Are you a piece of
Merchandise? Capt. Kelly
Durant 7-06
The fleecing of the sheep by
deceiving pastors!
2 Peter 2:3
3 And through covetousness
shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a
long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
John 10:10-12
10The thief cometh not, but
for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd:
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
12 But he that is an
hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf
coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and
scattereth the sheep.
What do you see here? I have
a sheep in my hand but it is no ordinary sheep, it is a sheep that has
been fleeced! You see it all naked and unprotected, right? Did you know there
are pastors in churches that have no communication with God but their goal is
not to save souls for God’s kingdom in heaven, but to get all they can materially
out of their sheep? Their objective is
to fleece their sheep and use the Word to justify it!
The position of a pastor and
a religious movement is a very important and dangerous one, because they
can use the Word of God in a correct way which will give you life,
light, wisdom, and encouragement and salvation through Jesus Christ. But if they
are false, they can use the Bible distorting the Word of God just to
make you feel guilty in order manipulate you and get you to give him
money and serve their perverted cause to grow big.
The word in Peter states that
God will punish those that use the word for their own gain, those that believe
spiritually hungry people are just dumb sheep that need to be used by them for
their gain and look again at the scripture “and their damnation slumbereth
not”.
These false pastors with
their wealth and air of importance will intimidate you and preach with
sweet words and the people shallow in their faith admire them and
their big rich church, and be deceived!
God put it on my heart to warn
you about this because we are living in the final days of our earth, and
Jesus will return, and His Word warns us of these rogue pastors, many stating that
they are the ones with the real Christ. You may say, well how will we know
who is false?
A few weeks ago in California there was a Salvation Army Sergeant that left
the Army and took his whole church o Soldiers to join a group from Colombia
These are pastors that
spend most all of their time with the richer leader people in the church so
they determine how to get them for
theirselves!
We just read how Jesus warned
that the false shepherds come to deceive, to steal, kill, and destroy and this
is happening today within many of the Christian churches because this group and
others like the Iglesia Unversal have one agenda, to steal people’s loyalty
from their church, and then get you to obey all of their false teachings above
the Bible so they can exploit.
You may ask yourself, well,
how does it happen? How do people get fooled and let others control them? How
can I be prepared to resist the false teachings from the false churches and
teachers?
Point 1
Do not be ignorant! Ignorant
of their devices and ignorant of the Word of God!
How do you know how to
distinguish between the false and the real?
If you have any money on
you take it out of your wallet. That’s right, here, hold up a dollar
bill in the light. Now look at it, study it. The way you will recognize
the false and counterfeit is by comparing it to the true. If you
actually read the word of God alone in your house and, know what
it says, then you will not be fooled buy false teachings. This implies
you must be constantly doing your homework, even proving all of what I
teach! 2 Tim
15 Study to shew thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth.
Remember
also how Jesus pointed out that His sheep hear His vice and they will not
follow a stranger.
God will not forgive those
who willingly choose to remain ignorant of His truth.
Point 2
Do not be comfortable… in
your culture, tradition, and customs. Jesus wants us to fight for the correct
standard and not be conformists! Romans 12:1-2
Some
people conform to their own feelings and habits more than they obey the
teachings of God. I will give you and example and keep in mind this example is
a real one that has repeated several times. Compare what I am explaining with
your spiritually walk with Christ.
The
best way I can describe why people accept false religion is like this, with
this example. Imagine an abused woman or man. She comes and cries
and complains, I live with an abusive man. He puts me down all
the time to make me feel guilty, like I am nothing, to get what he
wants; then he then sweet talks to manipulate me. I work long hours and
he takes my money away and buys things for himself, and I don’t even
have enough left over for my food sometimes. He is never there when I need him.
He tells me that if I ever leave him that he will find me and hurt me,
and that God will send me to hell, because God doesn’t permit divorce.
I am miserable, and I want to die!
So
what can I say, well, I say don’t kill yourself, leave this devil and
God will provide and take care of you, don’t be afraid, let Jesus be in
control. The Bible doesn’t teach you will go to hell over this but the contrary
in 1 Corinthians 7! So then she leaves him and I encourage her to have a
relationship with someone in the future who is a real Christian, who is
healthy, who loves God, someone who will say beautiful things to her, who will
love her and not oppress her.
So
what does that sister do? She does go out and find a good Christian man,
and God answers prayers and everything is wonderful, there is love, she can
talk and open up, she is valued and loved; It looks like she went from
hell to heaven. But then she starts thinking, the devil gets in because she
does not thanks God for her blessings of liberation. She says to herself, you
know I don’t think Christian (her new man) really loves me? He doesn’t scream
at me and hit me like he is jealous of me when I go out with friends. I
don’t feel like he loves and needs me because he doesn’t take all my
money. So what does she do? She leaves the good Christian for another
worldly man, but for another man that is just like the first one,
one who beats her up, one who takes all she makes, and one who prohibits her
from going anywhere. Believe it or not I have seen this happen in real
life many times! But I am telling you this story with the comparison of the
churches in mind.
