Sermon

Accurate Examination - The Reigning Spirit

Anchor Faith Church

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  1. Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast

  2. from St. Augustine, FL.

  3. Now enjoy this message. First Timothy chapter 4, verse

    1 Timothy 4 chapter mention

  4. one says, but the spirit explicitly says that in latter

  5. times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to

  6. deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

  7. Ma, Ma, ma. So again, the Spirit, the Holy

  8. Spirit says this is going to happen.

  9. You cannot pray this away. It's going to take place and

  10. it's going to take place. Not with the lost or those that

  11. are outside of God's Kingdom. They're already out of God's

  12. Kingdom. They're already falling away.

  13. They're not connected with God. These are people that are of the

  14. faith, and the cause of them to fall away is what they pay

  15. attention to. And here's the thing.

  16. If you're not paying attention to the words, you're going to

  17. pay attention to something else. So we let me run through some

  18. things pretty quick with Scripture so that we can get

  19. ahead. First, John 41 says this

  20. delightfully love. Friends do.

  21. Don't trust every spirit, but carefully examine what they say

  22. to determine if they are of God. Because many false prophets have

  23. mingled into the world. Now there are us.

  24. There is a spirit realm. God is a spirit.

  25. But God is not the only Spirit. I say God's not the only Spirit.

  26. You said there are more spirits. Well, just look at yourself in

  27. the mirror. You are a spirit.

  28. I said you are a spirit. Inside you is a spirit.

  29. Now the spirit in you is one of two things.

  30. It's either dead to Christ and your Father is the devil who is

  31. the father of lies, and everything you touch will

  32. eventually die. Turn into shambles.

  33. No matter how much you pursue, you cannot find peace.

  34. You cannot cure this emptiness within you, no matter how much

  35. you fill it with things that make you feel good or you are

  36. alive to Christ because you've made Jesus the Lord of your

  37. life. You're born again, and now the

  38. Spirit in you is in Christ. And you have the third person of

  39. the Godhead called the Holy Spirit, who comes and lives on

  40. the inside of you and bears witness that you are child of

  41. God. Can I get an Amen?

  42. So we ourselves, our spirit. But then there's angels.

  43. There are fallen angels. There's a fallen, anointed

  44. cherub that is called the devil or Satan.

  45. So there are those out there. Again.

  46. When people always put God as he's doing everything, God

  47. always does his word. But the devil comes to kill,

  48. steal and destroy. People are giving God credit for

  49. things. That's that Satan is doing.

  50. Period. And anytime you get over in

  51. Satan's territory, you're authorizing him.

  52. Now, if you're not born again, you're on his territory.

  53. You are his family member. He is an abusive father.

  54. I mean, he's extremely abusive. He will verbally abuse you,

  55. physically abuse you, sexually abuse you.

  56. I mean, he will whip you, tear you down.

  57. He will build you up only to strip you naked.

  58. He don't care about you. He exploits you and uses you,

  59. that's who. That's your daddy.

  60. But if you're born of God, then you have a different father.

  61. He's a heavenly father. He's a good father.

  62. He's a righteous father. He will provide for you.

  63. Amen. So if you're over on the devil's

  64. side, then you court him, 'cause the wages of sin is death.

  65. So every time you're doing sin, then you're allowing you've

  66. you've got an open door for death and destruction to show

  67. up. And God's not bringing that,

  68. God's not bringing that. But when you're born of God, you

  69. can shut the door to death, you can shut the door to the law of

  70. sin and death, and you can move over into life and life more

  71. abundantly then God. And when the enemy attacks you,

  72. guess what? Your Father will come and

  73. protect you if you fail. Not in your belief.

  74. Are you hearing me? So we have to examine every

  75. spirit. And so we need to have an

  76. accurate examination. Because the problem in

  77. Christianity is that believers aren't accurately examining

  78. because the spirit realm is something we don't see.

  79. And don't tell me you don't believe something you can't see.

  80. That's a lie, because none of us see the oxygen in the room right

  81. now. We don't see it, but you're sure

  82. breathing it. But I don't believe it's here.

  83. Hold your breath. Then.

  84. Go ahead and hold your. Breath.

  85. Come on, let's do it. Everybody hold your breath.

  86. I want you to go at least 20 seconds.

  87. Ready. One,

  88. they'll do good. 20 seconds. Wow, I'm impressed.

  89. Now, if we try 6 minutes, I don't know what the world record

  90. is, but it's long, right? They've conditioned their body

  91. to be at a handle, you know that.

  92. But the majority of us, if I put us to 60 seconds, some of y'all

  93. be be shaking, right? Right. 24 minutes.

  94. Glory to God, wow, that's a long time.

  95. I almost passed out saying that word. 24 minutes, right?

  96. I mean, you're like holding on. You go to, I mean, most of them

  97. probably, probably almost nobody in this room could go 2 minutes.

  98. I mean, you just like shaking can bold, you know, like feel

  99. like your insides about to explode, right?

  100. But we don't believe in oxygen because we can't see it.

  101. No, we have the effects. Of it.

  102. There are plenty of things that are in the atmosphere right now

  103. and other gases that are existing in this room right now

  104. that we don't see. But they exist, right?

  105. I mean, how many of you see my voice right now, but you're

  106. hearing it, And how are you hearing it?

  107. You know, because you're educated people.

  108. It's called sound waves. In fact, if everyone of you

  109. pulled your phone out right now, went to your Pandora and hit

  110. play, whatever you music you got you have on it would tune into

  111. that and all of a sudden all kinds of different voices would

  112. begin to manifest in this room. We wouldn't see them, don't know

  113. how they got here, other than we tuned in to a frequency that

  114. allowed us to access something in the air and pull it in that

  115. now it hits one of our senses called hearing, although we do

  116. not see it Well, the same thing is with the Spirit.

