Turn over to a scripture that is widely known but also widely
misunderstood. John, chapter 10, verse 10.
What I'm my assignment here tonight from the word of God,
from from the head of the church, Jesus is to teach you
something that you've already heard in many different ways.
You're well taught in Anchor Faith Church.
Amen. Thank you for those six amens.
I said you're well taught at Anchor Faith Church.
Now how would I know that? Do you know that your pastor
teaches at our church when my wife and I are gone by by
YouTube, by video? We don't, we don't take that
lightly. There's only about four
different ministers that have taught our people besides us on
video. And your pastor's one of them.
You're, you're well taught here at Anchor Fay Church.
And not only do I know that by that, I know that because I've
been in literally thousands of churches and I, I know when I go
into a church if they've been well taught or not by how people
respond. Amen.
So I, I know you can handle this.
This is me. It's already 8:15.
I'm not letting you go at 8:30. I promise I'll let you go before
midnight. John chapter 10 verse 10 says
the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to
destroy. These are Jesus words, right?
I am come that thou mayest have life and have it more abundantly
if you put up the amplified guys.
If you can have that, the amplified classic it.
It's interesting. The thief comes only say only.
Do you know that the thief only has one job?
This is his MO, his modus operandi or his mode of
operation. And it's only to steal and to
kill not or steal and kill and destroy.
That's all he comes to do. He's not coming to party with
you. I don't care what rock rock song
you heard. I don't care what hip hop song
you heard. The devil is not a partier, he's
a killer. He's a destroyer, he's a thief
and he comes only to do that. Oh, he made package party.
But see, he doesn't come. He doesn't come to be your
friend, but yet the Bible says he can even.
Come and appear as an Angel of light.
Why? Because he's a deceiver of the
brethren. He is the chief liar.
He's the father of lies. Why is he called the father of
lies? Because the first thing out of
his sneaky, snaky self in the Garden of Eden was a lie, He
told Eve. You shall not surely die When
you eat of the tree. You're not going to die.
God doesn't want you to eat that because you'll be like him.
Two lies. That's all he can do is lie.
He's a deceiver, he's a fraud. Don't look around.
There's no he's not here. But notice this again only in
order to steal and kill the destroy.
This is taken from the Greek meaning this is the original
statement. He only comes for this.
Purpose. And I'm glad this is not the end
of the sentence. It's not the end of this verse.
What does Jesus say? I came that they, they, who,
they, you, they, us, they, me. Hallelujah that the people may
have, may have. That's conditional.
And as I say, will have, doesn't say, shall have.
It says may have. It's not up to him, it's up to
you. It's up to me.
May have. See if you're not a doer.
You may not have this abundant life.
If you're just a knower and knower, most of the body of
Christ can quote this verse, but yet they don't live like it.
This word life is the Greek word Zoe Zoe that means the the full
expression of life, health, abundance, prosperity, wisdom,
favor on and on. In other words, the God kind of
life or life as God has it. Other translations say he only
came to give you abundant life and even more abundantly, the
full abundance. It's the Greek word persistus
that means over the top, more than enough beyond your wildest
imagination. That's why he came.
Now I have a question for you. This is real easy math.
You won't have to take your shoes off to count toes on this.
Please leave them on. Is the body of Christ walking in
the God kind of life? Come on, this is not a trick
question, is it? No, no, I, I can just tell you
that straight up. I'll be even more specific.
Is everybody in Anchor Faith Church that calls it their
church home walking in the God kind of life?
Nope. Everybody in my church walking
the God kind of Nope. But I'll tell you what is
happening. Everybody in our churches and
everybody in the body of Christ has been stolen from, killed and
destroyed from Satan. Every single one of us has
succumbed to his stupidity every single at one time in our life
or another. Even sometimes even after you
were a believer, the devil still snuck in there and stole from
you. He ripped you off.
He cheated you. Come on.
He may have even destroyed something in your life.
Everyone of us have succumbed to this because that wasn't our
choice. Sometimes it is, but that wasn't
our choice. We were born into a fallen world
and the God of this world is not Jehovah God.
Everybody running around saying God is in control.
Why does the Bible say that there is a God, little God of
this earth, and his name is Satan?
He is the thief that comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
Why? Why is there such a person
that's stealing from us, killing from us, and destroying from us
if God is still in control? Because this verse tells us that
God's not in control, that God's control over our lives is
conditional. And it's not based upon his
condition. It's not based upon His desire.
It's upon ours Our. Own these are fundamental basics
foundations of our Christian faith, and most people in the
body Christ don't know it. Every time there's a school
shooting. Tallahassee, right?
Texas is known for a lot of school shootings.
Columbine. Just last week was the
anniversary of Columbine. Littleton Co.
I could just go on and on and on.
Newtown. Connecticut news cameras show up
and they ask people, what do you know about this?
And they'll say this is what they said.
This is their this is their Pat Christian answer.
I don't know why God allowed this Isn't that isn't that the
isn't that the stock axor? Yeah, I know God is in control
and he has a purpose for these listen but baby, he's got
killed, but he has a purpose in this.
No he doesn't. This verse tells you why do they
why do they attest that God is in control and God has a purpose
for this when it says otherwise in this verse, one verse
destroys it completely nukes that whole mentality.
It nukes it. It wipes it off the face of the
earth, but yet most of the body of Christ hasn't gotten the
memo. You ought to know better.
God's not in control of everything.
He's doing a lousy job. If he's in control, there
wouldn't be any poverty, there wouldn't be any sickness, there
wouldn't be any lack, there wouldn't be any fear if God was
in control of everything. Come on.
It's, it's, it's, it's his will that none should perish.
