A Man Of God Can Be Deceived (Video) — Shane Idleman

The Deception of a Man of God

Deceived. A man of God, a woman of God can be deceived. And of all the stories in the Bible, I don't know how many of you have read through the whole Bible, this one is in my top three or four of things that make you go, hmm.

Very interesting. And I want to just go through it with you. And let's see what God wants to say to us this evening. 1 Kings 13 .1, and behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord.

Now, that right there is interesting. That preaches a sermon, but I'm not going to stay there. Because what is a man of God or a woman of God? You hear that phrase. Even David was a man after God's own heart.

And sometimes we think that a man of God, a woman of God, is someone who is perfect. And if that's not the case, I need to sit down. But it's a man or woman who keeps falling forward. They get back up, and they seek God.

They messed up, they own it, they repent, and they seek God. They get in His word, they live as closely as they can to His word. They want to serve Him, but like Paul, oh wretched man that I am, I want to do good.

But evil is present, and so it's this struggle we have. So, and people say, oh, I'm not a man of God. I'm not. Well, sure you are. If you're a believer, if you're a Christian, you're getting back up, and you're fighting the fight of faith, the Bible calls that a man or woman of God.

Hearing and Following God's Word

And then it says, though, that He went, He left, He took a journey by the word of the Lord. God spoke to them, to this person, to this man. And I believe God still speaks to us today. Very controversial topic, is it not?

You watch charismatic TV, and you're going to hear some interesting things. Or you hear very conservative fundamental churches, you know, it's only by the word, only by the word. No, there's no other way God speaks to us, but by His word.

And I've talked about this a lot before. I think, obviously, that's the primary way God speaks to us, through His word, His principles. It's laid out. But again, I need a little help. I trust God, I don't trust me.

And God can direct us through other means, often. He directed this person, we don't know exactly, but somehow, some way, He didn't turn to the Septuagint and turn to this certain passage and knew what to do.

God led him. Maybe there was a prompting. And I'm OK with prompting, as long as they line up with Scripture. She was prompted to come and share her healing testimony with me, OK? You can't turn to 1 John 3 and read that.

So that's what people, I think they get kind of confused. The Bible is our main source of direction. It's all the principles we need. It doesn't give us every single situation, but it gives us every single truth for every single situation.

But then that's why the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit, come alongside of us. That's actually what the word, paraclete, the Holy Spirit comes alongside and helps to guide. Jesus said, He will guide you into all things, teach you all things.

And so this man was led by the Word of the Lord and he obeyed that Word. That's the key. And if you don't know if something is of God or not, I think it was Chuck Swindoll or Charles Stanley many years ago when I first came back to the Lord, I'll never forget what he said.

If you don't know what to do, don't do anything. And I can't tell you how many times that saved me. Right? From buying a house to opening the church here. The timing, because a lot of times it's not timing.

The timing's not just right. And stay, pray, and obey. Stay in His Word, pray, obey His principles. That's the best way to be led of God's Spirit. Stay, pray, and obey. And even saying, Lord, I don't know what to do.

I need your direction. I need your help. I need your support. I need your guidance. And I don't know what to do. So I'm just gonna wait until you show me. And He will show you. And sometimes it's in that waiting time that we are shown.

I can't tell you how many times I've just waited and I've got a phone call the next day. Can you understand? And confirmation, or Lord, I don't know what to do. I have no clue. I know I share this a lot, but a lot of you are new, and this is just the most profound thing that's happened in my life.

One of the top three or four. But when we were praying about buying the radio station, I told my wife, I said, I'm not praying for this anymore. This is the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard of. What am I?

I'm gonna run a radio station. Give me a break. I don't know anything about managing a Christian radio station. So Lord, unless this is you and you show me, I'm done. And I just let it go. A couple of days later, Susie emails me and said, hey, there's a guy here right now.

He's a Christian radio station manager. And he's considering moving out here and he's following the ministry. And so long story short, he said, oh yeah, I can run it. Just remotely, here's it's pretty easy.

I'm like, darn it. God, you know, and so he knows your heart. You know, we don't wanna keep beating ourselves up by this mean God who has all these rules and regulations. And if you don't exactly fit in my box here, you're not gonna make it.

If it wasn't for God's mercy or grace, I wouldn't be here. To keep falling forward and getting back up. And he will guide those who are willing to follow. That's the key. And so this man, I better get to this or I'm not gonna get through this.

