Untitled Sermon (6)

Prophet for hire

As we begin the preaching from the Holy Word of God this morning from the text taken from Numbers chapter 24, we are actually beginning at the conclusion of a story. More than the end of just story, but the end of a conniving, deceitful and manipulative plot brought with the intention of bringing a curse against the people of God.

The main characters in this plot of deception are Balak, the King of Moab and a prophet by the name of Balaam. Balak, King of Moab has witnessed the favor of God upon the Children of Israel and their great victory over the Amorites. The bible says that all of Moab was sick with dread because of the people of God…and so Balak the king of Moab sends messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor…His intention in calling for Balaam is not the result of a google search under the heading of prophet....this wasn’t some sort of Yelp search for “prophets near me” and Balaam’s name came back with a 4.5 review.

No…there was a very specific quality and ability possessed by Balaam that Bala, was in pursuit of and that ability is identified in Numbers chatper 22 vs. 6 when Balak says of this prophet from Pethor “I know that he that you bless is blessed and and he that you curse is cursed”. And I need you to come and speak a curse against these that have come out of Egypt…lest they overtake me.

Point 1. I want to tell you today that there has always been an active presence of the wickedness of Balak at work in this world.

Balak comes seeking for a prophet, a seer…a man that has the ability to hear from God…that will do his bidding to bring a curse against the church of the Living God.

Wether it be the gallows constructed by Hamaan in the book of Esther, the affliction commanded by Pharoah in the book of Exodus, or the Decree of Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel…it has always been the intention of Balak to bring a curse agains the people of God!

I want to tell you that everything that we have been through the past 3 months and everything that we are presently going through now....is working to bring a curse upon the church!

I am not questioning the legitimacy of what we are facing right now. I am not trying to raise a conspiracy theory about COVID-19…While I have questions and thoughts concerning the virus and how it was handled politically…I am not here today to question its legitimacy. today, COVID-19 has magically disappeared from the from pages of the news stories as racial tension over the death of George Floyd takes center stage…And again, I am not questioning the legitimacy of what took place, nor even of the protests that are taking place...

However you might remember that during our teaching concerning the 12 Apostles of Hell, the very first principle of being effective in spiritual warfare is being Able to look beyond the traits that are being manifest and identify the predominant Spirit that is causing the issue.

At the root of everything that is going on in our world right now…and I’m speaking specifically about its intended impact upon the church…I’ll leave the economic impact, the political impact, the social impact to those that specialize in those areas…but the impact of all of this upon the church is to bring a curse upon the church!

And the greatest curse the adversary can bring against the church is not persecution…The church has always thrived in persecution. But the greatest curse the adversary can bring agains the church is division.

At the root of all of this is a devil that knows his only hope is a divided church…if I can get them divided “mask or no mask”…If i can get them divided politically…if I can get them divided racially...

And the deceptive plan of Balak to bring a curse upon Israel is to increase the pressure on Balaam....increase the pressure on those that have the authority to speak a blessing and a curse into the church.

In Numbers chapter 22, Balak sends messengers to invite Balaam to come and speak a curse upon the children of Israel...

Now, we must understand that Balaam was not a prophet in the sense of the great prophets that we might think of…Elisha…Elijah…Samuel…He was not a prophet to Israel...

no he was diviner…or a seer from Mesopatamia…And he is being invited to come and speak a curse upon a group of people that might one day be a threat to him as well…it would have been politically advantageous for Balaam to come and curse Israel...

Yet he refuses to go and curse Israel when God speaks to him and says do not curse them…they are blessed.

Balaam sends the messengers to go back and tell Balak that he will not bring a curse upon them.

But Balak, the king of Moab…doesn’t just sit back when the first plot doesn’t work…he turns up the pressure on Balaam…The bile says, he sends yet again princes. more and more honorable than the first princes he sent…and he makes an offer…I will promote to the very great honor and I will do whatever you say unto me…in other words…its a blank check…If you will do what I am asking you to do…I will elevate you in the public eye and whatever you ask for it is yours....

Pressure....pressure to bring a curse upon the church....

And if there has ever been an hour that Balak is putting the pressure on the church…it is today…pressure to declare the narratives that are being pushed by society.

I told a friend of mine yesterday…I am called to preach and to pastor…I love to do both of those things…I know that I am called to do those things…but the events of the last 3 months I feel the pressure of Balak trying to turn our pulpits and our preachers into politicians and social activists.

I can’t even begin to tell you all of the minutiae that we have had to work through in the last few weeks to be able to have church back in the building to satisfy the policies. When we began purchasing the cleaning supplies to ensure the building is disinfected, the consultant said its very important that when you announce the process you say “sanitizing and disinfecting” and not “disinfecting and sanitizing”. So many minor details that have to be attended to in order to stay in compliance with the orders.

Signs that have to be posted, distances that must be maintained...

Last week it broke my heart not to be able to hug and shake hands…to have to tell you that you can’t come down front to worship…that you can’t run to the altar when the preaching convicts your soul.

And I’ve done my very best to abide by the policies that have been passed down…but I am not a politician! I am not running for office and I’m not seeking your vote…but I am telling you that God did not create the church to be socially distant…The church cannot become a place of isolation and separation…

And I’m not against social activists…Im not anti-protest…I believe that peaceful protests are one of the strengths of a democracy.

But the pressure is there that I need to step forward and be a social activist. That certain things need to be posted on social media or we are labeled as uncaring and unloving.

And again, I am against injustice…I am against racism....As long as I have been preaching, I have preached against racism…I didn’t just start last week when it become a hot topic in our nation....I’ve done my very best to create a climate in this church that you will never experience racism within the structure of this church…that no matter your color you can be involved in ministry...

