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this Pastor Jones and give him the spirit that he can preach a word and give us all ears to hear. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, amen. Well, we're in Ezekiel chapter 28. We're gonna come back to that, but if you would, make your way over to 2 Timothy chapter number three. 2 Timothy chapter number three. And I'll go ahead and give you the title of the sermon, which is what we're gonna be talking about this evening. And the title is The Cyst in Every Narcissist. The Cyst in Every Narcissist. Now a narcissist, that word specifically, obviously is not found in the Bible. That is a definition that psychologists, therapists have made up to basically describe somebody who has an excessive interest or admiration of their own selves. And so really, by that definition, you could almost say there's like a spectrum. You know, you could almost put Saul on there. I probably wouldn't just because Saul, when he was caught, red-handed, did say I have sinned, but then he just kept asking for forgiveness. He would just keep doing it. You know, that's, I would say Saul's somebody who had narcissistic tendencies by definition, but I wouldn't, you know, definitely say he's a psychopath or a reprobate or I wouldn't even call him a narcissist. Just, you know, had some spoiled rotten behaviors. And pride got to him. You know, pride gets to all of us. These people are on a whole nother level, okay? Now what does that mean when I say the cyst in every narcissist? Well, let's think about what a cyst is, like a cyst on your body. Yeah, I'll just read a definition for you. So an example of a cyst in the body is a membranous sac or cavity of abnormal character containing fluid. Okay, abnormal. Okay, these people that we are talking about tonight, narcissists, have abnormal characteristics and we'll expose some of them. You just read one in Ezekiel chapter 28. Another one, I like this one. A tough protective capsule enclosing the larva of a parasitic worm or the resting stage of an organism. Okay, now you think about that on a spiritual metaphorical level, okay? Every narcissist, when you start to dig into the root cause of them, and I'm gonna show you this from Ezekiel 28, is a cyst. But going back to spirits, if you were to break that cyst open on one of these people and it starts to ooze out, you better be ready for a serious fight because it's gonna get ugly. Now, we're gonna talk about things like are narcissists dangerous? Are they insecure? Are they born that way, made that way? I think you know the answer to that. I'll just go right off the bat and say that they are made that way. It is a choice due to usually something in their upbringing that causes them to go off on that route or on the other end of the spectrum, maybe just a clear rejection of God to where they've been given over to a reprobate mind and pick up these tendencies. Now, how do they manipulate, okay? How do they manipulate? I'm just gonna start right off with a couple of stories. Being a pastor, I'll just be honest with you, I've worked with a lot of people. Being in the military, working for the government, I have had the unfortunate privilege of being under some of their control, some of their leadership, and I have seen them operate in several churches. Now, how they operate, I got a couple of great stories for you this evening. Here's one example of one that we had been watching for a while. There was a time where someone gave myself and my family a gift card, okay? And this was a multi-person operation, okay? It wasn't just one person. Now, this person who I believe is a narcissist was not present while that was given to me, okay? And later on that night, my wife was sick, wasn't feeling good, so she was at home and she receives a text message. This text message basically was saying, hey, I sure hope your husband shared with you what was in that envelope and how much it was and things of that nature. I don't have the text in front of me, it's not important. The point is that text message. Now, why would you do something like that? Who in their right mind would give somebody or maybe even rally people up to give them a gift and then be like, hey, just so you know, I had a big part in that boy. I had a big part in that, okay? That is a problem, especially when this individual in the past has mentioned several times, I don't feel appreciated, I am the type of person that needs constant admiration. Now, we're here, our family's here in ministry to help, okay? Sometimes people need tough love. And when people have this characteristic trait where they constantly need attaboys. Now, if you're a teenager or a kid or maybe you're new to the faith, we can work with that. But if you're an adult and especially if you speak the lingo of a fundamentalist, you know, what I'm gonna do is I'm going to basically not give you that, okay? I will not play your game and for obvious reasons which we'll talk about later. There was another instance with this individual where my daughter, Kinley, was holding a child in her hands, you know, a big beefy kid. And there were at least three other women, my wife, Kylan, and someone else, okay, like right next to