Defeating Deception 3

Well, let's reach down, while we're still standing, and pick up our Bibles, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

We're gonna get into the Word of God today.

Hallelujah, what a wonderful anointing there is in here.

You know, when you express your love for Him, hallelujah.

Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I do love you and I know that you love me.

You love me enough to give me this wonderful Word.

And the Holy Ghost, the Word and the Spirit, are working together in my life to cause me to grow in your knowledge, to be more effective in my ministry.

I'm conscious of the time, jesus, you're coming soon and I wanna be found faithful, doing what you call me to do in Jesus' name.

Amen, you can be seated.

Let's turn in our Bibles to our foundation scriptures.

We're number three today, defeating deception, revelation 12.

And also Ephesians 6, revelation 12.

We'll start with that.

Jesus told John to write all of this down and send it to the pastors of the seven churches of Asia Minor.

And in verse seven he said and there was war in heaven.

See, jesus wanted the church to know.

He wanted to know, wanted them to know how it all started with evil.

People think God created evil.

He even says that.

But he didn't create evil, he created everything good and some of it became evil.

He didn't create Satan to be evil, he created Satan to be good.

He was good and perfect until Don't be goofy and people say God created woke and God created.

No, he didn't create anything bad, he created everything good.

All right, so he said.

And there was war in heaven.

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought in his angels and prevail not.

Neither was their place found anymore in heaven, and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceived the whole world.

He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him.

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God, day and night.

And they overcame him.

Who overcame?

Well, the ones that were accused, the brethren.

They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and love, not their lives under the death.

Therefore, rejoice you, heavens and ye that dwell in them.

Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and sea, for the devil has come down under you having great wrath, because he knoweth that his time he hath but a short time.

And Ephesians, chapter six, verse 10, it says finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, take upon you the whole or entire armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

And the word wiles there means trickery, craft, deception.

And then Luke 21,.

Jesus answering the disciples question as to when he would be coming back.

What would be the signs of his glorious appearing?

He led with this statement take heed that you be not deceived.

So we're speaking about defeating deception.

And this message a series of messages were inspired originally because I preached them back in, I think, 2016.

Yeah, I learned from both those things.

You know what I'm just preaching a revelation.

One time you preach it over and over again, you know, god delivered me from fear of repetition, amen.

We need to hear it because it's just as fresh as when I brought it forth in 2016,.

As it is.

As it was then, it is.

Now.

It's even more so, but it's inspired by a quote that I heard from Billy Graham, before he passed on, went to heaven.

He said it's time for Christians to stop underestimating the power of Satan to deceive.

And that's so true.

We're living in the last days.

The devil is.

His wrath is great, he's hot with passion, he's quick to pull out all the stops to deceive the whole world.

And we have watched it happen.

We're living in the midst of one of the most gosh awful deceptions that we've ever witnessed.

I mean, you know, covid was one thing, but man, this stuff that's going on right now is nuts.

These people deny science.

On one side they talk about science.

On this side they deny science.

They don't even know what to believe, they don't know what to think.

And I asked the Lord?

I said, you know, I just don't understand.

He said the truth isn't it on Sanctus, the truth isn't in them.

You know, the truth isn't us, because we've got the spirit of truth.

So we talked about this deception.

It's an important part of every successful warfare.

So in week one we talked about knowing your enemy.

That week two did not demonic tactics.

We discovered that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the devil is limited to things common to man.

But the weapons of our warfare are not common to man.

They're not carnal but they're mighty, through God to the pulling down of stronghold.

So we have mighty weapons.

What are the well is the word of God, the Holy Ghost and the blood of Jesus and the name of Jesus.

So today I want to continue on the subject of defeating demonic tactics and I want us to turn in our Bible's Ephesians, chapter four, and come at this subject.

You know, brother Osteen was fond of a saying and I've adopted it the light that shines further shines brightest at home.

And you can't hope to reach out with the gospel if you yourself are deceived, if you yourself haven't taken care of business in your backyard.

So that's what we're going to talk about today, ephesians, chapter four, and I'm going to start with the Bible.

And it says, in the book of verse 11, paul is writing to the Ephesians and it says he gave some apostles, some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.

And then he gives you the reason verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints, or maturing of the saints.

What we call the five fold ministry Evangelist, pastor, teacher are for the maturing of the saints.

We have a tremendous number of people that have become disassociated from church and from the five fold ministry, that are attempting to feed themselves the word, attempting to mature themselves by themselves, and they're falling quickly into deception.

You're not anointed to do that.

These five fold ministries are anointed and placed in the body for your benefit, can't get away from the word.

So there you go.

There's deception right there.

Because of the closing down of the churches, they're giving people a convenient excuse to stay home.

I've heard about people just prefer to stay home and watch it on live stream.

Well, you know, thank God for live stream, but it's not intended to be the primary way that you encounter Jesus.

