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 who are.

Those that you share it with.

God bless you.

You can be seated for just a moment.

Praise God.

Amen.

God is good, right?

All the time.

Man, y'all y'all y'all gotta be excited, all right?

We got we're in a Pentecostal church.

We're a Holy Ghost filled church.

And even if you went through something rough this week, we still serve a risen God, amen.

And so there's always reason to celebrate in the house of God Man, um, like I like I was saying before we get into the word, um, so this week, so la last week we had We were at capacity in in the room and we have been consistently filling up this space and upstairs has been consistently full.

Praise God.

Amen.

And and and the people that are sitting upstairs, man, they've been struggling for a long time, man, because um the these speakers as they are, they don't they don't hit upstairs very well.

So they don't they don't catch the full essence of the music and all the notes and all the clarity and so we we um we decided that we it's these these speakers are about 10, 11 years old, it's time to get some new speakers, right?

As God brings growth, we have to continue to um to make room for that.

And so uh the plan was um to to start Getting some new speakers here.

And then this morning the weirdest thing happened.

The speakers went out.

They stopped working.

And so what we want to do, what we want to do.

I don't like doing this, but we're gonna do it.

Um I I wonder, because we already got the quote, we're already we're we're ready to go, but I I would love it if we could raise the funds for these speakers on one Sunday.

I got one amen.

One amen who's gonna who's gonna do the whole thing.

I'm just kidding.

But but this is this is what it is.

The speakers, they'll cover the whole room, and everybody will be able to hear the clarity of the music and all that, and we'll be it'll be like a one spirit.

Amen.

But the the cost of the speakers are about $12,000, $12,500.

And so we determined if we could get just $50 people to commit to $250, we'll raise the money in one Sunday.

And and and so we we uh we presented that to to Spanish.

I don't know exactly where we're at right now.

Um but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna ask.

We have some we have some uh support cards, some giving cards.

If you would be able to do that, if you would be able to do that, would you raise your hand?

Just raise your hand and some of the ushers will come around and they'll give you one of those.

And and I want to say thank you.

I want to say thank you.

Come on, get give.

Give a round of applause for some people that are stepping up.

Look, if you can give, it's a beautiful thing to give.

It's a good thing to give.

It's a good thing to give to the place that you worship.

Amen.

And we do our best to steward these finances with wisdom.

And in the spirit, and we have been doing so much this year, all due to the giving of the church.

So thank you.

Um now I'm gonna do something else that I wasn't planning on doing.

Maybe you can't give 250.

But you can give half of that.

You can give 125.

You can commit to that today.

If you're like, hey, it's been a little tight, I get it.

We've all been there.

But if you can commit to 125, would you would you raise your hand?

Okay, we got we got a couple here.

Amen.

Give glory to God.

Praise the Lord.

Come on.

Amen.

And if the Lord presses on your heart after service to give anything, we would appreciate it.

Amen.

This is not this is not for me.

This is not for Pastor Ryan.

This is not for Pastor Danny.

This is for us.

This is for PNEUMA.

Amen.

Give God some praise for what He's doing.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Let's go to the word this morning.

I want you to turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 7.

Deuteronomy chapter 7.

We're going to read the first seven verses of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy is a is Moses' kind of farewell address. to this nation that he's been spending the last forty years pastoring and leading through the wilderness.

He's been with them through thick and thin and glory and struggle and and he's put up with their complaints and all of their doubt and As well as their moments of growth, right?

And faithfulness.

That's really what it is to be a pastor.

It's just walking with people through different seasons of life.

I've never gotten to the place where Moses is at.

I also don't lead a nation.

I lead a church.

But I imagine that Moses is feeling more nervous for Israel than Israel is feeling for themselves.

It's like whenever you send off your kids to college or you give them over to marriage, you can't go with them.

Parents, stop trying to go with your kids.

Let them go.

Let 'em fly.

Um but we do that.

Why?

Because we we want to protect We want to ensure their safety.

But more importantly, for a believer is we want to make sure that their soul is secured.

That they continue faithful in the Lord.

And so that's what Moses is feeling here in this moment.

The Israelites are getting ready to make their way into the long-anticipated promised land.

Moses is not going to be going with them.

And so he writes this farewell address to this people that he's pastored for 40 years.

So with that, I'm going to ask you to stand.

We're going to go Deuteronomy 7, 1 through 7.

