Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 27, 2019 | Patty Diliberto - Called To Surrender - Session 3

Transcript

March 27, 2019 | Patty Diliberto - Called To Surrender - Session 3 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to look at some signs that we all need to heed in order to navigate the life that we have here.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: And if we are living in the end times, which I highly suspect that we are, then there's some things that we need to understand about that and some warnings that we need to heed.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: God has given us some very significant warnings in Scripture, and that's what we're going to be looking at today.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: So let's pray and ask Him to join us.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we thank you so much that in the last days you knew that we would need these warnings.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: You gave us signs, you gave us warnings, so that we could heed them, so that we could know what it is you want us to do so that it could lead and guide us.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: We thank you so much for what we're going to see today in your word.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: We just ask you to bless it, to bless us just with a manifestation of your presence here this morning, Lord.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: We pray.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: And we ask this in Jesus' name.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: I truly hope and pray that this last week in your in your homework that you were able to see the ways in which you need to take some action.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: We saw that that repentance, renewing our minds, regrouping and resting all requires action, right?
1:25
SPEAKER_00: We cannot expect a positive outcome unless we take some positive action.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: If you need to experience something different in your life, then you need to probably do something different in order to experience that.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: Albert Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, different results.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: If what you have been doing is not leading you to a different place spiritually and with God, then you need to take some different action.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: Some of the warning signs that we're going to look at today are intended to give us direction and then to lead us, to help lead us take some actions, some action steps, and that will lead us to a better place.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: The first sign we're going to see is the yield sign.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: We are all flawed.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: All of us are flawed.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: The very best person you know has issues, right?
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Because we all have issues.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: Scripture tells us that we all fall short of the glory of God.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: That is the state of our being because we are in Adam.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: We have faulty thinking because we have been deceived.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: Do you see yourself as a deceived individual?
2:46
SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest breakthroughs in my life came when I said to God, I'm going to assume that I'm wrong about everything unless I know it's true from Scripture.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: That was huge for me because from my past I had really strong defense mechanisms that were embedded deep into my soul.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: And acting and behaving like I had it all together, like I knew everything, like I like I was right, i.e.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: being prideful, was one of the things that I had bedded inside of myself.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: That God needed to do some action on and get rid of.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And so telling him, I'm going to assume I'm wrong instead of assuming I'm right, was a huge step in that direction of taking that action.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: Whether you see yourself as deceived or not, we have all believed the lie, we have all believed lies that the enemy has told us.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: We do not, um, if we do not repent and renew our minds, then we're gonna stay deceived.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna stay in that place.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: All of that action, and to the degree that we join God in that action, should be leading us toward a different place and hopefully toward surrender.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: We have a real enemy, we are in a real battle, the stakes are high, but because we are in Christ, because we are in Christ, we have the victory because Jesus Christ has the victory.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Satan doesn't want us to have that victory.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: He must have seen Jesus' death as a great victory for him.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus died, he must have been celebrating that death, thinking, aha, I have I've done it.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: I've conquered this.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: But there were some really positive outcomes that happened as a result of Jesus' death.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: And John chapter 16, verse 7 and 8 tell us what one of those outcomes was.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: Sin, righteousness, and judgment.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: That is one of the jobs of the advocate.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: The advocate, the Holy Spirit was a dynamic, positive outcome from Christ's death.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: The reason Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us is because we all need what the Spirit does for us.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: He what does he do?
5:27
SPEAKER_00: He convicts us of sin.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: He illuminates scripture.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: And he he reveals who God is, who the Father is, and who the Son is.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: So he brings conviction, he brings illumination, and he brings revelation.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Those are really important jobs that the Holy Spirit does for us.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: And if we didn't have him, we wouldn't have the degree of all of these that we have.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: That's just some of the things that the advocate does for those who are in Christ.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: We have been deceived.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: We are all sinners, so we all need the conviction that the Holy Spirit brings.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: We need his help in every single way, right?
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Oswald Chambers says, In my utmost for his highest, he says, conviction of sin is one of the most uncommon things that ever happens to a person.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: One of the most uncommon things.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: And that should make us ask: why is it uncommon?
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Why is conviction uncommon?
6:35
SPEAKER_00: A partial answer to that would be that we don't like being told that we're wrong.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
6:43
SPEAKER_00: We don't like it when somebody implies that we need to change.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: It's our human nature to minimize our sin.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: And we don't like to think that we need help.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: We're independent people.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Those are some of the reasons why it is an uncommon thing for us.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: The enemy of our souls doesn't want us to change either.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Satan doesn't want to want us to give up the deception that has become embedded in us.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want, he's he's fine with us just the way we are.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: He likes um, he wants us to stay that way.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to keep doing the same things that we've done over and over and over in the same ways.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: And then when we don't get the the res the result that we want, he wants us to turn and he wants us to question God and say, why isn't my life working out?
