Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/dojc/sermons/102246/the-cure-for-spiritual-poison/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Amen. It's so good to be in the house of the Lord. If you have your Bibles or your Bible app on your device, let's turn to Philippians chapter 4. As you go there, I just want to say that it's an honor and a privilege to be able to deliver the Word of God to you today. [0:18] And this probably isn't going to come out as preaching today. It's going to be more teaching, I think. And this teaching is for me today. First and foremost, it's for me. [0:31] Very convicting for me. God began dealing with me early in the week on this matter. And it definitely pointed to me today. [0:42] But it's something that we all need. So you're not off the hook. It's for everybody, but it's for me. Amen. And so we need to hear this as a church family. [0:56] And we need to hear this as individuals as well. But this is for your pastor today, too. Philippians chapter 4, verse 8. Just one scripture. [1:08] Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise. [1:28] Think on these things. Amen. And so for my title today, it's The Cure for Spiritual Poison. The Cure for Spiritual Poison. Let's pray. [1:39] Lord Jesus, I thank you for your word today. I thank you for conviction, healthy, good, Holy Ghost conviction that comes on us when we read your word and we hear your word, Lord Jesus, and it shines a light upon our lives, God. [1:52] And we thank you, Lord, and the mercy and the grace that's extended in it, Lord Jesus, and this dispensation of grace that we live, that we have an opportunity to adjust ourselves and to adjust our lives, God, according to your word and to conform to your word. [2:07] And I thank you, Lord, that we are in this period of time, that we have an opportunity, God, to adjust to your word. And I pray that's what's done today, Lord. Let this word be an adjusting word in Jesus' name, and let it have free course to our hearts. [2:21] And in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. You may be seated. The title or label Christian, I believe, is abused today in the world that we live in. [2:36] There's a lot of people that claim themselves to be Christians that are probably no more Christians and I'm a bodybuilder. And so, disciples of Jesus Christ is a term, in my opinion, that is beyond the simple, general, overused term or title of Christian, in my opinion. [3:02] You can claim you're a Christian, and today that can mean a lot of different things, but to claim to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. [3:12] I believe it's a whole other level. And you should really consider what you're saying if you claim yourself to be a disciple of Jesus. [3:24] Right out of the gate today, I just want to identify to you what I believe is absolute most deadly poison that will kill any Christian, for sure, and it will kill any disciple of Jesus Christ, and that is the spiritual poison of negativity. [3:45] Negativity is a spiritual poison and will bring quick and sudden spiritual death. Negativity will literally cause God to spit in your face. [4:00] If you don't know or understand my reference, you should read Numbers chapter 12 later. Not now, later. The alarming and concerning thing is that without even trying, you don't have to do anything at all. [4:17] You just have to wake up in the morning, and negativity is seemingly all around us every day. We are flooded on every side with negativity. The world today is full of negativity. [4:29] negativity. When you wake up each day, you're just, you're surrounded by it, and if it were not for the positive of the gospel and the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is just that, it is the good news. [4:43] If it were not for the positivity of the gospel, the good news, all we would have in this world is negativity and poison. If the gospel isn't good news, there is no good news, but the gospel is good news, and I thank God for the gospel today, and I thank God that I've heard the gospel and I've received the gospel, and I thank God that you have too, but the world surrounds us every day with negativity on all sides. [5:09] Negativity is a poison that kills. Negativity is moving backwards. It's not moving forward. Positivity is moving forward. Negativity is moving backwards. [5:19] Negativity is destructive. It destroys your mind and the way that you think. It changes the way we think. Negative thinking, it destroys your health. [5:30] It destroys your mood. It destroys your attitude. It's a poison to the believer. Negativity destroys your relationship with others, with your family, with your friends, with the people you go to church with, but also it destroys your relationship with God. [5:50] It is the poison of the soul. Negativity breeds doubt, it breeds fear, it breeds unbelief, and it destroys faith. [6:01] It takes just a little bit of negativity to destroy you, and it could destroy a whole congregation of people. But positivity that is based on the Word of God, it doesn't pretend that things are always well and that things are always perfect, but positivity based on the Word of God chooses to expect that there's going to be better results. [6:25] not bad results. It is always better to be positive than to be negative. It's 100% of the time always better to be positive than negative. [6:36] And negativity magnifies the problem. But faith magnifies