Ephesians chapter 4. How are you today? Well, good. I'm glad you're good.
It was a couple of weekends ago, I remember saying to you that things have been funky, like people are describing.
It's just so funky. There's like a thing, there's like, you know, in the spirit realm or in their house or...
things are being brought up and being brought forth that people thought they were over or thought they had already conquered
or something of the flesh just showed up and they're like, where'd you come from? You know, it's that type of thing.
And then when they go to address it, that's how they describe it. It's felt funky.
And so we tried to deal with a little bit of that before, but we're going to go this morning.
And I talked about this at TBO for those of you who were there last night just because we want to keep everything moving in the same direction.
So I'm going to mention it today and then add to it a little bit differently. It's Ephesians 4 verse 26.
Be angry at sin, at immorality, at injustice, at ungodly behavior, yet do not sin.
So the King James says, go ahead and be angry, but don't sin in your anger, right?
But you have to read before, like when it's given you something that you're supposed to be,
it's usually connected to something he already said. So you've got to go back in the beginning part of the chapter
and he's dealing with all kinds of, you know, issues and this is how you handle this and this is how you handle that.
And then on top of it, be angry at sin is what that means there.
So when I teach on anger resolution, this is one of the things that people get confused with.
I thought anger is a sin. No, you're supposed to be angry, but at the right thing, right?
And your interpretation of anger is whatever you saw when you were growing up.
That's where the problem comes in. That's how you see it.
It's just like it might be just, you know, you're seeing somebody be screamed at and slapped and everything else.
Well, anger can just be a boundary. I can say, hey, we don't do this here.
Oh, I'm not way over here, but I'm drawing a boundary and I'm having a boundary.
So be angry, but at sin, at immorality, at injustice, at ungodly behavior.
And I think of a lot of us are pretty angry at some of those things right now.
And, you know, it took that to wake us up. It just shows how low our boundaries were for so long.
That now it's like it has to come to such a degree of such a huge immorality,
such at the deepest, darkest places. And suddenly we're like, whoa, hold on a minute.
We don't want that here in America, right? And some were like, I don't know, it's okay.
But it's definitely divided us out all across this world.
And really what we're supposed to use anger for, anger is that emotion that comes up in red flags things.
On the beginning of heading toward red flagging something, you yellow flag it.
Like, oh, this is a concern. And I'm watching out for this or whatever.
But once it crosses that line like red flag, no, it requires us to have a boundary.
It's the same thing in prayer. God will show you some things and you'll yellow flag it.
Right? There'll be a concern. There'll be like, I need to know more about this.
What's really going on? God reveal this, show me.
And you'll start pushing into something and suddenly the need for red flag comes up.
And that's when we have to have the boundary.
Now, the boundary we talked about last night, I'll say the same thing here.
A boundary is not something you draw on a person or a thing.
Boundary is something you draw for yourself. Right?
And so we don't like, most, the average person doesn't like confrontation.
We've talked about care, care-fronting a situation rather than confronting a situation.
We don't like that because it's the feeling of like, I guess I got to go pick a fight with somebody and see who wins.
No, care-fronting is I care enough about you and I assume you care enough about me that we could actually solve this.
We're going to front this, right?
And so it's giving us permission to have that red flag feeling.
It's not giving us permission to act out, but it's like red flag.
And then there should be something that follows that.
That, you know, it gives a boundary for ourselves or the boundary is based in what is righteous.
And then it says, you know, don't sin when you're doing that.
Do not let your anger cause you shame.
Don't do something to try to do the right thing, but do it in the wrong way that the next thing, you know, you're in shame.
You're like, ooh, I think I said that wrong or went about that wrong.
Nor allow it to last until the sun goes down.
This is very spiritual, especially for watchmen.
Well, it is for everybody because we're all supposed to be watchmen to whatever degree.
But the deeper you get into intercessory prayer, first parts of prayer is really cleansing yourself.
Making sure your attitude is right, making sure all those things are right.
And we go through that, you know, the Lord's prayer honors him.
