Vexing Righteousness

In this episode, we explore the powerful connection between your environment, your conversations, and the condition of your soul. Discover how what you consistently watch, hear, and engage with shapes your thoughts, affects your spiritual sensitivity, and influences the direction of your life. Learn why true righteousness is not about never falling, but about continually rising again and choosing environments that help you become who God has called you to be

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So today we're gonna speak about vexing righteousness. Amen. It's a slightly new series. Amen, but we may pivot back to comforter, we'll see. Um but the Bible does speak about and righteousness. Um gives us a lot of information on that. I'll also tell you why you shouldn't do that. Amen. So let's um let's go to Second Peter chapter two. And I want you to go all the way down to verse seven.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Thank you, sir. Second Peter chapter two, from verse seven says, and delivered just lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Continue.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Thank you, sir. Verse eight for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Did you hear that? It says, and God delivered just lot, vexed with filthy conversations of the wicked. Verse 8, for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing and and hearing, sorry, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Amen. So can I just say that you are responsible for the state of your soul? A lot of people believe that some things are inevitable, and the soul chooses how the soul wants to behave. But you are responsible for that. First thing it talks about here is that Lot was vexed with filthy conversations of the wicked. Filthy conversations. Do you because talking is the beginning of doing? Do you understand that? So there are things you cannot be found talking about. You just cannot. If you're righteous, there are things you will refrain from giving your virtue to. And it starts in conversation. Silence sometimes is the best response. Praise God. You don't have to respond to everything. You don't have to respond to everything. Alright, you may, it could be another righteous person talking to you about something filthy, and it does not have to be sexual. You have to be discerned enough to pick up on whether am I partaking, am I involving myself in a filthy conversation? So you may think, alright, you know, I spoke about it, but I'm not doing it, and nothing happened to me. But that's where you're wrong. Something happened. Something happened. Something happened. A piece of you was donated to that conversation. A part of your soul was donated to that conversation. And if you're not if you're not disciplined and you don't understand spiritual laws, you won't be able to undo that when you leave. Praise God. You have to be able to undo certain conversations when you leave those environments. Undo them completely. Amen. Some things don't deserve the attention of the spirit. I'll explain what I mean. The Holy Spirit lives in you. Alright? He's made your body his abode. He doesn't live in your spirit. Some people believe that the Holy Spirit has entered their spirit and they've become one. No, he lives in your body. That's why the Bible speaks about you giving your body unto filthy things. Do you not know that you're grieving? Praise God. So he lives in the body, in your body. And he says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? He asked that rhetorical question. Praise God. So when you effectively give your attention to certain conversations, you've forced the Spirit of God to also partake in that conversation. That's a terrible thing. If you really truly believe that the Spirit of God lives in you, then whatever you give conversation to, He has also given conversation to. So I need you to do that for the rest of the year. All right, avoid filthy conversations. Conversations that will segue you, if I may use that word, segue you into thoughts that you know can create certain emotions. Praise God. You may want to find yourself around, you may sorry, you may find yourself around individuals who speak loosely. I've grown up around those individuals, they speak loosely. What you must do is get away from that environment because their loose speaking causes thoughts and ideas and feelings to grow inside of you, and they may germinate three weeks later, four weeks later, and you didn't know how did I end up here? You ended up here because of conversation, what you partook in. Who can tell me what impartation means? Okay, if you don't know, you want to answer, you want to try? What's what's impartation? No, don't worry about the mic, they will speak out loud. Yes, yeah, go ahead. Close, close. You're not necessarily giving what you have. Go ahead. Yeah. Close, very close, very close. I'll tell you what impartation is. Impartation is not giving what you have, it's giving you. So if I impart on a person, I've given them a part of me. I've given them a part of the state of my soul. So when people influence you, all right, it's called influence, it's actually impartation. Because if you're influenced by a person, you will start to behave like that person. It says, and delivered just lot vexed with filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. So there's a few things I want you to pay attention to here. It says, number one, even though Lot was among them, his identity didn't change. So the Bible still identifies him as a righteous