Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Latatoga.
We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough.
Thanks for joining us.
There was this girl, her name is Sandra.
And uh Sandra was always used to sit at the front of the class, and she was always getting straight A's, and everything was going well for her.
She always had the uniform that was nice and pristine and ironed and so forth.
And she hung out with a group of girls that are really awesome at lunchtime that read books and hang out in their little circle, playing netball and everything else.
And for all intents and purposes, she was uh destined for good things and to be a contributor in our uh community.
And uh what happened was uh she went her way and I went my way, she was a class colleague.
Didn't think much about her at all.
And one time I was in Wellington, Lower Hood, actually, and I looked out the door of the Wickle shop with a friend of mine, and I saw a guy standing out there.
When I left school, I was in a music group or a band, and outside of that circle, so it wasn't the immediate circle, but outside of that circle, there was an individual, I won't name him, but he was uh got into quite heavy drugs.
And uh so I looked and I saw him, and he was speaking to somebody else, and I saw this girl standing next to him, and uh she was gaunt, hair messy, lost a lot of weight, clothes, just really disheveled, and these unusual spots I hadn't really seen before all over her face, and of course it was Sandra.
If you're taking notes this morning, I want you to write this down.
Every wrong starts with an influence.
Number two, taking notes, is every relationship you establish and you bring into your life will take you on a journey.
How about that?
This morning I want to talk about the spirit.
I I want to be as positive I can.
This is kind of a winter message.
I want to be as positive as I can and keep it upbeat.
I'm a minister that doesn't like speaking against things.
You'll probably found that out.
I actually like being more proactive and speaking for things.
Uh, but anyway, so I want to talk about the spirit of deception, the spirit of seduction, and if we even get there, I want to talk about soulish attachments, i.e., soul ties, if we get there.
And uh so we'll dive uh deep into it, amen?
All right, um, the spirit of deception is actually, and if you have your Bible with with you, it'll be good because we'll go through it very shortly, very quickly.
The spirit of deception, I believe, is the hardest devil or the hardest demon to deal with.
The reason why, because the deception itself, it's not just about false doctrine or belief of a wrong concept or an ideology.
What it is you'll find deception actually is actually a participant with our heart.
Jeremiah thought so.
In other words, you'll find that deception actually twins, if you like, and actually gets around the soul of an individual.
It's quite interesting.
So that we actually are believing things that are not true as if they are true.
What it is, is we actually begin to, the spread of deception, if you like, we begin to throw off truth and we begin to embrace things that aren't true.
Deception is believing false as if it is true, self-deception defined as believing something false about ourselves, God, others, or reality, often because we refuse to face truth.
Isn't that interesting?
So the human heart with its passions and appetites rationalizes and twists facts to justify what it wants.
I've written here, will become what we believe.
Um, in John 1:4, Jesus, interesting himself, he says this, and I love this, I have no greater joy.
Isn't it amazing?
Then he itemized what it is, I have no greater joy.
To hear that my children walk in truth.
Deception is actually going to be an end time player, okay?
It's going to be an end time player.
Uh, the Bible refers to Satan as the deceiver.
Uh, thy word is truth.
The word of God, thy word is truth.
You can know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
The Holy Spirit is the is truth.
But Satan is a deceiver.
The very first conversation that the powers of the kingdom of darkness had with humanity was actually a distortion of the character of God.
That's the law of first mention.
So, you see, though, it's going to be widespread.
It's going to be widespread.
Deception.
And so, what we want to do, we've got to commit to truth.
We'll go, and truth is not just telling truth, it's how we live.
We get that, well, I tell the truth, I want to tell the truth.
Well, that's good, that's an expression of your heart, but we're going to live in the truth, okay?
Without hypocrisy, we've got to live in the truth of the word of God.
Um, in Romans, uh, Paul puts it this way, speaking about an end-time generation to come, okay?
So to come.
I don't think we're quite there yet, but you can see the uh the trappings of it now.
