"When Praise Confuses the Enemy" | Pastor Debleaire Snell

you cannot see and so today we're gonna go back to the book of Job chapter 1 and we're going to just look a little further a matter of fact we're just going to begin here at verse number 13 for brevity's sake and I invite you to make sure if you have never ever read the book of Job read job chapter 1 in its entirety to provide a little bit of context job chapter 1 and verse 13 when you're gonna just say amen amen Bible says now there was a day talking about job with his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine and their oldest brother's house and a messenger came to job and said the oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them and when the Samians raided them and took them away and deed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you this is one set of bad news Bible says while he was still speaking another also came and said the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep the servants and consumed them and I alone have escaped to tell you and while he was still speaking another also came and said the Chaldeans formed three bands raided the camels and took them away yes and killed the service with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you and while he was still speaking another also came and said your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house and suddenly a great wind came across the wilderness and struck before corners of the house and it fell on the young people and they are dead and I alone have escaped to tell you and I think one of the most powerful portions of this story is then job's response then Joe Burroughs tore his room shaved his head Saints I hope that y'all are really getting the gravity of this at home Bible says and he fell to the ground and he worshiped and he said naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away but bless it be the name of the Lord in all this job did not sin nor charge God with wrong today for a little while I want to talk to you under the subject when praised confuses the enemy when praised confuses the enemy let's pray together father I pray that as we look at the great controversy heightened in this text that you would speak to our families that you would speak to our faith and Lord that you would help us to have a praise and a worship experience that is weatherproof so father I pray that in the hearing of the word that you would multiply faith exponentially so Lord we stand on this promise that whatever two or three gather in your name whether it is the six or seven in this room or whether it is two or three in a bedroom two or three of them at a living room two or three at a dining room table I pray that as much as you fill up a sanctuary fill up the space where your people gather today that we will be able to hear and receive your word so Lord would you once again please hide me in the shadows of the cross that Jesus alone might be seen that Christ alone would be heard and at the end of the message may Jesus alone be praised we pray this in the matchless name of him who is all together lovely there God's people say together amen and amen you know church a a few months back the homeowners association in my neighborhood put forth a requirement that all of the existing wooden faint fences that were not stained would need to be newly stripped and and newly stained and so Gianna the kids and and toward the end pastor kracken and I took on the Herculean task of stripping down and and staining the fence that encloses my backyard now to be clear I have not done this type of task before so some mistakes were destined to be made and yet with enthusiasm I went over to Lowe's and I got the cleaning solution got the stain got a roller and I even invested in a spray painting machine and for the most part about 96 percent of this job goes okay but I made a couple critical mistakes in the journey the first mistake that I made was for the most part we sprayed the fence but there were portions of the fence that we just rolled now the problem is that a fence is an uneven surface so it has indentations there are grooves and crevices and the thing about the roller is it would cover the surface but you needed the sprayer to actually saturate that type of service now the issue is that I was just concerned with it being covered I wasn't really worried about the indentations being saturated the other problem is that while I was stripping or cleaning the fence what happened is as I got toward the end I ran out of the cleaning solution and so I had about two planks there at the end I didn't want to have to go back to the Lowe's and buy any more so I took a shortcut instead of stripping it and cleaning it I just tried to paint over it and see I needed to understand that at the end of the day both the unclean surface and the uneven surface they both look good as long as the weather was ideal but the problem was about a Wednesday a week ago they were strong forms that came through the area and they beat upon the fence with hard wind and it pressed upon the fence with pressing rain and it's crazy how the things that look okay and good weather get exposed when a storm shows up and so it's crazy now how this uneven surface with the indentations it looked literally like no paint had been applied after the storm came through it's crazy how the areas that were covered but not clean the dirt begin to show through in a very pronounced way and it's crazy because the portion that was just covered up the storm exposed the dirt that was just covered and hidden underneath it's amazing how the storm exposed the portions where the paint covered the surface but it didn't really get down into the crevices and the reason I'm sharing this with you is that there are a lot of church folk that look good when the weather is ideal you see there some of us in our time that allow Jesus to just touch the surface but we never let Jesus saturate them in the cracks and the crevices of life but understand beloved that there's gonna come a time where Jesus allows some storms to expose every portion of your life that Jesus is not saturating and then you got some of us man that just have a surface religion in fact that there are some of us that use Jesus to cover up our dirt but the problem is we've never allowed our soul to be stripped we've never allowed the character to be star strip and sanctified and understand that there going to be some storms that come to expose every portion of your life that's been hidden but it's never truly been sanctified by the power of God I mean I need you to know that as I see these parts of the fence that need to be redone there's a part of me man that's tired man my back is hurting my knees are aching I just want to leave it like it is I just want to let it remain unfinished because this part was on the inside the folk on the outside couldn't see this part but understand the reason I could not leave the fence unfinished is I had pay too much for the stain to let it stay unfinished the stain was about $40 a can in other words the investment was too great to let it remain undone the price was too hot and let it remain uncomplete the height the price was so high that I had to complete the good work that I began and if somebody's ever wondered why God never gives up on his children if you've ever wondered why God never gives up on faulty projects the reason he can't give up is he's paid too high a price to let you remain unfinished the investment was too great to let you remain partially sanctified see you were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver or gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ said and so even though I'm an unfinished project today the good news is that he which has begun a good work in me shall continue it until the day of Jesus Christ somebody ought to be saying Amen in their house today and let me just say to you first church I'm just at a place in my experience with God where I just don't want a religion that covers the surface I want Jesus to saturate the hidden places I want Jesus in the crevices I want Jesus in the grooves and I'm at a place in my walk with God