  117. We give God credit for stuff that God's not doing.

  118. I'm talking about good things. Well, wow.

  119. You know what? I got a job.

  120. Promotion. God, He so blessed me.

  121. The devil promote you. The devil promote you.

  122. Right out of church, right out of your call, right out of your

  123. marriage. He'll promote you.

  124. He'll absolutely bless you to destroy you.

  125. No doubt about it. And all the while you're giving

  126. God credit and he is stripping you from behind and you don't

  127. even know it because we have to learn how to examine accurate,

  128. accurate examination. Amen.

  129. Prophets 14515 says it this way. A gullible person will believe

  130. anything, but a sensible person will confirm the facts.

  131. Amen. And even the Bible says let

  132. everything be confirmed by two or three witnesses.

  133. Amen. It goes on to say in Proverbs

  134. 2712, the amplified A prudent man sees evil and hides himself

  135. and avoids it. But the naive, who are easily

  136. misled, continue on and are punished by suffering the

  137. consequences of sin. Another translation of Proverbs

  138. 2712 says it this way. Wise people see trouble coming

  139. and get out of its way, but fools go straight to the trouble

  140. and suffer for it. The writer of Hebrews chapter 5,

    Hebrews 5:11

  141. verse 11 says it this way. Going down to verse 14 he says

  142. concerning him I have much to say, I have much to say, but

  143. it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

  144. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have

  145. need again of someone to teach you the elementary principles of

  146. the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid

  147. food. For everyone who partakes only,

  148. say only of milk is not accustomed to the word of

  149. righteousness, for he is a what an infant.

  150. But solid food is for the mature, say mature, who, because

  151. of practice, say practice, say practice, have their senses

  152. trained to discern good and evil.

  153. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So we see here that we need to

  154. have an accurate examination, he said.

  155. We are to examine the spirits. We are to test them, We are to

  156. examine them and we. And if you haven't been trained

  157. or taught, then you are in essence naive.

  158. And you and being naive you will listen to any spirit and any

  159. spirit can manipulate you to think it's God.

  160. In fact, even the Bible says it's no wonder, for even Satan

  161. comes as an Angel of life. He will slap quote scripture If

  162. he quoted scripture with Jesus. He'll absolutely quote scripture

  163. with you and give you an arsenal of scripture to keep your

  164. thoughts of how you want this thing to be.

  165. The essence of idolatry is you creating the image of God, the

  166. essence of idolatry. In fact, Jesus said repent, for

  167. the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

  168. That means change your thinking. One translation says, side with

  169. my party. And Jesus is saying this.

  170. Listen, you don't think like us. You can't even respond like us.

  171. You don't know nothing about us because you're dead.

  172. You separated. Your daddy is a liar.

  173. He's been live with you. He's been abusing you, he's been

  174. exploiting you, he's been using you.

  175. But I want to get you over, over to my Kingdom, because this was

  176. never how the Father intended. And I can get you out of that

  177. mess. But if you going to get out of

  178. that mess, I got to change who you are.

  179. But then I'm going to have to renew your mind so you'll know

  180. exactly what my voice is so that he don't dupe you.

  181. Because when Jesus was tempted of the devil, his first defense

  182. against his attack was it is written.

  183. So the devil comes back and the next one and says what the

  184. scripture says. And if you want to keep your

  185. flesh, your feelings, you can find scripture to help support

  186. it and it's idolatry. But if you want to be like God,

  187. then he will clearly. Show you the word.

  188. You'll have to change your thinking.

  189. You're not changing gods. And then you'll find the image

  190. of God of which is worthy of worship.

  191. Are you hearing me? But here in Hebrews, he said

  192. consider him. I have much to say.

  193. It's hard to explain since you've become dole of hearing.

  194. In essence, they can't examine properly because they are not

  195. listening. Now let's talk about examination

  196. real quick. How many?

  197. Of you, without going having any training, feel extremely

  198. confident to perform brain surgery.

  199. Any of us could examine a body, OK?

  200. Any of us could perform an examination.

  201. Put on the gloves. Got our mask on.

  202. Well, let's see how your heart's doing.

  203. Got the stethoscope. You know, breathe.

  204. I mean, I've been done that enough that I could mimic this.

  205. Hold in, breathe out. Hold in, Breathe out, hold in,

  206. breathe out. I have gone to my chiropractor

  207. enough. Now I know when I'm breathing

  208. all the way out so he can pop me and when I'm holding that breath

  209. in. So if my wife wanted me to, I

  210. could, I could, I could say, well, let me do an examination.

  211. I can put my hands all up and down on her, you know, spine.

  212. And then I know when I get to this part, I remember my

  213. Carpenter says hold in now, hold it right.

  214. And then he goes up like an inch or two and he says, now hold,

  215. take a deep breath. And I hold it.

  216. He's sitting. I put it all the way out and I

  217. go right now. That's the table making that

  218. sound, not my spine. So I could act like, But would I

  219. accurately examine? No.

  220. And this is the problem. Believers think just because

  221. they're born again, they can all of a sudden have accurate

  222. examination. But the Bible tells us here in

  223. Hebrews, you cannot, he said. I got more things to say, but I

  224. can't say them. In fact, right now you ought to

  225. be a teacher. You should have graduated and

  226. been well versed on how to accurately, rightly divide the

  227. word of truth, know and discern good.

  228. But because you're not listening, you're not allowing

  229. the word to transform you. In fact, we know, James says, be

  230. a doer of the word and not a hearer only.

  231. Because when you only hear, you will be deceived.

  232. Now why does that take place? Because the minute God speaks to

  233. you about something and then you begin to justify why you don't

  234. have to do it that way, you immediately move into deception.

