October 15, 2025 • 56 mins
Let's be honest family. Is your church just serving you a "cotton candy gospel"? Does it challenge you to answer the Great Commission, or just keep you comfortable in your seat? Are you a disciple of Christ, or just a weekly church member?
In this week's episode, Pastor Tim helps you find the answer as we take a spiritual sledgehammer to "These Walls of Itching Ears." This message is a spiritual gut-check. It will force you to ask: Who is my Micaiah? If you're ready for a word that transforms instead of just tickles, listen and share this teaching. Join us next week as we continue the demolition with "These Walls of Condemnation."
Join us live weekly on Facebook:
Brothers in the Word
Wenesday's (6 PM CST)
Saturday's (8 AM CST)
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on: Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, Subscribe, and Share
Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
In this week's episode, Pastor Tim helps you find the answer as we take a spiritual sledgehammer to "These Walls of Itching Ears." This message is a spiritual gut-check. It will force you to ask: Who is my Micaiah? If you're ready for a word that transforms instead of just tickles, listen and share this teaching. Join us next week as we continue the demolition with "These Walls of Condemnation."
Join us live weekly on Facebook:
Brothers in the Word
Wenesday's (6 PM CST)
Saturday's (8 AM CST)
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on: Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, Subscribe, and Share
Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Are you scrolling for a sermon that challenges you or
just one that comforts you. Are you listening for God's
voice or just an echo of your own? Today we
are going to war with the Word and tearing down
these walls of it. Gineers, I need you to lock in.
This is Brothers in the Word, and here is your host,
(00:29):
Pastor Tim Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Brothers and
the Word.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
My name is Tim Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I am the youngest child of Claire Jones and it
is an absolute, undeniable honor to be with you right now,
in this moment. But before we go a step further,
what I need you to do is I need you
to lock in wherever you are.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Just for a second.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I need you to do me a favorite, because this
teaching is going to be a little different on tonight,
and so I don't want to leave anything to chance,
and so I want us to open up in a
word of prayer. Father, in the name of Jesus God,
we pray and we ask that you will invade this moment.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
God.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I pray that you will shatter our complacency. I pray
now God that you will silence the noise of the
world that is around us, the noise that is in
our heads, the noise that is in our spirit. God,
we don't come before you for a performance, but God,
we pray and we ask for your presence. We don't
want information from you tonight, God, but we want transformation.
(01:39):
So I pray Father that the frequency of Heaven will
come in so clearly that every signal is jam, that
every other signal is jam. God, make us comfortable in
your word, make us uncomfortable in our comfort.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Do surgery on us right now.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Today is our prayer, and we pray this prayer in
the Mighty Matchup's name of Jesus.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Okay, I need you to take detailed notes. Shout out
to Shannon. Now let's get right down to the raw
reality of what we are going to talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
The word today is.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Not a blanket statement. I want you to know that
I am speaking directly to you. This is not a
general teaching. This is a direct teaching. And here's the
reason why this is so important. With just what God
has placed on my heart and what I've been praying about,
and what I've been listening to and what I've been seeing,
(02:35):
we are living in a time where the spiritual air
is so thick with confusion amongst many Christians, and it's
choking people. There is a hurricane of opinions in the church,
there is a downpour of deception, and it has left
so many people spiritually waterlog And so now the scripture
(03:01):
that we're choosing to look at tonight, I believe is
going to detonate a lot of what's happening in many lives.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It's going to detonate some walls.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Because this isn't just a warning that we're going to
look at tonight. It is a spiritual mri for all
of us. The Apostle Paul is about to expose the
sickness that.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Is within the church today.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
The title for our time together is these Walls of
Itching Ears, These Walls of Itching Ears. Now, before we
even read the text, I need to give you a
power word. The power word just helps us to ground
ourselves to the text. And the power word is fidelity. Fidelity.
(03:50):
Write that down FI d E l t Y. Fidelity.
Fidelity means radical faithfulness. Fidelity means unshakable loyalty. It's an unwavering,
bull dog like devotion to something. And today that's something
is truth. Today we are talking about fidelity to the
(04:13):
truth of God's work, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So help you, God, So help us.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
God so found that your mission, should you choose to
squabble up, is to identify.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Make this personal.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I want you to identify every single wall of self
deception in your life right now. I want you to
think about it. I want you to write it down.
I want you to identify it because your charge will
be for you to take the spiritual sledge hammer of
the Holy Spirit, and I want you to begin the
(04:49):
demolition process of the prison that you have mistaken for
a palace.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Meet me over in.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Second Timothy, Second tumultheus my namesakes. Second Timothy, chapter four,
verse three. Two Timothy, chapter four, verse three. Now understand
these are the last words of the apostle Paul, and
I just feel that last words are important. Titus comes
(05:20):
after Second Timothy, which is also written by Paul, but
in the chronicological order of Paul's life, this is his
last book. And whenever you read tewod Timothy, you should
always keep that in mind.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
The man who.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Left us thirteen letters to show us what the church
really is and what the church should look like the
man who wrote and gave us the New Testament economy.
The church doesn't even know how to be the church
without the writings of the apostle Paul.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
So we're going to read.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
A section of this powerful letter, and again these are
his last words to his spiritual son and the Gospel.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
And I want to see.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I want you to see exactly the thing that he's
warning young Timothy about. Two Timothy, Chapter four, verse three.
The Holy Spirit says this through the pin of a
man locked up in prison, says this, for the time
is coming when people the Church will not endure sound teaching,
(06:25):
but having itching ears, they the Church will accumulate for
themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn
away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Let's get into it because the context of what Paul
(06:46):
is saying is very explosive. Paul, the spiritual giant, the
spiritual Ghat, the theological architect. He is writing from a cold,
damp Roman prison. He is literally behind physical walls. He
is chained, he is isolated, he is on death row.
(07:08):
But from behind those stone walls, he's not whining about
his situation. He's warning his spiritual son Timothy about the
spiritual walls Christians are building around their own hearts.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
And for me, the irony here is so thick that
you could actually cut it with a knife.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Paul is physically locked up, but Paul is spiritually freer
than a bird.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
And he's warning.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
People who are physically free but are choosing to be
spiritually incarcerated. And Paul is screaming through the bars. He's saying,
I'm in a prison. I didn't choose to be here.
He's saying, But Timothy, the people you are about to
pastor are building their own prisons. Break by brick, and
(07:55):
lie by lie, and deception by deception, and the name
of that the name on the front gate of that
prison is these walls of itching ears. So let's break
this verse down. We're gonna tear it down. We're gonna
break it down, break by brick. Wall number one. For
those of you that are taking notes, please write this down.
(08:17):
Wall number one, the wall of wayward wandering, The wall
of wayward wandering. I want you to look at the
first part of that verse that we just read, what
I like to call part.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
A, Part A.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Hits like a Larry Holmes jab for the time is
coming when people will not endure sound teaching.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Stop right there.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Notice those two words, not endure. That's the foundation of
this whole prison. The original language means to tolerate, to bear,
to put a with, to hold.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Up under the weight of something.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Paul is prophesygning that there is a time that is
coming when people, when Christians.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Will have a zero tolerance policy for truth.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Now, please keep this in mind. He wrote this two
thousand years ago. The prophecy is here right now. They
will not be able to stand under the weight of truth.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And what is it they want to endure sound teaching?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
There are a lot of different teachings in Christiandom today,
but Paul says, they won't endure sound teaching. And the
word sound gives us a very vivid picture of something.
It gives us a picture of something that is healthy.
It gives us a picture of something that is robust.
It gives us a picture of something that is medically pure.
(09:56):
It's spiritual nutrition. It's the protein prophecy, It's the iron
of instruction, the unblimished truth that builds spiritual muscle and
bone density. But Paul says Christians won't endure it. Why
why won't Christians endure sound teaching?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
You know why?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Because sound teaching applies pressure to your fleshly appetites. Sound
teaching creates the pressure of conviction. That was one of
the things I gave you a heads up about before
we started this. You might feel some conviction.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
That's good. Don't run from conviction.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
That is the Holy Spirit tapping you on the shoulder
and saying, we need to have a talk. Sound teaching
creates the pressure of change. It creates the pressure of transformation.
And we don't want that pressure. Our flesh doesn't want
that pressure. Over In Delations, I believe it's around chapter five,
(11:05):
Paul says that the flesh and the spirit are in
mid te He said they hate each other. In Romans
chapter seven, he said the good that I would do
find another law warring in my body. Says I want
to do good, but there's something in me. There's like
sin has a gravitational pull, and it pulls me in
(11:28):
the opposite direction.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
So that's the struggle that all of us have.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
As Jesus told Nicodemus and John chapter three, that which
is flesh, it's flesh. Yes, you are saved. Yes, you
have been bought with a price. Yes you do have
the spirit of God dwelling on the inside of you.
But can I be one hundred percent honest with you,
You're still in your flesh. You're still in that falling nature.
(11:59):
Think about a baby. When the baby is born, baby
gets around one years old.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
That baby has a sin nature that nobody had to
teach that baby.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Baby has an attitude. Baby is all about him. It's
all about my niece, It's all about my wants. You
have a two year old get into some cookies, cookies
all over his face?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Hey, did you eat those cookies? Baby? Like? No, I
eat them cookies, cookies all over his face.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Where did he learn how to lie? It's in his flesh,
It's in his fallen nature. And so all of us
were born with the nature.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Of Adam fleshly.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
But then we're also born with a spirit from above,
from God.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And these two natures.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Are constantly fighting inside of you. And whoever you decide
to feed the most, that's who's going to win the battle.
