my name is Landon I'm the senior lead pastor of Mercy culture Church thank you that's very kind I miss you too come on let's give Jesus a 10 times greater hand can we do that the vision of our church is to take people from corporate encounters with God to daily personal encounters with God what that means is is that we're not just about a church service but we want you to encounter the presence of God every single day because when you get in the presence of God it is so easy to hear him when you begin to hear God and obey God everything in your life begins to change so here at Mercy culture we're passionate about God encounters and we want to help you connect with God on a daily basis so we do this through our membership which is really discipleship we call it connect and it's really easy you can text the number that comes on the screen or you can go to mercyculture.com and click connect you watch a shoot few short videos about our church and then you take this amazing connect with God assessment and here's what it'll do it will show you how you best connect with God when you learn how you best connect with God it is a game changer to your ability to connect with him on a daily basis and then that is when you just begin to spiritually grow so here at Mercy culture we're passionate about you encountering God and growing in God so we want to encourage you take that next step and go through membership which is really discipleship I promise you'll change your life amen hey today's the last day to sign up for our spiritual Leadership School it's called SLS and if you have any desire for greater discipleship full-time Ministry or even be a pastor one day that would be the path for you and encourage you to sign up and get involved amen it's hot in here it's the first time in the history of church I can see people in the balcony though because we got new lights good to see you just have to get the AC working someone say strengthen and fortify how many are done with this Texas Heat but it's good because it keeps The Californians out when they see it unless you're on the online campus then come and join us we love you if you want my notes today you can text notes to the number that comes on my up on the screen and what's in front of me will be sent to you I have a lot of scripture to share with you today I've been out of the pulpit for a while how many ready to eat [Applause] turn with me to the book of Acts chapter 21 Acts chapter 21 beginning in verse 8 it says this on the next day we departed and came to caesarea we entered the house of Philip the Evangelist who was one of the seven speaking of Acts chapter 6. it stayed with him he had four unmarried daughters who prophesied why we were staying for many days a prophet named agabus came to Judea coming to us he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said thus says the holy spirit this is how Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles verse 12. when he heard this we and the people urged urged him not to go to Jerusalem doing weeping and breaking my heart for I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus verse 14 and since he would not be persuaded we ceased and said let the Lord let the will of the Lord be done I came to tell you this morning when you put on the belt of Truth you are wearing dunamis the title this message this morning is wearing dunamis the belt of truth let's pray so Lord we declare you are the way the truth and the life we declare there's one way to the father and that's through you Jesus Jesus we honor you today Holy Spirit we welcome your presence Holy Spirit I ask you to breathe on your word your logos word I pray it would become Rhema in alive today we declare your word is true let every man be a liar we declare your word as a lamp into our feet in a light into our path so Holy Spirit we ask you right now to give us ears to hear Hearts to receive Minds to understand what your spirit is saying Lord we declare no Spirit but the holy spirit is welcome here we say any lying Spirit deceptive Spirit you must go Holy Spirit come we declare right now we don't make room for you Holy Spirit but we give you the entire room father I thank you no one came to hear me we all came to hear you so we say Speak Lord your servant is listening and all God's people said amen and amen we are stewarding a prophetic word over the year a year of dunamis a year of strengthening and fortify it's a year when the holy spirit's power will go from resting on you to abiding in you at the beginning of the year I sent to you a slide or a screen of showed you all the different things that we'd be teaching and preaching this year how we would you would be strengthened and fortified in your faith we've covered that prophetic word on dunamis and what that is we've talked about clear fundamental doctrinal issues Heaven hell sin salvation Faith eschatology uh the the validity of the authority of scripture the things that are really really important to the foundations of your faith we just got done with the summer of prayer and now we're entering into a new season or series that we're calling wearing dunamis which we are going to be teaching on the full armor of God this is found in Ephesians chapter 6 where it begins to teach us about about the full armor of God I'm going to jump down to verse 14. in verse 14 it says this stand therefore having fastened the belt of Truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes for your feet having put on the Readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances take up the shield of Faith which you can extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one take on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God Ephesians 6 teaches