where I don't just want to save you that covers up my sins I want to save you that can remove my sins I'm at a place where I want my soul to be stripped I want my character to be sanctified I want to experience true biblical sanctification is there anybody that's just tired of being forgiven but you want to be free in Jesus Christ I guess what I'm saying saying is I want to get to a place where I have a weatherproof relationship with God I want to have a relationship with God that can keep me in summer heat it can sustain me and winter cold it can keep me in spring storms and it can keep me when the weather for changes in the fall I don't just want a weather that keeps me a religion that keeps me when the weather is good I want a religion that me when the storms of life begin to invade my circumstance but understanding that God's words if somebody is that I can't completely keep you unless you let me completely cover you Oh y'all y'all didn't get that in other words the reason that some of us can't be completely kept it's because we haven't let God completely cover us and God is saying to somebody you've got to let them get deep down in the crevices of the character you've got to let them get down into those parts that nobody else sees and you've got to get to a place where you don't just cover up your sins but you let God get beneath the service and remove some sins somebody ought to say Amen today and so today as we look back at the story of Job I would look at job because my man job had what I consider a weatherproof relationship with Jesus Christ so if you don't mind go back to job chapter one and I'm gonna look at something in verse four jobs have to one and verse four and I just want to kind of lay out man some some everyday realities that revolve around our family then God's character and my prayer is that some things would be settled for somebody today job chapter 1 in verse number 4 the Word of God says and his sons would go eat and feast in their houses each on his appointed day and they were sin and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them and so it was when the days of feasting had run their course that job would send and sanctify them and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all for Joel had said it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts and the word says thus job did regularly so again as we unpack the story of Joel I want us to look at the story of job or the great controversy in the context of how family functions you see the first thing that job teaches us this Mother's Day weekend is that sometimes even perfect parents can produce imperfect children now I don't know if you really got the magnitude of what's being said and there's a larger spiritual reality that I'm going explain because understand how the Bible describes Joe when you look at job chapter one the Bible says that job was the greatest of all the people in the East the Bible literally describes him as blameless as upright as one who feared God and shunned evil now understand that the Bible doesn't tell us a whole lot about job's kids but the one thing we know about job's kids is that job's kids like to turn up big time in other words they would have days of fishing where the brothers and sisters would get together and drink wine and party like it was 1999 I'm dating myself a little bit on that one right there in other words we know the one thing that they like to do they knew how to turn up in other words remember now that Joe's kids were not small children these are adult children that that literally function in their own homes autonomous of parental authority and it's crazy because the word literally says that job's kids would turn up so hard that when Joel came through at the end of the feast whatever he saw led him to believe that maybe they went so far this go-round that maybe they cursed God in their hearts are y'all with me in other words I don't know what your boy job sees but after the days of feasting comes to an end your boy Joe walks through the row of houses that he has bought for them and maybe your boy Joe man see some Hennessy bottles on the counter he sees some cigarette butts on the ground he sees some contraceptive raptor's all over the place he sees four laid out all over the floor he sees some sparkle and glitter on some people's like y'all not hear me on this thing today in other words whatever your boy job sees is so bad that he's like maybe it was this time that they took it so far that they cursed God in there are you with me now it actually looks like it's kind of extreme for him to go and begin to create burnt oxy and killed burnt axons and kill burnt offerings and to purify them when he don't really know exactly what went down but understand as parents most of us really know our kids and understand that the precautions we take usually reflect the behavior they demonstrate somebody at home here's what I'm saying in other words it's like this in my house man my youngest son when we sent him into the bathroom to take this back I need to know that when he gets out of the bathtub before he puts on his clothes I have to say Conn son put your arms up let me do a little smell test because like his behavior shows me that sometimes he'll get in the tub he'll be near the soap he'll handle the soap but he'll do everything but put it on his body so I have to do a little test on that thing when he gets out of the tub because my precaution is gonna reflect his behavior any parents know what I'm talking about today and it's crazy because like my man Joe doesn't know exactly what happens but he says let me take them through purification rituals anyway he says I don't know all the details but let me sacrifice just in case I don't know if they curse God or not but let me intercede just in case I don't know if they went too far but I'm gonna be interceding just in case in fact the one thing I liked about Joe is your job would pray pre-emptive prayers on behalf of his children and let me just pause to say to somebody that whether your kids are in diapers or whether your kids are grown and out of the house that we still need to pray some pre-emptive prayers on behalf of the children that God has given us in other words we need to be praying that God would go ahead of them that God would order every step that they're gonna take if you got small kids you need to be praying for every teacher that's gonna teach them you need to pray free enterprise forget every friend that's gonna influence them you need to pray free enterprise for every romantic interests that might pursue them you need to pray pre-emptive prayers against every bully that will intimidate them against every rejection that might scar them against every failure that might traumatize them and against every mistake that might stain them in other words like jobs sometimes we got to be praying some just in case prayers no no don't get me wrong because I believe that we ought to teach our children the right standard and model certain things before them the right way but how many of us know that your kids sometimes will do some stuff away from you that they won't do in front of you and sometimes you got to pray some prayers just in case sometimes you got to pray just in case they find themselves in the backseat of a car in an apartment or a house party sometimes you got to be praying just in case they find themselves in the wrong part of town with the wrong type of company sometimes you got to pray just in case they choose to entertain the wrong romantic advances sometimes you got to pray just in case they find themselves in a dark place where depression and discouragement overwhelms them sometimes you got to pray just in case they find themselves in a life-and-death situation and you've got to pray preemptively that God would nudge them in the direction of life sometimes you got to be praying just in case they find themselves in a bad situation and let me just pause to say this that even though I'm a preacher let me just be very transparent and playing and telling you today the only reason I'm still alive the only reason I have been spared the only reason I'm walking in my calling is because