And it says this.

It says, when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

And he clears away many nations before you, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you.

And when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction.

You shall make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.

You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons, or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me.

To serve other gods.

Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly, but thus shall you deal with them You shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their asherum and burn their carved images with fire.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Now I want you to go back one chapter with me, chapter six.

I'm going to read two verses, 12 and 13.

God is telling his people.

To remember the one most crucial thing as they enter the promised land and are well-fed and are comfortable and are enjoying life, he says, then take care lest you forget the Lord.

Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery?

It is the Lord your God you shall fear.

Him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear.

Heavenly Father, I come before you, my God, this morning, Lord.

My God, I pray that your spirit would rest upon every heart this morning.

My God, I pray That distractions would be removed, my God, in Jesus' name.

In this moment, I pray, my God, that our minds would be clear and fixated on what you have to say to your people, my God.

This is your word for your church, my God.

I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would anoint my lips, my God, that anything that is said from here would not be of my opinion, my God.

Of my preferences, my God.

I I pray that every word that is spoken here would be directly from your Holy Spirit, my God, and that we would receive it as such.

We love you and we thank you.

Amen.

Amen.

You can take your seat.

Amen.

If you think about Old Testament Israel, you know, Old Testament Israel, they struggled for centuries with the same thing.

How many people have been struggling with the same thing over and over for years?

And may maybe in here it's it's maybe a mixture of a lot of different things, but it was one main issue that Israel dealt with over the centuries.

It was their tendency To go after other gods.

That was the curse that Israel seemed to continue passing down from generation to generation.

It was idolatry.

And even though there were periods and um In Israel's history, where kings and prophets would tear down the different gods and the altars that were laid up in Israel, it was still deeply, idolatry was still deeply rooted in the hearts of God's people.

And during the days of Moses and the Israelites, you know, it was normal for people to have many gods and to serve many gods.

That's the way that that that people thought of the world, that that gods ruled the world, and each God performed a different function, and and each God offered something unique that the other gods didn't offer.

You know, Abraham, uh it is believed by scholars that Abraham, before he was called by God, was a polytheist.

He was a man who served many gods.

In the Bible, in Genesis 1. 1, it says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The word for God in the Hebrew is a plural word.

And it says, let us make man in our image.

Now, us today, Christians, are so quick to point out the allusion to the Trinity that was obviously what was meant But in Moses' mind, the concept of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was foreign to him.

The truth is that Idolatry and and gods was just a reality in the ancient world.

And on top of that, in these days, it wasn't even really that bad if you served multiple gods.

That's just what you did.

There was a God for everything.

And so because of that type of worldly influence, the Israelites on many occasions, they said, yeah, we'll serve Yahweh, but they didn't intend to only serve Yahweh.

So at this point in scripture, if you know the story of Israel, what God has done here is He's already shown Israel and He's shown the world how He is the one true God.

There wasn't a God for everything.

There was one God over everything.

There was one God who created the heavens and the earth, all things, all the creatures.

One God created man and woman.

One God did all of this.

And so in Exodus, God challenges Pharaoh.

Pharaoh is also believed to be a God.

And he completely destroys the Egyptians and delivered Israel out of the hand of Egypt.

And what he did was he established Israel as a nation.

And he began to show the Israelites steadfast love and protection and faithfulness.

And then he made a covenant with his people.

And he promised to bless them if they would be and be good to them if only they obeyed his commandments and submitted to him.

Something else that we know today that that the Israelites really didn't know is that God was preparing the way for the Messiah He was preparing the way for Jesus, who would save the world of her sins and would be a sacrifice that would restore the whole world to the Father.

And so the reason that these commands were so important to God, commands not to intermarry with pagans.

Commands to devote to destruction all the people of those pagan lands and their gods was so that the holy people of God were not contaminated with ungodliness.

That's what God was doing, and that's why God was saying these things.

God had just brought his people out of Egypt.

This was a nation full of idolatry and paganism And so God knew that if his people went back to that same type of environment when he was trying to advance them and move them forward and bless them, it will have all been for nothing for the Israelites.

It is much easier, church. to remove someone from Egypt than it is to remove Egypt from a person.

Because Egypt isn't just an Egypt.

This is what we have to understand.

Sometimes the same spirit that existed in that place of slavery can find its way into the place that God is trying to call you into.

We have to understand this.

