truth. I think it's important that we understand. I yeah and I you know I think you're an extremely clear thinker dealing with very difficult topics which means you're uniquely gifted I think to to help us unravel the challenges of our time and I and I'll say again if you know for folks joining us late in the show on a scale of one to ten I give this book a three thousand six hundred and twenty three so it's I really think every Catholic should read it but why don't we jump into questions about the book and I want to begin with you use you use the term modernism and but you're not I don't read you or hear you as a what a mad trad you know I like Scott Hans you know he says there's mad trads and rad trads and glad trads or something like that and he said he's a glad trad you know I don't read you as a mad trad so but you do use the term modernism which is thrown around quite a bit what does that mean yeah so classically modernism is a early 20th century late 19th century Catholic error and pious the 10th famously condemned it in Pashendi and he what he did was he described a portrait of I would say like an almost like a platonic ideal the essence of modernism and then people react nowadays and they say oh that never existed he didn't pretend that he was describing one particular person or a thing to which everyone wholeheartedly a subscribed rather he was he was portraying the essence of the movement if you will or the you know the idea and different people approach it in different ways that we have now a new modernism is what I'm claiming there are some affinities the old modernism was all about experience and also it was non-cognitive experience so it'd be you know the mind isn't the first thing in a relationship the heart without the mind that's crucial because I know everyone loves the heart and especially with divine intimacy and that's very important but we're talking about the heart without the mind is the beginning of everything what does that mean that means it's all about me mm-hmm me me because through my mind I get in touch with you and with someone else that doesn't mean it needs to be like a calculus book like abstract and all that no it's just through through seeing your gestures through interacting with you this involves sensation and the mind so modernism says no no no it begins with the emotions it's all about me and so then dogma is like oh eventually I get my mind involved and I you know get the dog was going but they don't really mean much and they all need to be oriented simply to that starting point which is me yeah so then you have to keep adapting them as times change that old formula doesn't work so the new modernism is similar in a couple of respects so not in the technical sense but in the couple of respects for instance dogmatic evolutionism if I need to change it I change it there was a cardinal who just said you know sodomy is you know the church was wrong about sodomy so now we need to update that's example of evolutionism also I do think the me c'est moi it's all about me how so the number of themes in the book basically all gravitate around a denial that our life now is a pilgrimage of preparation now to heaven or hell now I'll grant that sometimes that gets me tired and and maybe a little bit scared too and can seem like a drag like life can seem like a drag and but we know we're not thinking rightly when we do that it's a temptation but better is thinking of you know wedding day preparation or you know the the weeks building up to the wedding day that's what's going on are we ready to receive um the god as our loving father as intimate spouse yeah that's what we're getting ready for so that's why these stakes are so high I just thought today a little bit of cold shower and I'm thinking oh man this is such a pain in the neck uh it wasn't that long honestly but and then I thought well god I guess you're not cheap you know why do you why is life so hard you're not cheap we have to climb a mountain if I have to climb a 14k or and that's awesome god's more awesome anyway I'm sorry I'm going on and on but so the new modernism it kind of makes everything cozy and cushy and there's no hell um but there is a heaven uh it's not a rigorous heaven it's not it's not exalted everybody gets there of course yeah and we can enjoy life really a lot and you know have your cake now and then eat it then and I know that we we sometimes we're too grumpy and we're too sour and you know this life is supposed to be an awakening of beauty for us but it is also a pilgrimage so that's what the new modernism says nope you're going to heaven period or um and so you don't need to become like you don't need to convert you don't need to follow christ you don't and and what if what if what if you're trying to follow christ but you seem to not be able to do his commandment ah justifications by faith alone easy way out and I know there's more to say on that how about um you know there's all the new sins contraception fornication masturbation sodomy so those either a lot of uh prelates are saying ah it's not a sin anymore so we're going to heaven it's easy so so this gets us to the title of the book because I think it's important to understand what false mercy is versus true mercy because a lot of people and I mean we talk to a lot of people you know um I care for a lot of hearts that are breaking because of the condition of their children um and you know the spiritual condition of their children um temporal condition you know the choice is made and so a lot of people look and say well what do I do you know I I love this child who's chosen this path right I and and we didn't raise him or her this way but that's where they are how do we keep the bridge open how do we you know how do we understand what god teaches in his church and follow his path and still help our kids right so what is false mercy and what is true mercy and we have to understand the difference we have about two minutes we can catch more after the break before we keep going false mercy and true mercy true mercy is based on true love where I will I want to be with you and I want your good it's a kind of a combination I want to be with you and I want you to be well and that means you need to relate to others well and obviously the chief other who is almighty god so that's what we're hoping for not for you to be sitting on the couch and I I'm affectionate towards you but you're just you know playing video games on the couch not relating not entering relationship so true mercy is based on true love which wills the good of the other and the other to be in relationship false mercy says it doesn't false mercy starts with that affection I want to be with you and I want you to have it well but I don't want your conversion or I'm not going to press I know that there's a lot of different ways we could put it but I'm not going to get into the fact that you need conversion right and it's because I don't want to judge you all right so but that doesn't do any good for the meth addict for someone who can't relate who's just playing video games or addicted to porn yeah it and really it I would say it's not a true love you that's right I to me most expression of false mercy comes out of the of desire to avoid conflict that necessarily comes when we have to face truths that we don't like and so we we that we value the we value excessively the relational aspect of how two humans interact but we are not and we want to preserve that at all costs and we don't want the pain and we don't want to alienate the other person but what we don't understand is that if the other person doesn't know the one of you know in whom all things were created and hold together that they're going to end up in hell for eternity and I think fundamentally if you don't believe in a real substantive and present way in the eternal destiny of the soul and the consequences of sin then you know what's going to trump all your conversations is how you feel about one another rather than what's true so after the break we're going to talk a little more about this because I think it's really important we're here with Dr. Christopher Malloy false mercy recent heresies discerning the catholic church we'll be right back so we went to 13 so we need to do 12 and a half on the next segment on you on your markets that go this is danna sephany Burke welcome back to divine intimacy radio today we are talking to the author Christopher Malloy of a an extraordinary book did I say extraordinary you did I think it was fantastic you've been kind of gushing I've been I just love this book started gushing before we got into the studio I know I was telling Stephanie gosh everybody's got to read this false mercy recent heresies discerning the catholic church so before the break Christopher we were just talking about this I think it's I think the fundamental reason we allow ourselves to get away with defaulting only to the relationals I just don't think we really believe that people go to hell or why they go to hell yeah and I would say also everyone loves hugs I love it I love you know relatives where we can hug and just chat about you know we don't have to be on you know eggshells about say political differences how you're coming down on you know vaccines those are important issues but we all know we just kind of want to just be with each other but with regard to God just being with each other well meanwhile God is like the sun that's ignored and we're just in our little home chatting with each other I'm sorry but my hug won't save you and won't answer the depths of your needs unless it is a hug coming from a relationship with God it's almost like we set our sights too low and we we only have that kind of low level I want to say you know animal type affection with a little bit of rationality but we don't have the have you wondered about where we're going and I can't be your friend I can't be a real honest good friend willing you the good unless I love God if I don't let's just say you're you're struggling between some moral issue and feeling good about yourself I'm going to say feel good about yourself so I'm going to send you off the cliff to hell that great is you know so my affection for you is ruining you that's love that's not real love that's right and Stephanie you started out with a great question so many parents are in that and God willing I won't have to deal with that but you know we all have our crosses I have a friend who left one of these cities on the west coast that's you know going the crazy lifestyle and he literally left because one of his children went that lifestyle and they stood firm they said you will not bring your same-sex friend home she will not come here but we love you you are welcome anytime in our home she is not welcome because of the way you relate and but you have to be modest etc etc they stood firm I don't