us about the form of God now what's Wild is is I begin to map out what will be taught from the pulpit years in advance right now we're about 90 percent done with 2025 everything we'll teach from the pulpit in 2025 we have 2024 done and and part of my job is I go spend time with the Lord I ask him his heart his mind and then I begin to prepare uh what he has for you and so as I was praying last year into dunamis and strengthening the fortifying your faith I was writing down all these topics and and Theological understandings that God was putting on my heart to teach and at the same time I really felt him prompt my heart to teach on the full arm of God and what was wild is he was prompting me to talk about these issues that are important for sound Doctrine and the full armor at the same time and what I realize is if you take away the armor things and just look at the topics look at this the full armor is some of the most important parts of sound Doctrine and faith salvation righteousness the word of God true Faith peace all of these things that it takes for you to be firm in your faith so we're going to take the next uh the rest of the year and we're going to be talking about the full armor of God and strengthening and fortifying our faith at the same time amen now I personally love the full armor of God and I've been I've been rehearsing it memorizing it declaring it since I was a little child My grandmother used to take us to school for a season and she was one of those praying Saints like the long-winded praying Saints like she was one of the people they would never ask to pray in church because they would never get the microphone back for her but she made up for it in the car on the way to school and she would just we would pray the full armor of God every day on the way to school and I grew up doing it and it made such an impact on me that we've been doing this with our children since they started going to school so he started with my daughter who was uh just entered into seventh grade at MC prep but when she was going into K4 we started declaring the full armor of God every day and then as little kids come up and get older they hear their siblings declaring the full armor of God or putting it on on the way to school every day so now I got my four-year-old who's who knows the full armor of God he made a video he wants to show you he knows it watch this your full name Jackson poodle Adam shot how old are you four you go to MC prep yes awesome do you know the full armor of God yes all right show me the helmet of salvation the breastplate of wine [Music] the boots of bloodiness The Shield of faith and the sword of the spirit you got it and that's beautiful and cute but sometimes you can think well the full arm of God is just for kids because your kids go and and they get the little cutouts from from children's ministry and they bring it home and you're like oh that's so cute and they have the little armor cuts out and so sometimes we can belittle something like this and and think it's only for children so let me ask you this question is is the form of God only for kids yes yes all of God's children I like it though you're aggressive it's good it's a good Sunday when uh Heather and I started early in our marriage we're in Youth pastoring and and uh she went met with this girl and started ministering to her who was being attacked in her dreams and just demonically oppressed and and as she's at this restaurant with this with this young teenage girl the teenage girl starts manifesting a demonic Force as she's at lunch with her and uh it was the early days of ministry and and these things have always followed Heather doesn't matter if she's having lunch with someone or preaching from the pulpit they just come and so and uh back then it was one of the first time she encountered something like this and and she she remembered the spirit of fear coming on her and she left the appointment in fear running from the thing that was on the girl and that night we were laying in our bed we we felt that that spirit that was on that young girl followed her home and we're we're in our bed at night and the lights are off and we're going to sleep and Heather start saying do you see that I feel something's in our room and start saying this out loud and I got this anointing to sleep on my life I could sleep anywhere anytime one of my favorite things is taking naps I feel like you're never closer to Jesus than when you're napping it's biblical it's sound Doctrine he napped many times and so and so so I I I'm at first irritated like why are you waking me up and then second of all I'm like well okay something's wrong here and as a young married couple instantly I just said we're gonna put on the full armor of God and out loud as two young adults we start putting on the full armor of God in our home declaring watch no Spirit could come in we start taking Spiritual Authority on the enemy through the full armor of God we've been doing this for years and I came to tell you you do not grow out of the full armor of God you grow into it so let me give you some practical advice every day your your daily encounter put it on it's not for little kids it's for All God's Children every day put on the full arm of God and strengthen and fortify your faith the full arm of God is found in Ephesians and I want to open up about what Ephesians is about the Apostle Paul is writing a letter to the church in Ephesus Now remind you Paul was known as Saul and he was one of the greatest persecutors of the church and now he is an apostle after he had encountered with Jesus and he's he wrote two-thirds of the New Testament this this church in Ephesus was on the west coast of Asia Minor where you would call