That's his will. But he doesn't exert his will on
everybody. We have a free will.
We are free moral ages. We are the the greatest gift God
gave the church is the power of choice.
We get to choose what way we want.
He is not our dictator. He is not a Nazi.
Neither is Trump. Goodness gracious, I slapped
this. I slapped the knot on your head.
You can't rub off so much stupidity going on out there.
In the name of Christ often times from the church often
times and they don't know anything.
And the the world doesn't know history either.
History is one of my minors in college and I still major in
history starting right here. You know, I learned stuff in
history at school that was in here, but I didn't know it yet.
Some of our very fundamental basic foundations of our
Christian faith are in what I'm talking about.
And people are so mesmerized by some hotshot by some popular
podcaster or you know whoever hip hop preacher all about
their. Image and their tats don't even
get me started. These basics, these fundamentals
we cannot dismiss. We cannot any longer ignore.
We can't just let them take their own path.
We must be on purpose. Kind of last days, Christians.
The very strategies mentioned here in this verse strategies is
one of the definitions of the word Wiles, the Wiles of the
devil. Using the New Testament
strategies and tricks of deceit. These strategies and tricks of
the deceit, they're not new. It's the same strategies, tricks
of the sea. The devil is always used.
He just repackages them. And we think, wow, this is, this
is so worse than it used to be. No, there's just more people.
That's why it's worse. It's the same strategy, same
tricks. Anybody ever heard of Kenneth E
Hagin? Anybody around here ever heard
of? I heard him say this 50 years
ago, 50 years ago, before there was a Rhema, before, before
there was a church, before there was a school, before there was a
campus. He said this 60 people in this
meeting, and that was a big Hagan meeting.
And then he said the devil has no tricks.
He still steals and kills and destroys from primarily men,
particularly preachers. He was addressing the same three
things, the gold, the glory, and the girls.
Now he's probably not the first one.
That said, that was the first one I paid attention to, and
that's still true. Preachers are following right
and left because of gold. Glory are the girls.
Some of them have all three going in in great, great power.
Some of them train others to do it.
Really. Yep, sure do.
I could name some names right here.
Why? Because they're false prophets.
They're false doctrine. But I don't have time for that.
Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16.
Are you with me yet? Matthew chapter 16 This is a
great, great story about Jesus and the disciples.
He he talks about a wicked and adulterous generation. 6 After a
sign in chapter 16, he talks about being aware and taking
heed because of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
In other words, false prophets, false doctrine, Pharisees and
Sadducees were of false doctrine and he named them.
Oh, that's just not love. Oh really?
Let me tell you about love. So Jesus wasn't walking in love
when he ran the money changers, when he whipped the money
changers butts out of the temple by making his own whip.
He didn't order it on Amazon. He made it.
It was a premeditated weapon. So that wasn't love.
Let me tell you something. This is something the Holy
Spirit told me Saturday. I wrote it down.
I'd already had this typed out six weeks ago.
The Lord gave me this message. I didn't know where I was going
to minister it, but just Saturday he, he, he had me right
on this very expensive stationary.
You know how expensive post it notes are.
But this is what he said. Showing mercy to the wolf is
showing cruelty to the sheep. So showing mercy to the wolves,
the devourers, the devil like invaders, the devil like
talkers, the devil like actors, showing mercy to the wolf is
showing cruelty to the sheep. You see, this is what the devil
does. He reverses these things.
What he's actually doing, he accuses the Church of doing.
Sounds like a political party. This is what Jesus said when he
said in verse 13, I mean this is this is you remember the the
loaves and fishes story. I mean, I could just go on and
on. So he says, Who do men say that
I am? Some say you're John the
Baptist, others say you're Elijah, others say you're
Jeremiah, one of the prophets. But he said to his disciples,
But who do you say I am? What about you?
Peter answer said Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. That's the first place you have
recorded in the Bible that Jesus was called the Messiah.
He's the one, you're the one. You're the he was saying this.
You're the one we've been trained about and heard about
our whole lives. You're the ones that we
celebrate the feast for. You're the you're the identical
one. You're, you are him by the way,
he called him Lord. Do you know?
Do you know?
That if a political figure of the day would have heard that
Peter would have lost his head, because the king then was
Caesar, right? The Lord then was Herod, right?
Well, let me tell you, Let me tell you something worse.
If the Sadducees and the Pharisees heard Peter say that,
they would behead him as well. The Church, the religious false
doctrine. What's Jesus answered verse 18.
He said, I also say unto you that thou art Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church in the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. We need the amplified here
because it really helps us. You are Peter in Greek as
Petrus, a large piece of rock, not the rock.
You're a piece of rock everyone of us are a piece of.
As a born again believer, we are a piece of the rock.
We are creating his image and after His likeness.
If we if Jesus is our Lord, we're a piece of the Lord.
We're not the Lord. How do you know you're not well?
I smelled my breath this morning.
I know, I know. I'm not Jesus.
Deity couldn't have breath like us.
But he goes on and says upon this rock, the right back
Capernaum, which is the seashore, a huge mountain of
rock, and it says, Thou art of on this rock, Petra, a huge rock
like Gibraltar. Any of any of you ever been to
Gibraltar? On the southern tip of Spain?
You have, Sir Navy. No, just OK.
Just anybody else you have why were you there?
Military. OK.
It actually belongs. It's it's part of the European
continent. It belongs to the Spanish.
But if the Brits didn't come in there during World War One and
maintain it during World War 2, all of us would be speaking
German. Why?
Because it controls the 18 miles across the Straits of Gibraltar
where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean.
And Hitler wanted to control all of North Africa and certainly
all of southern Europe, but he couldn't get his ships into the
Mediterranean. He could only get submarines.