7:39
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to stay embedded in the deception and keep doing what we're doing and then accuse God, because he's the accuser of the brethren.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: That's one of his roles.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: From Satan's viewpoint, one of the worst things that can happen to a person is if they if they respond to God's conviction, if they begin to see the areas in which they need to change, and if they start taking some action.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the worst things, in his opinion, that can happen.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: If you start agreeing with God about your sin, Satan hates that.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: That's another reason why it's an uncommon thing.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: We've been lulled to sleep by the enemy's whisper of, you're okay.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: You're fine, just the way you are.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to change.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us this over and over.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: Acceptance and tolerance is the new plumb line in our society.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: And we tolerate and accept things that we should never even be entertaining.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: My teaching today is not a warm, fuzzy one.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: I think you can tell that.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: But it is truth.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: And there are some warnings that we all need to heed that scripture gives us.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: We cannot move closer to God if we stay deceived.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: We cannot move closer to God if we continue to cling to the things we need to repent of.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: We cannot move closer to God if we cling to the people who bring us down.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: We cannot move closer to God if we don't change the busyness of our lives and find some rest for our weary souls.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: And we cannot move closer to God if we don't know God's word, if it's not renewing our minds.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: So if we want to move closer to God, it will require action on all of those fronts.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: It will require us to yield ourselves to God more fully, more completely.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: My house backs up to a very busy street, five lanes of traffic, kind of busy.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: When we first saw the house, we loved it.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: But the the street behind us, which was then a two-lane road, bothered me, and I thought, can can I handle that kind of music?
9:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, kind of um noise.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: This is 45th Street, I'm talking about.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And so the people would say, Oh, you'll get used to the noise, but I didn't believe them.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: I didn't I didn't think I would ever get used to the noise.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: And that's when it was a two-lane, and now it's a five-lane.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: But it's proven true.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: I have gotten used to the noise.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: I hardly even hear it, except for the busy times, which which are 6 a.m.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: is a busy time, and that's great because the noise picks up and I wake up.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then five o'clock to six o'clock is another busy time.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: But that noise has become white noise to me.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't even, I don't really even hear it or pay any attention to it until those those busy times.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: I can shut out that noise most of the time because it's become white noise to me.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: We all live in a very busy, noisy world.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: All of us.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Our lives look and sound like they are backed up to a five-lane road or an interstate.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: And we've gotten used to the noise.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: We've gotten used to the busyness.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: We've become acclimated to the noise and the busyness, and all of our activity and the perpetual interruptions and the constant availability has become white noise to us.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Do you agree?
11:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how often do you check your phones and you don't even know you're doing it because it's a default for us now?
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Satan loves the white noise of our hectic lives.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: He loves us to be caught up in this white noise, and that ties to our next sign, which is danger ahead.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Timothy, which is the Apostle Paul's last book that he has written, and he wrote it to Timothy, to the church where Timothy ministered, he addresses the condition of the world in the last days before the rapture of the church.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Let me clarify that.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: And you can see the quote here from SonicLight.com.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: The last days of the church are not the same as the last days of the nation Israel, which is repeatedly mentioned in the Old Testament.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, the last days are called the end of the age or the end of the time of the end, which is the Great Tribulation period.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: That is quite different from the last days of the church, which precedes the rapture of the church.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: Since the day of Pentecost, we have been living in the church age.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: It began at Pentecost, it will most likely end, I believe, at the at a pre-tribulation rapture.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: So when the seven years of tribulation begins, the church age is over and it becomes the end of the time, the time of the end.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: So we need to see what these verses tell us about those living in the last days so that we can understand this, if indeed we are living in the last days.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: I have these verses on your sheet there, and I want you to underline as I read through this, I want you to underline what are some of the characteristics of the last days.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: And these are familiar verses to you, so you will know them.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy 3, 1 through 7.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: But mark this there will be terrible times in the last days.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power, have nothing to do with such people.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women who have been who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: The first five verses, Paul is describing people who will live during the last days.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: These are what he's saying.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us how they will think and how they will act, how they will behave.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: So let's take just a few minutes to walk through each one of those things and see the attitudes and the actions that are going to mark some of these people in the last days.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Then you tell me if we're there or not.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: First of all, lovers of self, selfish, intent on one's own interests.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: These people feel as if as if the world revolves around them and them alone.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: When love for self is elevated, love for God and for others is diminished.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: The rest of the characteristics that are in these verses flow out of the love for self, selfish love.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Lovers of money, covetous.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: These people are covetous.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: And when we start to worship ourselves and ignore God, we will love things and we will use people.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Lovers boastful.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: These are empty pretenders.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: They're wind bags.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: They're people who who brag about what they've done and who they know and how they think.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're just wind bags.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: Proud.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: And that isn't as pride is an overestimation of one's worth.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: They're abusive.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: They're given to defiant and bitter words.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: These people have lost all respect for God, for themselves, and for other people.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: They think nothing of using their tongue to speak evil, and when that doesn't work, then they use their hands or whatever they have.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Disobedient to parents.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: If children will not respect their parents in the home, who are they going to respect?
