welcome today to our midweek bible study
called morning glory
today we're going to be in the book of
acts chapter 13
we're going to start in verse 5 and
let's open up today
in prayer heavenly father as we jump
into your word
we ask that your holy spirit would come
right now and quicken
the scriptures so that your word is
alive to us
and it would appear to us as spiritual
food
and we can consume it and be transformed
into the image of your son
jesus father we pray this in his name
amen and amen again acts chapter 13
let's drop down to verse 5 and
when they arrived in salamis they
preached the word of god in the
synagogues of the jews
they also had john as their assistant
now when they had gone through the
island to paphos
they found a certain sorcerer a false
prophet
a jew whose name was bar jesus
who was with the pro-counsel sergius
paulus
an intelligent man this man called for
barnabas and saul
and sought to hear the word of god
you know i find it fascinating that even
intelligent people can be deceived
by fraudulent people so we want to guard
against all forms of deception
verse 8 but elimus the sorcerer
for so his name is translated withstood
them
seeking to turn the proconsul away from
the faith well elimus is certain
he's certainly doing the work of the
devil by trying to
cause disruption from the gospel being
preached
in a very clear and understandable way
so that people can be saved
verse 9 then saul who
also is called paul filled with the holy
spirit
looked intently at him and said
o full of all deceit and
all fraud you son of the devil
pastor stephen how do you know a son of
the devil somebody
that is full of deceit and full
of all various forms of fraud
and he says that he is a son of the
devil
and this is what he said you enemy of
all
righteousness will you not cease now
listen very carefully to this
to this statement that paul made will
you not cease
perverting the straight ways
of the lord now uh just as a little
follow-up verse
11 we're going to kind of camp out on
verse 10 but verse 11 says now indeed
the hand of the lord is upon you
and you will be blind not seeing the sun
for a time and immediately a dark mist
fell on him
and he went around seeking someone to
lead him by the hand
then the proconsul believed when he saw
what had been done
being astonished at the teaching of the
lord praise god so
the preaching the teaching of the lord
the
uh proclaiming forth of his word and his
truths the good news which is the gospel
is backed with signs wonders and
miracles hallelujah
and elimus was blinded for a season
now i found it fascinating the statement
by the apostle paul
when he said will you not cease
perverting
the straight ways of the lord
let me proclaim to you that all of the
ways of the lord not 99
but 100 of the ways of the lord
are all straight whoo praise god
see there is so much crookedness today
in our culture we see it in sports
we see it not in just uh you know
individual type of sports but
it's across the board now it's it's not
just power
sports but it's uh uh you know you you
would understand going back decades ago
that
the understanding of anabolic steroids
began to
be unfolded more to the public and there
was the knowledge that hey these things
can really
increase your strength but as time went
on
and these drugs became more advanced and
became more
dialed into specific sports we saw it
not only in strength sports
but then it began to move into the area
of endurance sports now you have
blood doping and you have cyclists
cheating
that are doing crooked deeds saying that
they're competing on a fair level
but they're back in a tent blood doping
and doing all these things to
build themselves up so they can keep on
going in these endurance sports
and it's become quite rife also in the
sport of track and field
particularly in the distance events
where anytime a world record now is
broken
there's a lot of question marks
surrounding it not just among the men
but also the women
and also not even in the distance events
but also in the sprints
or the field events which are more back
to strength again
you get a lot of questions but now we
see it also in
the professional sports such as even
baseball where
these drugs have the ability not just to
make you stronger
and so forth but they have the ability
basically
which is the big draw for the cheaters
they have the ability to allow your body
to
recover faster so normally if you need
three days to recuperate
you take these wonder drugs which are
cheating
because they're they're also very
dangerous for your body
but within about five hours you're ready
to go again you don't need three days
but that's going to extract an extreme