her. Now, this woman wanted someone to hold her child and guess who she picks out of the crowd? Well, she picks Kinley. The girl that's already holding someone, okay? The girl that's the skinniest. Just, you know, I'm not mocking, you know, take that the wrong way, I'm just saying, you know, she's, you know, tall and skinny, you know, she doesn't look like, you know, bodybuilder type, right? You know, she's already got this one beefy kid and this individual is like, here, take it. Hold my son. Does that make sense? Why not ask one of the other three that were just sitting there, they would have loved to do that. Why is that? I'll tell you why. Because that person likes to control and manipulate a narrative to build upon in order to manipulate. That is what these people do, okay? And those are two basic examples. I've got many more that I may or may not talk about. Now, when it comes to the workplace, I do have my special recipes. I'm not supposed to preach about them, but, you know, if it comes up tonight, I might give you some of my tricks and tips. Now, how do they apologize? That's an interesting one. How does a narcissist maybe apologize? Well, we had another situation with this individual where a person was being a distraction in the service and it was brought to my attention by a visitor and I didn't wanna make a big deal of it. It wasn't a big deal, you know? Kids are gonna be kids, okay? And so basically what happens is that, you know, we do this privately, hey, hey, just wanna let you know, you know, so-and-so's just kinda making a little noise. Just bring it to their attention and that set off a firestorm. That literally popped that parasitic cyst inside of this person and I'll never forget this. It was about a week later, you know? This person makes the little child apologize and this is what she did to me. And she looked at me, smiled, looked at the ground and looked back. I'm telling you right now, I have a lot of experience with these people. When someone smiles at you and they look at the ground and then they look back at you, you are their target and you look just, I didn't get that from the Bible. I got that from life experience and I'm telling you, that has never, ever failed me. Okay, and I knew from that moment on and I told people in my family, you need to be careful with everything that you say and do because they will use it against you and twist it to try to control and manipulate. That is what a narcissist does. If they cannot control you, if they cannot manipulate you, they will move on to somebody else whom they think that they can manipulate and control and they'll do that by bringing you down, okay? And the way they do this is sometimes, I mean, it's just so ridiculous. I mean, the lengths that some of these people will go to. It's absolutely absurd. But here's the thing, I would recommend, and you'll see this later on, that you just never argue with a person like this, okay? I'm gonna say this a few times tonight. You and I are not going to change these people. It is not going to happen. As I was studying for the sermon, I don't like Dr. Phil, but I clicked on a quick video just to see what he said. Because there are several people out there that claim to have healed these narcissists and, you know, whatever. People misdiagnose all the time. People can just make up definitions and say, oh, I think this person's a narcissist when really they're just spoiled and they just need a little help. You help them out and then there you go and then they claim, oh, I healed a narcissist. But he said, he was given some of these definitions and he said, you know, I can't even help these people. And I agree because that's what you're gonna see tonight in the Bible. That's what you're gonna see in Ezekiel chapter 28, okay? We cannot help them. There is someone who can and the problem with that is you may not like the way that he does it. So, 2 Timothy chapter number three. I wanna start off by basically showing you what the Bible would say about a narcissist and why we need to be very aware of this behavior, okay? Now, if somebody comes to you and says, hey, where do you think that we're at prophetically? Like, where do we fall on the prophetic calendar? What you could do is say, you are here. You know, like those maps you see when you go into a big warehouse or a building and you're looking for a certain office and you go to the map and it says, you are here. Well, guess what? You are right here. 2 Timothy chapter number three. If you would look down at verse number one. So Paul tells Timothy this, 2 Timothy 3.1, this know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. Now, we've gone over what this word means. It means dangerous, okay, treacherous. Dangerous times will come. Now, why is that? Well, keep reading. Here's the very first thing that is mentioned after that phrase, perilous times will come. Look at verse number two. For men shall be lovers of their own selves. You see, we don't need to be making up terms. What we need, we need to understand the terms that our world uses, I understand that, okay? But what we need is we need to go to the word of God to understand why these things are so and how to protect ourselves from these issues. So