So as Christians, many times we don't want the pressure
of God's work.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
We want a.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Spiritual spa treatment, not spiritual surgery. Why, because spiritual surgery hurts.
Spiritual surgery means that you're going to God, You're going
to cut some things out of my life. God, You're
going to cut some people out of my life. God,
You're going to cut some habits out of my life.
That's what the Word of God does. And so many
times we're trying to hold onto that. We want a
(13:25):
little bit of God and we want a little bit
of our fleshly appetite. We want a message that gives
us a high five on the way to Hell instead
of one that snatches us out of the fire. We
want to pat on the back, not a punch in
the gut from the Holy Spirit. Do you know what
(13:45):
sound teaching is. Sound teaching is a divine mirror. It
doesn't have an Instagram or TikTok filter on it.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
The Word of God shows you your real scars. The
Word of God shows you your blemishes.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
It exposes the sin that you've been hiding, the bitterness
that you've been nursing, the pride you've been petting. And
when some people look in that mirror, they despise the
reflection that they see. So instead of changing their heart
according to the Word they decide to shatter the mirror
(14:27):
instead of dealing with the diagnosis. They fired a doctor.
They want a second opinion. They refuse to endure sound teaching.
And this is what Paul is telling Timothy. And if
this wall could talk to you, you know what this
war would do.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
This war would whisper.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Tell you, shh, don't listen to that. That's too heavy,
that's too judgmental. You know, God is just love. He's
cool with it. You're fine, You're gonna be okay. And
this is the first wall that goes up family, the
wall a wayward wanderings, the refusal to sit long enough
(15:11):
for the Word to do the work in you. You
see this every Sunday someone hears a sermon on radical forgiveness.
And you know what they say. They're passing on on
my pain. He don't know what I've been through.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
They're not enduring, they're building, They're building walls.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
The Right of Hebrews even gets in on this. He
says over in Hebrews chapter four, verse twelve. Listen to
how he describes the Word. He says, for the Word
of God, it's active, it's living, it's active, and sharper
than any two edge, sword piercing. Get this to the
(15:56):
division of soul and spirit. You know where your soul
begins and where your spirit ends. The word of God
can cut through both of them, and of joints and
of marrow and deserning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
There is a lot there in that verse. But the
thing you need to give is this. A sword is
(16:18):
not a toy. A sword is not something that you
play with. You know what a sword's main objective is.
It's meant to cut. It's meant to be invasive. Sound
doctrine kills the flesh, and it carves out the cancer
of sin, and it stops it from spreading. But if
(16:42):
you've fallen in love with your disease of sin, guess
what you're gonna do. You're gonna run from the surgeon.
You're gonna run from the sword. If you're infatuated with
your sin, you will run from the sword. It will
will make you uneasy, it will make you uncomfortable, and
(17:03):
you're not going to want to hear it. You will
not endure sound teaching. Question for you, what truth has God.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Been speaking that you been actively avoiding?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
What conviction have you muted? Because the required change feels
too costly. God is saying, give me all of it,
and you only want to give God a portion of
your sin. Now, here's the thing when you when you
(17:43):
reject the truth of God's word, you don't just exist
in silence. Your spirit is a vacuum that demands to
be felled. So if you reject the Filet mignon of
the word word, you will inevitably go searching for spiritual
(18:05):
junk food. And this is the masterful transition that Paul makes.
He goes from the rejection of truth to the reason
for the rejection. I absolutely love the writings of Paul
because he knows how to put so much in just
(18:26):
one verse.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
So he's talked about the rejection of truth.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
But now I want you to hear why the reason
for the rejection past him. Is there a reason why
this is happening? Yes, And it leads us to the
second wall Wall number two, the wall of allergic appetites,
the wall of allergic appetites. Look at part B of
(18:53):
the verse. We're just chipping and it's a spiritual diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Look at part B. That's where we get ourt the
title of this lesson.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
But having itching ears this is the absolute brilliance of
the apostle, Paul, the master physician of the soul. He
pinpoints the epicenter of the problem. He puts his fingers
squarely on the source of the problem. Get what he
doesn't say. And this is just something that I've taught
(19:26):
myself over the years, and it has helped me so much.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
To understand the word of God. And I'm to share it
with you.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
What the Bible doesn't say is as important as what
it does say.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Here's what he doesn't say.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
He doesn't say itching hands that want to fight. He
doesn't say itching feet that want to run. He says,
the infection starts in the ear canal.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Ears. What is an itch? Let's talk about it. Itch.
We've all had an itch before.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
An itch is a maddening irritation. A itch screams for satisfaction.
It is a craving for relief.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Stay with me.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It is a neurological signal that something is wrong in
your body, that there is an irritant on your skin.
It is a symptom of a much deeper issue. Now
watch the revelation. Your ears, my ears, Our ears have
an appetite.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
They get hungry.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Paul is saying that in the last days, people will
develop a spiritual allergy, and the primary allergen is truth.
The truth doesn't scratch the itch. You know what, the
truth does. The truth in flames that itch.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
The sound of holiness, the sound of repentance, the sound
of conviction, the sound of self denial is like poison
ivy to a spirit that is out of alignment with God.
So what do we do? We frantically start searching for something.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
We're looking for anything, Something has to scratch this unbearable itch.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
So you know what we'll do. We'll hunt for a message.
We'll hunt for a teacher.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
We'll hunt for a church of philosophy that will provide
momentary relief from the agony of conviction. We scratch the
itch with the calamine lotion of lies. Have you ever
had an itch in the middle of your back and
you couldn't reach it? It will make you go bonkers.
(21:53):
You will rub up against a wall like a bear.
You will beg a stranger to scratch your back. Grab
a ruler, you will gravel cold hanger. You will gravel fork,
a spatchelor, a garden rake, whatever you can find to
try to reach that scratch. That itch in your back
because you're trying to silence that maddening impulse.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And for me and I pray you get this too.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
That is a perfect portrait of the modern Christian with
itching ears. They are almost driven to the brink of
insanity by the quiet whisper of the Holy Spirit, and
they will do anything to find a loud lie to
drown it out. And if this wall could talk, you
(22:44):
know what this wall would do. It would taunt you.
This wall would tell you don't need truth.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You need to fix. You need relief.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Find someone who will tell you you're a king or
a queen. Find someone that will validate your sin. Family,
This isn't new school. I'm finna show you something in
the scripture. It's old school. This is nothing news. Brother
King Solomon said, there's nothing new under the son.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
I'm gonna take you back to a story real quick.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
It's found in First Kings Chaps twenty two old king
a half, the one of the worst kings Israel ever had.
And if you don't know who Ahab is, all I
got to do is say one word. His wife Jezebel. Okay,
so we're talking about Ahab. Ahab was a poster child
for wickedness.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And so a have he wants to go to war.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So Ahab gathers four hundred prophets, four hundred yes men,
and he asks these men.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Should I go? Should I go to war? And like
a demonic choir, they all sing the same tune. Go,
victory is yours? King? Go? What are they doing?
Speaker 2 (24:01):
They are scratching his itch for glory? But then there's
a king by the name of Jehosaph Fact. Joseph Fact
just got a little shred of dessertment. Josephat says, hold on,
hold up, hold up, hold up. Isn't there one more prophet?
Just one guy who hasn't been bought?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
And I want you to see Ahab's.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Response because Ahab is going to answer that question, and
it's found in One Kings, chapter twenty two, verse eight.
I am here for all the jokes, all the lol
moments of scripture, and this is one for me right here?
He asks, Is there another king? Ain'hap said, yeah, yes,
another one, he says.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
But I hate him? Why king?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
For he never prophesizes good concerning me, but evil. I'm
telling y'all, I am here for the comedy of the
Holy scripture.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Did you catch that vent? That king says he got
four hundred prophets on this side, and he got one
loan prophet on the other side.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
And the king said, I hate him because he won't
scratch my itch. I need this one prophet over here
to scratch my itch. And you know, every time I
go to him to get him to scratch my itch
to validate me.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
He won't do it. You know what he does instead,
he tells me the truth, and I hate him for that.
He tells me the truth. He doesn't hate Mekaiah as
a person. He hates Mekaiah because Makaiah tells him the truth.
He hates the truth that this man speaks. A haveb
was allergic to the prophet Mekaiah.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
He preferred the four hundred liars who affirmed his delusion
over the one man of God who offered him deliverance.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
And guess what happens.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Macaiah tells, if you go into that war, King, you're
going to die. Guess what a had did. He ignored him.
He goes out into the battle and a random straight
arrow just happens to find him and it kills him.
His itching ears led him directly to the grave got
(26:24):
a question for you. Are you allergic to the mecias
in your life? You know, there's always that one person
who just won't co sign your mess. They won't co
sign your foolishness, they won't go along with it. And
they're always that one nagging person that's always trying to
point you to better. So when that happens, it could
(26:46):
be somebody online, it could be a past, it could
be anyone. It could be somebody in your family, it
could be your child. Do you scroll past the challenging
message and do you create your own personal playlist of platitudes?
This is a deadly progression. First, you refuse to endure truth. Second,
(27:07):
your ears developed an allergic itch for lies. So now,
what's the next logical order? What's the next tragic step?
You have to go now and shot for a scratcher.