toll on your body eventually especially
on the areas of your body that do the
filtering such as your liver and your
your kidneys they take a heavy toll and
there are some
uh other areas of uh
athletics where it's just full-blown
drug usage and it's
uh and people know it uh they say we're
natural no you're not natural
everybody knows you're not natural
because of what's going on with the
bloated belly and all the other signs of
bloating that go
many other signs that go along for those
that have knowledge in that area
of those who are on the anabolic
steroids
so it's crookedness and so many
areas of our culture and then you have
the areas of crookedness not just in
sports but also in business
permeating through many different types
of business
uh you had the big scandal a couple of
years ago with volkswagen uh with their
cheating in the uh big emission scandal
and they lied and said oh no we're not
we're we're not cheating everything's
accurate and uh these are
these are the results you'll get if you
drive our car you'll get this much
mile per gallon in the city this much in
the country and and the whole thing was
being
faked and baked and they were sending
fraudulent
information they had a software cheat
code that would cause the emissions to
alter and change if an inspector was
actually inspecting the exhaust
and then we found out later that not
only was volkswagen
cheating and they denied it denied it
until the proof was so overwhelming and
then they're paying these massive fines
but then we find out that all of these
other european manufacturers
who were oh that's so awful that
volkswagen did that we found out later
oh they're doing it too
[Laughter]
crookedness and all and look i don't
think that the
the guys at the top and the gals at the
top didn't know about it they all knew
about it
and they all made decisions sitting in
those executive board rooms
that company over there is doing it and
if we want to keep up
with them we're going to have to do it
also and so
they through their ethics they through
their morals
they threw their values out the window
and said well
you know if we have to be crooked to get
there this is what we're going to do and
they all got caught and they all got
exposed for it now we're seeing this
also in the area of politics where there
is a lot of bribery
going on behind the scenes not only on
national levels but also on state local
levels
and back to the national level you'll
see a lot of these long-term career
politicians
you have to understand some of these
jobs maybe they pay 70
000 a year maybe they pay a hundred
thousand dollars a year
but you look at some of these people and
they've become
uh what you would call super rich and
you think well how do you get so rich
when you're only making seventy thousand
dollars a year
how do you have a hundred million
dollars uh net worth
when that position only pays a hundred
thousand dollars a lot of that
uh some of them got their wealth through
having knowledge of insider trading
they served on uh you know like a board
like the sec securities exchange
commission or something like that so
they were aware
of companies that were that were going
to do an ipo or they were aware
that hey this company's in trouble the
stock's going to drop so they would sell
and all of this and that
and before you know it they are
accumulating
millions of dollars for self-interest
so the job is not to be a public servant
to serve the country or to serve the
state oh no no it's a way to get rich
whatever it takes to do it cheat lie
that's just that's just the way
it works for so many of them that
uh that are bought in that area
and so you know it wasn't too long ago
we had uh
one of the local mayor of mayors of one
of our large cities
probably the most well-known city in
north carolina
anyhow he was the mayor and everybody
thought oh this guy's great
uh but you know a lot of these people
they're they're shady from the get-go
and uh he's the mayor and uh so behind
the scenes
uh a painting firm uh with a painter you
know a businessman who's a painter
said hey we want to we want to make a
deal with you where we get these large
painting contract jobs and you you
choose us and you make sure that
the board and the directors choose us uh
you may give bids from all these other
companies we want to be the company you
choose and uh
you know if you'll do that hey here's
some money and he says oh yeah
okay we could work a deal so they gave
him 40 000 cash
and he takes it and you know what it
came out later because you know so often
these things do blow up eventually
came out later that he uh the mayor so
enjoyed doing it he said you know what
we need to work on some of these
