False Motives — George Verwer

The Perils of the Victorious Life

1 Corinthians chapter 10, I want to speak to you tonight on the subject of the perils, the perils of the victorious life, the dangers, the pitfalls of the victorious or the abundant life. I'll never forget reading a little pamphlet by a great man of God named Trumbull on the subject of the perils of the victorious life.

And I tell you, when I finished reading that pamphlet, I never thought the same again. I never thought the same again. In Luke 14, we're told to count the cost. We're told how foolish it is to go forth to war or to build a building without first sitting down and counting the cost.

And I believe these days of conference are days of counting the cost. They're days of seeing what we're going into, of seeing what's involved, and then by faith saying, I believe, as we talked about the other night.

And I believe we need to count the cost. Let us read this passage of Scripture. Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand, that's twenty-three thousand, fell in one day. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for in samples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Wherefore my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say. This is a shocking passage of Scripture. Really, you wonder how it got in the Bible. The story of 23 ,000 people who fell in immorality in one day.

23 ,000 fornicators. World's most realistic, straightforward, on top of the table book. It's what we've got in front of us, and it's amazing. And this is the story of God's people, who according to verse four, had all drank of that rock.

They had all experienced something of God. They all knew God. And they were pressing on through the wilderness, and they, well, we all remember when they arrived at the other side of the Red Sea, the songs they sang, the praises they sang, and of course they were a victorious, a victorious multitude.

Such tremendous, tremendous victory. And then we read about what happened. I'm scared for some of you. Maybe that's the wrong choice of a word. But I know the destiny of many religious zealots. Many of us have come into this work because we have a zeal for the Lord.

Or at least, we have a zeal. And the destiny of most people, who have, or who at some time in their younger years have this kind of zeal and get involved in the kind of work that we are getting involved in, the destiny, is not a pretty one.

The majority of us in this room, especially those of you who are young, the majority of us will end up on a tangent, will end up at a dead-end street, a cul-de-sac, I think they say in France. And I begin to think of it, and it makes me just say, Lord, Lord, what can I do?

You say, well, why do you say that? What a thing to say, what are you, Operation Discouragement? Operation Kick-Me-Down? No, Operation Realism. Look at history, look at other youth movements, look at other missionary movements, we want to be realistic, don't we?

And the reason that many of us will end up knocked out, the reason many of us will end up on a tangent, will end up on the shelf, Corinthians 9, is because we didn't realize in advance the perils of this kind of life, the perils of the victorious life, the perils of giving all to Jesus Christ and coming in to that deep walk with him.

The Cost and Impact of Intense Commitment

Because, and it's hard to explain this, but it's true, when a man becomes an intense and a committed man for Christ, it's in a sense like stretching the bowstring. And the more you stretch the bowstring, the greater the impact when it snaps.

And this has been proven again and again. Men who were intense with God, who preached, who won souls, who had zeal, who walked in victory down through history, if you read history carefully, have become powerful instruments in the hands of saints.

I don't think there's a need tonight to mention a lot of names, but it's true. And those of you who are older, you know how true it is. Young person, it might be better for you to go home at the end of this conference and think about it a little more.

That's right. It might be better for you to go home and get in your local church and get affiliated in contact with some believers and think about it some more, study the Word some more, listen to the tapes again, then take a premature step into spiritual combat, a premature step into this kind of life, because there are many perils.

There are many perils. And, oh my, when I meet people, like one girl, that's right, she went to India. She was intense. She was in love with the Lord. She was committed. No doubt there were areas of weakness, but I won't have to tell you any more.

It's not necessary. Needless to say, though serving Christ in India, though being used to win souls, though all the rest, it's just far, far, far from the Lord. And when I see or think over it, I tremble.

I realize this is a battle casualty. It might have never happened if she hadn't gone. Young person, don't go into OM for a year without counting the cost. Satan is not some kind of jovial fellow who is throwing stones in the brook.

He knows where his enemies are. He knows that when a man comes into victory, when a man forsakes all and follows Christ, that he is a potential everything he doesn't want. I like that little booklet, Demons' Nightmare.

And you just see, when this fellow starts to win souls for Christ, all the demons start to throw everything they have, and they're calling all the plays and making every attempt to stop this soul winning.