And that brings us to wall number three. And that's
the wall that's being built around us, Wall number three,
the wall of custom made counselors. Oh yeah, baby, we
(27:31):
about to go out here and get some people and
put them in our algorithm. Let's keep reading, because this
is getting good to me. In two Timothy, Chapter four,
Verse three, Part C part C. So we've looked at
the a part of the verse to be part of
the verse.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Now we have to see part of the verse. I'll
read it for you.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
That's exactly what King a that was doing.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Accumulate. Look at the word that Paul uses. Do you
know what that word is, accumulate. That's a consumer word.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
To accumulate means to heap up, it means to stockpile,
it means to whar. It's the picture of a spiritual
costco run. You're not just finding one teacher. Oh no,
you fill in your card up, baby, I'll take that
one right there. I'll give me that right there, give
me a little bit over there. And you have now.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Categorized for yourself a streaming service of sermons that will
never offend you. You are building your own personal echo
chamber of affirmation.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So loud that it defends the voice of God. And
what's the criteria of making this dream team.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Paul Lazies is right there in front of you. It's
very explicit, Paul says. The reason why they're doing this,
he said, is to suit their own passions. The word
passions is about your cravings. It's about your lust, It's
about your desires. This isn't about finding a teacher or
(29:09):
pastor who aligns with Scripture. No, it's about finding a
teacher or a pastor who aligns with you.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
And let's talk about.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
The menu that these teachers and these pastors are serving up.
One of the most popular ones and I kind of
coined this phrase myself from seeing and hearing.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Some of these teachings.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I call it the cotton candy gospel. You can use
this if you want to cotton candy gospel. What am
I talking about? Think about cotton cotton candy.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
It's pink, it's.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Fluffy, it looks amazing, it's sweet on your tongue for
a moment, and then poof, it dissolves into nothing.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
It's gone. It's all sugar and it's all air.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
There's no protein in it, there's no nutrients in it,
and it's It's the same thing with these kinds of teaching,
these cotton candy gospels. There's no protein of repentance, there's
no fiber or faithfulness. You know what these cotton candy
gospels do. They give you a quick sugar rush. Of
emotion that makes you feel good for about five to
(30:17):
ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
But guess what, it has.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Zero power to sustain you when the storms of life hits,
when the diagnosis comes, when the pink slip lands on
your desk, when your child is being attacked by the devil.
These cotton candy gospels cannot stand up to that because
they were never meant to stand up to that. They
were just about giving you a quick sugar rush. And
(30:43):
so what happens when your diet is nothing but cotton candy?
Speaker 3 (30:48):
You know what happens. You get spiritual cavities.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Your desernment starts to decay, Your theological teeth began to
rot and began to fall out.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Your moral foundation gets mushy.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Why because you've been fed nothing but fluff and feelings.
It will surprise you the things that people will open
up this Bible and pull from it.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
It will blow your mind. If I had the time
to tell you some of the things I had a
pastor tell me one time, I don't preach from that Bible.
I said, why not? He said, because it's outdated. God
gives me my revelation. So now here's this. Hear this?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Whatever that man gets up and say those people are
subjected to him, to his feelings, to his whims, to
whatever he has to say.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
The Bible has pushed you aside.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Matter of fact, they don't even need to bring their
Bible because he's going to be quote unquote God's mouth piece.
We have to be careful about these cotton candy gospels.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
That always make you feel good, that always tastes good.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Never any conviction, never any reproof, never any correction, Just I.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Feel good, I give me a hit, Give me a hit,
Give me a hit.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Then there's a therapeutic gospel. You know what the therapeutic
gospel is. A therapeutic gospel is where Jesus is just
a cosmic therapist. His only job is to validate your feelings.
Whatever your feelings may be, he's going to validate them.
He's going to boost your self esteem. Then there's a
self help gospel, you know what that is. That's where
(32:30):
the Bible is just an ancient life hack book to help.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
You unlock your best life.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Now and where you're shown in scripture all over where
you are the hero of the story. How do you
get to be King David defeating Goliath every time? How
so there's a gospel being presented to you where you're
always the champion. Nothing has ever required the view. Everybody
(33:02):
else is your ops. Everybody else is your quote unquote haters.
And so when you have that kind of gospel landing
on you, you never look into the perfect law of liberty.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
You never look into the mirror of God's word.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
That's what James described the word of God as he said,
it is a mirror. So imagine you get up and
you look in the mirror, and the mirror shows you
all of your flaws, all of your indiscretions, everything that
you need to change, and you just look at it
and you just walk away. You said, nah, I'm good.
That's what it is to look into the word of God.
And it doesn't challenge you at all.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
No, I'm good. And so what happens. These are custom
made counselors. They're not prophets of God. They're parents of
your passions. They are on your payroll. They're paid in
likes and shares.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And views to tell you that your will is God's will.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And if this wall.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Could talk, it would tell you You're to see you're the
CEO of your own spirituality, hire and fire as you
please find someone who will bless your mess. And the
prophet Jeremiah went so far as to weep over this
very same thing thousands of years ago. And Jeremiah chapter five,
(34:21):
verse thirty one listened to Jeremiah. He said, the prophets
prophesy falsely, and the priest ruled by their own authority.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
And my people love to have it.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
So the last line in a verse is a dagger
to the heart, God says, my people they love to
have it so itching ears. They wanted it, They craved
the deception. They accumulated teachers and prophets and p who
(35:00):
would let them live like hell and still promise them heaven.
And this is the great danger, the great peril of
our age that we're living in right now. This is
the great travesty in our churches.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Today. You can build a fortress.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Of falsehood around your heart and you can still call
it church. You can construct these walls of itching ears
and say, then we have a good time at church today.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Got a question for you, who is on your spiritual
board of directors.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Are they there to speak God's truth to you or
are they there to only confirm and affirm your passions
for you.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
So let's count this up.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
We've seen the rejection of truth, We've seen the craving
for lies, we've even seen the hiring of liars, and
there's only one destination left on this highway. Paul brings
it all to a devastating conclusion, and this is defining
on what I feel is the most tragic wall, Wall
number four, if you're taking notes, the Wall of twisted Truths,
(36:12):
the Wall.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Of Twisted Truths, the final part of that verse.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
It lands, in my opinion, like a coughin closing part D,
and will turn away from listening to the truth and
wander off. Intimates this is the endgame. This is the
cardiac arrest of the soul. I want you to notice
(36:41):
the two distinct, devastating actions that Paul describes.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
He says, they turn away and they wander off. Turn
Away is a violent, decisive pivot. To turn away is
not a drift, It's not a gradual thing. Turn Away
is an emphatic decision.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You were facing the light of truth and you made
a conscious choice to turn your back and walk into
the abyss, to walk into darkness. The porch light of
God's word is on, but you have deliberately chosen the darkness.
You block truth's number. You've unfriended truth. You've left the
(37:29):
building for good. And where do you go when you
turn away? Where do you go when you abandon truth?
You wander off in the midst Wander off is the
picture of being lost. It's the picture of stumbling blindly
(37:49):
and a self made fog. You created the fog. There's
no anchor for you, there's no compass for you. You're
just a ghost ship on the sea of stories and
fables and man made gospels and lying prophecies and demonic doctrines.
Did you know that there was a such thing as
demonic doctrines? Did you know that was the thing in
(38:12):
the church? Yeah? First Timothy, chapter four, verse one. Now,
the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some
will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful
spirits and doctrines of demons.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
So check this.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
When Paul says doctrines of demons, we have to be
crystal clear about what he's saying. This isn't a pastor
having a bad take on a verse of scripture. This
isn't someone misinterpret misinterpreting a verse that's not what he's
talking about, because if that happens, that's human error. A
(39:00):
doctrine of demons is something all the way different.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
It is a different category.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
The word doctrine means teaching, right, So Paul is talking
about a curriculum, he's talking about a syllabus. He's talking
about a strategic teaching that is authored by demons in
the church.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
And here's the revelation, family.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
The enemy's primary strategy is not just to get you
to sin, but to get you to believe a lie.
Go back to the Garden of Eden, go back to
Genesis chapter three. The first thing he did was to
get Eve to believe a lie.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
He didn't tell her to just grab the fruit and
eat it. No, no, no, new He got her to
believe a lie. Or did God really say that? Because
if the devil.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Can change what you believe, then he can control how
you Behave you better hear me? A doctrine of demons
is a teaching that looks, sounds and feels spiritual. But
do you know what this core function is? Do you
know what this endgame is. It is to decenter Christ.
(40:23):
It is to defan the gospel, take the teeth out
of the gospel. It's a lie wearing a clerical collar.
It's a poison that served on a communion plate.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Think of it like this.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
It's a teaching that rebrands sin as self care. It
rebrands rebellion as authenticity, and it rebrands God's judgment as
religious trauma. So it doesn't deny God outright. Think about
(40:58):
go back to Genesis three.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Satan didn't deny God outright.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Go back to our teaching that we did last last week,
these walls of temptations. Satan did not. He did not
deny God outright. He said, jeez, okay, if you and
Son didn't do these tricks for me. What this thing does,
this doctrine of demons, It creates a God who is
a cosmic cheerleader for your passions, not a holy father
(41:28):
who calls you the righteousness. So the cotton Candy Gospel
that we talked about, that's a perfect example of a
doctrine of demons. It's not just a bad sermon, No,
it's a demonic strategy. It's a doctrine designed by demons
to create a generation of spiritual diabetics, and they are
(41:49):
addicted to sugary gospels. But they're allergic to the word
of God. It makes you feel full without gets giving
you any actual strength. And if you don't have any strength,
guess what. You're too weak to fight. Having done all
(42:10):
the stands standing there.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
For it, you have no armor. Go over there and
read Ephesians cha chapter six, started a verse verse ten.
