all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander
with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah
at Jerusalem.
When the commander stopped at the aqueduct
of the upper pool on the road to the washerman's field,
Iliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator,
Shepna the secretary, and Joah son of Azab,
the recorder, went out to him.
The field commander said to them,
"'Tell Hezekiah, this is what the great king,
"'the king of Assyria says.
"'On what are you building this confidence of yours?
"'You say you have strategy and military strength,
"'but you only speak empty words.
"'On whom are you depending that you rebel against me?
"'Look now, you are depending on Egypt,
"'that splintered reed of a staff
"'which pierces a man's hand and wounds him
"'if he leans on it.
"'Such is the Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
"'to all who depend on him.
"'And if you say to me,
"'we are depending on the Lord our God,
"'isn't he the one whose high places and altars
"'Ezekiah removed saying to Judah and Jerusalem,
"'you must worship before this altar.
"'Come now and make a bargain with my master,
"'the king of Assyria.
"'I will give you 2,000 horses
"'if you have enough riders to put on them.
"'How then can you repulse one officer
"'of the least of my master's officials,
"'even though you are depending on Egypt
"'for chariots and horsemen?
"'Furthermore, have I come to attack
"'and destroy this land without the Lord?
"'The Lord himself told me to march against this country
"'and to destroy it.'
"'Then El-Yakim, Shepna, and Joba
"'said to the field commander,
"'Please speak to your servants in Aramaic.
"'Since we understand it, don't speak to us in Hebrew
"'in the hearing of all these people on the wall.'
"'But the commander said,
"'Was it only to,' and probably really loud,
"'but the commander said,
"'Was it only to your master and you
"'that my master sent me to say these things?
"'And not to the men sitting on the wall
"'who like you will have to eat their own filth
"'and drink their own urine?'
"'Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew,
"'Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
"'This is what the king says.
"'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you.
"'He cannot deliver you.
"'Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord
"'when he says, the Lord will surely deliver us.
"'This city will not be given
"'into the hand of the king of Assyria.
"'Do not listen to Hezekiah.
"'This is what the king of Assyria says.
"'Make peace with me and come out to me.
"'Then every one of you will eat from his own vine
"'and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern
"'until I come and take you to a land like your own,
"'a land of grain and new wine,
"'a land of bread and vineyards.
"'Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says,
"'the Lord will deliver us.
"'Has the God of any nation ever delivered his land
"'from the hand of the king of Assyria?
"'Where are the gods of Hameth and Assyria and Arpad?
"'Where are the gods of Savarphim?
"'Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?
"'Who of all the gods of these countries
"'has been able to save his land from me?
"'How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?'
"'But the people remained silent and said nothing
"'in reply, because the king had commanded.
"'Do not answer them.'
Then Iliacum and Hilkiah the palace administrator,
Shephna the secretary, and Joah the son of Aesop the recorder
went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn,
and they told him what the field commander had said."
Okay, and we'll read the second part
after I do the first part.
Okay.
Okay, guys, I'm good.
She just loves reading, eh?
If we don't stop her, we'll hear the entire Bible
if we don't stop her.
Thanks, Chris.
I'll call you up again in a little while.
Okay, so,
just felt that we needed to look at this whole idea
of how to overcome the deceiver,
and you'll be surprised as we talk about it today
how there are things happening in your life
where you're falling for the enemy's tricks
and you could so easily overcome them.
So let's start at Isaiah 36.
To begin with, guys, here's what's happened, eh?
This guy called Sennacherib or Sennacherib
had come against Israel,
and he had taken 31 cities captive.
And if you go to 2 Kings 18,
you'll see that Hezekiah
had already made compromises with him.
So if you go to 2 Kings 18,
2 Kings 18,
you'll see that this guy had already
scared the Hebejibes out of Hezekiah.
2 Kings 18,
verse 15.
Look at what it says there.
Look at what Hezekiah did, eh?
Starting at verse 14.
And Hezekiah, king of Judah,
this is 2 Kings 18, 14 onwards,
and Hezekiah, king of Judah,
sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish,
saying, I have done wrong.
I mean, he hadn't done anything wrong, eh?
But he's already started compromising.
This is usually how we work life out.
As soon as threats come,
as soon as we are intimidated,
as soon as things begin to go wrong,
instead of taking up a stance,
because this is the first time
he's taking up a stance,
because that's the only way
to sometimes overcome stuff.
He goes to this point of saying,
I have done wrong, withdraw from me.
Whatever you impose on me, I will bear.
This is a king of Israel, eh?
Whatever you impose on me, I will bear.
And then he goes on to say,
and the king of Assyria required that Hezekiah,
the king of Judah, give him 300 talents of silver,
which is like a whole lot of money,
and 30 talents of gold,
which is also a whole lot of money.
And Hezekiah gave him,
look where he got the silver from.
Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found
in the temple or the house of the Lord,
and all the treasuries of the king's house.
At that time, Hezekiah stripped the gold
from the doors of the temple of the Lord,
from the doorposts that Hezekiah, king of Judah,
had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.
And the king of Assyria sent Tartan,
another guy called Rabsharis and Rabshakeh,
with a great army to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem,
and they went up and came to Jerusalem.
So here is a guy who facing circumstances,
and there's nobody in this church at present
who is not facing some circumstance of some sort.
And our usual tendency is to be so overwhelmed
that instead of running to God,
we wanna make things okay by pacifying whatever happens.
It could be sickness, it could be relatives,
it could be a lack of security.
I don't know what your situation is,
but there's nobody here who isn't facing a situation.
And some of us have already compromised.
As in, because of what's being imposed on us,
we said, okay, take what you want,
I'll resign and accept your condition.