of the pre-emptive prayers of my mama and my daddy and grandparents who are calling on the name of God when I didn't have the sense to be calling on God for myself is there anybody listening to this word that can give God a praise because you realize that the only reason you made the only reason the heads never left you is because of the pre-emptive prayers of godly parents who are calling on God when you didn't have the sister be calling on God for yourself how many of us understand that the only reason you were spared from the accident is because of some pre-emptive prayers the only reason you didn't get pregnant that time was because of pre-emptive prayers the only reason you can get AIDS or syphilis was because of pre-emptive prayers the only reason the bullet didn't hit you was because of pre-emptive prayers the only reason you to lose your job was because of pre-emptive prayers the only reason you were able to make it after your parents died was because they prayed preemptively for your strength while they were still alive can anybody give God a praise that the heads kept you and preserved you and sustains you because of the pre-emptive prayers of parents that God answers even after they fell asleep you gotta pray preemptively for these little words are y'all hearing me in this church today and it saying that they're really kids me about Joe it's crazy because one thing's about job is they even like job it is a righteous man the thing that strikes me about Joe is that job does not parent with naivete in other words like your boy job does not assume that because I walk with God that it is beyond the realm of possibility for my kids to do certain things in other words you're more job paying parents with the worst case scenario in mind he parents with a healthy amount of suspicion and skepticism he knows I can only trust these kids so far I know I'm preaching to somebody in here today see job understands that it would be foolish to say what my children would never do now the reason that is important is because sometimes we operate under the faulty assumption that if I walk humbly before God if I preach the right thing and model the saying that there are certain things that are beyond the realm of possibilities for my kids to be able to do and let me be clear that man I'm early in the parenting journey I you only hear the pastor giving no parental advice but the one thing I've been around long enough to do is that a thousand disappointments begin when you start talking about what your kids will never ever do see I need somebody to understand the word today it is folly and frivolity to say the only thing worse than saying what you would never do is saying what they would never do C it is a faulty assumption to assume that because kids have been raised in the church it's faulty to say that my kids were never smoked or my kids would never go to the club or my kids would never have sex or my kids were never watched porn or my kids could never be gay or my kids could never be suicidal or my kids would never smoke this or my kids would never do that and the crazy thing about us as parents is we make the assumption that they will never do the things we used to consistently do Oh y'all y'all y'all mad cuz your kids heard me say that y'all on the same couch no we expect them to never do some of the things that we would consistently do I see the assumption we make is that because you're righteous now and because they never seen that part of your life and they never seen that part of your journey so you understand that even though you're converted now when you're giving kids God then give them your converted DNA God God doesn't give them your sanctified DNA God doesn't give them yo save the DNA God gives them that faulty DNA because we are all born in sin and shapen in iniquity are y'all hearing this at home today like you didn't give them your cell your baptized DNA he gave them that pre baptismal DNA that you had before you met Jesus I thought whipped me today and see the crazy thing about it man is that when you look at your kids mess and made some mistakes the reason you pair it with a certain measure of grace is you know where they get the joint from why you act and brand-new like I just can't believe they did certain I can't believe they act a certain way you know doggone well where they get it from I mean I need you to tell too many of days where my kids are acting simple and doing certain things my wonderful little preacher kids but I can't I can't even get mad all the time because when they do certain things I know where they got it from I know exactly the genesis of this behavior sometimes when they act in bad I can't even get mad cuz I know they are acting just like they mama I mean they are acting just like they acting just like they daddy I are here with a saying in this place and it is crazy because we have to continue to pray free and the phrase Amen somebody and the reason and this is really important where I'm getting to that you can't put anything beyond your kids is this see the anomaly that will not allow you to guarantee the outcome of any free moral agent is the issue of choice let me say that again the anomaly is the thing that will not allow you to guarantee the outcome of any more free more agent is choice C's one of the things we got to learn as parents is that it doesn't matter how well you raise them it doesn't matter how much you teach them it doesn't matter how consistently you live it doesn't matter how much you invest in their education as long as they have the power of choice you can influence the outcome but you cannot guarantee the outcome and the reason I'm preaching this this Mother's Day is I want to set some mother may be some set of parents free because some of us have been carrying some unnecessary guilt because we are ashamed of some of the choices of our teenage or our adult children I need you to know that the mistakes of your grown kids are not an indictment of your motherhood the mistakes of your grown kids not an indictment of your Christianity or your journey listen I'm a tree I can testify that man even before I really settled in my calling there are certain things I did and I knew they was wrong I was taught better I knew my parents had taught me the right thing to do but my behavior was not in indictment on them it just meant that I had been given the power of choice and I just want to deliver somebody or some parent that is listening today that if your kids are acting simple right now it doesn't mean that God didn't hear your prayers it didn't mean that you didn't do the right thing it doesn't mean that your investment was in vain it simply means that you raise somebody that had the power of choice and see what the power story of job teaches us is that even the perfect parent can't produce flawed children are y'all hear me now the reason that's deep is because it relieves it leads directly into the very foundation of the issue of the great controversy the same way a perfect parent can produce imperfect children the same way imperfect children that invade life invalidate the character of a parent is the same way that Lucifer's choice then invalidate God's character the same way that Adams choice doesn't indict God's character the same way our choices don't indict God's character the reason I know perfect parents can produce imperfect children is I have a perfect Heavenly Father but I function as an imperfect child but my behavior is not an indictment or an allegation against God's perfect character are you hearing me today now this is where I'm going because there's some that wrestles specifically slow it down they wrestle specifically with God's goodness in creation what do you mean fast see there some who operate with the assumption that if God is all-knowing and God is all-powerful if God knew that Lucifer would saying if he knew that Adam and Eve would fall and that the result of all of that would be sin and death and the horrors we know if God knew all of that at the beginning and he still created then God is not good the question then becomes if God knew it if he foresaw it why then would God create and the reason that God