  235. Well, now, Lord, you know I. Do that but.

  236. You're starting to, you're starting.

  237. You're starting down the path of deception.

  238. You've heard it, but you're not going to apply it.

  239. You're not going to do what he says.

  240. You're going to do what you say. Now that believer is deceived

  241. and this writer is saying, listen, I can't even talk to you

  242. about spiritual stuff. Really.

  243. I can't even do more because at this point I do not see the

  244. fruit of someone mature. So he goes born and says listen

  245. at this juncture I've got to give you elementary stuff,

  246. elementary stuff. Put that scripture back up

  247. 'cause look what it says here in verse 13.

  248. Everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the

  249. word of righteousness. So milk is elementary teachings.

  250. So if all you're ever hearing is elementary teachings, the next

  251. verse, verse 14, is telling you it's not solid food teaching.

  252. There is a distinct difference between milk and solid food.

  253. One translation says milk and meat.

  254. Are you hearing me? So not every church is serving

  255. the same meal. That's what I'm saying.

  256. Not every church is serving the same meal.

  257. And be and listen, we don't even do this in our preschool.

  258. I don't serve the same meal in our preschool to our infants

  259. milk. And when they're a little bit

  260. older, maybe some really mushy something, it's called baby

  261. food. We all call it that.

  262. In fact, you call your applesauce today, not adult

  263. food. Are you eating baby food?

  264. Because you associate mush with, which means somebody had to

  265. grind this down so much so that it can actually get into you.

  266. Because if you were having to do that apple on your own, you

  267. choke and you choke and die. So there is a a, a ministering

  268. or teachings within the body that only leaves you as an

  269. infant. OK, I'm going to go over here.

  270. It only leaves you as an infant. And if you don't recognize what

  271. those teachings are and all you want to do is hear those

  272. teachings, then you run the risk of verse 14.

  273. Verse 14 says, but solid food is for the because you understand

  274. being in church 30 years doesn't make you mature.

  275. There's no such thing as a union Christian.

  276. Well, I've been in the church, bless God for 30 years.

  277. Well, you may be the oldest infant we have, and I'm quite

  278. frankly tired of changing your diapers because this is awkward.

  279. When you were one. No problem.

  280. Two. OK, but you're 55 now and you

  281. want me to change you. That's absolutely abnormal.

  282. Are you hearing me? OK, so solid food is for the

  283. mature who, because of what practice, have their senses

  284. trained to discern good name. Do you want to know what the

  285. elementary teachings are? Come on.

  286. Does anybody want to know what they are?

  287. I mean, don't what you want to know if you were stuck in

  288. infancy. Amen.

  289. Now, this ain't going to feel real.

  290. Well to everyone, but that's OK. We'll get you past it in the

  291. name of Jesus. So this is.

  292. Hebrews chapter one, five, verse 14.

  293. You understand translators put chapters and verses.

  294. Paul had a letter, so the next paragraph, which happens to be

  295. chapter 6, verse one, is continuing the thought.

  296. So let's put up Hebrews chapter 6, verse one.

    Hebrews 6 chapter mention

  297. I didn't give it to you guys, but we're going to do it and

  298. we'll probably take it all the way to verse 03.

  299. Verse three, it says this and they've get it up ready,

  300. therefore leaving, say, leaving. So again, should we stay there?

  301. Now that doesn't mean we do not go back to them.

  302. We will. In fact, this verse will even

  303. say that. But we're not supposed to stay

  304. there. Here here is teaching in the

  305. church that keeps everyone a an infant.

  306. Therefore leaving the elementary teachings about the Christ, let

  307. us press on the maturity, not laying again a foundation of

  308. repentance from dead works and faith towards God.

  309. That is simply called the salvation message.

  310. If all you ever hear every Sunday is how someone can be

  311. born again and the message is always turned where its emphasis

  312. is just about being born again, then that is a preschool church

  313. verse two of instructions about washings and laying on of hands.

  314. Washings are elementary teachings.

  315. Being baptized, we're going to baptize people today that are

  316. born again. Should they want to follow in

  317. water baptism, we will baptize them then.

  318. That is an elementary teaching. That is an outward expression of

  319. an inward act. To be water baptized.

  320. Another one is the washing of the water of the Word.

  321. That's a washing. That's an elementary teaching

  322. that you should let the Word renew your mind.

  323. That's elementary. You know what else is the

  324. baptism of the Holy Spirit? To be baptized in the Holy

  325. Spirit, whatever is speaking in tongues is an elementary

  326. principle. Paul in Acts chapter 19 got him

    Acts 19 chapter mention

  327. born again and he he said now when you got born again, did you

  328. get filled with the Holy Ghost? Whatever is Speaking of tongue

  329. at the same time, this is not you don't get filled with the

  330. Holy Ghost, whatever is Speaking of tongues because you're

  331. mature. It is baby stuff.

  332. That's baby stuff. OK, he goes on and says this and

  333. the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement.

  334. Now, oh, let's do the laying on hands.

  335. Laying on hands is healing the sick.

  336. Or again, you could receive the baptism of Holy Spirit through

  337. the laying on of hands. That's elementary.

  338. Period. These are elementary.

  339. And if all we preached, then I would have a preschool.

  340. And you know what that means. I'm guaranteeing that you cannot

  341. discern between good and evil, which really means that I'm

  342. keeping you dependent on my ability.

  343. Now, I didn't say this, This is the Bible.

  344. That's funny. You know, there's times that we

  345. really love the Bible. We say that's what the Bible

  346. says until it starts to encroach on things in our life.

