Now, I want you to notice this in verse 25 and 26, and I'm gonna try to get through with this today, but I actually wanted to make a message out of what I'm gonna preach today, like a regular sermon out of it. But he says, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, verse 25, that God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who were taken captive by him at his will. Many people would never consider that oftentimes being taken captive can be by being put under, say, false conviction for something that you feel you should be doing and you're not doing. Oftentimes, what the devil wants to do is to take you back and have you do a review of your past life, even though you were saved. And you go, well, if you were a good Christian, why did you get divorced? If you were a good Christian, why did you go in debt? If you were a good Christian, why did you file bankruptcy? If you were a good Christian, why did you do this? If you were a good Christian, why did you do that? Here's another way that the devil gets us. The devil gets us this way. Well, if you were a good Christian, then you would do this and you would do that. You would dress right. You would look right. You would go to church. You would read your Bible. You would pray. You would be on the mission field. You would be in Bible school. You'd be a preacher. You'd be a pastor. You'd be a missionary. You'd be all these other things. Now, who would think for a second that those things can grab you and take you captive by will? Here's another one for you. Comparing yourselves, Paul says, among yourselves, which he says is not wise, but what begins to happen is, is you look at somebody and you say, well, I should be doing what they're doing. Well, here comes the false conviction. I should be doing that. God never told you to do it. But you jump in and start doing it because you think, well, that's what's expected of me because that's what I am. That's a two-edged sword. Number one, you look at other people and think because this is how you pastor a church, everyone should pastor it this way. This is how you preach, everybody should preach their way. So it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander. This is how you teach, this is how you parent. You homeschool. So, I mean, you are the prima donna, you're the pinnacle of the temple, you're the image everybody should look at as to what a good parent ought to be. Because you're doing this, that's not acknowledging the truth. And what happens is, as you infringe on, you get close to... Brother Saputo, could you check that back door? Somebody's trying to get in there. What you do is you start infringing on a thing that Jesus Christ died for, and that's free will. Do you understand? When you start legislating or dictating or mandating to yourself and to others what you think ought to be done, you put yourself in the snare of the devil and you won't acknowledge the truth that God didn't call me to do that. Here's number four. Oftentimes you start doing something and you're convinced that it's God that told you to do it, so you play the God card. Well, God told me, well, God told me, well, God told me. And then you find out it wasn't God at all, it was your reputation that got you in it. But because your reputation is on the line, now bear with me, then you wind up doing something and trying to convince yourself and others you're actually called to do it because you're too afraid to say, you know something, I kind of got my wires crossed, I kind of got a little chaos on the line, a little static, and I misunderstood. I believed the Lord was dealing with me, but it wasn't about that. And instead of acknowledging that truth, and then having the liberty that it takes to be able to say, man, I'm doing exactly what God wants me to do, the way God wants me to do it, it's I'm going to make this thing, I'm going to force this thing, I'm going to drive this thing to make myself spiritual. You can't make yourself spiritual. So one of the things about acknowledging truth that we generally do on a regular basis is we take the negative approach and we talk about acknowledging the truth about sin in our lives. And that's one way to apply it. But for most of you as Bible believers, that's really not that difficult for you. You really don't have a problem acknowledging the fact that when the Holy Spirit puts you under conviction, you're wrong and he's right and I acknowledge the truth Lord and I gotta work on this besetting sin, etc. But boy, how many of us get caught up when somebody steps in and says, well, if you're really godly, if you're really a good Christian, if you're a good Christian man, a good Christian woman, a good Christian husband, a good Christian wife, if you're a real good Christian, this is what I really believe you ought to be doing. And then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit comes and goes, to do that. Now there's certain things that line up, but what I'm trying to do is to give you the liberty that comes, not the license, but the liberty that comes with, I'm doing what God told me to do. What did Mary do? I just did what I could do. I couldn't be a preacher, I couldn't be an apostle, I couldn't be a disciple, but I could sure bring my bottle of alabaster and bust it on the head of Jesus, and he made a memorial to me for a reason, because the Lord wants us to pay special attention to the fact that she just did what God told her to do. not what everybody else says to do. So false conviction can really get you into some difficulties, and