F4F | Jentezen Franklin: Change Your Words Change Your Life?!

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. 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 we've covered the

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Word of Faith heresy before in several different installments. This one's a little bit unique.

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We're going to be listening to Jensen Franklin talking about how if you want to change your life, you have to change your words.

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I mean, this is Word of Faith heresy down the line, but man, this one is really sneaky on one level and brazen on another.

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I haven't really quite heard a Word of Faith heresy sermon quite like this in a while.

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So all I can say is buckle up. It's going to be kind of interesting. So let me whirl up the desktop and we're going to open up the browser here and we're heading to Free Chapel Gainesville, Georgia.

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And Jensen Franklin is holding court there. Change your words, change your life.

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And boy, this twisting of the prophet Isaiah is subtle.

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Man, sometimes I think I've heard it said that the difference between truth and error is it's so subtle, so subtle.

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It's not about what's true and false, but about what's true as opposed to what's almost true.

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This is so slick. Oh, evil, but slick.

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Here we go. I want you to look with me in Isaiah 57 and verse 18.

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I've seen his ways and will heal him. OK, so I've already paused it and you know that we have the closed captioning on.

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I've seen his ways and I'll heal him. Isaiah 57 verse 18.

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I have seen his ways and I will heal him. Who's the he? Who needs the healing?

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You'll note that already we're up against the ropes because he's not quoting the text in context, which generally means you're in for a

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Bible twisting. So let's start off, shall we, by going ahead to Isaiah 57.

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The phrase in question is going to be right here in verse 19, creating the fruit of the lips.

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And we're going to see if we can figure out what's going on there. But our three rules for sound biblical exegesis are context, context, and context.

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And let's see if what we can do there, because he just jumped right in and what do we got? And I have seen his ways.

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Whose ways? So it shall be said, build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstacle from my people's way.

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For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.

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I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of contrite and lowly spirit.

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All right, that's going to help us out here. So he's talking about dwelling with those who are contrite and lowly of spirit.

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These are those who are the penitent, those who mourn, who weep over their own sins.

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As Christ says, the one who exalts himself will be humbled. The one who humbles himself will be exalted.

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So you'll note here that the translation committee for the

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ESV think that a good way to name this section of Isaiah is called comfort for the contrite.

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I think that's appropriate given what I know about this passage. And so God says,

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I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is contrite and lowly spirit.

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To revive the spirit of the lowly, to revive the heart of the contrite, I will not contend forever, nor will

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I always be angry. For the spirit would grow faint before me and the breath of life that I made because of the iniquity of his unjust gain,

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I was angry. I struck him, I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.

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I have seen his ways, but I will heal him. I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips.

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Peace, peace to the far and to the near, says Yahweh, and I will heal him.

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But the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet and its waters toss up mire and dirt.

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There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. So when we put it back in context, we see that God is making a distinction between the contrite and lowly of heart as opposed to the wicked and the arrogant.

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That's the idea here. And so he says, I've seen his ways, talking about the one who's backslidden, but he's contrite, but I will heal him.

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I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners. And then we have a phrase that's not easy.

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Creating, bara, and here it's in its participial form, creating the fruit of the lips.

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Now, keep in mind, it says creating the fruit of the lips. What is that?

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Well, let me give you the cross reference and it'll help. This is a Hebraism. In fact, one commentator that I looked at this passage, in his translation of this text, he translated it as creating praise, creating praise.

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That's a good translation, by the way, because creating the fruit of the lips is an idiomatic phrase.

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So what do we do with it? Well, Hebrews 13 will help us here. Hebrews 13 is a, well,

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Hebrews is a book written to Hebrews and it helps them understand the Old Testament properly.

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It's addressing people with a Hebrew mindset. So let me show you the text here that I think is helpful.

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It's verse 15, but we have to put it in context. So starting in verse 7,

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Hebrews says, So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

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Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach that he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

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Through him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

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That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

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So the fruit of lips, there's that phrase again, right? What is it?

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It's in this context, praise. So when we go back to Isaiah 57, creating praise.

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So note, there's an interesting thing that occurs in the scriptures. And let me, let me see if I can hunt this down here.

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Isaiah 51, listen to these words. Then I will teach transgressors your ways.

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Sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltyness, O God. O God of my salvation.

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And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.

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For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. And you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken heart or a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart.