And then it says, I want to eat of you, right?
Daily bread. And that goes right into, yeah, forgive my sins.
And I choose to forgive others.
It wants the prayers laid out in a way like, let's clean this slate here.
So we've got a good ground to stand on before we get into other things, right?
And then it says, and do not give the devil an opportunity to lead you into sin by holding a grudge
or nurturing anger or harboring resentment or cultivating bitterness.
We usually don't quote that that way, but that's how the amplified breaks it down and the real meaning of it.
The King James would say, don't give the devil a foothold. A lot of us have quoted that.
And I love when God does this to me.
I'll say, yeah, I'm not supposed to give the devil a foothold.
We're having a conversation with him and then all of a sudden he'll just ask me, what's a foothold?
And I'm like, well, it's, you know, you're not supposed to give like...
You don't have the real deep meaning to it.
And so I looked that up and I want to make sure we all know that the word foothold there means sure footing.
A position usable as a base for further advancement.
You do not want to give him something to stand on that sure.
Like suddenly it's easy for him to stand there, right?
Like, and it doesn't say in the devil came against me and, you know, and then I got angry and this is what happened.
And it was him. It was the devil made me do it.
But no, it's like you don't give the devil a foothold.
So it really comes back to us making sure we're cleansed again.
And we don't want him having any sure footing.
You know, I've watched and I've tried this, you know, those sticks that they have.
And you fight with each other with those sticks.
And sometimes it's in Taekwondo.
My son has some of them for Russian martial arts and wraps you in the fingers.
It hurts, but, you know, you're doing that.
One of the big things about it is you can't be an uneven ground.
It's very difficult to be whipping this thing around.
And then you don't have any place to stand that's secure.
Because part of the base of you being able to use your upper body and do that
is the fact that your feet are sure.
We don't want to give him sure feet.
Amen?
Where it makes it easy for him to stand somewhere.
So we're not going to give him a foothold.
So we're going to look at this real quick,
and then we're going to go on to something else that the Lord had showed me.
Because we're going to make sure that we're in the right spot right now.
Because things still are funky.
That's the biblical word for it.
And so, and do not give the devil an opportunity,
which is another way to say it, to lead you into sin by,
and he's going to use these different things.
Holding a grudge.
Last night I used my phone as an example.
If I give this to Crystal, and, or I go to hand it out like this,
and she tries to take it, and I go, no, that's mine.
And she's trying to get a hold of it.
No, I'm holding the grudge.
Like you ain't getting it.
We're not going to resolve this.
You don't understand.
I actually want to stay angry.
I'm hurt. I'm mad or whatever.
So you're actually holding the grudge.
You're holding it to you.
That's one way.
And then it says, or nurturing anger.
Well, the word nurturing is like you would do,
it's mothering, or it's like you would do around a campfire.
How many of you like sitting around campfire and poking it?
Why are you poking it?
Well, you want to nurture it, and you're going to add little things,
put some leaves over here, whatever,
because you want this thing to keep going,
and sometimes you want to add it so it gets big flame, right?
Especially if you feel out in the cold.
They hurt me so bad.
Then you just fan that flame and you get it really big.
So here you're holding a grudge,
or we're nurturing something.
We're actually adding fuel to the fire.
Or harboring resentment.
The word resentment, when I take that apart,
it's like something was sent, and now we're going to resent it.
Resentment.
And so that means your thoughts over and over,
those thoughts that you feel like you can't get over,
how do those work?
They're sent, and then they're sent again.
And they're like, stop, I don't want to think about that,
and then they're sent again.
And to harbor that means you actually let the boat park
in the spot, dock, right?
Come on into the harbor and come dock over here
and we're going to tie it up.
So it stays here, and this thing will just keep
re-sending itself.
It's resentment.
So you can harbor, you can nurture,
you can hold the grudge,
and then it says, or cultivating bitterness.
To cultivate bitterness, you actually have to help it out
where the ground works,
where it is the main thing you're thinking about.
