might pray. Amen. Amen. Look at verse 22 here in John chapter number four. Look at
verse 22. The Bible reads, ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship,
for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is, when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh
such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth. Now these are some profound words that Jesus Christ
gives us here. He's talking to a woman, a Samaritan, and the Samaritan is a person
that I would say is very sincere, but she has some problems. She's sincere in the
fact that she wants to know who the Messiah is. She wants to know who the
Christ is. She's very receptive to the gospel. She ends up getting saved. However,
she's confused about religion. She's confused about salvation and where she's
supposed to worship and there's a little bit of contention there. And Jesus Christ,
he doesn't beg, he doesn't, he knows exactly what's right and he doesn't just
beat around the bush. He just makes it plain, hey, salvation's of the Jews. You
don't even know what you're worshiping. He's not really nice about it, but he is
truthful about the statements that he's making. And he makes it clear that if you
really want to worship God, you have to do it not just in spirit, but also in
truth. And what I would say about this woman, it's the title of my sermon, is
that she's sincerely wrong. She's sincerely wrong and unfortunately
there's a lot of Christians today, there's a lot of people that I think are
like this woman. They're a very sincere person, but they're wrong. They're also
just as wrong. And there's a lot of churches today, especially in this area
and all over America, where there's a lot of sincere people going to these churches,
but they're sincerely wrong. And we as God's people, we don't want to be
sincerely wrong. We want to be sincerely right, okay? We want to be sincere, amen,
but we also want to be right. We want to worship God in spirit, but we also want
to worship Him in truth, okay? Now go to Mark chapter number 12. Mark chapter
number 12. This is just kind of getting a foundation laid here for a second.
There's a lot of people when it comes to worshiping God, religion, church, their
ultimate trust is in their feelings and their emotions. Does it feel good? Does it
feel right? And that triumphs what is true. That triumphs what they know with
their mind. But look how the Bible words this in Mark chapter 12 verse 30. It says,
Now shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with
all thy mind and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. Now this
is a quote from Deuteronomy chapter number 6. Keep your finger and go to
Deuteronomy chapter number 6 for a moment. In Mark chapter 12, it brings up
four things. However, in Deuteronomy chapter 6 where this is quoted, it brings
up three things, okay? And in fact, in other places in the gospel, it only
brings up three things. Now I'm going to give you my viewpoint on this, and then
we're going to kind of dig into here deeper. But first of all, we need to
worship God with our heart, okay? What would be our heart? Now some of these
things have overlap, and I understand that, but I'm going to try and make them
distinct a little bit, okay? If I think about our heart, that is my desires, okay?
Worshipping God with my desires. God wants people to worship Him that
actually desire to worship Him. He doesn't want people to be forced into it.
He's not this Calvinistic God that is a bunch of slaves, okay? John MacArthur, it's
not slave, it's servant in the Bible, okay? Because we have a choice, all right?
And God wants our heart. God's after our heart. God wants us to desire Him and to
love Him. He loves us first, but in a goal, in an effort for us to love Him
back. He wants us to love Him. He wants us to truly desire Him, and that's what
He's looking for. Another aspect was thy soul. What is your soul? Your soul is your
emotions, okay? Your soul is your personality, your emotions, your feelings,
your experiences, your personality. I would sum it up as your emotions. Your
heart is your desires. Your soul is your emotions, but then he talked about your
mind. Your mind. What is really when it comes to your mind? Now, I just said it's
your thinking. You could look at it as your reasoning, your logic. It's what you
think about. It's your mindset, okay? And in Mark chapter number 12, he
said mind and strength. Look how it says in Deuteronomy 6, verse 5. And thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Notice this. And with
all thy might. Now, when we think of our might, what are we thinking about? We're
thinking about our effort, our energy, our being, what God has given us. And God has
given us a mind, okay? God's also given us physical strength. So, I believe when it's
being quoted in Mark, okay, he's helping us understand what might is. What is
might? Might would be with your mind and with your strength. How do you do
something with your might? Well, you got to either use your brain or you got to
use your brawn, right? And if you're gonna serve them with all thy might, they're
gonna use both. You're gonna use your physical strength. You're gonna use your
mental strength. But notice God is, after a portion of your body, your mind. And
unfortunately, there's a lot of brain-dead Christianity out there.
Christianity does not exercise the mind whatsoever. They reject the mind. They
reject thinking. They reject reason. And you say, how do you know that, Pastor
Shelley? Well, you show them something in the Bible and they reject it. They say,
why, it feels right. It feels good though. You're sincerely wrong. God gave you a
mind use. And look, we obviously, faith is the essence of our religion. Thank you.
But at the end of the day, it's not a blind faith that we have. Blind faith
would be one that rejects the mind. Rejects your understanding. The God of
the Bible makes sense. The Bible makes sense. And it challenges the mind as much
as any other aspect of our life. And we need to use all of these. Now, I'm gonna
dig in for a moment. Go to Genesis chapter 6. Let me prove to you these
three points for a moment that God wants your heart, soul, and mind. Now, I defined
heart as your desires. And I'm gonna prove this with some more scripture here.
Look at Genesis chapter 6, verse 5.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. So, what is it
telling us about the heart? It's saying that this person's desires are wicked.
And notice, they're always wicked. So, the thoughts of his heart is what? That's
what he's desiring. That's what he's thinking about and planning. Go to Psalms
chapter number 10. Psalms chapter number 10. Who plans bad things? Who does bad
things? People that desire bad things. And where does that desire come from? It
comes deep down into the heart. Your heart is basically what you desire, okay?
And when you desire something, that doesn't mean you're necessarily gonna do
it, right? You don't have to act on your desires. But God wants us to truly desire
him. These people desired wickedness. In Psalms chapter 10, look at verse 3.