You have no strength to.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Even put on the armor of God. When the real
battle comes, you will not be able to fight. And
that's the genius of it. It's not a frontal assault.
It's an infiltration. It's a teaching that sounds.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
Just good enough to be true without you ever checking it.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
When I was coming up in the faith, my pastor
and father figure, Bishop Philip bel Wright, he would tell
us all the time, don't just take my word for it,
read it in your Bible. And when you have these
doctrines of demons, you won't be able to read any
of it in the Bible because it's all subjective to
(43:03):
the one who's speaking it.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
It's just good enough to sound truth, but it will
lead you straight to hell. It is the ultimate itch scratcher.
It is custom made in the.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Laboratories of demonic demons to keep you comfortable to keep
you captive, to keep you completely powerless. Paul even said,
you will wander off into mits. Minuts are simply the
anti truth. Truth is a rock. Jus said, I am
the truth the way. I am the way the truth
(43:38):
in the life. No man comes to the Father, but by.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Me I am the truth.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
That's what Jesus was saying. Guess what myths are. Mints
are just smoke. Truth is a rock. Truth is objective,
and it's anchored in the unchangeable character of God. Mints
are subjective, and they're anchored and shifting sands of human
(44:02):
culture and feelings. I have seen people get up and
preach subjective gospels, and it is the most dangerous thing
you ever want to see. It is the most dangerous
thing you ever want to see. Mints are conspiracy theories.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
Mints are this.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
New age spirituality. Somehow they even manage to get some
of the political ideologies over into it. There's stories that
make you the center of the universe. So Paul is
screaming about this to a church in coloss Over in
Colossians chapter two, verse eight. You need to write this down,
(44:43):
and you need to get this in your spirit. Listen
to what the man of God is saying to this
church over two thousand years ago, it's a different church.
He says, see to it that no one takes you captive.
Listen to the violent language that he is using. That know,
some one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit
(45:04):
according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of
the world, and not according to Christ. That word according
just simply means in harmony with Paul said, this thing
will take you captive. It will lock you up, and
it will lock your family up. That's the final prison.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
You started by building walls to keep the truth out,
and you end up a prisoner inside those same walls.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
The walls you build for comfort have become your coffin.
And that's the ultimate tragedy of these walls of itching ears.
And if this wall could talk, it would laugh at you.
It would say, got you. You thought you were escaping
a prison, but now you were just building a better one.
Enjoy your stay. Question for you, what miants have you
(45:57):
mistaken for truth? What human idea have you elevated above
a divine command? So it's a recap these walls. You've seen,
the four walls of the spiritual prison. Wall number one
the wall of wayward wandering. That's when you refuse to
endure the pressure of truth. Wal number two that is
the wall of allergic appetites. You're developing an itch that
(46:21):
only lies and only false doctrines can scratch. Wall number
three that was the wall of custom made counselors. That's
where you hire teachers who serve your passions and not
your soul. That's where you have four hundred prophets like
a have. Wall number four the wall of twisted truths.
(46:42):
Turning your back on truth and wandering into a fantasy
world of myths and lies. Family is a downward spiral.
It's a slow fade into darkness. And you know what happens.
The Bible says, a little leaven leven at the whole lump.
(47:04):
When Jesus said that, he said, he was saying a
little false.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
Doctrine puffs up and it swells.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
All this starts with is this one small compromise, and
it ends in total captivity.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
But now here's the gospel. Here's the good news that
shatters every lie.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
The same word that is a sword to convict is
also a sledgehammer to set you free.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
No wall you've built. It's too high for the grace
of God.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
And it's my prayer that you will just begin now
to take this word and begin to do your own
honest inventory, because no lie you have believed is too
powerful for the truth of God. The truth you've been
running from is the only thing that can save you.
Jesus screamed in John chapter eight, verse thirty two. You
(47:52):
will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
The truth will set you free.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
The love of God.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Is not a lie that makes you comfortable in your sin.
God will never allow you to be comfortable in sin.
That is not God's love. The love of God is
the truth that confronts you. It convicts you, it cleanses you,
and it changes you. That's what the love of God does.
(48:25):
He loves you too much to let you stay in
your prison. And so today is the day that we
have to tear down these walls.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
Call the action. Call action number one. Conduct the wall check,
Conduct the wall check.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Now, this is what I mean by that. I'm not
asking you, I'm challenging you. Before you go to sleep
your time of prayer, ask the Holy Spirit show me
my walls and be brutally honest and write down the
truth that you've avoided, write down the myths that you
(49:04):
have embraced. Then here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna
confess it, and you're gonna repent, and by faith, you're
going to declare that wall is coming down. Number two,
I want you to go on the Truth fast, going
to truth fast for the next seven days.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Turn off the noise, mute the mythst.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
Unsubscribed from any cotton candy gospel that you've been following,
and commit to reading one chapter from the Gospel of
John every single day for the next seven days. Now,
here's the thing I want you to understand. I want
you to try this, but I also want you to
see how hard it's going to be. Now, I don't
(49:44):
want you to just hit no, no, no, that's not
that's not the instructions. I just want you to read
one chapter each day for seven days. Begin to train
your spiritual muscles. Begin to train your spiritual muscle. So
begin to train your eyes to scan over the.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
Verses of scripture. We have to do this, family. We
can't just be good church goers. God has called us
to be disciples and the disciple just simply mirrors what
his teacher teaches him. So get into that word.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Let the pure, undiluted word of God recalibrate your spiritual hearing.
And number three, I want you to find a Mekaiah
that was back in and I believe one King chapter
twenty two, that's my homeboy, Maka Macaiah was not playing
with the king. Find a Makiah, pray and ask God
(50:41):
to send you a truth teller, someone who is going
to keep it real with you, someone who's going to
keep it a buck with you, a pastor, a mentor,
a real friend who loves your soul more than they
love your feelings. Someone who won't scratch your itch, or
someone who will speak the truth to you in love,
(51:05):
and when God sends them, give them permission to.
Speaker 3 (51:09):
Be a hammer in God's hand. Now, if this teaching
has knocked down at least one wall in your life,
do us a favor.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
Share it Facebook Family like comment tag some people who
are living behind their walls of itching ears. And I
want you to do something new for me before we
leave too. Everybody who's watching on Facebook Live and those
that are going to watch later because we're family, before
you leave, do me a favor, take a moment and
(51:45):
leave a comment, leave us a review, Share what you've
learned tonight. This is how we're going to be accountable
because one of the things that the enemy does, and
you have to go over to Matthew chapter thirteen and
read it. When Jesus gave the parable of the sore,
these soils, four different soils. Each soil represented a different
(52:07):
heart condition. The seed was the Word of God, and
one of those soils. What happened was when the seed
was sown, the fouls of the air they came and
they stole the seed. This is what happened. Literally the files,
these birds, these demonic birds that came and they stole
the seed. And so when Jesus gave the interpretation, what
(52:28):
he said was that when the word of God, before
it can even take root in your heart, before it
can germinate, before it can produce fruit, Jesus said that
the enemy will come and he will snatch the seed
away from you so that it won't take root in
your heart, because he would rather just keep you as
a church goer than someone who is actually trying to
(52:48):
be a world changer. So to level up our accountability,
just leave something briefly like, Hey, I learned this tonight.
Speaker 3 (52:57):
This is what I learned. I have to be anything
personal or just leave it how the spirit of God
leads you to leave it.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
And this is the reason why I'm doing this, family,
because you all pull up and I want you all
to help us to reach others as well. You have
to see yourself through the lens of God and not
through the lens of your past, not through the lens
of where you are right now. You don't need a
seminary degree, you don't need to have a title, you
(53:28):
don't need any of that. All you need is the
love of God in your heart. And so if you
want to leave something behind, if you want to leave
a digital footprint to the next person that's going to
come through and look at that, please do that because
your words of encouragement might just bless them and it
might just help them. The Bible says over a revelation
I believe nine is chapter twelve, verse eleven. We overcome
(53:49):
Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the
word of our testimony. So leave your testimony on the
page if.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
You feel led by God to do so. Listen to
the podcast listeners, please subscribe like and follow. Please share
the podcast with your family and friends.
Speaker 2 (54:11):
New podcasts should drop tomorrow, but normally they're going to
drop on Thursday or Friday. To all of those who
are listening on Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, thank you
so much.
Speaker 3 (54:26):
We really do appreciate you. Please share the podcast.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
Join us next Winds that we're going to be back
on our regular schedule. Join us next Winns theay hear
at six pm Central for these walls of condemnation. Let's
close with a final word of prayer. Father, weay honor
you and we thank you for this word on tonight.
I thank you God that walls are coming down in
(54:50):
our lives, and I thank you God for this life
sustaining word that you have given to us on tonight.
And so now, God, I pray that this word will
not just be implanted, but this word will ignite. Right now, God,
take authority over the spirit of deception that has whispered
lies in our ears. God, we repent for building walls
(55:12):
against your truth. And by the power of your Holy Spirit, Father,
we declare that these walls are coming down. These walls
of itching ears God are coming down. And Father, we
command the appetite for lies to be silence. We command
the allergy of truth to be healed. Let the sound
of your word be the only sound we crave. Your voice,
(55:34):
God will be the only voice that we answer to.