know how many years that that girl is now taking care of a relative and she's on the mend now I'm not saying and maybe it happens as as nicely as that like before they're 30 or so but it's fidelity and affection the combination we need both and that that's a burden yeah I think the love Dan likes to say love builds a bridge over which truth can pass I love that and so we hold firm to the truth we live the truth we don't compromise the truth but we love sacrificially you know we're always keeping that door open so that because we know our prayers are efficacious we know God is listening to us and and so we know that eventually the hounds of heaven are going to chase down that loved one especially if they've been baptized confirmed they have the sacrament so that that's germinating within them right the Lord's constantly calling them back so we may not see it in this lifetime but we keep praying that that conversion comes because the Lord is faithful and he's going to track down his loved ones we just hope it happens you know before they leave earth right so that's that's difficult part but I know there are many that languish in that and I can I just want to say with without any ambiguity if if you love someone who's who's in habitual sin and you and you and your goal is to make them comfortable you will help them to hell and you're going to be accountable for that and I would also say you don't really love them and I just want to say it again you don't love them you don't love them with the love of God because the love of God says I love you I want you in my life and I even love you as you are but I want to help you to be free but I won't leave you where you are I won't leave you where you are I want to help you to be free and so authentic mercy I think is that a good description uh absolutely of authentic mercy yeah and so and it's also not lame because you're praying for and when it's appropriate sometimes some people are in a situation where you can't all you can do is live the faith yourself and you can't speak to them right that might be for decades but right but they will know I mean I have relatives who say you know what I'm aware and and like I'll I'll say something about you know we've got seven kids they're like yeah yeah yeah and I love it and you are so obviously an inspiration for me but just please don't talk about it I had one that told me that so um fine I want you know so but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna help you deflect as it were the call of God to to waking up you know so I want to shift to something that may be a little unusual for our show in our audience but I think it's important in this book you speak about the hermeneutic of continuity which I think is it sounds super technical and obscure but it has profound implications and a lot of our traditionalist friends after we talked before the show are are you know deriding this concept but I think it's part of the DNA of the church and it has always been what is the hermeneutic of continuity and why does it matter with respect to false mercy yeah so the hermeneutic of continuity means that when the church teaches she's always building on previous foundations she's not radically changing uh what she believes and there are there are infallible teachings and there are non infallible teachings infallible teachings are always true never gonna change non infallible teachings we expect them that they're actually really true um it's not impossible that some of them could be phrased awkwardly or even be an error okay but we don't expect them to be like that that would be very rare and so we always had this mindset of continuity now that means for instance when you're looking at the second Vatican council that you don't look at it as though yeah you know the rebels um the rebels were able to change those backward medieval ways of the the older Catholics I don't believe in the old church I believe in the new church there's a lot of people that say that and even I'm not saying that they're trying to operate out of malice that's just that's their mentality grad school a lot of my professors said pious the 12 said x we believe why rupture so I remember starting to scratch my head after a while and saying well let me read what pious the 12 said oh that looks pretty authoritative then I look at that what Vatican 2 said I say now I don't see a rupture here uh and and you guys are interpreting it as a rupture so once they say that it's like a rubber band once they say rupture these are the rebels I'm talking I'm calling them rebels they just slingshot into weirdness and so that's what's going on now sodomy's okay catholic church is just a privileged way um you know there's just many ways to to heaven this is sorry this is not our faith uh so you got those kind of rebels but then you have almost an opposite reaction on the other side well if that's what Vatican 2 means I reject it so there's a lot of and I know that's a little bit simplistic I guarantee the book is not simplistic but um but that is a little bit of the ingredient what's going on as opposed to saying wait a minute no there's there's like a new way of expressing things here in the council there's a lot of riches in the faith that are explored in a beautiful way it and it's not as clear cut as say a Baltimore catechism or something like that so if you're looking for a nothing nuts and bolts you know maybe pouring over those documents isn't as helpful for you maybe just you know a john harden catechism Baltimore catechism I love those things absolutely love them because boom boom boom just right to the heart but if you're looking for like say touring the beauty what is the catholic church well it's quite mysterious deep and thick and and so there's a lot of beauty there to explore it's not simple um so Vatican 2 has a lot going on about it there are some ambiguous ambiguous phrases where you could say huh why why did they put it that way and then a lot of people are interpreting it like this but that's that's a totally contradicting to this other thing well it's very helpful in interpreting Vatican 2 to say well here's the tradition here's the infallible teachings we believe them so Vatican 2 is obviously not contradicting these yeah whatever it means you know probably means this maybe it means that but it's not going to contradict the foundation I think fundamentally the hermitage continuity isn't a method that says what is new now reinterprets what is old it's the exact opposite is what came before helps us to understand you know if anything's ambiguous because of human frailty or even you know nefarious intent we must live and say this is ambiguous this is what was before therefore it has to be this doesn't justify the ambiguity or even the nefarious intent it just says I'm not you know I'm I'm gonna live according to what the church is always taught and you know the council said this and therefore I you know I believe what the church has always taught I'm gonna keep moving forward amen you have a question you're good so okay so I think you know I'd strongly recommend folks if you're struggling with this question and even the council I think this book not only of course beautifully covers a lot of issues that we're facing today but it also gives what I would call a measured wise and historically connected understanding of how to deal with the problems that came after the council which weren't you know there's a lot of post hoc ergo proctor hoc you know uh false logic that says well because it the council came before but listen the council was the was was birthed by those who were before you know so it it's you know all of those cardinals and we're we're celebrating the latin mass you know before the council so we have a real issue we have a real problematic view I think in the traditionalist realm of how to understand the council and I think it it's a it's a it's a distraction away from our mission and how it is that we can help the church draw more deeply from the wells of tradition so we're out of time I hate that because false mercy recent heresies distorting the Catholic church by Christopher Malloy is a top 10 book you've got to you've got to get it you've got to tell your friends about it and you got to read it it will equip you more effectively in my opinion than most that comes out of the traditionalist realm to understand and and and know how to deal with and help the church heal from the problems that we're facing today so thank you for the book and thank you for being on the show you're welcome thanks so much for having me absolutely thank you for the great conversation until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness may he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body irreproachable at the coming of our lord jesus christ amen amen god I hate to go so brief but


Hello. I'm glad to see everybody here at the Arizona Deliverance Center and on Zoom. So I'm just here to give some announcements. My name is Pamela Murray. I have been involved with Arizona Deliverance Center Hardcore Christianity for eight years. I've been going through deliverance. It's been a journey. So I started it in Ohio and did it here. So praise God. All right. So Wednesday nights we have a Zoom deliverance with Brother Rick. It's at 6 p.m. I don't see it. That's okay. We have Julie's Tuesday night women's deliverance for the miracle list and that's at 6 30 p.m. We have a children's deliverance tomorrow, Saturday, August 5th at 10. And the training with Brother Mike is over in the small sanctuary on the fourth Saturday. And then in the back we have offering boxes because everybody who works here does not get paid. It's voluntary because of their love for the Lord and their love for you and their desire to see you free. So if you want to donate, that's fine. And they've never missed a bill here because God's had His hand on this place and He really does. So I'm just going to pray real quick and let Brother Dave come on. You're just going to be blessed. Just let the Lord touch you. He's amazing. God is amazing and His servants here are amazing. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you, God, for your word is a two-edged sword that divides us under the soul and the spirit, the joints and the marrow, and the thoughts and intents of the heart, God. And I thank you as Brother Dave Baldwin brings the word, God, that you will do just that, Lord. I thank you, Jesus, for touching people on Zoom, Lord, that right where they are, that they'll get healing and deliverance and even so wounds heal, Lord. I thank you, Jesus, for doing miracles in this place, God. You are able, you are more than able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or thank, Lord. We give you praise and we give you glory in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Hola. How's everybody doing tonight? All right. Amen. How are the rest of you guys doing that didn't respond pretty bad? At least it's Friday, right? My name is Brother David. Thank you for coming tonight. I'm excited to share this message and I'm, like, charged up. So we'll see what happens. Amen. Believe in the Lord for great things. So let's pray and let's get started. Lord Jesus, right now, Lord, we invite you in softening our hearts. May this moment, may this time, may this night be about connecting with you in a real, genuine way, heart to heart, Lord. We want more than just the routines and more than just the day by day. We want the real living God to know, to feel, to sense your presence, Lord, in our lives, reassure us, strengthen us, establish us, confirm us as we go forward in this life, Lord. Help us to see the things that are unseen, the things that are blocking or interfering with your call on our lives, Lord. Help us to see the ways of the enemy. Help us to have the discernment, to understand, to see the knowledge and the discretion, to be able to navigate spiritually what is going on in our lives, Lord. I pray for each and every person that is here and that is watching or listening, Lord, that you would, and I know you will give them the keys that they need to unlock the chains, the bondages, the mysteries, the plans, the purpose, the truth that you have for them in their lives, Lord. We believe and we ask in the mighty name of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. My name is Brother David and it's good to see some familiar faces. So I've known Brother Mike for some time now and I'm excited to be able to share what I've learned from him and others and from the Word and of course from the Lord. And let's get started, amen. The Word of the night, insidious, insidious, insidious. And what does that mean? Well, it's right there. How convenient. It's almost like it was planned. It's an adjective. Insidious is having a gradual and cumulative effect like a disease. It's subtle. You know, someone goes in, something's not working right, they're not feeling right, they're not sleeping right, their body's not functioning right and they go in, they run a battery attest and then they come to find out, you know, you have this sickness or illness and unbeknownst to the person it has progressed and it's just kind of been there. Like we know in cancer stage one, two, three, four and it's subtle. The person doesn't even know. Insidious, awaiting a chance to entrap. Like it's luring to entrap, to ensnare. Insidious, harmful, but enticing. So it looks good like the neon lights, you know, the signs and the casinos and and come in here and look and see and all that. They ramp it up with lights or the positive parts like a commercial. You know, looking at the fast car, this, that or another, but not thinking unnecessarily about the cost. It's enticing to be insidious. There's almost like a fish with a lure. It's enticing, but the point of the fisherman and the hook is to catch the fish, right? Seductive. The Latin root word means to ambush. So it's like waiting, plotting and then like an ambush. Insidious. I think this is pretty interesting. I'm not seeing any interesting faces. So maybe you guys already knew this. Like insidious. I use it every day. Deceitful, asynonym, stealthy, harmful in an imperceptible fashion. Like you don't pick up on it. You don't see it. Amen. And what I'm referring to, obviously the enemy, right? This describes the devil. He comes in in a way. He wants to give you something a high.  You know, there's always something on that hook in order for you to take the bait, right? So you'll take the bait so he can set the hook, right? If there was just a hook, you wouldn't, you wouldn't do it. If there wasn't a high, if there wasn't a rush, if there wasn't adrenaline, you would look at the hook and you'd say, okay, I don't want it. Like, you know, there has to be something on the hook in order to entice the fish. There has to be something on the hook to entice us. Amen. That's how the enemy works. And he is plotting and planning to entrap and ensnare. That's the whole point. They go back to the Garden of Eden, right? The slippery serpent is like, hey, doesn't that look good? That's going to make you wise. Like God, you're not going to die. He's enticing, seducing. But it's that insidious nature where he's actually intent, his intent is to harm. Amen. How many know looking back that like, wow, if I knew then what I know now, right? I wouldn't have gone down that road. I thought it wasn't a big deal. I thought it would be okay. I was just fooling around. I was just experimenting. I was just having fun with the guys on a Friday night. And the next thing you know, I can't put down the bottle. The next thing you know, I'm out of work and lost my job and so on and so forth. Amen. Can you raise your hand? Hallelujah. I'll raise my hand. Amen. Insidious. That is the nature of the enemy that is opposed to us, working in a spiritual realm and we don't quite see it. Before we get further into this, I want to take a little bit of a bird's eye view on spiritual warfare. Amen. Can we do that? I was working with someone that had been introduced to us and wanted a young lady who wanted deliverance. And she had, you know, kind of classic middle aged everything is come home to roost, you know, the things, the decisions that she's made, the things that happened to her in her childhood. And it's kind of all snowballed. And now it's it's hit the fan and she's really struggling and doesn't even know which way is up. And then she finds out that, okay, this is spiritual and I'm dealing with demons. And that's a whole another whirlwind. Amen. That's like, whoa, I mean, that's great because all right, I'm starting to get some answers. Someone knows something about what I'm going through. But wow, this is a whole new dimension that I was completely unaware of how many know what I'm talking about. And then you're like, you're just trying to figure it out. And it can be intimidating, confusing. One of the main things that I see people struggle with and deal with when they start in deliverance, and they get a few months in, it's like, still, which way is up? Is this a demon? Is this not a demon? I responded this way and somebody asked me yesterday, hey, I responded this way and this person said this and I felt this way. And is that spiritual?  And it's not necessarily spiritual, right? If you can kind of brush it off your shoulder. Someone does something to you. I saw it today just on the way to work. Somebody had stopped on a main road in the right hand lane, not a bus lane and just stopped. And I was a, that was the first car. I was the third car. The second car slams on the brakes. And then I'm the third car and I slam on my brakes and they're like, whoa, what in the world is going on here? Why did you stop in the middle of nowhere? And I'm glad I just didn't get in a wreck. Amen. On Friday, that's not a good day to get in a wreck.  And anyway, so these guys are upset at each other, a little road rage breaks out and they're flipping each other, the bird and opening the window and doing this. And then it looks like NASCAR going down, weaving through the cars.  Like, I don't want any of that. I was able to brush it off. It didn't get to me. It didn't ruin my day. It didn't ruin my morning. I didn't flare up in anger or rage or frustration or annoyance. I didn't get on this tangent or this bent for the rest of my morning about, you know, why are things going against me? And this is supposed to be a good day and this and that. I didn't let it get to me. The other two guys had got to them. For them, it could be spiritual. It's a sign. It's an indicator that something is lurking underneath that they might not even know. They might not even see that is affecting their behavior, decisions and responses. People are going to do crazy stuff to you, man. People are going to say mean things. People are going to make wrong conclusions and judgments about you or people you love or they're going to discount you or your children or whatever it is. And can you brush it off? If you can brush it off, then that's a sign that you're whole and healthy inside. If it gets to you, amen, and it lingers, that's a sign something's going, something's amiss inside. Right? Why did you take it personal? Why did it upset you so much? What underlying frustrations are going on? So it's not necessarily spiritual, but it's more of like it's an indicator based on how you respond and how long it takes to process it. Amen? You know, that same thing happens to someone and they're upset and it ruins their day. And then they start praying later on. They realize, you know, I just got that. I'm just offended. I just got, sometimes for me, I just things build up, life build up and I just need to come against frustration. I mean, it doesn't sound like a big mountain, amen, but let's knock it out when it's a molehill, amen, and I just got to come against frustration. And that certainly can be spiritual, it can be an indicator of something spiritual. But I told this young lady, I said, the goal is for you to be able to, in the next year or two years, to be able to work through all these things that have happened, the things that have impacted your thoughts and thinking and beliefs about God and others and yourself, to work through those things in light of the word, in light of the truth and love of God, and to work those out and see your true self come forward. Because the things that have happened to us, the traumas, the lies, the fears, the neglect, those things shape and mold our personality.  They're upset, they're frustrated, it takes time and if you start doing deliverance and you might have a close call like I had this morning, you might get frustrated and then the goal is to catch it earlier, earlier in the cycle. Instead of letting it ruin your day or now maybe just upset your morning, maybe it just lingers with you for the rest of the car ride. And you begin to work through those things and then the Christ-likeness starts to come forward more as you pray and renew your mind and be a good disciple of Christ.  Things that affected you five years ago don't affect you the same way now, amen. Things that got you stressed out, you got greater faith and trust in God. Things that used to irritate you, right? Things that you'd get offended or take personal, like the goal is for like a little bit of Teflon, right? To get a Teflon. We don't want to be hard-hearted, we want to have a soft heart, but we want to have thick skin. And then ultimately, as you progress through and then you get to roll with the punches and you get a bird's-eye view of kind of what's happening spiritually, you get a better understanding.  