  347. They realize, wait a minute, that's me now, that's what the

  348. Bible says. I'm not saying this.

  349. Now the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

  350. This is anyone who's preaching that if you do not make Jesus

  351. the Lord of your life, you will be eternally judged.

  352. So when people say, well, if God was such a loving God, I cannot.

  353. Believe he would throw people in hell.

  354. He does not. He never will.

  355. He doesn't do that. What does he do?

  356. He gives you what you want. And for those who don't want

  357. God, they get the lake of fire. So those that are going to hell

  358. are, the Bible clearly calls it the second death or the lake of

  359. fire. They are choosing to go because,

  360. again, God will let you do. Whatever you want to do.

  361. But he'll hold you accountable for whatever you do because he

  362. is life and if you do not do life, then you get what you

  363. want, death. And he will give it to you

  364. though grieving that you rejected him because he never

  365. wanted you to go there. So for everyone cast into the

  366. lake of fire, he has a testimony.

  367. I never wanted them there. I did everything I could to keep

  368. them from there. I laid down my own life so they

  369. wouldn't have. And yet in all that, they still

  370. said I don't want you. I'm going to do what I want to

  371. do. That is an elementary print

  372. teaching. He says, and this will do if God

  373. permits, Meaning will review the foundation.

  374. I have no problem with coming and doing remedial training, but

  375. if that's all we're discussing, then what we do is we are not

  376. getting to solid food. We are not having conversations

  377. to maturity. We are not giving you things to

  378. practice because at the end of the day, if you're going to be a

  379. champion, you're going to practice, OK, You know, the

  380. Flagler girls had a game of women had a game on Saturday.

  381. They won Hallelujah and but again they practice.

  382. Now, I'm going to tell you right now I can play basketball, but

  383. horribly. Right now, I'm just going to be

  384. honest with you. Stay with me, OK?

  385. Please do not check out with me. In our society today, I could

  386. identify as one of them, enroll in Flagler and decide to play.

  387. Now they don't want me on the team.

  388. I'm just. Going to say that.

  389. But I could do that because I can dribble the ball.

  390. I've made lay UPS before. I've made some pretty incredible

  391. shots. But at the end of the day, when

  392. I get out there, I'm not I I'm not practice.

  393. At best they're going to say please, can this person get off

  394. the court because they are hindering us?

  395. Right. And again, the reason why a lot

  396. of times the world don't want to get on our.

  397. Team oh y'all don't want to hear this.

  398. Because Christianity's act like a bunch of Divas that don't go

  399. to practice and they just won't show up on game day, but they

  400. can't perform on game day because they ain't gonna.

  401. Practice. They don't know the plays, They

  402. don't know what the enemy's going to do.

  403. They don't know strategy. They ain't watch the film and

  404. you go like, Oh well, just because they put me on the team,

  405. I mean, seriously, I do not believe that the Flagler women's

  406. team would say, you know what, we're OK with someone coming up,

  407. being recruited, coming to our college, being enrolled.

  408. We've they, the school has accepted them and we've accepted

  409. them as a player. But they never hang out with the

  410. team. They never show up except for

  411. game day. And they're saying, put me in,

  412. be like, what? And then when they're they're

  413. messing up the plays and doing everything, they'd be like,

  414. what's wrong with you? Well, they know what's wrong

  415. with them. You're not practicing.

  416. You've not been trained how to handle the team.

  417. We knew they were going to get in the post that way.

  418. We knew that this was their start.

  419. We knew we needed to go to to, you know, either a zone or man

  420. to man. But they don't know why because

  421. they've been laying up and they're saying I got my uniform,

  422. I'm on the team, I'll just show up when I show up, and then and

  423. then half the time we don't even show up for church.

  424. Oh, you. Only want to hear that it's

  425. fine. I'll pick which games I want to

  426. be. At you're going to.

  427. Pick which games you want to be at and you want the Lord to say,

  428. yeah, I want to use you. He's like, you just sit right

  429. here. Now I'm putting the mature

  430. people in the game. I mean, we've created a society

  431. where everybody's got to participate.

  432. I'm telling what, God, he's not putting everybody in

  433. participation. He's like you're on the team but

  434. you're never getting in the game till you get somewhere where you

  435. can actually handle the enemy. Until then, stay on the sideline

  436. and learn from these that are well equipped.

  437. But if I put you in, you going to give it to the team.

  438. I mean, they would be so susceptible that they get the

  439. ball in right and they slap. I mean like what, 25 seconds

  440. left and here's, you know, the play, all they got to do is

  441. inbounded to their team. But one of the other players go

  442. give it to me and they hand it to him.

  443. Because they're not trained, Said That sounds ludicrous.

  444. I mean a Christianity. Some people do some ludicrous

  445. stuff totally outside the will of God.

  446. Just say Amen anyway. Well, the Lord, you know, I just

  447. really believed that he was the one.

  448. And I moved in with him, you know, And we were sleeping

  449. around before we ever got married, you know, And you're

  450. born again. Where did it?

  451. Where? Would God have ever given you

  452. that instruction? He never would have you were.

  453. Listening to the wrong voice, honey, our gentlemen, I mean, we

  454. we had this conversation with someone when we were eating one

  455. day. It's the only negative thing of

  456. being a pastor. Known that people will show up

  457. sometimes and then just regurgitate what's going on in

  458. your life because and I'm smiling, I'm generally

  459. concerned. But in my mind I'm thinking,

  460. Lord, do I tell them what they need to hear or do I just like,

  461. they ain't going to listen, So I'm just going to listen.

  462. And then I just like, I pray for you because I got to pray.

  463. You get revelation because my answer is not going to work

  464. because you ain't going to do what I want to do.

