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Sermon 141 – Don’t Tell me I’m the problem

30 Nov

So many people I’ve come across appear to be genuine, willing to help, and agreeable, but everything changes when you suggest they have an issue with their soul.

The average person doesn’t really do anything wrong; they just won’t do exactly what they’re told, and in so doing, they refuse to see that not doing it exactly as told, is wrong.

Modern man hates being told what to do

In 1 Samuel 15, King Saul did what he thought he was told to do, but not exactly as he was told. He did what was right in his own eyes because he couldn’t see that it was wrong, and he couldn’t see it was wrong because he was no longer little in his own eyes (v.17). His pride deduced what was right in his own eyes and he ended up with a stubborn and idolatrous soul (v.23).

This self-rightness spirit can’t be told that it’s wrong. Its pride is offended. Its feelings are hurt and it feels devalued in the eyes of others.

Conceit = fanciful thought about my own self-value

Conceit is the fruit of living in the wounds of, and responding to, my hurt pride.  Your hurt pride becomes your reality and your perspective towards others and the life around you.

The Hebrew interpretation of conceit indicates that it’s … how you see yourself in your own eyes (see Proverbs 28:11). The modern world mollycoddles this hurt pride and promotes its justification; whereas the Word of God confronts it and challenges it as evil.

One definition of Pride = I think I’m a good person. I don’t do anything deliberately wrong.

Whereas, Humility can be defined as = I’m wrong, whether I did it deliberately or not.

If you can’t be told that you’re the problem, then you can’t be told that you’re wrong, and if you can’t be told that you’re wrong, then you can’t be corrected, and if you can’t be corrected then in God’s eyes you’re a bastard and not a son (Hebrews 12:8). That is, despite how good you think you are, you’re not saved, because it’s you who is diagnosing and defining your own goodness; you’re not really open to God’s correction.

Most Christians believe they can be told that they’re wrong, they just hate being told they’re always the problem (pride objects to the ‘always’), but that’s the point; ‘always’ exposes the pride, and the real hidden situation is, that they believe they hold the right to make their own deductions according to how they see it.

The corrector should be the one who diagnoses the true condition of your spirit, not you. If you won’t allow someone else to tell you you’re out of balance, then you simply live in the rightness of your own eyes, and thus lost to heaven.

Pruning for fruit

Every gardener knows that if you want the best results from the tree, the tree must be pruned (John 15:2). If you let a tree grow whatever way it wants, it will not produce the best fruit or flowers, and even produce improperly. Most Christians refuse to be pruned. They want to grow their own way.

The real issue of sin = I don’t want to be told

I don’t want to be told … I’m always the problem

I don’t want to be told … I’m always wrong

I don’t want to be told … what to do all the time. I have the right to prove I can do it myself.

Pride believes it has the right to make its own decisions, and justifies its position with … “all I’m doing is helping”. Humility doesn’t defend that right or justify its position; it trusts God’s rightness and justice.

Any time you allow yourself to believe you’re good, you expose your vanity. Any time you allow yourself to not be told, you expose your conceit. Any time you defend your right, you expose your resistance to authority.

Another Jesus

Most Christians obviously think they know Jesus, but it’s not the true Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4); it’s another Jesus of their own making.  You can’t find the true Jesus Christ if you won’t be told you haven’t found Him.

The modern Christian thinking is “grace”.  To the modern thinker, that means, God’s favour towards ME because I’m good, and because I’m good I believe I can decide what’s right and wrong for me. But they conveniently ignore the Word of God that clearly states that grace is only given to the humble (1 Peter 5:5), and humility is only available to those who respectfully practice His laws (1 John 2:3,4).

And, that’s the point … laws restrict my freedom to do it the way I think is right, therefore, selfishness prefers to believe in grace, not law.

Sadly, the 10 Commandments have been devalued. Every Christian believes they keep them, but refuse to see they don’t exactly. They’re not really in their heart and loved as Christ’s laws, rather they’re observed as a restriction to our freedoms; so, we keep them, but not exactly. Rather we love to ultimately do what we think is right. We love what’s right in our own eyes, and when it comes to the crunch, we won’t be told otherwise, proof that we are really our own judge and therefore our own little god.

Voices

Pride listens to voices that tell you you’re right and good, and that everyone else is misjudging you and wrong. Those voices are the temptation of evil, and when you’re right in your own eyes, you fail to have self-control over them; you fail to rightly interpret the voices as satanic.

Exercise

Write down what someone is silently saying to you, then write down what you are silently saying back.

The laws of God need to be put back in their rightful place

You can never do what’s right in your own eyes and obey the law of God. You have to obey the law of God first and then you will do what’s right in the eyes of God, not you.

How can you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, if you won’t do what’s right in the eyes of the Lord, but rather prefer to rely on your own judgment?

They feared the Lord and served their own gods 2 Kings 17:33

David, and those who followed his philosophy, did what was right in the eyes of God (1 Kings 15:5). King Saul, and those who followed his philosophy, served God and did what was right in their own eyes. The latter were deceived. The latter still appeared to worship the same god as David, but it was another god of their own thinking, not David’s God.

The Curse

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight (Isaiah 5:21).

The counsel of the Word of God is clear … be NOT wise in your own eyes, but fear the Lord and depart from your own evil conceit (Proverbs 3:7); to do otherwise, is stupid (Proverbs 12:15, 26:12).

 

May God open our eyes to see how we’ve been sucked into fake grace, and then be willing to do whatever the Lord wants, whether we like it or not.

 

Pastor Rick McIntyre

 
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Posted by on November 30, 2019 in Conceit

 

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Sermon 139 – The DICHOTOMY of LOVE & HATE

10 Aug

Is it possible for hate to be built on love, or love to be built on hate?

I asked some Christian folk how they would define HATE. Their responses were along the lines of … detesting someone, or super angry with someone.

I then asked … where does this hate originate from?

They each brought up certain incidences of injustice in their childhood, but it could all be summarised as “they hurt my feelings”.

I then asked … what was your reaction to these hurt feelings?

Their answers included … withdraw, blame, feel bad, switch-off, block-it, and justify why they were wrong, and determine not to be told what to do.

I then asked … how do you cover these hurt feelings?

Assuming that you didn’t retaliate with perverted rebellious behaviour, their common answers were basically … be good, be nice, and be busy.

I then asked … why do you cover these hurt feelings?

I received a range of responses, but they effectively boiled down to … “so my IMAGE isn’t tainted”.

I then asked … how do you propagate this IMAGE and why?

