308 ~ AT THE MOVIES - Part 2

We welcome you to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

This summer we are going deeper into heartwarming movies to find

gospel gems and Kingdom truths for our everyday life.

As you listen in, we hope that through these familiar

characters and sweet stories, you have a fresh revelation of

the victorious life we have in Christ.

Hi Chess, This is a joy and a privilege to be able to bring

God's Word to you today even as you just watch the sermon

Bumper. We are doing an entire series

this summer called At the Movies.

My main intention is to take these cultural moments of some

of these movies that have come out, see what God's kind of

speaking to us through some of these narratives that have been

told. And many times it might come

across contradictory, but that's because the Word of God is clear

as to what it has to do in and through our lives.

And last week we saw from this movie Zootopia 2.

We've been going through that entire movie and the last week

was the first part of the series and we saw the title was Snakes

are Not Cute. And in the entire movie, they

bring out this entire storyline of how the snake needs help.

And even as Tina spoke, there were three key things that she

actually spoke about with regard to the entire sermon as to what

actually happens when we allow snakes to be around us.

You know, one of the things is a lot of us probably are fearful

of these animals like snakes and all these other reptiles.

But. And so our immediate response is

there, but we forget to understand the implications that

it has on a spiritual level, especially with some of the

things that happens around. We saw what the venom does.

The venom often takes the life out of us.

It injects poison and we start bleeding out and sooner or later

we become incapacitated. We are unable to do what gods

called us to do. And so there were two key things

we also saw with regard to how we can combat this.

First thing is the presence of God, which has to we have to be

consumed by God and we won't be consumed by the poison.

And so today I want to ask you, as we even continue on to the

series, there's a lot of overlap because again, we're referring

our reference point is back to a movie.

But when you look at these themes, am I willing to be

present in the presence of God? It's that experience that we saw

what Moses had, where he went to the Bush and the Bush was

burning, but it was not consumed.

That is what God wants to do. And 2nd we saw is people, people

of God boldly proclaiming the truth, but especially in love

when it comes to people around us and the people that God's

placed in our lives. Many a times we realize we kind

of keep all that God's teaching to ourselves.

But God is also like, now that you've been freed, now that

you've tasted me, now that you've experienced freedom, now

that I've removed this poisonous venom of what Satan has been

wanting to do in and through your life, I have set you free.

Now go and speak boldly to others.

And in fact, when we look at the entire New Testament from the

churches being established across all the different, one

thing that's evident is the people of God spoke boldly of

what God was doing. And so even as we come into the

second part today, we the second part is about this entire fox

who plays the main character. His name is Nikki.

And when you look at that character, what do you realize?

You see that he's this too cool a fox, he's cunning, he's

finding his way out. But as I was watching through

his entire movie, The entire theme was that he he learns, he

changes his behavior, he becomes a friend.

He looks out for this person. He suddenly starts caring.

He's not concerned about his own interests.

But as I was dwelling deeper upon this, I realized there are

so many areas in our lives that we've allowed foxes to come and

trample over what God's doing in and through us.

And these are not just, these are small little foxes that keep

coming in season out of season just to taint our faith, taint

the fruit that God's giving us, do something so that we will not

be able to bear. We will live in guilt.

We will live in shame. And so today my title is Foxes

are not friends. Foxes are not friends.

The reason being we realize that this Christian life is 1 where

we are journeying and we are on the camp of Jesus.

We are in the camp of our Lord and Savior and there's a

boundary line that's been marked.

There's a battle line that's been drawn.

The enemy is there. We are here, and often times he

is trying to come and mess with what God is promising us.

And I don't know where you're at today in your Christian journey,

but I want to see that we are we living the fullness of what

God's calling us, especially in the area of the what we are

bearing in terms of our food. When you read through Psalm one

and all those other things. He plants us by still waters.

He restores my soul. And often times it's these

foxes, which the Scripture keeps referring, little foxes that

comes and causes confusion, causes dismay, causes, you know,

distress in our lives. And so I want us to come to a

place of how we will be clear as to what is happening in and

through our lives. You know, many a times we are so

clear about our physical lives. We are so clear what our career

path is going to be. We are so clear of what our next

steps are in this decisions that we are doing.

We are so clear if you're investing a house, we are doing

certain things. We've done our research.

But when it comes to a spiritual life somewhere, we think God

will take care of it. But God's like, no, I want you

to be more intentional because a lot of us have entertained these

foxes. Foxes.

When you look in as we in the character, when you look at

Nikki, he comes across as this guy who's not interested.

Especially you see Part 1 and then when you look at Part 2,

he's growing to love this partner of his.

He's growing to, you know, care for someone else.

He's always looked out for himself.

He's always, like, been there. He's figured his way around

people. And so at the end of the day,

they don't trust him. And so how are you going to

identify these foxes in your life so that you'll be able to

work God's plan all your life? Because all these things are

distractions for us. So we see in this movie, Nikki,

he his rest is important. When you look, you know, he

everything about him that he wants to do for himself is

important. He's not bent on justice.

He's impressing on his terms and want to get things going.

He's looking down on others. And we know that when we when,

when he's around other people, he wants to stand off.

He doesn't strive for unity. He's like, I'll be a loner.

That's the whole thing. He wants it his way, literally

his way. And he doesn't want it to bend

to what other people are doing. And so when you look at this,

there's a passive scripture that Solomon has written in the book

Song of Songs. And you might be like, guess

from Song of Songs, isn't that poetry?

Isn't that what he wrote towards, towards what a lover

would look like? And many a times it's a

relationship between God and us and how we defile ourselves,

keep defiling ourselves because we are unable to overcome the

temptations and the pleasures and the and the things that are

surrounding us here on this earth.

