F4F | Brian Houston: Its Beginning to Rain

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.

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Sadly, no shortage of really crazy things being said out there, and we're trying to prevent you from being deceived, or help you, if you are being deceived, to no longer be deceived.

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Now, if you've ever had a pastor or a preacher scratch your itching ears and tell you what you want to hear, rather than teaching what's in accord with sound doctrine, yeah, go ahead and hit the subscribe button down below.

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Don't forget to like the video and to ring the bell so you can be notified when we update the channel.

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We're gonna be heading down to Hillsong Church, Hillsong Church down in Sydney, Australia, and we're gonna be listening to Brian Houston as he's gonna be prophesying?

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I don't know what he's doing here. Oh wait, actually, I do know what he's doing. He's scratching itching ears, which is something that he's known to do.

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And the name of the message is, It's Beginning to Rain, and it's just a great example of mangling up God's Word to create some weird kind of ambiguous sense of hope that God's gonna do something in your life, you know, maybe like make you rich or something, or give you a really good business deal, all under the auspices of, well, you know, the

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Bible talks about rain. Wish I was making that up. And then we'll note along the way that Brian Houston has a history of scratching itching ears.

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We'll take a look at what the Bible says regarding this, and we'll do a little fact -checking with what he does to the biblical text, because it's just terrible.

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It's absolutely awful. And unfortunately, I've been covering Brian Houston for a decade now, a little actually, a little more than a decade now, on Fighting for the

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Faith, and this is standard for him. This is the norm, not the exception. So let's whirl up the desktop here and head over to Hillsong Church.

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Here's Brian Houston, and It's Beginning to Rain. Well, it's beginning to rain.

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I'm believing for rain. I can smell the rain. It's winter down in Australia, so apparently it's the rainy season.

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I guess that's what's going on here. I can hear the rain. I believe you're gonna feel the rain.

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I spoke at a Kingdom Builders retreat just a couple of weekends ago. People came from around the country to the

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Hunter Valley, and there was such a great leaning at that retreat. It was incredible. And the

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Lord put a word on my heart for the business people, for the Kingdom Builders. So the

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Lord put a word on your heart. He did, huh? I usually, when I'm called to preach to any particular group,

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I look for biblical texts and preach what God has revealed in His written

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Word. That's kind of par for my course, you know. So many people who, in that group of people, sacrifice and really lead with their generosity,

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I felt to prophesy rain into their lives, into their... I felt to prophesy rain, okay.

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...businesses, into their endeavors, and I just really feel I want to prophesy rain into your life as well.

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Yeah, so that's really what you feel. Now, the dead giveaway that this is not a real prophecy, it's a false prophecy, is going to be how he handles

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God's Word, because if he's really hearing directly from God, you know, let's assume for a second that God's communicating to Brian Houston and saying, you know,

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Hi, this is the Holy Spirit, Brian, and I'd really like it if you would tell people that you smell rain coming.

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Yeah, because I'd really like you to prophesy rain. Let's assume he's really hearing from God. Well, what's gonna happen then is that when he mangles up God's Word, the

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Holy Spirit should be saying, Hey, Brian, you like mangled up that text really horribly.

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You need to fix that. He never hears the Holy Spirit rebuking him for teaching false doctrine or twisting

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God's Word. It's kind of fascinating to me, but we continue. So he was at a, you know, a

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Kingdom Builders event and felt that God told him to tell the business people there that, you know, rain is coming.

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Okay. See, people go through dry seasons. I believe there's people in church today, and maybe things are parched, things are dry.

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That was a vagary. Are you going through a dry season? That could mean about anything. I mean, it could be like literally you're living in a place where there's a drought to, you know, this is a metaphor for, you know, things in my life are not going so well.

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It's kind of dry, you know, financially or something. I think that's really what he's getting at here.

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I guess without heart for the house next weekend, I'm thinking specifically fiscally, financially. See, like I said, there we go.

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So are you experiencing fiscal financial dryness? Don't worry, don't worry. Let's go back in time and give you an example of Brian Houston's scratching itching ears from days gone by.

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See if you remember this. There's not one person in this building who doesn't need more money.

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And if you say, well, I don't need more money, then I would say you have a very poor outlook on life.

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By the way, he wrote an entire book about, yeah, you need, let me put it over here.