The responses included … increase my knowledge, increase my skills, be nice, popularity, and work harder. We do these things to protect and build our image, and to position myself above my neighbour, so ultimately, I’m the boss and no one can tell me what to do.

I then asked … how would you define LOVE?

The general responses were … caring, warming to someone, no anger, respectful, and wanting to be around someone. That is, practicing these things and expecting them in return.

I then asked … can you live in middle ground between hate and love?

They generally agreed that you could, but, this is the typically wrong perspective of the modern Christian.

God’s perspective

Now, let’s look at it from God’s perspective. God says, middle ground is neither hot nor cold (revelation 3:16), and therefore, cold. So, from God’s perspective, there’s no middle ground, it’s either love or hate. If you don’t operate in love, then you operate in hate, and if you operate in hate then you are not operating in love. It’s either, love or hate.

Middle ground

If you live in middle ground, then you call your hate, ‘good’, and God says that’s evil (Isaiah 5:20,21). And, if you live in middle ground, then you worship your own IMAGE, and God says that’s defying and disrespecting His 2nd commandment. It may not be graven into wood or stone, but you’re still ignorantly bowing down to it and worshiping it.

Middle ground means … I worship ME and pretend to worship God.

Hate is the opposite of love

God defines hate as … the fruit of “I love ME as No.1, so don’t TELL ME what to do”; and God defines love as … God, the Father is No.1, so He TELLS me what to do, and I do what I’m told.

Love is … “ok, God, I don’t like it, but Your will, not mine, be done”. Love is seeing from God’s perspective. God’s insight flows from doing what’s right in His eyes, rather than what’s right in your own eyes.

Hate is just the secret worship of ME, and love is the worship of God, for God.

Hate judges, love evaluates. Hate bosses, love trusts God’s plan.

You can’t make a judgement against someone, unless you live in hate, and you can’t love IMAGE unless you live in hate.

So, in reality, reacting to hurt offences is just loving myself, first, and hate flows from this self-love.

Self- love is focused on the other person’s offence against me. Agape love is focused on God’s will and how I serve it, for God.

You have to be dead first before you can be resurrected

The truth is, if you’re not dead to yourself you can’t properly see God, you will automatically operate in hidden hatred and make your judgments from that foundation, and more importantly, you can never be resurrected into His life. Without death there’s no heaven, no matter how good you think you are.

Good doesn’t cut it

You can’t solve your pride by trying to be more respectful, more good, more committed, or keeping silent with no apparent offensive opinion, or practicing pretense. That’s salvation by works, not by faith. Good will never cancel out hate. The only solution is turning to God to address your hate, and this can’t happen until you agree that you have it. You can’t change your sinful heart. You have to call out to God to change it, and He’ll use hate to do it.

The test

The test will be your reaction to being bossed, corrected, or someone who challenges or mocks your opinion, especially with intimidation. You should take your moody reaction to Christ and ask Him to address your pride.

Ok, we fail, but there’s a big difference between ignorantly and blindly living in hate (like King Saul) and falling into it (like David).

I then asked … how can you reverse self-love into God’s love?

Just as the foundation of hate is self-love (known as ‘pride’), so, the foundation of God’s love is the hate of hate, that is, the hate of sin (Zechariah 8:17, & Revelations 2:6). Consequently, you can hate on the foundation of love, if you hate sin, but you can never love on the foundation of hate.

That’s why, God hated Esau (Romans 9:13), because as much as Esau tried, his heart was focused on himself. That’s why God loved David and hated King Saul. They both sinned, but David repented because his heart was toward God. Saul’s’ heart was towards Saul.

What’s hate got to do with it?

Because, firstly, hate defines your relationship with God (1 John 2:11). If your love is built on the foundation of hate, whether you want to know it or not, then you are not related to God even though you vehemently demand you are.

And, secondly, because, you need hate to find God’s love. Just as hate controls everybody’s moods, so hate is the pill that you must swallow in order to stop hating. This means you have to suffer hate (Matthew 24:9) and the devaluing of your opinion to cure your hatred and high opinion of yourself … that’s the ‘cross’, that’s the place of ‘baptism into His death’ (Romans 6:4), that’s where you deny yourself, daily (Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23). Without hate, you can’t find the cross, you can’t die, and you can’t be resurrected to eternal life (John 12:25).

Why won’t so-called Christians listen to this truth?

Pride believes it has.

Pride blames and doesn’t accept responsibility for its sinful reactions.

Pride believes it’s good already.

Pride feeds on the FEAR of looking bad, of losing its IMAGE, and of persecution (Galatians 6:12).

The solution

Nothing of self, all of God.

 

May God open the eyes of His remnant to see their sin and instead be willing to suffer reproach for His Name!

 

Pastor Clive Douglas

 

 

 
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Posted by on August 10, 2019 in hate

 

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Sermon 138 – Don’t build a relationship on the hatred of someone who’s hurt you

14 Jul

Every human being is created with a body, soul and spirit. Our soul and spirit are the elements that allow us to commune with God. The soul consists of the MIND, WILL and EMOTIONS. The most important element of our soul is our ‘WILL’.

Why?

The answer is found in Jesus’ prayer to His Father on the Mount of Olives. What was His prayer? ‘Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done’ (Luke 22:42). Note, there are two parts to this prayer … the first part is a prayer to remove the trouble, the second part is a prayer of ‘will’ and surrender.

Salvation is a decision of our will in the face of distress; in the face of being aware that the decision will cost me distress.

Why does it have to be in the face of distress?

The Bible declares that if you are going to build a tower you should first count the cost (Luke 14:28). In other words, you can make a decision to follow Christ, but that decision isn’t verified unless, or until, circumstances dictate a cost. This is explained in the parable of the sower and the seed (Mark 4).

You see, the problem is, most so-called Christians don’t make a decision of ‘will’, they make a decision of ‘emotion’. That is, most people decide on the basis of their feelings, and usually those feelings are hurt ones. They decide to follow Christ in the hope He will remove the trouble.

You see, whenever you make judgments against someone for offending you or someone else, you effectively initiate retaliation against that person. Once you take the bait of hurt, and retaliate, you are no longer able to have control of your will. Once you lose control of your will you can’t surrender your will to the Father, and your will comes under the power of Satan. Your prayer will be … ‘remove this trouble from me’. If you hold this judgement for some time your heart will begin to harden and you’ll block your salvation. This is proven in 2 Timothy 2:24-26 (KJV).

