You're visiting with us. You're our honored guest.
If I were to tell you tonight that this was outside of our
building, I would I would promise you that there would be
a reaction. If I were to tell you that, if
you walked outside that door, there's this little kitty cat
waiting on you. You would probably think to
yourself. I'm gonna go after you, you
know, you only have to be faster than one person to get away from
a cat like that. That's kind of how it works.
But when you stop and think about the devil, And how the
scriptures describe him like this, we're talking about an
incredibly powerful being somebody that stalks and
somebody that knows how to capture prey.
If you watch natural, geographic, or any of those
animal shows this, this, this cat right here knows exactly
what's up and what to do with its prey, and it's talks and it
works and it creeps and just at the right moment at the
unsuspecting moment, he pounces, he does everything he can.
And tonight I want to talk to you.
About Satan's devices the way that he operates the way that he
works in First Peter, 5:8, be sober be vigilant because your
adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom
he may devour. Now, if I were to tell you that
the line is outside, you would say, well, duh, I'm not going to
go outside. If I were to tell you that your
there was a lion in the backyard of your house, you would say,
kids, don't go in the backyard. Don't go in the backyard at all.
Wait till make sure, but that's not how safe.
Works whenever the Bible describes him like this, it's
describing his power and his prowess, but he never operates
in the form of just basically showing up, like, you would see
a line. If I see something this big, I
gotta tell you. Nobody had to tell me when I was
little, when I first went to a zoo in Baton Rouge.
Louisiana, never been to the zoo before still remembered nobody
had to tell me. Hey, stay away from sticking
your hand through the wire. Up to the animals.
Know that I know the signs were Were there, I've always wondered
why those signs had to be there because anybody pretty much off
to know except there's a real problem, the little ones don't
know, they don't know. In my mind, I'm always pretty,
pretty scared of dogs. I've had a couple of dog
experiences that ended me up on the top of a car.
I had fight or flight and of course look at me.
Come on when I was younger we're talking about flight there was
no fight you just run for all you're worth.
You get away from it for all you're worth.
You know, one thing I've learned is that are not everybody
assesses danger. The first thing that I always
tell my girls every time that they go anywhere is look.
Hey listen, there's a dog this dog, my girls are naturally
gravitationally drawn to dogs. And so, I'll say what what's
going to happen if you get down in a dog space, if you this dog
doesn't know you from anybody who knows about this though.
We don't know this dog. Are you going to go?
Crouch down over this dog and I'll make them.
Tell me no daddy, we're not going to do that, why?
And they will tell because that dog get up.
Your face off. That's what I tell him.
Every time I scare him to death about dogs because I know if
they don't have it awareness, I got one that's going to go and
try to let that dog lick her face every single time.
You see, she doesn't know. She doesn't recognize it.
And a lot of us are the same way we don't know what's coming.
We don't recognize the danger. When we stick our hand through
the fence, and we wonder how it is that this powerful animal
Yanks us through and into some place that we never thought we
would end up and does what he does best with us, which is
literally consume us when the Bible talks about the devil
seeking. Whom he may devour, he does not
say nibble. We're talking about devouring in
second Corinthians 11, verse second Corinthians, 2.
Verse 11, lest Satan should take advantage of us for.
We are not ignorant of his devices and he in Ephesians 6,
11 and 12. The Bible says, put on the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to stand against The Wiles
of the devil who we do, not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against principalities and Powers against the rulers.
Of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the Heavenly places.
Now that's a pretty good army. We're not dealing with weakness
here. I just showed you a picture of a
lion and none of these scriptures say, don't worry
about the devil, just live your life.
However you want to not at all. They constantly warned us that
we're in a were in a life-and-death game but it is
not with flesh and blood, it's with the spirit and it's with
the soul of man, Satan operates through our flesh.
But ultimately what's on the line is there is not a
flesh-and-blood contest people. You're gonna die.
There's gonna be all kinds of stuff that go.
It's not a normal war that you fight.
It is an inside War. It's an inside our heart war and
Revelation 12 and 9. So the Great Dragon was cast out
that serpent called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole
world and he was cast to the Earth, and his angels were cast
out with him. Listen.
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now, salvation and
strength and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ
have come for the accuser of our brethren.
Who accused them before our God day and night has been cast
down. Now none of those scriptures say
hey it's gonna be great. What I'm not telling you about
and I'll go ahead and say this. Now this is not meant to just
make you afraid. It's meant to make you assess
who your true enemy really is and make you bear up against
him. Make you think about who he is
and make you think about the weaknesses in our own life
because we all have them. One thing I know I can preach
tonight with accuracy is every single person in this room has
weaknesses. Now Satan is not allowed to
climb in and read our minds, but we can open the door for him in
the same way that I could go to the fence.
If you were to think about my greatest fear many times, it
would be that picture of a little child inside of a
fenced-in enclosure. They're smart enough and big
enough to recognize how to operate the lever.
