How To Be Free From Deception | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Maranatha Shabiba Conference 2022)

As pastor Daniel said earlier, this weekend, flew by. And that's, I think a good indication of a wonderful time. And time seems to just slip out of your hands. And I don't want to, say too much because, I wanna take the remainder of our session in the word. But, I think it would be unjust for me not to thank so many people.

I can't name you by name, but beyond the surface, there are people who have been working tirelessly in the background. We have a shopping crew that had to go get stuff. We have a prayer crew that has been praying not just over the weekend, but even the days leading up to this event. We have the ushers. We have, we have people who are doing so much beyond what we see.

The sound team, we had a Sunday school going on through this whole weekend so that people can come with their families. And, just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my my heart. And, we wanna just now show our appreciation to everybody and just say thank you. And so for those who took so much of their time, who missed these meetings even to serve so that you can be here, we're so grateful. Especially to Bishop and Phoebe, thank you guys so much.

Every year they, they oversee this, they prepare this, and they, have done with so much excellence what we get to experience every single year and they do it because they love the Lord. I see that firsthand and so we're so blessed by you especially. Without further ado, today, this morning, at the end of this weekend, I wanna speak to you from the word of God of how you and I, based on the principles of the word of God, can live a life free from deception. In other words, how you and I can be deceived proof, deceit proof between now and when the truth, capital t, takes us home. I hope you would be passionate about what this has to offer because Jesus, as I now make this a full circle, Jesus told us that we are only heading towards greater deception.

That even we'll have, if possible, the elect to be to be tricked. We even have the elect to look and question if this is sincere, if it is of God. But we can be assured based on the word of God that you and I can have a shield, a filter because our God loves us and he cares for us and he longs for us to be prepared. He longs for us to be strong. He longs for us to have eyes beyond these things on our faces.

And I want to prove that to you from one verse and it's in the book of second Thessalonians and verse three. In second Thessalonians chapter two verse three, the apostle writes to this group of believers, let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember do you not remember that when I was still with you told you these things? I want you just to look at that first phrase in verse three.

Let no one deceive you in any way. Now when Paul wrote this, he is issuing a charge because of a situation that is occurring with the Thessalonians. They were alarmed. They were shaken by some supposed revelation or misinterpretation of of Paul's teachings that the Lord had returned. He had retrieved his bride, and apparently, they weren't numbered among the redeemed, because here they are.

They're still they're still here. They they are left behind, and this clearly shook them to the core. That noose came to the apostle, and he seeks to bring clarity about this doctrine. He wants to remind them of the sequence of events that have to take place even even before the Lord would return in judgment. But what we see here as Paul addresses this, as he seeks to bring clarity to this specific doctrine, is a statement that reaches beyond the scope of this particular situation at hand with this church.

Do not be deceived, or let no one deceive you, not just concerning the doctrine of the return of Jesus Christ, but in any way. In any way. God longs for you and I to be able to detect and divert from any scheme of deception that comes our way, that would seek to lead us into disobedience, that would seek to cause us to believe something that is untrue and cause damage as a result, to be unfoolable, if I can use that word. And if you look quickly at verse two, you get another insight of how deception can be so subtle, the means of deception. Well, let's start from verse one.

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed. Pause. See, when you have a deceive proof life, you're not easily feared. Anxiety, concern is diminished. Verse two, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

What impresses me about that verse is not how a spirit can directly deceive even believers. It's the fact that Paul warned of the possibility of forged letters to be written in the names of the apostles, to have some kind of authority, and then lead Christians into a different direction. What that tells me is that Satan, even at this time, utilized the technology of Paul's day to bring deception, and his tricks are no different today, and how much more should we be discerning with the engineering that is able to engage with all of our senses? I believe even if you read Revelation, there are clues that technology will be strongly used by the system of the antichrist. And so we have to be very aware that there are different means by which deception comes, and this should not cause us to be feared or worried, but all the more alert.

