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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 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 127 – Silence is Golden

26 May

In Daniel chapter 6 we read the story of the lion’s den. Perhaps the two keys lessons for the remnant are … ‘position’ and ‘silence’.

Daniel was not into position; he was into serving God’s will. Whereas, the princes and presidents were, as was Darius. Pride always envies someone else’s position, or promotes its own position.

Pride is Satan’s gift

Darius was trapped by his pride and the princes were trapped by theirs. Pride always traps you. Pride is Satan’s gift; humility is Christ’s. Pride puts you under the control of Satan. Humility is God’s gift to stand against Satan. But, how do you learn humility when you’re born in pride? Like Nebuchadnezzar, your pride has to be broken off you.

Pride likes to defend itself. Pride likes to stand up for itself. Pride likes to promote and protect its reputation. Pride likes to retaliate. Pride likes to win. Pride doesn’t like being told what to do. Pride says … if you’re going to be nasty to me, then I have the right to be nasty to you.

If this is pride, then humility is the opposite. Humility is death to pride. But, to be humble requires you to see your pride and give it to God. Therefore, things have to go wrong on a regular basis so we begin to open our eyes to our own selfishness, instead of judging everyone else’s.

Fear is Satan’s tool to protect your pride. Faith is God’s tool to suppress your pride

A prince is a person in power. Princes envy anyone who threatens their power. Princes use fear to weaken your faith. If you submit to the fear, you will activate your pride. Pride protects itself from looking bad. But, faith is activated in the face of fear. If there is no fear then you don’t need faith. So, we learn to trust God through our fears.

Bad things don’t happen to good people

The story of Daniel in the lions’ den refutes the lie that good gets good, and bad gets bad. This story, like the story of David vs King Saul, the burning of Ziglag, Paul being bitten by a viper, and the three Jews thrown into the fiery furnace, proves this thinking is from the heart of Satan. Any inner voice that questions your relationship with God because something wrong or bad has occurred is the voice of evil and is designed to squash your faith.

And, any voice you agree with that forms a judgment against someone because something has gone bad for them, is a sign that the same satanic spirit operates through you as did the Pharisees hating Jesus, and the princes hating Daniel.  A voice you latch on to and run with, like … you deserved it, is not the voice of the Holy Spirit, but the voice of Satan, and confirmation that you are in the wrong camp.

Voices

We all hear voices. That’s temptation. But, pride gels with the voice, and if it gets caught, blames the voice, whereas, humility recognises the temptation and turns to the Lord for His truth. And, repentance is simply giving up our position of pride-protection after falling to the voice, to consent to the truth that we sinned by agreeing with the voice.

Darius did not consent to the truth of his pride, nor did any of the princes. The consequence of this pride-resistance is hell, whether you worship God or not.

Repentance

Repentance is giving up your position. Pride can say sorry but it’s not repentance because it won’t give up its position. Pride says sorry to get out of trouble so it doesn’t lose its position, and then it expects you to have to forgive them. Repentance is the humility of saying sorry by giving up its pride-of-position, facing the fears of looking bad, and accepting the consequences of having been tempted by the voice.

If you don’t start it, you don’t have to stop it

It takes a special spirit to have position without being proud. Daniel and Moses and Jesus were in this category, but Daniel and Moses would have had to learn to die to their pride before they were able to handle position, whereas, Jesus never ignited it. If you want to walk in the footsteps of Daniel, you have to die to your pride.

Silence is death to pride

Daniel knew about the plot against him. He knew the law had been signed and he knew the consequences, yet he kept to his routine of prayer. He didn’t let their pride put him in fear. Our pride is manipulated by spirits of fear, 2 Timothy 1:7. Fear stirs up our pride; pride stirs up our moodiness, and then we blame others for our hassles. Faith puts a holt to this old nature pattern, and, faith is stirred-up when we recognise the worst scenario of our fears, and give it all up to God. This breaks the power of Satan’s manipulation of our pride.