For the wicked boasteth, notice this, of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous
whom the Lord abhorreth. So, the wicked, they brag and what they desire, what is
it that they desire? Riches. Now, this is just so obvious. What is it that the
wicked is constantly boasting and bragging about? Money. And getting money
and how they want to get money. I'm gonna get rich or die trying, you know. I mean, I
just want to get paid. I just want to make it. I just want to roll in the dough.
Like, they just brag about that's their desire. They have the love of money and
it's the root of all evil. Why? Because we're talking about your heart and your
heart is gonna drag you around places, whether you want to go there or not. Look
at verse 17. Lord, thou's heard the desire of the humble. Thou wilt prepare
their what? Their heart. Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear. Notice where the
desire is coming from. Notice the desire of the humble. It's in their heart and we
need to prepare our hearts and work on our hearts and those that are humble, it
comes from the heart. Where do we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? The heart. We
have to have a desire to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, destroying Calvinism,
okay? That's not even part of the sermon, but it's just fun. Psalm 37. Go to Psalm
37. Your heart is where your desires come from. Psalm 37, look at verse 4. Delight
thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. So
notice again, where is the desires coming from? The desires coming from your heart.
So if I'm going to worship God with all my heart, what does that mean practically?
It means that I actually desire God. I actually desire to be with him and to
serve him and love him. This is no different than any other relationship
that you have, okay? You don't want friends that don't want to be your
friend. You don't want a spouse that doesn't want to be your spouse, right? I
don't want church members that don't want to come to this church. I don't know
if that's a shocker to somebody. Sometimes it seems like a shocker. It's
like, if you don't want to come here, get out! You know, there's the door. There's a
lot of doors. Pick a door, all right? You know, there's no point in doing things
that you don't want to do, okay? At the end of the day, we need to get our heart
right, though, and we need to desire God, and we need to desire the Lord. Now go, if
you would, to Ecclesiastes. I'll read for you. Romans 10. This is the Apostle Paul
saying, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Now, I could prove this so much more. There's so many other
verses that prove this. I think I've already shown you several verses that
prove the heart is talking about your desires, and God's after you desiring him.
Having your heart towards him. Putting your heart, you know, in the right place
towards the Lord. Ecclesiastes chapter 2 verse 10. And whatsoever mine eyes desired,
I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced
in all my labor, and this was my portion of my labor. So again, I mean, without a
shadow of a doubt, the heart is your desires. The desires of your heart. Go, if
you would, to Psalms chapter 3. Go back. Point number two, though, is your soul is
your emotions. Now, you have to understand this about the word soul. The word soul
is a pretty dynamic word. It has a lot of different uses, and it can mean
different things, so don't get confused with that. But when we're talking about
the context of loving God with all thy soul, it is your emotions, okay? Soul could
just be in reference, though, to you as a person. You could just be called a soul.
It just, it could be interchanged with the word person, body, you know. It could be
your emotions. It could be a lot of different things, so you have to get the
context. But in context of Mark chapter 12 and what we've been talking about,
we're talking about your emotions and your feelings, your experiences, your
personality. Look at Psalms chapter 3 verse, or chapter 6 verse 3. My soul is
also sore vexed, but thou, O Lord, how long? So notice he's talking about his
soul having a particular quality. What is that quality? It's being vexed. Vexed is
being grieved, sorrow, some kind of anguish, some kind of pain, and he's saying, hey, my
soul is vexed. That's your emotional state. Now, when we think about soul, it's
just super obvious, right? Soul food. What is soul food? It's comfort food. That
would be the, how you translate that. What's comfort food? Food that tastes
good, right? It was used with butter. They put a lot of butter and salt and milk
and cheap dairy, basically, okay? Everything from the cow. You want to get
all the cow products and then kill the cow and eat the steak. Comfort food, okay?
Country fried steak basically is comfort food. Why? I mean, it's beef, then it's
rolled around in the lard from the cow, and then put in some of this good
breading, and then they've got salt. I mean, this is what comfort food, but it's
also called soul food. Why? Because it feels good. What about soul music? It
inspires some type of intense feeling. That's what they mean. You can feel it
down to the soul. I saw a quote, what do you want? Just coffee black like my soul.
What are they saying? Saying they've got a dark soul, right? They got a dark
personality. Or I was thinking about a song. You're a monster, Mr. Grinch. Your
heart's an empty hole. Your brain is full of spiders. You've got garlic in
your soul, Mr. Grinch. I wouldn't touch you with a 39 and a half foot pole. What
are you saying? He's got garlic in his soul, and it gets gross, right? Your soul
is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of
deplorable rudges imaginable, mangled up and tangled up knots. You know, that's the
song about the Grinch. Meaning what? He's a wicked person. He's the reprobate, all
right? The sad part is he doesn't get saved. You think he got saved. He didn't,
all right? They can't. The Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the soul. Meaning what? Changing your personality, your emotions, okay? Making
wise the simple. You don't want to be stupid, okay? You want to get some wisdom,
read the Bible. Just get your hymnal out, and look at the front cover. What does it
say? Soul-stirring hymns and songs. What does that mean? It affects your what?
Emotions, doesn't it? How about, I thought about this verse. Go to Psalms 77, Psalms
77. Why do we sing the hymns? To affect your soul. To stir your soul up for the
Lord. Now obviously there's overlap a little bit here when we talk about your
desires with your emotions, but they don't always mix. Because sometimes you
can have an emotion where you're enjoying something, but it's not really
your desire. You're not really wanting to do it, or vice versa. Maybe you have a
really strong desire to do something, but it's not panning out the way you liked
it, and so you have a bad emotion with that particular desire. So God doesn't
want that there would be this disconnect between your desires and your emotions.