Once you choose ‘offense’, you unwittingly choose ‘hate’ and automatically lose your ability to surrender your will to His. Your whole focus will be on removing the trouble by striving to win the competition of who is the best. You see, if you continuously allow your hurt emotions to control your judgement, the truth is, your spirit revolves around the lust for IMAGE, not Christ.

Practical observation

I was observing a group of girls in our fellowship. One of the girls decided she was more special and started recruiting a best-friend. The other girl could sense that she was being used and manipulated so she formed a best-friend relationship with someone else. This polite and silent retaliation stirred up more secret hatred in the heart of the first girl so she went about trying to steal the friend from the second girl.

Hypocrisy is judging someone for doing something wrong, then practicing it yourself

Both girls played their parts with seemingly pure goodness. They’d learnt the art of pretense, perfectly. The truth is, God’s not after ‘good’; He’s after ‘will’. If your will isn’t surrendered to Him, then your ‘good’ is not good.

Mood = reacting to wounded emotions

If you allow an offence to hurt your emotions you won’t have power over your will and, sooner or later, spite will flow out of you.

The truth is, if the first girl tries to build her relationships on the foundation of her hurts, it will fail, and If the second girl builds her relationships on the foundation of retaliation and hate, it will fail, too. No wonder most relationships fail; they’re invariably built on spit and spite.

Spitefulness = trying to injure someone

When I finally challenged the original girl about her spitefulness, she couldn’t see that she had done anything wrong. As far as she was concerned, all she was doing was trying to find a friend and the other girl had given her the cold shoulder.

Until you own your sin and repent of it, you can’t free your will. You can decide to not keep doing it, but it’s all a waste of time because your will can’t perform its will whilst your hurt emotions rule your soul. You have to repent to free your will before you can truly see you are wrong. Contrary to the popular belief that ‘I have to see it before I can own it’, the truth is, you won’t see it until you own it, first.

It’s not fair

If you don’t pray the second half of what Christ prayed, you’ll simply be plotting how to escape your hassles on the ground of justified fairness, or if you do decide to pray it, it will be ineffective whilst ever your hurt emotions rule your soul.

The truth is, if you seek fairness in this world without living for the next, then you are not saved. This world is not fair … Jesus was crucified for doing good, Christians are being persecuted for simply loving Christ, people are being unjustly treated and unjustly suffering all over this planet, plus homosexuals demand equal rights, women who hate male authority demand equal rights, aboriginals who worship the serpent god demand equal rights … they’re all into fairness; Jesus wasn’t. Striving for fairness is an argument from Satan to justify that the cup be removed from me. True fairness is only under the Lordship of the Creator judge, Jesus.

Christians are not called to receive fairness; we’re called to serve and suffer for the name of Christ. The reason so few pray the full prayer is simply because we want the cup removed; we want the right to defend injustices against us; we don’t want to suffer for His name.

The healing of the lame man at the gate ‘Beautiful’

In Acts 4, Peter and John were arrested for performing this miracle. The religious tribunal demanded by what authority they had done this. They weren’t inspired by the miracle; they were offended with envy. Peter, under the power of the Holy Spirit stood his ground and preached Christ crucified.

Why don’t we see miracles in the western world, today?

In the modern Christian church, everyone wants the power of miracles for their own positional image, but to my understanding, God gives the power of His Spirit when you’re facing ‘fire’. Moses didn’t get the power till he faced Pharaoh. Elijah had to face Jezebel. Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego had to face the fiery furnace, for the miracle to be done.

In the same way, Peter and John would have had to weigh up the consequences of healing the lame man. They would have known there would most likely be a reaction against them that would cost them. It’s the cost that confirms where one’s will is placed … under Christ’s, or set doing and seeking what’s best for one’s self.

If you’re here for Christ, people will hate you. If you’re complaining about the hate, then you’re here for image. One has surrendered their will to be hurt by offenses, the other hasn’t. One is saved, the other isn’t.

 

May God open the eyes of His remnant,

 

Pastor Clive Douglas

 
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Posted by on July 14, 2019 in WILL

 

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Sermon 134 – I’M HURTING

15 Jan

I spoke with a young Christian man who was hurting over his divorce. He blamed her for hurting him, and she blamed him for hurting her, and they listed their justifiable grievances as their excuses to hold onto the pain. In reality, their marriage was never going to work. They both entered the relationship with hatred and sooner or later this hatred would inevitably flare-up.

The young man had been hurt by his father’s cruel words, so he had decided as a child that he would never be like his father, but would always be kind to hurting children. Sounds right, but his kindness was built on a foundation of hatred towards his father, so, sub-consciously, it was always tempered for his own value and self-worth. In other words, his kindness was always contaminated with self-value, to compensate for his own hurt, so when he saw people hurting other people it gave him license to blame.

The wife had also entered the relationship looking for relief from her pain, but like the husband, her good deeds were a camouflage for her inner secret hurts. Sooner or later there would be a collision of hurts. We all marry for selfish reasons but very few learn to swallow our pride and allow God to use the marriage to break our selfishness.

It’s natural

All of us carry these hurts; it’s just part of humanity, infected by Satan’s lust for power and control.  Evil in people always uses hurts to put you below them. It’s a competition for position. ‘Hurt’ is just Satan’s way to blind you to the real issue of pride and self.

That’s why Jesus said … cast all your cares on Me because the Devil is your adversary (1 Peter 5:7), and that’s also why Jesus was wounded for our rejections (Isaiah 53). Only by faith in Him can you escape the Satanic cycle of self-destruction of put-ups and put-downs.

Most Christians think they’re free from Satan, but they lie to themselves. You can measure their lack of faith by their mood at the point of hurt.

The problem

The problem is, no one casts; they carry it. Why? Pride carries, faith casts. If you can’t cast it, it’s because of your pride. You can cover your pride with as much good deeds as you like to make yourself feel better about yourself, but it will never fix the underlying problem of your hurt pride.

Marriage and relationships is one of God’s pathways to expose this hurt pride in us. If you allow God to open your eyes to yourself (instead of feeding your pride by ‘blaming’), you will begin to see your hurt pride, and by faith in Christ, you’ll be able to cast it. That’s the only path to freedom. Forgiveness is casting, not carrying.

Blame

Blame is not a characteristic of The Holy Spirit. It’s a characteristic of Satan. As soon as you blame someone for hurting you or getting you into trouble, you’re simply affirming your blood connection to your first forefather, Adam. Adam was too proud to look bad, so he shifted responsibility for his own actions by blaming Eve. It simply locked him into Satanic manipulation; Satan was now pulling his chain through Eve.