  465. Because you sure ain't been doing what God wants to do.

  466. Amen. And your life's a mess now

  467. because you listened to the wrong voice, Because you've not

  468. been in the Bible, You've not been trained.

  469. You've not been in church? When I'm going to heaven.

  470. When I die. This ain't about going to

  471. heaven, It's about becoming a child of God now, all right?

  472. I told Mr. Brown because he told me today he was going to go 45

  473. minutes. I said no problem, I'm going

  474. three hours anyway. However, he did not go 45

  475. minutes, so I'm going to have to probably pull back a little bit.

  476. So we better drive on 1st Corinthians 3.

  477. One through 3 says this, and I, brethren, could not speak to you

  478. as a spiritual man, but as men of flesh, as the infants in

  479. Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not

  480. solid food for you. You were not yet able to receive

  481. it. Indeed, even now you're not able

  482. to receive it, for you are still what if you're fleshly, you

  483. can't receive it. Is that God's fault?

  484. It's not. It's not God's fault.

  485. It's your laziness to be trained right got to be trained got and

  486. you got to start somewhere. Let's say you got to start

  487. somewhere, he goes on to say. For since there is jealousy and

  488. strife among you, are you not fleshly?

  489. Are you not walking like mere men?

  490. In essence saying you have the Spirit of God in you, you have

  491. the reigning spirit in you, bearing witness with your

  492. spirit. You're a child of God and yet

  493. you act like the rest of the world.

  494. So what does this tell us? Being born again alone does not

  495. automatically mean you can know the difference between good and

  496. evil. You can be born of God and have

  497. the Holy Spirit in you and still listen to the wrong voices.

  498. And it creates great confusion to the world.

  499. Because when they want, then when they get hungry to know

  500. God, they can't really see him because you're listening to

  501. other stuff. Because you're not submitting

  502. yourself to the training that the Bible clearly communicates

  503. that you should enlist in that you're being recruited to.

  504. So that you can be a champion. And win every time.

  505. Amen. I mean, I love.

  506. Those one commercials, I don't know which which one it is now

  507. and y'all can tell me when you see it, but you know, it's like

  508. Charles Barkley's there and he's like, it's as easy as that,

  509. right? And he got the little kids and

  510. the kids like I picked Charles Barkley, you.

  511. Seen that one and he's like, yeah, right.

  512. It's like this is easy as that. I mean, who's not going to pick,

  513. you know, the the, the guy that's going to slam on all of

  514. the four foot people? This is easy.

  515. Throw it up to the guy. Well, you understand when you

  516. get in the Kingdom of God, you want to get around people that

  517. are the obvious ones who's mature, the one who can handle

  518. adversity, the one who's not led by their emotion, the one who

  519. gets trained in it. Because in that case, you're

  520. like, I want you on my team, I want you.

  521. So he goes on to say in Galatians chapter one starting

  522. in verse 6. I'll read out the Amplified real

  523. quick. It says yes.

  524. I'm surprised, Paul said and astonished that you were.

  525. You are so quickly turning renegade and deserting Him Who

  526. invent, who invited and called you by the grace unmerited favor

  527. of Christ the Messiah, and that you are transferring your

  528. allegiance to a different, even an opposed gospel, opposition

  529. gospel. Not that there is or could be

  530. any other genuine gospel, but there are obviously some who are

  531. troubling and disturbing and bewildering you with a different

  532. kind of teaching, which which they offer as a gospel and want

  533. to pervert and distort the gospel of Christ into something

  534. which it is absolutely not. But even if we are an Angel,

  535. look what Paul says. But even if we are, an Angel

  536. from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to and

  537. different from that which we preach to you.

  538. Let him be accursed, doomed to destruction, devoted to

  539. destruction, punishment, eternal punishment, as we said before.

  540. So I say now again, if anyone preaching to you a gospel

  541. different from or contrary. To that which you received, let

  542. him be accursed. So he's Paul's letting him know

  543. you're a church. We preach to you.

  544. You made Jesus the Lord of your life, and now all of a sudden,

  545. because later on he goes into chapter 3 and he says this to

  546. the church, who has bewitched you or who has cast a spell?

  547. You have the Holy Ghost, a reigning spirit, and you're

  548. listening to totally different voices.

  549. He wouldn't just say, well at least you're going to go to

  550. heaven when you die. Praise God.

  551. You know how many churches say, well, you know all that stuff

  552. doesn't really matter. All that matters is that you've

  553. asked Jesus into your heart. That is a lie.

  554. In fact, that is a doctrine of demons.

  555. How do I know that? Where in the world would God

  556. ever say you don't need to know me beyond salvation?

  557. Only the Devil would set up the church for that.

  558. Oh, by the way, you actually don't need to know your father.

  559. That's right. Preach it.

  560. Yeah, yet the very first message Jesus publicly preaches this

  561. repent. And repent is not a religious

  562. word. It literally means change your

  563. thinking and you understand there's a lot we got to change.

  564. There's a lot of subjects, there's a lot of life issues

  565. that we may have. We are going to have to change.

  566. And God, through His word, will give us the answer to

  567. everything. He'll say, look at relationships

  568. this way now, and look at this this way and look at employment

  569. this way and look at this. Because when you get it from the

  570. Kingdom perspective, everything changes.

  571. How you function in your natural family, you'll change it how you

  572. function among marriages, You'll change how you do it with your

  573. children. You'll change it how you work,

  574. how you pursue life. You'll change when you get it in

  575. the Kingdom. Perspective.

  576. But you've got to say, what's your will, Lord, what do you

  577. say? How do you do it?

  578. Because your life Are you hearing me?

  579. So first, Thessalonians 521 says.

  580. But examine everything carefully.

  581. Hold to that which is fast and good Again, If you're not

  582. trained in it, you can't hold to something that you can't

  583. discern. Now I get it.

