You are called to stop deceiving yourself by prioritizing God's truth over your own feelings. If the Holy Spirit is convicting you of areas where you need to trust Him more, step forward today to confess and receive prayer. This is your moment to align your heart with His will and begin walking in the freedom of being His heir.
So we are in Corinthians. You guys remember the Corinthians series? It's been a little while. Right? So we we started the Corinthians series maybe back in September, and we spent 3 months on it up until Christmas.
And we made it through almost the first 3 chapters. And so today, we'll be starting right where we left off, right at the end of 1 Corinthians-3. And, you know, we took a a brief hiatus because we had some important things. We had Christmas. We had to talk about Jesus' birth, which is kind of a big deal.
And then Gabe preached an amazing message the first Sunday of the year. If you haven't listened to it, go back to our podcast and listen. Then we had covenant Sunday where we rolled out covenant memberships and and what that looks like to be a part of real church. Listen to that 1. We talked about fasting, and then we had our fifth Sunday, which was amazing.
If you don't if you've never been here on a fifth Sunday, we call it Sabbath Sunday. We don't set up anything. And we all of our children's workers, everything everybody's in here, our children's team and children's church, and everybody's in here. The kids are in here. It's loud.
It's rowdy, but it's just simple church. And we get to be in here as a family, and it's beautiful. Amen? Amen. But today, we get to go back to Corinthians.
Yeah. Are you guys ready? Yes. I will. I don't know if you're ready.
Bring it on. Come on. Hadn't read the first sentence of this verse I'm about to read. *Lord*, I thank you for who you are. I thank you for your goodness.
I thank you for your love. And, Lord, I can't preach a word that's gonna change anybody's life, But you can, so my trust isn't in me. It's in you, Lord God. And I pray that not only do you speak in such a way that lives are forever transformed, but, father, I pray that those that are listening, where they hear what you have to say to their specific situations. Lord, get that they posture their heart right now to hear clearly.
In Jesus' name, amen. Jesus said these words. He said, be careful how you hear. And as you as we've learned in the faith message, like, how you hear is so important because **faith comes by hearing** and hearing by the word of Christ. So when we're studying the word in relationship with the Holy Spirit, not just to check it off our list, when we're listening to preaching, when we're talking about Jesus with 1 another, or as we're going throughout the day, we have to constantly learn to be careful how we hear because faith is so important in our relationship with Jesus.
As a matter of fact, in Hebrews it says, without faith, it's impossible to please God. And I don't know about you, but I wanna live a life that pleases God in every aspect of my life because He created me to know Him. He created me to walk with Him. And man, I I want to be pleasing to Him. As a matter of fact, Philippians says, find out what pleases Him.
And I'll tell you what it is, it's faith. It's learning to hear him, paying attention to how you hear, but then believing what you heard and putting it into practice. That's faith. Hearing, believing, then obeying and walking it out. And that pleases God.
But not only does it please Him, it creates in you a life that is *transformed* forever. *Jesus* said, he who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice builds a house on a rock. Your life is like a house on a rock. And then he said, the guy who hears the words of mine and doesn't put it into practice, doesn't do it, just comes to church, "checks it off a box" and says, man, that's cool, and then goes about their life and has a Sunday life and then a Monday through Saturday life. He says it's like a fool who builds his house, builds the same life on sand.
And then both people experience storms, but one's life crashes and the other's life is strong and sturdy. And it's because they were careful not only how they heard, but then they valued, they honored what they heard in such a way that they shifted their life to live out what they heard, what Moriah was saying. Like when you give your life to Jesus, your personality changes. Why? Because He's transforming you from the inside out.
He gives you a new heart. And the Holy Spirit is your coach. He's your guide. He's your comforter. He's your leader.
And he wants to lead you into all truth and your life to be *transformed* by that truth. And so any aspect of your personality or what you always believed about yourself that doesn't line up with who Jesus is, it is a lie. I've always been this. I've always been that. Wait.
Wait. *1 Corinthians-3*. You guys have been set up. Verse 18, it says, do not deceive yourselves. That 1 sentence right there is, wow.
That's a command, guys. We are commanded by God through Paul's letter, that first sentence to do not do not deceive yourselves, that would mean it's possible to deceive yourself. Now wait a second. Let's Google, Just so we're clear, what does it mean to deceive? Nope.