We run out of our prisons and into your arms,
into the mighty wall shattering name of Jesus, we do pray.
Speaker 3 (55:45):
Amen and Amen. Listen, family, as always, get into the
Word of God, and the Word of God will get
into you.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
The demolition doesn't stop here. The real work begins now
this week. Starve the itch, stop listening for what feels good,
and start listening for what is true. Join us next
week as we continue the demolition with these walls of condemnation.
Until then on behalf of Pastor Tim and brothers in
(56:19):
the Word, reminding you get into the word of God,
and the word of God will get into you,
Are you scrolling for a sermon that challenges you or
just one that comforts you. Are you listening for God's
voice or just an echo of your own? Today we
are going to war with the Word and tearing down
these walls of it. Gineers, I need you to lock in.
This is Brothers in the Word, and here is your host,
(00:29):
Pastor Tim Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Brothers and
the Word.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
My name is Tim Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I am the youngest child of Claire Jones and it
is an absolute, undeniable honor to be with you right now,
in this moment. But before we go a step further,
what I need you to do is I need you
to lock in wherever you are.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Just for a second.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I need you to do me a favorite, because this
teaching is going to be a little different on tonight,
and so I don't want to leave anything to chance,
and so I want us to open up in a
word of prayer. Father, in the name of Jesus God,
we pray and we ask that you will invade this moment.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
God.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I pray that you will shatter our complacency. I pray
now God that you will silence the noise of the
world that is around us, the noise that is in
our heads, the noise that is in our spirit. God,
we don't come before you for a performance, but God,
we pray and we ask for your presence. We don't
want information from you tonight, God, but we want transformation.
(01:39):
So I pray Father that the frequency of Heaven will
come in so clearly that every signal is jam, that
every other signal is jam. God, make us comfortable in
your word, make us uncomfortable in our comfort.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Do surgery on us right now.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Today is our prayer, and we pray this prayer in
the Mighty Matchup's name of Jesus.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Okay, I need you to take detailed notes. Shout out
to Shannon. Now let's get right down to the raw
reality of what we are going to talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
The word today is.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Not a blanket statement. I want you to know that
I am speaking directly to you. This is not a
general teaching. This is a direct teaching. And here's the
reason why this is so important. With just what God
has placed on my heart and what I've been praying about,
and what I've been listening to and what I've been seeing,
(02:35):
we are living in a time where the spiritual air
is so thick with confusion amongst many Christians, and it's
choking people. There is a hurricane of opinions in the church,
there is a downpour of deception, and it has left
so many people spiritually waterlog And so now the scripture
(03:01):
that we're choosing to look at tonight, I believe is
going to detonate a lot of what's happening in many lives.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It's going to detonate some walls.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Because this isn't just a warning that we're going to
look at tonight. It is a spiritual mri for all
of us. The Apostle Paul is about to expose the
sickness that.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Is within the church today.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
The title for our time together is these Walls of
Itching Ears, These Walls of Itching Ears. Now, before we
even read the text, I need to give you a
power word. The power word just helps us to ground
ourselves to the text. And the power word is fidelity. Fidelity.
(03:50):
Write that down FI d E l t Y. Fidelity.
Fidelity means radical faithfulness. Fidelity means unshakable loyalty. It's an unwavering,
bull dog like devotion to something. And today that's something
is truth. Today we are talking about fidelity to the
(04:13):
truth of God's work, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So help you, God, So help us.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
God so found that your mission, should you choose to
squabble up, is to identify.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Make this personal.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I want you to identify every single wall of self
deception in your life right now. I want you to
think about it. I want you to write it down.
I want you to identify it because your charge will
be for you to take the spiritual sledge hammer of
the Holy Spirit, and I want you to begin the
(04:49):
demolition process of the prison that you have mistaken for
a palace.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Meet me over in.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Second Timothy, Second tumultheus my namesakes. Second Timothy, chapter four,
verse three. Two Timothy, chapter four, verse three. Now understand
these are the last words of the apostle Paul, and
I just feel that last words are important. Titus comes
(05:20):
after Second Timothy, which is also written by Paul, but
in the chronicological order of Paul's life, this is his
last book. And whenever you read tewod Timothy, you should
always keep that in mind.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
The man who.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Left us thirteen letters to show us what the church
really is and what the church should look like the
man who wrote and gave us the New Testament economy.
The church doesn't even know how to be the church
without the writings of the apostle Paul.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
So we're going to read.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
A section of this powerful letter, and again these are
his last words to his spiritual son and the Gospel.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
And I want to see.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I want you to see exactly the thing that he's
warning young Timothy about. Two Timothy, Chapter four, verse three.
The Holy Spirit says this through the pin of a
man locked up in prison, says this, for the time
is coming when people the Church will not endure sound teaching,
(06:25):
but having itching ears, they the Church will accumulate for
themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn
away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Let's get into it because the context of what Paul
(06:46):
is saying is very explosive. Paul, the spiritual giant, the
spiritual Ghat, the theological architect. He is writing from a cold,
damp Roman prison. He is literally behind physical walls. He
is chained, he is isolated, he is on death row.
(07:08):
But from behind those stone walls, he's not whining about
his situation. He's warning his spiritual son Timothy about the
spiritual walls Christians are building around their own hearts.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
And for me, the irony here is so thick that
you could actually cut it with a knife.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Paul is physically locked up, but Paul is spiritually freer
than a bird.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
And he's warning.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
People who are physically free but are choosing to be
spiritually incarcerated. And Paul is screaming through the bars. He's saying,
I'm in a prison. I didn't choose to be here.
He's saying, But Timothy, the people you are about to
pastor are building their own prisons. Break by brick, and
(07:55):
lie by lie, and deception by deception, and the name
of that the name on the front gate of that
prison is these walls of itching ears. So let's break
this verse down. We're gonna tear it down. We're gonna
break it down, break by brick. Wall number one. For
those of you that are taking notes, please write this down.
(08:17):
Wall number one, the wall of wayward wandering, The wall
of wayward wandering. I want you to look at the
first part of that verse that we just read, what
I like to call part.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
A, Part A.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Hits like a Larry Holmes jab for the time is
coming when people will not endure sound teaching.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Stop right there.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Notice those two words, not endure. That's the foundation of
this whole prison. The original language means to tolerate, to bear,
to put a with, to hold.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Up under the weight of something.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Paul is prophesygning that there is a time that is
coming when people, when Christians.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Will have a zero tolerance policy for truth.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Now, please keep this in mind. He wrote this two
thousand years ago. The prophecy is here right now. They
will not be able to stand under the weight of truth.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And what is it they want to endure sound teaching?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
There are a lot of different teachings in Christiandom today,
but Paul says, they won't endure sound teaching. And the
word sound gives us a very vivid picture of something.
It gives us a picture of something that is healthy.
It gives us a picture of something that is robust.
It gives us a picture of something that is medically pure.
(09:56):
It's spiritual nutrition. It's the protein prophecy, It's the iron
of instruction, the unblimished truth that builds spiritual muscle and
bone density. But Paul says Christians won't endure it. Why
why won't Christians endure sound teaching?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
You know why?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Because sound teaching applies pressure to your fleshly appetites. Sound
teaching creates the pressure of conviction. That was one of
the things I gave you a heads up about before
we started this. You might feel some conviction.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
That's good. Don't run from conviction.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
That is the Holy Spirit tapping you on the shoulder
and saying, we need to have a talk. Sound teaching
creates the pressure of change. It creates the pressure of transformation.
And we don't want that pressure. Our flesh doesn't want
that pressure. Over In Delations, I believe it's around chapter five,
(11:05):
Paul says that the flesh and the spirit are in
mid te He said they hate each other. In Romans
chapter seven, he said the good that I would do
find another law warring in my body. Says I want
to do good, but there's something in me. There's like
sin has a gravitational pull, and it pulls me in
(11:28):
the opposite direction.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
So that's the struggle that all of us have.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
As Jesus told Nicodemus and John chapter three, that which
is flesh, it's flesh. Yes, you are saved. Yes, you
have been bought with a price. Yes you do have
the spirit of God dwelling on the inside of you.
But can I be one hundred percent honest with you,
You're still in your flesh. You're still in that falling nature.
(11:59):
Think about a baby. When the baby is born, baby
gets around one years old.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
That baby has a sin nature that nobody had to
teach that baby.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Baby has an attitude. Baby is all about him. It's
all about my niece, It's all about my wants. You
have a two year old get into some cookies, cookies
all over his face?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Hey, did you eat those cookies? Baby? Like? No, I
eat them cookies, cookies all over his face.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Where did he learn how to lie? It's in his flesh,
It's in his fallen nature. And so all of us
were born with the nature.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Of Adam fleshly.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
But then we're also born with a spirit from above,
from God.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And these two natures.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Are constantly fighting inside of you. And whoever you decide
to feed the most, that's who's going to win the battle.
So as Christians, many times we don't want the pressure
of God's work.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
We want a.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Spiritual spa treatment, not spiritual surgery. Why, because spiritual surgery hurts.
Spiritual surgery means that you're going to God, You're going
to cut some things out of my life. God, You're
going to cut some people out of my life. God,
You're going to cut some habits out of my life.