And when you determine in your heart you're going to win men to Christ, you're going to turn your back on the world, you're going to give your life to prayer and to snatching men from the jaws of hell, Satan draws up a master plan to ruin your life and drive you into the ground.

If you don't believe that, then you must read a different Bible than I read. Satan seeketh whom he may devour. Speaking of the wicked, wicked woman in the book of Proverbs, it says, and she seeketh and hunted for the precious life.

That's right. And I know young men that never had a temptation in the area of morals to any degree until they got active in the work of God, until they got out in front line combat, and then again and again and again, the devil brought situations, the perils of a victorious life.

Better to go home, better to wait a year, better to say, not me, Lord, I'm not ready.

I admit I can't count the cost. I admit it. I admit it.

I'll go home. Than to go into battle, than to forsake all and to commit your life, even for a year, in this kind of, you will without a doubt, if you become desperate and concerned about the messages we are giving, you without a doubt will become a primary target of the evil one.

Every one of our leaders could come up here and give testimonies to subtle stinging darts that were thrown at them, the perils of the victorious life. Of course, that's why it's so important to make sure you have the victory.

Pride as a Peril of Ministry

Let me list a few of the perils that have come to my mind that I believe can especially hit us in OM. Pride, pride. The Bible says that pride cometh before the victory, that's Satan's version. Pride cometh before a fall, ooh, I tell you, pride, intellectual pride, any of it here tonight?

Bible knowledge pride, ooh, very subtle, preacher's pride, church planter's pride, all kinds of spiritual pride can come in. When we get into the battle, we see some victories, we see some men won, we see a church planted, and oh, we become pasta, pride cometh before a fall, it's deadly, it's one of the perils of the victorious life, it's one of the perils that comes to us in OM as we commit ourselves to the task, as we say, Lord, anywhere, at any time, at any cost, the peril of pride, subtle, terrible, hideous pride that has ruined many a man of God, many a man of God.

I want to tell you I've seen how pride has come in to even men who are used mightily of God, mightily, in ministry, in edification, in soul winning, and yet a subtle form of pride clings and creeps into the heart, and the man does not sin, the man does not sin.

I've seen it again and again all over the world, spiritual pride, one of the perils of the victorious life, one of the perils of the man who's living in the heavenlies, that's right, one of the perils of the man who knows the inner fellowship with the Lamb, with the Lord, spiritual pride, beware them, leaders, those of you who have been to the field, those of you who have been used, those of you who have led men to Christ, those of you who have tasted of spiritual things, as these people there in the wilderness, beware of spiritual pride, beware of any form of pride.

Remember what Amy Carmichael said, if I want any other place on all the earth other than the dust at the foot of the cross, I know nothing of Calvary land. Is that the place that you want tonight? No pride there, no pride there.

A Critical Spirit and Spiritual Comparison

Another peril that comes, a critical spirit, here we sit, day in, day out, and we're getting so much truth, we're hearing so many messages, do you realize what a privilege, and yet what a responsibility it is to go through a conference like this, with men like Mr. Wormbrot coming into our midst, and with others, and giving ourselves to the Word, and to prayer, and to seeing things, and hearing things that many people never have the opportunity to see and hear by the very fact they don't have the time, they have to work.

People can't spend all day in the Bible conference, and that's why I get so thrilled when some of you visitors come night after night, I realize you're working a lot harder than we are, and oh my, how we can get truth, and instead of having that truth for our own edification and to build up our own spiritual life, we use it to build up a false standard, and then we criticize everyone else who's not up on that standard.

It's a terrific peril of this kind of life. And you go back to your church, and right away you want to take all that you learn, and you want to cram it down your pastor's throat, becoming almost unconscious of the fact that the man who's been living 30 years for Jesus Christ, studying the Bible for 30 years, might have something to teach you, I mean it's possible, you know, it's possible.

Spirit, this attitude of know-it-all, this attitude of, well, my, I've got a chunk of truth that very few have today. And out we go with our chunks of truth, and most people get indigestion when we try to feed it.

A critical spirit. Are there any of us here that have this critical spirit? You know, any idiot can criticize, any idiot. I had a terrible critical spirit. When I went to Bible college, everything I saw I criticized.

