As vice president there, Alan George, who was
president, had a fabulous prayer life.
I mean, just a man of prayer.
I just thought, oh, it's so neat.
You know, just touch me.
It was so neat being around this guy
and praying with him.
And then when they booted me out of
there and Mark in pity took me into
ICBC, we met with Mark once a week
praying.
And if you haven't ever prayed with Mark,
I mean, Harry's praying psalms back to God
with his Bible closed, tears running down his
cheeks, and it's like God's in this room
someplace.
I know he must be over there in
the shadows, but God is in this room
when you pray with Mark Bubeck.
So I've had all of this for years
in my life, and I'm going, why, why
is it taking me so long?
I liked what Marcus said because Marcus stole
my thunder, although he never heard me say
it, never heard him say it.
But I'm reading the Bible through again and
a new Bible.
I was reading Genesis about where God told
Adam to yada Eve.
And then God wants us to have that
yada relationship, that intimate relationship, and how Adam
and Eve walked in the garden with the
voice of God.
And then Marcus picked up on that and
thought, man, that's so great, because we were
agreeing with him.
But you know, when you have the same
message, you always agree with the speaker.
He's really sharp, smart, and intelligent.
And I was reading all these, you know,
so-and-so lives so long, so-and
-so where he did that.
But just before that, where the kid's son,
I forget whose son it was, Enos or
whatever son, Sam or somebody's son, began to
worship God.
Then you read all these people, and then
all of a sudden out of that list,
Marcus pulled out again, and I saw it.
Enoch walked with God and was not.
Between Enoch and Adam, all these people did
the religious stuff.
You know, the sacrifices, they did the religious
stuff.
But every now and then again, God calls
somebody to walk with him.
And I got my call late in life.
I'm a doer.
I'll do, you pray, okay?
You know, I mean, I'm just real hyper
-whatever.
Probably drove everybody nuts.
My parents and the Juvenile Delinquents Society in
L.A. and everything else.
I've just always been wound up tight.
And so doing, and you pray.
You know, I'm the Martha and not a
whole lot of Mary in me.
And all of a sudden, you know, I'm
working up to Potter.
He's in here.
Don't get out and leave if I'm embarrassing
you.
But Aaron's in here.
And I got Aaron's book.
And I had to ask my question.
And all my counselees, why don't I pray?
Why pray?
You know, now I lay me and bless
the food in almost an accident.
You know, the Skylobs and those kinds of
things.
But why didn't I have an intimate, deep
walk with God personally?
When I saw it all around me.
And I realized that I had, I didn't
know God by name.
And I began to get to know, remember
that's the third thing in warfare?
A distorted view of God.
I didn't have a distorted view of God.
I had no view of God.
Well, I could pass the names.
I mean, after all, you know, I've taught
in Bible colleges.
So I could go, oh yeah, Jehovah, blah,
blah, blah.
But what did that mean?
Say, what did those names mean?
Well, he does this in this book.
And I only found three good books on
the names of God.
And we have one at our office.
Because I know that most of my counselees,
they're not in sexual bondage.
They're not in a mess if they have
a walk with God.
Sorry, they just don't.
And if I don't get them walking with
God when they leave there, all I did
is remove some of the stuff.
But they're going to be the dog back
to his stuff, right?
You know, what's Pearls Before the Swine or
all that stuff.
But anyway, this book is there.
And Aaron did a phenomenal job on the
names of God and explaining what they mean.
Say, what book do we have?
The other book, two books.
This is all free beer to get into
our stuff.
But this is part of the stuff.
What do you do after someone's delivered?
Well, if we have teenagers that don't have
a week, have them go through.
We sell the book there.
Lord, I want to know you by Kay
Arthur.
Because you interact in that book with the
names of God.
The other one is My Father's Name by
Elmer Townes.
And I've got all the names of God
books that there were there.
Now, you have some books now praying God's
names.
Excellent books.
That the whole book is how to pray
the names of God, using the names of
God in your prayer time.
But these others were getting to know who
he is.
So that was very important.
So Aaron is here.
His stuff is good.
And I recommend it very, very highly.
And I was really blessed by Aaron's stuff.
Please buy this book.
He has a wife and desolate children.
Show them the hole in the bottom of
your foot, Aaron, and the shoe.
Show them, show them.
Okay.
When I fly, which I don't like flying,
I'm not a white knuckler.
I just don't.
I've got long legs and they've made the
seats closer together and all this stuff.
So I take one of the new books.
I think I've got 27 or 37 books
waiting for me to read.
So I picked up this one.
I thought spiritual formation as if the church
mattered, and how to have formation in a
group.
I thought that's interesting.
This is a real emphasis of the school
that I run, is that every fellow would
have an intimate relationship with God in the
three years, and giving them tools and that
they can develop that.
And then all the tools are secondary.
Because I've taught in two other Bible colleges,
and we saw a lot of guys graduated,
you know, whether it's summa cum laude or
whatever it is, and their lives are summa
cum lousy.
And there was somehow a breakdown between all
this up here and down here, and I
didn't want our guys to leave the school
with lousy lives.
I mean, I don't care if they can't
do the Greek.
If they can walk with God and hear
God's voice and be directed by God, hey,
that's unique.
But let me, I read this.
Dallas Willard is one of my favorites.
He and Neil Foster and that whole crowd,
the formational crowd.
And that just means becoming Christ-like, how
to become more like the Lord, the stuff
they write.
This is what he wrote.
Dallas Willard reminds us, your system is perfectly
designed to produce the results you are getting.
That is a phenomenal, phenomenal statement.
Your system of counseling is perfectly designed to
produce the results you are getting.
Do you like the results?
Then maybe you better look at what?
What you're doing.
And we're always looking.
How can we make it better?
Are we missing something?
We better pray.
Father, thank you for this time, and I
just pray that you would help me to
share.
Lord, we know there are so many families
that are hurting because of enemy activity and
just crazy sexual stuff.
And so I just pray, Father, what I
share here may be a real help to
those that are here.
In Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
Yesterday when I mentioned the young people that
I had to deal with that were sexually
addicted, one of the people in here, who
is pretty well-known, said his three-year
-old granddaughter is sexually addicted.
And some are like, oh, really?
That can't be so.
You've got a guy right here that most
of you would know if he stood up
that talked to me yesterday and said, yes,
what do we do?
I'm sure you would know if I asked
you, what would you do if someone is
between one and two, two and three, four
and five, in that age group that are
sexually addicted, in a conservative family, no television,
not putting kids in the church nursery because
they've heard so many horrible stories, and never
had babysitters.
Though you can rule out a lot of
that stuff.
So what would have to be the obvious
explanation for these kids being sexually addicted that
have never seen anything?
This one little girl would take a doll,
she was three, take a doll and imitate
the sexual love act with a doll and
reach up in church and grab men in
their sexual parts.
Three years old.
I mean, the folks are crying.
You know, where does she get this stuff?
Where in the world?
This is sick.
Okay.
Anybody?
Pardon me?
No, it wasn't hospital.
Basically, what would you look for in something
like this when little kids are sexually addicted?
What?
Generational stuff.
My book has generational stuff in it.
Others talk about generational stuff.
