Interruptions, Authority & The Unforgivable Sin | Matthew 9:32-34 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor
Grand Parkway Baptist Church

Interruptions, Authority & The Unforgivable Sin
Matthew 9:32-34
1. Jesus was interruptible, v. 32
“As they were going away...” v. 32
“And as Jesus passed on from there...” v. 27
“While he was saying these things to them...”v. 18
“Then the disciples of John came to him...” v. 14
“As Jesus passed on from there...” v. 9
“And getting into the boat he crossed over...” v. 1

Think of it like this...
experiences ≠ Life
Life = experiences

2. Sometimes the spiritual manifests itself in the physical, v. 32
Revelation 12:7-12
Four things to appropriate over your families...
a)the salvation of God
b) the power of God
c)the kingdom of God
d) the authority of Christ

Two things you use to conquer the enemy...
a)the blood of the Lamb
b) the word of your testimony
What is the difference between oppression and possession?
Oppression- this is external pressure, demonic forces seek to oppress us
externally. The person has full control of their faculties. Paul’s thorn in the flesh is
a great example.
Possession- this is internal control. A person loses control of themselves. People
open the door to this through occult involvement, witchcraft, astrology, unresolved
trauma, habitual sin, unforgiveness and unresolved anger are all examples of
open doors.
Ephesians 4:26-27
Can a Christian be possessed?
I Corinthians 6:19-20
-Ephesians 4:30
I John 4:4
3. There is an unforgivable sin, v. 34
Matthew 12:22-32

Mental worship...
1. Are you interruptible? How do you most often respond?
2. Do you think your experiences will produce the Life you were created for?
3. Are your experiences more your ideas or God’s?
4. Is your faith corporate or personal?
5. How often do you think about the three dimensions of life: physical, emotional
and spiritual?
6. Is there anything that you think you won’t be forgiven for and on what basis do
you believe that?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well, my preacher told me because I didn't believe in God, uh, that that was a sin of blasphemy because I was grieving the Holy Spirit and that was blasphemy. So your preacher told you, this is why I don't tell people I'm a pastor at a wedding. I'm the officiate. This is my side hustle. No. I said, you're think for a minute, we're about done. You say, well, let me say yes. I said to him, I said, so your preacher told you you committed blasphemy because you don't believe and the Holy Spirit's you know convicting you of sin and righteousness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said, because I don't believe that. I said, look at me. Everybody in the world was born unbelieving. So we've all committed blasphemy if that's true, but that's not true. Your preacher's lazy, go tell him. He goes, I ain't seen him in years. And yet you live with this? He goes, I don't hang out with a lot of y'all. That's okay, I get it. I get it. But no, blasphemy is the unforgivable sin. It's not not believing the gospel, okay? Because a lot of people try to say that because the church wants to pressure you into praying some prayer so they can pad their stats. Look at me. Let the Bible actually say what it is. And the Bible says that blasphemy is attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. It's taking the glory that belongs to God and giving it to Satan.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Amen. Amen, amen, amen. Let's pray together, church. Lord, we know that you'll provide. Uh, and so because we know that, we are liberated to not try to waste our life building our little kingdom. But we can seek first your kingdom and your righteousness and all these other things that we're worried about that we're getting a twist over. The Bible says they'll be added to us because our Father knows what we need before we ever ask him for it. And so, Lord, we're tired of a life full of trinkets. We want us, we want treasure. And so we're gonna seek first your kingdom and its treasures and trust you for the rest. Now, Holy Spirit, illuminate the word today. Let it find a resting place in us. Cause to think today, and cause us to ponder what it would look like if we walked and lived this way. This is our prayer. God, make it our experience. We ask in Jesus' name when everyone said. Amen, amen. You can have a seat if you've got a Bible. I invite you to take it and open up to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9, we're in verse 32, and we're gonna read 55 of the most consequential words in the entire New Testament. You'll see what I mean in just a minute. I want to talk to you this morning about interruptions, authority, and the unforgivable sin. Interruptions, authority, and the unforgivable sin. You say, What do you mean? Well, that's what's in the text. And now, by the way, I've had many people come up to me usually at a wedding after the cocktail hour is just about over and they're kind of lubricated on the inside, and they ask the same question. Hey, are you the efficient? I mean, are you like a real pastor? You just do weddings. Um, I'm acting like a real pastor. Okay, I ask you a question, sure. And then they say, I think I've committed to unforgivable sin. And I say, What is the unforgivable sin? I don't know, but I think I've done it. Might help if you knew what it was. So today you'll under you'll walk out of here knowing what it is, okay? I'm gonna read. If you're our guest today, I don't have like a Father's Day sermon. We don't worship fatherhood or motherhood here at Grand Parkway. We worship God. And so we're preaching to the book of