  584. You're trying. But trying is not going to keep

  585. the devil from destroying you. Not when God's given a clear.

  586. Path of how you can overcome and know the difference between good

  587. and evil. He's telling you.

  588. You got to get to solid food. You have to get to line upon

  589. line, precept upon pre. You have to know the Father.

  590. You got to. Seek him.

  591. Jesus even said seek first the Kingdom of God.

  592. The Kingdom of God is not a one way ticket to heaven.

  593. It can't be heaven because then Jesus would be a liar because he

  594. makes a distinguishment between the two and we all know the

  595. prayer our Father. Come on, say it with me.

  596. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

  597. Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in well,

  598. If the Kingdom can be on the earth like it's in heaven, then

  599. Kingdom can't be heaven. So when we say seek first, the

  600. Kingdom that's not seek first getting saved.

  601. And going to heaven, Noah is seeking the Kingdom, and the

  602. Kingdom can have involvement right now.

  603. In fact, if you actually study the scripture, it's always been

  604. about God being here. Even when Adam, who had no sin,

  605. was in a perfect world with no sin, him and and Eve God came

  606. down in the garden. There's no indication that he

  607. ever called Adam up to heaven. He didn't need to because their

  608. worlds were the same. Their words were the same.

  609. Now, I'm not saying that when you die, you don't go to heaven.

  610. You're obviously going to go to heaven when you die, because the

  611. Bible is very clear. To be absent from the body is to

  612. be present. Where is the Lord presently at?

  613. But is he staying there? He is not.

  614. If you've read the back of the book, if you've actually read

  615. the back of the book. And I'm not talking about that

  616. religious statement of the back. I've read the back of the book

  617. and we win. They don't even know what they

  618. won because they don't even know what they won now.

  619. They don't know what they've won now, much less what they win

  620. back then because they're going to have a hard time when Jesus

  621. shows up, puts his foot down, rules on the on this planet for

  622. 1000 years, everybody thinks when the rapture of the churches

  623. we'll be in heaven forever. It doesn't say that, said we

  624. coming back then he's going to bring his new Jerusalem down out

  625. of heaven to the earth. Glory to God.

  626. Why? Because this is a global

  627. takeover of the Kingdom of God. It is the greatest government

  628. ever and we are citizens of it. We are ambassadors in it.

  629. This thing that I'm presenting is not a get out of hell free

  630. card. This is about becoming a child

  631. of the king where you have access to his whole realm right

  632. now in the earth and it will take care of all your trouble.

  633. Wow, I'm sick of religion too. But I examine.

  634. Jesus said this in John 1613. Help me, Lord.

  635. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you

  636. into all truth. He will not speak of his own

  637. initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he

  638. will disclose you what is to come.

  639. He will He will glorify me, for he will take of mind and

  640. disclose to you. Notice that Jesus was only

  641. communicating in the earth what he heard from the realm of

  642. heaven. In essence, he was submitted to

  643. his Father and he says, I am showing you these things.

  644. Listen, if you're going to change your thinking, I'm going

  645. to have to talk to you. And I'm not telling you what I

  646. want to tell you. This is not my opinion on the

  647. matter. I'm telling you what dad says.

  648. I'm telling you what God says, and I'm showing you how God

  649. wants to talk to you and how he wants you to function in the

  650. earth. Are you hearing me?

  651. So how is it if Jesus said, now listen, I don't speak of my own

  652. initiative, but whatever I hear, the Holy Ghost, whatever he

  653. hears, he speaks because the spirit of truth that's in you,

  654. that is the reigning spirit. He only tells you what Jesus

  655. says. Jesus himself said, I don't

  656. speak of my own initiative. Then he said when the Holy Ghost

  657. comes, he's only going to speak on his own initiative, right?

  658. And as a result of that, you're going to be hearing from heaven

  659. on how to function in the earth because this Kingdom is going to

  660. come, and it can come spiritually.

  661. Now, everything associated with that that's necessary for you to

  662. fulfill your purpose is available to you as you believe

  663. God and and listen to only the reigning spirit.

  664. Because the reigning spirit is not saying, well, let me tell

  665. you what I I mean, you know from heaven, they're saying, but I'm

  666. with you, man. I I know how you feel.

  667. The Holy Ghost is never going to side with your feelings or even

  668. your way of handling it. He's going to say this is life

  669. to handle. This is how we do it.

  670. This is what Heaven says about it.

  671. OK, so he's going to speak to you.

  672. But there's another way that he helps train you, because he

  673. doesn't just do it by himself, because he knows you have a

  674. deficit. What do I mean by that?

  675. You've lived. In the natural so long that

  676. you've made so many decisions based upon 5 senses.

  677. Now think about this for a moment, because again, we're

  678. talking about believe in things we don't see.

  679. Why is it that we can wake up one day and feel really elated,

  680. happy, excited, but then another day wake up and feel like we

  681. don't even want to get out of bed?

  682. What? In what?

  683. We don't even see it. But in our mind, we we have this

  684. like my body's the same. I mean, we don't we're not

  685. suffering some sickness. We're just one day.

  686. You all of a sudden you feel depressed.

  687. You're like, what's? What's?

  688. Going on. And it's unseen and yet you'll

  689. yield to it. Tell people that you're feeling

  690. depressed or down. Sometimes you'll be angry and

  691. you'll be really mean to people that two days before you were

  692. laughing with, ignoring them, and these are unseen things that

  693. you're following. You're making choices.

  694. You're incapable of putting that down and doing the right thing.

  695. Well, the Holy Spirit will talk to you in a realm that's not

  696. seen and begin to talk to you and say if you do it this way,

  697. it bring life to it, It definitely deliver you.

