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Hello and welcome to all our faithful viewers of "15 Minutes
of Grace and Truth" as well as to all of you who
follow us on social media. Thank you for being with us. Without further delay
I'd like to share a wonderful Thank you for being with us. Without further delay
wonderful Jesus is. I'm sure you'll all agree with me. Amen.
Jesus, what a wonder You are.
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You are so gentle, so pure, so kind.
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You shine
like the bright
morning star.
Jesus,
what a wonder You are.
Jesus, yes
Lord, what a wonder
You are.
You are so gentle, so pure,
and so kind.
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You shine,
hallelujah, like the bright morning star.
Jesus,
Jesus,
what a wonder You are.
Hallelujah. Isn't He
wonderful?
So, without any further delay, we
welcome Pastor Miki
Hardy, today, who will continue in
the series "Heresies" on
part 3 of "Materialism."
So, with hearts
wide open, we
welcome him. The Lord is wonderful.
Thank you for that song, Audrey. It's a
joy to be able to worship the
Lord before our short time of
sharing. Once again,
and perhaps for the last time, I'm going to
speak on the topic
of heresies in the church.
We will continue talking about
materialism in the church, about
prosperity that is promised by pastors, and
servants of God, for all
Christians. And we have already spoken about how
this is a real heresy in the Lord's
church and how God's
people have been subjected to this kind of authority from
pastors and servants of God, who have
taken advantage of the generosity of God's people.
I don't know if you've heard of,
or have seen on
Christian T.V.
programmes, but
I have seen several, where there is
a thing called 'playing with numbers'.
In other words, pastors use numbers in order
to organise special offerings.
So, for example, on June 6, 2006,
that makes 06 06 20 06, and many play
with numbers like that to say that
it's a special day, a day of
blessing, a day where the Lord
is going to act in a supernatural, extraordinary way,
that it's a very particular season.
All kinds
of lies, all kinds of
tricks that God's people
suffer. And it's incredible, how just
because
it's the year 2006, they can now
ask for an offering of
2,600 dollars or 2,600 euros or whatever.
And it's amazing to see how many
Christians are taken in and
manipulated by this kind of heresy.
It's dangerous because when we look a
little closer, we see that these pastors
are hirelings,
they are thieves. There is no shadow
of a doubt that their motives come
from an unclean heart, a heart that is out for
its own gain, that is looking out for its own interests, and it's
sad to conclude that this exists
in the Lord's church.
How is it possible to rob Christians in this
way, and be able to sleep at night?
Brothers and sisters, it's no laughing matter.
Any and every way is considered good to
get more money coming into the church.
And it's everywhere. Last time,
we spoke about selling
water, selling oil, etc.
Any and every way possible is used to rob
Christians, and to steal from them.
As Christians, that's where we must be careful,
even of
servants of God who act in this way.
Open your Bibles in Matthew 21.
In Matthew chapter 21,
we read of a situation here in verse 12:
"Then Jesus went into the temple of God
and drove out all those who bought
and sold
in the temple, and overturned the tables of the
money changers and the seats of those who
sold doves. And He said to them, 'It is written, My
house shall be called a house of prayer,'
but you have made it
a den of thieves.'" A den of thieves...
Today, pastors are selling blessings,
they sell blessings, they sell
promises, pretending that they are the promises
of God. These are lies and it's sad to
see how God's people
have become gullible today. They've become gullible in
the sense that they accept anything, as long
as it's the pastor who asks for it. They are
so trusting that they will do
whatever the pastor asks them to do,
without even examining
anything. In the book of the Acts
of the Apostles chapter 17,
Paul and Silas were in Berea and they
entered the synagogue and
started to speak to the Jews. And verse 11 tells us
"These were more fair-minded
than those in Thessalonica,
in that they received the word with all
readiness, and searched
the Scriptures daily to find out
whether these things were so."
You read that in the book of
Acts chapter 17,
verse 10 and 11.
They searched the Scriptures daily,
the Bible says, in order to find out if what
they were being told
was true. It's time
for God's people, today, to
find the time to look, to
search, to examine God's Word, to check
if what is being asked of them, or
what is being taught to them, is true and if it
finds its origin in God's Word, and is not
just from man. Men can
invent all sorts of things, but God's
people must beware.
We live in dangerous times for
the church, with the various prophecies
from the apostles and from Jesus
about how in the last days there will be
false teachers and false prophets.
And, today, there are people selling prophecies.
They sell prophecies.
It's unbelievable. People queue
up, today, to receive a prophecy,
and pay to receive it.
But in
God's Word we see everything is
free,
the Gospel is free. Nothing should
be done for money. But,
sadly, today money has
become the root, the foundation, the basis
on which many things are done
by so-called 'pastors'
and 'servants of God'
today, the way they operate,
the way they deceive God's
people. It's a very serious issue. Not
only do pastors and servants
of God extort tithes from people, which is a
heresy in itself,
because it belonged to the Old Covenant
and is not part of the
New Covenant, and we have shown
that tithes
do not have their place
under the New Covenant.
So, not only do they impose tithing on God's people,
but on top of that they add pressure on
God's people by manipulating them and
making them believe that they can
buy blessings from God.
The greater the miracle you need, the more you
pay. If you need something small,
well then you pay a little amount,
in order for someone to pray for you. But if
you need a great miracle, then
you need to give a lot of money in order
to be prayed for. But this is exactly
the same attitude, same motive, and same spirit that
was reigning in the temple when Jesus
entered it. Exactly the same attitude.
Today, if Jesus came into many
churches, and He saw and
heard what God's people are seeing
and hearing, then I think many things
would be changed.
In his epistle to the Colossians
chapter 2, verse 8, Paul says, "Beware
lest anyone cheat you through
philosophy and empty deceit,"
Beware lest anyone
cheat you.
"according to the tradition of men,
according to the basic principles of the world,
and not according to Christ."
This is an amazing warning
from Apostle Paul to the Colossian church.
And for us, today, it's the same thing
in the last days in which we're living.
The basic principles of the world. The world
is running after money
and let me tell you something, look
at the history of the church:
there has never been a revival where
money has been the foundation. In the history
of the church there has never been one, go
and look, go and search. That's why
this current desire to have more,
to run after things, this materialistic
attitude, and searching for prosperity,
needs to be buried. Instead, we need to have a
heart according to God's heart,
and be ready to follow the Lord in every
circumstance, whether
good or bad, and above all
giving thanks to God for everything, as
the Word of God teaches us.
Christians, wake up! Christians,
wake up! Don't stay in
churches where they are running after you
and your money, or where they're asking you
to do all sorts of things, trying to
prove to you by logic and deduction,
that now you need to bring your tithe,
as well as do this
and that.
Beware! Wake up! Come out from among them
and find a place where you are
free to give
according to what your heart wants to give.
Amen. May the Lord bless you and
may you never forget that we
love you and have a
good day.
Here we are at the end of today's "15 Minutes
of Grace and Truth." I'm sure
you'll all agree with me
that there is nothing more liberating than the
Word of God. I want to
encourage you, brothers and sisters,
let's be like the four lepers, who when
they discovered the camp of the Syrians
and found the food supply during
the time of famine in
Samaria, how they said to each other
that they couldn't keep this good news
to themselves.
Let's spread this good news, invite people,
tell them to connect to this program, because there is nothing more
powerful to free us, and to help us to
serve the Lord in His light
and in His truth.
So, be there for the next session
with Pastor Miki Hardy. Once again, he will be
talking to us in the series "Heresies",
about positive confession,
a session not to be missed.
See you soon.
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