Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12178
11:00 AM on 10/10/2021

P. Schaller –

I’d like you to turn to Romans 8:14 just to introduce our theme for the morning message. We came for a morning
message this morning, didn’t we? We came to fellowship, to hear what the Lord has to say to
our hearts. I will wait on you. I will wait on you. This beautiful song. I will wait on you. Do we wait
on God? Yes. Why? Because we are children of God. Dad is in the room; I’m waiting on him. I
mean he’s my dad. He’s dad. He has something. He’s my dad. I will wait on you. I will wait on
you. Where is this in the Scripture? Romans 8:14, sons generically for the human race that are
born of him, men and women, daughters and sons. As many as are led by the Spirit of God. Do
we have a picture from the pastor’s retreat that we can put up there on the screen? We had 160
men come. They were pastors and leaders. There you go. That will be, is or will be on our
website and there were some from far away like Dr. Chung from San Diego.

Our brothers from Chile. Could you stand up from Chile and Peru? Thank you. Chile. Yeah. Three of them.
Imagine they came from South America for this conference. Wow! We had a good time. The
message this morning is that we are adopted into the family. We are in the family of God and
what does that mean. We are in God’s family. Every one of you. Every one of you that has the
Spirit of God, you are in the family. Adopted into the family. We’ll explain that this morning. We
are led by the Spirit of God. Many times we think of leading geographically, like I was led to go
to Baltimore. I was led to go to New York. I was led to visit somebody here or there, but there’s
another meaning we want to look at today, to be led by the Spirit in my attitude, in my desires.
To have a new desire that God has put in you because you are a child of God. Desire to love
him. Desire to obey him. Desire to seek him.

I will wait on you. I will wait on you because I am your child. Isn’t that good? Okay. In our service, today is a day to honor the police in our city and in our district and in the country. P. Hadley is going to share some words. He’s a chaplain that
rides along with the police in the northeast district of Baltimore. He and his brother, P. Jim
Hadley, are both chaplains. He’s going to share something with us about it. Then P. Scibelli is
going to do the offering. And then we’ll have the message. Then we’ll have people come down
front for prayer if they need. And then we’ll dismiss you and you’re welcome to go into the cafe
and hang out on the deck and be with us for longer period of time. Again tonight in the service
will be special. We’ll have a beautiful service tonight. We’re so glad you are here this morning.
Welcome P. Hadley.

P. Hadley –

Good morning. Today is National Faith and Blue weekend. This event upholds the
belief that law enforcement and faith institutions are key pillars of the community. When they
work together, neighborhoods become safer places to live. When there is mutual respect,
communities thrive. So my brother Jim, P. Jim and I, as you might know are chaplains for
Baltimore City Police Department. We count it a privilege to serve with the Baltimore City Police
to go on ridealongs, to minister, to be available to whatever the opportunity arises just to be
there and to want to share the love. I guess I could say it that way. There’s always many
different – every situation is unique, and every officer also is different. It has been my
experience as I said this morning riding with over 50 officers over 6.5 years, that officers work
hard. It is not an easy job as you can imagine being a police officer.

You got a job to do but also to operate on a professional level, a caring level, really having in their hearts a desire to serve and protect the community. Like I asked this morning, how many of you when you call for police
service you’re happy when they show up? Does that happen? Oh, yeah. We have with us this
morning Officer Baqoub with whom I have ridden many times. He has also tasted our savory
quesadillas from the cafe. I think that’s his favorite dish right there, the quesadilla, and so we
have ridden together many times. And he – I got to say this about Office Baqoub: He loves his
job. He loves his job. He does it well. He really cares about people, and I say that from
experience. Jim, do you want to say anything? Are you sure? Every time my brother speaks, he
has something good to say! Officer Baqoub, what would you like to say? Good morning all. My
name is Officer Baqoub.