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O God, you will not despise. So Isaiah 57 here, when it says creating the fruit of the lips, it is literally saying that God is promising to the contrite that he will create within them praise.

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O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. Hebrews 13, 15 says that the fruit of the lips is praise.

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God is going to create praise in the mouth of the penitent, of the contrite.

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God speaks to them, peace, peace to the far and to the near and I will heal them. God is creating within them praise.

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That's what the Hebrew idiom, the fruit of lips means. So this is just simple, simple understanding here.

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And that's what you consult a good Bible commentary on it. And they'll all have a discussion along the lines of the fruit of lips is understood to mean praise.

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That's what it is. But what Jensen Franklin does here. So he started his sermon by not reading

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Isaiah 57, 18 or 19 in context. He jumps into the middle of it without explaining the context.

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And here's the reason why. He's looking for the phrase creating the fruit of the lips, but he's going to twist it just a little bit.

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And I mean a little bit. And that twist is going to make the biggest difference ever.

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So let's, let me back this up just a little and let's keep going. Isaiah 57 and verse 18,

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I've seen his ways and will heal him. I will also lead him and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.

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Verse 19, I, God speaking, create the fruit of your lips. God creating the fruit of your lips.

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Now let me turn the closed captioning off for a second. Isaiah 57, 19 says,

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I create the fruit of the lips. It doesn't say yours. He added the word your, and it matters.

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Creating the fruit of your lips. By him adding the word your, which doesn't appear anywhere in the

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Hebrew. It doesn't. And so let me come back. Okay. Creating, bara.

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And then we've got this word, nuf, creating fruit of the lips.

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And this is sefatarim. And so we've got a problem here.

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He's added the word your. And you're thinking, well, that doesn't really matter that much. Oh, it does. It matters a whole hill of beans.

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You know the difference between heresy and orthodoxy? As it comes down to the difference between biblical

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Christians and those who buy into the Aryan heresy. It's one letter in the

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Greek alphabet. It's an iota. So he's added the word your.

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The text doesn't say your. The text says, I create the fruit of the lips.

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I create praise. That's what the phrase, the Hebrew idiom, means. So we've got a problem here.

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I'm going to back this up. I will also lead him and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.

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Verse 19, I, God speaking, create the fruit of your lips. Nope. Your is not in the text.

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Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near, says the Lord, I will heal him.

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Now, note, he is, Jensen Franklin is not going to go and explain this in context, explain who is it that's going to get the healing.

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Here, I will heal him. He's just read it out. He wants the words, the fruit of your lips. He's added the word your.

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And watch where he goes with this because he's going to start inserting things into the biblical text that are not there.

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God said, I create. The word create means to form, fashion, and mold.

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Yeah, bara does mean that. And create, the Hebrew verb bara, only God bara's.

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There is no account of human beings bara -ing. That's not the right way to say it, but okay.

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Potter, I listen to what you say. I create, form, and fashion the fruit of your lips.

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Let me back it up because if you weren't paying attention, you missed it. He's just, he's saying that God is saying in this text, whatever you say,

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God will create. That is not what this passage says. God said,

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I create. The word create means to form, fashion, and mold like a potter.

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I listen to what you say. I create, form, and fashion the fruit of your lips.

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No, this is sneaky, and it's totally wrong.

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That is not what this text says at all. How do you get God to work in your life?

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How do I get God to work? Is there a way I can activate or manipulate

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God so that he'll work in my life? How do you activate God's miracle power?

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Send 400 bucks to Jennifer LeClaire? No, by the way, no. This is so bad.

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God said, I have linked my creative miraculous power in separately to the words that you speak into your life.

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No, God hasn't said that at all. You've twisted a

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Hebrew idiom and turned it into this. But God says creating the fruit of the lips, talking about creating praise.

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You're saying that God's going to create whatever my mouth speaks.

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That's not what this text says at all. I create whatever you keep speaking.

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Again, Isaiah 57 does not teach this. I create, I form, I fashion,

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I mold what you constantly, consistently pray for, confess, and praise for.

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And praise for? I praise for things? Say what? Whatever you dare to utter.

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The word fruit means utterance. I create the utterance of your lips.

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What you speak, when you speak it, and if you keep holding to that confession. There's a verse in the

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Bible that says, hold fast to your confession. So, whatever I speak and hold fast to that confession,

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God will make. And then he references Hebrews 10 .23. Does Hebrews 10 .23 say that whatever

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I confess, whatever I speak, whatever I praise for, that God's going to create?