it turkey to this day originally it was settled by the Greeks in about 133 BC and then came under Roman Empire it was made the capital of the Roman Providence of Asian mire by Augustus in 27 BC and we know that Paul spent time teaching there for about two years between Acts chapter 19 in Acts chapter 20. we know there was intense spiritual warfare that happened in the city of Ephesus because in First Corinthians 15 32 Paul warns that he fought the beasts in Ephesus and what he was speaking about was he fought evil men they were influenced by demonic spirits in this city so a man named techicus brought the letters that Paul wrote to the Church of Ephesus Colossians and Philemon so in this book of Ephesians Paul is covering topics that are foundational to sound Doctrine someone say sound Doctrine now I want to give you some caution about important way to understand theology because there's some individuals that take scripture and they break it up and they determine who that scripture is for and then what scripture is for them so they'll say stuff like well that's only talking to Jewish people or that's only talking to married people or that's only talking to you know people like Zacchaeus who are under four foot tall and and so those things don't apply to me so I want to be clear with this Paul is writing to a group of Believers in a city called Ephesus and when Paul is instructing Believers in a church that is beneficial for you and me he's writing to us he's teaching believers how to understand sound Doctrine so Ephesians is divided in two major categories doctrinal found in chapters one through three in Practical found in chapters four through six chapter six is emphasizing spiritual life in spiritual warfare Paul warns of two major attacks a temptation to compromise and live a worldly life and the lack of unity in the church mainly between Jew and Gentile he was speaking up so watch this Paul is writing this letter to the Church of Ephesus are you following me while he's in prison Paul is in prison under Roman guard looking at Roman soldiers wearing their armor realizing they're wearing a carnal armor but even though I'm in prison I'm wearing a Spiritual armor I wonder if he even saw angels that had different kind of armor that were teaching him about what he was wearing he was saying oh you may have a sword but I have the word of God how you may have a shield but I got a faith that transcends my current circumstances see he said you may have wore your boots on but I got pieces or passes all understanding and it doesn't matter if I'm in this jail cell I am still walking with peace Wherever I Go [Applause] this was what was going on as Paul was writing these letters see Paul understood something that's so important that when you put on the armor you are putting on power when you put on the armor you're actually wearing dunamis but it's not a natural armor it is a Spiritual armor for a spiritual fight spiritual warfare is challenging for unspiritual people bite what they can carnally see spiritual warfare is fighting forces not people and if you're fighting people you're already losing in spiritual warfare so let me give you some practical advice when you're experiencing or feeling spiritual warfare or think you're in spiritual warfare quit focusing on people listen to me take their name off it get their mind get to get their their picture their face out of your mind quit focusing on a person and start focusing on a spirit because here's what happened is it's not them it's a demonic Spirit that's influencing them but then you get so caught up with your irritation frustration anger with them you stop fighting spiritual warfare and you start fighting carnal Warfare then it's just about your ex it's just about your business partner it's just about that family member it's just about that person that betrayed you then you fall into carnal Christianity and say silly things like I can never forgive them for them which is something Jesus never said in fact we don't have a choice if we're gonna forgive it's not optional for Christ for Christ believing Christians but watch if you are not fighting spiritually you start fighting carnally get your eyes off of the person start focusing on the spirit when I was praying for you this week I felt the Lord speak to me about you he said some of you are struggling because you're so focused on you instead of the spirit some of you are dealing with self-shame some are you are dealing with self-hatred I actually heard thoughts of like I'm no good I can never do this this person was right and I saw people caught up in almost like this fog of depression and oppression because you partnered watch with demonic voices but you thought they were yours get the focus off of people which means you did it on their Spirit where he go someone say spiritual warfare so Ephesians 6 10 says this finally be strong in the Lord someone say strong now what's important is when you read God's word you begin to look at what it's really saying because when you say a word like that it says finally be strong that sounds good and and and it sounds like something you should partner with but if you look at this word strong in the Greek it's the word uh uh Donna maneo and what it literally means is for the strength of the Lord to come on you it's where we get the word empowered this is awesome this is when God's dunamis power transfers onto you okay this is important because there's so many Christians that need to grow spiritually and you need to start spiritually fighting instead of carnally fighting and you partner with lies of the enemy and you say stuff like I can never I can never speak in tongues I can never prophesy I can never forgive them I can never