  698. Are you hearing me? So because we've been in that

  699. realm for so long, he knows that we need help in this realm.

  700. That's why it says in Hebrews 1317 Amplified classic.

  701. He said obey your spiritual leaders and submit to them

  702. continually recognizing their authority over you.

  703. For they are constantly keeping watch over your souls and

  704. guarding your spiritual welfare as men and women who will have

  705. to render an account of their trust.

  706. Do your part too. Let them do this with gladness

  707. and not with signing and groaning, for that would not be

  708. profitable to you either. Another translation says obey

  709. your spiritual leaders. Recognize their authority, for

  710. they keep watch over your soul without resting, since they have

  711. to give an account to God for their work, so it will benefit

  712. you when you make their work at pleasure and not a heavy burden.

  713. Now again, I can always go to athletics.

  714. A coach is designed to bring the best out of the athlete.

  715. But the coach is going to say stuff that the athlete at the

  716. time are in the performing of whatever position they're in may

  717. not see deficits, different things, techniques, OK, you

  718. know, when it comes to fighting, someone said, man, you, you

  719. always drop your right hand, you're always dropping it,

  720. you're always dropping it. And they don't think they're

  721. dropping it. They don't feel like they're

  722. dropping it, but yet they're on the outside examining, watching

  723. and saying wait a minute, OK, come over you.

  724. You're dropping that. You know your golf swing.

  725. You're you're lifting your head up.

  726. You're picking up your shoulders.

  727. No, I'm not picking up my. You're picking up your show.

  728. No, I'm not. I mean, I'm telling you, no,

  729. you're messing up then. Good.

  730. Thank God for cameras now. And you know, you watch and we

  731. can go back. Film and say, yeah, you you did

  732. that. Yep, you're right.

  733. I did that. I did that right.

  734. And it exposes. And why does it expose?

  735. See, when Christians all of a sudden get exposure of things

  736. they're not doing right, we get angry.

  737. But that's what infants do. That's what infants do.

  738. They throw temper tantrums. They get mad because I want it.

  739. But you're not getting it. Because I know what's best

  740. because this right here ain't going to get you through in

  741. life. I'm I'm preparing you so that

  742. when you are by yourself and the enemy comes you going to be able

  743. to overcome. And again in our society we

  744. allow coaches to scream, yell at the AT our children and we even

  745. enforce them and back them. But then when it comes to your

  746. pastor, well, that lets us know whether you had infancy or not.

  747. I mean, I've lost quite a few preschoolers in my lifetime, but

  748. those that want to go on, I'm saying that's a whole another

  749. ball game. Why?

  750. Because it's like train me, come on, train me.

  751. And then they take self responsibility because they've

  752. learned how to be trained and how they can maintain and how.

  753. Because again, I am disciplined enough to do things in my life

  754. that I don't need anyone. But there are certain areas I

  755. cannot get stronger in unless someone's there to help me.

  756. I will always plateau in the weight room if I don't have a

  757. spotter, and the intent of a spotter is to help me when I get

  758. under a weight I cannot do and I'm not insecure to know it's

  759. not going to go up. Would you spot me?

  760. Well then why are you doing it? Why are you trying to do

  761. something you can't do? Well, if you spot me eventually

  762. this weight, I'll do without you.

  763. And we'll go on to greater things.

  764. Well, in the church, if you understand that your apostle and

  765. your pastor and your teacher and the prophet and the evangelist

  766. are equipping you so that you then can become the greatest

  767. mature individual as a church. And we can do way more together

  768. than we can ever do individually.

  769. And as a team, we impact people's lives because they can

  770. look at us and say, my gosh man, they always overcome.

  771. And get the victory. Well, you understand we are with

  772. an organization that is undefeated.

  773. Cause the true Church of God has never lost a battle.

  774. They're undefeated. They're only victorious.

  775. And you know in the world you hate the person that is always

  776. winning the championship. But if you're on the

  777. championship team, I mean, seriously, who goes and says,

  778. well, I really feel bad for them.

  779. We've won this championship 10 years in a row, hadn't lost yet.

  780. I know every, you know, I kind of feel bad.

  781. I got ten rings. Now I'm about to put them on my

  782. toes this year, right. I hate it.

  783. You know, let's just lose 1. No one does that.

  784. Not if you're on the winning team.

  785. I mean when you're on the street.

  786. That one coach at UConn, they won like what, 82 games or

  787. something undefeated. I'm like, you understand the the

  788. UConn team was saying? We don't want to be the one that

  789. loses. They didn't want to be the team

  790. that broke the streak. So for them, they weren't, like,

  791. feeling sorry for the teams that came in.

  792. They're like, let's keep this championship going.

  793. Well, you understand, the church were undefeated people because

  794. we have the greater one on the inside.

  795. We have the reigning spirit. And when we train ourselves with

  796. the word of God, then we'll overcome everything, anything in

  797. life. And here's the thing, you can

  798. get on this team as a freshman, you can come on this team and

  799. maybe you ain't playing today, but just stay with the team,

  800. 'cause we gonna give you some game time.

  801. We gonna train you. We will get you to understand

  802. not that wasn't the voice of God.

  803. No, that wasn't God. Don't cut if you don't get upset

  804. when I say God. Didn't say that to you.

  805. God didn't say that to you. That's not out of his playbook.

  806. I know it's playbook. And again now if you resist what

  807. I want to do my own thing, well, you're not the coach.

  808. You're the St. now. Once you develop, start

  809. developing some maturity, then God will say, you know what, go

  810. ahead and tell him this and coach will realize that's a

  811. great play. And that's happened on multiple

  812. occasions because why we only want to get the victory.