We got a couple of those at church back home.
We got a couple of kids that are just big enough but not quite
big enough when I say big enough, but not quite big
enough. Here's what I mean, there's a
big there's a big highway, right?
On the on the side, right? Close to the road.
We put in a fence, you know, we want to keep them all in.
The problem is there's Gates on that fence and we don't really
have locks on them yet. So sometimes you have that that
chill inside of somebody that's big enough but not big enough.
They're big enough to flip the lid of the lock, or the, the
latch up and go out and toward the road, but they're not big
enough to assess how fast that car is coming.
And all they know is they want that ball that went into the
road. And they're not looking at how
fast and they're not able to judge the distance and there's
an adult or there's somebody out there that begins to scream at
them. Hey get back in here and they
come back in. And in that moment you realize
just how fragile life really is. Well Satan is somebody that is
not to be trifled with and he has a little while to work as
we'll talk about in just a moment.
Whenever you look at natural geographic, anything, one of the
things you find is that's a very real image that Over and over
and over again. I don't know if your kids love
it, but I always have my new to and it's one of those pictures
of how the food chain works. It's not a pretty picture.
It's really an ugly thing to think about but you have a
defenseless pitiful. Poor listen to what the
scripture says again. Therefore Rejoice O Heavens.
You who dwell in them, woe to the inhabitants of the earth and
the Sea. For the devil has come down to
you having great wrath because he knows that he has a short
time. Satan is defeated He already
knows that but his goal is to hurt.
God, the devil who deceived them, the Bible says was cast
into the lake of fire and brimstone.
He only has a short time left. Do you know the only way that he
can hurt God you the only way you can do it, you see what
Jesus did whenever he died was buried and rose again, as he
secured the pathway for you, two to start an eternal relationship
with God right now, tonight, I can tell you, there is a God in
heaven that whenever you surrender to his will, whenever
you identify with the death burial and resurrection of
Jesus, in baptism, you are entering into an eternal
Kingdom, you start right now tonight in 2019, our And ship
that will take you through. Eternity.
You can't find. You can't find something that
amazing. You can't find anywhere.
You could be a part of like that only in Jesus Christ but make no
mistake about it. What Satan is trying to do is
he's trying to get one at a time and he picks off and he peels
off. And he tries to peel that one
away. Or right now, it might be you
And I don't know if you've ever felt like Satan was coming at
you but the fact of the business is he is angry.
And if you've ever had a day where it seemed like the world
was lining up on you, you don't have to think too hard about who
it is. That's behind that.
What I want you to also know is, there is a God in heaven that
limits his ability to operate and what God expects from us.
Is that no matter if we get another good thing from God, we
recognize who he is and that he's infinitely, good and he's
great and he's amazing. And if God never gives you
another thing in your life, if he never answers another prayer,
God is still infinitely. Good and God is still
infinitely. Amazing.
And God is still deserving of Your Allegiance and your
adoration every day. But he's not just a God that
leaves it alone. He's not a God, that leaves his
children tonight. We prayed in our assembly and we
prayed for a reason we have a father that listens to us.
In fact, you may have had a bad dad experience.
You may have had in law and Outlaw and step this and step
that and Blended Every Which away.
And you may have not had a great experience with a father.
But one thing I can tell you is that you've got a father in
Heaven, that is absolutely amazing and does exactly what's
right by you. You can't find that anywhere
else and of all the things that you will find about.
God, you will find a God that wants what's best for you all
the time. But he also was a God that
whenever you have to leave the nest and you begin to have your
own Wings representative of free will when you lead the
foolishness of childhood, not sin but the foolishness of our
childhood and we grow up and we're accountable now and we
start making big boy and big girl send decisions.
The simple reality is there is Someone that is tracking us and
he's got an angry disposition. I don't know anybody that ever
watches natural G National Geographic and thinks oh that is
the nicest kitty cat. I'd like to add.
That is a sweet cat. No, you recognize the power and
the prowess and how that is an absolute enemy of this
defenseless cap. Except the calf, for the most
part except for the instincts inside, really doesn't know
what's happening to it until it's too late.
We got to be more aware. We've got to understand what it
is that we have in Jesus Christ in the protections.
We have in Christ, will God trains us for the enemy?
So, Satan's worse can become our blessing.
That's something we need to believe.
In, in Psalms, 144 blessed, be the Lord.
My rock who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.
Did you know? God is training you today, he is
never trained any of his children to be the victim.
He's never trained. Any of his children, not to be a
people that don't know how to overcome in fact, he trains us
to be a people. That no matter of Satan knocks
us down. God will give us the strength
inside to get up and whoop, the devil.
She won't do it by yourself notice.
He said the Lord is the one that trains my hands in First Peter 4
and 12. He talked about some of this
beloved do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which
is to try you as though some strange thing is happening to
you. But Rejoice to the extent that
you / take of Christ's sufferings that when his glory
is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy and he
said, if you are Approach for the name of Christ.