Thank you so much for having me. I know it’s crazy busy out there. It’s nice to have a little break to come out here. I know we don’t have a lot of people like you that actually support us, and I’m glad there’s so many of you that actually in fact support us. We just don’t hear it enough. Our pastors that ride with us explain to us how much you guys actually
care about us. I’m here representing the police department and I want you to know from the
bottom of our heart we appreciate it. We might not say it enough, but trust me. We do. It makes a big difference. Thank you so much.

P. Jim Hadley –

He’s thanking you right now, but you can’t hear it. Just before we pray, so, this
man, he’s high quality. They care about, they really do care about people. We ride with a lot of
officers that really care about people. Like we said this morning, we just want to thank you folks,
every one in here. Although we are chaplains, every one, we all do what God leads us to do.
We all contribute to this and because of all of us, these guys get to taste a little bit of God and
all the miracles that God does when we are out on the street. Like I said this morning, we could
keep a log of the stories and things that happen. Okay. Let’s pray.

P. Scibelli –

I knew the officer was from Nigeria just by his last name. West Africa. He was
sitting – that’s the first time I had a police man sitting behind me that I wasn’t nervous! Having
been arrested at least nine times. All for good reasons though. Distributing literature in Jordan
and different countries like Qatar. I was very much at ease. For the offering this morning. We
had a building one time in Uganda. We were putting it up and we stopped because we had no
nails. We needed 1,000 nails to put the roof on and finish the job. We had no nails. A man said
to me I want to help. He said what is the next step in the project? I said, well, nails. Nails. He
said how much? I said it looks like $1,000 for these roofing nails. And he looked at me and he
didn’t quite understand that. So he made a telephone call and sent someone to that project site
to visit that church building and he asked the person who was there that was working on the job,
you need nails here? How much?

He said probably $1000 to $1050. The man called him back in America and told him that’s what the price was. So he called me up and he said I’m writing you a check for $100,000 because I really believe I can trust you. I can trust the work of God – it was in Uganda in East Africa. I know that sounds like a crazy story, but it’s absolutely true. He
didn’t just give to that particular project but to other places. He’s been a faithful giver over the
years. He’s not even from the ministry, but a faithful giver. As we think about the offering this
morning, I have a hard time sometimes standing straight because of things that have happened
with the results of a stroke and what not. And I can be leaning but the Bible says not to lean. It
says trust in the Lord with all of your what? All of your – how much of your heart? And what’s the
next statement? Lean not. How much is the electricity bill? Lean not. How much is the
mortgage? Lean not to find out how much the mortgage is. Lean not what you hear in the news
about what might take place in the country.

Trust in the Lord as you give today with all of your heart and lean not. Stop the leaning. Let’s stand. Not right now! Let’s stand with God and stop the leaning. We can trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not to our own understanding. In all of our ways acknowledge him and he will do what? Direct our paths. So let’s have a great
offering today.

P. Schaller –

Okay. Hello. Yes, Praise God! Great. Let’s put up Psalm 68 up on the screen, vs.
6. Great to be here today in Christ’s name and in the family. Thank you, God. We’re in the
family. Here are some thoughts for the beginning of the message. Angels in the Bible, are they
in God’s family as we understand we are? We are in the family. Are angels in the family?
They’re not. They are called the host, but never are they referred to as family members with
God. They’re in heaven. They are spirits, but they are not sons and daughters. We are sons and
daughters. We are made in the image of God. Are angels made in the image of God? No, but
they do have a mind, but so do dogs. Dogs have a mind. Do they have a mind? Dolphins and
horses? Yes, they have a mind but they are not human beings. Do angels have emotions? Yes.
They have a will. Do they have a will?

Why do we say angels have emotions? Because when one of us gets saved, they rejoice in heaven in Luke 15. They’re rejoicing when we are found. We are lost but we are found. Angels have emotions. They have a mind because the Philistines said about David, he has the wisdom of an angel of God. You have the wisdom of an angel of
God. You have mind. You have emotions. And do they have a will? Do angels have a will? How
do we know that? The fall from heaven. A third of them fell from heaven. They made a decision.
They decided. They went against God. They were in rebellion against God by Lucifer, the
archangel that led the rebellion. We read this in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28. So we have our theology
is teaching us about the nature of the world that we cannot see. Angels, spirits. It seems very
similar to us but they are not us. We are made in the image of God. We have a higher calling.
This is Hebrews 2. Maybe to make the point, let’s turn there. Hebrews 2. When you come to church, you are learning theology by studying the Bible. Isn’t that fun? That’s the way to live.