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You need more money. That's Brian Houston. There is his ugly mug on the back and I happen to own a copy of it.

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Yeah. And funny enough, one time I pointed this out that Brian Houston not only did an entire series on this, wrote a book about why you need more money.

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I think the subtitle is Discovering God's Amazing Financial Plan for Your Life. And he got pummeled for preaching and teaching this, and so somebody told me, well, he doesn't preach that anymore.

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To which I said, show me where he publicly repented for teaching this doctrine.

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So let's go back and listen a little bit more to the you need more money pitch from Brian Houston.

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You'll learn why you need more money. Because money is a tool that can accomplish phenomenal things.

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What money can do in your head is bless, it can help, it can build, it can increase, it can bring vision, it can strengthen.

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You'll learn how to get more money. And you'll learn how to have wealth without having a love for money.

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You can have wealth without a love for money. This is what God wants for you, apparently. Poor does not have to be permanent.

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All the answers you say, well, you know, how do you know that? Because why would the scripture say, let the poor say,

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I am rich. Oh, this is bad.

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I've forgotten how bad this is. The will of God to break the power of poverty over people's life.

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In this life -changing tape series, Pastor Brian Houston will challenge you to live according to the principles of God and see his blessing on your life as you become a money magnet.

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As you become a money magnet. Are you a money magnet in the name of Jesus?

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Yeah, so what does this all fall under, by the way? There's a category for this. And you can find this in scripture.

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The Apostle Paul prophesied about these days and prophesied about guys like Brian Houston. Here's what it says in 2

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Timothy 4. Paul writing to young Pastor Timothy, who was a pastor of one of the congregations in the city of Ephesus.

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He says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who's to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom.

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Preach the word, the actual word of God, you know, exegete biblical text. Give the proper sense of what it means.

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Rightly handle the word of truth. Preach the word in all of its message. Don't shave off any of the hard stuff, right?

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So be ready in season and out of season. Yeah, that's right. There are times in Christian history when preaching the word of God is definitely not in vogue.

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It's out of season. And so the Apostle Paul's admonition, then, to young Pastor Timothy is an admonition to all preachers, teachers, pastors within the body of Christ that they too are to preach the word, even if it's out of vogue.

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And then they are to reprove, to rebuke, exhort with complete patience, and teaching.

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D -R -K here, you could translate that doctrine. Yeah, I know. A lot of people think doctrine is a four -letter word, but no, really, it's not.

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Just kind of work it out. D -O -C -T -R -I -N. Yeah, that's a lot more than four letters there.

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So anyway, so reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and doctrine for the time is coming, and here's what it is.

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When people will not endure sound teaching, and here you could say didaskalia, you could translate that doctrine as well.

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People will not endure sound doctrine, sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

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And these would be sinful passions. They will accumulate for themselves teachers who will suit their own passions, sinful passions, like, you know, greed.

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Yeah, and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

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Yeah, so I would argue, and maybe it's just me, I would argue that, you know,

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Brian Houston's book, You Need More Money, that would be an example of scratching itching ears, telling people what they want to hear, and wandering off into myths.

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Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. So what we're seeing then in this sermon is, well,

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Brian Houston, he's scratching itching ears. He's telling people what they want to hear, man. Oh man, the people at Hillsong would never endure sound doctrine.

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No way. And so Brian Houston here is, oh, I felt in my heart.

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He must be from southern Australia. I felt down in my heart that the Holy Spirit was telling me to tell you

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I smell rain coming. Yeah, rain. And by that, you know what I mean, moolah.

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Yeah, that's what's going on here. This is just horrifying. Now, wait till we get to the biblical text, because it's so bad.

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It's as bad as what we saw him do on the You Need More Money thing. But let's go back and watch as Brian Houston here is gonna scratch itching ears, tell people what they want to hear, preach to basically cause their sinful passions to salivate, and you know what he's not doing?

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Calling sinners to repent of their sins and to be forgiven by the shed blood of Christ.

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That's the thing he's not doing. That for whatever reason, maybe you had an unexpected loss.

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Maybe you became redundant. Maybe a business person lost contracts. I just heard a great story from our

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Northern Beaches campus this afternoon that when, at the Kingdom Builders Retreat, I called people forward who were dry and were believing for rain, that one business guy came.

