 radiant family how's everybody doing we want to say hello to those of you at Portage those of you who are joining us on our online campus and those of you who are maybe part of watch parties in other areas you may or may not know this but we have groups of people in Fort Wayne Indiana in Grand Rapids Michigan Milwaukee Wisconsin that are joining together and participating in the radiant family and so can we just all put our hands together and say hello to everybody we love you guys very excited to be with you this weekend and to share part two of this series we've entitled take heed watch and pray so I want you to open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 13 whether that's on your phone or actual physical Bible look with me at Mark chapter 13 and today I'm gonna read out of the new King James translation it says beginning of verse number 32 these are the words of Jesus he said but of that day and hour no one knows not even the angels in heaven nor the son but only the father take heed watch and pray for you do not know when the time is it is like a man going to a far country who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to each his work and he commanded the doorkeeper to watch watch therefore for you do not know when the master of the house is coming in the evening at midnight at the crowing of the rooster or in the morning lest coming suddenly he find you asleep and what I say to you I say to all watch or as the ESV says stay awake as I introduced you last weekend I believe that this series with its three components of it take heed watch and pray is a gift it's actually a prophetic gift and warning to the church especially in the hour in which we live Jesus teaches this in the context of how believers should live their lives in the last days because there are going to be unique circumstances situations that we find ourselves in in the days that Jesus kind of encompassed all together and calls the beginning of sorrows he says there's going to come a time in human history it's called the beginning of sorrows or the birth pangs of that time period just before the Lord returns and you know we don't know when the Lord is going to return we don't know whether that's going to be years or whether that's even going to be decades nobody can know that Jesus actually said nobody knows that but he did give us indicators and he did give us prophetic signs he says if you'll pay attention to these you will begin to notice as those birth pangs like contractions in a woman who's about to give birth when they begin to happen there's going to be both a physical and a spiritual pressure that is felt in the world and when that happens it is important you know how to respond well I think 2020 if nothing else was at least a precursor to show us what can happen when pressure is applied I actually believe we are gaining momentum as we're approaching that time period it's important that we listen to the admonition of Jesus that we're taking heed watch and pray otherwise we will fall into deception and so what I want to talk to you about this weekend is I want to talk to you about staying free staying or walking in your freedom because that's what's at stake what Jesus is talking about is he's talking about maintaining your freedom in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 it says this Paul writes he says it was for freedom that Christ said is free stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery I'm not talking about political freedom I'm talking about spiritual freedom freedom that we find when we come into a relationship with Jesus freedom from sin freedom from death spiritually freedom from the bondage and the chains and the the enemies oppression into our life we are literally set free spiritually this is what Jesus is referring to in Luke chapter 4 when he says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he is anointed me to preach good news to the poor the recovery of sight to the blind and the healing to the broken heart and freedom to the captives he's talking about salvation how many know that when you got saved Jesus set you free anybody glad that Jesus set you listen the cross is better than that the cross is better than that we don't golf clap the cross when we talk about what Jesus did and he came to set us free we respond to the passion and the commitment that Jesus went to the cross with in return with our praise so when I say to you anybody in this room glad that Jesus set you free come on wake yourself up wake yourself up we're not going to be that kind of church we're no oh yeah that was no I mean there's a lot of things the Detroit Lions you can golf clap but you don't golf clap the cross Jesus came to set us free and he says it was for freedom that crisis that is free don't allow the yoke of slavery to the things that Jesus set you free from to be put back on your shoulders and in the last days the days that we are living in I want you to know that the enemy will do everything in his power to try and bring you under a bondage again and his main tool is deception his main tool his main strategy in your life is deception he doesn't have new tricks you go back to the Garden of Eden when God created this world good and he created man and woman perfect in the garden in relationship with him walking in the cool of the day exercising dominion and authority over the planet in which he had created and then entrusted that delegated authority to mankind how did the enemy steal that authority from him one word deception he cannot make you sin but what he can do is he can bring deception and sew it into our hearts in such a way that we choose