Matthew, uh, we'll just continue where we were, Matthew chapter 9, verse 22. Here's what the Bible says, okay? It says, uh, as they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the man spoke. The mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled, saying, Never was anything like this seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He cast out demons by the prince of demons. That was so short. Let's read it again. As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man was who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled, saying, Never was anything like this seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He cast out demons by the Prince of Dem. Now, what I mean, interruptions, uh authority in the unforgivable sin. Well, there's three things I want to point to. The first one is right in verse 32, that Jesus was interruptible. Jesus was interruptible. It's interesting how much stuff happened in Jesus' life as he was on his way to something else. Earlier in this chapter, he was going to raise a girl from the dead, and a woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years came up behind him, grabbed a hold of his hem of his garment, because she said, If I just touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed. This right here is another one of those situations where Jesus is it much of what happened in his life, it wasn't staged or planned, but when it happened, he was willing to be interrupted. He never seemed to be caught off guard, and he was always prepared for it. Like verse 32, because in just in chapter 9, there's so many, you gotta let yourself slow down and see it. But like in verse 32, it says, as they were going away. Verse 27, and as Jesus passed on from there. Verse 18, while he was saying these things to them, verse 14, then the disciples of John came to him. Verse 9, as Jesus passed on from there. He says, He didn't get up and say, I'm gonna have an incredible experience today. He's just going about the normal warp and woof of life. Verse 1 says, and getting into the boat, he crossed over. He gets over to the other side, there's people waiting for him. A lot of people miss out. Here's what I'm trying to get you to see. A lot of people miss out on really powerful encounters because you're very efficient, but you're not very available. There's the life that you can plan and prepare for, and then there's the life that you were created for. And we as the church, we cannot program the life that you were created for. We can't have enough events here at the church that'll make you feel good enough to feel like, yes, this is the life Christ died for. What we can do is we can equip you to recognize it, live in it when it presents itself. It typically happens in the margins as we're kind of headed to somewhere else. Have you ever noticed this? That you can have some really incredible experiences and still have this gnawing itch on the inside of you that something's missing. That was good, but you're like a teenager who ate supper, and 30 minutes later you're standing there with the refrigerator door open, and your your mom walks in and says, What are you doing? I'm hungry. Like, we just ate. Because there's this gnawing hunger in you that will not go away. It sounds like this, okay? You uh you go on a vacation. I've probably gotten this call, I'm not exaggerating, in the past three years, 20 times. 20 times I've gotten a phone call. So I don't want you, some of you may be in here, I don't want you to think, oh, you're talking about us. I'm not talking about anybody specifically, but everybody in general. I get a phone call typically after an incredible vacation where at the end of it, somebody in the family melts down, has to come apart. At the airport, on the way home, in the driveway, where the kid dragging the suitcase up the steps, prom pra and the dad's like, stop scratching those stairs. We just had them refinished, and there's a big throw down right there in the entry hall. I get a phone call and they say, I don't know what happened. We just had an incredible, I've heard it all. Disney Cruise, Viking Cruise. By the way, on a Viking cruise, there's no kids allowed. Now it's a little more expensive, it's a little more high-end, but there's no kids. It's the exact opposite of a Disney cruise. We're gonna whip everybody on the boat. Uh but I digress. I've heard well. We went to Colorado, we went to an all-inclusive resort in Cancun. I don't care where you go. Go, have fun. But here's the thing: when people come back and they come see, they come see me, and I'll just they just they'll lay it out there. Oh, my husband had a come apart. He lost his ever-loving mind, and some Jesus came out. Uh and I'm like, and they go, What do you think, Pastor? I say the same thing every time. Get ready to look at me like, huh? I say this. Well, there's a good chance that probably what you were running up against is that you wanted to experience a transcendent, but you don't experience that on a Disney cruise. And they're like, I don't think you heard what we said. No, I heard what he said. Ecclesiastes says that God has put eternity in the hearts of men, and you long to experience something transcendent. Translation, you long to experience what can only be experienced in heaven, and you're never going to experience it here on earth. That's why you go into your vacation, you got a lot of chips in that basket, and it never comes through. And you're a little bit low-grade angry on the way home. Your wife's like, Hey, are we in a hurry? You're driving 79 miles an hour. Leave me alone, woman. It's not your wife, it's you. You you were longing