projects together in the future not just
other stuff
i mean not just what we're doing here on
paint let's do some other stuff too
he was just a total uh you know pushover
for a bribe
he had no idea that the guy making the
bribe was not really a painter
it's a it's an fbi undercover agent
who was hey you know just out there to
see hey
is he dumb enough to take the bait well
he was and uh
that mayor even said look you know i
like doing these deals but i don't like
the color orange so we got to be careful
about this
in other words i don't like the color of
prison garments well guess what he's
wearing today
orange garments
[Laughter]
so there's crookedness around this but
watch this
paul refers to the straight
ways of the lord now
if it's not straight then
it's crooked and if it's crooked it
actually gets into areas of our english
language
that go back to the word of wicked and i
want to talk about that just for a
moment because
if if elias is perverting the straight
ways of the lord and he's the son of the
devil he's full of fraud and deceit and
all of that
then that gets over to this area of
wickedness and
let's talk just for a moment about the
the the meaning of the word
wicked when we look into the etymology
of the english root word now etymology
is when you study a word
uh maybe in the bible and you want to
dig into the meaning of that
hebrew and greek yes but it's still
going to end up in our modern language
where is that being sourced from so when
we look at the word wicked
and get to the root word meaning of it
which is also dealing in this area of
crookedness
you have to understand that wicket
really the first
mention of that in the english language
started around
we have records of it from the 1100s
and then it starts it became more
popular around the 1500s
but it was in reference to wicca so
wicket comes from wicca
and the earliest root word mentions
would be wicca in the sense of a male
witch now also because
cultures collide and that can also form
the meaning the root word meaning of a
word
we also have the scandinavian uh
influence upon this particularly
the norwegians who were involved in the
making of
wicker furniture and the root word for
wicker meant to bend your bending
reeds or these plant materials that
could be bent
and they would often not be straight so
they are crooked
so you have a multiple meaning of the
word
wicket it involves that which be
would be satanic that would which would
be demonic or diabolical
it also involves that which is not
straight
which is crooked or bent therefore we
have the apostle paul
talking to elimus saying will you not
cease perverting the straight
ways of the lord
so understand that all
of the lord's ways are 100
straight whoa praise the lord
hallelujah they're all straight um
maybe some of you remember this if
you're a little bit younger
this may be an expression that you're
not familiar with but i
i remember clearly back in the uh in the
1980s
sometimes maybe you heard the phrase
is that person straight particularly
about in reference to a guy
is he straight i mean is this and that
was uh in reference to a guy's
sexual orientation because a natural guy
has an attraction towards a natural girl
and the natural girl has
a natural attraction towards the guy and
so that would be considered
straight so sometimes a person would say
hey
are you straight and
if they say well no i'm something else
well whatever they're going to identify
themselves as
remember it's not straight
now they're not going to say oh i'm
crooked oh so you're straight yes oh
well then i'm you know they're going to
say i'm crooked well not
nobody's going to say they're crooked
i'm bent
i'm really bent really bad way over here
they're not going to say that so they're
going to give it something else maybe
that sounds
happy or good or whatever it might be
but they're trying to redefine
something that's basically crooked and
bent that's what the word wicket
has as its root meaning now i want us to
go
to isaiah 49 as we are considering
the straight ways of the lord now please
right where you're sitting or standing
as you listen
i want you to say this say all of the
lord's ways
are straight woo praise the lord
hallelujah now isaiah chapter 49
we get into the
messianic overview of christ
the messiah as the servant of god
and we know that in this chapter of
isaiah which we know is isaiah chapter
49
there are many messianic overtones now
of course at this time when isaiah wrote
this
the messiah had not yet come he was
going to come
so he's prophesying about his character
his identity
what he's going to be like and we find
some valuable insights
into the life of the lord in verse 2.
