
God's Will, and it isn't Some of you think you have bad and fan,
it's really bad. How do we protect ourselves from
this fearful possibility? How do we Shield ourselves from
spiraling into our own world? Filled with delusions the?
Same text and Joshua tells us something incredible.
Look at verse 14, Joshua 9:14. So the men took some of their
Provisions but did not ask counsel from the Lord How to
live a life free from deception? Number to bring all matters.
Of earnest prayer before God. This was their error.
This was the core reason why they made their mistake that
would cost them generationally because they did not in their
humility and understanding that, even what they see and perceive
can be wrong to come before the Lord and say, Lord is this
right? Is this your will?
Is this true? Is she the one?
Is this where you want me to go? Is this the right opportunity?
And I meditate on this and I thought to myself how could have
got answered like what would he have done to remove the veil
from the gibeonites? The veneer, what would he have
done and that the Bible is not clear and telling us what he
would have done? And that kind of comfort to me
more than anything else because it wasn't telling us that there
was a specific way that he was going to answer and they should
look for that thing. All it says is that they were
fault for not seeking counsel. Here's my responsibility in
yours in this life, bring it before.
God, that's Part and God will do his part.
A God, who is a god of communication, to make it
exactly know how you need to know about it, to be confirmed
before moving forward. It's not a but about putting
certain things down what you look for, it just simply coming
before him and laying it down before him.
And in humility persisting in that posture of dependency, it's
not about a particular sign. It's not about some kind of a
wonder that will persuade you, it's simply about doing your
part Lord. I see this as a good thing, I
might not understand the depths of it, I don't know the motive
here, but protect me. Protect me.
I don't want to do the wrong thing.
I want to be in your will when you when you talk like that,
when you speak to the Lord, he has a holy obligation.
As a father would for his child to hold you tight in, to make
sure that you will not Veer off into something.
That will hurt you and dishonor, his name.
You sit before the Lord like that here in the safest place in
the world safest place in the world.
And I know some might think that this is overly simplistic.
Maybe even dangerously simplistic.
You know why I get it. The reason why is because you
have some people who are out there who are obviously making
terrible decisions, ungodly decision unscriptural,
decisions. All in the name of, I prayed
about it and God said it was fine, right?
I prayed about it and God gave me peace.
Yeah, so pray about it. That's all you need to do.
You forgot the first point? Before you can even pray about
anything. You first need to establish in
your heart that you are a lover of the truth.
You're a lover of that which is true.
You are totally sold out for the will of God.
In your life and if that is not established pray all you want
get all the sensation of peace and calm that you can get.
The Bible says in Proverbs 28:9 if anyone turns his ear away
from the law even his prayer is an abomination.
That's scary. This is say that he won't listen
to your prayer. He says, your prayer is an
Abomination. If you have no regard for my
word, my will my sovereignty. My providential leading in your
life. If you do not ultimately
surrender to where I take you and what I want to do with you
pray, all you want, it's futile. And will take you anywhere.
What needs to happen first is a person who has the conviction of
the truth being the driving seat of their lives. and if not, Even
prayer can lead you astray. Because you're not praying to
the god of Truth. What God looks for first in that
heart that desires to know his will?
Is that? Is that desire?
There is a living. Is it Supreme is a primary if
not can't hear your prayer, I'm sorry.
So that's why I've seen so many people in life nose.
Dive into concrete. And they backed up that trust
when they flew off the ceiling or the roof because they prayed
about it. Jesus says something astounding
and John 7:17 highlight this one.
He says, if anyone's will is to do, God's will he will know
whether the teaching is from God?
Or whether I am speaking on my own authority, look at the first
part. If anyone's will, is to do God's
will he will know? So there's a principal there
that God looks at the motive. God looks at the heart.
God looks at the sincerity. God looks for the longing.
God looks for the purity of a person who wants to be where God
wants him to be, who wants to believe the truth that will
save. And once the accurate
Revelation, Jesus said, if that is your will to do gods with,
you will know That's glorious. Carry that with you, step by
step. but there is something that Joshua failed to do here
before even his His decision not to seek God and we may miss it,
if we read the text very quickly because the interaction that he
has, where they give you a knight's reveals another
biblical principle, which I will close with.
That will help us be deceive proof for the rest of our lives
will help us minimize the chances of going the wrong way
go back to Joshua 9 and we're going to end it here.
Joshua is engaging with the gibeonites.
He doesn't know that they're gibeonites.
And we read here in Joshua 9 verse 6 and they the gibeonites
went to Joshua in the camp at gilgal and said to him.
And to the men of Israel, we have come from a distant
country. So now make a covenant with us.
That's pretty bold. Very general, very
straightforward. And I applaud Joshua's
leadership here verse 7, but the men of Israel said to the
hivites. Perhaps, you are living among
us, then how can we Make a covenant with you.
Great question! Great, screening and guess who's
really nervous at this point? They give you a nice.
You know how I can tell look how they answer in verse a.
They said to Joshua. We are your servants.
So nervous, you can tell it's like we're your servants.
And he presses. They continue to ask, they
continue to investigate. And Joshua said to them, who are
you? And where do you come from?
Who are you and where you come from?
Remember that because what you will see after this is in their
answer, very lengthy and pretty sentimental, pretty heartwarming
actually, but they didn't answer the questions.
The questions were, who are you? Where do you come from?
