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Category Archives: Blame

Sermon 135 – I HURT, I HATE, I WON’T

10 Feb

After 24 years in ministry I’ve concluded that just about every modern Christian has come to Christ because they’re hurting. They’ve come to get God to fix their hurt.

The hurt is pretty-much always some mis-treatment or mis-understanding from a parent. More often than not, the general hurt is the child’s perception, right or wrong, of the father liking a sibling more than themselves.

Once a person takes on the hurt, their spirit will automatically hate the person who hurt them. Everyone will admit they’ve been hurt, but few will admit they hate. Everyone knows hate is wrong so we cover our hate with niceness and politeness, and helps, and call it love. Eventually their fruit verifies their hate. In God’s eyes we’re lying to ourselves.

Everyone I’ve counselled has come to Christ and practiced the love of God on a base of HATE. How can that possibly work and invariably it doesn’t, it’s all built on secret hate. In truth, their love is fake; it’s just a pretense. You can prove it’s fake by their fruit. Sooner or later, their real fruit will ooze out behind the nice façade.

POWER = control over others

It’s not really hurt or hate that’s the real problem. Hurt and hate are just excuses to justify my right for self-power. Satan wants power. Women want power over men. Men demand their power. Humanity is just a competition for power. Everybody lusts for power so no one will tell them what they can or can’t do. Power means you serve me, not me serve you. Power means I control my environment so you serve my wants for ME = no hassles for ME.

Techniques of Evil Power

The lie … if I remain calm and you lose it, I win. The truth … Jesus picked up a whip and went for it in the temple.

The lie … if you hurt me, then I have the right to hurt you. The truth … resist not evil.

The lie … I know, I’m right you’re wrong, so I have the right to intimidate you with fear. Truth … there is no fear in love.

The lie … I’m hurting, you’re responsible to make me happy. Truth … I’m just moody.

BOSS

Everyone under the origin of Satan wants to be their own boss. By hating the hurt from authority, you can justify your want. The problem is, once you set that precedent based on hate, you block God being the boss. I’ve challenged fake Christians about their fake love and in some occasions had the person state … “ok, you’re the boss”. Once somebody declares that, they confirm they’re into ‘position’. You see, a pastor isn’t the boss, he’s a servant, and servants can never be the boss, but a fake Christian evaluates everything through the eyes of who’s the boss, because they envy the boss, because they want to be the boss so they can tell everyone what to do instead of being told. They hate being told what to do. If you won’t be a servant as He instructs, then you won’t be told by God what to do = defiance.

Genesis 3

This all started in the Garden. Satan conned Eve to get smarter by eating the forbidden fruit. She knew it was wrong but what the heck. She shared it with Adam to make sure he was involved in the crime. When God came visiting, they hid. Instead of taking the blame for their actions, they BLAMED the one that made them do it. Adam even blamed God that it was His fault for making the woman.

Multiple times I’ve been thanked for helping people and then been blamed for pointing out that they were not obeying God’s laws. Hate always turns a blind eye to the help it was given and always ends up showing its appreciation with blame.

Selfish humanity always blames God and mother nature when things go wrong; they never blame their own sin, and they certainly never place the blame at Satan’s feet; they always have a go at Jesus first. Hate always lays the blame at Jesus’ feet.

You can’t blame authority and then say you are under authority. Blame is the evidence of your contradiction.

Satanic plot

Satan hates God’s authority. He can’t change that, but what he can change is man’s authority. If he can get a man or woman to hate authority and lift up their own sceptre, then he can control them, and make a mockery of God’s creation and thus question God’s right to rule. That’s exactly what happened in the Garden.

In every single case of hurt-hatred, as in the Garden, Satan uses the woman to defame the man. When the man takes the bait and tries to defend his authority his hatred of authority back-fires against him and he becomes hated by his children. And, so the hatred just keeps flowing. Hate attracts hate.

You HURT me. I HATE you. You WON’T TELL me what I can and can’t do

Once you allow your hurt to turn to hate, you immediately defy the law of God. You’ve just broken the 5th commandment of God to respect your parents. Once you break the law, the consequence is sin and death. Satan’s now got you. You’re his. You can cover your hate with as much good works and niceness as you like but it’s just fake love and false salvation. Jesus came to save the BAD. Fake GOOD covers the BAD, and thus your good blocks your salvation.

You see, HATE YOU simply means, I LOVE ME. That’s ANTI-CHRIST! So, love built on hate is the love of you, not the love of God. That’s Satan, not Holy Spirit.

Human love = love ME = hate anyone that loves someone else more than ME.

God love = love God = hate ME (Luke 14:26) = regard your neighbour more important than you.

Everyone gets married on the presumption that it’s your role to make me happy. How selfish we are! Marrying Jesus is exactly the opposite … it’s how can I serve Jesus for His happiness? Marriage isn’t to make you happy; it’s to address your will through the clash of two wills.

The LOVE of God

What’s the difference between a genuine Christian and a fake Christian when it comes to hurt?

  1. A fake Christian hates the person who hurt them. A genuine Christian hates the evil behind the person. There’s a massive difference between hating the evil and hating the person who’s done the evil. Hating the person will increase the love of yourself; hating the evil will increase your love of God, and it’s impossible to find this love unless you willing cop the hate for Him.

Unlike the 1st Adam, a genuine Christian will feel the hurt and recognise Satan behind the hurt and leave the person to God. They don’t take the bait, they take the blame. That’s dying to self and trusting God. That’s the pathway set by the 2nd Adam. This is impossible for anyone, fake Christian or non-Christian, who retains hate against an authority. Hate will always blame and retaliate, love will cop the hurt and trust the Creator and stay free from Satan.

  1. A genuine Christian knows that God has called us to be hated (Matthew 10:22). A fake Christian can’t hack that; they reserve the right to hate back.

A fake Christian will take the hurter on and resist them. A true Christian will take the hate on by copping it and Christ will be his strength.

