 And then twist it around and get it to say what you want it. He'll make the Bible say anything you want it to. When I read in the Bible where he says, I am, I just smile and say yes, I am too. You tap into who you really are. You know what the Bible calls you? It says you are a little Elohim. You are a little God. And then twist it around and get it to say what you want it. He'll make the Bible say anything you want it to. Let's make Jesse make him in our image. Let's make him in our likeness. Let's give him dominion. Go man. I mean, you don't want to know what God looks like. Who you hand up? Come on. Look. Don't you understand? That's what he's saying about us now. Like right now you're looking at a person who is not just a person. Somehow God is in me and there's a sense in which I am like God and man all at once. How to twist it around and get it to say what you want it. You make the Bible say anything you want it to. You are not the identity of who your parents created you to be. Because God says that you have the DNA of Abba. Yes. You see it? It's the divine nature of Abba, the DNA. His name is in me, not on me. Like I said like in me. Do you understand? Angels recognize who I am. Devils recognize who I am. I am God Almighty. Seems like everybody wants to be a God nowadays. It is almost at near epidemic proportions. Somebody wants to be something. Somebody wants to be special. And what's more special? What's more important? What's more being somebody than being God? And I think the problem is that seeing has gone so far. It's literally gone from full circle to where everybody wants to be just what Satan was in the very beginning. Or they end up becoming what Satan was in the very beginning rather than being God. But some people don't seem to see the problem or at least that's what they say. You know, why do people have such a fit about God calling His creation, His creation, His man, not His whole creation, but His man, little gods? If He's God, what's He going to call them? But the God kind. I mean, if you as a human being have a baby, you call it a human kind. If cattle has another cattle, they call it cattle kind. I mean, what's God supposed to call us? Doesn't the Bible say we're created in His image? Well, the problem is though, Ms. Meyer, Joyce, is that the Bible doesn't call us gods. The term that you are referring to that may have you kind of twisted a little bit, we'll cover that. But all throughout scripture, we keep seeing what God calls us. He calls us man. The word that's used, the Hebrew word is Adam. And the Greek word obviously is Anir. But even if you want to be specific and refer to a woman or a male, it is Isha or Isha. And so all the times that God had the opportunity to call us man or God, He called us man. There are some passages where the term for God's is used. And we'll get to that in just a little bit, but it's not as though that He couldn't have called us guys. If He wanted to, He continually called us man. And so I want to go to the past because what's helpful is to find out where did this come from? This didn't just originate here with mankind. So let's go to the very beginning where we can see this all happen. And who do you think is the culprit behind all of this? Well, you guessed it, I'm pretty sure you did. None other than good old Lucy, Satan, Lucifer. Let's go see what happened with him. And let's see if we see the same thing, the same traits in Lucifer, in Satan, in the devil, the dragon, the serpent, whatever you want to call him. Let's see if we see those same traits in some of these people who want to be called gods. And so in Isaiah 14, 13, speaking of Satan says that you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. Look what he says. He says, I will set my throne on high and I will sit in the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the cloud. I will make myself like the most high. Now we've seen what happens. He is brought down, but you keep seeing. I, I, I, I. Well, that should tell us something. Sin begins with I. Sin isn't, and someone said kind of cleverly, in the middle of sin is I. There is no such thing as a selfless sin. All sin is selfish. And so the originator of sin, the beginning of sin, the first sin began with I, all about me. And what he did was he used that very same tact on mankind. Recall in the Garden of Eden, the exact same thing happened with I. And let's see if it's not the exact same thing that we see happening there that happened with Satan. In Genesis three, it says, now the serpent was more crafty or cunning some version might say than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. Key word, the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of the tree in the garden? Well, first, first clue is what the devil is always going to do and how these heresy start is a misunderstanding of the word. Is that really what God said? No, I think you're missing it. So let's continue and look what he says. He says, and the woman, I'm sorry, and the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you should not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, the serpent changes it. He says, you will not surely die. In other words, you miss either God light or you misunderstood. He said, look what he says, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good need. We'll come back to that in a second. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for fruit and that it was a delight to the eyes and the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate and then she also gave some to her husband who was with her. But going back up, look what he says. Verse five, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and what does he say? You will be like God. He says, you will be like God. And so it's the devil's plan once since that's what he's about to be like God himself. That was his sin and that's what got him thrown down here and then ultimately will find him in hell and then in like a fire. Well, he's exact same tactic on us and what he does is he will play on our desires, our emotions, our needs. He will play on our insecurities. He will play on everything that is incomplete and lacking in us and focus on the things that we want and use those things to get us to be like him because there are two things that we do or I'm sorry that you'll find that heretics do. One, they'll either bring themselves up to God's level or bring God down to their level. The latter bringing God down to their level is making God to be like you. So let's say if you are, I don't know, homosexual, then you're gonna fashion a God that's similar to you that has your worldview. If you are a pacifist, you're gonna have a God who is a loving God who will do no harm. If you are kind of a vengeful person, then you're gonna want a God who is always getting back at people destroying people and so forth. But the other way is if God is who he is and he's wonderful, then you're going to want to not bring him down to your level, but go up to his level. Look him eye to eye. I'm just like you, I can do what you can do. And so I want you all to be clear. These are the tactics of God. Now, be clear, this isn't anything new. This isn't anything new. As a matter of fact, we've got a pretty large faith group that is built upon this very same premise. You all have heard of the Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the other versions. But the Mormon group, that's one faith group that's based on or built off of the fact or the belief that they too can become gods. That we all get at some point in time if we live right, grow spiritually correctly that we too can become gods. Well, they're not the only ones. And sometimes we'll think that maybe somebody, if this only applies to people that are ungodly or that have some clear, clear heretical teachings, teachings that are easy to see, but one, they're not new. Two, it's not always that easy to see. As a matter of fact, I want you to think about the goat. The goat, the greatest of all time, the greatest heretic of all time who most did not even notice his heresy, we're finding out more and more about it, but it's not even surprising to know that the greatest heretic of all time, and I say the greatest heretic of all time, not because of how outstanding his heresy was, and it is, but because of his impact on people's lives. And in many cases, many didn't even know what the man actually believed. We're created in God's image. In other words, we are little gods in the image of God. Well, people are surprised to hear that somebody like a Billy Graham will say that, but remember, it shouldn't come as a surprise that one heresy might find its way to another heresy and find its way to another heresy. And so if you're off over here and if you're grossly off, it won't be hard for you to be grossly off in another area. Heresy begets heresy, sin begets sin, selfishness begets selfishness. And so if you've got this issue over here, just like with your body, if there's a cancerous tumor here, it's not uncommon that if it's not treated that that cancer won't spread. The same thing with heresy, the same thing with a person like a Billy Graham. But don't get it confused. It's not just a Billy Graham who was kind of subtle in his heresy because most people didn't even pay attention to it. They just heard him say Jesus. They just heard him say God. They heard him say good things, and people just, hey, he's doing a good job, right? He's spreading the gospel. People are coming to Christ. They're becoming Christians in droves. These stadiums are packed. And so clearly, clearly he must be of God, but the problem is we don't pay attention. We don't listen to all that's being said. Now, I pointed out Billy Graham, but he's not the only one. Even if we go back sometime in the past, if we go back to the 60s or we go back to the 70s, if this isn't a new phenomenon, we're seeing it more and more, especially with the advent of social media and television and so forth. But this isn't new. You don't believe me? Well, ask this guy. And the trailing have been married. In this dispensation, I have taken upon myself a body, the same one that walked in the plains of Palmree, of whom Solomon said his hair was as black as a raven, and he would shave, as I say, as at 720. He will shave after those days with a razor. I come shaving with a razor. I come with the black hair of the raven. I came as a god, socialist, to eliminate all your false gods in the people. Men have so desperately distorted what my spirit is that it is necessary for me to come upon the scene and I