man. Amen. It says another thing here. Now write this down seeing and hearing. So it wasn't what they did that vexed his righteous soul, it was what he heard and what he saw. That's what vexed his righteous soul. Now, I'm gonna give you a definition of vexing the soul, the righteous man's soul. Can I tell you what that is? Vexing the soul of a righteous person, and this is exactly what happened to Lot. Lot got to Sodom and Gomorrah, and he could not impart what he had on them. The Bible says in that verse, it says that they vexed his righteous souls with their deeds day to day. Okay, so this was this was a consistent thing that they were doing. They vexed him from day to day. Do you understand that? Okay, now Lord, being in that environment, learned to live with them. This is where the vexing comes in. He learned to live with them. He said, This is how they are, this is their culture, this is how they behave. So you know what? I understand them, and I'm going to just allow them to be themselves. Amen. That's not where it stops. Lot started to behave like them, he started to behave like them. How do I know? Because Lot picked up a drinking problem. When he left with Abraham, he wasn't a drunkard, he landed in Gomorrah and became a drunkard. He was stricken to wine. When there was a problem, he would give himself to wine. Amen. So from studying the scripture, we see that Sodom and Gomorrah imparted itself on Lot. And you know what? His attitude was I'm not doing what they're doing, I'm not doing what they're doing, I'm not behaving like them. Okay, so it's fine, it's okay. Praise God. He said it's fine, it's okay. And you you you you probably have friends like that. You probably have associates like that, all right? That you you you say they're not I don't do what they do. But what you don't know is when you find yourself among them, your language changes. You start to talk differently. You went from brother to bruv. And then from broth to breath. It just keeps changing. You're vexing your soul. That you come around that one friend, you don't necessarily do what she or he does. You know, you keep yourself, but there's some influences, and you and that person seems to bring you in environments that you yourself, of your own decision, wouldn't end up there. This summer, yeah, this summer, a lot of people's souls may be vexed, and I'll show you what how God handles such a situation. Because trust me, it doesn't please him. Vex your soul. How did you get the idea to maybe maybe go to a festival? Maybe that wasn't you, but when you gave your life to Christ, everything became about him, your entire life became about him, living for him, preaching for him, dressing for him, singing for him, worshiping for him, working, you go to work, earn your money for him. Everything became about him. Then you came across a friend. Now you want to go to a festival. If I ask you why, just you know, sometimes you you yourself, you don't have a reason. I just want to enjoy myself. I haven't been to a festival in a long time. That person gave you a part of themselves, your soul has been vexed. Your soul has been vexed. You're not the first to fall victim to this. Soul fell um victim to this, Lot fell victim to this. You know, but there was a man in the Bible who, you know, I really admire King David. You know, I really, really admire him. I'll do a series on on David and Ahitophel. I'll do a proper series. A proper series. No, because you find that Ahitophel was so wise, the Bible says, word for word, that it's as if God was speaking when Ahitophel would give counsel. But yet David at times didn't listen to him. So someone's gift, I may be the set man of the church, and I find someone in the church that has more wisdom than me. In the church. Yes, that can happen because of age, experience, maybe they're older, they've seen more things, so they have more wisdom, but it doesn't mean they have the right wisdom. So King David understood that. He said, Ahitophel is wise. This man speaks, and it's as if God Himself is speaking, but I don't always have to listen to him because the Bible, but the Bible didn't say when Ahitophil speaks, God speaks. It says as if God's speaking. Yeah. So David knew the difference. He said, I don't have to listen to him all the time. This sounds good, but it may not be right. But I'll do a series on that another time. We'll talk about them too another time. And later on in the year, amen. Where was I? Vexing the soul. Vexing the soul. So it says, and the just lot, delivered just lot, vexed with filthy conversations of the wicked, that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Amen. These people were so terrible, they were so bad, terrible people. Alright, Lot got there, and the Bible says he was still righteous. He was a man that was principled. Yes, he was. He was principled. Now, what I find interesting is when God was talking about delivering Lot with Abraham, he didn't speak about delivering Lot's family. He said Lot's name alone. It was Lot alone. Because Lot was among them as a righteous man, but his heart wasn't with them. So he found himself influenced by them. So he would get drunk with wine, but his heart wasn't in that. Do you understand that? So that's you. Your heart is not in those things. By now, okay, your definition of a celebration should be different. Before Christ, your definition of a celebration was filthy. It was carnal. I'll take it a step further. Has changed. No, but explain to me why, as a lady, you would have a bikini party. You explain that to me. For your birthday.

unknown 21:13

Why?

