 know what your vision of the church is, but we have decided that no matter your race, your age, your gender, no matter who you love, you are the thing that God had in mind when she looked out over the world and said it is good. We have a problem with the church and not from some sort of threat on the outside, but we have threats that are coming from the inside. There are people who profess to be Christians who will tell us that everything that we've held to about the Bible is wrong or there will be some that will pick and choose, they will take away this from the Bible, but not everything or they will take away from this doctrine. They will take away from another sincerely held doctrine that we believe. The problem is what are we going to do about it and then ultimately what sort of state will that leave the church in? There is a passage in the Bible where Paul says that in the latter times the spirit expressly says that people will fall away from the faith. What he's saying he's not saying that they will fall away from having faith. He's using the noun and he's talking about in a direction they will move away, intentionally move away from the faith, the tenets of the faith. Paul stated on his deathbed that he has kept the faith, not kept having faith, but kept the faith and the issue that we see oftentimes is brought up about people or even about apostates in the Bible is that they are moving away from a teaching, a thought, some sort of knowledge that goes against the Word of God. We know this is true because as Paul urges us to preach the gospel in season, not in season, he gets the reason why and the reason is because people will not endure sound doctrine. The more we move further and further away from the founding of the church the closer we'll get to people moving, the closer we'll get to where people will not adhere to sound doctrine. They will have itching ears, they will have misguided thoughts and what will they do? They will find someone to preach to them to give them what they want to hear. The question is what are we, the body, what are we going to do about it? Jude 3 says to contend for the faith. He didn't say just go ahead and pray for them, leave them alone, let them do what they're going to do, let God handle them. No, he did not say so. As a matter of fact, he said that I'm writing you, I wish I could just talk about our sincere desire to just fellowship in the faith to talk about our common salvation, but he says instead, I'm writing you to defend the faith. And he says for certain persons have crept in unnoticed those who were long before marked out for this kind of nation. Notice he says that those certain people who crept in unnoticed, the only way they can creep in unnoticed is if we see them as something that they're not. In other words, we have to see them as believers, as actual Christians. There are some Christians who are then turning and adopting their views. And so what I want you to do is think about this. As Paul says that in the latter times, people will move away from the faith, the tenets of the faith, our set of beliefs. What does he mean? What we need to do is think about all the things, all the doctrines that we hail to, by and large as a church, things that we consider to be orthodox teachings, things that now we're seeing people are moving away from. What were those things? Remember, they're moving away from. So when we start lining up the different doctors that we look at, we're going to start noticing a trajectory on all of these doctrines away from what the church hailed. So for someone to come and say that this teaching is wrong or that teaching is wrong, the way they understood it, that person is literally fitting the prophecy, the definition that Paul is bringing up. They are moving away from what the church hailed into now something different to say that that's not what was meant. That was not what was understood. That was cultural. That was for that day. They are moving away from the faith. For example, when you think about closely hailed doctrines, even doctrines that are vitally important, doctrines such as the deity of Christ, the Trinity, you may want to call it, or just simply put that Jesus is God. The flesh and blood of the Son of God did not come from heaven. The Son of God came out of a tribe of Judah. The Son of God came from the seed of David. Who are the Son of Jesse? Who come from the generations of Shem? The brother of Ham and Japhat. There will be those that will tell you that no, Jesus is not God. However, we're told in the Bible, Jesus himself says that unless you believe that he is I am, that you will die in your sins. Moses is told by God there is one God and the Lord is God. There is no other. He says so in Deuteronomy 4, 35 and 39. Moses also gets a chance to meet this very same God in Exodus 3. When he says that he sees this bush that is on fire, he says, the angel of the Lord spoke to him out of the midst of the bush. In the midst of the bush was the Lord who spoke to him, who was also called God, whose name is also Eche Eche, which is I am that I am from God standpoint. The first person standpoint where he says I am who I am. But then he says to Moses, you can call me the same, which is Yahweh, which is still to say I am. And Jesus makes this statement and the Jews understood exactly who he was saying that he was when he says before your father, before Abraham was, I am the Jews took that rightly so that he was saying that he was God. And when asked by Jesus, the Jews responded the reason why they want to kill him is not for any good thing that he's done, but because him being a man called himself God and Jesus did not refuse that. Jesus is God. And the more we move forward in our history, the further we get away from the founding of the church, we're going to see more and more people that are going to ignore this, that are going to call it wrong and say that Jesus is not God. They'll be closer and closer assimilated to what