STOP GIVING PLACE TO THE DEVIL

check check one one two check check check check check check ((music playing)) good evening church let's lift it by praying to stand to our feet exalt the king of kings tonight ((music playing)) come to the west that never runs right drink ((music playing)) come find his mercy come to the table he will satisfy the taste of his goodness find what you're looking for is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) bring all your failures bring your addictions come lay them down ((music playing)) is foreign foreign praise god praise god from home all blessings praise him praise him for the wonders of his love praise god praise god praise god ((music playing)) please ((music playing)) the world that he gave us ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is bring your addictions come lay them down at the foot of the cross jesus ((music playing)) i love the sound of worship ((music playing)) as he walks into the room where people pray when we hear worship ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is as he walks into the room where people pray when we hear worship he hears ((music playing)) come on awake our souls ((music playing)) singing space ((music playing)) come on we're gonna sing his praise aloud ((music playing)) there is a tonight that changes things the sound of these people along their knees ((music playing)) sing his place ((music playing)) space ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) up ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) ((music playing)) you know the band and i were worshiping earlier and i just i felt like the lord was telling me as a people we need to sing his praise aloud because the power of life and death is in the tongue and it matters what you say and the bible says we will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony that means we have to speak things out that means we have to watch what we say so i love this song because when he comes in the room everything changes i want to sing the chorus with you again i want to sing his praise loud ((music playing)) may may his name be glorified awake my eyes ((music playing)) sing us praise ((music playing)) ((music playing)) things ((music playing)) sing his face ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) now is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) my ((music playing)) sing his place ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) you may be seated all over the house thank you for being here for our wednesday bible study and our time of communion and prayer together we're honored to host all of you thank you so much for being in the house tonight it's been a good week the lord has blessed i want to remind you of one major announcement that we have we've been talking about this for several weeks some of you will remember that we had pastor hargrove and his wife he's come here a few weeks back and said about three rows back and talked about kingdom quest 22 which starts tomorrow night and it's in opposition to what is happening at fall creek falls which is the cauldron fest 22 with hundreds and hundreds of literal professed witches from all over america and around the world coming and so he said listen if i put up a tent would you come and kick it off i can have various preachers come throughout the middle tennessee area really all over tennessee because shamefully he couldn't get body in his town to uh help sponsor it because most pastors are cowards these days somebody shout out amen right there but uh we're gonna help them and we're gonna be a blessing to them and so that's tomorrow night and so i let folks know look we'll have a little caravan that's going to be riding up there but we're going to make it easy on on the first ones at least that get here at 3 30 tomorrow afternoon the church has rented a charter bus and it's all taken care of and it'll be here at 3 30 at 4 o'clock sharp it will leave there are other people that are going to be meeting us there it's in spencer it's about an hour and a half just under an hour and a half away and uh some folks will be meeting us there because of work and all of that but then a little caravan's also going to be going and uh people i want to get there a little bit early because i need some people to help us get set up and i want to bless them with our people because i know he's a little bit nervous can you imagine i mean that's not just a a big meeting that's a very uh anxious field situation that he's walked himself into and i want him to know that we're going to get there about an hour before everything starts because i want our team to walk around that tent and to pray and to help that man of god put out any chairs that he needs people can help us at the book table but i want us to be there to serve him don't you think that'd be a good idea amen to bless them and to honor them and i know we're going to have some of our deliverance team there and you might as well go and be ready because uh he's one of those pastors that he doesn't care if it breaks loose in the invitation amen we'll see some people set free in the mighty name of the lord jesus and so i want many of you to try to go tomorrow night so again get here at 3 30 get as early as you want to but the bus leaves at four o'clock and i'm sure it'll stop maybe on the way back everybody get some refreshments and things like that but it's one of them bathroom buses the whole deal right it's high-tech redneck it's super cool and so don't miss out on that opportunity to go with us and i'll be preaching i think i'm the only preacher tomorrow night and then they have a different preacher every single night during uh the witches fest and i think they're 15 miles down the road so there's still a good ways away but all the witches have to pass us to get to the witch house amen that's going to be good and uh so he asked if we would be a part of that so certainly we will so tomorrow night as many of you as possibly can and now ride with us go with us meet us there but be here tomorrow we'd love to have you on the bus i'd love for many of you to get to know each other to fellowship one with another it's going to be a beautiful beautiful time so again the charter bus will get here at 3 30 and it will roll out promptly at four o'clock and so i hope that you'll maybe rearrange some stuff children are certainly welcome to go just get here a little bit early so we can get you on the bus but we can get you in other people's cars if we have to if we have more than 55 or so people that want to get on the bus and i will make sure that you get there but it's going to be a great great time and the lord's going to bless and i just want to show up and have a good showing from our church to bless that man of god