get over this I guess I'll never be like this and you start partnering with this thing watch instead of partnering with the prophetic word over this house in your house of dunamis watch that his spirit will go from abiding on you to or resting on you to abiding in you watch and the moment you start activating in his power you are empowered by his Spirit what am I telling you the same power that Jesus walked in you begin to walk it so when the scripture is saying you will be strong watch it's not your strength I'm not talking about your YouTube video self-empowerment I'm not talking about the six steps on how to mentally break through I'm talking about when his power comes and transcends your weakness in your weakness he is made strong because his power starts working through you [Applause] someone's taking power Ephesians 6 12 says this for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against Authority against cosmic power over this present Darkness over the spiritual forces of evil and Heavenly Realms scripture is talking about rulers and authorities or principalities what is the principality principalities are high-ranking demons I did a teaching a few years ago on unseating principalities I would recommend everyone who's a member of our church to go watch that video on our YouTube and learn how to engage in a proper healthy spiritual warfare scripture teaches us to over and over to put on it says the full armor of God or the whole armor of God we see in Ephesians 6 13 it says put on the whole armor when we hear that phrase or read that phrase whole armor or full armor it comes from this this word uh panoply which means complete offensive and defensive with nothing exposed to your enemy when Paul says or when the Bible's teaching us to put on the full armor it's literally saying this put on every part of it so there's nothing in your life that is susceptible to the enemy it's a completeness it's leaving nothing unguarded nothing I love this is careless which may be a fatal fall someone say put it on it's important scripture tells us over and over to put it on Ephesians 6 tells us to put it on Romans 13 12 tells us to put it on Romans 13 14 tells us to put it on listen the armor is made to be worn there is no taking off our armor ever my first spiritual father was a man named John Paul Jackson he was a prophet of God and he mentored me for years on a weekly basis before he went to be with Jesus and he would tell me all the time I put on the full armor of God every day and he would say this I never take it off one time he had a dream and in his dream he's laying in his bed wearing his armor and there's demons around him trying to pull off his armor while he's sleeping and he's just sleeping in peace and they cannot remove his armor from him listen your Spiritual armor fights for you when you're unaware what the enemy is doing someone say put it on turn to your neighbor tell him to put it on listen are putting on the full arm of God is the greatest thing you can do to strengthen and fortify your faith did you hear what I just told you Church no you got to get it out of kids church bring it into your church what I'm trying to tell you right now is when you put on the full arm of God it is the greatest thing you can do to strengthen and fortify your faith when you wear the armor of God you are putting on the dunamis power of God when you put on the armor of God you are wearing the characteristics of God when you put on the armor of God watch you are wearing the image of Jesus this is important this isn't for just Sunday school this is for here this is for now so why is putting on the form of God so important because you are wearing the image of Jesus this morning I want to talk about the belt of truth I'm going to teach on one of these every week Ephesians 6 14 says therefore having fastened on the belt of Truth someone say truth truth is defined as that which is reliable factual here's a word we never use in in America anymore reality in the Old Testament the primary word MF which meant to be factually firm or reliable or faithful what it would it translate into Hebrew to mean is something that could stand up against reproach or attack do you know there's over a thousand scriptures on truth in the Bible over and over and over in the Old Testament it's pointing to Jesus in the New Testament it's describing who Jesus is we have verses like John 14 6 where Jesus said I am the way you know this the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through me this is so important Jesus said I am truth John 8 31 so Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him if you abide in me and truly are my disciples you will know the truth what and the truth will set you free why are there so many people that are living in bondage living in shame living in depression living under the attacks of the enemy is because they're not engaged or partnering with the truth of Jesus Christ I love this Proverbs 23 23 it says by truth and do not sell it First Timothy talks about salvation and Truth this is good and pleasing in the sight of God our savior verse 4 who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of Truth but church if Jesus is truth if God is true then it makes sense why there's such a war on truth there is a strategic demonic attack a spiritual resistance on truth Jesus confronted the Pharisees and in confronting the Pharisees he exposed what he calls the father of lies or where Lies come from we see in John 8 44 he says you and your father are the devil and your and your will is to do your father's desire he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth look at this and there is no truth in him when he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is