Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
[Music] Modern words can say [Music] you need Lord. I need you Lord more than the air I brea more than the song I sing. more than the next heartbeat. More than anything, Lord, as time goes by, I will be by your [Music] side because I want to go back to my old. Thank you, Lord. I need you more. [Music] more than yesterday. I need you more than words can say. I need you more than ever before. I need you, Lord. I need you, Lord. Say it again. I need you more. more than yesterday. I need you more. We need you, Lord. [Music] I need you more than ever before. I need you, Lord. I need you, Lord, more than the air I brea, more than the song I sing, more than the next heartbeat. I need you more. And Lord, as time goes by, I will be by your side. Yes. Because I never want to go back to my old life. I need you more. More than I need you more. More than words can say I need you more than ever before. I need you, Lord. I need you, Lord. Say, we need you, Lord. We need you [Music] more. We need you more. More than words can say we need you
more than ever before. We need you more. We need you Lord. We need you Lord. Thank you Jesus. [Music] Lord, you're a vital necessity. And Lord, we just make a a public decoration declaration this morning, God, that we need you more, Lord. We need more of you and we need you more. Thank you, Jesus. We need you, Lord Jesus. [Music] Lord, we just pray that you would just light a fire in us, God, that the world can't burn out, Lord. Lord, we're praying for revival, Lord, but we just pray that you would let it start right here, Lord, in our hearts this morning. Give us a hunger, Lord. [Music] Restore to me the joy of my [Music] Sal, take me back to where it all [Music] began. Where all I ever wanted was your presence. [Music] How I long to be there again. Light a fire. Light a fire that the world can burn out and a flame. Till nothing between us remains. My life is an alter to you. [Music] Brea again on the embers that burn in my heart. A love taken back to the star. My life is an altar to
[Music] you. Renew in me. Pure and will in spirit. Take me back to where it all be. Before it all became so complicated. [Music] How I long to be there once again. What a fire. Light a fire that the world can burn out and a flame till nothing between us [Music] remains. My life is an alter to [Music] you. Breathe again on the embers that burn in my arms. A love taken back to the stars. My life is an alter to [Music] you. God, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. [Music] For when I've gone [Music] cold, Lord, I need you. Tell him how I need you to awake my soul. Light a fire. Light of fire that the world can burn out and a flame. Till nothing between us remains. My life is an alter to you. Yes. Breathe again on the embers that burn in my heart. A love taken back to the star. My life is an alter to you. Let's tell him again. God, I'm sorry. Forgive me for when I grown cold. Lord, I need you. How I need
you to awaken soul. [Music] Yes, Lord. Hallelujah. Let's just worship the Lord. Bow your head for us. Lord, we worship you. We exalt you, God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. We worship you, the name above every name, the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who died on that cross for our sins and rose from the dead. We exalt you, Lord. And we are sorry, Lord, where we have fallen short, where we have uh grown weary and welloing. Where we've allowed ourselves to get in places where our foot has almost slipped. Lord, help us draw near to you and to seek you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. God, that we may be a people led by the Holy Spirit. your sheep hearing your voice and following you. Lord, I praise your holy name, Lord. That's our prayer, Lord. And we ask you to forgive us, Lord. Forgive us, Lord, when we haven't listened and obeyed what you were trying to tell us to do. We pray for your grace and mercy, for your forgiveness, and for your help because we truly want to be a people led by the Holy Spirit, led by your word and not our own mind or our own desires. Lord, I pray this this morning in Jesus name. Amen. And amen. You may be seated this morning. Thank you, Johnny and Julie. Wow. Good to see everybody today. Finally a day without rain. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Um, boy, I tell you what, I've been battling that devil about this today. It has just been a intense battle about this particular message, but I finally know how God wants me to where how he wants me to do it, where he wants me to go with this. So, um, I want to put up again, if we could, um, John 10:27, uh, we're going to continue from last week. So, I guess this is don't be a goat part two. Don't be a goat part
two. Did you know that you can change from a goat to a sheep and you can change from a sheep to back to a goat if you want to? Right. It's this crazy thing that can happen in the kingdom of God if you want to do it. There's a lot of people out there says once a sheep, always a sheep, no matter what the sheep does, right? But that's just not true. Now, let me as I get into this, we're going to read this verse. This is what we covered last week. We I think this was the main verse, but Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me." Uh, if you don't have this one memorized yet, you should. Especially if you go to this church, this ought to be inside of you. But let's break it down one more time for those that are new and those that haven't heard. But in the Greek language, there's several different types of Greek verbs. But the verbs in this scripture, hear, know, and follow, they're all present tense Greek verbs, which means ongoing, continuous action, taking place in the present. So Jesus meant that this right here, this truth was forever. It wasn't just for the apostles or the disciples back then. This truth is to continue forever. that his sheep would hear his voice and follow him. Now, I talked to you a little bit about that last week. We went to Romans 8 and talked about the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirit. We know uh from uh the Gospel of John chapter 16, he said about the Holy Spirit, he will speak to us and show us things to come. Let's put that up. John 16. I'm going somewhere with this today. We're going to talk about the greedy dogs in a minute. Ye old dogs. We're going to talk. All right. My sheep hear my voice, right? My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. And then we go to John 16. Go down to verse, what is it? Verse 13. I think it starts there. Yes. He says, "How be it when he," speaking of the Holy Spirit, also called the Spirit of truth, "when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come." Now, that's what what's so interesting is it's giving you a a couple of different things here. But when he says that he will guide you into all truth, that first part is he's going to guide you and teach you and give you
revelation and understanding in the written word of God. Amen. I mean, that is the job of God's spirit. When we when we repent, when we're born again, that's the start of allowing him as we read and study. Somebody say read and study. When we read and study the Bible the and we are praying for revelation, wisdom, understanding, the Lord will start to guide us into all truth. Okay. Now, here's what some many of you have run into though. As you started reading and studying your Bible and God started guiding you into all truth, you found that a lot of the truth you were discovering in the Bible was uh conflicting with what your church was teaching you. Okay. Um and there comes the the major conflict that we have, right? Um, and it's it's as old as this book is, as as mankind is, deception. But I want you to see the other part. Not only will the Holy Spirit guide you into all truth, that is in the Bible, give you understanding in the Bible, he says he will speak to you. Somebody say speak. The Holy Spirit of God, the spirit of God still speaks. He speaks to his people. That's part of my sheep. hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Because like I said last week, there are things the Lord's going to tell you to do, lead you to do that you can't find written in the Bible. Some of you, you know, prayed and know that God led you to come to Fire and Grace Church or go through Fire and Grace School of Ministry. Well, it's nowhere in the Bible says that, right? So you had to pray and hear from the Holy Spirit and he will speak to you. Now this is what in the realm that we got to be very careful because there's a lot of folks out there that are hearing a lot of voices and they think it's the Holy Spirit talking to them and it is not. And this is why you have to be very careful with this because not everything you hear in your mind or in your spirit is coming from God. That's why we must judge and discern everything and be very careful about what we say. Um, I've said this in the past. I've had some good brothers and sisters in the Lord that are were saved and love Jesus and were walking in obedience and holiness, but they got a little, how do I put a little uh too frivolous, I would say, or too uh casual with saying the Lord told me this and the Lord told me that or, you know, prophesying every five minutes.