would create knowing all of the risk is summed up in one word love and I know at home there's someone who's wrestling with this because they'll need you to understand that the Bible says that God in 1st John the Bible says that God is love alright let me unpack it notice that the word gonna say God is love me in other words love is not one of his many attributes but God is the very essence of love love is who God is and because love can never be selfish God could not spend eternity just basking in his own greatness blessing himself it's stolen himself just basking in his own eternal Christian supremacy in other words the one thing that love at its purest demands is that love demands and object okay in other words what real love does is it's gonna always bring into being something upon which it can lavish its gifts and its affections and its love and other words it is literally love that demanded creation okay so so can we unpack a little further in other words the the same principle that would cause God to create is the same principle that calls parents to have children okay all right let me unpack it in other words you realize that having children is a risky proposition in other words it is that same principle of love that calls parents to have children in other words in a godly context the way this essentially works is that when you have a man who is pouring love into a woman and a woman who is pouring love into a man what happens is that love creates a Plus and almost on an unconscious level because they have so much love between the two of them they will reach a place where the love literally begins to ache unless they have an outlet and so because the unconscious a key is a result of the love surplus between husband and wife what the principle is going to man is that they create an object children but which they can pour the love and affection because they have so much love between the two that they can't keep it to themselves so they have to create sons and daughters not to serve them but the reason we have kids and so we can bless them and give them and bestow upon them all of our most precious gifts and see I need somebody to hear this the way you know that you're ready to have kids it's not because you want something to love you the way you know you're ready to have kids is because you got to a place where you've got too much love to keep to yourself in other words whenever you're looking for something to love you it's because you're functioning out of love deficit you're not ready to share love until you got a love surplus I wish somebody heard the word today in other words I need y'all to understand single folk you're not ready to get married just because you want somebody to love you know you're not ready to get married until you got so much love of God in your heart that it creates a surplus in your soul so that you got looking for somebody to draw from you're looking for somebody to pour on to you're not ready until you got too much love to keep to yourself are y'all hearing what I'm saying in other words see the reason you are not even date when you're in a deficit is because when you're in a deficit you won't discriminate in other words when you had a lot of deficit and you just need somebody to love you you're not going to discriminate you're gonna take the first one or the first thing that's willing to fulfill that need but see when you date as a single and you had a surplus what you'll do is you'll let some options pass by you'll say no I'm good all by myself I got enough of a surplus to keep me until the one that God has for me shows up are you here in this at home today and see I need you to understand singles herein lies the difference between love and lust because because love functions as a surplus lust functions as a deficit so that lust is going to demand a sacrifice love is gonna make the sacrifice lust is going to deplete you love is gonna complete you lust is going into you but love is gonna fill you to overflow I wish I were hearing this today and see I need you to understand where marriage crashes and burns at the very beginning is when you have two deficits that find each other so you know the joint is dead dead at the beginning where you have two deficits that find each other because ain't neither one of them got nothing to give they just showed up because they wanted to draw something that they were lacking from somebody else but you know marriage even plateaus when a deficit finds a surplus because the deficit is gonna suck all of the joy out of the surplus and they just don't function at a plateau level but marriage didn't work until two surpluses find each other in other words he's bringing something and she's bringing something and they pour so much that they have enough to pour in to the objects that they create because they got a surplus on the inside of them and that's why you hear me say all the time that marriage doesn't work when we come acting like customers it doesn't work until we come acting like waiters you you got to come with something to give in this situation I don't hear what I'm saying and see is going back to my original idea that love actually hurts until you have an object love becomes painful when you don't have an outlet that's what husbands our wives have kids I mean have you ever thought about it literally doing it makes sense to have kids I mean when you have kids but it does you know medically that I say that out loud I hope my kids are not watching this at home I hope they days just is tuned out but literally that but having kids comes with certain liabilities like having kids in a fallen world what it's going to do is it medically puts the mother at risk you realize that having kids is going to deplete you financially you know eventually they gonna talk back they gonna have negative stuff to say they're gonna be critical and I'm grateful and you bear the risk that one day they may get grown and on they're old and completely separate themselves but the reason you take on all the risk is because there is so much love on the inside of you that you could not contain it it is that same creative principle that caused God to be willing to take on all the risk to himself in creating us and it's crazy because I'm at a place where I don't question God for creating I just think God for redeeming in other words it is the plan of redemption that justifies the flaws in our creation whoa let me let me say it one more time it is the plan of redemption that justifies the Fallen nature of the creation in other words I don't spend time looking at the liabilities all I do is I celebrate the power of the guarantee the Bible says that Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth so that salvation was not an afterthought that the earth was not built upon solid rock or water it was founded upon the lamb that had already pledged his life preemptively before sin so that we would be redeemed and reconciled back to himself so that the guarantee is better than the liability so y'all hear me today Saints in other words let me say it this way because it is a guarantee and it the warranty is greater than the issue sound so it's like this few years that we wind up getting the kids some of these little little remote-controlled drones you know little helicopters that fly up in the sky I'll admit now it was a big mistake it was too soon for them to get this now I need you to understand that as I'm reading the directions putting it together it comes with a limited warranty what kind of warranty limited warranty that made sense to me now what they say is that if it has any product defect any malfunction what will do is will give your money back or we'll give you a replacement but they were very clear that this our little toy once it gets up it's not supposed to get more than 150 feet or so from the actual controller so what they say is that if you fly it too far away from the controller and it falls down and it's busted into a thousand pieces we not go take responsibility for that in other words their warranty was limited in other words it'll say is saying that we'll take ownership of our mistakes but we're gonna take ownership of your