Sit at the feet at Jesus. You are here with this pulpit, but this is bigger than us. This is a voice behind you
saying. You’re teacher will stand in front of you but a voice behind you will say, this is the way.
Walk in it (Isaiah 30:20). This is Hebrews 2:7. I’m going to make a little diagram here. I hope I get
my message in! Okay. Creation. Low creatures. Bacteria. Viruses. Oh, don’t say the word
“virus!” By the way, pray for Tuesday. Her husband Mike is in very serious condition in the
hospital with covid pneumonia. Pray for Mike. (Prayer). You have higher level of creatures, and
then you have higher levels, and then you have man up here. Man is smarter than a horse
sometimes! You have angels. Man is a little lower than the angels, but not for long. What does
that mean? vs. 7. it means on the earth in the Garden of Eden he was a little lower than the
angels because he was made out of dust.

He was made of two elements, the dust of the ground and spirit. Angels are spirits only. So man is a little lower thathem for a season. Just in this life. If you are born again, then you are in Christ. When you are in Christ, you are higher than
angels. That’s our destiny. We are higher than angels, but now because of our mortal bodies
and of course our sin nature, we are under a curse. Being under a curse, we suffer. But we
have also what’s called common grace for the believer and the unbeliever. We have common
grace. Though you have sinned and fallen, immediately you could go to hell. Immediately at the
fall. The day you disobey God, it could have been, the day you disobey God, you immediately
go to hell or you are in a – it could be as the angels when they sinned, they came to this earth
for a while but their destiny is hell. They go to hell. But now for a season, we are on the earth
with common grace. It’s only for 70 years or 100 years you eat strawberries and look at the
ocean and the sky and animals and birds and you study and look and listen and love and learn
about creation. But you may not come to God, Romans 1:18-20. You have the knowledge of God
and God bears witness by creation.

For the invisible things are clearly seen by the visible things. When you see a bird in the sky, you could think maybe there is something more up in the sky. Maybe there are angels. When you see a caterpillar become a butterfly, you might say maybe there is something more. Where did that come from? And so on. The world is filled with
thousands if not millions of examples of the invisible world and the goodness of God fills the
earth (Psalm 33:6). So there is common grace. We have man and he’s a little lower than the angels
for a season, but we see Jesus. vs. 8-9. I have to explain this to you briefly. We see everything
under man. We can train fish, dolphins. We can navigate with birds. We can understand the
Second Law of Thermodynamics. We can have an Albert Einstein explain to us light and time
and many things that we find and we know. Everything is under our feet, but we don’t see
everything under our feet like a virus. It’s not under our feet. It may kill me. A tsunami is not
under my feet. Death is not under my feet.

What does it mean “under my feet?” I have authority over it, right? It’s under my feet. An earthquake. Many things you could say. But we don’t see them under our feet but we see Jesus. vs. 9. What about him? Everything is under his feet.
Everything is under him. A virus under him? Yep. The storm, the sea, the wind. It’s all under him
for he is God. We see Jesus, but Jesus is a man. But he’s a man but he’s God. Look at our little
scale here. Man in God is in charge because God is in charge. The fact that God brought you to
himself and has put you in him, has put you on a throne, seated you in heavenly places and
given you a status that is way above everything on the earth. People get hurt when we are
underneath. We get hurt and we get troubled and angry and emotional and revengeful and
maybe jealous and covetous and adulterous and thievery and many of these – the cursed world
with a cursed sin nature and I continue in that sin and I suffer.