God wants you to desire Him, and then be rejoicing or joyful while you're
pursuing Him, okay? But sometimes we have different emotions, and emotions are just
being human, or just being in the made in the image of God. God has emotions.
Psalm 77 verse 2. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My sore ran in
the night and ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted. But then I thought of
this. Be still my soul. The Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of
grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change he faithful
will remain. What is he saying? Be still my soul. Someone's going through an
anxious time. It's refusing to be comforted. How do I get over that? I sing
this soul-stirring hymn. Be still my soul. Thinking about the words of Christ.
Go if you would to Psalms 86. Psalms 86. Look at verse 4.
Rejoice the soul of thy servant, for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. So, you
know, we could think about a lot of different songs. My sin, O the bliss of
this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the
cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.
What am I doing? I'm telling my soul to praise the Lord. I mean, what's better
than having my sins nailed to the cross than hearing the glorious gospel of
Jesus Christ? So, I want to love the Lord with my soul. I'm telling my soul, you
need to praise God today when you have the right emotional state. How are you
gonna get that? Some soul-stirring hymns, not this garbage music from these fun
centers. We'll get there in a minute. Go to Psalms 94. Psalms 94. 19 verse 19. You
can keep your fancy music. I'll take the hymns because they stir my soul. It's not
a fake emotion. Psalms 94. Look at verse 19. In the multitude of my thoughts
within me thy comforts delight my soul. There is sunshine in my soul today. More
glorious and bright. I think we're making a pretty strong case here. What's the
soul? I mean, it's talking about your emotional state. It's talking about your
feelings, isn't it? That's why we sing the hymns. To be filled with the Spirit. To
have the right Spirit. We want to worship God in spirit. We're not, I don't want to
be this dead church, okay? And sometimes people accuse you that because you're
not just like, it's like, that's an alive church to them. It's like, hey, me singing
it as well as my soul. I mean, the hair's staying on the back of my neck. I feel, I
feel it. I don't have to get here and scream and yell and make y'all feel
really uncomfortable, okay? Go be one to Proverbs chapter 2. Psalms 146 says,
praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. That seems like, oh yeah, it's a
direct quote from that song that we just heard. One of the greatest songs. It is
well with my soul. I mean, just a classic. Can't get better than that.
Proverbs chapter number 2, look at verse 10. When wisdom enterth in thine heart,
and knowledge is pleasant under thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee,
understanding shall keep thee. Now, I love this because it's bringing in all three
aspects. We have that wisdom entering into what? Your heart. So, you're getting
those right desires. Knowledge is pleasant under thy soul. You have the right
emotional state, but that's not enough. You also have to exercise another aspect
of your body, that mind. That mind and your strength. But notice in verse 11,
discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. So, notice
you have to exercise all aspects of what God has given us, and the mind is a very
important point. Look at the rest of this passage, verse 12. To deliver thee from
the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh forward things, who leave
the paths of a brightness, to walk in the ways of darkness. Discretion shall
preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. To deliver thee from the way of the
evil man, from the man that speaketh forward things, who leave the paths of a
brightness, to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice to do evil, and
delight in the forwardness of the wicked, whose ways are crooked, and they forward
in their paths. To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger
which flattereth with her words, which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and
forgetteth the covenant of her God. Now this is a very important passage based
on what we've been saying. Why? Because you can have all the right desires, and
have all the right emotions, but if you don't actually have any understanding,
these wicked people will take you off the right path. Notice they were on the
same path. They're diverting off the path. They're going away from the path.
What's going to keep you on the right path? That discretion and understanding.
And look, your emotions can take you in some weird places. Your desires and your
emotions need to be grounded with your discretion and understanding. We have to
have all three working in unison. And notice even verse 17, this lady, she's
forgetting the covenant of her God. So apparently she started out the right
path. She had the covenant, but then she just forgets it. She forsakes it. She
goes another way. Who's going to be led astray with this woman? Those that it
feels good. Their desires to go with her, and their emotions to go with her. Guess
what didn't go with her? This. They didn't have the discretion and the
understanding to say, I don't want to go down that path. I don't want to go with
her. Go through Romans chapter number 12. Romans chapter 12. So my third point,
super important. We want to worship God in spirit, but we also need to worship
Him in truth. We need to be grounded with truth today. You need to use
your brain. And if you do not use your brain, you will not be successful in
worshiping God. You must use your brain. You say, well, I'm simple. We'll read more
Bible. It says it'll make wise the simple. Well, I started out bad. Well, we all
start out simple. Okay. He can make so many people so wise. You just have to
trust in Him. You don't have to trust in your own understanding. And all thy ways
acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. You say, well, I'm not that smart.