Because we read verses like this and we see that God was telling them to take down.

The the the the the the pagans and and their gods and their altars and not intermarry with foreigners and we think God was just being mean.

No, he was trying to ensure that Egypt wouldn't make its way into the promised land.

And what we see throughout the Old Testament is that even centuries after Israel was out of Egypt.

That spirit of Egypt kept on creeping in time and time again.

And so I want to talk to you this morning about what I'm calling an Egypt spirit.

An Egypt spirit And I really want your attention, alright?

What your attention because this is going to be a word for the house, for PNEUMA, and I believe it's also going to be a word for you personally.

God has been ministering to me lately.

And when I say ministering, he's been really causing me to think about and pray on everything that he's been doing here.

At PNEUMA.

He's been reminding me of his promises.

He's been reminding me of word that he's given over my life and over this ministry, time and time again, from different voices.

He's been reminding me of these things and um word that that that is regarding growth.

I don't know how many of you were here in 2020.

Not not definitely not all of you.

But there was a single word in 2020 that I felt the Lord was speaking concerning this ministry.

I shared it with our leadership at the time, and then I shared it with the church.

And I shared it reluctantly because the word was growth.

And I was reluctant when I shared it because I remember telling God, Lord, the church doesn't want to hear their pastor talking about growth.

Like, how convenient.

Like God told the pastor that he wants to grow his church, right?

And so I wrestled with that for a long time.

Like I didn't I didn't I didn't I was just very hesitant to share the word growth and present it as a vision, right?

Because if it was really, we were going to have to position ourselves and think about ourselves in terms of this more that God was trying to do To bless PNEUMA with.

And so I remember having many conversations with God when He was ministering this to me back in 2020.

And I remember telling God, okay, God, you know what?

I'm gonna talk to them about spiritual growth.

Because that's a safe bet, right?

And and God absolutely meant for spiritual growth to be a part of it.

And we've talked about this all the time.

It doesn't matter how many seats are filled, if if there's no spirit in the people who occupy those seats.

Spiritual growth is important, and God has poured his spirit over this house and into our people and has brought life and has brought transformation. and it's brought prodigals back and it's brought restoration and it's healed marriages.

God has done all of those things through discipleship and through teaching.

God has done it.

But then I remember God saying, also talk about the people growth.

Talk about the need for more chairs and more services and a better parking lot.

He said, talk about the overflow of people and prodigals who are going to come into this place.

Talk about the people who don't even know who Jesus is, but are going to find Jesus at these altars.

Talk about that.

He said, talk about the multicultural, the multi-ethnic, and the multi-generational church that PNEUMA is to be.

And so we talked about it.

And it became a part of our vision.

A vision that we are seeing become a reality.

See o no?

Every day and every week.

We're tight.

The young adults back here are tight Wednesday nights.

We gotta knock down that wall, Dad.

We gotta knock down the wall.

And there's only so many walls we can knock down, right?

But God is doing these things that He that He showed us some time ago.

It's happening.

Last week, like I said, we were at capacity, man.

We had to bring out the green chairs.

Some of y'all have never even seen the green chairs.

Rusty, crusty, dusty, musty as they are, man.

I was sitting there during worship.

Pastor Danny comes up to me.

He was like, hey, uh, do you do you want me to tell the guys to bring out more chairs?

I was like, what do you mean?

Why do we need more chairs?

And he was like, bro, we're full And I'm like, this is just a normal Sunday.

It's not Easter.

It's not Mother's Day.

It's not not Father.

Well, Father's Day don't get full.

We know that, right?

Father's Day.

Followed today, people don't come to church, right?

But this is a regular Sunday.

How are we at capacity?

And I really believe that God was just showing us a glimpse of the more that's coming.

Because you know what you know what was so beautiful?

It wasn't just a packed house.

There was revival happening here.

There was there was God moving at these altars.

That is the people growth combined with the spiritual growth that God is bringing.

Now, I I I don't like to talk too much about like PNEUMA because it's not we're not here to build a kingdom.

More exists outside of these walls.

There's a church outside of PNEUMA that we are all a part of.

And the reality is, the reality is that there are churches that are struggling.

There are churches that are going to be closing their doors this week.

Good, God-fearing churches.

We're not anything special, guys As much as you and I love PNEUMA, I always caution people to not become more churchian than Christians.