Like the foot soldiers go fight, battle, spirit of offense, abuse, rejection, fight, work through this, pray fast, press in, trust God. But the general sees the battlefield, right? The big picture. So I want to talk about a little bit of a big picture thing. The battle lines are drawn. This is a mock-up of Jerusalem and Nehemiah's day, amen? Looks like a nice little art project that someone did. Nehemiah, right? They built it up. It's interesting. They had a mind to work and they were able to do great things. They had a mind to work. Do you have a mind to get set free? Do you have a mind for the truth? Amen? Do you have a mind for Christ? Do you have a mind? Like it's got to be, this has to be engaged. So they had a mind to work and they had this, they built the wall. Why did they build the wall? Because it was close to the border? No. Kind of, not really. Why did they build the wall? Security. Security. Defense. They didn't have police, right? They had foot soldiers. But this, this was their line of defense. The wall was defense, right? Amen? Their first line of defense. And then you had the lookout towers. So you could see the enemy coming. And that's a lot, like what we experience where we have to protect ourselves. And what does the enemy want to do with the wall? He wants to overcome the wall. And this is a siege ramp. Masada, you guys know the story? Fortress on top of this plateau with the rocky kind of impassable walls there as a protection for the, so they wouldn't get swept away by the Romans. And there was about a thousand people that were up there on Masada. And what the, what the enemy will do in order to breach the wall is build a ramp. See that? That's not a slide. It's not a water park. That is to kick some Jewish butt right there. That's what that was about. That's a real place. And they had a fortress, but the enemy built a siege ramp and he does that in our lives. We see this in the Old Testament. We see this in our lives. And that's the key, that thick skin, that awareness, that discernment to be able to understand when the enemy and how the enemy is attacking. And it's key to your success just like it was key to their success, right? Like if you listen to anything and watch anything and eat anything and it's not going to be good for you, right? If anybody, anything that anybody says, negative, lies, fears, whatever, anxious thoughts, if you just take all that in, it's like not having a wall or having your siege ramp up over your wall or someone breaking through the gate or breaking through the door, you're just taking all that in. You can't just take it all in. You got to choose what you eat, amen. You got to choose what you eat. And I told you guys last time I was here, one of the things that I've done over the years is just a simple phrase, I don't receive that. No, you can't do this and you're that and this will never, I don't receive that. It's a polite rebuke. I don't receive that. You don't even have to say it audibly, but I'm protecting my inner man like a wall to prevent an infection, if you will. The other thing that's interesting about this analogy is that not all attacks are from within. Some attacks are from the outside. In deliverance, it's important to know that, amen. That's something that you might not know or appreciate when you're just getting started, but not all attacks from the enemy start from within. And that being said, how you handle those situations is differently. Just like if you had an issue outside of your house or inside your house, you would handle it differently, amen. You would handle a situation inside your family, outside of your family different. When you're dealing in spiritual warfare, sometimes the fiery darts, amen, come from the outside. Sometimes there's something going on on the inside and you treat those situations differently. Does that make sense? You can brush off the enemy from an attack from the outside like a fiery dart. That is not something that I'm not demonized because a fiery dart was thrown at me. Does that make sense? I'm not demonized if an anxious thought comes my way, not necessarily, right? And you have to know the difference. It can be an outward and overt attack. I'll give you an example. I was fortunate to go to a large business event in San Diego at the convention center. And to be honest with you, I had no right being at that convention. I was a guest of somebody. John Maxwell was the keynote speaker on Sunday morning, so that was pretty cool. He's a great author, a Christian leader. And I'd been going through deliverance for a while, and here I am, and there's thousands of people at the convention center, maybe 10,000, I don't know, it was a lot. And they're all dressed to the nines in their business attire. And like most places, men and women. And the women are dressed to the nines with their black skirts and pump heels and fancy hairdos, right? And I'll never forget this because I'd been going through deliverance and I knew how the enemy was watching, looking for that opening, looking for that weakness in your wall, looking for that unmanned or unguarded gate, looking for the time when the watchmen are sleeping. And the enemy's watching, looking for that weakness or the opportune time. And in fact, isn't that what it says in Luke chapter four after he came against Jesus that he left to return at an opportune time? He's opportunistic, subtle, and I'm walking through all these nicely dressed women, and I start hearing clanging metal, like, and I was like, what's that? And God impressed upon me, that is those arrows bouncing off the armor. That's what it sounded like. If you had a metal shield, and you had arrows like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, or like swords, that sound, not great at sound effects, sorry. Yeah, I've talked to Pam about that one. So I'm going through, I'm watching what I'm watching or not watching if you will, and I'm hearing that. What's going on? The enemy's trying to attack me from outside. Do I need deliverance? No. Had I been, oh, and had it affected me and had I run with it, and it was like lusting and perversion or pornography, would I need deliverance then? Yes. Do you see the difference? They're both spiritual warfare, but don't both necessitate deliverance. If it's an attack from the outside, and think about the armor of God, that has nothing to do with inside. There's no scalpel, there's no EKG machine, there's no x-ray, there's not even a mirror. Look yourself in the mirror, right? There's none of that in the armor. It's protection, it's encasement, it's a wall for your life spiritually to protect yourself from the attacks of the enemy. Amen. So people, they go through deliverance and they start doing well, and then an attack comes and they get confused because they think they backslidden. And I didn't know that was there. Now certainly there's layers and there's depths and there's mountains, and you're going to get delivered for something big like schizophrenia like myself or drug addiction or some of these monster things that are out there, religious spirit. Yeah, it's going to take time to erode those down and work those down and build up new foundations. There's no doubt about it. And God will show you more and more the subtleties of how those things came to be and how to work through them. But make no mistake about it, just because you're being attacked doesn't mean it's from inside. Is this helping anybody? Yet to have the wherewithal and to know is this an internal attack or external because you're going to deal with it differently inside or out. This list is not exhaustive. It's just to kind of show some examples. External attack, like a lie, that fiery dart, right? But if you start believing the lie and you act on the lie, now it's both, now it's become internal, right? That's why it has an asterisks. Trauma. I always picture someone breaking down that door, right? You were abused, you were molested, you were beaten emotionally abuse, psychological abuse. That trauma, like someone came from the outside, boom, right? Knocked down the door. That's external. Neglect. That's external. It's something outside that an external situation. Now left unchecked, just like anything in the natural, just like any sickness, even a cut for goodness sake. If you don't treat the cut, what happens? You get an infection. It gets worse. So these things might start in the external. They might be outside of the wall of your life and they may be breathing threats and insidious in nature and wanting to trap you. But if we're not careful, they become part of us internally. So we can't take it for granted. We can't just necessarily gloss over it. Rejection external. Curses external. Things pass down generational. If someone in your family has been killed, murdered, something happened externally. Things that are self-perpetuating, internal. Again, that fear, that can be the situation. The enemy can plant thoughts, fearful emotions, but that can become part of who we are inside and out. Rebellion is that something inside that I want to rebel. Now it's become part of me. Now I need deliverance. Does that make sense? Substance abuse. I just like that self-perpetuating. I can't get out of my own way. I'm my own worst enemy. These things, whatever happened, probably started on the external attack, right? Unless it was out of the womb, unless it was generational, which then it wasn't even you to begin with, right? Someone else had done it and someone else had opened the door and now you're the carrier of that, the bearer of that burden. But now it's become part of who you are. It's operating internally. Now we need deliverance.  Again, inside out. That example I gave you, the San Diego Convention Center, the enemy was wanting to trip me up and I was not taking the bait and I could hear the clanging of armor for two, three seconds. It's almost like there's a stoplight in us spiritually, red, yellow, green. And the spirits can see that. Imagine. And they know that, okay, red, no, I can't, I can't advance. Yellow, we're getting kind of warm green. I can go. Because step back. If the enemy could do whatever he wanted, whatever he wanted, none of us would be here. Cain would have killed Abel, would have killed Adam and Eve, and then would have killed himself, right? You'd have been murdered in your mama's womb or the day you were born or two weeks later from Sid's, whatever it is. But if the devil could run rough shop like he wants, none of us would be here. So there's a check and balance. And we see that in Job. We see that in Peter. We see that in Paul. We see that in other situations in the Bible, Himanias, Alexander. We see different situations where there's a spiritual, a check and balance. So it's almost like there's red light, green light, yellow light, and they can see if I've got it, if I can attack, if I can oppress, if there's an opening, if there's a weakness. And honest to God, I wholeheartedly believe there's times where we open the door big and wide and God says, red light, no, I'm not letting you in.  