it will always be for something that you might not expect. For instance, let's say you're in a marriage. You're in a marriage, and the devil will come to you and say, well, your husband is this and this and this and this and this, or your wife, you can fill it in any way you want to. And you know what? If I was married to somebody different, those things wouldn't exist. No, you just trade in those problems for a whole other set of problems. But you see, the devil tries to tell you that whatever it is that's upsetting you now, if you could get that pressure off of you, no, it'd be better if I was just with somebody else. Okay. Well, and sometimes you try that and then it's like, well, I'm better there, but I'm not better here. I like the old one. Ladies, if you've been with somebody more than six months, you probably should stay with them because that's six months you've got invested in trying to make the change. And some of you are like, I've been trying this for 40 years and he still hasn't changed. But here's what you need to understand. The false conviction will come in and the devil will tempt you for things that are appealing to you in the sense they seem to make sense. Remember Genesis chapter 3, another passage I wanted to preach out of this morning. In Genesis chapter number 3, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not surely die. What does he say? Ye shall be as gods. So he says to this woman, you're being discriminated against. You're being put down. And by the way, until the fall, there is nothing in the Bible that she was in subjection to her husband. The Him having the rule over her came after she chose to listen to the devil. See, it's a trade-off. It's kind of like, listen, don't you want to be as God's? Don't you want to be smarter than everybody else? Don't you want to be smarter than your husband? Don't you want to be smarter than God? Because God's holding something back from you. And you know what she does? She goes, you know what? That sounds like a great idea. I think I want that. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, the grass is always greener over the septic tank. The idea is that if I could just have that, Yea, hath God said, if I could have that tree, if I could have that tree, wilderness of temptation, Matthew chapter number 4, he comes up there, he said, If thou be the Son of God, I mean prove it to me, I'm not saying you're not, I'm just saying if you are, why don't you do something that satiates your own appetite, your own selfishness, don't you deserve bread you haven't eaten in 40 days? I mean, for crying out loud, when has God ever been hungry before? I mean, you never experienced this kind of thing. I mean, good night, you can turn... I'm not saying you can't. Turn the stones into bread. Satiate yourself. Take care of you, me. And then all of a sudden, guess what happens? The temptation to take care of me first, in the meistic society in which you live, that's the first thing that rises to the surface, and the devil's used it ever since the very, very beginning. Now I want to show you a couple of things about false conviction because oftentimes Christians don't recognize, they don't realize that if the devil can catch me, if I don't acknowledge the truth that everybody that's a Christian is not a preacher. Let me say this, I wrote this note down just to make sure that I didn't forget it. There will not ever be another Dr. Ruckman. Okay, you say, well you worship, you idolize. Okay. I don't worship Him. I guess you could say I idolize Him. But I also have enough sense to recognize that God gave that man a special gift and an ability. If I try to fill those shoes, it's never going to happen. And what I'm going to have is be always frustrated because I can't understand, comprehend, and do the things that He did. Nor, to be honest with you, I don't think I could take the hits that he took and has continued to take now that he's dead and gone. I don't think I could last. I would have blown my brains out or had a heart attack from all the stress of all of the critics all the time. And now you have a bunch of people now that he's dead and all of a sudden they've risen to the ability to correct and critique the old man or the old preacher. Here's what I'm trying to say to you. If you hold yourself to an unrealistic standard, you'll always be defeated. If you do what God tells you to do and He enables you to do it, you recognize two things. Number one, I'm doing what God has called me to do within the abilities that He's called me to do it. The measuring stick is not other people, and it is not always success. Jeremiah is in the Bible, but with the accession of Ebed Melech and a few people that helped out, he never did anything for the nation of Israel. If you were to consider him in the ministry, he's a weeping prophet, but he was a flop because he never got them to turn around. Elijah had the same sort of a thing that happened. Moses, for a long time, messed up. Here's what you have to understand. Your measuring stick is not each other. So I'm trying to help you to recognize that if you have the tendency to be introspective, if you have the tendency to be responsible, the devil will get behind you and use that responsibility to drive you to a point that you're always frustrated because it's like, I never do anything right. I'm never good enough. I can never be enough. And you know what can happen? It'll start coming out at other people. You actually have an inferiority complex. I'm not trying to wax psychological on you. You