Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:01]
A
All right, let's go together to Luke chapter 18, verse number nine, beginning at verse number 14. This series is the most difficult series I have taught in a very long time. It is probably the second most difficult to any series I do on money. It is so difficult for me to put this together and the way I'm wrestling over my words. And I want to challenge you without condemning you, and I want to. So I need you really pray, praying for your pastor during this series. And I need my amen ers backing the bishop up during these sermons because it's not typical church content. And. And I want to expose some things we may need to move away from without insulting the foundation that got us all started in the faith. So that's the tension that I'm really, honestly struggling with here. And I don't know, I go home each week not feeling great about how it's going. But I promise you, I'm giving you the best I got. I'm just trying to be obedient to what God is instructing me to teach. So Luke 18, verse 9 says to some who were confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable, Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people. Robbers, evildoers, adulterers, even like. Even like this. Even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He wouldn't even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other one, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. I want to stop the reading of scripture there. We're going to talk from this subject in our time together. One word is the topic of this teaching. The word is poison. Put your hands together at every location if you're ready for God's word. In 1990, a spin off group from New Edition, they're getting ready to go on tour next year, by the way, with boys, the men and Tony Braxton. I'm just telling you right now, your bishop in there, I don't care what you say. I'm with my wife. We all in there. Although we come to the end of the road, I can't let go. It's a natural. In 1990, a spin off group from New Edition called Bell Bib devoe released a record called Poison. And while I won't preach the lyrics, I will pull a lesson because the sentiment of the song is simply suggesting that things are not always what they look like. Some things that look beautiful are actually baked and some things that look pretty might just be poison. And these lyrics aren't for the purpose of this preaching presentation. They aren't entertainment. These lyrics are education. These lyrics aren't just lessons that we can apply in our relationship with people. These lyrics are lessons we can apply in our relationship with religion. Watch this. Because everything using God's name isn't doing God's work. And everyone that claims Christ is not Christ like and as a result of this reality, the many people have come to Christianity looking for some peace, looking for some purpose, looking for some purity. But what they got was some poison. They came. I need my ameners. They came looking for spiritual transformation, but what they left with was spiritual trauma. They came looking to get well, but what they left with was a different kind of sickness. They came looking for the great physician, but what they got was spiritual manipulation and spiritual poisoning masquerading as a spiritual prescription. And this poison I'm referring to is a poison called spiritual narcissism. It is a spiritualized self centeredness that manifests itself as spiritual exploitation in the pulpit and self idolization in the pew. It is a warped expression of our religion that anoints our arrogance, appeases our ego, and makes allowances for ungodly appetites. And this poison is uniquely dangerous because it's difficult to detect. This poison doesn't look like poison. It looked like passion. It doesn't look like poison. It looks like commitment and conviction. However, it is actually spiritual dysfunction that the devil delivers to us through spiritual practices. He put the bad stuff in the good stuff. And the text Here in Luke 18 is an example of what I'm attempting to articulate. The top of Luke 18 exposes us to Jesus attempting to give his mentees, his disciples, some insight on the importance of a spiritual discipline we know as prayer. Somebody say prayer? See? Nope. I need you to be Pentecostal for five seconds here. Now say it like you got the Holy Ghost. Say prayer. That's it. That's it. That's it. Prayer. Dr. Tony Evans says prayer is oral, mental or written communication with God the Father, in the name of Jesus the Son, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. It's your invitation for God's participation in your situation. It is the key that unlocks the door to what God wants to do but is unwilling to do until you ask him. Mark Batterson says one of the greatest tragedies in your spiritual life is when prayers go unanswered because they go unasked. But I am wondering, am I talking to anybody in Jersey and in Georgia today who will testify there is no shame to my game? I. I'mma ask him. Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you. Don't be running around here scared to ask. He told you to ask. Well, I don't know what his will is. His will is his business. Your asking is your business. I'mma ask him for what I want and I'mma receive what he give me. Give somebody a high five and tell them, ask. Ask until your son gets saved. Act until the business turn around. Ask until your body gets healed. Act until the financial need is met. Act until clarity comes in your heart. Go boldly before the throne of grace. You better ask him. Jesus wants to make sure his mentees are proficient in prayer. So he tells them a parable. Because the goal of Jesus, this is third way teaching here. The goal of Jesus is not just to be profound, it's to be practical. So he tells them a parable to help them understand the proper way to approach prayer. He said, I don't want you to do the right thing the wrong way. So he tells them a parable. And he tells them a parable. He says, there is this widow woman who is going to an unrighteous judge in an attempt to get justice. So it's a widow woman who's going to an unrighteous judge in an attempt to get justice. It's right in Luke, chapter 18, verse number one. It's a widow woman who's going to an unrighteous judge in an attempt to get justice. Luke tells us she's a widow woman. Why is that important? Because in that cultural context, a woman depended on a man for her protection and for her provision. So she's a widow. It means that she had it, but she lost it. Let me go to this side over here. I said, as a widow, it means she had it, but she lost it. And some of you may say, pastor, I've never been a widow. Well, you've never been a widow, literally. But all of us have been a widow, metaphorically. Cause if you ever had something and you lost it. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah, it's a riddle. If you ever had joy and you lost it. Ever had peace and you lost it. Ever had a job and you lost it. Ever had a relationship and you lost it. Ever had clarity and you lost it. You may not be a widow, but you know what it's like to go through a widow season. What's a widow season? Pastor? A widow season is a season where God allows the removal of what we previously depended on in order to orchestrate a situation where you get delivered from unconscious codependence. He says, I'mma let the thing you used to depend on disappear so I can show you it was never your source. It was only your resource. They hadn't been keeping you. I've been keeping you. They hadn't been opening the door. I've been opening the door. They not the door opener. They the usher. I'm the door opener and I'll open doors no man can shut. And I'll close doors no man can open. Somebody praise him if you believe. He's my source. He my source. He my source. He my source. He's my source. Just because they open the doors don't mean they the only one God can use to open a door. Just because they made a way doesn't mean they're the only one God can use to make a way. He's my source. So this widow woman has to advocate for herself. I'm trying not to run around here. I feel a run in this right foot this morning. Listen to me. She used to be able to depend on somebody else to do it. And God allowed the removal of that foot from her life because in this season she had to learn how to do it for herself. God is not abandoning you. God is challenging you to step out of codependence and learn how to advocate for your sin. That's why they're not calling you back. That's why they got funny on you. That's why they ghosted you. This widow woman is going to an unrighteous judge saying, I need some justice. My husband not here to advocate for me because I would call him and he would handle it. But I need you. And. And the Bible says that this unrighteous judge had no fear of God and didn't care about people. But this widow woman wouldn't leave him alone. Every day he go to the office, she sit him right there. He come on Monday, she right there. He come on Tuesday, she right there. He come on Wednesday, she right there. He come on Thursday, she right there. She come on Friday, she right there. She's a woman with an attitude. Of Jacob, I will not let you go until you bless me. Watch what the text says. The text says for some time he refused, but he finally said to himself, even though I don't fear God and I don't care what people think, this widow keep bothering me. And because she keep bothering me, I'mma give her justice. Jesus, don't miss this. Jesus is using this parable to to teach his disciples the importance of partnering persistence with your prayer. Come on. Verse one gives us the point of the parable. Jesus tells the parable to teach the disciples how to always pray and don't give up. That's the point of the parable. He's saying prayer that's informed by the Scriptures. Prayer that is married to persistence. You keep asking. Now, here's what some of us have been taught. That the continual asking is an expression of unbelief. When you play pray, believe you receive. Okay, I'm not saying that's incorrect. I'm saying that's incomplete because Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray and not give up. So I know. Come on here. All right, so I'm not saying that's incorrect. I'm saying it's incomplete. And the reason it's incomplete is because if you assume that the purpose of continual asking is to get God to do something, then you misunderstood the text. The persistence isn't to get God to do something for you. The persistence is what God is using to do something in you. He says, I don't need you to keep asking me for me to do it. I need you to keep asking me because your persistence is shaping the spiritual conditioning of your soul. God Almighty, I am using the weight to teach you the importance of spiritual endurance. This woman's tenacity was a theological lesson in persistence. This woman is cultivating long faith through her persistence. Strong faith is long faith. Strong faith is long faith. Strong faith is long faith. Biblically. Are y' all ready for this? Can. Can I challenge you some more? Jesus even says the size of your faith is not as important as you think. That's what Jesus said. I don't know what a teacher said. I know what Jesus said. He says, if you got faith the size of a mustard seed, so for Jesus is not the size, it's the quality. Did you hear what I said? So big faith for Jesus is. Is high quality. It's not how big you can believe, it's how long you can believe. And can you keep on believing when it seems like believing isn't working? I got Bible. I said I got Bible. I said, don't believe me. Give me James, chapter number four. They don't believe me. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires, that battle within you? You desire, but you do not have. So you kill, you covet. But you cannot gain what you want. So you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. Did you hear what I just said? Here it is. Here it is. You do not have because you do not ask. Because you ask for wrong motives that you may spend it on your pleasures. Okay, does that make sense? Okay. Now, what James is doing in James 4, remember, this is a letter. This is an epistle. The redactors added chapters and verses to make it more coherent for us. But James is just writing a letter, so you can't really interpret what he says in chapter four without understanding how he starts Chapter one. Count it. All joy when you face trials of many kinds. For you know verse three, that the testing of your faith, one translation says, worketh patience, one says, produces perseverance. So the testing of my faith produces perseverance in who? Not in God. It produces perseverance in me. Which means if perseverance is required. One of the ways God tests my faith is not with the enormity of the obstacle. He tests my faith with the length of the weight. Did you hear what I just said? I'm going to see how long you can keep on believing me. I'm going to do it, but I'm going to make you wait. I'm going to do it, but I'm going to make you persevere. I'm going to do it, but I'm going to make you persist because of what it is producing in you. You say, yeah, believe you receive when you pray. But the reason you keep praying, it's not because I need to hear it again. You need to keep asking because of what it's producing in you. Glory to God. Somebody praise him for me right here. I feel him. The only way you cultivate long faith is if he makes you wait. And long faith is faith that refuses to surrender, to delay a disappointment. It's faith. Long faith is faith that survive. A no. I'm. Hallelujah. I wish I had me a a Baptistal church right here. Glory to God. I said it's faith that survives. A no. Some people's faith is in the grave of a no. You got hallelujah. But when you believe your God is a righteous judge, a judge has the ability to overrule and turn a no into a yes. So he's teaching his disciples the importance of persistence in prayer. You follow me? You gotta understand verses 1 through 8. If not, you won't understand verses 9 through 14. Because verses 9 through 14 isn't a change of subject. It's a continuation of a conversation. He goes from telling them on the importance of persistence in prayer to teaching them the importance of having the right posture in prayer. He said, you can be doing the right thing, but come at me the wrong way. He said, so we don't. We don't just need to talk about the action of prayer. When you talk about your attitude, let's talk about the attitude you bring. God, where you at? The attitude. Come on. Am I making sense? All throughout Scripture, we see a consistent concern with God. God is consistently concerned with not just with what we do, but how we do it so much so with certain things, he's like, if you don't do it right, I don't want it. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, now. Come on. This an equal opportunity church. So I don't just pander to either gender, but I just need the sisters to help me out right here. Yep. See why y' all see the fellow. Calm down. What's this? Let's say you want some time, some facetime. Y' all not real over here. I said say. Say you want some FaceTime. No, no, not. We on the couch together looking at TV. Look at me, right? You want some FaceTime? And you're like, I want to spend some time together. And like, come on. What you going to say? Never mind. Now, if he giving you some money, you going to be like, praise God. Hey, amen. He'll be all right. Take that money. Mad bishop. But amen. Amen. You need something back, all right? Because it's not just love doesn't just concern itself with what you do. Love concerns itself with how you do it. So Jesus is trying to help them understand the importance of bringing the right posture in prayer. So he tells another parable of two men who going to pray. One man is a Pharisee, a religious leader, a Bible thumper, a man of God. And this man have the nerve to stand by himself. This is prayer. God, I thank you that I am not like other people. Robbers, evildoers, adulterers. Notice he stopped there because Pharisees stop. Listen, only list stuff they ain't done. But you got a list, too. Okay, let me go watch this. And he says, watch this. Now they in the synagogue. He see the other man over there praying. This is what he say. Number one, how you even. You need to be focused on God. Watch what he said. He says, I'm not like other people or even like this tax collector. This is a. This is nasty work. I want the gall, the audacity to pray this kind of prayer. He talking to God and he's so confused. His theology is so unchallenged that he assumes that God receives what he just prayed. This is. This prayer. This Pharisee is a case study in spiritual narcissism. I want you to see what he did. The prayer was all about him. He commends himself. He compares himself and congratulates himself. Lean in, lean in, lean in, lean in. His spiritual dysfunction is showing up in his spiritual discipline. The way he doing the thing, the way he is practicing the principle of prayer is exposing us to his poison. Because some people prayer. Some people poison come out in the prayer. If you listen to them pray, you can hear the poison. I can hear the self righteousness in your prayer. I can hear the entitlement in your prayer. I can hear your superior. I can hear your judgmentalism. Your spiritual discipline is revealing yourself. I can hear your poison in your preaching. Your tone. Your tone is telling me you unhealed. Your obsession with this, is telling me you're still wrestling with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You killing people that's struggling with what's killing you. So you're projecting yourself hate on other people. Because the way some. The way some of us. Not all, but the way some of us. Oh, my. Y' all hear my heart. The way some of us were discipled. You were discipled in that environment. That's who you looked up to. Did you hear? We not like them over there. It's holiness over here. So they didn't see other streams or other expressions of the faith as different. They saw it as deficient. They tried the only one making it in the pearly gates. And some of us were disciple in this environment. I'm not saying you like that, but if you stay in this week, I had to be on the West Coast. I had to preach at this thing. And I was in Palm Springs and I went up to Los Angeles and I'm with a friend of mine who disciples a lot of people in the industry there. And we go to this, like, basketball game. It's not like the Drew