  1. A fake Christian uses the hurt as an excuse to hate, but the real agenda is so they can be the BOSS of themselves. A genuine Christian is a servant, not a boss.

Love is not doing good deeds or being nice (1 Corinthians 13). Love is doing what God wants, not what you or others want = dying to self. Good deeds are only good if they flow from love. Good doesn’t cut it; only love does.

The FRUIT of hating an authority is always …

  1. ELEVATION … I’m special, I’m important
  2. ENVY … I hate you because you like them more than me (James 3:14,15).
  3. STUBBORNNESS … You’re not going to tell me that I’m wrong. I’ll wait till you understand my point of view.
  4. BLAME … If you’ve got a problem with me, then it’s your fault; and, if I’ve got a problem with you, then it’s your fault. You won’t listen to ME. You don’t understand ME.
  5. TELL … You can correct me, but don’t TELL me what to do; I’ll TELL you whether you’re right or wrong. I’m the BOSS of my life, not you. You won’t tell me I’m stupid!
  6. FEAR … eg. being left out, being put-down, being found-out
  7. LIE … to protect not being exposed as a fraud.
  8. MOOD … hate is always offended at correction or any suggestion they may be wrong (Hebrews 12:8). Moodiness is a craft to manipulate you to do my will.

I’ve observed this fruit in every single case of a fake Christian.

Dysfunctional Family … man vs. woman boss

Ever since the Garden, every woman is under the influence of Satan for the purpose of defaming the man. If the man resists the woman through hurt-hate-blame she will take him to hell. If he humbles himself by turning to the Lord, he can save the woman from hell. It’s the man’s responsibility to humble himself by trusting the Lord’s will. Society is failing simply because men won’t humble themselves to the Lord. Most men either resist a woman’s control, or withdraw for peace and harmony and surrender their authority to the woman’s control, never realising that they actually surrendered to Satan’s control.

The transferal of hate

  1. Intimidating fathers will drive boys to hate their father and thus to seek comfort and understanding from their mothers.
  2. Wives that hate men will drive their sons against their father by stirring the father to retaliate against the wife’s disrespect and the sons will automatically support the mother and hate the father.
  3. Boys hate BOSSY mothers and run the risk of loving men instead of a woman, and girls will hate intimidating fathers and fathers that favour other siblings over them and run the risk of loving women instead of a man.

The objective of Satan is to make sure that women hate men and men hate men, and men hate women and woman hate woman, and thus to make everyone their own boss, and thus dismantle the God-given authority of man over woman (Genesis 3:16) and thus destroy God’s plan. Just have a look at both modern Western and Eastern society and you’ll see that Satan is winning.

The family only changes when the father lets go his hate and submits to the will of the Father.

I have observed either the hatred of women or the hatred of men in every single case of a fake Christian.

The real issue

Humanity doesn’t like to be TOLD; it likes to TELL. Everybody is vying for a higher position so I can TELL you what to do instead of you TELLING me.

Consequently, the real issue is WILL. My will vs. your will and ultimately, God’s will. Everybody is willing to give up their will where they’re willing. That counts for little. What God wants is what you won’t give up. Humanity uses the hurt as an excuse to retain one’s will, then protects its will by blaming, mocking and intimidation, education, money and popularity all for the purpose of being its own BOSS, so your hurt can’t touch me. It then runs to its DRUG to appease its hurt. Humanity loves its sin.

As a consequence, I’ve discovered that the modern church is saltless and selfish, seeking prosperity rather than death. Its love is fake, simply covering its evil with good works, social fun and emotional worship.

Stubbornness is just self-worship

The truth is, if you choose to focus on the injustice of the hurt instead of focusing on God and trust His plan, you’re simply using the hurt to hide the fact that YOU are the centre of You and that you are too stubborn to bend your will. God calls stubbornness, “idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23), the worship of yourself … “No one’s going to TELL me what I can and can’t do!” If you’ve ever said those words in your heart, then you’re into idolatry … the worship of yourself. There’s no way you’re a Christian until you repent.

Repent

Repent = I give up my hate; I acknowledge that I’m the one who’s evil; I give up my will to Christ. I’m willing to be hurt for Christ’s sake. I’m willing to take the blame for Christ’s sake.

“Not my will but thine be done”

Like Christian in Pilgrims Progress, you can walk along the Christian walk from the wicker gate to the cross, but you can never cross-over to the celestial city until you lay your hate at the cross, until you sacrifice the drug that’s sustaining your hate, and fully surrender your will to His. There has to be PAIN for GAIN. The cross is painful. The cross is fearful. There’s no POSITION at the cross.

If you were sucked in by the half-truth that you are saved by inviting Jesus into your heart, then know that you’ve been conned. True salvation is on the other side of your greatest fear. By faith, that fear has to be sacrificed to the will of God, before you are saved. Jesus faced this dilemma. Abraham faced this dilemma, and Jesus said you cannot be His disciple until you pick up your cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23). He also stated that as they hated Him, they will also hate you (Luke 10:22-25).

Copping the blame, right or wrong, is a sign of Christ. Blaming someone else is a sign of Satan.

If you’re going to serve Christ, then like Christ, you have to cop the blame. If you decline to cop the blame then you are not saved, no matter how good you declare yourself to be. It’s not based on fairness, it’s based on God’s love that keeps you free from Satan.

When the prodigal son came to his senses and returned, he didn’t say to his father “you’re the boss”; he said “I have sinned against heaven and you and am not worthy to be called your servant.” To be a nothing for Christ was his whole objective; not to negotiate to get back the boss position of sonship.

The DRUG

What’s the drug you run to, to pacify your hurt or pain when it all gets too much?

Many Christians I have counselled confirmed that they run to things like … surfing, animals, women, money, helps, drugs, alcohol, business, pornography.