The the first step to being deceit free, and this isn't a point because I have three points this morning, but a a prelude, just a thought. The first step of being deceit free is to realize of the possibility of being deceived. That's it. It's as simple as that. People in this world don't care about truth.

I think we're convinced about that. But not only don't they care about truth, they want you to believe a lie. There's no neutrality. And Paul here is worried as he should be. And this sounds frightening, but we can equip ourselves.

We can be strong, and that includes not being deceived with personal decisions in your life. I'm not just speaking about doctrine this morning. Everything from those major decisions, those choices that will alter the rest of your life to not being caught up with the frenzies from the agendas and the narratives of society. The past two years, in my opinion, has proven how the antichrist will be able to deceive the world. You saw it firsthand.

Not just because of one narrative, but multiple narratives that came crashing in from all directions. And the things that I saw Christians so quickly adopt, so quickly say yes to, so quickly join and partner with is a testament that deception can easily swallow up anybody's judgment. But before we get into the three points, can I show you something inspiring about our lord Jesus Christ? The lord Jesus is our capital e example. And if you just study carefully, you would see how much of what he does in his ministry relates to our day to day living.

Go to Luke chapter 20 in your bibles with me. And meet me in verse 20 of Luke 20. Jesus is approaching his final days on earth. He's reaching the point of why he came ultimately to die on the cross. But before that there was a series of investigations and accusations, and the spiritual leaders of this time sought to get him in trouble before he does any more damage to their idea of who the Messiah should be.

So in verse 20 of chapter 20, look what we see. So they watched him and sent spies who I love the way the ESV puts it, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said. So as to deliver him up to the authority, in Jewish diction, of the governor. So they asked them, teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. That phrase touches me.

Who pretended to be sincere? There are pretenders in your life. There will be pretenders that will come into your life, and those types of people are one of the greatest tools that the enemy uses to try to allure and cause the people of God to stumble, to make decisions that will hurt their testimony, to make decisions that will hurt them. And I love to see the details of how these people were when they stood before Jesus. They thought they were clever.

They thought that they have come up with this dilemma that was really a lose lose scenario, because they would ask him a particular question about taxes, and in their minds, they thought no matter how Jesus answers this, he's going to get in trouble with at least one group of people. If he says don't pay your taxes, the Jews, the the Romans, rather, will come against him, as we just read. If he says go, yeah, you need to pay your taxes, and and you should the the Jews are gonna think that he is siding with the Romans. So this seemed like a perfect plan, but here's the thing. You can't mess with Jesus.

And the Holy Spirit highlights something that ministers to me as a follower of the same Christ that I read of in this passage. Look at verse 23 quickly. But he being Jesus perceived their craftiness. He perceived their craftiness and said to them, and I won't get into what he says. Perceived their craftiness.

He saw through the flattery. He saw through the the smokescreen of sincerity. Oh, we know that you teach the truth. We know that you don't care about the opinions of man, and they try to disarm him. They try to let his guard down, and yet Jesus, through all of that, had laser precision and discernment past the words, past the actions, and right into the mode of the whole thing.

That is the Jesus who is on your side. The one who sees what you cannot see, the one who proceeds what you cannot perceive, he is for us and with us. And the best thing that you can do to endure the deception of these days that will only intensify is hold that hand who can see what you can't see. But this is the only unique to Jesus. Listen.

Satan uses craftiness. All the way from the beginning, the very mess that we're in today with our human nature all started with deception. And we have to read our Bible slowly because in Genesis three one, we are told about one particular animal pre fall. So if you have this idea that the reason why Satan used the snake is because it's hideous. Sorry if you like snakes.

You have to understand there is nothing frightful. There is there is no sense of evil at this point. So this this serpent was used strategically. The enemy is not going to use something just like he doesn't come to you with horns and and a pitchfork. So he uses the serpent, but why?

The bible tells us because the serpent was craftier than all the other animals. Satan then, Satan today loves to use crafty things and crafty people to deceive. And his roster is wide. He listen. He uses gifted musicians.