I could have written Encyclopedia Criticata on that place. Everything seemed to be going wrong, everybody was unspiritual, nobody was winning souls, nobody was wanting to pray through the night. Long lists of things I had, the Pharisee list, I had it on my wall.

It's a deadly thing. And it's a peril in O .M., it's a peril in any spiritual movement, it's a peril in any church that's alive. We in the live church, look at the dead church down the street, oh my, if they'd only get on the ball, if they'd only see the vision, if they'd only understand the truth, maybe it's our lives, maybe it's our pride, maybe it's our critical spirit, maybe it's our censoriousness that's keeping them from knowing it.

Beware, critical spirit.

Tell you, God has broken me, broke me back then, again and again and again, on this point. And I thank Him, and I praise Him, that we can be delivered from all critical spirit. And that's why, praise God, all over the world we've been able to fellowship with other believers and work under them.

Do you think that we can't work with people unless they agree with all the little O .M. superstructure, all the little O .M. periphery? It's ridiculous. Because we must go out to unite with those who believe the basic truths, and together with them accomplish the job for God.

And as you go back to your church, if you have a critical attitude, if you have a negative attitude and negative thinking is one of the greatest soul-killing practices, you can engage it. If you are a negative thinker, if you are pessimistic, you see everything from the black side.

Though the light shines in your eye, you only see the dark, even if you have to close your eyes to do it. If you're this type, you're in for probably a good dose of mental trouble sooner or later. Oh, that we might have a positive attitude, a joyful attitude.

Might we not go into a church and see all that isn't happening? Might we look for something that is happening, and believe me, God is working. Even in a place where you think everything is so-called dead, according to your definitions.

Just because the pastor doesn't shout, just because the organ doesn't jump off the floor, and they don't divide up in twos for prayer, doesn't mean the place is dead. But we get our little preconceived ideas, we get our little biases, and we build the little O .M. image.

And if you don't come up to the O .M. image, well, we don't have to say it. We can speak with our looks. We can speak with our attitudes. We can speak by our silence. We can speak by our non-commitment.

Many ways to speak without opening your mouth. Many ways. Oh, may God deliver us from any form of critical spirit. May we just refuse, absolutely refuse to criticize any other born-again Christian group.

May we just run from it. May we flee from it. May we just stay a mile away. We can speak in authority as God gives grace, and in power against wrong practices, yes. Against materialism, against all these things we're talking about.

But we do not have the right to go and to name a specific group, if they are born-again believers and brothers and sisters in Christ, and criticize. If we have some criticism, go to them according to Matthew 18 and tell them direct.

Let us be in O .M. completely delivered from bombarding other Christian groups, and from tearing, comparing. You know, like the tobacco men. I used to see the ads on television when I was back in the States before I knew the Lord.

They'd always take a little cigarette, tear and compare, tear and compare, funny looking man on the screen. And he'd tear the cigarette down, oh, look at this, tear the other cigarette down. This brand is the best brand.

Smoke this brand. Smoke this brand. And that's just the way some of us are in O .M. Any Christian group, oh, another Christian group, I must make sure it's not more alive than O .M., because then maybe I'll have to join.

Tear and compare.

Oh, my brand is better. Smoke O .M.

Oh, how, how God must, must just look down on us. And he must be shouting, don't you realize they're my children? They're my sons and daughters also. They're born again. They're washed in the same blood.

Jesus died for them as well as you. How can we allow these divisions to come among true believers? I'm not talking about modernists, Christ deniers, men who don't preach the blood. I'm talking about people who have basically the same doctrines and the same truths.

May God deliver us from tearing and comparing. I don't believe it's a valid thing to join a movement because you think it's the best movement. If you're in O .M. because you think O .M. is the best movement, you are absolutely on the wrong track.

And you'll probably help the devil to make us the worst movement. You must come into O .M. because God has given you a heart linking, because God has led you here. Oh, my heart was so warmed by one dear Indian brother and I tell you some of these Indians, they make us look like we're walking backwards.

And we had a big question session and all the questions were being answered. You know how we are in the West, we like to answer all the questions. And I talked to this Indian brother who was just new in the work, a wonderful young man.

His wife has sold some of her jewelry to pay his way down to the conference. Dedicated fellow. And I said, well, how do you feel, brother? Do you feel many of your questions are being answered and you're really feeling, you know, getting into this thing?