God. Amen. Positivity magnifies the answer, which is our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. [6:49] Amen. man, it's always better to be positive than negative. It's a biblical principle that we need to understand to survive in this world as disciples of Jesus Christ. [7:01] God does not associate with or work with our negativity or our fear or our doubting. He rejects it and doesn't want it in the camp. [7:14] He doesn't want anything to do with it. He doesn't work in a spirit of fear or unbelief. And God does not associate with it. And so the fastest way to get God to bring judgment into your life in real time is to be negative. [7:30] Moses sent 12 spies to scout the land that God said, I'm going to give you this land. This land is yours. It's from me. And this is your promised land. [7:42] Go and take it and I'm going to be with you. And so Moses sends out 12 spies into the land to spy it out and bring back a report of what it is. [7:54] And as we know from the Bible that 10 of the 12 spies came back with what the Bible says was an evil report. 10 of them said that there are giants in the land and we are grasshoppers in their sight. [8:09] And they said, we're not able to go up against these people for they are stronger than we are. And God in his word called that an evil report because God sees negativity for what it is. [8:22] It is evil. But Joshua and Caleb, the other two spies of the 12, said, let's go up at once and possess the land, the promised land for we are well able to overcome it. [8:35] And so I thank God today for those that have positive report. Amen. Not just an evil report. The negative spies could only see giants. They could only see the walls. [8:46] They could only see their own weaknesses. They called themselves grasshoppers. The enemy didn't even call them the grasshoppers. They called themselves that they were like grasshoppers. [8:56] And so they were unable to take the land that God had promised them because they saw and come to the conclusion that they were stronger than them and provided that evil report. [9:12] And so I hope I never say something like that in my life. I hope I never say that the enemy is stronger than I or that something that God has promised me is not obtainable. [9:26] But I hope that I always have a positive attitude even when thinking about church planning here in this city and it's not without its obstacles and without its challenges and proverbial giants and fortresses and walls and things that have to be overcome. [9:45] But I don't ever want to be one that's going to say that the land that God has promised me is not obtainable. Amen. When God says that it's for me I want to believe that it's for me. [9:57] When God says there's going to be a church planted here in this city I believe it's going to happen. Amen. Amen. So negativity is toxic poison to a disciple of Jesus Christ. [10:08] If you think you can or you think you can't you're right. You're right. Whether you think you can or you think you can't you're right. [10:18] If you think you can't you can't. If you think you can you can. All things are possible to him that believeth. Amen. How many believe the word today? All 12 should have got on board together and said I don't care how big I don't care how tall I don't care how strong they may look I don't care how many walls are around the cities I don't care what kind of fortresses they have or what kind of weapons they have if God promised it to us if God promised the land to us it belongs to us and we are more than able to take it because if God is for us who can stand against us amen but what we don't need in a church plant or any part of our walk with God is negativity based around anything but especially the promises that God has given to us and so negativity magnifies the problem but faith magnifies God and I prefer to magnify God every day of the week amen we don't need to be magnifying problems the problems that we face are big enough already so stop magnifying your problems stop making it bigger by putting the attention on it and magnifying it but let's begin to magnify the [11:32] Lord instead amen we don't need to talk about how massive and big the problem is amen we need to talk about how massive and big our God is amen and that he's more than able to do all things for us and that we are able to do all things through Christ who strengthens us and so negativity is poisonous because it affects it affects more than just the person spewing the negativity or the person that speaks it but negativity is poison to to those around the person spewing it as well negativity is poison to faith and to relationships and to family and to churches we're not to speak negatively we're not to speak negativity you know we just need to keep that junk out of here Colossians 4 and 6 says let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man a true [12:34] Christian disciple of Jesus Christ should not be known as a person who is constantly negative and points out everything that's wrong we should as disciples of Jesus Christ be known as the people the ones that would bring light and hope and wisdom and faith into whatever difficult situations that present itself in our lives but 10 negative people cause about 2 million people to die in the waste of a wilderness and never see the promised land that God had promised for them if 10 people can affect 2 million then just you or I can definitely affect our whole family or