I'm telling you, nothing takes the place of being right here right now.

Nothing takes the place.

It's a supplement for people that can't be here, and I'm not trying to condemn you.

If you're watching this morning, I'm glad you're watching, but I mean we've got to make every effort to get here.

When you're gone, the puzzle pieces you're.

We don't have a complete picture.

So it says here this is for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry.

See the pastor's not to work in the minute.

You're the.

I'm preparing you to work.

You're the laborers, not me.

My job is to teach you.

My job is to impact you, to stir you up, to do your job.

Church hasn't been doing its job.

The church has been hiding a sleep, trying to not be involved.

Ooh, that's evil.

I don't want to get involved in politics.

That's why we've got a mess.

That's why the Biden crime family is now president of the United States.

They're worse than the mafia.

Wake up.

Oh, you shouldn't say I'm saying it Horrible.

They're horrible people.

If they don't repent, they're going straight to hell.

No, I'm not saying they're going there.

I'm saying if, because right now they're going.

Everything they're involved with is illegal.

Anyway, all right till we all come in the unity of the faith.

The faith, not some faith, not some kind of.

No, the faith.

There's only one faith, and that's what the five fold ministry is doing.

It's bringing you into unity with that faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect or mature man, unto the measure of the stature, of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth, from now on, forever and ever, be no more children.

Could it get any clearer?

The five fold ministry is placed in position so that you will grow up and not be a child.

It's not wrong to be a child.

It's wrong to stay a child, that you be no more children tossed to and fro and cared about with every wind of doctrine or teaching.

The word doctrine just means teaching.

Again, they're not listening to the five fold ministry, they're trying to teach themselves and they're going here and there.

They're watching this one on this live stream.

They're watching this one on YouTube.

They're watching this one.

They're going to this church.

They're going to that church.

They're wandering around when they do go to church and they're a mess.

They're a mess Carried about with every wind of teaching by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness.

Where's that word craftiness?

Well, that's wiles of the devil, that's what that means Whereby they lie and wait to deceive.

Yeah, satan is involved in the church and his demon powers.

Many, many are being deceived right in church or online.

So, but speaking the truth in love, see, that's our job, that's my job.

I speak the truth in love.

I love you enough to tell you the truth we posted on my Facebook page about.

You know we might not like, we might despise the activities of the group that's known as the woke group, but you know we need to tell them the truth.

We love them enough to tell them the truth that what they're doing is wrong.

We have to confront this at the library Now.

I'm not even talking about the school library, I'm talking about the public library that Democrats took over the libraries long time ago and they're filled with pornography.

Well, they're a cooling center for the old people, yeah, but all the people that are broke and don't know any better go in there and they check out these awful books that are anti-American, anti-god, anti-christ, anti-christian, anti-semitic.

Life or life or life.

I say let's get rid of the library.

We don't need libraries.

We've got Google now you can look anything up.

You don't need a library to check a book out anymore.

Why, pastor, that sounds, you sound like a book.

But yeah, we need to burn some books.

We sure do.

There are lies.

Boy, you're looking at me crooked.

Well, if I'm rubbing the cats fur the wrong way, let the cat turn around.

Turn around, cat, all right.

And so, speaking, the truth and love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies According to the effectual working and the measure of every part, make it increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

So every member of the body of Christ is important.

Everyone has a supply to give and it increases the body.

So, yes, the devil is involved in deception.

He's involved in trying to keep people from growing up and becoming a contribution to the body of Christ.

So in Romans 16, turn back there to the left a few pages Light that shines far, that shines brightest at home.

I'm gonna give you some things this morning for you to you know.

I'm not gonna interview you and ask you some questions.

I mean you can ask yourself the questions.

You can check yourself and see whether you are developing spiritually the way that you should be.

Romans 16, verse 17.

Romans 16:17

I beseech you, brethren, but mark them.

Which calls divisions and offensive contrary to the teaching.

Doctrine is teaching.

So you don't get all hung up on doctrine, Doctrine is just teaching.

I beseech you, brethren, mark them.

Which calls divisions and offensive contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and avoid them.

See, really, it's talking about false teachers, right?

It's talking about some of the same people.

This is where the devil is operating right now.

He's operating in the vacuum of the churches, closing up, churches closed.

I basically prophesied that's what was gonna happen at the beginning of COVID.

Many churches are gonna close up and in their place has arisen all kinds of deception.

For they that are such serve not our Lord, jesus Christ, but their own belly and, by good words and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple, in other words the hearts of children that haven't grown, who have separated themselves from the five fold ministry because it's convenient and they're afraid and all of that, and they just, let's just face it, they just use an excuse, they just give themselves permission.

Now you're here, thank God, but there shouldn't be any chairs vacant in this place.

We ought to be running two or three services a Sunday.

Where are these people?

Where they're absent, without leather, a wall, and they're in danger of losing the faith.