to walk away from God that we choose to go a different path that we choose self-sufficiency and independence and this whole idea about taking heed watching and praying today we're going to be talking about taking heed what does it mean to take heed what Jesus is really saying is this keep yourself free from deception in the last days and church I can't tell you how important this is is that we take heed to Jesus's commands to take heed because the word take heed means beware this is an area that if you aren't paying attention to the enemy is going to get an inroad into your life that will take you farther than you wanted to go keep you longer than you wanted to stay and cost you more than you wanted to pay he will start off small but he will set you on a trajectory that when you arrive there it's not life it's destruction and the way that he does that is through deception think about these scriptures Jesus says in mark 13 verse 5 take heed that no one deceives you he says for many will come on my name saying that I am he and will deceive many one of the indicators that Jesus gives us about the last days as he says there's going to be mass deception that takes place why do people get deceived in the last days because they're not paying attention they're not paying attention things are moving too fast emotions are running too high and we're paying attention to everybody else but we're not paying attention to ourselves that's why Jesus says take heed you know what in this world what we do is we take heed to what everybody else is doing we pay attention to what everybody else is saying we watch everybody else's failures but we don't look in the spiritual mirror at ourself and give an appraisal and an evaluation of am I staying in the faith and by walking close with the Lord are there sins in my life that I'm not dealing with are there motivations in my heart that the Holy Spirit's confronting that I need to submit at the foot of the cross are there things that are irritating me that I'm not submitting to Jesus are there things that I'm reading in the scriptures that I'm not paying attention to because I think I've got a better way or at least an equally as good way taking heed is about looking in a mirror spiritually and submitting that to God and saying God I've got to take care of me last I be deceived take heed that no one deceives you Paul writes about this in first Timothy chapter four verses one through two listen says now the spirit the Holy Spirit explicitly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy having their own consciences seared as with the hot iron now I want you to think about this we know that scripture this whole revelation from God about God is according to what Paul writes in first Timothy is God breed God speaks it it's God spoken the Holy Spirit speaks the words of scriptures but I want you to think about this so the Holy Spirit is speaking through men who give us the scripture he's speaking to them all scripture is God breed God speaks it what does it mean when that same Holy Spirit who speaks every word of scripture from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 what does it mean when the Holy Spirit says to the one writing the scripture I want you to say it like this not only does the Holy Spirit say this he says it explicitly what does that mean it means he's emphasizing it when you're tight if you were doing it you would be like all caps and in bold in like 64 size font explicitly say how many parents know what it means to say something explicitly you know what I'm talking about yeah mom yeah dad no no I explicitly told you expressly told you do not touch the cookies what I didn't hear you I explicitly said it it's emphasis guys do you hear what God is saying to the church the Holy Spirit not Paul the spirit explicitly says it's passion it's emphasis it's caps it's bold it's large that in the last days many will fall away because they're deceived by seducing spirits king james says seducing spirits and doctrines of demons think about that there's a demonic war that is going on after your heart seducing spirits or deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons and it says the outcome of that is speaking lies in hypocrisy having and here's what happens to those who fall away this is key it says having their own conscience is seared as with a hot iron in other words your heart can't feel anymore your heart can't feel anymore does this wake anybody up right here because as we read this we could have a tendency to think boy that's going to be bad for them you know what Jesus is saying make sure it's not you because nobody wakes up in the morning in the middle of the last days in the middle of turmoil in tumult nobody wakes up in the under the midst of persecution and the flames and the fires that come with that and says today I'm going to choose to be deceived today I'm going to let down my guard today I'm going to invite the enemy's lies to seduce me to deceive me to the point where I begin to live a hypocritical life so much so that as the Holy Spirit is speaking and drawing me back to Jesus I'm living my life so distracted by the things going on in this world I'm paying attention to what everybody else is saying I'm getting offended in my heart so bad at what takes place on the earth that I don't even hear or listen to the Holy Spirit anymore the word of God has no value to me anymore I'm willing to live hypocritically to allow my heart to get so hard that I can't even know I can't even feel God's presence anymore what's the solution take heed why why I just feel this so much is because I see it happening I'm a shepherd of a