That's what the Word of God does. And so many
times we're trying to hold onto that. We want a
(13:25):
little bit of God and we want a little bit
of our fleshly appetite. We want a message that gives
us a high five on the way to Hell instead
of one that snatches us out of the fire. We
want to pat on the back, not a punch in
the gut from the Holy Spirit. Do you know what
(13:45):
sound teaching is. Sound teaching is a divine mirror. It
doesn't have an Instagram or TikTok filter on it.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
The Word of God shows you your real scars. The
Word of God shows you your blemishes.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
It exposes the sin that you've been hiding, the bitterness
that you've been nursing, the pride you've been petting. And
when some people look in that mirror, they despise the
reflection that they see. So instead of changing their heart
according to the Word they decide to shatter the mirror
(14:27):
instead of dealing with the diagnosis. They fired a doctor.
They want a second opinion. They refuse to endure sound teaching.
And this is what Paul is telling Timothy. And if
this wall could talk to you, you know what this
war would do.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
This war would whisper.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Tell you, shh, don't listen to that. That's too heavy,
that's too judgmental. You know, God is just love. He's
cool with it. You're fine, You're gonna be okay. And
this is the first wall that goes up family, the
wall a wayward wanderings, the refusal to sit long enough
(15:11):
for the Word to do the work in you. You
see this every Sunday someone hears a sermon on radical forgiveness.
And you know what they say. They're passing on on
my pain. He don't know what I've been through.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
They're not enduring, they're building, They're building walls.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
The Right of Hebrews even gets in on this. He
says over in Hebrews chapter four, verse twelve. Listen to
how he describes the Word. He says, for the Word
of God, it's active, it's living, it's active, and sharper
than any two edge, sword piercing. Get this to the
(15:56):
division of soul and spirit. You know where your soul
begins and where your spirit ends. The word of God
can cut through both of them, and of joints and
of marrow and deserning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
There is a lot there in that verse. But the
thing you need to give is this. A sword is
(16:18):
not a toy. A sword is not something that you
play with. You know what a sword's main objective is.
It's meant to cut. It's meant to be invasive. Sound
doctrine kills the flesh, and it carves out the cancer
of sin, and it stops it from spreading. But if
(16:42):
you've fallen in love with your disease of sin, guess
what you're gonna do. You're gonna run from the surgeon.
You're gonna run from the sword. If you're infatuated with
your sin, you will run from the sword. It will
will make you uneasy, it will make you uncomfortable, and
(17:03):
you're not going to want to hear it. You will
not endure sound teaching. Question for you, what truth has God.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Been speaking that you been actively avoiding?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
What conviction have you muted? Because the required change feels
too costly. God is saying, give me all of it,
and you only want to give God a portion of
your sin. Now, here's the thing when you when you
(17:43):
reject the truth of God's word, you don't just exist
in silence. Your spirit is a vacuum that demands to
be felled. So if you reject the Filet mignon of
the word word, you will inevitably go searching for spiritual
(18:05):
junk food. And this is the masterful transition that Paul makes.
He goes from the rejection of truth to the reason
for the rejection. I absolutely love the writings of Paul
because he knows how to put so much in just
(18:26):
one verse.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
So he's talked about the rejection of truth.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
But now I want you to hear why the reason
for the rejection past him. Is there a reason why
this is happening? Yes, And it leads us to the
second wall Wall number two, the wall of allergic appetites,
the wall of allergic appetites. Look at part B of
(18:53):
the verse. We're just chipping and it's a spiritual diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Look at part B. That's where we get ourt the
title of this lesson.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
But having itching ears this is the absolute brilliance of
the apostle, Paul, the master physician of the soul. He
pinpoints the epicenter of the problem. He puts his fingers
squarely on the source of the problem. Get what he
doesn't say. And this is just something that I've taught
(19:26):
myself over the years, and it has helped me so much.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
To understand the word of God. And I'm to share it
with you.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
What the Bible doesn't say is as important as what
it does say.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Here's what he doesn't say.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
He doesn't say itching hands that want to fight. He
doesn't say itching feet that want to run. He says,
the infection starts in the ear canal.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Ears. What is an itch? Let's talk about it. Itch.
We've all had an itch before.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
An itch is a maddening irritation. A itch screams for satisfaction.
It is a craving for relief.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Stay with me.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It is a neurological signal that something is wrong in
your body, that there is an irritant on your skin.
It is a symptom of a much deeper issue. Now
watch the revelation. Your ears, my ears, Our ears have
an appetite.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
They get hungry.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Paul is saying that in the last days, people will
develop a spiritual allergy, and the primary allergen is truth.
The truth doesn't scratch the itch. You know what, the
truth does. The truth in flames that itch.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
The sound of holiness, the sound of repentance, the sound
of conviction, the sound of self denial is like poison
ivy to a spirit that is out of alignment with God.
So what do we do? We frantically start searching for something.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
We're looking for anything, Something has to scratch this unbearable itch.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
So you know what we'll do. We'll hunt for a message.
We'll hunt for a teacher.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
We'll hunt for a church of philosophy that will provide
momentary relief from the agony of conviction. We scratch the
itch with the calamine lotion of lies. Have you ever
had an itch in the middle of your back and
you couldn't reach it? It will make you go bonkers.
(21:53):
You will rub up against a wall like a bear.
You will beg a stranger to scratch your back. Grab
a ruler, you will gravel cold hanger. You will gravel fork,
a spatchelor, a garden rake, whatever you can find to
try to reach that scratch. That itch in your back
because you're trying to silence that maddening impulse.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And for me and I pray you get this too.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
That is a perfect portrait of the modern Christian with
itching ears. They are almost driven to the brink of
insanity by the quiet whisper of the Holy Spirit, and
they will do anything to find a loud lie to
drown it out. And if this wall could talk, you
(22:44):
know what this wall would do. It would taunt you.
This wall would tell you don't need truth.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You need to fix. You need relief.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Find someone who will tell you you're a king or
a queen. Find someone that will validate your sin. Family,
This isn't new school. I'm finna show you something in
the scripture. It's old school. This is nothing news. Brother
King Solomon said, there's nothing new under the son.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
I'm gonna take you back to a story real quick.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
It's found in First Kings Chaps twenty two old king
a half, the one of the worst kings Israel ever had.
And if you don't know who Ahab is, all I
got to do is say one word. His wife Jezebel. Okay,
so we're talking about Ahab. Ahab was a poster child
for wickedness.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And so a have he wants to go to war.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So Ahab gathers four hundred prophets, four hundred yes men,
and he asks these men.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Should I go? Should I go to war? And like
a demonic choir, they all sing the same tune. Go,
victory is yours? King? Go? What are they doing?
Speaker 2 (24:01):
They are scratching his itch for glory? But then there's
a king by the name of Jehosaph Fact. Joseph Fact
just got a little shred of dessertment. Josephat says, hold on,
hold up, hold up, hold up. Isn't there one more prophet?
Just one guy who hasn't been bought?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
And I want you to see Ahab's.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Response because Ahab is going to answer that question, and
it's found in One Kings, chapter twenty two, verse eight.
I am here for all the jokes, all the lol
moments of scripture, and this is one for me right here?
He asks, Is there another king? Ain'hap said, yeah, yes,
another one, he says.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
But I hate him? Why king?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
For he never prophesizes good concerning me, but evil. I'm
telling y'all, I am here for the comedy of the
Holy scripture.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Did you catch that vent? That king says he got
four hundred prophets on this side, and he got one
loan prophet on the other side.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
And the king said, I hate him because he won't
scratch my itch. I need this one prophet over here
to scratch my itch. And you know, every time I
go to him to get him to scratch my itch
to validate me.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
He won't do it. You know what he does instead,
he tells me the truth, and I hate him for that.
He tells me the truth. He doesn't hate Mekaiah as
a person. He hates Mekaiah because Makaiah tells him the truth.
He hates the truth that this man speaks. A haveb
was allergic to the prophet Mekaiah.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
He preferred the four hundred liars who affirmed his delusion
over the one man of God who offered him deliverance.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
And guess what happens.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Macaiah tells, if you go into that war, King, you're
going to die. Guess what a had did. He ignored him.
He goes out into the battle and a random straight
arrow just happens to find him and it kills him.
His itching ears led him directly to the grave got
(26:24):
a question for you. Are you allergic to the mecias
in your life? You know, there's always that one person
who just won't co sign your mess. They won't co
sign your foolishness, they won't go along with it. And
they're always that one nagging person that's always trying to
point you to better. So when that happens, it could
(26:46):
be somebody online, it could be a past, it could
be anyone. It could be somebody in your family, it
could be your child. Do you scroll past the challenging
message and do you create your own personal playlist of platitudes?
This is a deadly progression. First, you refuse to endure truth. Second,
(27:07):
your ears developed an allergic itch for lies. So now,
what's the next logical order? What's the next tragic step?
You have to go now and shot for a scratcher.