mistakes and in other words that made sense to me I'm not gonna take responsibility for my own mistakes I'll take responsibility for your my mistakes and I need you to know that the salvation warranty is even greater than the limited warranty because God said I'll take responsibility for manufacturer defects but even if they allow it to go too far from the controller I'll still lay down my life for their sins I'll lay down my life for their errors my life will dare mistakes I'll lay down my life when they walk away my life when you go too far away he says I will just take our responsibility if there were mistakes made by me but I pledged my life from a mistake there are made by my creation are y'all hearing the word today so don't just worry about the defect let's just praise God for the guarantee and that the warranty covers all of our sins all of our errors and all of our mistakes are here in the word today where the God teaches us two lessons from the story of Joe go back to here with you if you don't mind to job chapter 1 and verse number 3 job chapter 1 in verse 3 we don't stay in the word for just a little bit Bible says you're 1 in verse 3 the Bible says also his possessions over 7,000 sheet three thousand cameras five hundred yoke of oxen five hundred male Duncan's in a very large household the Bible says so that this man was the greatest of all of the people in the east now I need y'all know Saints and all the homes did one thing I don't like about Internet Church is that when y'all don't like what I'm saying y'all can switch real quick but I like it when our hero y'all can't go nowhere but but I listen we'll be honest it's gonna get a little uncomfortable because because I'm in the scripture I'm a-gettin your business just a little bit like the Bible makes it clear that your boy Joel this cat is the man in an agrarian society where where wealth is determined by by how much cattle you have how much land you own by how many service you have your boy job was swimming in it to the point that the Bible says that your boy Joel was greater than anybody in the East there were nobody like job but job teaches us are very important because they our principle that is possible to possess things without being possessed by things now I want somebody home to get this as possible to possess things without being possessed by things now now the reason this is important is because like god bless Joe with great possessions which shows us beloved that God is not anti possession that God is not against blessing his children what we literally learn from the creation order you realize that Adam in the e did not live from hand to mouth from week to week god bless at with abundance and I could go to any tree eat as much as they wanted whenever they wanted with all men are fruit that boy is fruit all year round there was only one limitation this tree that had the potential to prepare for possibility of death in it and even that tree when the stayed there if they had just yielded from temptation but even when we look at Israel in the wilderness God says listen I want to distinguish Israel as mine in three ways first I want to bless them with health so that the diseases that touch other folk don't touch my children the second thing I'm doing I'm gonna give them the Sabbath so that I'm gonna do for them in six days what it takes everybody else seven days to do but then he says I also want to bless them financially with prosperity he says if y'all are careful to obey my statutes and do my commandments I will bless you in such a way that you'll be the head and not the tail you'll be above and not beneath you'll be the lender and not a borrower God says I would bless y'all so good that you wouldn't have to walk around chasing position possessions but the blessings of God would walk you down and overtake you in other words he says I want to bless you God says in John 10:10 I've come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly are y'all hearing me today Saints now in other words God is saying to us that he doesn't mind blessing us with abundance but watch this godly abundance has to be based on trust godly abundance isn't based on desire see worldly abundance is based upon hustle it's based upon my grit it's based upon me going out and getting it so you realize that all abundance doesn't come from God see there are certain forms abundance not a worldly abundance that literally will cause you to be led astray and they'll lead to the piercing of your soul and the destruction of everything that you hold to be valuable but godly abundance is based upon a trust in other words we love where God says Lord would never put more on me than I can bear now you realize that that can't just apply to adversity he can't give us more prosperity than we can be spiritually responds with okay so can we go to the word for just a moment all right so let's let's go to the scripture because he what Joe teaches us is that it's possible for us to possess things without being possessed by things so let me take you to three places in the scripture go in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 18 Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 18 and how much you to see what the Word of God says Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 18 the Bible says and you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives the power to get wet wealth that you may establish this covenant which he swore to the father's as it is this day so one of the things that the Bible says is that it is God that gives power to get wealth going in your Bibles to proverbs chapter 22 and verse 9 proverbs 22 and verse 29 excuse me proverbs 22 and verse 29 the Word of God literally says if you see a man who excels in his work he will stand before kings he will not stand before unknown or one version says obscure man I hope somebody's getting this so I need you to know that God says it is God that gives you the power to get well god says if you apply yourself wholeheartedly to his purpose for your life oh I wish somebody got this God says you won't serve in obscurity God says I'll put you in high places in other words he says your gifts will literally make room for you're not hearing me but go to 1st Timothy 6 verse 17 chapter 6 and verse 10 tests Olympian rich resists inside school first Timothy verse 6 in verse 10 chapter 6 percent the Bible says even though God gives us the power to get wealth right but then in 1st Timothy 6:10 the Bible says for the love of money it is the roots of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows so now there seems to be a contradiction because God says I'm the one that gives you power to get wealth while at the same time saying it is the love of money that is the root of all evil so holy spirit help me to make this clear in other words what the Bible makes clear is that God doesn't really have our issue with money see the Bible doesn't say money is the root of all evil the Bible says is that the love of money let me answer that the love of possessions the love of things is the root of all evil in other words the issue is not having money the issue is when we pledge our loyalty to it see the world literally says he that desires to become rich the Bible says he ensnares himself and Pierce's himself with many sorrows see the issue is not having money the issue is that when I make money the goal when I make possessions or things the metric by which I measure success or failure when it becomes the measure by which I validate myself or value myself oh how I measure whether or not my life has meaning or whether it does not but see I hope that somebody is getting what proverbs 22 says that if I'm diligent in my work and I pursue my purpose God says my gifts are gonna make room for me God says I'm going to serve in high places not in obscure places but I need you to understand that we should not be possessed with things we need to be possessed with purpose and in other words I need you to understand that if I throw myself into my purpose guess what possessions are gonna follow purpose but understand that if I get so caught up in looking at the possessions that I begin to