And I cause a lot of damage in the world. I cause a lot of trouble around me just in my world, in my family. I cause a lot of
trouble with my friends, with my marriage. It’s so easy with a sin nature to live in this world and
have a destructive influence. But our message this morning is better than that. It’s Romans 8
and vs. 14. We had to say this to have context. Psalm 68, we didn’t get to read that. Put that up
on the screen. Psalm 68:6. He This phrase I’d like you to remember it: “God sets the solitary in
families.” Would you say that three times to your neighbor sitting next to you? God sets the
solitary in families. We have heard about the orphan ministry that P. Scibelli and over in India,
Susie Silva, and taking children without a mother or father and bringing them into the orphanage
or the home. There’s a home with ten children with a little roll-up mat and they had rented these
row houses in India and had a family from the church running the home.

These children have a future. Some of them, some of them have lived in hardship. One little boy I met in India was
when one of the Greater Grace orphanage homes had an artificial leg. And when he left in the morning, he left the leg hanging on a hook at the house. He was asked why don’t you wear it?
And he said cause I don’t want anybody to steal it. It’s important to me. Yeah. What a tough life
children can have, but does God take a solitary person, a lonely person and put them in a
family. And what does it mean? The theological term for it which you read in your Bible is
adoption. Now, in our theology we have a very important word called justification. Justification is
essentially when you get saved you are made 100% righteous when you aren’t. I’m not 100%
righteous. But when you are believing in God, trusting in God in your heart, you’re believing in
him, he justified the ungodly in Romans 3. When we were – it says three phrases in Romans 5. We
were without strength.

Then #2 we were sinners. When we were without strength, he died for
us. When we were sinners, he died for us. #3 when we were enemies, he died for us.
Yesterday, I realized those three phrases intensify. I’m without strength. That’s one thing. But to
be a sinner is stronger. And to be an enemy of God is stronger. In all three cases he died for us
to make us righteous, to declare us righteous, to accept us in his family. The first thing he does
is he saves you by his grace when you were without strength, when you were a sinner, and
when you were an enemy. An enemy is strong. I am an enemy of God. Get used to saying that
now. Even now as a believer. In my nature, I am an enemy of God. Take out the AK-47. Get all
geared up with all of your stuff and go against God as an enemy of God. That happens in my
life. I have seen it. To be angry. To be a fighter. To be proud. To be an enemy of God. When I
was an enemy, he died for me. When it was the worst case scenario, he died for me. Wow! As
an enemy, he died for me. He justified me. I want to say something because I’m kind of picking
up on it a little bit. There are people in this room I think that are legalistic.

Legalistic means your whole gearing to your faith is your behavior and kind of like your attitude and being like a
righteous person. Your righteousness is more self-righteousness. It’s like comparing yourself
with other people. “Oh, I would never be an enemy of God.” Yes, you are. “You don’t know me.
You don’t know how sincere, how humble I am, how righteous I am. I would never be an
enemy.” You don’t know yourself. Put yourself in a situation, you’ll sell your mother for a dollar.
You’ll deny God. You don’t have it. You’d deny God under pressure. In the right circumstance,
you’d cry out, “Barabbas! Barabbas! Set him free.” Crucify Christ. You’re an enemy of God in
your sin nature. You don’t know that. But if you keep coming here, maybe the Holy Spirit will
keep teaching you and wherever you go anyway hear from God and learn the doctrine that will
establish you in the faith and that you are not a self-righteous Christian, but you’re a humble,
broken child of God thankful that he saved you when he could have sent the whole human race
to hell in one moment. He could have. He did it with the angels. Well, they didn’t go to hell yet
but that’s where they are going.

They fell from heaven in one – Jesus said I saw Lucifer, Satan, fall from heaven like lightning. How fast is that? Huh? Lightning. Okay. Wait a minute. I think God gave Lucifer time in heaven. “Time” – whatever that is. But he gave him a process where he could lie in heaven. He could spread his lies in heaven and he could do his work of
merchandising or trafficking. It’s actually trafficking in heaven against God. Then there was the
clap, – maybe a thunder clap. Anyway. Lightning flash and he’s gone. He’s out of heaven. He’s
gone. He’s out of heaven. Imagine. Jesus said I saw that. I was there. I’m God. I saw that. Like
lightning fell to the earth. Here he is on the earth. Now we are here. We have followed him. God
redeemed us and brought us into his family. So this is our text for today. It’s adoption and
Romans 8:14. We’ll read a couple verses and then go back to that. vs. 15. No, there is no fear.
No, we are not in bondage. We are free.