You know, you cultivate corn,
so that the corn is the main thing that grows.
Right?
You cultivate bitterness, that's the main thing I want to grow.
And a lot of times people will do that
because that's their power.
That's what makes them feel like they're having
a boundary for themselves and that they're protecting themselves.
And if we let go of the thing that we're cultivating,
then it just feels like all is lost
and I won't have any say so, I'll just get run over.
So I need to hold on to this bitterness.
So he's saying, don't, this is how,
if you want the ground so sure for the devil to stand on
and him be able to take the posture of fighting,
even a boxer, you're not like this, you know, all over,
like try to box when you're on a surfboard.
You're going to be all over the place, right?
So it's one of those things where you're in a spot
where you're sure-footed and it's so much your stance.
And if we give him that,
he's going to encourage us to hold the grudge.
No, I'm not giving that to you. I'm not giving it up.
I'm still mad, right?
Some people can hold grudges for years.
Like, who?
And I think these things are all combined after a while
because it's not just holding a grudge
because then you have to get bitter
and there is a fanning of the fire to stay that way.
But in any case, holding a grudge,
nurturing that anger, harboring resentment,
or cultivating bitterness,
sets it up where in the fight, he's sure-footed now.
And we got to kick his feet out from underneath him.
Who does he think he is, right?
But we can't put the blame on him
because if we were the one who put him in the spot
where he's sure-footed now, yeah, he's going to pop you.
Right?
And some of us get an uppercut
and we're laid out and we're like,
what happened? You got to get up and regroup or whatever.
And we're mad that that happened
because that feels like another injustice
and we become more bitter
about how life is just, God's not there for me
and you don't understand.
See, how to all tie together.
So this is what gives the devil the foothold
and we don't want that to happen.
We can be angry and have a good boundary for ourselves.
You know?
Like you mentioned disease or whatever,
it's instant for me.
Yeah, in the spirit way I escalate
as you could say it that way.
I'm not over here in my flesh, but I'm like, no.
It's just automatic. No, boundary.
No, I ain't tolerating that. That's a cold get out.
Right? It's just automatic for me.
I have a pretty strong boundary
when it comes to that kind of stuff.
And that's how my speech goes
and everything follows that.
So there's this.
The other thing that happened with me
is the Lord had woke me up
three o'clock in the morning yesterday
and then, you know, once he's done talking to you,
I could maybe go lay back down.
I was just wide awake and I didn't work out.
So needless to say, I'm running on a need for sleep
right now.
In any case,
the word draws.
We don't use the word draws,
but this is what I woke up to the word draws.
And I saw a picture
the Lord had shown me
like something streaming out
or oozing out, you know?
And so I thought, well,
what truly is draws?
And look that up.
And it is the scum
or unwanted material
that forms on the surface
of molten metal.
It's an impurity.
So like if you were going to...
I was watching, I looked it up,
you know, like the Bible talks about silver
and pulling the draws out of the silver.
It makes the silver more valuable or more pure.
And so that's exactly, you know,
that trail that I followed.
And I watched a video of a guy, you know,
trying to make silver
the way that it should be for a necklace or whatever.
And it just looked like he was breaking up rock.
It just looked like, well, that don't even look like silver.
And then he heated it and he watched over it
and he was doing this whole thing.
And then he poured it out
and it still didn't look like silver.
But he kept doing this whole process of heat
to the point the draws came out of it
and then he puts it in water
and it cools it off and all of a sudden
there it is, silver.
Then he first has to work it.
So scripture indicates
that God pulls the draws out of us.
Right?
And he does it by what?
By fire.
It's called the refiner's fire.
It's that place where you were fine
but now you need to be refined
because you don't look like silver
or gold just quite yet.
And part of the funky that's going on,
that funky feeling
is the fact that draws is coming out of this body.
Draws is coming out of TBO.
Draws is coming out of the region.
And we're like, I thought we were believing
all the right things and we even repented
and we're doing certain things
and you're coming forward on certain things.
So shouldn't that equal happy?
Right?