Paul says for men shall be lovers of their own selves. Well, there you have it. There's your narcissist right there in the Bible. Now, the problem with this, and I already told you I was gonna ask this question, are narcissists dangerous? And the answer is absolutely. The answer is yes. Why? Well, because in the end times, perilous times shall come. They are here, you are here right now. For men shall be lovers of their own selves. Because selfishness will increase and abound, the result of that is that the love of many shall wax cold, murders will increase, thefts will increase, all the stuff that we're about to read is going to increase. And it is so important that you and I understand how severe this is again so that we can protect ourselves, again so that we can counsel people, again so that we can continue our mission as the local New Testament church. So he says for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Now obviously, I think we all know people that probably fit all of these things and some people that just are some of these things. I would submit that most people that we're gonna call a narcissist have a lot of these traits in common. Look at verse number three. Without natural affection, truce breakers. Okay, so you're gonna see this a lot. This attitude will come into the church where people will say, hey, I promise I'm gonna do this. I'm here for life, I'm this and that. And the next thing you know, they have turned their back on you or they've made up stories about you, so on and so forth. False accusers, that's gonna come up again here in a little while. False accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. Again, why are these freaks out here right now riding all over the sidewalk that I'm the Nazi of Boise, the butcher of Boise, whatever it is, and that you all are bigots and that you all are killing people because you came to church tonight? Well, because they are despisers of those that are good. We preach the word of God, we don't back down, and that really upsets them, that's all it takes. It doesn't take much. All you have to do is preach the word of God. Let's see here. Verse four, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Verse five, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away. Okay, why does it say that? Because you and I, and you're gonna see this in Ezekiel 28, cannot help these people. So if you know somebody like this, let's just say it's your work. You know, I get you can't get away from them sometimes, but you need to keep them at arm's length. And by that, I mean don't tell them anything private, just stick to work subjects only. Small talk, do not let your guard down around these people because they will use it against you. And I'm also gonna tell you this right now. You need to go above and beyond if you have a boss that is a narcissist. You not only need to go with him one mile, but you need to go with him too. So if he says, I want you to have all this stuff, and you know he's doing that to cause you to fail, you need to do the best that you can to do all that stuff and then do a bunch of extra stuff. You know, one time I had this situation where I was working for a guy who was definitely a psychopath narcissist. And he would set up tasks deliberately to make us fail, to make us all look bad, to elevate himself. And it had worked for him so many times. And I'll just say right off the bat, if it wasn't for God, I never would have gotten through it. That is just a fact of life, okay? But this idea entered into my mind one time to basically, you know, do everything this guy's saying, meet the requirements, but also exceed them. And what I did, as one time one of his bosses had come around and was just checking on workers like sometimes they do, say hey, you know, someday I'd like to just pick your brain. You know, I really wanna please our boss, I want our crew to really be able to surprise him. You know, and really be able to do a good job for him. And he's like, you know, that's a great idea. You know, I'll sit down with you guys and meet with you. You know, and then of course, because the way the chain of command works in the military or in the government, my narcissist boss would come to me and, oh, what's going on? You know, you wanna see the boss? I was like, yeah, give him a call, he'll tell you what it's all about. And I explained it real quick and he fell for it. Oh, okay, just trying to, you know, the boss just told him, hey, these guys just wanna interview me, basically. Something like that. So we get in there and then that's where we laid everything out, like, here's what we're doing, here's what he wants us to do, what do you suggest that we do to be successful? And he's like, what in the world is all of this? None of this is right, none of this is possible, and that, my friend, is how I was able to defeat in that situation. So hopefully that kinda helps and makes sense. Go back to Ezekiel chapter number 28. Ezekiel chapter number 28. And also say this, narcissists, and this is true, you'll see this, one of the reasons why they'll take advantage of people, why they'll target you, is because they think that they're smarter than you. And you're gonna see that in this