This is the bane of Christianity, eh?
We find it so hard to say to people in the world,
our God reigns, because it doesn't look like He reigns,
because my life is in shambles.
And the whole intent of today's teaching is,
time to take a stance, man.
Not because you got strength,
your muscles are worth nothing.
But because you got a God who knows how to roll up
his right sleeve and show his mighty right arm,
and he actually says stuff like that.
David would often say, God, roll up your sleeve
and show your right arm.
Time to do that, huh?
Otherwise we'll die and go to heaven,
but look at the world.
We can go to heaven, but live miserable lives
that people will look at and say,
your God reigns, really?
Not by looking at you.
So Hezekiah had already compromised,
and then he depleted his resources.
Once you begin to agree to what the enemy
wants to impose on you, know that you may have
temporary peace, but it'll deplete your resources.
So you'll get some kind of peace,
as in, sure, I'm not troubled as much,
but you'll find that within years
your resources are being depleted.
You'll have hardly anything left, eh?
And so, he sends his representatives,
and the enemy sends his representative.
The enemy sends three guys, one guy,
and they all have funny names like Rabshakeh and Rabsaris.
At least one guy was Scottish, his name was Tartan.
And so, he turns up, and they stand there,
and he wasn't Scottish, by the way,
just in case you thought that was true.
And then you've got the guys from the king's side
who are Eliakim.
Now, guess who Eliakim was?
In Isaiah 22, verse 20, it says,
Eliakim had the keys of the entire kingdom in his hand,
so much so that God prophesies over Eliakim,
making him a type of Christ, and he says,
what Eliakim shuts, no one can open,
and what Eliakim opens, no one can.
Shut, he was actually talking about Jesus,
but he uses Eliakim as an example in Isaiah 22, 20.
So, these guys go meet with the representatives
of the enemy, and let's see what happens.
The first deception, the first deception,
basically look at the deceptions that are happening,
and guard against them in your life.
The first deception is this, in verse four, verse five,
Isaiah 36, verse five, I'm reading from verse four.
And the Rabshakesh said to them,
say to Hezekiah, thus says the great king of Assyria,
on what do you rest this trust of yours?
Do you think that mere words are strategy
and power for war?
So, the first thing he attacks, the first deception,
is do you think your words will help?
Do you think your words will help you?
Win.
The answer is yes, but the first thing the enemy
tries to do with our lives is he'll try to have you
speak words that do not agree with God,
but agree with the enemy's intentions.
It's a deliberate deception, eh?
The first thing he's doing is,
do you think your words carry any weight?
Do you think your words are strategy enough to defeat us?
Do you think you can make war with words?
But here is the truth, guys, and may you never,
and may I never forget this, Jesus undid the devil
only with words.
In all three temptations, not in three,
in two of the three temptations, Jesus used words.
We don't realize the weight and the importance of words
in strategic dismantling of the enemy.
Words are used by Satan to intimidate you.
Our words are used by Christians to fight back,
but we don't, eh?
Make sure that whenever your situation is really bad,
begin to use words that God has said over your situation.
Jesus did this.
If Jesus did this, surely you and I need to do this.
And the first thing Satan challenges is,
do you think your words will matter?
The answer is yes, but the guys keep quiet.
Do you think your words matter?
Of course your words matter,
especially when they agree with God.
Jesus said, it is written, it is written, it is written.
Never go short on words.
Proverbs 18, verse 20, it says that,
according to your words, you will either produce good
or you will produce death, one or the other.
We won't go there today, but that's the first deception.
The second deception.
The second deception is in verse eight, verse eight.
It says there, starting at verse seven,
but if you say to me, we trust in the Lord our God,
is it not he whose high places and altars
Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem,
you shall worship before this altar.
Guys, the second deception is,
whenever you're in a situation facing things,
Satan will have you think
that your life
is so full of faults
that God won't side with you.
How many times do we go through this?
Where you want victory, where you want something
and you want to overcome,
and you hear this voice in your head saying,
hey, but you were jealous last week.
You lied this week.
You cheated on your taxes four months ago.
You were angry two days ago.
And as these voices begin to come in,
you don't really think that God will be on your side.
And here the enemy is saying to Hilkiah and the others,
hey, you really think God's gonna be on your side
after what you guys did?
I mean, you did remove some places of worship
from the high places.
It was a good thing, but he plans doubt.
Guys, every time this happens,
go back to this simple equation.
He is my father.
A father does not abandon his children.
If he was only God, maybe you and I would have a problem,
but because he is God and father,
because he's a God who is just and holy,
but because he's a father who's compassionate.
Know this, that it doesn't matter how full of faults you are.
God will both correct your faults
and your father will show you compassion
and will not abandon you.
Got to hold them together, right?
You remove the fatherhood of God
and you got nothing, man.
You got a God that you'll find in any religion.
Every religion has a God who can exert some power,
but no religion has a God who is a father.
If Christianity, if Christians believe in God as God only
and not a father, they're not believing in Yahweh.
They're believing in some God whose heart,
first and foremost, is that of a father.
That's the beauty of our God, eh?
He's a father.
And if you can't approach him as a child,
then you need to work on your relationship with him.
This is why, I mean, I never had to go through,
I never had to go to my dad through my mom or my sister.
I would only use my mom when my dad was upset with me.
But otherwise, I'd never hesitate to go to my dad.
I don't know who I was telling.
I remember my dad, I knew my dad would be upset with me
because I didn't turn up for a tuition lesson.
And so even that, I remember going,
in those days you could whack your kids,
so I went, got the stick from above the cupboard,
had to stand on my tiptoes and even that didn't help,
so I got a chair, climbed the chair, got the stick.