Not d e c I r, d e c I e. Fat thumb sometimes. Deceived definition. Safari cannot open. Let's turn off the Wi Fi.
Let's punch go again. It's gonna oh, there it is. To cause someone to believe something that is not true, typically, in order to gain some personal advantage. So that means to deceive yourself would be to cause yourself to believe something untrue. So to cause yourself to believe a lie because you perceive it better for you to believe the lie than to go for truth.
So who is truth? Jesus is truth. He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Do not deceive yourselves. So do not cause yourself to believe something other than Jesus says or than who Jesus is or his plan for your life.
And deceiving yourselves would be believing that what you think and you feel in any given situation, even though it's different from what Jesus says is better for you, which would mean you don't trust him in those areas. Now this this might be a little heavy here for a little bit, but it's because I love you. Okay? I care for you. And I I want you I want you to experience some things that I've experienced in different areas of my life, and I'm continuing to walk out in different areas of my life as you'll see, and learning and growing in it.
Let's just continue here. Do not deceive yourself. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age the standards of this world, it would that would mean like human reasoning. You should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight.
As it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise are futile. Futile means worthless. In Isaiah-55 verse 9, it says, as far as the heavens are above the earth. God speaking, he says, as far as the heavens are above the earth, so my ways are higher than man's ways, and my thoughts higher than man's thoughts.
Now let's just think about that. I mean, he's all knowing. He's everywhere on on this, but I mean, that's a pretty clear picture there. If I were to point up to the heavens and just keep going, the end of the known universe is estimated estimated to be 54,000,000,000 light years that way. Wherever you are on earth, that way.
Okay? 54,000,000,000 light years. Light travels at a 186,000 miles per second multiplied times a year straight that way. 54 I mean, it's mind boggling how much higher the heavens are than the earth. It's unfathomable, and that's how much higher God's thoughts are than our thoughts.
And in different areas of our life, we wanna trust what we feel and what we think over what He says. Like, if you've ever been someone that has heard God say something monumental in your life and you obeyed it, and you went after it. Like for instance, my family hearing the *Lord* and God confirming it, knowing it that it's from God, and then picking up our family and moving here 5 and a half years ago, and planting this church 4 and a half years ago. Our whole family lives in Louisiana. We knew literally no 1 here.
No 1. And when we told our our extended family and stuff, they thought we were lunatics. They thought we were crazy fools even. Why? Because in that moment, God bless them and I love them, but they were thinking according to the wisdom of man.
They didn't first consult God in the situation to see what he said about it because they would have thought what was foolish to man was actually wise because it was obeying him. I've said this before, I'm gonna say it again, you know, practical atheism, the sad thing is in some areas of our lives, we "live like practical atheists" and don't even know it. Like this is not just this is not just a religion where you follow a code of rules, you do a bunch of check marks off of the box, and then you're good enough, and now you make it. This is when you're give your life to Jesus, you're born again. He gives you a new heart.
Put his spirit inside of you so that you can walk with him and know him and incorporate a friendship with him into every aspect of your being. Every aspect of your life to follow Him. So like a situation where, let's say, my home's here, my neighbor's home's here, and we're both going through the same trial. Same tough thing. Maybe, you know, he's Maybe I'm starting a business and he's starting a business, and we're both having struggles or or whatever, and trying to figure out what it looks like to to run that business.
Right? And so if I go to him and find out all of the things that he's doing, it's like, man, that's really awesome. And then I just put it into practice the same way that that he did without first consulting God and asking him, what are your thoughts about this? He may lead me to go do that. But if I go to my atheist friend and do what he says without first going to my heavenly father who knows all, then I'm living in that arena of my life business as an atheist.
Does that make sense? Now, once again, God may say, hey, go talk to your friend. He's got some wisdom in the business area. Praise the Lord. I'm gonna go do that.
But I wanna live every arena of my life, in my health, in my business, which no business. This is church. Right? But for you guys, in in business, in health, in family, in relationships, in every area, I first want to go to God, hear what he has to say. And then not only hear it, but by faith, believe it, and then take steps of obedience.