I mean, you know they can dig, you know they got saved, but they can get unsaved.

Wow, deception will do it.

So and then, james 1.22, be you doers of the Word and not heroes only deceiving your own selves.

You can even deceive yourself.

You don't even need any help.

You hear the Word and you don't become a doer of it.

You must do it.

You can't just hear it, you have to do it.

So the primary tactic of Satan is to hinder one's spiritual growth.

The light that shines further shines brightest at home.

You are at home in your body.

Your spirit lives in your body.

It's up to you to develop and to grow.

If you don't do it, if you don't decide to do it, are you gonna take responsibility?

I can only lay it out there.

I can lay the food out, but I can't spoon feed it to you.

I can't come along and open your little mouth.

Come on, open the mouth here.

Come to chew, chew to him here.

Come to airplane.

You know he used to do that with your babies.

You know, and you play with them.

But after a while, I mean, you can't.

People have to take responsibility.

Amen.

Children are easily deceived.

We teach our children Stranger danger.

I told the story about when I was six years old.

I got a Christmas present.

I had a bicycle on my list.

It was time for me to graduate from tricycle to bicycle.

I went from one to the other, you know.

And my dad I don't know what he was thinking, but man, he wasn't looking at the same ads on TV that I was.

The ad that I was watching was a three speed.

You know I wanted three speeds.

You know I wanted the little button up there where you move the thing and you had three speed low, medium and high and all that.

I wanted all that.

One of the 26 inch little skinny tires.

I wanted a bike that would run down the road.

I wanted something that I could get up fast, and my dad did.

He bought a skinny bike, a 26 inch bike with a skinny tires, but it didn't have three speeds and it looked like it was painted with a brush.

I mean it did not have a glossy, glossy metallic finish on it with pinstripes and a fancy seat, you know, on it and streamers out of the handlebars, you know the streamers and all of that.

It was just really it looked like a mud fence and I was.

I didn't.

I mean, I'm just, I didn't like my Christmas gift.

I made no bones about it.

Ah, where did you get that bike?

Ah, so a guy that worked at Powell's Bicycle Shop, just less than a block from where I lived in Glenna Park we lived right on the corner and it's right down the street, powell's Bicycle Shop he come riding up one day and I've got the bike and I'm having to fix the chain kept falling off the sprocket and I was trying to fix it, you know, back there with a crescent wrench and he he said, hey, I see you got bicycle trouble.

He said I'll buy that bicycle from me for $5.

I said sold.

I sold my bicycle.

See, children are easily deceived.

I sold my bike.

I still can't believe my dad didn't paddle my rear end.

I just can't believe he, he had such mercy on me but he took it out on Powell, not on me.

I mean, he got in when I told him I sold my bike.

I mean, oh, he got in the car and went right down to Powell's bicycle shop and gave read him the ride act.

And he come back with my bicycle in the trunk of his car and I got to keep that bicycle a lot longer, I think, than I would have.

I think I was still riding it when I was 15.

I don't know.

Most of my friends had cars, not me.

I never had a car.

Children, see, are easily deceived, see, and likewise Christians whose growth is stunted.

They, you know it talks about in the book of Hebrews, when, for the time you ought to be teaching others, you have need to be taught again of the basics of the faith.

This is where the church is.

The church is infantile.

They have no ability to really discern between good and evil.

They don't know what's right and wrong anymore.

Why?

Because they're not taught anything.

Thought a bunch of psychology.

They're taught a bunch of theories.

No, we teach right out of the Bible.

The Bible is the truth.

So you know, deception in the name of Christ is a big problem.

So he got the Holy Ghost in you.

He's there to show you what's right and wrong, and I gave that testimony.

Last week when Gladys and I were young in the faith, less than six months old in the Lord, we went to this Bible study and we saw all this stuff going on.

This guy was teaching out of the book of Ephesians.

I mean, I didn't hear anything that I'd objected to.

Mostly he was just reading the scripture.

He didn't really teach much of anything, as I recall.

And then you know they had the people getting the devil cast out of him.

He had an altar call and people, and this was a private home.

There's 30, 40 people there in the living room.

I mean it was crowded and so well, some of you need to get delivered.

Come on up and we'll pray for you.

And they puked in a bag and all that.

And so hollered and screamed and all this kind and thought what in the world, what country do we live in that people that are Christians will run around needing to have these kind of wicked spirits cast out of them?

I mean, I just thought about it, I didn't say a word.

And then on the way home, after we dropped everybody off, I looked at Gladys.

I said, honey, I don't think we'll ever go back to that Bible study.

See, the spirit in me didn't accept what I heard, it didn't accept what I, and just led me away from that.

And three years later I ran into these people 300 miles from here.

I mean, here they are in a little town, utopia, texas, and I come out of this grocery store and there they are, and I find out that he's teaching only what?

Pauline, the Pauline revelation.

You're gonna throw James away.

And Revelation away.