I went to my dad and as soon as he came home,
I said, here's the stick.
I didn't go for my tuition.
You might as well get it over right now.
Go ahead and whack me.
I mean, I would approach him even for discipline.
And surprisingly, he said, okay, just don't do it again.
And I thought, wow.
So the second time I did it, I did that again.
This time he promptly whacked me.
So.
The thing is, God is a father.
God is a father.
If you can't approach him directly,
then I need to work on my relationship
because something is wrong
when a child can't approach his father directly.
If you have to approach the dad through the wife,
the mother or the sister,
then we haven't grown into that relationship
and God is inviting, or the pastor or a prophet.
It's the same principle.
So don't fall for this lie.
This is the second deception.
God will correct you where you're wrong,
but he won't hold back his help
because you are his child.
Do not fall for this deception.
The third deception.
This is so tricky.
He says, Rabshakeh says to Israel,
hey, guess what?
I'll give you 2,000 horses.
If you can get soldiers to mount these 2,000 horses
and fight against us,
well, now we got something going.
He, one of the things the enemy does
is he tries to highlight your inadequacy.
Whenever God is gonna do something big,
Satan has this method of showing you
how inadequate you have
so that the dream you dream at night
evaporates by the morning.
Have you noticed how we plan such amazing things at night
and are absolutely sure that tomorrow will be the day
when we will finally do what we were called to?
And come morning,
even before you have your first cup of coffee,
that dream evaporates because reality hits you.
And what is reality?
Your inadequacy.
And that's the third thing he says.
He says, guess what?
And he puts it so subtly,
he says, let me give you 2,000 horses
and if you can have 2,000 horsemen ride,
we'll back off.
Because the enemy knew that there was no way
they could have mustered up 2,000 horsemen.
As you face the future,
whatever your situation be,
know that one of the reasons fear comes in
is because Satan reminds me of my inadequacy.
That's the third deception.
The deception of inadequacy.
And it happens either through challenge
or through sarcasm or through sympathy.
Challenge, sarcasm or sympathy.
This doesn't have to come from the devil.
Doesn't come at someone with two horns.
It comes from well-meaning people
who remind you how little you have in your pocket,
how your granddad died,
how your neighbor collapsed,
and you'll be convinced that inadequacy
will force you to withdraw.
The fourth deception.
The fourth deception is in verse 10.
And he says that, this is Rabshaki saying,
Moreover, is it without the Lord
that I've come up against this land to destroy it?
The Lord said to me,
go up against the land and destroy it.
So the fourth deception is,
did God really say it?
Did God really say it?
This is the fourth deception.
Did God really say it?
You guys okay?
Okay.
Any more leaving right now?
I mean there's Michael too.
Okay, glad no one else is leaving.
I mean is it that bad?
Did God really say it?
That's the fourth deception.
Where you know this is what God wants you to do,
but now you begin to hear this voice in your head saying,
nah, God probably didn't say it.
It isn't God, maybe it's my imagination.
What if that woman hadn't decided to say blue W?
It rocked that guy's life and his son's life, man.
God knows what's gonna happen with that life now.
Did God really say it?
I mean, I've said this every second week, man.
Every time I make a decision,
a day later there's this thought that,
did God really say it Jacob or is this your imagination?
We'll talk about how to go about it,
but these are deceptions.
Did God really say it?
Let's take one more and then I'll stop for questions.
Guys, the intent is using these methods,
Satan tries to intimidate you.
Intimidation is the chief weapon of the enemy.
The chief weapon of the enemy.
You cannot give space till you're intimidated.
So intimidation is the chief weapon of the enemy.
If I can intimidate you and bring you into a place of fear,
now you will come into a place of turmoil and faithlessness
and I have room to work.
If I'm the devil, my only intent is, can I intimidate you?
Can I show you your future and how disastrous it's gonna be?
Can I show you others who walked the way you are going
to walk and ended up in terrible condition?
Can I show you people who went and prayed
and nothing happened?
Can I show you people who started projects
and they lost a lot of money?
Can I show you people who trusted God for healing and died?
And if I can intimidate you,
now I have you in a place where you are faithless
and your heart is troubled.
And if you are faithless and your heart is troubled,
you are good ground for me to sow,
if I'm the devil, but I'm not.
I mean, this is terrible, man.
Look at verse 11.
Three of the champions of Israel, look at what they say.
Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joshua, sorry,
said to Rapshake, please speak to your what?
Servants in Aramaic, please speak to your servants.
These guys who belong to the king of the universe, Yahweh,
are going to Rapshake,
who's a general in the enemy's army.
And they say to him, please speak to your servants.
Guys, it's one thing to have a servant like heart.
It's another thing to become servants
to the systems of the world or to satanic intimidation.
And it happens every week in our lives, every week.
May you be servants freely,
not because someone imposed it on you,
but because you decided that I will choose
to have a servant heart.
But may you never walk as servants
before the systems of the world or before intimidation.
You are not servant.
Guys, when I say systems of the world
and Satan's intimidation, what do I mean?
Anything that does not have its roots in God
can make you a servant.
Refuse it.
Know your legacy and inheritance in your father.
He's a good, good father.
Resist that which is not coming from him.
Because if you don't, then you and I will be mastered by it.
How long should I resist to Jacob?
I've been resisting it for two years.
Well, then go another year.
Remember how many years Israel ended up in slavery, eh?
And then when they were free,
remember how many years they ended up in slavery again
after being free.
We are a free people who have to learn
how not to think like this.
Otherwise, you can roam the desert for another 40 years
and die in the desert not being free while being free.
The fifth deception.