the Muslims believe or even atheists believe that Jesus was just a good man, a prophet, but he was not God. He was the son of God. And they try to figure out how that works rather than calling him who he really is. But the Bible says that you must confess that Jesus is the Lord in order to be saved. Isaiah says, what are those who call good evil and evil good, those who change light for darkness and vice versa. And that's what we're seeing now, whatever closely held doctrine that we used to have and whatever heresy we used to have, you compare the two. The sound doctrine is coming down. The bad doctrine, the false doctrine, the heresy is growing. We're going to see that more and more. And it's not that we're going to defeat it. We know that, but the issue is what are we going to do to counter it, to fight against it for the benefit for the sake of those who are still yet to place their faith in Christ. Paul tells us not to exceed what was written. In other words, whatever the scriptures are, don't exceed that. Don't add to it. Don't make it say what it doesn't say. Don't say, well, since it doesn't say that, then it could mean this. Don't do like some who have this philosophical argument that says that our defense or our refutation of someone saying certain things or doing some things, we only do so. But even though the scriptures don't say so, then our argument is an argument from silence. In other words, since the Bible doesn't say, for example, that it's okay to be slain in the spirit or the Bible didn't say that you should not be slain in the spirit, well, then it's okay because the Bible doesn't say you can't do it, then it's an argument from silence. But again, Paul says, do not exceed what is written. Don't do or say or think anything outside of what it's given us to come up with your own doctrine. Let me first address the concern that being slain in the spirit is anti-biblical. There is nothing in scripture that specifically condemns the manifestation itself. In fact, the skeptics will say it's not even found in scripture. So if that were true, what grounds would they have in the first place of labeling it as anti-biblical? Just because you can't find an entire doctrine encapsulated in a specific chapter and verse of the Bible, does it mean that it isn't biblical? And so it's bad enough that we have people who are even leading churches as pastors who will say that Jesus is just a thought. You know, Jesus is a thought. And obviously people are, Jesus was a thought in God's mind. Obviously people don't know their Bible. So the Bible says what? The word was wrapped in flesh. In the beginning was the word, right? And the word was with God. Well, how was that word with God? It says it was a word. A word comes from a thought. That would be bad enough, but we also have pastors who will simply ignore the word of God and take their own liberties to make up things that are simply not in the Bible. The reason for all of this is that we're seeing people remove themselves from a reliance on the scriptures. You know, the very same scriptures that the Bible tells us that our God breathed, that are breathed out by the Holy Spirit. Men are inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this. Those very same scriptures that equip us, that cause us to be thoroughly equipped, lacking anything. They are profitable for teaching, rebuking, for correction. For just our living, those very same scriptures, as Paul says, they are now being rejected in place of people's feelings. The cause of the way that pastors have leveraged, the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says, it's like saying the Constitution says, the company handbook says, we've said that the Bible is the authority, the Bible says, the Bible teaches the word of God. Because of that language, consequently, most Christians, most thoughtful Christians believe what's in the Bible. Are you ready for this? Because it's in the Bible and you have to help them change that. There are some Christians who say things like, if it ain't in the book, it ain't real. What are you talking about? You mean to tell me, you got the audacity to think that everything God wants you to know can only be found in the Bible? All they had was a word from God they heard and a feeling in their heart. And here we are telling folk to stop trusting what they feel and stop trusting what they hear. So now you hear people saying that there are other things that God has spoken and said that are not in scriptures. And so now they can be the ones that hear from God and tell us, even though they go outside of scripture. I'm going to make a statement that some people are not going to like, but I'm going to tell you the truth. That's all right. The biggest lie you are ever told is that if it doesn't line up with scripture, it's not from God. That is the biggest lie you are ever told. We've got people in the church that will even defend people who say they hear from God and give these false prophecies. And rather than dealing with those people to say that they are giving false prophecies, now they go back and they attack or impune true prophets of the Bible to say that even prophets in the Bible got them wrong. B, this is an Old Testament standard, but consider that even in the Old Testament we see Nathan giving King David God's approval to build the temple. That wasn't accurate. And in the New Testament, when we compare what the Spirit told Paul in Acts 2022 with what the believers prophesied in Acts 21.4, we see a contradiction. So the Bible condemns false prophets, but also gives grace for the true prophets who make mistakes. So now we can't trust the text, nor can we actually trust the word of the of the prophet, but we should still listen to the prophet even though he doesn't get it all the way right. This is the problem that we're having with the churches that too few people, especially those of influence, those who are in positions, are not holding to the text, but