The Almond Tree and the Devil Girl

Okay, now they're telling me that I can't, that we're

not actually on live stream because this microphone's not going

through the system. Do you mind if I switch? Okay,

so that people online can hear. All right, so, I mean,

in World Session, they decided then and there that they

would be unified and do the right thing. Now, the

church is and must always be subject to the authority

of the Word of God. Am I right? Am I right?

So that's what happened at the Jerusalem Council. Acts 15

is one of those huge chapters that matters a lot

in our Bible. It was a happy day for the

obedient church to be in sync with the Holy Spirit

so that the work of God could advance. Now shortly

after the Jerusalem Council, Paul and Barnabas had a sharp

disagreement over John Mark, who had previously caved under pressure

when it was really hard being a missionary, and he

went home to Mama. He just left. deserted them, didn't

show up at his post. And Paul had had enough

of this. And so as they chose to separate, Paul

and Barnabas had this massive disagreement. In fact, Paul didn't

want him on the team. Barnabas says, let's work with

the young man. And because of that, Barnabas took John

Mark and went to the island of Cyprus. And Paul

went other ways, but not with John Mark. Friends, Barnabas

is very special in the early church. Barnabas demonstrated to

us That we have to be open to the Holy

Spirit so that we can work with young people when

they cave and let us down. Am I right? I

can remember when I was a young person and I

was baptized in the church at the age of 15. Man,

I messed up a lot. I got my Bible studies wrong.

I sometimes didn't show up. I had that character development

I had to do. And there were people who worked

with me and did not demoralize me. The man who

baptized me into Christ is still my pastor today because

he encouraged me in the church. And so Barnabas is

a model for us in this matter. Paul chose Silas

to replace John Mark. And together they journeyed on, strengthening

the churches along the way. When Christians separate... They don't

try to destroy the work of God if they don't

agree with a leader. They should move on and allow

God's work to move into different places. One of the

evidences that Satan is in an attitude is when someone

wants to destroy a place when they leave a place

rather than seeing it grow and prosper. And so they left,

they separated in peaceful terms. At Derbe and Lystra, Paul

and Silas picked up the young man Timothy to replace

the young man John Mark. Not Silas, excuse me. And

it pays to have the same attitude of Barnabas, as

I said. Now, Timothy's mother was a Jew. His father

was a Greek. And God doesn't care if you're Jew

or Greek or from Africa or Asia in the sense

that he cares about all people. And so now we

have part of the ministerial team in the book of Acts,

a solid team. Gentile raised person who has mixed lineage.

And that will become the storyline. The church is shifting

from Jew to Gentile. Timothy was a Christian and that

was the credential he needed. So what did they do?

They circumcised him to prevent a scandal as they shared

the decision of the Jerusalem Council with the churches. They

kept on sharing as they started to move into Asia.

The Holy Spirit said, no, don't go there. And so

they didn't go there. They went into Phrygia and Galatia instead.

And when they came opposite of Maasia, wanting to go

into Bithynia, the Holy Spirit said no again in stronger terms.

This text says the Spirit did not allow them. Have

you ever had an idea in your life where you

just wanted to do something for God so bad, and

you were sure that you could do it for God,

and the Holy Spirit, through others or circumstances, said no,

don't do it? It ever happen to you? My first

evangelistic meeting was like that. I was so gung-ho in Michigan.

I was the senior pastor of a church just after

being ordained. I was ordained in the summer. They made

me senior pastor a few months later. And the church,

we didn't own our building anymore. It was sold. The

church was just floundering. And so I was going to

hold a meeting, a good evangelistic meeting to win people

the church. And my conference president with the local evangelist

called me on the phone, Elder Jay Gallimer, and he says, Mike,

we've been praying about this thing and we don't want

you holding an evangelistic series because Steve Vail is coming

to hold the evangelistic series a year from now. So

you just get busy loving your church and doing the

work of God. I said, wait a second, Elder Gallimer.

I want to hold an evangelistic series. And Steve said,

I don't want you to hold an evangelistic series. And finally, Jay,

as my godly overseer, said, Mike, no. What? Mike, no.

I said, yes, sir. And I then had to figure out, well,

how do you win people to the church if you

can't hold an evangelistic meeting? And that was the beginning

of our small group ministries at the Oakwood Church. I

started studying the Bible with one, two, three, four. The

Skrabowski family came online. We baptized the Skrabowskis. We baptized others.

We had to think of events that would create relationships.

And by the time the evangelists got to the church,

we were hot loaded with about 20 baptisms waiting for him.

