Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

Praise the Lord.

One more time.

God is good.

He's always good.

He's always good.

Praise God.

It's so good to be in the house of God.

The Sunday after Easter is for the real Christians.

Praise God.

Before we get into the word, a few things I want to do.

First of all, I want to say thank you to everybody who, they're probably not even here because they're outside serving, but everybody who worked really hard to make last Sunday possible, who sacrificed their service to miss the service.

And my brother, Adrian, he's one of them.

Josh, he's probably out there.

Fernando, Danny Saldivar.

Man, I mean, just these awesome, awesome men who held it down.

And I also want to ask, well, I want to say thank you if you showed up last week and you had to go upstairs and there's this people upstairs and I know it's, I know if you have bad knees, those stairs can be, you know, there ain't the best.

Right.

Um, and I know, um, I know maybe you had to walk a little bit because our parking lots were full.

That's, you know, everybody tells me, pastor, those are good problems.

And I say, amen, but there's still problems, but I want to, I want to say thank you, um, for not complaining.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say you didn't complain.

And if you did, I'm gonna let the Holy spirit speak to you.

Um, but I'm going to say thank you for, for showing up and, um, just, it was, it was an amazing, amazing Sunday.

Amen.

Um, and also I want to recognize a few people today.

Um, you know, we started doing something that we call the new believers class because, you know, God was bringing so many people into the community of faith every Sunday and we needed something that would bring a, you know, kind of an initial discipleship class.

And so we started what was called the new believers class, and then it kind of formed into something else.

Now we call it firm foundations.

Um, and if you are, if you are a, maybe a new Christian, or maybe you just need to brush up on some, you know, very basic doctrine of what we believe as Christians.

Uh, this class is for you.

Our next one's going to be May 5th.

Um, it's going to be via zoom.

It's going to be Monday nights.

Um, but I want to recognize the, uh, a few people who just went through it.

If you would come up here and we have a certificate for you this time.

Um, so, uh, Belinda Belinda, come on.

Aunt bell.

I call her aunt bell.

Praise the Lord.

That's for you.

We got, we got, uh, angel Beltran, angel Beltran.

Come on.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

We got Brianna Lopez.

We got Valerie Torres, Valerie Torres.

Come on.

Who else we got?

We got, um, Anjali Valdez, Anjali, Anjali got Vanessa Chavez.

It's a lot of, there's a lot of women.

We need, we need more men to take these classes.

Come on, men of God.

Amen.

And then we have, uh, miss, miss Ruth, uh, who is not here, uh, with us today, but, uh, praise God, give it up one more time for, for all of them.

And sister Yasmin and my boy Lewis up there.

Lewis does so many things, uh, who gave the class praise God for, for them.

Um, and also I'm sorry, we got it.

We just got to do the announcements real quick.

Um, but I, I want to kind of let you know, give you an update of where we're at with our project vision.

Don't tune me out.

Don't tune me out.

Um, project vision is our, is our initiative to, to raise funds.

Uh, $200,000 is our, is our goal for the end of the year, uh, to be able to do some much needed renovations and praise the Lord we have enough for the first phase, so we're going to be starting working on the fellowship hall, uh, in mid May, um, and so praise God for that.

Amen.

Um, but we're, we're kind of at a standstill.

We're, we're not quite where we probably should be, um, right now in this, in this time of, of year.

Um, so I think we have about, uh, maybe 50, $58,000, uh, pledged, not all of it's received yet.

Um, but we would, we would, uh, by the end of, of June, we would like to be, you know, halfway, so a hundred grand.

So if the Lord has spoken to you to sow a seed into, into the ministry, um, please, please don't ignore him.

Amen.

Amen.

Praise God.

I think that's it.

Um, let's get into the word.

Uh, let's go to the gospel of Luke chapter 22, one through six, and I'm going to ask you to stand with me as we read this word, Luke 22, one through six, when you have it, say, I have it, man, give you a couple more seconds.

Luke 22, one through six.

And if you don't have your Bibles, I got you up here.

It says, it says this, it says now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him, him being Jesus to death for they feared the people.

Then Satan entered Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the 12.

And he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers, how he might betray him to them.

And they were glad and agreed to give him money.

So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

Amen.

Let's, let's go to God in prayer.

Heavenly father.

I thank you for this word.

