F4F | Matt Sorger Empty Talker

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So one of the complaints

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I get is that I'm just too uptight. And sometimes people send me emails along the lines of this.

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This is kind of my paraphrase. It's like, well, you know, dude, it's like, you know, you're so hypocritical, man. And it's like, you know, it's true that some of the things these people are like saying is like not even true or it's not really saying much, but I mean, who cares?

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It's not like they're hurting anyone. You know, this is how they talk, you know, and so here's what we're going to do.

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We're going to, in this episode of Fighting for the Faith, we're going to be looking at a particular type of deception that's mentioned in Scripture twice.

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I'll show it to you in the Greek, and there's an interesting, there's an interesting translation potential in this word that we'll look at that's actually kind of funny.

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But the word itself is translated in one passage as empty talkers, empty talkers.

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And we're going to note that Scripture warns us against deceivers and empty talkers.

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And so to demonstrate this, I'm going to go to the YouTube channel of Matt Sorger. This is a fellow

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I haven't really covered in a long time. I used to cover him with some frequency back in my old podcasting days.

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And the reason being is that he was identified by C. Peter Wagner from the

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NAR as, oh, this was an up and coming star in the charismatic circles. And C.

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Peter Wagner thought that Matt Sorger was like one of these Joel's Army, you know, new breed generation charismatics that would be able to operate in signs and wonders as naturally as fish swim in water.

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That hasn't panned out. And Sorger now is kind of getting long in tooth. He's looking old, just like me, which is kind of funny.

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But all that being said, we're going to listen to a portion of a message of his and demonstrate what this sounds like, this empty talker thing.

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And here's the thing, be listening for this. If you're wondering if somebody is a false teacher or a deceiver, if they're engaging in empty talking, and again, we'll show you what this looks like, run.

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You are forbidden from Scripture to listen to this person. They're a deceiver. They're not. They're wasting your time and basically saying absolutely nothing in the process.

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And of course, expecting you to put a generous amount of money in the offering plate when it comes by.

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And that's one of the things they do, by the way. So let me whirl up the desktop. By the way, that's a photograph of Piccadilly Circus.

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Unfortunately, we don't have time to talk about that today. So let's head over to the

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YouTube video channel of Matt Sorger Ministries, and we're going to be listening to a portion of a message titled

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Radiate the Glory Part 4. Thankfully, I missed Radiate the Glory 1, 2, and 3.

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My head probably would have exploded had I had to watch all three of those prior. But here's a Radiate the

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Glory Part 4, and this is a prime example, prime example of something that Scripture warns us about, about the empty talker.

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So let's listen in. Here's Matt Sorger. You know, I believe we have been created by God to be lightning rods in the earth.

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See, we just started. Okay, so I should point out maybe a secondary question along the lines of as we listen to Matt Sorger is, so number one, is he even saying anything?

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Number two, is what he's saying even biblical? And so here, here's the statement.

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It's there for us handily. I don't have to repeat it because the closed captioning caught it.

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I believe we have been created by God to be lightning rods in the earth. Really?

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What made you come to that conclusion? Because I can't think of a single biblical text that says anything about us being lightning rods.

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And by the way, I would note that human beings and lightning generally do not get along. In fact, when a human being becomes a lightning rod, the next thing that happens is they become a corpse.

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And so I would note, I don't want to be a lightning rod. In fact, I'm going to do everything I can to avoid lightning.

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So you got to know this is weird stuff already, but he's not saying anything.

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And this isn't taught in scripture. And this is, again, this is a type of deception that is warned specifically against by the

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Bible itself. But let's tune in a little bit more here. God's looking for lightning rods. Do you have a text that says that God's looking for lightning rods?

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I'm sure he can order some from the Home Depot if he were really looking for some. You know what a lightning rod is?

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A lightning rod is someone who attracts lightning, or it's an object that attracts lightning. But I believe we could be spiritual lightning rods.