And we worked with people. We kept on working for

people until my five years was up and I moved

this way. And so it was the Holy Spirit saying

no so that God could say yes in ways that mattered.

Now when they came opposite of Maasia, the Holy Spirit

said no in strong terms. They went down to Troas,

and that is when Paul had a vision from God

that opened up the Roman world to Jesus. Look at

Acts 16 verse 9. Acts 16. And a vision appeared

Acts 16:9

to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was

standing beseeching him and saying, and what does the text say?

Come over to Macedonia and, here's the important part, and

help us. Boy, when God puts a vision from God

into your heart to go somewhere and help someone, you

better do it. Friend, when God opens a door for

you or me to go somewhere and help people come

to Christ, we need to go do it. Now, God

put a vision into Brother Christopher's heart to open up

a very Catholic area of India that was unreachable. He's

worked it for years. And there's been baptisms, a church

raised up. And why did it happen? The Holy Spirit said,

go help. Put it in his heart. And so we

see that happen here. But here it's happening through dramatic

prophetic means. In the Bible, the legitimate prophetic gift is

called the testimony of Jesus or the spirit of prophecy.

God gave that gift to the early church. In fact,

according to Edward Gibbon, for 300 years, the prophetic gift

existed in the early church in every church. And with

the prophetic gift, the church was guided. The church was

able to evangelize. The church reached out. The church was

drawn back to Scripture when it tended to err. Where

that gift appears in its true and genuine form It

is always authoritative. It is the testimony of Jesus, the

voice of God. Now, God gave that gift to the

early church according to the book of Revelation. God gave

that gift to the remnant church. And I have found

in my experience, people who denigrate the spirit of prophecy,

the testimony of Jesus, are on a fast track to

not just leave the church. They're on a fast track

to leave Jesus. Because when you ignore the ongoing testimony

of Christ given prophetically for His people at the time

of the end, you are ignoring Jesus' intervention in history. Now,

some people say, well, we follow the Bible. Friends, if

the Bible predicts the prophetic gift in the remnant church,

and you reject the prophetic gift in the remnant church,

you are not following the Bible. Do you hear me?

And so to follow the Bible, we follow what the

Bible teaches and predicts. We are to obey it when needed.

when its counsel is applied to us because it's for

our good. Acts 16.10. Hey, I like this handheld microphone.

This is working. Lucian, thank you. Is the streaming working

okay for everybody? Everybody out there, thanks for working with us.

And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought

to go on to Macedonia, concluding that God had called

us to preach the gospel to them. They obeyed the vision,

and the key word is immediately. From there they set

sail from Troas to Samothrace and to Neapolis. That means

in Greek, a new city. From Neapolis, the new city,

to Philippi. Now the book of Philippians in our New

Testament was a letter written to the church by Paul

that he raised up in Philippi. When Paul arrives here,

there is no church. When he writes the letter to

the Philippians, there's a church. Luke tells us in Acts 16, 12,

that it was both a leading district in that region

and a Roman colony also. Now the name Philippi literally means,

now brace yourself for this, what does it say on

the screen? Lovers of horses. So they arrived at the city,

that means lovers of horses. Now the evangelist Philip, his

name means the same thing, lover. of horses. Now there's

a reason for this. In the Bible, in the ancient

Hebrew mind, a horse... Now ladies, please don't throw stones

at me today. A horse was symbolic of a beautiful woman. See,

there's no amens out there. I caught your attention. Now

think of the long flowing hair of a horse. Alright?

The graceful beauty of an Arabian horse moving through the desert. Alright,

it's not working in our culture, but it worked in

their culture. Song of Solomon 1 verse 9. Now here's

Song of Solomon 1:9

the wisest man on earth talking about his sweetheart. I

compare you my love to a mare of Pharaoh's chariots.

Now that gets you slapped in our day, but in

his day, boy, was it the right thing to say.

Now symbolically speaking, a horse can represent a woman, and

I know that from chiastic and panel block analysis in

the book of Revelation and other places. So that compliment

worked in his day. But gentlemen, please don't go home

and tell your wife that she's beautiful just like a

horse you saw at a horse track. Bad idea. It

won't work today. Luke records in Luke 16, 12 that

we remained in that city. You see, Philippi is the

place in the apostolic movements where suddenly women will come

online in ministry. that will make a difference for the

establishment of the Christian church in the future. That's why

it's called Lovers of Horses. Suddenly the author Luke is

present with the rest of the team. It says in

verse 12, he says, we remained in this city some days.