Because the church can become an idol and you church you serve the church more than you serve God.

We ain't about that here.

We're not anything special, but for some reason, God has chosen to do something special in this season.

And we've just been obedient and I praise God.

You can give God some praise.

You can give God some praise.

I thank God for the conversations regarding growth.

And expansion and and trying to buy new buildings and the possibility of a third service and all that's as tiring as that sounds to me.

I thank God for what He's doing.

But this is what this is where I'm getting at.

We have to be mindful.

Of in the midst of so much excitement and blessing and growth is that we have to continue faithful.

We've got to be full of faith and full of wisdom and full of humility in the blessing.

Last week we talked about Job and we talked about how, you know, sometimes life is just going to life.

And sometimes we're gonna be in seasons of pain and struggle that you don't understand, even in an attempt to understand it and make sense of it.

Nothing makes sense.

There's nothing to understand, there's just something to do, and that's to keep the faith.

Churches are very good about preaching uh faithfulness in the struggle.

We're very good about talking about when you have nothing, you gotta keep going, and when you're sick, you gotta have faith.

And when you're down, you got to be comforted and stand back up.

We often talk about how to walk through the valleys and walk through the desert and the wilderness and the storm and all the scary metaphors, but we also need to know how to walk in the abundance.

Some of us have not learned how to walk godly in the blessing.

Some of us don't know how to steward the more that God has been giving very well.

Some of us are too careless with what God has entrusted to us.

And how I walk in wealth matters just as much as how I walk in poverty.

How I walk in health matters just as much as how I walk in sickness.

Our situation should never change the way that we serve God.

Because as the word says, we are a holy people.

We are a treasured possession of the Lord.

So it doesn't matter where, it doesn't matter when, it doesn't matter how, it doesn't matter why.

I am who God declares that I am.

And so if I'm broke, I'm still called to be holy.

If I'm rich, I'm still called holy.

If I'm at my weakness, I'm still called a treasured possession.

If I'm at my greatest, I'm still called a treasure possession.

Holiness is the constant of the Christian life.

And some of us have not learned that very well.

Some of us try to get nearer to God when we need Him the most.

And then when the abundance comes, we put some distance.

But holiness is the constant that we have to learn.

Blessings are up and down.

Sometimes we're gonna be blessed, sometimes we're gonna be cursed, sometimes we're gonna have, sometimes we're not gonna have.

But what we should always have is holiness.

And servitude unto our Lord who is good all the time.

So my my prayer to God in the midst of all of this.

It's been, Lord, let me be as dependent on you today as when we had 30 people on a Sunday.

Let me be as thoughtful in my planning and as strategic as the day when you first called me and I had nothing to reference.

Let me trust in you today.

Let me trust in you today as as when I had seven dollars in my bank account and it was a day after payday.

Let us walk faithfully with God in the promised land as we did while we were waiting on the promises.

Somebody needs to hear that again.

Somebody needs to hear that again.

Because you're waiting every single day for the promises of God with your handout and you're doing all the right things.

But when you get it, you still have to be faithful.

When you get it, you have to learn how to keep it.

When you get it, you have to learn how to manage it.

And I believe so many times the blessings that are meant to be long-term are taken away prematurely because we get it.

And we act spoiled.

And we act entitled.

And we act immature.

And we don't know how to handle the more that God has given.

God is saying, man, I need you to learn these things.

I need you to learn how to be holy when you've got and when you've got nothing.

You with me?

Look, I've seen churches grow to their failure.

I've seen pastors become untouchable.

Pastors become celebrities.

Pastors who cared more about influencing than transforming.

And I'm not saying that these things are necessarily bad things.

I'm not hating, right?

I think there are some great pastors who have become celebrities, not because that's what they chose, but because that's what the culture made them.

I know of great men of God who have influence, but also Value discipleship.

The thing that we need to be mindful of is that it bec it can become easy to forget.

The God who took us out of the things that we needed to be delivered from.

We have to, when we're in blessing church, we've got to be still dependent on God.

Israel was about to move from a daily allowance of food.

Right?

They they in the wilderness they were on food stamps.

They were on God's source.

They gotta wait every morning, 7 a. m.

That's when they go out and they find their manna from heaven, right?

A daily allowance.

They were going from a daily allowance to an abundance of food that grew on trees.

You realize that?

Well?

You realize how that can mess you up?

Because now you don't have to go out and and search for the food.