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Oh, you believe that? You believe that we can be spiritual lightning rods. And how exactly did you come to this conclusion,

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Sherlock? I'd like to know. I mean, did you use deductive logic? How did you come to this conclusion?

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Because this is nowhere mentioned in scripture. There's a quality in your spirit. There's a quality in your heart and your hunger for God.

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You know, God responds to your hunger, right? It's not your perfection that qualifies you. It's your hunger. Now this, by the way, is a false gospel.

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It's not your perfection that qualifies you. It's your hunger. No. You know what qualifies you in the kingdom of God?

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The blood of Christ. You and I have been disqualified because of our sin. Each and every one of us, born dead in trespasses and sins and enmity with God and objects of God's wrath.

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That's what the scripture, how it describes us. How then are we qualified by the fact that Christ has bled and died for your sins and mine, and as a result of it, by grace through faith, we received the gift of reconciliation and redemption won for us by Jesus on the cross.

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You didn't earn it by your hunger for God. No one seeks for God. By the way,

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I'll throw in a text here that I didn't plan on initially, but I think it fits in here. In the book of Romans chapter three,

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Romans chapter three. So if you were to think of hunger, like seeking for God, watch what the apostle

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Paul says in Romans chapter three regarding the state of humanity. And here he's going to be quoting from Psalm 53,

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Psalm 14. This is mentioned twice in scripture, Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, and then written a third time in the book of Romans, none is righteous.

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No, not one, but watch how the, how this unfolds. So what then are we Jews any better off? Well, no, not at all.

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For we've already charged that all, that everybody, both Jews and Greeks are under sin as it is written, none is righteous.

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No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together.

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They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.

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The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood and in their paths are ruin and misery.

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In the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That's the state of all humanity. Yeah. And you, you, you couldn't hunger for God enough if you wanted to in order to be qualified by him and no scripture says you are made qualified before God by your hunger.

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No, no one seeks for God. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God for by works of the law.

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No human being will be justified in God's sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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That's the purpose of the law is to make you aware that you are a sinner and that you are in great need of the forgiveness of your sins, which was purchased and won for you by Jesus Christ in his vicarious penal substitutionary death on the cross for you.

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Right? And of course then he rose again bodily from the grave on the third day and has now now ascended to heaven.

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Right? So what Matt Sorger is saying here is not true.

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There is no biblical text that says that you are qualified by your hunger before God.

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Nope. He's just making stuff up. But let me back this up and you continue to hear this empty talking.

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You know God responds to your hunger, right? It's not your perfection that qualifies you. It's your hunger. You could come to God very imperfect, but very hungry and God will meet you right where you are.

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And as he fills your hunger, that's a false gospel. His anointing will transform you. You don't have to perfect.

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No text says this in order to come before God. That's true. You couldn't perfect yourself if you tried anyway.

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If you try to perfect yourself to come before God, you'll never get there. Right. But being qualified by your hunger is not the solution.

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It's the gospel, the good news that Christ has bled and died for you. That is what qualifies because we always fall short.

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But as we hunger for him, he draws near to us. The guy doesn't even know

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Christianity 101. He's not a Christian. This is a false gospel altogether.

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And as he draws near to us, then he transforms us, not the other way around. Oh, praise the

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Lord. Your hunger causes you to become like a lightning rod for his glory.

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Do tell. Share with us a little bit more of this nonsensical pontificating on your part, please.

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And I believe in the lightnings of God. You do? Oh, good. The prophet Habakkuk saw the lightnings of God when he saw

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God's glory. He had a vision of the glory. And as he saw the glory, he saw the lightnings of God. I'm sure he did.

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But that has nothing to do with what you're saying. That God's looking for lightning rods? I've seen the lightnings of God in our meetings.

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Oh, yes. I have seen the lightnings of God. Really? And you live to tell the tale?

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Really? So let me talk about, aside from being snarky, let's take a look at some biblical texts here, okay?