  813. Can I? Can I get an Amen?

  814. So we have to examine 1st Thessalonians 521 says.

  815. So let me close it down. But first Thessalonians 5 and

  816. we'll stop here. I have some more stuff, but

  817. we'll just come back later. He says this now to get context.

  818. If you don't say, examine things carefully, hold fast to that

  819. which is good. It's set in this context.

  820. First Thessalonians. We'll go back to verse 12 and

  821. I'm going to read out their passion.

  822. It says, dear brothers and sisters, make sure that you show

  823. your deep appreciation for those who cherish you and diligently

  824. work as ministers among you. For they are your leaders who

  825. care for you, teach you, and stand before the Lord on your

  826. behalf. You understand any correction or

  827. adjustments we're making in your life to get you to maturity is

  828. only because the chief, the great, the head of the church,

  829. is saying, I want my players doing this.

  830. I need you to go talk to so and so, because we're not going to

  831. be able to get them off the bench if they keep acting like

  832. that. Are you hearing me?

  833. He goes on and says this. He says they value you with

  834. great love because of their service to you.

  835. Let peace reign among yourselves.

  836. We appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, to instruct those

  837. who are not in their place of battle.

  838. Be skilled at gently encouraging them who feel themselves

  839. inadequate. Be faithful to stand your

  840. ground. Help the weak to stand Again, be

  841. quick to demonstrate patience with everyone.

  842. Man, look at this. So again, all together we come

  843. together. We we instruct you out of place.

  844. You understand when you watch a team, whether it's basketball,

  845. volleyball, football, whatever. And one of the teammate

  846. realized. You got out of the You're in the

  847. wrong spot. I mean, I've seen defensive

  848. backs go back after somebody gets burned for it.

  849. He's like, you were supposed to be here before they ever make us

  850. to the sideline, to the coach. You blew the play.

  851. This was the play. You missed your assignment.

  852. You cost us. But that's all right.

  853. Let's get focused. We can come back because here

  854. with the church, it doesn't matter.

  855. A righteous man may fall seven times, but what he gets up, we

  856. rise up over your mistake. That's all right.

  857. But we go talk about it because we want to move on to maturity.

  858. Because if you do not do the training, you are going to

  859. entertain doctrines of demons and seducing spirits.

  860. It is guaranteed that if you stay in as an in an infant

  861. state. You will be deceived and you're

  862. going to entertain other thoughts because you can't

  863. determine the different voices. Are you hearing me?

  864. Verse 15 says resist revenge and make sure that no one pays back

  865. evil and place of evil, but always pursue doing what is

  866. beautiful to one another. And to all the unbelievers, let

  867. joy be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer, and in

  868. the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this

  869. is God's perfect plan for you in Christ.

  870. Never restrain or put out the fire of the Holy Spirit.

  871. And don't be one who scorns prophecies, but be faithful to

  872. examine them by putting them to the test.

  873. And afterwards hold tightly to what has proved to be right.

  874. Because you can do that. Verse 22.

  875. Avoid every appearance of evil. There it is.

  876. Now you can recognize. Wait a minute, that ain't as

  877. good as it looks like. It's actually evil.

  878. Now may the God of peace and harmony set you apart, making

  879. you completely whole, and may your entire being, spirit, soul

  880. and body be kept completely flawless in the appearing of our

  881. Lord Jesus, the anointing one, the one who calls you by name is

  882. trustworthy and thoroughly complete for his work.

  883. I don't believe anyone who has been recruited to be on a

  884. athletic program or business, whatever wants to go to an

  885. organization that is basically saying, well, we're going to

  886. help you fail here. You know, we're going to hire

  887. you so that you lose all your money, become bankrupt and and

  888. and ultimately unemployed. In fact, our goal is to make you

  889. homeless, right? So we're offering you this

  890. position. Nobody does that, right?

  891. Nobody goes to an athletic program and say, listen, we're

  892. going to do our very best to win no games this year.

  893. So even when we win, we're going to do stuff to lose the game.

  894. OK, how many signed up for that? No, we're not.

  895. How much more than in the body of Christ should we not say,

  896. listen, I've come to win, I've come to win and live a life of

  897. winning because he won. He's already done the work.

  898. Then. What I mean by that is he's put

  899. in the price that gets us in to him so that now we can bear

  900. fruit of him. Because we train and because we

  901. train and we're studiers of the word rightly divided, then we

  902. know how to hear, We know how to respond because there's a lot

  903. going on in the world. And I would agree with a lot of

  904. stuff being said about misinformation.

  905. There's a lot of misinformation about Jesus Christ.

  906. That's right, a lot of misinformation about his church

  907. and a lot of people who are. Assuming Jesus is who he.

  908. Is or what he is because of what people are doing and acting and

  909. behaving right? But when you get hungry, God

  910. will show you him and he'll introduce you to a group of

  911. people that always win in life not.

  912. Free from challenges. Not free from challenges.

  913. We are the greatest. Come from behind people.

  914. On the face of the planet, it can look like we're being

  915. whipped and then we'd come back and dominate.

  916. And there's many games we just absolutely stomp them and they

  917. wish they never had gone right again.

  918. Who gets bored of that? What team would put in their

  919. second third string and say don't do the plays, just lay

  920. down? I mean, if their string is

  921. scoring every time, Oh, well, what?

  922. I mean, they ain't been playing. We're going to harness them now.

  923. Run it up, coach. Leave no doubt.

  924. That's how my God is. Run it up.

  925. Leave no doubt. That's who we play for, that's

  926. who we serve and by being trained, we're going to know the

  927. difference. But when you're not, you're

  928. guaranteed to be deceived. Thank you so much for listening

  929. to this message. If you want more, subscribe to

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