Transcription
Well, what's up everybody, and welcome to Thrive! As always, so grateful to have the opportunity to connect with you on today and just extremely excited in anticipation about what God's going to do and how God is going to use this time to strengthen us, to encourage us, to inform us, to educate us, to give us revelation. You live on the level of your revelation. When your revelation goes up, you experience elevation. And, uh, we believe God's going to do that on tonight.
Three ways you can live your life: sinking, surviving, and thriving. And we believe, according to John 10:10, that God's best for us is thriving. Doing the best I can in the season I'm in with the resources I have available. And, uh, we're just believing for that. We like to begin our time together, uh, with a time of prayer because we can't thrive just with teaching. We need divine touches. We need more than instruction, we need divine intervention. And we have, we are a community filled with people who know the worth of and believe in the power of prayer. That prayer doesn't just change things, it can change anything. It can change everything. And so, as we pray for the requests that have, some of the requests that have come in, we pray, we come boldly in faith, knowing that God's ear is leaning in this direction. And so, some of the requests that have come in this week. Come, one comes from Glenn Price, who's believing God for financial provision. Crystal Lingo is believing God for physical healing. And Joyce Henry needs wisdom and guidance. Danielle Shaw, emotional and mental health. And Carla McNair, as marital health. And Melvin Brooks, praying for employment for a spouse.
Well, Father, we thank you that your word is true. You supply not just all our needs, you supply all the [Music] need. You do exceedingly and abundantly above all we ask or think. And so today, as your word tells us to make our requests known to you, we lift up to you now the requests that have come in. And we pray that, as your word says, "May you, the God who sees in secret, may you reward openly." We pray for financial provision. You're Jehovah Jireh. You're the God who provides. You sent water out of a rock. You sent manna from the sky. You can send needed resources from unexpected places. We pray for surprise provision. Make a way out of no way. We pray for wisdom and guidance. We lift that up to you now. Your word says if we ask you for wisdom, you'll give it liberally. So I pray for overflow of wisdom, a release of wisdom, liken unto that which you did for King Solomon. Lord, wisdom from above, wisdom on when to speak, when to be silent, when to go, when to stand still, when to put our hands on it, when to take our hands off, when to take advantage of the opportunity, when to see and discern the difference between a trap and a door. We just pray for wisdom to be released over your people. Strength to every weak place, heal to every area of brokenness, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Great balm in Gilead. The Lord God who heals from all our diseases. Wherever there is disease, would you heal? And may your grace be sufficient for that which you will not alter. Give us the grace to endure. Now, as we teach your word tonight, we pray for an anointing to teach, the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit to make us uniquely effective at a thing. We pray for that as we, we open the book, the words of life, may we do so in a way that honors your intent for the text and that blesses the lives of those who hear and receive. Father, I thank you in advance that you have heard this prayer. I thank you in advance that this petition will be honored. And I offer it and I ask it in the name of of the one who is the only mediator between God and man, my Lion and my Lamb, my Redeemer and my Rabbi. We ask it all in the name of Jesus. We do pray. Amen and amen. Amen.
Well, we got some, some family in the room today. Clap your hands in the build. Let's go! Once, once. Well, pretty regularly, we do something called the immersion experience. And that is people that are part of our communities, uh, in Daniel's Den or in Bible, you get to come and they spend part of a day with us, um, and they're here today. And we're incredibly excited about them. And man, we're incredibly excited to get into the word today. Man, we're in a series on spiritual warfare. And, uh, Dr. Dudley, yes, sir. We're diving a little deep today, aren't we? Deep. Going deep. We, we, this is, I'm behind you, Doc. I'm behind you. You, you standing behind me today? Just for a little bit. For a little bit. Let me see where you going. Going for. Well, in, in our, in our lesson today, I want to talk to you about, we're going to talk about the dynamics of deliverance. The dynamics of deliverance. Deliverance is a term that's thrown around frequently, Pastor. But let's talk about the, the dynamics of deliverance, not just the concept of deliverance, and not just the promise of deliverance. Because deliverance is a promise, right? Part of the ministry of Jesus is a ministry of liberation, right? When he goes into the synagogue and, and gives what many people call his vivid vision description, when he quotes the prophet Isaiah, he says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he's anointing me to preach." And when you, um, follow some of the statements that he makes in that vivid vision description of his life and mission, Pastor, what you see is frequently throughout there, well, at least on a couple of occasions, you see him making inferences to deliverance, to to set at liberty, to set captives free. His ministry is a ministry of liberation and exorcism, which we're going to talk, we're about to talk about exorcism tonight. And exorcism is actually an act of liberation. It is Jesus setting people free from that which they could not set themselves free from with human effort, innovation, or ingenuity. Yes, it is God opening prison doors that we couldn't open ourselves. So, so the concept of deliverance is a biblical concept. But we need to talk about some of the, the dynamics, how it actually works. And, and so I'm going to read the scripture in Matthew chapter number 