II Chronicles 32
9 After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, (but he himself laid siege against Lachish, and all his power with him,) unto Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah that were at Jerusalem, saying,
10 Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria, Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem?
11 Doth not Hezekiah persuade you to give over yourselves to die by famine and by thirst, saying, The LORD our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
12 Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall worship before one altar, and burn incense upon it?
13 Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? were the gods of the nations of those lands any ways able to deliver their lands out of mine hand?
14 Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand?
15 Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?
16 And his servants spake yet more against the LORD God, and against his servant Hezekiah.
17 He wrote also letters to rail on the LORD God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of mine hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of mine hand.
18 Then they cried with a loud voice in the Jews' speech unto the people of Jerusalem that were on the wall, to affright them, and to trouble them; that they might take the city.
19 And they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.
Ezekiel 36
1 Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord:
2 Thus saith the Lord God; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:
3 Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:
Pay attention to what is happening in this Scripture. The enemy is damning and condemning Hezekiah for his attempts at reform. Pay close attention, because when you leave here, the devil is going to talk to you about any dedications or consecrations you make. He’s going to try to spit in your face and laugh in your face. That’s what he was doing to Hezekiah.
Hezekiah had tried to break down the false altars and get rid of the false religions that had worked their way in among the people of God. The adversary had used that as a platform of protest.
We need to understand something in this service: Sin is not your greatest problem because the Blood has been shed to take care of all of that. Your failures and mistakes are not your biggest problems, because Grace will give you “more Grace”.
The biggest problem you and I face is when we listen to the Trash Talker.
There is a concept in the Word of God that you and I cannot understand. When the Word says, “All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth”, we can’t understand what that means. The word “Omnipotent” describes God as having all power. ALL POWER is a concept that we cannot wrap our minds around because there is nothing that we have to compare that to.
When we learn, we go from the revealed to the unknown. That’s how you learn. Once you grasp that and comprehend it, you proceed to the next thing.
But, when you get ready to spiritually put your arms around the Almightiness of God, you’re going to have an Excedrin headache because there is nothing on this planet that even comes near to having “ALL POWER”. The devil is a liar. He ain’t got all power. The Federal government doesn’t have all power. The President doesn’t have all power. Even the United Nations doesn’t have all power.
There is only ONE who hold all power! He’s the only who can fix what’s wrong! He’s the only one who can heal disease! He’s the only one who can save what’s lost. He’s the only one who can bless what needs blessing! He’s got ALL POWER!
And yet, God who has all power, never made anything with His mouth shut. The Saints will try that. I’d like to know how you can praise Him with your mouth shut. I’d like to know how you can pray a prayer with your lips locked. I’d like to know how you can offer thanksgiving and gratitude to God with your lips never parting! “When I think of the goodness of Jesus, and all that He has done for me, my soul cries out ‘”Hallelujah! Thank God for saving me!”
When my mind begins to dwell on the Goodness of God, I just GOT to act a little crazy. I just have to shout for a little bit!
He brought me out of the miry clay!
He set my feet on a Solid Rock!
He put a song in my mouth!
He put a dance in my step!
He wrote my name in the Book of Life, and no devil in hell can take it out!
Most of us by now can come into a Pentecostal service and not think twice about what is going around us, but the truth of the matter is, when you first stepped into a Pentecostal service, you made sure you kept one eye opened at all times! You made sure you kept your purse close. You made sure you that you stayed relatively close to the back door in case you need to make a run for it, because, truthfully, you probably got the distinct impression that most of these folks were we recent escapees from the Barnum and Bailey’s 3 ring circus!
Most of y’all today don’t know what this is like, but I’ve been in this all my life, and I can remember a time, when I was a young man, when women used to shout their hair down, and you had to be really careful if you were going to get up there and shout or pray anywhere near them, because those bobby pins would be flying like hollow-point bullets and guided missiles!
Most of you came into the church in the days when that was normal! But now, a dignified wave and a slight “Hallelujah” has become normal.
The closer we get to the coming of the Lord, the more I look at all the crooked politicians in Washington, I can see that there is a system formulating that is preparing this world for the acceptance of the Antichrist. Our world is riding the brink of economic collapse. The flow of information is as wide open today as it ever has been. The word is lining up with the Word of God and we are starting to see Biblical prophecy concerning the End Times being fulfilled, so…
If there ever was a time when we needed “Good Church”, it is now!
