Filled So That We Can be Poured Out for Others — Santosh Poonen

I thought I would speak today, before the children come back and present to us, a little bit of something that the Lord's been speaking in my own heart over the last, I would say, a few weeks, I think.

The New Covenant Cleanses the Inside of the Cup

I'll begin by looking at a verse in Matthew chapter 23, if you'll turn that with me, Matthew 23. You know, we speak often about the New Covenant, and it would be very easy for us to lose sight of what the purpose of the New Covenant really is.

Matthew 23 contrasts the Old Covenant, shows us what the Old Covenant life looks like. A lot of religiosity, a lot of activity, it says here, even traveling land and sea. That's an Old Covenant life. Many people focus on evangelism.

You could be a wonderful evangelist and just be an Old Covenant person, like the Pharisees were. And then this phrase that we hear about often in Matthew 23 verse 25, it says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

The mark of being a hypocrite is that you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they're full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, verse 26, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.

I think we understand this. We know that that's the New Covenant life, cleaning the inside of the cup. That means, very simply, that what other people think about you as a Christian means absolutely nothing.

It's what God thinks about you. Your testimony in the world is important, but the whole world could think of you as a wonderful Christian, a wonderful righteous person and all of that. But if God looks at the inside of the cup and sees filth as clean as it looks on the outside, it's rejected by him, and he says, you're a hypocrite.

I think we understand that. But what happens next? Why did Jesus use the analogy of a cup? That's what I've been thinking about recently. What happens when you clean the inside of a cup? Maybe you used to be an outside of the cup kind of person, and now you see the New Covenant and you say, okay, I'm going to clean the inside of the cup.

I'm going to ask God to rid me of all impurity, all lust, all bitterness, all bad motives, all bad attitudes towards other people. This is the inside of the cup. All bad ambitions, selfish ambitions, all jealousy, things you can't see on the outside.

You might see manifestations of it, but you won't see jealousy on the outside. It's an inside thing. And as you have the Lord clean that up through the Holy Spirit, what next? What happens when you clean the inside of a cup?

It should be obvious. You use it. You fill it. Now that cup is taken and used to be a blessing to somebody else. And I've been convicted recently of the danger that my New Covenant life could only be blessing myself.

What I mean by that is that I've so introspective perhaps, and that's the danger when we see the danger of an Old Covenant life, and we become New Covenant minded, and we hear about judging ourselves.

Judge yourselves. That's what the Bible, the New Testament speaks about often. Now we could spend so much time judging ourselves introspective. Introspective is a big word that just means looking inside.

And you know, the Bible never says that that should be where we look. If you look inside, you will become another type of legalist, I believe. And I've seen that danger in my own life, and that's really where the burden of this message is coming from, is the danger of going away from that cleaning of the outside of the cup to cleaning the inside now in such a way now that I'm proud of my clean inside.

I see that God has set me free from lust, let's say, or set me free from jealousy, or set me free from all these thoughts that used to capture, hold me captive for so long. And I think, yes, thank you, Lord, that I'm now living in victory.

I believe Jesus intentionally used the analogy of a cup. Having been cleansed, has he filled you? And is that filling resulting in somebody else getting a blessing as a result of it? Are you being poured out?

I said that the Bible never says to look inside. It says to look at Jesus, Hebrews 12, verses 1 -2, it says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. This is the only way we're supposed to run.

And when I look at Jesus, as opposed to looking at myself, you know how we can become so analytical about the inside of the cup now, where we become, you know, legalists about the new covenant even, where it's like, oh, that little bitter thought, that little thing there, little thing there.

And yes, we don't want to have any spot or wrinkle or any stain in the inside of the cup at all, but that comes through looking at Jesus. And I've seen more and more that looking unto Jesus means that I do things the way he did them, and because he did them, for the reasons that he did them.

Sanctification Prepares Vessels for Every Good Work

Our reading this week, for those of you who are visitors, those online, our church family has been trying to. We encourage Bible reading, and we seek to do it, and we hold ourselves accountable. And one way to help ourselves, if you turn with me to 2 Timothy 2, one way to help us in Bible reading is that we're following a Bible reading plan.

Not all of us may be doing it. I am. I'm trying to, at least. I've been able to stay on track so far. It's a two-year plan, and it's keeping me accountable. In addition to the other reading that you might do for study, this is a good chronological.