12. And, um, it's about to be interesting today. All right. Matthew 12:43 says, "When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house that I left.' When it arrives, if it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean, and put in order, then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in, watch this, and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be in this wicked generation." We're going to talk about the dynamics of deliverance. I want to start by saying this. I've said this, um, before, but I think it warrants repeating. All that God is, is everything that we will need. In other words, he is not anything that we don't need. So if we use the language of antiquity, what some of the, the saints would say, if he's a waymaker, if that's who he is, it means eventually we're going to need ways made. If he is a healer, that means eventually we're going to need something, yeah, some healing that requires healing. Because everything that he is, is something we will need. Everything he is, is something that we will need. And he is a liberator. Yeah. My God. Love. He's the God who sets free. Yeah. Here's what the scriptures say: "If the Son makes you free." So there are different sources of freedom. Mmm. I love it. There's some freedom that can come from effort. Yeah. There's some freedom that can come from human strength. Yeah. But what the text teaches is, if the Son, not the s-u-n, uh-huh, but the s-o-n, sets you free, if the Son sets you free, that's a different kind of freedom. That's you're not just free, you're free, you're free indeed. Yeah. Yeah. He, he's the God that sets free. Now, here's what's interesting. All that God is, is everything we will eventually need. Which means, if he's the God that sets free, it means that all of us may find ourselves in seasons or situations where we're wrestling with some sort of bondage. But there are two types of bondages: there's bondage you're aware of, bondage not aware. And bondage that you're not aware of. Bondage we can see, and bondage we can't see. Here's the issue, and this is what I kind of want to lift up today, that some bondage that we do see is a result of evil influences we can't see. My God. My God. Here's what the text is teaching us. Now, that's, that's it. Is that right, Doc? That's it. You're in the text. You're in the book. Am I in the book? You're in the book. Okay. Am I in the book? In the book? Okay. Yeah. Some, some bondage that we can see is a result of evil influences that we can't see. And until we address the things that we can't see, we won't be able to arrest the things that we can see. That there are some things that no matter how many promises we make to ourselves, watch this, I'm going to see how honest they're going to get. Honest in the chat. How many promises we make to God, uh, and how many promises we make to other people? There are some things we cannot get free of without our own effort and our own human ingenuity. There are certain things that require divine intervention. And God goes to, God is a root God. He deals with root, not just fruit. Not just fruit. And Pastor, I love it. It, and this teaches us that sometimes you can't will your way out of stuff. That's good. Because all of us have been in situations where we had to will. Mmm. And if we could do better, we would have done better. And so that means that sometimes you, you, you know, then they say when you ain't got willpower, you got "why" power. Sometimes the "why" power ain't enough. You need that divine intervention. That's right. When willpower and when "why" power is not enough, you know it's hurting you. You know that it's putting you at a deficit. But there's something that influence that's acting on you is preventing you and keeping willpower and "why" power for not being enough. That's it. That's it. Yeah. And what Jesus does in the text is he brings some clarification to this. Yeah. Here's what's happening in Matthew 12. Mmm. This is interesting. Now, Jesus is bringing clarification to religious leaders who thought they understood the reality of evil spirits and their influence. They thought they understood it, but they didn't. But they didn't know they didn't understand. See, because, because here it is now, particularly with Pharisees during those days, there were, there were two, two, uh, primary means of the transmission of information. One was like written tradition, that which was written. So there was the, there was the law, then what was the commentary of the law? Is that the Talmud? That was commentary. So one of them, one of them, don't quote me on that, but one of them. So there's a law, but I think it's the Talmud that was actually the commentary on the law. So that's the stuff that they added. So it's like God's word, then it's like the stuff that they added. And they treated the stuff like that they added like it was God's word. Got me? So, so they had all these rules and regulations or whatever. And I won't deal with that. But that same, that like that same spirit of the Pharisee manifests today in a different iteration. It's where people will read the Bible, then they will interpret the Bible a certain way, then expect you to treat their interpretation of the Bible like it's the Bible. No, that's your interpretation of the Bible. That's what you say the Bible says. That's what it meant for you. That's what it, that doesn't mean that's what it means for all of us. I love it. That's it. So, so there was, there was written transmission of information. But then here was the other, and this was actually the primary means, it was oral. Just stuff that had been passed down from generation to generation to generation, and it was accepted as truth. So what Jesus here is, he's bringing, Jesus is doing is he's bringing some clarity to something that, that has been understood a certain way generationally. Listen, right? And Jesus is like, I got to bring some clarity to this because just because this is the way you've understood it, doesn't mean it's the right way to understand it. And so whatever our assumptions are about evil influences, about evil spirits, about what we're getting ready to talk about, demonization, uh, exorcisms, deliverance, I