Now, can that happen? Of course. And should we be cognizant of it? Yes. And should we be operating in the fear of Lord? Yes, for sure, 100%. But it's not just like one little needs a, and I think sometimes God puts it, no, no, red light, no, they're a new believer. No, I see his heart. No, I want to show him something else. Remember what happened to Peter? Jesus told Peter, Satan demanded to sift you like wheat. He had been chomping at the bit to attack Peter. And Jesus said, red light, red light, not yet. There came a time where he said, okay, here you go. Because he had a bigger plan on a purpose. He said, when you return to me, strengthen your brethren. So when you go through this, and if you read Peter's epistles, you see the revelation in action of going through that, right?  Who wrote that? Peter. He experienced that. The sufferings that you experience are not unusual, but happen with the brethren throughout the world. Trust God, submit to him, and in due time, he will deliver you. Who wrote that? Peter. Because he knew. He knew he experienced that. So there's almost like there's that stoplight there. And God has his hand, and we run all those red lights. Then what happens? The light turns red, and the enemy can come in. If we take hold of the lies and the fear and the trauma, those are things you put on the outside. The truth, the belt of truth binds it all together. That's, you know, in your mind, that's a, but that's a defensive. Does that make sense? It's like a wall. That's your defense. To stand that you may be able to withstand that attack from the outside. Standing firm. This is more of deliverance, right? Submission to God. Drawing near to God. Cleansing your hands. Being repentant. Purifying your heart. Just crying out, Lord, deliver me, Lord. I don't want this anymore. Take this from me. I hate it. See the difference? There's two different kinds of attacks. Outside the walls, inside the walls, right? Outside of your body, inside of your body. An infection is inside. Cancer is inside. An automobile accident, outside. Someone speaking a curse over you, outside. You believing that could hurt yourself inside. Someone speaking a curse over you, I don't receive that. I'm going to, I'm going to knock down that flaming dart with my shield of faith. Boom. Nope. Not true. Boop. Get on out of here. But I believe it. That becomes part of me. Now I need be wretched more. I'm sorry, Lord. Forgive me for believing that lie. Forgive me that you would think that I would think that about you. There's a difference. Amen. All that stuff's on the outside. Trying to protect yourself from getting something inside. Is it important? Heck yeah. Defensive, preventative, casting, binding, deliverance. That's offensive. Not to offend, but offensive, right? Defensive, offensive. Does that make sense? Is this helping anybody? I think this is neat. So maybe I'm just preaching to myself, but it helps to know where the attack is coming from and what you need to do about it. Sometimes you just need to stick to your guns. You just need to take that stand and having done all to stand in the stand firm.  It's a bluff of the enemy. It's a lie. And I'm going to stand firm and I'm going to trust God. It's an anxious thought trying to, trying to trouble my heart, but he said, let not your heart be troubled. Amen. And I'm going to stand firm and I'm not going to take the bait. Amen. I'm not going to look at it. I'm not going to entertain it. I'm not going to let it in. I'm not going to open the door. I don't care how nice they look or how sweet they talk to me. I'm not letting it in. I'm going to resist it and I'm going to keep going and then boom, your day goes on just like that. Now that thought does something to you. It stirs something inside of you. Now, let's come on. Let's, let's figure this thing out. Let's work through this thing because every time this happens, this happens. Every time I see this, I think this. Every time this thought comes in, I respond this way. What's that cycle? The next thing is what is the cycle? What triggers it? What gets you upset? What gets you lustful? What gets you covetous? What gets you in a place of depression? For some is being married to a former president. What is the thing that triggers it and produces the cycle? And now that you know the cycle, then you're able to debunk it. You're able to stop it. That is huge in deliverance. What is it that is triggering it that is producing the, that vicious cycle? Did you have a question? There is, there is always a, there's a level of protection. I mean, the Bible says that he gives food to everyone. He gives wages. The sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous. There's a goodness that comes from God for everyone, right? And there is a certain protection over someone who's carrying out God's will. And there's certain protection of living according to his word living in Christ, but it doesn't make us immune from attacks. Because Christ also suffered and we're not greater than him. And so we know that we will suffer. And, and Romans says, not only that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope and hope does not disappoint. And Paul, three times pleaded with the Lord, take this thorn from me, amen. But for such an abundance of revelation was given to him, a messenger of Satan to buffet him in the flesh to keep him grounded. And he says it a second time for such an abundance of revelation. You know, I'm a contractor. So I do a lot of different stuff. One of the things I do is electrical and you have this outlet here and this outlet is grounded. So if there is a extra charge of electricity, it'll go to that bare wire, it'll run out to the breaker panel and then down to a ground, what's called a grounding rod, which goes eight feet down in the soil and it sends that extra charge down into the earth instead of up your right arm. It's a good thing to have. It keeps it grounded. It keeps it safe. It's grounded. The whole facility is grounded. And that was God's way of grounding Paul so that he didn't get too big for his britches, amen. There's a certain level of protection. There's no doubt about it. And having the armor of God, having that awareness, that righteousness that is Christ, amen. The helmet of salvation, the readiness given by the gospel of peace, that you are marching to the Lord and you're sharing the good news that you're on your way. Those are instrumental, huge, right? Those help prevent getting infected and demonized. They minimize the attack. They nullify the attack like a wall in the Old Testament. But if you didn't know any better, if the gate got broken down, if you were living in the world for an extended period of time like myself, but now we need a full deliverance. We might need an internal makeover, extreme makeover. I'll never forget. I was in the office one night, late one night with Brother Mike, and there was another gentleman there and he was asking a lot of questions. And Brother Mike says, you haven't even met yourself yet because so much of who he was was shaped and molded by the things that had happened externally. He needed a lot of deliverance. The greatest threat? Thank you for your bearing with me. As I was preparing this message, I mean, I was looking at it and I'm like, we're about to get into the meat. I'm like, man, there is so much throughout the Bible. I almost threw it away two days ago because I couldn't figure out how to package it. And so I try to, I want to do a topic justice and I want to provide useful things for you all spiritually. I want to find that balance between being in depth, covering it, and making an impact on you that I pray will carry with you in a good way for the rest of your life. So I appreciate your patience and hearing me out. So the greatest threat inside or out, we're divided is within. The greatest threat is within. There's only so much the enemy can do from outside. There's only so much. But when he gets in, that's the greatest threat. He gets into your thoughts. He gets into your heart.  It's from inside. It's the rudder on the boat inside that moves it. Right? Inside. Jesus saw this. His greatest struggle. You know their greatest struggle Jesus had? Religious people. Yep. Let's get into it. Come on, devil. Well, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 22, the same day Sadducees came to him who say there is no resurrection and they asked him a question saying, Teacher Moses said, if a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. But Jesus answered them. This is a memory verse right here if you ask me. You are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. The Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection. They thought Jehovah couldn't raise someone from the dead. They thought God was limited by death. That was the max that they had in God. And they had this preconceived notion. They had this idea, as we say, this box that God fit in.  And that's what religion will do to you. A religious spirit will specify expectations of how and when and where God should act. He wants you to have a certain standard and so you will miss the moving of the spirit because it's different. Because it doesn't meet your expectations. He wants you to get a certain thing in your mind that religious demon that it should be this way so that when it's a different way, which how many know you've read the Bible, God does things different way every day. And even on Sunday, just to ruffle their feathers, amen. He said, Which one of you wouldn't save one of your animals if it fell on a ditch? Are you kidding me? These are people we're talking about. That's another thing about a religious spirit. They don't care about people. They're not concerned about people. They don't know the scriptures. They don't know the power of God. They don't, frankly, they don't know God. Our job made in his image and likeness is to fall in love with Jesus and get to know him as much as you know your spouse or your kids. Amen. I want to, I want to know.  I fasted every week for almost about a half a year. And I said, God, I want to know your voice. I wasn't fasting for anything for me. I wasn't fasting for anything for anyone else. I simply said, God, I want to know your voice. And every Tuesday or whatever it was, I fasted for 24 hours. Then I pulled up to where I was working. I saw this girl and I heard she's the one. I bought dead cartwheels. That was the opposite of the guys giving birds to each other. Amen. On the highway, I was so excited. I was in my 30s. I've been waiting. I'd always wanted to be married. I was tickle pink. Oh, this is it. Oh, you know, what she looked like. What is this?  