And that brings us to wall number three. And that's
the wall that's being built around us, Wall number three,
the wall of custom made counselors. Oh yeah, baby, we
(27:31):
about to go out here and get some people and
put them in our algorithm. Let's keep reading, because this
is getting good to me. In two Timothy, Chapter four,
Verse three, Part C part C. So we've looked at
the a part of the verse to be part of
the verse.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Now we have to see part of the verse. I'll
read it for you.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
That's exactly what King a that was doing.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Accumulate. Look at the word that Paul uses. Do you
know what that word is, accumulate. That's a consumer word.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
To accumulate means to heap up, it means to stockpile,
it means to whar. It's the picture of a spiritual
costco run. You're not just finding one teacher. Oh no,
you fill in your card up, baby, I'll take that
one right there. I'll give me that right there, give
me a little bit over there. And you have now.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Categorized for yourself a streaming service of sermons that will
never offend you. You are building your own personal echo
chamber of affirmation.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So loud that it defends the voice of God. And
what's the criteria of making this dream team.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Paul Lazies is right there in front of you. It's
very explicit, Paul says. The reason why they're doing this,
he said, is to suit their own passions. The word
passions is about your cravings. It's about your lust, It's
about your desires. This isn't about finding a teacher or
(29:09):
pastor who aligns with Scripture. No, it's about finding a
teacher or a pastor who aligns with you.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
And let's talk about.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
The menu that these teachers and these pastors are serving up.
One of the most popular ones and I kind of
coined this phrase myself from seeing and hearing.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Some of these teachings.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I call it the cotton candy gospel. You can use
this if you want to cotton candy gospel. What am
I talking about? Think about cotton cotton candy.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
It's pink, it's.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Fluffy, it looks amazing, it's sweet on your tongue for
a moment, and then poof, it dissolves into nothing.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
It's gone. It's all sugar and it's all air.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
There's no protein in it, there's no nutrients in it,
and it's It's the same thing with these kinds of teaching,
these cotton candy gospels. There's no protein of repentance, there's
no fiber or faithfulness. You know what these cotton candy
gospels do. They give you a quick sugar rush. Of
emotion that makes you feel good for about five to
(30:17):
ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
But guess what, it has.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Zero power to sustain you when the storms of life hits,
when the diagnosis comes, when the pink slip lands on
your desk, when your child is being attacked by the devil.
These cotton candy gospels cannot stand up to that because
they were never meant to stand up to that. They
were just about giving you a quick sugar rush. And
(30:43):
so what happens when your diet is nothing but cotton candy?
Speaker 3 (30:48):
You know what happens. You get spiritual cavities.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Your desernment starts to decay, Your theological teeth began to
rot and began to fall out.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Your moral foundation gets mushy.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Why because you've been fed nothing but fluff and feelings.
It will surprise you the things that people will open
up this Bible and pull from it.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
It will blow your mind. If I had the time
to tell you some of the things I had a
pastor tell me one time, I don't preach from that Bible.
I said, why not? He said, because it's outdated. God
gives me my revelation. So now here's this. Hear this?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Whatever that man gets up and say those people are
subjected to him, to his feelings, to his whims, to
whatever he has to say.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
The Bible has pushed you aside.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Matter of fact, they don't even need to bring their
Bible because he's going to be quote unquote God's mouth piece.
We have to be careful about these cotton candy gospels.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
That always make you feel good, that always tastes good.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Never any conviction, never any reproof, never any correction, Just I.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Feel good, I give me a hit, Give me a hit,
Give me a hit.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Then there's a therapeutic gospel. You know what the therapeutic
gospel is. A therapeutic gospel is where Jesus is just
a cosmic therapist. His only job is to validate your feelings.
Whatever your feelings may be, he's going to validate them.
He's going to boost your self esteem. Then there's a
self help gospel, you know what that is. That's where
(32:30):
the Bible is just an ancient life hack book to help.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
You unlock your best life.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Now and where you're shown in scripture all over where
you are the hero of the story. How do you
get to be King David defeating Goliath every time? How
so there's a gospel being presented to you where you're
always the champion. Nothing has ever required the view. Everybody
(33:02):
else is your ops. Everybody else is your quote unquote haters.
And so when you have that kind of gospel landing
on you, you never look into the perfect law of liberty.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
You never look into the mirror of God's word.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
That's what James described the word of God as he said,
it is a mirror. So imagine you get up and
you look in the mirror, and the mirror shows you
all of your flaws, all of your indiscretions, everything that
you need to change, and you just look at it
and you just walk away. You said, nah, I'm good.
That's what it is to look into the word of God.
And it doesn't challenge you at all.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
No, I'm good. And so what happens. These are custom
made counselors. They're not prophets of God. They're parents of
your passions. They are on your payroll. They're paid in
likes and shares.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And views to tell you that your will is God's will.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And if this wall.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Could talk, it would tell you You're to see you're the
CEO of your own spirituality, hire and fire as you
please find someone who will bless your mess. And the
prophet Jeremiah went so far as to weep over this
very same thing thousands of years ago. And Jeremiah chapter five,
(34:21):
verse thirty one listened to Jeremiah. He said, the prophets
prophesy falsely, and the priest ruled by their own authority.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
And my people love to have it.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
So the last line in a verse is a dagger
to the heart, God says, my people they love to
have it so itching ears. They wanted it, They craved
the deception. They accumulated teachers and prophets and p who
(35:00):
would let them live like hell and still promise them heaven.
And this is the great danger, the great peril of
our age that we're living in right now. This is
the great travesty in our churches.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Today. You can build a fortress.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Of falsehood around your heart and you can still call
it church. You can construct these walls of itching ears
and say, then we have a good time at church today.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Got a question for you, who is on your spiritual
board of directors.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Are they there to speak God's truth to you or
are they there to only confirm and affirm your passions
for you.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
So let's count this up.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
We've seen the rejection of truth, We've seen the craving
for lies, we've even seen the hiring of liars, and
there's only one destination left on this highway. Paul brings
it all to a devastating conclusion, and this is defining
on what I feel is the most tragic wall, Wall
number four, if you're taking notes, the Wall of twisted Truths,
(36:12):
the Wall.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Of Twisted Truths, the final part of that verse.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
It lands, in my opinion, like a coughin closing part D,
and will turn away from listening to the truth and
wander off. Intimates this is the endgame. This is the
cardiac arrest of the soul. I want you to notice
(36:41):
the two distinct, devastating actions that Paul describes.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
He says, they turn away and they wander off. Turn
Away is a violent, decisive pivot. To turn away is
not a drift, It's not a gradual thing. Turn Away
is an emphatic decision.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You were facing the light of truth and you made
a conscious choice to turn your back and walk into
the abyss, to walk into darkness. The porch light of
God's word is on, but you have deliberately chosen the darkness.
You block truth's number. You've unfriended truth. You've left the
(37:29):
building for good. And where do you go when you
turn away? Where do you go when you abandon truth?
You wander off in the midst Wander off is the
picture of being lost. It's the picture of stumbling blindly
(37:49):
and a self made fog. You created the fog. There's
no anchor for you, there's no compass for you. You're
just a ghost ship on the sea of stories and
fables and man made gospels and lying prophecies and demonic doctrines.
Did you know that there was a such thing as
demonic doctrines? Did you know that was the thing in
(38:12):
the church? Yeah? First Timothy, chapter four, verse one. Now,
the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some
will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful
spirits and doctrines of demons.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
So check this.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
When Paul says doctrines of demons, we have to be
crystal clear about what he's saying. This isn't a pastor
having a bad take on a verse of scripture. This
isn't someone misinterpret misinterpreting a verse that's not what he's
talking about, because if that happens, that's human error. A
(39:00):
doctrine of demons is something all the way different.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
It is a different category.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
The word doctrine means teaching, right, So Paul is talking
about a curriculum, he's talking about a syllabus. He's talking
about a strategic teaching that is authored by demons in
the church.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
And here's the revelation, family.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
The enemy's primary strategy is not just to get you
to sin, but to get you to believe a lie.
Go back to the Garden of Eden, go back to
Genesis chapter three. The first thing he did was to
get Eve to believe a lie.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
He didn't tell her to just grab the fruit and
eat it. No, no, no, new He got her to
believe a lie. Or did God really say that? Because
if the devil.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Can change what you believe, then he can control how
you Behave you better hear me? A doctrine of demons
is a teaching that looks, sounds and feels spiritual. But
do you know what this core function is? Do you
know what this endgame is. It is to decenter Christ.
(40:23):
It is to defan the gospel, take the teeth out
of the gospel. It's a lie wearing a clerical collar.
It's a poison that served on a communion plate.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Think of it like this.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
It's a teaching that rebrands sin as self care. It
rebrands rebellion as authenticity, and it rebrands God's judgment as
religious trauma. So it doesn't deny God outright. Think about
(40:58):
go back to Genesis three.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Satan didn't deny God outright.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Go back to our teaching that we did last last week,
these walls of temptations. Satan did not. He did not
deny God outright. He said, jeez, okay, if you and
Son didn't do these tricks for me. What this thing does,
this doctrine of demons, It creates a God who is
a cosmic cheerleader for your passions, not a holy father
(41:28):
who calls you the righteousness. So the cotton Candy Gospel
that we talked about, that's a perfect example of a
doctrine of demons. It's not just a bad sermon, No,
it's a demonic strategy. It's a doctrine designed by demons
to create a generation of spiritual diabetics, and they are
(41:49):
addicted to sugary gospels. But they're allergic to the word
of God. It makes you feel full without gets giving
you any actual strength. And if you don't have any strength,
guess what. You're too weak to fight. Having done all
(42:10):
the stands standing there.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
For it, you have no armor. Go over there and
read Ephesians cha chapter six, started a verse verse ten.
You have no strength to.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Even put on the armor of God. When the real
battle comes, you will not be able to fight. And
that's the genius of it. It's not a frontal assault.