It's not actually chronological, but going through the entire Bible, and it's a small passage of Scripture so that you'll get through the whole Bible in two years, a manageable amount. And if you can read more than that, that's great.

And our reading this week happened to be, it's in Ezekiel, wonderful new truths the Lord's showing me there, but also in 2 Timothy 2. And it was these verses in verse 20 that prompted some of the thoughts as well that I have this morning.

It says in verse 20, now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, and he talks about these things, sinful things, ungodliness, and bad speech, and he goes on to say later on even being quarrelsome, verse 24, and having impurity, youthful lust, verse 22, all sorts of things.

When you've been cleansed from these things, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be what? A vessel for honor, sanctified and useful to the master, prepared for every good work. So the purpose of our sanctification is not that God can now put us up on a shelf and say, look at my clean outside and inside child.

The purpose of that cleansing is now that he can send us out into an impure world and pour out through us, pour into us, and pour out through us. We know that the promise of Abraham is given to us through the Holy Spirit, right?

And the promise of Abraham was twofold. A lot of people know that first part of the promise of Abraham, I will bless you. Ask yourselves, dear brothers and sisters, as I've been asking myself, have I only received that first part of the promise of Abraham?

God will bless me? Okay, maybe we're not taken up with the external prosperity gospel, but is it possible that I'm taken up with an internal prosperity gospel? Lord, let me prosper spiritually. Who cares about the other person?

Who cares about my wife, or my husband, or my children, or that neighbor, or that coworker, or that person in need? As long as I prosper spiritually, it's another prosperity gospel. It's a clean inside that's not useful, not prepared for every good work, and this has convicted me.

I've been asking the Lord, Lord, I thank you that you've been cleansing me and cleaning me of so much filth that you've shown me, but now what? Am I still lacking power? Are you still not able to pour me?

Because having been cleansed, I'm content for the Lord to just put me on a shelf and use me as a... I'm blanking out on the word, as a trophy. That's the word I was looking for. Are you a trophy? Is that why Jesus died?

So you could be a trophy of a new covenant believer sitting in RLCF, what a wonderful church we have. No, we're not trophies. We're vessels. Vessels means I get out there where it's dirty and I'm poured out as God pours into me, and I go back and he fills me again, a vessel prepared for every good work.

Caring for Others Rather Than Ourselves

Turn over to book of Jude. Here's another phrase that recently was a revelation for me. Jude, it's only got one chapter, and in Jude chapter one, that first chapter we read in verse 12, it talks about sinful people who have crept into the church unawares.

In the time of Jude, which means that they're doing that even today, Satan's got his agents in churches, sadly, and he warns, Jude warns the people he's writing to, to be careful of these people who might have crept in, and he says, talks about, compares them to Cain, to Balaam, and Korah, three horrible examples in the Old Testament, and he's talking about this spirit coming into the church, but one of the characteristics of this spirit you see in verse 12.

He says, these are the men, this is Jude verse 12, these are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feast. That means they come into your midst, and they're there in the gatherings, but they're hidden reefs.

Deep down, they have an ulterior motive, and what is the characteristic of that hidden reef? When they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves. That's the phrase I want you to think about. Is it a bad thing to care for yourself?

What is the evil spirit, what's so harmful or dangerous that Jude has to write about? In fact, Jude is the one person that I know of who planned to write something else. Maybe Paul did that once, but I can't remember.

Jude certainly says, I plan to write you about something, but I want to tell you about caring for yourself. That's what I see Jude saying, and then that causes me to stop and say, Lord, what's so dangerous with caring for myself that you would say this is a hidden reef?

The way I look at it is if I'm one who cares for myself at RLCF, I'm the one that the Holy Spirit's warning the church about. Watch out for Santos. He's a hidden reef because he cares for himself. Let's look into that a little bit.

Caring for themselves. Now, I see the contrast later on by somebody who doesn't care for himself. Somebody who has this other's mindset that we sang about, or we sang that second verse, that old hymn, he left his father's throne above, the spirit of Christ, he left his father's throne above so free, so infinite his love, and emptied himself of all but love.

Emptied himself of all but love. Jesus didn't care for himself. That's what brought him here to this earth. If Jesus cared for himself, he would have stayed there in heaven, enjoyed the praises of all of creation.