have insecurities and inferiorities. And so what happens is, is because you become a control freak and you become somebody that is so accustomed to dealing with all the details that it frustrates you that you can't ever seem to do enough or be enough, you begin to mimic or project that onto other people. Because your success is determined by how many people are doing it the way you do it. Are you with me so far? Is this like making you feel some of the shackles dropping off? I mean, you should enjoy being a Christian. In Isaiah 61, one of my calling verses for going into the ministry was, is that he came to set the captives free, to turn the prisoners loose, to open up the jail bars, to take the shackles off, to get the straitjacket off of you. But oftentimes, that straitjacket for you and I, ladies and gentlemen, it is not the fact that we're smoking, drinking, cussing, and chewing. Isn't it interesting if you listen to a lot of what's called hard preaching, that it still revolves around stuff that we were doing back in the days of prohibition? It's still preaching on drinking. Why? You guys don't drink, or smoking, or cussing, or going to X-rated, R-rated, PG-rated, whatever your rating is, movies, or whatever. Now you get it brought into your own house. But my point is, is that, that's kid stuff. That's not where you struggle. What is a message on drunkenness going to do for you today? Brother Roger, can you kick the air on please? I'm already wound up a little bit. This is what happens when you put me in quarantine for too long. I got so much I want to say, my head is way out there, my mouth's trying to catch up and it's already breathing hard. Here's what I need for you to understand, your tendency will be to beat yourself up, to put yourself down, to belittle yourself because guess what, I'm just faithful, I just come, I just do what I can do, but I could do so much more. Who says who? Are you taking care of your wife, taking care of your kids, taking care of your family? Are you doing the things that you need to do? Yeah, but I could do so much more. Okay, at what point do you give yourself a breather? I'm not giving you license to sin. I'm saying that I'm trying to get on a whole other level that this passage right here about being captive is oftentimes the devil can use good things to captivate you. Are you with me? And so, well preacher, I'm not held captive to the devil, that's for somebody else. Do you know who this passage is written to? It's written to Christians. So it applies to us. All I'm trying to do is to give you another way to look at it, because that truth is not just truth about evil, it is all truth. Not generalized, it is all truth. Am I willing to say, God called me to do this, and then all of a sudden he changed his mind? Am I willing to say I got caught up in emotion and I decided to do something and the Lord showed me it was wrong and I'm willing to acknowledge it was wrong and I overshot and I shouldn't have done that and I'm wanting you to know, Lord, I acknowledge that and I'm denouncing that and doing now what you want me to do. There's a lot of unfaithfulness in churches today and among Christians today because they've accepted a calling, but the calling has not been from the Lord, it's been from the devil. Can I give you a couple of illustrations real quick? Does this make any sense to you at all? So when the Lord dealt with me about leaving where I was previously employed, it was a pretty major decision. That's all I'd wanted to do since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. And the Lord allowed me to do it, and I loved it, and I enjoyed it, and I was alright at it, I guess, and those kind of things. And so, all of a sudden, I was pastoring a church and doing that, and I continued, was going to plan on doing that until the day came, you know, for me to leave and that kind of deal. But that was a couple of years, three years or so, two and a half away. And so the Lord began to deal with me, and I felt very firmly the Lord was dealing with me. And I remembered what I had been taught by the old preacher and by my dad. Two things, number one, when the Lord was dealing with me about it, my dad said, take the phone off the hook. I know that doesn't sound spiritual, but I said, take the phone off the hook, and he goes, if the Lord wants you, He'll call you back. The phone will ring without it being connected. The second thing was, is when I sat and talked to the old preacher after my dad died, my old preacher said, pass the salt. Now there's a lot of wisdom in that right there, because what they're trying to help me to establish is, is this God dealing with you? Is this the pressure of the brethren pushing you? Is this you're tired of your previous employment, you're ready to get out, you're looking for an escape route? I mean, they weren't even trying to answer what those things were. What they were saying to me is, you better make sure this is God. So I said, Lord, number one, I know this it in my flesh. because I'm going to take a pretty good size or sizable pay cut and security and all the other kind of things that go with that kind of a deal and I actually like it. I loved my job. Literally. I loved it. I'd probably still be down there. I'd be the only one down there with two 50-year patches on or whatever. I'm 100 years old walking around on a walker. I loved my job. I really did. For me, it was neither a job, it was a calling. I would go to work and think, I can't believe they pay me to do this. I loved it that much. I mean, yeah, there