Um, when I when I hear somebody like that, I get concerned, you know, and let me just say this. If that's you, again, you want to be hungry and open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but it's an area you got to be really, really careful before you tell somebody, "The Lord told me this or showed me this." You better know. And sometimes you get the witness of the spirit as he's telling you and maybe or as it's coming in a vision or whatever. and you feel the presence of the Lord, the witness of the Holy Spirit that you felt when you were born again. But sometimes the Lord doesn't give you any feelings when you and those you got to check. And remember I talked about that too last week. You got to check those. Sometimes you got to I call it putting it on the back burner and we'll see what happens. Right? Just turn it down low, let it sit on the back burner. We'll see if if the Lord stirs that up. And like I said last week too, it's okay to pray. Be patient for a season and pray for confirmation. Especially on big decisions, y'all. You've got to know that it is the Lord. I can't tell you how good the deceiving spirits are at what they do, the seducing spirits. Um, and they'll come along and and what's interesting is because it's in the spirit realm and what you hear, you hear the the Holy Spirit speak to you primarily in your spirit, not like you hear me. But that's the same way the demons talk to you as well. And the Holy Spirit can come and override your thoughts, but the demons can come and override your thoughts. and familiar spirits and spirits of divination, which are another way I would describe them is like spirits of false prophecy, are very good at sounding like the Holy Spirit. They work very hard at that. And because most people still have demonic strongholds in them from the past, they are actually set up to be deceived. Okay? And this is why we got to be very careful. We got to be very careful that we make sure we clean out this house through deliverance. And we got to be very careful and make sure about who we're letting pray for us or lay hands on us and all that stuff because that can affect everything. It's kind of like uh you know most of these young folks in here not going to remember this but the old radios in the cars you used to have to turn them like this back and forth and there's a little dial that went back and forth like that and you had to really work to tune it into the station and then the kids could jump in the car and start fooling with it and you're like oh I got to find it all over again right well that's what demons do they come in and get it off the station you
want it on to put it on their station. Okay? And you've got to be careful and especially if you're prophesying things. Now, let me let me say this. Any Christian can make a mistake and get in the flesh and give a prophecy or a word that's not from the Lord or that is wrong or doesn't come to pass. Any one of us can make a mistake. Okay? Doesn't mean you're a false prophet because we are not under the same judgment as they were and and restrictions as they were in the Old Testament. If they missed it one time, they were they were they they were not hearing from the Lord. Okay? But in the New Testament, this is why he tells us, "Let the prophet speak. Two or three, let the others judge because he knows we're going to have Christians at all levels of maturity trying to learn how to do this thing." And they're going to make mistakes as they grow. But listen to me closely. If you are making mistakes a lot in what you think you're hearing or frequently, something's wrong. Okay? Because when you if you do make a mistake in this area, you need to quickly repent and ask the Lord, "Help me clear out whatever's confusing me, whatever's uh trying to cloud or tune in, tune me into a different station. And it doesn't make you a bad person though if you if you make a mistake. Okay? But I I don't know if it's sometimes it's pride or stubbornness or ignorance that some people you you correct them about it and say, "Hey, you need to tighten up here. Tighten up the ship. Make sure you hear correctly." And they keep going in the same nonsense. And that's why correction has to get a little stronger after that because you can't just let it go on. Right now, I'm going somewhere with this because uh this is an important thing. Let's go to Proverbs because I touched on this last week, but I want to delve more into it about hearing from the Lord. All right? discerning the voice of God. And remember last week I said you got to learn to be humble enough also if the Lord speaks to you through somebody else because this is something that was common in the Bible. The Lord would give a word, a prophecy, a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom. He would give some type of revelation to someone, a prophet or an apostle or in the New Testament, any Christian can move in those things and send them to another Christian or another person with a message, right? And you got to be humble enough to be
able to take that even if it's a little child because sometimes, right, the Holy Spirit will speak through a child. But you also, and this is somewhere I've seen people make huge mistakes when they don't get a multitude of counselors on a situation. Now, let's read this. Proverbs 11. Oh, what verse was it? That's 14. Yeah, 14. Going to read that one. Where no counsel is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Um, let's go over and read. Go to Proverbs 24. He says in verse six here, for by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war, and in the multitude of counselors there is safety. Now, let's just define though what the Lord's talking about here because uh if you hunt long enough, you can find somebody to agree with you. That's not a counselor that's going to agree with you all the time or just be a yes man or a yes woman. Um, in fact, if you go to somebody, people love to give advice, don't they? I I'm I'm my mind's blown because there's people that actually pay money to folks to go get bad advice, right? There's there's bad advisors that get rich off of this. But these counselors, what he's talking about here, it's wise counsel. It's not the counsel of the wicked or the ungodly or the scornful. Let's let's go to uh Psalm 1. You can't just sit in any counselor. And the word counselors also just I'll give you this definition uh in the Hebrew yal is the Hebrew word to advise to deliberate or resolve uh devise a plan determine or guide. That's what counselor means here. But back in Psalm 1 starting at verse one, let me turn there or you just put it up here. What does it say? It says, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners." That means in the path of sinners, nor siteth in the seat of the scornful, that is the the mockers or the