Now it's just there.

They were going from a land of drought where Moses had to literally command rocks to distribute water.

They were going from a land of drought to a land that now is flowing with milk and honey.

There is an abundance there.

And so if I'm Moses, I'm thinking, man, this is such a beautiful thing.

But it can also be so dangerous if these people mishandle the blessing.

This is why Jesus says it's so hard for a rich man to enter through the gates of heaven.

Many of us take that verse and we think that God doesn't want us to be blessed.

No, God wants you to be dependent on Him, even in the blessing.

God wants you to be faithful.

God wants you to be wise with the blessings that you've given.

This is why it's so hard for the rich man to enter the gates of heaven because it becomes so easy to use God as a last resort.

How many of you know when you've got nothing, he's your direct line.

See or no?

When there's no food, he's your source.

When there's no water, here's your he's your source.

When you're sick, God save me, heal me.

There's no money, he's your source.

But then when you're in abundance, well now you got some choices.

When you've got the chicken and the steak and the good health care and a nice little bank account, that's when it's easy to forget the God who took you out of Egypt.

And we don't always realize that the thing that God saved you from is not just in one place and in one time.

It's possible to go back to Egypt even though you're not going back to the same people in the same places.

Maybe you don't go to the club anymore.

Praise God.

Maybe you don't go to the bars and drink away your problems anymore.

You're done with those places.

But even understand, even when God wants to elevate you.

And even when God wants to give you more blessings and put you in different environments, the things that you've struggled with in those places might find their way to you anyway.

We can't be walking around with our guard down just because we've made it to the promised land.

And so I think about that as as as PNEUMA enters this this new season.

And as I talk to other pastors and other friends, and and I'm so proud just to just to know that God is doing something here.

We can't get cocky.

We can't get proud.

We can't get lazy.

We can't stop doing things with excellence.

We have to continue to pursue excellence.

We have to continue to steward the more well.

Maybe God wants to bless you, but he wants you to be prepared to handle the blessing.

Because, man, that in the hands of imperfect people, it's true, blessings can become stumbling blocks to the other blessings in our lives.

Yeah, I'll be honest with you, man, is what I've been wrestling with.

We're we're busy people.

My wife and I, we're busy people, like many of you.

Y'all are all we're all busy.

We live in a busy world.

There's always something to do.

Always something to go to, right?

And so we're starting to talk about possibility.

I mean, we've been talking about this for a long time. about adding a third service and I don't even know how that looks like yet.

Don't get crazy on me, musicians.

You're like a third service.

But we're we're talking about all of these things and and um I'm I'm I'm wrestling with it a little bit.

You know, because that's probably the reality of what we're gonna have to do unless God gives us a better space, which is also what I'm praying for.

I'm just praying for God to do whatever he wants to do, right?

But what I'm wrestling with, I'm just being honest with you, but I'm wrestling with is the fact that third service is gonna be another two hours away from my family on an already very valuable weekend, right?

And and obviously, we want to be obedient to God, we want to do whatever whatever it is that God wants to do.

But I I've still got to be mindful of the other blessing in my life.

That God has blessed me with, which is my family.

I I gotta be so careful not to get so excited to overlook all of the other good things that are in my life that God has also asked me to steward.

And so I can just tell my wife, babe, God wants me here, God needs me here, I'm doing the Lord's work.

And and and at the same time not realizing that I'm giving her less and less of myself.

And so when a when when God blesses a man who's been in need of work, I'm gonna talk to somebody this morning.

You've been asking God for some work and He blessed you with more, more provision, more opportunities, more money.

And you as a man, you see the total hand of God in it, which which it is the total hand of God.

But then when your wife starts saying you're never home, you never see the kids anymore.

We never hang out anymore.

You're always working And you as a man say, don't you know how blessed we are?

She's not seeing the blessing anymore because it's clouded by the damage that you've allowed To be done to the other blessings in your life because of the mishandling of the other blessing in your life.

Am I making sense?

Moses is saying, you are about to enter the promised land.

You have been waiting for this moment for 40 years.

And you're gonna go in, and you know what?

Once you're settled there, you're gonna have abundance of blessings.

But what you don't realize is that there is a spirit that will turn away your heart from God.

There is a spirit that will influence you to go back into what God called you out of.

And so God tells his holy people to devote to destruction everything and everyone who might be a snare to you.

