Jesus Christ Show | The Devil Is A Lion - Hour 1 [09/22]

foothold in your life. As you could imagine that one Peter five to eight verse that I read to you is the imagery if you've ever seen a lion on the prowl, that kind of moving back and forth, waiting to pounce. But they wait for that perfect, perfect moment, as does the enemy. And there are things that you do every day that open up little doors or windows into your life. And the things with spirituality that people

don't understand. And something that makes it difficult to even understand what I do and Christianity is that I don't come barging into your life. You see, the door to your heart is one way. You have the key, you have the lock, you have the knob. Everything is in your hands. Who you open it for is up to you. Fame, fortune, power, what money, whatever it is that you think you want that, if you open up that door for that, if you say it all costs, no matter what it takes, that's

when you welcome in the enemy. Ephesians four twenty seven says, simply, do not give the devil an opportunity. Don't give any foothold. Now, it's not about finding the devil in every nook and cranny in your life. It's about seeing the consequences of you inviting the devil into your life. It's not that the devil's going to show up pitchfork in hand, sharpening his horns and breathing fire and saying so uh, guiding plans tonight. I just kind of hoping we can hang out.

It's not how it works. Tewod Corinthians eleven fourteen says, no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. It's very easy to be distracted by the things of the world and to want them in such a way that you're willing to just crack open the window or crack open the door to get noticed or to move ahead. And that's all it takes. That little opening ushers in a world of pain. If you find parents to say I just want to be a best

friend or a buddy to my child. That is a lazy parent that doesn't want the accountability that comes with being a parent. And as a believer, when you proclaim Christ as your savior, when you say that I am at the helm in your life, it is so important that you don't open these windows to the enemy because he wants you the most. He wants nothing more than to take someone that has faith and has proclaimed that

faith in public and drag them through the mud. His desire is to destroy, to destroy everything you have, to make it look like you're going to get every wish you could possibly wish for, only to use those things against you. It's so you know, there's been books and television shows and movies written about these very things, searching after those goals. The entire Twilight Zone series is basically based upon the misconception of what you want and what you get in life. All you want is to be

alone and to read. Well, then you lose your glasses, right, they get broken. I saw an episode yesterday where it involved the time machine and a man that was brought from the eighteen hundreds, right as he was about to

be hanged. He was brought into modern society. The whole thing ends with another criminal cornering that eighteen hundred criminal, killing him and then putting himself in the time machine that he didn't even know what it was, and ending up going back to the eighteen hundreds at the exact

moment and was hanged. Now, it's easy to sit back and watch all the pieces unfold, but when it's your life, when you're actually as my producer Neil often says, when you're in the pool, it's hard to see what's going on in the waters. That's why they have lifeguards outside of the pool. And I know it's not fun to talk about the devil. It just sounds like bad Sunday Morning radio, actually is what it's said, and that's the

last thing we want to sound like. But you have to know that the enemy is real, and the enemy plays a part in your life, and the size of that part is up to you, and how you deal with it is up to you. These spiritualists and these people that are so they seem so open minded about things, are only opening themselves up to every possibility the enemy has for them. But as a person of faith, as someone who proclaims Christianity. You are to defend yourself against

these things. How I'll tell you, the enemy is one of those things that a lot of people don't know whether to make real to make fake. It's this cartoon character, pitchfork, this image of the devil, Satan, the enemy, the deceiver, the destroyer, the liar. Ephesians four to twenty seven says, do not give the devil an opportunity. That there are things that you do in your life where you just crack open the door. You think, ah, it's gonna be okay.

We're just gonna let the enemy in. And as believers, you need to protect yourself because he's waiting for opportunities. And it's not about these folks that say that the devil's under you know, the devil made me do it. Devil's under every rock in your life. But the devil is real. And there are opportunities that you make even easier for the enemy to get in your life. But you have the control there. It says in scripture that

Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. He's not going to come to you right in your face and say I'm the devil. Let me in because you wouldn't. James four seven says, submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Resist, resist the things of the world, Resist the things of the enemy. Resist those things that would have you going against your moral code and what you believe. Romans sixteen twenty says, the God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. That is what ends up at the end. Until that time, you are to put on the full armor of God. When you have a moment, go to Ephesians six and read read about that armor and what you are to do to embolden yourself, to strengthen yourself, to protect yourself from the enemy, because he's looking for those openings, especially

if you proclaim Christianity to be your faith. He's looking for that opportunity, that opening to come in and to destroy as only the devil does.