He just sort of stared at me and he said, he said, that question is not necessary. He said, he said, Brother George, God called me into this work. Made sense, didn't it? He did a fellowship. It didn't matter if all of his questions were answered, he fully understood anything.

Didn't matter if we were the best or the, or the, or, or not the best or anything like that. God had called him there. He knew he was in God's place. And maybe God will take you out of O .N. and put you into another movement.

Then maybe that movement won't have as much life. Maybe it won't have some of the things you think are so important. But if God puts you there, that's enough. Oh, may God deliver us from the critical spirit, from the judging spirit, from the tearing-comparing spirit and cause us to follow him in humility, in positive thinking, in praise, in looking at that which is good according to what it says in Philippians chapter 4.

Becoming Accustomed to Spiritual Truth

Another peril of becoming accustomed to spiritual truth. Now I would say this is the greatest danger of any people who go to this assembly. I would say this was your greatest danger. My, my, the truth that has come across this pulpit.

And the books that have flowed out of here, the printing press has been underneath the place and what has happened here down through the years, I would say that this was without any doubt a terrific danger.

You've heard so many spiritual messages, so many Christ-exalting messages, so many challenges, you've heard so many missionaries, it must be a terrific battle. Or how we need to just come to the Lord again and again.

This is track 2.

You've heard so many spiritual messages, so many Christ-exalting messages, so many challenges, you've heard so many missionaries, it must be a terrific battle. Or how we need to just come to the Lord again and again and say, Oh Lord, forgive me, forgive me, my heart has become cold, my heart has become accustomed and I can hear a Christ-exalting message or a challenging message and it no longer stirs me like it did 20 years ago.

No longer stirs me as it did some years ago. I'll just say these few words for those of you here. Some of you have lived in days when this conference center was jammed, wasn't it? Just jammed and there seemed to be tremendous blessing and there was tremendous blessing.

But you know, it means even more to Jesus for you to get the same blessing from the same message without the crowd, without the enthusiasm, without the big wonderful work of the Lord. And that's the real test, isn't it?

And this is also true with us on OM. OM is in its uphill climb, isn't it? It's young, it's moving, and it's going places, so to speak. The real test will come when perhaps there'll be a leveling off, perhaps there'll be a lonely place for some of you, perhaps you'll get stuck out in the middle of nowhere and we'll forget to send you the weekly report.

Month after month you'll be all alone and that's when you're going to find out whether you really know Jesus, whether you really love that message, whether anything has really happened to you here at this conference.

And I want to say the victorious road is basically in the long run a lonely road, a lonely road. And if you're going to be a servant of Jesus Christ, if you're thinking about being a missionary, if you're thinking about going to the regions beyond, if you're thinking about being an evangelist, if you think God's putting his hand on you for pastoral ministry, you'd better be ready for a lonely road, lonely road.

You might be in the midst of a crowd, but you'll probably find that at times it'll be a lonely road, peril of becoming accustomed to spiritual things. Some of you have been to several conferences, you can hear a message on forsaking all and twiddle your thumbs and think about Susie Soe at the same time.

You've heard so many messages on the all-sufficiency of Christ that it has left you, has left you stuck in your own sufficiency. Oh, may we be just so afraid of becoming accustomed to spiritual truth.

May we come to every meeting with a spirit of expectancy. We only have one month a year to meet like this. We only have one month a year to hear some of our brethren speak, and some of them we might never speak again, we never dream.

And last year, when our brother Keith spoke, we never hear him again. Maybe some of us would have listened a little harder when he spoke. This is a once and for all lifetime for some of us, opportunity.

Let us beware of becoming accustomed. Let us be hungry. Some of you might throw back to me, well, George, you don't seem very hungry, you don't come to all the meetings. Believe me, I'd like to come. But if I don't get some time with God, and if I don't get some other things done on top, when I come up here to speak, I'll be giving you dry crusts, and I don't know if you want dry crusts, you're probably getting a few as it is.

But I'll tell you, every opportunity, I hear the tapes of every single one of these messages. My own wife is not here tonight, but she's listening to McDonald's tape from two years ago, in her room as she puts the three children to bed.