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Nope. So, we're going to take a look at Hebrews chapter 10. So, let's see. Hebrews 10.

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And context, we'll just put it in context. Starting verse 19. So, let us hold fast the confession of our hope.

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That's talking about our faith in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. Because Jesus has gone to the cross and bled and died for your sins and mine.

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And our hope is that we are forgiven and that we have a promise of eternal life in the new earth.

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Hmm. So, now he's twisted Hebrews 10 .23 and Isaiah 57.

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Both of them demonstrably shown to be a twist. Hold fast to it. Man has the power to speak, to talk, to confess.

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Man is God's only creation that he made that can talk. No, he's not.

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Man is God's only creation that he made that can talk. You are aware that angels were created by God, right?

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Okay. Let's do a little more work here. And that Satan himself is a fallen angel.

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I think the devil can talk, by the way. Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

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And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him,

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If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. Let's see.

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The tempter came and said, from the Greek verb, let go.

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If you are the son of God, command these stones to become bread. But he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds or comes from the mouth of God.

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Then the devil took him to the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said, let go.

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To him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you.

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Sounds like the devil's talking to me. What do you think? And what about angels? You know, angels can talk too.

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In Revelation 22, I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.

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And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. But he said to me, you must not do that.

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I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book, worship

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God. So note the angel, let go, he said. And then he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.

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That's odd. So, Jenson Franklin just said, man is

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God's only creation that he made that can talk. Can you explain then how angels talk and how fallen angels like Satan talk?

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How is that possible if God only made man to be able to talk?

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Something way, way wrong here. Just like God. He spoke the world into existence.

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There's no other creation. The animals can't talk. You say a parrot can. It can repeat words. It cannot believe in its heart and speak with its mouth.

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I'm not just talking about saying whatever you want. But when you find something in the scripture and you believe it in your heart, and then you begin to speak it no matter what you see.

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I believe this book and what it says greater. Let God be true and every man a liar.

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The Bible said. Yeah, but the Bible does not actually say that what we can speak things into existence.

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We're not God. And man is the only creation that God made that has the power to talk.

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Again, I would beg to differ with you based on biblical texts that show that angels can talk.

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And so can the fallen angels. To speak. God took speech away from the serpent in the book of Genesis.

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That's actually not part of the details of Genesis 3. When Satan came in and he borrowed the body of a serpent.

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Back then apparently serpents could walk. A serpent with legs is called a dragon.

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And they could talk. I'm not teaching something weird. Please look at your Bible. The serpent said to Eve.

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It could talk. And when God cursed it. He defeated it. He took the legs off.

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And it crawled on its belly. And then he took the power to speak away from that. Devil.

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Yeah. Let's just take a look at Genesis 3. Shall we? Let me go to my

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Isaiah tab here. Genesis 3. Let's see if it says anything about taking away speech.

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All right. So, we got. Okay. So, Lord God. Yahweh Elohim said to the serpent.

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Because you have done this. Cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

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I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head.

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You shall bruise his heel. Yeah. Here's the issue. The text actually doesn't say here that God took away speech from the serpent.

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And since it was the devil who was behind what the serpent was saying. The devil didn't have any problem talking when he tempted

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Jesus in the wilderness. Huh. If a demon's going to talk, he's going to talk through somebody now.

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Says no biblical text. You're making this up, Jensen. They have no legal right to say anything except in your mind through suggestions.

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Who says they don't have a legal right to say anything? The devil sure did break any legal rights.

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You know, any laws pertaining to legal rights when he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness.

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You don't have to listen to it. And God took speech away from that serpent.

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But he has not taken speech away from man. Yeah.

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And apparently you can create reality with your words just the way God did.

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Yeah. That's a satanic deception. You are now a composite of everything you've been saying.

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No, I'm not. That's just complete falsehood. Note here then. So are things going terribly for you?

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Do you have a chronic illness? Are you struggling to pay the bills thanks to inflation? Yay, inflation.

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And, you know, things like this, right? Is the reason why you have a chronic illness or having problem paying the bills because this is the composite of all the things that you've been saying about your life?

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No. That is a flat -out lie. No biblical text says this.

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Change your words and you'll begin to change your life. This is magic and superstition.

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This is not biblical doctrine. If you want to become something different, change what you are confessing. Change what you are saying.