Remember the iniquities of the father visit to
three and four generations.
And that can start again.
You know, a grandpa, I don't know how
many monkeys are up our tree.
My wife grew up on welfare.
My wife grew up in inner city type
situation where her family was all evil and
wicked.
Her sisters had babies.
I don't know if they knew who the
husbands were.
My wife was a virgin.
My wife witnessed at school about the Lord.
And Jim, when he found out my wife
grew up in welfare, could not believe it.
Your wife was not in welfare.
I said, yes, she was, Jim.
You know, brother in prison.
Terrible hellhole of a family.
I mean, just, you couldn't be more of
a cesspool.
But God can lay his hand on someone
there and keep them safe and sweet.
My wife is sweet and safe and godly.
If you ever met her, you'd say, what
a godly woman.
She just looks godly.
She had to be.
You know why.
I said, do you ever wish you said
I don't?
So the generational thing.
And it's interesting, the first time, and we
won't go there, because my things are not
generational.
Someone did.
The first time the Ten Commandments are given,
it says God visits the iniquity.
The second time the Ten Commandments are given,
it says, God says, sin, transgressions, and iniquity.
And out of that list, he says the
iniquity of the fathers will be visited to
children of those who hate me.
And people say, well, I don't hate God,
so obviously it's not going to affect my
kids.
I don't hate God.
I'm a Christian.
But we got the wrong definition of hate.
There was a verse.
I hope you brought your Bibles, because this
is going to be out of the Bible.
I'm sorry.
I counsel out of the Bible, and I
teach out of the Bible, because I feel
opinions are like noses, and everybody's got at
least one.
And so what God says is far more
important than any opinion I give you.
I want you to go to, I can't
remember where.
It's Mark, Luke, or someplace in the Gospels.
It's on top of the page.
But when I was a counselor, not only
did I teach in the Bible college and
was teaching the counseling courses and so on,
I also counseled all the kids.
And we had 600 kids.
And I told you what I said to
them.
They come in.
You mean 600?
How do you get through 600 in a
semester?
And I just say, is there anything you
thought about not telling me?
Something you don't want us to talk about?
I said, start there.
You know, instead of, well, let's work, and
how do you feel?
We haven't got time.
Dump it, you know?
And then I'm real good.
I have handouts.
You can't believe.
Handouts.
Well, that notebook we give you at the
prayer retreat, I invite all of you to
the prayer retreat, not women, but men, 673
-page notebook out of seven three-ring notebooks
that I have full of notes on prayer.
So I have seven three-ring notebooks, and
out of that, we took 600 and some
pages to give you.
I could write a book on praying the
Lord's Prayer with about 20 different ways of
praying the Lord's Prayer, or maybe more than
that.
And I love the prayer retreat, and that's
really good for our guys to get alone
with God.
And you're only taught in the morning, then
all afternoon, you're in the most gorgeous place,
thousands of acres, lakes, paved roads, and nobody.
You ever been to Upper Michigan in the
pine trees and all of that and the
retreat center is absolutely classy, classy, classy with
an airstrip a mile behind it if you
want to fly your private plane in and
taxi it in under the whatever.
Yeah, I'll tell you, it's Wolf Lake right
in front of the place, acres and acres
and acres of lake, and you can go
in the woods and meet God.
We teach you how to have solitude and
silence and how to connect with him.
Because someone said this, without silence, there's no
knowing.
Be still and what?
And know.
And if there's no stillness, there's no knowing.
And it was very hard for me to
get still, so I can teach you how
to get still.
Because none of you are as nervous and
jumpy around as I am.
But this verse is what these lousy kids
in Bible school would give me.
And I just hated it.
And I knew it had to be a
King James air or something.
I think maybe his wife wanted it in
there.
Anyway, and that is Luke 14, 26.
And I read it wrong the same way
I read about hating God and that the
Ten Commandments and iniquities aren't going to affect
my families, no matter what the family iniquities
are, because I don't hate God.
Okay.
And Luke 14, 26.
If any man come after me and hate
not his father, amen, I hated my dad,
I can come.
I didn't quite hate my mother, and I
really didn't hate my wife.
At times, my kids drove me nuts, but
I don't think I ever hated them.
Some of the brethren in the church I
pastored maybe fell in the hate category.
I could still be spiritual.
And sisters, and yea, his own life also
cannot be my disciple.
I've heard people preach this thing away.
You know, Dr. McGee was my pastor for
a number of years.
Best expositor of the Bible, as far as
I'm concerned, you know, that has been on
planet Earth since I've been around.
And he explained it away.
And then when I looked up the word
hate in the Greek, I'm thinking, why didn't
I start there?
You know, Paul to make a living, because
we don't pay him.
We don't have the money.
So he works at Olive Garden.
You know, it's a place that they press
olives or something in the garden.
I don't know what Paul does there, but
anyway, he works at Olive Garden at night
so he can straighten me out in the
daytime.
So anyway, this thing here at the Olive
Garden, when you go in, the girl gives
you something.
Sometimes the waitress brings out the table with
your water.
But what do they give you when you
come in?
They give you a menu.
And I look in the menu, and I
look at the Olive Garden menu, and I've
got to make a choice.
Well, anything with broccoli is real easy.
What isn't broccoli here?
But when I choose one, I'm choosing against
all the other options.
And hate means to what?
Choose against.
If I choose any of these things over
him, then it's as if I what?
Hate him with ten commandments.
How does it start?
Love him with all my heart.
Remember, first, God first, and all these other
things.
And so when I put something in the
place of God, it's as though I hate
him.
I'm choosing against him.
That's why God is a jealous God.
What is jealousy?
Jealousy is the fear of being displaced in
the heart of someone you love.
That's why he's jealous, and his jealousy is
right.
Okay.
Now, in our dealing with all the sexual
addictive stuff, so the first thing we want
to do is pray against generational stuff.
Because I've never had a man in bondage
that it didn't start at five years of
age.
I've already talked to some guys here that
remember it was a five.
Five years of age, they begin to have
these sexual feelings, they begin to act out
on this stuff, and begin to struggle.
Even teenagers that we get.
You look at the thing, we had a
ton of teenagers in sexual bondages this year
already.
And then some on the phone that call
me and ask if I can just maybe
give them some help on the phone.
It will start at five or four years
old when they become sexually aware when they
shouldn't.
There's no reason for a kid in a
godly home to have all of this, that
are careful about what they're watching and they
just can't watch anything, begin to have all
of these strange feelings.
Feelings that they wish they weren't male.
I mean, a five-year-old boy wishing
he wasn't a male.
There's something not right there, right?
And all kinds of weird stuff they're acting
out.
And so when you know it started at
five, and it just begins to unfold, year
after year, and they add, and they begin
to experiment, and they begin to get deeper
and deeper, and all kinds of stuff, well,
you know that at five years old they
had to be generational.
Now, I have a different spin on generational.
I'm not saying I'm right.
I just have to do with what I
believe.
I believe that the generational thing that stops
being a problem after a kid's eight or
nine, it becomes his choices now.
You say, well, I can't help it.
I had a weird grandfather.
He was sort of an ape in the
tree.