and his dear wife because their family is literally putting it all on the line even people in their church don't understand some of them why they're while they're standing up but my bible tells us in these last days that we have to stand up and we have to be willing to fight spiritual warfare we can't give the devil any more territory he's already got enough we'll see that tonight in the text and so tomorrow night 3 30 leaving at 4 o'clock and we'll be up there service starts at seven o'clock we should get there about 5 45 or so 5 30 depending on how how fast the bus can go and we can help that man of god do some things that he needs to do well i want to ask our servants to go ahead and start to make their way up for our time of communion tonight and as they ready themselves i want you to ready your heart your hands and your mind for what we're about to do every single wednesday night except when there are major storms like it was last wednesday night when we had to just really make things move a lot quicker and a lot more smoother we didn't have communion and so we always miss it but every wednesday night we like to have the lord's table with our church family now listen you can be here for the first time or a thousand times it doesn't matter there's only two prerequisites to take in communion you have to know you're born again and you have to be willing to walk in the spirit right don't don't take communion while you're living in willful rebellion to the will of god don't haphazardly and just all willy-nilly take communion when everything in your life is filled with sinfulness and fornication and your life's falling apart or you're doing things that you shouldn't do no you've got to repent of those things and then you can take communion because you don't have to be perfect but you do have to be different and you have to be willing to walk in the fullness of the spirit and so do not just haphazardly partake of communion god said in the early church that many people were sick and some of them were killed by the judgment of god because they took something that was holy and they made it profane and they made it normal okay this is not normal this is a supernatural ordinance of the local church the lord's table in communion are the two things that god told the church to carry on throughout the world and so tonight as we ready our hearts we ready our hands we're ready our minds to take communion it's between you and god not you and the preacher not you and your spouse not you and your kids and speaking of kids they're at their parents discretion all right and we have our team still in here before they're dismissed a little bit to go with jesse but listen tonight is a special time whereby you can do some some introspection in your heart and so when you come forward in a moment like we do every week you get the grape juice you get the cracker the bread you go ahead and take it back take both elements back and then you wait and we'll pray and we'll read the text together and we'll break bread together as a local church fellowship the way the book of acts says because when they did it in the book of acts it was for the purpose of inviting the presence of god in their midst so that unity could transpire in the body and so everybody on this side of the pole take this side everybody on this side of the pole take this side so let's all stand we're not going to pay attention to who does and who does not but we want to take communion together tonight as a body of believers and so you come we'll give you a few moments to get everything ready and get back to your seat so ((music playing)) so ((music playing)) the ground began to shake the stone was rolled away this perfect love cannot is ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) foreign ((applause)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) forever ((music playing)) ((music playing)) please we sing highly ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) paul says for i have received of the lord that which also i delivered unto you that the lord jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took the bread and when he had given thanks he break it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me ((music playing)) after the same manner also he took the cup when he had sucked saying this cup is the new testament in my blood this do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do show the lord's death till he come and all of god's church said amen and amen remain standing we're going to continue to worship the lord in just a moment we'll dismiss our students and we'll get right into the word tonight let's just lift our hearts and our voices to heaven and let's just invite the presence of the lord into this house amen ((music playing)) jesus jesus ((music playing)) jesus there's just ((music playing)) master save your my jesus like ((music playing)) jesus jesus jesus ((applause)) let all heaven handle ((music playing)) they may all pass away ((music playing)) oh just ((music playing)) if ((music playing)) ((music playing)) in ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) hi ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) ((music playing)) there is jesus ((music playing)) ((music playing)) jesus christ when all the world ((music playing)) love ((applause)) ((music playing)) it's his partner ((applause)) ((music playing)) his name is ((music playing)) reaching out is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) there ((music playing)) jesus ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) foreign ((music playing)) ((music playing)) has ((music playing)) jesus ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) oh my jesus ((music playing)) always here lift up our eyes say the king has come the light of the world is reaching out for us there is no other name there is no other name in jesus christ or god come on our salvation draws night lift up your eyes lift up our eyes see the king has come the light of the world is reaching out for us there is no other name there is ((applause)) ((music playing)) there is no other name there is no other name come on hallelujah amen you believe there's still power in the name of jesus church hallelujah hallelujah our students can be dismissed at this time if they would all of our young people can be dismissed to go to their their building for their time of bible study with brother jesse and his crew and so all of our young people can be dismissed i love to see them every single wednesday night more and more and more of them and popping up all over the place hello man of god good to see you my brother i just now notice you're here man i'm so glad you're here tonight and i want you to open your bibles tonight while they find their place down