That’s how it always works … if the man won’t stand for God’s laws and instructions, Satan will pull him down through the woman, and not only will he lose his own salvation, but his children will turn out to be murderers unless they themselves stand on God’s laws.  They may not physically murder like Cain, but God will overlook their good deeds and judge their hatred as murder against their fellow-man (1 John 3:15).

What’s your reaction when someone hurts you or hurts your feelings?

The normal inherent sinful reaction is …. have a mood, blame, it’s not fair, hurt them back, hate them and excuse it because they started it. The only reason we would react this way is because we love ourselves more than God.

God said … when you’re reviled, don’t revile back. When you’re mistreated, don’t mistreat them back (Matthew 5:39). Why did He advise this? Because the moment you retaliate based on the foundation of hatred for hurts against you, you put yourself under Satanic control. Satan uses hurt feelings to control you. God uses hurt feelings to free you.

This generation has been taught … don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do, so how are they ever going to do what God tells them to do? Sadly, Satan is winning the war and most will never be able to do as they’re told.

How do we stop this hurt-reaction cycle?

We have to love God more than ourselves. How? Suffer enough hurts till we learn to cast instead of defend our pride.

The real issue

The issue is not ‘hurts’, it’s hate. And the reason we justify our unfair hurts is because we love our position. We hate being put-down. We’re born with the love of ourselves and we have to hate this love if we’re ever going to discover the love of God (Matthew 6:24).

There’s only 2 types of love … you either love God, or you love yourself. If you love yourself, you actually hate your fellow-man and God. That’s why Jesus said that if you want to be His disciple you have to hate yourself. This doesn’t mean despise yourself, it means … have zero to do with loving yourself. You can’t love yourself and love God at the same time. To love God, you have to hate your selfishness. If you routinely feed on your hurt selfishness, don’t say you love God. You can believe you love Him and you can think you love your fellowman, but it’s a lie.

The lie

The modern church teaches that you must love yourself first before you can love your fellow-man. The Word of God says the opposite … you must hate yourself first before you can love God and love your fellow-man (Luke 14:26).

What’s selfishness?

Selfishness is simply focussing on my hurt feelings, resulting in fake goodness and excuses to blame. The young man couldn’t see how he had hurt his wife’s feelings, he could only see how she had hurt his. Selfishness analyses and diagnoses from its hurt feelings. That’s why we have to hate it.

What’s love?

Focussing on serving God and faithfully trusting His higher plan by suffering my hurts for His glory.

The irony

If you love God and you’ve learnt to cast and you’re willing to suffer and lose for His sake, then there are times when you can retaliate like Elisha, you can withhold forgiveness like the Father (Matthew 6:15), you can call people names (Matthew 23:27), and you will hate evil and even curse (Psalm 109), but if you love yourself you can’t do any of these things without it being sin. Whatever is not of Faith and Love, is sin (Romans 14:23).

 

May God open the eyes of His remnant.

 

Pastor Frank Whistler

 
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Posted by on January 15, 2019 in hurt

 

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Sermon 131 – The Inherent Evil of every Human Soul before God owns it

11 Aug

1. ME
I think … I’m Special, I’m Important, I’m Clever, I’m Skilful, I’m Intelligent, I’m GOOD
The problem is … only God is Good. So, the more GOOD you think you are, the more you love yourself, and the more you are your own god.

2. I WANT
… Security, Position, Superiority, Value, Favour, Happiness, to look good in the eyes of others eg. King Saul
I hate INFERIORITY
I WANT to do it MY way. Don’t TELL me what to do.

3. ENVY
I WANT what you’ve got = I should have it, how come you’ve got it? = love ME above my neighbour = HATE my neighbour
I lust after SUPERIORITY. I lust after HAPPY
I HATE you because … you’re more HAPPY, more SUCCESSFUL, more LOVED, more POPULAR
Defined in James 4:5 as ‘malignant grief ‘ towards your neighbour eg. King Saul vs David, Pharisees vs Jesus
Associated in James 3:15 with the world, perversion, and demonic

4. MANIPULATE
Subtle or deliberate TACTICS to gain self-advantage over others, so that I’m ELEVATED above my neighbour, so I have the POWER and CONTROL.

TACTICS = ∗Intimidation eg. King Saul, ∗Lie, ∗Money eg. Ananias & Sapphira Acts 5, ∗Help, ∗Generosity, ∗Sad eg. Ahab, ∗Complain (have a MOOD) until you get it, ∗say Sorry & expect sorry back, ∗Spite, ∗Exclude, ∗Ignore, ∗Pay-back, ∗Sex eg. Jezebel, ∗use Friends = those who serve my expectations, ∗act Perfect = fake niceness / humility, ∗drive a man to Adultery eg. Potiphar’s wife, ∗Pimp on them so I look good and they look bad

5. EVIL DEDUCTIONS
If you make me feel INFERIOR, then you’re evil
If you hurt my FEELINGS, then I have the right to hurt yours = Revenge, Matthew 7:12
If CORRECTION hurts my feelings, then you’re wrong
If you make me feel REJECTED, then you’re bad
When things go positive = God is blessing me
When things go negative = It’s your fault = Blame eg. Eve & Adam
When others are put-down = I’m better than you = Mock
When others fall = I told you so = I’m right, you’re wrong
FRIENDS = those who treat me right
If you’ve got a problem with me, then you’re the problem. If I have a problem with you, then you’re also the problem.

6. CONSEQUENCES
If you routinely practice any one of these above qualities, know that you are under the banner of the spirit of Anti-Christ and therefore, not saved.
Demonic Occupation eg. King Saul = lose your right mind
Incorrigible = Bastard, Hebrews 12:8
Sow and Reap
Disrespect Authority / Hate men, Genesis 3:16, 1 Timothy 2:11,12
Fear, Faithless, Temporary Pleasure, Wrong JUDGEMENT, Confusion, Hell, Hypocrisy James 3:17
Do what’s right in your own eyes, Judges 21:25, and come under God’s judgment
BLINDNESS = we know people hurt us, but we can’t see us doing it to them

7. SOLUTION
Wake-up to your sin and REPENT of it = give up your “I Want”, and TRUST God’s plan instead of imposing and demanding yours. You don’t have to fix yourself, you have to SEE yourself.

Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, 2 Cor.7:10
Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, Acts 3:19
I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me, Galatians 2:20

Pastor Rick Ramsley

 

 
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Posted by on August 11, 2018 in Envy, Pride

 

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Sermon 130 – I think I’m a Good person

15 Jul

I observed a so-called Christian mother dominate her family, including her husband. She had the power of wealth, a sharp mind, and church position. You couldn’t argue any difference of opinion because her dictatorial nature would intimidate you. If she felt uncomfortable about anything then you were always the problem; It was futile to argue your defense. Over the years, the husband changed from soft-hearted to being callous. The elder daughter became domineering like the mother, and the youngest daughter withdrew into herself and lived in a fantasy-land where she hid from her pain. Everyone in that family firmly believed they were good and loved God, but the truth was, everyone was using their religion to hide their pride.

In her pain, the younger daughter appeared happy, carefree and nonchalant, but deep in the hurts of her heart, her pride was hiding from exposure. Satan had used the mother to trick her into preserving her pride and camouflaging it with fake happiness, but God used this daughter’s future husband to loving expose it, free her from it, and save her for eternity.

What % are you proud?

Most people think they’re not too bad and agree that they have some pride, but basically think they’re a good person.

If you were to draw a circle and place a line through it, where would you place the line relevant to the % of pride in your heart and the % of good? Most people think that they’re about 10-20% proud and therefore, 80-90% good, and that’s where everybody’s problem lies. That perspective is not what the Word of God teaches.

The lie … if you correct me, then I’m no good

Most people I counsel believe that if they’re corrected then they’re ‘no good’. But, what does that statement really mean? It actually means … you shouldn’t be correcting me like this because I think I’m a good person, and your correction makes me feel bad. They’re actually saying … I think I’m good, not bad, so I don’t agree with you, and I won’t take the correction, but I’ll pretend to and convince myself that I have submitted to your authority.

If that’s true, then we have a problem. In Hebrews 12:8, the Word of God declares … no correction, no salvation.

The Holy Spirit would not deduce, correction = I’m no good

So, what spirit is making that deduction in your heart? Obviously, it’s a Satanic voice that’s manipulating your pride to defend your position of unfairness.

Shift the blame

When your feelings are offended at a point of correction, then know that you’re full of pride, not 20%, but 100%. The feelings of objection and offense are the expression of your pride. The pride of a person’s inner heart TELLs the corrector that they are not fair and not right. They shift the blame and thus never face the responsibility of their pride. This is the same tactic as Satan vs God, so it’s obvious where its origin lies, and it’s obvious that shifting blame only reinforces Satan’s hold over you.

The person who uses the feeling of “no good” to protect their pride from being exposed, is unwittingly submitting themselves to the control of a lying spirit. Consequently, it may be an unconscious disrespect of authority, but ultimately, it’s pride that gets offended when it’s corrected. It’s one’s pride that deduces that … I’m a good person …, but that deduction is satanic.

Frustrated that I can’t stop it

Frustration is pride, not love. Pride gets frustrated that it can’t stop one’s mood. Pride gets offended that it‘s corrected. Pride thinks it knows better. People get annoyed and irritated that they’re always being corrected. To their thinking, correction is just another failure. This thinking is really just more evidence of the depth of one’s pride. Their pride is offended that they are corrected. It’s just pride to think that you should be corrected once, and never again for the same issue, and it’s because of that pride that the correction is repetitive. But, pride thinks it should be capable of stopping it, and that’s the problem … pride on pride.

The irony of pride

Pride doesn’t like to be corrected. It doesn’t like to be told it’s wrong. It doesn’t like to be put-down. It doesn’t like to be made to feel inferior. It wants to feel good about itself. It wants to feel superior, and there’s the exposure of the real problem … pride wants to feel above its neighbour. The irony is, that pride sits in pride telling everyone else how to stop their pride. It can’t see its own pride, it just sits in judgement of other’s pride. Thus, our pride becomes our own judgment against us, Matthew 7.

Humility

Humility doesn’t use the other person’s pride to make it feel better that it fell to its own pride. Humility doesn’t look to a 50:50 solution to resolve its wrong; it doesn’t say it’s wrong if you agree you’re wrong too. Humility owns 100% of its wrong and leaves the injustice to the Creator.

Only God is good

Jesus said Himself, that only God is good, Matthew 19:17. If you deduce that you are 80% good then you are really saying that you are God and directly contradicting the true God. Clearly, any belief that we are in any way good is just us proving that we are bad.

The purpose of correction, is to put you back in your place

People argue that they’re willing to be corrected by righteous authority but not by unrighteous authority. But, that’s just pride speaking. That’s the argument of the spirit of fairness, not the Word of God. The Word of God says the opposite.

1 Peter 3 :21 & 22 states … it is better, if the will of God be so, that you suffer for well-doing than for evil doing, just like Jesus. This is reinforced in many places throughout the Bible, like 1 Peter 2:19 -23, and Matthew 5:10-12.

Unrighteous authority is of God

God owns everything and controls everything (Ephesians 1:21). Things go bad because of sin, but they can also go wrong because we love God. Satan hates the remnant and is out to destroy us. God uses both righteous and unrighteous authority to challenge and break your pride. No one likes correction, especially if it’s unjust, but that’s how it is if you want to be saved. When your feelings are offended at a point of unrighteous correction, then know that your feelings are telling you that you are full of pride, not 20%, but 100%.

We can see a bit of our pride, but like an iceberg, most of our pride lies hidden below the surface. If you’re going to be saved, you need both righteous and unrighteous authority to break your pride.  The daughter, in the family I mentioned, needed her unjust mother so God could eventually break through her unconscious hidden pride. Until you stop and trust God with correction, both just and unjust, you’re expressing trust in your own pride rather than in God’s plan.

The moment you tell any authority, righteous or unrighteous, to …  mind your own business or, you’re an idiot, you defy the 5th commandment and unwittingly put yourself under demonic power. The more you practice that defiance the more power the demonic gains over you. President Trump may be wrong, but the people of America and Britain are exposing their rebellious disrespect. It will come back to roost. You won’t find Daniel practicing defiance against Nebuchadnezzar.

You see, the authority God places us under in families, school, workplace, government, church etc. is His planned pattern to shake up our pride. Our pride must be exposed for us to be saved, because pride is Satan’s territory and Satan’s door to our self-destruction, but it’s also God’s door to our salvation.

 Salvation requires you to let go and trust God with injustices against us

Until you let go and trust Him with injustices, you’ll never know the peace of God or His saving grace.