So Luke now introduces himself subtly and suddenly into the

narrative with the word we. Some scholars have debated as

to who this is, why. But the best explanation is

that Luke is the Macedonian man in the vision. And

suddenly he is in the storyline. He will be the

one who writes the book of Acts, writes the book

of Luke, assists Paul, perhaps in the book of Hebrews.

Luke's name in Greek means light. And a light is

kindled in the Gentiles because they went over into Macedonia.

Philippi means lovers of horses. or being interpreted, as I

have said, lovers of women. Luke stands out in the

New Testament as a man inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Now Luke, more than any other gospel writer, speaks of

the dignity of women in gospel ministry. He speaks about

Jesus' ministerial team having godly women engaged and involved. So

Luke stands out as a man of God who respected

the value The dignity and the giftedness of women called

by God. Is that a good thing? Now, man, you

should be saying amen pretty loud here to that. Amen

to that. I mean, God values women. He values their

role in the church. He values their purpose and mission. God,

here's the caveat. God doesn't call women to take the

place of men in the church. Have you noticed how

Godly women can take the place of weak men in

the church. Come on. Men who can't do their jobs,

who are afraid of their shadows, who don't stand up,

who run off and quit when something doesn't go their way.

And who fills the gaps in the church? Often women do.

Is that a good thing? Well, it is in a

way because, praise God for women, it's an awful thing

because men are meant to be men in the church.

The strength of manhood is not to be surrendered in

the church. But women have a strength that is just

as profound, just as important. God calls on converted women

to supplement the masculine strengths in the church with the

feminine qualities of wisdom. In the Bible, wisdom is a woman.

The qualities of nurture, empathy, godliness, and service along feminine

lines I mean, there are people I cannot counsel in

the church because I'm a man, but a godly woman can.

And God would have them work for the church. So

the Roman colony at Philippi contained treasure, feminine treasure, yet

undiscovered in the godly women Paul would meet who would

turn to God and make a difference for Jesus Christ.

It has been said that the difference between the good

and the bad is a prayer. The difference between the

good and the bad is a prayer. Prayer can make

a difference when nothing else works in your life. And

there is no better time to pray than the Sabbath

day that is Saturday. In Matthew 24, 20, at the

very end of time, looking to the great tribulation, after

Christ's death on the cross, he is very clear, pray

your flight will not be in the winter or on

the Sabbath day. The Sabbath will be a day of

prayer in the mark of the beast issue, the final

test at the end of time. Acts 16, 13. Yes.

And on the Sabbath day, we went outside. So Luke

is in the midst. We went outside the gate to

the what? What does it say in the text? Riverside.

Where we suppose there was a place of prayer. And

we sat down and spoke to the women who had

come together. So here we have prayer. We have missionaries.

And we have women from the city meeting in one spot. Luke,

the Macedonian man, was there with Paul in the story

along with the entire Jewish team praying on the Sabbath day. Now,

why would they be praying on the Sabbath day if

the Sabbath was done away with? Would that make any

sense to you? The Sabbath wasn't done away with. The

Sabbath was working for the early church in Holy Spirit

power to evangelize. There was no church in Philippi yet,

so the river became the church and prayer became the

means to raise up that church. In the Bible, Jesus

often reveals himself to women at a spring or well

like he did Hagar at the well of the life

of my sight, in Hebrew, and also at the well,

Jacob's well, when Jesus gave the most beautiful discourse of

the gospel. They were all right there praying together, and

there were women there at the river when God led

some beautiful, beautiful people into their lives. And there was

water in the mix. Verse 14, one who heard us

was a woman named, what does it say in the Bible?

Any Lydia's here? Lydia, I know you were on the

front row. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia.

Any other Lydia's here? It's a great name. From the

city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, which means

royal garments, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord

opened her heart to give heed to what was said

by Paul. That's a beautiful verse. It stands in our

New Testament. to be pondered. There is so much in

this verse that calls us to tarry a bit and

scoop it all in. Of the women there, a certain

woman named Lydia was open to the Word of God. Friends,

we can't change our hearts. We can't open the mind

to the Bible truth on our own. The Holy Spirit

had already prepared her for these apostles. The name Lydia

comes from a root word that means almond tree. So

if I were to ask you what Lydia means, what

would you say? Almond tree. Okay. A righteous man in

Psalms 1-3 is like a tree planted by the rivers

of water. Why? Because he keeps God's law. He doesn't

hang around people who break God's law. He will stand

in the judgment. Okay. Because his associations are pure. He's renewed.