Yes, that's in that passage. He writes something beautiful as

a verse, which I would love to read and I that will be the key

verse for us today because I want us to identify what are

these key things that is distracting us away from what

God's calling us to do. Solomon wrote three books, Song

of Songs, wrote Proverbs, and then he wrote Ecclesiastes.

And then you look at the chronology in which he's

written. Song of Songs was early in his,

you know, into his reign where he was operating out of wisdom.

And so he there was this desire for everything, an appetite for

everything. Proverbs comes with instructions

where don't go take this road. It's like when you look at

Solomon's life and what he's written, it's like a playbook of

what you and I have to follow. It's not like 1 which you read.

Oh yeah, that's how that's that's his advice.

No, it's one which is lived out. It's one which is coming out of

a place of, hey, I've done this, I've made some mistakes and I'm

I want to tell you. And when you look at the

Ecclesiastes, he goes on to see what are the deep pursuits of a

heart because everything will look important, but not

everything is beneficial. And so when we move in this

direction, what are we looking at?

And so when he wrote in this Song of Songs, chapter 2, verse

Song of Solomon 2:15

15, this is what it says. Catch for us the foxes, the

little foxes that ruined the vineyards are vineyards that are

in bloom. Catch for us the foxes, the

little foxes that ruin the vineyards are vineyards that are

in bloom. And I want to read again for us

from the Passion translation, it says you must catch the

troubling foxes, those sly little foxes that hinder our

relationship for the raid, a budding veneer of love to ruin

what I've planted within you. Will you catch them and remove

them for me? We will do it together.

And the reason why I chose this particular version is because

God saying I can help you identify, I can help you see it,

I can help you remove it. And so today, what is the

Vineyard of our lives here? Clearly he's talking of his

beloved, you know, as as a person who's in love with this

girl. This is how I would say that

What are some of the things that's bringing into our

relationship? But when you look at our

vineyard, what is what, What is our vineyard looking like today?

You and I all have a lawn to take care.

You know, there are so many lawn jokes that we have in marriage.

But when you look at our lawns, how intentional are we?

Lawns require a lot of hard work.

Lawns require us to really maintain at a particular height.

Lawns require us to make sure that you're water they're not

dried. Lawns require us to make sure

that there's no infection there so that we put medicines.

Lawns require us to tend to week after week take care of it.

And so at the end of the day, it's we we can easily judge a

lawn by the way it looks. It'll show whether it's taken

care of or whether it's just left up to ruins.

And so today I want to ask you, what are your vineyards looking

like? Because the scripture you

reference here as vineyards, I know we are entire theme for

this year in Divine takeover. We have the seed, we have the

vineyard, we have the ground, and then we have the dew of

heaven. And so as we look at all these

four things through the year, one of the things I wanted to

ask you today is what is your vineyard looking like?

Do you have a vineyard which is unable to bear fruit?

Do you have vineyards where it's it's bearing fruit, but right

when it's bearing, something goes wrong.

Are you trying to cultivate something?

But there are patches of these places which look dry and empty

and you're unable to do anything.

It's the patch which is on our feet, which we are on right now

that God entrusts us to Take care.

So I want to ask you, what is it that He's entrusted you?

Because in every stage of our lives today for me as Geshum,

who's here, who's a parent, who's a son, who's a son-in-law,

who's a father, who's a husband, those are all the different

roles that I play. But they're all also, they all

come under the same patch. So which means I need to tend

every area. And if I'm not careful, there

will be these little foxes that tend to come in and ruin some of

these roles, some of these areas that I'm doing.

And the fruit that I need to see as a father may not be the fruit

that I want to see as a as a in our marriage may not be the

first. Some of us.

It could be the fruit of being a son-in-law may not be the fruit

of actually being a son may not be.

And so these little foxes will constantly come.

What do they come and put? Resentment.

What do they come and put? Fear.

What do they come and put? Deception.

What do they come and put? They come and put the confusion,

they put they, they dig out the good that is there and they

leave it desolate. And you're like wondering, I've

been tending to this suddenly, why is there something like this

happening? And this is where we need to be

aware of what these little foxes are.

And so today as I just take you, walk you through the sermon

which you've prepared, I wanted to ask you, are we in a serious

relationship with Jesus? Are we in a serious relationship

with Jesus? Even during Easter, I spoke

about the hinges and many a times the, the, when you look at

these hinges, they seem insignificant, but they are

things that actually open our doors.

They are things that keep doors open.

They got things which keep communication open for us with

God. And so if we are not careful

with these, we will soon realize we are allowing these foxes,

little foxes, they come in, but after they come, they all will

be running around amok in our vineyard, trampling everything

that God's called us to build. And so today, why is our

vineyard important? Because the minute we come into

our understanding of Jesus, the minute we, you know, pray the

sinners prayer, the minute we come into the waters of baptism,

the minute we start living out the life God's called us to

live, our vineyard is starting to look different.

We suddenly attending it with God eyes.

We suddenly attending it with God insight.

We suddenly are realizing we are praying for everything.

We just don't rely on the reins to come and just the work of our

hands. But we are committing everything

into God. And suddenly we start yielding

fruit. Suddenly we start understanding

we are bearing fruit. We also understand the seasons

in which the fruit bears. Then there's time for rest.

Then there's time for certain things to again die and

experience the freshness of the Holy Spirit and move forward.

And so in this cycle, I want to ask you, how healthy is your

veneer today? How healthy is your if you're

single, how healthy is your veneer today?

Is it, is it marred by abuse? Is it barred by inflicting

destruction over your bodies with all that you've consumed in

terms of things that can harm? Is it consumed by by alcohol?

Is it consumed by drugs? Is it consumed by your different

relationships that you're thinking if I pursue all these

time, 1 of it might bring me peace?

If for those of you in in marriage, are you safeguarding

it or are there things of the past that keep visiting and

ruining that vineyard of yours? For some of us, we are so good

that we can, you know, just fake it because during this fake

grass, we can clear the entire thing.