in the parking lot you find your place in ephesians the fourth chapter would you go there with me please ephesians and chapter 4 as we study the word of the lord together thank you for so many that have been praying uh i've been about a week and a half with this chest infection and i'm really just now on the backside of it but still got a little bit of that i feel like i'm drowning sometimes it's hard to get a lot of power from my lungs to my voice so we'll just let the microphone do the work but it's been a blessing that i haven't been on the road at all for the last little bit and so tomorrow night will be really the first time i've preached out in a while and so we just continue to pray that my voice would be strengthened but i want to give you some word tonight that i trust god will use in just a magnificent magnificent way not what i had intended in its originality to be preaching on and although we are out of the the seven part series that we did now we did 25 messages on deliverance and we'll have more of them but we're out of the seven part series on specifically deliverance from demons from matthew mark luke john and then last week from the book of acts but tonight i do want to talk about something that i think is very pertinent to the subject matter at hand and i think it's very important for where we are as a church and certainly in context where each and every one of us are in our growth with the lord because i hope i really hope that you have a desire to be a second peter 3 18 christian but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ how many recognize the fact you should know more about jesus today than you did last week you should have more of an intimate relationship with jesus today than you did this time last year you need to be growing forward not moving backwards you understand and so tonight from ephesians chapter four i want to talk about a very important subject on stop giving place to the devil stop giving place to the devil and i remind you it is a choice as to whether you do that or not let's pray father bless the word of god to our hearts for the course of these next few moments bless those working with the children and those with the students lord in-house and online gather glory unto yourself lord i pray that you had just helped my voice tonight my vocal cords to operate properly but regardless of how i sound may the bible be preached with power and authority may lives be changed and we're going to thank you for it in jesus name and all of god's people said i won't belabor the point on the exciting six chapters of the book of ephesians because we literally verse by verse line by line chapter by chapter took two and a half years to go through all of it verse by verse and on some sundays it was word by word pastor danny often says when it comes to the expository preaching of the bible i can milk a verse more than anybody he's ever heard in his whole life well i have a number of verses tonight and i don't want to milk each and every word because there's so much here we could break this up into a series because there's a lot of meat in what we're going to deal with but the book of ephesians basically has one basic context and that is you and i when we get saved are to be different than we were before we got saved that makes sense old things are passed away behold all things become new you will not be a perfect individual but you will be a different individual and a church that isn't different can never make a difference does that make sense and so in the context of ephesians chapter 4 he's going to talk about two things simultaneously and i don't know why people miss this he's going to talk about the effects of the devil in our life and the effects of our flesh because how many of you know there is a flesh and your flesh is as unregenerate today as it has ever been your flesh is crazy and it'll cause you to do some weird stuff now i will remind you there's a difference in your flesh and in demonic spiritual activity but when you've done everything the bible tells you to do to keep your flesh under control and you still can't do it and you still have a compulsory to sin something is manipulating your flesh and we're going to see that in the context tonight look if you would please ephesians 4 we'll pick up the reading in verse number 22. he says that you put off you do away with you put behind you that you put off concerning the concerning the former conversation now the word conversation here in the king james means your lifestyle the way that you live not what you say so he said you put away your old lifestyle your former conversation the old man that is not old man in accordance to age it is old man that you're now a new man because you've been saved by the grace of god you understand that's the difference he said which the old man is corrupt according to the what to the deceitful lusts there was a time we was easily led astray we were tossed about by every wind of doctrine we were filled with damnable lusts and heresies ephesians 2 says we were dead in our sin we were damned by the wrath of god we were doomed we were disobedient we were doing our own thing we were the children of disobedience and the bible says that we were the children of wrath we were filled with deceitful lust nobody has to prove that to you everybody in this room has a deceitful lust track record amen you say well i just want you to know i've been a christian my whole life i want you know you denied the bible you were born a child of the devil john 8 44. and that's why jesus said you got to get born again you were not born a christian i don't care if you were born in church that does not make you a christian you can park yourself in a garage and drink high octane gasoline but you ain't rolling out of cadillac tomorrow i promise you you were born with deceitful lusts i was born with deceitful us we were the old people but watch what he says we are to do rather than giving into that fleshly carnal nature he said but be renewed in the spirit of your mind it's amazing how much your mind has to do with your spirituality or the lack thereof casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god and bringing the captivity every what every thought to the obedience of christ second corinthians 10 5. why does he say so much about our mind because if you lose the battle in your mind it is only a matter of time before you lose the battle in your body because as a man thinks in his heart comma so is he we are becoming every day what we meditate upon and we've talked many times on the principle concentration brings conformity so he says be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on so you have a choice to kick out one and put on the next one that she put on the new man