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I'm gonna, I just do this at the PCR conference in Swansea.

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Yeah, is anyone up here, if you're experiencing dryness, I know it's raining outside, but if you're dry right now, come on up, we'll pray for you.

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What on earth? Forward and since then has landed two massive supernatural contracts.

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Let me back that up. So yeah, he's preaching to salivate sinful passions here, not preaching the truth.

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I called people forward who were dry and were believing for rain, that one business guy came forward and since then has landed two massive supernatural contracts.

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So praise God, it's raining in his life, their lives, and I believe it's gonna rain in your life as well.

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That's right. Money's coming your way, folks. You're gonna be a magnet for, for rain. Just like you said you'd be a money magnet.

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You're gonna be a rain magnet and it's code talk here. So basically, this is the prosperity message veiled in code language.

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That's exactly what he's doing. He hasn't repented of nothing. He's just as crass as he used to be.

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He just doesn't like taking the heat for being overt in his prosperity preaching, so he veils it in code talk.

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You know, rain. There's a whole lot of things, a bill you didn't expect, life taking a turn you didn't expect, but I know all around the room and all around the country there are people, and that includes

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Bali, there are people who you desperately need rain in your life. Rain representing harvest and fruitfulness.

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Yeah, rain. You know, wink wink, nudge nudge, harvest, fruitfulness. You know, wink wink, nudge nudge, money.

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It's a funny thing, isn't it, rain? When there's a bride on a wedding day praying it won't rain. There's farmers here in Australia so desperate for rain.

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I want it to rain. I want it to rain, even here in Sydney and in the big cities of Australia, just not

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Sundays. And now he's switched back to talking about literal rain. Not Sunday mornings.

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You know what Australians are like. They're wimpy. No, you guys, you're in church. I'm not talking to you, I'm talking.

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So a little bit of rain. Imagine if they're like that in London. Nowhere to ever go to church. Hey, but summer holidays.

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I'm always hoping and praying it won't rain on summer holidays. Which biblical texts are you preaching again from,

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Brian? I'm just curious, you know. I don't detect that there's a driving text that you're trying to exegete here.

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Yeah, just noting that. Many years, Bobby, and I in January have gone for a couple of weeks to Noosa on the

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Sunshine Coast. The only thing they don't tell you about the Sunshine Coast is there's often no sunshine.

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You know it's true up there. It's subtropical. And so invariably every couple of years you're gonna get more rain than you'd ever want.

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But when I'm hoping on Sundays it won't rain, there's a shrub or a tree that's withering because it's desperate for rain.

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When I'm hoping that it won't rain on my selfish summer holiday, there's a dry riverbed somewhere, desperate for water, desperate for rain.

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You know rain in the Bible. It really only came when Adam and Eve were created.

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Well yeah, Adam and Eve were, well let's say

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Adam was created on the sixth day. Yeah, for sure. And you know before the earth was created it didn't rain on the earth.

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Woo! That is some deep stuff right there. Profound biblical exegetical insight going on here.

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There was no real need for rain before that. There were no herbs in the field, the Bible says.

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There was no fruit. And the truth is that Eden itself was, it was fed by a river.

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So the water came from a river that reached the Garden of Eden, branched off in four different directions.

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But then God says this, He says in Genesis chapter 2 and in verse 5, it says

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Now remember, rain is code talk for money and a harvest and blessing and stuff.

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You know, so it's not helpful what he's doing. We should do a, you know, look up in a concordance the word rain, you know, whoop!

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And then, you know, and then switch it into code talk about harvest and blessing. So what it's saying is because there was no man, there was no need for rain.

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And why did God bring rain? So that he could work, so he could till the ground, so that they could literally bring fruitfulness and they could see a harvest.

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I believe that rain, God created it, not just for the ground, not just for, you know, the climate and so on.

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He brought rain for you. And I believe today's. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that rain is a vital component of all of the produce that I eat.

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What is this? Well, this is a veiled, coded prosperity message.

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He's scratching itching ears here. Doesn't want to get nailed for being too overt for his prosperity message.

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So we're doing some kind of useless study on the word rain.

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Still, that God wants to bring rain in your life. The real first mention of rain in the

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Bible. So God wants to bring rain in your life. I'm pretty sure he does that quite regularly.