No, that may have been there, because I
believe that what happens when there's inequities coming
down generationally, that it gives the enemy a
right to bring destructive temptation in the area
in which the adult, you know, grandfather, great
-grandfather, open their lives up to the control
of the enemy.
So it can pass down.
And so it doesn't mean the person has
to do this, but what does a five
-year-old do?
The confusion in a five-year-old with
all this stuff going on, it's very, very
difficult.
And what is really good is when kids
will talk.
I was trying to think.
If I do the big seminar stuff, and
I don't know how many I've been in,
maybe 300,000 in some of the big
stuff we've been in, I tell them this,
and I get all kinds of phone calls.
Why don't you at some time ask your
kids at the proper moment, do you ever
hear anything no one else hears?
Or do you ever see anything no one
else sees?
And you would be amazed at the phone
calls I get of parents crying, because they
didn't know the kids were hearing stuff.
Never had any idea.
Because I never asked them.
Or that they were seeing things.
And it's a good question to ask.
And sometimes a young kid, you begin to
sense there's something telling him to do evil,
or this kind of thing, and he's struggling
with what's going on here.
And kids just think everything up there is
themselves, right?
A lot of adults do, too.
That everything going on up there is just
me, but not necessarily me.
Okay, I want to go on.
So we're looking at that.
The sexual stuff can be iniquities coming on
to the family, to the third and fourth
generation, and so they're struggling under all this
sexual stuff, sexual thoughts, acting out, all this
kind of stuff.
But in dealing with the sexual, if you
only deal with the sexual, they will not
have freedom.
Now, we're not talking about DID.
I don't even like talking about DID, because
I'm always nervous I'm going to hurt them
or say something wrong.
The more I go to these classes, the
less confidence I have.
Am I going to set them back ten
years?
Dan deals with them.
I don't, basically, because I only see people
from out of state or out of the
country.
So you don't deal with a DID in
a week.
And I don't want to do some damage
there in my week with them if they
pop up.
But Daryl and Vicky are very good.
They're really close.
They're in Colorado Springs.
They're only one dial away.
And if you have a DID that is
absolutely, extremely difficult, and you don't know what
to do, call Daryl or call Vicky.
And they have been a real godsend for
me with some really difficult, difficult, unbelievable, evil,
evil, evil stuff.
You know, not just a little disassociation, but
really wicked, evil stuff done to them up
through college age by their parents.
It's hard to believe that a college kid
could be so triggered.
Brilliant guy.
Triggered.
I can only tell you, it's not even
fit for men's ears, let alone women's ears,
of what this family did to their son.
Sick, sick stuff.
And so I'm thankful that Daryl and them
could deal with this.
I call the guy every Monday.
I'm mentoring him.
I'm there for him.
I love him.
I want him to know I care.
But I'm not going to get in Daryl's
road.
I try not to.
You know, and I'm so thankful there are
people that are experts.
And sometimes these real fractured people need an
expert, not someone playing with them.
You know what I'm saying?
Just try this or try this or try
this if they're super fractured.
Okay.
So we found that just dealing in the
beginning, the first thing we did was call
up a demon.
What's your name?
Sexual.
Or homosexuality, rather.
And we cast him out and told him,
Go home.
God bless you.
Everything's going to be fine.
Got the demon out.
They're going to go back and be fine.
Well, we didn't ever call him on the
phone to see what really was happening.
We just hoped everything was fine.
And, you know, so I looked at my
method and I said, We better do something
more than that and begin to work.
Because we found that casting a sexual demon
out of someone's life was not even the
beginning of the end.
Because there's a deeper problem.
And that's what I want to share with
you.
I want to share the thing.
If you talk to anybody who went through
our counseling that was sexually addicted, they will
tell you that when we dealt with the
sexual stuff on Thursday for three hours, their
sexual stuff, was not the thing that gave
freedom.
The freedom came on Wednesday.
Even though they hadn't prayed about the sexual
stuff, it was still there.
And I want to share Wednesday with you.
Because if you can get this, I know,
I just tell you, this is one of
the keys of the success of our office,
is Wednesday.
And I stumbled on this over a period
of years.
You know, it isn't like, boom.
I want you to go back and I'm
just going to take you through as if
you were there for counseling.
I want you to go to Isaiah.
Isaiah 14.
If I'm counseling teenagers, I'll go to Ezekiel
28.
But if I'm not, I'll just go to
Isaiah 14.
Because the question is, what did Satan do
that God booted him out of heaven?
You know, what was it?
Was it some sexual thing?
Did he look at magazines?
Was he listening to bad music?
You know, was he doing drugs?
What was he doing?
So, verse 12.
And it's a good question.
If they have an NIV or that, it's
really hard because people read Lucifer, it's translated
Morning Star, and they read it as a
shooting star.
You know, the star shot out of heaven
and it's not a shooting star.
How art thou fallen from heaven?
Oh, I'm sorry, 14.12. How art thou
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning?
How art thou cut down to the ground
that did weaken the nations?
My counselees do all the reading.
I mean, they're counseled for three hours straight
with no break unless someone has to use
the restroom.
So we have 15 hours, but with three
hours a day straight, they do all the
reading.
If they're home-teached, I like the kid,
oh, you're one of the home-teach kids?
Can you read?
Okay, get your Bible, let's go.
And they all laugh, home-teacher, I can
read.
What do you think?
For thou hast said in thine heart, I
will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God, I will
sit upon the mount of the congregation of
the sides of the north, I will ascend
above the heights of the clouds, I will
be like the Most High.
The first question I asked my counselee after
I read that, who did Satan say the
five I wills to?
And almost 90% of them will say
God.
That's not what it says.
Where did he say it?
In his heart.
The most important conversations you have, you have
with yourself.
As a man speaks in his heart, what
did Jesus say?
So is he.
If I could get your self-talk, I'd
know exactly where you are spiritually.
You know?
I went to the Bible, and I always,
when I read the Bible through, I'm always
looking for things.
The last thing I look for, when a
guy, I read his book, he said the
most important word in the Bible is here.
Well, I went through this Bible and marked
every verse on listening.
Not here, but listening.
What does God say about listening or what
a man says inside of himself?
And I was amazed at how many times
what a person says in the heart, that
exact phrase is used over and over and
over again in Scripture.
It says a wicked man says certain things
in his heart.
It says a fool says certain things in
his heart.
It says a righteous man says certain things
in his heart.
You can stop an activity by obedience, right?
God said don't.
That's the beginning.
You know how you know the end?
It's when you don't think like that anymore.
When this has changed.
I was saved when I was almost 20
by the Navigators.
Thank God for the Navigators.
Best organization in the world outside of ICBC.
Wonderful group.
They discipled me.
Three months later, I'm in the army.
No Christian background.
Nothing.
And they gave me a little packet of
verses to memorize.
I didn't know I had learning disabilities and
it was taking me forever to memorize 1
Corinthians 10.13. There's no temptation to take
any of it, such as common man and
so on, if you've been through the Nav
stuff.
And so I was putting together a Quad
50 machine gun under a blanket.
I didn't have it right.
The thing came back, smashed my thumb.
I pulled it out.
I mean, you can...
It's a wonder I had a thumb there.
It could take your thumb off.