His fruit is renewed in its season because he has

a living, ongoing relationship with God. That's what a tree

does when it's planted by the waters. Okay. But there

are bad trees in the Bible. There are trees that

got to be burned. Bad trees are trees that suck

nourishment from the earth. They suck water out of the stream.

They take sunlight, but they do it for themselves. They

don't live for others. They don't minister. They just want

to get their religious fix and move on. There's no

future for someone like that unless they surrender and become

a good tree. The seven-branched menorah candlestick in the Hebrew

sanctuary was made to look like an almond tree, much

like Aaron's rod that budded with almonds. And the Hebrew indicates,

as well as rabbinical tradition supporting Hebrew readings of Exodus 4,

especially the Greek Septuagint that says Aaron's rod was taken

from or out of the bush, out of or from God.

And so... In the spirit of prophecy, it says that

Moses exchanged the shepherd's crook for the ruler's staff at

Sinai and that he would carry that all his life

to the end of his life. That rod was a

gift from God to Moses. It wasn't just some rod

he was slugging along. It was the rod of God,

the Bible calls it. And the rod of Moses and

the rod of Aaron is the same rod. You look

in the storyline, it's just exchanged back and forth. It

was put before The Ark of the Covenant was kept

in the sanctuary. It was a physical representation of the

Holy Spirit. As the rock that followed them was Christ,

the rod of power identified in Exodus 8 by the

magicians as the finger of God. Christ calls that the

Holy Spirit. So we had a living rock. representation of

Holy Spirit power by the rod of authority, the finger

of God. And Christ says He casts out devils by

the finger of God. And He says that's the Holy Spirit.

And so it was Holy Spirit power that brought them

out of Egypt. David says in Psalms 23, 4, Thy

rod and thy staff, what? They comfort me. Now, Christ

is a comforter, but he says, I will send you

another comforter. There are two. The Hebrew word almond, shaked,

comes from the verb shaked that means to see. The

burning bush was like an almond tree when the angel

of the Lord saw Moses out of the bush. These

two Hebrew words for almond and sight are used in

a vision that God gave Jeremiah about an almond tree.

It's very clear. The burning bush becomes the pattern of

the almond menorah in the sanctuary. Jeremiah 1 verse 11.

Jeremiah 1:11

The word of the Lord came to me saying. Now

look at verse 11. Are you looking at that? If

the word of the Lord is coming to Jeremiah saying,

is the word of the Lord an idea or Or

is the word of the Lord a person? Are you

looking at the Bible with me? What's it saying? Say,

that's Jesus. See, whenever you see that formula, the word

of the Lord came to me saying, it's Christ in

his preexistent form. In the beginning was the Word. The

Word was with God. The Word was God. He was

in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him.

Without Him was not anything made that was made. In

Him was life, and the life was the light of man.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. But in

the beginning was the Word. You go back to Genesis 15.1.

It says, The Word of the Lord came to Abram

in a vision, saying, That was the preexistent Christ Himself.

cutting a covenant with Abraham and setting the course of

human history. The same with Jeremiah. So Christ is speaking. Jeremiah,

what do you see? And what does he say? And

I said, I see a rod of almond. Now, what

does it represent? Then the Lord said to me, you

have seen well, for I am watching over my word

to perform it. The almond Rod represents the eyes of

God that sees everything. Now what does an almond look like?

Come on, help me. Come on. Even in Egyptian hieroglyphics

or artwork, you can see the shape of the eye

as an almond. Etymologically, the word for almond and the

word to see, one of the words for see, is

related in the Hebrew language. So the seven eyes of

God that roam throughout the earth are the seven spirits

of God, which means the complete Holy Spirit of God

in the book of Revelation. So do we need almond

trees in the church? The great almond, menorah, candlestick representing

the Holy Spirit utterly. We need spiritual insight. In the

book of Zechariah and the book of Revelation, the Holy Spirit,

as I said, is likened to seven eyes of God.

So what does this all mean in the story? Here's

what it means. Lydia was an almond tree kind of

woman who would bear fruit for God in the church

by having spiritual discernment and eyesight, using her feminine powers

through the Holy Spirit to be able to help guide

the church, sharing her faith, getting active in the church,

being a model of humility, reverence, yes, obedience to God,

to lead children to Christ, serving the needs of the poor,

raising up churches. The list is long for what the

Holy Spirit-filled woman can do as an almond tree. Now, ladies,

how many of you would want to be an almond

tree for God? You want to be in that club?

I'm going to invite you to raise your hand. Almond trees?