My God, that you've spoken over your servant, Lord.

I pray that you would just speak it to your people.

My God, as we open up our hearts and our ears and our minds, my God, I pray Lord, um, that this would fall on fertile ground.

Father God.

I pray that today we would walk out of here with guarded hearts.

Father God, because we know the enemy is out to attack my God, your people, Lord, but we declare and decree today, my God, that we are covered by the precious blood of the lamb.

My God.

And I, and I pray father God that this word, uh, would be, um, would be something that we would take and apply to our lives in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Um, you know, this sermon might've been a little bit more appropriate a few weeks ago as we were kind of dealing with the events leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Uh, but you know, God, God put it on my heart this week, uh, to bring this word that, you know, I probably preached in some form before.

Um, you know, Easter Sunday is a, is a glorious Sunday.

You know, last week, again, we had an incredible weekend.

We had, I think our, our biggest attendance on record.

We saw between our two services, almost 700 people walk in through these doors.

Um, we had 32 salvations and I mean the, the glory of the resurrection, um, was kind of at its peak last Sunday, at least in the, in the sense that we celebrated as a church, um, I'm in various pastor groups and every pastor celebrates what God did in their churches on Easter Sunday.

Like record breaking attendance everywhere.

And I think that's a Testament to the revival that God is bringing in in America, 100%.

We are, we are hearing more people say yes to Jesus.

There was new families or salvations.

And that's why I love resurrection Sunday, but you know, after resurrection Sunday, the, the, the, the excitement ends and you know, there's something that I, I kind of call as post Easter blues, you know, um, where the churches aren't as, they're not as full as they were the prior week.

The excitement, um, is not as high as it was the prior week.

You know, a lot of times that, that fades, that excitement fades and the miracle of the resurrection, it starts to kind of get drowned out by the other stuff that we're facing in our lives.

And so we need the reminder constantly to guard our hearts, the heart that Jesus died for, amen, the, the, the heart that Jesus brought back to life is a heart that gives God glory and the enemy doesn't want that the devil doesn't want that the enemy wants nothing more than to take away the glory of God from his people.

You know, Satan's name, it means adversary.

He is the enemy of God.

Let me tell you something, man, the devil, he doesn't, he doesn't care about you.

Like, and I don't mean that, like, obviously we all know that the devil doesn't care about us or care for us.

But what I mean is we are irrelevant to the enemy.

His beef is not with me and is not with you.

It's always been with God.

The devil has always been after the glory of God.

And now that he knows that he can't have the glory, he is going to attack anything that can possibly give God glory.

That's why whenever the enemy attacks you, it feels personal.

Like, like, like when he tempts you, when he lies to you, when he tries to take your joy, it's like, why are you doing this to me?

It's not because he's trying to be annoying to you.

It's because he's trying to take away any glory that he can from the God who is inside of you.

So he tries to shut your worship.

He tries to mess up your week so that if you're going to be at church on Sunday, you are a silent Christian because if you're a silent Christian here, and if you can tune out here, that's only going to lead you further and further from God on a Monday through Saturday.

He is after the glory, the God of God that is in you.

And we, you know, we've been talking a lot about if you've been here for the past six months, a word, a constant word that God has been given me is, is holiness.

Holiness.

Holiness is who God is.

Holiness is what was offered to the father on that cross.

And holiness is what we are called to be as, as the people of God.

And, and, and we also know that with greater levels of anointing or greater levels of holiness come greater levels of anointing.

We look at men like Moses and Elijah and Elijah and Jesus, and they prove that the closer you are to the father, the more likely he will use you for the things that nobody else can be trusted with.

The, the, the burdens that nobody else wants, he's going to give it to those that are closest to him.

And if we're honest, a lot of people, a lot of Christians are kind of satisfied with where they're at.

Not everybody is asking God for more, right?

Can we see, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe you're not, maybe you're asking God for less.

Maybe you're not asking God to use you.

You're saying, Lord, please don't pick me.

Let's be honest.

You don't want to be the example to anybody.

You don't want the responsibility of leading a group of people to Jesus.

When you have so much of your own issues to work through, you don't want to be burdened by God's heart.

You don't want your plans to be disrupted.

That's, that's fair.

Remember what, uh, what Elijah said to Elijah?

He said, the double portion thing that you're asking for, it's a, what a hard thing.