The Prophet Confronts Jeroboam's False Worship

So he heard from the Lord and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Now, this man of God, we don't know his name. A man of God, so he was obviously what would be considered a prophet. A prophet in the Bible.

You know, we hear that term now. I mean, there's kind of weird thoughts about it from some camps, but it's very biblical. The Bible is very biblical. Some he's given to be a prophets, apostles, pastors, teachers, evangelists, different callings.

Greg Laurie's callings is different than someone else's, John MacArthur. You know, there's different callings. And the prophetic calling is, it's sharp. It's convicting. There's not a lot of gray areas.

It's like, whoa, this guy's either upsetting me or convicting me. You know, it's that prophetic voice. And so he was a prophet and he went, by the word of the Lord, to this altar where actually this Jeroboam was one of the kings.

And he was, this is actually back when you had Saul, then David, then Solomon, and then it breaks up into the Northern Kingdom, Southern Kingdom, Reboam, Jeroboam. So this is one of those kings that was evil and wicked.

And they actually have fake priests, that God was not happy with these priests because they were sacrificing to Molech and Ashtaroth. And so this prophet is going to call out this king and he's going to stand by this altar where they're burning the incense.

So let's look at that. So then he cried out against the altar. So that prophet cried out against the altar. And that happens. Many of you can relate, even if you don't have a prophetic gifting, does something ever rise up in you where you want to cry out, where you want to raise your voice a little bit, where you want to weep over the sins of our nation, where you want to weep over what's going on, our countries and our families, and you look at all these videos and all this delusion and all this satanic activity, and you want to cry out against it.

That's okay, that's a burden of the Lord. Oh, we're being to God for more burdens. Here's why burdens are so important. The burden of the Lord, what does it do? We need You. We need You. I'm so burdened.

I'm so broken. I'm so alarmed at what's going on. And so he had this burden that the false king allowing false prophets to sacrifice on the altar. And so he cried out to this altar, oh, altar, oh, altar, thus says the Lord, behold, the child Josiah by name shall be born.

And if you know your biblical history, who was Josiah? He was an awesome king. He came in and he cleaned house. He burned some bones. He pulled them out of the graves and he burned the bones on the altar.

And he called down heaven. Sometimes you got to get a little radical. We don't need to do that. We don't need to get violent. We're in the New Testament church, but we need to get violent with our prayer life.

We need to get back to pulling down dead things out of our lives and getting to this altar and crying out to God. And so he said, Josiah is coming. I'm foretelling of what's going to happen. He shall be born of the house of David.

And on you, oh, altar, remember he's talking to the altar right now, not to the king. The king's listening and the king's not too happy. He's calling, he said on this altar, this king is going to come and they shall sacrifice the priests of the high places on this very altar.

So the priests are sacrificing false sacrifices on this altar to these false gods. And God says, because of them, I'm going to judge them and I'm going to sacrifice them on the altar. Wow. God doesn't play around.

Man. And men's bones shall be burned on you, oh, altar. And he gave a sign that same day. This prophet, prophetic spokesman for God said, here's a sign, King, that this is going to happen. The Lord has spoken and surely this altar shall split apart and the ashes on it shall be poured out.

Sometimes God answers by fire. Sometimes He'll answer, a lot of the revivals I read about, I love revivals. And it's not many times they'll record it in their journals. It was like a sound of a rushing wind came in and just blew over the people, convicted and broke them and humbled them.

And as we read in the book of Acts, tongues of fire, these flames of fire were on them. And he said, I'm going to show a sign. It'd be like me saying, God's going to show us a sign. I hit and that pulp, it just splits in two.

I would stop preaching. Worship team, come back up, please. Because I'm about, I'm going to be here for the rest of the night. Right? The God who answers by fire, let him be God. And I don't know why he doesn't do that more often.

I've thought about that a lot. I don't know. And he gave a sign. He said, this altar, this altar shall split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out. So they have this altar, this false altar. And there's all these ashes were there from past sacrifices.

So he said, the altar is going to split and all these ashes are going to pour out. And so it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God who cried out against the altar. In other words, he's calling out the King.

He's saying, you false King, you allow false priests, you allow false prophets, and the judgment of God is going to come upon you. Do you think he liked that? Same as in our day. How long do you think I'd last on Hollywood Boulevard right now giving this message?