You're gonna throw Jude away.

And first John, second John, third John.

You're gonna throw Book of Acts away.

Are you nuts?

Yes, and whoever sitting under his teaching is deceived.

Are y'all with me now?

I didn't need anybody to help me.

Why?

Because a holy ghost in me took care of me.

Are you consulting with him before you start turning on YouTube and listening to any old person that you never heard of?

You don't know their lifestyle.

You don't know what they stand for.

You don't know who their spiritual father is.

If they even had one, how'd it been Muhammad, for all you know?

Are you with me now?

Yes, amen.

So are you gullible and you need friends and you need attention and you don't care who ministers to you, as long as they minister to you and you don't care.

You're always looking for somebody to prophesy over you and give you a personal word from God.

Say you need to grow up.

Amen, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

No, babies, we know babies need constant attention.

That's just normal.

When you first get saved, you're a baby.

It doesn't matter if you're 50 years old and you're in your regular age, but if you just got saved, you are a baby.

Christian Babies need constant attention.

They need close supervision.

The only place to get that done is in a local church, and you need to get involved in the local church.

You need to be part of the ministry in the local church.

You find some place We've got wonderful places for brand new Christians to get involved.

And what's the purpose of that?

So you can get around people that know the ropes.

That's how I got discipled.

I got involved in the ministry at Lakewood Church and I got around people that knew more than I did and they'd put their arm around me and tell me the truth and love me and show me the better way.

For instance, I remember one time Dodie had heard about me able to sing, so she bore.

She said oh, john, I want you to sing Sunday night.

And Sunday night 3,000 people were there.

You know, sunday night, I mean, the most I had done was sing at the nursing home.

That was my audience and of course they appreciated anything I did.

But now I'm gonna stand up at Lakewood and sing.

I thought how did I get myself into this mess?

My knees were having fellowship one with another and I had a track.

I had the only track.

I remember.

When I bought that track, gladys said what did you buy?

That's a track that there's nothing on it but song.

I mean, nobody's singing.

Why did you buy that?

You spent $8 for one cassette tape.

Why did you do that?

I said well, I'm gonna sing to it, you're gonna sing.

So I didn't.

You know, gladys wasn't real supportive, but I I'm sorry, honey, call it like I said, but anyway I got up there and I was Kenneth Copeland.

Only the redeemed, only the redeemed Shall hear his voice on that day Song about the rapture, and that was one of my favorite songs.

And I found out it had a track, and so, man, I started singing that at the nursing home and and so here I am at Lakewood, 3,000 people, and I'm just, I'm so mortified.

I get up there and I can't remember the words, you know, and I'm just about ready to sing the next part of the song, and I don't know what the words are, and my heart is beating out of my chest.

And finally the words came, you know, right at the last instant.

I got all through.

I sang it.

I'm so glad that's over, and so, and so you know, after the end of the service I'm leaving in Jim Scalise.

So Jim was a guy that I'd met and he'd come up to me big old, big old guy.

He's a.

He used to be the main drug dealer for the Houston Oilers and the Houston Rockets, and I mean he sold drugs to all the big names.

You name anybody.

He, he sold them drugs.

I mean, he was a ringtail tutor, but he got saved.

He really got genuinely saved.

And we, you know, we got to be friends.

And so he said, hey, brother, that was real good.

He put his big old hand on my shoulder and looked at me.

Man, that was real good, you did real good.

I said, oh, jim, I don't know, I just no.

No, I'm telling you you did real good.

Now you need to accept the compliment.

Don't, don't have that false humility.

You got through the song.

You sounded good.

I'm telling you, you sounded good and I learned to receive the compliment.

And then later on, you can give God praise for it, because God's the reason that you did good.

You know that, I know that.

But at the meantime, and when people come up and tell you you did good, we'll accept the compliment.

See, what was he doing?

He's helping me as a baby Christian, and I knew what he said was right.

I knew he was saying when he was trying to help me, he wasn't just criticizing me, he was helping.

Are y'all with me now?

This is what you need, and a baby Christian has got to have attention.

They've got to have somebody pay attention to them until they grow up a little bit, then you know, when they get a little bit older, then they can kind of get in charge of another baby.

Isn't that what happens when a little girl is about nine years old?

She's like a stick, but she can stick that hip out and you can put a baby on that hip and that girl can.

She can haul that baby at 15 pound baby all over the house, just like this and my mama's, you know, washing dishes or doing some or coming home from work or whatever you get anything out of this.

Children need constant praise.

Is that what you need?

You need somebody to brag on you all the time.

You need somebody to slobber on you, because if that's what you need, if you need somebody to slobber on you every day, that kind of tells that you're a baby, and if you've been saved 25 or 30 years and you still need somebody to slobber on you, you need to grow up.

I'm giving you a checklist, see, because if you're deceiving yourself, you're gonna be deceived by the devil.

