Who has your ear? | 2 Peter 3:14-18

If you don't stand for righteousness, live in righteousness in your own life, you will be carried away and swept away and overtaken by every spirit that comes from the devil. You will be inconsistent. You will be all over the place. You'll never know if you truly believe or have faith that is rooted in God because One moment you're high, one moment you're low, and you don't know where you're going. You don't have any direction. You don't have a sound mind. And I'm telling you that the reason you don't is because you really don't know what it is that you believe, and you take on other people's opinions about who God is instead of learning how to seek out the things of God for yourself. We have to stop placing responsibility on everybody else to guard our soul other than you, who should be working out your own soul salvation with fear and trembling. But at the end of the day, you are responsible for your own soul salvation, working that out with fear and trembling. And the reason it's so hard for you to do that is because you think that it's everybody else's responsibility, and that's why you operating out of confusion. That's why you out of your mind. That's why every new thought that comes from somebody who is a child of the devil— because I want to be clear, there are children of the devil just like there are children of God— and if you're eating from these tables of people who are full of darkness, who what comes out of their mouth defiles them, that's the reason you don't know God. That's the reason you don't have any wisdom. That's the reason you don't know It's not because someone hasn't taught you, because all of us have 24 hours out of the day that we get to manage our life, that we get to steward our life. So if you want to continue to be ignorant, it is your choice. It is your choice to be ignorant. I'm gonna read to you 2 Peter. 3, verse 14 through 18. And it says, therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these things, which is the day of the Lord, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him. As he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which it— which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do with other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Notice that Peter didn't say, you know, just, just, just follow whoever is going to teach you the truth. Notice he didn't say that. He said in verse 17, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away. You are not— take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. And some of us, we put the care of seeking out the scriptures We put the care of knowing the truth, knowing what the Word of God says, in the hands of other people. And then we get rattled by somebody who's telling us the truth of things we never heard before because we are sitting and eating from tables that are full of things that defile us. And then we are getting upset because certain things are not coming to pass in our life, certain breakthroughs in our mental health, and all these other things, they're not happening. Have you ever considered it's because you're following after another gospel? You're following after people who are unstable in all of their ways, who are double-minded, who don't have any faith, who don't believe in Jesus even. You're eating from these tables that God finds offensive. And so you have come under the spirit that is lingering on those tables. And that table could be in the form of a church, that table could be in the form of a YouTuber, that table could be in the form of some online community, that table could be in the form of books and things that you buy that are not sent from the Lord, that God has not ordained for you specifically to be reading. To be reading. To be reading. Second John, chapter one, verse ten through eleven. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching. Do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. 2 John 1:9. Everyone who goes ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. Are you receiving from tables from people that God considers to be wicked? It says don't even receive them into your house if they preach another gospel, but some of y'all are opening up the door. Your house could be in the form of your heart. You opening up the door for people who are preaching another gospel to come in and plant seeds, and you wondering why your life is a struggle, and you wondering why certain things are just happening in your life. And this is why you opened up your house to receive another gospel. You opened up your house to receive another Jesus. And then you want to get mad and blame everybody else for why your life is a mess, because you open up the door for wickedness. Because it says in 2 John chapter 1, verse 10 through 11, if anyone comes to you and does not bring the teaching, this, this gospel that we have been taught in the scriptures, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting. For whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. So God considers you wicked if you even give them a greeting or open up the door to receive and to listen to them. And you wonder why things are happening in your life. You wondering why you're not experiencing any breakthrough, why you're not going into deeper places in God, because you're not growing in God in the first place. It's not God That you are listening to. And then you get upset when people like me and others who try to teach you the truth. I'm telling you, if we don't begin to contend for the faith in our lives privately, personally, between us and the Lord, we will be susceptible and open up the door to any and everything. Not— and be going to God thinking that we're praying to him when it's not God we praying to in the first place. It's an image of a lowercase g god that we have created that is easier for us to worship, and that's idolatry. Little children, keep yourself away from idols. Thou shalt not have no other gods before me. That's the Lord's commands. And he said very clearly in the New Testament, if you love me, you will keep my commandments, because his commandments are what? Not burdensome. 1 John 5:3. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. His commandments are not burdensome. They can become a burden to you when you already don't want to submit to the Lord's authority. And you gotta start allowing God to kill every argument that is in you that is against him. If you read the truth, the reason why it may not be taking root in your heart is because you're not putting it to practice. You read it just so you can tell people or seem like you know everything or know— have all the knowledge and the wisdom. But are you actually putting it to practice in your own life? Are you taking upon the first fruit? Are you being the first partaker? God is really coming after our lack of fervency for the things that matter to him. You cannot say that you love God and you don't keep his commandments. And I know right now the argument, even as I said that, is, well, nobody's perfect, we all have sinned and fallen short of glory. But why does there even have to be an argument against the truth, which is that if God said that if you don't keep his commandments, you don't love him— if you don't keep his commandments— why does there have to be some, some, some talk back? Well, we're not perfect, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory. But God said if you don't keep his commandments, you don't love him, period. There's no argument after that. There's no but. That's God's demand. That's what God said to us. So if there's the argument of we're not perfect and we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, why do you have to say that after God already gave a command? We all know that we're not We're not all together. We all haven't arrived. But the reason why you're saying that is because there's still some fight, some argument in you where your flesh wants to be in control. And God is at work to crucify the flesh because it is what is driving the body of Christ right now. Your flesh, your flesh, your flesh, your flesh. Crucify it. It's supposed to be crucified, not lived with, not maintained, not suppressed, but crucified daily. And the way you do that is through prayer. The way you do that, through fasting. The way you do that is through reading the word of God and putting it to practice and disciplining yourself under the leading of the Holy Spirit to crucify and put to death this flesh. We don't need a revival yet. We don't need a revival yet. We don't. We need to be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. We don't need a revival yet. We need to be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit because it's so easy to pick up this Bible and call yourself a Christian, but when it comes down to the things that God said is the qualifications That meets his checklist. Do you really meet those standards? And I'm not talking about standards that come from a religious spirit. I'm talking about what God said in his word that he has commanded us to do. I'm gonna read this to you again in second Peter three. Verse 14 through 18. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, the day of the Lord, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him. As he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. I really pray that those of you who watch this video, it's time to mature. It's time to grow up. It's time to stop Um, living in your flesh every day. It's time to stop blaming other people for your decisions and things that you have done and take accountability. It's time to stop not working out your own soul salvation with fear and trembling. It's time to start paying attention to how you respond to the truth that is in God's word in private. It's time to repent and turn from our wicked ways. And some of us, we, we may not be actively pursuing or living a lifestyle of, uh, habitual sin, but it is also seen as a sin to God when you open up the door of your house, your heart, your life To people who teach another gospel. God calls you wicked too for that. And so today, if there are any open doors, you need to be praying and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to you today if there are any open doors to anybody who is teaching another gospel, for God to highlight whoever it is and you shut the door and you repent. For giving your ear, your heart, your mind, your will, your emotions over to a person or a group of people or being a part of a community who is teaching another gospel. Do that today. Don't wait. Turn from your wicked ways because that's wickedness too. God bless you. God bless you.