Almond trees. We need more Lydia's in the church who

will be almond trees for God. Acts 16, 14 says,

The Lord opened her heart to give heed to what

was said by Paul. Lydia was a Bible-believing woman of

God who cherished the Word of God and obeyed the Gospel. Oh,

would that we were smitten with a hundred Lydia's in

the church. I wish that the almond trees would just

sprout up and take over so that we have godly

forces for good in women in ministry, teaching in Sabbath schools,

sharing Bible studies, focusing on activities and events, drawing the

church together so there's life that almond tree can give.

Acts 16, 14 says the Lord opened her heart Lydia

was a Bible-believing woman. So what happens when you hear

the word of God and you're convicted by the Holy

Spirit to believe? Look at Acts 16, 15. We have

the answer. And when she was baptized with her household,

she besought us saying, if you have judged me to

be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.

And she prevailed upon us. Now the key phrase here

first is, and when she was what? Baptized. Now how

important is it to be baptized here? I mean, as

soon as you can. When you accept Christ, you've been converted,

you've been convicted that you need to follow Jesus, and

you are surrendered up, you need to be baptized as

soon as possible. And next week we have a baptism here.

Two of our dear friends from the radio in Wisconsin

are driving down all the way from Wisconsin to be

baptized in this church next week. And we're going to

stop the shop to do it. And it says here,

but notice how her hospitality kicked in. Lydia was a

God-fearing woman who showed kindness to those who shared the

Bible with her. She locked into the men in the

right way, and she became a force for good. Instantly,

the attitude of hospitality is manifested with Lydia. Now, how

many of you are on the hospitality team here at

Reaching Hearts? Raise your hand so I can see you.

Don't be ashamed to raise your hand. It's all right.

Raise it. Raise it high. Oh, come on. High. There

you go. Men and women. Do you realize, ladies especially,

you're the key there? How much this church benefits from

what you do at those events? Thank you for being

almond trees in that matter. Now, I've been on pastoral

visits where some people get mad at me if I

come by their home to pray for them. I had

that happen not long ago. Please don't do that. Hospitality matters.

Holy Spirit-filled women of God are champions of hospitality and

kindness and love. And that is how Paul met Lydia,

the almond tree who made a difference. Now, the place

of prayer by the river is a good place to

hang out. If you know that miracles are wrought by

a river, you're praying, wouldn't you want to go back? Now,

I take the youth to rivers to pray and to

catch fish. Now, I've noticed that we don't catch much

fish unless we pray. Have you noticed that? We pray

and we do nothing but catch fish. But once we

catch the fish, what do we do? We pray again.

We thank the Lord for doing it. And then we

met people on the trails, didn't we? We could pray

for people and we met people in need. God does

the same thing in our lives that He did for them. Friends,

if you're struggling with sin, I have a recommendation for you.

Come to prayer meeting and pray it out. If you're

struggling with a feeling of harassment inside, discouragement, come to

prayer meeting and pray it out. Now, Dr. Schaefer, I

have a good idea. I think we should put over

the prayer meeting hall the riverside. Maybe a plaque that

says the riverside. Because we can come right here where

the Holy Spirit River flows at prayer meeting time and

do the same thing they did. Way back, how many

years ago was this? My goodness. 1998. How many years

ago was that? 28 years? 20 years ago, when I

was senior pastor at Sligo Church, I had a week

of prayer, prayer meeting event at the Tacoma Park Church.

I was speaking. At the end of the speech that

I gave, the sermonette, a man walked up to me,

and this is what he said. He says, I am

struggling in my life. I have a personal relationship with

a demon. That's what he told me. He'd been raised

in one of, you know, went to one of our academies,

gone through our school system, but he was letting me

know right there in that setting he had a personal

relationship with a demon. I said, okay, tell me about it.

He says, well, it works like this, you know, I'm lonely,

I'm a single person, and I'm odd, I don't get

along with people, people don't like me, I'm awkward. And

a demon has been materializing in a light setting, and

we've been talking back and forth, and he helps me

with my loneliness. He's become my counselor. Now, not the

mighty counselor of the Holy Spirit, a demon. Now, I've

never had that happen to me quite like that before.

I've been in circumstances where I've seen men of God

cast out devils. But I've never been in a circumstance

where a man came up to me who had a

personal relationship with a demon. Right? And I said, well,

you know, you really need to have a personal relationship

with Jesus. He says, yes, but I just can't relate

to him because I can't see him like I do

the demon. And this went on back and forth, and

finally I convinced the man, you know, what you need

to do is to get on your knees and let

us pray for you, deliver you from the demon, and

let Christ come into your life so you can have

a personal relation with him. Get to know people in

the church, but get this out of your life. And

so the associate pastor of the Tacoma Church, myself, we

prayed for him that night that he would be delivered.