way as well. In scripture, you'll find that the term all, just like in modern day, is sometimes talking about a great majority of, or the greater part of, or all of a particular category, and not necessarily all, as in the total sum of So in the context, if you read it over again and you take a look, you'll see that it's talking about the cattle in the field specifically, and the horses and the oxen and that. And when it's referring to all, it's not referring to all the

total sum of all the animals. It's referring And you see this too, because it's even separating the Israeli animals and all of this. So it's in context. It's not all of the animals, it's all of the animals in the field in that particular category. And therefore, when you come across it, some people think, oh, well, it seems like a contradiction. It is not. It is a category distinction as to what's going on, and in this case, it's talking about the cattles in the field and not

the pharaohs. All of the Pharaoh's true cattle and war horses that would be separate and installs and stables and not in the field as the rest. James, Welcome to Jesus Christ Show.

their reward in heaven. It just it seems like one is getting the rewards on heaven and earth and one isn't it. I just I wondered if you could touch on the I don't know the fairness of it. Maybe it's not supposed to be fair.

understand where it comes from. But uh, that's more you know, country music theology than it is Bible theology. There the key is My producer Neil always jokes that he can teach a man to get any woman he once, as long as the guy can learn to want the women he can get. And so when it comes to life, God wants you to see life differently, not to see those as rewards in the same way that the world does, but to see to be in a state of joy when those things are absent. Most people James tend to

find ah think that joy. They mistake joy and happiness. Happiness is a momentary feeling of joy due to a happening, meaning that if you get something, you know, a piece of cake, then you go whoo, I got a piece of cake. I'm happy, and you go this is great. And then the cake's gone and you go, ah, there's no more cake. Yeah, you know what, you'd get along just very well with the crew here at the Jesus Christ Show. So there's this this thing where it's not

about the cake. If it's only about the cake, the cake's gonna come and it's gonna go. You're eventually gonna eat it. The old saying you can't have your cake and eat it too means you can't anticipate the joy of eating a cake and then eat the cake and then anticipate the joy of eating the cake. It's sooner or later going to be gone and you're not gonna get both. You can't have the cake to want the enjoyment of it and then eat it too, because now

the wanting of enjoyment's gone. So in life it's about finding those balances and God wants you. If you remember I said in scripture, the poor you will always have with you. That's not going to end. There will always be poor people. And you can dissect it and look around and say, well, it's because of this or because of that, sociologically whatever, But ultimately the key is not about whether you can be richer, whether you're poor. It's about where your heart is in the good times and

the bad. You will come to know God through tribulation and trials, not through reward. Yeah, that's just the way it works. Everything you learn, James, everything that has value in your life comes from the struggle and the trials that bring it to you. And that is like anything of beauty in life. If you look at a fish swimming, or you look at a bird flying, they move with great elegance in resistance. A bird can't fly without the resistance of the air underneath their wings. A fish can't

swim without the resistance of the water. That resistance is what they use to propel them in a way that's productive. It's not the productive part in itself. And so you can either stop and be weighed down by the trials in your life and go, Okay, it's done, it's over. I've got nothing more to give. Or you can use them, like the fish and the bird, to propel you into a state of understanding about those things and on. Once you get to a place where you understand them, you

find the joy. That's not happiness, it's true joy, which happens in good times, bad times, all of those things. And so it's not that someone has more and that some Christians are going to have double the flavor if anything, having those things, being rich and having those those anchors on earth can be it can be an albatross around the neck of the Christian and make it very difficult to connect with God. So it's a matter of balance, whether you have money or don't, whether you have things

or don't, James, it's about where your heart is. That's what God cares about.

oftentimes the same thing, and it's great. It comes from a pure place of wanting to ask questions and wanting to find out the answer to something that just doesn't seem to quite make sense to you. And that honesty is beneficial. So when James calls up with something like that, I always always like it. Now, to further expand on that, keep in mind that the things that the world thinks

are a reward aren't always a reward. The world comes comes at things kind of like the hedonistic type attitude, and the hedonists really came from a place, a philosophical place of trying to understand what good and evil was. So the hedonists would say, well, simple explanation, that which feels good is good and that which feels bad is bad. But that's not true. I know that there's a lot of people that thrust their fists into the heavens and say, God,

why are you putting me through this pain? But think about it. Is all pain bad and has all pleasure good? No? Equally? So if not all pain is bad and not all pleasure is good, then you weigh them based on what they're teaching or giving you and how it's building you in character, not building your wealth, because in scripture it says that you can build up wealth and it rots or rusts. It doesn't mean anything. You can't take it

with you, it doesn't have any true value. What hopefully, when you're successful here on earth, you use that to propel yourself to do more things, to interact with more people, to be more productive. I'm dealing with your purpose, your gifts and abilities. What is the meaning of life? Simply this, to utilize your gifts and abilities along lines of excellence, to the edification of others and to the edification of yourself,