i like that the new man doesn't talk like the old man the new man doesn't dress like the old man the new man doesn't act like the old man because he's new there's a difference in him so he says put on the new man which after god is created in righteousness and watch these next two words how they go together true holiness i like how he puts that in context true holiness you know why there's a lot of false holiness in our churches legalism is not holiness legalism is bondage lusciousness just doing anything you want to because god's going to forgive you that's not holiness that's sinfulness that's rebellion and the bible says that's presumptuous sin holiness literally means that we are cut apart from what we were and made into the image of christ whom god himself made us in his image for his own glory and the church don't want to talk about holiness these days now when i talk about a church of holiness i don't mean a holiness denomination i mean holiness in the fact that we are not of this world come out from among them and be separate saith god that's what the bible teaches nobody wants to talk about holiness nobody wants to talk about righteousness it's just queso rasara don't say anything that's unpolitically correct you might offend somebody i'm counting on it absolutely counting on it because when you preach the bible and you tell people the bible says come out from the world and be holy it makes you nervous and it should make you nervous i want a holy marriage i want a holy life i want to preach holy sermons i want holy children i want to pastor a holy church and he says that we are to walk in true holiness true separation from the culture you do understand that the bible and the culture or on a collision course with each other now i love you enough to tell you on wednesday night i'll tell you on sunday i wouldn't care but listen the culture is against the truth of god's word i know that's super abrasive it makes me a jerk for jesus but i'll be a jerk for jesus if i have to because i'm telling you the bible and the culture are diametrically opposed if you are politically correct you are biblically wrong you cannot swallow the doctrines of demons and expect me to believe that you actually believe what the bible teaches and so listen don't shoot the guy that just put it in the mailbox i didn't write the letter i just delivered it to you and the delivery system is the church is supposed to be holy i'm not bowing to the culture i'm not kissing the ring of the culture and so we have to understand there's some wicked stuff going on in this world and the church has become silent we're afraid to talk about it since y'all quiet i'm gonna talk about it y'all see what happened last night in california you ought to pay attention they just passed that that silly law what is it a two two two three whatever it is i don't care how many no it's 666 what it is it's of the devil an abortion mandate it passed i still it's got to go through the senate but people actually voted for a bill that says you can kill babies up to 28 days after they are born yeah you better say what yeah it's murder it's murder if you do it 28 days before they're born but they're letting babies get born and then parents have almost a month to make up their mind as to whether they can have their kid killed or not and everybody's like well yeah that's that's a that's a woman's right it's a woman's right to murder is what it is if that doesn't blow your blood and stir you up you've lost your mind you say well you know i'm a bible believer but i see both sides you don't believe no such bible you've never been born again a day in your life you say y'all not judged i've read what the judge said if you believe that nonsense you're a murderer you are lost i just kind of ticked off you get we don't need a bigger crowd on sunday up in this tent it's already full we're looking for seeds praise god you believe in killing babies anytime something's wrong with you you've lost your mind people say it's okay to butcher a baby 28 days after it's born i'm telling you god's going to burn that whole state down if they don't get right with god you hear me god's going to burn that whole stinking state down i ain't playing her stupid democrat games you say we ought to have compassion on people that believe in my days of compassion for baby butchers is done it's demonic it's demonic it's wednesday night y'all got me stirred up wherefore verse 25 let's roll we'll say so that for sunday when the news is here they'll be here wherefore you always look and see what it's there for wherefore because you're supposed to be a new person because you're supposed to walk in holiness wherefore watch what he tells us to start doing in our flesh or at least the lack of what we should be doing putting away what lying putting away lying you ever notice how we've raised a generation of people that think a half truth's okay a half truth a whole lot we've raised people in deception well it's just a little it's just a little white lie no such thing that's like people that practice white magic it's all magic it's witchcraft a lie is a lie deception deception if you tell somebody something with the intention of deceiving them in any way at all it's a lie and the bible says that we're to put away lying why because we're to speak every man truth with his neighbor truth's not always fun truth's not always happy go lucky a lot of times truth will get you in trouble listen i'd rather go to jail for telling the truth then go to jail for being a liar right i would rather die telling the truth than die being a liar but since you gonna die you might as well go down telling the truth so he said speak every man truth with his neighbor now i love why here's the reasoning that we're to do it this way for we are members one of another you notice he's not talking to the world he's not stroking the ego of the culture he's talking to the church we are members one of another not just global vision the body of christ the church capital c we are members one of another so we should be truthful with each other that's love the bible says speak the truth in love it doesn't say speak love at the expense of truth well you just need to be more loving no we need to be more truthful and in being more truthful we will be more loving and so he said look we are members one of another so stop this nonsense of lying and deceiving one another because you're not deceiving god now watch this verse 26 his progression continues be angry and sin not now i like that because god just told me there's a few things i can get ticked off about like killing babies right he said be angry just don't sin so i can be angry i just can't go shoot up an abortion clinic right be angry preach herald the truth just don't do stupid