for the transcendent, and they don't sell that at your travel agent's office, okay? Think of it like this, all right? I'll give you a little graphic for you. Experiences do not equal the life that God created you for. When you experience the life, capital L. So Jesus talks about in John 10, 10. He says, I come so you can have life and have it to the full. There's a fullness to life. Look at me. There's a fullness to life that you only experience as a Christian. And out of that full life, you have incredible experiences. Like this weekend, I just found out about a guy in Georgia that's driving to church with his wife and two little kids, and they pass the lady on the side of the road. She's standing outside her car looking at it. And the guy goes to church, when about five minutes down the road, pulls right to the front door. His wife said, What are you doing? Aren't you gonna park? He said, I think I'm supposed to go back and help that lady. And his wife said, That's great. All right, let's come on, come on, kids, get out. They get out. He goes back, he says, She says, I think I'm just out of gas. He said, Would you like a ride? Gives her a ride to a store, buys a gas can, fills it up, takes a bag, fills it up, cranks the car, gets on her way. Two years later, his mom starts battling dementia. It gets really bad. They all right, they have a family meeting, they hire a home health care company, they're gonna come and sit with her during the day. And the lady supposed to show up, didn't show up. They call back and said, We are so we're mortified. We don't know what happened, we're sending somebody else right now. The guy's pretty worked up. The person gets there, they start kind of chit-chatting and talking, and he's like, Oh, this is my mom, blah, blah, blah. And then the lady says, Well, tell me something about you. He said, Well, you know, I'm do this for a living, and da-da-da. And my wife and I and our family are really evolved in the church right down the road. And the lady says, Well, it's funny, a couple years ago, a man from that church stopped and helped me when I was broke down the side of the road. And he went, That was me. I remember you. He said, Now that looking. And she goes, Yeah. She became the primary caregiver for his mom until the day she died, which was right at two years. After that, he and his wife were so impressed with who she was and how they she loved on her mom. He and his wife paid for that lady to go to nursing school and become a nurse. She's now a registered nurse as we sit in this building. Because on the way to church, a man was interruptible. He was listening for what God was saying. He wasn't just like, hey, I'm efficient, gotta get there, gotta go, gotta go, gotta go. Jesus was interruptible. And again, you will never find in your experiences the life you were created for. I call it the deification of destination. I know you're impressed. The deification of destination is this. When we blank, it's all gonna be better. When we build our dream house, when we find where we really want to live, when we this, when we that, when we get to be empty nesters, the deification of destination almost always guarantees disappointment. So just get yourself why? Because what you're longing for is transcendence, and it's not in Montana, Colorado, California, or any other destination. People are like, I hate living here. Well, go. Go, get out there, and you'll get up and you have the same thoughts you have here, except you'll pay a lot more money. As they say in Montana, you can't eat the view. Yes. Jesus was interruptible. Secondly, sometimes the spiritual manifests itself in the physical. Sometimes the spiritual manifests itself in the physical. What do you mean? Look what the Bible says. It says, as they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was a mutant. Now let me stop right here. It says demon-oppressed. That's a bad translation. I preach and teach from the ESV, the English Standard Version. Uh, the word in the Greek is typically translated possessed. Uh, there's one time it means vexed, like externally, something's vexing you. And the people that translate the ESV, they chose that vexed, which was a, they call it uh uh uh uh oppressed. But it says the demon oppressed man was a mute, have been brought to him, and when the demon had been cast out, look at me. For the demon to be cast out, it has to be it has to be in. And so that's not oppression, that's possession. And we'll get to that in just a minute because you need to understand the difference in the two, and then we'll answer two questions that everybody asks around things like this. But right now, I just want to say sometimes the spiritual manifests itself in the physical. This boy was a mute, he could not talk because a spiritual entity had taken up residence inside of him and would not allow that to happen. What am I saying? I'm saying that there are forces at work here that actively oppose what God wants to do in your life. There are spiritual forces that are at work in this world that actively oppose what God wants to do in your life. There are three dimensions. Think of it like this there's three dimensions to life there's physical, there's emotional, and there's spiritual. We think about two of those all the time. But a text like this comes along and invites us, it forces us to think about the spiritual dimension of life. And so we read about this man who is demon-possessed, and you need to understand where this all started. Like you should be thinking, okay, now if you're like, I'm hearing this for the first time in my life, relax, okay? No, no, no one's gonna scare you. You