He was pure, couldn't be tempted. You can't tempt God. And existing with the Father and the Holy Spirit before all time, and yet he came. And my dear brothers and sisters, unless we learn the spirit of Christ, we won't have that same mentality that says, I don't want to care for myself here.

I want to care for others. This is the spirit of Christ. I've seen it this way, that the real mark that you are filled with the Holy Spirit, we speak about the baptism in the Holy Spirit much in this church, as we should.

But I've come to see more and more that the essence of being filled with the Holy Spirit is that you do what Christ did, actually. So if you were in heaven, sanctified, not sanctified, pure, you'd never sinned, and full of purity and full of everything that's beautiful and great and wonderful, would you leave heaven for that co-worker of yours?

Now it's a hypothetical question because we didn't start out there. But now, having been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, having been sanctified, having been cleansed, having been made righteous as Christ is, when the Father sees us, he sees us clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Shouldn't we be living that way? Shouldn't we also have the same spirit that says, Lord, I don't want to sit in my comfort zone that feels like heaven, where I've got my cozy little marriage and my cozy little family and my cozy little church.

Send me, Lord. I want to go. Use me for your glory. He contrasts that later on with the exhortation to those who are not hidden reefs in verse 21 and 22 and 23. He says, verse 22, Jude verse 22, have mercy on some.

Mercy for Doubters and Those in the Fire

You sitting in this church, Jude is saying, have mercy on some who are doubting. Do you meet doubters? No, there's not really a God. And the tendency could be just like, ah, he's an atheist, he's an agnostic.

I'd like to hang out with my people who think the same way as I do. Have mercy on some who are doubting. The next time you meet a doubting person who questions your faith, questions your allegiance to Jesus Christ, asks you, is he the only true God and how can you prove it and is aggressive about it even.

I've met some of them. They're very aggressive about it. Have mercy. Save others, verse 23, snatching them out of the fire. And on some, have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

This is what it means to not be one who cares only for himself. And it's the mark of the Holy Spirit. I'll show you a verse in Acts chapter 10. I said just now that the mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit is that God sends us out to do his work, like that vessel, prepared for every good work.

And if I was to stand at the end of my life, saying, Lord, you set me free from all sin. Here I stand, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, and I've been fully cleansed of all sin, would I still be conformed into the image of Jesus?

Let me rewind and say that again. Let's say I reached the end of my life, battling against sin. God freed me from lust. God freed me from anger. God freed me from bitterness, and God allowed me to be forgiving of others, and God helped me not to be jealous, and God preserved my marriage, and preserved my home, and I had a good testimony, and I gave to the church, and I served in the church, and I preached in the church, perhaps.

And that's all I had, and God couldn't fill me, hadn't filled me, and used me. Could you say that I was conformed into the image of Jesus? No. To be conformed into the image of Jesus is to be and to do as he did, to be sent out as he came down to this earth.

Acts 10. Look at what being filled with the Holy Spirit did for Jesus. Acts 10, verse 38. And now, I'm going to get there, but before you think, okay, therefore I must go and stand on the street corner and get a megaphone and hand out tracts, or I must become a preacher or go to the seminary, or do this or do that.

Look at what it says about Jesus. Acts 10, verse 38, it says, you know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit. He had the power of the Holy Spirit in him, and with power, and how, you could say, as a result of that, he went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Notice, it doesn't say he healed the blind and the lame. All who were oppressed by the devil, and the physical healing was just a representation of that. So, read that slowly and take, let the Lord make it a revelation for you and a challenge for you all as well, as he's doing it for me.

Jesus of Nazareth, because he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, went about doing good and setting free any who were oppressed by the devil. Turn back to Luke chapter four. Remember, this incident happens right after Jesus is baptized.

Right after Jesus is baptized. Luke chapter four, we read, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, after he's baptized, returned from the Jordan, and look at what it says. I missed this, actually, because I didn't read this verse slowly for many years.

Was led around by the Spirit. I just thought he was led into the wilderness. I think maybe Matthew says that. But notice what Luke says, led around in the wilderness, kind of like wandering, the sense I get.

The Spirit just says, go here, go there. Wilderness wandering, for 40 days being tempted by the devil. What did the Holy Spirit, after Jesus had, now at this point, Jesus has lived a 30-year pure life, never having sinned.