We are children of God. vs. 15b. Adoption is a theological term that is in effect saying that we are now in the family. We are in the family. He is our Father. You might say wasn’t that the case when we were justified or regenerated? Yes, but
there’s a difference. Justified. You are righteous but it doesn’t yet say you are in the family.
Regenerated. You have the Spirit giving you a new nature, but it doesn’t yet say you are in the
family. Just like an angel is holy. An angel is spirit, but he’s not in the family. But you are in the
family. He has adopted you and he is your Father. It means a lot. vs. 16. The Holy Spirit in you
is saying to you, bearing witness to you, that you are a child of God. You have a unique
relationship with God that angels do not have. Angels come and go with commands but it’s a
different relationship. Fallen man does not have the relationship. He does not have. He is not a
child of God. He’s the offspring of God, yes, in the sense that he is created in God’s image but
he’s lost. He is not a child of God. He’s made in the image of God.

He has the potential to be saved, but he’s not saved. He’s lost. God is not his father. Could an unsaved person pray to
God and God would hear him? Absolutely. God hears the cry of the prisoner. God is sovereign. God can do that. He’s desirous to save. He’s desirous to show himself. He wants to bring
somebody into the family through the new birth by believing in Christ. Then believing in Christ
you are adopted into the family and you have family status. You are in the family. He will never
lose you. He can never forsake you. He pities you in Psalm 103. Turn there, please. We’ll go to
two or three of these and then we’ll go back and then we will close. This is precious to us. Psalm
103:13, he cares. P. Scibelli preached yesterday a beautiful verse from John 20:1-2 that Jesus
revealed himself to the disciples after this manner. And he took that phrase “after this manner”
and preached a message on it. It sticks with us this way:

When God reveals himself he might be strong like in heaven when John saw him, he was such a glorious being that John fell dead at his feet. But when he was at the Sea of Galillee resurrected and he came to Peter, he revealed
himself to Peter and to Thomas. Before that he revealed himself to Peter and the disciples by
making them breakfast. To tell Peter to catch the net on the right side. By saying to Peter these
words, do you love me? He revealed himself to the disciples after this manner. Gentle. Loving.
Penetrating. As a Father. Everlasting Father. Because we are in his family. What does it mean?
He pities us in vs. 13-14. this has changed our lives. When we were with the pastors these last
two days, we could see the family. We saw the family. We saw the connection with brother and
brother. We haven’t seen each other for a while and when we are together and sharing, we see
family. We are like our heavenly Father.

We are merciful, gracious, fun loving, encouraged. When we are lead by the Spirit. Go back to vs. 14 and we’ll say a few things and then finish. I have a story here about an Armenian girl that her and her brother were attacked by Turks. This is maybe in Turkey. I don’t know where it was. We have a Turkish brother here in Bible college. I
don’t say any of this to offend. It’s for you and me, whether we are Turks or Armenian or
American or Chinese or Russian or German or whatever we are, we all have these things. Her
brother was killed. She escaped by climbing over a wall. Her brother was brutally killed before
her eyes. She was a nurse. Later on, while nursing in the hospital, she recognized one of her
patients as the very Turkish soldier who had murdered her brother. Her first feeling was
revenge. The soldier was very ill, just hovering between life and death and if she just neglected
him, he would die. No one would know.