Happy are you for the spirit of glory?
And of God rests upon you on their part.
He has blasphemed but on your part he is glorified therefore
let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their
souls to him in doing good asked to a faithful Creator.
There's a lot of things that Satan is going to do and it's
going to look like that. It's bad for you and that it's
not a good thing at what God does is he transforms it and he
makes it something that bills even character.
He makes it something that even though we have to endure, some
of the things that Satan, the tribulations that Satan wants to
make us just to destroy us. God, turns it into something
that literally becomes our character and out of that
character, becomes an Earnest expectation or hope.
I'm not talking about Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes kind
of hope. I don't know about you.
I'm not really buying into the whole Publishers Clearing House
Sweepstakes thing. They've never come to my
neighborhood. They have never contacted me.
I have Filled out their junk more than 50 times every time
they send me an email says act. Now and I act if you'll just
look through this list and buy something, I've even bought some
of their junk before they still hadn't showed up in my
neighborhood, I don't have much hope in the Publishers Clearing
House, Sweepstakes showing up and giving me five thousand
dollars a week for life. But I've got a tremendous amount
of Hope because Jesus died on the cross and every time it
looks like that I'm going to fall down and every time it
looks like that I'm down and out and every time it looks like
I've messed up and I messed up again or I messed up again and I
feel like what I figure out is that you got to get up one more
time than you fall down and you can win this and you can whoop
Satan and no matter what he's trying to do to you, and no
matter how much he's trying to kick your teeth in right now,
there is a God in heaven, that wants you to know that, although
it may feel like you're defeated what God is preparing.
His Greatest Victory because one day he's going to show up and
you're going to be glorified with him.
And Satan is going to be destroyed and Cast Away.
That's a day. You want to be on the right
team. You want to be on the right team
that day, and what he was writing to these people, these
are people that were under fiery trials and he said, don't think
that it's strange understand that the blessing you have is
you get to participate in Christ's sufferings, there's a
blessing in some of the stuff that we just have to go through.
I don't know. The, why of it?
I just know this, the Lord made his son died on a cross for our
sins. And the Bible says, the servant
is not greater than his master. If they persecuted the lord,
they're going to persecute you. Also, there's gonna be junk.
You just got to deal with. And you got to know what the
real motive behind it is. Satan's goal is to destroy you.
God's goal is to make you better and those things are happening
at one in the same time, in our hearts and lives, Satan lies,
and he's the father of Lies. Listen, he said to them in John
8:44, you are you are of your father, the devil, and the
desires of your father, you want to do, he was a murderer from
the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there,
There is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks
from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it.
Now again, he had just told them that they could be free, you can
be free. If you're my disciples, you can
be free, and they did not want to accept that, and they
rejected his teaching. And he told him, why?
It was they rejected it? If I reject the teaching of the
word of God, one of the most incredible things that I have to
face is, who's my father. Because when I read the word of
God, I'm reading the words of my father and one of the key
characteristics of what it means to be a person that's going to
make it and going to win in this life is somebody that is on the
father's team and wants to please the father.
Now that has to be, that has to be in our hearts and our minds.
And he called out these people here because literally, they had
a different father, they wanted to argue with him about
religion. They wanted to argue about him
having the authority because they made an authority argument.
They're basically like, who do you think you are?
He says, I'm going to tell you who I am.
I'm going to tell you about my father and I'm also going to
tell you about your father and he appealed to their credibility
and the acrylic appealed to who they were really following and
that was the devil and there's only two options.
We've got We're either going to make God our Father or Satan is
going to be our father in Genesis 3:1.
The Bible says, now the serpent was more cunning than any beast
of the field, which the Lord God had made, and he said to the
woman has God, indeed said You shall not eat of every tree of
the garden and the woman said unto the serpent.
We may eat of the fruit of the Trees of the garden.
But of the fruit of the tree of which is in the midst of the
garden of God, God said You shall not eat of it.
Nor shall you? Touch it, lest you die in The
Serpent said to the woman if you, you will not surely die for
God. Knows that in the day that you
eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like, God
knowing Good and Evil. Notice how Satan Works he comes
along and he takes a circumstance, where you clearly
understand what the word of God teaches, and he begins to
altered. And we begin to say what about
what about? Well, I don't, I don't really
see it that way and somebody gets in our head and that
somebody that gets in our head begins to twist around the
obvious and we began to question the obvious.
And we now make our question of that obvious, our new faith.
Stop. And think about that for me, so
many people are trading what they know to be the revealed
word of God for what they're thinking in their mind.
The question in their mind. Listen, I'm honest with you.
When I tell you that your mind will think of questions that I
may not have the answer to. In fact, you may think of
questions that the Bible may not have an answer to but what God
expects you to do is be able to filter some of that sometimes
and recognize that you won't get an answer to everything that
comes up in your mind, you won't know the answer.
All the prophet in the Old Testament would say is God's
ways are higher, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts,
his ways are higher than our ways.