Well, God's got you covered. All you have to do is just trust Him 100%, but you
still have to use that brain enough to say, you know what? This is what the
Bible says, and I'm gonna do what He said. Okay. Some people don't even get that
point. Romans chapter 12 verse 2. And be not conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. Such an important verse. Why? Because there's a
lot of things that they they look good. You have that desire. They feel good, but
have you proved that it is good? Have you used your mind and looked at the Bible
and made sure that matches up with Scripture? Because there's a lot of
things they look good, they feel good, but are you proving that it is good? Are you
proving that it is acceptable? Notice there's times when there's going to be
things that seem right, but you're gonna prove it to be a liar. You're gonna prove
it to be wrong or false. Look at chapter 14. Just flip a couple pages. 14 in book
of verse 5. One man esteemeth one of another, another man esteemeth every day
alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. But look, they have to
use the mind. We need to use our minds today. Go to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians
chapter 4. And in Philippians chapter 2 it says let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4 7. And the peace of God which passes all
understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So we need to
not only concern ourself with the heart, we also have to concern ourselves with
the mind today. We need both. The Calvinist only accepts the mind and kind
of rejects the heart. And then the modern-day, you know, non evangelicals as
I call them, because they don't do any evangelism, they go with the heart but
they don't use the mind. We need both. We need both today. Ephesians chapter 4
verse 21. If so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the
truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning the former conversation the
old man which is corrupt according to the seep of lust and be renewed in the
spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. God makes sense. God is logical. God is
reasonable. God wants you to transform your mind to His understanding, to His
knowledge, to have His mind. We want to have the mind of Christ, okay? Go to
James chapter number 1. James chapter number 1. The Bible says in 2 Timothy
chapter 1, for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love
and of a sound mind. So we need to exercise the sound mind that God wants
to give us. You say, what's that sound mind, Pastor Shelly? It's this book. A lot
of people give lip service to the fact that the Bible is their final authority
but we can't just say that. We have to mean it. We have to actually say, okay,
what does the Bible say? Let's go look it up. Let's study the context. Let's make
sure this is what the Bible is teaching and use that sound mind that comes from
Jesus Christ, comes from the Word of God to be able to exercise our religion and
make sure that the things that we're doing are right. It's easy to get excited.
It's easy to be happy. But you know what's hard? To make sure that it's right.
And that's why you see a lot of churches today, they're all excited. They're real
sincere but they're sincerely wrong. Why? Because they're not exercising their
mind. Now, Titus chapter 1, I'll read for you but it says, under the pure all
things are pure but under them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure
but even their mind and conscience is defiled. There's some people, they have a
bad mind. And it even says in James chapter 1 verse 8, a double-minded man is
unstable in all his ways. So, we have to have a sound mind. We can't be one with a
defiled or corrupt mind and we can't be one that has a double mind if we're
going to serve God correctly. Go over to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5.
And again, I'm just trying to cover all these points and then get into a little
bit application here. What have we learned so far? God wants us to worship
and with what? All of our heart, with all of our soul and all of our mind. Or
another way it words it would be your might or your mind and your
strength, okay? Basically, those three things are teaching the same aspect. But
it says in Galatians chapter 5 verse 19, this is what's in the heart of man. Now,
the works of the flesh are manifest which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions. This is one I want to pick out. Heresies. Heresies. What does
that tell me? That tells me that your heart is naturally inclined, has a
natural desire for heresy. What is heresy? It is false doctrine. So, if I'm not using
my brain to make sure that what I believe matches up with the scripture,
I'm going to be easily led astray to believe heresy, is what the Bible is
very clearly articulated on, okay? And a lot of people, they want to believe
heresy. Let's think of some examples. How about the Mormons? The Mormons, if you
talk to a Mormon, they are very sincere. In fact, they're pretty much more sincere
than most independent fundamental Baptists, in my opinion. I mean, they're
real dedicated, and they really believe in their teachings. The problem is, they
believe heresy, and you talk to the Mormon, and he says, I have a real big
burning in the bosom. It just, it feels right. I have a desire to worship, you
know, God through the Book of Mormon, and I have the right emotion, but here's the
problem. They're not exercising this, because it takes like half a second to
use your brain, and realize Mormonism is a cult. I mean, it's not hard. They're just
completely doing something, shutting this off. God doesn't, the God of the Bible is
not one that you turn your brain off. I don't care what the atheist lies and
says. Look, our faith is not a blind faith. What is a blind faith, where you just
make stuff up, like Joseph Smith, where you just make up accounts of the Angel
Moroni appearing to you, and giving you these golden tablets that nobody's seen,
that he just magically translated, and oh yeah, he has special privileges to marry
as many women as he wants, and everybody in the whole city calls him a cult,
because he literally is starting a cult. I mean, it's not hard to recognize that
the Mormon, they deny who Jesus Christ truly is. They say he's brothers with
Satan, which makes no sense. They believe in literal, like polygamous marriage for
forever, and in heaven, yet Jesus says we're not even given to marriage. So
which one's right? Well, that must be translated wrong. Well, that wasn't just a
verse. That was like a whole passage of Scripture. It was a whole major teaching,
where he's rebuking the Sadducees for rejecting the fact that there is no
marriage in heaven. Yet, what do the Mormons believe? They believe that
they're gonna be married for forever. Why? Because they're not exercising with
their brain. Just like that woman at the well, she's pretty sincere, but he's like,
you don't even know what you worship, and the Mormons, unfortunately, most of them,
they don't know what they're worshiping. They're worshiping the devil. Now, the
ones that are high up, they probably know that they're worshiping the devil, but
your average day Mormon, I think they just are sincerely wrong. They're just
sincerely wrong, and it saddens me, but we even see this in Christianity. Now, go
to 1st Peter 3, but we don't have a
blind faith. What is a blind faith? Blind faith is when you make stuff up. You just
use your imagination. Faith, though, is when you actually believe God's Word.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. It's when you see
something in the Bible, and you decide to just exercise it, put into practice,
believe it. Now, I don't want to mislead you. Sometimes, we're not going to always
understand everything that the Bible is teaching us, and we have to step out in
faith, okay? We see what God is saying. We understand it from a concept of, this is
what I'm supposed to be doing, but we may not fully grasp why. We're like, I don't
understand why I'm supposed to spank my kids like that, or I don't understand why
I'm supposed to go to church, or I don't understand why I'm supposed to go out and preach to the
God. You may question certain aspects of it, not fully understand it, and that's
where the faith aspect comes in. You can't necessarily see the end of those
things. However, when you step out in faith, most of the time, God then gives
you the understanding right away afterwards. He then shows you. You start
walking out of Egypt, and you run into the Red Sea, and you're thinking like, I
don't know how this is going to work out, but you know, the people that walk
through the Red Sea, they figured out how it worked out. It didn't, it wasn't a
blind faith anymore. It came to fruition. They walked through the sea, and they
came out on the other side, and they're like, wow, that was great, you know. Whoo! I'm
glad I did that. Or the next time, 40 years later, whenever Joshua and them are
going to enter in, the priests, they load up the ark, and they start walking to the
water, and it's like, not until they put their foot all the way in the water, then
it spreads. They took that faith to take that first step, but then they saw
exactly how it's going to work. God didn't say, now just keep walking in the
water, and just go under. When is this going to work out? You know, it wasn't a blind faith, okay.