Hey, the other thing I want to say is,
remember, language is what is used to intimidate.
Language is the method of intimidation.
And so that's why these three guys from Israel
go and say, hey, could you tell,
could you please not speak in Aramaic?
Could you speak in French?
Because our people understand Aramaic.
If you speak in French, that would be better.
Why?
Because they know that language is being used
that can frighten people.
Guys, whenever you hear language that frightens you,
you need to rewrite that same thing
in God's logic and language.
Whenever you hear things that frighten you,
let me give you an example.
Let's say you go to the doctor and the doctor says,
let's say there's a guy called, let's pick a name,
Rabshakeh, since no one's named Rabshakeh here.
Let's say there's a guy called Rabshakeh.
He goes to the doctor and the report comes back saying,
Rabshakeh, you're gonna lose your hair,
your liver is punctured, your nose is bleeding,
and your knee is buckling.
And so that's the diagnosis given by the doctor.
And it frightens the rab out of Rabshakeh.
And so he's so scared.
Now, if Rabshakeh became a believer,
he'd have to rewrite that.
He'd have to rewrite that, not by denying reality,
but by saying, I thank God that he has the ability
to make my hair follicles rooted in my scalp,
that he has the ability to strengthen my knee,
that he has the ability to stop my nose from bleeding,
and he has the ability to give me a new liver.
Because language is the vehicle of intimidation.
And if you do not take the language that intimidates
and change it into God's logic and language,
you will be stuck with the words
that have been pronounced over you.
This is so critical.
And sometimes it's not even what others have pronounced.
It's your imaginations, what you have conjured
in your head because of years of environment and background.
Years of environment and background.
And if you don't start using the language of God
to correct it, it will come back every time
like a python, like a bear that's come out of hibernation.
Any questions before we go on?
Any questions?
This is gonna be so useful to us here
because I have my notes for kingdom prosperity.
This just happened two days ago or three days ago.
This is gonna be so useful to people sitting here.
You have no idea.
This is a Rhema message, eh?
Yeah.
And I have very little to do with this.
I don't even have notes really.
It's all scribbles on my Bible.
Go ahead.
Any questions?
I'm just saying, praise God that he's so into us
that he knows what we need.
Any questions?
Any thoughts?
Go ahead.
I'm just gonna step to the big,
the Rhema message on how can you turn around
or how can you discern?
Yeah, how do you discern when these deceptions
are happening?
Every deception is followed by fear,
by a desire to take a shortcut
and fix whatever is happening,
and by a slight displacement of God
from the center of my life.
So, Aaron, just come up for a second,
since you're my favorite person in the church nowadays.
Yeah.
So let's assume he's God.
See, I even gave you a,
there's no role that's higher, man.
Yeah, so let's assume he's God.
And now I'm being intimidated by,
you haven't brought me any coffee,
by Jillian.
So now if I'm being intimidated by Jillian,
what happens is,
the first thing that happens with any deception is
fear enters,
cause there's a sudden doubt.
Once fear enters,
there's a need to fix it.
So now I'll do anything to fix it.
But because I'm a believer and I'm passionate about God,
I can't fix things unless I distance God from me.
So what I do is I don't abandon God,
but I kind of create a quick wall
so that he's far enough from me
so I can go about fixing stuff.
And after I've fixed it,
I'll quickly go to him and say,
could you please bless what I've just done?
How many times have you done that?
Where we want to fix something so badly,
and we don't even ask him for it,
we keep him at a distance so that we create room to fix it.
And after that we say,
father, I hope what I'm doing is off you.
Could you please bless it?
And he doesn't.
Thanks, man.
Any questions?
Okay, next deception.
Deception five is he uses majority opinions.
Frightens you
through majority
voices or opinion.
So here's what Rabshakeh do.
He says, well, I'm gonna shout as loud as I can.
And he says, by the way, guys,
if you don't listen to me and you go with Hezekiah,
here's what's gonna happen to you.
You will eat your own dung and drink your own urine.
That should frighten people.
And as soon as they hear it,
the intent is to do exactly what the 10 spies did
in Numbers chapter 13,
where the spies went, spied out the land of Canaan,
and 10 of them came back saying,
it's a good land, but there are giants there.
And those giants can have us for breakfast.
And so it's a really bad idea to go pursuing this promise.
Guys,
majority voices influence us.
And most of these majority voices come from those
that are close to us.
Relatives, friends, pastors, well-meaning, wise people
who haven't heard the counsel of God
and are close to you.
And that other relative of yours, Google.
Amazingly, it's a common relative we all have.
And so the intent is majority voices frighten us.
This is why Paul said something.
He said, when I heard God,
I did not confer with flesh and blood.
He took a step first and then conferred with flesh and blood.
Jesus, same situation, Mark chapter three,
verse 21, or Mark chapter two.
Jesus is preaching and his preaching is getting
so different from what has been preached before
that Mary and Jesus' brothers and sisters
come to take Jesus away from a meeting
and Jesus away from a meeting.
And the words written there are
that the mother and the brothers felt
that Jesus was out of his mind
and they wanted to take him home.
That's just nuts, eh?
Do not be frightened through majority voices.
Sometimes majority voices are all experts and pundits.
You wanna know what an expert looks like?
Go on CNN or Fox.
They have them every night.
And it's a former someone,
former FBI Assistant Deputy Assistant Deputy Secretary.
And he'll have an expert view
on what should be done for the world.
So do not listen to experts and pundits.
Next one.
Deception six.
Guys, majority voices can topple God's promise, eh?
Majority voices can topple God's promise.
As in, God will promise you something.
And if you have six people who are close to you
who say something different, you will probably lose it.
The sixth one is in verse 13.