Put up, I mean, if God wanted me to do it, right, but put up a little stool with those egg crates, stand up there and repent, repent, repent. Nope, they're not gonna eat. It's not gonna be good. They don't like that.

The darkness hates the light, hates the light. And so the King got upset. What did he say? He said, arrest this man. Arrest him right now and punish him. But then his hand was withered back so that he could not pull it back to himself.

So I guess it withered out and it just stuck here. And then the altar was split apart and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

Then the King answered and said to the man of God, okay, he's changing his opinion real quick, isn't he? He said, arrest him. God withered his hand. He said, okay, hold on, change of plans. Go to the prophet, go to the Lord, please, please pray for me that my hand may be restored.

So the man of God went to the Lord and the King's hand was restored to him and it became as before. Then the King said to the man of God, come home with me and refresh yourself and I will give you a reward.

Temptation, Weariness, and Compromise

Something, if we're not careful, this whole topic is the man of God, a woman of God can be deceived. We see a temptation right here, don't we? God told him, don't eat, don't drink, don't do anything there, go preach to that and get out of Dodge.

And now the King is enticing him. Remember, sin fascinates before it assassinates. You can tweet that one. Sin fascinates you before it assassinates you. And something I've noticed over the years is it will try to wear you down.

That's the word I was looking for. You ever feel real strong? Like after rent and heaven's service, nothing's going to take you out? And then things begin to wear you down. The drink you said you'd never go back to.

The person you said you'd never go back to. The drug you said you would never go back to. The anger you said you would never go back to. It's gone, praise God. But then it begins to wither at you, wear you down.

Anybody relate? Am I being too transparent? Every hand should go up if we're honest. But that's how it works. And I believe if you're forewarned, you're forearmed. Man, when you know how the enemy plays, when you know how the enemy plays that game, you're more prepared.

Okay, I see what's coming. And what happens is when you notice that, then you strengthen yourself even more. Instead of becoming weaker and weaker. So I can only speculate, but he's going to be pretty strong right now.

He's going to say, no, no, I can't do that. But pretty sure the thought came to his mind, probably hungry, a little thirsty, and a King's delicacy and riches, a reward. But he stood strong. Thank God.

But the man of God said to the King, if you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you. Nor would I eat bread, nor drink water in this place. Man, he was pumped up. He was on fire. Man, I love that boldness.

I can relate to this guy, can't you? Heck no. There's nothing you can do. I'm so full of God's Spirit. And you are. The enemy knows it. So he's going to wait for opportune times. Isn't that funny, when the enemy left Jesus, the Bible says, he left and he waited for an opportune time.

And those who have ever struggled through addiction or struggled through things now, they teach you something called the HALT Principle. H-A-L-T. Hungry, angry, lonely, tired. He'll use that against you.

So whenever you're feeling hungry, angry, lonely, tired, those can become opportune times. Why? Because the flesh is weak. And whenever the flesh is weak, that's where he strikes. Don't believe me? Just think about it.

Just think about the last time you fell. I mean, I can get home from this tonight, my kids leave the front door open, the dogs are still in the house, they make a mess, they go to the bathroom on the kitchen floor.

I don't care, it's rent in the heavens. I've been filled with the Spirit of God. But I come home to that tomorrow afternoon, when I'm hungry, angry, lonely, and tired, you're going to be more upset. So you watch for these things and you know what happens is when the enemy's looking for these opportune times, we become weaker instead of stronger.

So I want to encourage you in those times when you're feeling that weakness, that's when you need to strengthen the guard. That's when you strengthen the guard. That's when you run into the Delilah. That's when the enemy might plant a certain thing in your life, is in these opportune times that he's looking for.

Remembering God's Original Command

For it was commanded me by the word of the Lord. See, he's going back to that initial word. You need to do that. This is so rich of just practical advice. Remember what God first told you. Remember what he told you to do.

Stick with that. But we start to compromise, don't you? I remember when God calls me to fast, after about three days, my mind's, oh no, he didn't tell me to do that. Devil's a liar. What's that, Morgan, was that God?

I don't think so. And she said, three days ago, you were convinced. What changed? I'm hungry now. What do you mean what changed? See, the flesh starts to speak and starts to raise its voice. And that's why faith is so important and perseverance and fortitude, biblical terms.