shouldn't have any fear at all, especially if you're a Christian, okay? You say, Well, how'd this happen? Well, the Bible tells us that a long time ago there was a war in heaven because God is the supreme authority. And this is why God hates rebellion. It's because God says, Hey, I I am sovereign. I'm the one in charge. And and kind of like at your workplace, other people are kind of like, oh, hey, I and you start talking to your friends at the water cooler, and you get a little power cell going over here. Same thing happened in heaven. The Bible talks about it in Revelation 12, starting in verse 7, like this. It says, Now war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who's called the devil, Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses him day and night before our God, and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they have loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. This is why I say there are forces at work here in this world that actively oppose what God wants to do in your life, because these fallen angels are now known as demons. And a third of the angels in heaven rebelled with Lucifer and were expelled from heaven. And so I just want to point to two things. Number one, verse 10. Look at verse 10 again. He says, And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation, the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. Now, men, these are four things that you need to appropriate over your families. Let me just tick them off individually. Number one, the salvation of God. The salvation of God. The salvation that God came to make available in Jesus. You need to, what this means is you need to gospel your kids. You need to, you need to turn your phone down. Uh, you you need to gospel your kids. That means that you need to engage your kids with the gospel, like they come to you with some teenage drama. Don't jump in and go, oh babe, I'll tell you what, we'll throw money at that and solve that problem. No. Say to your kids, hey babe, how did how does the gospel speak to this? What does the gospel make you capable of that if you weren't a Christian, you won't be able to do this? What you'll find out pretty quickly is some of your kids have never been converted. Because they do not have the capacity of the gospel in them. They're just as mean-spirited as every other kid in high school. So you, as a leader of your family, man, you we in their last service, a father baptized his eight, nine-year-old daughters right over there. And it was powerful. The salvation, they had conversations with their kids, the salvation of God. Secondly, the power of God. The power of God. You should demonstrate this. Because this is what, when God expelled Satan from heaven, these four realities are manifest. Yeah, hey, the the salvation of God, the power of God should be demonstrated in our lives more than our capacity, but God's power. What's the difference? Our capacity glorifies us. God's power glorifies God. There's no one can take credit for it except God. Here's the third reality that becomes manifest: the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. We say this all the time, so I don't mind saying it again. It is the realm within which what God wants done gets done. And men, you should be leading your families to set down the kingdom of God. You should be the person that's with your wife exposing your children. Hey, we're gonna set the kingdom down. We're gonna do what God wants done. We're gonna see that what God wants done gets done. Because our family is the medium through which the kingdom of God finds expression. And the force of reality is the authority of Christ. The authority of Christ. That means that you may not feel like doing something, men, but you demonstrate to your wife and children, you know what? Because Christ has authority over me, this is why I'm doing this. Like I said to my kids when they were younger that something happened, and then they said, Well, Dad, what are you gonna do? I said, Let me tell you what I don't want to do. I don't want to forgive that person. And my kids both were, oh and I said, Yeah. They said, Well, what do you mean? Dad, you're like the pastor. I know, but my flesh, I just want to go, oh, don't summon the orphan in me. You don't like him. Oh man. And my kids are like, Are you being serious? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. But because Christ has authority over me, what I think and feel doesn't rule the day. I can forgive this person because God forgave me. Well, well, well, what are they gonna do? I can't control what they do. And I had a great conversation. Look at me. You can't control what people do either. And so, if you're gonna be controlled by what people do, you will never live out the gospel. Because most people don't. They go to church, they check the Jesus box, they go back, and they're just as fleshly as anybody else in the world. So you're gonna, you're gonna you're gonna forgive them. And they may never apologize. Absolutely. That's just life in the kingdom, girls. Now, they were my oldest was 11 when that happened. She got to be 16. She understood it. She's like, Oh my gosh, dad. Yeah. Now, by the way, those are just four realities that are available because God just kind of flexes up and says, hey, I'm the authority here. Uh and then the next verse, verse 11, says this. Don't miss it. It says, And they conquered him, Satan, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. I got a question for you, men. What is your plan for conquering Satan? Schemes against you and your family. Because here's the reality. Every spiritual entity in the world, we'll