Verse 13.
And it says there,
then Rav Shaki stood and called out in a loud voice
in the language of Judah,
hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
Thus says the king,
do not let Hezekiah deceive you.
He will not be able to deliver you.
So here's the other thing that happens.
The sixth deception is the voice, sorry,
the voice of another king.
The voice of another king.
Here's how that happens.
Aaron, can you come back?
Jillian, can you come for a second?
The voice of another king.
So let's assume that this is Jesus Christ,
Hezek, he's the king of my life.
So I don't abandon him because I'm a believer.
But now I listen to the voice of another king.
All this could change if you bring coffee next week.
So this is Christ the king who is seated
on the throne of my heart.
But now what happens is I start listening
to the voice of another king.
And I allow that king some access,
but keep the person far enough away.
And you'll be surprised at how this is working in your life
that every time certain situations happen,
you acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord,
but you listen to that other voice.
You acknowledge Christ as Lord,
but you listen to the voice of another king.
So you acknowledge that Jesus Christ heals,
but you listen to the voice of another king that says,
not always, because I might be trying to teach you a lesson.
You acknowledge Christ as a provider,
but you listen to the king who says,
but lack is good because Paul was poor.
Or you acknowledge Christ as king and say,
I won't get drunk,
but you listen to the voice of another king saying,
sometimes you need to get drunk to witness to drunkards.
You can both sit,
because people are watching to see what will happen next.
I haven't run out of stuff.
The voice of another king,
he sits on a smaller throne, sharing space and counsel.
Oh man, I know kings who sit next to me, next to Christ.
You got to demolish this.
Some of you are heading into a new phase in your life.
Be it pregnancy, be it retirement, be it the future.
You've got to make sure that as you come to that place,
that there is only one king
whose voice you continuously clearly hear
and there'll be no other king next to you.
It becomes like a ramp that you can take off of.
Oh, did you see that crash today on the Indy 500?
Okay.
Next deception.
Next deception is in verse 16.
Oh, verse 14, the second part.
Do not let Hezekiah deceive you.
He will not be able to deliver you.
So here's the thing.
There are times when things are so bad
that you will hear this voice say,
this one God isn't going to be able to do.
You've trusted God and He's come through many times before,
but this one, let it be.
This is asking too much.
And you let go of a promise.
That is so sad, eh?
This deception basically says
that God won't be able to do this,
so compromise a little.
God can't do this one.
So let go.
Let's look at the people who could have let gone
and history would have changed.
Moses could have let go.
Abraham could have let go.
Noah could have let go.
Noah waited 120 years
Moses waited 40 years.
What's the other guy's name?
Abraham waited 25 years.
Paul waited 14 years.
All of them could have let go
because it was impossible.
Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth could have let go.
Pick the impossible thing that God has said to you
and nurse it like you would nurse Pokemon.
Or whatever that, not Pokemon,
that there was that little, this was long ago,
maybe some of you weren't born there.
Yeah, that little egg you had to make sure
you took care of it or something.
Yeah.
Well, anyways, let's forget all that
because let me get back to,
I guess this is what happens when you're not married.
You pick on Tamagotchi when you should be picking up
on stuff like children.
Nurse a promise like you would nurse your own child.
Nurse the promise because some promises
are waiting to happen
and they are world-shattering promises.
World-shattering promises.
You know, have you heard of David Pawson?
No.
You've heard of Nikki Gumbel, Alpha?
You've heard of John Scott?
Very famous writer.
These guys have influenced Christianity.
There's one guy whose last name is Nash.
People don't even know his first name.
He lives in England.
This is what he used to do.
He used to go to some universities
and pick on the brightest Christian minds
and during summer invite them to his cottage
and pour into their lives two, three years on.
And these guys like Nikki Gumbel, John Scott, David Pawson,
all these guys learnt under him.
And all of them have established organizations,
written books, but nobody knows about Nash.
I don't even know his first name.
When you nurse promises that are taking time,
know that when a promise takes time,
it's usually because it will have
an earth-shattering effect.
I'm not kidding you.
I'm not being dramatic.
An earth-shattering effect at some point later.
Hold on to it, guys.
Next one.
Deception eight is the enemy will paint a picture,
paint a picture of something that's almost as good,
of something almost as good.
That will bite you in the backside later.
Could you finish it?
That will bite you in the backside later.
So here's what Rapshaki says to them.
Hey, I know you've been promised,
I know you've been promised land of milk and honey.
No, I didn't write that.
Could you write that?
Just to reiterate the point,
Trump's are getting, you can't read it.
Yeah, I can't read it either.
Yeah, okay.
That's deception eight.
Deception eight is the enemy will try to paint a picture
of something that's almost as good,
but ain't the real deal.
And later on, it'll come and bite you in the backside.
He'll paint a picture that looks so idyllic.
I mean, here's what Rapshaki is saying to Israel.
Hey, I know you were promised land of milk and honey,
but let's settle for honey and oats perhaps.
You can come and eat it.
I know you were promised land of milk and honey and oats
perhaps.
You can come and serve me and I'll take care of you.
I'll bring you to this beautiful land.
And look at how he describes the day.
Make your peace with me, come out.
Each of you will eat his own vine
and each of you will own his own fig tree.
Each of you will drink water from his own cistern.
I'll take you away to a land like your own land,
a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
He's painting such an idyllic picture
and they will drink out of wells.
They will eat figs, but guess what?
They'll still be slaves.
He's painting this beautiful picture of slavery
where you'll eat bread and grain and eat figs,
but you'll still be a slave.
It's something that is almost as good,
but it ain't good enough.
Wanna see examples in the Bible?