scoffers or the doubters. Okay, but let's break this down a minute. I like it. It says here, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." Do you know the person you're talking to? Do you know if they're a godly person or not? I know some people that go to therapists, Christians that go to therapist that aren't saved. How do you sit in the counsel of the ungodly and allow them to guide and lead your life? Oh, but they're experts in psychology. Really? Do they hear from God? Are they led by God? Do they have the same spiritual foundation that you have? Oh, but I go to a Christian counselor. You better double check that one, right? Especially if they're charging you money for it. I've never charged a dime to counsel anybody. But see, that's one of the things it says about Jesus. He is the what? Wonderful counselor. But the Lord wants us to be able to trust the body of Christ and have multiple counselors. Now, every time I'm going to tell you, every time a Christian's had a big decision, somebody I've known has a big decision and didn't seek out wise counsel and multiple wise counsels on it. There was a big mistake. And when they didn't listen, it was a big mistake. And especially when you get three, four, five, six people who love you, who are your brothers and sisters in Christ, who are wise and godly counsel, feeling the same thing and saying the same thing, and you still don't listen. You are headed for trouble because a lot of times say, "Well, the Lord speaks to me. I hear from God myself." That's good for you. But that pride right there will also allow a deceiving spirit in. And the Lord uses other people and wants us to listen to other people because he doesn't want us to get into pride. It really takes humility to go, you know, this was my plan. But multiple wise counselors are saying, "I shouldn't do this. I think I'm going to pause and go back to fasting and prayer
and see what the Lord is saying." That's why he says there is safety there. It's It's not trying to stop you from doing God's will, but sometimes it's not just, you know, I knew God spoke to me about starting Fire and Grace Church in 2004. 2004. He said, "I want you to start another church. It's going to be called Fire and Grace Church." Knew it was the Lord. No doubt in my mind. But I was in a season of my life at the time that I was kind of isolated from some, you know, things were going on and I was having to go here, go there. I was just all over the place. I was at a job where I was traveling and it was just kind of crazy time for me. And I didn't really I I didn't I knew the word of the Lord, but I didn't have his timing cuz I thought, you know, and this is what we do sometimes. We hear something from the Lord and we want to oh that's now we going to jump now, right? And the next thing sometimes he wants us to be patient because he wants us to wait and go, "Okay, Lord, when do you want me to do this? How am I to do this? Where am I to do this? And I just kind of jumped out and started. I held one service and I knew it wasn't time, right? 2004. But five years later, it was time to do it. And in fact, I wasn't doing it. And the Lord said, "I already told you what to do. Get up and get busy." Right? Kind of like how the Lord got on to you about starting next level ministry. It's like time to move, son. And that's another thing. If you love the Lord and you pause or you start to not do his will, but you really want to, he's not going to let you miss it. He will shake you up. He will get your attention. He will say, "No, get busy. Now's the time." All right. But it is so important. And I can't stress it enough about seeking wise counsel. Not just any counsel. Not your mama cuz you know what she's going to tell you. If you got a mama just say just, "Oh yeah, baby. Do what you feel." Now, if you got a mama that says, "Let's just pray about this and fast. See what the Lord's saying." And then she'll tell you what you don't want to hear. Then yeah, she could be one of those counselors. See it, a wise counselor has to be somebody that's going, you know, that's going to be listening to the Lord and they're going to tell you what the Lord says and not what you want them to say. Now, the dangerous thing is is when
you set up something you want or you want to do in your heart as an idol, then you can get deceived really easily. Let me show you something. Go to Ezekiel chapter 14. Now, Ezekiel 14 comes right after the chapter 13 about false prophets. And then he says this, and to me, this is one of those uh frightening things because the Lord says basically, if you set up idols in your heart, the Lord will allow false prophets to confirm what you want. Listen uh verse one. It says, "Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me and sat before me, and the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at them at all by them?" Now, what they were doing, they were coming to Ezekiel, a true prophet, and saying, "What's the word of the Lord? We want the word of the Lord." Well, it sounds sincere. It sounds genuine, doesn't it? But they had set up idols in their heart, meaning they had a certain thing that they wanted be be before before the will of God, before denying of self. You understand? Some people make up their mind like, "Okay, I want this woman to marry right here, and that's what I want." And God said he'll give me the desires of my heart. So that's what I want. Period. And they're not going to receive anything else. So the Lord is like, well, you know, maybe it wasn't the that that person's not the will of God for them. They got to be willing to say, okay, I'm willing to lay that down if that's not God's will. Even if it's something I want. Oh, this is where so many people I want this. I want to live here. I want this job or I want to do this ministry or I want I want I want I want and the Lord goes no no no there's what I want and there's what you want and most of the time you don't know what I want and you've got to find out and see this is why decisions big decisions especially should not be made when you're emotional about because then your emotions are leading you. Not the spirit of God, not wisdom, not wise counsel. And this is another dangerous place because you can let the flesh lead
you. I want what pleases the flesh or what pleases the fleshly carnal mind. The part of the soul that is fleshly and carnal. Because you know there's things that please our minds, please our our own we we make our own choices. We lord of our own life in certain areas, right? And see all that has to be crucified. All that has to be put down. There can be no wants or desires but accept what God wants. You got to be willing to lay it all on the altar. Now, he may end up giving you something you want because he's good and nice to us, but you got to first be willing to lay it on the altar and let go of it. And if you lay it on the altar and you're truly okay with walking away from what you want, what you plan, and say, "God, whatever you say," then you're in the right place. But if not, listen what the Lord says here in Ezekiel, we'll keep reading. He said verse from verse three, he said they've set up idols in their heart. Verse four, therefore speak unto them and say unto them, thus sayeth the Lord God, every man of the house of Israel that setth up his idols in his heart, and puteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols. Woohoo. That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus sayeth the Lord, repent and turn yourselves from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setth up his idols in his heart, and puteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me, I the Lord will answer him by myself. And I will set my face against that man, and I will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people." Y'all hear that? It's pretty serious. It's real dangerous to have set up in your heart what you want instead of what God wants. And let me just tell you, a lot of these prophetic meetings, oh Lord, I've seen them for 38 years. I got an anniversary right now.
