Were You Given The Wrong God ? // Identity Theft Part. 4 // The Blueprint with Dr. Dharius Daniels

Well, what's up? I want to welcome you to the blueprint, the third way Bible study. I'm excited to be here tonight. And I got some people with me that's excited well as well. Come on, clap your hands in the room. Drop some fire in the chat. Man, listen.

We believe very clearly there are three ways you can live your life. Culture's way, church's way, and the king's way. And the king's way is the way of the rabbi. It's the way of Jesus. Jesus is is not just our redeemer who teaches us how to get to heaven.

Um he's our rabbi who teaches us how to live on earth. And as a matter of fact, the word used to describe Christianity early on was not a religion. It was called the way. It was called the way because it literally impacted and influenced and changed not just something in your life, but the way you actually lived every area of your life.

And so we believe the Bible is the blueprint to that way. And uh we're incredibly excited to have you with us on today. Uh we're teaching through the book of Ephesians from a series titled Identity Theft. And uh here's what we know and here's what we believe to be true.

That how far you go, how much you grow isn't just impacted by what you know or believe about God. It is also impacted by what you know or believe about yourself. And when the enemy can't get you to see God wrong, and we're going to talk about that tonight, um his next step is to try to make sure you aren't seeing yourself right.

And uh we're we're we're really grateful that uh God gives us the the gift of scripture to reintroduce us to us. And that's what he's doing uh through Paul with believers in Ephesus. And that is what uh I believe he's going to be doing with us uh through the scriptures.

Tonight I have the right Reverend, >> very reverend. >> Right. >> Not somewhat reverend, the very reverend. >> Yes, sir. Do the Reverend Dr. >> Marcus Derell Dudley from the great city of Coffeeville, >> Mississippi. >> Mississippi. Yes, sir. >> Amen. Sir, >> glad to have you with us, Doc. >> Always a pleasure to be here. >> Listen, you ready?

You ready? You ready for this, >> man? Listen, I am so excited about this, pastor. >> Yeah. So, we're going to be exploring. I think we're really probably we probably only going to get past verse 17, but we're in we're still in Ephesians 1. We're going to be scoring verses 1 through I mean 15-1 17 uh today.

And uh I want to talk from this subject very simply. Here's here's what we're going to talk about. It's a question. Were you given >> the wrong God? >> Wow. >> Like what what God >> were you given? >> Were you given I'm not asking is your God wrong.

That's not what I'm asking. That's right. I'm asking were you given >> the wrong God? He's good. And I think it's incredibly important for us to uh to to begin to explore this and and have this conversation. You know, Doc, one of the things that I have um that I've really um become more convinced than convicted of as of late is simply this.

And I think you and I have had some conversations about this offline, that how far you go, >> Yes. That's your advancement in any area relationally, spiritually, emotionally, financially, professionally, etc. So, how far you go, that's advancement. >> And how much you grow, that's your evolution. That is the person you become >> is in direct proportion to your willingness to be corrected.

Yes. >> How far you go, how much you grow is in direct proportion to your willingness to be corrected. Because as a human that exists with imperfections, you will always do some things imperfectly, right? And imperfection has an expense. It might cost me time. It might cost me opportunity.

It it cost me. Does it make sense? We put it this way. Every decision is pregnant with the potential to produce a season. One choice can produce an entire season. Got me? And so here's where I'm going with this. We all then therefore because of our imperfections we're going to have seasons where we experience setbacks >> or we're going to have seasons even if we're not set back they're going to be seasons of conscious or unconscious settling >> because you can be settling and not know it >> not know it.

That's right. >> Does that make sense? >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. And we call it uh un you're underoptimized, right? Underoptimization. And this means there is something that you know or excuse me there's something that you don't know that you need to be taught or there is a way you're doing things that needs to be stopped or adjusted that is actually going to be the catalyst to push you past where you are to where you need to be.

But but I must be willing to be confronted with conflicting information. >> That's right. >> That's right. >> Right. I I must be willing to be rettaught things I thought I already knew. >> Amen. and and my willingness when I'm confronted with truth, not just conflicting information, but when I'm confronted with truth now, >> I must be willing to sub submit. >> That's right. >> My past view of things >> to the truth I'm being currently confronted with >> because it is actually the truth >> that sets me free not just from misery but also mediocrity. >> That's right. >> Am I making sense? >> Yes, sir.

And I I I think this is so important because when you look at a book like Ephesians, there is a lot of correction happening. >> But the correction is necessary for their growth. And I think there are times where believers become stuck and stagnant. >> Because they are unconsciously guilty of what Israel was guilty of in the Old Testament.

When God says through the prophet Isaiah, uh, Hosea, my people are destroyed >> for the lack of knowledge. >> For a lack of knowledge, but then what does he say after that? Because you have rejected knowledge. >> You rejected me. So he's saying your issue wasn't you weren't exposed. >> Your issue was you got exposed and you rejected something that conflicted and contradicted what you already believe to be true.