If there ever was a time when we needed “Spiritual Church”, it is now!
If there ever was a time when we needed “Emotional Church”, it is now!
The only thing that is going to keep us from being seduced and deceived is the moving of the Holy Ghost, and the power of another world!
Your battle is with the Trash Talker!
Nobody ever really looks at the devil like he’s a trash talker, but he ain’t a truth talker! Here’s where the devil made his mistake…the Trash Talker challenged the Truth Talker! The Truth Talker’s name is Jesus. He talked trash to Jesus, and Jesus spoke Truth to him, and Trash had to leave.
The next time the Trash Talker starts to drive you crazy, you ought to throw your head back and say, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God!” Sometimes you have to talk back to the devil!
I started talking to you about how God has never created anything with his mouth closed. When you go back to Genesis 1, you will find that 10 times, the phrase is used, “And God said…”
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said…
You’ll never get a fresh word from God if you don’t let Him move. He will always move before He speaks!
That’s why praise is important!
That’s why Thanksgiving is important!
That’s why worship is important!
Enter into His gates with Thanksgiving and into His courts with Praise!
Be thankful unto Him and bless His name!
Praise isn’t just spiritual gymnastics! Praise is a pathway into His presence! When you come to church and you are struggling, look at who it is you are sitting beside. If they are distracted and can’t seem to pay attention, guess what is going to happen to you?! You can’t afford to sit next to a non-praiser!
I’m not saying that you have to run the aisles every time you come to church.
I’m not saying that you have to swing from the chandeliers.
I’m not even saying that you have to beat the paint off the walls.
I AM saying that you ought to lift your hands!
I AM saying that you ought to give Him praise!
I AM saying that you ought to offer a little Hallelujah every once in a while!
You ought to do something because your worship is what attracts God to you!
He is attracted to worshippers!
He is attracted to praisers!
He is attracted to those who will say that “I WILL rejoice in the Lord at all times, and His praises shall continually be in my mouth! My soul shall make its boast in the Lord!”
God didn’t create anything with his mouth shut. As a matter of fact, there is so much power in God’s mouth, when he incarnated himself in the man Jesus, if he walked through a graveyard and said something, there was a resurrection.
He didn’t get Lazarus out of the grave because He was God incarnate. He didn’t get Lazarus out of the grave because he was full of all this wisdom and power and might and knowledge. He got him out of the grave because he opened his mouth and said, “Lazarus! Come forth!”
Whatever might have died in your life…
If you can ask God to give you a word…
If you can ask God to speak to you…
He can resurrect your dream!
He can resurrect your faith!
He can resurrect your hope!
He can resurrect your joy!
But He has to SPEAK to it!
Everyday, I pray two things:
1. God, please protect me and deliver me from the spirit of deception.
Here’s why: If you and I are adulterers or fornicators or immoral in any way, we don’t need a preacher to talk to us. Our conscience deals with us. We know that we are immoral.
If we are liars, or thieves or cheats, we don’t need a preacher preaching the word of God to us because God’s conscience that he put down within all of us will let us know what we are doing wrong.
But, if you and I experience DECEPTION, now we need a preacher. Why? Because the DECEPTION of DECEPTION IS DECEPTION, and the person who becomes deceived doesn’t even know that they are deceived.
So I ask God everyday to protect me from deception. And not just external deception, but from deception that might come from within me, too. Lord, help me not to pervert my own understanding of the Scriptures. Help me not to see things that are incorrect because of the way that I understand them.
Protect me from Spiritual Deception…from voices that would lead me astray!
2. The second thing I pray every day is like David of old when he said, “Be not silent unto me lest I be like them that go down into the pit.”
If you and I need anything in our lives, you don’t need a new car…you don’t need a new rifle…you don’t need a new wife…you don’t need a new church…you don’t need a new preacher. What you need is for God to talk!
I love to come into a red hot service where the music is popping and the Spirit is flowing and you know that the Lord has His hand is what is happening, but if we sing like angels and play the piano so good that we can hit keys that aren’t even on that thing…
If the Lord doesn’t speak through the music, then it is just Christian entertainment.
If God doesn’t talk through me, then I’m just an orator.
If God doesn’t talk to us through the Bible, then it’s just another book.
God, I need you to talk to me.
I need you to chew me out.
I need you to indict me.
I need you to chastise me.
But, please, Lord, don’t leave me alone!