stuff in your anger have righteous indignation he said well i just don't think there's ever time that you ought to be angry jesus made a whip run some people out of church matter of fact study the bible he did it at the beginning and towards the end of his ministry he did it twice he cleansed the temple twice not once with a whip both times ran them up out of here ran them out so be careful when you start telling me to be like jesus when you preach i come up here like indiana jones huh start whipping some people he said be angry just don't sin about it now watch how practical the next part of this verse is this is where it gets convicting be angry and sin not let not the sun go down upon your wrath you see a little bit of anger not dealt with leads to wrath revenge resentment it leads to you making decisions that you would have never otherwise made because you didn't deal with the anger in a righteous way so he says don't let the sun go down upon your wrath now let me just help you right in a great context of our home life that means don't go to bed angry at your spouse at your kids or kids at your parents you know what happens when you go to bed angry you wake up more angry and then all day long you're mad about stupid stuff but then at that point you've already got your foot in your mouth so you can't apologize for nothing so then you go to bed angry the next night and then you go to bed angry the next night right and then one of you sleeping on the couch and it's just this continual rat race of nonsense and god said look there's some things to get mad about but deal with your anger don't go to bed mad because it'll lead to wrath now what i find fascinating for the context of our study is the next verse and why it's so meticulously placed right in the midst of verses before and verses after that clearly deal with fleshly manifestations and in the midst of him talking about the weakness of my flesh he makes this statement neither give place to the devil so my question is if you give place to the devil what place does he take all these christians like well i'm telling you brother like you've lost your mind because demons and christians can't cohabitate if you're a christian you can never have a demon you've never read your bible because you certainly can because the temple of god is what we are but the temple only had one part of its embodiment where the spirit of god resided it still had a courtyard where anybody could walk in no matter what they lived like and i have a flesh that is unregenerate a lot of people say well you know a demon and the holy spirit can't live in the same body well why can't the holy spirit and my wicked low down sorry deceitful flesh can live in the same body and in this context here's what he said a saved believer can give over place to the devil and the devil can get in and manipulate their flesh and cause them to do things that they would never have done can i remind you what paul called his thorn in the flesh first of all he didn't call it a thorn in the spirit he said it was authority in my flesh and what did he call the thorn in his flesh a messenger of satan to buff at me he said in my flesh there was a demon that's a messenger it's the word angelos it's a greek word for angel a messenger an angel of the devil was in my flesh manipulating my body that's what paul said that'll shock some people when they hear it tonight he said to a body of believers he said to a church don't give place to the devil the word place means it means giving over an area that is designed for single occupancy he says why are you scooting over the power of god in your life and allowing the devil to take residence in your flesh and he's talking about lying he's talking about anger and then all of a sudden he says yeah by the way before i get to the rest of it let me remind you it's the devil manipulating you don't give place to him don't give him a foothold don't give him an opportunity because here's what you've got to recognize temptation is never your problem it's when temptation and opportunity meet that it becomes your problem even james says that we are tempted when we are drawn away of our own lust that's flesh but then he says this and enticed totally different from being drawn away of our own laws he says and furthermore there's another secondary thing happening and enticed you see the flesh that we give into is the lust but the enticement is always a source other than our flesh that's causing us to be agitated and irritated and in this context giving place to the enemy in our life and if the devil has a foothold in your life you gave it to him you opened the door i opened the door we slipped open the portal and he got in but then keep noticing what he goes back to because he's still going to talk about all these things that we struggle with let him that stole still no more he said stop being a thief which if you're a liar you're a thief they go hand in hand right you don't you don't meet honest thieves the very purpose of their thievery is the fact that they're liars and so he says look let him that stole still no more he's presupposing the fact that we've done it before so he said you've done it but don't do it anymore but instead of stealing what do you do you labor because the bible says if a man don't work a man don't eat so he says you labor now watch what you labor for working with his hands the thing which is good now watch why here's the motivation behind hard work that he may have to give to him that needeth you know the only antidote to thievery and materialism is giving let that sink in real good and be baptized in your heart tonight why are people thieves and why are people so manipulated by materialism they want more the only antidote to not being a thief and not being filled with a love of things is to give it away to others i'll tell you something and you can quote me on this i'm not always right about everything but i promise you i'm biblically right about this you can always trust a generous person i never met a generous crook it's the anti-thesis of why they're a crook they're a crook because they want more because the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they've aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows that's the context of preachers people fall from the faith because of money and so he said look make sure you're working for the right motivation and the right motivation is not so you'll have more but that others around you will have more that changes the game right there but then notice he's going to continue and say look don't give place to the devil here's another way you give place here's another way you let that flesh corrupt itself let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth do not let unwholesome