and it says and he that would be god the
father has made
my mouth that would be the lord's mouth
like a sharp sword
in the shadow of his hand he
has hidden me
so we're going to see a double reference
on this being hidden
until the time was right to pull out
this instrument that god could use
now it says that he
made me the father made me jesus
a polished shaft in his quiver
he has hidden me so again we have the
element of being
hidden and this is not a sword this
here would be in reference to the arrow
that's being hidden where
in in the quiver and nobody can see that
arrow
until it's pulled out and the lord was
as we could say released
at the right time in history at the
right
moment but there was preparation for
that
there was the polishing of the shaft of
the arrow praised god
see it starts the arrow
starts with a raw piece of wood
that has to be cut and it has to be uh
shaped down to where it's small into the
size
of the arrow and so it's cut and then
it's
sanded and then with all said and done
it has to be perfectly straight
without any nicks gashes or bumps
along that shaft now
you can have the sharpest tip
on the arrow that's very sharp that will
pierce
and penetrate into the target and you
could have the perfect feathers
on the other end of it that will
stabilize
that arrow in flight but if the arrow
the shaft of the arrow is crooked
it's never going to hit the target no
matter how sharp it is on the tip
no matter how beautiful the arrows are
in their positioning
stabilize it as it's going through the
air look if it's crooked
it's all for nothing it's not going to
hit the target
now christ the messiah
was that arrow that had that highly
polished shaft perfectly straight
perfectly true
and you have to understand also that
because you are
in christ god also looks as you
uh he looks at you as being that arrow
that needs to be polished
let me say this some people
that are in the church they put
maybe i could say too much of an
emphasis on destiny
pastor stephen when it's my time when
it's my time
then god will pull me out of the quiver
and he'll
shoot me well yes there is an element to
destiny there is a divine element to
god's timing but look there's also a
part that we play
and our willingness to allow the shaft
of the arrow of
our life to be polished to be sanded
which is not always
comfortable going through so that we are
conformed into this image of christ
that the father says that's the image
i'm looking for
so so now i can pull them out of the
quiver
see sometimes we think well it's just
whatever god wants to do it he's going
to pull me out and there is an element
of that but there's also the other part
that we play
where we say lord
i've got some deep uh gashes on this
part of
my life and i've got some real rough
spots in this area
that's causing me to lose spiritual
ability to be aerodynamic and so lord
you know send them all down and then
shine me up and polish it all up so i
can fly
woo praise god that's what god's looking
for you want
to be straight
be straight with your mouth with your
words
jesus said let your yes
be yes and let your no be know
who praise the lord that's pretty
straight
forward isn't it be straight with your
word
be straight with your money
oh hallelujah i was talking to a
ministry partner
this was this is maybe about 15 years
ago
and he said he said pastor stephen pray
for my stocks that my stocks will
go up and then when they go up out of
that account
i want to be able to contribute and
bless your ministry
always learn to ask questions before you
jump on board and say i'll pray or
something like that ask questions
i said okay i said um i said what are
your stocks in
what do you have stock in oh well um
a little slight hesitation there just
for a moment because he had to think
about how he was going to answer
he goes oh uh it's with a publishing
company
oh i said it's publicly publicly traded
he said yes it's on one of the big you
know stock exchange markets
i said oh i said what do they publish
and he just came right out and said it
he said they publish
this this and this i said those are all
pornographic
magazines he said yes i said so you want
me to pray
that they go up in value well
yes i guess that's what i'm asking you
to do and i and
when they do then i could uh you know he
said i bought them at a certain price
and the prices dropped down so i don't
want to sell it at a loss
but he said when they go up then i could
i could sell shares i could i could send
the proceeds to you i said
i said but that's uh that's a violation
of moral
ethics i said now look
i said what you're asking me to do is
legal but just because
it's legal in the eyes of the u.s
government because there's a lot of bad
things that are legal
just because it's legal doesn't mean
that it's right in the eyes of god
and he just kind of faded out after that
i never actually never saw him again
after that never came to another meeting
never
never supported my ministry after that
but you know
while i thank god for those that support
the ministry
uh it's not like
it's not like oh he stopped oh the
minister's gonna fall apart no
god's holding the ministry together in
the first place so that if i have to
hold to my
integrity in the word of god which is
what i fully plan on doing
and somehow somehow you know a whole
group walked away
then i'm holding to the integrity of the
word i'm going to stand with the word
and i i know that's a great attraction
to so many of you that's