rather would lean on their own understanding, their doctrines, whatever it is to make them either look good, feel good, sound good, rather than leaning on what the scriptures say. In other words, what thus say at the Lord. What is your thoughts on studying too much theology? Is it dangerous to study too much theology? In my opinion, yes. So it's like, okay, well I do drugs, but you do, you know, like you snort books. Yeah. There are those that will tell us that there's too much studying, that we do too much studying, or that we need to move away from saying just what the Bible says. Those are the people that we ought to reject and we ought to reject them vehemently. Call them out, make sure that people know, do not listen to that person. What we've been given was his word in equal measure, regardless of what translation, if your favorite translation is the King James version, new King James version, ESV, NASV, whichever your translation is, everyone has access to those same translations. And so we have the same thing the next person has. We can fight over who has the most Holy Spirit, who is led by the Spirit the most. But what we can always do is go back and check it with the scriptures. But people are saying do not check it with the scriptures because the scriptures aren't the final authority, apparently. Whatever your experiences are, you exegete those, and then you interpret the scriptures in light of your experience versus the other way around. We see that especially in things such as tongues. People will speak in tongues and there are no interpretation. Forgetting the fact that they have to be an actual language, even if we were to take their position that they can be some sort of ecstatic, unknown language. Even still, they're violating the text and no one seems to care. There's no translation, even though Paul says that there ought to be a translation. There ought to be some explanation in the word that's used there is this two words put together, dia and ermineia, which is before we get the word hermeneutics, ermineia, which is to explain, to understand. There should be understanding, even as Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 12, he says that I do not want you to be ignorant, unknowing about these spiritual things. Yet and still, we don't mind operating out of a place of ignorance just as long as we feel as though we are expressing ourselves in the Spirit. One of the most egregious areas that we see this showing up, especially as it relates to a misdiagnosis of what's happening spiritually, is people being told that after being set free from sin, the penalty of sin, and the power of sin, that there's still one more hurdle to go and they probably will never overcome this hurdle, especially while they're on this earth. And that is to tell someone that they are not free indeed, as Jesus says in John 8.36. No, rather what you still have to deal with is demonic oppression and demonic attack. In other words, that Christians can have a demon. This is going to be one of, if not the greatest battles going forward for the church. Imagine being set free, but then told that you have this awesome wake to carry around with you forever because you'll never be truly set free. Everything that's bad happening in your life, everything sometimes physically that's happening will be called a demon. Rather than resisting the devil, rather than submitting the God drawing close to him and actually truly being free, anything troubling or troublesome that will happen to you will be called a demon. And people will be convinced that there is demonic activity in their life, that they are demonized, demon possessed, possessed, oppressed, having a demon. You pick it. This is what the church is telling Christians. Again, it's not an outside force telling Christians that they are defeated. It's an internal force telling Christians who the Lord says are overcomers, are saying, no, you're not overcomers internally. This will be, if not the biggest battles for Christians, one of the biggest battles for Christians going forward. I've heard people say, oh, I've went to an Isaiah salto bar event and I got partially delivered. And I've been like rebuking people saying, yeah, that's not Isaiah's fault. You partially repented. So you was a partial repentance is a partial breakthrough. I have all power to cast out any demon. It's not the power of Christ isn't limited through me. It's your repentance was limited. Yeah, though sin has always been an issue and sin will continue to be an issue. The problem we have now is that we've got more and more people moving away from this belief that we should live as wholly as possible. Yes, there will be struggles, but we don't make excuses for it. But now we've got folks that will say, well, I don't want to harp on their sin. They know that they're sinning. You said, I like to see myself as a life coach, a motivator to help them experience the life that God has for them. People don't like to be beat down and told you've done wrong. What do you mean? Well, I think that most people already know what they're doing wrong. And for me to get in here and just beat them down and talk down to them, I just don't think that inspires anybody to rise higher. Is that being a pastor? Is that being Dr. Phil or Oprah? The problem is sin for the unbeliever will send him to hell. Sin for the believer will cause ramifications, consequences that that Christian doesn't need to deal with. And there will be punishment for that person, even on this earth. And so when the pastor moves away from that, from this doctrine, this belief that we need to hold to, that we don't have to live as the world that instead, we should be like in the world instead of living like the world away from that. And we blur the lines and we show ourselves to be just like the world. We don't make it rain on booty cheeks. We don't make it rain on strippers. We only reverence one stripper. And that's the one that took off glory. Then