This is June the 1. This is when I came back to the Lord. It was in June. I don't remember the exact day, but June is the month for sure that I came back to the Lord 1987. So 38 years ago. It's hard to believe sometimes. 38 years, it's a lifetime. Just like where did that go? But I learned real quick my plans, my desires, my wishes, a lot of my hopes and dreams had to go out the window. And this is what it's called about dying to self, dying to the flesh. And if you don't, you're going to go to prophets. I've been these prophetic meetings. Oh Lord, what they become is just a tell everybody what they want to hear fest. Yeah. The prophet becomes idol. I mean, it's ridiculous. Everybody's going to have a double portion. Everybody's going to have a great ministry. Everybody's gonna be rich and famous and wealthy. And everybody leaves. Oh, did you hear that word? I got the prophets of prosperity and peace. No warning. So, let's go to um I'm gonna show you something else, too. Go to um Psalm 32. I've talked about this before, too. Well, hold your hold your spot on Psalm 32. Hang on. I'm going I'm going to go to Acts. This has been in my mind about the storm. I talked about this sometime not too long ago about Paul and the storm. Which where is it? 27. I really didn't plan on going here. Let's see. I'm looking for the specific. Where is it where he warned them? Ah, here we go. 27:10. Now, I love this because the Apostle Paul, they're about to get on a ship to sail for Italy. Now, it's God's
will for him to stand before Caesar, but maybe not on this boat. Maybe this is a boat they should let go on by, right? And he said to them, "Sers," verse 10, "Sers, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lady of the ship, but also of our lives." Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and owner of the ship more than those things that were spoken by Paul. And we know what happened after this. Um, I can't tell you how many times and and see this is something else too. I have to be careful about both Nancy and I try to be very careful of this because I've seen the extreme where the whole thing of spiritual authority and submission and and people giving counsel and basically trying to become the guides of somebody's life completely. uh that you know that's the the shephering movement that happened back in the 70s and it got it was Derek Prince and Bob Jones and uh can't remember the other guy but there was a whole bunch of now Derek Prince later repented of that admitted he got into error got into extremes I mean they were telling people who to marry and like you know they were playing matchmaker and I mean it's just weird stuff but of course with Bob Jones around it's going to get weird right um that false prophet was the problem. I I'm glad that Derek Prince repented and removed himself from that. But um I say that sometimes again, what do we see here? We see two opinions about this storm and this this little trip, right? Paul Paul's words, I perceive this is going to be a bad trip. and the centurion who's just like, "We got we got business to get done. We got to get moving." And many times I want to tell you, I have had people come to me and they ask me things. And because I have to be so careful that I'm not trying to be your Holy Spirit, I will perceive that your decision is going to be with much hurt and loss. And sometimes I can't say anything. I just have to go pray. because the person or persons are not necessarily asking me for my counsel. So what do I say? What do we say all the time, babe? Go pray about that. We get off the phone with somebody, we're like, "This ain't good." But we can't say it sometimes. Now, if they point blank say,
"I want your counsel and advice on this." What do you think? What do you feel from the Holy Spirit? I will tell you. But if you just call us up and say, "This is what I'm doing." A lot of time, I'm not going to say, "Oh, you shouldn't do that because I don't want to try to be in your business all the time. I got enough of my own business to deal with, right?" And I think we try to walk that line. And I think we do a pretty good job of not being spiritually controlling versus uh not caring at all and just being hands off. We do care. We don't want you to fall. We don't want you to go the wrong direction. Uh we don't want you to make a mistake. Um you know, we had a member, y'all. Some of you will know who I'm talking about. Some of you won't. I'm not saying the name, but we had a member person we've known for years in Bible studies and stuff and they attended church here for years. Um, learned a lot would would oh, they just loved us. They just loved the church. They just loved the the teachings that I put out there and they would share them and they were just they were bold. And um you know, you think sometimes you know somebody for years like that, they would respect your advice and counsel on something as simple and as obvious as, you know, not spending the night with your girlfriend when you're not married yet. Basically, not living together. And of course, we know the sexual sin was going on. And then when we finally have to call it all on the carpet and deal with it, the Holy Spirit came all over me. And I'm just like, you marry this woman, this is going to be one of the biggest mistakes you ever make. She was not, they were not equally yolked in any regard. And they got mad at me. They left the office, called me a racist. I'm like, "Okay." And I told him straight to his face, "This is headed for disaster." And what was it? Less than six months, they were divorced. And I'm like, "Why would you not listen to wise counsel?" And it wasn't just me and Pastor Nancy. It was Kamari talking to him and and Pastor Troy and Patrick and Jordan and who else tried to talk him sense into him. Huh? Oh, S, I forgot you over there. Multitude of counselors came in said, "No, this is wrong what you're