Think twice before you ask for it.

Many Christians know that the anointing is a hard thing.

And because it's a hard thing, we don't want it.

We don't want something that's hard life as it is, as hard being a Christian as it is, as hard carrying the anointing of God, that's a whole other level of hard.

Now you can, I do believe that you can be holy and not necessarily be anointed for a certain task.

You just got to be careful because God is attracted to holiness because with holiness, he can accomplish his purpose with men and women who he knows are willing.

Now, the reason I tell you this, I'm not going to preach on holiness again, but in the same way that God will anoint those who are righteous and holy, Satan seeks opportunities to use those who are unholy.

You hear me?

Again, the same way God considers those who are holy and righteous to be used to advance his purpose.

The devil would consider those who in any area have chosen to live in an unholy state.

So, so the title of my message this morning is unholy anointing, unholy anointing.

Uh, when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness and Luke chapter four, and he was unsuccessful, Luke says he departed from him until an opportune time.

The devil is an opportunist.

He is on the prowl like a hungry lion.

He seeks whom to steal, kill and destroy.

And just as God uses people for his glory, the enemy uses people to try to take God's glory.

So understand that the enemy is looking for an opportunity to take some of God's glory.

And a few months ago, I preached this sermon called private spaces.

Um, and in that message, God and God made it very clear to me that whatever we do in private, listen, whatever we do in private is probably an indication of what's already in our heart.

And that that's so powerful to me because the heart is a very sacred place.

We are told to guard our hearts and we don't, we don't share our full hearts with everybody.

We don't share our full mind with everybody.

We don't, we don't say the first thing that comes to our mind with everybody, right?

We don't, I mean, some of y'all do, but, but we don't share everything that is in our hearts with everybody.

We don't share every desire that we have with every person.

So whatever we display in private is probably an indication that something deeper can be found in that heart that correlates to those private actions, public moral failings.

You know, they don't, they don't happen because, I mean, they don't always happen just because of a moment of weakness.

Sometimes they do, but a lot of times things were left in the dark for such a long time and they're just being exposed to the light.

Things that were done and kept hidden and private, those finally get to be made public.

Now, nobody knows what you do in private.

Can I just tell you that?

Private, it's, it's, it's our, it's our private space.

We like our privacy.

Nobody knows what you do in private, but, but God does and the devil does.

You know what?

God doesn't even need to see what you do in private.

He already knows what's in your heart.

Come on, Jesus knew what was in the heart of Judas before Judas even betrayed him.

Imagine doing ministry with somebody you, you knew didn't like you, somebody you knew didn't have your back.

You know, sometimes in ministry, we wonder these things like, does this person like me or at work?

Does this person like me?

Does she have beef with me?

We just wonder, right?

Those are things that we, we ask ourselves in our minds.

Does this, does this person support me?

Does this person have my best interest in mind?

I I've, I got to the point where I stopped asking those questions because I'll probably never know the true heart of a person.

And you know what questions like that will drive you crazy and take your joy.

But Jesus knew the heart of Judas every step of the way.

Every time Judas said, amen.

Every time Judas called him Lord and master.

And, and every time he made a public profession of faith, Jesus knew what was really in the heart of Judas.

And so it's interesting because Peter denies, Peter denies Jesus and Judas betrays Jesus.

The actions of Peter and Judas, listen, the actions of Peter and Judas, they don't hold as much weight as what was in their heart.

God tells us that, uh, that, that people look at the outward and God looks at the inward in the heart.

God looks at the heart.

So the reason that Peter was able to be restored and Judas wasn't is because even though both of their actions were foolish and evil, Jesus knew that Peter had love for him in his heart while he knew that Judas did not.

Even without saying it, Jesus saw Peter's heart of repentance and humility and called him to restoration.

And he saw Judas heart of stone and tells him, go ahead and do what you're going to do.

Jesus already knows what's in your heart, even though he sees what you do in private, but the enemy, let me tell you, let me tell you why the enemy is so good at what he does to put lying devil, man.

The Bible makes no suggestion that the devil can hear our thoughts, can read our minds, see what's in our heart, but you know what?

He does see what you do in private.

He sees it.

He hears it.

He hears how you speak.

He sees what you do.

He knows what you watch.

He knows if you are being duplicitous because you act one way in private and, and you act wholly in public when you're at church.