15:54
SPEAKER_00: If we don't see it in the home, then how can we expect to see it in society?
16:00
SPEAKER_00: Ungrateful, no sense of gratitude for anything they possess.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: We see this in our society, this unsettled unthankfulness, and we will see it more and more.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: Unholy.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: That's wicked.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: And the word here is perverse or profane, sorry.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: This is a state of the heart when someone loses all regard for decency and shame and they're governed by their passions without love, without natural affection.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: They don't love the people that they should love the most because it's absent from them.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: They want to fulfill the perversion that they want to participate in.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Unforgiving.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: This refers to those who will not forgive anyone.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: They will hold on to grudges and think nothing about taking it out on someone who is innocent.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: Slanders, false accusers.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: These people destroy the good name and the good reputation of other people.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Without control, that's the inability to discipline oneself.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: If it feels good, do it, is their mantra.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: Brutal, fierce, untamed, and savage.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: These people are controlled by their sinful instincts.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Not lovers of the good, despisers of those who are good.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Good is evil, and evil is good to these people.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: And those who take a biblical stand and are living for Christ are going to be pure persecuted and hated by these people.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: Treacherous.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: These people will lie and cheat and steal and crush anyone who dares to get in their way, and they have no conscience about it.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Rash, reckless, acting without reasonable thought.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: This is a lifestyle that has no regard for anybody else.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: Conceited means high-minded.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: These puffed up people feel that they have no need for God or for others.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: That all they need is themselves, and then lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, and having a form of godliness but denying its power.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: This is what we can expect in the last days before the rapture.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: Self-centered narcissism, heartless, callous, uncaring individuals who are interested in their own prideful opinions and self-importance, undisciplined, unresponsive, ungrateful, and unholy people.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: That's a really sad state of being.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: For many, many of those things in ever-increasing measure.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: Can it get worse?
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and it will.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: It will.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: The last one, that last one, in verse 5, having a form of godliness but denying its power.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: Paul is talking about people within the church.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: If you look at all the commentaries on this, they all agree.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Paul is describing professing Christians, probably even leaders in the church.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: In our day and age, it can be the writers of books or Bible studies or blogs.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Not passive sit in the pew kind of people who just come on Sunday morning, but those who have active voices in ministry is what we are talking about here.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: All the commentaries agree with that.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Don't speak it out, just write it down first.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: What characteristics or pretense would a person who has a form of godliness without being godly have?
19:55
SPEAKER_00: What kind of characteristics would they have?
19:57
SPEAKER_00: What would how would they be?
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Judgmental.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: Accepting of things that are not biblical that are not good.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: They would sound pretty good, and what they say would sound good.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Right?
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Right.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: What does verse five tell us to do?
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Have nothing to do with them.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Have nothing to do with them.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: If we are aware and we know in advance that the false teaching is going to be out there, we won't be easily sucked into what they're saying, right?
21:26
SPEAKER_00: When you see Christian leaders or churches preaching self-love or the love of money or self in any way, shape, or form, avoid them.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Avoid them to the point of having nothing to do with them.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Don't read their books.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: Don't listen to their podcasts or their preaching or their TV programs.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Have nothing to do with them.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: In the last days, that's going to become an even greater problem, isn't it?
21:59
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: There will be false teachers that Satan uses.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: So we have to be aware of it now.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Why?
22:07
SPEAKER_00: Because we're if we're not in the last days, we are quickly approaching that place.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: What are we going to need in the last days?
22:16
SPEAKER_00: What are we going to need in the last days to recognize who these people and voices are?
22:21
SPEAKER_00: What are we going to need?