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Disciples always saying, I didn't do it, sir. Why? Why? As a guy, you want to have a drink up. As a as a as a man of God, you want to have a drink up. This is this is how you express celebration. As a righteous man, a righteous woman, this is this is how you choose to express your righteousness. God is concerned. He's very concerned. Don't get caught amongst those carnal people. Don't do it. Don't get caught there. We teach topical messages, all right? Not messages that will please you. Topical messages. Amen. And you should be happy. If the shoe fits, you should be happy because it's an opportunity for you to change. If the shoe fits, it means you've learned something. You say, Thank you, Lord Jesus. Because the shoe fits. And I can change now. Help me to change. Praise God. Yeah. These things vex your soul. They vex the righteous man's soul. Something the Lord was speaking to me about this morning. Just this morning, he said, uh talk to them about their relaxing content. He said, relaxing content. I didn't understand that, so I had to dig. I said, What do you mean by that? You know, you know, I was asking the Lord, what do you mean by relaxing content? Relaxing content. That's what he said. He said, talk to them about their relaxing. What is it that you're watching? No, because can we read that verse again? It says, it says here, for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, you are what you watch. You become what you hear. Did you hear that? You didn't catch that. You are what you watch, you become what you hear. You are what you watch. I'll let you decode that in your own time. So Lot was uh finding his way in this city. The city was so it's two cities by the way. It's I've explained that before, right? Sodom and Gomorrah. The city was so filthy that angels came to visit him and homosexuals were running rampage in that city. And it was a community because they noticed that these two men had never been seen in the in the area before. They saw them enter Lot's house and they said, Bring them out so we can have them. So don't think that that this that homosexual uh thing is a new thing. It's in the it's been in the Bible. They said, bring those two men out. They didn't know that those were angelic beings. They said they're two beautiful men, bring them out so we can enjoy ourselves. That's their definition of enjoyment. How can you find yourself among such? How can you, you're righteous. You are filled with the Holy Spirit. How can you find yourself enjoying in such an environment? Your soul should be vexed, and if you're in that environment and your soul's not vexed, that should be your big the beginning of your prayer point. Cry unto God, why am I not vexed? What's going on? How is it that I find myself amongst these people and I'm happy? I'm dancing with them, I'm drinking with them, I'm talking with them, and I'm okay. You've been desensitized. Yeah, you've been desensitized, they've imparted on you. Don't be surprised if you give birth to children that behave like them. Praise God. You vex the soul enough, okay? You vex the soul enough you can you can completely change the identity of the man if you vex your soul enough. So be extremely disciplined with what you hear, be extremely disciplined with what you watch, the things you see, be extremely disciplined. Now, if you find yourself in a position where you're like, I'm at home, I have nothing to do, and I have and I don't know what to watch, and everything that I would watch vexes my my spirit or my soul. Alright, did you know that it's okay to not watch anything? Did you know that? So I believe, yeah, because the Spirit of God, I was asking him, and I believe that that's what he meant when he said relaxing content. You know, this is your relaxing time or content that relaxes you. Okay, so these are things that you may indulge in, or you know, uh content that you take in when you are you find yourself idle. Do you understand that? Yeah, so you may be doing laundry and you're watching, or you may be doing nothing but you're watching, you may be cooking and you're watching. The problem with that is it's it has the same effect on you as Sodom and Gomorrah had on Lot because it's day to day. Is that in your Bible? Day to day? Can we read that again? It says, verse 8, for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day. Yeah, from day to day. So I would go as far as saying, you think like the characters that you watch. You think like them, you behave like them. When I see a young boy on the streets of London, based on the way he dresses, I can tell what type of music he listens to. And if we go in deeper, I can tell you probably what rappers he listens to based on how he dresses. And it's the same with the young ladies, it's easy to tell who are their uh major influences. Amen. Let me tell you the problem with vexing the soul because I've told you what is. Do you understand what vexing the soul is? You understand the definition, yeah? Okay, so let me tell you what it does now. Yeah. Number one, you start to take on the personality of Satan. You start to take on his personality. What is the problem, Pastor, with taking on the personality of Satan? What's the problem? What's the problem? I must ask it in on your behalf in case some of you have that in your in your mind. Okay, so I'll tell you. One of the major