Joseph was unfairly corrected by his brothers and Potiphar. David was unfairly corrected by his brothers and King Saul. Daniel didn’t do anything wrong, but still had to suffer the injustice of evil against him. Samson was so full of himself he needed his eyes removed to see his pride. Even Jesus was unfairly corrected by his brothers and the Roman court. Jesus suffered to show us the way to break one’s pride. Position in Christ is always through the door of injustices; the door of bearing your cross. There’s no other pathway that God has ordained to break one’s pride.

Do vs die

The modern religious systems have taught the people to do good deeds. So, people do good to feel good about themselves and to look good to others. But, in 1 Corinthians 13, the Word of God says it’s a waste of time if it’s built on pride.

People ask me what do I do to stop my pride? I reply … the thief on the cross. There was nothing he could do. Do = fix the problem myself. That’s just pride trying to fix my pride. It can’t work. When you’re on a cross you’re either going to object and tell God to fix it, or give-in and ask God for His mercy. But before you can ask God for his mercy, you first have to see that you’re a thief. You have to see that you are not 20% proud and 80% good, but that your pride runs through every vein in your spirit. You have to see that you are 100% proud. Jesus didn’t come to save you from 20% pride, He came to save you from 100% of it. If you only offer Him 20% then you won’t be saved.

You never get rid of pride

You never get rid of your pride, so don’t try. Rather, a Christian takes responsibility for his pride and learns to daily die to pride through repentance, so the consequences of our sin remains covered by the precious saving blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s Him that saves and keeps us, not us.

Our hurt feelings are an expression of our pride, but instead of seeing our pride, Satan blinds us to our pride so that we concentrate on fixing our hurt feelings, and fail to repent of our pride. If you think you’ve been treated unfairly, and submit to the voice of blaming the offender, or submit to the voice of “I may have done wrong but so have you”, you can’t repent, and if you don’t think you’re all that proud you’re not going to repent anyway. And if you don’t repent, then your salvation is in vain.

It’s mistreatment that gets you to heaven, not your goodness.

 

Pastor Rick Ramsley

 

 
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Posted by on July 15, 2018 in Pride

 

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Sermon 129 – Faith through Revilings

23 Jun

My wife and I were casually walking through the local markets when all of a sudden, a woman stood next to us and demanded that we shop on the other side of the street. We somehow ignored her intimidation and moved on. Later that day a man confronted my wife with swearing when she politely asked if he could move to let her pass. Then later-on, an incidental incident happened that resulted in us being distant from each other.

Whenever the demonic is active, there is division

I stopped what we were doing and suggested that the demonic was taking advantage of us. Now, my wife trusts me, but still defended herself by saying that she couldn’t recall any incident that had offended her. I suggested her defence was further evidence that the demonic was active. She reluctantly agreed, and then began the search for where pride had entered and made her susceptible to the demonic.

What happens when someone has a go at you?

Demons very often use people to stir your emotions. The defensive feelings such as fear, guilt, and being bossed or manipulated, start taking over. We then try to solve our feelings so we feel ok again, and once we do that we’re caught in Satan’s snare.

Before any feeling, there’s always a voice … something like … you’re an idiot, or, you’re rude, if you don’t do what I say. The voice is always designed to get you to react in fear so you do what it wants. We usually don’t hear the voice because we’re absorbed with our emotions; so, we fail to realise that we respond to the voice with something like … don’t tell me what to do. In other words, we speak self-defensively to the voice, yet often in fear we end up doing what the voice wants. Why? Because, we don’t like looking bad.

What’s really happening?

What we’re really doing is defending our pride by protecting our reputation. Jesus said you can’t be a disciple unless you die to yourself. Perhaps the best way to understand dying is to look at the opposite to dying; and that is … to defend your reputation. If you’re always looking to defend your reputation, then you’ll never find death, and thus, Satan will keep you from heaven. Salvation is via death to self, and access to hell is via preservation of one’s reputation.

That’s the very reason that we read in Philippians 2 that Jesus made Himself of no reputation. He set the example. In fact, if you open your heart to death-to-self, you’ll begin to see that the whole of the Word of God teaches this truth. The modern religious system is into life and happiness through grace, but grace is just the easy path that avoids the revilings for standing up for God and His principles and His Ten Commandments when everyone else is compromising them and tolerating people’s sin and falsely calling it love.

Without faith it’s impossible to please Him

God plants the seed of faith, but it’s the disciple’s responsibility to water it. Faith doesn’t grow through the comforts of wealth and prosperity and things always working out; it grows through revilings. Jesus said, woe to you when everyone thinks well of you (Luke 6:26), but blessed are you when men revile you for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven (Matthew 5: 11 & 12).

Jesus isn’t preaching this lightly. It’s not just an instruction to try and honour; beside, you can’t do it without faith. He’s actually teaching you the path to salvation.

The man born blind

In John 9 we read the story of the man born blind. Jesus healed the man on the sabbath by spitting in the dirt and making clay and putting it on the man’s eyes. In envy, the Pharisees are offended. The Pharisees refused to believe he was really blind so they questioned the parents. In fear, the parents said he was blind but their son was old enough, so confirm it with him. The Pharisees take on the man whose sight is restored and threaten him with being an idiot.

In this story, Jesus is reviled, the blind man is reviled, and the parents are threatened with being reviled. Jesus suffered their reviling. The blind man suffered their reviling, but the parents protected their reputation and passed the buck.

The point is, the blind man could have gained his sight by interacting with Jesus, but he would not have gained his salvation without the reviling. It was the reviling that forced him to decide whether he would believe in and walk the way of Christ, or simply take the gift of sight and be cooperative with the demonic-inspired Pharisees.

Reviling is God’s way to strengthen your faith. Reviling is God’s way to save you. If you’re not being reviled then you’re comfortable with protecting your reputation and you’re not saved, no matter how much you pray, no matter how much you give, no matter how much you help. This is confirmed in 1 Corinthians 13.

The other point is, it’s more likely that the ones who have the problems will seek out Christ. The son had the problem. He needed Christ. The parents and the Pharisees didn’t need Christ, they were only interested in protecting their reputation. Problems from Satan are a gift from God.

Address your pride vs fix your feelings

Most people get hurt and try to fix their feelings, but Christians should use both their hurt feelings and their puffed-up feelings to put their pride on trial.

If you want to grow in faith, then take a pen and write down your feelings when someone offends you. You need to write it down otherwise your feelings will over-ride your spirit. Then write down what they’re really saying to you. Then, write down what you’re saying back to them. Ask yourself … is my reply, Holy Spirit or am I protecting my pride? Then repent, by transferring you trust to Christ with … ok, God, if they call me stupid, I’ll trust you. This is how you reinforce your faith. If you don’t practice faith, you’ll lose it. It doesn’t work by technique alone; it requires God’s faith, but God’s faith will grow if you water it, by trusting Him in the face of revilings.