Regina
and I have seen many people come here to our church and receive nothing but
love and material help, and encouragement, and we have even spent many days
with people in the hospitals, days helping people move their furniture, days
helping people with the courts and papers and problems when no one else would…
only to see later they would decide that they wanted to go to another church
there they could give their time and 10%? What is that? People come to Regina Regina
Let’s look up …2 Tim 4:3-5
3 For the time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap
to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away
their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
make full proof of thy ministry.
Do not be conformed to
circumstances nor customs of the world. Those that abuse and those not stopping
abuse both become guilty.
Point 3
Those that come to church
not to worship God but only to get material gain are the ones that usually end
up being exploited and getting what they have taken away for their wrong ambitions.
Jesus compares himself as
a Husband in relation to us, and we are His bride. We should be faithful to Him, dedicated only to Him, but
there are some people that are not dedicated like a wife, but are like lover.
They want to give only a little time to God, or a little money with the hopes that
they will buy what they want in return. It does not work that way. God is not a
man to get fooled. People reap what they sew. Those that get into the Christian
life in order to try to get what they can from the church usually end up
letting some false church use them with the idea they are actually getting
something! There are lots of business scams and now church scams. When you
see a sign that says, “Work from home, make thousands a month”, do you believe
it? There are dumb people, like sheep to the slaughter who contact theses
places. They say, well, you need to send us your money and then you will get
our products. Then you, after trying to sell products day and night and making almost
$100 a week and seeing that selling 10 times more is almost impossible, you
suddenly realize you got into the wrong business. I would almost bet that most
of us here have lost money on some strange business that really was not a
legitimate one sometime or another, right? False churches too promise great
things but it is all a lie.
Do not be ambitious for
gain.
Do not let another
convince you that could be having more prosperity with them. If you do then you
are being motivated by greed and God will reward you with poverty by allowing
the greed of others to take away the little that you have!
It is enough hardship that
many people, especially Hispanics, with being able to pay their bills
and have enough money left over for food, but when I learn about Hispanic
pastors that want not only the 10% but even a lot more so they can be
richer and leave their people in poverty, I get angry! They are
not showing to the world a loving, caring uninterested in gain God, they are
presenting a self seeking God who wants to oppress you playing on your guilt in
order to manipulate you!
This is a concept of God
that has plagued and destroyed us for centuries and kept us oppressed in
the dark ages and it took many martyrs and burnings at the
stake in order to free us from those people! We all must fight to
expose abusive pastors, but the irony is most of the time thousands of
dumb sheep follow them! Why is that? They are showing to the world
a cruel God like that of the Muslims, one where everyone is threatened,
intimidated and oppressed; one where only they claim to have the
truth, and all others are wrong, and if you leave them and their church,
then you are considered a heretic who will burn in hell! As for myself,
after having loved and lived amongst the poor like I have seen in South
American, I have a passionate dislike for false pastors who fleece the wool
from the poor! Lets look up.. Prov 22:16-17
16 He that oppresseth the
poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come
to want.
These are hard realities that
we as Christians cannot be ignorant of. Remember in John 10…The thief
cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they
might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly Right here in Atlanta
there are many churches where people are members that are just as
domineering as the sects, and I never want to see any of you deceived
by them; but rather I want you to be liberated from those that are
oppressing! And you have a duty to educate them on the scriptures or the
Lord will hold you responsible for not warning them of being deceived. Jesus
came to give you life, not oppression!
There truly is the love of
God here in this church, and His Holy Spirit is here, we have seen it and heard
it from the testimonies of the miracles many times! Honestly, though, it does hurt me to know there are
people who have the wrong idea of what Christianity is and a lack of an
ability to discern between the false and the true and a lack of an ability to
stand up for what is right!
As yourself, am I vulnerable?
Am I weak in my walk with Christ and ignorant of the Word? Am I conforming to
the practices of this world or am I interested in something for my self? Hear
the conclusion…
Romans 12:1-2
12:1 I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to
this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may
prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
I love this church and
I believe it is one of the few churches that are still true to the gospel! We
would not be here serving people day after day if we did not love the sheep. The
good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, he doesn’t try to find how the
sheep can make him rich and numerous by exploitation. The example Jesus
gave us who went out amongst the people and did loving acts of kindness,
and each of you need to ask your self are you storing up treasures in the
bank of heaven by doing God’s will serving in your Corps and church? or are you
coming to church for the wrong reasons and at risk to be deceived in the
future?
Let’s pray…Lord help us to not be ignorant of the enemy’s devices, to
not be a conformist to abuse, and to not be motivated by greed. God keep us from the wolves in sheep’s
clothing, from the shepherds who are in it for the money, from the shepherds
that oppress. God free us and make us
submitted to You, the true shepherd.
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