want you to hold that with an open hand as we weigh through the text tonight. Yeah. And just, all I'm saying is, I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying, hold it with an open hand. Don't be close-fisted with your, with your views, because it might be possible that the text is going to teach us something. Yeah. That's different from what we, what we've been taught. Yeah. So, so Pastor, anything you want to add here before, before we, before we get in here? No, man, you good. I can't add nothing to that. Yeah. Keep going, keep going. Because in the preceding verses in Matthew 12, Jesus had cast out some demons. Uh-huh. And he had healed the sick. And the Pharisees accused him. This is, it's one thing to be wrong, it's another thing to be strong about your wrong. Here's what they say. So he's performing exorcisms, and they say, "You're doing that not by the Spirit of God, but by Beelzebub." Uh-huh. Is that what they said? It's like, you're engaging in some sort of witchcraft, some sort of demonic activity. This is godly. And Jesus is like, they don't even make, Jesus is like, they don't even make normal sense. Jesus is like, that's not even theologically inaccurate, that's logically inaccurate. Right? He says, "Now, how can, uh, a kingdom, a kingdom divided against itself can't stand. How can the spirit of Beelzebub cast out Beelzebub?" He says, "Does that doesn't make sense?" And then he, and then, and then he goes here and he talks about the importance of inner transformation, not just outward religious rituals, the danger of rejecting God's work through him. And, and, and, and watch this, and he says something about spiritual warfare. They're so important. And please, I need my teaching assistants in the chat to put this in the chat. Pastor, I know you, I know you feel me on this one. Spiritual freedom will require strategic follow-up. Come on. It does. Yeah. It does. Yep. The text is getting ready to show us. Stop. Yeah. Because I think there's a difference between, uh, being free and staying free. Yes. Being set free and, um, actually staying free. And this is exactly what the text teaches. The text teaching, it's not enough just to get free. Yes. We got to do the work to stay free. Yes. Right. Now, now look what Jesus says. Now, let's deal with this now, because what the text says is, "an impure spirit." That's the way the, the NIV describes this, impure or evil spirit. All right. So this refers to, so that we're not confused, a demonic entity. Yeah. Right? Okay. Now, what are demons? Fallen angels, is that right? Okay. So who's Satan? A fallen angel. Some describe him as an archangel, his name Lucifer, right? Mmm. He gets infected with arrogance. He wants to assume the role of God. Yes. So he was, he was literally an angel. Right? Ezekiel talks about how opulent he was and how he looked. Yeah. So here's, here's what the Bible says. Now, he, he becomes dissatisfied with his role. Come on. Gets infected with unhealthy ambition and arrogance. It wants to be God. Yes. So the Bible says there's this rebellion and this revolt, and one-third of the angels rebelled and revolted against God. Jesus talks about this. Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall, fall from heaven like lightning." He said, "He said, I don't even have to get involved." I love it. He said, "We threw him out of here like lightning." Yeah. Got me? Yes. So, so they rebel. Got me? One-third. Mmm. What God does is he creates a space where Satan and the one-third will be eternally quarantined. Come on. That place, it's called, it's called hell. Yeah. Jesus uses a, a, what they used as a garbage dump. Now, I'm familiar with this in some sense, because in the country where I grew up, yeah, like from time to time, people like burn garbage. Garbage. Yeah. So there was this valley, uh, called the Valley of Hinnom. They call it Gehenna, where they would dump a lot of the trash, and they would, they would set it on fire during those days, and it would burn. So Jesus uses that as a metaphor to describe the place that God created for Satan and his angels. They're going to be eventually quarantined. So hell was created not for people, it was created for the devil and his angels. That's what, that's what the Bible says, right? It was created for the devils and his angels. So God sends nobody there. He didn't even create it for people. People choose. Come on. That's it. That's it. People choose. Don't, don't, don't use the existence, see, some people use the existence of hell as a way to call into question the credibility of God's goodness. How can a good God create something like that? Well, if you've got an evil entity that is literally destroying people's lives and, and will continually steal, kill, and destroy, then a good God wouldn't be a good God if he didn't do anything about that. Love it. I love it. Let's go. So he says, so this is what I'm going to do. They're, they're going to perpetually engage in evil. If I don't eventually lock them up, so I'm going to create a place where I quarantine evil from the rest of the world. Come on. So the, so the creation of this place where evil is quarantined is actually a demonstration of the goodness of God. Because God is a good God. He's looking at that which is going to continually destroy the lives of his people and said, "Because you're going to continually destroy the lives of my people, I'm going to create something where I quarantine you and protect my people from entities that won't change." My God. My God. That, that's who it's for. That's okay. Now, here's where God's goodness is also demonstrated. If a person makes a decision where they say, "I don't want to be with God temporarily," why would God force that person to be with him eternally? So you don't want, you don't want to be with God temporarily, so he's not going to force you to be with him eternally. Even when it comes to the decisions that you make with your eternal destination, he loves you enough not to violate your free will, to let you choose what you want to be, where you want to be. And so those that don't choose him only have one other place to go, into quarantine. Quarantine. Into quarantine. Did I make