And here you have a circumstance where Even Adam clearly
understood the rules of the game, and they made a bad choice
and that choice cost them be evicted from the garden from the
tree of life. And they begin the process of
physically dying. And it's a process that is
stung. Every man and woman in all the
world. Death has fallen upon all men
because of sin. Romans 5 and verse 12.
But again, Satan does his very best to try to change?
He he does his very best to alter just a little bit of what
God has said. He does it just a little bit and
so in order to do that he wants to destroy, he lies and he's the
father of Lies. He also blinds and our neck of
the woods. We have these lovely creatures
called dear not dears dear. You just say it the same way
every time doesn't matter if it's one or a hundred is a bunch
of deer out there, we got a bunch of deer when you When you
were to drive up on dear, what you will find is they will stop
in the middle-of-the-road. You put your your eyes your
headlights out there and all the sudden that deal will just just
sit there if you're sitting in a field and you've got some kind
of a spotlight in you shine that light in the deers, I all the
sudden that deer will just pop its head up.
It's just one of those ignorant things that they do.
They can't figure it out. They don't know what's going on
and that car can come closer and closer and faster and faster.
And that deer just stands there. Looks at you.
And all the sudden, it doesn't end well.
A lot of times, it doesn't end well.
This is what Satan does. He blinds the mind.
He said, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those
who are perishing, whose Minds the God of this age has blinded,
who do not believe less, the light of the Gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God should shine on them.
They're blinded, now, that's a terrible thought but there are
many times where the Lord would say he who has ears to hear, Let
Him hear. Here, and Jesus would use a lot
of circumstances, where he would basically say, your ears have
grown dull, your eyes, they're glossed over.
You're not really open to the understanding of what I'm trying
to give you Paul by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Basically said it like this. Satan shining something in your
eyes. He shot him, something here.
And whenever that happens, what you'll find is that those people
will not listen to The Gospel, they that you can't reach them,
I can sit down with you and I can show you, okay?
This is what the Bible says, very plainly.
The Bible says this, and that person says, yeah, I can read
that. They read it out loud and say,
okay, what is the answer to that?
Let me give an example of that. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6
without faith. It is impossible to please him.
For he, that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he
rewards those who diligently seek him, too.
Things in that passage are very, very important.
Number one, the key question is, can I please God if I don't
believe in him with all my heart do I can't possibly know.
Well certainly you can see that? Well then there's the next part
of that where the Bible says, he rewards those who do what
diligently seek him. Two things.
And that passage very, very important things that he does.
The problem with that is today, the blindness of humanity, is
there there there is a stop mechanism.
Somebody can say, yeah, you know, I know it says that but
here's the problem, I've always felt like I've always thought
that really I just need to do that.
I just need to believe in him and it's all going to work out,
okay? You know, that there's another
part to that it says those that diligently.
At least take him. There were a lot of people that
believe that Jesus was the son of God, but they were not
willing to follow him because they had money tied up and they
had money on the line. And they had people that were
Jews, that didn't like Jesus, and they wanted to fit in with
him. And so, Jesus would say, you're
really close to the kingdom, but you're not in the Kingdom of the
reason you're not in. The kingdom, is you've got these
affections with other things and he would say things like this.
He said, look, You can't be part way with me.
He said you can't hold hands with the world.
You can't be in love with this stuff and hold hands with me.
Because what's going to happen is you're going to have a
divided Allegiance and you're going to try for a while but
it's not going to work out. You're going to have to be all
in to be with me or you're going to have to go.
Do what you got to do in your life.
You know, how many people have tried their, very best to live
their life and still have Jesus Christ, and it's not working out
for him because God requires the basic tenets of Christianity is
deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow
me. That's diligently, seeking him.
That's the challenge. And what Satan wants to do is he
wants to shine a bright light in your eye and he wants you to not
be able to see it and he does a very good job of making that
bright light available and it is not the light of Jesus Christ.
It's the blinding light of his lies.
Will Satan Disease deceives by invitation for for such are
false Apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves
into Apostles of Christ and no wonder for Satan himself
transforms. Warms himself into an angel of
Light. Therefore, it is no great thing.
If he, if he, if his ministers, also transformed themselves in a
Ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to
their works. Now listen, keep going on.
The mount the very first Sermon on the Mount.
That Jesus gave, he said, Beware of false prophets, who come to
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits.
Keep going for a second. Now, the spirit expressly.
Says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith
giving heed to seducing, or deceiving spirits and doctrines
of demons. They will speak lies in
hypocrisy having their conscience.
Seared with a hot iron forbidding to marry and
commanding to abstain from foods, which God has created to
be received with Thanksgiving by those who believe and know the
truth. Now, he goes on for a little bit
talking about this explanation of how God made food to be
something you enjoy. If you bless it with prayer,
that was a different teaching that they had ever known.