Because without the putting it into practice, it's foolishness, because I'm living like a according to the ways of the world instead of according to His His ways. And man, if I'm living a life of faith, don't you know it's gonna display God's goodness in those areas of my life that I'm doing it? But to the extent I'm not, I'm living a lie, I'm actually deceiving myself. Let's just let's stick on there for a second like John-8. No.
*Matthew-16. Let's go to Matthew-16*. And I didn't give them these verses. In verse 21, it says, from that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. So Jesus is truth, and truth is telling to his disciples what's about to happen.
Don't you know the Holy Spirit does that to us now? In John-16, it says the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. He wants to lead us and guide us just like Jesus is 1 of the disciples then. They didn't have the Holy Spirit there with them. The Holy Spirit was there with Jesus.
But *Jesus* died and rose again, and then poured out the Holy Spirit to us. So we can hear all around the world the same way that the disciples heard Jesus, In relationship with the person of the Holy Spirit. Make sense? So there's a little side note. But anyway, so *truth* is telling them what's gonna happen.
And it doesn't look good. As a matter of fact, it's different from what they expect. Peter *Jesus* is the best thing that ever happened to Peter. And Peter says, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him saying, never Lord, this shall never happen to you. You know why?
Because Peter was deceived. Peter was willfully rejecting what truth was saying in order to do what he thought was better for himself. Personal advantage. Right? And he rebuked Jesus.
No. He was telling truth. No. I'm gonna I want this to happen in my life. I want you to stay because that's better for me.
You know what Jesus said? Whoever wants to be oh, wait. No. First he said, get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me.
You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Which would mean if we don't put God first and hear his voice and his leading in any area, but we have merely human wisdom and human logic, *Jesus* equated that to being satanic. Jesus equated just living from the mind of man to being the opposite of following Jesus, but to be following Satan. And then he goes on to say, if you wanna be my disciple, you must deny yourself, which would mean living a selfish life is following Satan instead of following Jesus. Does that make sense?
Man, I wanna live out the truth in every area. And when you live out the truth, you experience freedom that comes from truth. In in John-8, do not deceive yourselves. *John-8*. Jesus says in in John-8:31, to the Jews who believed in him, Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, another version says, if you "remain in my word", you are really my disciples, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
So freedom comes with knowing the truth. So here's a little tell, and I just wanna make it plain for all of us. In any area of your life, you can you can tell where you're deceived, where you've deceived yourself. And deceiving yourself is not just knowing the truth and rejecting it. Deceiving yourself is also knowing where you don't know the truth and not seeking after it.
Deceiving yourself is also willful ignorance. I know where I don't know the truth and I'm not pursuing truth in that area. Does that make sense? Okay. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
That would mean that any area of your life that is not experiencing freedom is an area where you're deceived. Any area of our lives that we're not experiencing the freedom of a relationship with Jesus is an area where we're deceived. Now what does the the freedom of a relationship with Jesus look like? Well, let me tell you. In Romans, it says his kingdom, so we're born again to be a part of his kingdom and to experience the the fruit of his kingdom here and now.
In Romans, it says his kingdom's not a matter of eat and drink, but it's a matter of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen? Amen. Come on. That's awesome.
Well, that would mean that the fruit of knowing the truth of His kingdom, knowing the truth of Jesus, and experiencing that reality in our life is joy in every area of our life where we experience that. So the tell that we're deceived in an area of our life is any area of our life where we can't rejoice. Relationships, business, job, finances, any area of our life where where we cannot consistently rejoice in the Lord, again I say as it says in Philippians, rejoice. That's an area where to some extent we are deceived. *Righteousness*, peace, and joy.
Well, any area of our life where there's a lack of peace, meaning any area of our life where there's consistent. I'm not saying an attack. I'm not saying where, you know, something happens and then we go to the Lord and and He heals it, but I'm saying any area of our life where there's a **consistent lack of peace**, where there's consistent anxiety, worry, stress, fear, which is lack of peace, that is an area of our life where there is deception. We have deceived ourselves, or we're ignorant to the truth and are not going after it in that area of our life. Because anxiety is not a part of the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom of heaven is in you.