He uses mesmerizing artists. He uses people who can communicate and almost put people under a spell just by the way they speak. Hitler did that. It was demonic, though. He uses crafty things and crafty people.

He he uses people and he he has these individuals who don't come off as adversaries, who who come off as sincere and genuine, and and they know the words to use to to show you that they are for truth or they are for justice, and they even know how to intertwine God's name in scriptures. Satan uses craftiness. He is not obvious. He's not immediately detectable. So being mindful that people who are gifted, people who are smart, people who have abilities but don't have Christ are who Satan recruits to deceive God's people.

And Eve failed to do what Jesus was able to do. She could not perceive the craftiness before her, but Jesus could, and Jesus, through his word, gives us the tools to know how to build the ability to discern. And so I wanna give you those three points, and we're gonna try to do this quick. Number one, if you want to live a deceived proof life, if you want to be able to amplify your ability to discern, then do what we see here in the same chapter of second Thessalonians. Love the truth no matter what it costs you.

Love the truth no matter what it costs you. Second Thessalonians chapter two nine and ten. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders. If you're a signs and wonders person that believes a ministry has authority based on the miracles they seem to present and offer and claim, you're in trouble. Verse 10, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because why will people embrace wicked deception?

Why will they be open to it? Well, he tells us because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. You may have an intellectual grasp of the truth. You may be intrigued with the philosophies around truth. You may even be able to explain elements of the truth, but none of that equates to loving the truth.

Paul did not say because they did not know the truth and so be saved. He said because they did not love the truth and so be saved. There is a difference. So the deception that was easily received was not because of the lack of exposure to biblical revelation. It was due to the lack of willingness to surrender to the claims that the truth makes.

How do you know if you're a person who loves the truth? Again, it's not because you can quote it, not because you enjoy hearing sermons, not because you have podcasts that you listen to that are biblical. The way you know that you love the truth, which is the way to be protected from deception, is that you joyfully and willingly submit to whatever claims the truth make of you. That's what it means. And because of the refusal to do that, deception had a way to enter into these hearts.

It was the stubbornness. It was the refusal to ultimately bow the knee to the revealed will of God. And here's the thing, many people can say I love the truth, and you would be amazed to know how God will test that in very challenging ways. Someone colorly said in light of this scripture, one example of how the love of the truth can be proven in us is by just thinking about your own church background. Think about the way you grew up.

Think about what you've learned about God. Many people in here grew up in that kind of a culture. And think about the things that you've adopted in your theology and in your church practice and in your Christianity that was based on tradition or or maybe even a misinterpretation of certain scriptures. And what do you do when you come to the point where you personally study the word of God, and you compare scripture with scripture, and you dig and you pray and you learn something as you grow in this knowledge, and this is what you realize. This is teaching me something that I thought was true for so long in my life.

This is this is this is saying something contrary to what my parents told me, contrary to what my seminary professor said, contrary to my church denomination and what they proclaim for centuries. When God, by his mercy, opens your eyes to a clear truth in the word of God, and yet you have come with presuppositions in your heart, and not because you had a desire to be in anything that is false, but because you were just raised in a certain way or because you just easily digested certain things. What do you do after twenty five years of believing a certain thing? In that moment will determine if you love the truth more than your tradition, more than your reputation, more than the fear of people saying, you believed this for so long, and now you couldn't see it, and now you do see it. Love for truth is seen, in your willingness to surrender to it even if you believe it to be something else.

I believe that is extremely challenging, and that is one way you can ensure that you yourself love the truth. No matter what God's word says, I will do it. Even if it's been so long since I've heard or believed something else, if this is the truth, I will submit to it. Additionally, love for the truth is ultimately proven by a love for all the truth. If there was a sure way to invite deception into your life, it is by claiming that God's word is authoritative until something in the word touches a nerve or challenges something that you really, really, really, really wanna hold on to.