the father of Lies Jesus said this watch I am the truth and Satan is the father of Lies why does he call him the father of lies because the father of Lies began in the beginning if you go to Genesis chapter 3 put it up on the screen in the beginning Satan came with that forked tongue and he began to lie to Adam and Eve he told them oh you don't have to not eat the fruit in the middle of the tree of the of the garden you don't have to eat from that tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil if you eat it you'll be like God he came in with a lie and what was he trying to do he was trying to get them to eat what God Said don't eat he was trying to get them to understand knowledge before God had it for them watch the original lie came about the knowledge of the tree of Good and Evil so then lies begin to spread across all of humanity so much that in Leviticus 19 when God is giving the children of Israel The Ten Commandments one of the top ten is do not lie this is a commandment for Godly living do not lie it's amazing how we teach this to the children to our children but all of a sudden over the course of time this doesn't apply to us anymore it doesn't apply to us in business deals it doesn't apply to us and casual conversation where all of a sudden truth isn't as important as it once was not only is it a tenth commandment but then we see with the destruction of society where a Godless Society begins to rule and Reign we see in Romans chapter 1 Paul again talking about this he was saying that there's coming a day where men will abound abandon sound Doctrine they'll abandon the truth they'll exchange the truth of God for a lie and a debased mind corrupts Society do you know what we call Romans 1 to base mind society today they call it post-modernism oh you know what that is oh they've been doing it for the last 20 years they've been telling everybody you've seen Oprah said over and over you've been they've been telling everybody about your truth and my truth and truth is relative and what's true to you may not be true to me and what's true to me may not be truth to you so really truth is just relative and it's just perspectional and it really doesn't matter what I believe what you believe it just matters that you believe in something even if it's not true watch and here's what they've done they have said for decades now not everything's true nothing's true Everything's Relative and what they've done is they've broken down the fabric of Truth so that the only thing that that is remaining is their lie watch this because if nothing's true it's really easy to lie and this is the world that we found ourselves in where nothing is true except for their lies and we need the church to stand up watch and speak and preach the truth but there's a problem we took off our belt [Applause] so we're living in a world of lies and nobody's wearing the belt of truth anymore because every time you use their preferred pronouns you take off your belt every time in cowardness or in ignorance you affirm gay marriage you take off your belts every time you pretend living with your boyfriend isn't sin you take off your belts every time you believe that there's three thousand genders you take off your belt listen when you don't say anything when they say men can menstruate you take off your belts you say why is it why is this shocking and and why are you are you being judgmental no no see the church has taken off their belt there's been such a lack of truth that what is common sense and factual and reality all of a sudden is this wild thing that people can't even imagine people would say I can't believe you would say something true full thank you why am I automatically categorized as a bold preacher when I just preach truth all of a sudden truth is bold all of a sudden truth is radical truth is rare what happened to the truth watch the church took off their belt or wasn't comfortable to wear truth it was uncomfortable to keep it on oh I couldn't relax I couldn't let down my hair I you know it's just too I you know when I get around these people it's so much easier just to let their lives go around it's so much easier just to allow them to to say what they want to say and and I don't want to seem crazy and I don't want to seem judgmental so let me get this straight they can pretend that pride month is just Jude but they can indoctrinate your kids every day of the year but you don't want to be too preachy we have become cowards and you hold hide behind a false Narrative of love when the truth is is there's no love you just don't have your belt on oh you could say you could say the truth in love but it's not loving if it's not truthful church we must put our belt back on now it is so corrupt Isaiah 5 says that time will come where men will call evil good and good evil we live in that day now it's opposite where they say truth is hate speech like no I love you I I I I truthfully honestly love you and want you to know Jesus I want you to be right with the Lord this is what God's word says and they say hateful why because they changed the definition on truth on you when you weren't wearing your belt I was blown away I learned an amazing lesson our church got behind Nate chatsline state representative and a group of Godly men that passed a bill called sb14 which made it illegal to do sex change surgeries on minors in Texas and if you were with us on that Journey that was a spiritual fight and when they were arguing this bill they had men dressed up as women standing in the back balcony lifting up their dresses showing their private parts publicly to the lawmakers as they were arguing these these cases these laws it was a about a three-week battle where they kept