even our church 10 negative people spoiled all of the Israelites numbers 14 and 1 says and all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night because of that evil report all because of the negativity of 10 men the negativity created fear it created complaining it created rebellion and it cost them all everything and God would not allow them to enter the promised land until that whole generation of people died in the wilderness and we're not to speak negativity to each other the Bible says in [13:58] Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24 and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and unto good works why because positivity and encouragement can spread too and that is what we need to be spreading in our families and in our church every time you open your mouth you're planting seeds the question is what kind of seeds are you planting is it faith or is it fear is it doubt or is it belief is it division or is it unity and what should we be speaking then whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise think and speak on these things for the children of Israel that were just brought out of slavery in Egypt all the negativity began to cause them to believe that slavery that they were just delivered from look better than the freedom that they had before them and God and it's mind-boggling to me that after [15:12] God would perform such miracles in the way that he did to deliver his people out of the bondage of Egypt and out of slavery in Egypt and out of the hands of their taskmasters the first little struggle comes along and then they had already forgotten about his goodness and blessings Exodus chapter 16 verse 3 says and the children of Israel said unto them would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots and when we did eat bread to the fool for you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger they forgot that they were slaves and they forgot that they were delivered and they were focused on their current situation of being hungry to me that's mind boggling you were just delivered out of bondage by a mighty hand of God you watched as God parted the sea you walked through on dry ground and the enemy pursuing you was destroyed by God collapsing the water upon them drowning them all and now you're free from bondage and the first thing that you want to do is complain that you're hungry and that's the poison of negativity it's poison to our soul quick to forget quick to forget all the miracles and quick to forget all the blessings that God has performed in your life to get you to a better place in your life where you are today we have all gone through our [17:02] Red Sea experience where God has delivered us from the world of sin and from bondage and now we are faced yes we may be in a wilderness place right now but we have freedom today amen I thank God for having freedom from the bondage of sin and if you've received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and you've been baptized in Jesus name you know what I'm talking about but negativity it blinds people from their past blessings and I don't ever want to forget where God has brought me from I don't want to insult God by not having faith and not being positive about a situation and instead I want to say God didn't bring me this far to leave me stranded now and so I believe that God will work out this situation just like he did the last time and so my faith and my trust is in the Lord and not in the situation and so thank God for Joshua and Caleb thank God for two men out of twelve that had some faith to believe because it was if it wasn't for them who knows what kind of word gospel that we would have or we would still be waiting on something and we wouldn't be where we are today so thank God for those that have faith and remain positive during the hard times the Bible says in [18:25] Philippians chapter 2 14 says do all things without murmurings and without disputings the Bible repeatedly warns us against murmuring murmuring is complaining how much murmuring and complaining do you allow yourself to do before you feel bad about doing it how many times did you murmur this week and nobody stopped you and just let you keep going murmuring complaining right back back back back back back back complaining can become a habit and when it does it it takes control of your heart and if that happens then the blessings in your life are pushed to the side and forgotten and all your problems always take the center stage of your life and become the center and the focus of your attention and we have to learn to count our blessings quit quit being ungrateful to God [19:27] I mean God's been so good to us I mean we we all need to take out our put our make a note on our notes app or keep a journal or something about all the every time God does something good for us every time a prayer is answered we need to make a note of it and that way when we start to find ourselves in a place where we start to get a little negative or we catch ourselves complaining then we need to take out our notebooks or our notes app and begin to just look back at all the things that God has done for us because we're so quick to forget we're not far from a miracle in our lives and we've already forgotten and we're worried about the next thing that's coming when we would take out our notes and just look back and if we were honest with ourselves and with God we would realize that God has been good to