substitute possession over my purpose then I begin to allow myself to be led astray and that's where I become spiritually compromised does that make sense anybody so so I need you to kind of get this because I'm using the word or the term possessed by things intentionally in other words they're they're literally I need you understand that in the last day that possession it may not look demonic satanic possession actually may look more materialistic oh lord have mercy salut who's gonna want to click off on this see the reason I'm saying this is understand that Satan knows that the body of Christ we read the Bible so we're very leery of spiritual possession in other words we read the book of Acts we know about the seven sons of sceva and how they were beaten and stripped naked by a man filled or possessed with a demon we read the story of the man in the gadarenes who is possessed with a legion of demons we've read the story of the little boy who was brought to Jesus by his father who is possessed by a spirit that would throw him into the fire and throw him into the water and cause him to get seized up in other words we're on guard of being possessed by that type of spirit so Satan says in this last days I've got to create some misdirection so when they're looking for me to come from over in that direction I got hit them with a different type of possession from another direction in other words in the last days you might not get possessed as they were possessed by a spirit but there's some of us that Laodicean generation that is rich and increased with Goods and have need of nothing I'm not going to possess them with spirits but I'm gonna possess them with things in other words there some of us here me and those of you who are at home you might not be possessed by an imp but there are some of us that are possessed by an iPhone or an iPad there's some of us that are not possessed by a spirit but some of us are possessed by spending some of us are not mastered by a spirit but some of us are in bondage to Master Card some of us are not possessed by a demon but some of us are possessed by diamonds some of us are not possessed by a spirit but some of us are possessed by Nike some are possessed by a spirit but some are possessed by Netflix some are possessed by a spirit but like me you can be possessed by sports some of us are possessed by Jerrod more than we are by Jesus some are possessed by Instagram more than we are by Emmanuelle some are possessed by Mary Kay and made aleem more than we are by the master some are possessed by Mercedes more than we're possessed by the Messiah some are possessed by Michael Kors than we are by Michael who is Jesus and see some of us need an exorcism not by a spirit but we need to in exorcism for the Xbox that consumes our devotional time early in the morning and in the late watches of the night see the above us know that you're possessed by things when you use things to validate you when things bring you security when things bring you status when things bring you self-esteem when things bring you self-worth when you find yourself upgrading a working device just for the sake of upgrading and keeping up with the Joneses is because we've gotten to a place where things are possessing us I know it's gonna get quiet right there in TV land today but seems like even one of the ways you know things possess you is when you get to that place where things dictate your praise in other words if you can praise God when things are prettiest but you ain't got no praise for Jesus when things go shallow it's because things are possessing your life I need you to understand that if income or status dictates your praises because you possess my things in the crazy house some of us man we were bold and claiming Jesus as long as we were striving the hooptie how we were okay lifting up holy hands when we lived in a certain part of time we didn't mind praying in public when we were trying to get the degree but in the crazy how our praise become so refined and so sophisticated when we move in that part of time and we begin driving that kind of car and when we get the terminal degree I'm need you to know that the more God prospers use your praise I'm not getting down but your praise ought to get that much more boombastic it ought to be that more overt your hands ought to be lifted that much higher your voice ought to be raised that much louder your face oughta just glow with the glory of God because I cannot let things determine my phrase and what I'm saying is somebody in this room is that the exorcism that we need it's not of the traditional kind of spirit some of us don't need to have a demon called out we need the spirit of materialism call that some of us need to have our identity loosed we need to have our values loose what some of us need to be loosed from is Michael Kors some of us need to be loosed from Amazon some of us need to be loosed from stitch some of us need to be loosed from their materialism and in the name of Jesus of Nazareth by the power invested in me I don't call that a spirit but the spirit I call out today is the spirit of materialism it is the spirit of self-importance it is the spirit of human validation it is the spirit of things I call it out in the name of Jesus loose God's people and let them go and it's crazy because like man we use anything to distract us from the real purpose we walk around here talking about the reason God see Corona was because God had a way to keep us from being in church all day no God didn't send Corona to detach you from spiritual heat in Corona maybe to keep you out of Macy's to keep you out of malls to loose you from the spirit of materialism are you hearing what I'm saying today and what I'm trying to get us understanding beloved is we got to get to a place where we do not allow our circumstances to dictate our disposition our praise or our spiritual stature come on in here real quote so you see the problem with us and I have them and and their clothes so don't know text me on this they are married they can be this close to each other in other words see the problem with some of us is we allow our possessions zoom in a little closer on this without our possessions there we go to dictate our praise but I need somebody to understand that you can't ever let possessions dictate praise why because of I'm Satan all I got to do is snatch your possessions and as soon as I snatch your possessions you lose your praise in other words there's some of us that are allowing our assets to drag our attitude but the problem with that as soon as I smash your assets then guess what you can snatch you a good attitude y'all not hearing this today if I couldn't in your fees are being dragged by your joy then guess what all I gotta do is take your seats then guess what I can take your joy but guess what if your praise and your joy and your attitude is connected to God because I can't touch your relationship with God if I can't touch your relationship with God then I can't touch your praise if I can't touch your relationship with God I can't touch your joy if I can't take your relationship with God I can't touch your attitude and I just need to know all this and folk at home who have your joy connected to purpose your joy is connected to a relationship it as a result the world didn't give you your choice and the world can't take it away because it's not dragged by stuff it's not dragged by possession it's not dragged by assets but it's led by the power of the Almighty God give him a hard amen today third thing sort of job teaches us I need to know I'm almost done is there things also Rajjo teaches us is that real praise it confuses the enemy real praise confuses the enemy now new job I understand because we hear this said in our time oh you just praise garden and praise will confuse the enemy as if somehow Satan is just gonna get discombobulated because you decide to clap your hands in church because you decide to lift hands when the music gets good or because you decide to run up and down the aisle you realize that worship doesn't confuse God like that you realize that Lucifer was the first praise team leader who was able to sing with multiple