So there's some aspect of our life, we're not living that out, and we need to pursue truth and know the truth so we can be set free in that area, so that we can rejoice in that area and have peace in that area. I'm not saying everything's gonna be hunky dory. *Jesus* said, in this life you will have trouble. You will have trials. Man, it's gonna get hard, but then he says, "take heart" for I have overcome the world.
And he said, I will be with you always. So in whatever area, there's a lack of an ability to rejoice and a lack of peace, and a consistent anxiety, worry, stress, fear. That is an area where we're not experiencing the full freedom of what it means to have a relationship with Jesus and to trust His word over how we feel and what we see in that area. *Righteousness*. So righteousness, peace, and joy.
*Righteousness is right standing*, which leads to right doing. So any area where we have trouble consistently doing right is an area where we're deceived. We're believing a lie, either willfully ignorant or willfully rejecting the *truth* because we think in those areas it's better to protect ourselves and better to stay in the lie because it's more beneficial for us. We're deceiving ourselves instead of receiving what he says and pursuing it. And here's the kicker.
Here's why it's so hard for people. Because you don't experience freedom usually. Sometimes you do. But usually, you don't experience freedom immediately. Usually, you have to remain in my word.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So you have to not just try truth, what he says, a lifestyle for a little bit in that area of your life. And then when it gets harder instead of better, you say, no, I'm going back to Malay. Because if that's the case, you're never gonna be free. Relationally, a lot of people have walls up keeping the people that need to be in their life out because of offense or because of things get tough or whatever it is, and they're not willing to push through and confront with truth and love, letting that person be in the hands of the Lord, not willing to push through and have the needy conversations, but instead hide.
And those very walls that are keeping everybody else are also everybody else out are also keeping you in, preventing you from living out the very calling and and and relationship with God that he's called you to. It's time to stop deceiving yourself, take the walls down, and live free in truth. Insecurity. Guess what? Insecurity is not in the kingdom of heaven.
So it's not in a believer. A lot of people live insecure lives not because it's who they are because if you've been born again, you've been made new. You're a new creation from the inside out. You have your identity is who Christ says that you are. But the problem is deceiving yourself to think that this is who I am.
I'm just an insecure person in this area. I don't I can't walk in boldness in this area. See, you're lying to yourself instead of believing what he says about you. There's no insecurity in the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven looks at that and says, doesn't even understand.
What what is this? Don't you understand that I love you, that I care for you, that I want you to be free? So it takes what it takes is to live a life that's not insecure is trust what He says over the way I've always done it. Trust what He says over the way I feel. Trust what He says, but don't just trust it when it feels good on a Sunday.
But then take the steps on Monday and put it into practice. And then when it gets hard, because there's a honeymoon phase of walking in truth where you feel good, and then 2 weeks later, now you gotta really implement it as a discipline because you're a disciple, and the disciple is a disciplined 1 following Jesus. Now you gotta implement it and continue when it gets hard, when people are persecuting you because of it, or or when when times get tough and or you just get tired of doing it. You need to continue to do it because Jesus said and remain in the truth until it becomes a part of who you are. Now you're living out truth and experiencing the full freedom that comes with it in every area of your life.
You know what the danger is of not of letting yourself continually be deceived? I'm I'm just gonna bear my heart a little bit with you. You know? It's interesting to me. As I saw *Jesus* seem to get a little frustrated with the disciples in scripture.
Like, told them *Luke-9:1, Matthew-10:1 or Matthew-9:1, Luke-10:1*, that they had the the ability to heal all sick and to cast out all demons, and they couldn't do it. We talked about it in the fasting message. And it wasn't because they couldn't do it, it's because they didn't believe his word. And Jesus, when he heard about it, he turned to them and he said, you unbelieving and perverse generation, how long will I have to put up with you? Like, I don't want him to turn to me in any area that he said and already given me promises Say, man.
How long do I need do I need to put up with your unbelief? He love don't don't get us don't get me wrong, He loves us, and He and He paid the price for it and all of that. But yet, I want all of my life to reflect His goodness. Like Jesus said these words, He said, when I return, will I find faith on the earth? Will I find those people that hear, believe, and obey?