Nobody's ever come ever close to that. By the power of the Holy Spirit, he lived free from sin. And you could say that perhaps for, would Jesus have completed his course at the age of 30, free of all sin, overcame every temptation he'd faced up to that point, at the age of 30, could he have said, it is finished?

No. There was something yet to be done. The Holy Spirit had to lead him to be tempted, so that he could open up a new and living way. What was the purpose of Jesus being tempted? It wasn't for him. He was already pure.

Why did Jesus have to be tempted when he came down here to this earth? It was for me and for you. If he wasn't tempted, he wouldn't have been a forerunner for you and I. There wouldn't be a new and living way through the veil that is his flesh, that we read about in Hebrews 10.

And so, full of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit says, listen, Jesus, I know you've lived a perfect life and all that, but there's a job I have for you. You must open up a new and living way for Santosh.

So I'm going to take you into the wilderness. I'm going to lead you from here to there, to there, to there, and you're going to be tempted, and you're going to be tempted, and you're going to be tempted, and you're going to be tempted, and you're going to be hungry, and you're going to be...

Everything within you is going to say, just give in, it's too much. For 40 days, he was tempted for you and for I. Hebrews 4 verse 15 says, he was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin. Now God is not going to tempt us on behalf of others.

We know that Jesus was the only one who had to be tempted in all points, but are you willing to be tested? Let me use that word. If you are pure and you're living in a life of victory, praise God for that, and he's giving you, brought you to victory over sin, he's brought you to a life of triumph in different areas, but can the Holy Spirit lead you into a wilderness for somebody else's benefit?

To help open up, shine the light a little bit more on the new and living way that Jesus has opened up because you're willing to go into that wilderness. This is what it means to follow Jesus. This is saying, Lord, it's okay, I'll go into that messy situation.

I'll humble myself and spend time with that person who irritates me to no end when I have to work with him because I want to follow you. I want to be one who can shine a light a little bit more for somebody to go follow this new and living way.

This is what it means to follow Jesus. This is what it means to be conformed into his image. It means not just that I have an inside cup that's been cleansed, but that it's been used. Now others can testify.

Paul as a Vessel Poured Out

Paul said, I am now being, I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. That was another verse. I think it was, yes, a couple of days ago, 2 Timothy 4. I'm already being poured out as a drink offering.

Here's another man like Jesus who said, Lord, it's great that you've sanctified me, great that I'm no longer defeated by those old sins I used to be, but are you pouring me out? Can you send me, Lord, to this place and to that place?

For Paul, that meant beatings, that meant swimming around, treading water for three days and three nights, I think he says, or a day and a night in the open deep. Why? What took Paul on that ship that he said, it's probably going to sink?

I heard there's a prediction of a storm, hurricane coming, but I got to go because there's somebody in Malta, there's somebody over there in Cyprus that needs to know the true Jesus. I'm willing to go, Lord, fill me, having cleansed me.

This is the spirit of Christ. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 9. We read Matthew 9 verse 36. Jesus was looking at the people. He sends by saying, he ends by saying in verse 37, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. This is Matthew 9, 37 and 38. But what was it that he was looking for? Just somebody to go and hand out a bunch of tracts or to organize a bunch of meetings or have a little church like this where they have a Sunday meeting and weekday meetings and all that?

Is that what he wanted? No. Thank God for that. I thank God for RLCF. But what is our mission? What is our goal? It's what Jesus was distressed. It says that he felt compassion for them. He looked out and he felt sorry.

I think of Jesus now looking out at Loveland. He says, yeah, this church is there. I see people who are reading the Bible and praying, but I have compassion for Loveland or for Northern Colorado, you can say, for other places of the world as well, because I see people who are distressed and dispirited.

My margin says harassed and thrown down. We know people like that. We've been there ourselves, I'm sure. But I'm sure you could think of, if you spend two minutes, you could think of somebody in your circle of life, the circle of life that you alone know, the circle of your life, who's harassed by the devil.

That may be why he acts out at the job site. That may be why he cuts you off on the road when you were calmly driving your way and thrown down by the devil. You hear some other pastor falling into adultery or somebody else, something is exposed and you see sin all around you.