there's nothing for the world to see as a light for them. And as Jesus says, that person that has lost its saltiness, that person, that group of people, that church, is good for nothing and should be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. I said, we're going to go to the edge on this. And they said, pastor, how far on the edge are we going to go? I said, we're going to do everything short of sin. And there is now becoming less and less of a reason for people to even fear sin because one of the other doctrines that we're moving away from is this belief that there is hell. The Bible speaks an awful lot about hell in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. But more and more people are telling us that there is no such thing as hell. Even the scholar, supposed scholar, is now helping to play a role in this disbelief of what hell actually is. And heaven, if you kind of fish this out of people in the popular cultural imagination, these are both maybe disembodied, non-physical places. This has to do with clouds and harps and singing in the presence of God. And this has to do with some subterranean torture chamber or something like that. You guys with me? This is what people think that followers of Jesus believe. The vast majority of people in the West think that this is what you believe. And some of you in the room might be thinking, yeah, that is what I believe. In the beginning, God made heaven and what does it not say? It doesn't say in the beginning, God made heaven and earth and hell. Whatever hell is, God didn't make it. So we don't have to worry about sin. We don't have to worry about hell. As a matter of fact, we don't even have to worry about church or going to church. Church attendance, gathering together, whether it's the four walls of a big church or the four walls of a small community center or four walls of a house church doesn't matter. Or if it's an open field, gathering together is what is required as the body and to have a person, a shepherd over them to break the word, to have leaders that would move them closer in breaking the word so they can know for themselves and then in turn share the word with others. That's not a requirement nowadays anymore. More and more people are pushing back against that and trying to deconstruct church. And truth be told, eliminate the need to go to church altogether. Is it okay to love Jesus and not go to church? All right. So church as an institution in America is not the thing that God was talking about in the scriptures. Of course, you're still free to go, but there's nothing in the Bible that says you have to go. And if somebody is gaslighting you and saying you're neglecting, forsaking the gatherings, in Hebrews 10 25 it has nothing to do with attending a church building. The Hebrews didn't go to church. And when you do get to church, you may get to a church that looks nothing like what the biblical prescription for a church gathering ought to look like. You are likely or in many cases you might see women. Now here's where I'm going to lose many of you. So just brace yourself. Number four, Jesus called on women to direct and lead men. In conclusion, there is a very powerful biblical precedent of women functioning in all of the highest levels of church leadership. And as the lead pastor of V1 Church, I intend on continuing in the legacy of Jesus Christ himself by breaking this glass ceiling over the marginalized and silenced women of this generation. But the Bible is clear. Paul is clear where he says he does not give a woman the opportunity, the right to usurp authority over man or to teach over a man. That is one of the roles according to the qualification that Paul also lays out to Timothy and Titus that that person has to be a male. And then once we move from that, we'll see people that are also moving for this doctrine where we want to be holy even in our reverence of the Lord. There are those that will say, or even push or portray, that virtually anything that the world does can also be done in the church. It's okay. We have to have props. We have to have lighting. We have to have fireworks. We have to have all of these different things to be just like the world. But remember, and they dab in a bee who approached the Lord with this strange fire in an irreverent way, in a way that the Lord has told them not to do so. They did it anyway and they were consumed by fire from heaven. And God says that anyone that will approach me, I will be regarded as holy. You will approach. You must approach the Lord and regard him as holy, not as though that he's something like the world. And so again, what do we see? You pick the doctrine. You pick the critical doctrine. You pick the doctrine that has been at the forefront of the church for all of these years. There are some doctrines that have always been debated. There are some doctrines that we can obviously deal with and go back and forth. And it'd be one thing if these were the doctrines, these were the arguments that we would have in terms of one saved, always save or can you lose your salvation? That's one thing in terms of election or not. That's one thing. We're not speaking about that. We're talking about things that we could all agree on that at one point in time they were all held by the church regardless, irrespective of the denomination. These were things that were sincerely held and we knew to be core values of the church, core teachings. Paul says, teach what accords with sound doctrine. We don't do that anymore. So whatever the sound doctrine was and whatever the heresy is today, you're going to notice a shift. And the more we see the shift, you may even see in certain places some church attendance show up. You might see more and more folks coming to what looks like a church, but they're going to be disappointed in the end because what they're going to find out that what they went to was not a church of God, but in many cases it's going to be a synagogue of Satan.