You got confronted with a way that was different from the way you had been doing it and wanting to do it and you wouldn't submit your way. And God says through Hosea, you rejecting the knowledge that I am giving you is in essence rejecting me. >> So you're being destroyed and you don't have to be destroyed.

You're being destroyed because you're rejecting the information that I am sending to rescue you from your seasons of misery and mediocrity. You are stuck because you won't be corrected. >> And I think pastor to me Proverbs 3:5 and 6 speaks to this. >> Yes. >> Our tendency to make information an idol. >> Yes. >> Right. >> Yes.

And and and what the psalm is simply suggest is lean not to your own understanding. >> Yes. >> And the revelation a recent revelation I got now we missed the fact that God didn't say don't lean >> because life will make you lean. >> Yes. >> You just say don't lean on your own understanding or don't lean on you.

And what happens is sometimes we lean which means we put the weight, we put our support, we put everything in what we leaning on. >> Yeah. And when you lean on any other thing than God, you always fall. >> Yeah. >> It always fails. That's right. And so what happens is we make an idol out of our information and we refuse to give up the idol of our information for the real true living God. >> That's right.

That's right. That's right. That's right. And it keeps us either in misery >> That's right. >> or mediocrity in every area where we reject truth. So, I'll stay in misery or mediocrity relationally if I'm rejecting truth there. >> I'll stay in misery or mediocrity professionally if I'm rejecting truth there.

Right? Because whatever area I stay ignorant in, and ignorance isn't just >> uh lack of information is misinformation. Whatever area I stay ignorant in is the area I'm going to suffer in. >> And so, what Paul is doing here through the book of Ephesians is he's he's he's doing some correction.

He's he's he's he's confronting, >> but it's almost like he gets to a to he's aligning and it's almost like in chapter one, he gets to a part in chapter one where he realizes the limitations of his own ability to align people. >> So in the first 14 chap first 14 verses, >> he's talking and then he realizes that what I'm communicating isn't going to actually be a catalyst for transformation without some divine intervention. >> That's right.

Some of us need, come on, some of us who got friends, family, and loved ones, we just got to accept. Sometimes you can talk and talk and talk and talk and he shifts from information to intercession. >> Yes. >> He lit he spends 14 verses >> talking and he's talking heavy.

Right. That's right. And then in verse 14, he shifts and says, "For this reason, >> since I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers." >> Got me? Now, somebody may say, "Well, no, pastor, that's a prayer of thanksgiving."

He's not finished yet. He says in verse 17, >> I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. >> There's this recognition of his own limitations. Uh-huh. >> He said, "I spent 14 verses talking to you, but I want you to know I'm praying for you cuz it's something God's got to give you for you to get what I'm saying. >> Only God can give." >> Yes, sir. >> That only God can give you. >> That only God can give He's saying, "I'm praying that that watch this that he give you the spirit of wisdom >> and revelation >> so that you may know him better." >> Amen. >> Yes. >> 14 verses. >> Yeah. >> I want to know, am I talking to anybody that's ever been tired of talking to somebody that's >> Lord have mercy.

Yes. You'll wonder how many times do I have to keep saying this? How many different ways do I have to say this? But Paul has this recognition of the limitations of his own communication and he engages in intercession and he lets them know I have not stopped >> praying for you. >> And this is what's interesting now.

He's saying I have ever since I heard about your faith. Mhm. >> So, this isn't prayer for salvation, >> right? >> He says, "I heard about your faith >> in the Lord Jesus Christ >> and I've heard about your love for all of God's people." That's right. >> So, this isn't a prayer for salvation. >> Right?

They're already converted. >> It It is a prayer for revelation. >> What does he say? That you >> may >> know him better. >> Right. That's right. That's the prayer. >> You're saved, but I want to make sure you know him better. >> And in order to do that, you can't just lean on the 14 verses from me. >> Got to get some. >> In order to do that, God's got to show you something. >> And this is this is really this is aligned with something we see in the Gospels with Jesus and Peter. >> When Jesus asked Peter, I when Jesus asked the disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" >> That's right.

And they started answering the questions and he said, "Who do you say that I am?" And then Peter says, "You're Christ, son of the living God." And then Jesus says these words, this King James, "Blessed are ye." >> You blessed because of what you know. >> Oh, you know that you blessed. >> You blessed.

That that revelation is blessed. It's almost like, "Oh, boy. You rich. >> You got that revelation, you rich." Right. >> He said, "Cuz flesh and blood >> didn't reveal that to you." >> That's right. >> That that is that is not something that you could have just embraced as truth. >> Just because flesh and blood shared it with you, but my father who's in heaven. >> Is that what he say, Doc? >> That's the Bible. >> I want I want you to know, am I in the book? >> You're in the book.

You >> You didn't bring your Bible with you today. I needed that big 18 lb Bible. >> I got it. >> That 30 lb Bible. You got to lift weights for that Bible. No, no. And pastor, what I like it what happens is I think in this uh theologian use this term a theophony when God divinely reveals himself. >> And this is what Moses encountered at the burning bush.