using their lawyers the Democrats kept using their lawyers to try to overturn this bill so literally the only thing this is fighting over is not doing check sex changes on children so I learned something the first thing was wild is of the 300 people that were there praying and interceding about 200 of them were from Fort Worth from Mercy culture that traveled just down to pray and intercede and I celebrate that too but I'm also grieved where was the church I know where Mercy culture was and we're living Fort Worth where was the church where was the big sea church where were the pastors and leaders to fill the capital watch over changing the private parts of children or were we too busy putting together our Sunday services we were too busy golfing and doing our small groups were we too distracted by the busyness of life to protect the Next Generation and then here's what I learned was the gay activists and the trans activists are way more organized than the church they're way more unified than the church they pulled up in Caravans they got up they knew their positions they had their their talking points they all got together they held their little church services inside the Capitol and here's what was wild to me is they said the exact same thing we said they said we must protect the children they're trying to take Health Care away I was like whoa cutting off their private parts is not Health Care That's not healthy that's not helping that's not caring then they said you have to stop these hateful churches like we don't hate them we love them but this was the language watch they were saying the exact same thing we were saying they meant the opposite and if you don't have your belt of true thought you don't realize what is true and what is a lie y'all I saw every characteristic of the Jezebel spirit that I wrote in my book on display that week I saw them foam at the mouth I saw them yell I saw them be mean I saw them be hostile then they got up and the Water Works turned on and then they begin to cry what about the kid who's gonna kill themselves if you don't let them have this surgery and I understand that sounds that sounds horrible and no one wants any child to die and it pulls on your heartstrings and in the empathy inside you starts going off and we want to help kids but but allowing a child when they're only a child to pretend they're a superhero get a sex change surgery is not helping them hold on a second and what I just said is considered radical because the church has taken their belt off and because we're not wearing truth we are susceptible to lies I'm gonna say this again when you take off your belt of Truth you are susceptible to lies and false teachings this morning I want to bring up three false teaching that I believe is making its way into the church especially a Spirit-filled church I want to give you three warnings now we can be here all month we could be here for the rest of year talking about false teachings that have crept into church we can talk about a counterfeit Grace that manipulates texts and gives people license to sin we can talk about the Prosperity Gospel that has become a selfish bless me type thing that is not biblical uh and we can talk about all sorts of different random things that people have partnered with but I want to give you three things that I believe right now you should have the most caution about and before I give you these three false teachings I I do want to just mention false teachers that the Bible clearly warns us of and some of you might say well Pastor Landon why are you talking about this because the Bible teaches me as a pastor it's my job to warn you it's my job to say hey look out for this and until your belt of Truth is on fast it's my job to warn you about lies so I want you to be careful that there's a difference between a false teacher and a pretend teacher I have a lot of people sending me videos all the time of celebrity pastors and they're like look at this he's a wolf I'm like he's not a wolf like he's a false teacher he's not a false teacher he's a Christian performer that you think is a pastor and I'm not being mean I'm just being honest he is performing and he's trying to get click bait and he's trying to to to perform and build a crowd and and he's confused this is not a deceptive teacher that has tried to destroy churches and people this is a confused person that shouldn't be pastoring there's a difference between a false prophet and an immature Prophet people get prophecy wrong like false prophet forever in the category false prophet never trust him or they're immature I've never seen anyone you know criticize a worship leader who sang A Wrong lyric false worship leader never let him do it again they mispronounced Adonai their ministry's over okay there's a difference are you following me so you're looking at what is the intent of this individual so today I'm not going to name names I'm not going to point anyone else out I'll let you connect the dots but I do want to go over some false teachings that have made their way into the church the first one I want to point out to you is this it's called universalism universalism is a demonic doctrine that offers freedom but brings bondage and spiritual death universalism does not believe the Bible is infallible or incapable of making mistakes being wrong but and does not believe that the Bible is absolute truth so I want to make this ultimately clear universalism they do not believe the Bible is true it's a human projection of an incomplete love universalism does not believe Jesus is divine and rejects the need of salvation for sin it believes that people are good and everyone gets to be saved without repentance now this is important because if