And here's an example of how even followers of Jesus Christ who claim, who even confess to love the truth cannot love all of the truth. And that literally is a foothold for Satan to enter into your thinking and then persuade you to certain actions. There was a time when Jesus was walking with his disciples, and he, many times, but his initial attempts was telling them, I must suffer at the hands of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and I will be killed and I will raise on the third day. And on a particular day, Peter heard this, and he felt a little extra confident because he just had the revelation that Jesus is the Christ. He is the son of God.

And so Peter does something very bold. He takes Jesus aside. Not a good move, Peter. Jesus moves you. You don't move him.

He takes Jesus aside, and he rebukes Jesus. This shall not happen to you. And in Matthew sixteen twenty three, we read, but he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. I mean, talk about you wanna talk about highs and lows in your Christian life? Get behind me, Satan.

And now he gives the insight to how Peter came to this point of taking Jesus and rebuking Jesus and correcting Jesus. Right after Jesus, perfection explains something that's going to happen. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of man. That that's how it all started. Your mind is not completely saturated with the knowledge of God and the will of God.

You see, Peter believed in aspect of Jesus. You know which aspect he loved and believed and championed? A conquering Messiah, a triumphant Messiah, a nation's ruling Messiah, and guess what? He was right to believe that because the prophets pointed to that. And so all he's doing is really just he's just reacting to something that he knew.

But what Peter and the disciples could not figure out, not because of their lack of exposure per se, but of their lack of their ability to understand and be willing to accept it is the suffering messiah. A messiah that will die? This can't be. And so he rebukes Jesus from what? An imbalanced understanding and application of the word of God.

I like the triumphant Jesus. I'm not very comfortable of the idea of him suffering. And when you look at the word of God that way, I like the old or the new testament. I don't like the old testament. You have Christians who talk like this, especially middle eastern Christians.

I like the New Testament. I don't like the Old Testament. We're we're not gonna preach on the Old Testament. I like the stuff about love and social justice and the poor. I don't like the ideas of holiness, repentance, and the emphasis on the gospel.

You have just opened a door for Satan to enter into your thinking. When you elevate one truth and diminish another, when it is clear there before you, Satan himself can enter into your thinking, and he is merciless when he does that. And so love the truth. The safest place to be in this is to bow before the entirety of the scriptures, even the parts that you cannot readily acknowledge at first perhaps, but you know is the truth. And because of that, know this, you give Satan very little to work with in your mind.

So love the truth no matter what it costs you. More than just doctrinally, what will it cost you to follow this word? What will happen to your relationships? What will happen to your job? What will happen to your future?

Love the truth. And here's your inheritance. You will know and honor from God that will keep you from being hoodwinked. Love the truth no matter what it costs you. Not know the truth, not talk about the truth, love it.

Number two, there is one of the clearest illustrations of deception at work found in the Old Testament. And in this case, you see how even God's best men are able to get dizzy in their discernment because of the ploys of enemies. And in this particular case, I'm gonna bring you there in a moment, what you see is a very real example, again, of how even the most faithful of God's men and God's women can fall. You and I can stumble, make mistakes every day, and this teaching is not to say how you can create a bubble around you where you'll never know a mistake, where you'll never know, trials or difficulties or afflictions or temptations. That's not what I'm trying to bring here.

But what I am saying is that you and I can pull up a guard in such a way where we minimize unnecessary self afflicting harm. And decisions in life vary. Some decisions, if we get them wrong, have little consequences. Like, you know, you bought a bad mattress. You didn't do the the research.

You didn't look at the reviews, and you didn't care. You just did it. Now you gotta return it. You wasted a whole day. Right?

To decisions that can alter the rest of your existence on this planet. And what we see here is that there is a point in Israel's history where the whole book is really about conquesting the land. It's about physical warfare where Israel comes into the land of Canaan, and they receive and they fight for their inheritance in God. But what's interesting is in the midst of all of that, you think it's all about swords and spears and strange commands to see miracles happen so walls can come down and stones can fly from the sky, but in the middle of all of that, you see this aspect of warfare that is very much familiar today. We don't use swords today.