sense here? You read the book. Making sense? Okay. So, so when we talk about evil, impure spirits, mmm, it's these one-third of fallen angels that are now demons. Make sense? That are engaging in their activity until the day comes where they're quarantined. My God. Y'all following me? We follow. We there. So when the text is talking about an impure spirit, that's what it's talking about. That's what it's talking about. Got me? Okay. So it's a demonic entity. It's unclean, evil, and rebellious against God. They oppose God's will, and they're going to do this. They're going to seek to harm, influence, or in some cases, inhabit individuals. And Pastor, I just want to insert here, we see what they are, we know what they come to do. And so no matter how you dress up a devil, it's still a devil. And I think sometimes we, we, we play with devils too much. Yes. Yes. And, and some of us, yes, are guilty of trying to change the devil. Yes. When we know at his very nature, he comes to kill, steal, or destroy. And we think we can out, we can pray out a devil from a devil. Keep going. Because I, you, I, yeah. He comes to kill, steal, and destroy. That's all a devil can do. Kill, steal, and destroy. And I think sometimes we, we play with devils too much. Listen, listen. I knew I was right, Doc. Come on. When you were talking, something came to my mind. I said, "I know this is in the Bible. I said, but let me prove it. I need to verify." All right. Everything you just said, mmm, can be proved with Judas. My God. Now, I'm going to show you in a minute because we're about to get into what's called demonization. Yeah. Which is like an ambiguous term. We're about to get into this. But in, in Luke 22:3, yes, this is not in my notes, this is fresh from the press, guys. I got this on my, Luke 22:3, it says this: "Then Satan entered Judas." Entered. Yep. Satan entered Judas. And Jesus discerned, come on, at that moment, uh-huh, "Nothing I do or say from this will be able to change a man who is no longer under his own influence." God. So now I'm going to look at you and tell you, "Whatever you do, do it quickly." Because no matter what I say, you're going to do it. My God. Because you kept playing with the influence. Come on. And the influence gave entryway. Now you've been inhabited. Come on. My God. Can't play with it. So, so I don't care how generous you are to Judas. I, I don't care how nice you are to Judas. How much you teach Judas. You cannot change someone who is under the influence of a demonic entity. My God. Now, all right. We probably need a whole series on this. Here it is. Here it is. Now, let's get to the era that's passed, that's that's confused. Because Jesus says here, like, so in Matthew 12, he's performed some exorcisms. So now he's explaining something to people. He says, "Now, when I perform one." Mmm. And I think that should be a whole message like on the authority of the name of Jesus. I love it. Yeah. And what it means to be aware of the authority of that name, and then aware of the ways in which the Bible instructs us to use that name, so that when you're actually using that name, if you're engaging in, if you're having any sort of engagement with any sort of demonic entity, you don't end up like the sons of Sceva, who are witnessing other people do exorcisms, and then they're going to go and try to perform one and say, "I cast you out in the name of Jesus that Paul preaches." And that Bible says, those demons so messed them men up, they, like they can't, they, they ran out of the place and was running out of their clothes, because the demon said, "Uh, Jesus, I know Paul, I know Paul, I know. But who are you?" And Pastor, I, I thank you for bringing order even to when it comes to exorcisms, because if you notice authority, and, uh, we've all been in traditions where people think the louder you, the louder you scream, the devil's going to come out. And I, I remember one time, Jesus had to tell me, even in Jesus, um, the devils are not hard of hearing. They just don't recognize authority. Oh, say that again, sir. Because when authority shows up, yes, sir. Jesus didn't have to, uh, open his mouth. They said, "Jesus, what, what, wait a minute, where you come from?" He was a walking, he just walked in, and his authority preceded him. And sometimes we scream, holler, "Come out, come out, come out," and it's like, "Man, I hear you, you just ain't got no authority. You don't have any authority." Woo! I'm not hard of hearing. We think the devil's hard of hearing. He said, "I hear you, you just ain't got authority to make me move. And I ain't got to move if you ain't got the [Music] authority." Authority is not expressed in how, how loud your voice can get. Yes. Power is not volume. Power is not volume. And I just imagine Jesus just said, "Come out." Come out. He didn't holler. He didn't, he didn't have no wrestling match with him. "You come out." Yeah! That's a word right there. They, they are not hard of hearing. They just don't recognize your authority. Authority. They just respond to authority, not volume. That's Paul. "I know Jesus. I know. Who are you? Who are you?" So when, when Jesus, so that's, so we're not dealing with that tonight, guys, because I know people, they, they going crazy right now. We need to talk about that. Yeah. We, we, we do need to talk. We need to talk about what are, like, beyond the, like, we need to exegetically explore like when Jesus talked about binding and loosing, and what that actually meant when he said it. But then when he uses the word bind, like binding the strong man, mmm, in another place in scripture, what is he referring to there? Because he says, "You can't get the goods out of the house of a strong man until you first bind the strong man." So binding and loosing does, does have implications for spiritual warfare. Mmm. Yeah. Yeah. But if we don't understand delegated authority, yeah, given to us in the name of Jesus, and how to have faith in that authority, then your binding and loosing just becomes words. But we're not talking about that tonight. Okay. So go ahead. Something. It's, it's, and, and, and I think you said delegated, delegated authority. Yes. And sometimes we try to, we try to operate in authority where our lifestyle does not live up to the delegation. Yes. Yes. You know, and, and, and I think it, that goes back to what you said earlier, when that should not just be an outside appearance. Yes. When you said deliverance, but there's some internal work, some inside work. Yes. And I think sometimes part of it is, um, there's a mismatch. We're operating, we, we, we're expressing in a way that our life doesn't necessarily support. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Yeah. That's that's another conversation. That's another conversation. Moral authority, moral versus, which really affects your faith more than anything else. That's that's a different conversation. All right. Here, here it is. So when one is performed, so when, when there is, here, here's what the text says, "When an evil or impure spirit comes out." That's what the text says. Now, coming out means what? This refers to two realities. Coming out can refer to what we call deliverance, or coming out can refer to what we call an exorcism. Everyone at some point will need deliverance. Everyone may not need an exorcism. My God. My God. It's two different things. Yeah. Okay. Two different things. Now, to understand what I'm talking about, we have to refer to, we got to unpack a term in the Bible like when you see like the King James or something use the word possession, the word there is demonization. That's what the word means. Someone is demonized. All right. Now, while scripture, this is important. Now, this is important because let's deal with something here, okay? And that is, because demonization can be a bit ambiguous. But there's a distinction between being under demonic influence versus being inhabited. Right? Luke 22:3, right? Judas got inhabited. Satan entered Judas. Got me? Versus being under the influence. Now, so let me tell you where we land here. And it's okay if you land at a different place. You just need to know I've done my homework, okay? So here it is. So it means like, right, here's what I think too. I think we got to learn in the body how to disagree civilly. Yeah. How to disagree without being insulting. That's right. Right? And, and that's one of the things I think like, like even, I think the Lord used my time at Princeton Seminary to train me in that area, because most of the time, I'm the only one that believed what I believed in a classroom. So I had to disagree with people, but then at the same time, not disrespect how they got to where they got to. That's it. It's like, I don't agree with the conclusion you've come to, but I'm not going to call you stupid for coming to that conclusion, to act like you hadn't done any thought or any research. And sometimes people talk so fast and they're insulting people, assuming that they, they hadn't done any, any work. So it's okay if we land differently here, because some people are going to, they're going to quote scripture when I say this. They're going to quote it out of context. Right? They're going to be engaging in eisegesis, not exegesis. But here's where we land here. Here's where we land. Scripture does not indicate that a true believer that has experienced authentic conversion, authentic, can be possessed or controlled by a demon in the way possession is traditionally understood. So the question becomes, if there is the inhabiting of an evil spirit in a believer, yeah, is that believer one that actually experienced an authentic conversion? Conversion? Yeah. So according to Matthew 7, there are people that we think are converted that aren't. So Calvin calls this, John Calvin calls this, and I'm not a Calvinist, but Calvin calls this the, uh, visible church, right? And the invisible church, is that what he says? So the visible church, the church we see, Calvin says, is full of the elect and the reprobate. And that we won't know who's actually converted, come on, in this life. In this life. Because in Matthew 7, what did Jesus say? Jesus said, "There's going to be a time where many will say, 'Did not cast out demons in your name?'" There're going to be two lines. They're going to be standing in a line, and Jesus is going to be like, "You need to go to that one." They're like, "Wait, wait, wait, no. I don't need to go to that line." "No, you need to go to that line." "Why do I need to?" He said, "Did not cast out demons in your name." All listen. "Did not do great works in your name." And say, "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you." That intimate relational knowledge, we didn't come into relationship. Yes. What you were engaging in your whole life was pre-conversion discipleship. You were doing all of the stuff that church people do. Come on. As disciples without actually getting converted. God. And the danger this to Pastor is when Jesus said, "Let the wheat and the tares grow up together." And he said, "And, and, and the danger is they look so much alike, yes, that you can't tell until they are exposed to the process." 100%. And Jesus said, "Let me do the sorting. Let me separate." Because sometimes you're going to call wheat tare, come on, and you're going to call tare wheat. That's what he, so let me do the sorting. Let me do the separation. So the question isn't, "Can I?" The question is, "Has a person experienced authentic conversion?" Right? And if they've experienced authentic conversion, then our stance is, that person can't be, can they be under demonic influence where they need deliverance? Yes. But can they be inhabited in the same way that a person who hasn't experienced authentic conversion? Our stance on that is going to be no. And it's okay as you disagree. We just, we just won't fight about it. It's just on your Bible study, you teach. We got, yeah, it's no problem. We don't have to fight about it. Your Bible study, you teach what you just back it up with scripture. You teach what you believe. Yeah. Am I making sense here? Yes. However, believers can experience oppression or influence from demonic forces that leads to bondage. So this term demonization is a bit ambiguous because it can, it can refer to one that's been inhabited, or it can refer to one who's under the influence. Now, I want you to think about