Just keep fake grass and it's and we feel like we can put this

entire persona out in different places.

I have a persona for church. I have a persona for my family.

I have a persona for my work. But God's like, I'll strip

everything down for you to be real with me because at the end

of the day, as we mature in our walk with Christ, as we grow

older, we will start bearing fruit.

And the, the thing with the vineyard is when you actually

understand the fruit of the vineyard is the older vineyards,

when they produce wine, their fruit, they taste so good

because by then they have become stable.

Their fruit is concentrated. They, they are willing to go

deep. There's so much to the taste of

it. And so today I want to ask you,

will you and I make this conscious decision even as

you're watching this. I mean, in a light hearted

sense, the movie is nice, but when we look at this, the the,

the nature of how the self preservation, you'll soon

realize, no, I can't be like that.

And so Psalm 92, verse 12 to 15 says the righteous will flourish

Psalms 92:12–15

like a palm tree. They will grow like the cedar of

Lebanon planted in the House of the Lord.

They will flourish in the courts of our God.

They will still bear fruit in old age.

They will stay fresh and green. Proclaiming the Lord is a pride.

He is my rock and there is no wickedness in him.

So today you can't discount yourself saying you are done.

And it's interesting. The psalmist here says they will

be. They will flourish in the courts

of God. They'll be planted in the House

of the Lord. Today, even until your old age,

if you're planted in the House of the Lord, you will realize

that you will stay fresh. And you notice being planted in

the House of the Lord, me it. I'm falling back on last week's

sermon. You understand the importance of

the presence of God. You understand the importance of

the presence of his people. You will realize you are bound

to flourish. There's nothing else that can

happen. A lot of times, anyone who's

taken a step back from the presence of God, anyone who's

taken a step back from the people of God don't tend to

flourish, don't tend to flourish.

And the reason is you become ripe ground for the foxes to

come and disturb you. They come and disturb your

spirit. They come and disturb your mind.

Sooner or later they are starting to disturb things in

the physical because everything starts acting up.

God's promise is that He will sustain us.

So today if you're old here and thinking, oh man, I can't be

doing this into my old age, remember?

And what says in Isaiah 46, Ford, even to your old age.

And Grey has I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you.

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

You know, yesterday, even as we were praying here for open

heavens, Tina was leading us into a time of intercession and

need. She took us to this passage in

John chapter 15 where Jesus says I am the true wine and my Father

John 15 · chapter mention

is the gardener and he. And there's this beautiful thing

about pruning and this constant thing.

The minute we realize we are part of his vineyard when we are

under his car, when we are under his car, caring eyes, he will

prune us. Why?

Because he wants us to yield much fruit.

So today, if you're thinking, you know what, last year, I, I

think spiritually I was doing, but God will actually still

bring in something for you to depend on even more, even more.

And so today I want to ask you, as you and I give, as we strip

down everything that is not of our of us, as we strip down

things, as we allow God to walk in and through us, will we be

ready for God to touch us so that when he touches things that

are not needed will fall off, we'll scoop it out and throw it

and we'll be able to tend to what he's given in our care.

So I want to ask you today, will you don't discount your

vineyard. Don't think, oh God, I was

treated badly my ear. No, but God's sake, now you're

in charge. This is your piece of land.

This is something which you need to safeguard.

And often times it's very similar to what salvation is.

Salvation is personal. Your redemption was for all of

mankind, but it's also specifically for you.

And so when you appropriate that redemption into your life, when

you appropriate a lot of Jesus into your life, you are claiming

it for your ground, for your vineyard.

Sooner or later you will realize that, yeah, you are a parent,

Yes, you have spouse, but again, they have to make the same

decision of allowing Jesus to be their gardener, for God to come

in and say I will prune you, I will do this.

Oftentimes you are trying to do things kids when we lead them.

A lot of us today are unable to speak into the life of our kids

because we've not even made church important.

We've not even come. We don't even bring them to

church regularly. Coming to church depends on how

I decide to wake up. You know, coming to church is to

come from a deep place of God. I want to hear you speak because

this is what enables me for the remainder of the week.

So I want to ask you today, are you willing?

To fake it or you're willing to do the hard work of really

seeing God grow your area of the vignette, what he's given under

your care. And so how can we be on God?

See, The thing is, probably as much as we have to realize what

some of the tactics of these foxes are.

These foxes are cunning. These foxes are sly.

They come in quietly. These foxes are sharp.

They can see through night. These foxes are ones who will

come in, they will do their disruption and then they'll go.

These foxes will come for things that are smaller, less

insignificant, but when we when, when more insignificant things

in our life starting getting disrupted, everything starts

shaking. And so I have three things which

I want to lead you to understand what these foxes can look like.

And if it's if you're looking at your own winner and like God,

these are some of the things I've allowed, we'll see God, how

can we repent? How can we come back to you?

How can we stop striving so that we can see God?

You're in control. The first thing which I want to

talk about with our with the foxes, that is the distraction

they bring, because the distraction leads to deception.

If you're not careful, if you don't pick up those

distractions, we'll soon move to a place of deception.

Foxes by nature are deceptive. As I said, foxes by nature are,

are ones who are steeped in deception.

That's their game. They, they can act like they're

going here, but then they'll come from another place and

they'll grab the, the prey and they'll, they'll start targeting

and they'll do that. Foxes are you won't even know

that they've come and gone. It's it's when you think you

need that rest. But to be ready to always know

if I am lethargic in this area, I'm leaving room.

And so we are meant to be on some kind of alert whether we

like it or not. Today you and I are living in a

world where we are distracted by so many things.

You know, it's interesting when I'm looking through some of

these financial apps and I was just browsing through, they

start off with a good intent. I started using cred thinking,

you know, it's a one place where I'll be reminded to pay my

credit card bills on time and all that.