Daniel could have intervened; he was Number 2 in the kingdom. Why didn’t he say something to Darius? Why didn’t he try and defend his cause?

The answer is … pride & demons

Behind pride is always a demonic spirit. When someone’s pride rises up against you, your natural response is to defend yourself. This is our own pride rising up to our self-defence.  Our pride wants to put them in their place. Our pride wants to point out the injustice. Our pride wants them to be shown wrong and us right.

The problem is, we’re not arguing against them, we’re arguing against a demon. We’re not fighting flesh and blood, but evil principalities and evil powers. Pride can never win against these evil forces; even Jesus didn’t tackle them. So, when you defend yourself against their unjust attack you actually inflame your own pride and ignite your old nature, and Satan has authority over your old nature, so you just give him licence to manoeuvre you away from Christ.

Soldier for Christ or defender of your pride

The walk of the Spirit is to cease this self-defence and put the consequences in the hands of the Creator. It takes death to achieve it, and without this death there is no salvation, because salvation is through death … take up your cross daily and follow Me, & you cannot be a disciple unless you count the cost and forsake everything (Luke 9:26-33). None of us really knows what this cost is; you can only prepare for it by learning to be silent before your enemy by faith in Jesus Christ, which means, you have to face the fear of the cost and rest in God’s plan.

As Jesus was silent before his accusers, so was Daniel. There must be a serious lesson here.

But I say unto you, resist not evil, but whosoever will smite you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.  Matthew 5:39. Why did Jesus give us this instruction? It all comes down to humility vs demons.

Humility isn’t just silence before your accusers (the world can do that), rather, it’s silence by faith in our God’s plan. You don’t defeat demons with words, you defeat them with silence … the silence of humility, and any words must only come from this silence.

When they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak: for it will be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. For it is not you that speaks, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.  Matthew 10:19,20

There’s a time to defend righteousness with action, and there’s a time to defend righteousness with silence. If you haven’t learnt the silence-defence then you won’t have the Spirit to defend with action.

The real motive

The question is … are you defending righteousness or just defending your position? King Saul fought the Philistines to prove his position; David fought Goliath to defend God’s name.

Daniel was fully committed to the will of God, yet he didn’t try and convert the kings or the princes to his God; nor did he try and free his people from their captivity. Rather, he waited on God for His will to be done. No one waits any more, they’re too active proving what they can do, or they’re silent to protect their position.

Silent for Christ or silent for pride

In the whole book of Daniel, we only read about four Jewish men who were silent for God and faithfully served the anti-Christ kings. Where’s the rest of the Jewish men? Staying silent to protect their position. This silence is pride and fear; it’s not golden; it’s clay; it’s a mood of silence.

Everyone wants to be a Daniel so they can impress the people and promote their personal value; but, that’s not Daniel, that’s King Saul. To be a Daniel requires silence and faith in the living God when you stand before those who oppose God’s Truth.

The Anti-Christ

The lesson of Daniel is to encourage His followers to prepare themselves for the final week of history (chapter 9:7) before Christ returns. The anti-Christ’s regime will last for 7 years. His intention will be the satanic destruction of God’s remnant who are honouring the Ten Commandments (Revelation 12:17). He will therefore, come into power in Europe in spiritual league with Roman Catholicism, peaceably with flatteries, but, just like the princes of Persia, his agenda will be to change times and laws to trap God’s remnant.

If you haven’t prepared your heart to face fear by faith, you will succumb to the anti-Christ’s power and you will betray the remnant (Daniel 11:30). This is no joke; it’s serious. Set your course, face your fears by faith and stop activating your pride.

May God stir up His people to stop having moods of silence and start exercising God-silence when they stand for Him against those that oppose His faith.