And he said, People are going to come along and they're going to
try to hijack the teaching of the church and they're going to
make traditions where God has not taught anything got to be
careful of those guys. Jesus said they're going to be
ravenous wolves. They look like sheep but they're
really ravenous wolves and here he says they're able to
transform themselves. I know a lot of really, really
good. Good acting good.
Good people in so many circumstances that have believed
somebody a preacher or whoever it is.
And they've taken no responsibility for their own
soul in this. The Bible says, we have to study
to show ourselves approved unto God.
A Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
word of Truth. What does he mean by that?
Here's what he means by that. When you look at the Bible,
God's holy word, right here, what I mean by that is you
should take your Bible out and you should measure everything
that I'm saying by the book. And how do you know if I'm a
preacher of God or if I'm a liar?
Here's how you know, it you take this book and you sit down with
it and you say I'm going to ride down every scripture: hats.
If you want to take my sermon home, I'll give it to you.
That's no problem. Take every scripture, I'm giving
you home, take the explanations. I'm giving you from scripture
home with you, if what I am saying is different than what
the word of God says. Not a man of God and I'm not a
preacher of God. And so many of my friends people
that I love so much. Here's here's the common thing
that I hear, they say, you know, Cullen.
I just don't feel like God is interested in the details.
Let me see if I can make sure that I understand this.
He said they're going to come to you in sheep's clothing.
He said they're going to be deceitful workers and they're
going to look like somebody. That's really righteous and
good. He said they're going to teach
details like this that are not okay with God they're going to
tell you sometimes in history. This happened for sure that you
can't marry they're going to teach you doctrines of demons.
They're going to speak lies in hypocrisy.
They're going to have a conscience seared with a hot
iron. Are those details that matter?
Yeah. You see the real problem happens
in religion, when we do this, whenever people make up their
mind that I'm going to believe what I'm going to believe and
you believe what you want to believe and it's all going to
work out. Okay, that's a major problem.
Here's why. Jesus said not every one that
saith unto me Lord. Lord shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth, the will of My Father,
which is in heaven. Many will say, to me, in that
day, have we not prophesied in thy name?
And in thy name, have cast out demons in thy name.
Done many wonderful works. Then will I profess unto them?
I never knew you. Depart from me those of you that
practice lawlessness. Now let me let me back up for a
second because man, this is this is plowed pretty close to the
corn. We're trying to grow.
You're telling me that good sweet sincere, people.
In that moment that have lived a somewhat definitely, a religious
life have jeopardized their soul.
And yes, the answer is yes to that.
Jesus answered it. He said, I don't know you, what
is the determining Factor? He said not every one that saith
unto me, Lord Lord. But he that doeth, the will of
My Father, which is in heaven. So in other words, if I show you
what the Bible teaches for you to do the question, I have in
the commitment, I ask from you, tonight is this.
If I can show you what the Bible says, that's different than what
you're currently doing. Would you do it?
I can show you what the Bible says, period.
Would you do it? That answer has to be yes.
That answer has to be absolutely.
Yes. You see what the Lord is going
to do. Is he's going to start out.
He's going to teach you with what the Bible would refer to as
milk. Just like a baby.
It's not very proud thing to be able to say.
Okay I'm going to start out. I'm going to be a baby in Christ
but that's exactly what we are. But it expects us to grow, and
sometimes during that period of being a baby, we grow and we're
week well week, but then we grow to be strong but all along the
way. He's feeding us and what he
requires from us is that we would be a people that are
humble and willing to change. If he shows it to us, will you
do it one of the most effective questions I've ever heard?
Anybody asked in any religious sector, is this?
If I showed you what the Bible says, would you promised me?
You'd do it. And that answer better be yes.
How could we ever claim to be God's people, if we would not
answer that question? Yes.
So then the rubber meets the road and when I say, the rubber
meets the road you're talking about, you mean, you're going to
change me morally? You're going to change my
morals. Yep.
Yeah. You mean I'm going to have to
start doing some of the things differently than what I do.
I'm going to have to start acting different.
I'm going to have to change everything about my yeah.
It's what you're going to have to do.
But is it different? There's a Different Twist on
this. It's what you have the
opportunity to do. For an infinite.
Holy God to send his son to die for you.
Because one day it's not going to matter about what you did
today or this week or what kind of family vacation you took or
what kind of house you live in or what your lifestyle is.
Like, one day, it's only going to matter.
If the Lord says, I know you or I don't know you.
That's going to matter. That's going to be the most
important. In fact, there's not going to be
anything else that does matter. Well, Pate Satan tempts people
to send, listen and Luke 1:38, the Bible says, and the chief
priests, and the scribes saw how they might kill him.
For they feared the people then Satan entered Judas surnamed
Iscariot who was numbered among the twelve.
So he went his way and confirmed with the chief priests and
Captain's how he might betray him to them and they were glad
and agreed to give him money. So he promised and sought
opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the
multitude. You got two groups here that
want something. You got Judas, that is selling
Jesus out. And you've got the Jews, the
scribes, and the chief priests that what his blood because
they're jealous of him. He was stealing their Thunder.