I pulled my thumb out, stuck it in
my mouth and sucked it.
I said, praise God.
The guy next to me said, what are
you praising God about?
I said, I smashed my thumb.
He said, why are you praising God?
I said, I didn't even think of swearing.
Something had happened.
God was...
I mean, I grew up in a family.
We had a real good vocabulary.
Literally taught us all kinds of words.
Or we maybe just picked them up, you
know.
And I knew something had happened.
Why?
No, no.
I didn't even say it.
I didn't even think it because I was
biting my tongue before.
That's a change.
You understand?
That's a biblical change.
You hear me?
A biblical change is when I don't think
like that anymore.
But it's a process.
I have to keep what?
Washing my mind, renewing my mind, and so
on.
Okay.
Now, it's the last I will that fits
our study.
He said, I will be like the Most
High.
Satan did not ex...
I mean, pardon me.
Satan did not ex out God.
He didn't say God could be God.
That's not what he did.
He said, I want to be what?
Like God.
Now, this is where you need Aaron's book.
What does Most High mean?
Did he want to be like Jehovah-Jireh?
Provide a sacrifice?
Did he want to be like Jehovah-Raphae
and heal people?
No.
So, if we know what this name means,
we know exactly what's...
See how important the names are?
We know exactly what Satan wanted.
Satan wanted to be like El-Elyon.
El-Elyon is the one who rules sovereignly
in the heavens and on the earth.
What was Satan saying?
He said, God, you can rule heaven and
you can rule earth, but you can't rule
me.
The final authority in my life is going
to be what?
Me.
When are you most like Satan?
When you are running your own life.
Fred Dickinson, my mentor, taught me warfare counseling
at Moody's, said this.
Satan became creature-centered.
And Satan is selling his creature-centered philosophy
to mankind.
And if you buy into that, he'll rule
over your life.
Anybody that is being defeated with enemy stuff,
what do you know?
You know just from this one thing.
They're creature-centered.
What's the final authority in your life?
Me.
So if I cast demons out of them
and send them out creature-centered, what's going
to happen?
Well, me is going to take over again.
And we may get the demons clear in
the parking lot.
Or maybe even across the street.
But they're going to be right back to
their stuff.
Because the problem was what?
Me.
And what do we mean, me?
See, someone said this.
I like this.
I don't know who said it.
But anything profound just really grabs you.
I read somewhere.
You know, I am not a real original
profound person.
But this is profound.
Satan desired to be like God in control,
but not character.
Character.
Now, I want you to go to Proverbs.
We'll try to run through it barefoot.
What time am I through?
Does anybody know?
I got some time.
I got time?
Okay.
Well, we may put some running shoes on
and go through Proverbs.
Okay, Proverbs.
When we're building life around ourselves, what we
call that is pride.
And the word has I in the middle.
You know, I.
When life revolves around me is really what
pride is all about.
And let's just look at verses on pride
in your Bible, in Proverbs.
And you're not going to find a good
one.
And it can really make me say, I
better deal with this.
I mean, what God is saying is going
to happen if I don't do this.
I'm in trouble.
There are six things.
Verse 16.
There are six things the Lord hates.
He hates seven are an abomination unto him.
The word abomination is the worst word in
the Old Testament.
Six.
Sixteen.
So, abomination.
There's no.
It's worse than hate.
It's the.
It's way down there.
Like, I hate broccoli.
And it's almost abomination.
But I really can't put in that classification
because it's.
It's the worst there is.
And what's the first thing on God's list?
A proud look.
Pride on the kisser.
God hates it.
OK.
Go to Proverbs.
Eight.
Thirteen.
The fear of the Lord is to hate
evil.
Pride and arrogancy.
God says.
And the evil way.
And the forward mouth.
Do I hate?
What's an evil way?
An evil lifestyle.
God said.
I hate pride and arrogancy as much as
any evil lifestyle you would choose.
Why?
Because pride and arrogancy will lead you into
an evil lifestyle.
When you're the final authority where it's going
to take you.
When you're a Christian.
You know, the enemy wants you out there.
OK.
What's the difference between pride and arrogancy?
In English, I knew.
But I didn't know.
In Hebrew.
You know, I really had to rest.
I'm not a.
A Hebrew person.
Although one of our students is super in
Hebrew.
Who's teaching at our school.
It's nice when your students leave and come
back and teach Hebrew and stuff.
But he's teaching Hebrew.
And pride and arrogancy is the same in
Hebrew as it is in English.
And that is you here can be very
prideful.
But it's not obvious.
See, it's private.
But when someone's arrogant, what do you say?
Oh, that person's so prideful.
Look, they're so arrogant.
It's pride.
Pride what?
All over the place.
It's displayed.
And you can just pick up.
And you say, oh, that person's so sickening.
They're so set on themselves.
Or, you know, whatever.
Whatever.
But anyway, God says, I hate both of
them.
Whether your pride is private or whether it's
obvious.
Because it will lead you to an evil
lifestyle.
You'll keep choosing to an evil lifestyle.
OK.
Proverbs 11, 2.
Only by pride comes contention.
We hate those verses.
It should be usually.
You know, you ever been in a church
squabble?
Over the color of the rug?
Or what have you?
You know, the new chandelier or what have
you.
They want the one from, what was it?
Phantom of the Opera.
They really wanted that one in the church,
you know.
So if the pastor wasn't really good, it
could come swinging down towards the pulpit, you
know.
And let them know time's up or what
have you.
But, you know, churches squabble.
You just get so sick of it.
I can't imagine why a new Christian would
even want to go to most churches.
Are they through fighting?
I'll go.
They go there.
Whose side are you on?
What side?
I'm on God's side.
No, that's not enough.
I mean, you know.
Are you standing with these deacons or these?
You know what I'm saying?
Well, who's behind all of that?
It's an enemy thing.
He says, only by pride comes contention.
You see contention, what do you know?
You're not being critical.
You're just discerning.
There's pride issues here.
When my wife disagrees with me, I want
to be a godly husband and point out,
you have a point of pride, Marguerite.
No, I don't.
My wife's sweet, but maybe not that sweet.
I want to know why am I getting
upset with the wife of my youth.
Why am I standing up in the inside?
What's the pride issue here?
In me.
Right?
It's in me.
That's what we're worried about.
Not them.
Me.
What is the pride issue?
God, show me.
Because you're going to see pride is the
most devastating thing that you could ever, ever
be involved in.
We're going to see that.
Because you're going to end up a disaster.
Okay?
Look at Proverbs 15, 25.
This is a strong one.
The Lord will destroy the house of the
proud.
Guys, if you will not deal with your
pride, it will take your family down.
God promises.
That's a promise in the word of God.
That's not a promise we like to claim.
You'll never get anybody claiming any pride promise
at a promise meeting.
Give your favorite verse.
Oh, pride takes a family down.
Hallelujah.
No.
So, I've got to realize I'm in big
trouble.
And the worst verse in pride in all
the Old Testament is the very next one.
The strongest verse on pride.
And that is Proverbs 16, 5.
Pride.
Everyone.
Not some.
Everyone that is proud in the heart is
an abomination to God.
When do I become an abomination to God
as a child of God?
When I stand with Satan.