Yes. >> He had an encounter with God that told him something not only about God. >> Yes. >> But also revealed something about him that he never would have known if it had not been for that encounter. >> That's it. That's it. That's it. And that's what happened with Peter here. >> That's what happened with Peter.

He had an encounter. >> No. No. That's what happened to him, right? He says, >> here's here's King James. Thou art Peter. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. >> And on this rock. That's right. >> That's right. >> I'll build my church. This revelation, the rock of the revelation. But watch what he says.

Thou art Peter. >> Uhhuh. >> So Peter tells Jesus who Jesus is. >> And then Jesus, come on. Then Jesus tells Peter who he is. >> And so Paul is talking in first 14 verses. He's telling them who they are. >> I mean, we spent the past couple of lessons teaching it. >> Blessed and forgiven, chosen, redeemed.

We talked about Paul telling them who they are, >> right? >> But then he says, in order for you to get who you are, >> you got to you got to >> you need a revelation of who he is. >> Because you seeing him rightly is going to help you see you rightly.

Which is why he says, "I'm going to pray." >> Mhm. >> That you get the spirit of wisdom and revelation. >> Yes, sir. >> So that you may know him better. >> That's right. >> Now, here here's what's interesting. This word know is not surface familiarity. When he says know here, it's like intimate knowing. >> It is it is ganosco. speaks to not just knowing more about God, >> but like knowing God himself, >> right? >> This this view and vantage point of God that is accurately aligned with who God is, >> not who we think he is >> and not who we want him to be. >> And here it is.

We're getting ready to turn a corner here. Some people are not struggling because they don't know enough about God. >> They're struggling because what they know about God isn't actually aligned with who God is. >> And pastor, this is the connection. >> Did y'all hear what I just said? >> Yeah.

Yeah. >> Go ahead, Reverend. >> No, I was just saying and and we see that the connection between theology and identity. >> Yes. Like you will never know who you are if you have a bad theology. >> Yeah. >> Because I can't know myself right. >> Yeah. >> If I see God wrong or know God wrong.

That's right. And so this theology your theology informs your identity. >> Yeah. >> So if my theology is wrong, if I'm wrong about God. Yes. >> I will always be wrong about me. >> That's right. That's right. That's right. Which is why Paul is praying this prayer. >> That's right. >> And he's praying this prayer, but he's praying the prayer to people.

Listen, this is I want y'all to hear me now. He's praying the prayer to people. Remember, they're already saved. >> And he's saying, I want I want you to know him better. >> Now, the key word there, two key words, know, >> which is not information about him.

It's know him intimately, right? Better. >> Uhhuh. >> Here's what I think we often assume in church. We see better. We see know him better. And we think like know him more deeply. >> Okay. >> When what it speaks to is knowing him more accurately. So the intimacy in intimacy is intertwined with accuracy. >> So it's the whole idea of intimacy, right?

So if I if I'm if I'm emotionally intimate with my wife, it means not just um I am more passionate. >> It means I'm more aligned. It means I have a a more accurate sense >> of what her needs are and what her wants are and what her desires are. that there are aspects of who she really is that I didn't see before that I see now. >> That's right. >> If not, I'm working hard trying to please who I think she is. >> This this happened.

This happened. >> And so knowing him better, when Paul says knowing him better, he is speaking to the importance of not just of like intimacy, but like intimacy that's intertwined with alignment. It's like this is accuracy. This this is who he actually is. And this this is important, family.

This is important because it is possible to fall in love with >> who God is not. >> Come on. >> That's right. That's right. That's right. >> Yeah. We can we can be in love with who God is not. >> My God. >> You know what I mean?

Like it's some people in long-term relationships and it is like sometimes they're like, "Man, I didn't know who this person was." >> So what they fell in love with, it's like, "I fell out of love." No, no, no. What you were in love with was who you thought they were. >> And it took some seasons cuz I believe seasons reveal who people are, not time. >> That's right. >> If you be somebody 5 years, but if you you live through like a prosperous season, you still don't know who they are yet cuz you don't know how they show up when they stressed. >> So it's not time, it's seasons.

How are you when you stressed? How are you when you extended? How are you when you offended? How are you when you don't get your way? How are you when your needs aren't met? That's giving me a comprehensive picture of who you are. Right? And so what here's the point.

The point is like it is possible to be offended when you get a revelation that somebody is not who you thought they were, but you fell in love with >> who you thought they were and not who they actually are. And here here's what I'm here's what I'm trying to get us to see that this is possible not just in our relationship with people.

It's also possible in our relationship with God. And so my question is is the God you're in love with the God of the Bible? >> That that's it. >> That's it. >> That's the question, right? >> Question. >> Okay. That's a good question. >> Because many of us fell in love with a God that was actually given to us. >> That's right. >> Passed down. >> Passed down. >> Right.

I'm not saying that's that's everyone. But for those of us that kind of were born into Christian culture, >> right? That's so that's not everybody cuz everybody wasn't born into Christian culture. But even when you weren't born into Christian culture, right, with natural family, when you got born again, unless you kind of had like a isolated supernatural experience with Jesus, right, if you were born again, there was still a version of God you were given by the gospel that was preached to you.