League, but it's kind of like the Drew League. And because of the people I was with, I'm thinking they like, yeah, we're going to this league. I'm thinking they like going to Calabasas. Yeah. And so I'm walking in. So it's just me. Is. Is me and walking in. And then, you know, they were. How can I say it? Relaxing in the gym. Yeah. It was a gas station, but it wasn't Exxon. Got. I'm like, oh, my gosh. He brought me to this basketball games. Oh, my gosh. And I'm like, okay, now I gotta go back home. I'm gonna have to explain this when I get back to the room. I had to explain this to PS When I walk like, what you smell like, baby. Listen, I didn't do it. I was around it, so I smelled like. Some of us grew up in this environment. It's this spiritual narcissism that shows up in spiritual leadership, and it ultimately leads to spiritual exploitation, manipulation, and abuse. What is challenging with this poison is that it's. People weaponize biblical language and biblical concepts to actually justify what they're doing. So they. They. They misuse terms like submission, and they turn it into subjugating yourself to spiritual abuse. They misuse terms like covering, and then they make it control. They take terms like faithfulness and use it to get you to violate your personal boundaries. And it doesn't create transformation. It creates temporary behavior modification and spiritual trauma bonding. You think you faithful, you trauma bonding. You a manning your insults. Spiritual trauma bonding is a psychological attachment that forms when a person experiences alternating cycles of abuse and affirmation within a religious context. It creates a powerful emotional dependency where victims become increasingly loyal to those causing them harm because they mistake this traumatic attachment for spiritual devotion. It's like, I don't have time, but if I did, I would show you Saul and David because David dodged spears from Saul twice. Why you stay? Because it's a cycle of affirmation and abuse. It's a cycle. So your dysfunction is being celebrated. You're so faithful. You're so committed. You always say, yes, help us, Lord. I'm done. Taryo. It shows up the smoke on this. You may not get lung cancer, but the smoke you smell, you carrying this odor into your relationship with God now. And so now the own. Unconsciously, this impact is showing up in certain behaviors. So now it's like we engage in. One of the symptoms of this is we engage in scriptural abandonment. So now what happens is because people misuse that which was biblical, we abandon it all together. So now, because what they call covering was actually controlled, now you run away from anything that remind you of it. So you're spiritually triggered. I know what I'm talking about. This is. If this is you, you are my assignment. Do you understand? You are my assignment. We do change for you. The way we approach things is for you. The way we do things is for you. The way I teach, the way I phrase things is for you. Because I know what it feels like to be you. So you're carrying this, and it's impacting your relationship with God. It's increasing your anxiousness. And now when the people you trusted the most violate your trust the greatest, it becomes difficult to trust, to trust anybody. And then what happens is you not only have scriptural abandonment, now you lead with spiritual suspicion. So now watch this. The one that broke you, broke you so bad you suspicious of the one God sent to heal you. And we need detox. And the Holy Spirit has to help us see this and be free from it. This is a job for God. You waiting on seven points. It ain't one. This is a miracle in your soul. God's got to meet you. I'm done. Look at me. He represents spiritual exploitation of the pulpit, but also self idolization in the pew. So this leader was also a person. And he represents not just leaders in church, but people in church who only think about them. Spiritual consumers who have no consideration for how your actions impact other people. For example, and I don't mean this. I'm not judging. I promise. I'm not judging. I want to be kind. I want to be charitable. Understand? Like, even, like there are times when life's like, man, okay, people, people be coming to church, they got to work, they got to go pick up a child. They, they, they caring for people. There are times where they, like, man, I just got to get in the house and they got to go. And those people, under circumstances like that, we understand that. It's like, okay, it's time to go, let's go. But then there's other people. Just, I just want to be first on the shuttle. I'm not judging you. Listen to me. But right now, the Holy Spirit might be ministering to the person you gotta. You trying to step over because you just want to be on the shuttle first. Let me pass to you right now. Somebody trauma just got exposed to them and the Holy Ghost is ministering to them because a sermon can't fix this part. Now I'm your usher and I'm walking you into the arms of the one who can fix what I can't fix, who can heal when I can't. I'M a teacher. He's the healer. And sometimes in moments like this, we just think about me and not we. It's like there are going to be people that come in the next service. Oh, my God. Sometimes they start on time, sometimes they start late because they don't care that I refuse to rush you. This isn't an event. This is an encounter with God. Lift your hands. In this house, every location. Father, there is spiritual trauma all over this room. By your grace and through your word, I believe you've exposed it to the hearts of men and women. Now do what only you can do. A healing work, a delivering work, a sanctifying work. Set us free in the name of Jesus. Everybody look at me. I'mma do this because you're probably not going to get it from the person you want it from. But receive this as God's gift to you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry they took advantage of you. I'm sorry they use you in that way. I'm sorry they gaslit you. I'm sorry they abuse you. I. I'm sorry. But the one that broke you ain't coming back to fix you. Your brokenness is their fault, but your healing is your responsibility. We gotta go.