22:25
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit, knowledge of the scriptures, discernment, right?
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: We're going to need all of those things if we're going to know.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: We have to know what the Word of God says and what it doesn't say in order to stay, to protect ourselves from the false teachers.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: There are, these are the kind of people who do what verse 6 and 7 tell us.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: What sort of creatures worm or creep their way into something?
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Besides the one on the screen.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: Snakes, mice, roaches.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Gross, really gross things.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: And what do you do if you want to keep creepy, crawly things out of your home?
23:25
SPEAKER_00: You take some action.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: When you find out you have an infestation of something, you take action.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: You set traps, you put out poison.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: You get a cat who will eat them.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: You do whatever you can do.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: You take action.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: You become aware of the problem and you immediately take action.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: You clean up what needs to clean up, you get rid of whatever's attracting them, right?
23:47
SPEAKER_00: What a good word picture this is.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Who worm their way in.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Satan uses his slithering tactics to gain access to our lives.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: We all know that, right?
23:59
SPEAKER_00: We all know that he's doing that.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to think about this question, and I want you to write down your answer after you've thought about it.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: In what ways is Satan worming or slithering his way into homes today?
24:13
SPEAKER_00: What are some of those ways he's getting in?
24:17
SPEAKER_00: What's attracting him?
24:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what are you writing down or thinking?
24:27
SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't give you much time.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Social media.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: TV.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Internet.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: What?
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Culture of tolerance.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Busyness.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: All of those things.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: All of those things are how he is getting into our homes.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: What does Satan hope to accomplish by his slithering, invasive intrusion into our secret, secure places of refuge, our homes?
25:00
SPEAKER_00: What is he trying to do?
25:03
SPEAKER_00: He tells us, Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3, 6 and 7.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: The answer is gain control over gullible women.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Over who?
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Eek over gullible women.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Paul elaborates the characteristics of these gullible women.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: They are loaded down with sins and they're swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: I can't even communicate to you how absolutely heartbroken I was and am over that description right here in these two verses.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: As I was preparing for this teaching, God broke my heart over this passage.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not telling you this to make myself look better in your eyes.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: So bear with me.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: When my attention was brought to this passage, it absolutely captured my heart and broke my heart.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't get over it.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I couldn't get away from this.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: And so I marinated myself in these verses until I could get some time to really process this.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: But I was heartbroken.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: And it wouldn't go away.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: It would not, the this feeling would not go away.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: I knew there was more that God wanted me to know and understand about this and wanted to perceive.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: And so I kept marinating in it.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: And when I had the opportunity to really dig in to these verses, a weight and sadness, more of a weight and sadness, came upon me.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: And it's very familiar to me.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: And so I went to my knees and I began to cry with before the Lord with my face to the floor.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: I confess to God that this is happening in homes all the time, day in, day out.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: That his girls are believing so many lies and they are listening to false guides.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: I was sobbing and my heart was breaking over the deception my sisters in Christ are believing, and on my face before the Lord, I repented.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: I repented for myself, for my nation, and for our culture that is being so deceived and gullible.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: I repented that few leaders are sounding the alarm or are even alarmed.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: You get the picture.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: And then I stretched out on the floor with my hands open to the Lord and I said, Speak to my heart on this issue.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: And God spoke to me, not in an audible voice, but as he does to our hearts.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: And his response was, You've done what I wanted.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: You entered into the sorrow I have for my daughters.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: I was grieved and heartbroken because it grieves God.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: It grieves God when any of us are led astray through false teaching.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: It grieves him that we don't know his word well enough to protect ourselves from deception.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: You see, repentance doesn't just have to be about what we have done personally to offend our holy God.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: It can be about our nation, our culture, our times.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: When God tugs at your heart with something from Scripture, go there with Him.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Find out why He's pulling at your heart the way He is with that.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: Allow your heart to be broken with what breaks his.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: We sing that all the time, but how often do we actually enter into that?
28:50
SPEAKER_00: Not nearly often enough.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: My encounter with God in regard to these verses changed me.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: It changed me.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: He will often break our hearts if we are attentive enough to him.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: He will often break our hearts with something like this.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: And when he does, it's usually what sets us on mission.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: In the past, he laid a passion on me to teach women the Word of God and to make sure that women were understanding the Word of God more and more and more.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: He laid that passion on me, and everything I have done for the past 25 years has been with that passion in mind, has been driven by that passion.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: God loves it when we are paying enough attention to Him that He can break our hearts over something so that we can join Him and be effective in ministry.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this prayer called Penitent by Ruth Harms Calkin.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, you have driven me into a corner where I cannot escape.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: I come to you pentantly, for today I've sinned grievously.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: I have betrayed my highest ideals.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: I have been false to my inner convictions.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: I know I have broken your heart.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for dealing with me in the privacy of your personal presence, for my sin has been against you alone.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: Cleanse me, Lord.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: Change me.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Sin is so hideous, so outrageous.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: Renew me until I am spiritually contagious.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: Don't you love that line?