Where you strengthen yourself in the Lord. And you say, Lord, come hell or high water, you said this, I'm going to obey it. Even when I don't feel like it. And watch the floodgates open. Watch the filling of the Holy Spirit come into your heart and into your life.

And that strengthens you for the next half day or day. That strengthens you instead of weakens you. And so he's full of confidence right now. God said, I'm not going to eat bread. I'm not going to drink water.

I'm not even going to go, I'm not going to return the same way I came. Now, it's interesting. I mean, this is a fast. Is he supposed to fast? I mean, I don't know. It looks like that's what he's supposed to do.

Don't eat, don't drink. I mean, it could take on a lot of different meanings. It could mean, you know, you're eating, you're drinking. You're kind of, you know, just staying around the king. You're staying in a place maybe you shouldn't be.

Hello? So God's like, speak what I want you to speak and get out of there. Don't start to compromise. Don't be like Lot. Do you realize he got closer to Sodom? Isn't that interesting? He was outside of Sodom.

He got this great grass area. And then before you know it, you keep reading. Now he's living in Sodom. And maybe that, maybe don't become comfortable. Get out of there. Or it could have been fasting because he had a prophetic word.

God meant him in a powerful way. And that's what fasting does. But he said, don't go at the same way that you came. Now here's the interesting thing about God's Word. When he says things like this or says something to you and you get confirmation in Scripture, don't think it's always gonna make sense with your eyes.

This didn't, why am I not gonna go the same way? How does, God knows if there's danger on that same path. We don't. Now, if God doesn't make sense, we wanna be careful because he still gives us wisdom.

I don't know, God told me sell my house, give all my money away and get a tent and take my family to go live up on that mountain? I mean, I don't know, that's God. Because the Bible also says if you don't provide for your family, you're worse than an infidel unbeliever.

So see, you have these biblical principles to help balance what you think God might be calling you to do. And you know, you wait on the Lord and you have that assurance, the Holy Spirit bears witness.

And I've learned over the years, I don't share too much with other people because the Holy Spirit doesn't bear witness with them. What he's told me, and maybe I'll share it in the future, I don't know yet.

But my wife knows and there's something I've been praying about and if I eventually do it, the three or four people that I've told this to, they're like, no, I don't think that's God. I don't think that's God.

Well, but you're supposed to seek godly counsel, right? So, you know, you weigh that, but sometimes people don't see that same vision for you. I remember when we started the church, I'll never forget, a group of people, I said, hey, we're gonna start Saturday night.

You think everybody's happy? Saturday night? Well, it's family night, 5 .30, that's dinner time. I don't know if anybody's ever started church on a Saturday night. You're gonna start it on a Saturday night?

Why, that's what God's opening that door and there's a church available? I don't know, it doesn't make sense. And I was frustrated for like a couple, well, that's a stupid idea then. How are we gonna, and so I went and rented, I went and looked for a church that we could rent on a Sunday.

Actually, it was a Saturday night and they didn't let us. And just, it was just so much, but listening to others. But others, God's not speaking to them the same thing he's telling you. Often it's different and that's why even as a pastor now, when I give advice, I'm careful.

Hey, what is God telling you? You know, should I, let's say you have grounds for divorce. And should I divorce? Take it to the Lord. We're all for restoration and things. I'm not gonna tell you what to do.

What is God telling you? Should I fast? What type of fast? Hello? Don't ask me. That was the number one question during October fast. Pastor, what kind of fast should I do? Heck, if I know. Are you on medication?

Do you have blood sugar levels? I mean, there's a lot of taking into consideration. Should I sell my house right now? Is the market still high? I don't know, I've got thoughts. Should I buy a house right now?

What's God telling you? I mean, if I look at an interest rate where the market's going, no, hello. But that's just my thoughts. And I've learned over the years I've told people things and they went and did it and God was in it and I was wrong.

Because Godly counsel can offer from their perspective. Hey, biblically speaking, this is what the Bible says and what I would recommend you do, however, you need to take it to the Lord and see what God is telling you.

And that's why I don't share a lot of things. That's why I don't share because I know people have good intentions. They really do. They want what's best, but they don't know what God is doing in my heart and in my life.

I remember one time is when I went on that long fast a couple of years ago now. And so many people, what are you doing? That's crazy. You're gonna die. You don't die. You got plenty of stored energy. Trust me, you don't die.

We die from overconsumption more than we do from fasting. That's for sure. About 1 ,000 to one. And so listen to the voices, right? That will try to keep you down. I don't even go to other pastors for much advice because many of them are jealous.