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God said, I gave you two ears and I gave you two eyes. No, God didn't say

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I gave you two ears and gave you two eyes. Where does God give us this chastisement? Sounds like something my mother would say.

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But I only gave you one mouth. He wants you to listen twice as much as you talk, and he wants you to watch and see more than you talk.

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Aren't you thankful God didn't give your husband or wife two mouths like he gave them two ears and two eyes? Aren't you glad God didn't give you two mouths?

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Yeah, this is just cringe. Haven't you had enough trouble out of the one mouth that God gave you?

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Words change the atmosphere of your life. No, they really don't.

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Hebrews 13 and verse 5, this is what changed my life. It's 1315, and watch what he does here, because we've already noted how he's twisted

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Isaiah 57, 19. And here, he's going to continue on with his twist, where he's added a word to change the meaning of Isaiah 57, 19.

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Here, he's going to continue that on, and watch what he ends up doing with this. When I saw in Isaiah 57, 19,

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I create, God said, I create the fruit of your lips. No, it says,

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I create the fruit of the lips, which is a Hebrew idiom for praise.

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Hebrews 13 and verse 5 says this. Therefore, by him, watch this word, let us continually.

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It's not that you just talk positive one day because you heard a sermon. Notice how he's reading into this text the word of faith heresy.

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This text has nothing to do with the word of faith heresy. It's not because you talk right, but continually let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God, which is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.

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That verse changed my life before I ever started pastoring Free Chapel. I learned a secret.

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Just isn't it young? The secret. Are you a Gnostic evangelist? I learned that the fruit of my lips, that God forms and fashions and creates in my future, are the words that I praise him with, that the fruit of my lips, the praise is the fruit of my lips.

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And if I will continually pray, which is talk, speak to God and, and turn to God and praise him for what he's doing, that that's what he creates.

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So whatever you're praising God for, that's what he creates. That is not what

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Hebrews 13, 15 says. We've already been through it and proven that's the case. So let me, let me give you an example.

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All right. So, you know, right, right here, let's see if I can get the, get this to focus on it. There we go.

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That is an Aston Martin. Okay. And my son -in -law got me this.

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It's a little small for me. I just can't really enjoy it the way I should. But so if, if I wanted a more life -size edition of an

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Aston Martin, so what here's using Jensen Franklin's false theology here,

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I would say something like this, Lord, I just want to thank you. I want to thank you for my

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Aston Martin. I thank you for, oh, the plush leather seating. I thank you for the

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Dolby surround sound stereo system. I thank you, that this, that my

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Aston Martin is, oh, I praise you, Jesus, that my Aston Martin is going to be delivered to my house without any debt, and I will be able to enjoy it debt -free.

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Thank you, Lord. And I praise you for my Aston Martin. I think I'm out of my mind, but that's what he's saying.

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And that's not what this text says. Let me show you again. Hebrews 13, 15 through him.

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Then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of, of lips that acknowledge his name, a sacrifice of praise.

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It's not saying to praise God for what you want him to create in your life.

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The fruit of lips is a sacrifice of praise, acknowledging his name, thanking him for his mercy, his grace, things like this.

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Man, this is slick. Forms and fashions. Words are so powerful. No, they're not.

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God is. That the fruit of our lips is called praise. That's true.

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That's the, the idiom fruit of our lips is referring to pray. And the fruit of our lips is what

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God begins to form and, and, and fashion. No, no, no, that is not correct at all.

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We continually, the text says praise him for, and pray. No, the text does not say whatever we continually praise him for that he'll create again.

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Hebrews 13, let us therefore go to him outside the camp. Bear the reproach he endured for here.

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We have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come through him. Then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

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Pray for how many days have you wasted that you've put no seeds of success out there. God, I praise you that my steps are ordered.

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That's right out of the Bible. I praise you that you're leading me and guiding me in the steps of a righteous man are ordered of the

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Lord. I praise you that you're giving me an Aston Martin. God, I praise you that I know that my

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God shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory. And you're now notice what he's saying here this early.

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Remember he said, how do I activate God's miraculous working power? Answer by praising him.

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The God will then create the things that I'm praising him for another text.

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And this one has a little bit of a bite to it. Uh, we need to find, hang on a second.

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Here. We need to hunt. I don't even know if I, there we go. James, James four, what causes quarrels?

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What causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?