And so the Brits put big guns. First of all, even way before
World War One, they put cannon in the side and then right on
the side of it you can see these caves built and they have old
cannon up there. 2 wheel cannon, You know what I'm talking about?
Like Civil war level cannon? And then after that they put
those big guns for World War One on top of Gibraltar, and then
they put bigger guns in World War 2.
They could shoot it all the way out into the Atlantic, bombs to
control so the Germans could not get in and out of the
Mediterranean. Because if they did, they would
have controlled it. Have you, have you been up on
the top? No, but you probably read about
it, saw the pictures of the guns that were you up on top?
Yeah, all the way up. The biggest danger up there now
is what's called the Barbary apes.
In other words, the the apes from Africa.
And they are mean. They are really, really mean.
The reason they were Barbary, because they were pirates would
take them on their ships and pirates would land there at
Gibraltar, and because it's a natural port and they would land
there for safety out of the Atlantic storms.
And then they'd go back out in the Atlantic and go up and down
the coast and control things. The pirates would, they control
all the shipping channels. And so they would take those
apes and then they'd let them off there and they'd run up on
top and go wild. I mean, they'll steal your
lunch, but they'll scratch it, they'll jump on top of you,
they'll bite you, everything else.
So I got to kill a couple of those.
But anyway, I fed them rocks. It says don't feed the Barbary
apes, but I fed them stones. But anyway, Why?
Because I was defending myself. Anyway, you've seen the Rock of
Gibraltar on Prudential Insurance commercials.
They pull it behind boats, they climb on it.
They they carry it in vehicles. But you can't do it.
It's gigantic. It's bigger than this building,
by far. Taller, bigger, wider and it's
it's powerful. Jesus just said, Peter, you're a
piece of the rock. But upon this rock of
revelation, talking about himself, I'm going to build my
church. The rock of revelation.
What is the rock of revelation? Jesus is the rock.
The Bible calls him the rock. If you, if you don't build your
house on the rock or the revelation of who Jesus Christ
is in your life and lordship. Pastor and I've talked to
extensively about this. The biggest problem in the body
of Christ is the lack of lordship.
They want Jesus as Savior, but oh, they don't want him as Lord.
They don't want anybody telling them what to do.
But yet Jesus will far do better for you than you could ever do
for yourself. So go ahead and make Him Lord of
your life. That's not up to Him.
Lordship is not His decision. Salvation was His decision.
Remember, He had to decide that in the Garden of Gethsemane the
night before. He made that decision once and
for all. Not my will, but your will be
done. But we're the ones that make him
Lord of our lives. He doesn't make himself Lord.
He's not a dictator. Upon this rock, this rock of
revelation, I will build my church first place.
The word church is used in the New Testament and the gates of
hell or Hades. It says hell there.
Hades is a specific name, meaning the powers of the
infernal region. It's not just talking about a
place, it's talking about the influence of hell.
That's the danger. The influence of hell is in the
earth. Why?
Because hell is in the center of the earth and the influence of
it is on the earth. As long as Satan is the little
God of this world, he's using the powers of his influence
against us. And when we build our lives on
the rock of Revelation, of Jesus being our Lord, there is no
power of the devil that can stand against us.
He is no threat when Jesus is our Lord.
You've heard me say it before. Whatever you yield your field
to, it's going to grow a crop in it.
And if you're yielding you're field to the powers of the
infertile region. You're in trouble and you can't
get out of on your own. Well, I'll never fall in the
devil's trap. Really.
Isn't that part of what the word means?
You didn't see it coming. That's why it's called a trap.
There's not a sign that says trap ahead.
And he's seen people like us before.
He knows our MO. He knows how we react to
pressure. He knows how we react to to
somebody being ugly to us. He knows how we react to, to, to
temptations. And so he lays those traps in
all those places where we go and we fall in them.
I've fallen in them. Surely you haven't done that
here at Anchor Faith Church. But I've fallen in traps before.
You're a bunch of lying dudes. Come on.
How many have fallen into a trap of the enemy?
So the enemy has this ancient time tested proven system to
steal and kill and destroy. But Jesus just told us that
system doesn't work against those who have built their life
on this rock. Amen.
And it's not, it's not a thing. Well, brother, I've already read
the Bible. Oh really?
Evidently you didn't read it enough because Jesus said that
if we abide in his word and allow his words to abide in US,
evidently you you didn't read the part where Jesus said
continue in my word. He didn't say read it and walk
away. He didn't say memorize it and
walk away. He said continue in it and he
said if you continue in it, you're my.
Disciple. See, everybody, every Christian
calls it. Yes, I have a disciple.
But if you're not continuing in the Word, you're not a disciple.
Now, none of you are that foolish, but there are people
watching and listening who are. Every church has them.
Come on. I just want to make sure that I
cover this pastor. Oh, and I did not talk about
what I was going to preach here. I know nothing.
I hear nothing. I'm Sergeant John, not Sergeant
Schultz. I know the Holy Spirit.
They gave me this six weeks ago. So let's start, let's start by
learning there are three different time tested, ancient
proven systems that the devil uses to steal and kill and
destroy. This is what it looks like now.
These are, these are three major ones.
There are, there are multiple single ones #1 assaults or an
invasion. He comes to assault you and
invade your life. And I want you to write these
down, type them into your phone, whatever you got to do, make
sure that you have this. Because if we're not, if we're
not aware of this, not afraid, but if.
We're we're, we're we're not. The Bible says in Corinthians
that we're not to be ignorant of Satan's devices.
We're not to study the devil, but we, we, we shouldn't be
ignorant of his, how he operates.
So this is how he operates. He invades, he assaults.