But sooner or later they bring in so many other distractions

and suddenly they make sure that they are offering loans where

we'll be. And that's probably the larger

business strategy. But at the end of the day, when

you look at it, if I'm distracted, if my provision has

to be on God, if my, if my sole source has to be on God, and if

I'm not praying and asking God what is what next?

I will soon tap into a loan which is so easy on my

fingertips, which I can just do. And before I know I can justify

as to why I'm taking that. And then suddenly I realize I'm

struggling. I'm struggling.

Suddenly I, I thought I was debt free, but suddenly dead started

mounting. Suddenly things just started

gathering way too much. And so these small distractions

will lead to deception. It could have been that just

that one, one text which I was entertaining.

It was just in a day, that distraction was just good.

But down the line doing it that my colleagues suddenly

distracted me away. And before I know it, my entire

vineyard is being deceived. I'm suddenly not liking what

God's given. There's suddenly a discontent.

And so today I want to ask you, what are your distractions?

Because the distractions take our eyes from the promise, our

emotions are through a roller coaster.

We start majoring on a minor, our focus suddenly changes and

without careful thought, we are deceived.

When you look at what deception is, deceiving someone for

personal gain, it's deliberately caused to believe something that

is not true, especially for personal gain.

So especially for when, when, when someone is wanting to

deceive you, they're doing it for themselves.

And often times we've camouflaged it.

We are also some on some level deceiving.

We, we say certain things, we do certain things so that it'll

work in our favour. And so I want us to come to a

place God in my vineyard. Am I distracted and have a left

room for deception? Deception comes in the form of

people. Also in Ezekiel, when we're

reading this, Ezekiel 13, one to six, there's this message that

is being given by God warning that there are a lot of false

prophets who are going around today.

What are the distractions that you're looking for?

Suddenly you feel as you're doing this Christian journey,

God, I think I need to, I need to be prosperous.

And so suddenly you're subscribing to the prosperity

theology. You'll soon realize that those

will be the lies of the enemy. Suddenly you'll suddenly be

truncating gospel message for one which is without suffering.

You'll realize that you will take the good and you leave the

bad. But the realization is in the

gospel that God's calling us to live in, there's everything.

There's everything. There's seasons of blessing.

There's seasons of tough hardship, but it will take us to

a place to realize in both seasons of blessing and

hardship, it's God who sustains me, not me.

And so today I want to ask you, are you giving here to false

prophets? What are the false prophets

telling you? They'll be hollow.

That's what the word of God says.

They'll be like whitewashed. They'll tell what your eyes want

to see. But before you know it, when

foundations are shaken, they will they will fall down.

So let's read that from Ezekiel chapter 13, verses 1 to 6.

Ezekiel 13:1–6

The word of the Lord came to me, Son of Man, prophecy against the

prophets of Israel who are now prophesying.

Say to those who prophecy out of their own imagination, hear the

word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord

says. Woe to the foolish prophets who

follow their own spirit and have been nothing.

I've seen nothing. Your prophets Israel are like

jackals among ruins, who have not gone up to the breaches in

the wall to repair it for the people of Israel, so that it

will stand firm in the battle of the day of the Lord.

Their visions are false and their divinations are lie, even

though the Lord has not sent them.

They said the Lord declares and expect Him to fulfill their

words. Have you not seen false visions

and uttered lying divinations? When you say the Lord declares,

though I have not spoken? You know when you read verse 10

in the amplified it talks about foxes, it says, it says jackals

and foxes. It's the same group of animals

because they leave my people as they saying peace when there is

no peace, and because when a flimsy wall is built, they cover

it with the whitewash. Therefore tell those who cover

it with whitewash that it is going to fall.

Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstorms hurling

down, and violent will will burst forth when the wall

collapses. Will people not ask you, where's

the whitewash you covered with? So today, you and I, are we

giving room to be distracted by false prophets?

So what happens to counter the false prophet?

You need to know the true. And the true comes only when

you're sitting and when you're meditating.

True comes when you're willing to be still.

By the presence of God, someone becomes very pivotal for us.

It starts by saying, oh, the joys of those who don't follow

the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners or

join in with the mochas, but they delight in the law of the

Lord, meditating on it day or night.

And so today, what are you and I standing around?

What are we entertaining around? Yes.

If we are not careful, we will start being in places where we

need not being. We'll entertain those things.

It's easy to gather around people to talk bad about

something else. It's easy to gather around

people who are willing to pull down something.

It's easy to gather around people and move around what will

work out because some things aren't working according to how

they see it. It takes a lot more to actually

wait in the presence of God and say God, is this something

that's happening? Is this something that I need to

stand here? Is this something I need to do?

And so as you wait on God, as you start applying the

scriptures into your life, you will soon realize these foxes

that are coming in are causing distractions.

Today. The enemy can come in different

forms. Just imagine you can be

witnesses to the miraculous. And then when Moses goes up to

meet with God, he's that longer. He's he's in the presence and

before you know it, our hearts are turned.

We suddenly are asking for a God thinking that God's gone.

He brought us here and he's left us.

No, He just wanted us to remain calm.

Just imagine, God wanted to give 40 days His people rest.

Rather they got so fluttered and so many a times.

The vineyard that God's given us takes time.

The vineyard that God's given us has to go through its course,

which means if if a certain breakthrough or a certain

harvest has to come and the growing period is 9 months or

you know, couple of years, it has to take its course so that

you mature. When you look at the entire

Scripture timeline, every character of the Bible has come

at an appointed point according to God's will.

There is a Kronos and there's a Kairos, and I believe your

miracle will come in God's appointed time.

My miracle will come in God's appointed because that's when

I'll be able to handle it. I'll be able to work with it.

I'll be able to see God do His work.

I'll be able to understand a part of the unfolding of His

will for you and me. So today, are we giving in to

distractions because people around us are restless?

Are we operating out of deception?

How we are operating? Everything starts with

addressing something that's happening in your body.