You know how when you get in the presence of God
the first thing is like,
if we could just get in the presence of God
we'd all be just so happy.
We'd all be aware of where we're off.
The stronger you get in the presence of God
you see his love like never before
but you're very aware of yourself.
Yeah, right?
So the glory of God will do that.
So when we ask, come, let your glory come.
We're asking for conviction.
We're asking for convincing.
We're asking for awareness.
So we become so self-aware
because here we are now
and there's anything he wants to refine us in that fire
that refining fire will pull out the dross.
And some of what's coming out now is generational
for some people.
Like you felt like it had messed with you for years
and suddenly here it is.
Well, you have to blame it on all the prayers
we participated in because we asked for the glory.
We asked for his presence.
We're having communion.
How many of you are still taking communion regularly?
Remember, Amanda Hill had prophesied that out
and, you know, it's just good to do it.
But at the same time it was an assignment
for us to really pay close attention to that.
Well, you can take communion religiously
and just be like, oh, there it is.
And thank you, Lord, and kind of move on.
But you apply the blood of Jesus.
It's going to pull out the dross.
Amen?
You apply His whole body, you know,
or His broken body to your body
for the healing power.
It's going to pull out the dross.
The dross is that thing that also
the person that is the metal worker
or I don't know what you would call him
that's working this silver or gold,
when they're sitting there,
they're cultivating, they're watching the fire.
They're fanning the flame.
It has to be perfect temperature.
It's just like they're on it like white on rice.
And because they know that you have to stay
at a certain temperature for a certain length of time
for this thing to happen.
Bigger the piece of metal
or bigger the piece of gold or whatever,
the longer it's going to take.
You know, when he's taken something out of our life,
that is gross and he's turning it into something so beautiful.
Yeah, we want the beautiful,
but we got to get the dross out.
And he is on to us in this,
he's not being mean, he's being loving.
He's literally taking us up on
our covenant agreement with him that says,
you know, yes, Lord, send me.
Then he says, let me pull some dross out of you first.
Yes, Lord, we want the building
because that's the bigger part of the vision,
which means new people,
which means more going on,
which means more effect in the region.
Yes, Lord, yeah, choose me. I'm right here.
Looking to and fro throughout the earth.
I've told him this many times.
Looking for someone who will stand in the gap
and looking for somebody
so that he might show his self strong.
So I've always been like, I'm right here.
Me, right?
I don't want to be passed by on that.
But as soon as you agree to that,
stuff got to come out.
Amen.
That's Christianity.
I think it's the memo has been big time missed
for years where, you know,
it's more like we're headed toward the glory.
The power is so strong, you know.
And I've got this prophecy and I've got this
and it's always wonderful.
You're going to go through some stuff.
I just looked again at all the disciples
and what they went through
and each one how they died
and all of that kind of stuff
and the persecution that led up to it.
And we don't even know the real story
because it's not recorded in detail.
I can't imagine.
Right?
But they started the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They said yes.
They started the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, I want to start something.
Right?
I was telling my husband, let me go out
and cause some trouble.
And then you can help me solve it.
People are like, what are you doing up north
or wherever I'm going?
I'm causing trouble so that he can come
and help me solve it, right?
Because I just poke into stuff and get it going
because I want to see things open up.
But there's always a hit when things open up.
Now, this is where
the church becomes fearful
to not put themselves
in the spot where we're ever take a hit.
Because we want everything comfortable
Christianity is never comfortable.
You can be blessed like crazy
but something still is required
of you.
And requirements make you uncomfortable.
Amen.
We're in the fight of faith
so you still got to practice your faith.
You still got to do these different things
but if the dross really
is the scum
or the unwanted material
that forms on the surface
I want that gone.
You want that gone?
Like pull it out.
Well, yeah, we saved that
but then heat's going to come up.
Heat's going to come up
and you just got to let it happen.
He's going to pull out the dross.
So let's stand this morning.
There's two messages here
and I could have turned everything
into a series even
but the two things he wants
us to pay attention to
is in any area
are we holding
a grudge?