to the glory of God. Any money you get, or any any special attention or favor you have in life, you're to use it in that way to edify others and to propel yourself along with others. It's not about getting the biggest house or any of those things. Not that any of that's wrong. It's okay to have things. It seems that the pendulum in life tends to go hard left or hard right with people. Nobody finds that balance in the center. It's like, oh so it's okay,

you know. I hear people complaining about, you know, pastors that have homes, these large homes or and there is a limit. I think if you're a pastor, there's a place where you should understand that the appearance it gives is one of a stereotype and one that is a turn off to many people both in and out of the church, and that it's not helpful. It depends what

you're producing. However, on the flip side, that you as an outsider looking at a pastor, should understand that many pastors have other jobs and other interests and other things that are in their life that bring the money. Whether they write, whether they're musicians, Some of them hold down other jobs. Often they're married to somebody who has money or has other jobs as well. So these things should be taken into account so it doesn't look like somebody's

fleecing the flock when certainly they are not. It's not about just the accumulation of these things. It's about what these things bring to your life in other's life, and how you deal with them when you do have them, and how you deal with them when you don't not having things. My producer Neil always is thankful that he grew up without a lot of money, big family, not a lot of money, and he's thankful because the creativity

that it forced upon him. He had to learn to do things differently and to be more creative because you know, the toys were broken or it didn't have toys or whatever it may be. And oftentimes people will comment about his family, Wow, a lot of them are creative. They're all creative in their own right. How does that happen? Well, be broke? You know, when you don't have money, it tends to it tends to get the creative juices flowing

in other areas and then that can be helpful. So that's a positive thing that comes out of something that might be perceived as negative. It's very easy to just broad brush and say, Okay, well, everything that feels good is good, and everything feels bad is bad, and that's just not the way life works. There's a lot of pain. There's struggles in getting a tooth filled at the dentist, going through an operation, and all the pain and and you know, recovery and all of these things. However, that

is for a greater good. Studying, for finals, going through school, the struggles of the the initial parts of relationship, all of these things. You know, people say that, you know, marriage is hard all the time. I hear that marriage is not hard. Marriage is easy. Life is always easier with a partner. What's difficult is being selfless. That's what's difficult. Is you finding the ability to throw away all that selfish attitude and live for someone else and dedicate your

life to someone else and be a good partner. That's what's difficult. Marriage is very easy. Two heads are always better than one, four hands are better than one. You know, it's there's so much to it that makes life easier. What makes it more difficult is being selfless. And in life it's the same thing. There's going to be times where you give up the pleasures or the so called pleasures, and really it's for a greater good. It's for a greater benefit. Bill, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.

was here, and they had a specific purpose. Now, as far as great signs and wonders, there are those that believe that they those same things can take place now, and that there are statements in scripture that say, you know, I did great things, but you will do great things also, And people assume, okay, well, that means here there's gonna be great signs of wonders still, And there's a theological

debate about that. You can argue that in Matthew Matthew chapter fourteen, where you read about the walking on water incident as well, as you can read it in Mark six and John six as well, that you when you look at that, you're dealing with not only me walking on water, but encouraging others to do it at the same time as well. And their faith was not in the place where they could if you remember, and they

fell through the water. So that implies that that there is a capability there that wasn't ever shown or it wasn't ever documented. The fear is that you get to these places where you get shamans, or you get groups of people who do magic tricks and make it appear as if they're doing something, and then it shows that

automatically they have great faith. There's trickery out there, and there, as I said, theologically, there are those that argue that that isn't for now, That sign and wonders of that type were there for a specific reason at a specific time to point down a specific path, and that path is already seen through the special design of scripture and the words written down, and that it doesn't need to be recreated. So it has there's theological twists to it

as well. But effectively, if you look just through scripture and you see the things that are stated in scripture when you read in First Corinthians, chapter thirteen, where you hear people quote all the time about you know, love is patient, love is kind, and all those things. It talks about the different gifts and abilities as well, and

what part those gifts and abilities play in life. And there are those that argue whether those gifts and abilities like tongues or prophecy deal today and are useful for today. There if you think of life Bill as a child, and that the child's growing older throughout the centuries. But you can see that God dealt with the world this

child differently at different stages of the child's life. So there are times where those things are important and important to the growth and the strengthening and the understanding of the child, which is the planet. And then there's times where they're no longer necessary or not important, and they become trickery or they become it becomes like a sideshow. So there are some that say, well, these things don't exist in that sense. In that way, the power still

exists there and the use may be specific. It wouldn't be somebody doing it, you know, as a carnivalact walking across the water. It would be for great purpose, just as it was when I was showing the disciple that it had a purpose. It wasn't like, hey, walk o, walka WALKA look what I can do. Check this out. You know, I'm not falling through the water. There was purpose there and they were to have to be purpose now KFI AM six forty on demand