So don't think the story is out of line that

I'm getting ready to share with you here. You see,

there are times in the church when people come under

satanic control because they have a sin, they have an

attitude in which resentment goes deep, they lose their way,

they become faithless, and the Lord has to bring spiritual

intervention into that person's life for them to be saved.

But if it becomes deep-seated, they may never be saved.

So he was a slave of Satan. I got on

my knees that night, and we prayed for him. Now,

after the almond tree named Lydia was baptized into Jesus,

on another day, Paul and Luke and the evangelistic team

went back to the river to pray again. And on

the way to the river to pray again, they met

a demon girl on the way who was the means

for paying the bills for her evil master. Look at

verse 16. Verse 16. As we were going to the

place of prayer... We were met by a slave girl

who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners

much gain by soothsaying. Now the Greek word for divination

is puthon, like a python. Puthon. It was first used

in the Greek language to describe a giant snake that

guarded the oracle of Delphi, where the Greek witch at

Delphi would predict the future with magical power. Puthon, python power.

Verse 17. She followed Paul and us crying, these men

are servants of the Most High God who proclaim to

you the way of salvation. Now that's technically correct. But

it's what she was doing. She was distracting. She was

creating this aura of her greatness. She was trying to

act like she was a narcissistic sinner to reality. And

Paul let it go on for a while. But then

in verse 18, it says, and this she did for

many days. But Paul was what? Annoyed. And what did

he do? He turned and said to the spirit, I

charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come

out of her. And it came out of her that

very hour. Wow. I've seen the same kind of evil

spirits in the church that plagued the devil girl that day.

A woman in the church once came up to me

and told me outright that God had given her a

message of rhema. Greek word rhema, for me. She didn't

use that word, but she was referring to charismatic theology,

which is not biblical. When she said this, she was

claiming prophetic power that was not from Jesus. She was

claiming that God had spoken to her so I would

have a message for me through her from God. Now

that's a pretty amazing claim to make. When she said this,

I knew that something was wrong because she was very

confident she was a Holy Spirit conduit. She had dabbled

in the charismatic tongue speaking movement with her husband also.

And they were both prone to get puffed up with

the idea that they were specially and spiritually endowed to

teach everyone else the truth. She shared with me that

God had told her that I was to stop preaching

on two topics over time. Prophecy And here's the other one. Abortion. Which,

by the way, is the greatest moral issue of our time.

It affects our church and other churches. And I stand

solidly on the sixth commandment. And I care about the

dignity of women too. The Bible's clear on this. The

early Adventist church was clear on this. It's not until

modern days we have a little confusion going on. You

could not have been an early Seventh-day Adventist and agree

with the taking of the life of a child before birth.

It was incompatible with the early Adventist experience. But we

have a Laodicean culture today that no longer values the

life of a child. Now look, I value the life

of a mother too, but we don't kill a child

to save a mother. We should care about a mother

and the child. That's how the early church did. They

visited the trash heaps of the Roman world They found

little babies that were crying out that had been put

to death by exposure. And they brought them in the church.

They raised them in the church. And they will be

in the kingdom of God because of the love of

the early church. Edward Gibbon has fallen to climb the

Roman Empire, records that. So she shared with me that

God had given her a message from God that I

was to stop preaching on prophecy and stop focusing and

sharing the conviction of the sixth commandment And it was some,

even in interacting, she was acting like a little prophetess

to me. The Bible says, by their fruits you will

know them. I knew right then and there that this

woman was not led of the Holy Spirit. She was

led by a demon. This woman was led by an

evil spirit in the church. The same thing happens in

our day as in Paul's day. This is why it's very,

I've been in the foyer of our church where someone's

walked up to me and says, Pastor, you're demon possessed. Now,

I know I'm not. And I could tell the devil

was there. And you know, there are times you've just

got to say it's okay for you to walk right

outside the door of that church if you can't surrender

to Jesus. Because this is to be a place of unity.

It's to be a place where we are gathered in

God's name. It's to be a place where we surrender

to the Holy Spirit for the good of others. The

devil gets access in the church through fanaticism. False tongue speaking.

The The charismatic movement is a false Holy Spirit movement.

It's not of God. Christian rock music. You hear me?

Christian rock music is of the wrong side. The same

form that guides the sensual music of the rock profession

has no place in worship to God. He rejects it.