He's gonna bring something along and it's gonna get you in major trouble, major trouble.

Are you with me now?

All right, so let's look at Romans 12.

Defeating demonic tactics.

He has no new tricks.

He's got the same old tricks and they are very effective.

He's been using them for thousands of years with great success.

So you know it's time to stop underestimating the power of Satan to deceive.

Chapter 12, verse one I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, I think the Amphiphys says, and your spiritual worship.

You do something with your body.

What do you do with it?

You present it, present and accounted for.

Sir, your body wants to stay home and sleep on Sunday.

You present your body at church.

You present your body in prayer.

You present your body and sit down and read your Bible, open your Bible.

You present your body and you get the Bible in front of your eyeballs.

Where are your eyeballs?

They're in your body.

They're in your body.

Y'all with me now?

Yeah, you have to do something.

Nobody can do it for you.

You have to do it.

God can't do it.

You have to do it.

You, who's you?

You're a spirit being.

You're in charge of your body.

You say start thinking about yourself as a spirit when you look in the mirror.

That's not you, that's your body.

I'm not saying don't look in the mirror, because I have to look in the mirror.

I've got hair growing out of different places that I didn't see.

One time I had a curly gray one it was just about three inches long coming out of my ear.

Gladys didn't tell me, she didn't look at me close enough and here I got.

I don't know how long it's been growing like that, but it looked pretty ugly.

Maybe it's vanity, but I just kind of hate to present my body like that.

And then it says verse two and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, perfect will of God.

In other words, don't be conformed to this world's way of thinking.

That's what that's talking about.

Don't be conformed to this world's way of thinking, but be transformed, metamorphosized.

So again, you have something to say about it.

You have something to do about it.

You have to renew your mind by reading your Bible and pray it.

Your mind has to start moving over to thinking the thoughts of God, otherwise you're gonna just be conformed to this world's way of thinking.

This world's way of thinking is what?

Death, selfishness, lust, lust of the flesh, the pride of life, lust of the eyes.

See, that's the devil's temptation, test and trials come through those areas, things that are common to man.

You're gonna have to change your thinking.

You're gonna have to think more like God thinks.

Find out what God thinks.

You know God has a side.

Here's his side, right here.

God has a side.

Well, you know, god's not a Republican or a Democrat, that's true, but God has a side.

And right now, the Republicans decided to get on God's side on more issues than a Democrat.

In fact, the Democrats are diametrically opposed to God.

They're opposed to Christians.

They're in line with the devil.

So if you wanna vote Democrat, you go ahead.

You're voting for the devil.

How long is that gonna happen If you keep doing that?

I've had people in this church listen to this and vote Democrat.

How did I know?

They told them.

They told somebody, they told one of our leaders.

Well, I voted for Obama.

Oh, really, you voted for a Muslim, a guy that hates America.

And ever since, we have voted for a black man and really, he's not African-American, he's more Arab than he is anything else.

But ever since we did, we've had nothing but trouble.

It didn't do us any good.

We got no credit.

Now we're just a racist society.

But you know the Republicans that have a history too.

I mean, they haven't done everything.

I think about George Bush.

Where do we get the Department of Homeland Security from George W Bush?

And that's been weaponized against the church.

Are y'all with me now?

But right now the Republicans, you know, because we got involved and because we demanded that they change some of their platform and we demanded pro-life.

We got us a pro-life president, donald J Trump, who was the most pro-life president in our history, and he got three Supreme Court justices.

Just think about this past week what happened in the Supreme Court and where we'd be if Hillary had won.

She would have those three justices and we'd have three more, like Katanji baby, and then we'd have a Supreme Court card carrying communist.

She is not suitable for the Supreme Court.

She a part of Cuba, all right.

So are y'all getting this now?

So we have to do something about our bodies.

Present them.

The Bible really just says put to death the deeds of the body.

In other words, mortify your flesh.

You have to tell your flesh no.

Quit giving your flesh permission to do what it wants to do.

You are in charge?

Who is you?

You're a spirit.

That's the part of you that's gonna live forever.

All right, and then your feelings.

See, a lot of people just led by their feelings.

What are feelings?

Well, you know your emotions.

That was the voice of your body.

Your body is gonna give you all kind of trouble and your body communicates to you through feelings.

And if you're led by your feelings, then you're led by your body instead of by the spirit.

See, you've got.

You have to decide.

You have to decide.

I can't decide.

God's not going to decide.

He gave you the Holy Ghost.

He lives inside of you.

Now let's look at verse three, for I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.

See, everybody's got faith.

You got to have faith in order to get saved.

So all of us have faith.

And then he goes on to say for as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and every one member is one of another, having then gifts, differing brethren.

So all of us have differing gifts in the body of Christ and you're not to vote.

If God has given you a certain gift, you don't get all high-minded, you don't get all inflated.

Look for a place where that gift can be utilized in the church.

That's what it's saying here.