We don't use bone arrows. We don't use guns. Our weapons are not against flesh and blood. What we do see is in Joshua chapter nine, deception in warfare. And this deception, please listen, it it's not just limited to doctrine.

This deception deals with all aspects of life. Israel was commanded, cleanse the land. Cleanse the land. These people who inhabit the land of Canaan are my enemies. They are perverted.

They have persisted in their sin for centuries, and my judgment is going to be through you invading the land and removing those who are my enemies. No mercy. They already had a chance to have mercy. Read Genesis 15. Centuries of chances to be able to come to repentance.

And so their focus was within the boundaries of the land of Canaan. And as they come, a group, a mysterious group approaches Joshua and the leadership by the name of the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites were inhabitants of the land of Canaan, and they learned very early on, these guys are coming in to take over and they're doing very well. We heard what they did in Egypt. We heard what happened with those kings outside of Israel just by the Jordan.

And now they're here. We gotta do something. We will fail. We will lose. So they have a scheme.

They come up with a crafty plan, and here's the crafty plan. They approach Joshua, and they heavily emphasize to appeal, pay attention now, to the senses. They wanna convince this nation that we are not among the inhabitants of this land. We're from a distant land, and and some wonder if they knew somehow of God's instructions to the nation of Israel because God's instructions were with the cities outside of the parameters of Israel, you had a different negotiation with these places. But within, no no talk.

It's done. And if that is true, then that is a clear example of how Satan knows the word and uses the word against the people of God. But they come, and so they seem like they're from a distant land, but how are they going to do this? And we're gonna for the rest of this time, we're gonna stay in Joshua chapter nine. Look at what they do in verse 14 of Joshua chapter nine.

Let's scale back to verse 12. These are the Gibeonites speaking to Joshua. I want you to envision it. Here's Joshua lined up with the other elders, and here are these Gibeonites, these ambassadors who are approaching Joshua and are trying to now convince them to make a covenant so that they can be saved from judgment. Joshua nine twelve.

Here is our bread. It was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you. Now behold, it is dry and crumbly. These wineskins were were new when we filled them and behold, they have burst. And these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.

Unfortunately, Joshua would make a grave mistake. He would make a judgment simply because of what he saw, what he saw, what he felt, what he tasted. And there are times in life when our senses help confirm something. Right? There are times when our senses help us make sense of something.

Right? But what we see here is that there are critical moments in life where we need to do something much more than just agree with what we perceive in the natural. I believe the Lord gave this chapter for his people so that they would not make the mistake of making serious confirmations unconditionally based upon what you see and feel. You See what I'm saying there? Not that we are enemy against our senses, but to make unconditional judgments based on our senses, it's extremely dangerous.

And if you want to be humbled by this truth in a simple way, there's something known as the mccurge effect. Anybody hear about the mccurge effect? The McKurg effect is really interesting. It's an auditory visual illusion that essentially reveals how sometimes what you see can override and reinterpret what you hear. So what happens is based on your visual sensory, that can actually change the sound that you are perceiving.

So it's a conflict of the senses, and you can experiment with this. You want here say thank you for this. You're gonna make your trip home a little bit more fun. You can actually experiment with this. I wanted to experiment with it because I'm a skeptical individual.

So there's a test. Go on go on the Internet. There's a video online. Look it up, and here's what it is. You have a professor looking at the screen.

You watch it on your phone or laptop, and you see his face, and all he does is repeat the sound, bah, Ba. Ba. Ba. And he's staring at the screen. Ba.

Ba. And you're hearing ba. Now what he does now in the second clip is he changes the movement of his lips, but he doesn't change the sound that he's making. So when you transition to the second clip, he's actually saying, but but what you hear is, Fa fa. Immediately, like, this is a hoax.

I see it. He's going, he's doing that. I know how words work. The ba fa. There's no way that this is a different this is the same sound.