And it wasn't something just made up. I think we should just take the ark, and
just start walking in the water, see what happens. No, God is like, do this, and then
they're just following his instructions, believing it's going to work out, and then
in the midst of doing it, God shows them how it's going to work out, okay. That's
the difference between Christianity and every other false religion. False
religion is a blind faith. Where did you read that in the scriptures? I just feel
like that's true. I just had a feeling. I have a feeling that the Book of Mormon's
true. How do you know? It just felt right. That's not using your brain. That's not
using any logic. They don't even have verses they can point to to defend their
faith. It's a blind faith, and unfortunately Christianity is in the
same boat a lot of times. Proverbs 3 says, Trust the Lord with all thine heart and
lean not on thine own understanding. So we understand that point. Sometimes there's
going to be a conflict of your understanding of God's, and we have to
step out in faith, but it's not a blind faith. Isaiah 1 says, Come now and let us
reason together, sayeth the Lord. God is a reasonable God. Everything God asks us
to do is reasonable, logical, and sensible. Sometimes because we're so foolish or so
ignorant, we can't necessarily see it. Yet when we walk out in faith, He'll
show us how it makes so much sense. He'll educate us. He'll allow us to become wise
to understand why He gives us such counsel. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3 verse
15, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an
answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness of fear. Notice how God is saying, I want you guys to be able to
give people what? Reasoning. Not just like, Well, just cause my heart just feels
like it's true. That's not a reason. That's just anecdotal garbage, okay? It
just feels good. It feels right. That's not Christianity. Christianity, we
actually can give them a reason. Well, here's the what the Bible says, and
happens to just be the most popular book in human history. In fact, it's full of
wisdom and knowledge. Nobody can discredit any aspect of it. There was
eyewitnesses of His resurrection in multiple parts of the world. This has
been translated in multiple languages before it was culminated into the
English translation. It's the most known book of antiquity. Everything it says is
right. I mean, there's a lot of good reasons to believe in the Bible. It's not
like we have this weird blind faith of Muhammad, who is a pedophile, okay, telling
us that women is dirt, literally in their scriptures. Women are dirt. Treat them
like dirt. It's like, what kind of nonsense is this? Slay them. Yeah, it's
just like the book. That book is so bad. You have to be a complete moron to
believe in it, or you have to turn this off. You don't have to turn off your
brain to believe the Bible. The Bible will challenge you more than you could
ever challenge it. Now, go to Titus chapter 3, and I'm gonna get my
application here. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 says,
Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be
glorified even as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from
unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith. Now, in this sermon, I want
to make a caveat quickly. There's a lot of people that are sincerely wrong.
There's some people that are sincerely wrong on purpose, okay? They're
unreasonable. So, appealing to reason and logic has no benefit. It's usually like
Mormons. I mean, they're unreasonable. You try to reason with them, and they just
always appeal to what? Just emotion. Appeal to their own logic. Well, I talked
to a Mormon. He said, well, for me to change my view, God would have come down from
heaven and tell me I was wrong. That's a lot of convincing. I mean, wow. And let me
give you the answer. They still wouldn't believe it. That's like when the Romans
and the Pharisees are like, hey, come off the cross, and then we'll believe in you.
No, you wouldn't. They say that. They wouldn't. Well, if God did this, then I'd
believe him. No, you wouldn't. If you'd believe him, you'd believe Moses. Now,
Titus chapter 3 says in verse 10, A man that is an heretic after the first and
second admonition, reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted and senteth
being condemned to himself. There's a classification of people that are
sincerely wrong on purpose. We can never reach them. There's no point in trying to
reach them. Notice at what point you decide that you can't reach them when
they're not going to appeal to reason. Right? After the first and second
admonition, you have to reject them. So, people that are highly emotional and not
willing to use reason or logic, you got to walk away. But I do think there are
people that are sincerely wrong that can be reached with reason and logic. Now, let
me give you a classic example of this that's really frustrating that I see
people that are sincerely wrong on. It's speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues
is just such a frustrating doctrine because it's turning the brain off
completely. And I say that in the hopefully the meanest way possible. But
it's also known as glossolalia. Glossolalia is an ecclesiastical
speaking. It's a phenomenon described where people speak words that are
apparently in languages unknown to the speaker, really unknown to anyone. Okay?
One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables
that lack any readily comprehended meaning. Let me give you the
modern vernacular, gibberish. They might as well just do that. Okay? In some cases, as part of
religious practice in which it is believed to be a divine language unknown
to the speaker, glossolalia is practiced in Pentecostal and Charismatic
Christianity as well as in other religions. I looked it up. About 25% of
congregations, Christian congregations, in 2012 do the practice speaking in
tongues. So that's a pretty big clumping of Christians. 25%. And another article,
it said one in three American Pentecostals, so about 33% of them, say
that they themselves speak in tongues weekly, whereas 51% say that their
services that they attend frequently include people doing this or prophesying
or manifesting other signs of the Spirit. Now they might be manifesting signs of
the Spirit, but that Spirit's not the Spirit of God. It's another spirit. Okay?