And because he knows all of this, he can make a pretty good guess for what's in your heart.

He might not know it, but he can probably bet on it.

When he sees a constant angry person at home, he can probably bet that you've got some anger in your heart.

You've got some anger issues.

When he hears you talk about others in a destructive way, he knows that you probably got some disdain for that person in your heart.

When he watches you read something on Facebook, like a Facebook post of a sister, of a sister in Christ who was celebrating what God did in her life and everybody's commenting and everybody's liking it and everybody's celebrating with her and you're like, I ain't going to like it and keep going.

That suggests that you might have some jealousy in you.

You might have some bitterness towards this person.

Why don't you want to like her post?

Do you have an issue with, with her?

What kind of ammunition are we given the enemy when we are in private?

Again, Luke tells us that the devil fled from Jesus until an opportune time.

This, this, this tells us that the enemy, he wasn't done.

He wasn't going to quit, man.

This dude has already been defeated and he's still not quitting.

Let me tell you something about the devil, man.

The devil is a loser.

Amen.

Can we say that with our chest?

The devil is a loser.

He lost his position in the angelic realm.

He lost his place in heaven.

He lost the temptation over Jesus.

He lost the power of death.

One day he's going to lose his place on the earth.

The devil isn't done.

He knows he's a loser.

He's just a sore loser.

And that's what makes, that's what makes him so much of a threat to the people of God, because listen, a sore loser doesn't want the victor to have any glory.

A sore loser is always saying, are you cheated?

That's not fair.

You have an advantage.

You're God.

A sore loser doesn't want the victor to enjoy his victory.

So he's going to do everything that he can to take away the glory from the victor.

And you and I church are a product of the glory of God who with his blood brought us back to life.

I am a product of the glory of God.

How many of us in this room are products of the glory of God?

How many of us were dead and now we're alive?

How many of us were addicts and now we're not?

How many of us were sick and now we're not?

I am a product of the glory of God in my life.

Your testimony and the things that you have overcome, man, to God be all the glory.

So the devil is mad.

Oh, he's mad.

He's mad, mad, but he's not just mad.

He's resilient.

The enemy is, is stubborn and he's looking as, as Luke says, for the opportune time.

So listen, church, whenever we do something in private that is inconsistent with the public image that we hope people see, the devil sees the real you and is looking for an opportunity to attack God's glory.

And you know what?

He's going to use you to do it.

How dare him?

How dare he use God's own people against him?

That's why he's so evil.

He is after the glory of God and his image bearers of God.

That's why the attacks are towards us and for us and seem so personal sometimes because he is after the children of God.

If he can't have you, he's going to try to, he's going to try to have your children in the same way the devil can't have God.

God already won.

Jesus is already the victor.

So a sore loser is going to try to take down as much of that victory as possible.

As much of that glory as possible.

I'm not going to let you enjoy this as much as you would.

He's after the glory.

So why tell the church?

This is why we have to say it consistently.

Guard your heart.

Guard your heart.

And don't just guard your heart.

Guard your mind.

Guard your mind from those stupid thoughts.

Guard your eyes, those eyes that come into your mind that make you entertain certain things.

Guard your heart.

So he sees Judas.

The devil sees Judas and we don't, we don't know a lot about the life of Judas.

We don't know a lot about his upbringing.

The truth is the gospel writers, they never, they never saw Judas do what he did in private.

I never saw it the whole way through the ministry of Jesus and the disciples.

The Bible says that no one suspected that Judas would betray Jesus.

Nobody knew it.

Judas was a master at keeping his private life away from even the most intimate group of disciples.

And I know there might be somebody in the room today who's starting to sweat a little bit.

Because you have done very, very well keeping certain things from even your most intimate groups of people.

What are you keeping from your spouse?

What are you keeping from your kids?

What do you, what are you keeping from your parents?

What are you keeping from your, from, from, from your, from your church, from your friends?

What are you keeping?

What do you, what do you show people in the presence of God?

That is totally unrecognizable to what you show other people in private.

What is it?

I might not see it, but the devil does.

And he will use that to his advantage.

The first moment he gets Judas was a master at keeping his private life hidden from everybody else.

It wasn't until after the light was shown on, on Judas that the gospel writers comment on it.