issues of taking on the personality of Satan is that the result that God is expecting from you is no longer the same. No longer the same. I'll give you an example. So, God could ask you to minister to a soul. Yeah, you're a righteous one. He sends you off. Go and minister to that soul. You go and minister and you end up arguing with the soul. The result was not what God asked of you. He sent you and you went. So if we ask him, is she sent, he will say yes. You got there and you argued and offended the soul. That wasn't what the work that was given to you. That wasn't the homework. Praise God. Or God sends you to a location and he says, Go and minister the gospel, and you get afraid, you get scared, you say, I'm I'm intimidated, I can't do it. It's it's because your soul is vexed. Someone, someone filled with the spirit, you cannot send that person to a location and they come back with no results. You can't. Can I give you another example? A couple of months, maybe two, three months, I was prophesying to all of you. A bunch of you, I was prophesying, you all came forward, prophesying, I was prophesying. I spoke to you that day and I said to you, there was a dispute with your granddad. Right? Do you remember? You sent me a voice note a couple of days ago. This was a public thing, so I'm speaking about it publicly. Because you didn't come forward to publicly say, Oh, I I confirmed this is what happened. So I'm saying it so everyone is aware, as I prophesied publicly as well. So he sent me a voice note. It took maybe maybe two months or a couple of weeks, not sure, but he sent me a voice note saying, Sir, I can confirm that my granddad had a dispute about land. Do you remember that? Yeah, so I had told him the reason why he's ill is because there was a dispute on land and he couldn't confirm it on the day. I'm not sure what they said to you on that day. What did they say to you on that day? On that exact day. He has no idea about that. Okay, so God showed me something that not even his family was aware of. Okay. So I said to him, This is a this is a serious case of witchcraft over land. This there's land that is actually rightfully your grandfather's, and they've taken it from him, and he started fighting them with the law, and then they attacked him. So their thing is he must die. The only reason he's still breathing is because people are praying for him, so it's keeping him. Nonetheless, as you confirmed it, God has shown me the word, and you've confirmed it. Now, if my soul is vexed, yeah, from the office of a prophet, I won't be able to change that. Do you understand? So my depth in the prophetic is based on maturity and relationship. Okay, but if my soul is vexed, the end result will not be godly. So I will identify the problem, but I can't change the problem. Is that one too deep for you? Some people are scratching their necks. Let me give you another one. You want me to repeat that again? Okay, all right. Okay, as a prophet, I can identify an issue in your life, but if my soul is vexed, which is if I'm contaminated like that, as in I am being imparted with carnalism, I will not be able to come out with a godly end result. Do you understand? So the the vexing of the soul frustrates the results that God wants. It frustrates the results that God wants. I preached one time and I spoke about um the fine line. Do you remember the fine line? When I spoke about it, I said you have to walk that fine line. If you're unable to walk that fine line, it cuts the power. You remember that? Okay, just bear that in mind. So, what do you have? You have I've written have you written down you take on the personality of Satan? Yeah, the results of what you're doing for the Lord changes. Okay, so your end results change changes. Write this down as well. You start to understand Satan, and that for me is the worst. No, because when you start to understand Satan, you start to sympathize with him. Yeah, I heard a pastor preaching and he said, I don't know why God said that you shouldn't be gay. He said, I don't know why. And he said, if it was up to me, I would change it. But it's not up to me, and I don't know why. He said, I don't know why. He said, but at this church, we welcome everybody, and it's a big one of the biggest churches in America. So numbers doesn't always mean that God is there. You need discernment. Yes, there are massive churches where God is there, definitely, because God is about numbers, but numbers doesn't always mean God is there. Amen. It doesn't. You need to discern that. I heard him say that, and I thought, here we go. Here we go. He's starting to understand Satan. He's trying to be God is not all inclusive. He's not. He's not all inclusive. You cannot come with your ways and try to come inside and change things. No, he's not. He's not like that. Praise God. I understand why God doesn't like homosexuality. I understand why he doesn't like homosexuals it's disgusting. Can I give you another word? The Bible uses unnatural. So I heard someone saying, but do you know that some animals are naturally homosexual? They have which is true. So my question is, are we animals? Why are you telling me that? Why are you telling me that? I'm an animal. God put me in charge of them. That some of them are naturally they have you know unnatural tendencies. It's not, it's not, it's not a concern of mine. Praise God. Now, if look, you may be a pastor