That's right. >> Did you hear what I said? So, so, so if you I never grew up in church and you came in a church service one time that whoever was was proclaiming and explaining the gospel inherent in a person's explanation of of the gospel is their view of God. >> That's right. >> That's right. >> So, that's why when some people say like, "You're not preaching the gospel."

I'm like, "Not yours. >> Absolutely not yours. >> Cuz Yeah, cuz I don't have your God." >> That's right. >> Yes. Absolutely not that one. You're right. This isn't the gospel. You're right. Not yours. >> That's right. >> Not yours. >> Because inherent in a person's version of the gospel, the version of the gospel reveals their view of God. >> That's right, pastor.

That's right. >> Are you hearing what I'm saying? >> Yes, sir. >> So, so, so here it is. My advancement and my evolution is tied to my willingness to be corrected. >> So, it means a disciple must be willing to reconsider. I'm not talking about the basic elements and tenants of the faith, but I'm talking about you must be be willing to reconsider assumptions and interpretations that have been handed down to you or that you've assumed about God because some of those things may not be aligned with who God is.

And some of us were handed a view of God that was unbiblical, unhelpful, and unhealthy. But we have been inside that wrong picture so long that the wrong picture feels right. >> Yes. >> So the question we got to ask is, is there a disconnect between my education about God and the revelation of God that we see in scripture?

Because it's possible to be living out of a picture of God that we were handed and not one that we actually found in the word. So, here's just a couple questions to consider tonight. Were you given the wrong god? What god were you given? Here's what here's a god some people were given. >> They were given the tyrant god.

This is the god who is perpetually disappointed in you. >> He is always watching you not with a loving eye to protect you, >> but he is watching you trying to assess and catch you in your imperfection. So he can punish you. >> That's right. >> He is harsh and impossible to satisfy. >> No matter how much you do, it's never enough.

No matter how far you've come, he is focused on how far you got to go. He is less than a father, but he is the epitome of an impossible standard you're spending your whole life trying to reach. And people who were handed this God either become exhausted performers or quiet quitters. >> So they spend their spiritual life trying to earn what God has already given, working for some approval that was never withheld from you.

And you conclude that the gap between who you are and what God is asking of you is a gap that's too large to close. So you end up, like I said, exhausted from overperforming or you engage in quiet quitting because the tyrant God produces people who never rest.

They never feel secure and they never experience the reality of God's love. That's right. >> Cuz you cannot ever feel loved by somebody you always are trying to please. That's right. >> That's right. >> And pastor again, this type of God leads to for us to become one performance driven and and secondly approval addicted. >> We're always seeking for approval. >> We're always trying to perform >> for his love. >> And and again, this tyrant god is one, and I think it's always an extreme.

This tyrant god is a god who emphasizes perfection >> over peace. When we know God is a God of peace >> and you never experience the peace of God >> because you're always striving for the perfection >> in God. >> That's right. >> You know, >> that's right.

That's right. >> A God who corrects but never comforts. >> Yeah. >> And it's a unbalanced view of God. >> Pastor, how do I know if I have this God? Mhm. >> When the gospel you heard was motivated to move you to avoiding hell. >> My God. >> Yeah. >> When the motivation >> is not a new covenant motivation, which is this way is better. >> That's right. >> So the >> go to hell. >> So the singular motivation is avoiding hell. >> Mhm. because you got a God that's just waiting to send you there. >> That's the tyrant God.

And so every step that you take and every decision that you make is a decision you make. >> Yeah. >> Avoiding hell instead of pursuing him. >> That's right. >> So you're avoiding wrath instead of pursuing love. >> That's right. when what I'm what we what we see clearly in scripture is that the God of the Bible doesn't send people there. >> That's right.

No, >> that's right. >> He doesn't send people there. >> That's right. >> Jesus himself said hell. So, here's what this We believe scriptures are clear that there is life beyond this life. >> That there's more to life than this. >> Right. And I think you could just Yeah.

So, we we would agree on that, right? that there's life beyond this. And then so there's what what we would call eternal life. >> Okay? And then there's what's called eternal differentation, >> meaning we all live beyond this life. >> We all just don't have the same experience. >> It's two different experiences. >> One's described as heaven. >> The other's described as hell. >> Got me? >> Jesus makes it clear that hell is the place where evil is quarantined. >> Uhhuh. >> He says Matthew 25, right?

Hell is reserved for the devil and who? >> His angels. >> His angels. >> So that's who it was created for. >> It wasn't even created for us. >> Yeah. >> You have an evil >> evil enterprise being headed by Satan >> that has a time period where they are allowed to adversely impact God's creation. >> Yes.

But then there's a time >> time coming >> where God >> allows that influence and that impact to come to an end >> and they are eternally re relegated to an eternal Riker's Island. >> Uhhuh. >> Right. >> Called hell. >> Uhhuh. >> Where they are quarantined and h and no longer have the ability to adversely impact or influence God's creation.