have. I shall show you, from time to time, proofs of that so that you will have no further need of religion because the highest authority tells you that you have no further need of it. I've come doing all the things you ever imagined God to do and have never seen done. You have never seen anyone resurrected before your eyes and yet you have seen me do it repeatedly. You have never seen anyone shot down as high as God's before your eyes with the blood spurting from the body and heal themselves, yet I, the socialist worker, get that. It's beautiful to know God is a socialist worker. You're going to identify with that. God is a socialist worker. He is one of the people. He's an instrument of all that you have desired. All that freedom embraces, all that justice embodies. Everything that sensitivity imbibes, that is what your God is. And I must say it is a great effort to be God. I wish it upon another, but no one else in the particular straight-up of the class consciousness that we are in, evolving in, has the faculty that I do. When they be ready, I'll be glad to hold their coat. In the meantime, I shall be God and beside me, there shall be no one else. So he can say something like, I shall be God and besides me, me, Jim Jones, there is no other. Let's be clear of who we're talking about. We're talking about the very same Jim Jones who is responsible for one of the worst massacres in history. 909 people died. How in the world can 909 people follow this guy? Well, first of all, he didn't start off that way. He didn't start off as overtly sinful, as overtly heretical. No, but he said some things that appealed to people. He said some things that kind of made whatever it was he was preaching to be attractive. Well, what was it about him that would make people kind of glom onto him? What was it about him that would make someone even overlook the obvious heresy? Here is a man who was saying that I'm the only God and beside me, there is no other. Telling people that he is God coming to flesh. Now remember, he is the first, he is one of the first megachurch pastors in America and then he convinces people, not just from his flock, but from all over the world to come and join him. What was it about him that made people want to flock to him? Well, he offered them something. I see some of them, there's some still not aware of what God is. God is perfect freedom, justice, equality. And thus the only thing that brings perfect justice, freedom, and equality, perfect love in all of its beauty and holiness is socialism. So, God is perfect, socialism is God. He said socialism, you caught that right. He said socialism. Why was that popular? Well, because we're talking about a time where people are trying to get hit. Same thing now, whether it's socialism, whether it's something that has to do with someone being helped up. You're offering someone something, the promise of something to be something. And what you're also doing is you're offering them a way to not be at the bottom, to not be in their minds, a nobody, someone who's lacking. You help their insecurities because at least we'll all be in common. And it's the same tactic that Satan has always used. You want to be somebody, be something, well then I've got it for you. Because think about what Satan even offered Jesus. Now, obviously it didn't work. But he offered Jesus everything. Bow down and worship me and I'll give you all of this. Well, wait a second, Satan. You do realize I created all this and you. Are you kidding? But these folks have their Bible and they didn't even, for whatever reason, bother to look at their own Bible. So, let's go ahead and look at a couple passages, first of all, because there is some confusion that's brought up. And let's just go ahead and address this and let's deal more with these heresies. So, in John 10, 34, Jesus is answering the Pharisees. And he says, Jesus answered him, it says, is it not written in your law? In your law, I said, you are gods. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and said, can I be broken? Do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent to the world, you are blaspheming? Because I said, I am the son of God. Well, a couple things, their issue is, and Jesus makes it clear that he's calling himself God. He is clearly calling himself God. But then he kind of plays with them a little bit. He brings up a past in Psalms about where God says, are you not guys? Now, I want you to understand something. The term gods, it can be used in different capacities. Generically speaking, I say generically speaking, in a generic sense, the term gods, either of, if they always or Elohim can refer to judges, rulers, those with power on earth, those who have some control, those who have authority. That's his whole point. As a matter of fact, let's go ahead and put up the passage where a God is speaking or where it's been spoke of that you are gods in Psalm 82. Let's go there and let's sit, look at the context. It says, God has taken his place in the divine council. Look at how he starts off. God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgments. And so the point here is the midst of the gods are these other rulers, these other people who have the ability to judge, these other judges, priests, civic and civil leaders. How long verse