So this affects a lot of people, and I was exposed to this most of my growing
up at the church I went to and another church that's actually in this area,
Gateway. Gateway Church is a non-dominational church, non-evangelical
church, okay, that practices this or teaches this speaking in tongues. Now if
you go to their website, which this is like the largest church in America
virtually. You know, there's different metrics, okay, and how they measure how
the church size. Lakewood sometimes the largest considered. Sometimes it's Life
Church in Oklahoma City with Greg or Craig Groeschel, I think, but sometimes
Gateway is considered that too. I mean, they have tens of thousands of people
going to their churches. They have multiple campuses. This is a major church
with lots of people in it. Top five for sure. Okay, this is their
doctrinal statement. They say, we believe the gift of tongues has a dual purpose
as outlined in the scriptures. When coupled with the gift of interpretation,
it provides encouragement, comfort, and exhortation to the congregation of
believers. When used in prayer, it also provides personal edification for the
believer and heavenly unction for prayer concerns that we lack words to
adequately express. Then they mention 1st Corinthians 14, which is a great place to
go. Let's go to 1st Corinthians chapter 14. As a prayer force, it adds a new
dimension to our partnership with God. So basically what they're saying is that if
I do this, I'm going to be edified. That's going to be good for me. That's
beneficial to me somehow. That somehow that's going to bless me, which is a
complete rejection of the scripture that they just brought up. Now here's the
thing. The heart desires this probably because it desires heresy. It desires to
have this secret. I mean, if I say, hey, I want to give you a secret cool language
that you can just talk to God on your own and it's mystical. There's something
in the heart of man that just says, I want that. I'll take it. Sounds cool. I
mean, if I just offered you, hey, I'll just give you a foreign language that
you can just immediately know without having to do any effort. I think everybody
would take it. Okay. So there's a desire for that. And from an emotional
perspective, they think they're drawing closer to God. They can have this euphoric
feeling, you know, feels so good, but here's the problem. How does it work
mentally? What verse are they basing any of this off of? Because if God has this
secret private prayer, heavenly language, wouldn't we have a verse like Jesus
walking out of somebody, Hey, Peter, you want this private secret heavenly
language. Let me tell you all about it. I don't remember that chapter in the
Bible. Now, first Corinthians 14 is a rebuking chapter telling them a lot of
things are not supposed to be doing. Okay. But look what it literally says in
verse 14 for if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit pray, but my
understanding is unfruitful. Is that really worshiping God with all thy mind?
No. He says, what is it then? I will pray with the spirit. Notice this. And I will
pray with the understanding. Also, I will sing with the spirit and I will sing
with the understanding also. So from their doctrinal statements, they say that
speaking in a language that you don't understand is edifying for you and it's
good. See first Corinthians 14. Okay. Well, I looked at first Corinthians 14 and it
says the exact opposite. The apostle Paul says, I'm not just going to worship God
in my spirit. I'm going to worship him with my understanding too, because it's
not just in the spirit. It's also in truth. It's not just in the spirit. It's
also in my mind. Okay. God is not a God that wants us to shut our brains off, go
brain dead and just start making gibberish sounds. That's being possessed
with the devil.
Verse 20 says, brethren, be not children in understanding. How be it in malice be
children, but an understanding be men. This chapter is emphasizing
understanding, yet they want to take you to this passage and tell you that
somehow props up their false doctrine. Props up their view of speaking in tongues.
Look at verse 33. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in
all churches of the saints. So God's not going to give you something that's
confusing. Now think about this. They don't have no verse that teaches
this. So you know how they teach it to you? By a man. A man has to teach
you how to do it. So where are you putting your faith? In man, not in the
scriptures, not in God's Word. They say, okay, this is how you do it. You basically
stop thinking about stuff and just start making noises. And the Holy Ghost,
which they're blaspheming, will come upon you and he'll give you the
utterances. You know what that means? You're not in the driver's seat. He's
saying, just let something come and take over you that you don't understand, that
you don't know anything about, and you're just making noises to God. That would be
a called demon possession. Because what's a demon possession doing? It's taking
over your body and it's going to make noises and sounds that you don't
understand and you're not in control of. That has nothing to do with the Holy
Ghost. It has nothing to do with the Bible. You have to shut off your brain.
God says, I want you to worship me in spirit and in truth. I want you to
worship me with your heart, soul, and mind. I want you to understand what you're
doing. Otherwise, it's like a robot. How is that worshiping God? Imagine
just getting hooked up to a machine where you're doing nothing. It's just
taking over. How's God taking any kind of glory in that? You know what God takes
glory in? A person that's in complete control and saying with their mind, I
want to worship God, my emotions are wanting to worship God, and then with my
understanding, knowing who God is, I want to sing praises unto him, understanding
how great he is. Then he says, wow, I'm getting glory from that. How is he
getting glory by you saying things you don't even understand? Try that with your
wife. Wife, don't you just love me so much more now? She's like, what does that mean?
I don't know. I didn't even do it. How is she gonna like, oh, I just love you so
much more now? She's gonna say, get out of the car crazy. I don't want to be
around. How is God taking glory and someone taking over your body and
forcing you to do things you don't even know what you're doing? There's no glory
in that. It's stupid. There is no way to exonerate it. It is foolish. It is
nonsense, and look, there's a lot of people that do it, and they're sincere,
but they're sincerely wrong. It is a false doctrine, and it affects a lot of
people, and it's frustrating to me. I always say, where is the verse? Show me the
verse in the Bible that teaches this. There is none, zero, nada. They can't show
you anything because it's not in the Bible, because it's not of God. Here's
another thing they do. Verse 34, let your women keep silence in the churches. You
go to churches like Gateway, and they have women preachers. That's not using your
brain, but they're a good preacher. I want a woman to get up and preach. It
feels good. Yeah, but you're turning off your brain because you're ignoring what
the script you're saying. It says it's for it's not permitted unto them to
speak. How is a woman gonna preach when she can't even speak? It's ridiculous, but
they're commanded to be under obedience as also say at the law. I remember I went
to a church virtually identical to this one, okay, and we were in one of these
life groups, and the main leader, he had this interesting question. I actually
kind of liked it. He said, if the Apostle Paul was alive today, what epistle do you
think you would have written to our church? And I was just like 1st
Corinthians, because it's just constantly rebuking all of your false doctrine.