They were mad. Let me tell you why they were
mad. They had been mad ever since
John the Baptist Jesus cousin, six months older than him.
He was six months older than him and he had stood in the Jordan
River and he'd looked every one of them in the eye and said, you
brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the Wrath to come
and he told them you'd have to bring forth fruit that is worthy
of repentance. They didn't like that very much.
Now, the common people came to John and they realized, hey,
he's talking straight to everybody.
You know what? I love about God, he didn't care
who you are, where you came from, he wants you to Rendered.
He wants you to change. So Jesus comes along and he
begins to preach that same message.
And he tells people, I tell you native, unless you repent, you
will all likewise perish. They didn't like that either.
They thought that because they had blood veins.
That said, I've got Abraham's blood in my physical veins, they
thought they were good with God. Have you ever known people that
thought, you know, my parents church to me, my parents took me
to church. I've been in church.
That's the same thing that was wrong with the Pharisees.
They trusted in that but they did not have a real relationship
with God and I'm going to define a real relationship with God is
Wonder one where we surrender to the will of the father.
Because I don't know anybody they can claim they have a real
relationship with God if they're disobeying God.
I do not know where that passage exist.
I don't know what teaching that would be.
That would ever help somebody think that But here's what the
scripture says, again, Satan entered you had somebody that
wanted to sell something or needed some money.
Wanted some money. That was his weakness and guess
what? He opened the door, guess what?
Our weaknesses do, Judas had a weakness for money.
He was the guy that carried the bag at always ought to make us
nervous a little bit. You ought to be real nervous
when you start thinking about money because money is one of
those things that the love of it is, the root of all evil.
I think that's a pretty good quality pot qualifier when you
sell out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
Then you got other people that want blood and they're willing
to participate in this as well. Not a good situation, another
story about money ananias and Sapphira.
Guess what happened Peter said ananias, why has Satan filled
your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the
price of the land. For yourself.
You ever had some, you ever had a moment where you Justified
something to yourself Stop and think for a second how Judas
Iscariot must have Justified this to himself.
Stop and think how ananias and Sapphira this husband-wife combo
seem to be doing something really good Judas.
You can't say anything was good about what he did.
And I sense if I were were early members of the church and they
sold some land and they brought it and they put it before the
apostles. Most scholars, believe that the
reason why they were struck dead that day is because they were
attempting the apostles to see if God's.
Holy spirit, was really in them. And they were able to CERN and
see that he was cheating, they were cheating the situation.
In other words, they were telling a half-truth, I don't
know what would have been wrong with them.
Selling the land and saying, hey, I'm going to give you half
of it, but they acted like, they gave it all to him.
So, stop and think for a second. Why has Satan filled thine heart
to lie? That's a powerful statement.
We ever stopped in Justified yourself in circumstances, we
all have you get in trouble. You have somebody hold you
accountable and you say, well, the reason why I did it, Was.
Why said that was? Why did that was?
Well, imagine what justification must have been going through
ananias and Sapphira is mine and it doesn't look like they got to
give an answer. They were struck dead that day.
The Bible says that fear fell on all the church.
Yeah, somebody comes in to church tonight.
They acted like they were one way and they really weren't we
drag their dead bodies out of the church.
I think that would cause a Revival right up here in the
middle of all of us, wouldn't it?
We'd be all thinking, you know what?
Fess up before I get this, same circumstance going on.
That was the supernatural moment where God was judging his people
and helping people understand, then what he is more
long-suffering with. Now you see they were
questioning literally put in a bad situation about how the Holy
Spirit works and about how the apostles worked.
And it was really a challenge to those guys and God struck him
dead. And that ought to be, that ought
to be a warning to us. It ought to be a warning to us
about justification. And it ought to be a warning to
us about how Satan operates because he will give you a
justification for whatever you want to believe and for whatever
you want to think. And for whatever you want to do,
if you want to do it, God will let you do it.
The problem is, your choice is not free, and there are
consequences to that. And that's the dangerous side to
how this works and how Satan tempts people to send.
Well, he takes and bakes, and chokes, the power of God's word.
The solar the Bible says the sower sows.
The word and these are the ones by the wayside where the word is
sown. When they You're Satan, comes
immediately and takes away. The word that was sown in their
hearts. These likewise are the ones sown
on Stony ground, who, when they hear the word immediately
receive it with gladness, and they have no root in themselves.
So, in dirt, only for a Time afterward when tribulation or
persecution arises for the words sake immediately, they tumble.
Now, these are the ones also, sown among Thorns, they are the
ones who hear the word and the cares of this world.
Swirled the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other
things, enter anything in choke the word and it becomes
unfruitful but these are the ones sown on good ground.
Those who hear the word except that in bear fruit.
Some thirtyfold, some 60 And some hundred, this is all of us
right here. The Wayside soil.