doing and if you go marry this person, it's going to be even worse." We all knew it. So the multitude of counselors was warning, "Don't do this." Stubborn, hardhead, and now he's catfished by some Nigerian woman. And it's just like that stubbornness and that lack of humility and that going your own way. And let me tell you, probably Miss Nigerian woman's a witch. Because pretty much over there, you either on fire for Jesus or you working for the other side, right? There's usually no in between because they know about the supernatural over there. in the multitude of counselors, wise counsel, do you seek it out? And here, hear this. Let's say that you've made plans and arrangements to do something and you got things in motion. You've made commitments. You're going, you're going, you're going. And the Holy Spirit says, "No, are you able to put the brakes on?" The Lord's had me do that several times. I've had everything ready to go. Like, I'm going. This is a done deal. You're not going. Stop. What? But Lord, he ain't going to argue with you. I said no. I mean, no. I tried to this. What was it? 92. The Lord had told me, "You're not going to any Bible college or seminary. I'm going to teach you my way." This is what he told me. After weeks of fasting and prayer, I'm going to teach you my way. But me, the hardhead wanted, "Oh, but Lord, I want to go here." And I remember in '92 I went on a I went on a two-eek trip going to visit different Bible schools that I was consider it was a nightmare. And I I remember I even went to where my brother was. We went to Christ for the Nations was one of them. My brother was already a student there. I stayed with him in his dorm. Went to classes with him and the Holy Spirit the whole time. Nope. No. No. No. You're not going here. I went to a bunch of different ones. Tulsa, Dallas. I went all over the place. No, no, no. And I look back. I look back even at Christ for the Nations. What a
disaster. At the time, I was considering way back. Jimmy Swagger Bible College. I know why that was a no. Assembly of God. I had Assembly of God. pastor. Oh, you need to be an Assembly of God preacher and go through our go to go to Southeastern Florida. Found out bad decision. But see, the Lord said no. And because listen, because I didn't do, you know, everybody was thinking, "Oh, you got to go to Bible college and seminary to be a pastor, be a minister, blah blah blah." Who who says, "Let me ask you, what what seminary did Peter go to? How about John? How about Andrew? You get what I'm saying now? Yeah. The Lord picked out Paul. Paul was as educated as you could be in that world. And he used Paul. But Peter and the fishermen, they just knew what what what's the thing we need to do? Follow Jesus. Now, it's not even 12, y'all. Can't let you out yet, right? I want you to go to Isaiah. We're we're going to skip that other and we're going to go to Isaiah 56. verse 10. So, where we're going to start there. Now, here's what he says. This is the prophet Isaiah. He said, "His watchmen are blind. They are all ignorant. They are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark. Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yay. They are greedy dogs which can never have enough. And they are shepherds that cannot understand. They all look to their own way. Everyone for his gain from his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant. But these are your prosperity guys right here. Okay? But this folks, just just let me help you understand something here. I know I get criticized for being critical. Ain't that funny? Criticized for being critical, right?
Um, and you know, I have somebody that left here that's in a little peing contest with me, but let me assure you, I I win. Um, some of the statements though trouble me. how somebody one could have been in this church for a few years and then run over to a Baptist church where they teach once- saved always saved and contemplative mysticism and go I felt the Lord there or go run to the mega church oh I felt the Lord there oh yeah you felt something all right you know you think about the prophet here talking about the watchmen, the shepherds, the pastors is what he's talking about as a prophet. And he says all of them. Boy, I if I dare said that, y'all would think, okay, he surely lost it now. There's got to be one out there. So, I'm not saying all of them right now because I don't know. I'm sure there's plenty of true servants of God out there, but let just let this sink in. We who are hungry for the truth of God's word, rightly divided, sound doctrine, the fear of the Lord, we know we are the minority. We are. And that's just the way it is. for what 16 years almost 17 years going on 17 years we do in this church will be in January what do I hear more than anything else I wish there was a church like yours I wish there were a pastor that would tell the truth from the whole truth from Genesis to Revelation to me that's to me it does not put pride in me it puts absolute sadness in my because it shouldn't be that way. But this message of Isaiah, this problem they had back then, just like it says, there's nothing new under the sun, we are in the last of the last of the last days, y'all. In fact, I was going to talk about this, but I'm just going to mention it. But um one of the fathers, one of the main uh builders and researchers and uh developers of artificial intelligence has said that if we don't stop it now and turn it off that no human beings will be left alive. Okay, this is not a Christian.