struggling with homosexuality, but but and this is a big but that's that's your temptation, you're you're fighting it. Alright? Praise God, but you your heart is not given to that, so you can teach against it. When you find a pastor being all-inclusive, he's practicing it. John Hessen, the pastor may fall, but he continues to preach against unrighteousness, he continues to consistently preach against it. That's one whose heart is not. God said to Lot, yeah, and his wife, don't look back. He said, Don't don't look back. Don't look back. Can I put something to you? Because when I read the word, I I sit on it. That's the only in the spirit. We don't we don't stand, you know. You can you can brood on the word, you know. I brood on it. I found that Lot's wife's heart looked back before her mind looked back. For her to have looked back, her heart stayed there. Do you understand that? She didn't look back out of excitement. Maybe God would have spared her. She looked back because her heart was there. Difference between that woman and King David. Because King David actually fell. He did, which some of you would judge him and say, you know, what whatever you call him, but he actually fell. By the way, it wasn't just one time, multiple times. He fell. But his heart wasn't in those things that he was falling into. That's the core difference. Are you listening? So we have we have um circles, Christian circles today that are trying to be all-inclusive. And I I I I want to put this to you, God doesn't want you to be like that. He doesn't want you to be like that. Oh, but Pastor, we need to find creative ways to win souls. First, okay, before you go to the creative way, try the traditional way. Have you won a soul the traditional way? Why must you go to the creative way, which is fleshly? One of I sent some of them to university campuses, you know. I said, go there and start university campuses. Some of them, they tried, you know. I said, go, go. With with with little to no training in that area, I sent them. I said, go, go and do it. Now one of the leaders came back to me and said, Sir, I'm going to do like a uh, I'm gonna buy food and sandwiches and all that stuff, and I'm gonna put it there. And I said, It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. You will waste your money. You will waste your money. Do you know why I confidently tell you that this church is a 10,000-member church every Sunday, even 15? Yeah, because I know the principles. Me personally, you won't see me buying food for people, going extra. No, why? Why? I remember, yeah, in Egypt, the Israel's Israelites coming out of Egypt, they were coming out and they were complaining about quails and food, and they they even said the honey and the cheese that they have in Egypt is amazing. Their hearts were in Egypt. God was unhappy about that. But I'll come to that point in a second. What I wanted to bring to your attention is when they complain about food. God brought so much quail there by his voice. And the question God asked me is, How many quails do you think the Israelites would be able to catch for themselves if I wasn't involved in the picture? And I said, it's the desert, so I think maybe one. They would all be dead. And God said, I can do the same for souls. God said to me, All I have to do is blow. It's a wind. And they will come by themselves in numbers. That's what he told me. So I'm so unbothered. And every time, I told you, every time I tell her, watch next two weeks, there'll be a growth. It happens. Increase. And then I stop talking. Because he tells me, he says, I'm gonna blow now. It'll come and it will stop. And then he says, Work on this, work on that, work on that, work on that, work on that. Come back to me in six months. I'll blow again. So I don't have to do all of that TV, you know. Uh-oh. We can be in here. People will stand out there, chairs out there, and overflow. Yeah, right here. Because this is the work of the spirit, not physical. You understand that? Yeah, it's the work of the spirit. And when you're trying to you when you are trying to grow your church, then you become all inclusive. You start wearing shorts up to here on the pulpit, sleeveless. What are you gonna tell to the married people in your in your church, let alone the singles? Even even your sons will be looking at you like Sella Man's legs are out like you got wives in the church, your leg, your leg is out, your pantalon is cut, your leg is out. People's wives in the church. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, what kind of game is that? No, I see this in America. People's wives, people's my my wife in the crowd. The pastor hey. No, that's not ministry, that's a brothel. That is a brothel, is not ministry. People are in the crowd, you don't know. Listen, um, amongst married people, the arguments you will hear will blow your mind, especially in the early stages, they'll be arguing, and if you give them a way out, they'll take it. What is your wisdom? I'm telling you. You give married people a way out, especially in their youth, they will take it. So the pastor coming out with his big arms because he goes to the gym and leg out, he wants to show the muscle. Wives in the crowd. All it takes is one look. See, in that scripture, it says what you hear and what you see. All it takes is one look. One look. Tell your neighbor, be wise. Of course, you don't like this message.