large flock and I see it happening I've been pastor in this church for 25 years I know people all over the country and I've seen people over the last several years people that love Jesus with all of their heart a decade ago now saying I don't even believe in Jesus anymore getting wrapped up in ideologies and isms and selling their souls out to that they might even name the name of Jesus and name only but the fire that once burned bright they've let it grow dim and you know I I can stand there in in judgment and be like I can't believe that they did that but Jesus doesn't call me to take heed to them he calls me to take heed to me well you don't let it happen in you don't get deceived don't allow your heart to grow cold don't let it become hard the devil's goal in deceiving you and I it's not just random the devil's goal in deceiving you is twofold it's number one it's to steal your authority that's connected to your mission it's to steal your authority so that he can prevent you from living on mission look at look at right here in this text that we just read in verse number 34 in the new king james it says and the master of the house what did he do he gave authority to his servants and each his work what is that he gave authority delegated authority to his servants that's the church that's the whole parable is jesus went to heaven and while he went to heaven he ascended on high he gave authority to his servants that's us we're his followers we're his doulos which means his bond servants he gave authority his authority to us and he gave us work to do kingdom work what's our kingdom work to preach the gospel to make his name famous to make him known to those who are far from him to live very gospel centric what does deception do deception lulls us to sleep or deceives us so that we lose our authority if you can see this whole pattern if you go all the way back to genesis chapter two and chapter three when god created mankind genesis 126 he said let us create man in our image according to our likeness let us make him male and female he created them he says let them be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth so man was created to be image bearers of god in the earth god gave us delegated authority over the entire planet and he told us to go out and subdue it and bring it under dominion so the enemy comes in and he deceives us what does the enemy do when he finds eve alone in the garden he says has god really said challenges the word of god and what does he do he's playing on her desires because she saw the fruit of the tree that she wasn't supposed to eat of and it says that it was beautiful and it was delightful and it looked like it was good so she wanted it so the enemy comes in and says has god really said that if you eat of it you'll die god knows that if you do that your eyes will be open and you'll just be like him god knows you won't need him anymore you'll be able to make your own decisions you'll be your own god he's holding out on you and so the woman became deceived and she took the fruit and she ate it then adam came along and what should adam have done adam should have said what have you done taken his place of husbandly authority and he should have repented and gone before the father and said she did this i wasn't with her and we're repenting of this but no instead he takes it whatever it was an apple a banana a kiwi i don't know what it was but he ate it too why because of pressure he didn't want to be left out he didn't want to be the only one standing and the enemy stole their authority by deception do you know that you have an authority in the last days if you are a follower of jesus you have authority jesus has given you authority over jesus told us disciples he said i give you all authority over every serpent and every scorpion what's he referring to demons he said i give you authority over all demonic power in matthew 28 verse 18 when jesus is about to ascend into the heavens what does he say to his disciples he says all authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me therefore you go into all the world what was he giving them authority but the enemy can only steal your authority if he can deceive you but if he can't deceive you you can walk in authority over him why does he want to steal your authority because if he steals your authority he steals your focus and you won't fulfill your mission and when jesus comes back or we see jesus by death or a resurrection when we see him we don't want to be those who are standing before him empty-handed and say jesus you sent me to this planet to preach the gospel to live my life to go to my job to be salt and light to my friends and my family and my neighbors to be an example of what it means to be saved and to be redeemed by the blood of jesus but yet i squandered that because i got deceived i got deceived into thinking that this world was my home i got deceived into thinking it was all about me what i wanted the fruit that was hanging on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that i wanted for myself my decisions my pursuit and i allowed the enemy to come in and deceive me and seduce me that's what he does he's so seductive and jesus i'm sorry but i'm empty-handed you don't know what hour he's coming back church and when he comes back we don't want to be asleep how do you stay spiritually awake gotta take heed to ourselves lest we become deceived matthew 24 turn with me over in your bibles matthew 24 i'm gonna show you a parallel passage here and i'm sorry this is heavy stuff but guys listen we're living in days where where we don't need kool-aid the days of kool-aid and cotton candy