In every person’s heart who’s taken the bait of hating authority, there will be a drug that you use to pacify your hurt, and protect your hate, camouflage your fears and elevate your position over others. At the cross, you’ll have to give it up. The drug is your idol. If the sacrifice is not painful or fearful, then you haven’t picked the right drug. You can’t love God and keep your drug of self-glorification.

The IRONY

Adam wouldn’t take the blame. Eve wouldn’t take the blame. Satan wouldn’t take the blame. So, Jesus took the blame, and God exalted Him above every creature in heaven, on earth and under the earth (Philippians 2:7-11).

When you finally submit to the will of God and stop defending your own, the irony is, love knows it has the freedom to hate, the freedom to retaliate, the freedom to run, the freedom to fight back, and the power of position through Christ (Ecclesiastes 3). Love never loses, only hate loses.

Solution

Stop trying to be important, by letting others be important. Transfer your trust from yourself to the Creator and cop the hate. Sacrifice what you won’t, and sacrifice your drug.

“Ah Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Your great power. Nothing is too hard for Thee.”  Jeremiah 32:17

 

Pastor Frank Whistler

 

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Posted by on February 10, 2019 in Authority, Blame

 

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Sermon 118 – I’m Sorry

17 Feb

Proverbs 20:6 … most men will proclaim their own goodness, but a faithful man is hard to find.

In Australia, the deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, has been exposed for adultery. He’s been challenged about promoting the woman, with whom he’s had an affair, into a higher job position. His family is struggling with being dumped and publicly embarrassed. As a consequence, the Prime Minister has publicly suggested that Mr. Joyce’s behaviour is unacceptable and included a ‘no sex with staff’ in the code of conduct agreement. Mr. Joyce says he’s sorry, but at the same time he’s challenged the Prime Minister’s reaction. As far as he’s concerned it’s his own private business and no one has the right to judge him or tell him what to do. His sorry is mixed with arrogance and blame.

Fake sorry = don’t tell me what to do

Recently, I corrected a young man in our fellowship for his selfish attitude of envy and pride. He said sorry, then went about defending himself with his good deeds and ended up blaming me for the correction. In other words, he was telling me how he should have been corrected. From his perspective I was over-the-top. The truth is, he wouldn’t be put in his place.

Responsibility vs. Blame

I always find it fascinating how when someone sins they blame the authority for correcting them instead of taking responsibility for their sin and whole-heartedly accepting the correction. As far as they’re concerned, they’re a good person so sorry should see the end of it. Like king Saul, a selfish proud spirit won’t accept they’re wrong, even though they’ll often agree they are. These people will always ultimately look for excuses to defend their selfishness.

God doesn’t accept sorry

God only accepts repentance; He doesn’t accept sorry. God didn’t accept Judas’ sorry, but He did Peter’s. One sorry was an apology because he was exposed and embarrassed & probably blamed Jesus for putting him in that position by making him the treasurer. The other sorry was an acceptance of responsibility with sincere remorse resulting in repentance. One sorry re-evaluates that it’s not as bad as was first portrayed, the other sorry knows it was wrong and humbles itself to the punishment. One is too proud to bend, the other bends and repents.

Judas sorry

Most people say sorry to get out of trouble. They don’t really mean it. Why? The pride of humanity doesn’t like being told it’s wrong. Most people believe they have the right to diagnose and surgically remove anything that’s bad, themselves. They don’t like other people telling them they’re wrong. Their pride can’t handle it.

Blame attached to sorry means you’re not sorry

You can’t say sorry and blame at the same time; it’s a contradiction. Saying sorry with an excuse, is not sorry; it’s selfish. Blame attached to sorry is the same as saying … “sorry for upsetting you but you’re wrong for correcting or punishing me the way you did. I’m willing to be told I’m wrong but I don’t like you telling me I’m wrong (which obviously doesn’t make sense); and you made me do it anyway”.

What the person is really saying is … I think I’m good. You shouldn’t tell me I’m bad! I have the right to decide whether I’ve done wrong, you don’t. In other words, they won’t be told, or they’ll pretend to be, but in their heart, they don’t like being put in their place.

Being put in your place

Being put in your place, is generally read as being put-down, when in fact, it may be a beneficial correction to your pride of position. Pride won’t interpret the difference but rather objects to the correction, in which case it clearly does need to be put in its place.

I’m right because you are wrong

Ask yourself … do you deduce you are right when someone who’s offended you is corrected?

The truth is, only pride makes the deduction … I’m right because you’re wrong, or I’m good because you are corrected. Just because someone is corrected doesn’t necessarily mean that you are right, and someone’s wrongness doesn’t prove you are good. You can’t conclude rightness based on someone else’s wrong. You may both be wrong. In fact, if this is your common deduction, then you, yourself, are full of your own pride.

Humanity makes its deductions based on its feelings

Most people believe that what they feel is the truth. Their deductions are based on how they feel. If you hurt my feelings then you’re not nice and you deserve to pay for it. This is the thinking of the anti-Christ, not Jesus. A genuine Christian makes his deductions by faith. Faith is the engine of his spirit, not feelings. If you’re running on feelings you’d better submit to correction to restore yourself to faith or you’ll eventually derail.

A faithful Christian accepts his feelings (whether it be heaviness, loneliness, failure, hurts, purposeless) as the burden of life that he shares with Christ. The feelings drive him to Christ … cast your cares on Him because he cares for you … as his strength and source.

The world is chasing happy feelings

The human spirit doesn’t like feeling bad, which is why if it gets caught, it says sorry, so it can get back to its good feelings. As far as the world is concerned, if I say sorry, that should be the end of it, and if it isn’t then you’ve got the problem. It’s a convenient way of ignoring one’s own sin and casting the blame onto someone else.

The world wants happy feelings all the time. It chases after it through … success, money, friends, marriage, travel, sex, fun, drugs, alcohol, & super challenges.  The fake church sells happiness so it can take advantage of what the world is looking for, so it can increase its numbers and money and look good to the world so it’s not persecuted.  Thus, the fake church is just like the world.