This is not a prophecy preacher. And I'm going to get into that. I'm going to do kind of an updated message in the days ahead on where artificial intelligence actually is now and where it's going. But every time it starts to figure out that the humans can turn it off or kill it in its eyes, then it looks at us as the enemy. Yeah. And think about this. You think, well, okay, that's that's an extreme statement. No, Jesus said this. He said that the last days would be so bad would get so bad that if he didn't come back and shorten those days by coming back no flesh would be left alive. Now think about that. That's even the people that want to take over the evil Luciferian Illuminati people that want to take over the world means them too gone. Nobody left. You see, once AI can control everything, think about controlling the water treatment centers, the power plants, everything in a hospital, every communication it can hear and process. And think about runaway self-aware artificial intelligence with an army of robots that we can't physically stop. That means bust your door down. That means kill you without any trouble. bullets bouncing off of it and they have these things already and they're building these things and Elon Musk is not our friend. Oh, and let me tell you something. better hope the Senate, the US Senate does not pass the big beautiful bill because there's one thing in it where it's where it is basically violating the Constitution, but there's a portion in this bill and I've checked it and double checked it, but there's a portion that talks about states will not be allowed to hinder, alter, stop uh or uh be exempt or outside of artificial intelligence for 10 years. And that's interesting, 10 years. Think about
that because we're talking about a seven-year period. But see, they're building one of these data centers. And let me explain to you what they're they're building a a massive I mean, it's in the billions of dollars Meta is building in Alabama, just south of Montgomery, right? Well, really in South Montgomery and all you know what the Lord I just this morning even when I was waking up it was on my mind that they're building what these data centers are just so you understand what they are. It's to store every piece of data that it receives from a camera on the road from uh a text you send from a phone call. It's it's it's the brain of the B system and it's got to have storage space for everything. And so it can in speeds faster than we can even fathom, make decisions and do things even predict. It will have so much data and it's already does really that your actions that you haven't even done yet can be predicted. Okay, this is the most dangerous thing and this is I always wondered why in Revelation 13 when it started talking about the the second beast and it said the image of the beast will speak and I think an image I used to I remember 30 years ago going an image is something physical like a you know a statue or it's something made. How is it going to speak? And then it says it's going to cause as many who will not worship the image of the beast to be killed. How is it an an object that is an image going to speak and cause people to be killed? And only now it all makes sense. And we all think, "Oh, look at AI making the cute baby pictures, the cute baby videos. Everything you do, I I've noticed I'm getting asked questions all the time. And I lots of I just won't answer. Like I'll just get a little question in text. I'm like, they're just trying to figure me out. And soon we're gonna have to go low tech, y'all. Low tech analog stuff, right? Yeah. Go back to eight tracks. That was a great time, right? But see, what does it say about these these things? And it's only 12, so we're we're good. His watchmen are blind. They are all ignorant. I think about how many
pastors, it's not just that they don't preach the whole Bible, but they just are ignorant of what's really going on. They're clueless because they live in their little bubble. And then he says they are all dumb dogs. Now, that'd be the title of a message, the dumb dogs. But that's not meaning. That's meaning they they can't speak. That's why he says they cannot bark. They're mute. What What is When my dogs are barking, what are they doing? They're they're alerting me to danger. And if they're if dogs can sense it, too. They can sense when it's serious. And I can tell the difference between them barking at the mailman and barking at something that shouldn't be out there. But they are there to give me a warning, to alert me, right? And he says, "These watchmen, they're supposed to be watching for the enemy. They're supposed to be telling you where the enemy is coming to get you and what you need to be doing and how you need to be prepared." He says, "But they're not. They can't they can't bark. They don't warn you of anything." Yeah. Does anybody know what I'm talking about is true in this church world we live in? They don't warn you about anything. And then it says sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Basically also, not only are they ignorant and silent, but they're lazy. They don't want to do the work that it takes, the research, the prayer time, the study time, and they don't want to get up and take the heat. And then he says they are greedy dogs which can never have enough. the greed. Oh Lord, they want you to give till it hurts, man. They're the horse leech. Give, give, give. I got to do the horse leech message at some point. We're talking about that the other day. Greedy dogs, which can never have enough. We got to be the biggest church in town. They are shepherds that cannot understand. Not they don't understand. He says they cannot understand. Why does he say it that way? Because when you are completely absorbed with what you want and the physical world and gain and being the biggest and the best and the and and having it all, what does he say?
He says they cannot understand because that idol of success, that idol of we got to build the biggest church, that idol of we got to have, you know, we got to have millions of dollars coming in. All this stuff that they make idols out there, the whole church world of being the biggest, we're the fastest growing church in town. You know what? If we were, I wouldn't say that. Is that the goal? No, I would rather say they're getting a lot of people saved over there, right? Instead of they're the fastest growing church. Most of the church growth in America is transfer growth. That's all it is. Is is dying churches. People flood into commercial media churches. That's all it is. There's not a lot of evangelism. True evangelism, true soul-winning, true conviction, and the fear of the Lord that brings the prodigal back home, makes them come to themselves and leave the pig pit. Y'all hear what I'm saying? Y'all know what I'm saying is true. But see, I've gotten in trouble. I've had people leave this church and go to the mega church. How? I'm like, how do you do that? How could you sit there? Listen, we we took a break what was in 2010 because the Lord made us it was a test, but we were we were not having church services for a few months. And we went and visited the local mega church. And it didn't take me but about five minutes to notice the error in his message. So I'm reading the Bible going, "What's he saying? It's not here." But I just like, how do we how do you sit through this? It's empty. It's dead. How do you sit there and go, "Oh, this is wonderful." Unless, of course, you're that starved and you're that thirsty that you're willing to drink the sea water. You know, people that get stranded out on the ocean and they have no fresh water will do the unthinkable because once you start drinking the sea water, the salt, and it will start shutting your your organs down and you start hallucinating and everything else. And I think about people are so desperate, but they don't know. A lot of them, a lot of people don't even know where to find. They don't even know to look. because they've been so blinded by these blind guides, they don't even know what to look for. This is why they've they've got to crack open their Bible and start reading it and then finding like-minded people
who believe this book and love this book. He says they they never have and they look to their own way. They're not following what the Lord wants. They're doing their own thing. Now, if Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice and follow me." But he says, "These shepherds are doing their own, they're going their own way." What does that mean? That means they're goats. Oh, but they talk about Jesus. Remember that sounds like a goat or a little lamb. Sometimes they sound exactly the same. And then little ones and babies are cute, but they become evil. And then he says everyone for his gain from his quarter. So they look to just gain all the time. He says come ye say they I will fetch wine and we will fill ourselves with strong drink. Tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant. You know, we happen to know because S gets to work in some of these pastors and leaders houses of some of these places. I won't name many names. point, but he's walked into places that have leaders that go there leaders in these churches and they're having big alcohol parties drinking. And not that I say, look, I'm going to tell you right now, I don't think having a drink is a sin. It's going to lead you to hell, an alcoholic drink. But drunkenness is a serious issue and habitual drunkenness is a serious issue and not many people in America can stop at one. And for Christians, one of the reasons that just because it may not be a sin to have one that we should not do it is because first of all, we don't want to be a bad witness to somebody. Okay? I'm not going to sit in the restaurant here in Opaikica and order a beer. not going to do it because I don't want to make anybody stumble. But also, I had an issue because I never could stop at one back in the day. In fact, I couldn't stop at two or three or four or five. And Americans, we're we're some of the worst at abusing alcohol.
