Knowing the - Prophets -
About this sermon
Dean Odle examines how Christians can distinguish true prophetic ministry from manipulation, immorality, failed predictions, political fortune-telling, and sensational claims. He affirms that New Testament prophecy continues, but argues that gifting never removes the biblical requirements of repentance, holiness, doctrinal fidelity, and accountable fruit. Brief clips and public forecasts concerning elections, immediate events, wealth transfer, revival, sporting events, and national destiny are tested by their specificity and fulfillment rather than reinterpreted after they fail.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle places this lesson within a series on knowing Jesus and the Spirit and introduces biblical tests for prophetic claims. Jesus’ name is exalted above every prophetic personality, and Matthew 24 makes deception—not lack of supernatural language—the opening danger.
He argues that sexual sin, corrupt fruit, and unrepentant character disqualify claims to spiritual authority without disproving genuine gifts. He cites public moral failures to argue that gifting never removes the biblical demand for repentance and holiness.
Brief prophecy clips and near-term forecasts illustrate the need to record specific claims and evaluate whether they occur. Promises of immediate events and a great wealth transfer are measured by clarity, timing, and fulfillment rather than reinterpreted after failure.
Odle traces teachings associated with Bob Jones, Mike Bickle, Todd Bentley, and the alleged angel Emma, presenting them as warning signs. The alleged angel Emma and a supposed prophetic well become central examples of experiences Odle believes lack biblical warrant.
Claims about wealth transfer, seven-mountain takeover, sporting events, and prophetic ‘do-overs’ are contrasted with sober biblical prophecy. Predictions tied to the Kansas City Chiefs and national influence illustrate how popular culture can be made to carry an invented prophetic meaning.
The sermon reviews election and national-power predictions, cautioning believers not to confuse partisan expectation with the word of the Lord. Military and political images, including a Death Star comparison, are treated as speculative narratives rather than a sure word from God.
Odle contrasts recollections of specific personal guidance with sweeping declarations about who will become president. He states that the fairness of an election is a separate question from whether a prophet truthfully claimed that God guaranteed an outcome.
Jeremiah’s rebuke of prophets who speak visions from their own hearts and steal words provides the sermon’s principal biblical standard. The chapter condemns visions from a prophet’s own heart, promises of peace to the rebellious, and appropriation of another person’s word.
He criticizes Rick Joyner’s associations and Roman Catholic rapprochement, while distinguishing doctrinal objections from judgment of every Catholic individual. Claims about the Knights of Malta and Catholic connections are Odle’s allegations; he separately acknowledges Catholics who sincerely love the Lord.
The conclusion rejects large crowds, fundraising success, or cultural influence as proof of a prophet and calls believers to truth and faithfulness. The sermon contrasts dominionist takeover expectations with Jesus’ command to remain faithful in a deceived world until He returns.
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Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
- 0:00:00
Lord, we worship You this morning, Almighty God. We are grateful that God was manifested in the flesh, died on the cross for our sins, rose from the dead on the third day. Thank You, Lord Jesus. The name above every name is the name of Jesus. It's the name whereby we must be saved. It's the name by which we are healed and delivered from demons. It's the name above everything. You're the Creator. And Lord, we just come to You today and we exalt You. You're the one true God. You're the God of all gods, King of all kings, the Lord of all lords. We worship You today. There is none higher than You. There is none like You. And we exalt You and we worship You and we thank You, God. You've given us Your Holy Spirit. To lead us in God is in all truth. You've given us Your Word, the Holy Scriptures that are all God-breathed. We thank You for it, Lord. You did not leave us without guidance or a teacher or comfort or truth or instruction. You gave us what we needed. We thank You for it today, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated this morning. Hallelujah. Good to see everybody here today, those watching and listening out there all over the place. Oh, man. Well, you know, see, since it's cold and raining outside here in Alabama, there's nothing else to do. So we've got plenty of time, right? Just take our time this morning and go through this. I'm going to tell you, this topic angers the devil, because then I'm going to be on today. And we're continuing, I guess we're going to call it the knowing series. Stuff you've got to know, right? There's things you've got to know in the Spirit. There's things you've got to know in your head, right? You just have to know some things. You've got to understand some things. We've got to grow in the grace and the knowledge of God. Amen. We're going to call this one today, knowing the prophets. Now, we've been on a little series that I didn't even plan. It just keeps going. But it was knowing Jesus, knowing the Holy Spirit, knowing the Lord's voice, and knowing things to come. I talked about that last week and talked a little bit about prophets, that God will speak through prophets. Now, let's put up, we're going to start today. This is a teaching today. It's also going to name some names. I'm going to upset some folks, but I'm sorry. I'm going to play some video clips today that's going to be very incriminating upon certain individuals. But let's go first and to, oh, there's just so many places I want to go with this today. But let's go first. Just go to Matthew 24 first, and let's read that. And then, well, no, no, I'll tell you what, go to Ephesians 4 first, and then we're going
- 0:03:01
to Matthew 24. All right. But Ephesians 4 started verse 11. Let's put that on the screen. I'm going to read down through that, because I want to say at the outset of this, I believe in the fivefold ministry, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and I believe they're still for today, that means apostles and prophets as well. But that doesn't mean I think everybody who calls themselves an apostle or a prophet is one. Okay? Let's get that understood right now. But I'm not the other camp that says that those two ministries somehow cease to exist, because that's not what the Bible teaches. But let's read this, and again, let's see what the purpose of this fivefold ministry that God gives to the church, He said it's a gift to the church. So these are gifts that the church needs to grow and to flourish. I'm sorry, but there is authority in the church. There's leadership in the church, and if you don't like that, I'm sorry. It's just the way it is. That's why we got a bunch of lone Rangers out there just have YouTube ministries, but they're not part of the church in the sense that they have no affiliation, no accountability, no anything to a true fivefold ministry. They're just giving you what they think. And that's why Paul said there's you may have 10,000 instructors in Christ, but you have don't have many fathers. And as he's talking about those who have maturity walked with the Lord for a very long time and no, and they're not ashamed that they are called to the fivefold ministry. You know, I get I get criticized sometimes because I say I know I'm called to the fivefold ministry. But how did Paul address all of his letters? Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. You think he was afraid to say this is what I'm called to do? Peter said the same thing. Peter, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. They call Philip, Philip the evangelist, right? They called Agabus, Agabus the prophet. It's not it's not odd. Acts chapter 13, it said they had certain prophets and teachers and church and Antioch. So that means they distinguished there were prophets and teachers. There were pastors, there were shepherds, there were elders, there were deacons. These are different callings. You are God has to call you to right now. He doesn't call everybody to these. You know, there are some chiefs and then there's some Indians. We're not all chiefs. I'm sorry. That's just not the way God designed it. And that's okay, because let me tell you something. The chiefs have more responsibility and are going to be stand under greater condemnation at Judgment Day. Going to be held to a higher standard because there was a greater responsibility to preach and teach the truth. And really to tell you the truth, these folks out here that want to teach and preach the word of God and act like they're teachers and leaders in the body of Christ. They need to be very careful, especially if they took that upon themselves. And then especially if they start leading people astray, they will be held accountable for every person they led astray. The blood will be on their hands. They're going to be in big trouble. But a lot of them think they're teachers and
- 0:06:01
they're not teachers sent from God. They're teachers of their own appointment. It says here he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, why? For the perfecting, that word also means maturing of the saints. For the work of the ministry, for the edifying or the building up and strengthening of the body of Christ. Till, until, that word till, what does that mean? Until, somebody say until, say till, in case somebody gets bent out of shape. Means same thing, means guess what? These ministries are needed to perfect, equip, edify the body of Christ until we all come into the unity of faith. Has that happened? Nope, the church in the world is certainly not unified. By any stretch of the imagination, there is no unity, okay? That's why we have all these different denominations and factions and all these different false doctrines and cults and everything else out here because we have not come to the unity. So we need true apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Why do we need true ones? Because there are false ones, right? Especially because there's false ones. But he said here that we need these ministries until we all come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, knowing Jesus, unto a perfect or mature man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Why? Notice that it's so cold in there. It says, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men, meaning that people who are trying to trick you and deceive you. It says, whereby they lie and wait to deceive. So he said that these ministries are primarily to make you grow up in Jesus until you come into the fullness of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that you are a mature Christian, and so that you're not a spiritual child tossed to and fro by every prophet or teacher that comes along. Now that's one, you wanna know why I get on these topics and why I will name names? It's because this is my job. And for anybody out there that thinks you're not supposed to expose error and false doctrine and false prophets and teachers, anybody that thinks that fivefold ministers aren't supposed to do that, then you haven't read the New Testament. Because Paul named names, Hymenaeus, Philetus, Alexander. He named names of people who were teaching error, who were leading people astray. Paul even named one of his own associates who was faithful for a season and walked away from him by the name of Demas. And he said, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. He said, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord rewarded him for his works. When the false prophet, Ilimus, tried to turn away Sergius Paulus.
- 0:09:02
Paul was trying to witness to him and lead him to the Lord. And this Ilimus, this false prophet, it says he called him a false prophet. Tried to hinder him. Paul turned around and said, you're gonna be blind, you're not seeing the sun for a season. Smote him with blindness. And it's so upset, poor little pitiful weak John Mark that he had to run away. He just couldn't handle that anymore, right? And we got a lot of weak snowflake cupcake Christians that can't handle. That we have to confront sin, and we have to confront false doctrine, and we have to confront false prophecy. There's a bunch of false prophecies, prophets running around, okay? Now, let's go to Matthew 24, starting at verse 3. Y'all ought to know Beth 24 by heart now, my church ought to know it. I mean, goodness gracious. It's probably one of the passages that we turn to the most. It has to be in the top three. It may be number one, I don't know, but it has to be in the top three. Yeah, it has its own tag there, that's good. All right, now, but I wanna bring out, again, I've read it many times, but I wanna bring out the scriptures as we go through this. And he says, as he said, upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came in in privacy saying, tell us, when will these things, shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of the coming of the end of the world or the eon, the age? And he says, in Jesus answered and said to them, first thing, take heed, means pay close attention. Don't become lazy, don't become distracted, that's what take heed means. Pay attention, be aware, and don't let any man deceive you. Now, to deceive you means to get you off course, away from the truth of the word of God, period. All of Satan's works is to turn you away from the word of God, ultimately. I don't care what he comes up with, how many smokescreens and circus acts and crazy stuff he comes up with, it's all designed to get you to question, doubt, move away from sound doctrine of scripture. Because if you stray from sound doctrine, you have strayed from Jesus. Now, how do we know that? We're gonna keep reading though, we're gonna turn to 2 John in just a second. He said, for many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ or I am anointed. It's funny how a lot of these false prophets think they're these little Christ, they think they're super, you know, just like Jesus. And it says, but look what it says, it doesn't say they'll deceive a few. It says, they shall deceive many. Remember, the world's already deceived. Who do the false teachers and false prophets and seducing spirits come after? They come after you. They come after the born again Christian, who has been walking in the truth of the word of God. And they want to pull you away.
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