are some bad days and stuff, but I loved it that much. I enjoyed being there. So I knew it wasn't my flesh. Now it comes down, is this God or is this the devil? I'm looking for a stinking burning bush. I'm saying, God, if it's you, this is my commitment, I'll go, but I gotta know it's you and not him. Here's what I want you to understand. And I did some things, and I know for a fact it was God, and I'm glad I did it, and I don't regret it, and I want to give you that picture. I want you to know that I had to pump the brakes and recognize that there was the possibility of a satanic influence to do the right thing at the wrong time. Mess up your testimony, can't pay your bills, put burdens and pressure on the people, they're not ready to pick up. The church may not be ready to do this, it may not be ready. This is one of the things that's happening right now. One of the things is that there's a lot of younger guys that are picking up on, and older ones too, what's going on in the world, and instead of them recognizing that the devil is influencing them in an area that they have no expertise at. and they're making statements to a congregation full of people and they have no authority from whence to speak. If they were in a court of law, the opposing attorney would stand up and scream at the top of their lung, objection. The witness is testifying and he's not an expert. So the temptation is, is that because I am a pastor, then all of a sudden I can testify and now I've become an expert in everybody else's matter. Could I just say this to you? That's not God. But when you become a legend in your own mind, and when you take that intellect, and God's given you that intellect, the devil wants to use and abuse that intellect, and then push you with that intellect into areas that may be somewhat intriguing, and the next thing you know, you're holding an entire service on UFOs and blood-sucking angels. Because you've been given special insight to things that are not going to help the man going to work on Monday. Right? No practical application at all, but, wow, you sure are smart, you sure are an expert. Are you beginning to see the picture? In the Christian life, there needs to be a time not just to, when I say back up, I don't mean backslide. I mean back up and recognize that oftentimes you're not where you think you should be because God never intended for you to be there. It's not because you're not willing. It's not because you're not obedient. It's just because God didn't choose for you to be there. He has something else for you. But until you recognize that, you can't go where God wants you to go. It's like, you know what? You've got to settle this thing. Example. The old preacher said to me one time about somebody who was a great singer. He said, man, he'd be even greater if he could ever settle in his mind that he can get more done through singing than he can ever get done through preaching. But that guy wants to be a preacher so bad and forces it to try to be a preacher. when he can do more in 20 minutes on the piano than most preachers can do in three hours from the pulpit. Now, you may think that's just absolutely ridiculous and absolutely crazy. No, no. See, that's what the devil does. He tempts you. He puts you in that bondage. He puts you in that trap to make you desire what appears to be good things. Brother Brad, I'm called to preach. I'm called to preach. I'm called to preach. I believe I'm called to preach. He's being honest. He's open. I'm willing to surrender. Comes back later on, kicked in the ground and kind of looking around. He goes, I think I missed it. I said, what do you think you missed? I'm giving you the short version. I don't think it's, I'm called to preach. I think God called me here to help you. But can you imagine where we would be as a church if he'd have said, I'm called to preach and gone off somewhere else to be a preacher? And then where would the church be as a treasurer? You say, what was it? Way back then, that was the devil saying, let me see if I can get him and see if he's too proud to acknowledge the truth. And so instead of him being your treasurer, he'd have been out there with frustrated ambition trying to make himself into a preacher and God never called him to be a preacher. He can teach, he can preach, but that's not his predominant calling. You ask him that after the service, don't ask him now, I'm too busy going, I got my mind going too fast. But you have to be willing to acknowledge that. You have to be willing to say, Lord, I recognize that may not be what you want from me. You say, what does that do? It keeps you from getting put in bondage. It keeps you from getting taken captive by the devil. You get in this idea where you get raised and you've always been taken advantage of and those kind of things. If you don't understand the fact that you now have a new father, you have a new mother up there in heaven. He said, when your mother and father forsake you, the Lord will take you up. And so the Lord now, you've been born again, and you have a new father that doesn't make mistakes in your life. But if you cling so hard to the past, and the abuses of the past, and the difficulties of the past, that it causes you to make the wrong decisions in the present, it's because the devil can take you captive anytime he wants because of how you were raised. Here's a good example for you. Illustrations. Making any sense at all? Nod, make me feel better about it. Here's a good illustration for you. In a 12-step program, one of the greatest programs