So after it's funny, if you, if you read like, um, if you read some commentary in the gospels, you'll, you'll see, you'll, you'll, you'll see like the, the gospel writers, they pick up on it.

Like after, after all of the things that happened with Judas and after Judas betrayed Jesus, then the gospel writers are like, yeah, that, that, that fool Judas.

Right.

Um, so if you read John 12, look at John 12 verses one through six, it says six days before Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

So they gave a dinner for him there and Martha served and Lazarus was on the reclining table with him.

Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure Nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume, but Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

Here's the commentary of John in verse six.

He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put in it.

Nobody knew Judas was doing these things at the time he was doing it.

He was, he was great at covering it up.

He was doing these things in secret.

Yeah.

I always wonder like how many times did he do this in secret?

Like, was it one time that he felt bad about it?

And he's like, all right, never again.

Did he, did he do it a second time and maybe still felt bad about it, but it became easier and every time doing it, it just became easier and easier and easier.

Did he get so entangled in this lie that he was making everybody else believe that maybe he started to justify his actions at some point.

Some scholars believe that Judas was a zealot zealots were, you know, a radical group of Jews who believed in, in using violence against the Romans.

Uh, Simon, one of the disciples was also a zealot, but he came to believe in Jesus as a son of God and whatever agenda he had, he surrendered to the will of Jesus.

Maybe Judas really wanted Jesus to overtake Rome.

And, and when Jesus started to show signs that that was not his objective, maybe it became easier for Judas to turn his heart away completely from Jesus.

I don't, I don't know the disciples don't even know the only ones who really knew Judas were Jesus because Jesus saw his heart and Satan because he saw what Judas was doing in private.

And so it's at this point, you're still with me.

It's at this point where the enemy had enough information, enough Intel on Judas that he knew he could gain access to him, excuse me, by entering him.

Listen, church growing up.

I would always hear, um, you give the enemy an inch.

He'll take a mile.

Listen, listen, one time can turn into all the time.

Come on.

One lie can become a web of lies and the enemy all the while he's studying, he's studying you.

And then he makes his move.

Be careful what you show the enemy and private when you think nobody else is looking because he is guard that heart, guard that heart that was meant to give God glory.

That's what it's for.

And so verse three again says, then Satan entered into Judas and he went away and he conferred with the priests and the officers, how he might betray Jesus to them.

And they were glad and they agreed to give him money so he can sent it and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

I'll say it again.

The devil was an opportunist.

This was another attempt from the enemy to take away the glory of God by killing the son of God.

And he was going to use a man who allowed his heart to grow cold and grew fonder of his sin than he did Jesus.

And in the same way that holiness attracts anointing the same way that God is after your anointing because he sees that holiness and he's like, I've got to use this person.

Unholiness will attract the enemy to use you to carry out an attack.

And so I have a, I have a question for you this morning.

I want you to really, really, really, really think about it.

Let me get, let me get your attention.

I'm not just preaching a sermon.

Okay.

What are you showing the devil?

What are you showing the devil?

You know, we, we focus so much on, on what we show God and that all of that's good.

But truthfully, God already knows what's in my heart.

I could come in here and show God my worship and I can raise a hallelujah and I could raise my hands and I could preach a sermon and I can do all these things.

But he knows at the end of the day, what is in my heart?

What are you showing the enemy that might later be used against you?

What, what might his eyes see as an opportunity to attack God's glory and use you as the vessel?

What's he hearing you say at home?

I'll tell you, he don't care what you say here.

I think that the devil takes a day off when Christians come to church.

Oh yeah.

Why?

What are they going to do there?

He's not taking notes here.

He knows what you're going to do here.

It's predictable.

Christians try to look good for other Christians.

Enemy knows that he'd been doing this a long time.

He knows you're going to come in here, probably raise your hands, probably come here to the altar.

He knows, he knows you're going to say a few God bless yous.

I'm praying for you.

He knows, but it's when you get back home, that's where he starts to study you because you're showing, you're showing things that you're not showing everybody else.

You're showing the real you, you're taking the mask off.

Taking the eyelashes off, right?

Taking the makeup off.

Look, I would, I would pick on guys, but we don't, we don't wear that stuff, so.

But that's, that's, that's where the enemy is at.

He's, he's waiting for you.

He doesn't, he doesn't care what you say here.

He doesn't care what songs you see, you sing here.