And some people say, what do you mean, Pastor Mike? Well,

you know, it's the consensus of our world church. It's

in our church manual that rock music and jazz are

not acceptable worship forms. And yet we have very intelligent

philosopher king kind of pastors telling us we need Christian

rock music. Not according to the Bible. It says of Babylon,

the sound of the millstone will be heard and heard

no more. That's prophetic of Christian rock music. And that

has come into the Seventh-day Adventist church today directly defying

the wisdom of the world church's understanding of the Bible

and the spirit of prophecy and the principles of Scripture.

No Holy Spirit in it. There are churches today where

alcohol is freely encouraged in social drinking. And bar attendance

and family gatherings. Now, if you are a person who

attends a bar and you take a young person to

that bar, you need to be placed on church censure.

You have no place at all doing that to a

young person, corrupting the young people of the church. And

you know, trying to Take alcohol and share it freely

and act like you're a Christian. It's incompatible with the

principles of the three angels' messages. Social drinking doesn't work

as a Christian. Family gatherings where sensual rock music dancing

replaces the fervent worship at a wedding or the like

is wrong. I've been in weddings of our own church

where they'll have the most bass rock music imaginable and

then sensual dancing, and they'll call it cultural, but it's not.

It's simply not of God's church. There are churches where

caffeine is served in the foyer of the church. Now

I'm going to get into the health message here a

little bit. Caffeine is a stimulant demonstrated by scientific evidence

to lower your capacity for spiritual understanding. That's been proven

through science. And yet people still hook on to this stuff.

When I became a Christian, I was hooked on caffeine.

I had to withdraw from caffeine. It's a morphogenic style drug,

even though it doesn't have horrible effects. But it's a

drug that helps to bridge you into other addictions. And

to serve caffeine in the foyer of a church for

young people and the like is absolutely not acceptable for

the remnant church. But there are churches that do it.

Instead of healthy juices, water, food that would honor God.

I visited churches where smoke goes up like rock concert smoke.

I was in Tennessee where that happened. A church in

one of our conferences. And it goes up and they

get up there and you'd think that it was a

Led Zeppelin band. I used to listen to Led Zeppelin.

You don't even know what that is. The younger generation doesn't.

Led Zeppelin. Sweet Home Alabama. It looked like one of those.

And I said, you know, when I was baptized, I

gave that up. Why do I need to get it

again by coming into the church? And so I visit

churches where rock concerts, smoke, praise teams took the place

of congregational singing where people sing together to God in

the ancient hymns. And yes, contemporary music that is right.

Not all is. Singing like God is a sweetheart kind

of God. singing like God is a rock star is

not honoring God. And these compromises drag our children down.

They pervert their spiritual capacities. They drag the church down also.

And people are lost because of a spirit of compromise

that has taken over the church. Now I don't care

what someone thinks watching online about this sermon right now.

Because this has to be said. We are living in

a crisis On the eve of the coming of Christ,

it is time to honor God and to be obedient.

Dear heart, do not attend churches that do these things.

I don't care if they're in our denomination. Don't attend them.

And pray these things get out of your life. Out

of all of our life. The Holy Spirit's not in them.

Revelation 6, 12-14. At the end of time, there will

be a false Holy Spirit movement that goes throughout the world.

The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates.

Its water was dried up to prepare the way for

the kings from the east. The Father, the Son, and

the Holy Spirit are coming at the second coming. Verse 13.

And I saw issuing from the mouth of the dragon,

from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth

of the false prophet, three foul spirits like what? Frogs.

A Holy Spirit movement that's not holy. That's not from God.

Jumping up and down. Tongues going out. making noises you

can never understand. The frogs represent the modern charismatic movement, prophetically.

Verse 14. For they are demonic spirits performing signs who

go abroad to the kings of the whole world to

assemble them for the battle of the great day of

God the Almighty. When Paul cast out that demon from

that young precious girl, He freed her from the slavery

of her master who relied on a demon to make

money in the church. Now friends, we don't need to

bring the devil's music into church so that the church

can have a crowd. God would rather have conversions than

a crowd. We don't need it. Now I know in

our own experience here at Reaching Hearts, there were times

in which young people were taken to things that I'm

ashamed of. Christian rock concerts that were nothing but expressions

of the modern charismatic movement. And our kids don't grow

from that. I've seen no fruit from children exposed to

that nonsense. One of the famous Christian artists out there,

his name is Chris Tomlin. You ever hear of Chris Tomlin? Now,

Chris Tomlin is very upfront about the music he writes.

And when you go to Chris Tomlin concerts, people say, oh,

I got a great spiritual experience and so on. Chris

Tomlin has gone on record that he is a bridge

between the modern charismatic movement and mainline Christianity. He is

meant to bring them together in a single worship experience.