they say that has ever had some success. It's kind of only one of the ones that's ever been out there. But one of the things they have you do every meeting on a weekly basis is get up and acknowledge you're an alcoholic, even though you haven't touched anything to drink in 20 years. So they're constantly reminding you, and so they're constantly telling you, you have an excuse. It's not your fault, you have a disease, it's called alcoholism, and it's not your fault. And so just always remind yourself you're an alcoholic. Well, I'm not drinking anymore. I don't fit it. If you were to take me into a doctor and you were to show whatever the symptoms are of alcoholism, I don't have those things. I don't have the DTs, and I'm not sneaking out and taking money, and I'm not slipping by the liquor store, and I'm not putting something in a flask and drinking it, and I'm not this and that and the other, and so I don't even have a social sip anymore. But they constantly remind you of that. You know what that does? That keeps you captive any time you want. Well, I have an addictive personality. That's the new buzzwords. I have an addictive personality, who don't? I do. I'm addicted to sugar. Hi, my name's David. I'm a sugar-holic. I'm just telling you, I'm addicted to ice cream. Haven't had any in a couple weeks, but the other day, got a little pint. We ate dinner. I'm in the ice cream drink. She's like, honey, that was for maybe tomorrow and you can have part of that. I'm like, this is for right now. I might die before tomorrow. I'm eating it right now. But here's the thing. We all have addictions, but to say I have an addictive personality, here's what it does. It sets you up for there's something wrong with me that can't be fixed. That's not true. Could I ask you this, and it's for public testimony or by a show of hands, how many of you did some things that you used to do you're not doing anymore? Anybody? Well, I'm sorry, I thought you were made that way and you couldn't change. Well, the Bible says I can do all things through Christ that strengthen me, but you know what the devil wants to do? Take you back to where you used to be and say, if you were, then how come? You know what you say? It's under the blood. Kiss my foot, I'll see you later. Now, that's what the devil does by doing what? Grabbing. Now, here's the thing. If the Lord says, after I'm saved, my sins are put as far as the east is from the west, or the depths of the sea, the behinds of the back, he remembers them no more. Is that right? All right. And the Bible teaches you that if we confess our sins, he's faithful, just, forgives us, and cleanses us of all unrighteousness. Right? The devil says, yea, hath God said? Well, if that's so, what about the past? Why did you do this? Because I wasn't in fellowship with the Lord, leave me alone. Because I wasn't doing what I should do, leave me alone. Because I still have a sin nature, leave me alone. It's under the blood, I'm moving on. But if he can grab you, and listen, hold you under guilt for something you did a long time ago, he can take you captive. Here's what will happen invariably, you start witnessing to somebody, and the devil will come sit right here and go, boy, some witness you are. I mean, I remember when you... And look at you, you're telling them about Jesus, and man, you just cussed. And you just had the wrong thought, and you just did the wrong thing. What's He trying to do? Take you captive? Make you shut your mouth? Make you quit witnessing? Make you be quiet? Do you see? But he's doing it with things from the past. So it's not only good things, it's past things that take place. You know, I'm not an apostle. I'm not a prophet. I don't have very much to give. Okay, when does that become the measuring stick? There were only twelve apostles. One of them was a devil and then Matthias replaced the other one and the apostle Paul comes along. And there are a couple that are added in, but that was a special group. Man, talk about discrimination. The Lord says, this is going to be it. This is the 12. Talk about discrimination. The Lord said, I'm going to the nation of Israel. The rest of you can go to hell. I don't care. I'm going to the nation of Israel. Lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew chapter 10. We get in because they rejected. So now what they're trying to do is they're trying to make you the real Israel now. You ain't Israel. You're the church. You don't want to be Israel. Can I just say that? Are you with me now? Here's what I want you to understand. The taken captive here, most never thought that being taken captive can be from false conviction or misguided zeal to the point where you can never do enough or there's always more to do. If there's anything worth doing, there's got to be more to do. Okay. Well, here's what happens. You get called to preach. You go to Bible school. You get out of Bible school. You get married in Bible school or out of Bible school. And then all of a sudden, you know, some little children come along. And you're thinking, yeah, but the Lord called me to preach. Okay. And I've been to Bible school. Okay. Well, then that must mean I need to be in the ministry. You've got some mouths to feed. He that provideth not for his own is worse than an infidel. Now watch how it goes. So because God's called you, now it's the brethren's responsibility to support you in God's calling. Or you get bitter at the brethren, and then every sermon you get a chance to preach, you're preaching on, you know, where God guides, he provides, and