That way you're not deceived.

I've seen people they just come to church and they seem to have their own agenda.

Me, my four and no more.

My little darlings.

I'm only here for my little darlings.

As long as my little darlings are liking it, that's fine.

If my little darlings don't like it, then I'm gone.

Well, you know, that's not a.

You know, really, the church is an army.

You don't get to pick your general, you don't get to pick your outfit.

You're assigned an outfit, you're assigned a place to be, and that is the way it is in the body of Christ.

It should be.

How are you gonna find that?

How are you gonna find that out?

Well, that's why we have a discovery class for people to try us on and listen to.

What we're all about takes about three weeks to go to this class and then you know.

Then you can kind of know more about whether you belong here.

We just want the ones that belong here.

We just want the ones that are assigned here.

We don't want anybody else, we don't want if you're assigned somewhere else.

We don't want you here.

You're out of place.

We want you where you belong, because if everybody gets where they belong, I'm telling you, the body of Christ will rise up and do what it's supposed to do.

So you know, you're not led by your feelings.

Valings are the voice of the body.

You're not led by your reason.

Reason is the voice of the mind.

But you're led by your spirit and you have gifts.

And so I have three marks, or I like to use the word mark, because you know, like this Aggie ring here, I mean it's got a mark on it tells me it's 10 carats, and my brother-in-law was, he graduated, I'm class of 69, he was class of 55, and his Aggie ring was 14 carat and you couldn't even see it.

I mean, it's all smoothed out.

You know just all it.

Just shaking hands and wearing it, it just goes away.

You can't even tell it's an Aggie ring.

Mind has still got all the details.

It's got the star over here, it's got this, all this stuff, all this stuff.

Here's a rifle I like that Guns and ammo on the other side.

So it's got a mark on it.

So you're marked with these characteristics.

Check your marks, marks of spiritual maturity, and it's all in the Bible.

First one, that a mark.

And this is for you to check up on yourself because look the light that shines, the light that further shines brightest at home, if you will take care of your spiritual maturity and make a commitment to God that you're going to grow, that you're not going to stay the same.

There's no such thing as staying the same.

You're either increasing or you're decreasing.

There is no in the spirit realm.

The devil is not going to let you tread water.

He's going to watch you and if he sees any kind of status quo, he will attack you even more to get you to back off what little you've got.

He wants you, he wants to destroy you and if he can't destroy you, he wants to discredit you.

All right.

So these marks of spiritual maturity.

Number one Hebrews 11.

Let's look at this one real quick.

This is Moses.

Praise God.

Nobody's running around the sanctuary when you ought to.

I mean, you know this is really.

This will help you.

Hebrews 11, verse 24.

Hebrews 11:24

This page is falling out, got to hold it in place by faith.

Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer a friction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the approach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

So the first mark of spiritual maturity is esteeming earthly things lightly.

I didn't say don't esteem them at all.

Not wrong to want a new car.

It's not wrong to want a new house, it's not wrong.

But in other words, god is number one, just like that song we sang this morning, you know it just filled with a love for Jesus.

Love God, I love you Lord, I love you Father.

See, the love comes way up, higher than all the earthly things, and it will influence your decisions that you make.

For instance, let's just say you know you're called to be in this church, you're growing spiritually, you're able to be used, your gifting is utilized and you get a job offered to go to Minnesota, and it's more money.

And so you, just, without any further ado, you just say well, gosh, I want more money, I'm going to go to Minnesota.

Well, you know what you might be missing God You're not.

You're not esteeming things that are spiritual and the right way.

You're just going after the money you could.

You could get out of position real quick.

What if there's no church like this in Minnesota, where you're going?

There's no guarantee that you're going to find.

I hear this all the time.

Well, I moved to so and so and I just can't find a church.

Why did you move?

I always want to ask the question, but I don't.

I don't, I don't try to fuss it.

People, I just, I just get tired of hearing it.

I moved to so and so and there's no church.

Can you tell me?

No, I can.

I don't know.

I just know about this one.

This is here.

Why did you move?

Is it worth it?

What is it?

What is it?

You gain the whole world, lose your own soul.

I mean, that's just really, in some cases, that's what's.

That's what you're, that's what you're looking at.

You don't have a place to get fed spiritually.

I'm telling you the rest of this.

I wouldn't want to live in these blue states.

I'm sorry, I wouldn't want to live in Michigan.

You know what Michigan just did?

They passed a law.

The state house in Michigan's passed a law for people that live in Michigan that if you don't use the proper pronouns you can be fined $10,000 and go to jail.

It's a felony If I don't use they when I'm talking to you.

How stupid is that?

I don't think I don't want to go to Detroit.

I don't want to go to anywhere in Michigan.

In Michigan you can have Michigan.

In fact, we could send Michigan to Cuba.

How about that?

Just Esteem earthly things lightly.

You know Moses didn't partake of his earthly, worldly pedigree.