If you’re chasing happy feelings, then you’re of the world, not of Christ

Christ doesn’t offer happiness; He offers blessedness, and that’s a completely different product …  blessed are you when you are persecuted, merciful, meek, mourn & poor … Matthew 5.

Happiness is transient and temporary; it’s based on luck. It never permanently fulfils; it always has to be chased for more, and it always produces envy against those who seem to have it.

Blessedness is based on faith. It’s a commitment to Christ, based on a relationship of love. It doesn’t seek happy feelings. It simply serves Him and trusts Him whatever the feelings and outcome.

It’s never really a ‘happy’ issue

On the surface humanity says it’s chasing happiness, but that’s just a cover for the real hidden agenda of … I can do what I want; no one’s going to tell me what I can and can’t do. If you don’t want to be told, you’ll chase what you want. Thus, Barnaby Joyce is now exposed for his real agenda and Satan wins and secretly controls another lost spirit.

Freedom strategy

The whole purpose of blame and hurt is to get you to retaliate against a demonic spirit so you come under its power. Satan argues ‘feelings’ through blame and guilt to trap you in His power. It’s the tickling of your feelings that is the temptation. Sin is acting on the temptations.

Conversely, God argues sin. This puts the argument on the spirit level, rather than the feeling level.

A remnant Christian goes to God’s Word for the truth of a person’s attack against them and either repents for being wrong, or righteously refuses to accept the blame and puts the responsibility for the sin back onto the shoulders of the blamer. They still may suffer the feelings of blame but they’re free from the power of the blame; they’ve shared it with the Lord. Elijah stood up to Ahab, David stood up to King Saul, Shadrach stood up to Nebuchadnezzar, and Jesus stood up to the Pharisees.

The remnant needs to learn the righteous path to Godly aggressive humility to stand up against the sinner, rather than being sucked into the satanic trick to react to hurt feelings.

 

Pastor Nick Clarence

 

 

 
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Posted by on February 17, 2018 in Blame, Correction

 

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Sermon 111 – the Blame Game

10 Apr

Blame can be defined as … making some else responsible for my hassles.

Blame originated in the garden of Eden. Humanity can’t stop the thought of blame. It’s inherent in everyone’s spirit. We often practice it subconsciously with the voices we hear against others and the hassles of our circumstances.

The first thing a human does when they think they’re in trouble is look for an escape route of blame.

Blame is of Satan

Blame is a quality of Satan. It is not a characteristic of the Holy Spirit. The voice of the temptation to blame comes directly from Satan, not from God. Satan won this right when he tricked Eve with the carrot of elevation. He sold her the lie that God was holding something back from her and that she could be her own god and know good and evil. She took the bait and became Satan’s slave to sin. The good and evil she now knew was only seen from her selfish perspective. What she thought was good was only what felt good to her own thinking, and everything else was bad to her as far as she could see.

Feelings, not faith

Humanity makes its judgments on how it feels. A Christian talks to God to get His perspective; he doesn’t rely on his feelings; they more often trick you into Satan’s web. Once you’re in a web the more you try and fight it the more entangled you become. There’s only one way out of a web… you need someone greater than yourself to break off the web. Through acknowledgement of your sin, Jesus can free you from Satan’s web. There’s no other way.

Self-protection

When you protect your selfishness, blame will follow. Blame flows from selfishness and selfishness is simply me first. So when you practice blame you are practicing Satanism. You are simply worshipping yourself without even knowing it. The carrot of elevation has blinded your eyes to the truth and your feelings become your justice system. You’ve ignorantly become the judge and set yourself up as your own god. It’s anti-christ behaviour; it’s elevation and it’s selfish. It’s opposite to dying to yourself by trusting God and waiting on Him for his justice.

You can only blame others for your circumstances when you are selfish. It doesn’t feel selfish, it feels fair and just. But that’s the point; you’re analysing the truth based on your feelings, and when you practice that you confirm you’re not in the kingdom of heaven, because Jesus doesn’t practice that, only Satan does.

Cop the cross

When Jesus allowed Himself to be sacrificed on the cross He was allowing humanity to throw their blame on Him. It was totally unjust and unfair, but He did it because the Father willed it, and because he did it, humanity can be saved from its sin. The problem is, humanity can’t see its sin that it needs to be saved from. It prefers to live in the injustice of its hurts and cast blame. Whilst it does this it can never be free; it will always be under the power of Satan, no matter how much it tries or pretends otherwise; no matter how much good it thinks it does. You can be as good as you like, but eventually you will be exposed as selfish through the sin of blame.

Blasphemy

Collins dictionary defines blame as casting fault and even blaspheming. Blaspheming and blame come from the same French root. So often we automatically blame God for not coming through for us the way we want. It’s telling God how He’s supposed to behave towards us. It’s casting dispersions on the Spirit that dwells in us and if we’re not careful, it’s blasphemy. Blasphemy is the degrading of the Spirit of God by putting the blame on God instead of Satan. It’s calling the Holy Spirit, unholy.

Climate change

We look at the world’s chaos and blame God for not fixing the problems. We’re good so He should be good to us. We fail to stop and remind ourselves that the sickness of the world is the fruit of sin. Climate change is not due to climate, it’s due to sin. The Bible tells us that we come from dust and return to dust. That is, our spirit and body are directly connected to the earth we dwell on. Consequently, when we sin we pollute the land we live on. If our country endorses homosexuality, free sex, and abortion, don’t blame God for the decay of the earth; stop sinning and obey His ten commandments.

Money

Our country loves money. Our economy is the people’s prime concern. We trade with China and ignore its human rights record against fellow Christians because we love money more. We’re more interested in money than the poor, and money gives you position over people, and we falsely believe that money is a measurement of how much God loves you. Don’t blame God for the mess when He taught that the love of money is the root of all evil.