Do you see what's going on here?
That's what he is.
And I stand with him, I become an
abomination to God at that point.
If I even regard iniquity in my heart,
God won't hear my prayers.
Imagine if you're an abomination standing with the
enemy.
Though hand join in hand, they'll not go
unpunished.
Some of the modern translations really help.
Though they join forces.
A church split is never one guy by
himself.
He's got to go out and get a
crowd, right?
Got to get out of the group.
Look how big the group is.
You're going to go down.
Okay.
Look at Proverbs 16, 18.
Oh brother, I went too far.
16, 18.
Everybody knows this.
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before
a fall.
Even unsaved know that verse.
Somehow pride is going to take you down.
If you don't deal with it, unless the
Spirit of God show you where it is
in your life, it will take you down.
You know, one of the things that's really,
really helped me is when I realized that
I never have ever delivered anybody.
Never have.
And I've never given anybody freedom or victory.
I like to spook out some of my
counselees.
I'm glad you're here.
Did you come here to get victory?
Oh, yeah.
I said, we don't have it.
Oh.
Well, you already got it.
Right?
All we got to do is help you
stand in what's already yours.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could sell
victory?
I'm telling you.
I would be dressed better.
I would have been up further in the
airplane, up front, if I could sell.
I'm what they call the second-class flyers.
First class and the rest.
One plane I was going so far back,
I thought maybe I had the private room.
Okay.
Where were we?
I mean, look, I got to go back.
You guys interrupted me, and I didn't know
where I was going.
Am I going to the very last one?
We just did what?
Proverbs 16, what?
16, 18.
See, the reason I'm so smart is I
write the next reference right under that verse.
You guys thought I had all this memorized.
Proverbs 28, 25.
Yeah, this is the last one in Proverbs.
No, it isn't the last one.
He that is a proud heart stirs up
strife.
And in Proverbs 29, 23, a man's pride
shall bring him down.
And the question is why.
What's the correlation between pride and my life
crumbling?
And we want to see that.
I want to say something that I tell
a lot of kids.
There's one thing that has destroyed more Christian
ministries, more Christian individuals, than failure.
Success.
Look what we have, what?
Accomplished.
Look what we have.
Be careful.
You're on thin ice.
Anything that you do that has any lasting
significance is God working through you.
You hear me?
Get out of the road.
Don't stand in His way.
And when I counsel people, I'm constantly praying
in my heart, God, show me what to
do next.
Where should we go?
And it's amazing.
Verses will pop up that I didn't even
know I knew.
Because I don't memorize Scripture because of my
learning disabilities.
It takes me forever.
My wife is horrid.
She doesn't understand submission.
We were going to memorize Matthew 5, 6,
and 7.
I was on verse 3 of Matthew 5
and she finished all three chapters.
You know, this isn't a race.
But I didn't know I had learning disabilities
so you wonder why can't I memorize?
You know, what is wrong with me?
And then when I found out, at least
I know what's wrong.
So I don't try to memorize them.
I just read Scripture over and over and
over again.
And I'm getting it that way rather than
trying to memorize a verse and trying to
pull it up in my mind and all
this stuff.
It's really difficult.
So I had a kid that came.
He was ready to give up on life.
Six-year-old kid.
Good-looking kid.
Even his muscles had a few muscles.
You know, you want to see my muscles,
Logan?
Oh, wow.
Do you lift weight or just steal food?
What's going on here?
And he was telling me he was worthless
because he had dyslexia.
I said, oh.
And he didn't visualize.
I don't either.
And I said, I don't either.
Ah, you're just saying that to make me
feel good.
I said, no.
I said, if God can use me, a
guy who can't visualize.
You know, I said, I graduated from school.
Come lucky.
They said, we need the desk.
We're too late.
Really, I mean, if you went back to
the Bible school and they said they taught
you to had you teach in a Bible
college?
Were they cheap pay or what?
Why did they hire you?
I mean, I was likely not to succeed
just because of my learning disabilities.
When you don't know you have learning disabilities
and they teach you like you have everything
in place and you don't, you fail.
And that just lets you know how dumb
you are.
So I told you about my dumb stuff.
I want you to go to James 4
because this is where it really starts making
sense.
We looked at, what did Satan do?
He wanted to run his own life.
We looked in Proverbs that when I am
running my own life, there's a lot of
consequences in Proverbs as is going to happen
if I do that.
Now, James 4 puts it all together.
Why is it that if I have pride
in my life, I will live a defeated
life?
And where I'm defeated is not important.
You understand?
Whether it's sexual, whether you're stealing, whatever you're
doing, you will be defeated.
Okay, we got involved in the Swaggart situation.
I know this is being videoed.
You always got to be careful.
Not dealing with him, but dealing with people
involved with him.
I don't want to go any further than
that.
And I'm going to share only newspaper stuff
so there's no problem, right?
It's in the newspaper.
Okay, Swaggart, they realized that obviously a pastor
that's struggling like this needed help.
So they brought in a big-name demon
caster that came and cast less demons out
of this man.
Hallelujah.
Thank God, right?
Praise God.
This guy is a good preacher.
This guy loves the Lord.
I really believe with all my heart.
But he was trapped.
It's easy.
We've had good people doing rotten stuff.
My wife is a prophet.
I come home.
I said, you know, we've got this person
doing this.
I mean, we've had you name it on
the spectrum from a guy who made his
living in pono films and being a male
stripper to the other end.
I mean, everything.
There's nothing that you could do that hasn't
come through our office more than once.
And so I said, you know, he's really
a nice person.
My wife's a prophet.
Nice people don't do that.
I said, but inside he's nice.
Now we have rotten people.
You know, there's some rotten people who do
rotten stuff.
And I never tell a guy who's, if
a guy's rotten, I say, you know, you're
really rotten.
I mean, you don't want to counsel with
me.
I'm not the typical whatever.
I don't know what all it's supposed to
be, but I'll call it like it is,
but I'll love him anyway.
And they know I'm not rejecting them, but
you are rotten.
You better realize this.
You're one of the worst guys I've ever
had in here.
Hoping maybe the Holy Spirit will use it.
It just falls out of my mouth.
I can't help it.
I don't plan what I'm going to say
to these people.
It just comes.
And I'm doing it because I love them.
I don't think you will find anybody that
ever counseled me no matter how evil, wicked,
screwy stuff they were doing that didn't feel
like I loved them and cared for them.
I do.
God just gave me a tremendous love for
hurting people.
And especially hurting because of wrong choices and
just destroying their lives.
How many HIV people have we counseled?
Tons of them.
They should have said no, but they said
yes.
Now they're suffering eternal consequences, or at least
now, you know, here and now consequences with
this horrible disease.
It's getting them.
Okay.
Now, let's look in James because James tells
us why pride will take a stand.
James 4, 6.
And I have them read this.
But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith,
God resists the proud, but gives grace to
the humble.
My question is, what does God want to
give?
And they'll say grace.
And I say, you're wrong.
Okay.
Wrong?
I say, yeah, you're right.
It says God will give what?
More grace.
I said, if you had financial problems, in
this hand I had some money, in this
hand I had more money, what would you
take?
More money.
Well, then, the question is, what's grace?