I remember I went to one about, hey, should we start a Saturday night service out here? No, no, you don't wanna do that. We'll come to find out, yeah, it's gonna take a lot of people from their church.

And of course, I didn't wanna do that. That's not our goal. We'd like 12 new baptisms last night, right? Salvation, that's what makes me happy. But you gotta be careful who you share your dreams with.

Think about it, Mary, when God spoke to her, pondered it in her heart. When Nehemiah was told to go rebuild the wall, he pondered it in his heart. Very important to do these things. The rabbit trail's okay?

Well, here's the funny thing. I told Abraham, I don't have any notes. I'm just gonna read this and talk. So hopefully it's beneficial. So now here, well, here's where I get really confused. So he's told, he's real strong right now, isn't he?

The Lying Prophet and Friendly Fire

But then an old prophet dwelt in Bethel. Him and his sons came and his sons came and told the old prophet. So apparently he maybe was a prophet called by God. And he said, look what the man of God had did in Bethel earlier today.

And they told their father these things. And so they saddled the donkey for their dad, this old prophet, and he rode and he went after the man of God. So the man of God is listening to God. He's on his way home a different way.

And this guy catches him on his journey and says, hey, are you the man of God who came from Judah? He said, I am. Then he said to him, come home with me and eat bread. Here it comes again. Did you see this now?

You think he's hungry by now? And look how sneaky the devil is. A fellow prophet came to speak to another prophet. See, not only is he tempting him with food, he's bringing something that's comfortable.

He said, I can't return with you, nor go in with you. Neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, for I've been told by the word of the Lord, you shall not eat bread nor drink water here.

Get home and go a different way. Man, he's pretty strong right now, still. Still. Well, well, well, I'm also a prophet as you. Oh dear. And an angel spoke to me. You know, that's how the Mormon religion started.

I believe you can even trace Islam to this. So an angel, he said, an angel spoke to me and saying, no, bring back with you, bring back the prophet to your house that he may eat bread and drink water. He was a lying prophet.

So this man of God was getting worn down, in my opinion. I guess all I have is a text like you do. Does it make sense? So probably he's hungry, he's tired. It's not like an enemy comes, here comes friendly fire.

Here comes friendly fire. And that familiarity makes us lower our guard. And an angel spoke to me and said, basically, God wants you to change your plans. And if God tells you to do something, only he can change your plans.

And looking back over my life, I can't think of any time where God has told me to do something and then changed his plans. Now he might've told me something's gonna happen unless you repent. And then you repent and he changes his plans.

But if he wants you to do something, he wants you to see it through. And so what the enemy does, what I've told you many times before, and I don't believe he can take that salvation from you, but he can make you ineffective for the kingdom of God.

How many people, don't raise your hand, but if you could, are right now sitting here with a certificate of non-operation in the kingdom of God? You know what that is from the DMV? You ever see those old cars beat up out in the driveway?

They tell the DMV this car is no longer operating and they no longer have to pay registration and insurance. So they get a certificate of non-operation and it sits in that driveway until they die and kids do something with it.

And that's what the enemy wants to do to us, does he not? Because an army that's asleep is not effective. An army that has no weapons is ineffective. An army that has lost its passion is ineffective. And that's even really what concerns me about our military today.

They're getting very discouraged by what is going on. And that zeal to defend America and things like that have really been pushed back. We become woke and when you become woke, you damage passion and zeal for the right things.

Repentance After Disobedience

So what happened? He went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water. And now he was sitting at the table that the word of the Lord came to the prophet. So now the word of the Lord is coming to the lying prophet.

And he cried out, oh man of God, I was wrong. Thus said the Lord, because you disobeyed the voice of the Lord and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you. But you came back and you ate bread and you drank water.

You compromised, you were laying in the lap of Delilah. You compromised. The Lord told you not to do this. Your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. Isn't that interesting? The prophetic word comes upon this false lying prophet.

And he says, oh man of God, you disobeyed. You disobeyed, but what stuck out to me, it's not in here, and I'm just going off the character and nature of God, is at this point, this man could have repented.

This, no, the good prophet could have repented, I believe. He could have said, you're right, oh God, I've been wrong. God, please forgive me. God, please get me back on the right track. I've fallen, I have fell, please God.