Verse 16 of chapter 7, if you're there, it says, And you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give you.

Your eyes shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

I want to zoom into that part where it says, Your eyes shall not pity them.

I want to acknowledge the severity of this command.

Many Christians struggle with this type of text, right?

Some preachers dare not even preach on these texts because they're so anti-human.

This is talking about conquest and warfare and shedding blood, all things that we hate.

God hates them too, by the way.

But but but God God hates something more that justifies all these commands that He's given to God's people.

It's an Egypt spirit.

The reason that God gave this command to his people was because there was a threat to God's holy people.

And a threat to God's holy people is a threat to God's plan.

His plan to bring Jesus to save the whole world.

You don't get to mess with God's plan.

The devil doesn't get to mess with God's plan.

In fact, there's a promise that was given to Abraham.

Everyone that blesses you, I will bless, and everybody who curses you, I will curse.

Because a curse to God's people is a curse against God's plan.

I I don't know about you, man, but I I know that I'm called and anointed by God for his good purpose.

And so if there is a threat against me while God intends to keep using me, that is a threat to God's plan.

I don't have time to be messing around with an Egypt spirit.

I shouldn't be messing with or flirting with or even thinking about things that God took me out of.

I still remember that God took me out of pride.

God took me out of entitlement.

God took me out of insecurities.

And as he leads me and as he leads this ministry to new and higher places, I have to make sure to kill everything in front of me as God opens the doors.

Come on, I how many of you know that you are called by God?

How many of you know that God has been opening some doors for you?

God has been doing some things, He's been parting some things for you.

And as he paves the way, you've got to devote to destruction all the potential threats and hindrances to those blessings.

The phrase devote to destruction, you know, it doesn't just mean as they get in your way It connotes the hunting of, the search of things that don't belong in the place of blessing.

I know you're excited for what's coming in your life.

I know you're excited for what God is doing.

I know you're excited for the opportunity.

I know you're excited for that new job.

I know you're excited to see more.

But you've got to be devoted and determined to destroying everything that does not align with God, with where God wants you to be in your life.

Because before you know it, you will be a slave in that place that was meant to be your blessing.

God is telling somebody today, man, you gotta end that relationship.

You gotta end some relationships because those relationships are stumbling blocks to you.

Are you hearing me?

Come on.

Come on.

Come on.

Some of y'all have some relationships in your mind.

You're like, ah, but I is she cute.

And God is trying to bring you to a place of holiness.

You gotta end some relationships.

You gotta sever some ties with people.

With your boys from the hood, from the streets, that your ride or die.

You don't need ride or die anymore, man.

You need the people of God.

That's your ride or die now.

You gotta start to devote to destruction the things that God is trying to remove you from.

God is trying to get get rid of your agendas.

Oof.

Some of you have agendas.

God is showing you something and and and you're saying something in terms of selfishness.

Oh I I know how I'm gonna make this work for me.

No no no no you gotta get rid of that right now.

You gotta kill it right now because it's not about what God wants to do for you.

It's what God wants to do in you for him.

You gotta get rid of some things.

The Egypt spirit is real It's real and it consumes people so quickly if we don't deal with it right away.

We have to protect what was meant to be holy.

I'm gonna say that again.

You have to protect what is meant to be holy, and that's you.

You are meant to be holy, you were set apart, you were consecrated.

So whatever is after your holiness, devote to destruction I'm almost done, but I want to leave you with something practical.

If you're taking notes, you can write this down.

I want you to be able to discern what an Egypt spirit is so that you can get ahead of it and kill it.

An Egypt spirit is one that follows me into the blessings God has reserved for me.

That's what an Egypt spirit is.

It's a spirit that follows you into the places that God has reserved for you.

See, where where where goodness and mercy follow, so does the devil.

That stupid lying devil.

I hate that guy, man Because because God's over here trying to send mercy and goodness and favor and blessing and abundance my way.

Not for me, but so I could be a testament of his glory.

And there goes the the enemy following me.

Because he wants to steal, kill, and destroy.

And so if God is leading you into places of holiness, he's going to follow you so that he can contaminate you.

And Egypt's spirit is one that follows you into the places that God has reserved for you.

So Let me still make this practical.

Listen, if you're about to get married, I don't know if anybody's about to get married.

Maybe you're already married.

You can hear this.

You've got to ask yourself the question: what is a threat to my marriage?