And Sarah says to Abraham,
I know what God has promised, it's taking far too long.
So let me paint you an idyllic picture.
Why don't you build through Hagar?
We're still having teasing problems with that.
This goes on and on when, like you and I,
begin to compromise on God's best.
As you begin this new phase, and by new phase,
I'm saying whatever your phase be.
Guys, I was saying this to somebody
that God always has you looking at the horizon
and walking towards the end of the road.
And God always has you looking at the horizon
and walking towards the end of the road.
And God always has you looking at the horizon
and walking towards it.
And you need to check this out in your life.
Do you have a horizon you're walking towards?
What is a horizon?
A horizon is a place where land and earth meet.
Do you have a horizon in your life?
Where's the other mic?
Cause this is going on and off.
Do you, do you, yeah.
Do you have a horizon?
Do you, do you, do you, do you wanna dance?
That's an old song, right?
Yeah.
Thank God there are some people
who still recognize these songs.
Otherwise, yeah.
So, yeah, guys, you must have a horizon.
If you've lost sight of what God has for you,
you're not going to have a horizon.
You're going to have a horizon.
If you've lost sight of what God has for you in the future,
then something is missing.
Do you have a horizon?
Do you have a place where God is saying,
heaven and earth will meet there, start walking towards it?
I have this for you.
It's a stranger.
It doesn't matter whether you're walking the earth
or flying at 36,000 feet.
You always have a horizon.
The only time you lose a horizon
is if you go above 60,000 feet.
That's when you see the curvature of the earth.
So as long as you're here on earth,
you will always see a horizon.
Do you have a horizon?
And I'm not talking about, do you have Christian activity?
Do you have a horizon?
Do you have something that God has set for you in the future
that you're constantly moving towards?
Because every few years, God will extend it, eh?
That's for another day.
One of the reasons he gives you something to walk towards
is so that other people don't tell you to settle down
halfway through for something that's almost as good
but will later destroy you or ruin you or compromise you
or force you to settle.
Hey, remember one thing.
If I am challenging you with a question,
hey, remember one thing.
If I am challenging you with this,
then know that God is challenging you with this.
And whenever God challenges,
he doesn't challenge so that you feel terrible
and go home and sulk and give up chess.
That's what happened to me.
First three guys I played with beat me so bad,
I gave up chess.
Otherwise, I'd have been a grandmaster by now.
But the point is this,
that God doesn't challenge you so that you feel terrible
and sulk and go and withdraw.
God challenges you because if you can be provoked,
he can respond.
It's weak-kneed people who, when God challenges them,
say, ah, this won't work.
I guess I'll just go to heaven.
No.
Every time God provokes,
you're supposed to respond
so that he can do something with it.
That's why I love Jacob.
I'm talking about the other guy.
I mean, what provocation man, Mary,
has to wrestle with God for a whole night
and won't let go?
You think it was easy wrestling with him?
Did everything possible to bring that man down and can't?
Wouldn't let go, wouldn't let go.
And what do you think God was doing?
God could have stopped his breath if he wanted.
He could have knocked him cold
by just touching his temple or something.
But instead, he fights with him through the night,
provoking him, saying, you want to fight back?
Let me see what you got, Jacob.
You want to fight back?
And they keep doing it till the morning,
till in the end,
God has to touch the inside of his leg
and dislocate his hip socket
so that the guy can't fight anymore.
God loves to provoke,
but he stops provoking when I don't respond.
If you're being challenged with all these things,
then use this week to go and say to him,
you have challenged me now, I am ready, respond.
And don't expect it in two minutes.
Deception nine.
I think we'll just stop with the deceptions
and do the remedy next week.
Or maybe not, maybe not.
I don't know.
Or maybe not, maybe yes.
D nine.
That's in verse, deception nine is in verse 19.
Ah, this is such an old trick.
Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?
Where are the gods of Sepharvaim?
Have they delivered Samaria out of your hands?
Guys, this is an old, old trick.
It's like, look what happened to Joe.
Look what happened to Jane.
Look what happened to your granddad and your brother.
Look what happened to your dog.
And now you think it won't happen to you?
Never fall for that, eh?
It's an old trick of the enemy, old deception.
You better do this,
because remember what happened to grandmom?
So what if it happened to grandmom?
You're not your grandmom.
You better take this, or you better eat this every day.
Because if you don't, I mean,
the fear that people put on you
based on what had happened to somebody else.
Whenever something goes wrong with your body
and people come around who wanna help you,
but help you without faith, then do not hang out with them.
And if I don't have something to say to you
that will help your faith, I should be quiet.
Don't help people with your faithlessness.
It's wrong to try and make up for that.
Understand?
So Deception Nine is
look what happened to so-and-so.
Look what happened to so-and-so.
They're identically there.
deceptions today. Any questions? Just one more. It's not that I didn't notice that
question but thought I'd let it go. Don't encourage her guys. Stop smiling Derek.
Your parents are coming next week. You have to be on your best behavior. Things
could go severely wrong if you rub any of us wrong. Do we have ashes in this
church? We need someone removed from the congregation and it's not Derek.