That's who hell is for. >> Yes. Got me? >> That's who hell is for. >> Here's what God does. >> God being a loving God who respects your choice, >> will not force people who don't want to be with him temporarily >> to be with him eternally. >> That's right. >> So, he doesn't send people to hell.

They choose it >> because God says, "I'm not going to force you to be with me eternally." >> If you don't want to be with me to I >> Hell is God respecting a human's choice >> and a human's right not to choose it. >> True. >> This is just what life is like without me. >> That's what That's good.

That's good, pastor. >> Am I making sense here? Now, there's been a lot of conversation and and I'm not going to get in get in that, but there's been a lot of conversation and I think about geography and where a person is born and how that impacts whether or not they've heard the gospel and things of that nature.

And I think it's really important for people to understand that just because certain conversations aren't being had in your religious context doesn't mean those conversations aren't being had. Just because your stream of consciousness isn't having conversations about certain things doesn't mean there aren't thinking Christians >> that haven't had conversations about these things and haven't and and some of us have been having conversations about these things for a very long period of time.

Right? Which is why we believe to to a degree whether it's formal or informal people who speak regularly on spiritual matters do need some sort of formal or informal training because it helps frame the way you actually see certain things because what we're really talking about here is your doctrine of predestination.

That's ultimately what this comes down to. And so if a person doesn't at least have a fully clarified view of their doctrine of predestination, then everything you talk about when it comes to eternity and heaven or hell is going to be misguided because it's not anchored in what do you believe about predestination.

And if you believe like we do that who God forneew he predestined, it means then that God knows who would be open to receiving the gospel whether they heard it or not. And to those that would be open to it, he strategically by his providence places them on places in the plan on the planet where they would have an opportunity to hear and be responsive to the gospel. >> That's it. >> That's it.

Now, if me and you don't believe the same thing about predestination, I'm not having a discussion with you about hell. >> We can't do it >> cuz we're not anchored and or we're not aligned in this particular area. >> But here's what I want you to see. Many people, that's the God you got, >> the tyrant God. >> And so, your spiritual life isn't producing peace.

It just increases your anxiousness. So instead of running to the father, >> running from >> and going boldly to the throne of grace >> when there are missteps and mistakes, >> you run from. >> You run from it >> who you should be running to. >> Wow. >> It's the prodical son. >> Yeah. >> Who has misjudged his father >> and thinks his father expects something his father don't even want.

So he's preparing a speech to give to the daddy and the daddy won't even hear it. >> That's right. >> I'mma say to my dad when I get back, make me one of your hire. He couldn't even get the speech out. It's like cuz you think I want something for you I don't want. >> And pastor, we see it in Genesis too >> in the first book. >> You know, a tyrant god will make you try to hide from it. >> That's Adam and Eve thought they had a tyrant god.

Yes, sir. >> Try to hide from it. >> Yes. >> And then what what you do with a tyrant god is you try to cover yourself. Yeah. >> That's what they did. >> Try to cover themselves. >> Yeah. >> And then God had to recover them. >> After he recovered them. >> Now, what did he recover them with, Reverend? >> Some skins. >> Now, wait a minute. >> You already know it.

Now you >> What? What did they try to cover themselves with? >> Fig leaves. >> What did he cover them with? >> With skin. something more sturdy. >> Okay. >> Which meant, okay, pastor, >> you can't get skin without what? >> You got to kill something. Some got to die. >> Blood has to be shed. >> So even in the garden. >> Yes, sir. >> We see >> the gospel. >> Through the gospel.

Yes. >> The shedding of blood. >> Yes. >> To cover and recover. >> Uh-huh. >> Sin. >> That's right. >> Something had to die. >> Something had to die. >> Blood had to be shed. >> Blood had to be shed. >> Yes. 100%. What tyrant does that? What tyrant says, "You broke it, but I'mma fix it." >> And the the the challenge is, many of us, boy, if I had time, we could really just stay here because here's what happens for I don't even have time to deal with this.

Christian parenting >> is greatly influenced by Christian theology. >> That's right. Yeah. >> That's right. Yeah. >> Yes, sir. >> So, tyrant gods >> become tyrant parents >> produce tyrant parents >> who parent in a tyrannical way >> because they confuse harshness with standards. >> Come on. Yeah. >> And so some people are so conditioned to conflate harshness with standards that when you hear me say God's not a tyrant, >> their assumption is this is how demented.

It's it's really demonic. >> Yes, sir. >> It is demonic, >> right? Um but this is how demented demonically demented that mindset is. that if you say God's not a tyrant, some people assume I mean like the spirit that rises up against them, rising in them is almost like offense and aggression. >> What do you mean?

First of all, nothing about that reveals the fruit of the spirit. One, the spirit you're carrying >> says to me, this isn't a righteous indignation. This is something else. >> It's a trigger, >> and you don't know you're triggered, >> right? >> Because you don't know that there's something. so derelct in your own view of spiritual formation that you got to be scared to be straight. >> So we got to scare you straight.