A lot of us have started to entertain yoga.

I would ask you, be mindful because you can't have the Holy

Spirit and have another spirit where you're trying to Incarnate

and trying to draw attention to God is already in you.

He is life. Don't dim the light and the life

that's in you through Him. You might say, yeah, you need

enough peace. Your body has to come to a place

of realizing God is in control. It's interesting that before we

know it, you, if you're not able to take a stand, your children

will not be able to stand. And then suddenly you're like,

oh, we need to find a Christian School.

You can find all the Christian schools possible and put your

kids. But before you know it, they'll

go into colleges, they'll go into workspaces.

But because they're not founded right, they were not given the

right armor. They were not allowed to stand

and believe for what is true. They were not taught how to

resist the enemy they were given.

So today, don't think Christian schools are the big are the

answers. It's the Christian way of life.

It's that word of God. Are you teaching them to resist

the enemy manifesting your own wishful thing today 2026, you

you can go into any bookstore. There are books on manifesting

what it is. They take this, speak it out.

They just needed encouragement today.

The Holy Spirit is your encouragement.

He says I want to talk to you. Will you talk to me as much as

you're talking to a mirror. He's saying talk to me because

talking to a mirror, you're talking if you're broken, you're

talking to a broke, broken version of you.

You're manifesting saying you're whole, but your body is broken.

You're manifesting that you're you're healed, but your body is

broken. You're manifesting your spirit

is right, but your spirit is in the wrong.

Stop manifesting things when your entirety isn't broken.

You need the healer. You need someone who will work

you inside out. So today, don't fall to the lies

and the the deception that the enemy brings with regard to

manifesting sudden interests and things and others.

Suddenly you'll realize you, you, you, you.

You've lost that love. When Solomon writes this, he's

talking about the distractions that are coming into his own

vineyard. He's not being able to be

faithful to the one. What are some of the things

you're willing to give up? Give it up so that the spouse

feels important. Give it up so that your children

know that this is a stable family.

This is a stable home. Give it up so that you can raise

up a godly generation. You and I have a mandate.

The minute God gives us children, he's saying I'm going

to trust you with some. Would you do your job?

And then when we dedicate a baby in church, he's also asking the

church, would you guys live right so that the child has an

atmosphere to grow and see him. And so today, what is the thing

with regard to overcoming deception?

This entire thing of deception is disclosure.

You need to make known to God everything you're struggling

with. God, this is my area of

struggle. God, this is the area I'm

struggling with. Just a couple of days back, we

were sitting and talking to a friend and as we're talking,

this is the power of dining table conversations.

I would say where we where we sit, where we can put down and

disclosing happened of things that that that that need that he

needs help. We need help.

We're able to freely talk. Why?

Because it happens in a place of realizing I need help.

So today, where are we disclosing?

Because if you're not careful, we'll give room to people who

are not supposed to be telling us the truth.

And we'll be struggling in that. Our faith has to be in Jesus

alone, our fruit has to be borne.

When we are rooted in Him, when we are rooted in His Word and we

are rooted in the garden where He is the gardener.

Our future does not end here on earth, but continues with Jesus.

And so with this understanding, we may should not be deceived.

We should not be deceived. Ephesians 5 verses one to seven

says this. Follow God's example, therefore,

as dearly loved children walk in the way of love, just as Christ

loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and

sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be

even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of

impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's

holy people. Nor should there be obscenity,

foolish talk, of course, joking, which are out of place, but

other Thanksgiving. For off this you can be sure no

immoral, impure or greedy person, such a person as an

idolator, has in any indentance in the Kingdom of God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words.

For because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are

disobedient. Therefore do not be partners

with them. So my prayer is that we will not

give it to the distractions that the foxes bring, lest we get

deceived. The second thing these foxes do

is they always go and target things that are smaller to them.

They're not big in size. They're like like like a regular

dog, a large breed dog size. And so you'll realize they

always follow the tactic of a large truck, small truck.

They'll go and intimidate things that are smaller.

They won't go to things that are bigger.

And So what, when they come into a farm or when they come,

they'll go attack a sheep, a chicken, and they, they, they,

they plunder more than what they need also.

And so when you're thinking about this, when I was thinking

about this, God was reminding me foxes, when I'm not leaving, if

I'm not careful, if I'm not alert, they dig out what is

planted. So the second thing, that first

one is distraction. So lest I be deceived, second is

they dig out what is being planted.

So as Christ's followers, we need to be on a high alert.

What is it about the enemy that we entertain that he comes in

and decides to take things? Because the enemy is clear.

He's got his agenda clear. Steal, kill and destroy.

He steals it in that emptiness. He will kill it when once we are

down, He'll destroy us entirely. He'll, he'll, he'll remove any

form of hope. And so today I want to ask you,

who are you allowing? Why are your gates left open?

Put doors on your gates. Put, put, put.

Just don't leave the gates open. close it, be on alert, allow be

on watch who's coming close. John 10 verses 9 to 10 says I am

John 10:9–10

the gate. Whoever enters through me will

be saved. They will come in and go out and

find pasture. The thief comes only to steal,

kill and destroy. I have come that they may have

life and have it to the foot. So to even you are not careful,

put good gates around what you listen to.

Keep guardrails in your relationships that you have.

Keep guardrails around your finances.

Keep guardrails around your heart and the and the affections

of your heart because it's in this he'll always come and take

what is planted because it's interesting when they're digging

out, all they need to do is disrupt what is going good.

All they and when they dig out, what do they dig?

They don't go for the stem. They don't go for the branch.

No, they dig out the root. They kill the root.

They they make sure that they are killing you from within.

And so today I want to ask you, the enemy knows where to hit us.

The enemy knows where to hit us. Where are you and I lacking in

protection? Can we be deeply ingrained

knowing that God, I want to be protected by you.