Okay next deception is guys in 37 10 in Isaiah 37 verse 10. Rabshakeh has been
defeated but in verse 10 he says something. Thus shall you speak to
Hezekiah king of Judah. Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by
promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of
Assyria. Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that
Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. One of the
things that Satan does when he begins to lose a battle is he starts planting
seed for future fear. When he begins to see that he's losing a battle because
you are beginning to stand in faith one of the favorite things he does is he
begins to plant seeds of fear for the future so that once you've won this
victory you can be reintroduced to fear. This particularly happens in areas where
someone's just recovered from a disease and immediately seeds for the future
are planted as in this might wreak her or Wikipedia says it comes back every
seven months or Google says that every nine months this needs to be checked up
or Angelina Jolie says that her mom died of this her granddad died of this so
she's gonna die of this so you may die of it too. What does Angelina Jolie have
to do with you? So just be aware or even when lack goes away and plenty comes
there'll always be this thing last time you had plenty look what happened this
is gonna happen to you again seeds for fear are sown for the future when the
enemy sees that you are beginning to win because he's been around for ages man
and he knows his time is short and if he has another year he's gonna work on it
because he has no other full-time job. This is all he lives for to steal kill
and destroy and damage your life this is his passion his obsession. So do not
allow seeds for the future to be planted.
The last verse in Isaiah 36 says that verse 22 36 22 Eliakim the son of
Hilkiah who was over the household and Shebna the secretary and
Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with a
clothe stone and told him the words of Rapshah and at the end of the day what
is achieved at the end of chapter 36 is three guys who were sent as
representatives coming back depressed defeated and in disgrace. Sometimes all
the devil needs to do is keep you there because if he can keep you there he
doesn't need to do anything else. Any questions guys I'll stop here because
what we have next is remedies and God's response. How does God remedy this and
then how does he respond but it'll be too much to do it right now but any
questions one of the remedies are which is so brilliant and you'll see this huh
hey let's finish the remedy we'll do the response later first remedy because
it'll be shame some of you won't be back here next week and so you'll go kind of
are shocked so I've got all these deceptions what do I do now so so first
remedy and I'll just go over it quickly and perhaps elaborate on it next week
and it's still ten minutes to four because we usually finish at four.
Chapter 37 verse 1 as soon as King Hezekiah heard it he tore his clothes
covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord first thing
you do when you're when you're facing an onslaught of this sort and deceptions
is seek his face with sufficient humility not with hostility what
happens often is that because of the constant onslaught you end up like the
dad who's hammering the blue W on the door and screaming out of him at
screaming out at God saying if you are real then do something that's hostility
now that guy was not a believer but you are believers you need to know your
father better and it's very hard to hear God when I approach him with a degree of
hostility suspicion or lack of trust this is what when you're being attacked
over and over again for a long period of time and nothing changes one of the
first things that happens is you develop in your heart a suspicion and a distrust
about the father and once suspicion and distrust comes in it's very hard to add
humility to the mix because it's like oil and water seek his face with a
humble heart and a humble heart cannot exist alongside hostility and suspicion
that's the first thing has a Kaya does and the second thing and it's so cool
man is he says in verse 2 what he says he sent Eliakim who was over the household
and Shabna the secretary and the senior priests covered with sack lot to the
prophet Isaiah the son of Amos and so the second thing you need to do guys is
go look at what God has already said over your life ah you have no idea how
powerful the prophetic is how powerful it is it establishes things in your life
you know if you want to sustain revelation you must rejoice over what
God has spoken the way to the way to sustain what God has revealed is to
rejoice in what God has already said the way to sustain what God has revealed is
to rejoice over what God has already said the way to sustain what God has
revealed is to rejoice over what God has already said and if he has said it
then gosh man one of the things in this church that this church is so written is
the words that God has spoken over your life which is why Satan desperately
wants to silence the prophetic in churches by calling it something from
the past or something that has been abused so we never come under it and we
walk around like people blind holding hands against a tottering wall that has
been whitewashed and is ready to fall pointless eh the third remedy verse 3
they said to him this day is a day of distress of rebuke and of disgrace
children have come to the point of birth and there is no strength to bring them
forth guys the third thing you do in terms of remedying this situation is
take stock of reality take stock of reality yes Rabshake's liver is
perforated yes his nose is bleeding yes his hair is falling out this is reality
and Rabshake better take a good look at reality we don't deny reality we look at
reality and then we speak in the logic and the language of God and agree with
what he has said Romans chapter 4 verse 17 to 20 and Abraham looked at his own
body so Abraham had just finished a shower and he stands in the front of the
mirror and he thinks oh shucks this looks like a hundred year old's body and
then he sees Sarah on the side and he looks at Sarah and says oh man she's 92
and he suddenly realizes that reality just hit home you got a hundred year
old and a 90 year old and you also have the promise looming that you guys are
gonna have a baby and so having taken stock of reality this is what Abraham
says that considering himself and his wife he realized that there was no way
they could have a baby but he figured that if God had said it then he was
persuaded that God would do what he said Romans chapter 4 verses 17 to 20 so one
of the remedies is to actually take stock of what is happening and then say
this is what the reality is but this is what the truth is this is what reality
is and this is what truth is this is what reality is and this is what truth
truth is. There is truth and there's beliefs and reality. The knowledge of the truth sets
you free, but the knowledge of the truth happens here. So people have beliefs about God. People
also know their reality about God and then they look at the truth and this common intersect is
where the knowledge of God comes and when that comes you're set free. So you can't say I believe
this is the truth by ignoring reality. You have to acknowledge that this what is happening is real
and after acknowledging that look at the truth and thereby you come to a place of knowledge.