You know it's not wrong to get on line and look up your DNA and look up your heritage and all that, but don't get all hung up on that.

You are a new creature.

Your old things are passed away.

I mean you might want to find out just from health issues and stuff, but really I don't even want to do that because I'm listen, anything negative has already been broken.

I'm a new creature.

The Holy Ghost is in me to quicken my mortal body.

I don't have to think about grandpa having heart disease.

I don't have to worry about great grandma having cancer.

Listen, I don't care where I came from.

My great, great great grandfather was Kuta Kente.

Well, I don't care, whatever I'm, who I am now, I'm a new creature in Christ.

See, esteem, that's.

That's what, exactly what Moses did he had?

He was in the cat bird seat.

Are you know?

He's the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

He's got royalty.

But he found out he's Jewish and buddy.

That's all it took.

He put all that other away.

Are y'all with me now God's kingdom first.

See, he wasn't short-sighted.

He could have been short.

A lot of people are short-sighted.

They just want to.

They want things right now.

Listen, we're, we're, kingdom minded.

That means that 10,000 times 10,000 years from now, will be on assignment all over the universe.

We'll be part of a very small group opposed to everything else, all the other creation.

There's not that many new creatures, not that many made in the image and likeness of God.

Oh, but we're all children of God.

No, we're not all children of God, only the ones born again.

All right, so let's, let's make sure that we have kingdom mindset and let's keep the church in the top position, because what church is the body of Christ?

Don't we love Him?

Then you love the church.

If you love Him, you have to love the church.

If you love Him, you can't love Him and not like the church.

No, I don't like the church.

No, you don't.

In fact, you've got to love the church, amen, all right.

The second one is found in 1 Corinthians, chapter four.

Are you getting anything out of this today?

Yeah, praise God.

Somebody said I hope this is getting close to being over.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does us good to ask ourselves some questions, give ourselves a checklist and go down that checklist and see where we measure up or don't, because we can change.

1 Corinthians, chapter four, verse three.

But with me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment.

Yeah, I judge not my own self, for I know nothing by myself yet.

Am I not hereby justified?

But he that judges me is the Lord.

So that's not carnal independence.

He's not saying I don't care what you think of me.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying look, god call me.

I answer to him.

I'm delivered from the fear of public opinion.

I don't need your recommendations.

He said that in another place.

I don't need any kind of letters from you.

Recommended me to the next group down the road.

God's the one that call me.

So that's not being arrogant, that's being saintly.

Dignity, I think, is the best way I can describe that attitude.

It looks to some people like arrogance, but it's not arrogance.

You've got to know who you are in Christ.

You've got to know what God called you to do.

I have such confidence in the anointing on my life to help people and yet I know that I can't help anybody against their will.

I can't help anybody that doesn't want to get help.

I can't help anybody.

If they won't listen and so it's not like so, then that delivers me from their opinion.

They might not like me, they might disagree with me, they might even hit the door and go out the door and not ever come back.

Well, I'm not going to compromise what I know to be true to keep them.

That's not arrogance, that's just knowing who I answer to.

You know we didn't have a pulpit committee that hired me.

There's no pulpit committee, and so you know God hired me and let me know he hired me when I was four.

I forgot about it.

I buried it under a mountain of just hope and I didn't have to do it because that meant priest to me, because I was Catholic, and when I discovered girls I knew priest wasn't going to work for me More specifically, when I saw Gladys the first time, I knew no priesthood for me so, which meant that I had to deny my call and I had to bury it underneath a whole bunch of other stuff, see.

And it wasn't until I got saved that I, you know, in a few months, and God began to deal with me and show me that all that time he had his hand on me, he had his call.

The gifts and callings of God are without repentance.

That's why I don't care whether I mean when I say I don't care.

Yes, I care in the sense that I want to be effective for you, but if I'm not, I can't do anything about that.

I have to just keep doing what I know God called me to do.

Amen.

So the law of love here in the first Corinthians, chapter 13,.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

That's the only commandment we have.

And so the second thing, this point is deadness to censure and praise.

Deadness to censure and praise.

Remember I said do you have to be slobbered on?

Say you need to be praised.

Everybody needs Encouragement from time to time it's not wrong to enjoy encouragement.

I remember when I was at Lakewood I didn't wait around waiting for people to come up and say add, a boy.

I didn't have that happen very much.

Brother Osteen knew how to encourage me at times, but not all the time.

Most of the time I'm just there doing what I do.

But Miss Angela Smith the Smiths were were, you know, old timers at Lakewood and I can't think of her husband's name right now, but he was in charge of the barbecue and he was a deacon.

Angela was a school teacher and she'd come up to me after a service.

I'd come down off the platform, put my microphone up, walk over somewhere and she'd be waiting.

She'd.

Brother John, I just wanna tell you what a blessing you are to this church.

Thank you for all you do and how you help our pastor Osteen.