And I I don't wanna just do that in 1 area of my life and have the helmet of salvation like my wife said the other day, but walk around butt naked spiritually because all I have is the helmet of salvation and no breastplate of righteousness, no belt of truth, no no feet shod with the good news. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, wanna believe all of it in every area of my life so I can experience His freedom in every area of my life. I don't want to be deceived. Like, you know the story of the Israelites as they're walking around the wilderness.
They they they got out of Egypt, which was awesome. And they're walking around the wilderness, and they make it to the promised land. I think it's something like 12 days or 30 days or however long it it didn't take them long to get there. They sent some spies in. And God had already said, I've given you this land.
And they sent a couple spies in, Joshua, Caleb, and 10 others. And they see that they're carrying these big grapes, like it took 2 men in a pole to carry 1 stack of grapes, like miraculously amazing promise. And they're carrying it back, all this stuff. And when they get back to the people, they report Joshua and Caleb said, man, this is the land God promised. It's awesome.
Let's go take the land. Let's go win. Why? Because their eyes were on what God said more than what they saw. Their ears were on hearing what God said instead of hearing the rumors about what they saw.
But the other 10 said, we're like grasshoppers to them. We can't do it. And they started murmuring. They started complaining. And they spread the deception.
Not only did they deceive themselves, but they began to deceive others. And it spread throughout the whole Israelite community to the point where they couldn't go into the promised land until that generation that was deceived died off. And he started again with Joshua and Caleb, the 2 that had faith. That's heavy. Let me put it to you like this.
In any area of your life where you're not experiencing freedom, you're not gonna make it to the promise in that area of your life until the mindset of deception in that area dies off. And if it never dies, you're gonna live your whole life having the capacity to be able to experience the kingdom of heaven in that area of your life and die because you didn't believe the truth of his word in that area and never have an experience, the fruit of a healthy relationship or the fruit of a kingdom in your business or the or the fruit of of kingdom in in whatever area of your life. Man, I don't wanna be that. I want to pursue truth in every area of my life where I'm experiencing a lack of joy, a lack of peace, a lack of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. I want it to be an "alarm bell" when I experience anxiety, when I experience a lack of peace.
Alarm bell. Lord God, where where did I believe a lie? I repent. Show me. Because I wanna experience all of you in this area of my life too.
Let me let me give you an example. This past week, I got frustrated. And I got frustrated at my kids, believe it or not. Micah is amazing. She's full of Jesus.
And she's an 8 year old. And she's learning. And she crossed a boundary that we had set 1 too many times. And so about the fourth or fifth time she crossed the boundary over the course of a day, I raised my voice at her. And I yelled a little bit, and I showed her that angry face.
And I spoke to her saying, you know, you know better than this. This shouldn't be what you're doing. You know, I don't understand. You need to stop right now. You know, and and I was I was frustrated, and I was angry, and I wasn't talking like this.
You know? Can I just be real with you for a minute? Say hello. Apologize. Teared up.
Went to a room. Of course, I felt bad. So I went and told her I loved her as well. And then but then for the next 30 minutes, I feel a lack of peace and anxiety. And anytime I feel a lack of peace and anxiety in any area of my life, that's a relationship, me and my daughter.
I need to go to the *Lord* and ask him what lie am I believing. Where have I deceived myself? So I went to my office, and like, about 30 minutes is all I could take. Lord, what and I I I had me and this Courtney I mean, not Courtney, me and Selah, you know, this was a long time ago. This wasn't even in my mind at this at the time, you know.
That was done within 5 minutes. So 25 minutes later, I'm in my office. Lord, why do I feel this lack of peace, this anxiety? I don't get it. Would you show me what Laia believed, where it's at?
And he spoke so clearly. The next thought in my mind was, you tried to control Selah with your voice instead of giving her the discipline she deserved. She crossed the line and deserved to have a consequence because she crossed the line out of love. But instead, you tried to control her with your anger because you didn't want to do what I told you to do. Let me explain.
I spank my kids. I didn't spank Selah that day. Instead, I tried to control her with my words and with my anger because it was more convenient for me. It was better for me in in that moment. Let me tell you why I spanked my kids.
*Proverbs-13*. Remember, wisdom of the world versus the wisdom of God. Proverbs verse chapter 13 verse 24 says this, whoever spares the rod "hates their children", but the 1 who loves their children is careful to discipline them. Now that's big. Amen.