Nor can you say I believe in Jesus or I believe in God and just leave it at that. Face the truth
of if you believe in God what should that look like? What should life look like if you believe
in God? Why am I writing this down? It's taking up time and at the end of the day you still can't
read it. That's just something on the side. The fourth one, I love this one and then there's
only one there's five of them. We got to finish it in five minutes. The fourth one is in verse
four and then in verse 17. In verse four, it's so cool. Hezekiah is kind of feeling his way through
this prayer. So in verse four he says, this is chapter 37 verse four, it's maybe that the Lord
your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock
the living God and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard. As in it's possible that
God has heard what Rabshakeh has said and it'll provoke him. And then go to verse 17. Now he's
getting a little bolder. So in the beginning of the prayer he's feeling his way around. By the time
he gets to verse 17, look at how he's changed. Incline your ear oh Lord and hear. Open your eyes
oh Lord and see. Well this guy's getting bolder in his prayer and he says, hear all the words of
Sennacherib which he has sent to mock the living God. Guys there's this thing in prayer where you
say to God, do you see what they're saying? Arise oh God let your enemies be scattered. It is this,
it is not saying oh God come on get up. No it's not saying get up oh God, wake up oh God. No that's
what the disciples did to Jesus when he was sleeping in the boat. Wake up aren't you bothered that
we're sinking? No that's not the thing. It's saying listen oh God I am as passionate about your name
and your glory as you are and so won't you arise and show them who you really are. You want to see
a New Testament prayer like that? Turn to Acts chapter four verse 28 to 30 and in Acts chapter
four verse 28 to 30 they've just been beaten up by intimidated by the leaders and they say oh God
look at their threats and stretch out your hand in signs and miracles and wonders so that we may go
out and preach boldly without any fear. Bring this into your life eh? Hey your dog does it huh?
I mean I remember when Kamal and Ann when Kumba was around. Kamal just jokingly went
and hit Ann like just this way and Kumba went and went against Kamal. Why? Because this dog
was passionate about Ann's protection.
The point being you have no idea how jealous God is and what he means when he says hey Jacob
you're the apple of my eye. What he literally is saying is anyone comes near your iris or pupil
I'll take care of it. Jealous God eh? That's one of the first ways he introduces himself to Israel.
I am a jealous God. Go figure. That's not the first thing I say hey my name's Jacob I'm pretty
jealous eh? No but that's how he starts. I'm Yahweh. I'm a jealous God. What he meant was you have no
idea how possessive I am about you but till someone knows how possessive God is about them
they really don't appeal to this side of God where you say arise oh God and just think of this guys
just think of this what was the one prayer one prayer that Israel used to pray in the desert
day after day after day when the cloud and the fire used to move or stop they would just pray
one prayer when the cloud moved they would stand up and Moses would say these words arise oh God
and let your enemies be scattered and then the cloud would settle and they would make camp and
then it would start again. Begin to call out to God saying father this is a body that you bought
with your own blood look at its condition and arise oh God with healing in your wings Malachi
chapter four verse two and the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in your in his wings and
you shall jump around like calf in a stall like calves in a stall not these calves the other calf
like the cow calf hey did I ever tell you I was in
South Africa they have strange accents like just like the British and so sorry there were
enough from London here today so I thought I'll take a shot at them and so
I had such a cool statement they made
no they pronounce calf differently or I pronounce it differently and so the South African guide is
telling me that the giraffe goes into the bushes when the giraffe wants to cough and the way he
said it I'm thinking of I said really because this is like a very well-known guide and who takes you
around the South African bush I'm saying really you mean every time the giraffe wants to cough
it goes into the bush and this is yeah every time a giraffe coughs it goes into the bush
so I'm turning to Eddie and saying Eddie did you know that that every time a giraffe coughs it goes
into the bush and so what he was trying to say was every time a giraffe coughs C-A-L-F-S like gives
birth to a calf it goes into the bush and that I can understand but in my mind it was this long
necked animal going behind these short shrubs and going
and I'm looking with surprise at this guy so coming back to the fifth point
yeah the last point is arise oh God oh he wants to be Lord Lord Sabbath and then it gives you
boldness because in verse shortly after Hezekiah prays this prayer he says in verse 20
so now oh Lord our God save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you
alone are Lord and from there on Israel's whole way of functioning changes and then next week
we'll talk about so how did God respond to all this I'm brilliant how God responds I'm sorry
we've run out of time guys but that's something that happens here on earth and so any questions
yeah yeah there's a song which says come as you are so how does it work that if God is saying come
as you are then why should I go into this place of humility and stuff like that can't I come as I am
let's put it this way Jesus says come as you are and then change
so what does that mean Jesus says come as you are and then change
let's put it this way Jesus says come as you are and then change
so that we sometimes forget Jesus says come as you are just as I am just as you are please come
but after that as I and you begin to relate I want you to change so what happens with Christians is
we come as we are 40 years from now we're still coming as we are when God is saying every day you
can come as you are but I want you to change after you come and sit in my presence because if
we don't change then there's no point so yes today I might go to him with a degree of suspicion
but next time I go to him that suspicion should be replaced by a little bit of trust because every
time it should change so that's where the difference is any other question
no okay while people are barbecuing outside if you need prayer for anything feel free to come
I will pray for you someone will be here to pray with you so let me just pray in and
father had to rush through that but I think what needed to be said was said father and
I know this was something you wanted to do because I had much better notes actually father
um but um this is what you wanted to talk about and all of us here have these deceptions happening
how we're gonna we're gonna crush them underfoot not let them thrive not let those shoots grow up
and become like those plants that start wrapping themselves up and around the trellis
gonna crush them underfoot
Father I don't know which point applies to whom but I pray spirit of God that since you
started this that you will finish it and so we're going out now for
I don't know whose idea it was father to have a barbecue in this kind of weather it's really hot
but we'll survive through it but I just pray that there'll be a lot of talking and
Father one of the things that I don't want to lose in this church is the friendships that
we established in the past and there are new people too and just um find out more about them
and if there are people who need prayer I'm sure father that you'll meet their needs because you're
a good good father I think that's it about so thank you for listening to me and I hope you
are. So thank you in Jesus name amen.