parts coming from the same mouth he is not intimidated by a space of worship we read in the book of Job that when the angels came before God to pay homage Satan rolled right in the middle of that joint so he is not deterred by an environment of praise but you know what statement praise confuses the enemy phrase confuses the enemy when God's people praise Him out of season hmm now y'all got to see this thing you bought Satan sins a cloud of satanic hosts to measure jobs very biorhythms as all of his reasons for praising God are being stripped away in the same conversation like you got you got to see man your boy Satan man I mean he couldn't love me like he want to see this joy he hears watching job's breathing patterns he is looking at the way his pupils dilate he's waiting to see if sweat is gonna fall from his brow I mean he is he is measuring job so like job is just taking it all in is just like in one moment one servant comes and says this happened and the oxen have been taken away while he's speaking this happens and all the Sheep have been taken away this happens and all the servants have been taken away and then Satan who plays by no rules and without any restraints while he is yet speaking your kids that you just covered last I in a good that he covered them the last time in a good that he prayed preemptively that your kids while they were getting down this one last time how the Bible says that they they have been killed and I alone have escaped to tell you and it's crazy because your boy job is taking this joint and I mean he realizes that man you go through the stages of grief first it is met with a certain level of denial and it goes through stages before you get to the place of acceptance and it's crazy because Satan is looking he is watching he thinks God our job job only praises God because of things and because of reasons and because he has hedged in by blessings on every side I mean he is watching and man he sees as the Bible says job goes into some outward mourning traditions so because of his grief he takes a razor and shaves all of the hair from his head to just show the affliction of his soul what he does is he begins to rip his garment to let people know out really that inside that he is torn up on the inside and it's crazy how Satan is watching as job's hands clinched in a fist and as job begins to lift his fist to the air Satan is getting ready to throw a party they get ready to throw a run a lap because he feels like job is about to shake his face in cursing rebellion against God but understand your boy Joe does not open up his hands and shake his fist in rebellion but in the midst of the worst day ever had he begins to open up both hands and he begins to praise the greatness of our God and the Bible says that Joe begins to worship he begins to go into doxology and says the Lord gives and the Lord takes away but blessed be the name of the Lord and it's crazy because your boy Satan is like apple even know what to do he's confused because he's praising when he should be complaining he's worshiping but he should be walking away he's giving God glory in his worst hour and it literally sin Satan back to the drawing board to get a whole nother set of attacks to come against Joe with and it's crazy because Joe watch this and this is important I hope somebody's hearing this job is hurting see understand his relationship with God does not make him exempt from pain he has these outward forms of greed to let us know this hurts my soul he loved his kid he loved this life and he literally is having to praise God through the river of tears that fall from his face and it shows us something about phrase is that praise real praise can be based on feelings praise listen my hopes my sadness your boy job is feeling it but he doesn't praise God because there is no are no tears sometimes I hope somebody's getting this who is going through this and that and you're being bombarded sometimes you gotta praise God through the tears sometimes you gotta be able to praise them with when you win win with your tears as David has said has to become your meat and your drink you gotta praise him through your tears and the reason I'm saying this is because man see we we have this feeling phrase generation well I hear people saying and I give it as was in your past you know you know today I just had a I just felt a praise and my spirit well what about those days when you can't feel no praise in your spirit say will you praise God when there ain't no when you can't feel nothing in your spirit what about that day when when your husband or your wife decides the marriage is over and they walk out the door what were you praising on that day where your beloved mother or grandma falls asleep in Jesus will you praise them on that day when you get to that place where there ain't no money in the bank and no employers are calling but the bill collectors are calling an hour on top of our and they call from familiar and unfamiliar numbers to understand that praise is not based upon what you feel praise is based upon what you know let me preach to y'all on this I even though y'all ain't even here praise is not based on what you feel praise is based upon what you know that's why Jesus said in John chapter four that the right type of worshipers that the father seeks they praise Him in spirit and in truth because the truth is what you feel is gonna shift from day to day but what you know about God never ever changes when the circumstances change us see if I know God was in control yesterday when the circumstance changes I know that he is still God today if I know God is faithful when I got money I still know God is faithful when I don't have money and what I'm saying that somebody is what the praise that confuses the enemy is when we praise God out of season when it don't even make no sense for us to praise God it is when everything in life has shifted in the wrong direction and you can say as the old hymn writer that whatever my lot thou has taught me to say it is well it is well with my soul real worshippers say I'm not just gonna praise you when it's good but I'm gonna bless the Lord at all times and it's free shall continually be in my mouth in other words you've gotta have a weatherproof worship you gotta have a weatherproof praise where I praise Him not because of circumstance but I praise Him despite my circumstance and I trust God to be God in every situation of my life see the beauty of the story of Job Young is that share a couple weeks ago is that job's appraisal of God you can play something for me is that job's appraisal of God does not change when all of the circumstances of job's life change we got to get to this place man where our relationship with God man is so steadfast it's so weatherproof where it is not so thing or circumstance dependent lie even though it's crazy I understand what people mean when they say but when people say something like man pass of garbage so enough good this week as if he wasn't really show enough good last week so when we say he's so not good this week what we mean is our circumstances were favorable this week but they all realized God is real good every day you wake up he's real good when we have money he's real good when we don't have no man he's real good in our living and even he's real good and I got listen there is nothing that happens see see a phrase it can't be based on what you feel because what that means is if circumstance shifts that changes who God is to you but a shifting circumstance cannot undo everything that God has been all the days of my life and see as this last day church we talked about last days remember Daniel chapter 12 verse 1 says that there's about to come a time of trouble unlike any other time since there has been a nation that that's what we got to go through before we come through on that other side on the sea of glass and we're described as those that come out of the Great Tribulation and say I need us to understand that God is allowing some stores to show us some things God has sent some storms because we got some stuff that we just been covering up and God is saying I need to expose some things I need to wash away your