But it just what this shows you though is that they were compromising and also that their their mentality about the future was everything's just going to keep being more abundant or going into the golden age. No, we're not. We're going into the Antichrist age. We're going into the beast world government age. We're going into the mark of the beast age. We're going into the Armageddon age. There's no doubt about it. I'm telling you right now, we may have just a few years before this whole system takes over everything. And another pandemic, scam demic, another one's coming. They're planning it. It worked too good to not do the same thing again. Except it'll be some other thing they've created in the lab. and they'll have to have an antidote they know that works to keep themselves alive. And we'll figure it out and we'll tell people and they won't listen. You know, David was showing me yesterday. He said, "Go look up GoFundMe and just look up cancer, rare cancer. name some cancers. Folks are dying from this vaccine like crazy. And the question is, you know, I was told by Dr. Teresa Long, love her. She was she was a true hero, flight surgeon, Fort Rucker. And she stood against the mandate of the vaccine because she saw the damage it was doing. It was destroying our our military, our pilots. And she told me sitting at dinner she said everyone who takes this vaccine and has any kind of reaction heart, lungs, whatever. But she particularly she said the heart she said in five years they'll be dead and there's nothing we can do. And she said for instance she said some of the damage just to give you an idea if you have a heart attack she was talking about tropamine levels in your heart. She said, you know, a heart attack can put you up at, you know, what was it 4 or 500 or something like that. I can't remember the number. She said, but there are people who took the vaccine that were already the reaction they had was in the thousands already. You're like, I mean, they're basically their heart is being attacked. Kids are having heart attack. The other day an 11year-old had a heart attack. 11 year olds don't have a heart attack. And it's come out now that they
knew like for instance, how many lives would have been saved? They knew that once they gave the vaccine to especially young men that were healthy and active, they knew that if they went out and exerted themselves in sports or whatever that they could be at risk for having a heart attack and that they needed to uh rest for sometimes a month or two and that would at least mitigate the possibility of a heart attack a little But they let these kids take that shot and go run out and play football and soccer and they were dropping dead all over the place. Folks, we we we've seen I I don't think it's registered in our mind that we've watched a holocaust. We have watched a mass killing of millions. So don't tell me we're not living in the last days and we're just at the beginning. The cancers and then they're pu they're still pushing this shot. We went in Bies yesterday and I saw somebody wearing a mask. I thought, "Oh god, what what what year is it? Am I Did I time travel? Masks aren't going to help." Say, "Pastor Dean, why are you bringing all this up?" Because these greedy dogs won't do it. They won't warn you. They won't tell you what's coming. Say, "Pastor Dean, it's scary." Yeah, it's scary. I actually tell you the truth, I thought, you know, I'm not worried about armies or troops or whatever may come. But I guess my mind just could not go there a few years back that we would be at the brink of artificial intelligence taking over everything. I I just, you know, you think, oh, we saw movies about that and it's just a movie. It's it's science fiction. I thought, you know, I'm gonna say something that's going to get me in trouble. I don't care. Um, if I become governor of Alabama ever and they're running that data center that's a part of the brain of the beast and it's running robots, I will
order it destroyed. Shoot down chemtrail planes. I guess that's why they say I'm dangerous, right? They want to do everything they can to keep me out of there. Let me show you this. I I need to close. Let me show you. I want to show you what I something I saw in Galatians that really go to Galatians chapter five. verse 16. Let's read this. He says, "This I say then, walk in the spirit." That's the Holy Spirit. "Walk in obedience with him continually." That's what that means. "And ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you are led, if you be led by the spirit or of the spirit, you are not under the law. Look at that right there. Being led by the Holy Spirit is where there is freedom. And then he says this, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest." Which are these? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envings, murder, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do or practice habitually such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And then he says, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, self-control." This is what temperance is. And he says, "Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ or they that belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections or basically our own passions, our own desires and lust." And he says, 'If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another or envying one another. If you're led by the spirit, over and over, Paul says, led by the spirit. Be led by the spirit. Can somebody say amen? If you're led by the spirit, you will not remain in the congregation of the dead. If you're led by the spirit, you
will not have counselors that are greedy dogs. You understand? You will not sit in places where they teach blatant clear false doctrine that's leading people astray into sin and into damnation. You will not tolerate it. See, I love my brothers and sisters who are in these places, and I I I pray as Jesus said to them about the Roman Catholic Church, come out of those places and find pastors that will feed you and teach you and give you truth. It's your job to seek that out and find it. And that's another thing the Lord, if you're listening, you might have been a Baptist for 50 years. You might have been a Roman Catholic for 50 years. You might have been a Methodist. Whatever you were, and they're teaching all these false doctrines in there, at some point, if you're listening to what the Lord is saying, he is going to call you out. And you may it may be a while before you find where you're supposed to be, but you're going to be on a journey. I think about you guys came from California, right? Here, Georgia, Tennessee, California back there, Texas, right? Australia, you guys. Where were y'all? Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia. Florida. Florida. Eclectic. At least it's not Slapout. It's close. It's right there. Right close to SL. I know exactly. My sister lived there. So, it's back in the day. I know exactly where it is. Highway nine, ain't it? I think. Am I right? Slapout is 111. It is. God is good though. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we want to be a people led by you. Lord, I know there's brothers and sisters out there listening to us today that they long for a pastor, a shepherd, a true pastor and shepherd, and a true church family. They want to have wise counselors around them and they just can't find it. And I I pray you help them. Lead them, order their steps, raise up some godly men and women to start uh fellowships, ministries, churches, whatever in their homes, whatever it takes. God, we we need you to raise up men and women to be leaders, to not