two will you judge unjustly and show no partiality to the wicked? And so clearly his point here is those who judge, those who have the ability to make decisions to control other people's lives. Let's continue. Verse three, give justice to the weak and the fatherlessness, I'm sorry, and the fatherless maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute, rescue the weak and the needy, deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Verse five, they have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk about in darkness and the foundations of the earth are shaken. He says, I said you are gods, sons of the most high, all of you nevertheless like men you shall die and fall like any prince. So he tells them, the issue that he's having with them is how you're judging. You are abusing or taking for granted your power, your ability and also your responsibility. But he says, just like a man, just like a man, you're going to die. Let's make sure you see this. Just like a man, you are going to die and you are going to fall. So that should be clear. But something that if you saw the intro that Kenneth Copeland said is how you can really just take a scripture and twist a scripture. Sometimes it'd be one thing if you did it inadvertently, but you could also do it intentionally. And so is there a possibility for the people who aren't trying to intentionally mess up the scriptures, who aren't intentionally trying to twist the scriptures, they're being taught this. Is there a reason or something in what's being taught to them by these wolves, by these heretics that makes them say or see, hmm, I can see your point, that makes sense. Well, let's listen to one of the, one of the grand dragons of this heresy, that being that he's not the leader and he's not the originator. He's got a follower. I mean, he's got some followers, but he follows someone else, but he's got a pretty good following and he's got his own little, he's got his place in Hill Reserve. That's for sure, if he does not repent. But I'm speaking of our friend, Creflo Dollar. To this principle of everything producing after its own kind. And in verse 26 and 27, let's read it out loud, ready, read. And God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the file of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creep upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. Now that's interesting because if everything produces after its own kind, we now see God producing man. And if God now produces man and everything produces after its own kind, if horses get together, they produce what? If they get together, they produce what? But if the Godhead gets together and say, let us make man, then what are they producing? They're producing God's. They hit this thing real hard in the very beginning because I ain't got time to go through all this. But I'm gonna say to you right now, you are God's little G. You are God's because you came from God and you are God's, you're not just human. So his point that if someone isn't thinking, it kind of makes sense. We are created in his likeness and his image and so since we come from God, that must mean we are God. Well, you need to pay attention to who buys this stuff. There's typically two types of people that are involved is on this side, you've got the people that are shoveling it. You've got the Creflo dollars. You've got the Benny Hens of the world. You have the Kenneth Copeland of the world. But then on the other side, you typically have the people who are the downtrodden, the people who are looking to come up. Now they may not necessarily be poor, but they might want to come up even further. And so this sounds good. This tickles their ears, Paul would say, and the time would come when they will not have sound doctrine, but one to have their ears tickled, they'll go to a Creflo dollar. They'll go to a Benny Hens. They'll go to a Kenneth Hagen. They'll go to these people to have this. And so just hearing this rationale, it's faulty rationale without any question. It is faulty as faulty can get, but for those who it might spark something in them, you know what, I do want to get out of poverty. You know, I do want to have a better life. I do want to have better mental health or even physical health. And all I've got to do is have faith. The only thing that's missing, you mean to tell me I don't have to go and get a degree. I don't have to go and work harder. I don't have to do anything other than have faith. And the object of my faith actually is no longer God, but it's somebody like a Kenneth Copeland. It's somebody like a Creflo dollar. It's somebody like a Jesse DePlanus, who I can look at them, who how they have utilized the faith, as they would call it, the faith of God, they would utilize that very same faith and look at them. They dress nice, they live in nice houses. They drive cars. If they drive, their chauffeur might be the one driving them. They've got helicopters. They've got jets. And that's all based on faith. And they say it's muster seat faith. So if they can do it and they can have faith, well, then I can have faith. Granted, now me having faith is gonna require me to keep writing this check to them, but I can have the same thing too. And so, well, for some people that rationale, again, it's selfish on their