30:27
SPEAKER_00: Until I am spiritually contagious.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: We want to be women who are spiritually contagious.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Now that's repentance, and it has all the elements in it there.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: Agreeing with God about how grievous our sin is, recognition that our sin is against him and him alone, and that it has broken his heart.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: Then looking for him to cleanse and change us and renew us until we're spiritually contagious.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: These verses about the last days of the church describe our current culture.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: We are there.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: It will get worse and worse and worse.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: False teachers have captivated many.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Women were probably more susceptible to the influence of false teachers than men because in Paul's culture, women occupied a lower status in society.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, they did not usually have as much education as their husbands.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Another explanation is that they had more time on their hands with which they could dabble in various things.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul may have had some information about women within Timothy's church.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: That might have been why he was addressing it.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: But perhaps a better explanation is that the Holy Spirit led him to say this because and used Paul to write this because he knew how applicable it would be to us in the last times.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Because it is completely applicable to us.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: I would say that's that it's meant to be a warning for us right now.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: Chuck Swindah says all too often it isn't the godless who get better.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: It's we who get worse.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: If I put on a pair of white gloves and play in the mud on a rainy day, the mud never gets glovier.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: The gloves get muddier.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: What is it we are learning from these false teachers, these voices that come slithering in?
32:34
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
32:35
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, it is not the truth.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: It's not the full counsel of God that we are hearing.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: These teachers have may have a large following and say the right things for a time and may even have power.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: But we have to question: is it from God?
32:52
SPEAKER_00: You are not hearing me say that every voice out there on the internet or in books are Bible studies is a deceptive voice because that's just not true.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: There are truly excellent teachers out there on the web.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: I listen to podcasts, and you probably are listening to some of them too, and they're great and should be listened to.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: But we have to be careful.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: We've got to think.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: The slithering false teachings that are tickling our ears are declaring partial truth that is intended to make us feel good about ourselves.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: And that kind of has to be the plumb line.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Is this teaching making me just feel good about myself?
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Or is it bringing some conviction?
33:39
SPEAKER_00: We all want to feel good about ourselves.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: But remember, conviction is an uncommon thing.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: We are not always going to feel good about ourselves, especially when we're convicted about something.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: The people you are listening to on the social media, on the web, should be people who are bringing you to conviction.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: What should they be convicting you of?
34:03
SPEAKER_00: You should be being convicted of how great the love of the Father is for you.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: You should be being convicted to get right with God and do whatever you have to do to get right with God.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: You should be being convicted to love Him more passionately and more deeply.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of conviction we want.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of conviction we need.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: Not you're okay, I'm okay.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: We're all okay.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: When you believe everything you hear, you will never arrive at the truth because you will be taking in so much error.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: Always learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: We are all always learning more and more because it's at our fingertips.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: We can learn anything we want to learn.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: More knowledge does not necessarily equal truth.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: More knowledge does not equal truth.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: God's word isn't intended to make us feel good about ourselves, right?
35:09
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is intended to expose deception, to reveal sin, to correct wrong thinking, bring conviction, and reveal God's great love for us.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: Not all of those are feel-good experiences or topics, are they?
35:28
SPEAKER_00: Listen, ladies, we have to stop wanting our ears to be tickled.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: We have to stop basing every experience on how it makes us feel.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: We have to grow up and stop being gullible.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: We've got to know God's word and base everything we believe upon it.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Have nothing to do with them, but have everything to do with God.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: I am telling you, this is breaking God's heart.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: His church is being deceived, and his women are buying into it and are too gullible.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: I feel like one of the prophets of old who stood up and warned Israel and said, Judgment is coming, judgment is coming, captivity is coming.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: Take heed, lest you get swallowed up in it.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: And Israel didn't turn back to God.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: In the 19th century, one of America's leading newspapers addressed the following question to many notable persons.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: What, in your opinion, is the chief danger, social or political, that confronts the coming century?
36:34
SPEAKER_00: The general of the Salvation Army, William Booth, sent the following reply: In answer to your inquiry, I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: How powerful is that?