And there's a chance I believe God could have restored him. But what did he do instead? Well, he kept eating. He kept drinking, probably being numb, probably like, yeah, whatever. I don't know, this is shocking.

So he saddled his donkey. Then the old prophet brought him back. Oh, he saddled his donkey for him. And when he had gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. What a story. Like there's nothing encouraging after this for me.

Isn't it interesting? Why is that even in the Bible? This guy died. A lion met him on the road because he went back the same way he came. So see, the Lord knew, don't go back the same way you came. There's probably gonna be lions in that area.

And you're gonna go back, you're gonna meet them. So he was forewarning the man of the impending doom that was about to befall him. And I believe there was a critical junction. I don't know if you agree or not, but right in between those paragraphs, right in between those paragraphs, you could have the word, so he repented.

He repented. I don't see how God, again, I'm not God. The Word's not crystal clear. We don't wanna read into it. But if he cried out to God and repented, even with his full stomach, even with the bottle of Merlot, you get that later, and said, God, I'm sorry, I repent.

Repent means I change my mind and I acknowledge that I disobeyed you. God, please redirect me. Please show me what to do. Please show me what to do from this moment. I'll repent. Instead, he was proud.

He was arrogant. I'm a man of God. I'm gonna do what I feel led to do. And he meant his disaster. And so for me, I don't know about you, but every time I read it, I try to get through the Bible once or twice a year.

Staying Under God's Protection

When I get to it, I always wanna do inventory. You know, because all of us, all of us, if we're not careful, there's a lion waiting, Shane. No, there's, what are you talking about? The devil goes about now as a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour.

Not physically, spiritually. Anybody got bit by a lion recently? No. Have you been bit by a demonic influence or bad choice? And you're going down the wrong direction? That's what he does. He goes about.

Look what it says. He goes about in a roaring lion. I mean, you research it. That's like they're actually quiet when they're looking for prey. But roaring is that boasting. It's that he doesn't even care who hears him.

He goes about boasting, roaring lion, looking for whom he can devour. Who can he devour? Who is easy prey? Who's away from the shepherd? The lamb that wanders from the flock is easy prey. But thank God for another verse, the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him.

So I did this for many years. Every time I would speak, it was part of my message at the end, mainly speaking to men, and I would say, so the question is who finds you? Who finds you? One or the other will find you.

The enemy goes about, God goes about. One or the other will find you. There's no little place you can hide. You hide from God, the enemy finds you. You run to God, the enemy can't touch you. Remember, God is sovereign.

He's God's devil. He's not the devil on his own doing his own thing. He's under God's sovereign control. And God allows it. He says, if you step out from under my shelter and my covering, you're easy prey.

It's not that I want that, I don't desire that. That's not my best will, the plan for you, but you're stepping out underneath my covering and my shelter. And you become easy prey. And so I believe tonight, during the rest of the service with worship, maybe some of us need to come forward.

The enemy hasn't yet got you, but you're close. You're close, you're laying in Delilah's lap. I'm even gonna come up here because I know he's looking to take me out. He's looking to take Pastor Abram out.

He's looking to take the shepherds out. And we have to say, God, I wanna stay broken. I wanna stay humble. Lord, show me, show me if there's any wicked way in me. Is there anything open right now? Is there a stronghold in my heart?

Is there a stronghold where the enemy's got in there? He sees, oh, I can fire my dart right there. Maybe you're talking to people on Instagram you shouldn't, or at work, or on a computer. You don't need a private computer in your room somewhere.

Put it out in the open. See, that's how you get under God's shelter again. There's choices you can make and the enemy wants us to do things in darkness. That's how he operates. He doesn't operate in the light.

I show my wife, I get stuff on Instagram, Twitter all the time. Dating sites, this, hi, what's my name? Send me some pictures. So delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. He's always trying to look for those opportune times and just bring it to the light.

Maybe he's trying to draw you back into a past. Anybody given up a past stronghold and it begins to call your name again? I can't tell you how many people over the last couple of years, not even that go here that I know, have went three, four, five, six, seven years without alcohol and now they're bound again because of COVID or because something dramatic happens in your life.

And we run back to that thing that used to give us that temporary pleasure. That can be an area where the enemy is trying to take you out. Or boredom, boredom with God, yawning at the things of God. Do you know how dangerous that is to get out of the Word and to get out of worship and to get out of church and out of fellowship and just to begin, hey, I'm not a bad person.