And we had this guy running around the
platform trying to tell us.
But one of the definitions he uses didn't
help me because it's a good Bible school
definition.
I think the teachers use that because they
don't know what grace is.
They say it's unmerited favor of God.
Well, so is love and mercy.
Well, are love and mercy and grace all
the same thing or are they different things?
It just means I didn't earn it.
You know what I'm saying?
There's got to be more to it than
that.
I really heard this and it stuck with
me.
You can react if you want to.
Just say it is a definition of grace
or a working definition of grace.
But let me tell you, it will help
you more to understand grace with this particular
aspect of it.
And I've looked at it in all the
Hebrew and Greek and all that other stuff.
Grace, or it's not grace in the Old
Testament, but all the Greek stuff.
Philippians 1.6 says, He that hath begun
a good work in you will perform it
on the day of Christ.
Paul is committed to work on my life.
But then he picks that thought up again
in Chapter 2, verse 13.
And he said, For it is God that
worketh in you.
And you're going, is he stuttering?
He just said it in Chapter 1.
Why are you saying that again?
Saying the very same thing.
But he adds something.
Both.
Both, that's two things.
To will and to do of God's good
pleasure.
What's he saying?
He's saying there, God is going to give
me the desire, number one, and the ability
to make choices that would honor God.
That's what grace is.
It's the empowering of God to live the
way God wants me to live.
It's His power.
I was saved by what?
I didn't one day say, Well, I think
I'll become a Christian.
First of all, I went all through a
high school in Hollywood, and we never had
any Christians in our school.
I think it was 5,000 kids that
went through that school and I was there,
or 6,000 went through.
There wasn't one Christian.
So I didn't know what a Christian was.
I didn't know what Catholics were.
I knew what Ash Wednesday was because in
Ash Wednesday we got permission to get ashes,
so we went out of school, smoked our
cigarettes, and went back in.
That was some of my religious moments.
As a teenager.
I mean, that was my background.
I mean, just nothing Christian at all.
So it wasn't.
It was God that called me.
Go through the scripture.
Look it.
Called.
Chosen.
But I don't get all that stuff.
I'm not as Reformed Presbyterian as my Reformed
Presbyterian friends over here because they had to
know if I was chosen.
My wife chose me.
I love Larry and Nora.
Anyway, but I started looking at that, and
I see everybody fighting over that.
I've got it answered.
Someone wants to fight over all this, you
know, five-point Calvinism or ten-point Calvinism
or whatever.
It's very simple.
I said, God chose me before the foundation
of the world because he never would have
afterwards.
Hey, would he have chosen you?
Think about it.
Couldn't he have done better?
I've got answers.
Everybody wants to fight with me.
I've got these real profound answers.
They laugh and walk away.
We're so glad that they did this to
me.
Okay, so if we could see grace as
the empowering of God in my life to
make right choices, let me give you a
wonderful verse from Romans.
If God be for us, what?
But if God is resisting you, does it
make any difference who's for you?
And who does God resist?
The proud.
And don't think the enemy doesn't know Scripture.
If he can get you to be prideful,
he's got you in whatever issues you're doing.
Can you see?
We can cast all the lust demons out
of somebody.
After Swaggart had lust demons cast out of
him and the assembly of God, this is
all newspaper stuff, said, please step out of
the church for a year and a half
for your authority.
He said, you can't tell me what to
do.
And a few months later, he was arrested
in California for the same stuff.
So the lust demons probably just stayed in
the parking lot until they got in the
parking lot.
Do you see?
So can I really help someone at all
with any issue if I don't deal with
this one?
I don't care what the issue is.
See, the issue is up here.
We're looking at the hole in the bottom
of the shoe.
This has got to be dealt with or
you'll never help anybody permanently.
Maybe we don't help them permanently.
At least they'll know what's going on.
You know, if they do fall, I'll let
pride back in my life.
You know?
Okay.
So let's go back and look at this.
That God has more grace wherefore he says
God resists.
And the word resists means push away, not
to allow to remain or enter in the
grief.
God pushes away the proud.
But he will give his empowering to the
humble.
Pardon me?
It's in the Bible, honey.
James 4.6. Okay.
This is one of my favorite places.
Now, I think sometimes we have a distorted
view of pride and humility.
See, pride is not feeling good that you've
been used by God.
You know, where it goes.
One of the hardest things to do is
when people praise you.
What do you do with it?
You know, because it can be flattery and
it's a net for your feet and all
this stuff.
Are you trying to trap me?
You said you liked what I said.
Are you trying to trap me?
Name of Jesus!
I'm sorry, I said something.
You know, if you do something and you
do it well, whether you sing or play
or whatever, as long as you weren't showing
off your stuff, just say thank you.
That's encouraging.
Why did they say you were doing well?
And what you did, you let them walk
away and it's not all on me.
But a humble person, you know, no, it
wasn't a good talk.
Or, no, it wasn't very good.
You know, I know that I only hit
the cracks three times when I was playing
that piano number or whatever.
Or my grandmother gave me the lessons and
oh, sick.
A humble person is God, if you, I
pray, God, if I'm going to bless you,
he's got to work through this.
I'm just telling you words.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
It's got to be a God thing.
It's not a me thing.
We've got to get there, beloved.
But God would somehow use the way we
are, our personality.
In Bible school they said I use my
hands too much and I'd never be any
good.
And, you know, it looks like I'm drying
them or something all the time.
My gestures don't mean anything.
They really don't.
You know, they just go and I can't
help it.
You know, I don't care anymore.
I used to think about putting my pocket,
you know, this isn't working.
If they don't like it, I can't help
it.
I just got to be, you know, I
took the mask off.
I hope it doesn't, you know, it's like
Phantom of the Opera.
I hope you didn't scream.
It's off.
Just me.
That's all I can be is me.
Okay, I want to be a better me
but I, this can only be me.
So, a humble person is God, work through
me.
Let me be a blessing.
Father, let me have, give me a burden
for the loss.
Give me a, you know, a caring, whatever.
God, work through, I just want to be
a tool in your hand.
That's a humble person.
It's not I can't do anything and I'm
no good and all that stuff.
That's the enemy stuff.
Okay, now, he gives all this grace to
us.
Then, we go down to verse 7.
Now, we're getting into warfare, God's warfare stuff.
The next thing, he tells us, first, we
have to humble ourselves before the Lord.
Verse 7 says, we're to submit ourselves, therefore,
to God.
Submit is to get under, like submarine.
Submit to who?
God.
First.
And then, God's ordained stuff in your life.
We're to submit.
What we have our counselees do at this
point, we ask our counselees, would you, when
you go home tonight, it's homework, this is
Wednesday, I want you to identify all areas
of your life.
What are the areas of your life right
now?
Well, I'll give you some.
You're a son, aren't you?
Yeah, mm-hmm.
Are you a brother?
Mm-hmm.
We're going to ask the Holy Spirit to
come in and take control of these.
Oh, you already talked about your rock music?
Okay.
What about music?
So the Holy Spirit come in there.
You know, what makes you you?
And we put those down.
It's like a piece of pie.
I mean, we're a whole person, but they're
different parts of me.