sermons are over can i just tell you it's time for us to get a knife and a fork and sit down and eat the word of god it's the only thing that is going to sustain us in the days that we live and if you want carnival candy you can go find it just look for a tent and a clown okay i'm in a mood tonight so there we go all right matthew 24 verse 9 it says talking about the end times then they will deliver you up to tribulation put you to death and you will be hated by all nations for my namesake that's motivational and he says and then many will fall away many will one translation says become offended look at what it says it says they're going to betray one another hate one another many false prophets will arise and lead many astray and look at this verse number 12 and because lawlessness will be increased look up the greek word for lawlessness and it means rilates violence and anarchy lawlessness in the last days is going to increase guys what we saw this last week in our nation's capital and what we saw last summer in our city's streets is not going away it's the result of a demonic deluge upon a generation that is deceived he says lawlessness will increase but look at this and the love of many will grow cold but the one who endures to the end will be saved verse verse 14 here's your mission and the gospel or this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come jesus said simultaneously in the end times there's going to be two things happening on one hand there's going to be an increase of natural phenomena there's going to be an increase of spiritual violence and lawlessness that's breaking up we're seeing it all across the globe this isn't like how did we get here this is man's sin and man's hatred of one another reaching its apex what started with kane killing abel is now escalated to eight billion people on a planet at the same time under the influence of the same spirit God destroyed the earth in the days of noah because of violence and lawlessness so we the we see that happening and look at it says and a lot of people are going to betray one another they're going to turn people in and betray one another there's going to be persecution if you're going to love jesus you're going to be persecuted if you're going to live righteously in this generation you're not going to be celebrated you might be tolerated but you're probably going to be persecuted settle it right now in your hearts if you're just like man i'm not ready for that well then what you're left with is this world that's going to that's going to be filled with violence and lawlessness and all kinds of crazy stuff you might as well just endure persecution for an eternally righteous cause you know but simultaneously with that stuff happening jesus also said that this gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached to all the nations of the world as a witness you know that word nations there it means it's the Greek word ethnos and it means ethnic groups means every single ethnic group on the planet is going to hear the gospel there is going to be a harvest that is unprecedented in world history that is going to take place in the last days because there's going to be a passionate church whose heart is a flame with love for jesus in the face of difficult times in the midst of a culture that thinks we're crazy but our worship and our intimacy with the lord is going to propel us to fulfill the mission because we're wide awake in the middle of it we've taken heed to our south we're watching we're praying we're not asleep we're awake and we realize the day in which we live and we're going to the north we're going to south we're going to the east we're going to the west we're going to asia europe south america africa we're going to central america we're going to australia we might even preach to the penguins and Antarctica but baby we've taken this gospel to all the nations of the world the whole world and we're preaching jesus that's going to be happening i want you to imagine hundreds of thousands and millions of believers who are encountering the presence of the lord when everybody else is faltering and getting offended and turning one another in and persecuting righteousness in the middle of that god's going to raise up strong bold courageous people that have been formed in the forge of the fires of persecution who man cannot bend or break because we have gazed upon the one who sits upon the throne and we preach with boldness and courage signs and wonders flow out of our lives there's incredible generosity that doesn't make sense to the world and we are mobilized imagine that happening at the same time this is happening which one do you want to be a part of i want to be a part of this i don't want to fall into the category of those who are offended whose hearts grow cold you see how does the heart grow cold spiritual coldness begins as soon as we are removed from the presence of the all-consuming living fire of intimacy and vulnerability with jesus coldness begins his presence is like fire and when we live intimately close with him and we live emotionally vulnerable with god what happens is that fire keeps our heart ablaze because we're with him david said i think is in psalm 73 he says when i looked at the wicked and how they prospered i wondered is there even really a god this isn't fair this isn't just and then he says and then i went into the house of the lord and when i went into the house of the lord it all began to make sense why it's because proximity to his presence is like a burning fire that warms our heart but as soon as we get offended by something what happens is that first step away from his