a single instance in the New Testament where there's an exorcism needed to be performed on someone that's already been converted. You can't. You can't. My God. You can't. But there is a need for deliverance. So what we need to do is we need to distinguish between what's deliverance from satanic influence and oppression versus what's an exorcism from demon possession or someone having a demon actually inhabit them. Oh, watch this. I don't have time. I don't have time to deal with this. Or demons plural. What's your name? Jesus said, "Legion, for we are many." For we are many. A minute. Come on here. Come on here. Pastor, I just thought about this too. Even with this, even with this conversion in, um, in, uh, with Matthew 16-23, when Jesus tells the disciples, "Hey, I got to die. What I got to do?" And Jesus, I mean, Peter pulls him aside, "Wait a minute, Jesus, you ain't got to do it that way." And Jesus responded, "Get behind me, Satan, for you are an offense to the things of God." Yes. And then, yes, Jesus' correspondence with Peter, "After you are converted, strengthen the brethren." Ah, so I'm, here's the thing. Yeah. I'm just trying to, here's the thing. Even in that instance, did Jesus perform an exorcism? No. So influence, so he's saying, "Hey, Peter, in this moment, you're influenced. You're being influenced by Satan because what you are saying is an offense. It's in the way of the will and the plan of God. God's plan is for me to go to the cross. The enemy is trying to use our relationship to get me to not go." And so, and so I want you, Peter, come on. I want Peter. I, I don't want you to take this personally, but I want you to know this is not coming from you. And I want Satan to know I've discerned that you're involved in this. So I'm telling you to get thee behind me. I recognize it's a rebuke. It's a rebuke. I see you. I have the authority to make you cease your behavior. So I'm saying, "Get thee behind me." That way, Peter, this conversation is over. My God. Make sense? I love it. And then even when you look at Peter again, Jesus tells Peter, say, "Hey, Satan desires to sift you." But I pray for you. And so some of the demonic attack is based on your purpose on your life. And I think sometimes the, the level of attack is can be connected to what God has called you to. Yeah. Yeah. Because he's like, 100%. Yeah. 100%. That's what Paul said. Paul in 2 Corinthians 12. And this is why this is, God is just, but it's not fair. So let's just get fair. Let's just get, because sometimes I'm like, "This ain't fair." And the Holy Ghost like, "Right. He's not fair. It's just because you don't ask for your calling." Uh-huh. But, but with your calling, come warfare. Come on, man. It's like, "I ain't ask for this calling. And I ain't ask for this warfare either. I don't want either one of them." Come on. God. Come on. This with this calling, you, I don't want this. I did not ask for this. You called me to this. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, "Because of the abundance of revelation that I got, that was given to me, a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet." That's what he says. "A messenger of Satan to buffet me." He said, "But it only came because of the abundance of revelation I got." I ain't ask for this revelation. God gave me this revelation because I needed it for my calling. Now I got this revelation, I got this thorn, I got the revelation and the warfare. I didn't ask for either one of them. But there is a connection. That's Pastor. The preacher just to say down in, uh, if the devil ain't messing with you, that mean he already got you. Oh, here was another, here's another one. If you never into them, that mean you run in the same direction. Right? Devil don't never mess with me. That's cuz y'all on the same team. Listen to this. Listen to this. Deliverance, guys. Deliverance. Deliverance focuses on freedom from oppression. So it's the process of freeing a person from demonic oppression, demonic influence, or bondage. It, it addresses a broader range of spiritual attacks, including emotional, mental. Man, we need to take some time with this. And physical oppression. God. Come on. Can we not go to the New Testament and see instances where Jesus healed people that were sick, and there was no demonic involvement? But then we can go to other places in the New Testament in the Gospels, and we can see Jesus healing people, but performing an exorcism before he heals, because the source of that demonic oppression showed up in the physical realm of that person's life with that particular illness. So it's not saying that all illness is demonic, but it is saying that some satanic influence and oppression can show up in the physical realm of our body. That's true. God. So we need deliverance. And deliverance should be an ongoing ministry for believers. Yes. Focuses on breaking spiritual strongholds, renouncing sin, and finding freedom in Jesus Christ. My God. Believers, though indwelt by the Holy Spirit, may still need deliverance from demonic oppression, not possession, because of their habitual struggles or because they have given the enemy a foothold. Come on. In a certain area of their life. My God. They let him put his foot in the door. Right? And when he put the foot in the door, he got his leg in. Come on. Then he got part of his body in. My God. Am I making sense here? That's deliverance versus exorcism. Pastor, which refers to more specifically the act of casting out a demon or an evil spirit from someone whose will has been possessed or controlled by the demon. So the person has little to no control over their behavior or faculties, and the demon is exerting a level of dominance. So exorcism is for possession. Deliverance is for oppression or influence. Do we see the difference? Yes. I said, do we see the difference? Yes. And a person can have extreme cases of oppression, yeah, and influence, uh-huh, right? So there, there's ranges, but we shouldn't confuse that with possession. So when Jesus talks about an evil spirit coming out, that could be freedom from demonic oppression, I love it, or freedom from demonic possession. Possession. Got me? If y'all got me, say yes. Okay. But