I was running with the horse. Man, I was gone. I was, this is fast forward. That was a lot. I said, God, I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I'm not trying to hear your voice anymore. And I don't mean in a bad way, but I stopped trying to follow God in my head.  He's not a chatterbox. He's a spirit. And through that ordeal, I ended up learning the voice of God. Because I've been trying to find him here, but he was here. Spirit to spirit. And now God speaks to me. It's almost like a cartoon caption. Like, boop. Picture's worth a thousand words, right? And God speaks to you and you get it. He doesn't have to go in all this details and break it all down and do this. And he's chatterboxed. Park here. Go there. Turn right. Oh, go to eat a lunch here. Boom, boom, boom. Oh, there's a coupon. No, nonsense. Fui. I'm calling Fui. Amen. Spiritual Fui. There's too much mental traffic in here to hear God. You drive down the highway. You see a billboard. You have a thought that comes into your head.  It's going to create confusion. You better know that you know. It's like an internal compass. It just, that, that's, I feel compelled. Or you need to forgive. And it's not even that many words. You just, you get the sense. I need to, yep, I gotta call him. Right? It's that, it's encapsulated in that moment. These guys didn't know the power God, didn't know the scriptures. They thought they did though.  They didn't know they had let the devil in, insidious. He snuck in right under their noses. Matthew 23. This whole chapter is essentially Jesus with the Pharisees. He said to the crowd, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. So do and observe whatever they tell you. There's respect and there's an honor for the religious authority, but not the works they do for their hypocritical. They preach, but don't practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders. They don't care about people. The religious spirit doesn't care about people. Are you hard towards people? Do you expect more from others than you do from yourself? You may have fallen prey to a religious spirit, but they themselves are not willing to move them with even a finger. Wow. He just freaking nailed them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. It's all on the outside for them. Tell me what I need to do. I'll do it. I want the status. I want the prestige and I will guard that and I'll protect that. The religious spirit will not humble themselves. They will not admit wrong. They will not ask for help because they are concerned about how they look. Honey, I don't care how I look. As long as he says, well done, good and faithful servant, I want to get it right right now. Then it's too late. That's why the Psalmist said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in tents of wickedness. I don't care if you know my worst fear or worst thought or worst thing that I've done or said, I come up here, I give it all to the Lord. Amen. And I don't say that as a badge of courage or honor or pat me on the back because I give it to the Lord because I owe him everything. Amen. And I would rather get it right right here and you get it right right here than get there and have him say, I never knew you. That's what's going to happen to these guys. The ones that were supposed to prepare the way didn't even see him when he arrived. They studied the scriptures. They wrote the scriptures time and time and time again. This is no Xerox. This is no publishing company. They wrote them out line by line by line. Every prophecy you see in the Old Testament for Jesus, they wrote that out tens if not hundreds of times the scribes did and they studied it and they were raised on it and they were taught the stories and they had an expectation of what God can and will do and look like and he showed up a little bit different. And doesn't he do that? Doesn't he show up a little bit different than what we expect? Amen. The devil had gotten him from the inside out insidious. He had framed what they thought the Messiah would be and they missed the Messiah. Ugg, pride and vanity. They love being honored and sitting in the best seats, the greetings in the marketplace.  They don't recognize all your hard work, religious spirit. It says you're not to be called rabbi. You have one teacher. You are all to be brothers. Willing to bet. That's why Brother Mike goes by Brother Mike. Is that verse right there? They make the phylacteries broad and they're fringes long. You know what that's about? They're supposed to remember the Scriptures and have reminders, right? Amen.  They strap it on so that they won't forget the Scriptures, but it's not in here. Oh, you go through all that emotion, all that commotion, all that work, all that effort, but it's not in here. The heart of the matter, it's not in here. How do I look? How do I sound? How do people think of me? Who's inviting me to their houses? Now as an aside, if you were raised by someone with a religious spirit, we're going to forgive them tonight at the altar, amen, because the same thing that you're upset about them, you're likely to repeat. The sins that you forgive, they're released, they're gone, bye-bye. The sins that you hold on to, well, you're going to have to find somewhere clever to put them, amen.  Jesus, breathe on them and say, receive ye the Holy Spirit. The sins you forgive will be forgiven and the sins you retain will be retained. And there's a lot going on spiritually there, I believe, but for us here tonight, if you hold on to that stuff, if you're judging and critical, you're guilty of the same thing as these guys, and maybe that's why it's broken and you're here, because you are mad at somebody who wasn't, didn't love you for who you are. Heard a song on the radio today?    He loves who you are. He loves what you like. He's excited about your life. He looks forward to seeing you every day. He looks forward to interacting in your life.  He don't care. He don't care. He loves you. He's proud of you. He's excited for your life. He's got plans for you. He's got a hope. He's got a future. He's got great things he wants to do in your life.  That's, to God, honest the truth. Now the people who raised you, that may not have been the case. And I personally, I apologize that they didn't love you for who you were, and there's a void in there, because God loves you, amen. And he doesn't care what you've done or what you can do for him. He's not impressed with the outside. Didn't Jesus say that? He's not impressed with that.  He cares about you. He loves you. Religious people, what can you do for me? I don't want to be vulnerable.  No, actually, you know what the truth is? I'll go up in your eyes. I say, hey man, I'm struggling too. Hey man, I went through this. Hey man, I got the voice of God dead wrong. Amen. And you're like, wow, okay. It's those who humble themselves will be exalted. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, amen.  See that status, country club, country club Christians? So sad. I know a gentleman in a large church whose son is very talented and very athletic. And this church happens to outreach to a lot of people that are really down on their luck, to say the least. In fact, you could probably say there's no luck is not real, because these people's lives and how they've turned out, but they were at a men's meeting and this gentleman, this dad said, why don't want my kid around those guys? He's got a, he's got a sports career in his future. I don't want a heartbreak for that guy, because he's got the wrong Jesus. If Jesus said that to me, I'd be dead. More than likely, most of us, right? And Jesus said, no, they're not good enough. No, they're too dangerous. No, not my Jesus. I'll never get it over this. I was a pod every day, 15 years. Nobody said amen. That's good. Yeah, get in my green car. And I'll never get over this.  It was just such a habit. And I got stoned one day before walking into church. That started going to church. It's about three weeks ago. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Kidding. Kidding, kidding. Repent for that religious thought. Amen. It's nice to be able to point at a camera. I don't have to point at somebody. And I'll never get over that. I can still remember.  He's gone. No. God said, come as you are. I've been missing you. And I love you. And I want to see you. And I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad you're here. That, not these guys. They said, oh, what can you do for us? Oh, oh, you don't look right. You don't sound right. You're not from the right part of town. You don't have the right education. No, no kingdom of heaven for you. And God was incensed. The hardest struggle Jesus had was religious people. They had built up the walls around their lives. They thought they were so safe. They thought they were so protected. And they didn't know they were sleeping with the enemy. And they were by definition unavailable for help because they had made up their minds. I've got it figured out. I don't have any issues. I've done all the right things. I never drank. I never smoke. I never strayed. I always knew the Lord. I always went to church and they, they have right then and there have walls up, bump. Nobody in. Nobody out. And they're stuck. It's that religious spirit. He said, those who are well have no need of a physician. God bless you for coming here knowing that you need help. I need help. We need help. Jesus said, hey, if, if you don't need anything, can't help you. You don't need a doctor. Hypocrisy. Religious people are so thorny and prickly and uptight. If it doesn't fit in that box, if God does it differently, the lights are off. Oh, they have buckets. Oh, it's Friday night. Oh, wait, you're supposed to be on Saturday. You're supposed to be on Sunday. That's not what the Bible says.  Somebody esteems one day. Somebody esteems all the days. It doesn't matter. Where's your heart? I want to serve God. I want to honor God. I want to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. That's what, that's what matters. Doesn't matter. Sunday morning, Saturday night, some people get all bent out of shape like that porcupine. Critical, thorny, nitpicky. Bye.  