you do not need to be saved or you don't need to repent from for your sins it means that Jesus died in vain so ultimately universalism rejects what Jesus did on the cross universalism is birthed in confused confusion and fueled by witchcraft it uses Christian words and biblical Concepts to draw people into this counterfeit theology first John 4 3 says and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God let me give you a warning today Beware of the mirror Bible it's a path that leads to universalism and a rejection of God's word Universe are the mere Bible is a pathway to universalism the same way pornography is a pathway to adultery if you have this throw it away if your friends have one warn them this is a deceptive false Doctrine this is a cult stay away from it number two I'm calling this a religious spirit what is a religious spirit a religious spirit is when you welcome any Spirit but the Holy Spirit the religious spirit puts rules in barriers between men and God you are never good enough to be saved you can never do enough to be saved it's not Grace Faith it's not faith-based it's work space they hate sin and they hate The Sinner this Spirit of religion is mean and it's hateful the religious spirit tries to make hard and complicated what God has made so very easy it is an appearance of godliness but it denies the power of God the religious spirit resists the move of the Holy Spirit just like the Pharisees resisted Jesus and the only thing the spirit of religion hates more or resists more than the holy spirit is women in Ministry thank you the third false teaching I want to caution you about today is what's known as wokism it's a lukewarm Christianity that's love for the world is greater than their love for Jesus it loves the world and tries to be loved by the world ignoring John 15 19. it's also known as this second Corinthians 4 4 the spirit of an age it's the spirit that is being worshiped in culture it's a counterfeit Justice movement it's social justice that tries to remove the Justice from God as a righteous judge it's fueled by compromise it removes obedience accountability and submission from the Christian vocabulary wokism is when Christianity becomes popular and trendy wokism is when theology is formed by culture not scripture this is when you try to win the World by looking like the World by living like the world instead of coming out from the world and being separate from the world woke him is is a theology that is formed by culture and not scripture welcome wokism has perverted the meaning of love and made for themselves a false Christianity and probably the best description of wokism is it's lukewarm let me give you 10 signs that you go to a woke Church you ready for this this is not to Mercy culture members this might be for guests or your friends number one you do not believe in the authority of scripture or the Bible's infallible word of God guaranteed sign you go to evoke Church number two they take the both sides approach to the overturning of Roe v Wade refused to celebrate it or even worse told you not to number three the pastor says the Bible isn't clear or Jesus was silent on homosexuality number four they promote celebrate or introduce their congregations to pro-abortion anti-biblical Value political candidates number five diversity equity and inclusion are preached about more than righteousness Holiness and Truth number six BLM and rainbow flags are displayed side by side number seven they avoid their responsibility for Spiritual leadership on biblical issues and speak to the culture with statements like we don't want to be political and let me caution you any church that says we don't want to be political are the most political of all because they've already taken a stance they're just too afraid to say what it is number eight they have replaced the repentance of sin for tolerance of sin number nine the church's cultural stances align with celebrities and politicians that hate God more than the Bible number 10 they refuse to give clear answers or clearly State what the Bible teaches on gender homosexuality and transgenderism instead they avoid these topics and apologize for the ways of God let me warn you woke churches are not real churches they're activist groups that are disguised as churches and if you're uncomfortable it might be because your belt of Truth is off you say but Pastor you mentioned BLM now hold on a second white people be quiet [Applause] no white people is allowed to make a noise for the next two minutes no but here's the thing at some point you have to determine of course of course black lives matter don't manipulate us with words that's obvious Jesus died for that life we're talking about the woke corrupt anti-bible pro-homosexual pro-transgender movement that is behind a movement pretending to be a social justice so here's the thing if it was really about a Biblical righteous Justice everybody would be behind it I feel the Holy Ghost but here's the problem the church hasn't stepped up and led in racial reconciliation it hasn't LED in unity so watch because the church hasn't stepped up in truth watch these unjust woke social groups have stepped in to fill the gap of the lack of the leadership of church but here we go this is where every single person in here has to make a decision are you more loyal to the color of your skin or to the kingdom no I know there's things that a white Pastor is not allowed to say because it can't be truthful if it comes from someone with a different color skin than you Church took their belt off no see these are the things that we can't be afraid of in a multicultural Church these are things that you can't be afraid of in a diverse Church listen and here's what happens