part because they want something too, but it resonates. And they do use scriptures. Let's be clear. They do use scriptures. They have a Bible and they're gonna run through it, but they're gonna run over it and they're gonna twist it. Therefore it is a faith that it might be by grace. To the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only witches of the law, but to that which is also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed, even God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as though they were. Now I want you to notice the word before, before him. The word before, before him. If you have a cross reference, you have another number one there that says, or like unto him, before him, or like him. Now, if you've been religiously brainwashed instead of Bible taught, it disturbs some people because you and I try to act like God. I've had, you know, people say that. I'm thinking about a situation right now that is a friend of mine and they said, you know, Brother So-and-so's ministry is just ruined. They said, why? Well, they got to running around with Copeland. Well, I mean, what, I mean, what'd that hurt? He said, well, both of them just running all over the country trying to act like little Jesuses. Thank you. He noticed. That's exactly what I'm trying to do. See, Abraham, like God in God's face, before him, like him, he called things that be not as though they were, just like God. Amen. Faith calls things that be not as though they were. Strong faith, like God, calls things that be not as though they were, at a, twist it around and get it to say what you wanted. He didn't make the Bible say anything you wanted to. And he's telling the truth. You can make the Bible say whatever you want it to say. So now, obviously we need to go and look at that passage. We need to go look at this passage that he is so grossly abused and taken out of context. Matter of fact, no, he didn't take it out of context. He just made up something totally different. So let's go look at the passage. We're talking about Romans chapter four, verses, let's go verse 16. He says, that is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Now, we don't even have to look at the context of the passage. This is how badly he, and it's gotta be intentional because you don't even need the context to see what's being spoken of. He's not talking about our faith. He's not saying that we can call those things that are not to be. He's saying God, God does this. Let's put it back on the screen. He says that in the presence of the God in whom you believe, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Well, who calls things into existence that don't exist? Clearly, God is, is who is referring to. He's the one that does so. And how do I know? Well, if you just look in, in, in, in this Greek part, notice the ending of Pheu, of God is Pheu, and notice the ending of these words in whom we have believed, and it's speaking of the dead, of the dead, two necrus. So he's speaking of God, the, the last part. All you need to know is just look at this, these last two letters. The, it looks like a U and a funny looking C here, here, and here. Well, it's the, so that lets us know that this is speaking of God. But you don't need Greek or anything else. Clearly it's God who calls things that aren't existing into existing, like what he did in the beginning when he said that, let there be like, let there be this, let there be that. God is the one that can do that. But he wants us to believe that God could only do so based on faith. God has to have faith in something. God didn't have the power to do it on his own. God has to exercise faith. And Abraham tapped into that same faith, and then we also can do the, can do likewise. And then we can tap into that same faith. And so if he can call things that are not to become, then we can do the exact same thing. We have that same ability. Let's put it back on the screen again. Does it, is he, is he remotely in any way, say from a fashion referring to us? Well, clearly he's not. He's clearly not. He's referring to God and God only. So it's no, it comes as no surprise that someone who is that far off, doctrinally, has friends who are also off doctrinally. And if they're wrong in this area, they're wrong in another area. God didn't give us a spirit of fear but of love and power in a sound mind. And if our sound mind's intact, not just by the memorization of scripture, but actually of becoming the very word itself. God didn't want us to just memorize the word. He wants us to become the word. God wants our flesh to become the very word that we say we know. He's actually making me actively become that very word that I believe. So in other words, we can have a God with dreads. A white God with dreads can be God. And he's the first of many brethren, which means I now come into a priestly anointing. So I now can. Say that again because they don't get it. I now come into a priestly anointing. Jesus is not the only begotten Son of God. He is not. I'm a son of God. He's the first fruit. You're the, he's the first fruit. He's the first barn of many. Can Jesus is not the only begotten Son of God? Or we can have a God who has been divorced, who has gotten numerous prophecies wrong, who calls on angels from Africa. Y'all remember the