Does it result in a burden? You say, Lord, thank you that I'm not like that. Remember the man who prayed that prayer? I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like that person who was in the news about what evil they did or like that mass murderer who just shot up a bunch of people.

I thank you, Lord, that that's not my son. I'm not trying to guilt anybody here, please understand that, but I want to have the compassion that Jesus had when he looked around and said, Lord, you might not take me there, but take me here and use me here in whatever role you want to use me.

It says that he felt compassion for them because they were harassed and thrown down like sheep without a shepherd. This is what the Lord is looking for. He's looking for shepherds. When you think shepherd, I'm almost certain that most of us will think elder.

You want me to be an elder? Sure. No. You know the work of a shepherd, cleaning up a lot of poop, giving sheep baths is stinky. It's not a fun life. This is why Jesus said he's looking for shepherds, people who will get their hands dirty and say, I'll come alongside you, I'll involve myself in your messy situation if I can help you out.

Jude says, like we read, be careful that you don't get stained by the same sin, that you don't fall in the same ways that they fell, but snatch them. Be willing to go into that fire to snatch them, if you will.

A plentiful harvest doesn't need people to go out and do something. It needs people who have shepherds, and I'll just briefly look at some of the characteristics of shepherds. The first thing I want you to see here, first of all, is that shepherds must have spiritual authority.

Shepherds must have spiritual authority. If you don't have spiritual authority, and the only way you can have spiritual authority is if you can say, like Jesus said, John 14, verse 30, write it down, you don't have to turn there.

John 14, verse 30, Jesus said, the prince of this world is coming and he has nothing in me. There's absolutely nothing. He doesn't have even an inch of a foothold in my heart. He hasn't been able to draw me.

Now, Jesus had never sinned, but you know that you and I ought to be able to say the same thing. The prince of the world is coming tomorrow, wherever I go, whether it's the workplace or homeschool or driving on the road, the prince of the world is coming and he has nothing in me.

Why? Because I've been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. I've been justified through the righteousness of Jesus and God the Father looks at me as if I was righteous all along. And so, I can have spiritual authority over Satan.

Now, if I'm secretly watching pornography or gossiping here and there and loving money there, or a little bit of jealousy, a little bit of unforgiving attitude towards others, then I can't say, I cannot say that the prince of the world is coming.

The prince of the world will come and say, you can fool others. You can't fool me. You've been allowing me to have a foothold in your heart this last week with what you've been doing quietly when the doors closed and the lights are off.

But if you can say like Jesus, cleansed, justified, counted righteous before God and he doesn't have a foothold in me, then you have spiritual authority. And I tell you this, I'm realizing more and more that the devil laughs, I believe, at a lot of Christian work that goes on.

I know he did probably in some of the things that I've done in my own life, activity that I did in the name of Jesus. Let me do this. It was well-intended. I meant well for those homeless people in the jail ministry that I was part of and addiction recovery ministries.

I meant well. I wanted them to be free, but I didn't have spiritual authority. And the devil laughed at me. He says, I see how you live in secret. What does it mean that you're going to go and tell those people about Jesus when you're not dying to yourself secretly?

You're not taking every thought captive. You don't humble yourself in your relationship with your wife and your children, in your relationship with others. I see pride in there, a little bit of self rising up there.

I see that. I believe the devil laughs at a lot of Christian work because he says that you don't have spiritual authority and so it's just spinning wheels, not making any progress or like I like to think of it like a merry-go-round, a carousel.

That's not progress. That's not progress. That's just movement. And I don't want to be a part of a movement. I would actually be moving, progressing, moving forward. The only way to do that is if you have spiritual authority.

You see what happened in verse 32, a few verses earlier. They were going out. As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to him and he didn't say, hold on, hold on, hold on. I got to go fast and pray and all of that.

But Jesus, he knew that that demon was probably somewhere in the hierarchical order of demons and at the very top was the devil himself who Jesus had never allowed him to have any part in him. And so when that demon came at him, Jesus says, you can't do anything.

This demon, this evil force of darkness has nothing in me. And so they brought it to him and look at the, it's just like after the demon was cast out. There's no show. There's no fanfare. There's no exorcism and yelling and screaming and the demon and the person going back and forth like you see going on in Christendom a lot.