Secondly, that's the purpose, to build a stronghold.
He's not about befriending you, He's about lording over you.
He's about building a stronghold in your life where he can.
Come in, set up shop and do what he wants.
And thirdly is to establish bondages, spiritual slavery.
That's how strong bondage is. It's spiritual slavery.
Now I'm just going to quote this verse for the sake of time, but
you've been well taught. First Thessalonians 521 says,
and the very God of peace sanctify you holy, and I pray
God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Another one says, And may the God of peace himself sanctify
you through and through, separate from your profane from
profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God.
And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved, sound and
complete and found blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's not talking to preachers.
That's talking to every believer.
We're supposed to be live a life of purity, holiness, blameless
before God. It's not just for preachers.
That's a really good place to start.
Not all preachers are blameless. Not all preachers are holy.
You have two preachers. You you have your pastors that
are, I know Pastor Mike is I'm still praying for Angie, but I,
I just want to, I just want to just really qualify some things
here. She dishes it out, so I she has
to take it. So the enemy attacks you in two
primary realms. OK, in other words, he assaults
you, he invades you. That's our first point.
He assaults and invades you in two primary realms #1
heavenlies, plural. In the heavenlies.
Stop talking about 3rd heaven, where God lives.
The devil's not where God lives. He used to be got kicked out,
then he got evicted. Why?
Because of rebellion, right? Rebellion is never good
rebellion, and a Christian really makes them viciously
ugly. In other words, the spiritual
bombardment comes from the heavenlies.
We're going to show you this in Scripture in a minute.
You know what you're well taught?
Secondly, in the natural realm. In the natural realm, that's
flesh and blood or physical soulish.
So this qualifies your whole spirit and soul and body.
You see, spirit is spiritual bombardment.
Body that's in the natural, that's flesh and blood.
These two can overlap. The enemy really has a party
when he can overlap these two. But that's not how we're
supposed to live. I'm, I'm going to make this
statement. I'm not going to go into detail
about this, but the enemy operates much the same way as a
corporate takeover, corporate Raiders.
They look for a company that's a good company, but it's weak in
the leadership or it's weak in production or it's weak in some
area and they, they look at it to take it over.
And so they attack the weakness. How many have ever watched Nat
Geo or or anything about Lions, etcetera, etcetera?
You know how lions seek their prey and they, they, they seek
out their attack. Do they just run in there in the
middle of of the water Buffalo and attack the bulls?
No. They're looking for a weak,
sickly, injured, or one that's not paying attention, one that's
not aware of his surroundings, one that's not sober thinking,
OK, that's going to come later. They're not going to attack the
the bulls. They're not going to attack the
strong, the strengths. So #1 go to First Peter chapter
5. First Peter chapter 5.
This is one of the outstanding writings in your New Testament.
It covers the coast, talks to to elders, it talks to younger, but
we're we're going to cherry pick one verse out of here in verse
8. It says be sober, be vigilant
because your adversary, well, who is that?
The devil. It says your adversary the devil
as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour not
will devour not shell devour may conditional look at this in the
amplified be well balanced sober temperate sober of mine.
That doesn't mean not drunk. It includes it, but it's talking
about somebody's not thinking right, somebody who has not
renewed their mind to the word of God and that's many in the
church we're. Still, we're still controlled by
our senses instead of by the Spirit.
We're supposed to be controlled by the Spirit and by the Word of
God. We're supposed to be walking by
faith. Not by our senses, not by how we
feel, what we see, what we hear. We're supposed to be dictated by
the walk of faith. We're supposed to live by faith,
walk by faith. We're not supposed to be walking
by our senses, but yet most of body of Christ is walking by
their senses. You know what I heard today?
Doesn't matter what you heard. What does the?
Word say and. I'm not going to make my choices
based upon what I've heard because what if?
What if I heard the 9th person of the 10 on the game of
telephone? It's changed.
It may have been a number one. It may have been a pure.
The sun's going to come up tomorrow.
It's going to be a great day. Next person says, well, maybe,
maybe the sun's going to come up tomorrow and it could be a bad
day. By the time it gets to number 9
or 10, it's totally whacked out. That's a child game.
But that's how Christians operate.
Many Christians operate by what they hear, not by what the word
says, but but what they hear. What if somebody told you or
emailed you or texted you? I'm not moved by text.
I'm not moved by emails. I'm moved by the word.
What does the word tell me? So he comes.
He's looking for those who aren't well balanced, those who
aren't in control. Temperate means in control.
Sober of mine. Then he said be vigilant and
cautious. He didn't say be fearful.
He said be vigilant, be aware, be alert, right?
Be alert, cautious for that enemy of yours.
If you wonder who that was, it says it again.
It our enemy is the devil. He roams about like a lion, not
as a lion. He roams about like a lion,
roaring in fierce hunger, seeking someone to seize upon
and devour. He's seeking and looking.
For people, that's the someone here, he not looking to capture
your puppy dog. He not looking to capture your
your parakeet or your iguana, whatever your pet is, he's
looking to, he's looking to capture people's hearts and
minds and lives and bodies. And he's looking for those that
are weak, those that what have open portals of access.
I'm not going to use the word doors for another reason.
I'll tell you in a minute. I'll show you in the word.
He's looking for openness, open portals of access.
He's looking for strife. He's looking for fear.
He's looking for for mental weakness.
He's looking for offense. I could just go on and on the
list as endless, but he's looking and that's who he's
going to jump on. He doesn't go after the the
lead, He doesn't go after the, the, the, the strength.
Are you hearing me now? I'm not saying he never does,
but I'm talking about as individuals.
He's not he's not he If the devil, if the devil could come
and just take you out anytime he wanted, he would have already
done it. Come on.