 

Pastor Jonathan Faranze

 

 

 
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Posted by on May 26, 2018 in position

 

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Sermon 89 – The LIE of GRACE

20 Aug

I was recently talking with a Christian couple about many issues that are affecting the world … from climate change, war, ISIS, migration crisis, homosexuality, to the Greek debt crisis. Their final conclusion to it all was … it doesn’t matter, we’re under grace.

I stepped away from the conversation disturbed in my spirit, and asked myself the question … who started this cop-out that we’re under grace. Grace has become the catch-cry of the modern church. We no longer call anything sin, but believe we should approach everything with an understanding of each individual’s weaknesses and express God’s love by accepting their weaknesses.

How dare the church get comfortable with Islam!

Because of this false belief, we now join hands with the Moslem religion that believes that there is only one God and his name is Allah. Because of the convenience of grace, the church turns a blind eye to the Word of God which declares “Thou shalt have no other gods but Me”. The church simply uses grace to avoid confrontation with the world. Islam is not pro-Christ it is anti-Christ; a comfortable friendly relationship between the two beliefs is incongruous.

How dare the church say that divorce and re-marriage is grace!

If the church was genuine it would be declaring that what’s happening in the world is a result of sin. The problem is that this increase in sin is really because the church has compromised the principles of God’s commandments and thus lost its saltiness. The church is the sinner! It no longer challenges sin, it turns a blind eye to it and calls it grace. The moment the church turned against the Word of God in Matthew 19:9 and softened its stance on divorce and re-marriage it started its downward cycle and thus now compromises the Biblical position on all sin issues by closing its eyes to sin preferring to live under grace.

Grace is the easy way out; confrontation of sin is the hard way

What the church fails to understand is that when you turn a blind eye to sin, you give licence to the demonic to increase its power and territory.

How dare the church say that homosexuality is an aberrant gene!

Romans chapter 1 makes God’s position on homosexuality loud and clear, and Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed as a warning, just like Pompeii, but the modern church is using grace to conveniently forget and ignore God’s warning in 1 Corinthians 10:5-12.

Recently, on Australian television, the ABC produced a documentary on ‘Australian Story’ about a young woman from a Pentecostal church family who decided she wanted to marry another woman. At first the family was shocked and embarrassed, but with time, they did what everyone else is doing and not only consented to the marriage but fully endorsed it. When it comes to the crunch, the church doesn’t stand on the principles of God’s Word, it compromises under the lie of grace and love. That’s not the end of the story. The young woman has now had hormone therapy and transformed herself into a man with a beard and at the same time given birth to a child. The other woman has given birth to a child as well. The church is not only saying nothing it’s accepting it as normal, believing that love allows every individual the right to their own personality and differences and the right to everyone’s own personal opinion.

That’s insanity

The church is insane for endorsing it, and the medical profession is insane for performing sex changes. Can’t you see that Satan has transferred what God created into the reverse of God’s creation? Satan’s just mocking us and we’re letting him. The fault lies at the feet of a sinful church and thus it has allowed demons to occupy its children. It’s demons that are turning the minds of our children to insanity.

The principle of Separation

The letter to the church at Corinth outlines the principle of separation until the sinner repents. Under grace, this principle is no longer respected. No one separates from sin, they just keep the sinner happy, and comfort and support them in their sin, and call it compassion and love. But it’s not love; it’s fear of being not liked. Love stands up for God’s principles because God is 1st. When you put the sinner’s feelings first, you prove that God isn’t first. Of course there’s a time to help the sinner, but everyone’s ignoring the fact that there’s a time to separate from the sinner. Has the sinner genuinely repented of their sin or are they using you to make their life easier by appealing to your feelings, and is the helper stirred by God to help or just applying “good works” to prove they themselves are good? If separation is not one of your Godly options then you’re a fake and just playing into the hands of demonic spirits.