And, and maybe you come and you get a breakthrough here in the presence of God.

Maybe you come here and, and, and then what you show the enemy is totally inconsistent to what you were showing him last week.

Come on, praise the Lord.

But that's where he's watching you.

That's where he's watching you.

I may not know your private moments.

The church may not know your private moments.

Maybe nobody knows your private moments, but the devil does.

And listen, every time he sees you struggle, every time he sees you struggle in private and not give it to God, that becomes an opportunity.

I'm not telling you to live your life perfectly.

I'm telling you every time you struggle with something, you have to give it to God because every time the enemy sees you in private struggling with something and you don't give it to God, oh, it's just, it's just creating more and more darkness.

Something is growing there.

Every time you have a private moment with pride and you don't ask God to take it away from you, it's fuel for the devil.

Every, every time you display some disdain or disgust for a family member of Christ and you don't ask God to heal that heart, that's fuel for the enemy.

Every time you blow up an anger at your spouse or your kids or at work and you seek no restoration for it, you are giving fuel for the enemy.

We need a church.

We need men and women of God who would stand up and say, I will not be used as a vessel of unrighteousness.

I will be used as a vessel of glory.

I will not be used for the enemy.

I will be used to fight everything, everything that the enemy brings me.

Man, we need Christians who will say, I'm not going to let him steal my joy.

You ain't going to take my joy.

How many times do we say that?

But we actually give it to him.

Somebody cuts you off.

That's it.

The devil's like, that's all it took.

Come on, man.

That's it.

That was easy.

You don't have to work for it.

He wants to, he, he, he, he steals, kills and destroy.

He wants to steal your joy.

He wants to kill your faith and he wants to destroy your relationship with the father.

Don't let them.

Don't give them ammunition.

I will not be part of Satan's plan.

You know, uh, there was a preacher that used to say, he would say, if you don't want people to gossip about you, don't give them anything to gossip about.

Don't give them any fuel.

Make them really, really reach for it.

That's what we need to do with the enemy.

We have to not give them anything because even the little bit that he, he, he, he receives, he can, he can take a mile with that.

I listen, I'm almost done.

The powerful thing about God's purpose is that no matter what happens, no matter who happens, God still gets the glory.

God takes every scheme of the enemy.

He turns it around for his own glory.

He is a glorious God.

He doesn't need me to give him glory.

If I don't give it, he'll take it from the rocks.

So, so even when Judas turned his heart against Jesus and the devil entered him to use him, to betray him so that he could kill Jesus, it was all part of the plan.

This is going to sound, it's going to be a terrible analogy, but just go with me for a second.

God is like an amazing tattoo artist.

Have you ever sent it like a really bad tattoo?

Like I've, man, I've seen some really bad tattoos on some arms and I'm like, bro, just chop your arm off, bro.

Like better, better off, you know, like life ruining tattoos.

We've all seen them.

We've all seen them, but you take it to a really talented, masterful tattoo artist and they say, I can work with that and they create a masterpiece out of it.

It's almost as if the ugly tattoo was needed to create a beautiful one.

God does the same thing with whatever mess and whatever ugly the enemy wants to use through people.

When, when Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, you remember that when Joseph, when God gave Joseph a dream and, and then he tells his brothers his dream and his, his brothers, they have jealousy in their heart.

They got bitterness.

They got hatred for this guy.

The enemy uses Joseph's brothers to, to take him and, and, and sell him into slavery.

God continued to write that story.

He was like, okay, I'll just add this in.

I'll work this in.

When David committed adultery and murder and conspiracy, God used the ugly to bring Jesus.

He's like, I'm going to take David's really, really shameful and ugly moment.

And I'm going to bring the most glorious, most beautiful, most precious, perfect gift the world has ever seen.

Like, like whatever the enemy means for evil, God will use for good because he always, he always works all things good.

That's who he is.

That's the beautiful thing about all of this, that even Judas, the Bible says that Judas was raised up for that reason.

He gave it, he gave away his own heart.

His, his own heart grew cold, but God said, I'm going to use that anyway.

The same way with Pharaoh, Pharaoh's heart grew cold.

God said, I'm going to use that anyway.

I'm going to use your cold heart so that I can demonstrate my power for all the world to see.

That is the God that we serve.

No amount of ugly, no amount of mess can mess up his plan.

God will just write it in.