in a few months from now they're going to start stirring up things in the media and trying to get you to forget that your brothers and sisters in Christ are in this room and there were all different colors watched and they're going to try to get you to take off the belt of Truth and they're going to try to stir up hate and stir up unforgiveness and stir up a resentment and stir up a fence watch mark my words one year from now this is why you put the belt on when they're not lying in your face this is why you put the belt on when the media doesn't have a story to corrupt you with this is why you fight for truth day in and day out [Music] how to pass I had a pastor reach out to me he said you're not gonna believe this he sent me a link he said this church is holding a drag show for children we have to do something about it I said it's not a church you're wasting your time it's not a church they're pretending to be a church let's use our strength and energy to go do something productive not try to protest an activist group watch Church when your belt is on you see through the lies when your belt is on you discern through the lice when your belt is on you feel when someone is trying to bait you you feel when that that spirit's trying to seduce you you feel when something's coming to tempt you watch The Wiles of the enemy the schemes of the enemy when your belt's on all of a sudden you start feeling warnings in you start going off on you you start feeling that spirit of offense in you even someone tries to call you and invite you over and all of a sudden a warning starts going off and your spirit the holy spirit's making you aware you'll start watching the news and you'll start feeling the lies even before you hear what they say listen you start watching that thing on your Instagram and even though it sounds so good and everybody is saying amen and so good celebrity preacher all of a sudden you see in God's word what is actually true and what is being preached falsely listen the belt of Truth is what keeps you from deception and I'm pleading with this church put your belt up put your belt on before we get into the political season put your belt on before you start scrolling on social media put your belt on before you get around your old offended church friends that can't find any place to submit anywhere ever and you love them but they're operating in The Jezebel spirits and that's why they've never been able to submit to anyone anywhere anytime anyhow but you know to hang out with them you got to take the belt of Truth off church we have to put this belt back on if we are going to lead in this hour Pastor Ryan come join me look at this Acts chapter 21 we're going back to our opening text guys I had so much fun preparing this week not because of the stuff I just preached but because of this I literally sat down at my desk I had all my notes and I just asked the Holy Spirit I said what do you want and literally I heard the audible voice of the Lord speak to me out of a text I've never preached out of in my entire life and he said look at Paul's belt I find it in Acts chapter 21. where Paul the once persecutor of Christians is now being prophetically warned by a prophet named agabus about a persecution that's coming his way watch this and agabus prophesies to the Apostle Paul watch through a belt he said give me your belt and he began to tie his self up with the belt and he said I'm going to speak to you watch this the truth of God through your belt he said the same way that I am bound up is the same way you're about to be bound up watch this he speaks to them a word of Truth from God and his Christian friends try to talk him out of it Paul is in a house full of the modern day deacons or the ancient day Deacons prophetesses and Ministry leaders of the ancient world and when Paul gets a prophetic word watch that is truth but isn't what he wants to hear what they don't want to hear they immediately say no no no you have to flee you can't go forward you can't do this wait let's find another prophetic word let's watch another YouTube Prophet let's go to another hotel let's try to find something else to submit to Paul stops his friends huh he says not only I love this am I willing to be persecuted watch for this truth I'm willing to die for this truth Paul was teaching us how to Value the belt of Truth and some of us aren't even willing to lose friends over our belt [Music] some of you are not willing to lose followers Paul is risking his life and you fear your job we're about to enter into a new prophetic season where you cannot lead in Ministry without this belt on we're about to enter a new season I feel this strong and my spirit nature that's life that every politician that goes into Austin are in their seat has to be fitted with this belt and this full armor watch you won't survive the next season wearing a belt of Lies but the only thing that will sustain you watch so now Paul is sitting in prison tied up he's bound with chains and this is when most people start rejecting God this is when most people start deconstructing this is when most people start saying things aren't fair and life isn't fair and I thought God wanted to bless me and I thought my future would be perfect and I thought there would be no suffering I thought there would be no trials but Paul is sitting in prison bound up in Chains but he says you didn't understand [Music] I got my belt on watch Paul said I'm willing to die for the truth [Music] I believe Paul understood what it was like to wear dunamis church I believe God is inviting us to this next season to where [Music] put on truth to put on the full armor not lacking anything would you bow your heads and close your eyes all over this place