Samuel separated from King Saul because rebellion and stubbornness expose a person to demonic possession (1 Samuel 15:23) and if you don’t separate it will suck you into it. A modern day example of separation is the Underground Chinese Church. It righteously refuses to be aligned with the Communist manipulated Three Self Movement Church, and thus has experienced the flames of persecution but with it the establishment of God’s genuine church.

The church is a lie

When it comes to the crunch, the church chooses family 1st instead of God 1st. Thus, the church is not made up of true disciples, for anyone who puts family or friends or self before God’s principles is not genuine, Luke 14:26, and demons are taking the advantage.

God is angry

When more than 50% of the population are practicing homosexuals and the general community are atheists, the reality is that the church has failed and we’re living in the days of Sodom. There will be consequences.

Why are so many young men and women joining ISIS?

Why would you give up the benefits of western society to sacrifice yourself for a terrorist organisation that hates Christians?

When the people of Israel turned their back on the principles of the Word of God, God raised up Nebuchadnezzar (a brutal and evil one world ruler like Hitler) to destroy them and teach them the consequences of their evil choices. Clearly, ISIS is an anti-christ regime that God is allowing to rise up to challenge and threaten the fake Christianity of the western world. The irony is that just like Jihad, if you are a fair-dinkum Christian you should be prepared to lay down your life for Christ, just like they’re prepared to lay down their life for a false god. Genuine Christianity is a commitment to death, not to gifts and benefits and position. Clearly, Satan’s power is rising up as the church’s power is crushed under its comfortable lie of grace.

Are we so blind that we can’t see the mess we’ve created as a result of compromising God’s Ten Commandments?

We’ve taken the wrong course of action? Every church family has now been hit with divorce, abortion or sexual perversion of some kind.

The truth about grace

To the modern church, grace = I’m a good person so God will look after me and if I make a mistake it’s ok, He won’t mind. This is ice-cream Christianity; no responsibility for my sin; just a belief that I’m special, so of course I’m under His favour.

“By grace are you saved through faith; and not of yourselves: it’s the gift of God; not by works lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8,9

You’re not under God’s grace unless you walk by faith. The issue is faith, not grace. Without faith it’s impossible to please Him, and whatever is not of faith is sin, Romans 14:23. You can’t condone sin by turning a blind eye to it and say you’re under grace; it’s a contradiction to the Word of God. God resists the proud; He only gives grace to the humble, James 4:6. If you don’t have His faith, you don’t have His grace.

But the church has been sold the lie that humility is being graceful and understanding of each person’s individual personality traits. That’s not humility. Rather, humility is bending to the will of God and giving up your own self-will and self-rights and self-defence. In other words, instead of going with the flow, a humble Christian conforms to the will of God and cops the flack from the majority that are offended by your biblical position.

Humility is standing up for God, not for yourself or anyone that compromises the Word of God. Humility is God’s principles first, not family, not position, not me thinking I’m special, but rather recognising that I’m nothing before Him. If God isn’t first in everything then you’re not under grace; you’re lying to yourself.

Faith is a gift

The problem is that faith is a gift; you can’t generate it or earn it you can only exercise it; and faith is only exercised through trials, a fact that the church refuses to face, preferring the comfortable non-conflicting path of grace. It appears to me that God is withdrawing His faith because of the sin of the church. When He comes will He find faith? “As in the days of Noah so shall the coming of the Son of Man be”, Matthew 24:37. Only eight went into the ark, the rest were pre-occupied by their selfishness.

If you’re fair-dinkum for Christ you’ll offend the church and be hated by the church

Although salvation is free because it can’t be earned, there’s also a price for being genuine. It’s the price of separation. This was the pathway for Christ and this is the pathway for all genuine Christians. If you read the scriptures you’ll discover that from the very beginning of the church in Acts and ever since as confirmed in Jude, the church has been in decay and infiltrated by evil. Satan’s objective is to destroy it and the modern church is letting him. If someone is offended by your position on the Word of God, then know that you’ve trodden on the toes of the demonic.