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And here's where we're going to learn. We're going to learn a Greek word along the way, and one of the potential ways of translating this word.

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So in Titus chapter one, I recently covered this when we talked about Mark Driscoll, and let's go back and I'm going to show you a very specific thing in this text that's warning us about guys like Matt Sauger, okay?

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So a pastor, you know, he must not be arrogant, quick -tempered, a drunkard, or violent, or greedy for gain.

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He must be hospitable, a lover of good, self -controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

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Note, pastors are supposed to teach what? Sound doctrine.

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Do you think for a second that the claim that God is looking for lightning rods and that you are made qualified before God by your hungering, is that sound doctrine?

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No. The guy is teaching falsehood and he doesn't know how to rightly handle a biblical text to save his life, and it shows, okay, but in Christ's church,

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Christ wills that only sound doctrine is taught. And Matt Sauger is the poster boy for false doctrine, right?

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Then it says this, why must he hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, give instruction in sound doctrine, and he also must rebuke those who contradict it?

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Here's the reason why. For there are many, not some, many who are insubordinate, empty talkers.

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Now, here's where we'll take a look at the Greek, but let me read the sentence. There are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

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They must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

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Matt Sauger is doing that exactly right now, teaching for shameful gain things he ought not to teach because he ain't teaching sound doctrine.

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And he falls into this category of guys who just blather on and they say nothing.

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Okay? So our Greek word here is, uh, is, hang on a second. I got to make that a little bit bigger so that I can see it.

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Old eyes. And this was a little tricky to pronounce. Matt tie a log us,

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Matt tie a log us and listen to the potential ways of, of translating Matt tie Matt tie

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Matt tie a log us. Okay. So idle talking and idle talker, a wind bag.

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Yes. So we can say that Matt Sauger, by saying nothing in this nonsense that he's saying, he's an empty talking windbag and they are forbidden from preaching in Christ's church.

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In fact, Christ wills that they be, that they be silenced.

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That's what the text says. There are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, empty talkers, the windbags, they, uh, they must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain, what they ought not to teach.

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Now, by the way, the word Matt tie a log us, this isn't the only time that it appears in the scripture.

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There is another time that it appears and it's in first Timothy chapter one, verse six, let me read it and put it in context again, three rules for sound biblical exegesis, context, context, and context, right?

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So Paul writing to young pastor Timothy says this, as I urged you, when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.

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Get in their face and tell them to shut up, stop preaching false doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promotes speculations rather than the stewardship that is from God, that is by faith.

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So the aim of our charge is love, by the way, rebuking a false, a false teacher and admonishing him to teach only sound doctrine and stick to the biblical texts and rightly explain what the

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Bible says and means that's that issue is out of love. That's not hatred. That's not judgmentalism.

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That issue is out of love because false doctrine sends people to hell, right? So the aim of our charge is, is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

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And then here we go. Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered into vain discussion.

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And here's our word again, matai lagas. They've, they've swerved into empty talking windbaggery, right?

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That's what vain discussion means. It shows up. Okay. Certain persons by swerving from sound doctrine have wandered into vain talking, empty talking windbaggery, right?

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Desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or say, they're saying, or the things about which they make confident assertions.

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They don't know nothing. Okay. And that's exactly what Matt Sorger is doing here.

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Absolute empty talking windbaggery. And we are warned against them.

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It's not that this is like something, well, it's no big deal. I know he's not really saying anything. No, this is exactly what we're being warned against in the scripture.

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And it's a hallmark, one of the hallmarks of a false teacher. Empty talking windbaggery is a bad thing and Christ forbids it in his church.

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So let's come back and let's listen to a little bit more of this empty talking windbaggery by Matt Sorger.

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They bring breakthrough and miracle. All right. Hang on. Backing this up. Here we go. Prophet Habakkuk saw the lightnings of God.

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When he saw God's glory, he had a vision of the glory. And as he saw the glory, he saw the lightnings of God. I've seen the lightnings of God in our meetings.