But in Romans 1.18 it says, who suppressed the truth in unrighteousness.
Or Romans 1.25, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie.
So here you've got a truth, and we're actually disregarding it, we're exchanging it for an alternative, which is a lie.
Interesting.
Or in Romans 1.28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, okay?
So you've got to understand with humanity, God is in our consciousness, or he's in our conscience.
Paul talked about this.
He said, I am well God, but I am well known in your conscience.
Sometimes it's good to have someone in your conscience, okay?
My mother was in my conscience, my father was in my conscience growing up.
There were things I never did, huh?
There were things I never crossed the line, specific things that was quite common to the group I was in.
I never crossed the line in that area because my parents were in my conscience.
Isn't it interesting?
So it's a good thing.
You go to the nightclub and your parents are there.
You're going to beat up on somebody or go to say something, there's my folks.
That's a good thing, or there's the pastor.
Being a terror to evildoers.
And so God is actually in a conscience.
And so what they're saying, they're suppressing God.
So a generation to come, you might even be here this morning, and you kind of ignore the voice of God.
You suppress God, and you ignore that voice, you put that voice of God down.
Well, there's a whole generation speaking of that's only going to be participants of that particular act, did not retain God in their knowledge.
Now, Paul addresses a church that's called the Thessalonian church, all right?
The Thessalonian church.
He hits them up with some hard meat in just a moment, but the church is only a few months old.
When we look at Acts, I think it's Acts 17, it tells us that that church really was only a few months or to one year old.
And so a lot of people say, well, the end times is too much solid meat for me.
How long you be saved for?
Well, I've been saved for 10 years.
Well, these guys have only been saved for a few months now, to a year, and Paul is banging out the solid meat on them.
I'll read it to you.
This is what he says.
2 Thessalonians 2 verses 3.
Hey, apologize to it, E-Man.
I'm normally up there with you at the scriptures this morning, so you're doing fine.
2 Thessalonians 2, 3.
Okay, let no one deceive you by any means for that day.
Now, okay, if I go back to verse 1, don't have to do this, it's talking specifically about Jesus Christ's return.
That's the context, okay?
So that day is talking about Christ's second coming, which is in our future.
Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless, number one, the falling away comes first.
And the son or and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.
He's speaking specifically of a political figure, the Antichrist, okay?
To come, future.
So before the coming of Christ, there's a few things that need to take place.
Number one is there's going to be, according to this scripture here, this text, there's going to be a falling away from the faith.
I'll explain it.
Number two, there's going to be the man of sin, or actually says the son of perdition.
Judas Iscariot was also called the son of perition, which means the son of lawlessness or the son of sin.
So we're going to see those two factors or two aspects take place, transpire.
Okay.
Verse 9, jump to there.
The coming of the lawless one, the Antichrist, is according to the work of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders.
Verse 10.
For with all unrighteous deception among those who are perishing, or those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth.
The truth there is not just facts and figures, it's talking about a person because they would not receive the love of Jesus or the love of truth, okay?
That they might be saved.
So that tells us the love of Jesus, that they might be saved.
Verse 11, and for this reason, God Himself, can you believe it?
Will send them strong delusion.
In other words, that's a judgment.
When we continue to persist in a particular way, God often can step in on that situation to compound it.
And there's a whole teaching that sits around that why God would do that.
That they should not believe the lie.
Okay.
Verse 12, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in righteousness.
Um in John 3.19, it says this is the condemnation that has come into the world, that men love darkness more than righteousness or more than light.
Okay.
So we're now what we're seeing is this is that when we continue to persist and continue to pursue a particular course, and our heart gets harder and harder and harder, there's a like delusional spirits that come around our lives.
Okay.
Now, the lie is what is the lie?
Believe the lie.
The lie is all that the Antichrist is articulating, that he's divine, that he is God.
He's a supernatural God, if you like.
That is really the lie.
It's not believing the lie that the media is bringing out or so forth, though that could be part of it.
No, no, no.