get to this in just a minute, looks at your body as a house. Looks at the body of your children and your wife as a house, and they want to occupy that house. That's just, I'll show you that in the Bible in just a minute. So you better have a plan besides provision. You better have a plan for leadership. Hey, I provide great experiences, I provide a great house, I provide you nice swag. What do you provide spiritually? Because you can provide for your kids and they go off to college and it does not go well, and it's not physical and emotional. It's not because they didn't get in the sorority they pledged. It's because your kids do not know how to engage the enemy. Most of them don't know that an enemy exists. He says in verse 11, there's two things you use to conquer the enemy. Number one, the blood of the lamb, and number two, the word of your testimony. The blood of the lamb is a reference to Christ, Jesus Christ dying on the cross in our place and for our sins. It is what I call corporate. Secondly, the word of our testimony, this is personal. This is that you've experienced Jesus because without that, you're not testifying, you're just talking. And look at me. If your kids roll their eyes when you talk, when you try to talk about spiritual things, it's because in their mind you're just talking, you're not testifying, you don't have a testimony. So you should ask yourself, men on this Father's Day, do your kids know your testimony? Do they know when and how God changes you? Like we'd gone back to East Texas to see my mom. My kids were, I don't know, my oldest was probably 12, which means my youngest was was seven. Uh, and my 12-year-old, super, super inquisitive, very smart, picks up on, you know, adults, talking in code. Uh, we get back home, we're sitting down to a meal, and she says, Dad, were you a bad person when you were younger? I said, What makes you say that? He said, Grandma says that she would lay awake at night, wait for you to come home, and it'd be two or three in the morning. I was out praying for shut ins at two and three in the morning, sharing the good news. Uh, and she goes, Will you tell me some of the things you did when you were younger? Nope. I said, Look at me, here's why, Madison. Not that I'm trying to be keeping anything from you, because here's how our flesh, our cart, and our flesh work. Our flesh hears something your dad did, and you think, Oh, well, my dad did that, and he's the preacher, so I'll be okay. That becomes a tool of the enemy. So I'm not going to glorify my flesh. Look at me, Madison. Everything your dad did when I was younger is under the blood of Jesus. And she said, What does that mean? I said, That means it's been forgiven, it's been cast into the sea, he remembers it no more, and I would be, I would do well to forget it as well.

unknown 21:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Can you forget it? No, some of it was horrible. Yeah, I was a ruthless little kid. She was well, can't you tell me anything? No. No. Can you feel how your flesh is wanting to get your way right now? Yes. I said, You're not going to. Because the spirit is going to prevail in this moment. Now, my youngest, she would hear that talk and she'd get emotional because she's a deep feeler. She'd just be like, Oh, my dad wasn't a bad person. Yes, I was. I was a ruthless sinner, just like the rest of you. I'm putting my oldest in bed. Go away. I don't put her in. She's old enough, but I go and pray with her for her. She's like, Well, Dad, I mean, this is the flesh is always trying to have its way. Well, I mean, I think it would help me respect you more if I understood things you did when you were. This is gospeling my children. I looked at my 12-year-old in her face and said, Can you feel how your flesh wants to have its way right now? My spirit will not allow that. So you don't need to know anything about your dad's past. Well, grandma said you were on probation in the eighth grade. I was. I was. Because I was an angry kid. I took it out on everybody else. I like to fight. Matter of fact, even today, some days I miss hitting and being hit. And she's like, Were you violent? Yes. I don't miss that. Mom says you're the most gentle man she's ever met. That's the power of God, not the power of your dad. Mom also says you won't speed a man up at the Astros game. Your mom talks too much. Some guy was eyeballing my wife. Made a few trips up to get beer run. You come back by, and my wife's like, Hey, do I know you? He said, No, do you want to? She recoils over on me. I said, What? She goes, He just made a pass at me. Excuse me. I just walked down there, tapped him on the shoulder. You're done looking at my wife. You look up here again, I'm gonna be on you. He looked over security guard valve. I said, I know, I see him. I promise you, I'll scuff you up like hushed puppies at a school dance before they take me to jail. And I'll I'll call one of the people on my board of directors of what? My ministry. I will beat you in Jesus' name. Now, here's what you gave up coming to the third service at our next board meeting. I wasn't the pastor, I wasn't y'all's pastor back then. Y'all couldn't get off me. We had a board meeting. We're sitting in the board meeting. I have a 501c3, a nonprofit board of directors. One of the guys, he took me and my wife, because he's got that. He took us to the Astros gang. And he said, I think we should bring up what happened at the Astros. The board should know it. I said, Yeah, yeah, God made a pass at Marcy, and I'm like, I not on my watch. And he said, Well, did you do? I just went in there and said, You're done looking at my wife. I