In other words, the enemy is looking for those with no
supernatural security system. He's looking for those with Open
Access. So we clearly see here that the
enemy cannot invade and devour those with renewed minds and who
are alert with spiritual discernment of what he's trying
to do. That's what he just told us in
this verse. The devil can't take you out
when you know who you are in Christ.
The devil can't take you out when you're aware of his
devices. You see him coming.
That's why it's important to be a member of a church, not only
to learn, but to sharpen each other and to be taught of the
Lord by an overseer called A. Shepherd.
That's why the devil hates the church.
That's why he tries to make fun of the church.
He tries to belittle the church. He tries to bring strife in the
church. He tries to bring fear in the
church. He tries to divide the church.
Come on, think about borders, walls, fences, castles,
fortifications. I'm going to to Peru here in
just a few weeks. I go there typically every year
till COVID. It's sad that we have to say,
well, after COVID, it used to be after 911, now it's after COVID.
That's really sad. I mean, it's all orchestrated by
the devil. And now we put it as a as a
timeline. But I've been to Portugal and
Spain and France and and Austria and those kinds of places all
over Mexico, Latin America, every country in in, in Latin
America. And you see castles, you see
fortifications everywhere and you see walls and you see razor
wire on top of those walls. In Lima, Peru, where I'm going
in a few weeks, I'm also going to Arequipa.
But all around Lima there's five counties, 5 counties, 1 town.
And all those counties are named something different, but it's
all Lima. There's 12 to 15,000,000.
Some people think there's 20 million, almost as big as Mexico
City. And there are nice apartment
buildings there. There's Old Town, you know, But
there's nice apartment buildings.
There's gates and walls and everything.
But that's not enough. You have to put razor wire on
your balcony. Yeah.
And you want that here? You want that spirit here, huh?
Anybody want that here? Well, there are parts of America
where that that's, that's the way it looks.
That's the way it is right now. Why?
Because we've allowed all the illegals to come over here and
establish that system here. That's all I'll say about that.
Well, we're all immigrants legal.
OK, I'll go on. No extra charge.
You know, I just want to remind you, I live in Texas.
I, I could tell you some really, really heartbreaking stories.
I could tell you some devastating stories.
I could, I could, I could tell you some tearjerker stories of
what the cartels have done across the Texas border.
It's not only about drugs. It's not only about fentanyl and
all those things. It's about child sex trafficking
where they cut razor wire. Excuse me, They cut barbed wire
on ranches. That's not unusual to cut the
top two strands where they can step over, but they're cutting
the bottom 2 strands because they're running children under
the wire every stinking night. And it's all adults, three to
four adults with 40 to 60 kids. But there's a there's a leftist
political part of that says they're just coming over for
work. It's all families.
Oh really? It was proven in the last four
years they couldn't find 344,000 children that they processed.
So you think it's just about families?
You're reading the wrong feed, junior.
My preaching has been in your shot, and so far I'm on the
front lines of it. You can't get millions in boats
here to Florida. You can get millions across an
open border across the Rio Grande.
And it's happened. No extra charge.
Ours is a spiritual battle, and it's only one in the spirit.
Come on, somebody. Now I'm going to give you a
homework homework assignment before I come back whenever I'm
invited, if I'm invited back again, read the whole chapter of
John 10. But we're we're going to look at
a couple more verses there and and we're going to wind this
down the whole chapter. But let's go back to John 10 and
let's let's see the pre statements before verse 10.
What did he say? He started out talking in verse
one of John chapter 10. The principles, the the text,
the point. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that entereth not by the door, say by the door or gate.
Into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way.
The same is a thief and a robber.
Think about your house and jump over your fence, jump through
your window while you're at work.
They're a thief and they're a robber.
They're not there because you invited them over for coffee.
They're not there because you they're your friend.
Hello. But he that enters them by the
door, say by the door, you got to underline that by the door,
it's not the first place we've seen it is the shepherd of the
sheep. So the one that comes up front
by the door, the front door comes in legally is your
shepherd. The one who comes in sneakily,
Slytherin is not your friend, and certainly not your shepherd.
To him the shepherd, the Porter openeth, and the sheep hear his
voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name and leads them
out. And when he puts forth his own
sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they
know his voice. They know their own shepherd's
voice. I'm going to give you a little a
little history lesson here. When I go to Europe and I go to
South America, I still see shepherds and sheep walking in
the fields and what they did in Jesus day.
And the reason he uses this illustration is they didn't have
in the Middle East, didn't have a lot of had no fences.
They may have had a few rock walls, but they would gather all
of their sheep. All these different shepherds
would gather all their sheep into one place at night.
Now, if it's where I come from cattle country, there's still a
George Ranch in the Panhandle of Texas.
You brand your cattle and you ear tag them.
You can't brand a sheep or you ruin the wool.
You could brand them, but you couldn't see it because the
wool's going to grow over the top of it.
And, and even if you, even if it was, it didn't grow any wool
there. The wool over the top of it's
going to fold over and you can't see it.
So they would pull them all in together, sleep during the
night, and they would, they'd sleep around the perimeter of
all those sheep, maybe have a dog or two, maybe have a donkey
or two, because the donkeys will protect them as well.
But they'll have them out there, but they'll sleep around the
perimeter and the next morning when they wake up, all the sheep
look the same. How are we going to separate our
own sheep? Because I've already got to deal
with this, this, this, this landowner over here that I can
come graze over there in his pasture today.
I don't have that deal for all these sheep.
I just have that deal as As for my sheep.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? So he gets up and what does he
do? He calls for his sheep.
It says it right there in verse verse 4 or excuse me, verse 3.