But I am not called to be a politician…I’m called to pastor this church and feed the sheep the word of God! I am not called to be a social activist…I am called to preach the word of God…And I need you to know that because I feel the pressure of Balak bidding for me to become something that God did not call me to become.

If you are looking for a pastor that is going to go on rants and tirades about social injustice and work to right every social wrong in our nation…again…there is a calling for some to fill that role…but that is not my calling…I am called to preach the Gospel! My heart breaks for what is happening in our world…but Balak I cannot be what you want me to be!

In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 Paul pleads with the church vs. 10 he says “that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment”…in the context of 1 Corinthians chapter 1, the divisive issue was baptism.

Balak will use anything to divide the church…even a biblical issue. but the church in Corinth had become divided not over the essentiality of baptism but by who had baptized them...

And Paul says…I’m not going to allow Balak to pressure me into a bringing a curse upon the church by buying into the divisive issue…Paul says Christ sent me not to baptize…

and some have used this as a proof text that Paul didn’t preach the essentiality of baptism…please read all of Pauls writings about baptism before coming to that conclusion...

it was the same Paul that wrote to the church at Rome in Romans chapter 6:3-4

Romans 6:3–4 NKJV

3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Also, Paul goes on after he says that he didn’t come to baptize but to preach the gospel…and part of the Gospel is baptism in Jesus name…In other words Paul isn’t negating baptism…he is avoiding division.

In other words I know some of you want me to come and speak to the problem…but Im going to preach the solution…

The issue Paul is addressing in 1 corinthians chapter 1 isn’t baptism, it is division and Paul says I will not engage myself in the divisive issues that are attempting to divide the church…Thats not why I am here…I am here to preach the Gospel!!

I am here to preach christ and him crucified...

Some think the answer is that we need to be wise in the ways of the world…that we need to seek understanding in the ways of the World...

But I am going to stand today with the Apostle Paul and declare....I am going to preach Christ! I am going to preach the Gospel…for unto them that perish the cross is foolishness…but unto us which are saved it is the power of God!

I am not going to preach problems…I’m going to preach solutions.

I condemn racism…but i will not preach racism…I preach love…I preach unity…I preach the blood of Jesus that covers us all and therefore we are all the same color in christ!

it is the pressure of Balak for Balaam to speak a curse upon the church!

Heading toward a close...

And the Bible lets us know that at some point it is in the heart of Balaam to do the bidding of Balak. Somewhere in between the time that God told Balak not to curse the people of god and the second invitation of Balak…As found in Number 22:16

Numbers 22:16–17 KJV 1900

16 And they came to Balaam, and said to him, Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me: 17 For I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people.

The pressure of Balak for the prophet to do his bidding…I’ll give you great honor and great wealth..I will make it worth your while...

Somewhere in the midst of all of that, Balaam began to consider caving and surrendering to the pressure of Balak.

Jude 11 NKJV

11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

2 Peter 2:15 NKJV

15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

it was in the heart of Balaam to curse the people of God.

it was in the heart of Balaam to allow what appealed to the natural man to lead him to speak spiritually...

it felt right to the flesh of Balaam to go with Balak and prophecy

It felt right to the flesh of Balaam to stand and curse the people of God.

And as much as you might think its what you want, you don’t need a preacher that will just jump on the bandwagon with what every socially entity in America is proclaiming.

You don’t need a preacher that caves in to the pressure of Balak and begins to prophecy what seems to be right…what aligns with all of the experts and the people in power...

I’m going to tell you what saved Israel in the day of Balaam and what is going to save the church in 2020…We need to hear from God!

When Balaam was tempted to prophesy based upon carnality and what his flesh desired…the Bible says that Balaam heard from God!

Listen if we just go by what appears to be right…we are going to be no better than the world around us! What we need it to hear from heaven in this hour...

And I’m amazed as I watch the church throughout our world, simply being led by the pressure of Balak…the pressure to say what everyone else is saying…to the pressure to do what everyone else is doing...

Well, pastor…this pastor over here…he is doing this…he did that…he did the other…I say this in all love…if you feel that is the way that you want to be led…there has never been a better time for you....today you can even join a church virtually…you can become a member of a church that is hundreds of miles away through their online services…and if you want a politician for a pastor, I’m not your guy! If you want a social activist for a pastor, I’m not your guy! I’m being straight up with you…I am here to preach Christ and him crucified…that does mean i don’t think the issues we are dealing with are real and that they aren’t important…I’m just going to focus on the solution and not the problem...

And what saved Balaam is that he heard from God!

When the pressure of Balak was upon him…the pressure to fold and cave…to do what felt right and what would bring him honor in the eyes of people…was the fact that he heard from God!

We need spiritual discernment. We need to be able to tell the difference between what feels right to the flesh and what God is speaking!

Prayer and fasting!

This week a call to prayer and fasting!! Small groups...

3 times....the curse into a blessing!

Numbers 24:10–11 KJV 1900

10 And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. 11 Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honour.

Deuteronomy 23:5 KJV 1900

5 Nevertheless the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy God loved thee.

Nehemiah 13:2 KJV 1900

2 Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Living Hope, I want to tell you what God is going to do if we will be spiritual in this hour! If we will push beyond the outcome that our flesh desires to see and move into the realm of what God is speaking....the curse is going to be turned into a blessing.

I like the way that Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis chapter 50:20

Genesis 50:20 KJV 1900

20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Balak says I paid you to speak a curse against the people of God...

God is going to turn what the enemy meant for evil…he is going to turn it for our good!

Numbers 24:10 NKJV

10 Then Balak’s anger was aroused against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have bountifully blessed them these three times!

God is going to turn the curse into abundant blessing