I'm doing what God's telling me to do. Are you doing what God told you to do? Don't muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. Right? And then the next thing you know, you have mutionaries instead of missionaries. And they're living off the brethren. You've all thought it, I just say it. Trying to convince you that they really are called into the ministry and they really are supposed to be doing it. And so now it's incumbent on you to take care of them and finance their dream. That's false conviction, that's misguided zeal. So what I had mentioned to you earlier, you have people all of a sudden they have a platform because of YouTube and all this other stuff. They got their moment on camera because of that, the thing that has all the boxes in it where everybody can talk at the same time. There's an app or something. Zoom. So now I get on there and I'm interviewed like I'm on CNN or Fox. They want my opinion because I'm important. I'm somebody. Let me convince you that I'm really called of God and this is God using His vehicle to have me in a position to speak with authority to my twelve people of this is what God's doing in the nation of America. And now they're testifying when they don't have the credentials to testify as an expert. Now they've gotten so caught up in that, that they can't back off and say, you know something, I really have no business in speaking to those matters, that's not what God called me to do, or I would be a doctor. Or I would be an epidemiologist. Or I would be in a position to take the responsibility that if I give you the wrong medicine, you might die. But instead, We've turned that into something entirely different. Let me hurry. Being convinced that you never do enough, there's always more. This by no means is an excuse to be lazy, but for some the devil uses you to get behind you and push you at a pace faster than you're capable of keeping up for. And then convincing you that you're ready when you never are when you're not quite ready. So maybe your calling is right, but maybe the timing is wrong. You're ready now to do it. And the Lord said, no, you're in the oven. I want you to take the time to raise your kids, take care of your wife, get a good stable foundation under you. I'm not running out of time. The old saying is that he who goes to set world on fire soon come back for more matches. And I add to that and burns up a lot of people along the way. Because speed gets us in trouble. Because our mindset is that, if I can get a church, I'm a pastor. If I can have home church, I'm a pastor. If I can go across the border from Florida to Georgia, I'm a missionary. We look for a label. Right? And so therefore it justifies what it is we want to see ourself to be. And the next thing you know, we're operating outside of our ability. And that leads to a huge amount of frustration and a lack of confidence, not just in the pulpit, but in what you're doing. There is nothing worse than seeing two kids who think they're ready to be married, but they're in lust, not love. and to think you have no idea what you are fixing to get yourself into. You just want to get married so you don't get whacked by the Holy Spirit by being under conviction for fornicating before you got married, and you're getting married for the wrong reasons. And when you recognize all of a sudden, young man, you've got to get up the next morning after all that's over and done with, and you've got to get a job, and you've got to pay bills, and you've got to fix things and do things and that kind of stuff, all of a sudden party time is over and welcome to the real life, two ammonia capsules up the nose, and you're going, I didn't know all this. I have kids, yeah? Kids are a blessing, but they're a responsibility, aren't they? Y'all kind of going, well, you know. No, no. You want a man up? You had him. She carried him. You had him. You contributed to that, unless the Virgin Mary's here. She's not a virgin anymore, but I just simply want to say to you, unless the Virgin Mary is here, you have a responsibility. You brought a life into the world. It's not just taking care of an animal, you're taking care of a human being. So you know what you have to do? You think, oh well, I've got to abandon them because I've got to go for God. You better take care of them. Do what's right to do or you get yourself out of order. Do you understand? That's what happens to you. That's why I don't ever want to put that kind of pressure on you, because I don't want to be a tool of the devil. That's why the Bible tells us, lay hands suddenly on no man. 1 Timothy chapter 3 tells you, not a novice. That's one of the things that gets more Christians in trouble than anything else. It's not smoking, drinking, cussing, and gossip, and slander, and all the other things that can happen in a church. It's people with frustrated ambition trying to be something God never called them to be. And they miss God's calling. And then they have to operate under their own power instead of the supernatural power of God. If God calls you, He enables you to do it, and what He called you to do may seem impossible to others, but it's easy for you. Because God is the one that enables you to be able to do it. You can't do what God called you to do under your own power, otherwise you will take credit for doing whatever is accomplished, or for getting whatever is accomplished. Do you understand? And if you do, don't lick the bottom of your shoe. So listen to me. Let me relieve you of some of the frustration that oftentimes conviction can