little clip from her. And so she's a God. We're also God. And then of course the heresy that she just talked about, he's not the only begotten but it clearly says that he is the only begotten. I mean, was Jesus wrong in what he is saying in John? Was John wrong in him recording it? That he is the only begotten, the only one of its kind. By the way, the word means the monogamous, the only one of his kind. Clearly he's the only one of his kind. But again, bad doctrine, bad Bible reading. I don't know if their Bible is even read upright. Maybe it's upside down. I'm not sure. But something's wrong when you come up with things like this. Isn't that right, Kenneth Copeland? Who was the biggest loser? Satan? No. God. God had given Adam absolute authority over this planet and his own created son committed high treason and bowed his knee to the devil and the devil took over. Adam had a leash on this earth and as such, he was literally the God of this world. So I wanna pull up something, go to some more passages, go to another passage. Let's just go there now. Let's just go there now. In Acts, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians chapter eight and five, let's start in verse four. Therefore, as to the eating of food, no, let's start in five. For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us, there is one God, the Father, from whom all things and from whom we exist and from one Lord. Now, the so-called God, the word is like a manoid, which is those who are calling themselves or being called God. And he contrasts that with the only God, the God the Father, God the Father, from whom all things and from whom we exist. So the question is gonna be this, how in any way shape from a fashion are you a God? Other than you saying so, please enlighten us, please tell us, how are you a God? If only there were some place we can go and open some pages and read what it's like to be God, what God actually does, what would a God do? If there was an opening for a God and there was a job description and there was criteria to be met, what would it say? And if it says, and if it's clearly defined, we see it or we see examples, would you also as a God, Mr. Copeland, or you as a God, Mr. Dollar, or you as a God, Mrs. White, or Ms. White, Mrs. White, Ms. White, I'm not sure, or you as a God, Mr. White, Todd White, or you as a God, Mr. Heian, or you as a God, Mr. Copeland, do you feel the criteria that we see of a God? He tells us that God who created us. Now, I've got some questions. I've got some questions. How do you know you're a God and then shouldn't we know that you're a God? But maybe being a God is fine because if we're gods, then shouldn't we also know if I were a God? Should my parents have known also that they gave birth to a God? More to the point, should they also have known that they were a God? And shouldn't their parents have told? And so it should have been clear that what should have been handed down from generation after generation is that we're a God. On our birth certificates, it should have said, Cory a God, it should have said, Joe Bob, a God, Frank God, Tito, your God. Yeah, Tito of Jackson Five, Tito of Jackson Five, your God, Michael Jackson, your God too, although he acted like he was one. So here's what I would say. Here's how you can know that you're a God. I've got a little list. Here's how you can know that you're a God or here's how you can know, I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. Here's how you can know that you're not a God. Have you ever gotten a fight and gotten beat up? Yeah, have you ever gotten a fight and gotten beat up? If so, you're not a God. Have you ever forgotten something? Anything, forgotten where your keys were, your glasses were, walked into a room, forgotten why you walked into that room, forgotten someone's name. If you have forgotten anything, you are not a God. How about another one? Have you ever needed something? Needed some money, needed gas, needed food, needed to ride someplace. Have you ever been in need of anything, needed some medicine, needed a doctor? You're not a God. Have you ever been sick? Gods don't get sick. Have you ever taken a nap because you were tired? Gods don't get tired. No, have you ever worked out? Well, why would that be on there? Well, because gods don't have to get stronger. They're already strong. Have you ever prayed or needed prayer? If you've ever prayed or have needed prayer, well then you're not a God because who are you praying to and who's gonna help you? You could not be a God. Have you ever created something? Now this is gonna determine if you are a God. Have you ever created something? I don't know, people, plants, planets. Have you ever created, because that's what gods do. Gods have no need of anything. That's what a God is. The only thing, only person, the only place, the only whatever that we know that is sovereign and independent is God. Can I give you the scripture that I think we need to end on? This particular passage here. Let's go to Jude, look what he says. In Jude, and I've got the King James Version, he says to the only wise God. Can I say that again? To the only wise God. I really could stop there, but to the only wise God, our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power. Both now and forever, amen.