First of all, you wouldn't have written one to your church because you're not a
real church. Second of all, if it was, it had been like 1st Corinthians, because
it's constantly rebuking your false doctrine, but I didn't say that out loud.
I wish I had. Verse 35, it says, if they will learn anything, let them ask their
husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. Super clear.
Women preachers are just not biblical. I don't care how much it feels good. I
don't care how much you want it. It's just not in the Bible, and we need to
worship God the way he wants to be worshiped. Not how you want to be
worshiped. Not how you think it should be done. How God thinks it should be done.
Verse 36, what? Came the Word of God out from you? Or came it unto you only? Look,
you're not special. We have the same book. There's not another church. Look, all King
James Bible believing churches, there's nothing special about them. We all have
the same book. We have the same knowledge. There's no private interpretation. Yet,
what does Gateway emphasize? The speaking in tongues and the word of prophecy. This
garbage words of prophecy. Where God just giving them divine revelation. Where they
just speaking to them about people. Oh, hey, Ben, God just told me you're
supposed to give me $500. I just felt it. It feels right. I mean, it's stupid. Look,
that makes no sense. And this own chapter clearly says, Look, the word of God didn't
come to you only. Wake up. All words of prophecy are false. All of them. As soon
as someone says God told me and they're not quoting the scripture, they're a
liar. They're lying to you. Yeah. Any billboard that says something and it
says God underneath and is not a verse from the Bible is a lie. God did not say
that. This is what God said. The word of God did not come to me privately. It
came to all of us publicly. It's the most successful book on the planet. It's
called the King James Bible. Okay. And look, we all have the same access to
God. There's no this private stuff. How can you make sense when Jesus rebukes
the devil and says man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord. How can you give private interpretations
of people then? If he gives one to me, that everybody needs to know it.
So if he's giving private words to the people in China right now, I need that
information because the Bible tells me I'm supposed to live by every word that
proceeds out of his mouth. You know how that's possible? Because I have every
word that proceed out of his mouth. The King James Bible. It's stupid nonsense.
And you know, it's always a fortune cookie. God told me that you're gonna
meet someone special and it's gonna be wonderful and good stuff's gonna happen.
I just wanted to tell you that
it's like what? And people believe this nonsense. They get up and they just say
God told me X, Y and Z. God told me that there was gonna be a woman president.
Oops, screw that one up.
I mean, Obama seems kind of like one, but he's not. It's just a fag. Okay,
look at verse 37. If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual,
let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the commandments of
the Lord. I don't care how you feel about yourself. If you don't acknowledge
this book, you're not a prophet. You're not of God. You're not special. I don't
care what you think about how qualified you are. What does this book say? What I
feel qualified, though, and everybody in the room feels like I'm qualified. But
we have to shut up our brains because if we look at the qualifications, you're
not
Adam Fanon.
You have to check the Bible. Bible says in verse 38 if any, but if any be if any
man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Let all things be done decently in order.
So notice I can't fix stupid. Neither can you. And when someone turns off their
brain and just wants to go and the la la land, what feels so good and it's so
much fun and I just I'm having
you know, I'll show you the Bible. But if you don't want to hear it after the
second ammunition reject, but we don't want to be that person. We don't want to
be the Christianity where we turn off our brains. We want to use it all. We
want to have the right desires. We want to have the right emotions, and we want
to use our brain. And the only thing that will protect you is all three. You
need all three working in coordination. A lot of churches turn up their brain
and they just trust the person standing up here
to be the brain for them. Don't do that. You'll be a Brienne. You know the Bible
yourself and you protect yourself and that'll keep the church healthy when
people do that.
Let me give you my last point for Gateway. And you say, Why would you
preach against another church, Pastor Shelley? Well, they have lots of false
doctrine, but this last one's the worst. They believe in lordship salvation, and
it is not questionable if they believe it.
But they're turning up their brain again. They're going on their feelings.
They're going on their emotions. People that reject the gospel. Why? Because of
the pride in their heart.
Because they're just filled with all this pride, and they go based on their
emotions rather than what the Bible says. Why just feel like it's not fair
that someone could just kill a bunch of people and believe in Jesus and go to
heaven? Why don't care what you feel like? Because that's what the gospel
teaches.
Why just I don't feel like it could be that easy. It is. Get over it. Yeah, it
doesn't. I don't care what you feel like. I don't care what your heart's
desire is. I only care what this book says. And you know what? My heart's
desire is towards truth. So then all I want to know is what this says. The
other people, they just want to discover their own heart because they're a fool.
But at the end of this stupid sermon, I listened to a gateway. I listened to
like 30 minutes of it wasn't. I'm never gonna get that back. Okay, but it's
all about how God told them that there was gonna be the coronavirus. It's
always interesting how they come out with these prophecies after it already
happens.
Guys, I have to tell you in 2018 God gave me this private word, and I didn't
want to share with anybody. But he told me in the next 15 months there's gonna
be a major catastrophe to our economy. And look, I mean, the coronavirus. I
must be a profit. You know, it's like anybody can see through that garbage.
Okay, such vague nonsense.