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Also snow here in the winter in North American Siberia, also known as North Dakota, where I live.

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Yeah. Is in Noah's time when because of the simpleness of humanity, it rained to devastation 40 days and 49.

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Yeah. Devastating. That's right. There was some devastating rain there. Rain. And so it seems at first it was like judgment at the time of Pharaoh and his stubbornness and his rebellion and the fact that he just kept on rebelling against God's Word that Moses was to let the people of God go from Egypt and take them toward a promised land.

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And so one of the plagues that came was it rained hail. And so it rained on Noah's time, destruction.

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It rained hail in Pharaoh's time and Sodom and Gomorrah, two evil cities. What happened?

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How are you doing tracking with his teaching? I mean it just seems weird stream of consciousness, you know.

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It rained, the Bible says, fire and brimstone. Yeah. So rain. It wasn't.

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That's right. It rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. So now I'm nervous because he said that he was prophesying and that he said that he smells rain coming.

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Uh -oh. The world's in trouble, folks. Exactly a promise in those days, but. But. In Deuteronomy chapter 11.

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So apparently the big turn is coming here. Rain became a covenant blessing. Rain became.

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This is just mind -bendingly bad.

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I mean, you know, like I'll ever have it happen to you when you eat ice cream and you get one of those cold headaches.

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I feel like I'm getting a cold headache as, you know, my ears are ingesting this nonsense.

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It's like, yeah, this hurts. Anyway, let's, before he gets to Deuteronomy 11, let's take a crack at it and we'll apply the three rules for sound biblical exegesis, and they are context, context, and context.

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Deuteronomy, by the way, it's a great book. It's a fantastic book. It's like Moses's final monologue to, you know, the people of Israel.

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And a little bit of a note here, important to note this, the covenant of note in Deuteronomy is the

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Mosaic Covenant, and it's a covenant of works. It's a land -lease agreement.

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So the Lord is going to bring the children of Israel into the promised land. In order for them to stay in the promised land, there are rules.

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It's a land -lease agreement. You break the rules, you get, the land will vomit you out.

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That's how this works. And so it's not, it's not the new covenant that we're under, and the

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Mosaic Covenant was not a covenant regarding salvation. It is a covenant that God made with the people of Israel as a land -lease agreement for them to stay in the land.

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Just keep that in mind. So Deuteronomy 11, 1. I know where he's going, so I'm gonna be sure to get a lot of the context here.

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You shall therefore love Yahweh your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, his commandments always.

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And who's the y 'all there? That would be the children of Israel who are getting ready to go into the promised land. I consider today, since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it, consider the discipline of Yahweh your

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God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, his signs, his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land, and what he did to the army of Egypt and to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the

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Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day, and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place, and what he did to Dothan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, and how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them in the midst of all of Israel.

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For your eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh that he did. You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess.

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So note here, Mosaic Covenant, Covenant of Works, you need to obey

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God if you want to continue to maintain possessing the land that he is sending them into, and you'll note this is not talking to us, this is talking to them.

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So, so that you may live long in the land that Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.

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For the land that you are entering to take possession of is not like the land of Egypt, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables, but the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven.

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A land that Yahweh your God cares for, the eyes of Yahweh your

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God are always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, who's the you there?

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That's the children of Israel whom God had made this Mosaic Covenant with. So if you will indeed obey my commandments to love

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Yahweh your God and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil, and he will give grass in your fields for your livestock and you shall eat and be full.

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So take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.

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Then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit and you will perish quickly off the good land that Yahweh is giving you.

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So you see what's going on in Deuteronomy chapter 11. It has nothing to do with you or I or anybody in Sydney, Australia or any at the

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Hillsong multi -campus camp I, that God's gonna bless them with rain.

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What Brian Houston is doing here is criminal. He's scratching itching ears like you wouldn't believe, and the one thing he's not doing is rightly handling

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God's Word and calling people to repent. Funny enough, one of the texts coming up that he's gonna touch is a text that calls people to repentance.

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Watch what he does with it, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to Brian Houston. Here we go.

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Came a sign of fruitfulness that became a sign of harvest. It became a sign of blessing, and I believe that same covenant blessing for you tonight wherever you are and whatever your situation.