It's an infiltration. It's a teaching that sounds.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
Just good enough to be true without you ever checking it.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
When I was coming up in the faith, my pastor
and father figure, Bishop Philip bel Wright, he would tell
us all the time, don't just take my word for it,
read it in your Bible. And when you have these
doctrines of demons, you won't be able to read any
of it in the Bible because it's all subjective to
(43:03):
the one who's speaking it.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
It's just good enough to sound truth, but it will
lead you straight to hell. It is the ultimate itch scratcher.
It is custom made in the.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Laboratories of demonic demons to keep you comfortable to keep
you captive, to keep you completely powerless. Paul even said,
you will wander off into mits. Minuts are simply the
anti truth. Truth is a rock. Jus said, I am
the truth the way. I am the way the truth
(43:38):
in the life. No man comes to the Father, but by.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Me I am the truth.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
That's what Jesus was saying. Guess what myths are. Mints
are just smoke. Truth is a rock. Truth is objective,
and it's anchored in the unchangeable character of God. Mints
are subjective, and they're anchored and shifting sands of human
(44:02):
culture and feelings. I have seen people get up and
preach subjective gospels, and it is the most dangerous thing
you ever want to see. It is the most dangerous
thing you ever want to see. Mints are conspiracy theories.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
Mints are this.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
New age spirituality. Somehow they even manage to get some
of the political ideologies over into it. There's stories that
make you the center of the universe. So Paul is
screaming about this to a church in coloss Over in
Colossians chapter two, verse eight. You need to write this down,
(44:43):
and you need to get this in your spirit. Listen
to what the man of God is saying to this
church over two thousand years ago, it's a different church.
He says, see to it that no one takes you captive.
Listen to the violent language that he is using. That know,
some one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit
(45:04):
according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of
the world, and not according to Christ. That word according
just simply means in harmony with Paul said, this thing
will take you captive. It will lock you up, and
it will lock your family up. That's the final prison.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
You started by building walls to keep the truth out,
and you end up a prisoner inside those same walls.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
The walls you build for comfort have become your coffin.
And that's the ultimate tragedy of these walls of itching ears.
And if this wall could talk, it would laugh at you.
It would say, got you. You thought you were escaping
a prison, but now you were just building a better one.
Enjoy your stay. Question for you, what miants have you
(45:57):
mistaken for truth? What human idea have you elevated above
a divine command? So it's a recap these walls. You've seen,
the four walls of the spiritual prison. Wall number one
the wall of wayward wandering. That's when you refuse to
endure the pressure of truth. Wal number two that is
the wall of allergic appetites. You're developing an itch that
(46:21):
only lies and only false doctrines can scratch. Wall number
three that was the wall of custom made counselors. That's
where you hire teachers who serve your passions and not
your soul. That's where you have four hundred prophets like
a have. Wall number four the wall of twisted truths.
(46:42):
Turning your back on truth and wandering into a fantasy
world of myths and lies. Family is a downward spiral.
It's a slow fade into darkness. And you know what happens.
The Bible says, a little leaven leven at the whole lump.
(47:04):
When Jesus said that, he said, he was saying a
little false.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
Doctrine puffs up and it swells.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
All this starts with is this one small compromise, and
it ends in total captivity.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
But now here's the gospel. Here's the good news that
shatters every lie.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
The same word that is a sword to convict is
also a sledgehammer to set you free.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
No wall you've built. It's too high for the grace
of God.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
And it's my prayer that you will just begin now
to take this word and begin to do your own
honest inventory, because no lie you have believed is too
powerful for the truth of God. The truth you've been
running from is the only thing that can save you.
Jesus screamed in John chapter eight, verse thirty two. You
(47:52):
will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
The truth will set you free.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
The love of God.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Is not a lie that makes you comfortable in your sin.
God will never allow you to be comfortable in sin.
That is not God's love. The love of God is
the truth that confronts you. It convicts you, it cleanses you,
and it changes you. That's what the love of God does.
(48:25):
He loves you too much to let you stay in
your prison. And so today is the day that we
have to tear down these walls.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
Call the action. Call action number one. Conduct the wall check,
Conduct the wall check.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Now, this is what I mean by that. I'm not
asking you, I'm challenging you. Before you go to sleep
your time of prayer, ask the Holy Spirit show me
my walls and be brutally honest and write down the
truth that you've avoided, write down the myths that you
(49:04):
have embraced. Then here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna
confess it, and you're gonna repent, and by faith, you're
going to declare that wall is coming down. Number two,
I want you to go on the Truth fast, going
to truth fast for the next seven days.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Turn off the noise, mute the mythst.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
Unsubscribed from any cotton candy gospel that you've been following,
and commit to reading one chapter from the Gospel of
John every single day for the next seven days. Now,
here's the thing I want you to understand. I want
you to try this, but I also want you to
see how hard it's going to be. Now, I don't
(49:44):
want you to just hit no, no, no, that's not
that's not the instructions. I just want you to read
one chapter each day for seven days. Begin to train
your spiritual muscles. Begin to train your spiritual muscle. So
begin to train your eyes to scan over the.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
Verses of scripture. We have to do this, family. We
can't just be good church goers. God has called us
to be disciples and the disciple just simply mirrors what
his teacher teaches him. So get into that word.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Let the pure, undiluted word of God recalibrate your spiritual hearing.
And number three, I want you to find a Mekaiah
that was back in and I believe one King chapter
twenty two, that's my homeboy, Maka Macaiah was not playing
with the king. Find a Makiah, pray and ask God
(50:41):
to send you a truth teller, someone who is going
to keep it real with you, someone who's going to
keep it a buck with you, a pastor, a mentor,
a real friend who loves your soul more than they
love your feelings. Someone who won't scratch your itch, or
someone who will speak the truth to you in love,
(51:05):
and when God sends them, give them permission to.
Speaker 3 (51:09):
Be a hammer in God's hand. Now, if this teaching
has knocked down at least one wall in your life,
do us a favor.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
Share it Facebook Family like comment tag some people who
are living behind their walls of itching ears. And I
want you to do something new for me before we
leave too. Everybody who's watching on Facebook Live and those
that are going to watch later because we're family, before
you leave, do me a favor, take a moment and
(51:45):
leave a comment, leave us a review, Share what you've
learned tonight. This is how we're going to be accountable
because one of the things that the enemy does, and
you have to go over to Matthew chapter thirteen and
read it. When Jesus gave the parable of the sore,
these soils, four different soils. Each soil represented a different
(52:07):
heart condition. The seed was the Word of God, and
one of those soils. What happened was when the seed
was sown, the fouls of the air they came and
they stole the seed. This is what happened. Literally the files,
these birds, these demonic birds that came and they stole
the seed. And so when Jesus gave the interpretation, what
(52:28):
he said was that when the word of God, before
it can even take root in your heart, before it
can germinate, before it can produce fruit, Jesus said that
the enemy will come and he will snatch the seed
away from you so that it won't take root in
your heart, because he would rather just keep you as
a church goer than someone who is actually trying to
(52:48):
be a world changer. So to level up our accountability,
just leave something briefly like, Hey, I learned this tonight.
Speaker 3 (52:57):
This is what I learned. I have to be anything
personal or just leave it how the spirit of God
leads you to leave it.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
And this is the reason why I'm doing this, family,
because you all pull up and I want you all
to help us to reach others as well. You have
to see yourself through the lens of God and not
through the lens of your past, not through the lens
of where you are right now. You don't need a
seminary degree, you don't need to have a title, you
(53:28):
don't need any of that. All you need is the
love of God in your heart. And so if you
want to leave something behind, if you want to leave
a digital footprint to the next person that's going to
come through and look at that, please do that because
your words of encouragement might just bless them and it
might just help them. The Bible says over a revelation
I believe nine is chapter twelve, verse eleven. We overcome
(53:49):
Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the
word of our testimony. So leave your testimony on the
page if.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
You feel led by God to do so. Listen to
the podcast listeners, please subscribe like and follow. Please share
the podcast with your family and friends.
Speaker 2 (54:11):
New podcasts should drop tomorrow, but normally they're going to
drop on Thursday or Friday. To all of those who
are listening on Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, thank you
so much.
Speaker 3 (54:26):
We really do appreciate you. Please share the podcast.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
Join us next Winds that we're going to be back
on our regular schedule. Join us next Winns theay hear
at six pm Central for these walls of condemnation. Let's
close with a final word of prayer. Father, weay honor
you and we thank you for this word on tonight.
I thank you God that walls are coming down in
(54:50):
our lives, and I thank you God for this life
sustaining word that you have given to us on tonight.
And so now, God, I pray that this word will
not just be implanted, but this word will ignite. Right now, God,
take authority over the spirit of deception that has whispered
lies in our ears. God, we repent for building walls
(55:12):
against your truth. And by the power of your Holy Spirit, Father,
we declare that these walls are coming down. These walls
of itching ears God are coming down. And Father, we
command the appetite for lies to be silence. We command
the allergy of truth to be healed. Let the sound
of your word be the only sound we crave. Your voice,
(55:34):
God will be the only voice that we answer to.
We run out of our prisons and into your arms,
into the mighty wall shattering name of Jesus, we do pray.
Speaker 3 (55:45):
Amen and Amen. Listen, family, as always, get into the
Word of God, and the Word of God will get
into you.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
The demolition doesn't stop here. The real work begins now
this week. Starve the itch, stop listening for what feels good,
and start listening for what is true. Join us next
week as we continue the demolition with these walls of condemnation.
Until then on behalf of Pastor Tim and brothers in
(56:19):
the Word, reminding you get into the word of God,
and the word of God will get into you,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.