 

May God strengthen our faith by helping us to be willing to suffer for His sake.

 

Pastor Rick Ramsley

 
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Posted by on June 23, 2018 in Faith, Suffering

 

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Sermon 120 – Newton’s 3rd Law

17 Mar

Newton’s 3rd Law of physics states that … for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It’s not a premise or a theory; it’s law. That means, it’s not a possibility or a maybe; it’s a fact of the physical realm we live in. It happens in every instance of action, 100% of the time. Hit a tree at fast speed and your body will hit the windscreen with the same force unless you’re wearing a seat-belt.

What people fail to understand is that the laws of the physical realm are simply a reflection of the spiritual realm. In the spiritual realm the same law applies. You see it’s application in the physical realm so you can open your spiritual eyes and appreciate how the spiritual realm operates.

The Word of God states in Matthew 7:1 & 2 … judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. The Bible calls it sowing and reaping, but it’s simply the law of equal and opposite reaction.

Sow disrespect, you’ll get disrespected. Sow control over people, you’ll get controlled by a demon, and you won’t know it’s happening. Sow judgment and you’ll fall to the same thing you judged. Sow envy and you’ll reap hatred.

The key element that the Bible encourages is … humility

God gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud. God loves a contrite spirit. He hates pride because it’s from hell. Humility comes from heaven. Pride is a characteristic of Satan. Humility is a characteristic of Christ.  If you choose pride, God will resist your pride with an equal and opposite reaction … a haughty spirit precedes a fall. If you choose humility, Satan will resist it with an equal and opposite reaction, but the difference is God will be your strength, and the reward will be eternal.

Humility?

To understand humility, you need to understand pride. To walk humbly you need to block pride. Pride is triggered in two ways, and always via feelings. One way is by getting puffed up via good feelings eg. when you get a compliment or complete a task well. A voice says to you that you’re pretty good or clever or capable. The other way is via bad feelings eg. when someone says or does something to hurt your feelings. A voice says to you that it’s not fair or nice. Consequently, you can have puffed-up pride, but even more commonly, you can have hurt pride.

Humility is not an outward appearance; it’s an inner attitude of God’s strength to desist from sucking-up to your hurt pride or puffed-up pride. It’s learnt from recognising that your hurt feelings or good feelings are a satanic trap to get you to be proud so that Satan can apply the law of equal reaction against you.

There’s no way you can avoid good or bad feelings. It’s part of being human. You can pretend to block your feelings with coolness or macho-ness, but they’re still there; they’re just covered over.

Humility doesn’t mean you block your feelings with coolness. It means you feel it and go to God with your hurt and trust His solution, accepting that hurt is part of the solution to learning faith and trust.

Repentance and Forgiveness don’t happen until you give up your feelings

You can’t repent and hold onto hurt feelings, and you can’t forgive and hold onto hurt feelings. You have to give up your feelings and die to what you want before you can repent or forgive.

It’s not fair, I want good feelings

Most people say sorry or forgive so they can get their good feelings back. Their motive is selfish, so it never works. No one likes bad feelings and no one likes looking bad in the eyes of others. So we let the feelings of embarrassment dictate our spirit’s decision and end up suffering the reactions of our action.

Really, underneath all our feelings is just the human desire to be valued and favoured … to be special above others. In other words, we all like feeling superior and hate feeling inferior and we make our judgments based on this motivation. Sadly, that’s the pathway to hell, and God challenges this path with circumstances of life that are designed to re-evaluate the natural law.

Satan uses feelings to trap you in the natural law. Focussing on the feelings of unfairness or superior-ness [superiority is really motivated by past hurts and envy] traps you in the judgment of the person who has hurt you and results in an equal and opposite reaction that Satan can manipulate to make you act like the person you hate.

God’s unpopular pathway to heaven

Jesus made Himself of no reputation and took on Himself the form of a servant. He humbled Himself to the Father’s will and became obedient unto death … Philippians 2:7,8

If you take the pathway least travelled and seek to walk humbly, you’ll cop an equal and opposite reaction from Satan, and God will save you for his eternal kingdom.

If you take the broad way, you’ll still cop an equal and opposite reaction from Satan, and you’ll end up in eternal hell.

No matter what you do you won’t avoid an equal and opposite reaction, but you can choose where you want to end up.

How do you stop your pride?

If you want to stop your pride so you walk the walk of Christ, you have to address your feelings. Pride enters through your feelings. It therefore, must exit through your feelings. You can’t just decide to stop your pride. You first must give up your hurt feelings or your superior feelings. You need to feel yourself do this. Just as you feel the hurt, you must feel the letting go of the hurt. It requires a decision of the mind, but ultimately, it’s actually a decision of the heart.

The mind calculates that the pain feelings or good feelings are part of the walk with Christ and despite the feelings, gives an instruction to one’s heart (spirit) to trust the Lord through the feelings. The heart then lets go the feelings and you feel it go. It doesn’t necessarily resolve the feelings straight away, but an inner confidence of faith is restored that Christ is in control of the situation.

The thief on the cross

The thief on the cross felt his anger and reacted with disrespect and arrogance towards Jesus and demanded He fix his problem. The other thief felt his sin and humbled himself. Humility isn’t based on goodness or badness; it’s feeling your sin and giving up the resistance to defend it.

The problem … you get what you practice

The Word of God declares in 2 Timothy 3, that in the last days people will be incontinent, that is they will not be able to control their feelings because they have allowed themselves to be disrespectful, envious of those that are good, trucebreakers, self-lovers, heady and high-minded, having a form of godliness but never able to come to the truth.

If you practice disrespect, manipulation, defiance, envy, compromise and bending of God’s laws, sexual evil, and don’t keep your word, there’ll be a point of incontinence where you won’t be able to return to self-control even if you want to.

If you don’t control your prideful emotions then you will lose control of your emotions and become incontinent. If you allow your selfish emotions to rule, then you will get an equal and opposite reaction of destruction that will separate you from God.

You need to wear a seatbelt if you don’t want the injury

Macho-ness doesn’t wear a seatbelt; it thinks it’ll never get hurt. Coolness doesn’t wear a seatbelt; it thinks it won’t feel the pain. Fear puts on the seatbelt but fails to buckle it up. It wants the freedom to choose. It looks like it’s wearing the seatbelt so it doesn’t get caught by the police and doesn’t get into trouble.