So I watched it again. I looked at the comments obviously to make sure I'm in the consensus, and sure enough, they were disagreeing with me. So I watched and I watched the guy say, you know what? This is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rewind this thing, but this time I'm gonna close my eyes.

Let's see if this is true. Because here's what's crazy, even when the man at the end explains explains the whole phenomenon, explains the illusion, explains this bizarre effect, even after he explains it, you watch it again and you still don't see the difference, or you see the difference rather. It's your your brain still tricks you even after the guy tells you the trick. So I'm like, this there's something wrong here. So I went back, I closed my eyes, and to my shock throughout the whole video, you know what I heard?

Bah. Still didn't believe it. Said, no, there's something weird here. So this is what I said. I'm gonna watch it.

I'm gonna close my eyes, but halfway through the second clip when he, I'm confident, is saying, I'm gonna disprove this whole thing. I'm gonna get the most likes for my comment. So I close my eyes. Here's this man, ba ba ba fa. Or rather, ba ba ba.

And I open my eyes and to my greater shock immediately, fa fa fa. I tried it like at different points in the second clip. Like, bah bah bah. Fah bah bah bah bah. Am I all convinced?

And I believe God, in his wisdom uses things like this, uses science to prove a spiritual truth. You can lie to yourself, man. You can trick yourself. You can actually believe something to be true when it is not true at all. And so as I kept contemplating on this, I realized a spiritual principle.

How true is it that we interpret truth, not with the conflict of our eyes and our ears, but our flesh and divine revelation? How much of this do we reinterpret and actually believe to be right when in reality, it's saying something completely different? I was convinced that it was two different sounds. In reality, it was one. And you have people who are so strongly convinced that some aspect of truth, some aspect in their life is right or it's holy or it's God's will, and it isn't.

Some of you think you have bad and fine. It's really bad. How do we protect ourselves from this fearful possibility? How do we shield ourselves from spiraling into our own world filled with delusions? The same text in Joshua tells us something incredible.

Look at verse 14. Joshua nine fourteen. So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. How to live a life free from deception? Number two, bring all matters of earnest prayer before God.

This was their error. This was the core reason why they made their mistake that would cost them generationally. Because they did not, in their humility and understanding that even what they see and perceive can be wrong, to come before the lord and say, lord, is this right? Is this your will? Is this true?

Is she the one? Is this where you want me to go? Is this the right opportunity? And I meditate on this, and I thought to myself, how could have God answered? Like, what would he have done to to remove the veil from the Gibeonites?

The veneer? What would he have done? And that the Bible is not clear in telling us what he would have done, and that kind of comforts me more than anything else. Because it wasn't telling us that there was a specific way that he was going to answer, they should look for that thing. All it says is that they were at fault for not seeking counsel.

Here's my responsibility and yours in this life. Bring it before God. That's your part, and God will do his part. A God who is a God of communication to make it exactly known how you need to know about it, to be confirmed before moving forward. It's not about about putting certain things down.

What you look for is just simply coming before him and laying it down before him, and in humility persisting in that posture of dependency. It's not about a particular sign. It's not about some kind of a wonder that will persuade you. It's simply about doing your part. Lord, I I I I see this as a good thing.

I might not understand the depths of it. I don't know the motive here, but protect me. Protect me. I don't wanna do the wrong thing. I wanna be in your will.

When you when you talk like that, when you speak to the Lord, he has a holy obligation as a father would for his child to hold you tight and to make sure that you will not veer off into something that will hurt you and dishonor his name. You sit before the let Lord like that, you're in the safest place in the world. The safest place in the world. And I know some might think that this is, overly simplistic, maybe even dangerously simplistic. You know why?

I get it. The reason why is because you have some people who are out there who are obviously making terrible decisions, ungodly decisions, unscriptural decisions, all in the name of I prayed about it and God said it was fine. Right? I prayed about it and God gave me peace. Yeah.