SPEAKER_02 47:59

Praise God.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

We have we have a lot of uh soon-to-be-married people here and couples and stuff like that. Which is which is very nice. Amen. Which is very nice, but I want to appeal to the men first. Become a man of God. No, because some of you men are not men of God. You're not a man of God. You are not. You are not. Become a man of God. Become a man of God. Show it in your conduct. Don't entreat the person that you're talking to, entreat them in ungodly, filthy conversations. Praise God. Be be the person, praise God, be the person who steers the ship of conversation wisely. You steer the ship wisely. I want to give you another scripture. Proverbs chapter twenty-four. Yeah, verse sixteen. Let's go there quickly.

SPEAKER_00 49:37

Thank you, sir. Proverbs chapter twenty-four, from verse sixteen says, For just a man falleth seven times and riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

Now, before before I touch on that, yeah, and I want you to pay attention because this is where I'm gonna adjourn. We're at Proverbs 24, 16. The Bible says, for a just man falleth seven times and rises up again, or the wicked shall fall into mischief. The reason I brought that scripture up to you is because Lot was called a righteous man and he fell. Alright? He fell into temptation. But the the the fact that he is righteous is what allows him to fall. Do you understand that? I'll I'll re-explain because I know some of you don't understand that. The fact that he is righteous is what gives him the ability to fall. I'll explain. If Lot if if so, suppose Lot is here and he's lying down, can he fall? But if he's standing, can he fall? So the fact that he's righteous gives him the ability to fall. Do you get that? Okay. Now, the fact that he can fall, the Bible now tells us what he falls into. Temptation. How do I know that? Because if you go to go back, come out from come out of Proverbs, go back to our previous verse, and then we'll come back to Proverbs in a second. Verse 8 says, That righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Verse 9: the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation. So Lot fell into temptation. Now, let's go back to Proverbs. So let's let's add the word temptation there, okay? For a just man falleth into temptation seven times and rise up again. So what constitutes your righteousness is the fact that you rise again, you don't stay there. Do you understand that? What characterizes your righteousness is you fell, but get up. Because if you don't get up, you lose your identity. But then when he talks about the unrighteous, he says they don't fall into temptation, they fall into destruction. Let's read that again. It says, But the wicked shall fall into mischief. So if we go back to Lot's story, Lot fell into temptation seven times, but made it out because he got back up. His heart wasn't given to those things. But Sodom and Gomorrah, who were unrighteous, fell into destruction. God destroyed them. Do you understand that? So the amount of times that you make a mistake is not what characterizes you. Standing up does standing up. Get up and keep fighting. Praise God. Get up and keep fighting. The last thing I want to put to you is this. How God dealt with Lot's temptations, He took him out of the environment. Took him out of the environment. So you have a responsibility to take yourself out of that environment. No matter how difficult it is.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

Take yourself out of there. Praise God. Take yourself out of there.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

Pull yourself out of that environment. Decide from today, I'm gonna fight that environment. That environment that keeps tripping you up. Don't go back there again. The environment can be a person. The environment can be an individual. It could be your travel partner. It could be your brother in Christ. Your sister in Christ. It could be your parents. Amen. Stop talking to that person. There's a reason why all the people that God called into ministry, He asked them to get away from their families. He said, get away from there. Because there's some messages that God cannot deliver to you when you're in that environment. Because you'll get offended at the message. God is telling you a good thing and you're concerned about the wrong thing. If Moses, can I explain something to you? If Moses grew up in Israel, amen. If he grew up in Israel around his family, Aaron and all them, yeah, and he found the burning bush, he would have called that witchcraft. Because the Israelites were so superstitious. But he grew up in Egypt where he saw those types of things regularly. So when God did that and spoke through it, he said, I know a God that has done that before. I've seen this before. These things were happening in Egypt regularly. Do you understand? So your environment highly influences how you perceive what God is saying and doing in your life. So sometimes God has to say, get away from your mom, get away from your dad, go, go and live on your own, go and be by yourself. And you may get act, you may say, God, I'm lonely. Why I love I love my family? Some of you are like that. Family is everything to you, but that's the problem. God wants to be everything to you. I tell some of the young men around me, listen, love your wife as Christ loved the church, but make sure she's not everything. You'll die of a heart attack. Let me just end this harmony.