But at the end of this stupid sermon, they give you a chance to get saved. And
this is what they said. They I'm just gonna quote it. Okay, so all of it. He
said, We want to give you a chance for a salvation call. He says, Let's all
together pray this prayer and ask Jesus to come in and reside. Make his
lordship in our lives.
Lord Jesus, I invite you into my heart today. I surrender my life to you. I
give up control. I ask you to now come and occupy that void in my life. I
thank you, Jesus, that you stepped out of heaven and you stepped into this
earth to live a life that I couldn't live and to die a death for me. For my
sins. I give you control of my life today, and I thank you for it in your
name. I pray. Amen.
Anybody mentioned notice anything missing? Like, maybe the resurrection.
Maybe. How about this word? Believe.
They didn't say they believe anything. They just say, I give you control of my
life.
That sounds like demon possession again. What? Where is that in the gospel?
They didn't mention the resurrection. Yet they say text decision to this
number, and they'll still tell a bunch of people. Look at all the people were
getting saved. No one got saved if they prayed that prayer. No one. And there
was no versus given ever throughout the sermon was about, you know, this fake
coronavirus prophecy or whatever they had. It was garbage. It's nonsense. And
look, there's a lot of sincere people that go to that church. There's sincere
people to go to churches like that all over this country. You need to wake up
and realize you're sincerely wrong, and you're in a sincerely wrong church, and
you ought not care or have respect. The persons you got to realize they're
teaching a false gospel here. If you don't have the resurrection, you don't
have salvation. Number one. Number two. There is no giving control of anything.
Christ doesn't ask for control of anything to be saved. You put your faith
in him. You put your trust in him. And look, I'm not gonna tolerate false
gospels.
The Bible says, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law. So what does my mind want to do? It wants to
look at what the Bible says. And the Bible says, Hey, these people that think
that is based on giving control or Nazi. And when we go out soul winning and we
run into people at Gateway, they go to Gateway. Most of the time they're not
saved. You know what they'll say? I gave my life to Jesus. I gave him
control. I'm shocked, since that's what they're teaching.
There are people that are saved to go to that church, and you know what? They
need to get out of that church. They need to come out from among them and be
separate, say it's the Lord. They need to realize they're sincerely wrong. And
you know what? It's maybe not their fault. Is it the fault of the Samaritan
woman that she grew up in Samaria? The beginning of our sermon? No. But the
moment that she comes across truth, she needs to get right. She's gonna say,
Okay, I don't even know what I worship. I need to figure out what to worship.
Then I need to start exercising my brain. I need to follow this guy named
Jesus Christ. And those that go to churches like this, you know, they need
to wake up and say, Hey, I'm not gonna follow man.
Look, nowhere in the Bible does the word control even brought up in anything.
Where is it saying? Give him control of your life.
There's always free will. We're not slaves here.
Christianity is not slavery. Okay, Shackle me up. Take me to heaven.
No, I believe in Jesus. It's a gift.
Can you imagine? Hey, I have a free gift for you. You just have to give me
control of your entire life.
What?
What are you talking about? Sign here. This is all of your rights, privileges,
everything. Every decision you make. Sign over to me right now. Free gift.
It's like that's not a gift. You're asking people to enslave themselves to
you. That's that would be way worse than just a moderate workspace salvation.
Okay, as long as I'm trying and I'm kind of doing good, I'll make it in.
Right. Okay. No, this one. You just have to give complete control of your
life. Oh, like all of it. Yeah, all of it. I don't know about that one.
What are you gonna do? That's like Ray Comfort. You got a penny of sins.
What are you gonna do that? You know, when do you get it? What do you get
a bleep? What do you get a pity of sins? And they're like, I don't know.
I'm going to the beach to drink beer right now. You know, lay off me, buddy.
They're not interested.
Look, Christ wants us to worship in spirit and in truth.
Go to Proverbs 12. Last place of you turn. All right.
Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. You know, my heart goes out to people like, you know,
attendees of Gateway or churches like that because, you know, I think a lot of
people are sincere and they're working hard and they're, they're busy and
they're, they're giving of their money and of their time and of their energy.
And that's what frustrates me about false prophets. They take good people and
they ruin them. They destroyed them. That's why it's important to mark them
and avoid them to call them out and say, this guy's a wolf. This guy's a false
teacher. This guy is not teaching the right gospel. Get away from him.
Don't go to his church. Have nothing to do with him. He's destroying good people.
He's harming good people. They're like spiritual pedophiles.
Harming innocent little ewe lambs, little sheep, little babes in Christ,
and then taking the ones that could get saved and damning them and causing
them to be twofold more the child of hell. Well, I gave my life to Christ.
You didn't give him anything. Anything you offered was rejected.
You, you and your Cain offering can go kick rocks because he doesn't want
any of your fruit of the ground. He wants that sacrifice, that lamb offering.
Sickening. It's gross. Proverbs 12 verse 15, it says, the way of a fool is right
in his own eyes, but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.
Look, we've got to change our perspective and say, it's not what I think.
It's not what I feel. It's what this book says. And you know,
I hope that we all have the right heart and the right desires and the right
emotions. But you have to exercise the right mentality.
Any of the Bible teaches when you walk in the ways of the Lord, he'll give you the desires.
He'll give you the right emotions. But you have to exercise your brain. Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you for giving us the truth. Thank you for being such a reasonable
God and giving us a free gift, not enslaving us, but rather
calling us brethren, calling us fellow servants and fellow laborers.
I just thank you for the sacrifice that you've given us. I pray that we would never take it for granted.
And I pray that you would just help those that are delusional or that are being misled
or deceived, those that are truly sincere. Lord, I pray that you would allow us to
help them come to the knowledge of the truth or to help them serve
you and worship you in spirit and in truth and not to just live a life of vanity.
And in Jesus name we pray. Amen.