It's actually talking about he will stand in the temple declaring that he is God.
Okay?
So that's believing the lie.
So there's going to be a whole generation that one day, and the Bible also talks in um in Revelation, it talks about how the enemy deceives the whole world.
Can he believe that?
Has that ability.
Now let me go a little bit step further.
If you believe, which I do, I believe uh the in the in the future of the Bible that the revelation is not a historical book, I believe it's a future book, mainly.
That there are some things that have transpired, but I do believe it's a future book.
And in there, it really is speaking of uh the thousand-year reign, which will be a thousand-year reign of Christ, a um where Satan will be put into the bottomless pit after the tribulation.
And then he comes out, released.
What does he do?
He goes straight to the beloved city, which is Jerusalem, where Jesus will be reigning, and the Bible says he will deceive the whole nations and rally nations, rally nations.
When it says rally all nations, all is not necessarily taken a literal, it means the majority of nations.
So sometimes in scripture, when it says as far as the sky, well, it can't be as far as the sky, it's it's just metaphor.
So when all, it doesn't necessarily mean the cook islands has an army that we're in there because we're a nation.
It just means general speaking, most nations, all most nations are going to rally, be rallied towards Jerusalem to take on Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And we know that God speaks from the breath of heaven and begins to consume the armies and so forth.
But in there, it's interesting that he has the ability to be able to rally nations after a thousand-year reign of no devils or no demonic infiltration on this earth.
What is it in the heart of humanity?
Jeremiah said it, the heart is deceptible above all things who can know it, that that capitulates or gives way to deception.
It's incredible.
I want to submit to you this the best way going ahead in our future to walk out of deception and walk in truth is to love it.
That's our answer.
The first one.
We've got to love the truth.
Make sure that we're not over-exaggerating something or over-exaggerating and under exaggerating something to undermine something.
We speak the truth.
We are truth, we should be on our lips in this season.
We should be lovers of truth, but we also should love the truth, word of God, and we also should love truth, Jesus Christ.
So you and I need to commit to truth.
We just can't be worshiping God and praising his name with our lips, yet our heart is away.
That's not loving truth.
Jesus wants us to worship him in spirit and in truth.
Okay?
So we've got to commit to that.
That's the first thing this morning.
Love the truth.
Commit to it.
Because you're going to hear all kinds of things, all kinds of accusations, all kinds of things about people and whatever.
And I got just let me throw this out.
I don't like camping on these negative things, but don't believe all the conspiracy theories, please.
Honestly.
Commit to fact-find the stuff.
Research it if you're if it really is inquisitive or really interesting to you.
Find the facts, find the research, do some homework on it, and then come out and you can refute different things.
But I honestly, I have people, none of you actually, so it's all good.
I wouldn't say that if it was, but none of you do this.
But I do have people that tell me stuff, and I think, mate, just like, come on, man.
Do you really believe that that is true?
And uh and it is it's unresearched, it's not facts, and it's just a conspiracy theory that's absolutely random, completely left field, and it's actually the Bible talks about its nonsense.
Nonsense.
I'm not to say that there's not skullduggery happening in the world, absolutely there is.
I'm not gonna say there are there are not hidden agendas, absolutely there are.
We understand that.
But I I think what we should do is commit to truth and love the truth.
I want you to turn to your neighbor and say, I'm gonna be a truther, uh, a lover of truth this morning.
I'm gonna be a trooper.
You're gonna be a trooper.
Truth has become background noise for a lot of people.
Less attention to scripture, we're not openly denying it, but we're not anchoring in it.
Sin feels less serious than it used to.
We don't like correction.
Truth is we try to reshape it.
We normalize compromise.
I will encourage us.
Let's be a church that loves the truth.
Amen?
Okay, you've got that.
I know you got that.
Number two, the last one we'll do because of the time, is dealing with the spirit of seduction.
Okay?
A spirit of seduction.
Seduction has what is called a drawing influence.
It draws you away, it draws you into something.
A very powerful spirit.
If we are position, platform, and power seekers, then we're gonna be tempted to be seduced.
If we are so career-meded, or we're so self-oriented, and we have a lot of appetites to be somebody or to be our somebody out of our rejection because we feel we're not heard, we're not seen, or whatever.
And it's just that carnal side that the book of James talks about selfish ambition, we are gonna be subject to the spirit.
In fact, we'll be subject to the spirit of seduction to the degree that pride's in our life.
So humility is always an antidope or an anantidope to the spirit of seduction.
But that's a real thing.
So you have you have today, you have deception around, we also have truth, but we also have this here is linked in with that.
Okay, so the scripture says this 1 Timothy 4 1.
Now the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, earnestly says, expressly says that in the latter times again, the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed, giving way to deceptive or seducing spirits, deceiving spirits, and doctrines of demons.
Now, just to go down this line, a doctrine of a demon, you will always have a seducing spirit with it.
Do you get that?
A doctrine of a demon is an ideology that's been perpetrated, inspired, and promoted by a demonic spirit.
That's where it's come from.
I would say communism was that.
I believe Islam is that.
And so there are spirit factors that begin to uh create ideologies and concepts that are actually full-blown radical, if you like, but they're opposed to truth.
And they get around people's minds, they get around people's souls and so forth.
But you'll find there's seducing spirits with that.
But doctrines of demons aren't always with seducing spirits.
So seducing spirits are always with the doctrine of a demon, they go hand in hand, but you might be seduced into pornography.
You're not gonna have a doctrine of a demon there.
You're just following an appetite and seduced by photographs and pictures and so forth.
That's a seducing spirit.
Pornography, the industry of pornography, is laced with the spirit of seduction.
Absolutely drawing men in and drawing women in.
Some books, some material and writings and so forth, it's laced with a spirit of seduction, trying to draw on our need to be loved, trying to draw on our need for warmth, relationships, and so forth.
Adultery itself, the practice of having sex with another man or woman outside of marriage when we are married ourselves, that there's adultery.
Seduction spirits or seducing spirits sit all around that.
Proverbs tells us that.
It's very real today.
There are around some of our nightclubs, I believe there are spirit powers drawing people in.
Advertising's full, some of it is full of drawing you in and seducing you in.
There are schemes or financial Ponzi schemes and so forth.
I can get a quick dolly.
The Bible says don't chase foolish fantasies.
Sometimes hard work is the best way up.
But there are things that have been created just a quick way of doing it, just to lure you in, just to charm you in, just to manipulate you in.
They are seducing spirits.
On TikTok, with our young guys particular, there are seducing spirits, luring people in.
I believe around the uh I'll pick on Islam again because we deal with that a little bit.
And uh uh I believe with Islam, I believe they're seducing spirit.
There are aspects to Islam that are attractive.
If you want moral living and you don't want half the rubbish that you get through Hollywood.
Then that's a religion for you to some degree.
But that's only part of the story.
Seduction is there's an attra there's a um an attraction aspect to it that we're drawn in.
You see, with the devil himself, there's two aspects.
There is the uh attraction aspect, like the masquerading is an angel of light, right?
It's just drawing you in and he's trying to pretend on you, but he never tells you the outcome.
Or there's another side to the powers of darkness that's the more ugly up front side is the roaring lion side, seeking whom he may devour.
That's the repulsive side, okay?
So there are communities that are established themselves that actually are contrary to the word of God, but they carry a drawing power.
False religions.
You know, we don't drink, uh, we we dress a particular way, we're into family living, we're into a great community, we support one another, we mow each other's lawns, actually, uh all that sort of stuff.
And if you're a person with need, and we're all going to supply meals to your house and look after you, and we'll give you a phone call every second week.
For somebody who's lonely, that's seducing.
I talked about the spirit of isolation last week, and I told you about Britain and Europe.
Tens of tens, they're saying of thousands of people are isolated as they get older in homes and nobody's talking, nobody's visiting them.
They're actually genuinely isolated.
But you get a knock on the door and say, hey, we're gonna come around to your place, we're gonna help you out, we'll put some ladies down there to have fellowship with you.
We'll have a Bible study at your house, if you will, all this sort of stuff.
And because of the desire to be wanted, the desire for fellowship, community, and to be needed, there's something within us to say, well, that's not a bad idea.
Maybe we should be doing it the next minute.
We're a J Dub, or next minute we're in the Mormon church or something.
Serious now.
I don't want to offend anybody, but I've just been a real this morning.
Have I got any real people in the church?
Or do we have to play Tootsie Footsy around religion all the time?
Huh?
Are we?
Okay.
Suggesting spirits propagate distorted beliefs inspired by demons that justify error while appearing to be spiritual truth.
You're supposed to go wow at that point.
Seduction always presents an alternative.
Think about it.
Adam and Eve.
There was a complete destiny alternative.
Judas succumbed to it.
There was an alternative.
Jesus.
You can't go to the cross, Peter says.
I'll give you an alternative, don't do it.
Seductive spirits present an alternative voice, an alternative path, an alternative direction, an alternative advice and counsel or opinion that sits contrary to the soundness of God's word.
But appeals to our nature, something within us.
Seduction causes us to operate in secret.
Have you ever wondered that?
The world of secrecy.
I've always used to say this.
Um, if I can remember my quote, the seed of secrecy is the seed of separation.
That's why I've always believed husbands and wives should be talking through the real issues.
When we don't talk, we begin to separate over time.
We become professional pretty quick.
Seduction is designed for one purpose is to lead us astray.
Now, honestly, I'm not talking through the hole of my head right now.
I'm talking real issue.
It's a very real spirit, and people we walk straight into traps constantly because we never saw it coming.
That's the problem.
But you know what?
Here's the exciting thing about the word of God: the word of God clues us up in advance.
It does, it actually equips us, the equipping of the saints, it equips us so that now that we know I remember uh having our meeting one time here with some guys, and that, and I was speaking about leadership, and so this guy said to me, it didn't make too much sense to me actually, though I took on and took notes until I was actually in the thick of it, and then it all came, it all makes sense, and I was able to draw on the knowledge.
The Bible says this it is a wise man that learns from somebody else's mistakes.
Proverbs is full of incredible revelatory wisdom for leadership and business and so forth.
Seduction promotes and presents an outcome that it will never fulfill.
Have you ever think about that?
Pornography.
That's got to be an empty zone.
Proverbs 9:17, stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
But I tell you what, always, always, always, there's a way that seems right at the time, but it leads to death.
Seduction is designed, you ready, to bump you off your lane, to knock you out of your lane.
So you're now operating even spiritually, occupied and busy and helping this and helping that, and doing this and doing that, but you're now in a lane that's not ordained to produce fruit.
That was your lane.
Why did you move into that lane?
You're supposed to be in that lane.
That was you were ordained, appointed, and anointed to walk in that lane, and you got seduced into doing something else because of our other needs.
Jesus Christ, and here's the good news for us as people like to help people around, Jesus only ever did what he saw the Father do.
He didn't do any less than that, he didn't do any more than that.
It's a very fat, powerful spirit.
Seduction.
Seduction will have you reconsider the call of God, reconsider key relationships, move you out of the hub or blessing.
It was Jensen Franklin from California.
Uh I listened to him one time many years ago.
He said, you know, young couples will come in to the church and they get saved and they give their life to Jesus.
They're in there for about seven, eight months.
And God is blessing them in the house of the Lord.
They're beginning to produce some fruit.
And he said, then one morning they'll come up to me and say, Hey, we're going to move out of state.
We're going to move into another state, and uh, we won't be coming here anymore.
And thank you very, very much.
And he said, the reason why we're going, we've got an opportunity.
And we're going to be earning$30,000 per annum more.
He says, being who we are, we trace them and make sure they're okay.
Seven, eight months after their departure, they're not even going to church anywhere.
I am not saying, please, that by leaving the church and going somewhere, you're not going to prosper.
Please, no.
It's not what I said.
If you think that's what I'm saying, then forget the illustration.
There are plenty of people that left our house and prospered immensely, and we're for them and blessing them and so forth.
But I just want to present to you don't chase the money.
Chase destinies.
Like what Murray, what was Murray saying?
If you were to able to, what are you saying in two sentences, Murray?
One of them would be kingdom first.
Didn't that come across?
Yeah.
Putting him first, and God will prosper you beyond measure.
Remember how God prospers us?
Everything begins to work.
In fact, the Bible says he prospers us and adds no sorrow to it.
There are plenty of people prospering financially, but there's a lot of sorrow added to it.
Broken marriages, addictions, and smoking like this, going out of fashion, and health breaking down and all sorts of stuff.
But no, that's not the will of God for us.
It's not his birth.
He wants us to prosper.
Our marriage is great, our kids are doing well, our health is great, our social network's awesome.
We can sleep at mind at night with peace of heart.
All these things.
That's the blessing of the Lord.
That's the prosperity of God.
That's how God puts it.
We're not lonely in our soul.
There's something going on in our world.
The peace of God is there.
That's prosperity.
So when I say I'm into the prosperity doctrine, I am into the prosperity doctrine.
I'm not confess it to your possessor, name it, or claim it.
That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about biblical, proper doctrinal prosperity.
You and I all should be into it because it encompasses a whole array of things.
It's talking about broken curses, getting free from addictions.
It's talking about, like I said, peace of heart.
It's talking about walking in divine health.
It's talking about having awesome social network relationships, having a great marriage and great children, all that sort of stuff.
That's the part and a great fruitful ministry.
And on the inside, there's peace of heart.
There's joy.
Well, doesn't the world want that?
People do drugs to get that.
Seriously, why do you think people hamper after half the stuff they do in the world?
It's because they're wanting that.
They're blinded, the Satan's blind to the mind of the disobedience, so they cannot know God.
But there's all this hampering and going places and going to the next place and going to that place, searching for something.
They're searching for our Father, searching for the Lord.
Thought I'd throw that out there.
Okay, Book of James, Zach.
Seduction works because of guys, James 1, 14, 15.
Each person is tempted when they are dragged away.
Isn't it dragged away?
How do you get dragged away?
Drawn away, but dragged away by their own desire and enticed.
The nature of seduction, seduction has a drawing power because of the need, the desire, the appetite, the need for warmth, the need for recognition, the need for my voice must be heard, or I must go, I must be uh, you know, the status, all that sort of stuff, because there's something inside our life actually is the feeder for seduction.
Because Jesus comes along and he says, What did he say?
He says, The God of this world has come and He has He has nothing in me.
That's one of the key scriptures.
Satan comes, he doesn't have anything in me.
He's got no take inside me.
So we try to, we're gonna tempt him, but it's not really a temptation.
This end, the receptive end, it's not a temptation.
Because I'm not getting tempted by your uh you're trying to drag me into the argument or you're trying to drag me into gossip, you're trying to drag me into offense.
There's nothing on me that doesn't want to go down.
I don't want to go down that way.
So I'm not I'm not taking the bait, but I still could be tempted as far as the guy's trying to tempt me, but on this side, remember, I'm not taking it.
Okay, praise God.
Each person's tempted when he's dragged away by their own desire and enticed.
So you're on the computer and you see guys or girls, you see something, and you think, Wow, good night, I shouldn't have seen that.
Wow.
Everything within you wants to look, right?
But you don't look, you decide to close the computer.
But there's something within you that's drawn towards that.
What it is is this that something is the unsanctified flesh life that hasn't died yet, that gets upset when others are promoted.
That's full of comparisons, that's full of rejection.
Someone says something and we get really hurt.
That means we need more of Jesus inside our life to bring wholeness inside of us, so that when we're spat upon, when we're laughed at, when we see something that that we shouldn't see, there's no gravitation, there's no drawing pool on our life.
That's a place where God wants to bring us to.
I believe that's our journey.
We're gonna we're going there.
Some of you, it might be that you're at that place now.
God bless you.
I take my, yeah, I I don't know, I haven't got a hat on, so I can't take that off, but I do something.
I can't bow before you, so that's not right, but I'll give you a hand clap, okay?
That's awesome.
The Holy Spirit, you ready for this?
Never pressurizes you, never entices you, and never ever manipulates you.
Never pressurizes, never manipulates, never entices, never charms you, never flatters you, never lures or beguiles you.
He leads and guides always in righteousness.
And you ready for this?
For your benefit.
Not for my benefit, for your benefit.
This is gonna help you, this is gonna be good for you.
Paul guarded the flock, the assembly.
Look at the terms that he used, Acts 20, 30, and 31.
He uses the word, and from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse or distorted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.
Wow.
Yeah, this you know, the kingdom of God is really funny because I we should understand this.
The devil attacks us from the outside, doesn't he?
But he also tries to attack us from the inside out.
When it comes to the church, the enemy attacks the church from the outside in, plus from the inside out.
People get upset with each other.
There's frictions.
Paul talked about that.
Those things should happen, that the you might be discerning who's amongst you of maturity.
Those things happen.
We're a family, people get upset, people get annoyed, people get irritated, and we're serving together and that sort of stuff.
I don't like the way she served it up.
And come on, the second time you've done that, and we go, I'm tired, and all that sort of stuff.
But that's part of us growing.
Hey, you do that in your marriage, don't you?
Or do we all have perfect marriages?
Just asking.
We get upset with our siblings, they get the bigger car.
Well, how come I never got that loan like that?
Because God's blessing them, and you know what?
You're to rejoice when they rejoice.
And if the car's taken away from them, you don't rejoice, you weep now when they weep.
It's all sorted out for us, isn't it?
It's one big happy community.
Life works for the believer if we and then it says in uh Acts 20, 29, for I know this that oh no, no, okay, that after my departure, savage wolves will come among, not spurring the flock.
Okay, here's the one I want is Romans 16, 18.
For those who are such do not serve the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly.
And by smooth words, have you ever operated in smooth words?
Have you ever had smooth words presented to you?
I've had some smooth words presented to me, and flattering speech, deceive the hearts of the simple, the naive, lavishing praise, complimenting each other, but the motivation is dread.
The motivation is to draw somebody to us.
It's all part of the spirit of seduction, luring young men, luring young women, luring people, pulling people like this.
It's when seduction always comes through the back door, it's never up front, hardly.
So you'll find parents, please with your children, the back door, backdoor relationships, backdoor social media, backdoor.
Know what's happening in their world until it's a little bit down the track.
You know what I'm saying?
But that's how the enemy works.
He always doesn't come through because Jesus in John 10:10 said, the thief comes not for steal and kill and destroy.
I've come that you might have life and life more abundantly.
And then he says, he talks about going through the sheepgate.
And Paul brought this out the other day, and I thought that is so true.
So you what out of all this, the good thing is this our churches are tightening up together, which is like a dream come true for me.
It's the kingdom of God, and the enemy would love to attack your family from outside in, or he would love to brew up some strife in out.
That's how he works, and it's exactly the same with the church family, we're no different, we're just a bigger family, a bigger setting.
And he wants to come and always to unnerve the fleck after Paul says, When I'm gone, you know, and that sort of stuff, and uh to to rattle the sheep, rattle the sheep.
Maybe this morning in your life you've been maneuvered around, and uh there's something happening in your world today.
You've been pulled into something, you've been pulled into gossip.
Can you imagine that?
Gossip is a morsel.
There's something within us.
Oh, yes.
Oh, oh, really?
Um, sit down.
Come on.
Uh sit down.
No, no, no, you sit here.
The best of our couches sit right here.
Would you like a cup of tea?
More sugar to keep you sharp in your conversation.
And uh, but no, go on, you were saying.
But it's like a morsel, man.
There's something that, you know, fence is a morsel.
Tell somebody, you know what?
I was doing this the other day, and this happened.
She said this.
Oh, really?
Man, I feel like I'm fueling the person.
Did they really?
I'm fueling his bitterness.
It's like a it's a drawn in, I'm drawing somebody in.
I think we should guard one another, protect one another, honor one another, love one another, be tender towards another.
And and even in this week, I'd love to know how many of you decided you would get outside you four and no more, and you would actually reach out to somebody, tell them about the love of God, or tell them about church, or just to text them because they are meaningful.
Anybody do that?
Pretty good.
Right.
How many heard the message last week?
What I suggest you do is go back on that because that's a powerful message dealing with the spirit of isolation.
And it's a habit pattern, honestly.
This is what I believe.
If we are going to reach this nation, it's not going to be done on Jonathan Cargill.
Uh-uh.
It's going to be done on us, it's going to be done on them.
It's like I belong to the church.
Well, that's great.
The household of God, but are we active telling people about Christ?
You are sitting on a time bomb.
Seriously, a life-giving time bomb of a testimony.
Tiari's testimony is a life giver.
Your testimony is an absolute life giver.
And it's about bringing that into our community and bringing that into our world.
This morning, maybe uh you're getting pulled here or pulled there.
Um, as a pastor, it shocks me to see the amount of material that comes my way and pulled this way.
But I've made some really clear-cutted leadership decisions to go fine-lined on stuff and not to be pulled here, not to be pulled there.
To the best of my ability, I've uh discovered the art of actually saying no to a whole lot of stuff because at the end of the day, God has clearly shown me what He's wanted me to do, da da da da da da da da da da.
And I mean, I must make sure that those things are done on this earth before my time is to go, okay?
And so therefore, there's a whole lot of stuff that can lure me, swamp me, manipulate, and draw me into other stuff.
I'm not saying we shouldn't help others.
All these things is all part of helping others as well and getting you to where you've got to go.
That's all part of it.
But I want to ask you this question: Are you being pulled into stuff?
Is that spirit on your tail?
If it is, I'm not gonna get you to respond to that.
I'm gonna pray for you right now, like everybody stand, in Jesus' name.
Father, I just thank you, Lord, by the power of the Holy Ghost in Jesus' name.
I just thank you, Lord, for the presence of God right now in Jesus' name.
I'd like you to put your hand up right now.
I'm not gonna embarrass you, but if you feel like you've been lured into stuff or been drawn or pulled into some things right now, if that's your want you to lift up your hands, thank you all over the place in Jesus' name.
It's just so easy for it to happen.
Been there, done that a thousand times, but today is your day of deliverance in the name of Jesus.
Father God, I just pray right now, I take authority in the name of Jesus over every seducing spirit in Jesus Christ's name.
I break its power by the power of the Spirit of God.
I place the blood of Jesus in and over and around our people in Jesus' name, and I take authority over that seducing, lyric spirit.
I command you to back off.
I command you to go in the name of Jesus Christ.
You might be lured into other conversations of offense and so forth, and you're feeling awkward about it.
That's the seducing spirit drawing you into that conversation that has to stop in the name of the Lord.
You might be drawn into gossip about somebody else in the community that needs to stop in Jesus Christ's name.
You might be drawn into all sorts of schemes.
Stop it and get out of it while you can in Jesus' name.
Maybe on your front, there's the moral front.
You're just drawn into places that you shouldn't be going into it and discovering a fatue.
Today's the day of deliberity, today's your day of freedom in Jesus Christ's name.
Maybe you're drawn into relationship and you know that you have no business being a part of it.
Today's the day of freedom in the name of Jesus Christ.
God wants to set you free right now in the name of Jesus Christ.
Let's give the Lord a shout of praise.
Can we do that?
Thank you, Jesus.
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