And I'm hungry, I've heard some of these messages by McDonald and others three and four times over, I'm hungry. And I can't, I just can't hear enough. I've got one tape by Alan Redpant, I've heard it fifteen times, one by Billy Graham twenty times.

I can't get enough of these messages and of these truths God has given us in his scriptures. Let us beware of the peril of becoming accustomed to spiritual things. And most of you will not really captivate these messages until you hear them five times.

That's why it says nine times in the New Testament, love your neighbor as yourself. Because God knew, he was a master psychologist. He knew men's minds and he knew, take about nine times for it to stick.

So there it is, nine times. All the basic doctrines of the Bible are mentioned several times. I would never base any doctrine on a single verse. I believe that's a dangerous thing in hermeneutics, in the Bible.

Every major doctrine, there are more than one verse and many verses. Every major doctrine of the Bible. Praise God for that. There's another peril, the peril of asceticism. Suffering hardship, so, just so we can say that we suffer.

Asceticism, Regret, and the Sufficiency of Christ

Suffering hardship for hardship's sake. And we can, we can on OM have mental asceticism. That's right. And various forms of regret. Various forms of regret. And OM may God deliver us from this because it's subtle and it's deadly and it can just eat away at us.

This thing of trying to inflict chastisement upon ourselves because we've done something wrong and trying to make up for some mistake. You know, that's all carnality, it's carnality. It's only the blood of Jesus Christ that can cleanse from sin and that can make us really free and free, wonderfully free, indeed.

May we be very, very careful about this thing of regret. In Tozer's book, The Incredible Christian, and by the way, I'm putting about 20 more Tozer books in the library. I just found them. First come, first served.

Don't take more than one at a time. Here's what Tozer says about regret. Listen to this. Regret may be no more than a form of self-love. You commit some sin. You do something wrong and you regret it.

Oh, why did I do that? Oh, what a stupid thing. Oh. Regret. Regret may be nothing more than a form of self-love. A man may have such a high regard for himself. Listen, this is probably saying more than my whole message, apart from the Scripture verses.

A man may have such a high regard for himself that any failure to live up to his own image of himself disappoints him so deeply. To such a man, this becomes such a painful loss of face that it is not soon forgotten.

There's something in that. And I see this regret creeping in and various forms of trying to chastise ourselves. May we flee it and come to the fountain, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, where all sin is cleansed.

And regret. I tell you, I've got some things that I've done and some things that have happened even recently. I mean, I just, if I allowed myself, I'd just dig my nails right into the floor. It doesn't do any good.

Oh, may we be delivered from every form of asceticism, mental or physical. Don't be like that one girl who went to the home of someone. The lady had so tirelessly prepared a bed for the girl to sleep in.

And nice sheets. And the room was so nice and clean. The girl met the lady and went into the bedroom. She looked at her. Oh, I don't sleep on beds anymore. I sleep only on the floor. The poor lady, she must have scratched her head and decided right there and then that she wasn't going to have any more of those back.

May God deliver us from getting carried away on minor points. Isn't it amazing how people nab onto this floor sleeping. This is the biggest joke. Nowhere in any of our literature, nowhere in any message have we given instruction that there's virtue or special blessings through sleeping on the floor.

And it's just one of those things. You can talk to people about 40 important spiritual items and you mention some silly, peculiar thing and that's the only thing they'll remember. And again and again, we have been, and I must say this, unfairly criticized in this program.

All the spiritual emphasis, all the emphasis that God gives us and somebody comes up and the only thing they remember is that OMers sleep on the floor. And more than 75 of all the OMers on the year program sleep on beds.

And it's just a little quick for the devil to get us into bondage. But it is true. We can get carried away into asceticism and we can get to the point where we don't take care of our bodies. And this is wrong.

Our body is a temple. The Holy Spirit must be fed. And all these ideas that OMers don't get fed is a big load of nonsense. And yet there are some, not because they're on OM, but because they have this idea and they go to an extreme that perhaps don't take care of their bodies like they should.

It's a danger, it's a peril and we must run away from it. Very quickly, another peril, the peril of the victorious life of launching out in this type of life, laziness. Why? How can that be? We talked about it the other night.

Especially if you get in a situation where no one's over you in the Lord. Laziness can come in. I don't know how, but it does. It does. I won't dwell on it because time has passed too quickly. Another great peril of the victorious life is moral scandal.