36:58
SPEAKER_00: And I think he's right.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: So what are we to do?
37:02
SPEAKER_00: What are we to do?
37:04
SPEAKER_00: We proceed with caution.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: Malachi 2, 16.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words of the Lord through Malachi.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: So be on your guard and do not be unfaithful.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: You have wearied the Lord with your words.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: How have we wearied him?
37:24
SPEAKER_00: You ask?
37:25
SPEAKER_00: By saying, All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them?
37:31
SPEAKER_00: Or where is the God of justice?
37:34
SPEAKER_00: I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: The messenger of the covenant, whom you desire will come, says the Lord Almighty.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: But who can endure the day of his coming?
37:50
SPEAKER_00: Who can stand when he appears?
37:52
SPEAKER_00: For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: And Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord as in the days gone by, as in former years.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: So I will come to you on trial.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: I will come to put you on trial.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: But do not fear me, says the Lord Almighty.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: God says, You have wearied me with your words.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: God is tired of hearing the false teaching.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: He knows who is false, and he's tired.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: He's tired that it's making us feel okay about some of the things we shouldn't feel okay about.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: He's tired of people who say there is if there is a just God, why isn't he taking some action?
38:58
SPEAKER_00: Or people who say, if God is just, why do the wicked prosper?
39:03
SPEAKER_00: He's tired of hearing that.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: The example we see from the book of Job is that God does allow Satan to afflict the righteous as well as the wicked.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: But the truth is God will eventually punish the wicked and bless the righteous.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: Just maybe not in this life.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: The people that God was addressing through Malachi is 400 years before Christ actually comes in his first coming.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: And he was talking about his second coming.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: To them in the Old Testament with Malachi, it's all future.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: The first coming is future, the second coming 2,000 years later is future.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: He has come and he is coming again, a second time.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: And verse 2 is talking, 2 and 3 are talking about the coming of Jesus Christ the second time, not the first.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: And before he comes, there's going to be some purifying and some cleansing that's going to take place that God is going to do.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: Why?
40:04
SPEAKER_00: Because we need purifying and we need cleansing.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: We need to perceive the false propaganda and burn it up.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: We need to, some people need to have their mouths washed out with soap.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: We need to help people who are in desperate situations all over the world because they are desperate, desperately suffering people all over the world.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: And they would get worse in the last days.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: We need God to come and purify us because before he comes for his church, the bride of Christ.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: Judgment is coming, captivity is upon us.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: And Malachi 2.16 is applicable to us right now.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: So be on your guard and do not be unfaithful.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: Be on your guard.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: If more of God is what you want, then being occupied with God more than self is what you have to do.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: Getting more of the blessings of God is not why we surrender.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: We surrender to get more of God.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: Self can never be an impetus for surrender.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: Oswald Chambers says, our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him and not for God Himself.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: It is like saying, no, Lord, I don't want you.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: I want myself, but I do want you to clean me and fill me with your Holy Spirit.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: I want to be on display in your showcase so I can say this is what God has done for me.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: That statement is more convicting and even more applicable than it was in 1915 when Oswald Chambers spoke that.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: Living a surrendered life means loving Jesus with the totality of your being.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: Loving him to the best of your ability, day after day after day.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: If we are in the last days, and I believe, and many others believe that we are, then we need to heed the warning signs and take some action.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: We need to embrace the uncommon conviction of the Holy Spirit.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: It's imperative that we have discernment.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: And it's crucial that we know the truth so we can discern the deception.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: I know today has been a hard teaching, but I have a spiritual responsibility as a leader to sound the alarm and say that captivity and judgment are coming.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: God made sure that this warning was in Scripture, did He not?
43:15
SPEAKER_00: It's so obvious.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: This is for our times.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: We must heed that warning and we must take some action that will take us to a different place spiritually, a better place.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: If you agree, say amen.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: Father God, thank you so much.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for putting these warnings in your word so that now, at this time, at this place, we can heed them, we can pay attention to them, we can let them break our hearts and say, Not in this house.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: Not on my watch.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: God, we so long for your coming.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: We're desperate for it.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: We hate the deception that is out there.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: And we hate the way your daughters are being led astray.
44:15
SPEAKER_00: So, God, come and and do that purification in our lives, in our hearts, in our minds, so that we can be surrendered to you, and so that we can be spiritually contagious.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: Break our heart for what breaks yours, Lord, and then set us on mission.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: We pray and ask you to do these things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for his great kingdom and glory.
44:45
SPEAKER_00: Amen.