here's what else Jesus says. And, and we'll wrap up here. He says, "No matter if it was possession or oppression, on when it comes, comes out, he refers to the life as a house." Come on. And he says, "If that house is clean and in order, but it's, but if it's unoccupied, occupied." That's it. That's it. You got me? Yeah. So, so, so here's what can happen. So let's talk about, um, oppression here. Mmm. When there's deliverance from spiritual bondage, God's given a person supernatural, seasonal freedom. That is an opportunity to refill their life. Come on. To protect themselves from re-entry. Yeah. My God. Did you hear what I just said? Sometimes it means something can have such a hold on us that we need the hold broken long enough to form new habits and new practices. Come on. That will sustain that change in the future. Right? Right. Does that make sense? Right. Like God will supernaturally say, "Now, from a, for a season, I'm going to remove appetite for this." But the appetite removal is seasonal. Season. Come on. I'm empty the house. You're going to have to refill the house with something else so that when the appetite returns, you're full of something else, so you're no longer hungry for that. And it's coming back. It's coming back. And when people don't understand that, they misunderstand the way deliverance works. Right? And they have this supernatural experience where God breaks a yoke, breaks a fetter, breaks a chain, and they feel like, "What I experienced in that moment, oh, I'm going to feel, I'm going to be on this high forever." And God's like, "No. Right now, the house is empty. But if all it is is clean and empty, and it is not refilled, you need to know that he's coming back. Coming back. He's spinning the block. He, he coming back." Even in Matthew 4, when Jesus was tempted by the devil, yeah, the text says at the end of the narrative, Satan left him for what? A more opportune season. He's coming back. He's coming back. He's coming back. Pastor, I, I, to your point, in, in Matthew, in Mark 9, when Jesus, you know, when they brought the, um, the boy to the disciples, and they couldn't cast him out, yes, and Jesus finally delivered him, yes, and the, when the demon came out, the Bible said the boy fell as though he was dead. That's right. Right? That's right. And this whole thing, like the animating force was the enemy. Yeah. And so when he left, he left a void. Yes. He left a hole. Yes. That left him as if he was dead. Yes. And Jesus had to reach down. Yes. Which could be a metaphor of filling him, of replenishing what the enemy depleted. Yes. Yes, sir. And so even when we are, even when we are delivered, that's the import of, you got to fill that void. Yes. Yes. Because sometimes the only thing that animates us is the devil. Yes. And when the devil leaves, we're dead. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Not as animated. Yes. Yes. See, he's dead. When a demon left, he was as if he, they thought he was dead. And Jesus had to, he energized by the wrong thing. Energized by the wrong thing. See, see, this is the dynamics of deliverance. People don't talk about, well, some don't, at least, right? It's the dynamics of deliverance. Like we have a, we, we experience supernatural freedom, and then we operate with the assumption that there's not going to be an attempt for re-entry or reinvasion. I feel so free. I don't even like it no more. I don't even like them no more. I don't even want it no more. Freedom from bondage is not eternal freedom from temptation or eternal freedom from the influence. Come on. God. Like, I got to break this long enough to give you opportunity to refill yourself with new practices and principles. Because if you're clean, but you're empty, here's what's happening. Coming back. But not coming back in the same way. Not coming back by itself. Seven times. Seven more. Text said says seven more. Seven more. And then it says the person's new state is worse, is worse than before. Because their spiritual house that was free was left unguarded. Ts. We're done. That's all they can take. That's we're done. Pastor, I, man, listen. This is so good. Because what enters you, who's at your, your door determines who or what enters. Say it again. Who, who or what is at the door of your life? Okay? Determines who comes in. Who, who you let, what you let in. So if you got demons already at the door, uh-huh, they're going to open the door for more. They determine who gets in your house. And I was thinking about even in Genesis, when God was speaking to Cain, and Cain was upset that God was blessing, he said, "Sin is at your door." Woo! That's what he said. And how you handle this situation determines if the door is open or not. Yeah. And I think some of it is, when we talk about, you know, how do we protect ourselves when we are delivered or when we are set free, it is putting those gates and those guards in place. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Say, "Guard your heart." Yeah. With all diligence. With all diligence. Some say, "Lord, put a, put a guard on the roof of my mouth." Yeah. Because all of those things are interests. And the devil can either get possession or oppression. We got to open the door. Yeah. So we should have did a whole series. We probably need three, four lessons on this. Because what does the Holy Spirit do when he fills you? He influences you. I love it. I love it. That's what he does. Right? He influences. Right? And the more you yield, come on, to his influence, the stronger his influence becomes. So when we talk about demonic influence, it's similar. I'm not possessed. He doesn't control my will. But the more I yield, come on, the more I keep opening the door, the more influence that has over my will. And I don't have time to deal with this. At some point, we do. We, we should. Because I'm going to say this, Pastor, we have to know how to separate the devil using a relationship versus the person we in a relationship with having a devil. My God. Say it again, Pastor. Woo! Satan entered Judas, right? Yeah. Did Judas have a relationship with Jesus? He was an apprentice. Of course, he did. And Satan didn't enter Peter, but he influenced Peter. Didn't.