will beat you down right here in front of God and his son Jesus. And I went back to my seat. Marcy said, What'd you do? I let him know that was inappropriate. I shared with my whole board. Pat Perry was on the board, a woman, 63 years old, started crying. I thought, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna be fired now. She raised her hand, tears coming down her cheeks, and she said, I vote till we give Neil a raise. And I got a raise. And she said, Thank you for defending the honor of your wife. Yeah, I'm not a violent man, but I remember how to do it. I just looked at him, I said, I'm not bragging, but also I'm not tolerating that. I'm just not. So, yeah, the blood of the Lamb, the word of your testimony. This is how you overcome men. The blood of the Lamb, Jesus died on the cross in your place and for your sins. If you don't accept that and submit to that, how you're gonna get forgiveness andor purpose? You better have a testimony, not just a habit. Somebody got a habit. I take my kids to church, but your kids don't know your testimony. Ask yourself, do you have one today? The word of your testimony. Not a quote you heard on a podcast, the word of your testimony. Now, there's two questions we need to answer on this topic. The first one is this what's the difference in oppression and possession? What's the difference? Because it let me give it to you very simply. Oppression, this is external pressure. Uh it's like demonic forces seek to oppress us externally. Uh now, this person, the person, when you're being oppressed, you have full control of your faculties. Think of Paul's storing the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12. He says, The messenger of Satan was sent to harass me. Hey, look at me. Three days ago, I had a day where just a lot of spiritual oppression coming against me. And I was like, oh, I'm getting ready to teach on this in my church. Of course, the enemy is gonna come against me. And so I had just be mindful, okay. All right, yeah. It's just it's a reality of living in a fallen world. That's spiritual oppression. But then there is spiritual possession. This is internal control. Somebody loses control of themselves, the gathering demoniac is the most common example in the Bible. Uh, people open the door to this, to possession uh through the involvement with the occult, witchcraft, astrology. They all are like, oh, I'm glad I don't do any of those things. Keep listening. Unsolved trauma, habitual sin, unforgiveness, and unresolved anger are all open doors. Now you're like, what do you mean unresolved anger? I see this a lot in counseling. The Bible says this. I just don't hear my words, hear the Bible. Ephesians 4, verses 26, 27. Be angry and do not sin. So the Bible doesn't say, hey, just take it. No. America's like it is because we don't know how to be angry to the glory of God. He says, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity. One translation says, foothold to the devil. Give no foothold to the devil. You say, What do you mean? Uh you can give a foothold to Satan, an opportunity through unrepentant sin. A foothold is kind of like a forward operating base. Look at me. It's like this. It's like you knock on someone's door and they open the door and they go to close it in your face, you stick your foot in the door. And they're hitting their foot and they can't close the door. That's all the enemy needs. That's all he needs. He's like, yes, I'll start with this and we'll go from here. You say, what do you mean? Uh again, a foothold is kind of like a forward operating base. Unrepentant sin opens the door, okay? And it gives the enemy an opportunity. Because once you have a foothold, hear this: you can attack with intensity, consistency, and frequency. Because he's always looking, Satan's always looking to make a foothold into a stronghold. Well, you said, what do you mean? I told you I like documentaries. A couple years ago, I watched what I wish I wouldn't have watched. It was called Restrepo. It was about an outpost in Afghanistan. And these guys built it. But the fascinating part, when they built it, they took these like five foot by five foot by five foot tall, like uh uh cages and filled them with rocks and gravel. And that's how they built the walls out of. But here was the problem: the enemy had them surrounded, and they the enemy had the high ground. They were in the mountains shooting down on these guys at this outpost called Restrepo. It was trepo was a stronghold because they thought this is going to protect us. In the same way, when a Christian or something, not uh anybody lets the enemy get a foothold. The foothold is always looking to build that and establish that and come at you in this area until it becomes a stronghold. It becomes one of the things that you just shrug at. It used to bother you, but you're just struggling. Oh, it's just who I am. I mean, I've had this problem since I was 12. God understands. We all struggle with something, right, preacher? And I just say to people, you don't you don't have to. Like I said to a young lady who's a teenager not long ago, she goes, I just hate my mom. I said, Yeah, hating your mom right now is uh is a foothold, but eventually it becomes a stronghold. You marry a passive man who appeases you, and then you wake up one day and you got three kids and you don't respect your husband and you're all alone, then your anger goes to a whole new level. She's like, Well, that's a bit much. I said, Yeah, because you're a little kid. You can't think past 30 minutes. So, yeah, you'll find a boy because you're pretty, he'll appease you. And and you'll rule over him, and