It is just the demon went out, no fanfare. In another place it says with a word, go. That's it. Because the prince of the world had nothing in him. When Jesus said a two-letter word like go or whatever number of letter it was, was one word because it's recorded that it was one word.

He had to go. And when the demon, after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed and were saying, nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. And of course the Pharisees wanted to put it down and says, oh, he casts out demons by the ruler of demons, but we must have spiritual authority.

See Satan and his hosts are already doomed. And you read in revelation 12 that he knows he has a limited time. Revelation 12 is 12. He knows his time is limited. The devil knows that. You know, we're taught to redeem the time.

The devil knows his time is limited. So he's ramping up activity. And if he's ramping up activity, if he's coming at us with more force than he did back in Jesus day even, I believe, because he knows he's running out of time and he's trying to win as many people as possible, what would we be absolutely certain about?

Just one thing, brothers and sisters, that the prince of this world has nothing in me. That means that temptation you face on Wednesday afternoon when you're all by yourself matters for the kingdom of heaven.

It does. That temptation you face on Friday night when you have the opportunity to sin matters for the kingdom of heaven. For that situation you're about to face that you don't know is coming. When the demon will come at you or the devil himself will come at you.

You know, it's not demon possessed people. I've seen a few demon possessed people in my life, but probably can count on a handful or a couple handful of people. It's the devil's authority. He's going to try to get a foothold in my son or my daughter or in my marriage or my home and then what?

Then when the devil comes at me and tries to get a foothold in somebody that's in my circle of responsibility, how am I going to have that spiritual authority if I've been fooling around with sin in secret?

It's like those seven sons of Sceva, remember? They tried to say, ah, the people, the Jesus that Paul preaches about, brother Zach speaks about. No, the devil says, if brother Zach was here, maybe he would cast me out, but you, what authority do you have?

I see how you treat sin, how lightly you take sin in secret, how you speak to your wife and you're not burdened and grieved over it. There's hope brothers and sisters, there's hope. Today's the day of salvation.

Today, if you hear his voice and he's convicting you about the secret life you've been living, and he now wants to use you, don't harden your heart. Don't harden your heart. So we must have spiritual authority and you know, I thought about it like this, that the demons recognize Jesus as God, even though he was in flesh.

The demons didn't look at the body of Jesus, what his appearance and think, oh, whoa, that's Jesus. No, they saw the spirit in Jesus and that's what they were afraid of. And if some other spirit was in a body that looked like Jesus, okay, just follow my thought here for a second.

Let's say there was another body that looked like Jesus's twin physically, but the spirit of Jesus was not in that body. Do you think that body could have cast out demons? No, certainly not because they're not afraid of what Jesus looks like, the appearance of Jesus.

Why is that important? Because second Corinthians 11 tells us that there are other Jesus's, another Jesus, another Christ, another gospel that are proclaiming the name of Jesus. They have the appearance of Jesus, but the power is not in it.

Second Timothy three says the same thing. We've been hearing that verse often in this church, having the form of godliness, but have denied its power. That means it looks like Jesus, uses the same words as Jesus says in Jesus's name, but doesn't have the spirit of Christ in it because the devil has a foothold and the devil and Jesus can't live in the same body.

If you're allowing the devil to have a foothold, casual attitude towards sin, selfishness, self-centered, what will I get out of this, fighting for your own rights, arguing and all this stuff, and the devil sees that he has a foothold in you, the Holy Spirit says, go ahead.

Outwardly, you might look like a good Christian, you might look like a good RLCF member, but the spirit of Christ is not there. The devil recognizes Christ by the spirit of Christ in us. So the same is true today.

I've seen demons cast out. I'll tell you why. Not because of who was casting them out, but because it was done in the name of Jesus Christ by somebody in whom the devil didn't have a foothold. That I know.

And I've seen, and that's the only way to cast out a demon, but somebody who loves money, casual with sin, they'll bring the cameras and all that and they can fool gullible, especially Americans, gullible about all these demons that are supposedly cast out.

I tell you this, if you see somebody calling the video camera to point it at somebody who's being cast out and then cast it out, I can tell you it's fake. Absolutely. It's not the spirit of Christ. Jesus did quietly.

Why? To preserve the dignity of that person so that afterwards people will know this was the demon possessed person that once upon a time. In some cases, you couldn't help it. Mary Magdalene, they knew it and it was recorded.