You hurt my feelings

King Saul is a prime example of how when you forget where you’ve come from and allow elevated position to rise up in you, you start envying your neighbour. You get hurt by what people say and do and hold grievances against them. From there you do what you’re told your way, and when you’re confronted that it isn’t God’s way you defend your position with blame (1 Samuel 15). The consequences of these actions results in rebellion, can’t be told, superstition and witchcraft, and eventually demonic possession.

David

On the other hand, a David cops the unjust blame and turns to the Lord for His justice and protection. A genuine Christian behaves like David and thus, Christ; he cops the blame and never blames. He ducks the javelins and He turns to the Lord and waits on His justice, not expecting any justice for himself. He’s only interest is serving Jesus Christ. A fake Christian acts good like King Saul, but their heart has elevated itself with its own importance. It thinks it’s the king and won’t listen to the prophet. It’s caught in the web of Satan.

Faith or family-blame

King Saul was David’s father-in-law. If anyone should have understood him, you would think that his wife’s family would be there to support him. But that’s not how it was and David had to run and trust God at the same time, and that’s the walk of a faithful Christian. If you waste your life blaming your parents or sister for your hurts, then you are not in Christ. A faithful Christian takes responsibility for blaming and repents and trusts the Lord’s plan with the hurts.

Suffer to reign

If you want to reign with Christ you have to suffer with Christ (2 Timothy 2:11,12); it’s not a free ride like the modern church teaches. Jesus is not Santa Claus, but most people join the church so they can get the goodies for being good and then blame God for not delivering, or get trapped into the fake worship God because they do get what they prayed for.

The Bible teaches that all that live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12), and blame is part of that package. If you’re not interested in copping it then you’re not really interested in Christ; you’re only using Him and telling Him how He is to behave for you.

If you truly want to walk with Christ, then like Christ and David, expect to be blamed and when it hurts turn to the Lord and not to yourself. If you don’t do this, you will end up like King Saul and miss the kingdom.

 

Pastor Clive Fadden

 
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Posted by on April 10, 2017 in Blame

 

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Sermon 101 – Born Again?

11 Jun

The Catholic religion believes that you become a Christian by being baptized as an infant. The Evangelical Churches teach that you become a Christian when you invite Jesus Christ into your heart to be your lord and saviour. The Catholic option is definitely not biblical, but what about the evangelical theory?

I was counselling two brothers who were constantly bickering with each other. Although nothing was being said, they vied for their father’s value and whenever one was corrected for their attitude or made a bad decision, the other promoted himself above him.

The blame exercise

I suggested an exercise. Each one was to write down “I’m blaming you for ….. ” and complete the sentence. They both came up with several justifiable blames against each other.

The purpose of this exercise was to expose them to the fact that they were Christians operating under Satan. In the Garden of Eden, Adam came under the power of Satan when he blamed Eve for causing him to fall. What he should have done was take the blame for his own sin, but because he wouldn’t he was separated from God.

The temptation to blame others for our hassles and failures, is inherent. It has been passed on as a sinful trait in the heart of every human being as a consequence of Eve’s sin. What you don’t realise when you get caught in the blame cycle is that you are making judgments against your neighbour and thus proving that you are proud and more concerned about yourself than your neighbour. You’ve unwittingly fractured the second great commandment and therefore it’s you that has sinned even though the other person started it.

Demons have power over you through the grievances you hold

As we talked they realised that they were both holding grievances against each other which was just causing division between them and they were using their energy resisting each other instead of working together. It was actually wearing them down physically. Knowing their family situation, I suggested that their sister-in-law despised them because they were more popular and more happy than her and their reactive bitterness towards her for her spitefulness unwittingly gave licence to the demonic power she was under to enter through this open door of hurt and initiate destruction against them whenever they took the bait of promoting their own self-value over each other.

There’s a difference between saying you’re wrong and faith

At this point they had the opportunity to take on guilt and feel bad for their behaviour which would just keep them bound to the power of Satan, or by faith give the issue and outcome and the fear of what people would think of them, to the Lord. They both chose the latter option.

Faith knows it is wrong and turns to the Lord. Pride can say it’s wrong when cornered, but it turns to itself and justifies its feelings. There are plenty of Christians who believe and try to do what’s right and are willing to admit they’re wrong when found out, but their selfishness holds the truth in unrighteousness. They will be exposed to God’s wrath, Romans 1:18.

Repentance

The average Christian thinks they repent but they don’t. Repentance is when you stop your blame and stop your guilt (which are just selfish ways of prolonging your mood) and by faith turn to the Lord and wait on Him. Adam could’ve said he was wrong but that would not have been good enough. He had to also give up his self-defense and turn to the Lord.

Victory

Satan’s purpose is to destroy and he can do it just as easily from within as from without. If you want to win against satanic forces, it’s not by taking them on, it’s not by shouting the Name of Jesus at them, it’s by dying to your will by faith in God’s plan. This is how Jesus won against Satan. Up till the time He died, he was vulnerable to Satan’s temptation. He withheld against it but in His humanity He was still vulnerable. The vulnerability ceased the moment He died. Once he was dead, Satan could no longer touch Christ; He’s future reign had been set in stone. It’s death to self by faith in Christ’s justice that gives you the victory and that’s the only way you can win.

What does this have to do with Born Again?

Everything. If you constantly fall to blame, it’s a sign that you’re not really born again.  You see, Satan is the one that manipulates humans to blame one another, whereas, Jesus died on the cross and copped the blame of the world on his spirit. If you are genuinely under the influence of the Holy Spirit, you will routinely cop the unfair blame and by faith, trust the Lord’s outcome.

Satan’s argument is based on fairness … “it’s not fair; I haven’t done anything wrong.” This is the argument he sold to mankind through Eve and all of mankind is vulnerable to this temptation. The only way you can defeat this temptation is by being Born Again. You won’t beat this human trait with your mind; you can’t be born again by making up your mind to follow Christ.