What is a threat to what God is calling to be holy and sanctified?

Because that's what a marriage is.

It's two people coming together.

To form a holy union in the side of God.

What might be following you into this place of blessing?

Some of you might need to delete some phone numbers You might need to unfollow certain people.

You might need to confess some things to one another Because left unchecked too long, it's gonna creep up.

For some of you, God, God might be calling you into ministry or maybe a new level of ministry.

You gotta ask yourself What are the threats to my ministry?

What is following me into this season of blessing?

Can I tell you that some somebody might need to let go of that spirit of control?

Because you see that a lot in ministry where people want to control things.

It's got to be their way.

And nobody else's opinion really matters because you are the anointed.

Get rid of that spirit of control.

What is following you to that place of ministry?

What is follow- maybe it's a spirit of jealousy.

You gotta kill it right now, man, today.

Because when there is another minister in your ministry with a gift that is different than you, that jealousy will cripple you and kill you.

The devil knows what he's doing.

And so what we need to know as men and women of God What the threats are.

What do I have to kill?

Don't take an Egypt spirit with you into the promised land.

Don't do it, man.

And don't be so arrogant.

Oh, come on.

Jesus.

Don't be so arrogant that you can deal with it.

Don't be so arrogant that it's not a big deal.

Solomon, the wisest.

Man, the wisest man who was called by God, the man who who took the shoes of his father David.

The Bible says that he loved God, but he loved foreign women.

And because of that love for foreign women, the Bible says that that they turned his heart from serving God.

That's the way that it happens.

When you think that it can't come after you, when you think that you're holy and you're called And anointed, you are still a man, you are still a woman, you need to fully be dependent on God, even when you're in the abundance, even when you have the wisdom, even when you have the anointing.

Because we are called to protect what. is holy and it's not just about becoming holy church that's that's what we preach that's what's so important to us as as pastors and as leaders is is transformation but you know what it's just as important To stay holy.

Glory to glory.

Glory to glory.

Protect what is holy.

Don't take Egypt with you into the promised land.

Last couple of verses I'm going to leave you with.

You can stand with me, Deuteronomy 7, 17 through 19.

This is speaking again on behalf of the Lord.

And this is what he tells them.

If they become afraid to confront what's there, because you know sometimes we're gonna be afraid to confront what's there There are giants in the promised land.

There are enemies in the promised land.

It's not just all roses and butterflies and good things and strawberries and all that stuff.

I guess there's some real threats.

And and you remember a whole generation before this?

They were too afraid to go and take what God said was theirs.

I Sometimes we're going to be afraid.

As people of God to confront the threats that are there waiting for us in the land of promise.

And because of that fear, it cripples us from advancing.

And so this is what Moses says: He says, If you Say in your heart that these nations are greater than I, and how can I dispossess them?

You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember the Lord your God and what He did, what He did to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh and to all of Egypt, the great trials that you saw with your eyes, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out, so will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

Church, today, don't let an Egypt spirit overtake the blessings that are meant to be yours in your homes, your household, your family, generations to come.

God has a blessing waiting for you.

Don't, don't be a coward.

I don't know how else to say it.

Stand up to the enemy, stand up to the threats, and know that the same God who took you out of that slavery that same God who took you out of Egypt will destroy anything that comes your way.

Holy God I pray right now in Jesus' name.

Holy Spirit I pray that this word would just sink into our hearts my God.

I pray that it would take root, Father God, so that we would know, my God, that we are called to be holy.

We are called to be anointed a treasured possession, my God.

And I pray, Lord, right now, that you would remind us to protect.

What is meant to be holy.

I pray, Father God, that we would not cower away, my God, from any enemy, from any devil, Father God, that we would go in full confidence that you are with us, my God, that we would have full of faith, my God, in Jesus' name.

Name Lord, I pray against an Egypt spirit that wants to go with us in the blessings.

In Jesus' mighty name, give us this sermon.

Give us this sermon.

Hallelujah.

This morning I want to do an altar call.

First of all, if you are in if you need prayer, we want to pray with you here.

If you need to release some things, if you need to remove some things, if you need to confront or kill some things this morning, there's an altar here.

This is where freedom happens.

This is where deliverance happens.

So I want to invite anybody this morning if you are holding on to something that you need to confront.

This is your moment.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org.

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Thanks again and God bless.