covering so that you let me stain or sanctify your soul he said I'm permitting some storms in your life like this corona stuff what it has done is it has revealed where God is covering but he hadn't saturated me he hadn't got down into the crevices and into the cracks of life and God is saying the ones who make it through that trouble they're not gonna be ones that just have it on the surface they're gonna be the ones that have Jesus saturated in every part of the life and say understand man that that when you look at the story of the wise and foolish builder one built on the rock the other man built on the sand if those two houses were maybe a mile apart or a couple hundred feet apart they both look straight on sunny days but you can see where they were built until the rain failed and say we're and what they called a what we call the early time of trouble so what God is revealing to some of us is you kind of thought you were building on Christ you thought your life were centered on God until all of a sudden this last seven weeks your possessions shrink and in possession dictated praise prayer your attitude are your hold on God this was God's dress rehearsal of just letting you know that your hope is not built on nothing less than Jesus blood and his righteousness God wants to grow us to a point where no matter what's happening all around us we are mature enough in our faith but we can see it as well it is well this is what God and this is the purpose of these last two messages he's trying to get us to a place see that song sounds real good you know when a great voice is combined with a great melody [Music] but there's somebody and I know for a fact you're watching it from a hospital room smells watching it from a nursing home [Music] somebody watch you found out a loved one passed as a result of coding somebody watching a quarantine somebody who all of their circumstances all of their reasons for praising God and maybe not quite like Joel but many things have just been shaken up your world has been radically changed in these last seven or eight weeks but God is trying to grow us to a place where we can say with that song not just because it sounds good but because of who we know that whatever my lot thou has taught me to say it is well it is well it is well with my soul I'm praying that you receive this work today I prayed that for that person who is really questioned God because of the presence of bad or evil to understand that it wasn't this sadistic experiment that caused God to create it was love that demanded creation and and understand that the warranty is greater than the liabilities so that we can trust God and because the warranty is so great this trouble is gone pass away and the eternal life that was garrard that was promised to Adam and Eve will be ours each earn Allah when he comes back to receive us I'm praying that somebody would understand this this message that the past is not an tied possession I have a phone I have an iPad I have Nikes and I'm like no that's not what I'm talking about but what I'm talking about is living my life where I'm more possessed by purpose than I am by things I'm praying that as you listen to the word and where the Spirit convicts I'm praying that the spirit of materialism is losing its hold I'm praying that you are being loosed from self-importance I pray that you'll be loosed from status symbols I pray that you be loosed from name brand validation I pray that you'll be loosed from the idea of having to drive that or live there or have so many square feet to understand that your value in Christ is intrinsic it's not extrinsic that nothing you can put on aware a place where you can work or drive as any eternal value to you but your value is in Jesus Christ I'm talking about priority I'm talking about seeking first the kingdom of God and God says if I seek him first all of the things will be added I don't know about you your home it's been hard or maybe it's not hard for you right now this is kind of one of those will you take these sermon notes and tuck it away because guess what your time is coming it's coming for all of us I preach with a certain amount of trepidation this message I told my Bible preaches it the part mónica boys are certain amount of trepidation because there are times where we are often have to live out whatever it is we profess about God but I want to make up my mind ahead of the storm I want to make up my mind ahead of the adversity I want to make up my mind ahead of the illness of circumstance that whatever my lot thou has taught me to say it is well it is well with my soul then I'll praise him based on that what I know not what I don't fear what I feel that sometimes I'll be committed to praising him even through the tears then I'll be steadfast and immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that my labor is not in vain I'll praise him when I want to pray I'll make up my mind in advance that we're gonna praise Him despite earthly circumstance why because we know that this world is not our home we cannot allow our situation to change our appraisal of God's goodness this is the message to God's last-day people who will go through this great time of job's affliction but we're gonna come through on the other side and the promise is that though we've been we've been we've been worked through the furnace of affliction the promises we shall come forth as pure gold so right now in your home your device head of household head of household mom grandma husband how're your families constructed uncle older sibling taking care younger sibling would you gather them to the altar will you create a family huddle [Music] will you just make a commitment in your Innerspace come what may we will serve the Lord come what may we will praise the Lord we will have weatherproof worship no matter how good how bad we will praise the name of the Lord we will not deviate we will not depart we will serve Him always would you make that covenant for just few moments and I'm gonna pray I know I know I've taken you long and I would apologize but man there's been a lot that God gave me to give to you today would you make that covenant commitment [Music] individually maybe you're not with a family but individually you make that same covenant come with me [Music] in the hospital room you're saying come with me don't know what your marriage is gonna turn out to be you're saying come with me your children are they're in a world of hurt but you're saying come with me financially you're depleted but you're saying come with me come with me I will breathe there is pain in your body you're saying come with me [Music] father this is not so much a prayer but it's a commitment and even this commitment we make we realize we can't make it because we're strong or because we have virtue or because we have power but we just trust you to sustain us and keep us through whatever changes like transitions we might experience and so it is with the assurance set because you have measured us that you would never place more on us than we what we are able to bear it is with that assurance that you have a hedge placed around us and that you you have a limitation to what you allow to come to us it is because of that assurance we make a pledge to say because you never leave us will never leave you that that will not allow our circumstance to dictate our phrase all of your goodness but we say is the patriarch David we will bless you at all times and your praise will continually be in our mouths so Lord we commit our lives to you we commit our way to you as as every parent who is listening Lord we commit to brain preemptively for our children just in case we want to live the right thing and do the right thing and teach the right way but because you've given us choice we pray preemptively for their salvation their help their prosperity their well-being their their marriages their Park we pray preemptively for another and we commit our way to you so Lord as somebody is committing would you seal their

Channel: First Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Id: DxI-tr-S5Ok

Length: 75min 35sec (4535 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020