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Oh yes, I have seen the lightnings of God. They bring breakthrough and miracles and healing and freedom.

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Uh huh. Breakthrough and miracles and a prophecy. Bingo. Words. Habakkuk, the prophet

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Habakkuk saw the lightnings of God in chapter three. He sees God's glory, the vision in verse three, his glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise.

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He saw the heavens covered with glory and the way he sees it in verse four, he says his brightness was like the sunlight.

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I mean, the sun is so bright. It's like blinding light. All right. Let's take a look at Habakkuk chapter three.

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Shall we? Uh, so, you know, we need a Hebrew text for this Habakkuk chapter three. All right.

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So Habakkuk is praying in chapter three. By the way, great text. Uh, you know, if you haven't read

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Habakkuk, spend a little time with him. He's, it is a fantastic prophet. Uh, so a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, according to Sigionoth, Oh Yahweh, I have heard the report of you and your work.

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Oh Yahweh, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it.

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In the midst of the years, make it known in wrath, remember mercy. God came from Timon and the

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Holy one from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise.

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His brightness was like the light rays flashed from his hand. And there he veiled his power before him went pestilence and plague followed at his heels.

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He stood and measured the earth. He looked and shook the nations and the eternal mountains were scattered.

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The everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways.

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I saw the tents of Kushan in affliction. The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

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Was your wrath against the rivers? Oh Yahweh, was your anger against the rivers or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation, you stripped the sheath from your bow and calling for many arrows, you split the earth with rivers, the mountain saw you and writhed, raging waters swept on the deep, gave forth its voice, it lifted its hand on high.

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The sun and the moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows. As they sped at the flash of your glittering spear, you marched through the earth in fury, your threshold, the nations in anger, you threshed, sorry, threshed the nations in anger.

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You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed, you crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from the thigh to the neck, you pierced with his own arrows, the head of his warriors who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret, you trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters,

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I hear and my body trembles, my lips quiver at the sound, rottenness enters into my bones, my legs tremble beneath me, yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us."

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Huh. So basically you'll note that this is a wonderful prayer on the part of Habakkuk and it's magnificent in its depicting of the glory of God and of his deeds, especially his deeds of wrath and judgment.

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But all Matt Sorger did, Matt Sorger, the empty talking windbag, he has basically taken a description of the brightness of God's glory and hijacked it for saying that God's looking for lightning rods and stuff and things.

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This man doesn't know how to handle a biblical text and his reference to Habakkuk three verse four is offensive on its face because he clearly has no clue what the passage says for real, even what it means, and he hasn't explained it in any way whatsoever.

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So the people who are sitting under his teaching would better understand this biblical text.

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Far from it. Everything he said has made this text more ponderous and almost impossible to understand.

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We continue. That's what the glory of God is like. His brightness was like the sunlight, rays streamed from his hand.

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Another translation says lightning flashes from his hand and there in sunlight splendor is the hiding place of his power.

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In sunlight splendor, what is the sunlight splendor? That's his glory. In his glory is the hiding place of his power. In his glory is his hand and from his hand, the lightning flashes of God come forth.

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That's a beautiful visionary illustration of the glory of God and the anointing of God.

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The glory of God is like his light, his presence, his essence, his nature, his characters, attributes, everything he is.

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That's his glory. And when you find his glory, you find the hiding place of his power. He's not saying anything.

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And when you find the hiding place of his power, you find his anointing. It's painful to watch.

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The reason it's painful is because this is nothing. He's, this is a big nothing burger. He ain't saying nothing.

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The people sitting under his teaching, they ain't learning anything at all about how to rightly handle or understand a biblical text.

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Now, put this from an old covenant to a new covenant perspective. The prophet saw the glory externally, but now as new covenant believers, the glory isn't out here, the glory's in here.

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Do you have a text that says that? So the very thing he saw on the outside is now on the inside, which means this.