Y'all remember that show Scared Straight? >> I can't sin. I got to I'm going to go to hell if I don't I'm going go to It's like >> by my loving kindness >> have I drawn thee? Have I drawn? >> Have I drawn thee? >> That's right. That's right. >> It is the goodness of God >> that leads me to repentance.

Uh-huh. >> So, you've got to be under the tyranny of hell, >> not the lie. >> That's something derelct in your own spiritual formation. >> Because because you're you're living a constant life and and and like here's what's happening too. I see this kind of you can be incredibly anointed and gifted to preach, teach, sing, write, whatever.

But your own your own spiritual journey informs the way your gift shows up. >> And it can make you incredibly popular with people who stuck at the same place you are. >> Wow. >> Wow. Wow. >> Wow. >> And a lot of the body is stuck here. >> This is why you can be a legalist and be incredibly popular >> because most people have to live under tyranny.

Yes. >> To live right. >> That's right. >> Because they haven't got to the point in their own spiritual journey where they have what Dallas Willlet calls the renovation of the heart. >> Now God is actually reordering my desires. >> So I don't have to get up every day and fight not to lie. >> I want to tell the truth. >> That's right. >> Cuz my desires have been reordered. >> That's right.

So if I got to tell you every week not to lie, that says something about my own spiritual journey. It doesn't mean I'm immoral. It does mean I'm underformed. >> That's right. >> Because it means that's where you stuck at. So every day you getting up >> and you having to fight not to lie and you having to fight not to be in a bed that you shouldn't be in and you having to fight and now you're projecting that on people who are stuck in the same place. >> And what ends up happening is there's a multiplication of a bunch of stuck people. >> That's right. who need tyranny to be right instead of being persuaded that God's way isn't just right, it's better. >> You if you love me enough to die for me, I trust you enough to lead me. >> That's right. >> So if you say this not the way, this not the way. >> And then you promise, watch this.

Not just to give me power for restraint, you reform. Yes. Yes. >> Do y'all I'm just telling you if you're just living a life now, a large part of spiritual formation is restraint. Don't get me wrong. But if if it is if you're if the entirety of your spiritual existence is what John Calvin calls the mortifi mortification of the flesh and you never get to the vivification of the spirit.

I'm just saying I'm not saying you're not saved. I'm saying you stuck. I don't care how moral you are. At some point your desire should change and you have an you should have an organic orientation toward righteousness. >> It's not just I got to force myself into righteousness.

It gets to the point where, am I making sense? Where it's like you start leaning into righteousness because your desires have been reordered and reformed. >> Yes. And so my heart, at least for people that are in our spiritual ecosystem, is that you reject the tyrannical God >> and you reject the bullying and the volume of stuck people who try to put their tyrannical God on you.

If you need somebody to tell you not to steal every day, then that's what you need. But some of us are trying, we pass that. >> We trying to raise kids. We trying to figure out how to love our enemies. Like we we on something else. >> I want some hope.

Give me some hope. >> Yes. >> No, mister. Give me some hope. >> So there is there is a and I think if Jesus was in our day, his if I'm if I'm understanding him correctly, his harshest critique would be against that group. Yes. >> Harshest critique would be against that group >> cuz that group likes to fight every They like to fight the world. >> They like to fight everybody.

They just fighting. I'm just like, man, it's just y'all do a lot of fighting. You just I don't know what's going on in everybody else world. I'm busy. How you got so much time to know? >> It is so uncristlike. >> It's a tyrant god. >> It's not a god of the Bible.

Were you given that one? >> Legalism. And here's, let's just be honest. It didn't work. >> It didn't make you holy. >> It made you scared. Here's what it made. It made you more shameful when you did what you couldn't stop doing. It made you became a better hider then.

Okay, let's at least give one more God. Jesus. >> At least one more God. >> The second one is the transactional God. >> So one's the tyrant. >> The transaction. >> The other's the transactional God. This God is a vending machine. >> You put in the right behaviors, then God spews out the blessing.

Oh my that I am it is really a God this view of God creates entitlement in the Christian >> cuz now my giving and my living unconsciously entitles me to a life where I avoid adversity. >> That's right. >> That's right. >> I'm giving and I'm living. Now I'm going to say something.

Okay. Change church has a wide theological Christian tent. Christian tent. Daryus Daniels is not a tribalist. I'm not in the tribes. I think on the essentials there needs to be unity. Everything else ch I'm I'm secondary issues. Hey, if you don't want a woman to teach, just don't have a teach at your now.

You going to tell me what to do here. You just don't have one teach at your church. That's right. You got me? I'm not going to fight you over that. That's your If you don't believe in the gifts of the spirit, just don't allow prophetic ministry at your church.

Now, you're not going to tell me what to do over here. >> That's right. >> But that's So, I'm about to say something. So, this I'm saying that to say this is not a critique against a particular movement >> cuz I have friends that are in this camp.