be false conviction. Job's three friends are my last illustration here, and I've got to close out here because I'm running a little bit behind. I've got so much further to go, but at any rate, Job's three friends come, and they're looking at things from a human perspective. They're only capable of seeing in the here and now. Are you with me so far? They can't see into eternity. They can't see into the future. They can't see what God's doing in Job's life. Now, we can because we have a written record of it, right? So God wrote some things down for us to be able to read and so we get supernatural insight through the Holy Spirit and the written pages of the Bible. We get that thing that they didn't have, that vision, that idea of things that they couldn't see. All three of those friends come in there and they say, Joe, we know what the problem is. You. And the reason we know that is, Job, is by the standard of measurement that we have, you wouldn't have the problem with your servants, with your kids, with your cattle, with your wife. You wouldn't have those problems if you weren't doing something wrong. So, Job, we know by the mere power of deduction that if, in fact, this is right, based on what we see, you're sick, you've lost everything you have as a result of you living a wicked, ungodly, sinful life, and as a result, God's punishing you. Okay, let me ask you a question because you've seen the end of the story. Was God punishing him? Now I know what you immediately default to. This is human nature. Well, I mean Job did have pride. Wow, that's what you get out of the story? I mean, you know, he was doing pretty good and all that, but he did do some pretty amazing things. Naked I came into the world, naked I shall live, blessed be the name of the Lord. Shall we not expect good things from God as well as evil things from God? I mean, God's been good to us and this kind of thing. And so Job gets kind of, but he's in retort to, he's responding to the false accusations of them saying, you must have done this, you must, listen, Job was such a righteous man, he's offering sacrifices for his kids figuring they're doing things they shouldn't be doing and won't offer the sacrifice. He's making sacrifices for the benefit of other people. That's how righteous he was. So, okay, smack him down. You know, he got a little prideful. Well, you know, I've been doing some things right. But he hadn't been. He's speaking the truth. But because people can only see in two dimensions, They look at Job and said, we know what the problem is. Suppose Job had responded to those accusations without intervention from the Lord, where the Lord said, hey Job, you want me to get these plagues off of you? Here's the first thing I want you to do. You're going to have to pray for them, because they're idiots. They can't see what I see. And they do not know what I'm doing in your life. So you pray for them. and I'll turn the captivity from you." Which would be a hard thing to do. Think of your worst enemy and say, the Lord said to you, well, if you want to get out from the bondage you're in right now, pray for that enemy. But anyway, Job prays for the enemy and the Lord releases the captivity and then he comes to Job and guess what happens? Then he reveals to Job, Job, this whole thing was between me and the devil, it had nothing to do with you. You might have got some good out of it, a double portion in the end of the thing, and you happen to be a tight picture of the Jew in the tribulation that we now see, 42 months, etc., the Great Tribulation and that kind of a thing. You might be a picture of those things, Job, which you didn't know I was doing behind the scenes. But I want you to know this, Job, you weren't wrong in what you were doing. Too often, either yourself or other well-meaning people come to you and say, I know what the problem is. Mitch, I can tell you what the problem is. Because as I see it, there's a danger because I can only see in two dimensions. I can only see what outwardly is coming out of Him. Right? So then we go to my final point and that is that then often leads to conjecture. If there's nothing that we can see, we have to begin to assume and make up things. Well, I think the reason so-and-so got sick Even though they seem to be really good people. Yeah, must be, you know, God heard what they said in secret. Hammer time. I'm just saying. Seems awful strange, you know. Could I ask you a question? How about the Apostle Paul? You look at the Apostle Paul's life, you know what you'd have to say? He must be whacked and jacked, man, because, man, he's under the gun every time. After he met Jesus from that point forward, he never quit being under persecution and distresses and troubles and trials and tribulations and in fastings and in perils and in nakedness and all the other kind of things that he's there in 1 Corinthians 11. He must have been a bad boy. No, he's trying to set an example. But conjecture leads to false accusations. And if you respond to a false accusation or false conviction, you start on the wrong path. And all the devil has to do then is just get out of the way. Your human nature will carry you as far as you need to go down that path and away from what God wants you to do. And that's not just in spiritual things, it's in practical things on a regular basis. Heavenly Father, I pray You'll bless Your Word this morning. Thank You for the folks that are gathered here already. And we'd ask now You'd be with us in the upcoming service. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.