Who comes the Bible? Says Satan comes and takes it
away. That's not where you want to be.
That's not where anybody wants to be.
I have heard people and watched people with the gospel before
and they have an attitude of I really don't care what you're
saying. In fact they're doing
everything. But listen, they could care
less. But the word is still there.
This it's still powerful. The problem is the heart that
it's sewn on could care less. And so, the Bible says Satan
takes it away. Be real careful.
When you hear the word of God to be open to it because the next
round goes like this. Oh yeah.
That's a great idea. Yeah preacher.
Yeah, you showed her to me. I like it.
I accept it. But that's where it stops.
You see? The Bible says, we have to
continue in it and there's a natural growth process.
And the problem is when people give up on the growth process,
it goes kind of like this. I get into Jesus Christ.
I'm all gung-ho I grow a little plant.
It's looking good, but the Problem is then I take away all
the water and all the fertilizer from it and then I wonder why
the route doesn't go down and it begins to die.
In other words, it's a picture of people that literally don't
do what's necessary to grow. You have to grow, you have to
grow, what do you have to do to grow, get, Eat, You Gotta Eat,
I've never in my life forgotten, what it was like to have twins.
In fact of all the things that are probably would have done if
we would have just had one, I would have probably been some
arrogant person that gave People parenting advice.
Listen, if you're here and you got kids bless your heart,
you've survived, you've made it, it's great.
I don't have any advice for you. I remember figuring out how we
were going to put food in and get something out.
I remembered all that. It was very, very important.
In fact, it was necessary. Well, this one's not eat as
much. Well, this 18, but then it came
out, I don't know. It wasn't a proper coming out
kind either. It's supposed to you're supposed
to feed them and it's supposed to stay there and they grow.
The next time you take them to the doctor, they're a little
bigger and a little fatter and they grow and if they don't and
oh she's not eat this. Is this one is and Mama's
worried about that and they make me worry about that.
I didn't know what to worry about but I do.
Now you got to eat, you got to grow.
There's a growth chart older than 95th percentile their high
but oh, they're 40 percentile for weight.
What are we gonna do? I'm scared.
They're going to die. There's a chart, there's an
expectation. We know that with little kids
well there's an expectation. Spiritually to it.
Here's what it is. All your life.
You're trying to act like Jesus and grow to be like Jesus every
day. And he's going to help you do
it. But you got to eat it, you got
to eat the food. Sometimes, the food is going to
taste real good, and it's going to get to your stomach, and it's
going to be bitter. That's what the Bible says about
itself. Sometimes it's like sweet honey,
but then when it gets inside, and it begins to change
everything and all the relationships and everything
begins to change. Sometimes it's bitter.
You got to make that different. You got to make that call.
But then he talked about the thorns and he said, this is the
cares in the richest in the pleasures of life.
That's a very careful thing that we ought to take into
consideration. There's a lot of stuff that
Satan sends our way to try to get our mind off.
What our job is, and our job is to bear fruit.
Our job is to grow to be like Jesus, every single day to bear
fruit. Last of all for this reason,
when I could no longer endure it, I sent, I sent to know your
faith lest by some means. The tempter have tempted.
You Our labor might be in vain. In other words, the job of
everybody that preaches. The gospel and teach us the word
of God is to make sure that this see falls upon the ground and on
the good ground it to make sure that it does something.
And he talks about the labor of that process, sometimes it's in
vain because what Satan does is he wants to destroy that work.
That's what he tries to do. I gotta hurry, Satan uses
sickness disease and death. All along throughout scripture
there have been moments, where disease, and sickness and death,
Satan uses that to destroy people, even to destroy and
discouraged and try to ruin. People just know this.
What Satan uses, what Satan tries to do.
What? He's always trying to do is make
people sick and die. What God said, basically is
this? Everybody's going to get sick
and everybody is going to die. But what's It does is because he
knows that we don't want to die physically and God's put all the
cards on the table. He wants to frame it in such a
way that it's God's fault and it's God's problem.
And God is not the reason why we get sick and God is not the
reason why we die sin is. And sins are Choice problem and
that's it's our Freewill problem and all along the time he is
always used sickness and disease and death to try to destroy
people's faith. And tonight, I pray that he's
never able to do that for you. The Apostle Paul captured all
this, when he would say things like this for me to depart and
to be with the Lord is far better than this.
If I stay, it's going to be better for you because I'm going
to bless you with my life. I'm going to serve you.
I'm going to work for you. I'm going to do everything I can
for you, but it's far better to die.
And go be with the Lord. That's when we know our
relationship with God is real, Satan does not win.
And first Peter 3:8, he who sins is of the devil for the devil
has sinned from the beginning for this purpose.
The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works
of the devil in his much than the children have / taken a
flesh-and-blood. Hebrews said he himself likewise
shared in the same that he might through death, he might destroy
him. That had the power of death.
That is the devil. Satan is not going to win.
You read, Luke chapter 4 and you read.