that's why you're saying pastor steven
that's why i support your ministry i
mean
if i'm a fraud and a deceiver you're
like you're going to back off from that
immediately and i wouldn't blame you i
would too
but uh when i confronted him about that
which is obviously an
area of the shaft of his arrow that he
wasn't willing
to let the polish work go on he wasn't
wanting any sandpaper on that
there were some deep gashes and there
were some severe bumps
but you know what um that's an arrow
that's never going to come out of the
quiver
that's an arrow that you know the lord
can't work through a person like that
hallelujah doesn't mean that they're not
saved i didn't doubt his salvation
but well that arrow flies straight
here's what i'm trying to say
jesus had a divine assignment he was a
man on a mission
he's an arrow that is designed by god to
hit
a specific target all said and done
he got it accomplished why he flew
straight and if you fly straight
you're gonna hit the target but if
you're warped and bent
and you're crooked um you know what
you can go out on the shooting range and
dance around and play around and
you can dress up like robin hood and
pull the bow back and
you know try to emulate the olympic
shooters but long as you're shooting
for crooked arrows you're never going to
hit the target
and you in your life are never going to
accomplish
the assignment that god has called you
to do when you're a crooked shooter
you have to be straight in life
thank you lord jesus hallelujah don't be
afraid to let the lord
get in there and do what he wants to do
and polish and shine
you'll be so happy later that you can't
be bought
you'll be so happy that your life is not
like a loaf of bread
where you sell yourself just like people
buy a loaf of bread
you'll be so happy that you cannot be
bought
oh now pastor stephen every man has
their price
no no no no no no not a man or woman of
god
absolutely not they'd rather die
and literally would and many have then
compromise
biblical ethics and morals and values
praise the lord
hallelujah praise god
here's a story that
prophet kenneth copeland shared about
his father
brother copeland growing up as a young
man seeing his father
who was always in the in in brother
copeland's eyes as a young man
was always a pillar of integrity and
truth
and also his father had this reputation
not just in the house but in business
and within the community and i want to
read a story
that prophet kenneth copeland told
about his father he said as a young man
i understood honor
because my father raised me that way i
understood it because both my
grandfathers were honorable men they
would rather
die than lie please
let that sink in just for a moment they
would rather die
than lie elias crooked crooket
they would rather die than lie and my
grandmothers were honorable women
i understand what the psalmist means
when he writes about the kind of honor
that swears to its own hurt
and changes not psalm 15 verse 4
i understand and respect the kind of
person who is going to do the right
thing
regardless of what it may cost
my dad lived this way in front of me
dad was a tither since the day he and my
mother were married in 1927.
on their wedding day they made a
commitment to one another
and to god that they would tithe every
dollar
god gave them all the days of their
married life
god honored that commitment and
supported them
through the years many things god tried
to teach them they did not understand
because
they knew very little about faith
however
the lord took care of them anyway during
the great depression
my dad never went 24 hours without a job
mother and dad lived on an old dry land
farm in northwest texas the only things
in abundance there were sand and flies
yet my daddy had a job because god took
care
of him excuse me took care of them
eventually a fellow hired dad to work in
the insurance
business dad was very successful at it
so just a few weeks after he went with
the company he was moved to
fort worth as district manager the man
who hired dad
had been planning for a long time to
start his own company
he was building up reserves while still
working for the company
that hired my dad but this company had
laws
rules and regulations against the sort
of thing
this man was doing and some of it was
even against the laws
of the state of texas this man finally
announced
he was starting his own company he had
the money and backing to do it
but he needed my father to make it work
he offered dad a lot of money and a big
chunk of the company
he wanted dad to do for him and the new
company exactly
what he had been doing under him with
the other company
this man based a great deal of his
planning on dad's acceptance
of his offer it came down to a lawsuit
between dad's company and this man
if they could prove he had done some
things wrong
it would cut off over one hundred
thousand dollars
from his new company's financing now
that was about
1956 100 000
was a great deal of money this man was
depending on this money to help
establish his new insurance business
at the trial my dad was the deciding
witness
if the lawyer asked him has this man
ever approached you
to work for him doing the same job
you're doing
for your present employers and dad
answered no
then the case would be closed the man
would get the one hundred thousand
dollars financing
and my father would get a huge chunk of
stock
and lots of money along with a high
position and much
if dad testified that the man had
offered him a job with the new company