I just want to show you how your view of God shows up in some of your practices and how some practices confirm a view of God and if that view of God isn't right, how it adversely impacts people. So there was a and I think some people are put in this camp and they shouldn't be in this camp and sometimes I think this camp particularly by academics um which their arrogance sometimes is a bit appalling to me but um sometimes I think academics have portrayed this movement as something that it actually isn't. >> And I don't know how you make critiques of people you ain't ever talk to. >> That's right. >> That's really weird to me.

That's kind of arrogant to me that you can hear what someone says and automatically assume you know what they mean >> cuz if you're a speaker then you know people misspeak from time to time. >> Anyway, there's this kind of and some of us kind of got caught up.

So it it was called the prosperity movement. >> Now let me tell you where Darius lands. I believe biblical theology includes a theology. A biblical theology makes a biblical Christian theology makes room for a good and generous God as he chooses to bestow not just spiritual but natural blessing on his people. >> Period.

He gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And then the proper utilization of the gifts and talents God has given you sometimes will produce fruit that shows up not just in the impact that you make on other people's life, but the income that comes into your life.

And even Solomon says it is okay to be generous toward those that you love. >> That's enjoying the fruit of your labor. >> Okay? So, I'm I'm all for that. I don't think the the Bible's very clear. The issue when it comes to morality, good or evil, is not rich or poor.

It's character. >> You can be evil and poor >> and holy and rich. >> That's right. >> And you can be holy and poor. You can be evil and rich. It's the character of the person. >> Cuz at what bank of At what number is the evil number? >> What number is the evil number? >> What does it turn evil?

Yeah. >> We've got 70s something kids. There are two orphans. Shane Church has an orphanage and dear James M has an orphanage in Porter Prince, Haiti. Haiti. So there every kid in our orphanage think everybody I'm talking to right now rich. >> So what number is it? >> So it's not a number. >> It's character. >> Okay.

So I'm not anti- economic prosperity, economic empowerment. I'm not anti and the Bible's not anti-wealth. The go Bible's not anti- people having money. That's part of that isnosticism. Okay. But there's there was a not all but there was a segment within the prosperity movement that almost treated a person's generosity as a obligation for God to respond by blessing that person financially in proportion to what they said that person needed to give.

Yeah. Yeah. >> Cuz you can make a biblical argument. The law of sewing and reaping says >> you do reap in proportion to how you sow. So if I sow sparingly, I reap sparingly. If I sow bountifully, I reap bountifully. But when people start calling out numbers, now I'm determining for other people >> what sparingly and bountifully is. >> So if I'm saying don't walk up here with $5, >> now I'm counting pockets >> cuz what if they only got six?

That's right. >> So if they only got six and they gave five and somebody gave 5,000, they got 5 million. The one that gave five and they only got six gave more. >> So there was this part of that movement that unintent I'm not say whatever it presented God like a vending machine. >> That's right.

And then when God sent the harvest to people's life in other ways, they were so entitled >> to the harvest coming a certain way, they became frustrated and said they weren't blessed, >> ignoring the areas that they were blessed in ways that money couldn't buy. >> It's the transaction of God.

My giving and my living entitles me to a life where I avoid adversity. So if you serving that kind of God, you going to have a hard time with hard times. You going to have a hard time with hard times cuz sometimes you do all that living and all that giving and life still be laughing.

Pastor, one of the things you said, I keep hearing this whole this whole entitlement, how a transaction of God makes you entitled. And um and this is one of the things I was reading in Acts and we know Simon the sorcerer who tried to purchase >> and buy the power of the Holy Spirit. >> Yes sir. >> And I think when you have a transactional God, you try to b and trade with him.

M >> you try to purchase stuff that only relationship can get you. >> Mhm. >> Because it's about a transaction. It's what I can get from you and what you can get from me. >> Mhm. >> And it's not rooted and and and and and founded in love.

When we make God transactional, >> I'm doing this in order to get this from you, >> Jesus. >> If you do that, God, I'll do this. >> That's the danger of a transactional God. M >> and make us try to purchase what only a relationship can give. >> Let me go back to something, Reverend.

You got me stirred up. TZ, play. We only going to get to one more week. Now, you just said that. >> Mhm. >> Now, let me tell the people watching us and the people that are in this room, let me show you if you've been influenced or if included.

Cuz I don't think all of us hold a singular view of God. Like it's probably a mixture. >> Yeah. >> Let me show you if tyrant is in your theology. >> If anything he just said made you feel shame. If anything he just said if it brought shame, not conviction, >> shame, that lets you know tyrant is in your theology.

Cuz part of knowing God better >> or getting part of me knowing I need to know God better is the acknowledgment that there are some views I hold that are unaligned. >> That's right. >> And I don't know what I don't know until I know it. >> So the question is when I know it, am I willing to submit my view to truth?

So, I might feel regret that I didn't know this earlier, but I'm not going to feel shame because it's not that I don't want to know. Nobody taught me. >> Cuz some of our views of God were given to us by godly people. >> So, you trusted what they gave you. >> That's right. >> But how are you supposed to know?