To him the Porter open and the sheep hear his voice and he
calls his own sheep by name, calls his own sheep by name.
Your Jesus is your chief shepherd.
He knows you by name. Your pastor knows you by name.
Joyce Meyer don't know your name?
Brother Copeland doesn't know your name.
You can call them if you want to and you'll hear them answer the
phone. But it's a recording, and they
don't know you from Jack Daniels.
Not that any of you would know what that means.
That's your before Christ life. And you ask?
Joyce to come. To your little weekly women's
Bible study. She ain't coming.
I said she ain't coming. Turn to her number, say she
ain't coming. Or you get Brother Copeland over
there. And you asked in the voicemail.
You know you're going to ask when you leave a voicemail
there. Can Brother Copeland come and
bury my aunt? She just died and she was a
great partner of his. He ain't coming.
Turn to her number, Say he ain't coming.
Now, in my, in my phone right here, I've got brother, Brother
Copeland's number, his private number.
I'm not saying this a name drop, but if my aunt, you know, my
aunt Molly dies and she was a partner of his, I'm not going to
call Brother Copeland to come do his funeral.
So I know he's not coming. You understand what I'm saying
in words. I have relationship to him but
my aunt doesn't. But when you call your shepherd
that knows your name, he knows your voice.
You know, Now we all got caller ID on our cell phones, but
Pastor knew your voice before there was caller ID.
He knew exactly. I mean when he calls me I don't
have to look at the caller Idi know exactly who it is, why we
have relationship. He knows my voice.
I I know his voice. I could just go on and on.
That's true of all of us. We have relationship with
people. We know their voice.
But do you know the voice of God?
Do you know the voice of your Good Shepherd?
I've had people in prayer lines over the year pray for me that
I'll know his voice. I can't pray for you that you'll
know His voice. If I could do that, I'd lay
hands on you right now and I'd rub the hair off your head.
I'd lay hands on you so fast. But I can't pray that you will
know God's voice. You have to build a relationship
with Him. He has to be your King and your
Lord. He has to be your not just your
Savior, but your Lord. You have to have that intimate,
personal relationship with Him to actually know His voice.
Well, how do I know that was God that said that?
Do you know God? If you know God, you know God's
voice. Is this.
Is this too tough? I'm winding down or I really am.
I have several wines, but I'm I'm, I'm winding down.
So that's I heard that, that's what he says here.
Look at verse 5. Well, let's back up to verse 4
again. When He put forth his own sheep,
he goes before them. In other words, He stands up in
front of them, and the sheep follow him, for they know His
voice. So not only did he call them by
their name, He knows who they are, and they know him, and they
know him by his voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from the stranger, for they know not the
voice of strangers. That's the problem with the
church today. We're listening to all these
different voices. This is one of the strategies in
the assaults of the devil. This is one of the invasions of
the devil. He bombards us with all kinds of
noise and all kinds of voices and all kinds of images and all
kinds of glamour and glitz. And that's just in the church.
Forget the world, that's obvious.
But he bombards Christians with all these noises and all these
wonderful teachers. Pastor, have you watched this
video? I know you're like me if I heard
that once. I've heard 1000 times, maybe a
million, and I've told you not to exaggerate.
That means our people are listening to all these voices
and a lot of them are whack jobs and they have just enough truth
to where it will gain traction, but they're going to lead you
somewhere else. I'm going to quote my 5 year old
grandson. When he was three, he said, Oh
my goodness, so the devil gains access through these entry
points. Now this is my biggest point and
I'm not going to finish this message.
I'm just going to give you the last two just to talk about
them, but this is my greatest point right here out of this
chapter. The devil gains access points,
entry points, but none are through the door.
Number one, he has no authority to come through the door.
Did you just hear that? He has no authority to come to
the door Because if he did, he would have already come in and
cleaned, clean house. He has no authority to come
through the door. He's not the shepherd, he's a
thief. Doesn't have any authority, none
of you in your right minds. My mom was a drunk and she was
rarely in her right mind, but when she was in her right mind,
she would never allow some total nitwit and dork to come into our
house and ransack. She used to talk about the guy
who lived behind us in the projects.
No fences in the projects because you can't hide anything.
You could see. And, and, and many of the
projects, we were the same way in the beginning.
We had no curtains, no blinds, nothing.
So the, this man that lived in the projects and that duplex, we
lived in this duplex. I lived in all kinds of
complexes, but this particular one was the last one I lived in
was a duplex. And behind us there was a, a
little yard and then there was another yard that with their
yard behind it. They had no, they, they had
windows that went into their kitchen and dining area, which I
mean, just the front part of this stage was that size.
That's the kitchen and the dining area.
They had no curtains, no window coverings, no blinds.
He's over there constantly. This bald headed fat guy is over
there. Watch.
Excuse me, He's over there cussing.
He's living with his mom and his mom is in her upper 80s, early
90s. And he's living with his mom and
he's constantly cussing her and slapping her around.
We could see it all the time. We could hear it and then we
could see it. And my mom so, so hated what he
was doing and so hated who he was.
She hated him so much that within a year she's sleeping
with. Him and I'm the child.
My brother already left when he was 11, I was 7.
I'm left there to try to defend her.
And he'd get her drunk, which is not hard.
You didn't have to. She didn't have to have an
invitation. And he wanted to take a field
trip one Saturday, go up to Pilot Point, TX.
That's the last bank that Bonnie and Clyde robbed.
Angie knows this part of Texas by the way, her high school
girls won the state's 3A championship in basketball this
year. I don't know if she told you
that it wasn't Pilot Point, it was Nokona or as the local say,
Nokona. You got a witness back there,
Angie. So we go up to Pilot point and I
had to ride in the back seat with that 90 something year old
lady and she's back there rolling her own.