We're not movable.
To hold a grudge means it's right here in my heart
and you don't get to touch it.
I'm not resolving it.
I'm mad at you. I'm whatever it is.
And I want to say this
sometimes we'll look and we'll go
I don't think I'm doing that
with other people.
Are you doing that with yourself?
You can hold a grudge
against yourself.
Just thrown that out, right?
He also said
we're not to hold a grudge.
We're not to nurture or come along
and add another log to the fire
of the inappropriate anger
or harbor resentment.
Things that keep getting sent.
We keep sending them again because we're going to harbor this thing.
It's parked right here
and we opened it up for that.
Or cultivating bitterness.
Like the main thing of that where I feel powerful
is where I cultivate
and I only want bitterness to grow.
Now we would never say we'd want that
but we're cultivating so that bitterness
can grow because we see it as a power
to get our own way.
God's saying
let's make sure.
Right? He didn't point anybody out.
He's not saying. But always make sure.
Especially when things are funky.
Because you want to make sure
oh if it's funky and somebody's getting
a little bit too sure-footed
I'm going to take care of me first.
Wash us in the blood of Jesus.
So let's ask about this first.
Let's just go before him.
Father, we come before you
in the name of Jesus.
And we pray all for ourselves
and for the church as a whole.
Lord God, but we come before you.
We don't want to hold grudges.
We say that by faith
even if we are against ourself,
against you,
against other people,
against statements,
against just anything that says
I want to have my own way
and I'll hold a grudge about it until I get it.
Father, wash that
out of us.
Wash the ability
out of us to just hold on to that.
That we would just let it go.
Cleanse us of any
nurturing anger
or any harboring resentment
or cultivating bitterness.
See, we're having
a deliverance service right now.
Deliver
us from these things from our heart.
Even the areas we just don't even know
about it. We didn't see.
I didn't notice I was doing that.
God, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Just wash me in your blood
and wash us over with the water
of the Word and cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
And then we address
the next part
is any of that
that looks like dross.
Any of that that's in us, it might be something
even different. Addiction
we're dealing with. A cycle
we're caught in.
Things that have come up that you're
saying now you... I didn't deal
with this with you, Lord. You'll say that to us.
For years
and now you're putting your finger on it
saying enough.
Like, now we're going to deal with this
enough. We need to rid
this family line of this
enough. And so
we come before your Lord and we thank
you that you're turning up the heat.
Thank you.
Thank you. It's
not the fire of hell that's touching
us. It's the fire of God
that we welcome. It's the refiner's
fire. Hell doesn't have
a right to burn up stuff.
We say no to that.
But the way you put us
in the fire, Lord God
you're burning out
all dross. It's softening right now
and stuff. I mean, I'm going to tell
you people dross
is hard. And when it gets
under heat, suddenly it just starts
running. This is like lava almost
I saw it. This kind of move
like that. That's what it feels like
in your life. When it starts coming
out it's just like...
And you're like...
Amen. Let's have
the band come.
At the same time, we're going to continue
on this.
We messed around in the region
and called some things that were not
as though they are now.
We addressed witchcraft
and so it is
his mercy to
send us through the fire
to bring out any dross.
So we're pure
and in a spot
of safety. And in a
spot of more power.
And in a spot of hearing him
more acutely.
Fire of God come.
Come.
It's what it's going to take
to get rid of the gossip.
To get rid of the addictions.
To get rid of all forms
of sin. It's what it's going to take.
We ask for your fire
right now.
Even your Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit you came like
tongues of fire
tongues of fire.
He's turning up the heat in families.
So your child acting out.
So someone doing something out of the ordinary.
Out of character.
Father wherever we're out of character
it should be a clue.
There's fire on the move.
Lord we fan that flame.
We cultivate that plane.
We nurture
that fire.
Purify us God.
Purify our hearts oh God.
Purify our lips.
Purify the way we think.
Purify out of us any form of
unbelief.
Draw the unbelief right out of us.
Just melt it off.