God’s argument is based on sin … “you did the wrong, as well as the other person.” But, humanity argues with God that they made me do it and in its pride refuses to agree with God’s view.

The disciples weren’t born again until after Jesus rose from the dead (Luke 22:32) and came back and encouraged them to walk the true walk (John 21). Up till then they were of another spirit (Luke 9:54,55) even though the Holy Spirit operated through them. They first had to give up their personal intentions of what Jesus was going to get for them and give to them because they followed Him. The death of Christ was their stimulus of salvation because it shattered their personal agendas and hopes.

So what is ‘Born Again?’

Well, if you’re born again you obviously must have died and started life again (Luke 14:26,33). You’re only born again when you have died first. You die when you see your pride and unconditionally surrender to the will of God and by His faith, trust in His atoning blood for your sin. Unconditionally means that you now stand on the principles of the Word of God (the Bible) and not the popular lie of grace, and you know when you’re dead when you do not bite back.

The measurement

You measure your surrender by the principles of the Word of God. When the Word of God says do this or don’t do that (e.g. no work on Sabbath, no retailing on Sabbath, separate from those Christians who teach that gain is godliness (1Tim.6:5), and separate from those Christians who fornicate with the world, and separate from those Christians who call homosexuality a normal phenomenon instead of sin … Romans 1:27,28) and you use your modern religious thinking to routinely compromise His Word, then know that you’re not surrendered unconditionally and therefore, not born again.

You measure your surrender by whether you routinely fall to blame and judgment. You measure your surrender by waiting on God by faith in His outcome and final plan.

The fruit of unconditional surrender is being blamed

If you’re truly born again you’ll be hated (Mark 13:13) by those who are supposed to love you, you’ll be envied by those who are supposed to love you, and you’ll be cursed by those who are supposed to love you. You see, the price of born again is to be de-valued by your fellow-man, to be misunderstood by your relatives, and to be cursed for not doing the church-way. That’s why almost all western Christians believe in the grace theory and not the death theory. It’s easier that way.

Jesus Christ made Himself of no reputation and took on Him the form of a servant and trusted His Father’s plan … Philippians 2:7,8

 

Pastor Mike Clifford

 

 
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Posted by on June 11, 2016 in Blame

 

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Sermon 96 – The BLAME Game

12 Mar

I was recently counselling a young Christian man who had been diagnosed with terminally ill cancer. His closest friend and Christian business partner had reacted to his illness with anger and blamed him for being sick because it meant that the responsibilities of the business were now to be his burden. Understandably, this ill man was shocked and hurt and automatically held bitterness against his partner. To this man’s thinking, he hadn’t done anything wrong; in fact, he was in a dark place. Rightly so, he expected a friend to support him in his hour of need, not to blame him or attack him.

It was some years later that the pain of this issue surfaced. Both men had put it under the carpet and pretended that everything was ok between them. The young man had survived his cancer but the hurt was starting to show in his attitude and reactions to his wife. I called both men together to resolve the silent stand-off. The Christian partner admitted that he had done abominably and apologised, and the young sick man who had been offended tried to forgive him. But, was the matter really resolved?

What’s the difference between an apology and repentance?

An apology is saying sorry because you’ve been caught out and you feel embarrassed and don’t want to look bad. The dictionary defines ‘apology’ as ‘defence’. Surreptitiously, we apologise to get out of trouble, and thus defend ourselves against looking bad and somehow excuse away our wrongness. An apology expects the party that we have offended to accept our apology, to forget about the hurt and reconcile the relationship, and gets offended if you don’t comply. Apology is saying sorry but still holding some level of blame; it’s a sorry with a ‘but’ attached. An apology is really just a cheats way to save face and avoid the punishment.

Repentance, on the other hand, is completely the opposite. You say sorry without any expectation or obligation on the other party. You say sorry without any blame apportioned against the one you have hurt. You say sorry with full expectation of the deserved punishment.

Satan’s most lethal weapon

Perhaps Satan’s most lethal weapon is ‘blame’. The temptation to react to being blamed, especially when it’s unjustified, is immense. Human nature has been infected with the automatic response of defending oneself from the attack of blame. Instead of taking full responsibility for his own actions, Adam protected himself by shifting the blame to Eve, and Eve simply shifted the blame to Satan. The consequence of shifting responsibility was separation from God. Consequently, Satan’s lethal weapon worked, and he uses it all the time to destroy man’s relationship with God.

In the case of the two Christian businessmen, the one who had said sorry was really blaming his partner for holding a grudge, and also blaming his wife for driving him to act the way he did. He was really just doing an ‘Adam’ and shifting the blame so he didn’t look bad. And, the partner who had been sick was really blaming his friend for acting so unchristian towards him in his hour of need. They were both caught in Satan’s blame game web. Unknowingly, when you’re caught in the blame game web you are inadvertently being manipulated by demonic powers just like Adam and Eve became servants of Satan to do his will.

No repentance, no salvation

If you can’t repent, you can’t get saved because salvation requires you to repent of your sin. If it’s your habit to shift responsibility with an apology, you won’t find salvation no matter how much you act like a Christian, because your sin isn’t covered with just an apology. Sorry has to be from the heart before it’s repentance and covered by His blood. You can know if you’ve repented if you want to know; if you don’t know whether you’ve repented or not then the truth is you don’t really want to repent; the truth is that you don’t really want to swallow your pride, and thus you retain a small element of justification that it’s not all your fault; your pride has caught you in the blame game!

Why is blame, sin?

When you blame, you’re just being selfish. You’re simply thinking more of your own self than you are of your neighbour; you’re really just afraid for yourself. Consequently, you are fracturing the second greatest commandment.