passage. They think that they're smarter than you. And they think that you deserve, because they are smarter than you, to be preyed upon. I would say Jesus definitely dealt with these people. I would say that the Herod's definitely in that psychopath, narcissist realm. For sure, why do you think Jesus called him a fox? Foxes are what? What are they known for? Being trickster type animals. And that's what these people do. They get into social settings and they start to trick people that they are not the narcissist. That you are the problem. You are always at fault. You are always to blame. And they will constantly elevate themselves in your mind. And if you fall for it, it can hurt you. And these people are very good at what they do. And they're gonna get all of us to a certain degree at some point. And so again, this is just meant to be hopefully an aid to help us in the future. So we're in the book of Ezekiel. We read chapter number 28. So real quick rundown of Ezekiel. Obviously he was a prophet to the captives. So basically you could think of Ezekiel like as Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah was to the Jews, Ezekiel was to the captives. That's a good way to look at that. A good way to think about that. Now we're gonna start reading in chapter number 28. And we're gonna be reading about a king. It doesn't give us his name. Just says he's the king of Tyrus, the king of Tyre, a nation that is now accelerating in the world because Judea has been taken captive. They are no longer the powerhouse in the world. The Babylonian empire is preoccupied with them. And so because of that issue going on, the king of Tyre thinks, well, now's my chance to elevate. Now's my chance to make my mark in this world. So let's study this guy here. And as we study him, this passage is gonna take a little bit of a twist and it's gonna expose to us what that cyst and the narcissist really is. Look at verse number one. The Bible says this, the word of the Lord came again unto me saying. Verse two, son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up. Okay, and this is where it starts. Now every single person in here has sometimes will and in the future, your heart will get lifted up. You'll do something, you know, we battle with pride. But I submit to you that this guy is on a whole nother level. So what is the prophet saying here? Remember, this is from God. This is a prophecy given to Ezekiel and it is meant for this king. Says, thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up and thou has said, I am a God, capital G. You see that? I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas, yet thou art a man and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God. So this here is, I mean, it's not, I'm not saying that this guy necessarily, maybe he did go around saying, I'm Jehovah God. Okay, you know, you must worship me. It may not have been that simple. But if you really think about the last part of this verse, okay, God is saying to this king, yet thou art, so he's, you are a man and not God. Now look at this last phrase here, this last part of the sentence, though thou set thine heart as the heart of a God. So this individual in his heart believes this. He is so consumed and drunk on pride that he literally thinks that he is God. Now I got another kind of funny story. One day I was riding an elevator in this building that had a lot of engineers. You know, God bless engineers. I understand God give wisdom. But these guys were talking some trash. And I was friends with another person in this elevator that worked in this building and they kept whispering. And I thought I heard these guys just talking about like how their DNA was superior to people that just aren't in that building, people that actually work on the ships and things like that. And I was like, that cannot be what I'm hearing. Later on, I see this individual and I'm like, hey, what were those people talking about in the elevator? And this person was like, they were actually just basically mocking you and the other guys that you were with. You know, saying you're nothing but a knuckle tracker and that their DNA is better than yours. And I was just like, I can't believe I'm hearing this. Riding in an elevator with a group of people that literally think that they're gods. And of course, that was in my carnal days and I'm not gonna tell you the rest of the story. But I did get some retribution, just so you know. Well, let's see here. Okay, verse number three, verse number three. So it says this guy, he sits in the midst of the seas. You know, he's got everything put together in his mind. You know, I'm just fortunate. You know, I'm probably in the midst of these seas because I'm such a great person. Now look what God says to him in verse three. Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel. There is no secret that they can hide from thee. Now, if we really study this out, what kind of wisdom do you think that this individual has? What's that wisdom that James talked about, right? That wisdom that's from below? Not that wisdom which is from above, which Daniel had, which is obviously gonna be more than him. So God here is just taking a shot at him, trying to put him down to size. So think about this though. He has this attitude that no one can be better than me. And again, they think that everyone else around them is dumb or stupid and therefore they deserve to be preyed upon. They deserve to be taken advantage of. Look at verse four. With thy wisdom and with thine understanding, thou has gotten thee riches. Notice how God puts this, thy wisdom, okay? Not wisdom that God gave him, but with his own understanding, what he's learned and what he's developed in his own life. Verse four, with thy wisdom and with thine understanding, thou has gotten thee riches and has gotten gold and silver into thy treasures. Okay, so he's like, look at what I've amassed here. Look at what I've compounded. All this wealth, all these riches. Boy, I'm somebody special. Verse number five. By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches. So what I see there, okay, this guy, I mean, if anybody wants to diagnose a narcissist, it's definitely gonna be this guy. You know, I mean, think about a guy like this in today's day and age. You probably maybe think of Kim Jong-Bong or whatever the name is, the guy, the North Korean guy. You know, people who have escaped from North Korea say that their family, they believe their gods and their art, you know? And how does a person get like that? Well, obviously, a guy like Kim would get that way by rejecting God and being given over to a reprobate mind. But what you see here is that as their success continues, they get worse. As they're able to prey on more people, they get worse because it gives them that forward momentum that they so crave and love and are looking for. Verse six. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God. Now remember, what have we been talking about? Can you cure one of these people? Can you cure a narcissist? No, you can't. Look at what God says here, verse seven. Behold, therefore, so again, because he has set himself up as God in his own heart, behold, therefore, I will bring strangers upon thee. So who do we see in the Bible dealing and straightening out narcissist? It's God. Okay, God is going to deal with this individual and he's gonna wind up going to hell. Verse seven, behold, therefore, I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. You know, and the person who probably does this is Nebuchadnezzar in the Babylonian Empire. Once they get done taking away Judah captive, they go on and proceed to try and conquer the rest of the known world at that time. And guess what happened to Nebuchadnezzar? He got puffed up with pride. Now, how did God humble Nebuchadnezzar? Gave him the heart of a beast for a season, didn't he? So again, you know, the prophets during that time, they knew, they were like, well, he's gonna do what he does. We're trusting in God. That's the attitude that we have to have around these people. You have to trust in God. Don't get mad at God because you're in this situation. God can use these people that are gonna be in our lives from time to time to strengthen and teach you discernment. Okay, so be thankful for that and just be ready to understand that God has your back and he will take care of you and he will guide you through this problem that you're facing. So he says, I will bring strangers upon the terrible of the nations in verse seven. And they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom and they shall defile thy brightness. Verse eight, they shall bring me down to the pit. Yeah, well, what's that? You know, some people, well, that's just the grave. Well, yeah, that's the grave, but this guy doesn't believe in God. He thinks he is God. And so what is the Lord telling him? The Lord's saying, hey, prepare for hell because that's where you're gonna go. They shall bring me down to the pit and now shall die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. And I'm sure that is the last thing that he wanted to hear. Look at verse number nine. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? And that's a great question, you know? So God wants the king of Tyre to understand, you know, when these people come at you, you know, I'd like to see you say that you're God in that situation. How is that gonna work out for you? Not too well. Look at what he says next. But thou shall be a man and no God in the hand of him that slayeth thee. And this is a great reminder for us dealing with these people. Though they're puffed up, though they're lifted up with pride and have all these games and they've got you all wrapped up in their little world, it don't matter. God will deal with them. You're a child of God. You're born again. You have the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. He will take care of his children. Keep that in your memory. Verse 10. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers, for I have spoken it, sayeth the Lord. So there you have it, okay? A great example of a narcissist in the Bible. There are others that we could look at. We don't have time. What I wanna do now is continue reading here because what we read next is gonna actually expose the cyst and the narcissist. Look at verse number 11. So that's the vision that Ezekiel got about the king of Tyre. Now look at this here. This is an addition to that. Verse 11, he says, moreover, okay? So in addition, so moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus. So you think, okay, this is an addition too, okay. Sounds good. And say unto him, thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Verse 13, thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Now wait a second. There's no way that the king of Tyrus who was alive during the days of Ezekiel, there's no way that that physical king, that man that we just read about was in the garden of Eden. What's going on here? Look at verse 13. Again, thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering. The Sardis, Topaz, and the diamond, the burial, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle in gold. The workmanship of thy tabards and of thy pipes was prepared in the day that thou was created. Starting to sound a lot like the devil, wasn't it? Starting to sound a lot like Satan. Verse 14, thou art the anointed cherub that covered, wait a second. I thought we were talking about the king of Tyre here. What in the world's going on? Is he the devil? Just a second. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so. Thou was upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Verse 15, thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee. The cyst in the narcissist is Satan. Now I'm not saying that the king of Tyre was possessed, but he is definitely influenced. And behind every single narcissist, whether you think they're saved or not, that's not what this sermon's about. The point is, they are under demonic, satanic influence. That is the cyst in those people. That is why when you study these types of people out in the Bible, or you hear of real world examples of these types of people, it is only God that can deal with them, okay? Now yes, we have to quote, unquote, deal with them. We have to protect ourselves. We have to act a certain way. We have to navigate that, okay? But let go of thinking that you're gonna somehow, you know, be captain save a narcissist, because it's just not going to happen. God has to do that. And by the way, what does this mean? This means the first narcissist is Satan himself. The very first narcissist to ever exist was the devil and is the devil. And you know what? No one's done quite as good of a job as he has. Now, if you would keep your place here, cause we're gonna read a few more verses, but go to Revelation chapter number 12. Revelation chapter number 12. So when we started the sermon off, I read for you 2 Timothy chapter three, verse three, which says that these people in the last days, not only would they be lovers of their own selves, but they would be without natural affection, truce-bakers, and I said, false accusers. And I said, I'd come back to that because I think that's very important. That is a hallmark trait of a narcissist and what they do. Okay, and now that you know that these people have a disgusting cyst inside of them and what that cyst is encapsulating, you can better understand what you're dealing with here. So Revelation chapter number 12, look at verse number 10. It says this, and I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for, don't miss this, the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. When you get in a situation where someone has got you, they got you thinking that they're this great Christian person, that they're all this and two buckets of chicken, but they wind up accusing and accusing and accusing and accusing, they have a cyst and it's rooted in Satanism, okay? That is what this is teaching us here. Now, go back, if you would, to Ezekiel chapter number 28. Just think about it. A person who loves a brethren, yeah, everybody has fights. People don't get along, people make mistakes, whatever. But a person that wants to constantly go and spread lies and rumors about you and things that you've done, you just have to knuckle down and understand the severity in which you are dealing with. These people have a cyst and it's rooted in Satanism. Look at verse number 16. By the multitude of thy merchandise, they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned, therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God. And I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Now again, I'm not saying that the king of Tyre was possessed by the devil, but definitely influenced by him to say the least, okay? That is very, very obvious. Verse 17, thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee. And we've talked about that in other sermons and we've gone to Isaiah 14 to cover that. Look at verse 18. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic. Therefore, I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee. It shall devour thee and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all men that behold thee. Verse 19, all they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee. Thou shalt be a terror and never shalt thou be any more. And that's written obviously for our admonition. And so that we can understand that justice will prevail. God always comes out on top. You can take that to the bank, but here's the thing. If you don't know this, if you're not thinking about this, when you're caught under the thumbprint of one of these people, it can be hell if you don't know what you're doing. It can be absolutely just, I mean, anxiety-ridden, just problem after problem. It can literally make you think that something is wrong with you. Go to Ezekiel chapter 21. So go back in your Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 21. We're gonna kind of wind this down. We're getting close to being done. There's a lot to be said about this subject and about these types of people. My point tonight is obviously just to expose the cyst in these types of people. Someone asked me if I think that Donald Trump's a narcissist. I don't know. I think he's just a guy full of pride and just likes money, you know? But definitely I would take a look at Kim Jong, maybe the leader in China. I'm sure there's others I'm not thinking about right now, but you could take a look at a lot of these political, I mean, the Antichrist will definitely be one, you know? I mean, and that makes sense. What's his cyst? Well, he does get possessed by the devil at some point. So hopefully you're starting to make that connection there and understand. Ezekiel chapter 21, we're gonna look at one verse here, okay? I don't have time to really get into this whole chapter. I just wanna show you something here. We're gonna connect this with something in 1 Samuel 15. But look at this verse here. Ezekiel 21, 21 says this. For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of two ways to use divination. And then it's gonna list three things in which he uses divination. He made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver. Okay, now this is kind of a weird Bible verse to just kind of throw at you, you know? But again, what you're seeing here are three methods of Babylonian divination, okay? We all know who's behind that. We all understand that's demonic, that that is satanic. What's this deal with making his arrows bright? Well, it's this practice that the Babylonians did, I'm sure people still do it today, in various forms called bellomancy. So basically they would take a quiver full of arrows, shake it up, throw them on the ground in whatever pattern it was. It was supposed to be like casting lots or something like that. You know, playing pickup sticks or something like that. Complete nonsense. It's no different than you going down to the local Walmart and picking up that stupid eight ball and being like, are my parents taking me to McDonald's tonight? You know, are they taking me to Ruth Chris and shaking it and getting your answer that way? That's basically what they're doing. Then he says, consulted with images, same thing. Okay, you know, people who pick up that eight ball, knowingly or unknowingly, you're consulting with an image. That's what that is, okay? And the Bible's definitely, clearly against all of that stuff. Then it makes this weird phrase here. He looked in the liver, okay? He looked in the liver. I guess that's called hepatoscopy or something of that. Hopefully I said that right. But basically during these times, what would happen is one of the pagan priests would do a sacrifice and then they would open the sacrifice up and take a look at the liver and basically inspect it and come up with a prophecy. You know, kind of like one of King Ahab's prophecies, you know, where he'd had all his guys come to him and basically tell him what he wanted to hear. It's the same thing. That's what Nebuchadnezzar would do. He would use a combination of these three things. That's what the Babylonians by and large did. Why? Because they want to read into things to suit their desirable outcome. That is why they are doing this, okay? No one goes to witchcraft to get fundamental truth. They go because I think instinctively something tells them you're gonna get to hear what you wanna hear. Why do you think people flock to these mega churches so frequently? Because something inside of them tells them you're gonna get to hear something that you want to hear. You got that little itch? Don't worry. They'll scratch it for you. They will take care of you. But let me show you how dangerous this is and what this is like. Go to 1 Samuel, chapter number 15. 1 Samuel, chapter number 15. 1 Samuel, chapter number 15. We're getting close to being done, but I wanna take a look at something here. So this is during the days of King Saul as he is progressively getting worse and worse and worse, lifted up with pride. He's the first king of the nation of Israel, given a mission by God to utterly destroy the Amalekites. Now let's see how that went. Look at verse number 18. The Bible says, and the Lord sent thee on a journey and said, so this is Samuel speaking to Saul here, basically giving him an after action review of what he just did. He's trying to find out, Saul, do you see that you did not do what God said? Look at verse 18. And the Lord sent thee on a journey and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. So what that means is God said, King Saul, you're gonna go to the Amalekites, destroy everything and everyone, 100%, okay? Verse 19. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? Verse 20. And Saul said unto Samuel, yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me and have brought Agag the king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. Okay? Now, I'm not saying that Saul is a narcissist. I definitely think that, you know, some psychologists definitely peg him as one. I just think he's kind of in a position like Trump. I believe Saul is saved. I believe he just, the power just got to him. We were not created for this kind of power and it takes a special person to be able to manage it. It takes somebody like David, okay? It takes somebody like, you know, some of these other kings that we've read about on Sunday nights. But nonetheless, this here would kind of be a characteristic of what a narcissist would do, okay? I'm bringing this up because not everybody that does stuff like this is a narcissist. I don't want us to go around and just diagnosing every single person, okay? Keep the story about the king of Tyre. Understand who the accuser of the brethren is and you'll be just fine. You'll be able to peg them. You'll be able to sniff them out, okay? Because you know what? When you get into the unsaved world, they're unsaved. They're just as bad, you know? Just because somebody's unsaved and they're doing bad things who doesn't necessarily mean that they're a narcissist, you know, maybe you just don't get along, whatever the case is, okay? So don't read too much in to that aspect of it. I'm not saying that your uncle or your aunt or whatever is a narcissist. I'm just saying that this extreme example, like this king of Tyre, okay, when they have these attributes of Satan or you got somebody like 2 Timothy 3, we're told that men will be lovers of their own selves and that these people will have a religiosity about them and that they would come into churches and befriend us and become traitors, high-minded, all of these things and it's gonna mess with you. So just keep your thinking straight. Look at verse 21. It says, but the people took of the spoil sheep and Oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice unto the Lord that God in Gilgal. So God said, hey, Samuel, go tell him, this is what you're supposed to do and see what he says. What does Samuel do or Saul do? He's like, well, I did what God said and then Samuel's like, no, you didn't. Verse 22, and Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord, behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. And here it is, verse 23, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as the iniquity and idolatry because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. Okay, now this pertains to Saul. Okay, obviously at the end of Saul's life, the, you know, God allowed the prophet Samuel to give him a prophecy and Samuel said, today, thou and thy sons will be with me. Okay, well, we know that Samuel didn't die and go to hell. He was clearly saved, clearly born again. So God basically just told Saul, you're not playing nice. It's time to come home. It's time to be done where you're at. But this verse here, verse number 23, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. I just want that phrase in your mind. I want you to understand that when people befriend you, whether it be in the workforce and especially in a church setting, in a Christian setting, okay, and they start doing things that you read about in 2 Timothy chapter number three, okay, guess what? It is over. They have that cyst, okay? They might be a narcissist, especially, I mean, if they're starting to line up with a lot of these different things and let go of the fact that you think you can heal that person, that you're gonna somehow save them. You're not. It's not gonna happen. God has to be the one to give them that heart of a beast. God has to be the one to deal with it. You will not. Yes, you can pray. Yes, you can move forward. I understand that. The point is you need to rely on God. We need to trust in God. He will take care of it. We don't have to worry about it. Because what happens is that when people don't understand this, they get so mentally exhausted and just bogged down by these people that they don't know what to do. And when you can just let go and let God, as so many people have said, you know what? It really is a game changer. I'm sure people were super upset during Nebuchadnezzar's days, you know, even his own people probably frustrated him. I'm sure if you've ever worked for someone like the king of Tyre, you've been seriously upset. I'm sure if you've ever had to go to church with somebody like that, you've been pretty upset and just kind of distraught. But you know what? God is the one to deal with those people because that cyst is too great for you and I to handle by ourselves. That's why I'm telling you that these psychologists, these psychiatrists aren't gonna help these people. Okay, there's only one that can help and that is the Lord God. So let's stop right there and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for your word. I just pray that you would bless us as we go throughout the week. And again, we wanna pray for those folks that are traveling to our church. And I just wanna pray that you bless the fellowship and get us all home safely and the soul winning this week. Thank you for all that you do for us in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.