talk come out of your jaws that's what the bible says don't let it come out of your mouth now i'll be honest with you sometimes i wish i could stop it from coming out of my mouth before it actually does that's why david said put a watch put a guard upon my mouth because normally the first thing you want to say is the last thing you ought to say but you end up saying it anyway then you have to apologize and you feel stupid right so he said do not let wicked corrupt communication the word corrupts a very broad terminology in the bible but you understand that don't get a bunch of filthy communication a bunch of dirty jokes a bunch of locker room nonsense a bunch of r-rated mess pornographic material come out of your mouth don't talk about those things don't talk about corrupt wicked vile things let none of it come out of your mouth and by the way when you do what are you doing you're giving place to the devil you're giving place to the devil and feeding your flesh simultaneously but here's what i'm supposed to talk about that which is good to the use of edifying wow that it may minister grace into the hearers remember uh lincoln logs when you're a kid or legos or them little silly building blocks with the numbers and the letters on them all of those were for the purpose of construction not deconstruction now i'm real good at tearing stuff up i just can't build stuff back but when it comes to the words that we use as monica said death and life in the power of the tongue you know i know people that talk so much about everybody else that when they look in the mirror they think they are untouchable and that they're absolutely perfect listen if you would talk to the holy ghost as much as you talk about other people that you don't like you would be a much more spiritual individual there is no doubt about that if i hated my sin as much as i hated your sin i'd be a better christian it's always easy to hate what everybody else is doing and then just kind of overlook and justify what you're involved in he said when you open your mouth you use it for the use of edification especially in the body of christ i'm supposed to build you up not tear you down i'm supposed to encourage you not rip you in half you know i always i always hate it that might be a strong word but i hate it when people that haven't talked to me in months like months well just out of the blue send me a message and say i just thought i'd tell you this because i love you and then all of a sudden they proceed to be the most critical individual that you could ever imagine and my thoughts are if you love me why didn't you text me months ago enough of that nonsense you're supposed to build people up not tear people down not always have something rude and crass and mean and cantankerous to say i love everybody that i pastor but there are some of you i will not ask you how you're doing this weekend because i'm afraid you'll tell me some people are like just vomit out stuff all them corrupt corrupt it's always bad did you hear about this do you hear about that you have been one in prayer meetings where people start giving prayer requests and it's a gossip session well we need to pray for sister so and so i wasn't supposed to say nothing but i believe the holy ghost wants me to church is full of that garbage church in america talks trash about each other yeah you know on the ball field they call it trash talking the church invented that trash talking to each other the bible says don't let that corrupt nonsense come out of your mouth but when you speak you're a minister of grace unto the hearers but then notice i love how he transitions into verse 30 and says and grieve not the holy spirit of god which would tell me the things he just mentioned all thus far grieve god he said don't extinguish don't get the fire extinguisher and put out the fire of god because it'll put it out every single time i heard one preacher say incorrectly so adultery has slain thousands of churches but bitterness has slain tens of thousands of them we always like talk about the sins of the flesh what about them sins of the spirit the ones the preachers don't want to talk about the one nobody wants to deal with and wants to unpackage from the bible he said right here do not extinguish the fire of god whereby we are sealed by the holy ghost under the day of redemption you see the holy spirit is a down payment on what we get later because he's got things prepared for us that i have not seen or ever heard no can we imagine what god's prepared for those that love him and the holy spirit is the down payment he's the earnest money on what's coming we're sealed with the holy ghost but it also tells me that the holy spirit of god within me has the characteristics of easily being spooked he can easily be grieved there's another time in first thessalonians chapter five he says quench not the spirit two times in the bible god says do not extinguish the fire how do you do that by doing the things that he just clearly told me i'm supposed to stay away from don't give place to the enemy grieve not the holy spirit of god whereby you're sealed under the day of redemption now watch the things that continue to grieve him let all and i find it interesting that he's on the same train track they'll never cross each other they'll always be parallel and he says look the very things that give place to the devil are the very things that quench and extinguish the power of god in your life stay away from them do just the opposite he says let all bitterness there it is first one in the whole list let all bitterness and wrath and anger and here's the interesting word and clamor chin nettering clamoring about people gossiping about folks whispering about people did you hear no and don't tell me huh everybody's like well you know what but they just keep telling me stuff that's cause you keep listening and you're as guilty as they are you ought to get right with god for listening just as much as they ought to get right with god for talking huh you're about to get right up in this house praise jesus then all your bitterness and all your wrath and all your anger and all your clamoring all your evil speaking all of it be put away from you notice that's a choice if you want to give place to the devil that's on you not god don't blame the preacher when you do it your life falls apart he said you don't have to but you do it so put it away from you and then he says this with all malice now let me give you a moment of embarrassing confession and observation i used to say and probably if you go back in our series i will have said it but i was wrong and ignorant in saying it some will fix it now i used to say things like this well you know clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and i