But he, this is what I want you to know.

I don't want to be the ugly that was needed to bring the beautiful.

I don't want God to have to work around me.

I want him to work through me.

I want him to work in me.

I want to be, I want to be anointed by God because I have a, I have a holy life in And I said this last time that so many of us seek the public anointing, but God is after the private holiness.

Everybody wants to be anointed in public.

Everybody wants to be respected in public.

God is looking at what you're doing in that room on your knees.

Will you pray?

Will you worship?

What are you going to do when nobody else is looking?

Listen, there, there are a lot, there are a lot of Judas's in the church and they have not all yet manifested.

And God is saying, look, listen, for those of you who are struggling with some things in private, I want you to hear this word.

You are anointed.

You are anointed by the Holy one.

You were sought after the perfect one died for you.

Don't let your private moments take that away.

A spirit of Judas is not just one of betrayal.

It's one of secrecy.

You hear me?

That's what a spirit of Judas is.

No Christian thinks that they're Judas, but a spirit of Judas is what you do in private when nobody else is looking.

That is inconsistent with what you're showing the people of God at church.

That is a spirit of Judas.

And I want to cast that spirit of Judas out of here today, because I believe that God is calling a Holy people here.

God is calling a Holy and anointed people who will be used for his purpose in a I don't, I don't, I don't mean to scare anybody today, but this is a simple warning that the devil has been watching you because you have something to offer.

You have glory to give with every word that you speak with everything that your hand touches, wherever you wear your feet.

You have glory to give to God and the enemy wants to take it from you.

And so he's watching you because he's looking for an opportunity to attack you because by attacking the ones that Jesus gave his life for, he is attempting to take the glory of God from you.

We need 10 seconds.

No, not 10 seconds.

Maybe give me three minutes.

We need to be comfortable rebuking some things.

I know, I know sometimes like it feels weird, but like we got to be comfortable.

Layla said something the other day that man, my wife and I, and it made me feel weird because I said it to my beautiful little daughter, but I said, I rebuke that.

We have to be comfortable rebuking some things.

We got to be comfortable rebuking some thoughts that come into our mind.

Maybe you don't want to be too holy because that's uncomfortable to you.

Maybe it's too weird for you, but unholiness cannot be the alternative.

What, what if the way that you speak at home is an opportunity to attack your family?

What if the way that you act around your family is an opportunity for the devil to show your kids why they should leave the church?

Declare today, declare today with me, church, I will not be a vessel for the enemy because I am a child of God.

I belong to the Lord.

My family belongs to the Lord.

I will only be used as a vessel of righteousness.

I will only be used as a vessel of glory.

Wherever God calls me, I will go.

Whatever, whatever God calls me to do, I will do.

I will not be, I will not be fuel for the enemy.

How many of you will declare that with me this morning?

Will you stand?

Oh, Jesus.

My God, you see our hearts, bow your heads with me for just a moment.

God, you see our hearts, Lord.

You see them to the depths.

My God, you know, thoughts that I don't even know that I'm going to think.

And right now, in Jesus name, Lord, because you have called us to be holy.

You have called us, my God, to, to, to demonstrate your glory here on this earth, my God, you have called us to worship you, my God, in spirit and in truth, because we are called by you, Lord, we want to be used only by you.

And so right now, in Jesus name, I rebuke a spirit of Judas that is in this room.

I, I rebuke a spirit of secrecy.

I rebuke things that are kept in private that are also kept in darkness.

My God, I rebuke that spirit of Judas that might be dwelling in the heart of your people right now.

And I want to call you this morning.

If there's anything that you need to leave at the altar, if there's anything that you need to give back to God, because you have been wrestling with some thoughts, you have been, you have been dealing with some pride issues.

You've been dealing with some, you've been showing the enemy, some things that you're not proud of, if everybody else were to see, if that's you this morning, would you come and leave it at the feet of Jesus, leave it at the feet of Jesus.

So that when you leave here, the enemy can see a totally different.

You, uh, you, that doesn't show him the same things anymore.

Are you that shows him what it's like to pray on your knees and believe in faith, the things that God is going to do.

If that's you this morning, would you come and give it to God?

Come and give it to God.

Come on with boldness, with boldness.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA church, visit us on our website at my PNEUMA church dot O-R-G.

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Thanks again, and God bless.