So in that moment, I didn't spank Selah when she crossed the line she knew she she shouldn't cross and just continually didn't remember because it was easy for me to not care to discipline her, but to control her by my words to make it all better in the situation instead of training her for the long term. Because here's why it's so important. In the in the comfort of a home, in the safety of a home with a family that loves you. When you start lying, there are little lies as a 4 or 5 year old, 6 year old. Little lies.
But if you're not disciplined to see that the consequence of that lie hurts, then you'll grow up thinking there's no consequence for lies. And the lies will get more and more and more until they hurt your life when you're in your twenties and thirties and forties. Ruin your career, ruin your marriage, and ruin everything else because you're if if it was Selah, I hated my kid, and I love myself more because I wanted the I wanted her to like me so it was more about me instead of loving her well. When I spank my kids, I tell them I tell them, I'd rather your butt hurt now than your life hurt later. So so instead of getting angry at Selah, the first time she crossed the line and she knew it, I should have disciplined her and give her the response of her actions to train her and to teach her so she understands, wait a second, I can't do that.
It's not okay. And grows up not having that as as a part of her character because I was careful to discipline her to love her in that way. Does that make sense? I want I'd rather her butt hurt now than her life hurt later. I'd rather love her well to be careful with that.
Make sense? So I dealt with it. And here's here's the beautiful thing. I'll give you another example. Look into my life.
I've seen Trip be mean, my son, be mean to his sisters a couple times over the last few days. Like, sometimes he's trying to be aggravating or whatever, but it's it's just pure mean what he's doing as an 11 year old. He's gotta learn a lesson. He's learning. And I talked to him last night because we've been through this.
I love my kids. And I said, son, you might not realize it, but you've been being mean to your sisters. And I told him the same. He said, you're right. And I said, I've I've told you multiple times not to do that, and you haven't stopped.
Do I need to spank you in order to remind you next time I see it that that's not who you are? See, this is healthy discipline. Because what I call a spanking is a is a reminder. See, they they they did something that will hurt their life later and so spanking helps them to see that that hurts life now. Right?
That hurts and and they learn not to do it. But it's a reminder that, hey, this is not who you are. What you did is not who you are. God created you different. You're kind.
You're not mean. You understand? So I said, son, do I need next time I see you being mean, do I need to spank you to remind you? He said, yes, sir. You do.
He said, I he realized he had gotten in the habit of doing that to his sisters. And when I when I do that, I'm not You never you never do that out of frustration. You're teaching them a lesson. You're being careful to discipline them. And when it's when it's done and over, you know what I look?
I look at them and I say, am I am I mad at you? They say, no, daddy. Do I still love you? They say, yes, daddy. Why am I proud of you?
Because I'm your girl, because I'm your son. But in this moment, in that moment, it was easier for me to get angry instead of follow out the the wisdom of the Bible for raising my kids. Make sense? And I felt a lack of peace because of it, so I had to take it back to the Lord, repent, and now I gotta put it into practice consistently so my kids grow up with the character and nature of God. Now if, you know, you you didn't do that or maybe, you know, maybe you do that and and kids kids have their own choices, you know, and and make a bunch of mistakes.
This is not a guilt and condemnation thing. This is a well, praise the Lord. I can put them in your hands, move forward, and praise you for who you are. You understand? But I'm just showing you the wisdom of God, which is different than the wisdom of the world in the area of parenting right now.
One's wise, one's foolish. Right? Can we just be plain? Talk relationships, talk family, talk parenting, and do it according to scripture, and learn how to do it according to scripture? Amen?
I want to experience *freedom* in every area of my life. And so with my kids, with my friendships, with the leadership of the church, with my wife, any area that I'm not experiencing peace and joy, right doing, right living, and that's just an example for you. I wanna put it before Him and repent and experience freedom because here's why. And we'll close. *1 Corinthians-3*.
So it says, do not deceive yourselves. We'll read it again. If any of you think you're wise by the standards of this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As as it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.
So then no more boasting about human leaders. Okay. People were boasting about, well, I'm following this this teacher, and I'm following this teacher, I'm following this teacher. Don't do that. Like, praise the Lord.