I think it facetiously, right? It'll all be easier. Foolishness. What do you blind guys, if anyone swears by the temple? It is nothing. If anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he's bound by his own. The temple's nothing. In other words, they're saying the temple's nothing. It's the gold in the temple. And they couldn't even see this simple wisdom. Jesus says what's greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred, the gold came out of the ground somewhere, and what made it is the fact that it's part of the temple. And there's that foolishness. They just can't even see. They can't even discern. What do you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe, mint, deal, cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law? Some things matter more to God than others. Not tithing, but it does help. The weightier things, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Mercy and grace, that is it right there. There's none of that with a religious spirit. There's no mercy. There's no grace. If you want to undercut and undermine a religious spirit in your life, be merciful and gracious. To me, those are better definitions of love. We love and this and love and love and I love this and I love you and God is love and a new commandment I give you to love one another. But like that just like kind of almost like another word, I hate to say it. But like mercy and grace, that puts legs to it. I need to be merciful when someone doesn't deserve it, amen. When they deserve judgment, I should be merciful. Grace helping somebody, you know, saying something gracious, being gracious, being kind. To me, I'm able to see that a lot more easily. They were straining out a nap but swallowing a Campbell, completely missing the boat. Well, we got to meet on Sunday. No, we got to meet on Saturday. No, this is when the rapture. No, that's when the rapture. No, this version, are you kidding me? You're upset about the version of the, they're reading the Bible. What would you rather have them doing? Watching porn, watching suits? No, they're reading the stinking Bible. My goodness, all the heaven, all the angels in heaven rejoice. He picked up the Bible. He's reading the Bible. Who cares if it's the message or new age translation or this that or another or Armenian or new Arabic? Who gives a rip? They're reading the Bible, they're seeking God. But those Pharisees, got to be King James. Hate to break it to them, but that came around 1600 years after Christ. What do you as scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you clean the outside. It's all about the outside. It's not in here. It's not in here. What's the inside? God looks at the heart. Inside, they're full of greed and self-indulgence. They're blind. They said, man, take care of the inside. That's why we're here. Take care of the inside. Who cares what you look like? Who cares if you spit out 15 buckets? Who cares if you ride the round like a snake on the floor? Who gives a rip? Get set free in Jesus' name, amen. Swallow the pride and get set free. Do what you need to do to get set free and be all that God has called you to be in this life and forget about the looky-lose that are on the outside and the devil. What are they going to think? And what are they going to say?  They're not going anywhere because they're concerned what the outside looks like. And if you do that and you go through the motions, guess what you're going to get? Nothing. Zip, zilch. It's got to be from in here. It's got to be, he's after your heart. You can know the thing to do and you can do it with your hands and your feet, but if your heart's not in it, you're wasting your time. In fact, you're worse off like these guys. Big walls, big protection, deceived. The enemy had slithered in. They didn't even know it. They were looking at the outside. They were concerned what people thought of them. And they didn't get healed. They didn't get set free. They didn't get saved. Saved Nicodemus, Saul the Paul. You can count them on one hand. What do you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites? You're like whitewashed tombs. The outside, the inside, not good. Outwardly appearance, the appearance of righteousness. But within, not so much. I hear people say, I never drank, I never smoked. I grew up going to church. I don't need deliverance. Other people say, it comes out like this, that's religious spirit. Like I've done everything for God. You ever heard that before? I've done everything for God. I did this. I went to this school, and Bible school, and I went on mission trips, and so upset at God because they earned it. They deserved it. That's not how it works. I spent a lot of time in Galatians for this message, a lot of times in Romans, and it's faith through hearing the Word. That's what it's about. It's through hearing the Word. God loves you. He died for you, and He wants you to be part of His family in Heaven. Okay. All right. Yes, Lord. Amen. That's hearing by faith, and the Word, the Word of Christ. The outside, irrelevant. This is a hidden camera inside a Pharisee. Empty, famished, isolated, religious spirit disconnected from people. They're too proud to ask for help, too proud to be vulnerable, and they become more and more isolated, but the more isolated they become, the smaller and weaker and deader they become on the inside. Amen. Let's not be like that. Brutal vipers. This last line right here, verse 33. How are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Guys, this is heavy, but I want you to be cognizant of the dangers of falling prey to a religious spirit, and getting caught up on what we look like on the outside, getting caught up in our activities and actions, even if they're well meaning or well intentioned, doing things just to do them, just because going through the motions, you know, Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. I love it when I have those morning times with the Lord, but when my wife started popping out babies, that was not going to happen. Like my shift starts when I wake up, amen, when you've got a six-week old, and mama's been up every other hour all night, and my job is just to give her another couple hours of rest. The baby's too little, read it, and I had to get over that myself. I was leaning on that, that was a crutch. How many know you spend a little time with the Lord in the beginning of the day? Your day goes better. I mean, that's the reality of the matter, but we can start to trust in that and not the Lord who gives us that grace for the day.  I got to take care of this little baby. I think that's more important to God, right? Make sure this little thing's well fed, honor and serve my wife, allowing her to get another couple hours of sleep, take care of this little tyke, and then you know what? There's other ways I can seek God throughout the day. I can pray in the spirit on the way to work, amen. I can listen to it on the radio. And it started this whole evolution and how my relationship with God, I started praying as a prayer. I pray to just love you more, Lord. I pray to love you. I'm one of those guys, I, every so often, every couple years, I'll get a, I'll get a prayer in mind and I'll just keep praying it because I know it's good for me. Lord, I pray to love you more. Lord, I pray to love you more. And when I think about it, Lord, I pray to love you more. And I noticed my love and my fondness for Jesus began to well and grow inside, amen. I began to get into scripture memorization. And so even though I didn't get that time in the morning, the morning devotional, now at night, at night when I was laying down, amen, after fed the baby at 10, 10, 30, whatever it was. So I do the last feeding and the first feeding, amen, if you will. And she did the ones in between. And then so I could lay in my bed and I could do the scripture memorization. And now I'm getting closer to God in that way too. And next thing you know, the baby grows up and it's like, now I can get back, I can get my word in the morning. I can prepare a message in the morning, amen. But I had to learn that God was bigger than my morning devotional. And I'm not saying throw out the morning devotional, but it's more important to be devoted to the Lord throughout the day to have a relationship with him and an interaction, amen, that prayer without ceasing and awareness of what he's doing, leaning on him.  It's not super spiritual. But I had so many times, I'm stuck on something. I can't get something open. I can't get it to work right. Can't get it to fit, whatever it is. And I say, Jesus, I need you. And it's probably the best prayer that I pray. Jesus, I need you. And it's as simple as that. And the thing that is frustrated in me and the thing that is not working and that is coming against me in that moment, say, Jesus, I need you. And that's that humility. And that's not about me. I'm just trying to show there's a way, amen. And the way is, Jesus, and I say, hey, Jesus, I need help right now. Jesus, I need you. Jesus, I can't do it. And supernaturally, I kid you not. It's incredible, the percentage of time so close to 100% that within a moment, something that I've been working on for five minutes that could not get it to function properly. And I say, Jesus, I need you. And the moment the screw pops open. It's incredible. That's that relationship, that's walking. That surpasses a morning devotional, amen. That surpasses that. That's that relationship. That's what he wants with us is that relationship, not religious routine. The word religion is that the activities, the ceremonies, the external stuff, that's why James says pure and undefiled religion is this, is to take care of widows and orphans. There's no room for your pride there. You know, that's showing that altruism is pure from within. Like, you're caring for people that can't care for themselves. You're not at the country club. You're not fundraising. You're not rubbing elbows with big wigs. You're caring for widows and orphans. It's pure and undefiled. That external thing you're doing for God is pure and undefiled because you could just tell because of the nature of what you're doing. Going, visiting people in jail, amen. Doing the simple things. Give them a glass of water, amen. The key is to be the opposite. Be the opposite of what the Pharisees do. Be inclusive. Be loving on people. Be encouraging people. Being vulnerable, amen. Being merciful. Being gracious. He says your righteousness has to exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. When I first read that many years ago, I was kind of perplexed by it because it was self-righteousness. It was their external. It wasn't what Christ had done for them and through them, amen. From him and to him and through him are all things, amen.  