Matthew and what you'll find is Jesus was taken up and he is the
perfect picture of what Satan tried to do.
He tried to destroy Jesus with three different times, three
different moments at the weakest moment of Jesus's life except
for the Garden of Gethsemane. And in those moments, Jesus
would say it is written. It is written, it is written
again, and that's what we have to do.
The very, the very thing that God gave us to fight with our
weapons. We don't wrestle, he said
against flesh and blood, but against spiritual hosts.
So what did Say, take up the whole armor of God, he would say
things like this. Gird, your waist, with the
truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness shod, your feet
with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
But then he said this above all taking, the shield of Faith, you
will be able to Finch quench, all the fiery darts of the
wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
Praying, always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit
being watchful to the end with all perseverance and
supplication for all the saints. You know what he's saying?
This is what's going on. And yes, this has to happen
individually, but there's also something collectively that we
do Now, if somebody came in God forbid and they were to begin
shooting, like we hear all this crazy stuff, you know, where I'm
going to be. I'm not going to stand right
behind this. I'm going to get behind that.
If somebody came in and they were shooting darts at you or
shooting anything that you, where do you want to be, you
want to stand behind this and try to figure out a way to know.
You don't want to do that at all.
You want to try to get behind something.
That's big enough for you to hide something, to put every
part of your body, so that they don't get any part of you.
Satan Satan does his very best to destroy people before?
They have a chance to build and put together what God put in
place. But let me tell you what God
did. Before you ever have a chance to
grow your faith, the way it should be, he puts you as a part
of a body. And what our job is is, we've
got to do our very best to hide behind when we are weak or sick
or down and out, we've got to have somebody that's going to
fight off the lines and you better be that person for
somebody because there's going to become a day and time where
you're going to have somebody doing that for you.
You better have a moment in your life where you recognize that
you may be that person that somebody else is relying on and
if you don't stand in there, you don't do your part.
They're not going to make it. Listen to what the scripture
says for the body is one and has many members, but all the
members of that one body being many are one body.
So also is Christ. You notice what he said back
here, we make prayer. You know, the greatest thing
you'll ever do for anybody in your in their whole life,
anything the greatest thing you can ever do.
For me, the greatest thing that I'll ever do for you is remind
God of how important you are to me.
And I am to you. And what Satan wants to do is he
wants to try to separate off, he wants to try to make sick.
He wants to try to get somebody victimized and off by themselves
away from the herd and what the herd has the responsibility to
do is get in there and dig in. We've got to dig in and we've
got to build a perimeter around. We've got to do everything we
can, although the lion seems so close, we got to do everything
we can to fight him off. Because we're one body.
And when one of us hurts, we all hurt one of us has a victory, we
all have the Victory and that's what you have in the body of
Christ. You demonstrate that reality
When you pray for your brothers and your sisters in Christ you
demonstrate that reality when you provoke one another on to
love and good works, you demonstrate that when you call
one another, when you send text messages of encouragement, when
you're seeing cards, when you do nothing more than smile and Pat,
somebody on the back, you have a god-given job that anybody no
matter who they are in the whole wide world, you can be a
blessing to them. Specially, you can be a blessing
to your brother and your sister in Christ.
We are fighting. In fact, we are in the fight of
our life against the devil, and we, when we're together and when
we have the herd assembled around us, We're going to beat
him. We're going to beat him big
because his fate is already known.
We know what's going to happen to him, we don't want him to get
another one. And those that he's got ahold
of, we want to get back. We want to do everything we can.
To be on the Lord's Side to fight this fight for all were
worth. If you're here tonight and
you're not a Christian, won't you accept the invitation?
Jesus said come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden
and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me
for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light light.
Now, what I talked about tonight is not light, the Bible says,
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
Whenever you're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son of
the Holy Spirit, you have just called upon.
We have wheat, somebody will call upon the most powerful
beings in the universe, God the Father God, the son, and God,
the Holy Spirit, and they buy their power and authority wash
away. The dead man of sin and they
make by their Grace, they make us alive again.
According to Ephesians 2 verse 1 and then the Bible says, greater
is he that is in you. He that is in the world.
Who is it? That's in you.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
You're not going to lose when the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit are in you and you're in Christ.
Do you know the place where they are?
And you should be in Christ? That's where every spiritual
blessing is your feeling weak and you're feeling alone and
you're feeling like the world has victimized you and you feel
like you need some help and you feel like you're down and out.
You find the herd and the herd is the body of Jesus Christ.
And will not only protect, you will fight some of your battles
for you will do everything we can.
Well, bear every burden that we possibly It can bear for you,
the Bible tells us that's our job.
Fulfill the law of Christ to Bear one another's, burdens.
Are you here tonight in? San is overtaking you and you
need our prayers. We'd love to pray for you.
If you only knew if you could only imagine at that moment,
where you feel the weakest, some of the greatest strength you'll
ever find, or people that are calling your name in prayer.
We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the
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