So today I want to ask you as Christians who love God, his

word, what is the one area I need to work on?

Because he's constantly coming and digging for those of us.

He digs our areas of contentment, especially you.

You, you're content and but suddenly there's this unhealthy

appetite that he's giving. And so suddenly you, you realize

you're spending more than what you actually ought to spend.

You're scrolling more than what you're what you usually do.

Suddenly a discontent sets in and you're suddenly are looking

at images and things which you're not supposed to see.

You're suddenly entertaining people who you're not supposed

to be even giving room to because you know that the

choices that they make are completely wrong.

So I want to ask you today, what are you giving room for the

enemy to come and dig God your vineyard, You know, the, the,

the, it requires us to constantly keep tending, knowing

the condition of our route. You know, we've been living in

this house, it's been 8 years and then periodically there's

some work or the other, you know, I'm realizing because we

are close to a lake, we can see a lot of rust settling in.

And so we need to get that sorted out.

We have so much of pesticide and other things that we have to do.

We also have a lot of other things which electrically we'll

have to do. So for example, suddenly when I

was in the room that I'm working, there's a fan that's

running. Suddenly the fan started slowing

down. And in peak summer, you know

what the fan speed usually is. And I knew what the issue was.

It was a condenser problem. And so when I'm not getting the

right condenser, if I get a. If I go to the hardware store

and I get a condenser which is not.

The, the, it's a duplicate or it's a knock off version.

Within a matter of a week or 10 days, the condenser will act up.

But there's this interesting thing.

So in the condenser actor, because I'm already caught up in

so many other things, I am not bothered about going and getting

the correct one. I am surviving in that same

mode, going in that same speed where whereas I'm supposed to be

actually having the right one and doing it.

And so today I want to ask you, God was reminding me, many of us

are operating like that because of things that are gone.

We are not going to the root. God is like, can you go back to

the root before he digs it out entirely?

Go back to the root issue, fix it, go back to the things that

break that has broken you and fix it.

A lot of us are wanting superficial fixing.

Now God's like, go to the root because the foxes are coming for

the root. They, they, they will dig out.

They will that very identity that God's built over time,

He'll come and dig that out. It's interesting, the more I'm

starting to see people and journey with them, I'm seeing

the minute you love him and he digs out your very identity in

Christ. He digs out, he puts doubt, he

puts shame, and then suddenly you are just drifting away.

And so today I want to ask you, what is your prayer times

looking like? Are those times where He's able

to talk to you or are you just talking to Him?

What is your Bible reading time looking at?

Because when you're spending time in His Word, is this Word

coming alive and telling you what you need to do?

Because the changes that we need to make are from His Word only.

We can see that we will constantly have these foxes to

come and dig these things out of our lives because we have been

busy with something else, but it comes back to us.

Can we go back and fix these issues?

Can we be intentional? Can be intentional in two,

Peter. One versus 5 to 9 Peter says

this, so don't lose a minute in building on what you've been

given. Complimenting your basic faith

with good character, spiritual understanding, alertness, alert,

discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder and warm

friendliness and generous love. Each dimension fitting and

developing the others. With these qualities active and

growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet.

No day will pass without it's reward.

As you met here in your experience of our Master Jesus.

Without these qualities you can't see what's right before

you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off

the books. What does this mean?

It means that you and I have to constantly be tending to things

with such because the enemies out to attack us.

The talks, especially when you read was the same.

When I'm reading the Passion, it says if you bow alone, God's

awesome presence, he'll surely exalt you and you'll leave the

timing in his hands. Pour out all your worries and

stress upon him and leave them there.

This is from one Peter, for he always tenderly cares for you.

Be well balanced and always alert because your enemy, the

devil roams around incensely like a roaring lion looking for

it's prey to devour. Take a decisive stand against

him and resist his every attack with strong vigorous faith.

So today when he comes to dig out those plants, you're going

to say no in Jesus name. These roots belong.

I'm rooted in them. There's nothing going to change.

I am going to be generous. Yes it it might seem like lack,

but I will still be generous because that is the God I

worship. Yes, when there is faithlessness

because of the situation of no God, my faith is in Jesus.

He will come through. If you're saying the joy, God's

saying the joy of the Lord will be my strength, not these things

which I think will bring me joy. The joy of the Lord will be his

peace that sustains me and keeps me in perfect peace.

Those are the things that I will run after, not things that will

give me temporary peace because it's in that you'll be able to

dig those, put those roots back and say whatever the fox has

come, I will buttle it with the I will rebuttle it with the word

of God. Take that stand.

Everyone is going through this. So if you and I have to do what

God's called us to do, can we take that stand?

Because the distractions that He brings, the digging that He does

is so that we will become a wasteland.

Which takes me to the Third Point.

Dead end areas become wastelands.

You see in these patches when they start happening a couple of

places, if you're not alert, as I said earlier, because he goes

for the roots, we will allow that to spread.

And before we know, what would seem like one thing will

suddenly start spreading and look like a wasteland.

Dead in the areas will become wastelands.

So I pray that these, when you talk about these foxes running

and pulling out, what do they come and pull out?

What do they, what do they take out of you?

Suddenly? This is Geshom here who's a

Christian, but he's without joy. Guess who I'm here.

It was a Christian who's without love.

I might have certain things, but this one area patch which

supposed to have the love is missing because that's waste.

That's become a wasteland now, because he attacked that

particular thing continuously, and I didn't go back to the root

before I knew there was nothing else.

It didn't bear fruit. It died.

That's why I realized so many people today have a wrong

understanding of God. Systematically, they're taking

you out. Systematically they're keeping

you busy from the pursuits of God.

Systematically, they are bringing things so that you will

be away from His presence. So find what is it that I can do

to be in the presence of God? Find what I can do.

What are what are the things that I would subscribe to?

Everything might look important, but not everything is

beneficial. Find out what's beneficial.