us amen and that he's brought us through a lot of things in our lives a lot of difficult situations that he's had his hand in helping us get through and if we would just remember those things then we can look back and say if God did it then he's going to do it again in my life amen [20:31] I believe that and so to be in despair over the things of life is to turn your back on God and the things that he's already done for you murmuring and complaining about it is vocalizing your distrust and your lack of faith in God and that is not what a disciple of Jesus Christ does we can't be the soldiers of God Miles sings this song and it's what made we think to put something like this in here but we're expected to be the soldiers of the Lord and we don't want to be the soldiers that walk into the room and just start right away saying you know this is a battle we can't win and start becoming negative we have to be the soldiers of God that walk into the room and remind everybody that God is more than able and we can do all things through him he is more than able to provide us all we need and more to overcome any trial or trouble that we face in life nothing's too hard for our [21:36] God and when we have God nothing's too hard for us don't be a traitor don't be a traitor don't be an agent of the enemy don't be an agent of the enemy of our souls and be like that devil negative words they steal they kill and they destroy just like the devil tries to do but positive words can bring life and healing Proverbs 18 and 21 says death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof that means you can literally speak positively and bring life and healing into a situation or you can speak negativity and bring death negativity can cause wounds that lead to death but positivity can bring healing and life in a desperate situation Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29 says let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth let no that means none never no let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that means building up that it may minister grace to those that hear it the only thing you should utter out of your mouth to another is something that builds up and edifies that person or the one that you may be talking about not in negative terms amen this is something [23:11] I've struggled with my whole life and I confess that to you today that I could have done a much better job as a father by not always being negative and tearing down but building up with positive words and not letting any corrupt communication come out of my mouth none all of our thoughts and words have to stay positive towards others and towards our situations in life and life troubles they're going to come troubles are going to come it doesn't matter what situations you find yourself in stay positive have faith and give God praise in the good times in the bad man like we sing about today he's good all the time and we should be able to praise him in the good times and the bad Paul and Silas chose to praise God in a bad situation it would have been easier to get negative but they were true disciples of Jesus because they stayed positive they were beaten and put into prison for what they believed but at midnight [24:19] Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them the Bible says and the situation they were in was probably more negative than many and most circumstances that you've been in I don't think I don't know how many of us would take it so well getting beaten and put in prison you know and then just right away get to singing praises to God in that situation but that should be our response because praise and positivity move God into action in that situation amen and it was they were in a negative situation but because of their positivity in that negative situation it launched God into action and God was able to show up and work inside that praise that they gave and if they were negative God wouldn't have been able to move but because they were positive they were able to get a response from God and he did move and he did deliver them with a great miracle and not only did [25:24] God open the prison doors for them but everyone around them witnessed the power of God through their praise and their bad situation that they were in it was a great witness unto God amen the cure to the soul's poisoning of negativity it's simple really Ephesians 4 and 29 sorry we've already read that I don't know why it's in there twice but if you want to be cured the cure is simple the antidote is simple if you want to be cured and have you have to learn to be thankful and to show gratitude and I don't know what it is about this world that we live in today it seems like it's hard to hear a thank you it's a small thing but sometimes it bothers me and it shouldn't but I mean when I my first job was at McDonald's and I was trained to say thank you after taking somebody's money and handing them finishing the transaction and nowadays you can go through a drive-thru or something and just to hear thank you from anybody it's few and far between we're not a thankful generation we've lost it somewhere and you know [26:38] America is the only country in the world that celebrates Thanksgiving and we're not far from that day we're a little over a month away from Thanksgiving this is supposed to be a time of Thanksgiving that we come to a time of Thanksgiving but America is the only country in the world that celebrates Thanksgiving