He writes his music so it works as a transition.

And I have seen the documentation to support that statement. Friends,

I don't care if you like a piece of song

or music. If the purpose of the author is to

undermine the uniqueness of our biblical message, to draw us

away from that which leads us to Christ, we're in

deep trouble. And so I'm not a fan of the

modern music industry. Children and young people should learn to

sing hymns, praise the Lord, write music, and sync with

godly principles. There was a day in our movement when

the music of our church was grand. Young people learn

to sing. Choirs dominate. Harmony rather than beat. And that

day is gone. It must be reborn. When Paul cast

that demon out of that woman, he freed her from

this kind of thing. I clear people from rock music

when I baptize them. Acts 16, 19. But when her

owners saw that their hope of gain was gone... They

seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace

before the rulers. And when they had brought them to

the magistrates, they said, these men are Jews and they

are disturbing our city. So they go after them with

racist mindset. Now why did the slave master and the

others get mad? They got mad because they were making

money off of that demon girl. And it was kind

of like the prosperity preachers of today. I was recently

in a ministerial meeting where I saw a Christian rock band,

presenting itself. And I saw young people being misguided and

misled by the pastors that had put them on that stage.

Dressed like slobs, moving back and forth, swaying in the music,

huffing and puffing on the microphone, trying to work the

group into a Holy Spirit frenzy. And it has no

place in the remnant church. None. None. None. There are

pastors today who are making money by bringing that kind

of stuff into the church. God's not in the crowds business.

He's in the conversions business. Crowds with demons focus on

feeling instead of reading the Bible. Honest spiritual growth goes out.

The Word of God is lost. Crowds with demons call

on the Holy Spirit when they mock His presence and

send Him out of the church by their disobedience and compromise.

My wife's father was in Africa where he baptized many

a person in Jesus Christ. And very often at their baptism,

there would be a demonic challenge at the baptism for

that person moving out of that pagan religion into Christ.

And he was interacting with, not with, but he had

heard of a witch doctor or someone of this nature

who had shared that the rock music scene and also

what we see today, What they were doing in terms

of their type of worship service, it's simply the same thing.

So don't think for a minute that what we have

in our culture is somehow good because it's our culture.

It exists in Africa. It exists in other parts of

the world. And when people come to Christ, there's a

sense of humility. There's a sense of harmony. There's a

sense of surrender. And sweetness takes over the life. I

would rather pastor three honest converted people like Lydia, the

almond tree, than to have a thousand devil girls dancing

for the crowds on a stage in the name of

God or devil boys without a pulpit dancing to Christian

rock music. Friends, God has called Advent believers to be sober, serious,

loving Christians who obey the Word of God in humility.

There will be a generation of young people in this

church who are obedient to the Word of God. who

are able to work with people and be kind, who

are stable in their walk with the Lord, who love

the Lord. 1 Peter 5, 8-11, we'll end with these verses.

What does it say in verse 8? Be sober. What else?

Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like what?

A roaring lion seeking someone to devour. That's you and

your children. What does it say in verse 9? Resist him,

firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of

suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. And

verse 10, and after you have suffered how long? A

little while. The God of all grace who has called

you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, establish,

and strengthen you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Now,

as we stand for this closing song, I'm just going

to ask a simple thing today because I think it's needed.

How many of you would like to reaffirm that you want, ladies,

that you would want to be an almond tree for God?

I want you to stand right now. If you're of

that mindset, stand. I want to be an almond tree

for God. I'm making a commitment to be an almond

tree for God, to have the right influence in the church.

And men of the church, I'm going to ask you

this question. Instead of compromising, instead of being willing to

be lazy, because men can be lazy. We can rely

on the strengths of women to our own harm. Stand

for a man of God like Paul and Silas Barnabas

to be true to the Lord. Dear Heavenly Father, the

Heritage Foundation, January of this year, as you know, made

a recommendation that this country Have a national Sunday day

of rest. And Father, we're living before the Mark of

the Beast issue. And why are you holding things up?

It's because of us. We are the problem. You stand

at the door and knock, and we don't let you in. Lord,

I'm praying for me, not just others here. Lord, please, please,

Teach us to obey. Teach us to love the precious

message that we've been given. Teach us to value the

holy culture of the remnant church inspired in holy writings.

And help us, Lord, to be flexible to bring people

and live for others and remove from us any attitude

that would be of the devil. Give us Jesus for

the sake of other human beings in this place. Lord,

may you cause your face to shine upon your dear

people and keep them in Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen.