(uplifting music) Good morning, First Baptist Atlanta. We are so excited that you are here with us this morning. My name is Mackenzie Quinn, and I serve on staff here at FBA in the Special Needs Ministry. This is Dale Potter, and he is one of our participants in our Special Needs Ministry. Some of you guys may have already made this connection. The connection was probably more easily made prior to me getting married to my incredible husband and changing my last name, but my dad also serves on staff here at FBA, and that is Rusty Bodin. (congregation claps) If I could just rewind for just one minute, growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher, and I always thought that that would be in Early Childhood Education, but in 2012, that all changed. I went on a study abroad trip. I met a little girl with special needs and that encounter changed my life. After hearing her story, I realized that she was one of many children who just needed someone in their corner. Someone to see past their special need and love them just as God made them. To love them, fight for them, advocate for them, and most of all, understand her. Prior to coming to First Baptist Atlanta on staff, I taught in the public school system. I wasn't there long before Dr. George offered me a position here on staff to build the Special Needs Ministry in 2016. I obviously said yes, 'cause here I am today and I will forever be grateful for this opportunity. As most of you guys already know, our theme for this year 2021 is Always Pray. And I have invited Dale up here with me today. And you guys are truly in for a treat. Fun fact about Dale is that him and his family have been members of our church for 25 years. (congregation claps) Will you join us in a word of prayer? Dear God, thank you for what you do into people who wants to (speaks faintly). This is a beautiful day on the (speaks faintly). Pastor Anthony George is our lead pastor to bring Your Word into our hearts and to do what You want us to do, but not what we want to do. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. (clapping) Amen. Thank you, Dale and Mackenzie. Good morning, First Baptist. It's good to see you today. Would you stand as we worship together. (happy music) ♪ We've waited for this day ♪ ♪ We're gathered in your name ♪ ♪ Calling out to you ♪ ♪ Your glory like a fire ♪ ♪ Awakening desire ♪ ♪ Will burn our hearts with truth ♪ ♪ You're the reason we're here ♪ ♪ You're the reason we're singing ♪ ♪ Open up the heavens ♪ ♪ We want to see you ♪ ♪ Open up the floodgates ♪ ♪ A mighty river ♪ ♪ Flowing from your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ ♪ Your presence in this place ♪ ♪ Your glory on our face ♪ ♪ We're looking to the sky ♪ ♪ Descending like a cloud ♪ ♪ You're standing with us now ♪ ♪ Lord, unveil our eyes ♪ ♪ You're the reason we're here ♪ ♪ You're the reason we're singing ♪ ♪ Open up the heavens ♪ ♪ We want to see you ♪ ♪ Open up the floodgates ♪ ♪ A mighty river ♪ ♪ Flowing from your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ ♪ Open up the heavens ♪ ♪ We want to see you ♪ ♪ Open up the floodgates ♪ ♪ A mighty river ♪ ♪ Flowing from your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ (happy music) ♪ Show us, show us your glory ♪ ♪ Show us, show us your power ♪ ♪ Show us, show us your glory, Lord ♪ ♪ Show us, show us your glory ♪ ♪ Show us, show us your power ♪ ♪ Show us, show us your glory, Lord ♪ ♪ Open up the heavens ♪ ♪ We want to see you ♪ ♪ Open up the floodgates ♪ ♪ A mighty river ♪ ♪ Flowing from your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ ♪ Open up the heavens ♪ ♪ We want to see you ♪ ♪ Open up the floodgates ♪ ♪ A mighty river ♪ ♪ Flowing from your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ ♪ A mighty river ♪ ♪ Flowing from your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ ♪ A mighty river ♪ ♪ Flowing from your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ (congregation applauds)
Oh Amen, that is our prayer today. Show us your glory Lord. And it's because of Jesus we can say it is well with our soul. Let's sing again. ♪ When peace like a river attendeth my way ♪ ♪ When sorrows like sea billows roll ♪ ♪ Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say ♪ ♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well ♪ ♪ It is well ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪ (uplifting music) ♪ Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come ♪ ♪ Let this blest assurance control ♪ ♪ That Christ has regarded my helpless estate ♪ ♪ And has shed His own blood for my soul ♪ ♪ It is well ♪ ♪ It is well ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪ (uplifting music) ♪ My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought ♪ ♪ My sin, not in part, but the whole ♪ ♪ Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul ♪ ♪ And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight ♪ ♪ The clouds be rolled back as a scroll ♪ ♪ The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend ♪ ♪ Even so, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well ♪ ♪ It is well ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well ♪ ♪ It is well ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ ♪ With my soul ♪ (congregation claps)
O, praise the Lord. No matter where you've been or what you've done, He is faithful and He's never left us. I'll lead us on this first stanza and then invite you to join with us and sing. (gentle music) ♪ Standing on this mountaintop ♪ ♪ Looking just how far we've come ♪ ♪ Knowing that for every step ♪ ♪ You were with us ♪ ♪ Kneeling on this battle ground ♪ ♪ Seeing just how much You've done ♪ ♪ Knowing every victory ♪ ♪ Was Your power in us ♪ ♪ Scars and struggles on the way ♪ ♪ But with joy our hearts can say ♪ ♪ Yes, our hearts can say ♪ Sing with us now. ♪ Never once did we ever walk alone ♪ ♪ Never once did You leave us on our own ♪ ♪ You are faithful, God, You are faithful ♪ ♪ Kneeling on this battle ground ♪ ♪ Seeing just how much You've done ♪ ♪ Knowing every victory ♪ ♪ Was Your power in us ♪ ♪ Scars and struggles on the way ♪ ♪ But with joy our hearts can say ♪ ♪ Yes, our hearts can say ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, ooh ♪ ♪ Never once did we ever walk alone ♪ ♪ Never once did You leave us on our own ♪ ♪ You are faithful, God, You are faithful ♪ ♪ Every step we are breathing in Your grace ♪ ♪ Evermore we'll be breathing out Your praise ♪ ♪ You are faithful, God, You are faithful ♪ ♪ You are faithful, God, You are faithful ♪ ♪ Scars and struggles on the way ♪ ♪ But with joy our hearts can say ♪ ♪ Never once did we ever walk alone ♪ ♪ Carried by Your constant grace ♪ ♪ Held within Your perfect peace ♪ ♪ Never once, no, we never walk alone ♪ ♪ Never once did we ever walk alone ♪ ♪ Thank you Lord ♪ ♪ Never once did You leave us on our own ♪ ♪ You are faithful, God, You are faithful ♪ ♪ Every step we are breathing in Your grace ♪ ♪ Evermore we'll be breathing out Your praise ♪ ♪ You are faithful, God, You are faithful ♪ ♪ You are faithful, God, You are faithful ♪ ♪ Yes it is ♪ ♪ You are faithful, God, You are faithful ♪ Oh, give Him praise this morning for our faithful,
(congregation claps) faithful God.
(congregation claps) Hallelujah.
(congregation claps) Amen.
(congregation claps) You may be seated. Well, we can say a lot of things about God. That's one of my favorite things to say, God is faithful. Yes.
He is faithful. And you know that the words of that song says, "Looking back, we can see how far we've come." And is that not true about how far we've come just in a year from the start of the pandemic until now and here we are, and it's the Sunday after Easter and we have so many people here? And I've always said, there's one thing I would never want to be in a church, and that is the Sunday after Easter, (laughs) but you are proving that theory wrong because of this wonderful turnout. And we have been inching our way back. Our average attendance since we opened February the 7th has been right around 1,000 total for all three services. And I've been happy with that.
(congregation claps) But on Easter, we had 1,960 people here. (congregation claps)
So we're getting on up there. And in this service, was 1,000 of that. So that lets you know this service was really, really looking great. But whoever is here, we're grateful that we have the opportunity to connect with our church members who aren't able to be with us. And when the live stream started, we heard from so many of our people who had not been to church in years because of their condition, because they are home-bound or because they're in the assisted-living facility and they didn't have transportation. And they've shared with us, this has allowed them to feel like they're part of the church and they've had to wait and watch it on InTouch weeks later, but now they're with us in real time. And so for those of our own membership who are watching as well as to the thousands of others, I wonder if those of us in here can just let our livestream family know how much we love them. Would you do?
(congregation claps) I mean, come on. (laughs)
(congregation applauds) Right.
(congregation applauds) Right.
(congregation applauds) Well, I want to mention to all of our ladies, we're hosting a women's conference on May the 1st with guest speaker, Alli Worthington. She's been a speaker at the Women of Joy Conference, the Catalyst Conference, she's been on Today's show, Good Morning America, and she's a very accomplished speaker, life coach and a woman of God. And that's on May the 1st. We had her scheduled last year. Had to cancel because of the pandemic, but this is kind of the makeup for that. So ladies, if you're interested in coming, being inspired by this wife and mother of five boys, you will be blessed by Alli Worthington. And you can visit our website and get more information. Well, I hope you're happy to be here, as happy as I am to see you. And we're gonna continue...
(congregation applauds) Amen.
(congregation applauds) We're gonna continue to worship (congregation applauds) and go to the Lord in prayer, and then we've got some more wonderful music. Father, thank you for who you are in our lives. Thank you for watching over us and protecting us. And as we think about the mask and COVID, we're just praying this morning for a COVID-free room right now. Yes.
We ask you to rebuke that virus.
Yes. And Lord, we thank you that you've kept us healthy in our regathering.
Yes. And we pray that this cloud will soon lift from us. And we just declare over this room peace and safety and health and wellness and wholeness of body, mind, and spirit in Jesus' name. We pray for our country that has lost our way in so many areas. And apart from you, there's no hope, but we thank you that you can do something in these days. You can raise up your church first of all and get your church back into the Bible-preaching business, teaching and preaching the Bible and living Christ-honoring lives and letting our light shine. And let us, this church, our church be a light-bearing church in a dark age. I thank you for these wonderful people in the room and those watching outside our room from wherever they are. I believe you have something to say to every person. This is a divine moment when you have scheduled an appointment to meet with each one of us right where we are. We give you the rest of the service. Have your way in every heart in life in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. (happy music) ♪ We've come this far by faith ♪ ♪ Leaning on the Lord ♪ ♪ Trusting in His holy word ♪ ♪ He's never failed me yet ♪ ♪ Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Can't turn around ♪ ♪ We've come this far by faith ♪ ♪ Oh, we've come this far ♪ ♪ We've come this far by faith ♪ ♪ And we're leaning ♪ ♪ Leaning on the Lord ♪ ♪ We come trusting in ♪ ♪ Trusting in His holy word ♪ ♪ And He never failed ♪ ♪ He's never failed me yet ♪ ♪ That's why we're singing ♪ ♪ Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Can't turn around ♪ ♪ Oh, He can't turn around ♪ ♪ We've come this far by faith ♪ ♪ Now don't you forget ♪ ♪ No, never forget ♪ ♪ Nobody thinks I've got it done ♪ ♪ Thank you, Lord things that seemed impossible ♪ ♪ Oh, praise Him for the victory He has won ♪ ♪ We've come this far by faith ♪ ♪ Oh, yes we have, Lord ♪ ♪ And we're leaning ♪ ♪ Leaning on the Lord ♪ ♪ We walk by faith and not by sight ♪ ♪ Trusting in His holy word ♪ ♪ And He's never failed ♪ ♪ He's never failed me yet ♪ ♪ That's why we're singing ♪ ♪ Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Can't turn around ♪ ♪ Lord, we can't turn around ♪ ♪ We've come this far by faith ♪ ♪ How marvelous, how wonderful ♪ ♪ And my song shall ever be ♪ ♪ How marvelous, how wonderful ♪ ♪ Is my Savior's love for me ♪ ♪ Oh, we've come this far by faith ♪ ♪ Oh, yes we have, Lord, yeah we're leaning ♪ ♪ Leaning on the Lord ♪ ♪ Lord, and we come trusting in ♪ ♪ Trusting in His holy word ♪ ♪ God still never failed ♪ ♪ He's never failed me yet ♪ ♪ Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Can't turn around ♪ ♪ Lord, we can't turn around ♪ ♪ We've come this far by faith ♪ ♪ Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Can't turn around ♪ ♪ We've come this far by faith ♪ ♪ By faith, by faith, yea ♪ (congregation applauds) (bright music) Those of us who believe in God and try to follow Him with our lives, we will confess that we walk by faith and not by sight. Yes.
We believe in a God that we have never seen.
Yes. We believe in truths that are invisible to us, but they are nonetheless real. And because we believe in the invisible, we have been subject to ridicule and scorn, and it's been that way from time immemorial. When you study the people in the Old Testament, study the people in New Testament, they've always been people who've questioned those who walk and live by faith. And we just reflected on the resurrection. And history tells us that the apostles were subject to great scorn and even persecution. And they were even willing to risk their lives because they believed in a risen Christ. They had seen Him risen, but we have not. We claim it by faith. Because of our willingness to believe in something we've never seen, it sometimes can make us susceptible to deception, to being misled, to being vulnerable to claims to truths that are really untrue. And it's something that we need to keep our guard up against because none of us wants to be a Christian sucker. None of us wants to be an easy dupe for someone's deceptive ploy. I don't know if I'm speaking for you, but I'm speaking for myself. It's one thing for me to be ridiculed for believing something that is true that sounds like a lie. It is another thing for us to believe a lie simply because it sounds like it could be true. And that's what I want us to talk about today. And the subject is Christian Dupes. And I want you to open to Ephesians chapter four. And we're gonna read verses 11 through 15 together. As we live in an information age, we not only have access to more information than we've ever had, but we have more exposure to deception than we have ever had. And I want us to look into these verses to see how we can guard against being misled and being just a handful more of Christian dupes. And I'm going to be reading from the New Living Translation. And I usually just refer to that in the sermon because it is a very loosely configured translation of the Bible, but I absolutely love the way it words this passage in chapter four of Ephesians. This is a passage in which the Apostle Paul is writing about what a healthy church looks like. And in Ephesians four and 11, it says, "These are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do His work and build up the church, which is the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ who is the head of His body and His body is the church." So, when we look at this passage, it simply says, "You have spiritual leaders in place and they have a responsibility God has given them. And when they are fulfilling their responsibility the believers grow strong and the church grows strong." And I want us to break this down because it's one of the best formulas for how we can guard against being susceptible, being vulnerable, being impressionable and gullible to untrues. The first thing that I'd like for you to note about this passage is that he's teaching us here that spiritual leaders are responsible to teach the truth. Spiritual leaders are responsible to teach the truth. In verse 11, he lists these different positions within the church. And depending on how you interpret this, we believe that some of this applied to the first century church, but that if you combine them all, it really means those who shepherd and pastor and nurture others in the church, they are God's gift to the church, but their responsibility is to teach the truth. And it says that as they teach the truth, verse 12 says, "They will equip God's people." And to equip God's people, it means to give God's people the tools and the resources. And in our case, the truth that God's people need. And what is the goal of equipping God's people? Those who are Christians, who are part of God's church. The goal is, as spiritual leaders in this case, that would be I'm a pastor, so I would be in that category of a spiritual leader. Others who serve in ministry are spiritual leaders. And we have people who teach Bible studies here, Sunday school teachers, they're spiritual leaders. They're all extensions of that nurturing pastoral role. It means that you are helping God's people become what God wants them to be. And we would all admit that none of us is the person yet that God is making us to become in the sense of our growth in Christ and our likeness to Christ. We are all works in progress. Can I get an amen on that?
Amen. And by equipping people with God's Word, spiritual leaders are helping people, giving people the tools they need to advance in that journey of becoming who God wants you to be. And he talks about there in verse number 13, "A unity in our faith, a deeper knowledge of the Son of God so that we'll be mature and we'll measure up to the standard, which is Christ." Verse 13 really is a high watermark of goals for equipping believers. But it's not just equipping believers to become who God wants them to be. It is equipping believers to do what God has called them to do. And by quipping believers with Scripture and truth and exhortation, it is encouraging the believer to discern what their assignment is from God and to discern the gifts God has given them to fulfill that assignment, and then the church becomes stronger because the believers are equipped and they're mobilized to serve God using the gifts and talents God has given them. When it's done the right way, church is really a great thing. It's when it's broken that it gets real messy. It's when we lose our way that we become a problem, not only for ourselves, but we tarnish the testimony of Christ in our community and among the unsaved, people who don't know Christ. When church isn't working, nothing is messier, but when church is on all cylinders, you talk about an awesome thing. When God's Spirit is moving through His people and the pastors and leaders are preaching the Bible and the people are growing in their faith, it's a beautiful sight indeed. And there is so much that depends on churches being strong. I happen to believe that the fate of a nation hinges on the witness of the church in that nation. It's true of any country, but it's especially true of ours. And I can't help, but wonder if our nation has devolved into the state in which we're in. Could some of the blame be placed at the doorstep of churches who have gotten out of the Bible teaching and Bible preaching business?
Yes. Could it be that because pastors have closed their Bibles and are teaching self-help and pop psychology and motivational, inspirational talks, (congregation claps)
maybe that's why we're in some of the mess that we are in. The blame is at the feet of a lot of pastors to be honest with you. And my opinion is this. If you're a pastor and you draw on a paycheck, but you don't preach the Bible, you ought to apologize for drawing a salary, Yes.
because if you are not preaching the Bible, you're not a true shepherd of God's people. You're not a good... I'm not trying to be judgemental or harsh by this. I'm just telling you this responsibility of spiritual leadership, it's an awesome responsibility. Yes.
And those who have accepted that calling from God are gonna answer to God
Yes. by what they did with what God had called them to do. Yes.
And so, I want you to understand there's a lot that's hanging on what happens here on a Sunday morning, what happens in our Zoom calls, in our classes, in our getting into the Word of God, there's a lot that is hanging in the balance. And that is why I just want to say once more how grateful I am that our church has said COVID-19 is not going to sideline us anymore. We have set our eyes on the future and we no matter what future pandemic comes, we're gonna stick with the Word of God. No matter what kind of opposition comes,
(congregation claps) we're gonna stick with the Word of God. And no matter if what we preach becomes hate speech by the culture one day, we're still going to preach it because you can call it hate, but it's really love. Love is when you care enough to tell the truth. That's what love really is.
(congregation applauds) So, spiritual leaders need to teach God's people the truth. Here's the second thing though. I want you to write this down. Maturity in God's word protects us from deception. Amen.
Maturity in the Word of God. It means growing in your knowledge of God's Word and not just to have a head full of Bible facts, but to allow the Holy Spirit then to apply God's Word to your daily life, to your decision-making, to the way you act, and oftentimes and more critically, the way you react to situations. The Word of God can protect us from deception. I want to display verse 14 on the screen in a moment. And what I've done is I've taken it in the New Living Translation and it lends itself so easily to an outline without altering the wording of the verse. I've just listed it as a three point outline. And so here it is. Verse 14, Paul said, "If you will grow in the Word of God, if you will become a fully committed disciple of Jesus Christ committed to biblical truth," he says, "these are the results: we will no longer be immature like children." Amen. Number two, we won't be tossed and blown away by every wind of new teaching. And number three, we will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever that they sound like truth.
Yes. And I want us to look at those first two of that three sentence outline from verse 14 and talk about the obstacles to our spiritual ability to guard against deception. And the first one was spiritual immaturity. And I want to define that as when you haven't grown in the Word of God and prayer. In fact, the writer of Hebrews admonished his readers when he said, "You ought to be eating solid food now, but you're still on milk and formula." Remember that passage in Hebrews? Basically you got stunted in your spiritual growth. And here he is saying that we don't want to be spiritual infants for the rest of our Christian life. We need to grow out of being a new believer to a maturing believer, to a well-grounded and disciplined and biblically-informed Christian. And what happens is people get stuck in the spiritual food chain along the way. So we want to say, "Oh God, I don't want to be a baby Christian for the rest of my life. I want to go deep in your Word." Amen.
Amen. That's it. And I believe you believe that. But here's something else, spiritual instability. And I've defined this as when you're easily drawn to new ideas.
Yes. And that's why he said, when you're growing in your knowledge of the Word, you're not gonna be easily tossed to and fro by every new wind of teaching that blows your way. Your roots are going to be so anchored in the soil that it will be very hard for the tree to be overturned. And after a storm of some kind around here, you'll drive down the road or maybe you won't even have to look past your own property line to see where a tree has been uprooted by a wind. And you'll see where the roots have just come out of the ground. And what God is saying is he doesn't want any of His children to be like trees that can be blown over by some new storm system, which usually has to do with teaching or ideas that are contrary to the word of God. So we're saying maturity in God's Word and prayer protects us from deception. And that leads me to this next point that I want you to write down. The best way to detect a lie is to know the truth. Amen. The best way to detect a lie is to know the truth. And as you are writing that down, I want to once again display verse 14 because we looked at those first two when we talked about spiritual immaturity and spiritual instability, but look at number three under verse 14. Paul says, "As we become grounded and mature in the Word of God, we will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth." And I'm reading that to you again because that's really what I'm basing this point on. I want you to know the reason you could detect, the way you become capable of detecting lies is because you're so familiar with the truth, your lie detector goes off,
Amen. and you know this isn't right, this isn't true.
Amen. And the way you do that is by knowing what is true. Yes.
And here's the thing. I want to tell you something. We're living in a day and time where when someone makes a speech anymore, you don't know what's true and not, so you have to wait until these people do the fact-checking on it. You've heard of fact-checking? Yes.
And you don't even know what to believe as it depends on who fact-checks and what facts there... Everybody's got their own facts. But I want to tell you something. And here's something else. So much of the news is what this news is saying about what the other news people said. Yes.
It's the news about the news and why this news agency says that news agency said the wrong thing. And sometimes I just want to know what happened. I don't want to know what you think or the spin you put on it. I just want to know the facts of what happened. And so it's hard to find objective journalism. I think that is a lost cause in our day. I think it lasted for about three hours after it was originally invented to start with, (congregation laughing) because most journalists, 90% of them drift left-ward. It's just part of the fallen nature, but alas, I digress. (congregation laughing) But here's what I want you to know. You have the ability to fact-check everything you hear in the Word of God.
Yes. Now, it may not be something that somebody says they saw happen, but when it comes to ideas, when it comes to teaching, when it comes to somebody who's forwarding you all these emails about all these things they're saying are going to happen, and all these things they're saying we should be believing, and do you not see how our culture is now being brainwashed and indoctrinated by even competing ideas about who we are as human beings? Yes.
Made and designed by God. Do you believe we're designed by God? I do.
Yes. (clapping) And so, what we've got to do is we got the ultimate fact-checking document right here. Yes.
So use the Word of God as your fact-checking ruler, your criteria and against which you measure everything else. And here's what our truth is. Our truth is Scripture. This is what Jesus said in John chapter eight. He said, "If you abide in" what? My word.
My word. say it again.
My words. He did not say if you abide in Fox News. (congregation laughing) He did not say if you abide in CNN. Oh, yes.
He did not say if you abide in MSDNC.
(congregation laughing) He did not say if you abide in Newsmax.
Yes. Hello.
Hello. And you could go on and on down the list, right? He did not say if you abide in the Drudge Report. On and on we could go. He said, "If you abide in My word." And one of the things we need to do is to be careful about the time we spend delving into all of these different resources that are vying for our attention and let's spend more time delving into the unsearchable riches of the Scripture. (congregation applauds) The unsearchable riches of the Scripture. (congregation applauds) He said, "If you abide in My word, you're My disciples indeed. And you shall the truth, and the truth shall make you free." So we see there that Jesus linked His word with the truth.
Amen. And I want you to understand today that when someone knows the truth, it does set them free, but when someone believes a lie, it makes them a slave. Truth brings freedom, deception brings bondage, and that's why this passage in Ephesians four where we're studying is letting us know that the foundation for growing believers in Christ is the truth of God's Word, and the foundation for a strong church is the truth of God's Word. And what he said there in verse 14 as we saw a moment ago is when people tried to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth, see, that's the best lie. So what I want to do is I want to give you some truths about lies. (congregation laughing) And the first truth about a lie is the most effective lies contain a nugget of truth.
Yes. Those are the most effective lies. This is why Christians have to guard against it. I want you to think about this. When Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil in Matthew chapter four, Satan came. We only have three of the temptations that were recorded. That's all we need. But do you remember what Satan used in each of the temptations? He quoted Scripture. And this lets us know that Satan knows how to mingle a lie with truth, and that's why we have to be on guard. Satan specializes in disguising lies with bits and pieces of truth.
Yes. This is why the Apostle Paul when he was speaking about false teachers in 2nd Corinthians 11, he said this, "Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light." See, the devil is not going to show up in some red unitards
(congregation laughing) with a pitch fork and a pointy tail and horns on his head and go, "I am Lucifer." That's not how he works.
(congregation laughing) He disguises himself as a messenger of truth, a messenger of love and compassion. And it's all a shame, but this is why you have to be on guard because he knows how to pull it off. Yes.
He's good at it, and he's taking folks down long before you and I came down the road. So we've got to be careful because Satan can use Scripture to deceive us. Yes.
Listen, Satan can use good people to deceive you. Yes.
Hey, he can use Christians to get you.
Yes. You believe that?
Yes. Sometimes they even mean well, but they don't even realize that they have surrendered themselves over as a pawn, and Satan can use even good people. Satan can use inspirational ideas to deceive us. Some years ago... Well, I have to be careful because I don't ever want to seem overly critical, but there are a lot of things that get published and end up on bookstore shelves that are inspirational and some people say it changed their life and yet it's rooted in heresy. Just because it blessed you and gave you goosebumps does not make it something that needs to be distributed for mass consumption. You need to know that an inspirational idea can be a tool that the enemy can use. You've got to fact-check it by the Word of God. Always come back to the Bible. The most effective lies contain a nugget of truth. Here's another truth about lies. The most effective lies are those that are repeated the most.
Yeah. They're repeated the most. And I'm going to tell you, it's one of the most effective strategies for duping people into believing it. It's simply repeating it and being redundant and repetitious. And we are living through it today [Congregation] Yes. because we're being desensitized. and it's to ploy the enemy
Yes. is just if at first you don't succeed, (claps hands) try, try again
Yes. and he will not give up. That wicked Russian revolutionary, the first head of Soviet Russia, Vladimir Lenin said this, "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." Yes. And if anyone mastered that adage, it is Lenin. And we need to be careful because we're living in this type of environment where the lie, because it's been repeated enough is now being accepted as true. Here's another truth about lies. The most effective lies are shared by sincere people. If someone is just a charlatan and you can tell it from the outset, you can dismiss what they're saying, but sometimes when someone is so sincere and you know they really believe what they're saying, and in their defense, many people who propagate lies do so because they're convinced that their lie is true. And it's their sincerity that compels other people to buy into what they're selling. And there's even this crazy notion in our day and time that you can have your own truth. Have you heard that?
Yes. Well, she's just living her own truth. (congregation laughing) He found his own truth. Can I just tell you something? There's no such thing as my truth, your truth, his truth, her truth, there's just the truth. Amen.
There's just the truth. That's all there is.
(congregation claps) Amen.
And so, every person is not entitled to their own truth. We have to accept what God says truth is.
Amen. And listen, a lie believed sincerely is still sincerely a lie. And a lie told sincerely is still sincerely wrong. Just because someone is sincere does not make their claim legitimate. And just because they believe their lie does not mean I have to, Amen.
or you have to. Here's another truth about lies. The most effective lies appeal to sympathy for our endorsement.
Yes. All right. These are lies that are spread through emotional manipulation. And here's what they do. We're seeing this every day. You gonna see it today. You'll see you've seen it for the last year. They are lies that exploit legitimate situations in which people are hurting or being mistreated or misunderstood. And once your sympathy is stirred your guard is lowered and it gives the opportunity for the seed of deception to be planted.
True. Oh, come on.
Yes. The heart strings are stirred. You even see this in the media. The media has gone from conveying factual information to manufacturing a desired response on the part of the hearer.
Yes. And by appealing to our better selves which is sympathy and compassion. And this ridiculous word called empathy which is an impossibility. Empathy is an internally contradictory word. But by appealing to all of these things the guard is lowered and we're drawn into a warm universal global kumbaya moment. (congregation laughing) And then we've checked our discernment at the door and we've lowered the bar and the seeds are sown into our minds and hearts. Satan exploits sympathy over even legitimate situations in order to work his deception. And then if you don't condone the lie that was propagated through a legitimate concern. It's because you have no sympathy. It's because you are in decent as a person. And then you can be labeled as uncaring, cruel, inhumane, bigoted and worthy of public humiliation and utter destruction.
All right. (congregation claps) By the way, don't tell me whether I have sympathy just because I don't agree with your conclusions about the same issue.
(congregation claps) I can still care and not agree with you I can still have compassion and not draw the same outcome and resolution from the same crisis to which you are reacting.
Yes. But don't tell me that my sympathy should force me to conclude what you are telling me I should believe.
(congregation claps) Oh no, that's not the truth.
(congregation claps) And then I wanna to tell you this, the most effective lies are worn like fashion They're wore like fashion. Fashion is an intimidating thing. Isn't it? Some of you ladies know if you've ever been somewhere and another lady had on the exact same outfit. Now us guys would go cool, man, ladies run to the car and go home and change, I don't know. But fashion can be very intimidating but all of a sudden, when you make lives fashionable what it means is everybody needs to wear it. And if you don't want to dress like that, if you don't want to wear the lie, all of a sudden you're an outcast, you don't fit in. And these lies many people in our own culture who adopt lies they're not adopting them because they really believe them. They're adopting. They don't even know what they believe half these crazy people running around. They're adopting these lies to fit in with the lie culture.
Yes. That's why they're adopting them to avoid the risk of being ostracized. Oh, come on.
Yes. They're what I call hashtag lies.
Yes. They're hashtag lies. They're viral lies. And this brings me to the final point of the message today. I know you're thinking, "Oh no, the final?" Yes, the final point.
(congregation laughing) And that is that God wants us to use discernment.
Amen. He wants to use discernment. May I just say with you humbly that I believe discernment is one of the most overlooked and underestimated qualities of the Christian life. It is in short supply in the church and among God's people. Discernment. Say discernment.
Discernment. Now, I believe there are people guarding the Scripture who have the gift of discernment.
Amen. Amen. (laughs)
(congregation laughing) It's a spiritual gift. (laughs) It's a spiritual gift.
Yes. I don't have that. Now, because I don't have it, that doesn't mean I need to walk around as a sucker. It means I need to ask the Holy Spirit and I'm gonna have to work harder to practice discernment because I don't have the gift of discernment. And if you have the gift of discernment, you know sometimes it'll get on your nerves. Sometimes you wish you could deactivate it. Cause you will be around somebody and you can... I know there's something about this person that is not right. I can't put my finger on it, but you know it's the Holy Spirit telling you, this person has an issue. This person is bad news. Oh, come on. Yes. (clapping) Or somebody would be telling something. You go, "I don't believe a word of that." (congregation laughing) The Spirit is bearing witness in my spirit. That's the gift of discernment. Sometimes it lets you see things you wish you couldn't see,
Yes. but sorry, you can't turn it off. Too bad, that's your gift. I don't have that problem, but so I have to work harder.
(congregation laughing) But I want to define discernment this way. Discernment is the ability to distinguish good and bad, between truth and error, between what's wise and unwise. Leave that up for just a moment. It's the ability to distinguish between what is good and what is bad. You could say, what is righteous, what is evil, what is true, what is false and what is wise and what is foolish. In other words, discernment is the ability to tell the difference. That's what discernment is. And if you don't have the gift of discernment which I don't, but you like me and you say but I want to have the ability to discern, the starting point. First base is you've got to recognize that every idea, every claim of truth, every competing idea that's vying for your allegiance for you to entertain it in your mind and in your heart has a spiritual origination. In other words, everything comes from somewhere. And who do you believe is the author of deception?
Satan. Satan is. Jesus told us in John eight and verse 44. He said about the devil, "When the devil lies, it is consistent with his character because he is a liar and the father of lies." I think that's pretty clear. Isn't it? Satan is the author of lies.
Yes. All right? But he does not do all the work by himself. Let's not give him too much credit. He has minions who have been deployed for disseminating deception. And they're referred to in first Timothy four and verse one Paul writes, "the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith giving heed to what? Deceiving spirits.
Deceiving spirits. Those are the lieutenants. You see what I'm saying? Satan, doesn't do all the work of deception by himself. He uses what? Deceiving.
Deceiving spirits And doctrines of demons. So, these deceiving spirits, they assist the devil. And where do you find them? I'll tell you where you find some of them. So I'm gonna go through false teaching in Christian circles.
Yes. Through people preaching false messages.
Yes. Through individuals who perpetrate false teaching.
Yes. On their own outside of a church's ministry through cultural forces, I happen to believe that Satan and his spiritual forces have gained the monopoly on the public education system in America.
Yes. I'm not saying everybody in the public education system has been captured by the enemy. We have many educators in our church who are God's light in those places, but in the places high up where the decisions are made about the textbooks to purchase and in the public institutions where most of the faculty have been educated they have been sold down the road to the devil.
Yes. They have embraced lies
Yes. and they are pulling out all of the stops and now children are not being educated, they're being indoctrinated.
Yes. And so, what I'm trying to say to you is we've got to look beyond what we can see and recognize the spiritual forces behind the deception. We wrestle not with flesh and blood. I believe the media is in the hip pocket of the devil.
Yes. Whatever media you're talking about, it all love it. Satan's got his grip on it. I believe Satan is even using commercials that we watch.
Yes. The commercials are messaging the deception. I mean, you know what? I don't wanna know what you believe about morality. I just wanna know about the product you're selling.
Yes. Stop trying to message me into your ideology and just tell me what you sell that I can buy. But now even retail and manufacturing is bought in to the social and ideological agenda.
Right. That they're mingling the message with the product. It's all part of the end times. Listen to the Revelation study. Yes. And then of course, is there any doubt about Satan's hold on the internet? And so, if you don't have the gift of discernment, it means got to exert more effort. You got to look deeper. You got to look beyond the smoke screen. You got to pop the hood on that jalopy. Do you hear what I'm saying?