you'll violate the creed order the way marriage should be. So, yeah, keep being angry. It works for you. You say, I I don't know. A foothold is an initial access point, while a stronghold is an entrenched, well-fortified position built from a foothold that was ignored. Ask yourself, are you ignoring any little things where the enemy just kind of put his foot in the door and kept you from closing the door? And you've just kind of accommodated to that. See, there's a difference in spiritual oppression, which is outside coming against us, and spiritual possession, which is on the inside coming out. Here's the second question you get asked: Can a Christian be possessed? Look at me. Absolutely not. Now you'll find people that'll say, I had friends that are like, well, so-and-so has a deliverance ministry, and he says, of course he says that. That's how he stays in business. But I just gonna quote the Bible, okay? Are you still with me? Say amen. Uh I just read right from the Bible. Remember, I told you a few about five minutes ago, every spiritual entity in this world sees your body, your children's body, and your wife's body meant as a house. Remember that? This 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19. Or do you not know that your body is a temple, a house of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. Uh like later in Matthew, we'll get to the part where this spirit is cast out of this person. And it says, Once the house is swept and empty, unless you fill it, that spirit will go get seven spirits stronger than itself and come back and reoccupy the house. Because every entity, spiritual entity in this world sees your body, your children's body, as a house that they want to live in. They're not going to start off with a stronghold. They'll just come and say, We'll just get a little foothold. We'll just get a little crack in the door. And away we go. But for a believer, for a Christian, this is why you should be you should be thinking about as your testimony cannot happen for a Christian. That's one verse. Here's another one. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. You got these-like bags in your house? Yellow and blue make green. You're sealed by the Spirit until the day of redemption. Now, if you're sealed by the Holy Spirit as a Christian, like you myself, I'm sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. First of all, the Holy Spirit has sealed, put itself as a seal over my heart. Who has the authority to crack that seal? Nobody. When Jesus comes to get me. So it's not just the Baptist talking about once saved, always saved. I say, hey, once sealed, always sealed. I don't think about what did I pray the prayer? Was I sincere? Did I mean it? You're going to never have assurance. Here's another verse. Here's the last verse. First John 4, 4. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you, look at me. The Holy Spirit is not a thing, it's a person. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. This is why the Christian can live without fear. Look at me. You're not going to walk out here dating all the way to your car. The devil's going to jump in your body in the parking lot. He does not have that authority. You don't have to live in any kind of fear. None whatsoever. Then here's the last thing we see in the text. Number three, there's an unforgivable sin. So what do you mean? Verse 34. The people are raving. Never was anything like this seen in Israel. And the Pharisees have to hold on to market share. They're like, wait a minute, wait a minute. No. By the way, if you're ever really jealous of somebody, ask yourself this question. What do they have that you don't? This explains the Pharisees' relationship with Jesus. Jesus just comes and he has authority and they don't, and it made them crazy. So they had to accuse him and attack him all the time. Never was anything like this seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, Oh, he cast out demons by the Prince of Dons. You say, What do you mean? Because the people had never seen anything like this before. The Pharisees didn't have this kind of authority. They had to come up with some way of explaining what was happening. And in so doing, they commit what is known as the unpardonable sin, which is blasphemy. I'm at the and now I'm at this wedding, which I just did, and we're having the cocktail hour, and this guy's pretty lubricated. Uh because I kept leaning back. He said, What's wrong? I said, if you let a match, bro, you'd blow us up. You've had plenty of bourbon, okay? And I'm not the moral police, have a few. Great, glory to God. I think you're, I think you've been overserved. Yeah, but man, I think I've committed the sin of blasphemy. I said, What is it? I don't know, but I think I've done it. And I said, Is there a chance that you just say that to give yourself permission to live in debauchery? It's like a, hey, you wouldn't hit a kid with glasses, would you? Will you? You wouldn't expect me to stop being an immoral drunk, would you? Yes, I would. Because you don't even know what it is, and I doubt you. Well, my preacher told me that because I didn't believe in God, uh, that that was a sin of blasphemy because I was grieving the Holy Spirit, and that was blasphemy. So your preacher told you, this is why I don't tell people I'm a pastor at a wedding. I'm an officiate. This is my side hustle. No. I said, you're think for a minute, we're about done. You said, well, let me say yes. I said to him, I said, so your preacher told you you committed blasphemy because you don't believe and the Holy Spirit's you know convicting you of sin and