Here's their answer, at least in verse 9.
They said to him from a very distant country.
Your servants have come because of the name of the Lord your God
for we have heard a report of him and all that he did in
Egypt. My question is, who are you?
Where did you come from? We are your servants were from a
distant country. Joshua red flag.
Red flag, they're not answering your questions, they're not
satisfying, the measure that you need to know in order to make
this decision. And although I can applaud
Joshua up to this point. It goes downhill from here
because they continue to speak and listen, they use the name of
God and they even, they even show some knowledge of his ways.
This is what you did to Sion. And this is what you did to OG.
And we heard what happened in Egypt, and to top it all off, as
the cherry on everything else, they brought these elements that
seemed to indicate that they did come from a far place and Israel
missed it. Here's what I am pointing to, as
we close. While you are cultivating a love
for the truth. And while you have a Perpetual
practice of ringing matters before the God who can make
things known in very creative ways, doesn't have to speak
audibly. He and his great Providence and
is a visible hand. Can maneuver things to protect
you. And I while we do those two
things, those foundational things, those pillar of
practices. We each have the responsibility
to test everything. Joshua failed.
Not because he asked questions but he didn't ask enough.
That's where you feel. If you had asked more, if you
had pressed the, perhaps everything would have been
exposed, Paul told the Thessalonians not in his second
letter, but the first in verse 20 of chapter 5 do not despise
prophecies but test everything. Do not despise prophecies but
test everything, hold fast. What is good?
The nasb would read it this way but examine everything
carefully. Christianity does not call us to
give our hearts to Jesus and abandon our brains at the altar.
But for some reason, many have this belief that rational
thought is the enemy of spirituality.
And so what you have is intellectualism apparently is a
temptation is a temptation to avoid since it is an obstacle to
spirituality because now spirituality even amongst this
generation of Christians is synonymous with sensation, If it
feels good, if it makes me cry, if it makes me do this, if it
caused me to do that, then surely this experience that's
producing some level of good. At least initially is spiritual.
And so in order for me to prevent going in a different
direction with this message, let me just say one thing with that.
Thought the God, who is spirit that God who perform signs and
wonders and can still do Miracles today, the god whose
Supernatural did a surgery in the heart of your soul.
And now fills you with real tangible observable power that
same God chose to out of all. The means to communicate and
reveal himself through a book. A book.
Meaning, you got to pick it up and read it and study it and
compare it, and dig into it. In other words, Christians
should use their brains We're not a brainless religion.
We are not some syrupy softie if it's all, yes, that's fine.
Just because somebody said God said, just because a Bibles in
their hands, just because the music makes me feel in a certain
way. That's not us.
And what's important to understand here is that even in
the context of a spiritual experience, with the
Thessalonians where somebody is prophesying.
Now, whether you believe that means preaching, or speaking
with a spontaneous revelation of the Holy Spirit, concerning a
matter that couldn't be no naturally, both rules, apply
test, everything. If it comes with the autograph,
this is the Lord or this is of God.
That's the ask questions. Compare pause step back, talk to
people that, you know, love God's word fear, God's word.
I've talked to some people listen.
I've seen this in my short time in Ministry.
There are some all it takes is, God said And there, what wrapped
up in a whirlwind and you never see them again, or there are
haunted by his statement, just because somebody came off
spiritual and you, how to quote a few verses or knew them for
about few months and said, the Lord showed me and the Lord told
me. And then when you approach this
person and when you try to be past all you try to be a friend
who loves people because you love God and you're holding
somebody called me said, what's what's going on?
Well, I don't want to be skeptical, I don't want to doubt
God. Hey, the same God that you're
worried of displeasing for apparent, lack of faith, is the
god who said test everything So, test it.
He's telling you, you want to please God in this whole
experience test. It will just swallow it up.
Examine it evaluated and depending on the nature of the
truth, don't be quick to get caught up in it. and my brothers
and sisters, we can continue for the rest of this morning to do
greater things that we can apply but these three suffice when you
love the truth, in your heart, whatever it cost you Whatever
cost you for your own Pride, whatever cost you in your life.
And when you know how to come before God for Ernest council,
with a Bible tightly gripped in your hand. and when you know how
to exercise the command given to us to use this brain, And to ask
specific questions and to examine.
And to look, before you give a judgment, you can know a deceive
proof life. Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for this weekend together.
Thank you that your word has equipped us.
For what is ahead? Lord has James told us.
We do not presume that tomorrow will come.
We do not presume that our plans, next year will be in
place, but we say if the Lord wills, and Lord between now, and
next year though, we long to be reunited.
We know that events can quickly change, not just in our own
lives. But around the world.
Around the world to such a degree that it will alter Our
Lives. We do not fear the future.
We do not fear the future for your church for the Gates of
Hell will not Prevail and we will not fear our own Futures
because you are a God who leads us perfectly.
And all you ask is for the humility to trust and obey.
Lord, we ask that leaving this place.
There would be an excitement. And that there would be a
clarity. There would be a Clarity, like
we've never known. And all aspects of Our Lives.
We give you the glory for you or for us and you are with us and
we pray that we would be testimonies of Truth in an age
that hates the truth. We love you with all within us.
Protect us as we go back home to our own Ministries, Throne
families, thrown workplaces. May what has been deposited
within us translate in our daily living We believe that you are
able to do it and we would joy Rejoice at the truth As we sing
together as final time in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.