His life was absolutely in her hands. But instead of revenge, she decided for Christ’s sake to forgive him. She fought for his life and won, nursing him back to health. Notice something here: adoption means you are led by the Spirit. First, it
means you have the status as a family member but what God does is he gives you the Spirit
and you are deciding as a family member if you will be led by that Spirit. Will you be led by the
Spirit in this case #1 to forgive. No, I’m not going to forgive somebody could say. I want
revenge. Well, you are losing a privilege that you have. You have a privilege to be like God. You
have the privilege of his Spirit in you leading you to be like God, to forgive. She forgave him.
She fought for his life. Listen to this. He was convalescing and she told him the story. The
soldier looked at her in amazement. Then why didn’t you let me die when you had me in your
power? I couldn’t. I couldn’t because I am a Christian and my own Master forgave his enemies
who crucified him. I must do the same for his sake.

Well, said the hardened Turk in astonishment, if that is what it means to be a Christian, I want to be one. No matter how bitterly wrong you may have been for his sake you can forgive the wrong. How does it – are we led by
the Spirit to forgive? Are we led by the Spirit #2 to glorify God. Do you live to say in your heart, I
want to have an eternal purpose and glorify God. What are you living for? To glorify God. What
do you do for work? It used to be back in my day pumping gas was a simple job. We taught our
children in our family, we said whatever job you have, do it before God and we are behind you.
You don’t have to be high in society. You can be very low like – I remember like pumping gas.
But if you pump gas, do it to the glory of God. That’s an honor. You are a child of God. This way
of thinking helps us live our life in small ways. You’re led by God to glorify God where you are at
and now. Not later on the missionfield maybe or doing something great of some kind or later in
life maybe when you find yourself.

You don’t have to find yourself. Be led by the Spirit. God knows who you are. You will find yourself as you are led by God and probably be amazed because the psalmist said, “lead me to the Rock that is higher than myself.” That’s higher. To be in the family is higher. We are adopted, made his children and led by the Spirit. #3 You are led
by the Spirit. I read this by Teddy Roosevelt, one of our presidents. I’ll put down his name there,
to go to church. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had a president who said to go to church? Huh?
We could pray for that that he would say that. That would be cool. But if he doesn’t say it, it’s not
going to prevent the Holy Spirit from saying to you I lead you to the fellowship. I lead you. I lead you. You are a child of God. I lead you in my will. I lead you to make good decisions. We heard
a great message from the pastor from Chile the other day or yesterday or the night before about
being counter-cultural as we read in the book of Titus. God cannot lie, Titus 1:2. God cannot lie,
but the pagan gods are liars. If we follow the pagan gods, we will be liars cause you are like the
god you worship. If your god is a liar like they were – Zeus was a liar. Jupiter.

These various pagan gods that they had they were liars. Then the people will be liars. It said that in Titus 1.
The Cretans, their own people say they are liars and slow bellies. But then he said, but Titus
you preach the doctrine. Preach the truth and then we will be counter-cultural. Counter-cultural.
We will say the truth when the world is lying. We will say the truth. When there are lies in the
academic world, we cannot embrace that. I cannot lie. Like that school teacher in Virginia before
the school board said I cannot lie. A little girl is a little girl and a little boy is a little boy. In my
religion I am not allowed to lie. So they fired him. They fired him. Wow! What culture am I living
in? What is the world that I live in? So he went to the court and he won the case and he had to
be reinstated. Yeah. Do you have any fire in your belly? Do you have any truth that’s dwelling
deep in your spirit? Do you have some kind of courage where you can go through that chainlink
fence at the ball field as a little boy. We’re going to infiltrate.

There is a little hole in the fence. We’re going in. The guys put their gloves underneath their arms. They’re going in. They’re infiltrating. Spirit-filled Christians in the age we are living in, if you cannot cut the mustard,
whatever that means. If you don’t have any fire, if you don’t have any conviction, then you’ll give
up. You’ll quit. Just like many churches in America. They shut down. It’s over. It’s done. What
happened? I cannot stop assembling. Forsake not the assembly, Hebrews 10. I cannot not feed
from my Heavenly Father from his word. I want to be led by the Spirit and he leads us to
fellowship with each other. Back in the Communist days when we were living in Finland, we
would go over into the Soviet Union and meet people under cover and have prayer meetings. I
remember they had a house and it was an all-day prayer meeting. We went to that house in
Estonia and Taleen and I think Baptists were in there.