presence the temperature of our heart and devotion begins to cool and the longer you're away it comes to a point where you experience frostbite of your heart paul calls it the searing of a hot iron callousness and deception deception comes in our lives this is important by what we give authority to that's how deception shows up it comes by what we give authority to in our lives who we choose to listen to what we choose to follow we give authority to so if we're paying attention if we've got voices in our lives that when they speak we listen they now have authority in our lives if there's a teacher and we take what they say as truth then we have now opened the door and given them authority over our lives if there are any voices any leaders any spirit and we submit to them because we say yes that's true i believe that just like adam and eve they chose to believe the deceiver instead of god and what did they do they gave authority to him so whatever it is in your life listen to me say it's whatever it is in your life that you are choosing to believe or to come under you give authority over your life to them the bible gives the equation of this this idea of authority that we give to uses the word picture of leaven how many know what leaven is another probably in our vernacular the best thing that we could come up with is yeast when you make bread it's leaven it's an active living agent jesus actually said and i think it's matthew 13 when he's teaching on parables he says the kingdom of god is like leaven that a woman then taken hidden three different measures of a flower and over the course of time it filled the whole thing up it's this picture of leaven being a spiritual influence do you know that the kingdom of god was referred to by jesus as leaven but there's three things that jesus warned his disciples of he said beware just like take heed beware of these leavens as well these spiritual influences and in my estimation these are the three most dangerous areas that believers get deceived get offended and our hearts begin to grow cold towards jesus in these three areas think about the scriptures matthew 16 verse 6 jesus said take heed there it is take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and then in mark 815 jesus said it this way take heed beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of herod so we have three leavens that jesus said take heed and be aware of number one is the leaven of Pharisees spiritual influence of Phariseeism number two the leaven of Sadducees and number three the leaven of herod you guys want to know what those are or we could just pray right now we could just close it out you get okay so here we go all right i'm gonna give it to you number one the 11 of Pharisees the spiritual influence of Pharisees this is how the enemy deceives believers through leaven because here's how leaven works you put leaven in and you don't hear it nobody hears it it's not a crash it's subtle and you put leaven into the dough and over the course of time it takes the whole thing over and if you watch it in time lapse sped up you can see it happening but if you watch it in real time it's so slow that you don't even see it happening that's all spiritual deception happens so with that said what is the leaven of Pharisees it is the lie or the deception that you can have a relationship with god based on your performance and not by grace that's what the Pharisees did they said we keep the law more than anybody else and so we perform and we do good things and righteous things and because of that god loves me what's the truth of grace well god loves me and therefore i do good things but i don't gain god's love by doing good things the Pharisees thought they were righteous and holy by the good works that they lived we call this legalism and i've seen so many christians get wrapped up in this i i want to prove to god how righteous i am i'm better than other people and i'm gonna make god love me and approve me and so they're grinding it out doing the right things in order to gain god's approval my friend that is deception you were created for good works but you were created for good works that were empowered by grace not a highway to get god's grace that's the leaven of Pharisees number two is the leaven of Sadducees what is that well the Sadducees didn't believe in angels or the resurrection and so therefore they were sad you see i just had to lighten it up because i've been yelling at you all night so okay what is the leaven of Sadducees well it's true they did not believe in supernatural they didn't believe in angels they didn't believe in demons they didn't believe in the resurrection what is that it's an intellectual anti supernatural spirituality that is nothing but empty ritual so it is a intellectualism that i can know god and i can be right with god through the acts of intellectualism and an anti supernatural bias what is it producing us arrogance and compromise so many people begin loving jesus reading their bible and then they begin to read some stuff that calls the bible into question calls jesus into question maybe he's not the only way maybe he's one of many different ways and they get hung up on intellectual offenses and so therefore what they do is they separate themselves and they begin to go down the path of intellectual it's almost a secular christianity where they begin to just become very liberal in their approach and what begins to happen is their love for jesus doesn't increase it just decreases this is what the Sadducees did they become arrogant and compromising well you know well you know what i think you can live sexually any way that you want