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And so listen. I'm sorry, but God promising the early and the latter rains to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 11 was, how shall we say,

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God's part of the covenant. If they obeyed him, then he would do that. And you'll note how many times did

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Israel really obey the Lord? Yeah, like, you know, they kept breaking that Mosaic covenant from the word go, but the promises of the early and the latter rains are not a promise to me and you.

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That's not the point of this text. Deuteronomy chapter 11 verse 11 to 14, but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drink water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the

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Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it from the beginning of the year.

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Remember this. Yeah, what land is it? His eyes are on the land that he promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

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God's eyes are on his promise from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

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So no matter what the season, no matter whether it's dry or whether it's wet, God's eyes are on his promise.

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No, the text says that God's eyes are on the land.

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When it comes to reading comprehension, you have an open book here, you know, an open screen. A land for which the

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Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it.

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The land, not some promise of rain. And in your life, whatever is going on right now,

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God's eyes are on his promise for you and for your life and for your resource and your finance.

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This is terrible, man. This guy is just a sleazeball.

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Well, so let's take a hold of this covenant promise. Verse 13, it says, and it shall be, if you earnestly obey my commandments...

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Notice the conditional statement there. If you earnestly obey my commandments.

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Yeah, the Mosaic Covenant is not a covenant of salvation by grace through faith. It is a covenant of works.

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It's a land lease agreement. Yeah, you want to stay in the land, you got to do some things, you know, like earnestly obey

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God's commands. No idolatry, no adultery, no lying, no stealing, you know, no coveting, you know, all that kind of stuff, right?

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I command you today to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart, and I believe

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I'm speaking to many people who love the Lord their God and are committed to serving him. He just shaved off all of the hard edges of the law here.

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Wow, yeah. So there's a whole lot of people there at Hillsong that totally love God with all their heart.

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With all your heart and with all your soul... And by the way, this is Mosaic Covenant anyway.

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Then I will give you what? The rain for your land in a season.

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The early rain and the latter rain that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your new oil.

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In other words, new grain, new wine, new oil. Blessing is on its way.

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Yeah, so you know, because he just totally ripped Deuteronomy 11, 11 through 14 out of context.

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Just ignored what it's really about. Hey, man. Oh, man.

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Blessings on the way for you, man. I can smell the rain. Uh -huh.

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Wow. Praise God for it. Well, listen, there was early rain and there was latter rain.

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The early rain in the Middle East, it comes at the end of October. And the early rain is at seed time.

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It's at sowing time. And the early rain, it germinates the seeds. And then the latter rain, it comes late

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March, five or six months later. It comes late March, maybe early

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April. And it's all about watering the ground and getting it ready for harvest. And what does the scripture say?

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It says, the latter rain shall be greater than the former. Maybe you started a business.

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Maybe you... Maybe you started a business. I assure you that the early and the latter rains mentioned in Deuteronomy 11 have nothing,

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I mean absolutely nothing, to do with anybody today who's started a business.

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Let me back this up. This is just...

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I did... Again, I'm getting a cold headache just from listening to this.

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Make it stop. Shall be greater than the former. Maybe you started a business.

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Maybe you started an endeavor. Maybe it looks so promised. You saw some early rain.

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This is absurd. You saw some early rain, but suddenly the rain dried up.

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And it feels so dry and it seems like there is no answer. There was early rain in my business and then everything just got all dry.

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Oh Lord, please send me that latter rain. What on earth is this?

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Can't find your way to what God has for you? But the latter rain is even greater than the former rain.

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And I'm believing for you and I'm believing for latter rain. I'm believing. It's like the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is described in the book of Joel and in Acts chapter 2.

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The Holy Spirit is the latter rain. The latter rain is the greater rain. And that one's all about...

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The first one's about germinating a seed. You're starting something new. You've got a new entrepreneurial idea.

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And on the early rain, the seed is germinated. But believe me, no matter what's going on right now, I have an expectation when you love

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God and you're committed to His Word and you're committed to living. Allah here.

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No gospel because the Mosaic Covenant is... There's no... It's not a gospel covenant.

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I'm believing in Jesus' name. The rain is on its way. The rain is on its way.

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I can smell the rain. I can hear the rain. So bad.

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So let's believe that for our own lives. Yeah, let's go ahead. Why? Because you just twisted up God's Word.