So pray about it. That's all you need to do. You forgot the first point. Before you can even pray about anything, you first need to establish in your heart that you are a lover of the truth. You're a lover of that which is true.

You are totally sold out for the will of God in your life. And if that is not established, pray all you want. Get all the sensation of peace and calm that you can get. The Bible says in Proverbs twenty eight nine, if anyone turns his ear away from the law, even his prayer is an abomination. That's scary.

He didn't say that he won't listen to your prayer. He says, your prayer is an abomination. If you have no regard for my word, my will, my sovereignty, my providential leading in your life, if you do not ultimately surrender to where I take you and what I wanna do with you, pray all you want. It's futile. It won't take you anywhere.

What needs to happen first is a person who has the conviction of the truth being the driving seat of their lives. And if not, even prayer can lead you astray because you're not praying to the God of truth. What God looks for first in that heart that desires to know his will is that. Is that desire there? Is it living?

Is it supreme? Is it primary? If not, I can't hear your prayer. I'm sorry. So that's why I've seen so many people in life nosedive into concrete, and they backed up that trust when they flew off the ceiling or the roof because they prayed about it.

Jesus says something astounding in John seven seventeen. Highlight this one. He says, if anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. Look at the first part. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know.

So there's a principle there that God looks at the the motive. God looks at the heart. God looks at the sincerity. God looks for the longing. God looks for the purity of a person who wants to be where God wants him to be, who wants to believe the truth that will save him, who wants the accurate revelation.

Jesus said, if that is your will to do God's will, you will know. That's glorious. Carry that with you step by step. But there is something that Joshua failed to do here before even his his decision not to seek God. And we may miss it if we read the text very quickly.

Because the interaction that he has with the Gibeonites reveals another biblical principle, which I will close with, that will help us be the seed proof for the rest of our lives, will help us minimize the chances of going the wrong way. Go back to Joshua nine and we're gonna end it here. Joshua is engaging with the Gibeonites. He doesn't know that they're Gibeonites. And we read here in Joshua nine verse six, and they, the Gibeonites, went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, we have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us.

That's pretty bold. Very general, very straightforward, and I applaud Joshua's leadership here. Verse seven. But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, perhaps you are living among us, then how can we make a covenant with you? Great question.

Great screening. And guess who's really nervous at this point? They give you nights. You know how I can tell? Look how they answer in verse eight.

They said to Joshua, we are your servants. So nervous. You can tell. It's just like, we're your servants. And he presses.

They continue to ask. They continue to investigate. And Joshua said to them, who are you and where do you come from? Who are you and where do you come from? Remember that.

Because what you'll see after this is in their answer, very lengthy and pretty sentimental, pretty heartwarming actually, but they didn't answer the questions. The questions were, who are you? Where do you come from? Here's their answer at least in verse nine. They said to him, from a very distant country, your servants have come because of the name of the Lord your God, for we have heard a report of him and all that he did in Egypt.

My question is, who are you? Where did you come from? Where your servants were from a distant country? Joshua, red flag. Red flag.

They're not answering your questions. They're not satisfying the measure that you need to know in order to make this decision. And although I can applaud Joshua up to this point, it goes downhill from here because they continue to speak. And listen, they use the name of God, and they even they even show some knowledge of his ways. This is what you did to Sihon, and this is what you did to Og, and we heard what happened in Egypt.

And to top it all off as the cherry on everything else, they brought these elements that seemed to indicate that they did come from a far place, and Israel missed it. Here's what I am pointing to as we close. While you're cultivating a love for the truth and while you have a perpetual practice of bringing matters before the God who can make things known in very creative ways, he He doesn't have to speak audibly. He in his great providence and his invisible hand can maneuver things to protect you and I. While we do those two things, those foundational things, those pillar of practices, we each have the responsibility to test everything.

Joshua failed not because he asked questions, but he didn't ask enough. That's where he failed. If he had asked more, if he had pressed, then perhaps everything would have been exposed. Paul told the Thessalonians, not in the second letter, but the first. In verse 20 of chapter five, do not despise prophecies, but test everything.

Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast what is good. The NASB would read it this way, but examine everything carefully. Christianity does not call us to give our hearts to Jesus and abandon our brains at the altar. But for some reason, many have this belief that rational thought is the enemy of spirituality.

And so what you have is intellectualism apparently is a temptation. It's a temptation to avoid since it is an obstacle to spirituality. Because now spirituality, even amongst this generation of Christians, is synonymous with sensation. If it feels good, if it makes me cry, if it makes me do this, if it caused me to do that, then surely this experience that's producing some level of good, at least initially, is is spiritual. And so in order for me to prevent going in a different direction with this message, let me just say one thing with that thought.

The God who is spirit, the God who performs signs and wonders and can still do miracles today, the God who supernaturally did a surgery in the heart of your soul and now fills you with real, tangible, observable power, that same God chose to, out of all the means, to communicate and reveal himself through a book. A book. Meaning, you got to pick it up, and read it, and study it, and compare it, and dig into it. In other words, Christians should use their brains. We're not a brainless religion.

We are not some syrupy softy. If it's oh, yes. That's fine. Just because somebody said God said just because the Bible is in their hands. Just because the music makes me feel in a certain way, that's not us.

And what's important to understand here is that even in the context of a spiritual experience with the Thessalonians where somebody is prophesying, now whether you believe that means preaching or speaking with a spontaneous revelation of the Holy Spirit concerning a matter that couldn't be known naturally, both rules apply. Test everything. If it comes with the autograph, this is the Lord or this is of God, test it. Ask questions. Compare.

Pause. Step back. Talk to people that you know love God's word, fear God's word. And I've talked to some people. Listen.

I've seen this in in my short time in ministry. There is some all it takes is God said, and they're wrapped up in a whirlwind and you never see them again, or they're haunted by a statement just because somebody came off spiritual and knew how to quote a few verses or knew them for about a few months and said the Lord showed me, and the Lord told me. And then when you approach this person and when you try to be pastoral, you try to be a friend who loves people because you love God and you're you're holding somebody accountable, you say, what's what's going on? Well, I don't wanna be skeptical. I I don't wanna doubt God.

Hey. The same God that you're worried of displeasing for apparent lack of faith is the God who said test everything. So test it. He's telling you, you wanna please God in this whole experience? Test it.

Don't just swallow it up. Examine it. Evaluate it. And depending on the nature of the truth, don't be quick to get caught up in it. And my brothers and sisters, we can continue for the rest of this morning to to know greater things that we can apply, but these three suffice.

When you love the truth in your heart, whatever it cost you, whatever it cost you for your own pride, whatever it cost you in your life, and when you know how to come before God for earnest counsel with a bible tightly gripped in your hand, and when you know how to exercise the command given to us to use this brain and to ask specific questions and to examine and to look before you give a judgment, you can know a deceive proof life. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this weekend together. Thank you that your word has equipped us for what is ahead. Lord, as Jane told us, we do not presume that tomorrow will come.

We do not presume that our plans next year will be in place, but we say if the Lord wills. And Lord, between now and next year, though we long to be reunited, we know that events can quickly change not just in our own lives but around the world. Around the world to such a degree that it will alter our lives. We do not fear the future. We do not fear the future for your church for the gates of hell will not prevail.

And we will not fear our own futures because you are a God who leads us perfectly. And all you ask is for the humility to trust and obey. Lord, we ask that leaving this place, there would be an excitement and that there would be a clarity. There would be a clarity like we've never known in all aspects of our lives. We give you the glory for you are for us and you are with us.

And we pray that we would be testimonies of truth in an age that hates the truth. We love you with all within us. Protect us as we go back home to our own ministries, to our own families, to our own workplaces. May what has been deposited within us translate in our daily living. We believe that you are able to do it and we would joy rejoice at the truth as we sing together this final time.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.