It's putrid. Get it off of us.
We resist it.
We renounce it.
...
Draw out of us all forms of
rebellion.
Draw out of us all forms
Turn up the heat, Lord God. Purify us, where we could not see ourselves. We'll suddenly see
ourselves out of your mercy. It's out of your mercy that the fire gets red hot. It's out of your mercy
that you change us.
You know, when someone gets total sass and they come against the church, one of the prayers I pray that
scripture is, be sure your sins will find you out. Because they're not seeing themselves.
They're blind to themselves. And if they continue in that rebellion, they need to be found out.
They need to, something needs to be uncovered. Something needs to come through the key.
Something needs to have the draws come out. Be sure, be sure in this, in this thing your sins
will find you out. That this will be made known. So you have every opportunity to repent
for the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent.
He also asked me to take authority over something you may or may not understand it,
but if you pray on it, he'll show you something. And that's where too much business comes into
the church. The business part that says, we're going to grow the church like this. All we
have to do is make business moves. Church has to have some business moves. But if this is how
we're going to do it, we're going to do this and I decided to do that. We're sorry, Lord,
if we overstepped in any way, cleanse that out. We do not want to even be open to that.
You're in charge. We're the stewards. He'll tell us what to do and we'll do that thing.
But we're not going to business your church.
Or you're truly not Lord then. You are Lord. You are Lord. You are Lord. You are Lord.
Now, when you go to ask the Lord, or somebody here thinking this, when you go to ask the Lord,
you know, we constantly deal with this stuff. It's like we're always talking about sin.
No, we're talking about righteousness.
When it sounds like you're talking about sin all the time, what happens is it's like,
what's wrong with me? I wonder what's wrong with me? I wonder what I screwed up this time.
I wonder, yeah, now you're talking about sin. When you talk about righteousness,
you're able to say, this is how right he is. This is what is righteous. I seek first
his rulership, his domain, his kingdom. Oh, and his right way of doing things. I have to see
how he does it. Oh, okay, that's what's righteous. I'm sorry, Lord. I was unrighteous in that area.
Forgive me. See, we're inviting his righteousness every time we deal with a subject.
We're not going to harbor bitterness, hold onto grudges. We let go. We let go.
And we don't assume, Lord God, that we're not doing any of this. You pointed it out,
so we're going to examine our hearts. Thank you, Jesus. And so my hope this morning,
I know it's the Holy Spirit's hope as we push into service is that wherever he has a foothold
or thought he had some sure ground, now it's all of a sudden rocky and it's moving.
The Holy Spirit's moving that ground and he's going to have a hard time standing on something
in the fight. Our ground is sure. Our ground is even. Our ground we can lock in.
Do that in us and that comes through righteousness. That doesn't come from
dwelling on sin. It comes from dwelling on righteousness. The fire is about the
righteousness of the Lord God Almighty. We invite you, Lord, and your righteousness.
We seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. All this other stuff will be taken care of.
The right way of doing things. Let it come on us. Let it come on us. Let it correct us.
Let it change us. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Jesus. The thing that I want to say is like a boxer or like a fighter.
It always looks like you're winning totally when you're the one popping that other person the
most and they're being knocked down and all of those things. Spiritual warfare is not always that.
A big part of spiritual warfare is his righteousness on us.
Right? Then if you got to pop something, pop it.
You don't know what I'm saying? Then you can take it. But it's really about his righteousness
and the church, the body of Christ, has to come back or come for the first time seeking that.
What is right here, Lord God? We want to do the right thing. Say the right thing. Be in the
right spot. We want to do it. It's not our own perfection. It's your righteousness.
How you would do it? How you would say it? What your will is in our lives.
Change our hearts, oh God. Let's say that to him. Change our hearts, oh God.
Let your fire come. Change. Change. Change on the body. Change in our family.
Change in our thinking. Change spiritually, emotionally, physically. Oh, Lord God,
take it all mentally. Change us to be more like you. Righteous, righteousness, righteousness.
In Jesus' name.