If I were to ask for a show of hands, there would probably be close to 100% in here, but there have been many times in your life where God has talked to you. It may not have been in an audible voice. It may have been a nudge, or an inclination, or a feeling, or a drive, or a leading of the Spirit. That’s the Holy Ghost talking to us.
What good is a God who is removed from the people? If God were to dwell only in Heaven, He would not be able to touch me! We face all sorts of hell down here, but there is no trouble up there! I need the God that rules up there to step down here and say, “Here’s how we need to go.” Or “Your attitude is a little bad right now and you need to apologize.”
So, I ask God for those two things everyday. Why? Because of what King Saul said. See, once you experience the Spirit world, if God stops talking to you, you’ll go after the Spirit world on the wrong side.
See, once the Spirit world comes after you and me, it carves out of us a huge hole that this world cannot satisfy. There are many backsliders, who, when they get away from God and that space is vacated, they try to fill it with money, jobs, travel, entertainment, and so on.
When the activity of the Holy Ghost in your life and my life begins to diminish, the appetite for entertainment always increases because the void, the emptiness, that place is crying out, saying, “Fill me!”
Saul was anointed with the same holy anointing oil that David was anointed with. It was made for prophets and kings. The Spirit of God came on him, Samuel said, and he said, “The Lord will give you a new heart.” And the Bible says that when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, he was turned into another man.
It didn’t say that he was turned into a better man. It said that he was turned into a different man, and the different man had within him the possibility to turn into a better man.
But he wouldn’t keep talking to God, and he wouldn’t keep walking with God. That’s what happens in Pentecost. You had an experience, 15, 20, 25 or more years with God, and it was genuine, but since then you’ve been floating along.
The Bible said that when all hell broke loose, and things began falling apart, he went to the witch of Endor. Why in the world would you go to a witch? Because I know about the spirit world. But if you lose the real side of the spirit world, you’ll go to the wrong side of the spirit world, and that world will answer. That’s why Ouija boards work. That’s why Tarot cards work.
People are skeptical, but let me inform you of something; mind readers, and fortune tellers, and psychics are real! Mediums who talk to the dead are real. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that these things are cute party games and things of innocence to dabble in. There are things in the spirit world that are dangerous, especially for a struggling child of God!
The Bible said that the old witch who was trying to deceive him and fool him, God fooled her! Samuel came up and she took one look at him and passed out. Saul said, “What did you see?” She said, “I saw an old man and he had a mantle on him.” Saul said, “Hallelujah! That’s Samuel!”
Then he started to talk to Samuel and cried out, “Samuel, I need a little help! I’m about to fight an army that I can’t beat and I need some supernatural power…and the Lord has departed from me!” Here is the greatest tragedy in a Pentecostal’s life. He said, “And the Lord answers me not, neither by Urim and Thummim (the priest’s breastplate stones), or by dreams, visions or prophets.
I’m paraphrasing here, but Samuel said, “Saul…you’re dead meat! You might as well forget it, because if you’ve reached a point where God won’t talk to you, you’re on your own, baby!”
I need God to talk to me. I can be really stupid, dumb and carnal at times, and I need the Holy Ghost to get hold of me and shake me up and say, “You’re better than that!”
We are the offspring of a speaking God. He didn’t do anything with his mouth shut.
I need God to speak to me! Whatever it takes, I want God to speak some things into my life! If I have to ride the altar morning, noon and night, I want to do whatever it takes in order for God to speak into my life!
The devil is a liar and there is no truth in him!
He’s trying to keep you unmotivated!
He’s trying to keep you quiet!
He’s trying to keep you in your seat where it’s safe!
He’s a trash talking devil!
But I serve a Truth talking God!
In Mark 4, he was on the boat asleep. Doesn’t it make you mad when you need God and he’s off somewhere taking a nap? It really ought to be a revelation: What makes you afraid puts Him to sleep!
They were scared half to death. Terrified. They went and woke him up. They said, “Master…” When you call him “Master”, you open up something in the Spirit!
Oh, you see me as the Master of your disease?
You see me as the Master of your broken heart?
You see me as the Master of your divorce?
You see me as the Master of your children who are acting all kinds of crazy?
You see me as the Master of your church and the struggles it’s going through?
He said, “Once you see me as ‘Master’, I’ll show you just how much of a Master I really am!”
How long has it been since you called Jesus “Master”?