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You desire, you don't have. So you murder, you covet, you cannot obtain. So you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

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And I would note here, what Jensen Franklin is doing is teaching you how not to ask

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God for anything. This little formula of his cuts you off from communicating to God.

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So there you are. You have, you have a need. Maybe you have a chronic illness and you say, Oh Lord, I am suffering.

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I have a chronic illness. And Jensen Franklin, we go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, You can't say that because your words create reality.

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Right? So you can't actually say God, I'm suffering from a chronic illness. I'm in pain.

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Please grant me relief. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Jensen Franklin would have you say,

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Oh Lord, I want to thank you that I have perfect health. the whole time.

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You don't have perfect health at all. You're languishing in pain because of a chronic illness. I thank you that my body is well, right?

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This is nonsense. You're not asking God for anything when you do this.

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And it's built off of a false premise. And here's the satanic bit of it. And that is the devil knows full well that if you truly ask

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God for things and you ask him to have mercy on you, he will, God answers prayer.

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So what the devil does, he comes along, he creates this fantasy superstition doctrine that whatever

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I praise God for, then that's the thing that God's gonna create in my life. And what the devil ends up doing is cutting you off from communicating and asking

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God for things. But James says, you do not have, because you do not ask. This is satanic.

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This is cutting you off from being able to ask God for anything. And you'll note that the reason why you can't ask is because then you'd have to negatively affirm reality.

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And I've been on this planet long enough. And I've been covering false teachers like this long enough that I've seen what happens.

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And that is that people who buy into this false theology that our words create things and that God is going to create whatever we're praising him for, whatever we're creating with our own mouths, that it not only doesn't work, it leads to complete despair.

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So you guys remember Tammy Faye Baker? Yeah, Tammy Faye. Just before she died, she died of cancer.

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Just before she died, she was on Larry King's interview program. And even as she was getting to the end of her life, the poor lady didn't wanna make a negative confession.

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It was clear she was gonna be dead within a few days. And she did die shortly after her interview with Larry King.

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And she still was believing for a miracle and refusing to say the truth about what was really going on with her, because that would be a quote, negative confession.

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So what ends up happening, you buy into this, the inevitable is gonna happen. You're gonna get a chronic illness, just something's gonna go wrong with your finances.

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You're gonna hit the trouble and skids and things like this, because that's what happens in a sinful and fallen world.

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And then you're gonna sit there and go, oh, I praise you, Lord, that you've already given me the outcome and that you've given me the...

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And he hasn't, because you haven't asked him for a thing. And then when things get worse, you either, you just sit there and go, well,

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Christianity is not true, or worse, you double down the way Tammy Faye Baker did, the way

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Paul Crouch did. And what ends up happening is that you die in complete despair or delusions.

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But this is not biblical. This is really sneaky and subtle and it's false and it's dangerous and it destroys people's lives.

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And it cuts them off from even asking God for the things that they need. You're setting up resources for me the rest of the year.

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I'm gonna back this up so you can hear this in context. How many days have you wasted that you've put no seeds of success out there?

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God... No seeds of success, by not praising God for the things I don't already have. I praise you that my steps are ordered.

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That's right out of the Bible. I praise you that you're leading me and guiding me in the steps of a righteous man or ordered of the

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Lord. God, I praise you that I know that my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory.

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And you're setting up resources for me the rest of the year. You're gonna have surprises down the road. I thank you that I'm favored.

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I thank you that I'm blessed. I praise you, God. He's not asking God for anything. That I know that he that has begun a good work in me and in my family, we may be going through a rough time, but he will perfect that which concerns me.

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And so Father, I pray... Now see, what am I doing? That's how you pray. That's not prayer. You're not asking

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God for anything. You don't just sit back and let life hit you and hit you and hit you.

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And you sit there with lockjaw. He said, I create, I form, I fashion the fruit of your lips.

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No, God didn't say that. You twisted his word to say that. And then he told you in the New Testament Hebrews that the fruit of your lips is the continual praise you offer

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God. No, again, you've twisted that text. It's life or death what you speak, what you confess continually.

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It's life or death. Proverbs 18 said that your words, that death and life are in the power of the tongue and you will eat its fruit.

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There it is again. It's not saying that our words create reality.

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Let's take a look at that passage real quick. In fact, I'm gonna give you a text to kind of help you understand it.