The seatbelt in the spiritual kingdom is … death. If you’re dead, the feelings are irrelevant. Death is not simple; it requires faith. It has to be learnt; it’s not automatic. It’s daily, not a once for all. It’s learnt through good and bad feelings and by observing the reactions when you fail to stop your actions. You learn it through your failures and your observations. It can only be done after you’ve surrendered to the will of the Father … John 5:30, but, even though the seatbelt restricts your freedoms and wants, the seatbelt means you won’t go through the windscreen; God is in control.

If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself and take up his hurt feelings and pain daily and follow Me. For whoever will save his life will lose it but whoever will lose his life for My sake, the same will save it …  Luke 9:23,24

 

Pastor Frank Chisholm

 

 

 
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Posted by on March 17, 2018 in Humility, Pride

 

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Sermon 119 – The Hatred of Feel-Good

24 Feb

Time and time again I’ve watched Christians chase the god of “feel good”. The priority of their life is to feel good, and to feel happy. The church has told the people that God makes you feel good; He makes you happy, so people come to church looking for the happiness because their life is empty. They want some value, some love, some warmth, some purpose, something that will fill the void, and the church promises it in Jesus, but the people can’t find it.

The world is chasing the same mirage

Everyone is looking for the good feelings. So, if you’re doing the same then you’re of the world, not of Christ. You may not be into drugs, sex, and alcohol, but if you’re chasing it through acceptable Christian means such as friends, success, money, or position, then it’s the same outcome of vanity.

God says … love not the world nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world then the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world (lust of the flesh and eyes and pride of life) is not of the Father, but is the world. The world passes away and the lusts thereof, but he that does the will of God shall abide forever … 1 John 2:15-17

If God’s good, then surely He wants me to be happy

Godless Christians conveniently assume that God’s into good feelings and thus selfishly expect that getting good feelings is God’s way for them. Thus, they judge others by whether they make them feel good or bad, and they make deductions based on whether it feels good or not.

Use the happy lie to control others

Ultimately, this deduction process gives selfishness the right to always feel good and consequently these people control everyone and everything around them so that their objective of feeling good is always achieved. They end up convincing themselves that they’re always good and always right. In reality, this person does whatever they want as long as it makes them feel good. Thus, when they’re corrected and put in their place, they object to the correction because it doesn’t gel with their feel-good rights. They assume they’re correctable, but at the intersection of correction they object. Thus, they fail to take responsibility for their sin; preferring to excuse away their wrong by conversely judging the corrector as wrong because he made them feel bad. They then look for faults in the corrector to justify their often polite but resistant defiance.

God’s formula for your feelings

God doesn’t promise happy feelings here on earth. That’s part of His heavenly kingdom. He promises life through pain which is why people chasing happy can’t find Him, and that’s why it’s called the narrow way, because few want to travel that path.

If any man will follow Me, let him DENY himself, take up his cross DAILY, and follow Me. Luke 9:23

God is the judge, not you

God doesn’t judge you for your sin, because the wages for sin is already hell. He judges you for your repentance, so He can save you from this hell judgment. It’s His blood that cleanses the repentant sinner, not your apology or penance. He does punish you for sin to wake you to righteousness. He punished David for his sin but saved him for eternity because of his repentance, whereas, God let the sin of King Saul drift and saw him miss heaven, for hell.

No correction; no salvation

Correction is a painful experience, Hebrew 12:6. It has to be or it isn’t correction. It’s painful because it’s hurting your pride. If you’re into feel-good, you’re going to diffuse the correction with excuses and thus you’ll fall for the satanic tactic of feel-good so you’re blocked from heaven. Instead of addressing your pride you’ll reinforce it.

If at the point of righteous correction, you fail to bend your spirit to own your sin, you lose the right to stay on the Vine. Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden, not because they sinned, but because they chose to blame rather than bend. The same is true of King Saul, whereas, David repented.

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as a son. If you are without chastening, then you’re a bastard and not a son, Hebrews 12:7,8.

The search for life and value is only found when the vanity of feelings is sacrificed for His will.

Envy

The world and the false church can’t help being envious of those that have found the “good”. Eventually, their envy and anger will be exposed against those who have a real relationship with Christ, simply because others seem to have got the ‘good’, and they haven’t and can’t seem to get it. In their heart they hate those who have the heart of the Father. God calls this murder, and thus they inadvertently pronounce hell judgment on their own head.

If you’re in Christ, you don’t have to say anything, the godless church will hate you because they envy the peace of Christ in your heart, irrespective of the circumstances around you. It’s exactly what they’re looking for but can’t find it because they’re not really looking for Christ but rather they’re chasing the good-feel.

I’m always right, so if you think I’m not, you’re the one that’s wrong

I recall a young Christian who seemed to have all the facets of being genuine, including generosity and helps. In time, however, correction exposed the falseness of his spirit. He pretended to be a Christian but he wasn’t. The problem was he had convinced himself about his own goodness to the point that he honestly believed he was never wrong; everyone else was.  Thus, he could never hear the truth about himself; he could only see the fakeness in everyone else. This is a satanic imagination that blocks the correction which would get you back onto the right path, so you continue on the path to hell; and unfortunately, it’s all too common.

Fake goodness is always to gain self-value; never for Christ.

Hated because you love Christ

A genuine Christian doesn’t have to chase the feeling of good and happiness. They know they’re in- Christ and the feelings are irrelevant. Their spirit is content in the knowledge of His grace upon them and learns to rest in His abiding love.  The spirit of the world is satanic; thus, the world and the fake church will automatically hate them just like they hated the Master. This hatred is designed to put you in fear and force you to give up the fight, but if you face the temptation to go the easy path, this hatred is actually the confirmation of the genuineness of the connection between the true servant and His Lord.

The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; and if children, then joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified with Him.  Romans 8:16

Hatred is the gel that connects you to Christ

Goodness is not the sign of Christ. Non-Christians can act good. Hatred is the sign. If you want to walk with Christ you have to accept the hatred that will be fired at you. You can’t do this if you’re chasing good feelings. The good-feelers will often be the ones that throw the hatred. The purpose of being hated is to see if you will suffer with Christ or defend yourself against the injustice by throwing the hatred back. Hatred for Christ is the blessing Jesus talks about in Matthew 5. It’s the common denominator with Christ and the evidence of your love for Him and His love for you.

 

May the remnant sense His presence no matter the pain and burden of the attacks against their spirit.

 

Pastor Nick Clarence

 
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Posted by on February 24, 2018 in Correction, Happy

 

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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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