and I wonder how much of that has impact I know there's probably other things in God's timing and God's plan but I wonder how much of that of just being a country that has a day of Thanksgiving that has allowed this country to become so successful and a great power in this world and be blessed in a lot of different ways but that's what Thanksgiving does is it brings blessing if I tell someone who is incredibly negative all the time that you know you ought to be thankful and they say oh I'm thankful well they're a liar because it's not possible to be negative and thankful at the same time this is not we need to be cured and to be cured we have to replace the complaining we have to replace that complaining and the murmuring with thankfulness replace the fear with faith and quit gossiping and start edifying them like [27:59] God said we should do replace bitterness with forgiveness unforgiveness turns into hurt and hurt turns into bitterness and bitterness turns into rebellion and rebellion is a spirit of witchcraft the Bible says and you're going to lose out on the greatest thing that you have and that's your salvation if you harbor unforgiveness forgiveness is required in all things of a disciple of Jesus Christ it doesn't matter what's been done to you by someone else forgiveness is not providing forgiveness is not an option for a disciple of Jesus Christ we're going to be forgiven as we forgive and so I want to make sure that all my trespasses have been forgiven and so I have to forgive all the negativity that comes out of our mouths begins with negative thinking and so in the mind is where the battle needs to take place today for us to conquer negativity and a mind that is continually rehearses worrying about things and continually rehearses doubts and fears and offenses that come to them or even their own failures in life and the mind that constantly rehearses those things it starts to produce things it produces bitterness which produces rebellion and unbelief and eventually all that ugliness and ungodliness it begins to be expressed by the mouth because negative speech comes from negative thinking [29:39] Romans 12 and 2 says and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God we have to have a renewing of the mind because it is out of our thoughts out of our mind out of our hearts is where our words our speech springs from and Matthew 12 34 Jesus says oh a generation of vipers how can ye be being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak it amen so let's all stand and if you have your bible or your app we were in philippians 4 verse 8 I'd like us to go back there one more time as you stand finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise think on these things we're in philippians 4 that was verse 8 verse 9 says those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen and me do and the [30:59] God of peace shall be with you Paul is saying I've demonstrated it to you and if you can do it if I can do it you can do it and if you do then the God of peace is going to be with you and Philippians 4 10 says but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again wherein ye were also careful but ye lacked opportunity verse 11 not that I speak in respect of want I'm not saying that I'm without and I need for I have learned in whatsoever state I am whatever condition I'm in whatever situation I'm in there with to be content Paul's learned he's saying that no matter what situation he's in no matter what he's facing he's learned how to be content and so we too need to learn how to be content you can't tell by his words in this letter to the [31:59] Philippians because they're so positive but while he wrote this letter to the Philippians while he was in prison in Rome waiting to be beheaded he had been given a sentence of death by being beheaded and he's awaiting his day to die and he writes these words Philippians 4 verse 12 I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need it doesn't matter to a disciple of Jesus Christ whether or not you're in a situation in which you are well taken care of and have no needs or if you're in a situation where things are going really bad and you have many needs we have to stay content we have to stay positive and we have understanding that all great disciples of [33:13] Jesus Christ have and that is the very next verse verse 13 he concludes it with this he says I can do all things through Christ it strengthens me and so here it is here's the cure to spiritual poison and it's something that I've heard a true Christian a true disciple of Jesus Christ very influential man in my life in the life of my family say many times God has been good to me if we can learn to rehearse that that God has been good to me doesn't matter what what I'm facing right now doesn't matter what I've gone through doesn't matter what I'm going to go through God has been good to me that is the antidote to the poison of negativity remember the goodness of God in every bad situation and you can't help but to be positive and if you need a healing from that poison effects of negativity today why don't you just try try it and say [34:23] God has been good to me God has been good to me I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me and God has been good to me amen amen let's pray today let's find a place to pray and let's let's let's pray that prayer just let God know that you recognize that he's been good to you may! [34:49] !!