And then, after we cast the spirits out,
you know, we heard about sweeping a house
clean.
Ain't so good.
We need to put something back there.
So we pray the enemy out of someone's
life and want them then to open the
areas of their life to the Holy Spirit.
What's someone filled with the Spirit?
It's someone who is allowing the areas of
life to be under the control of the
Spirit.
That's all it is.
It's not a mystical thing.
It's letting the Spirit be in control, but
specifically opening up the areas of my life.
This is what Worsby said.
Any area...
You write this one down.
This is good.
Any area of your life that you don't
want the Holy Spirit to control, Satan will.
You just put a bullseye in your chest.
You know, there's an area, no, I can't
give that to God.
Well, you're in trouble because the enemy is
going right after that area.
You don't want God to control it?
Okay.
I'm after it.
What are the two hardest areas for young
people to give to God?
I've got teenagers usually, and I don't care
what homeschool group they're in or how squeaky
their families are.
Courtship or dating, for one, they can see
the girl now, you know, ugly, horribly unattractive,
but she's God's choice for me.
You know, if I give it to God,
I mess up my life with her.
And the second is music.
All I can listen to is what?
Chamber music, as far as I'm concerned.
Put it in the chamber and shut the
door.
I can't stand chamber music.
But see, that's their concept.
If I give it to God, what's he
going to do?
Mess my life up because he has what?
A bad concept of God.
Second Corinthians 10, 3, 4, and 5.
One of those things there is what?
Distorted view of God.
It's one of the enemy wants, gets to
have.
I can't trust God.
Why?
Well, look what he's done or hasn't done
and all this other stuff.
So, 10, 3, 4, and 5.
That's usually, that's the Monday thing.
We start on, do they understand the parameters
of warfare?
Someone had it covered this week, I would
think, in some of the warfare courses here
because that's such an important, I mean, that's
it.
That's warfare in a nutshell, those three verses.
Because off of that spins every different way.
Okay.
Now, let's go on.
Now, after I'm willing to open the areas
of my life to God's control, from that
place, what can I do?
What's the next verse?
Resist.
The devil on what?
He'll flee from me.
But if I'm resisting God, where will the
enemy go?
Nowhere.
You see that?
If I'm resisting God in my life, the
enemy doesn't have to go anywhere.
I need to what?
Be submitted to the Lord.
And I'll tell you, the first time around,
I thought I really had arrived, I don't
chew gum, I don't spit on the sidewalk,
I'm not kissing girls, and that's that.
Brand new Christian.
I'm spiritual.
Well, then God takes you around again, right?
You know, I'm so glad I didn't get
this guy running around the platforms thing of
the list.
So I got saved too quick and got
away from all of the Christians.
So I have a list of what Christians
do and don't.
I got to tell you about this one.
The guys were always going down to Juarez,
which is very reasonable girls for rent down
there.
And I'm a Christian now, not quite three
months, and I don't think Christians do that.
So I keep staying at the base all
by myself.
You know, I'd have a lot more fun
if I wasn't saved.
You know, I'm a new Christian and everybody's
out there and I'm just all by myself.
And I'll tell you, basic training in El
Paso, Texas is not a really fun place
to be by yourself out there in the
desert.
Well, one day they said, well, listen, okay,
we feel bad about it, would you go
to a movie?
I said, sure.
I always went to movies.
So we went to a movie together and
the movie was Niagara.
And we're, it sounds good, you know, it
was probably about a waterfall or something.
So we're in the movie but the star,
which I didn't pay much attention, was a
gal that I was involved in X-raying
her, Marilyn Monroe.
I was unsaved then and now I'm a
Christian.
And this movie stars Marilyn Monroe and she's
in bed and the covers are slipping and
all of a sudden I remember I heard
about the rapture, that Jesus was coming back
from the Christians and I prayed he wouldn't
come back because I knew he would come
back and he would never look in that
church for me.
I mean, in that church.
Same thing, it was a movie house.
But I mean, no one had to say
anything about movies good or bad or whatever.
I mean, I'm sitting and I'm just dying.
What if the Lord comes back and I'll
be left?
See, that was a good title for a
book, Left Behind.
I should have picked up on it all
those years ago when I was in the
army.
But it's amazing what the Holy Spirit can
do without a list.
Do you know that?
If you're just sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
So then it wasn't, well, I got this
list from the Baptist and I want to
be a good Baptist so I don't do
these things.
I didn't do these things because the Spirit
of God told me not to.
I'm not a legalist.
You know, my son's a runner.
There's a lot of things he didn't do
in junior high, high school, college.
Now he's a youth pastor and he started
running again after he got his marriage all
settled down.
And now he can run again.
Now he's running and he loves running and
there's a lot of things runners don't do
because they want to what?
Win.
But they're legalists, you know.
Because they won't do those things.
No.
They want to win.
Do you see this?
Well, this helped me to be what God
wants me to be.
That's how I look at it.
I don't care if you chew gum.
But you name ten good Christians that chew
gum.
Just ten, ten, ten.
Name ten.
I like that part of his message.
See, I was listening.
I was listening to the guy.
Then after I resist the enemy, we usually
don't go down to the spark, but draw
close to God.
But see, after we dealt with the enemy,
we want to draw close to him.
Because we switch from here to something else.
I go to what time?
Ten minutes left?
Terrible.
Five minutes.
We'll finish the rest in the hallway.
Well, anyway, I go through all the scriptures
that people say, well, I don't believe that.
I don't believe the enemy's behind everything.
I don't believe What about the world, flesh,
and the devil?
And I'm going, what about the world, flesh,
and the devil?
The whole world lies in the wicked one.
The flesh is where my sin patterns are,
and Satan uses the world system.
I do not believe that you're ever tempted
apart from demonic involvement.
The Bible never tells you to resist temptation.
It says resist who?
The devil.
And there's a difference.
I mean, if I was to resist temptation,
couldn't I find one verse?
Go to James 1.
I mean, I'm sorry, we're running out of
time, and we really are.
I gotta give you a quick answer here
and skip a lot, but you can buy
my book, please.
You know, I got grandchildren, two of them,
in Iraq.
I really do.
A granddaughter and a grandson in Iraq, and
a grandson that came home from there.
It's all from one family.
They all wave American flags.
There's a real flag waving one of my
families.
But my granddaughter being over there but she's
really neat.
Very beautiful girl.
I haven't seen her for years because we
didn't have the money to see them.
She's visiting our house.
I said, honey, I'm really concerned.
You're so beautiful.
She says, grandpa, don't worry about me.
I'm a virgin.
If some guy messes with me, I'll shoot
him.
She's an MP.
Amen!
Right after her grandpa.
James 1.14. But every man is tempted
in the same way, but not every man
is tempted in the same issues.
But the process is the same for everybody
in here.
The issues are different because they're my issues.
Right?
My issue, yours.
Every man is tempted when they're drawn away
their own secret desires and enticed.
And when those desires are conceived, they're going
to give birth to sin and so on.
That's why, what are we supposed to do?
Take our thoughts captive before they give birth
to actions.
Right?
That's what we're, the battle's up here.
Okay, what's the answer?
We're going to skip a whole bunch of
stuff, but you can get it in the
book.