never really studied what that meant so i always said but everybody always told me a man well what that means is you hate that stuff so much that it's almost like getting a rubber mallet and you get that mallet and you beat that stuff i think what it means he says get rid of all this stuff and also get rid of malice not a mallet he's not telling you to beat it down with all malice he's saying you get rid of all that garbage and get rid of all the malice in your heart that's what he's saying beat that mess down with a mallet if you want to but there's some times i go back and i'll hear myself preach and i'm like man that was so stupid we noticed the goodness there's some immature things i used to preach about but it's what i knew then it was the lens from which i was looking through the scriptures and all of a sudden when god changed my lens and i started letting the holy spirit teach me rather than some doctor bottle stopper and sister wiggled y'all things changed so he says put it away and don't have no malice in your heart don't have any hatred in your heart the bible says if you hate your brother you've committed murder in your heart already now that doesn't mean you take a gun and you go ahead and finish them off but it means you've killed them in your heart because of your hatred and don't double sin on the deal you know it's like i've heard people say well you know the bible says if you look upon a woman and lust after you committed adultery in your heart already if you've already done in your heart won't just do it in your body you don't want to double sin nincompoop it's wrong both ways and so he says look put it away and all that malice get it out of your heart somebody says oh my goodness i'm just under so much spiritual attack you know why you've disobeyed these verses i'm gonna talk to you for a minute because i need to say something i love deliverance ministry did i say i love it i don't care what the critics say i love it but i'm gonna tell y'all something y'all hear me some of y'all are addicted to deliverance ministry you better learn to keep your deliverance huh after you've been through deliverance like two or three times that's it something wrong with somebody's got to go through deliverance every other day huh you got to be able to keep the let you either obey the bible or you don't you got to be like me but at the end of the day my goodness i ain't showing up to do deliverance and everything oh my goodness i'm about to manifest right here on the spot hold your own deliverance i don't trust people they have to keep going through deliverance and i'm going to say something i know some of you need to get all cleaned up that's good but god in heaven wait six more months before you go through another appointment if you can't fast and read a bible and pray and stay holy i don't want you on the team because if you need deliverance every other day i don't need you on a team i need people that can hold on to holiness i need people that can hold on to deliverance i need people that can get right with god and stay right with god that's what i need stop being addicted to deliverance i got a guy in the church he's like i'm telling you i've been the deliverance five times i'm like oh oh okay are you sure some of them need deliverance from deliverance it either works or it doesn't so let's not be bad stewards and bad poster children for deliverance ministry well i'm a deliverance worker that's never been delivered what you either hold on to it or you don't am i making sense somebody help me in this house so after a while you need to learn to walk in what god gives you okay you know my kids have borrowed convictions until they get to a certain age then they got to get their own so after a while quit living on my preaching quit living on my convictions and get your own get your own convictions in the bible but their goodness hold on to what god gives you don't give it up for nothing verse 32 we got to quit but we ain't got two but i'm going to and be ye kind did i say kind whoo that's more than a candy bar right there i wish everybody would get that word in their heart kind kind you know one of the things i love about going out to eat no i don't even like the food that much you know what i like about going on tv waiters and waitresses love me and my family they like fight over us oh that's that crazy guy but tonight we like him on monday they wouldn't spit on me if i caught fire but on sunday or wednesday hey they fighting over greg locke's family you know why because we're kind because we tip good because we're nice to people the bible says be kind one to another that's a command that's just as much a command in the bible as you must be born again be kind one to another tenderhearted i like that tenderhearted gotta be tender towards people i know some of us a little more prickly than others but when you ain't got a microphone in your hand and you don't have a whole bunch of people to tell something to about the context learn to be a little tenderhearted with people it'll go a long ways in life it really will just listen to folks i had a guy call me today and somebody gave my number and he called me said i can't believe you answered i said well what do you mean you can't believe i said you're just too busy i can't believe you answered i talked to him about i don't know 50 minutes and he said you know what the most important thing to me about this whole conversation is that you had it that you was just willing to listen and he did way more talking than i did i know you find it hard to believe but when i got a microphone i don't like talk a whole lot i go guys on the road i go to the bunk i go to sleep i ain't got to talk all night now i know you women y'all get on the bus y'all get in the car dear lord in heaven y'all gotta talk about all kinds of stuff i gotta talk about nothing if y'all went five hours and never talked to each other y'all think i was in a cat fight me and the guys on the road not talk for five or six hours and man we're just cool we great man we good don't even mess with me let me drink my oni talk right we gotta talk but when i listened to this guy he was just saying wow just thank you for being kind to me god said be ten to heart forgiving one another i think that's important to be right there because one things we've learned in deliverance is most people don't get it because of that right there they don't forgive people you ever notice on monday on a sunday night got my day's messed up on sunday nights when we do mass deliverance you ever notice when the devil really starts flaring people up when you get to the forgiveness section that's always a hard right there well i can do all this i can renounce this and this and this but i don't know about forgiving somebody