Yes. And sometimes the reason we don't pop the hood is because it smells like it just rolled off the showroom floor. It does not matter how new it looks, how good it feels. (clap hands) Pop the hood and see what's in the engine. That's what God wants His people to do. Too many of us are susceptible. We're sitting ducks for the devil. John wrote in 1st John four in verse one, he said, "Do not believe every spirit," but do what?
Test. Test the spirits, whether they are of God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Test the spirit. That means learn everything you hear by the Word of God. And to learn it by the Word of God you got to know what the Word of God teaches. I want you to know that throughout my Christian experience I've studied Christian history and college and seminary. And you see how Christians have been deceived fact many Cults were birthed out of Christianity because there was no discernment. And enough people got together around some crackpot and formed a cult. And some of the largest Christian sects and groups in the world started out of Christianity. It's true. And you think about how this happens. A lot of end of time cults where somebody said "God was coming back Jesus is going to return on such and such a date. And these people would put on their white robes go get on the mountain, wait for Jesus Come." Guess what, He never came. So, they looked like idiots because they believed somebody had heard from God. And you see this, I would just want to tell you something. This is one of the most insidious things that happens in the church today is people saying, "Thus say the Lord. God has told me." And they start quoting God as though you can quote Him with quotation marks around what you're saying. Now, do I believe that God can still speak today? I do believe that God can still speak today. But when you start quoting Him verbatim like you heard something audible, like He literally was giving you dictation and you needed a stenography pad to write it down. What you really need to do is add it to the back of the book of Revelation. Because what you're doing is you are attributing what you said you heard as having come from the lips of God. It's one thing to say. I feel impressed to share this with you. It's another thing to say God told me, dot, dot, dot, dot dot. And I want to say this to you in love, this isn't a political statement. We're just going to be friends here no matter what side of the aisle you're on. (congregation laughing) But in the lead up to the election last year, they were so many of these apostles, and prophetesses, and bishops, and all these people making videos on Facebook and YouTube that God had told them, President Trump was gonna be reelected. Never fear for you for Trump. If you're not for Trump, you better just get over 'Cause God has said, God has said, God has said. Well, November came, he didn't get elected. So, God was wrong. (laughs) (congregation laughing)
I guess God was wrong. And then, oh, no. Then the car came back and they said, "No, I heard it the wrong way. He's going in January 'cause the military is gonna overthrow the government and they're gonna swear him in in January." Well, guess what? That came and went. Last time I checked Joe Biden, got sworn in. And then they said, "Oh, it's going to happen on March the sixth." And March the sixth came, "No, it's going to happen on March the 20th." And all of this is in the name of God.
Yes. Let me tell you something. When you say that God told you something was going to happen on a specific date and it does not happen. You're the problem, not God. (congregation applauds) Because God does not lie.
Amen. When God says it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. And how many Christians were shattered because they listen to all these prophets, and apostles, and bishops given all these revelations thus say the Lord. (congregation laughing) I want you to be careful because when a prophet prophesies and it does not come to pass that is called a... False prophet. False prophet. Which means if we were living in Deuteronomy, we'd have a little meeting outside today, throwing rocks.
(congregation laughing) All right, but we don't do that. And I'm gonna tell you something else that's troubled my heart, is how many Christians fell prey to the QAnon conspiracy.
Yes. You say you don't believe QAnon though.
No. Remember how the enemy uses nuggets of truth
Yes. to disguise what is untrue.
Yes. And I have read heartbreaking stories of Christians who delved so far into the dark recesses of QAnon, that they abandoned their family ties, they abandoned their churches. And I have even been attacked by a precious brother in Christ because of this very thing. Because someone can be lost in the deception and completely forfeit their spiritual sensibilities because they checked their discernment at the door.
Amen. And that's the danger of deception. Once you go down the road, sometimes you lose the ability to tap the break.
Yes. And what I want us to be as a church I want us to be a church whose guard is up. I want us to be a fact checking church. I want us to be a church fill with members who exercise discernment and who know that everything I hear, everything I see, everything I even feel in my own heart, I'm going to double check it by the Word of the living God. That's what we need today.
(congregation applauds) Father, thank you for allowing us to talk about things openly today. I pray that everyone will have heard this message coming from a heart of love and concern. Not because I think its a big problem among us, but because in the future, I believe deception's going to intensify. And I just want all of us Lord to be bound to your heart and guided by your perfect truth that we will never be led astray by anything that is contradictory to your Holy Word. In Jesus' name. Amen
Amen. Well, thank you for tuning in today. Thank you for being here today. And if you have never received Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. All of the things I'm talking about are kind of foreign to someone who's never really put your trust in Jesus Christ. The most important thing you need is not discernment between all of these things but you need to be made right with God. And He's already done everything to make that possible through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave. There's a number that you see on your screen. And those of you in this room, you can text this number if you would like to know more about Jesus Christ and how you can have a personal relationship with Him. And we'll get in touch with you immediately and get the conversation going. I hope you've enjoyed being in worship today and I hope you have an amazing week, God's family. God bless you. (congregation applauds)
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