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So you've hijacked Habakkuk 3 .4 to then pontificate and speculate about things that are not actually said in scripture.

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See what you look like in the spirit. You look like a blinding light bulb. If you had eyes to see what your spirit man looks like, the glory, the light, the blinding light of God, like the sunlight is radiating in your spirit, man.

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And does it peek out like the Care Bears and stuff in that place of God's glory?

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When you go into the secret place, the Bible says, go into the secret place. So you got to throw a secret place into here.

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Okay. And there pray to your father in secret. That's when you go into that inner chamber in your spirit, where God's glory dwells and you abide with him and communion with him and pray and have that time with him from that place of his glory.

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You discover that hiding place of God's power within you. He has this weird smirk on his face.

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You ever heard of the concept known as duper's delight? He knows he's saying nothing. And the people there eating this stuff up going,

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Oh, amen. Glory to God. Oh, thank you, Lord. Oh, wow. Amen. Praise Jesus.

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He's not saying anything. He's an empty talker. He's a windbag.

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This is vain. I'm back. God's glory dwells and you abide with him and communion with him and pray and have that time with him from that place of his glory.

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You discover that hiding place of God's power within you. And it's like within you, the hand of God comes forth and lightning flashes out from that place.

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So I have the glory sitting inside of me. And if I go into the secret place and figure out the hiding, hidden place of God's glory, the hand will pop out and then lightnings will flash from inside of me.

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This is stupid. The fact that anybody thinks that what this guy is saying is biblical or in sound or anything is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, actually a proof that they're under God's judgment.

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That's why the Bible says believers will lay hands on the sick and they will recover because from the inner man, from the inner secret chamber of, of God's glory, the lightning of God comes forth out of that place.

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Really? You don't say, Oh, hallelujah. No, it's a, he's got that duper's delight smirk going on here.

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He just knows that people are just eating this up and it's paying his bills. You know, you are more dangerous than you realize.

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Really? Oh, I am dangerous. You know, uh, Christians could get the revelation of what they carry and who they carry.

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Then I smite my enemies with my lightning from my belly. You know, they would never fear anything.

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They would never fear man. They would never fear the enemy. They would never fear anything if they could see the glory that's on the inside of them.

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Lightning flashes. It's like you're a walking bug zapper. Oh, what?

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He's not only not saying anything, he's saying it absurdly. Know what a bug zapper is? We have them in, well, we had them in New York.

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So I, if you just understand that you've got the glory lightning thingy from the hidden hand stuff inside of you, you, you'd recognize you're a

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Christian bug zapper. Can't make this up.

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I haven't seen him in North Carolina yet, but they, there are these lights that hang in the backyard in the summertime and the bug sees it and says,

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Oh, look at the pretty light zap. That's what you're like in the spirit. You're a walking bug zapper.

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Excuse me here. I'm going to have to check out. I can't, this is the stupidest thing

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I've heard in like a week and I hear a lot of stupid things, but this one, this one tops this week.

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He's not saying anything. Again, let me remind you of what the scripture says.

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Pastor must be able to hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

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Why? Because there are many, including Matt Sorger, who are insubordinate, empty talkers, idle talking windbags and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

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And Christ himself gives us command through the Holy spirit. He wills that they must be silenced.

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So don't listen to the empty talkers flee.

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Don't write them a check. Don't support their ministry, rebuke them to their face as insubordinate, empty talking windbags and point out the fact that they're not handling a biblical text correctly.

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I think you get the idea. And by doing that, I guess you can zap them. You bug zapper style with the truth because I don't know.

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This is, so if you found this helpful, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description.

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And I'd like to give a quick shout out to those of you who support this ministry without your help, we could not be doing the things that we are doing.

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So I want to thank you. If you would like to join our crew, there is a link down below that'll take you to our website and you can join our crew and financially support us so that we can keep doing the work that we're doing and warning the body of Christ against empty talking windbags like Matt Sorger and others.

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And at the same time preaching sound doctrine. So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.