The boundaries of God’s Ten Commandments that were keeping back the demonic are no longer in place

Most Christians think they keep the law, but they’re deceived. The reality is that most Christians are really nice people under the influence of demons because they won’t honour God’s Ten Commandments of life (not legalism but respect by faith) as evidenced by divorce and re-marriage, sexual perversions and the tolerance of them, adultery and the love of the world, murder by abortion, murder by envy, family first instead of God first, lying with pretence, disrespect of authority and answering back, and dishonouring of God’s Sabbath rest with shopping, work and sport; and it can be tested by their reaction against you whenever you stand up for God’s word instead of compromising under grace.

Grace teaching says that we are free from the law so we’re not accountable to them, but that’s a 1/2 truth and therefore a lie because Matthew 5:17-19 says otherwise.

Grace teaching says that the law is in our hearts so we automatically keep them. But that’s a 1/2 truth and a deception to keep you from Christ. If the law is in your heart you’ll love to honour them, and if you’re not honouring the commandments them they’re not in your heart and you’re not saved.

Like Jihad, the life of a genuine Christian is warfare, not peace and rest. Satan hates you, so how could you have peace, except by God’s peace in the middle of a war. Stand up, stand up for Jesus ye soldiers of the cross.

Pastor Greg Hayworth

 
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Posted by on August 20, 2015 in Faith, Grace

 

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Sermon 68 – WHICH CAMP?

11 Feb

In 1 Samuel we recognise there were 3 distinct camps … the camp of Saul, the camp of David and the camp of the Philistines.

Clearly the camp of the Philistines is the camp of the heathen … those who don’t want to bend the knee to God.

But the defining line between the other two camps is blurry. Both these camps worship the same God and carry out the same ceremonies. They are both Israelite camps yet they are enemies. The same was true of Jesus and the Pharisees; they both worshipped the same God but they were enemies.

What are the real defining differences between the camp of Saul and the camp of David? Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on February 11, 2014 in Elevation, Envy, Fake Christian

 

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Sermon 67 – Don’t drag AGAG around with you

27 Jan

Very few Christians live in the Spirit of the Word. Most try to do the right thing by living by the Letter of the Word. The difference is Life vs Death.

The answer to life is in the Spirit of the Word, not the Letter

Jesus forgave the woman in adultery but yet sends adulterers to hell, 1 Corinthians 6:9. Does forgiving one woman mean that we should forgive adulterers? The answer is Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on January 27, 2014 in Spirit

 

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Sermon 47 – The UNGRATEFUL Christian

25 Feb

They feared the Lord and served their own gods  2Kings 17:33,41

How can you fear the Lord and serve other gods at the same time? The answer is,
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Posted by on February 25, 2013 in Elevation, Fake Christian, god, Pride, WORLDLINESS

 

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Sermon 43 – The love yourself Christian

17 Dec

The modern church teaches that you can’t love your neighbour until you love yourself. The Bible teaches the opposite. The Bible teaches that if you want to be a genuine disciple you have to hate yourself (Luke 14:26,27,33).

The twelve disciples served Jesus in love with themselves. They proved this when they told the children to go away; they proved it when they asked for thrones next to Jesus, they proved it when they wanted to call fire down from heaven; and they proved it when they deserted Jesus at the inquisition.

All Christians do the same until they Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on December 17, 2012 in Death, Humility, Love

 

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Sermon 37 – Can you WORSHIP JESUS under DEMONIC influence?

06 Oct

In Mark 5 we read the story of the man possessed by 2000 demons. When he saw Jesus he ran and worshipped Him. It is not only possible to worship Jesus with demons in you, the reality is that most church people do this, because most church people
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Posted by on October 6, 2012 in Demons, Spirit

 

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Sermon 34 – FAITH 2

26 Aug

Q. What’s faith?

In simple terms … faith is relying on God no matter what is going on around you or to you.

Q. What’s so important about faith? Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on August 26, 2012 in Faith

 

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