There's a lot of great teachers out there, but it's Jesus who's teaching you through them. Right? Same thing. Jesus is teaching you through me the things that you that are in line with his word. And if I ever say something that's not in line with his word, you better "test it by his word" and and follow him first.
Amen? Amen. But then it says this crazy crazy statement, which takes a lot of faith to believe. The very next sentence after that says, "all things are yours". And then he goes to explain it.
Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, which was Peter, or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours and you are of Christ and Christ is of God. Wait a second. All things? Yeah. As a matter of fact, the bible says that we're heirs of God.
We're dearly loved children. Heirs of God. As a matter of fact, in Romans-8, it says, now if we are children, then we are we are heirs. Heirs of God and co heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we also may share in his glory. He who did not spare his son, Romans-8:32, His own son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?
Yeah. That takes faith to believe, guys. But your your thought maybe, well, I'm a believer. I ain't got all things. What does that even mean?
It's like, I'm in his name because I'm his kid. So all that is his my bank account's tied to him. So all that is his is in in my bank account. But my father hadn't given me access to my bank account yet because I ain't ready for all those things yet. So he takes, he "gives me an allowance" of what I'm ready for.
I'm not just talking about financially, I'm talking about in every area of your life. All of his promises, he gives you an allowance of what you're ready for because if he gave you it all, it'd break you. Things you ain't ready for yet. You don't have the character yet. So like my son, I'm not gonna give him the keys to the car because he hadn't learned to drive it yet.
Although, my car will probably be his car when he's 16. Right? Right. So it's his, but yet I can't entrust him with it. You know why I can't entrust him with it?
Well, 1, he's not ready. But 2, any area of your life that you don't trust God, you're not trustable. Any area of your life where you don't trust God, you're not trustable. He's not going to give you anymore in that area until you trust him. Because when you don't trust him, you're not gonna follow what he says.
Does that make sense? But when you trust God and you demonstrate a lifestyle that follows and trust his word in those areas of your life, well then you're ready for the next step. You've been proven faithful with a little, so he'll give you more in that area of your life. Man, I want to not deceive myself in any area of my life. I want to trust him and his truth and begin to put that in practice so that I can be trustable.
Because it is God's will that you live out every good work that he has planned for you. It is God's will that your life goes from glory to glory. He wants you to fulfill everything that He has in His mind for you from before you were even created. And He's waiting on you to say, yes, Lord, And to take him at his word and to believe it and begin to 1 little step at a at a time, "let the walls fall down", the insecurities fall down, and and become the bold, mighty woman or man of God that he's created you to be. Amen?
Amen. We're gonna close, and we're gonna close this way. I would like for 1, Mariah, you could probably come on up, which would be great. Oh, there you are. Okay.
Perfect. I want to invite you to stand. And I I would love for our leadership team, all of our elders and deacons that are here today. If you'd all come forward. There's probably, for many of you, especially in a crowd this size, areas of your life where you've been living deceived.
This message wasn't to condemn you. It was to illuminate those different areas. But what it takes is repentance. Confession is a part of repentance. So going before the Lord and saying, man, you're right in my finances, in my marriage, my relationships with my kids, and my friends, and my businesses, or or my job, or my work relationships, and and my the way that I play.
You know, I mean, whatever area, God knows, He's been dealing with you. Where he he's shown you that you've been deceived, it's a little touch to say, hey, confess that I'm right. As the Holy Spirit is saying, confession is agreeing with him. Oh, you're right. I'm wrong.
But then *repentance* confession is agreeing. I'm I'm I'm apologize, Lord. I don't wanna do that anymore. But then repentance is taking the step in the other direction in that area of your life. And sometimes that requires a physical step of obedience.
And sometimes it's a hard thing a lot of times. So prayer in ministry is important. So we have our leaders and stuff up here. I'd love for you. If you need prayer and stuff, when we when we close, don't just leave.
Take a step and come get ministered to. Amen? And then some of you, as I'm talking about this relationship with God and knowing Him and knowing His voice, it's foreign to you. It could be that you need to be born again. You need to give your life to Jesus.
And if that's you, if you're ready for a relationship with Jesus, come up. Tell these guys they'll lead you into a relationship with Jesus. Amen?