unknown 58:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:17

Some of you, your your your woman is your everything. You're even you're even here now, is embarrassing. Yeah, she's everything. Oh my and it's obvious when she makes an error. Yeah, it it's it comes out when she makes a mistake. That's where it should because women wouldn't understand this part, you know. How he reacts, okay, when you make an error is very telling how to how much you mean to him. If you make an error and he's absolutely unbothered, you likely mean nothing. If you make an error and he is ready to crash, you mean a lot to him. But God says that's carnal. God says if she means a lot to you, be unbothered. Because you will kill yourself. Anyways, that's Iron Man business. That's for that's for our conference. Yeah, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak of evil dignity. So, this is where I will adjourn. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Be afraid to talk on certain things. Are you listening to me? King David, with all his mistakes, God sustained him. He made errors, God covered them. Yeah, he went to war, God covered him. His children tried to kill him, God covered him. Not one child, multiple. It was like three of them. They rebelled against him and tried to kill him, God kept him. That's what happens when your heart is given to God. God is is is the least concerned about your errors. He will cover them. Said, This is my guy. His heart is for me, his heart is not in Sodom and Gomorrah. He doesn't like those things. The Spirit of God is saying to me, I should explain to you what temptation is. Because some of you don't understand temptation. Temptation, this isn't temptation. Okay, so I have I have this phone here, alright? And I say to disciple Zachariah, um, take take this phone. And let's say he has a he loves new phones, and I say, Take this phone. The more the fact that the moment he jumps at it and takes it, that's not temptation. I didn't tempt him, I gave him what he wanted. You're not following me. I just gave him what he wanted. Let's say he's hungry and I'm I come with food and I give it to him, and he takes it. He wanted the food all along. Can I show you what temptation is? Temptation is I bring him the phone and he's looking at me for almost an hour. There's a war going on. He's looking, he's not fully convinced. If something is presented to you and you jump at it, you weren't tempted. You were not tempted, you were fully prepared. You had accepted the foot before it arrived. You understand that? Yeah. For some of you, you see, you see a young lady, you're already gone. She's walking that you're you were going this way, you turned. You went that way before you even saw her. That means you were taken. Yeah, you were taken. You know, someone is tempted because of the time. How where did I get my definition from? When Jesus came out of fasting. All my definitions are biblical. Jesus came out of fasting, everything that was offered to him, he wanted. Satan said, Turn this into bread. The Bible says he was hungry. Did he say, Alright? I give you bread. No, but he didn't do that, he fought against it. There was a war. Satan said, Okay, I will leave this one. Let me offer you the world. How do I know he was tempted? Because the Bible says he was walked, he was tempted to the top of the mountain. So Satan brought him to the top of the mountain and showed him everything. He walked our king to the top of the mountain. Yeah, that's temptation. And Jesus saw it and said, No, no. Now, now, what I found to be such a massive revelation there is do you know that if Jesus had bowed and taken what Satan gave him, he would not have died for us. Because what he came for was the very thing Satan offered him. He came on earth to take what Satan wanted to give him for free. Not really for free. Satan said, Bow to me, then I'll give this to you. And Jesus saw all of this, he said, That's what I came for. But he chose the long way. He chose the long way. He chose the long way. Say I'm a woman of God.

unknown 1:05:34

I'm a man of God.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:35

Yeah. Don't be found vexing your soul. Lift your hands and speak in other tongues. Thank you for listening to Pastor Max's teachings. Make sure to subscribe and for more information, find us at Faith and Victory Wallace.