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So Proverbs 18, and I think he said 20, hang on a second here, 21.

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Okay, Proverbs 18. So we're gonna put this in context. Let me roll down just a second.

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All right, so a brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.

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From the fruit of a man's mouth, his stomach is satisfied.

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He's satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue.

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Those who love it will eat its fruit. So what is this talking about? Is this saying that I can create things in my life by how

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I speak? Answer, no, that's not what this text is saying at all.

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In fact, let me see here. I think I'm gonna have to do a little bit of a hunt.

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Give me a second here. So I think the text I need is Matthew 12.

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And here's something that's gonna help us understand this. Okay, here's what Jesus says.

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Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.

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You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil?

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For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good.

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The evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

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So Proverbs 18 interpret, which by the way, is a passage that is not easy to understand.

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So clear passages always have to govern unclear. Clear passage is going to be what we just read out here.

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Death and life indeed are in the power of the tongue, but Christ is talking about careless words, sinning with your mouth, and the fruit of your mouth bringing forth judgment of God, and you being condemned by your words.

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That's what Proverbs really is getting at here. It's not saying that your words create things.

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Instead, you can either sin with your mouth, or you can do good with your mouth.

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You can speak the truth, or you can speak lies. You can speak the truth of God and who he is, or you can deceive.

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You see, death and life are indeed are in the power of the tongue. Out of the heart, the tongue speaks.

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That's what Christ says. So in fact, let me kind of throw this one other text into the mix, and that is that Christ warns us in the

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Sermon on the Mount about false teachers, and you're gonna note then, we've seen a pattern in the scripture where people are judged by their words, yes, but their words are described as fruit.

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So Christ says in Matthew 7, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you'll find.

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Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives.

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The one who seeks finds. The one who knocks will be opened. Or which of you, if a son asks him for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent.

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If then you, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?

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And then watch this. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing.

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Inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.

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And since we're seeing here a pattern in scripture where fruit of your mouth, fruit and mouth go together,

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Christ is saying, legitimately, you can tell a ravenous wolf by what they say.

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Listen to what they're saying. Are they twisting God's word? Are they teaching false doctrine, right?

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You're gonna recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes? No. Figs from thistles?

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No. So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

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Take that into consideration with what we just read in Matthew 12, right? A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

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Every good tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you're gonna recognize them by their fruits.

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And we see from scripture, fruit of the lips is what you say, what you speak, what you pray, what you praise.

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In fact, I would argue what we're hearing from Jensen Franklin here, this is some really, really rotten fruit.

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This is something you've got to get a hold of. Mark chapter 11. Yeah, I think you get the idea.

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What a mess. Yeah, so if you know anybody who follows Jensen Franklin, I know that Jensen Franklin seems like he's a nice old man, but he's a false teacher and he's a heretic.

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He's a word of faith heretic. And this is, he does not rightly handle God's word. He's another fellow who

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I've been covering for a long, long time, years and years and years and years on fighting for the faith in both the podcast forum as well as the video blog here at YouTube.

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Avoid this guy like the plague that he is because he's not leading you in sound doctrine. He's leading you astray.

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And this word of faith heresy, this twisting of God's word that teaches you that your words create reality, the end of that road is despair.

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And you asking yourself, why am I not being healed? I'm doing everything that they told me to do. I'm praising

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God for my healing and yet it doesn't come. And they go to them and say, well, how come I haven't been healed yet?

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Well, I'm still waiting on my breakthrough. Oh, well, are you tithing? And at the end of the day, it's always your fault.

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But the reality is that the reason why bad things are happening to you is because we're all under a curse creation because of our sin and rebellion against God.

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The promises we have from Christ are the forgiveness of sins, being reconciled to God.

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And we have the promise of eternal life in glorified human bodies in the new earth.

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In the new earth, there is no sickness, there is no disease or want or lack or things like that.

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In the meantime, we suffer and we need to ask, ask God for the things that we need.

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Don't praise him for things you don't already have. That's called presumption. Yeah, and that's not prayer at all.

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You can praise God when he gives an answer to your prayer, right? You can praise

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God for the very things that he has given you and the things he does promise to give to you. But this is what

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Jensen is basically having you do here. This is utter presumption, piously wrapped up in a belief, well, if I praise, then

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God's gonna create the things that I praise him for. And again, total twisting of scripture. So if you found this helpful, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the link description.

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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, amen.