Blame is not a characteristic of the Holy Spirit

You won’t find Jesus holding a grievance against those who hurt His feelings. If you go to John 21, you’ll read the story of Jesus instructing the disciples to cast their net on the other side of the boat. They were in a state of dejection after the unjust murder of their Master and had decided to cope by going fishing. They had fished all night and wasted their time when someone on the shore yelled out to try the other side of the boat. For some reason they complied and the net was so full they couldn’t cope with the catch. Ultimately, the catch, the net and the boat were all sacrificed and wasted for Christ.

Jesus used this interaction to challenge Peter to face his sin of the denial of Christ. If anyone deserves to hold a grievance against their friend, Jesus did. Peter mouthed-off that he would never deny Christ, but he failed miserably. He didn’t stand up for the Master when he was in most need; he deserted Him. Jesus held no grievance, but Peter had to face his responsibility for his failure and repent, not really for the failure but for the pride of his selfish arrogance. God used the failure to save him through repentance of his pride. Without this failure Peter could not have seen his pride, would not have repented, and would never have been the man called of God to lead the church.

Where did his pride come from?

He was born with it; it’s an inherent human trait. The real question is … how did he feed on it? It’s interesting to note that Peter was the first person called to follow Christ. In his humanity he would have seen that he was first and he would have fed on this selfishness when he envied that Jesus appeared to love John the most (v.7). This is the pride in every one of us that has to be exposed and repented of if we are ever to find Christ and serve Him faithfully. Peter’s denial experience was a gift from God to save him. He’s now got the choice to desert and wallow in his moodiness or own it and repent. Repentance will save him, desertion will kill him.

This story of Peter is not just a story; it’s Spirit and it’s the common path that every genuine Christian must walk to find salvation. If you want to find salvation, your pride has to be exposed and repented of; an apology for doing something wrong won’t do it.

The young Christian with the cancer had full justification to blame his friend for his behaviour, but, through his cancer and this hurtful incident, God was actually giving him the chance to see his own pride and repent and be saved. The whole thing was a gift if he would just open his eyes and see it. He could feed on the hurt and die, or forgive, repent of his own pride reaction, and live.

If you can’t forgive someone for hurting your feelings, then the reality is that you’re blaming them, you’re proud, you don’t trust God to work all things for good, you’ll come under the influence of Satan (Matthew 18:34), and you’ll never find salvation until you repent.

May the Lord open the eyes of His remnant to their own pride and stop pointing the finger at other’s pride and blaming them.

Pastor Jerome Saunders

 
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Posted by on March 12, 2016 in Blame, Forgive, Pride, Repentance, Selfishness

 

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Sermon 78 – The Secret to Salvation

09 Jan

Recently I addressed my grandson for kicking his brother. I told him to go to his room. He started to cry. He felt unjustly treated because his brother had kicked him first. I asked him, did you do wrong? He replied, yes! Then I instructed him to take his punishment and not justify it because his brother had been mean. There and then he changed his attitude, so I said, ok, go out and play. This is just how God deals with us, but few see it.

Human nature automatically defends itself, explains it away why it wasn’t that bad, tries to find an exit so it’s not so embarrassed, and tries to analyse why it happened and who made them do it, when all that’s required is to admit … I was wrong.

The secret … accept the addressing of your pride and you will find salvation. Explain away why you did it and you will miss salvation because you will create a pattern of lying to explain it away.

Don’t just assume you’re saved because you think you’re nice or God is nice

You don’t know you’re saved until there’s a test of faith. It’s what you do when somebody hurts you or, justly or unjustly corrects you … that’s the intersection that exposes your faith and the intersection that verifies your salvation. Faith trusts that God works all for His good, but pride has a mood, bites back and defends itself.

Excuse it away = pride. Sincerely own it without excuses = repentance

You can’t repent with blame or excuses as to why you did it, or self-explanation, or trying to find the root of the temptation. That’s really pride trying to protect itself and admitting it’s wrong at the same time.

Human nature automatically protects itself with excuses as to why I did it so I don’t look bad and feel embarrassed in the eyes of the people. Repentance deliberately blocks this pathway and simply owns that I did do it even if somebody else stirred me to do it. Repentance challenges one’s feelings; pride supports and justifies one’s feelings. The consequence of pride is feeling sorry for yourself (pity party), figure out why I did it so I can explain it and justify it, find fault with the authority, and then deduce that the correction is over-the-top and unjust. Thus pride deduces that I’m free to believe in myself again as being right and not wrong.

The door

You don’t have to find God. God finds you when you come to the revelation that you’re arrogant and selfish … that’s the door. Salvation is at this intersection of self-exposure; this is where God’s knocking on your door; at this intersection. We find Jesus talking with Peter, not Judas. He’s not knocking on Judas’ door; he won’t take the rebuke.

You’ve got to give up the thing that you worship (money, family, success, friends, knowledge) before you’ll see that you’re full of yourself; before you’ll recognise the knocking on your door.

Salvation isn’t inviting Jesus into your heart, but exposing your heart to Him

Rev. 3:20 says … Behold I stand at the door and knock. That doesn’t equal inviting Jesus in for a chat and a meal, but opening the door of your sin-filled heart for His light to expose it and destroy the darkness.

Q. When do you open the door? When the Lord knocks, and Rev.3:19 confirms that the knock is at the point of correction.

Q. In Rev.3: 21 we’re called to overcome, but what are we to overcome? The answer is … the world, 1J.5:3.

Q. What’s the world? It’s not the people around you but the flesh in you that wants what the people around you have. That is … I want that and if I can’t have it I’ll have a mood.

Q. How do you overcome the world in you? The answer is … by faith 1J.5:4

Q. What’s faith? It’s no confidence in me because I know I’m full of myself. It’s confidence in God and His plan despite my arrogance. It’s only activated in the face of opposition and fear. It’s not having no fear or bad feelings; it’s walking through them by trusting His outcome.