well i don't know you don't get no deliverance then you're gonna have to forgive them not because what they did was right but because you won't be right and so it's very plain he says forgiving one another even here's your ruler here's the judgment by which you forgive even as god for christ's sake hath forgiven you you see whatever they did to you or whatever they said to you pales in comparison greatly to what we said what we did to god and yet god forgives us because of jesus sake that's forgiveness and a lack of forgiveness is the number one issue that we are finding in deliverance ministry for people not to get delivered because they refuse to forgive they've been cut too deep they've been hurt too hard they've been bruised too much and a refusal to forgive is rebellion to the word of god and does not the bible clearly and plainly and loudly teach in first samuel 15 23 that rebellion is as it means it's just like it and has the same results and the same judgment rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and verses out there and stubbornness the sin of idolatry we never talk about that part rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as the sin of idolatry you know why stubbornness is idolatry because you make an idol out of your opinion and nobody can change your mind your stubbornness causes you to make an idol out of what you think and the bible itself can't even move you so it's true in most churches when they sing i shall not be i shall not be moved because they tell the truth ain't nobody moving their fannies off the sea they ain't going nowhere it's my way or the highway that has destroyed so many churches thank god we don't have that atmosphere fostered around here it's god's way not your way it's not greg's way it is god's way and god's way is forgiveness we have to forgive each other even when we don't want to because forgiveness opens the door for the release and the deliverance and the restoration of our soul and our heart so i find it interesting that people get all up in arms when we talk about demonic activity in the life of a believer and they say no it's all the flesh well according to this context the reason your flesh is so flared up is because you gave place to the enemy and he's manipulating your decisions and he's manipulating manipulating manipulating your flesh and some of you tonight you're just gonna have to get to a place where you say you know what i'm gonna obey the bible no matter how uncomfortable it makes me no matter who walks away no matter who i lose or what i lose no matter what friends think i'm just gonna obey the bible in all of its power and all of its authority and all of its simplicity and simply obeying the bible will simply change your life and you have a choice to make tonight and the choice is simple you do not have to give place to the devil and i say tonight stop giving place to the devil if you believe the truth tonight say amen father thank you for the word of god lord so much could be said other than what's been said there's a lot here a lot here that i didn't even have time to even scratch the surface as it were but i thank you for the line belong word by word preaching of your word so that we can grow so that we can get things in context the lord if the devil has it we gave it to him but you came to give us life and life more abundantly lord i pray tonight that someone right now even sitting in their seat would simply say to you right now under their breath lord i fully and completely forgive and then just fill in the blank with whoever it is father tonight may they just go with the flow of forgiveness and just let it go forgive that dad forgive that shady pastor forgive that ex-spouse forgive that brother that sister that step dad that molested them they gonna have to let it go and tonight in their life whether it be in this service or when they get home late tonight may the damn break in their life and the power of the flood waters of the holy spirit surge in their soul because they were willing to forgive and let go of the things that hurt them so desperately and so deeply so father continue to move in our church in an unbelievable way we thank you for all you've taught us on this journey and what a journey it's been the lord we know that the latter days are going to be greater than the former days despise not the day of small things because we know that they have a way of growing up real quick so lord tonight may your word not just mesmerize us not just entertain us may we meditate upon the word of god and it would deeply change us convict us challenge us convict me show us tonight what it really looks like when we're so filled with the spirit practicing the principles of holiness had not given place to the devil in the name of jesus we thank you for what you've said and all of god's people said tonight we have a baptism i told him it's going to be absolutely freezing cold because we did not have it prepared but they came all the way from michigan and so i want them to go ahead and make their way over there and so we're going to have a chili chili river baptism tonight without the river but it's going to be a beautiful time i did not certainly want to turn them away let me remind you tomorrow 3 30 the bus will be here four o'clock the bus will leave let me ask you this whether you're on the bus or whether you are driving or meeting us there can i kind of get a little bit of a show of the people already that think they're going to try to go stand up just for a moment if you think you're going to try to go just stand up and if you're standing up put your hand up so i can see it okay good good good good good good all right we're going to fill that bus up for sure all right so 3 30 bus gets here 4 o'clock it leaves out and we're going to have a glorious time if you need to slip out that's great but i know some of you come up here to be on the big screens but we are going to have a baptismal celebration i love you guys we will see you tomorrow but if not we'll see you this weekend at 10 30 for the big service and then of course at six o'clock in the evening for our mass deliverance i love you guys you are dismissed ((music playing)) you got it come on in here come all the way forward and sit all the way down i'll get you there quick not too bad yeah all the way down it's gonna be cold all right it is super cold so we'll get on with it miss nicole upon your public profession of faith in jesus christ the power and glory of his great gospel it gives me a great honor before these witnesses tonight to baptize you my sister in the lord in the name of the father son of the holy spirit bear in baptism raise the walk and lead us alive ((applause)) what's going on over here oh no i'm bothering the boys thank you