And I'm not talking about joints.
I'm talking about cigarettes. And she licks it and sticks that
brown thing in her mouth. And it smelled like manure.
It was, you know, was out of one of those, you know, drawstring
sacks. You know, it was Bull Durham is
what it was. And it stumped filterless.
And I'm back there and it's just a mess.
It's it's, it's they were hoarders and they're the
floorboard was full of stuff and the seats were full of stuff.
I was so mad. I was, I was so angry.
And I'm eight years old and my mom is putting me through this
stuff where she hated what that man did to his mom.
But yet now she's paddling around with him.
My point is when you invite the enemy in by not knowing God's
voice and following his voice, your shepherd, you will invite
the devil himself into your life and you will you will do a a
spiral downward and my mom never recovered from that.
She never recovered from that. I don't have time to get in all
that my mom tried to commit suicide right in front of my
brother and I5 or six times. I didn't even know all about him
because I'm the younger and I there's some some stuff I don't
remember. My mom was born again spirit
filled Christian, but she didn't slam the door on the devil.
Paul said neither give any place to him.
Don't give it. Don't give him anything.
And this is where you start you you got to understand you got to
understand this is how he gains entry.
He doesn't come in through the door.
He cannot enter into the door. Why?
Listen, listen, listen. Because Jesus is the door.
Jesus is the door. And then Jesus won't let him in
through the door. He has to come in through the
side. He has to come in through the
back. He has to come from behind.
He has to come in through the windows.
He has to come in from your invitation.
He can't come in through the door.
The devil never comes to us and knocks on your door and says,
hey, I'm the devil. You can't believe all the chaos
I have for you. Can you let me in tonight?
Nobody would take him up on that.
But see, he doesn't come in through the door.
He comes in through other means, sneaky.
He enters through the open portals of our mind, our
thoughts, our will, our emotions.
His primary assault is upon the soul, your mind, your will, and
your emotions. It's a relentless attack.
I'm going to quote the Scripture for you.
Ephesians 612 For we wrestle not against what flesh and blood,
but against principalities and powers and mights and dominions.
Can you put that up in the amplified 612?
Ephesians 612 We're not wrestling with flesh and blood.
We're we're contending. We're not just contending only
with physical opponents. In other words, we're supposed
to be contending. Jude said that in verse 3.
We're supposed to be contending for the faith, but we don't
contend with with, with these powers.
In other words, we don't contend with people, physical opponents,
but against. But we do contend against
despotisms, against the powers, against the master spirits who
are the world rulers of this present darkness.
They are still in. They are still in control of
this Earth now that time is coming to an end very quickly,
and that's why they've ratcheted up the heat.
They're following their father, the devil, the little God of
this world. Thank you, Adam, thank you so
much because the Adam was the first little God.
He was the first Lord of the earth.
He was the first God of the earth.
He goes on and says the world rulers of this present darkness
against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly
supernatural sphere. What is that space?
It's not the 3rd heaven where God is.
It's in space. It's in the atmosphere, it's in
space. That's where the warfare is
taking place. That's why John, the only First
Baptist, said in Matthew chapter 3, very beginning of the New
Testament, I indeed baptize you with water.
But he that comes after me unto repentance, but he that comes
after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to
bear. I'm not worthy to tie his laces
to, to lace his sandals. I'm not worthy to carry his
sandals. He's going to come and baptize
you with the Holy Ghost and fire.
Isn't it interesting that Baptists still baptize people in
water, but they don't do what John, the only First Baptist,
said, what Jesus is coming for. He's going to baptize you with
the Holy Ghost and fire, and they're against.
That now don't misunderstand me, I was born again in a Baptist
Church and I thank God for it. But we actually read those
verses and we went to the pastor and said, what are we going to
do? When are we going to get the
Holy Ghost in fire? That's what we ask him, when are
we going to get the Holy Ghost? Oh, that's been done away with.
I said, well, why hasn't water baptism been done away with
then? It's in the same verse.
I don't know. I don't, I don't know anything.
I'm 13. I don't know anything.
But I I knew English. Let.
Me give you this verse Second Corinthians chapter 10.
I'm closing my Bible. Verse 3.
Verses 3 through 5 talks about taking every thought.
What's the big deal about the thoughts?
They come and go. Why is this so serious?
Let me tell you why it's a big deal about taking captive every
thought. Not every other thought, every
thought. What took under the knowledge of
the of the Word of God? Why do I take every thought and
measure it against the Word? Listen carefully, because if you
don't take every thought captive, every thought will take
you captive. That's not hard to understand,
is it? But that that's put upon us.
That's what Paul wrote in Second Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3
through 5. If we don't take those thoughts
captive, they're going to take us captive.
In other words, we must take them captive to the obedience of
Christ. Now listen to me.
That's not talking about Jesus obedience.
It's talking about our obedience to Christ.
Let's control our thoughts. That's why you need a shepherd.
Shepherd helps you know what to think.
That's right, because your shepherd's telling you the truth
and your shepherd is teaching you how the, the way of the
door, what comes through the door is what you need to be
paying attention to, Not what comes through by any other
means, not comes through to, to the interweb.
You, you know, the interweb, that thing that Al Gore created,
the interweb. We're supposed to take control
of every thought, whether it's on the Internet, whether it's
through Cousin Molly, through from, from Uncle Billy Bob, It
doesn't matter who it is. We need to take every thought.
The ones that just come randomly to us, we need to take it and
put it under the microscope of the obedience of Christ.
We have to close every portal, every access that the enemy
could possibly gain. Second.
Well, he got to build those. He's he's coming to build those
strongholds. But if you do what I just taught
you, he can't build the strongholds.