Q. How did Jesus overcome? He did not surrender to His moods of self-defence that Satan tried to get Him to fall into via family attack, religious attack, and elevated ability and pride attack, but rather He chose patient endurance by placing His confidence in the Father in the face of mocking, ridicule, misjudgement and death.

Q. How is your salvation verified? The answer is … by faith in God in the face of hassles and injustices against you, rather than retaliating with blame. It’s taking the blame instead of blaming.

The truth is … Jesus died by blame attack. In the same way, true Christians die to themselves by blame attack … Matthew 5:10-12. Thus, people don’t want the true salvation because they don’t want the blame attack.

David vs King Saul

Human nature makes excuses for its behaviour so it doesn’t look bad. David didn’t. He knew he had sinned. He didn’t try and explain why he sinned. He didn’t look for ancestral demonic doors that he could explain his action with. He didn’t blame Bathsheba for exposing herself. He didn’t divert the responsibility onto someone who may have tempted him.. He didn’t blame years of stressful resistance against King Saul. He simply owned that he had done wrong and repented.

Signs of King Saul ….
1 Samuel 15 & 18

  • “You like David more than me” envy
  • Blame the people in the face of correction
  • Excuse and explain why it is not your fault
  • Have to look good in the eyes of the people
  • Usurp the prophet’s role = TELL the spiritual authority what’s right and wrong
  • Try to destroy your enemy

Most Christians worship Jesus under the banner of King Saul and have no idea that they are. They covet positions of value and when they’re corrected they feel devalued. Clearly, if you accept correction by excusing it away, you’re really saying to the authority … I’ll agree with you because I have to but I think you’re wrong. In other words you’re just secretly stubborn like King Saul. King Saul lost his salvation, not because of his sin, but by his stubbornness to agree with the correction.

Signs of David

  • Sin
  • No excuses for his sin
  • Cop the unjust blame from King Saul
  • He didn’t mock when his enemy fell

David responded to correction the opposite to King Saul.

Why did God say that David did what was right in His eyes? 1 Kings 14:8

How come God said David did what was right in His eyes when David had murdered and committed adultery? Because God didn’t measure him by his deeds; He measured him by his heart as displayed by his attitude to correction. It wasn’t because he was exempt from sin. It was because he saw his arrogance and repented.

Bad mathematics

Bad mathematics is when the equations we live by are our own manufactured pride formulas of selfishness which are designed to put the other party in their place and protect our own position.

Modern Pentecostalism teaches that sickness is the sign of sin. The purpose of this equation is to shift the blame … if you’re sick then you are the sinner, not me. I’m not sick so I’m right and you’re wrong.

Modernism says that if I say sorry then you are responsible to forgive and forget. The purpose of this equation is to shift the blame … if you talk to me then everything’s ok and if you don’t talk to me then you are the one in sin, not me, because I’ve moved on but you are still holding resentment.

Modernism believes that if you are nasty to me then I have the right to be nasty back. The purpose of this equation is to shift the blame.

Modernism believes that you get bad happen to you because you did something bad. The purpose of this equation is to shift the blame onto someone that made you do bad so you aren’t responsible for the bad so you can get out of the punishment.

Modernism believes that I’m good so if you make me feel bad you’re the sinner. The purpose of this equation is to shift the blame.

These are all pride deductions; it’s telling and not able to be told, it’s intimidation, it’s not love. The purpose of all these equations is to shift the blame. None of it is God’s truth.

Biblical evidence contradicts this bad mathematics. In John 9 the man born blind was not sick because of his sin. He was deliberately created blind by God for the glory of God and for the man’s salvation. His blindness saved him. His parents were confronted by the religious system and right at that intersection they chose excuses and consequently didn’t hear the knock on the door and lost their chance of salvation.

The story of Job also contradicts this lie. In Job 11, Zophar derided Job for his sin because he believed that sickness = the sign of sin. The truth was that God Himself permitted Job’s hassles. The truth is that God derided Eliphaz and Zophar and honoured Job.

Biblical evidence declares there is none good, except God. So if you think you are good, then you ignorantly and arrogantly think you are God.

Biblical evidence is clear in the way David responded to His father-in-law. He held no grievance, but he certainly didn’t forget nor reconcile; it would have got him killed. Neither did John choose to forgive and forget in 3 John v.10.

Biblical evidence proves that you more often get bad against you because you are righteous, as in Paul’s ship-wreck, Job, Jesus, Daniel, Moses, Elijah and David.

Biblical evidence exposes that if you have a mood because someone’s not doing it the way you want then you’re doing a Jonah and TELLING God what He’s supposed to do. When you come across a TELL spirit, you can diagnose that it is demonic because it will want to tell you what’s right and wrong and it won’t want to be told.

Repentance

Judas repented because he got caught out and looked bad. In the Greek this is called metamellomai repentance. Peter repented because he owned he had done wrong without shifting the blame to the woman who questioned him and made him do it. This is called metanoio repentance. One is genuine, the other is fake, and, contrary to popular Christian teaching the fake one does not obligate the person who has suffered the offence to forgive and reconcile with the offender.

Naked of spiritual clothing … Rev.3:18

Q. what’s the purpose of eye salve? The answer is … to open your eyes that you are really miserable and naked. Generally God has to take something important away to help you see, and until you see, His knocking is futile. Most people expect God to open their eyes. They wait for Him to do it. They make Him responsible to do it, but you’re responsible to take the rebuke before he knocks and sups. You’ll only open the door when you’re willing to see yourself because you need Him to change what you see.

The rich young ruler talked with Christ but because he didn’t want to see himself and thus it availed him nothing. The prodigal saw himself so when he came to his father he was saved, restored and elevated. Elevation by any other means is pride.

Did you do something wrong even though somebody stirred you to it?

Then take the punishment without explaining it away and without blaming and learn to trust the Heavenly Father’s justice.

Pastor Jim McNaughton

 
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Posted by on January 9, 2015 in Blame

 

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