Moral Scandal and the Danger of Emotionalism

It's fantastic how Satan throws the darts of immorality at those who mean business for God and all the tragedies. We've talked about this in other meetings. I won't go over it again, but I want to tell you unless you're ready to stand your ground on this area, unless you're ready to keep the whole shield of faith up where you can stop all the fiery darts of the devil, you're going to discover the reality of what it says in that verse 23 ,000 fell in one day and 23 ,000 people who had experienced Red Sea deliverance who had seen miracles throughout the wilderness.

And I want to insert here that I believe it is false doctrine to teach that men are basically going to be one to Christ through seeing signs and miracles or be established in the faith through seeing signs and miracles.

That's just not true because the people of Israel saw the greatest signs and miracles of any people that ever lived and were the greatest group of unbelievers and reprobates and castaways and immorality and everything else.

And all these conversions, many of these conversions, I read in one magazine of some fantastic healer thousands of Muslims came to Christ in India. What lies! How can these people print such lies? We bet our men all over India don't find any of these people.

But we have this idea that if people raise their hand and say I believe and a tear comes. So what happens? We get some of these healers they come from the United States they come to India get a tremendous emotional meaning and somebody is supposedly healed and no one can ever usually prove it although I do believe God can heal.

Maybe they heal some man who's a cripple throws his crutches into the air he's a Muslim this is it. And thousands of Muslims raise their hand I want it, I want it they don't know what they want they don't know anything about Christ they want this is a miracle they believe.

Pictures are taken flashed into the magazine in the United States people are rejoicing running around in circles this is the New Testament Christianity God is back again I tell you we must flee all such nonsense like the plague.

People are not being saved. In a matter of days they become harder against Christianity than when they were first touched. A man is not born again through seeing a sign and a miracle a man is born again by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

And signs and miracles might take place but all to get caught up in this type of thinking is deadly. Deadly! Only the Lord can bring a man to Jesus Christ. And I want to tell you I believe one of the greatest dangers in religion is emotionalism.

I always thought George Burroughs was emotionalist. You don't know how anti-emotion I am. I'm not against having emotion. No. I'm against trusting emotion. I'm against building my doctrines on emotion.

I'm against playing on people's emotions to get them to do something that will not last. And oh, let us not be caught playing with people's emotions violating them to the Lord. It's deadly. And I'm just going to say this for what it's worth.

People who get caught up in emotional religion and trust their emotions and have a religion that is basically linked to emotions almost inevitably end in moral sin. You don't agree with it? Right. All over the world I've seen it again and again.

You must have a religion a religion of Christianity of the will of the mind of the total man not just of the emotions. Things have happened in the United States in groups that have got carried away in emotionalism.

You can't believe it. I know of one place in a church where people get carried away in emotion and eventually they believe in dancing in the Spirit and they believe in singing in the Spirit and these churches so-called have then eventually got into orgies and into all kinds of supposedly spiritual relationships wives among husbands and terrible things you can't even describe.

All in the church. All in the name of Jesus. Enchantments. It's deadly. And in our day it's flooding the world. And you get into a place and you'll hear them singing Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

This is an enchantment. And this calls evil spirits into action. And this is rampant today. It's just creeping across America. And it's one of the most deadly things. And I've been in these meetings where people begin to repeat a word and I wish I had the reference of Scripture because I didn't expect to mention this but there's several references that show how this works and what it's about but I see now that people repeat a word and they repeat it again and again and again and again and again and again and again in prayer.

The same word again and again and again and it becomes a hypnotic. And then things happen that you can't even imagine. The perils of victorious life or the perils of going all the way for the Lord. And I want to tell you Satan has a plan to get us on tangents.

And we'll come across some little tangent and this little tangent will say we are the New Testament truth. This is it. All the churches in the world are wrong. We have found the truth. And they'll have maybe an appealing message and they'll have some spectacular thing or this or that.

And before you know it you'll be caught up with the perils of the victorious life. The perils of the man who's hungry for God. The perils of the man who says anything at any time anywhere. Better be careful when you say that and add the words.

That's in the will of God. And that's going to be according to the word of God. And moral scandal so often gets involved in this. The story of David and Bathsheba is written for our admonition. The story in 1 Corinthians 10 is for our admonition.