righteousness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said, because I don't believe that. I said, look at me. Everybody in the world was born unbelieving. So we've all committed blasphemy if that's true, but that's not true. Your preacher's lazy, go tell him. He goes, I ain't seen him in years. And yet you live with this? He goes, I don't hang out with a lot of y'all. That's okay, I get it. I get it. But no, blasphemy is the unforgivable sin. It's not not believing the gospel, okay? Because a lot of people try to say that because the church wants to pressure you into praying some prayer so they can pad their stats. Look at me. Let the Bible actually say what it is. And the Bible says that blasphemy is attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. It's taking the glory that belongs to God and giving it to Satan. Which what they do in verse 34, they said, but the Pharisees said, He cast out demons by the prince of demons. Now I want to finish by reading one last passage of scripture and we'll be done. You still with me? We're in Matthew chapter 9. This is just three chapters over in Matthew chapter 12. Kind of they had another encounter with a person. He had more issues. And look what happens. Matthew chapter 12, verse 22. Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to him. They're like, hey, you healed the mute guy back there, but this guy is mute and blind. And he's got a demon in him. They brought to Jesus and he healed him. And so that man, so that the man spoke and saw. And all the people were amazed and said, Can this be the son of David? Translation, the Messiah. But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, We've got to hold on to market share. Here we go. They said, Oh, it is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man cast out demons. Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me, whoever does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. See what drives the Pharisees is that they're so busy protecting their little kingdom, they cannot acknowledge that the kingdom of God has come, that the Messiah, the Son of David, is here now, and that his glory he will not share with another. Now, men listen very carefully. We are the same way. We protect our preferences, we find a loophole so we don't have to submit to anybody or anything. And let me just say this, Dad. Unless and until you submit to Christ, submit your life to Christ, not say, oh, I believe there's a God. No. Unless and until you submit your life to Christ, you will never experience the life that you were created for. And you'll your family will never experience from you what they long for. Let me say that again. Unless and until, Dad, you submit your life to Christ, you'll never experience the life that you that you were created for. You'll chase experiences. Now, don't hear me wrong. Go have experiences. It's great. Have incredible vacations. I pray that for you. But you will not find in that this life that you were created for. Unless and until you submit your life to Christ. And if you don't, your family, listen to me, we're about done. Your family will never experience from you what they long for. Like my sweet wife said to me one time, and I quote, I mean, you're okay looking and everything, but the thing I really love about you is the way you lead our family. I was like, go back to that first part. What did she say? She goes, I mean, you're okay looking. I think you're, I think you're handsome. I'm I'm attracted to you. Could you act a little more excited when you say those things? Now, look at me. I laugh at things like that. Because what she's saying is, hey, this is what me and the girls long for out of you. We want you to leave. We want you to set the kingdom down for us. We want you to invite us into a story bigger than ourselves. And that's all I'm saying to amen. I'm not getting on to you. I'm just saying, unless and until you submit yourself to Christ, you'll never experience the life you were created for. And if you don't do that, your family will never get from you what they long for. They do not long for provision, okay? They long to experience the life that they were created for too, and they want to see in you. Let's pray together. If you're our guest, just relax. We'd like to teach the Bible, then we'll give you some space to think about it. That's what this time is for. Just take a moment and just kind of ask the Lord, what had my name on it today? What is the thing I got to think about walking out of here today? I know it's Father's Day, but you got plenty of internal time just to dialogue and chew on stuff. And so just ask the Lord, what had my name on it? Let's think for a minute. Father, that's our understanding. Because Jesus is overcome, we can overcome. That's why the Bible says we're more than conquerors through Him who loved us. And so we experience what we experience through Him. Not through ourselves, not through our stuff, not through our plan that we're executing with meticulous detail. That's just gonna leave us with a dull ache in us because something's missing. And I pray for everyone, not just because it's Father's Day, I pray for the women and the children in this room. If they've never submitted themselves, they don't have a testimony. Hey, this is when it started for me. This is how God changed me, this is what God did. And I've been different ever since. Not perfect, but I've been different. Pray that today would be the day. Lord, thank you for that in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen, amen, amen.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

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