be the greedy dogs, the dumb dogs, the ones that cannot bark, the ones that are just wanting their own success and gain. But Lord, we want you to raise up people that will feed your sheep and feed your lambs and go after the unsaved and lead them to Jesus. The word of God cuts through all the crap, doesn't it? All the boine excrement. And you know, I do believe there's even going to be some of these shepherds wake up and repent. especially as the system begins to crumble around them. So again, we should pray for them just like we pray for any other person that's lost. Um, you know, see, there's a difference between being saying something that's convicting versus being condemning. And a lot of people get those confused. Condemning is when you look at somebody and you basically say there's no hope for you. You you're you're you're so bad there's just no hope for you. You'll never be like me or you'll never you know you'll never make it. That's condemning. You look if you look up the definition exactly what it means to sentence somebody. It's like that this is what you are and that's it. Convicting is hey we've all been there. We've all sinned. We've all missed it. We've all been deceived. We've all been blinded at one point or another. Hey, but you need to come out of that. That's wrong. The Lord wants you to stop that. Come out of that. Give up that sin, that greed, that idol, and he'll forgive you. And you can be one of the sheep again. You can transform from a goat back into a sheep because the Lord's miraculous. See, he can do that. Snap his finger, goat, now sheep. But if you want to backslide and go back to that mess, the pollutions of the world, and you can go from sheep to goat. But when Jesus returns, what does it say he's going to do? Divide the sheep from the goats. Where are the goats going? He said everlasting punishment. the sheep into his kingdom. Say this with me. I want to be a sheep. I want to be a sheep. Not a goat. Any pastors out there better quit being a goat
farmer. Better repent because you know there's a thing called a Judas goat. Y'all know what a Judas goat is, right? That's the goat that's trained to lead the sheep to the slaughter. There's a lot of Judas goats out there. Let's do uh let's do a good one. Let's do one song before we leave. Let's do I see the Lord. That's a good one. Because he saw the Lord Isaiah did high and lifted up. He said he realized his sin and then what? The Lord purged it and forgave him. Burned it out. So, let's sing this and then we'll we'll go to lunch. All right. A little upbeat. I see the Lord and his train fills the [Music] temple. I see the Lord. Yes. I live [Music] dead. See the Lord and his strength fills the temple. [Music] I see the Lord. Here's how [Music] live and angels [Music] cry. Holy, holy is the Lord. Angels Holy is thy [Music] Lord. See the Lord his eyes are flame and like fire. [Music] See the Lord and his hair white as gold. And angels cry. Angels
cry. Holy. Holy is the Lord. [Music] Angels cry. Angels cry. Holy, holy is the Lord. [Music] Angel came ready and he touched the cold to my lips. Yes, they [Music] did. Now my guilt is gone and my sin has been forgiven. And I cry. And I cry. I cry holy. For he is the Lord. Come on y'all sing. And I cry. I cry. Holy. Holy is. And I cry. Yes. I cry and I cry. I cry. Oh. And I cry. And I cry. Holy. Holy is. And the temple is fil. Come on. And the temple is filled with the glory of [Music] God. And the whole earth is fil. And the whole earth is filled with the glory of God. Come on, lift up your voice. [Music] And the temple is [Music] still and the whole world is in the glory of God. [Music] He calls to me, whom shall I
[Music] send? And I say, Lord, my house and my land and my cars and my job and my family and my stuff is not more important than [Music] you. Nothing more important Nothing more important than you. Come on. Come on. Come on. Sing it out to me. Come on. Nothing. Nothing more important. Nothing more important than you. Yeah. Come on. Come on. Lift up your voice. Sing. Nothing more important. Nothing more important than you. Come on y'all. Nothing more important. God said nothing more important than you. Come on. Let me hear you. Let me hear you say. Lift up your voice. Come on. Say nothing more important. Nothing more important than you. We cast down our idols. Yeah. Cast down those idols. Come on. Nothing more important. Nonsense. Nothing more important. Religion. You got to die. Religion. You got to die. Nothing. Nothing. Say nothing more important. Nothing. [Music] than [Music] you. Nothing more important than you. Yeah. Come on, give him praise. Nothing is more important than you, Lord. Our stuff is not our stuff. It's your stuff. And we don't care, Lord, what youever you want that we do. We lay it all down, Lord. No idols in our life. Not our houses, our cars, land, money, nothing more important than you, Lord. You order our steps. I pray you lead us and guide us into all truth. I pray this more than anything for those here at Fire and Grace Church, those watching out there. I pray that Lord, they will surrender all to you, hear your voice, follow you, Lord. That's what we want. I want to hear better, discern your voice better, know when you're ordering my steps and that I'm headed where you want
me to be headed. in everything. Give us wisdom and discernment and a hearing ear and our spirit man and lead us I pray Lord in Jesus name. Somebody say amen to that. Amen. Alrighty. Well, y'all know the the drill around here. Hug some necks before you leave. Um, Fire and Grace School of Ministry is coming quick. It's June 1st, but the the deadline is August 1st. What? No, but it it's it's moving quickly. August 1 to be here quickly. So, get your uh applications in ASAP. And actually, the sooner the better. Don't wait till August 1 if you know you're supposed to do it. Um, but get and get your references in. I've I got in trouble by letting people slide on their references. So, uh, get your references. I know some of you don't have won't be able to get a pastoral reference. Don't worry about that one as much, but at least have the other references you need. Um, anyway, y'all good? Everybody good? All right. God bless y'all. We love you. I already said it. Hug some necks. Yeah.