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Why would I believe this for my own life? And let's believe that for Australia as well.

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What do you do when times are dry and you don't seem to be getting that rain, that harvest time?

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Well, you know, I think there's natural wisdom. One of the lessons we can learn from Joseph is the importance of thinking ahead.

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What's he doing? So when times are plentiful, times are plenty, he had the great wisdom and the

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Word of the Lord in his heart to prepare for more difficult times. Alright, so plan ahead.

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So maybe that's not how it is right now, but it's a great way to live your life in the future.

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But then on top of that, I think in Luke chapter 15, there's... No, I'm gonna back this up.

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Okay, I pointed out that he is not preaching law and gospel correctly.

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He's not preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins. He's not calling people to repent of their wickedness, nor is he calling them to be forgiven by the shed blood of Christ.

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And so he's now invoking a parable in Luke chapter 15.

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Let's listen to which one, then we will take a look at it.

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There's three lost things. First, Jesus spoke about a lost sheep. Yeah. Then he speaks about a lost son, the prodigal son.

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And then what? Talks about a lost coin. There's a woman who had ten valuable coins.

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Ten. Alright, let's take a look at that. Luke chapter 15, by the way, is one parable, it's one, with kind of like three chapters.

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One parable, three chapters. And I mean, how does one invoke Luke 15 and not preach repentance?

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It's unbelievable what we're talking about here. Well, why? Well, because as Paul prophesied regarding men like Brian Houston, the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine or teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves, teachers to soothe their own passions, will turn away from listening to the truth, and they'll wander off into myths.

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That's why we're hearing Brian Houston doing the things that he's doing, because if he were to actually preach

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God's Word correctly, exegete biblical texts, properly distinguish law and gospel, proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins, call people to repent of their wickedness, and be forgiven by the shed blood of Christ, oh, he would empty

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Hillsong out faster than you can say oceans. So yeah, that's just what

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I'm saying here. So Luke chapter 15. Let's take a look at this single parable with three chapters.

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The tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. This is Luke 15 1.

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So the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners and he eats with them.

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By the way, that's the only kind of human being there is on the planet, so if Jesus chose not to eat with sinners, he would have eaten by himself every day of his life.

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Anyway, just wanted to point that out. That would include the Pharisees. They were sinners, too. Yeah, so they were grumbling.

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This man receives sinners and he eats with them. So Jesus told them this parable, singular, what man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety -nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

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And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing, and when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.

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Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety -nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

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Okay, so parable number one of the lost sheep is a parable about repentance. And note here, repentance looks like the

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Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, going and looking for his lost sheep, you or me.

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And finding his lost sheep, he picks up his lost sheep, puts it on his shoulder, carries it back, and this is party time.

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Let's rejoice, I found my lost sheep. It's a beautiful picture of repentance. And so, if somebody were to ask that sheep, while he's on the shepherd's shoulders being brought back to the flock, what are you doing up there, sheepy?

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And the sheep could say, look at me, I'm repenting. Yeah, you'll note that repentance looks like God finding a lost sheep.

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Same parable, chapter two. Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin and does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it, and when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.

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Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over what? One sinner who repents.

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And so you'll note that here, the sinner is likened to a lost coin, and the person who lost the coin diligently searches for it and finds it.

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And so you know, this is about sinners repenting. That's what the chapter two of this parable is about.

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The, you know, the lost coin is about repentance. Luke 15 11 then gives us chapter 3 of this singular parable.

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Might as well finish it out. There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.

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And he divided his property between them, and not many days later the younger son gathered all he had, took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

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So he wants his dad dead. Dad, I don't really love you. I just want the inheritance. Since you won't die, would you just give me the inheritance?

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I mean, he treats his father with such shame and contempt. It's just ugly.

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And this is a picture of how we, in our sin, treat God. And this father is amazing, because rather than box this kid's ears and knock him to the ground like he deserves, he does the unthinkable.

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He gives him the inheritance. And the kid goes and squanders it all in reckless living. Doesn't tell us what that was all about.

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And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in the country, and he began to be in need.

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And so he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

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And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

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But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger.

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I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, and listen to what he's going to say to his father, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.

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This is most certainly true, by the way. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.