But, what's the answer for all of this?
you've got to go to Philippians, you've got
to go to Hebrews 4, and this is
not part of the answer.
Hebrews 4, 15 and 16.
I love this.
If, um, you will put power instead of
grace, you will find probably the verse that's
going to jump out all the more.
Look at this one.
For we have not a high priest which
cannot be touched through the feet and through
the feelings of our firmateeps, which is all
poised, tempted like we are.
How was Jesus tempted?
By the devil.
Period.
Yet, uh, without sin, let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of power that we
may obtain mercy and find power to help
in our time of need.
It's a throne of what?
Empowering.
It's a throne of grace.
I go there.
Why am I defeated?
Because when I need to go there, I
don't want to.
Do you know there's pleasure in sin?
And I enjoy the pleasure more than going
to God and asking Him, empower me to
make the right choice here.
Empower me to say no instead of yes.
And I've said yes for years, but I've
got to start saying what?
No.
And you say, God, I need your help
here.
I'm going to that throne that will give
me the power to make the choices that
went on to God.
Okay, what is the answer to pride?
And the answer is this.
How do we get rid of pride?
Because we got rid of a lot of
stuff this week.
You know, they dump whiskey down the toilet,
and I had a kid get rid of
his marijuana and all this stuff that was
there.
So how do I get rid of pride?
And the answer is this.
In Luke 9, and that's this.
I say, who woke up in your bed
today?
They said me.
I said, you can't get rid of pride.
Because pride is building life around the guy
that woke up, isn't it?
Pride is building life around who?
Me.
Jesus knew that.
He said, if any man will come after
me, his terms, let him what?
Say no to self and take up his
cross one Sunday a month or something, every
day, and follow him.
What did Jesus say in the garden?
Father, not my will, but thy will.
How do we deal with pride?
Every day, we need to die to self.
Jesus knew that.
If I don't die to self, then I'm
not going to live for Christ.
I've got to say no to me.
Lord, you take control today.
Fill me with your spirit today.
Lord, lead me today.
That's what I need.
It's a daily thing.
I'll give you one more.
Galatians 2.20, we won't look at that
one, but that's a good one.
That's Paul saying how he lived for self
before and afterwards he lived a crucified life.
But the verse I like the best of
all, and if you look in a, what's
that Greek thing where it gives you how
it's translated?
No.
Lexicon.
You look in a Greek lexicon and this
verse 31 is only translated by another translation
as it is in the lexicon as it
was given in the Greek and that happens
to be a translation I don't want you
to say no to me.
I don't care for that one too much.
First Corinthians 15, 31.
And I'm going to give you this like
it is in the lexicon.
I believe there was two reasons God used
the Apostle Paul.
And you know we have over a thousand
biographies in our house of Christians and we
always look for why did God use Hudson
Taylor?
Why did God use this person?
Our kids were reading, why did God use
them?
What was the key?
And often it stood out, you know, why
they were so usable.
Why did God use Paul?
Number one, he said, this one thing I
do.
What is the one thing the greatest Christian
ever lived did?
He let go of the past.
He put it behind him.
That's what counseling has got to be about,
isn't it?
You know, dump your trash in the office
in the cleaning radio, take it out, you
know.
Let it go a bit so you can
reach forth to what?
What's ahead.
I ask them, how far can you drive
focusing on the rear of your mirror?
Not very far.
Look ahead.
The second one is this.
Paul said, I die daily.
You can be sure of this, brethren, as
much as I glory over you in Christ
Jesus.
What was the key to Paul walking in
victory?
Letting go of the past and dying to
self on a daily basis so God could
work through him.
That is the answer to all addictions, all
emotional stuff, all everything.
If you don't deal with this, all the
other counseling is not going to work.
Trust me.
Remember he said, if you don't like the
product, go back and look what you're doing.
And what have I left out?
What do I need to leave out?
What do I need to put in?
And we're still looking at what we should
be doing and so on.
And Paul is helping me to do that
because sometimes you get your nose so close
to the window and someone from the outside
sees things.
As long as he doesn't see any fault
with me, I don't care what he finds
fault with the organization, just not me.
I'm not that fragile anymore, but I was
at one time until I really learned how
to die to self because a dead man
doesn't get offended.
Have you ever gone by and seen somebody
in a cheap coffin?
It's not even satin, it's cotton.
And look, they could at least wash his
T-shirt.
I didn't know I had so many ugly
tattoos.
That's why I don't take my coat off,
I don't want you to see my tattoos.
I got a doozy on my chest though.
It's the Lord's Supper and you can watch
them chew.
I'm a very religious person.
But I'll tell you, there's nothing more thrilling
than bumping into a kid you helped at
14 and seeing him at 20, 21.
I've been doing this for 25 years and
saying I'm still not doing that stuff.
Why?
Because I did something magic?
No, because he's dying to self.
He knows how to say no to this
stuff.
That's why he's walking in victory.
The Lord wants all of us to walk
in victory.
We're not stepchildren.
We're all his kids.
And he has a greater desire that we
would humble ourselves and lay up before him
the issues and all that kind of stuff.
If you have someone in your life you
can't get rid of, and I like this
one, and it's impossible for you to love
them, ask God to love them through you.
God, I'll just be a tool.
Just love them through me.
Show me ways of showing your love.
This guy that wrote this book, he was
doing marriage counseling.
He's sick of it, up to here.
He said, I did so much marriage counseling,
there's books by the zillions out there, how
to love your wife, how to kiss your
wife, how to buy her flowers, all this
stuff.
He said, I've got more divorces in my
church now with all those books than we
ever had before.
A guy that does marriage counseling says it's
very simple.
He says, what do I do?
He says, love your wife.
Go.
That's it.
Love your wife.
Go.
You don't need books.
He says, it's working.
We've got more loving going on in our
church.
We have a long time by handing them
out all these books.
It's amazing that Adam and Eve and some
of these people made it in scripture, they
didn't have all the books.
I don't know how they made it without
mine, but you know, some of these other
ones, yeah.
Let's pray.
Father, oh, there's so many kids today involved
in incest, pornography on the web and all
this stuff, Lord, and they're just trashing their
lives.
I think of the parents that call weeping.
Our office, what do we do?
What do we do?
Our kid is just, you know, he's over
the edge and doing all kinds of weird
stuff and all.
But Lord, we're thankful that you've got the
answer.
We didn't even go through what we do
with those that are sexually addicted, but we
know, Father, if they don't do this, anything
else we do is not going to work.
So I pray that you would just take,
this is so strong in my heart for
here, that we would just see that what
the bottom line issue really is in all
defeated Christians' lives, regardless of how it's played
out and regardless of what it is, it's
because there's an area of their life that
they're running.
And the enemy is going after that and
will take it down.
So, Father, we pray that the Spirit of
God, if there's some area of our life
that we're not willing to release to you,
that you'd show us and we'd be willing
to let go of it and say, Father,
you take it.
Maybe it's our reputation.
Who knows?
Whatever it is.
Our finances, our concept of what success is
and all that other stuff.
Father, we just want to be more like
Jesus and show us those things that may
be standing in the road and that you
may be glorified in our lives and through
our ministries.
In Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
Remember the book.