We were praying. They are the children of God. We were praying. They would be there all day. We were there for a couple of hours and left. I thought wow! When you are under pressure and cannot meet, will you still meet? When
you are denied a job, will you lose your job? If you are getting in trouble with the authorities, do
you have good grounds for that? I’m not looking for a fight, but I want to be led by the Spirit
because you and I are in the family of God and we become like Jesus. Jesus wasn’t looking for
a fight but the fight was there and he had something to say. They didn’t like it. They shut him
down. They shut him down. They shut him down. But you know, it’s hard to kick against the
pricks. It’s hard to go against God. It’s hard to go against the Bible when the Bible is speaking.
It’s hard to go against the Spirit of God.

Three days later he rose from the dead and is highly exalted by our Heavenly Father, isn’t he? He is put on a throne and he has something to say. We are the church and we are like him. Get used to it. Get used to it. Have a relationship with
God where you are led by the Spirit and maybe a capacity that is beyond your natural self. Let’s
go. Let’s see what God will do because we are adopted. Now, that’s the tough talk but I want to
say a couple things that will help you. There is the spirit of Jezebel. You want to turn to your
neighbor and do a trivia test. Say to them, what do you think is the spirit of Jezebel? Go ahead.
The Bible says that Jezebel had mascara on? Did you know that? She had eye shadow on and
had her hair wrapped up when Jehu said whose on my side? She’s a few floors up and the
eunuchs looked out. There were three of them, weren’t there? They looked out the windows and
he said, throw her down. They threw her out the window, and that was the end of her. But what
did she do in her life? She seduced Ahab.

She was strong. She was powerful. Spirit of Jezebel. She was a woman who was empowered and used by the devil to do a lot of damage in the nation of Israel. Maybe for you and me there would be some application. Maybe there is a
woman who could seduce me. Maybe there is something in my life that I am drawn to. There is
some kind of attraction, some magnetism of some kind that she has some power that she has
over a man or over a woman. There’s something spiritual that is in this world. You know, I don’t
trust myself. I don’t know what is going on. I do not know, but I know the spirit of Jezebel is a
real thing. Somebody could lie to the Holy Spirit. Somebody could give up their marriage. I
counseled a pastor one time. I go you go this way, you’ll lose your wife. You’ll lose your family.
You’ll lose your church. You’ll lose everything for this woman you are attracted to. He goes, I
know. And that’s the decision I’m making. You mean you’re going to lose everything for this
woman? He goes, yep. I am. And he did. Wow! What are we talking about?

We have a spirit of adoption where we are connected with our heavenly Father and our heavenly Father leads us
by the Holy Spirit. I can walk away from Jezebel. I can. You can. We can walk away from
pornography. From lying. From a criminal business deal. You know you should not get involved.
You know you should not get involved with that thing but you cannot help it. To as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Not the spirit of bondage to fear but the spirit
of liberty and praise and joy and purpose and definition and direction and divine blessing
because God has given his family many gifts and many blessings. I’ll finish with that. I want to
repeat it. God has given his family many spiritual blessings, many gifts, many material gifts,
many blessings that happen in our life because we are in his family. He wants us blessed. He
wants us comforted. He wants us taken care of. He wants us in the family.

He sets the solitary – and there are many of them. Many solitary people, not only orphans but homeless people and
lonely people and shut-in people and people that have social or psychological difficulties of
different kinds. There are many solitary and he sets them in families. He loves the family.
Noah’s family got on the ark. Noah’s family. The whole family. They got on the ark. Noah’s
family. He loves the family. The Philippian jailor’s family. The whole family got saved. He loves
the family and he loves you and me, our family, our spiritual family. He has a lot for us and that’s
what I wanted to say today. He will do these three things that I mentioned. What were they?
Forgiving. Divine purpose. Teddy Roosevelt, go to church. The Bible verse is Heb. 10:25. And
he will keep me from evil, from the spirit of Jezebel and that’s all. Okay. Amen.

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