Stick to what's beneficial. Accept that this is what God's

created you for. He's not created me for

everything. You know, this is a reel that

comes where a wife is trying to sing and the reel says just

checking if I can sing so I can have a career change.

And when the song starts, she sings on a whole different key

and she's going out. Be aware of what you're called

for. Just because 10 other people are

doing something doesn't mean I have to do it.

A lot of us are trying to pursue and do things based on what

we're seeing around us here with amongst the people of God too.

No, but what does God called you uniquely to do?

Are you confident in what he's called you to do?

And So what are these wastelands today that we have because when

God wants to set us free and want to wants to grow us, the

when you read Psalm one, that's what it says he, he keeps us

besides the streams. And what happens in those

streams? They are like trees planted

along the river bank bearing fruit in each season.

Their leaves never were there, and they prosper and all they

do. And because they do not allow

the wicket, they are like worthless shafts scattered with

the wind. They'll be condemned at the time

of judgment. Sinners will have no place among

the godly, for the Lord watches over the path of the godly.

But the path of the wicket leads to destruction.

You and I have to realize that we cannot operate with patches

of wastelands in our lawn. With patches of wastelands, a

lot of us today are wanting to do life.

With a patch of a marriage not functioning, a lot of us are

wanting to do life. With a patch of us not being a

right parent, a lot of us are not wanting to do the life, the

wanting to do Christian life with a patch of us, you know,

having other things that we give in to and thinking it's all OK.

But God's asking us today, what are these patches that are done

in your life? It's become a wasteland.

Is it joy? Is it peace?

Is it health? Is it finances?

Is it your sexuality? Because broken sexuality you

suddenly are exploring what are the other things that culture is

dictating? Is it your mind?

Because when your mind is not at peace, your your mind is

circling back for so many other things.

Is it marriage? Because you're not?

Because you think your marriage has become a waste and you're

starting to look out for others. Is it your friendships?

Because you've not you, you, you you've you've made friendships

look very disposable that you're looking and thinking now, OK,

maybe I need to change my entire circle family relationships.

God's like I can still breathe and do my work.

Would you come to a place of realizing that those are dead

end things? Because what happens when the

fox overcomes these things, The minute they cause you to

distract, they dig it out. The minute it's a waste and they

make it their home, they will lie that they their weeds will

grow. It's interesting that parable in

it says where Jesus talks about the weeds.

He says the good are planted and then the weeds are there.

But at the time of the harvest, the weeds are taken and they are

thrown into the fire. There is a season for the weeds

to be taken. There will be times when bad

things will be thrown in, in a season identified.

God will alert you that season, you take it out, you throw it.

Seasons changed in a couple of months.

That's where God's alertness alerting us, find it, take it by

the root, pull it out, throw it so that you'll be able to have

the harvest that is needed. So today you and I, what are our

dead end areas that we have been OK, because we can cover the

patch with a fake patch. We can cover those patches with

the fake patch where God's like, I want to be in a place where

you're not deadened to it because if it becomes a waste

and I can't do anything because when it becomes a waste and is

when we discard the vineyard and we move off, we choose another

territory. For all those of us who've been

here last year, our eyes were on the promise.

We are moving in that promise. And with this year with a divine

takeover saying God you take over.

Can he take over these dead end areas so that they won't become

wastelands. Foxes continually sit, linger

and then they create a habitat. One Peter chapter 2 verses one

to three before I close so abandoned every form of evil,

deceit, hypocrisy, feelings of jealousy and slander.

In the same way what nursing infants cry for milk, you must

intensely crave the pure spiritual milk of God's Word,

for this milk will cause you to grow into maturity, fully

nourished and strong for life, especially now that you have had

a taste of the goodness of Yahweh and have experienced His

kindness. Don't let the foxes sit on these

areas of wastelands in your life.

Offense and I would ask you, would you speak the word of God

and the nature of God over every offense?

For those of you who consider, oh, this is not happening, would

you trust God and know that he's taking you through it?

He's not kept you there, but He's taking you through it for a

breakthrough, not insight. Would you still show up and

boldly say God even in the midst of this breakthrough, which is

not insight? I still don't show up because a

victory is yours. Victory is yours for those of

you who are waiting in a place of you feel like you've been

completely neglect. God is saying I am with you for

you. Those of you who feel isolated,

he's saying my presence is complete.

My glory will come down for those of you who are like God,

I've, it feels like I've inherited a lot of this and he's

like come submit to the altar and I will do everything.

Stop striving. Let me tend to these roots and

allow God to go deep in because when he goes deep in what

happens is he shows us things we've carried far too long.

We've just come through Good Friday and Easter.

You'll realize in the Good Friday the cross always brings

us to a place of deep realizing that the past does not define

us, that the future is through the blood.

So allow the blood to permeate. Sprinkle the blood on the

wasteland. Sprinkle Jesus.

Declare Jesus, take the shovel and go and dig it and see in the

name of Jesus, I break ground on the wasteland.

So suddenly you'll see what you thought was dead and start

springing with life. As I conclude, there are two

passages I want you to read specifically for us as we wait

on God to ask us so that we will not give in to distraction lest

we be deceived. For those digging off, that has

been planted for whatever was going right, but yet the foxes

came and dug those out. That He'll give us alertness so

that we'll be alert to what He's coming and doing.

And to the third, for those patches which we've forsaken,

but God does not forsake, and He's telling us, will you trust

me so that I can turn these wastelands into something more

prosperous? You'll be amazed when we commit

our wastelands to God, what He can do.

So don't allow these foxes to inhabit these places.

So I pray and ask that as we conclude, there are two verses I

wanted to read and I wanted to pray because the lifespan of our

vineyard is our entire lifetime and God wants us to come to a

place where we have a rich harvest of producing and then

even into our old age. He's saying so in the old days

is when there's concentrate of wine when he's in these

vineyards. And so in that, what does it say

in Amos chapter 4 verse 9, many times I struck your gardens and

Amos 4:9

vineyards, destroying them with blight and mildew, locust

devoured your fig and all of these, yet you've not returned

to me says a lot. So what is it?