I owe it to him. Anything I can do is him. Anything good, right? Anything we could do that righteousness, it resonates with it in and it's what Christ did on the cross for us, amen. Then it exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. They were so skin deep, surface, resistant to the moving of the Spirit, resistant to something different than what they thought or imagined, amen. Looking down on people, thinking they're better than. Being critical, bringing prickly like that porgy pine. We cannot have that, guys. We cannot have that. If you go back and read Galatians, he says, who has bewitched you? That's the only time in the Bible that word is used. Who has tricked you? Who has bewitched you? Having begun in the Spirit, will you now complete it in the flesh? There's no way. You were saved by grace through faith. There's no way you're not going to be able to carry it out from here and overcome without grace and faith. He says, how far you have fallen from grace? A fall from grace is not backsliding or taking a detour on a weekend or whatever it is, and those things are not right. It's falling from literally grace into the law. That's what it is. A fall from grace is literally falling from the grace of God. They fell into works of the law, and Paul was so adamant about protecting the truth and the salvation that he had, because he knew it was so dangerous that if they had built up those walls, the spiritual fortresses, and they thought they were right, but they were oh so dead wrong, and they would be closed off to anyone helping them and would not be vulnerable, would not let anybody in, he knew what the end would be. You guys know this, without love can do nothing. Gain nothing. I am nothing. Verse two strikes me, and if I have prophetic powers, understand all mysteries and all knowledge, if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but not love, I am nothing. This has to be engaged. This is part of the deal, the heart of your matter, the heart of the matter, your heart. Mercy triumphs over judgment. If you want mercy, give mercy. Gracious words like honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to your body. That comes to mind as this old person is critical, cranky, and they just look mean and unpleasant and unhappy. We all know someone like that. They're just an old crap, or a grumpy old man. These gracious words, they're going to add life to your body and health to your soul, amen. Last but certainly not least, if we can turn down the lights, we get ready to pray. As I said earlier, there was volumes and volumes of scriptures about religion, grace, the law. I mean, it's in a way, that's the entirety of the Bible is about that, right? Why the law came, the purpose of the law, the fulfillment of the law, not abolishing the law, upholding the law. If you're guilty of one, you're guilty of all, I mean, it just goes on and on and on. The covenant of God's promise to Abraham being fulfilled through Haggai, through the works of the, works of the flesh. I mean, even a promise of God, if you do it on your own works, it's not blessed. And then the fulfillment through Sarah and Isaac, it's just cover to cover. We have to be on guard. It's so important to not rely upon what we're doing externally, to not give too much thought to what other people think or might say, to not get too closed off. And, and my prayer is that if someone was religious to you, that I pray that you'll find it in your heart to forgive them tonight, to be merciful and gracious to them, to show them the thing that they didn't show you, because I'm afraid that religion has probably led more people to hell than just about anything else. When people being religious, being exposed to religion, and missing, missing the heart of the matter, missing Jesus, Jesus tells the parable in Luke 18, the some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, they treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector, one esteemed and one despised. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like the other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give ties of all that I get, but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me and sinner. You're the first guy, I, I, I, I, and, and there's, thank God there's not many people that are that self-consumed, but I've heard it a few times, I actually heard it the last time I was here at the altar, and someone was miffed, and they said, some of the things I was saying earlier, I've done all the right things, and I've done this, and I prayed enough, and God hasn't, God hasn't come through for me. I've heard people downright upset, cursing God, I'll never forget it, the f-bombs of f-bombs, cursing God, because they had done everything and they hadn't gotten what they wanted, but not the tax collector, not the sinner. He wouldn't even look to heaven, but he beat his chest, or forgive me, Lord have mercy on me. I tell you, this man went to his house justified, this man went home delivered, this woman went home delivered. If you can be real and honest and transparent with God and cry out to him like that little, like a baby, like that little child with that childlike faith and say, Lord I need you, I'm so lost without you, I'm desperate for you, I can't do it on my own, I'm in over my head, Lord, I made too many mistakes, Lord, please help me, Lord, deliver me, and all you need is one touch of his hand, he is the deliverer, he can do it, amen. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Let's close our eyes and let's pray. Lord Jesus, I'm thankful that honestly in my heart of hearts, I don't feel that many people here tonight are in the same place that these Pharisees were, and I pray that no one here ever will be in Jesus mighty name, but I do know that it is a slippery slope to fall into focusing on what we've done and what we deserve and to get caught up in works and legalism and not remember the grace and goodness and the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, that I pray that would never be. And Lord, if anyone in here tonight has wandered off the path, has opened the door to religious spirit, to being critical, being fault-finding, being judgmental, being condescending, looking down upon others, being too focused on how they look on the outside and missing the heart of the matter, Lord, I pray that you would grant them repentance, I pray that they would seek that repentance tonight and I pray that that breakthrough would happen tonight, Lord, and I pray, Lord, that there would be a refreshing and a renewness in their relationship with you like never before. I pray for a deeper trust, the deeper anointing and a deeper love and an intimacy with you, Lord, than ever before.  Lord, I pray that that hardness that has gone around their heart that has tried to protect them from being hurt, I pray right now the sound of my voice by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would soften the walls around those hearts, Lord. I pray that they would lay down the hurt and the pain and I pray, Lord, that they would open themselves fully and wholly to you, God. If that's you, just stand up right now. Just stand up. Rise up from the situation, the environment that you were in. Rise up from the criticism. Don't be shy. Rise up. If you need a freshness of God's grace, if you need your heart touched, if you've been just going through the motions, stand up in Jesus' mighty name, be filled with the Spirit, be refreshed by the Spirit right now in Jesus' name. Lord Jesus, the Lord of hosts, we stand in agreement with you and we come to the battle lines with none other than the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ. And we come against any and all religious spirits right now attacking this house, attacking these people in Jesus' mighty name. We come against any and all works-based, legalistic, outward appearing right now in Jesus' name, we bind them in Jesus' name. Right now, heart-heartedness, criticalness in Jesus' mighty name, we bind you by the power of Jesus Christ. If there's something that you identified with tonight, it always starts, deliverance always starts with repentance. Lord, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being judgmental. I'm sorry for being critical. I'm sorry for going through the motions. I'm sorry for not loving and being merciful and being gracious.  You be merciful and gracious and loving in Jesus' name. Lord, take the hardness, Lord. Take it right now in Jesus' name. Right now, take it out, Lord. Take a deep breath right now. Get out in Jesus' name. Right now, any and all religious spirits, right now in Jesus' name. Let's go. Right now, get out in Jesus' name. Be cursed in Jesus' name. I speak blessing over you. I speak grace. I speak love in Jesus' name right now. Any and all religious spirit go in Jesus' name in spirit of false worship, world religions in Jesus' name, cults in Jesus' name. We come against them in Jesus' name right now in Jesus' name. Get out right now by the power of the Holy Spirit right now in Jesus' name. Anything and everything, not of you God. Come out.  We'll pray for you in Jesus' name. Right now in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. We come against any and all spirits of religion in Jesus' name. Any and all works in legalism in Jesus' name. The lies that the enemy has spoken over your people, Lord. Right now in Jesus' name. Right now, Lord, fill them with your fire. Soften their hearts, Lord, in Jesus' name. Right now, Jesus, hallelujah. Right now, break off the works of religion right now. Break them off, Lord. Break it off in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Right now, any and all works right now. Go in Jesus' name. In the mighty name of Jesus, come out. We bind you right now in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Right now, right now. Right now in Jesus' name, Lord. Right now. Right now, Lord, I pray for a great revelation of who she is in your eyes, the love you have for her. I pray the hurts and the pains will fall off right now in the mighty name of Jesus, Lord. Right now, Lord, you are the great physician, Lord, and we believe and we know that you're at work tonight in the hearts and minds of your children right now, and that you love her right now in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Any and all cults and false religions, world religions, any and all Satanism in Jesus' name, we curse you in Jesus' name. Be free in Jesus' name. Right now, any yoke of bondage from the enemy right now, be broken off in Jesus' name. Right now, get out in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. Get out in Jesus' name. The expectations, performance base, perfectionism. Thank you, brother. In Jesus' name, be broken out. Right now, go perfectionism. Go criticalness. Go judgment. Right now, in Jesus' name. Right now, know you are loved, cherished, celebrated. He's proud of you. He loves you right now. Any and all, workspace religion. Any and all, we bind you in Jesus' name. Right now, in Jesus' holy name. Right now, get out in Jesus' name. Loose his mind in Jesus' name. Receive, freely receive the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ. He went to that cross, took those nails in his hands and his feet for you. So you wouldn't have to and you don't have to.      Hallelujah. Open up. Let him, let him in. Let him in. Let him come in and love you. Come on. He told Peter, if you don't let me wash your feet. I have no part of you. You have no part of me. Let him into those places. The dark places. The stinky places. Open up. Be vulnerable right now to the Lord. Lord, I take it. I open it in Jesus' name. Lord, take it away. Take it away.