The right, right, did Peter have a relationship with Jesus? He did. So we see right there in two instances, what is the devil trying to use to get to Jesus? Relationships, close relationships, close relationships. And you got to discern even when it's people you love and people that love you, you got to be able to discern when they're under the influence of something they, they can't discern. Is that not what Job had to do? Come on, come on. Did not Satan say to Job? I mean, did not Satan say to God, not Job said to God, "Hey, listen, he's going to curse you to your face." That's what he said. Now, what did Job's wife say when she started dealing with caregiver fatigue? "To curse him to his face and die." "I curse him and die." What did Satan use? Relationship, relationship, close relationship.
So spiritual warfare, like what we see in, like what we see if we look at scripture comprehensively, Pastor, it's not just like how Satan gets to us by what he does to us, but how Satan will try to get to us by using others, through influencing others. Cuz sometimes people who love you, strong, will steer you wrong if they're under the wrong influence. They're not possessed. Peter wasn't possessed with a devil, but the enemy, the enemy used that door of fear to influence. Fear opened the door, right? He's crouching at the door, waiting. And fear opened the door. Oh God, they can't do this. Jesus, fear opened that door. And then that thought came, "Tell Jesus not to go." He meant well, but he was wrong. But Jesus had to discern what Peter couldn't. Peter, you think you're under the influence of love, but the devil's manipulating your love. "You really love me?" And you mean well, but your good intentions are being manipulated. That's good, Pastor. Crouching at the door.
Spiritual freedom requires strategic followup. Once God supernaturally set you free of something, Pastor, I talked about this Sunday. Why is foolish? Here's, here's what Solomon says, "As a dog returns to his vomit, so does a fool return to his father." Don't go back to what made you sick. Come on. Yes, it made you sick. And the enemy wants to infect you with selective amnesia to make you forget how sick it made you. "It wasn't that bad." Yes, it was bad. Absolutely it was. My God. So when the Lord sets me free, what's that? I had a flashback. The Lord sets me free. I need to refill my life now with principles and with presence so that I am guarded against when the enemy tries to use that evil entity to influence me back in that behavior. You can't just get free and then I'm just free now. You got to. The time that was spent with the vice, you have to now invest into a virtue. I love it. I love it. That's good, Pastor. That's good, Pastor. You can't just do nothing with that time now. Yeah, that's good. The time you spent with the, that was spent with the vice, I love it. Now has to be time you give to virtue. If not, the house is clean for a season, but it's unkempt. And it is easier to stay free than to get back bound and get free again. It's seven times harder. Come on.
Listen, if, if, if I was retitling this message again, Doc, I would call it, "Don't Open the Door." Don't open the door. Hey, don't open the door. The door, open the door. Don't play with that. Don't, don't open. Oh man, don't open the door. Man, I just want to, I want to pray. I want to pray. I want to pray for right now. I want to pray for some, um, some people's freedom. Yes. Lord, that God would break some, some yokes, some ties, some chains. Set us free. So Father, I thank you for, thank you Father, this incredible opportunity that you have given us to receive your ministry of liberation. And I pray for freedom for each and every person under the sound of my voice. Lord, may they just experience the freedom you paid the price for. Would you block the influence of demonic entities? And Lord, give, give us the wisdom to take the time we spent with the vices and dedicate that time to our virtues. May we refill our life, even the more, with your presence and with your principles. This is my prayer in Jesus name. Amen and amen.
Well, thank you so, so much for being with us here at Thrive. Uh, we like to close out our gatherings by creating a space for you to sow back into the field that you're harvesting from. So the ways to give are on the screen. And we're grateful and thank God in advance for those of you who understand the principle of sowing and reaping and are responding accordingly. "The generous person will prosper." King James put this way, "The liberal soul will be made fat, and he that waters others shall be watered himself also." You can't take that water hole and spray generosity on somebody else and God not use the wind to blow water back on you. We believe that. And, uh, we give in faith. And as always, um, we want to be praying for you. So if there are prayer requests that you want us and our team to be praying over and praying for, we want you to send those prayer requests in. In Jesus name. And Pastor, the Mastermind for pastors and ministers called Amplify is almost full. Uh, two weeks, almost full. So it might be full now, I don't know. But, uh, if you're interested in being a part of that, uh, you can go into the website that's on the screen. We love you, family. We'll see you next week. Take care. Take care.
Well, listen, thank you for watching Thrive. I want you to make sure you subscribe to the channel so that you don't miss any of our teachings. And remember, you can watch me live at Thrive every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Take care. I'll see you soon.