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Now, I'm not going to get into the details of it, but this idea of saying to his father, treat me as one of your hired servants, this is part of the

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Mosaic Covenant. There was a kind of a societal safety net set up for when your close relatives find themselves in poverty, and so he's basically invoking his, you know, what would be his right according to the

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Mosaic Covenant to be treated like a hired servant. But that's for a different time, but just so you know that that's part of what's going on here.

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But listen to the confession, I've sinned against heaven and before you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

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That's a good confession. This is a picture of what repentance looks like. So he rose, came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, felt compassion, ran and embraced and kissed him.

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And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

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That is a great confession. And this hits home for all of us, because we recognize all the different ways in which we have so woefully fallen short ourselves of God's glory, of his commands, and we have treated

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God with such contempt, sinned against him, sinned against each other. I mean, it's just a mess that we've, what we've done to each other.

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And so what does Scripture say in 1st John? If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

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But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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And so you'll note then that as soon as he gets this first part out, he's not able to get the second part out, that last bit.

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You know, as soon as he does that, his father says, bring quickly the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand and shoes and on his feet, bring the fatted calf, kill it and let us eat and celebrate.

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For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

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And so they began to celebrate. And for those of you who've been brought to penitent faith in Christ, this celebration has occurred for you as well.

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God himself rejoicing and calling the angels to rejoice that you, his son or his daughter who is dead, is now alive again.

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It's a great picture of salvation and repentance. And you'll note this is in the context of the Pharisees grumbling about Jesus, he eats with sinners and stuff.

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Right? So now we get to the last part of this, the older son who is typifying here the ideas of the

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Pharisees. So his older son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

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He called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and he said to them, your brothers come and your fathers kill the fatted calf because he's received him back safe and sound.

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But he was angry. He refused to go in. And watch now how this older son treats his father with the same contempt and scorn that the younger son treated his father when he wanted him dead.

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It's very fascinating what's going on here. So he was angry, refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, look, these many years

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I've served you, I've never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a goat that I might celebrate with my friends.

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It's a very interesting way that this kid looks at his relationship with his father, like a slave rather than a son.

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So when this son of yours came who's devoured your property with prostitutes who killed the fatted calf for him, a little bit of a note, the text doesn't say that the younger son devoured the property with prostitutes.

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He squandered it in reckless living, so you'll note here that the older son is slandering the younger son.

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So the father said to him, son, you're always with me and all that that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this.

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Your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.

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Great text, amazing text. It's about repentance. It's about being forgiven.

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It's about reconciliation with God the Father. What do you think that Brian Houston thinks that this is about in the context of it's beginning to rain?

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Let me back up just a smidge and let's listen to what he does with this. He spoke about a lost sheep, then he speaks about a lost son, the prodigal son, and then what?

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Talks about a lost coin. There's a woman who had ten valuable coins. Ten. Ten valuable coins.

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Well here's the thing, what did she do? Literally the Bible says she swept house. She got rid of all the clutter and she found the lost coin.

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Sometimes when it's dry we're believing desperately for something to come from the outside, but maybe the wisdom of God is just clean house.

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Get rid of some of the clutter. As you get rid of some of the clutter perhaps you're gonna find the lost coin. You're gonna find the blessing within.

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There you go. I don't even know what you can do with that. I mean, that is so bad.

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And like I said earlier, that's par for Brian Houston's course. This man cannot rightly handle a biblical text to save his life, and he is the master at saying nothing, and scratching itching ears, telling people what they want to hear, making promises for God that God never made, and he doesn't.

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He doesn't preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins. And this is why this man is so dangerous.

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And this is just one small, and I mean one small example of the false teaching that I've nailed this guy on over the past decade.

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Actually more than a decade. This man is extremely dangerous. He is exactly the kind of man and preacher and teacher that Paul warned us about regarding those who would scratch itching ears and tell people what they wanted to hear, and they would turn away from hearing the truth and wander off into myths.

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That's exactly what Brian Houston is. So, if you found this video helpful, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description of this video.

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And of course, Fighting for the Faith, Pirate Christian Media, we are supported by our listeners and our viewers, and all the information on how you can support us financially by sending in a one -time contribution, becoming a patron on Patreon, or becoming a crew member, all that information is down below in the description as well.

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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.