You just you're such a man.

I mean, you know I didn't look for that, but you know what?

I thank God for it because it was encouraging.

But I don't have to have it.

I'm willing to keep going without any whatsoever.

If I have to encourage myself and the Lord, that's what I'll do.

Deadness to censure or praise, I mean, you know, again it gets back to you know, when people don't like you or people don't think you're that good, or people don't appreciate what you're saying, see, you're dead to that and when they praise you, you're dead to that.

Are you with me now?

That's the deadness that I'm talking about.

In other words, you're not all connected to your flesh all the time in your mind.

In 1 Corinthians 13, the law of love, I like the verse five and the amplified.

It says not conceited, arrogant and inflated with pride, not touchy, fretful or resentful.

So read 1 Corinthians 13 in the amplified.

That's a challenge.

It's a challenge yet to me.

I mean to walk in love to that degree you have to get out of your, you have to get over yourself.

Know what I mean by that.

You have to get over yourself.

Yeah, you know to walk in love to that degree in the book of, in the amplified Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, the amplified, you've got to get over yourself.

Your flesh has got to get under your feet, your mind has got to get renewed to the God's word, and that's.

These are all marks of spiritual maturity.

And finally, the last one.

I'll just say what it is the ability to recognize God at work.

We sing that song.

I think it's a way maker.

Even when I know he's not, when I don't know he's work, even when I can't feel he's working.

I know he's working and you know Jave sings that part of the song Even when I can't see that you're working, you're working, you know.

You just know God's working, whether you have any evidence through your five senses that he is.

You might be going through the toughest time you've ever gone through and you never give up on God.

You know God is working 24 seven to get you out of this mess, through it.

See that spiritual maturity, immaturity is having a pity party, crying and moaning and groaning, and finding everybody you can find to pray for you and then, if possible, call a prayer line and have and I see it a lot people think the more people pray and the better.

Well, you know that's not true.

That's not true.

It's whether you pray, whether you heard from God.

Did you hear from God?

Cause that's how you hear from God is through prayer.

Prayer is communicating with him.

Prayer is fellow shipping with the father and when you pray you should hear what your part is in every situation, what you should be doing about it.

Think about Joseph.

We've talked about Joseph a lot lately, but Joseph had a rough time, didn't he?

He had a dream.

He's 17 years old, had a dream, and I mean, his brothers hated his guts and I wouldn't spit on him if he was on fire.

You talk about a dysfunctional family.

If you've got a dysfunctional family, you've got a lot of mess in your family.

Take heart, because God can use the 12 tribes of Israel.

He can use you, he can use your family.

You're not the only one that had a mess.

The Holy Ghost not intimidated by your mess.

You might have the biggest mess, mess, mess, everywhere you look, mess man, my cousin, that's a mess.

Ooh, I'm gonna get over here.

Oh, that, oh, that's another mess.

You couldn't get worse than the 12 tribes.

They sold their brother, they sold him into slavery and then they told daddy, uh, alienate him.

Here's his bloody clothes.

I mean, god, what a whoa.

I mean, they're psychopaths.

Are you kidding?

Read it.

But Joseph, hey, first he winds up in Potter's house, not so bad, and then you go, falsely accused, thrown into prison.

That's not so good.

I mean, not only is he a slave now he's in the bottom of the prison, but whatever there was for him to do in the prison, he was the doer of it.

I mean, the jailer looked, thought to anything that was under his hand.

He knew that Joseph could take care and he became the director of prisons for 13 years and his soul came into iron.

Psalm 105 said so.

You know he didn't have a free ride.

Hey, he had trouble with his mind.

He you know what he told his mind Shut up, just keep blooming where you're planted.

And he did.

And then over, and he went to bed one night a prisoner and he woke up the next day the prime minister, second only in command of the fair.

Oh, glory to God.

I'm telling you, god has got you.

He's working behind the scenes.

He told his brothers you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

He sent me ahead to preserve a posterity and to save many lives with a great deliverance.

Oh, come on.

Glory to God, you see the right, you see what God is doing.

You don't get down and out and have a pity party.

That is a and.

If that's what you are doing, then you just need to grow up a little bit more.

You need to grow, you need to grow and by growing you're gonna defeat deception, and mainly deception is deceiving yourself, being your own worst enemy.

Then the devil has an easy job of finishing you off, but he's not gonna finish us off?

Amen.

Come on, lift your hands and receive today.

Glory to God, hallelujah.

Do you get anything out of this today?

Hallelujah, come on, let's rejoice today.

Thank God, I shall not be deceived.

Glory to God, glory to God, amen.

Now there's some meat in that message, because, you know, milk is all the blessings and people like to hear the blessings, they like to hear all the positives, but meat is our responsibility.

So this message has a lot of responsibility in it and you have to take responsibility.

But you also get to be the benefit of that and also the body of Christ.

It gets the benefit of your maturity.