And then he's come to establish bondage in your life where he's
going to make you a slave, where you no longer have choices, you
no longer have the power to say no to him.
You know that people can get to that point.
My mom got to that point. Church, we're in the last of the
last days. And I don't say that to fear
you, to make you fear. I'm saying that because it's the
truth. It's Bible.
If it was the first of the last days during Timothy's day when
Paul wrote that to Pastor Timothy, what are we in?
We're in the last of the last days and the enemy is cranking
up the heat. And see, listen to me carefully,
listen to me carefully. The devil has no power to take
out church people and churches from outside because he can't
get through the door. Jesus won't let him because
Jesus is a controller of the door, right?
He is the door. You, you think that you, you
think the Lord is allowing the devil into your life.
He's allowing the school shootings.
He's allowing. No, no, no, no, no, no, he's the
door. He's not a he's not a stupid
shepherd. He's a Good Shepherd.
He only, he only allows the right things that come in, but
they come in through the door. We allow the thief and that's
why Paul said don't give any place, don't give him anything,
don't give him a millimeter because if he does, he's going
to come in. He can't come in from the
outside. You invite him in.
My mom invited that jerk into our apartment.
He and she invited him into her bed.
That made me so mad. I'm just 7:00 and 8:00, but it
made me so mad. I'd already knocked out several
boyfriends. Actually, they weren't
boyfriends. They were just travelling
salesman selling encyclopedias or, or phonograph sets.
Or that's a turntable for you young people who don't know what
that means. And then if you listen, if you
listen to the presentation, you get a free album.
But we didn't have a photograph. What's the free album?
And my mom, my mom died still having that album, that long
play album of Eddie Arnold and never had a phonograph 92 years.
When you allow the devil into your life, he he doesn't just
come in to trick you. He comes only to what steal and
to kill and to destroy. He destroyed a homecoming
Queen's life. He destroyed a a mother of two
godly men. He destroyed her life.
He destroyed a life. A smart lady that was salutatory
and 2nd smartest in the graduating class of 1000
graduates, head cheerleader. She and my mom were on the
Johnny Carson show, The Tonight Show, the first week they were
married in New York City before it was called The Tonight Show.
They don't put stupid people on The Tonight Show.
They don't put ugly people on The Tonight Show unless they're
just famous for being ugly. Don't look around.
I've gone way over time, but I I
have to tell you, it is time for the Church of Jesus Christ to
stand up and fight, fight against any entries that are not
through the door. That's this.
But you got to know this. And let me tell you who's going
to help. You know your pastors.
I don't care what brother do, Dad said.
And every one of us pastors, we have this going on today.
Every church I know of has this going on today.
There's all kinds of stupid stuff happening.
Stupid stuff and and the devil knows he can't, he can't gain
entry from outside and from the world, but he tries to
penetrate. He can't come through the front
door. Jesus won't let him because
Jesus is the door, right? So what is the he's trying to
penetrate and what is he doing? He's looking for that straggler.
He's looking for that one that had has no soberness in their
mind and their thinking. They don't have discipline
thoughts. He's looking for those with
those open portals and that Open Access of strife and offense,
etcetera, etcetera. Well, you don't know what they
did to me. Are you serious?
Get in line. Offense comes to every one of
us. Offense comes to every one of
us. I, I told the well, no minister
that one time get in line. He said, you well, you don't
know what brother so and so did to me.
I said get in line. You're not the first, you won't
be the last, but you got to walk in love.
You wouldn't even be known if it weren't for Brother so and so.
Because Brother so and so gave you a platform, believed in you,
gave you an opportunity, and now you're going to go against
Brother so and so and call his name from the pulpit.
Are you serious? That person didn't talk to me
for 11 years, but that's OK. They heard what I had to say and
they finally repented about 10 years ago and said, I'm so
sorry. You were right.
I said, but at what cost? At what cost?
It cost you a lot. And you see, that's what the
devil is out to do. He's trying to exact the cost in
your life. He's trying to steal and kill
and destroy. He's going to take something
that's worthy in you and he's going to make it unworthy.
And you have the control over that.
You under Jesus, Lordship, have the empowerment to stand against
that. But you got to keep following
the Good Shepherd. And the Good Shepherd said the
powers of the infernal region will not have any supremacy over
my people. So why is it so many are?
Are there defeated Christians? Because they've left the door
open. Let's close the door.
Turn to your neighbor, say not your spouse, turn to your
neighbor. Say shut the door on the devil.
Right now I'm going to lead you in a statement.
How to do that? Would you stand to your feet?
Please nobody be dismissed. Put your hand up.
Look up toward heaven. Say, Heavenly Father, I believe
that you love me with everything you have.
You are love. You can't do anything but love
me. And you love me so much.
You sent me a Good Shepherd and he gave his life for me and you
raised him from the dead and I believe in him so much that I
want him to be my Lord. So Jesus, come and be my Lord,
take over my whole life, my thoughts, my plans, my past and
my future, my relationships, my money, my entertainment.
Be Lord of my whole life because I desire you.
And according to the word of God, Romans chapter 10 verse 9,
I'm now saved, and you've given me authority over all the power
of the enemy, according to Luke chapter 10, verse 19.
And I say to the devil, now point to the floor.
I say to the devil right now I adjure you, I come against you.
I give you no place in my life, my marriage, my children, my
family, my relationships, my finances, my church, my life in
any way right now. I don't give you any place in my
body with my money because it's all.
Yours. But Jesus took it and he gave it
back to me. Jesus, you're my Lord.
It's your money, it's your body, it's your mind belongs to you
and I yield it to you right now in Jesus name.