This is why it's really scary for me to teach during Lint. It's really scary. I was with some um uh we did an event in New York not too long ago and I was with some like some of my old staff members or whatever and we was just talking about stuff and then one of them told my wife he said uh just take him out.

Give him a filter right now. He just he just saying too much. See, that's why it's dangerous for me to teach when I when during when I'm fasting >> cuz the signal clear >> signal clear. >> My God. >> That fasting clears the signal. The >> the tap in frequency is so clear. >> Wow. >> And so you it's like you you're hearing things.

Fasting lets you know God's talking more regularly than we think. Cuz fasting is not making him speak more. It's just making you hear better. >> He's just his voice is not no longer competing >> with other stuff noise. >> And that's that's the power of flinging, right? Cuz >> what what restraint does in one area restrains the flesh in most areas.

Cuz you got to see my my only thing my thing is sweets. But to not do sweets means that the the voice and the desire of the flesh for sweets has to be silenced. >> And that silence a whole lot of other voices too. Yeah. >> This is why it's super important for people to be very discerning about the multiplicity of voices you are exposing yourself to spiritually. >> That is so good. >> You have to learn how to walk.

What's What's a good a popular buffet? Uh Golden Corral. We used to have Ryan's in Jackson. I was about to say Ryan's Padilli. You have to know how to go and pick a dilly Golden Corral Ryan's and say just because it's out >> doesn't mean I need to eat it. >> Every time you go to YouTube, >> every time you go to Instagram, >> every time you go to Tik Tok, >> you going to Piccadilly, you're going to Golden Corral.

It's a buffet, but just because it's out doesn't mean you need to eat it. Cuz some stuff don't go together. And this is why this is important because some of us what we have what we have what we're eating is we're picking up all of these different views these views of God.

And so you're calling yourself full but you're kind of confused. >> Now pastor I was thinking I was thinking about this too. kind of tell me what you think and it aligns what you said about the buffet. We're taking all of these different ideas and concepts about God and what many of us have made is some of some of the issue is not the God we were given.

The issue is the God we made >> because we've >> we've made God into Frankenstein. So, we got a Frankenstein faith. >> We took all of these parts of many different things and we made our own God. And that's and and I was thinking about I was uh medit you know reading Exodus 32 >> when Moses was up on the mountain they were handed the right God >> but they reduced the right God to a version of God that they could understand or manipulate. >> So let us make a God >> who we can see.

Not just any god, but a god that was fashioned out of the god that they were familiar with in Egypt. >> So they made a god >> that kept them in bondage. >> They kept them in bondage. They made a god, not what they were handed, but they rejected what they were handed and reduced god to god they can understand.

That is so >> You know what's interesting about that, pastor, is that what motivated them to engage in that act of idolatry was comfort. It wasn't even spiritual. What did they say? They say, "Make us a god cuz we don't know what has happened to this fellow named Moses." >> So there's a tyrant god.

What's the second one? Transactional. And the third one, we'll wrap up on this one. the tolerating God. This is the God who saved you but doesn't particularly like you. He accepted you because Jesus made it possible but you always sense that he is putting up with you rather than you being someone he is delighted in.

So because these people believe God merely tolerates them, what they do is they just tolerate themselves. So they carry a low level of self-contempt that no amount of affirmation can touch. >> And they spiritualize low self-esteem and call it humility. >> Wow. >> And sanctify their mediocrity. >> And call it submission. >> That's powerful, pastor.

And so they ignore scriptures that say how he delights in me, >> how he sings over me, >> how he has chosen me. >> That's right. >> They ignore books of the Bible like Hosea, >> which is a metaphor of how he pursues me. >> Come on. >> Runs after me. >> And how he is relentlessly running after me. >> Amen.

And how because I you and I are like GMA. We are so unaccustomed to we're so accustomed to being used. We don't even know how to accept being loved. And we can't believe that somebody like that wants somebody like us. Some of us were given that that God.

Which is why we teach and we reject we reject we teach humility but we reject unbiblical selfdeprecating talk. >> We say about us what he says about us. >> I was a sinner but Ephesians says now I'm a saint. I'm a child of the most high God. So, this is a series really for for your reflection.

It's a series to hopefully release your mental grip on a view and a version of God. this sermon uh this teaching to hopefully hopefully helps you release your grip on a mental view and version of God that is adversely impacting your own growth and your own development. God's not a tyrant.

He's not He's covenantal. He's not transactional. And he is mattly in love with his people, not just merely tolerating his people. And my prayer is whatever you need to see, all my job is to be verses 1-4. There's a part God plays where he has to open your eyes to help you see where you've been given a God that's not the God of the Bible.

So we want to pray for that. Lord Thursdays are coming on the screen for those of you who understand the power and purpose of giving and sewing into God's work. And I thank you in advance for doing that. I'm going to pray for us and then we're going to we're going to dismiss.

Father, you did it for Peter. We believe you did it for believers in Ephesus. Would you do it for us? open our eyes so that we can see and know you properly. This is our prayer in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. >> We love you. See you next time.