to because the bible is written 2000 years ago it doesn't really apply to us anyways the bible is not inspired it contains some of god's ideas but not all of god's ideas who told you that well i read this book by a phd well i read a book by a god and he said something different the where's the book written by the phd gonna be in a hundred years it's gonna be in a landfill where is the word that was written by the god the grass withers the flowers fade but the word of god remains forever beware of the leaven of the sadducees and now you're clapping i'm about to hit you with the big one the leaven of herit who was herit herit was a puppet king that the romans installed as the king of the jews so that the jews felt like they had a king but the romans had somebody that they could partner with in order to keep them the jewish people in check the leaven of herit is the political spirit it's where christians begin to look at political alignment as the means to accomplish what only the gospel can and in an election year i have seen so much of this and it makes jesus sick to his stump where we we think that jesus aligns with a certain political party listen if you are a follower of jesus and you don't feel spiritually or politically homeless because you see parts of what you know to be truth in one party but not everything in there and you feel like i just feel like i don't know where to fit myself that could otherwise what are we saying it's like well you know i i can accomplish i can build the kingdom of god through political means can i just tell you church history is replete for two thousand years of christian dome trying to do that very thing and some of the worst moments for the church in history took place when the church went from being persecuted to having political power in sway it's tempting come on i'll give you some power i'll put you in a seat of authority come on just vote the way i want you to come on over here we've got your issue i'm not saying we shouldn't be a prophetic voice but we should not be an echo and the leaven of herod is seductive to the church we need to proclaim one king we need to hold all political powers and authorities to the standard of the word of god we need to keep our heart from becoming deceived because here's what happens when we any of these and we're all tempted by self included we get in there and here's what happens when you get wrapped up in intellectualism works-based performance and political arguments how many know that it always makes you love jesus more it always makes you love other people more it makes you happy and filled with joy and peace right people are walking around i just love all these spiritual arguments my brothers and sisters i just love them people on the other side of the aisle we're just such good friends and here's what happens we end up giving our energy and our passion to a platform instead of the proclamation of the gospel this is what we are supposed to live our lives for church doesn't mean that we're not engaged we should but we should be from a prophetic standpoint means our one true allegiance is to one king jesus stay awake stay awake don't get deceived don't put blinders on take heed to yourself take heed well pastor the world's going to hell in a hand basket yeah and then our king is returning and when he comes back he is our one blessed hope and when jesus comes back he's not running for office he's already won the throne belongs to him and when he comes back every knee's gonna bow every tongue is going to confess in the meantime let's work like the master of the house is coming let's stay awake like he could come at any moment let's walk in our authority like jesus has given the keys of the kingdom to us and let's fulfill our mission as we take heed to ourselves tonight i want to invite you if you would to stand on your feet with me we're going to receive communion in just a moment but before we do that i want to invite you if you would to just make space between you and the lord closing your eyes right here and making sacred space i want you to hear me say this very clearly all of us every single one of us are flesh and blood and we are vulnerable to deception if we are not walking in step with the holy spirit pride wants to rise up and say well not me can be any of us and what do i do i take heed i stay as close i stay vulnerable i stay intimate i wherever the fire of his presence is burning i want to draw so close to that i want to live a john 519 life that says that the son of man can do nothing of his own but only that which he sees the father doing is what he's doing and only what he hears the father speaking is what he's speaking lord today would you help us to live that out to say god i only want to do what i see you doing my eyes are on you lord tonight many of us may have experienced the scars of our hearts being deceived maybe even feeling our love for jesus beginning to grow cold and fade but lord you are so faithful even in a moments of transparency where we see that we've drawn away from you our hearts gotten a little colder our passion doesn't burn quite as bright as it used to you're able to fan the flame we sing it tonight spirit of god fan into flame a passion for your name jesus fan the flame fan the flame stir it up god stir it up in us we don't want to just go through the motions we don't want just an intellectual relationship with you we don't want to try and earn your approval we never could and we already have through the shed blood of jesus we don't want to become taken captive by the philosophies even the politics of men we want to be lovers followers disciples of jesus and that's it