They said, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” I used to think that that statement was an utterance of profound fear, but let me show you something.
Don’t listen to the charismatics and televangelists who teach that God cannot move if there is fear present in your life.
David said, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in you.” Don’t let the devil lie to you and tell you that fear and faith can’t live in the same house. It can. You may not get everything that you like or that He wants you to have, but fear cannot stop the moving of the hand of God!
Psychologists try to deliver people from fear, because they think that fear is an emotion that can be suppressed. They deal with the symptom, but not with the root. The root of fear is spiritual. The Bible says that “God hath not given us a SPIRIT OF FEAR, but of power and authority and a sound mind!”
You can have all the education in the world, but it won’t get rid of a spirit. Only a Spirit can get rid of a spirit.
A lot of church folks go to praying for faith: more faith, great faith, a childlike faith, deeper faith, indwelling faith, NOW faith. But that still won’t get rid of fear, because the antidote for fear is not faith!
Love is the antidote! “Perfect love casteth out all fear!”
When you understand that love has got hold of you…
When you understand that love has saved you…
When you understand that love has come back for you…
Love can arrest that fear, because you are loved by a love that will not let you go!
That’s why you need the Love of God resident in your life! Love will drive away fear!
They woke Jesus up. “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” It wasn’t just fear that asked him. They were afraid, but their faith knew that there was more to Jesus than just a chunk of flesh and bone!
It was an act of faith. It may have been desperate faith; faith moved by fear and trepidation, but it was still faith!
“Master, carest thou not that we perish?”
When Jesus walked to the bow of the boat, he said, “Peace be still.”
Actually, that’s not what he said. That’s what he meant, and translated from the original Aramaic, that’s the best interpretation, but what he actually said was, “Be thou muzzled!”
Why would he say it like that? Because that’s the voice of a Superior speaking to an inferior! You let an old dog get to barking in the back yard and he won’t be quiet…Just yapping for hours on end…you’ll eventually get tired enough of it, that you’ll stick your head out the back door and yell, “Shut up!” If it’s YOUR dog, he’ll more likely obey. When the Master spoke to Nature, Nature said, “That’s Him!”
If you have the Holy Ghost, you can ask God to speak to your storm, and He will calm that which has been driving you crazy! Sometimes you have to speak to things that look like they just aren’t listening!
Faith is not feeling! Faith is persuasion that God is true, and that He is not a liar, and that He is going to answer somehow, and in some way.
Faith overrides facts. Don’t let facts rule your life!
Well, the doctor said…
Well, the bank said…
I’m not saying that those facts are not true. I’m just saying that those facts are not final!
I don’t want to listen to some trash talking devil who tries to tell me that it’s not going to get better. I ain’t listening to him when he tells me that this is all there is. I’m not going to be satisfied with him whispering in my ear that I’m never going to get my answer!
He’s a trash talking devil, but I serve a Truth Talking God!
I looked up the word “trash” in the dictionary.
Trash –a. any worthless, unnecessary or offensive matter.
b. to insult a person sharply or maliciously
c. to condemn or criticize a person, a plan or a performance
A Trash Talking Devil
A trash talking devil says, “You can’t”, and “God won’t”.
But a Truth Talking Savior says, “You can”, and “I will”!
A trash talking devil says, “You’ve got a horrible past!”
A Truth Talking Savior says, “You ought to see his future!”
See, that is where he messed up. I don’t have a past, because when I got baptized in Jesus name, I no longer had a yesterday! I have no record against me, because the Blood washed it away!
I don’t care what your feelings tell you. The Word of God says it simply says that He is Faithful and Just to forgive you, and the Blood of Jesus cleanses you from all unrighteousness and all sin!
I refuse to be held hostage to a trash talking devil.
A trash talking devil says, “You’re not worthy!”
A Truth Talking Savior says, “I made him worthy!”
A trash talking devil says, “You’re not righteous!”
A Truth Talking Savior says, “I gave him my righteousness!”
A trash talking devil says, “You’re not holy!”
A truth talking Savior says, “But he’s working on that, because he’s trying to be like his Daddy, and I’m Holy!”
You were honest when I asked if God had ever spoken to you. Let me ask another question. Have you ever had a trash talking devil talking to you?
A trash talking devil says, “You ain’t gonna make it!”
A Truth Talking Savior says, “He has struggled, but he hasn’t turned back yet, and I’m going to help him across the finish line!”