God's sometimes allowed these things to come so that our focus

will go back to him, but yet we've become people with

soulless conviction and apathy that we're just saying God, it's

OK, I'll just sit here. This is I'll take this as my

Lord. God said, no, I want you to

fight for it. I want you to pursue it.

Anyone who's actually found victory in the Bible has

actually stood on the battleground, said not given

into the lie of the enemy. Isaiah chapter 65, verses 21 to

Isaiah 65:21–23

23. This is what it says.

They will build houses and dwell in them.

When you tend to your vineyard, when you don't, when you respond

to God's alarm, when you respond to God's cry to sing, find when

He says that, and I wanted your attention now I got it.

Yes, these foxes were allowed into your lives so that you will

know who the true God is, so that your pursuits will be real

if you pursue me. In Isaiah 65, this is what it

says. They will build houses and dwell

in them. They will plant veneers and eat

their fruit. No longer will they build houses

and others live in them, or plant and others eat.

For as the days of a tree, so will the days of My people.

My chosen ones will be long. Enjoy the work of their hands.

They will not labor and vain, nor will they bear children

doomed to misfortune. For there will be a people

blessed by the Lord today and their descendants with them.

So today, you and I, I want to come to a place if you've been

stubborn, if you've been saying God, that my parents trusted

you. And so I'm seeing this lack.

And so I, I can't believe you're like this.

God's like I want you. I want you.

Don't formulate everything based on what has happened in the

past. As I said earlier, we came

through Good Friday and Easter. Good Friday tells us the past is

not what dictates our future. So today you and I are coming to

a place where we're like God, I trust you, I trust you.

So I want to ask you today if there is a place in your heart

where you're saying God, there are wastelands in my life.

There are areas where I did mistake after mistake and today

it's this barren. You're going to say, God, I'm

going to ask you for that rain. I'm going to ask you for that

supernatural rain. I'm going to ask you for that,

for that, for that wind that will come and clear off things.

Lord Jesus, I pray that, Lord, that the word of God will come

and will come and become alive. And so today, even as I pray, I

want you to, can you be on vigil so that these little foxes don't

come? One thing is that we stay on

God. We are alert, which means we

don't take anything lightly. If anything, if even in doubt,

we take it to God. We say, God, this happened.

Is this from you? What is happening?

Let it allow it to linger because it's in that you will

identify that there are even more smaller things that God

wants to change in and through us.

So can we pray right now? Because I believe there are many

of us who are struggling in an area where we are comfortable

with our wasteland because we can build things around it and

make it look nice and we can comfort ourselves saying you're

OK. But God's like, no, I want to

set you free. I want to make you whole.

So loving Heavenly Father, Lord, we pray right now, Lord Jesus,

that even as we heard your word, we thank you, Lord, that Lord,

you're making us aware of what we need to stand for, what we

need to do. And I pray we won't take it

lightly, Lord Jesus. I pray even as we read every

wasteland, Lord Jesus right now that your river will just run

through it. Lord, as we read Lord in Psalm

one that we will, we will find ourselves by a river.

Lord Jesus we will we will be so in tune of wanting to be around

the river. Thank you Jesus, would you start

working in through US? I pray especially Lord for all

of us who are so easily distracted.

I pray Lord, would you guard our hearts?

Would you guard our spirit man? Lord, would you guard our

eyesight? Would you guard our mind?

Would you guard our spiritual eyes so that we are not falling

into deception? Lord, I pray for those of us,

Lord, who allow these foxes to come and dig out, Lord Jesus,

right from the root. We're so sorry, Lord Jesus, that

we've, we've just, we've been so caught up with the fruit that

we, we didn't tend to those roots.

And we pray right now. Would you help us tend to the

roots, Lord, Help us find answers, Lord Jesus, so that

we'll be able to do it right, that we'll give room to you,

Lord Jesus, please, Lord, we ask that you would come through.

Please, we're, we're waiting for you, Lord, we want you to come.

We want you to do your work. I pray and ask even right now,

Lord Jesus. Lord, the third thing for those

of us who think because we've just allowed these dead end

areas to become wastelands, that Lord, would you allow you, we

allow your river to run over it, turn, wash us clean, breathe

life into it, walk. Would you would, would your wind

come upon that land, your wind which brought shaped the earth,

which brought light into the darkness, which brought life?

Would you do that down to our wastelands?

Be glorified, Lord, be glorified.

Take charge, Lord. We're so grateful, Lord, for

you. We're so grateful that we come

get to be in the company of people and in your presence.

Lord, I pray your world will come alive.

Your your wisdom will come alive.

Lord Jesus in US, take charge, be glorified.

More than anything, we want to give you the glory and the honor

because you believe in you is all things.

Lord Jesus, through you are all things.

So we give our hands, raise our hands and say, Lord, you take

all the glory, because whatever comes out of the vineyard is for

your glory. We've tasted, we've seen, and

the fruit of it. You want to give it back to you.

Lord Jesus, be glorified, be honored.

Your most holy name we pray. Lord, Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Pray even as you go out this week, do watch the movie.

It's really fun. But more than that, I pray that

these things will be of alertness for us, but we won't

allow these little foxes to come ruin our vineyards.

God wants us to thrive in every area.

That's what the more I'm reading His word, I'm realizing He wants

the whole of us to thrive. So I pray whatever is

struggling, whatever area is struggling, committed to God,

because when you allow that, He will shine His light through you

so that others will see Him through US.

Pray that even as you step out this week, God will bless you.

We hope you enjoyed today's message and we're blessed.

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Most importantly, remember that whoever finds Jesus finds life.