he was planning to start then the man
would lose the one hundred thousand
dollars
and dad would get the privilege of
keeping his
old job i was about 19 years old at that
time
and i was thinking what's dad going to
do
if he takes the stand and answers that
question one way
he's an instant multi-millionaire the
money was already in the teal
and the stock was already made out if he
answers the other way
all he gets is his old job wondering
what dad was going to do
i watched as he took the stand he wasn't
a bit nervous
or anxious he didn't have any sweat
breaking out
on his brow i couldn't believe he could
be
so calm the lawyer asked the question
did this man offer you a job
with his new company doing the same
thing
that you are doing now without a second
hesitation dad answered yes
he did when it was over he stood up and
walked away
he left all that money lying on the
table and the stock
untouched later i said boy dad
how did you keep from saying what that
man wanted you to say
it would have been a lie was his
response
it was as simple as that to get that
money
that stock that position dad would have
had to lie
there was never any question in his mind
he just went right
on with his business he gave no more
thought to the matter
every time he would see the man he had
testified against
he would walk up shake his hand and ask
how the new company was coming along
that man had such respect for my dad he
loved my dad all
his life wow praise the lord
what is that that is a picture kenneth
copeland's father and brother copeland
himself
who walked in his father's shoes of
integrity of
an arrow that has a polished shaft
you can't be bought out and you're not
going to tolerate
crookedness in your own life you can't
be responsible for what others do
but in your life in the arrow of your
life
you're going to shoot straight whoo
praise god and it's a person like that
god says he's ready she's ready
i'm pulling him or her out and i'm going
to shoot
them as an arrow straight because
they'll fly straight and they'll hit the
target
and they'll give me all the glory and
they will not bow
to crookedness even if it's all around
them
and the voices say everybody else is
doing it
whoo praise god you're polished and you
will have
nothing nothing to do with any form of
crookedness
remember all of the ways
of the lord are straight
the ways of the devil are crooked
they're fake
they're fraud don't have anything to do
with it stay straight
stay straight and you'll hit the target
thank you jesus one more scripture
let's go over to ii thessalonians
chapter 2 verse 9. ooh pastor stephen
that's the scary chapter i don't know if
i want you to read it it talks about the
antichrist
relax oh but pastor stephen it talks
about the man of lawlessness
what are we going to do we could all be
deceived no no no
hallelujah a straight arrow doesn't get
deceived
straight arrow stays on course and so
will you
praise god watch this
ii thessalonians chapter 2 verse 9 the
coming of the lawless one
the man of iniquity the lawless one is
according to the working of satan
oh oh well we know that everything about
jesus is straight
all of his ways are straight know this
everything about satan
is crooked so anybody that's one of his
ambassadors
is going to be just like him they're
going to be loaded
with crookedness so you'll see it you
don't have to be concerned about it
you will not be deceived by it and i
also believe
i also believe that the church will be
taken to be with the lord before the
horrible
end-time events unfold where the wrath
is poured out
upon the wicked who rejected christ and
persecuted
the people of god now watch this again
the coming of the lawless one is
according to the working of satan with
all power
signs and lying wonders oh but pastor
stephen the miracles
the miracles that the devil is going to
do to this man and the false prophet
watch it watch it it's going to be lying
wonders why because there's there's
crookedness baked into everything he's
going to do
lying wonders
ah you know with the lord everything
is so straight you don't you don't have
to be like the magician
that says watch carefully i'm going to
make it disappear
and and he has to pull a curtain out in
front and when i remove the curtain
it's going to be gone well why why why
do we need a curtain
why do we need a curtain that that tells
me that you're doing something behind
the curtain fraudulent
boy well yes i have to it's not real oh
yes
uh yes it's all fake just in case you
didn't know it's all fake
it's all smoke and mirrors
power signs and line wonders
line everything about it is a lie
the magicians they come up to do their
tricks they got long sleeves all the way
down to here
why also they could hide all their stuff
there they're you know their cards or
whatever it is and uh
it's all gimmicks it's all tricks it's
all well thought out
it's well planned it's well rehearsed
out and even if they act like they're
being honest
it's all a scheme it's all a lie now
we're going to roll out this cart
and we're going to open up the cart so
that you can see there's something in
them and they open it up look there's
something in it
well yeah there's something in it but
there's a false wall that
you think that's the back of the cart
but it's not that's just a fake wall
you could pull it out there's somebody
hiding behind that as soon as they
close the door of the cart and spin it
around oh look there's a person in there
yeah the person was there the whole time
hiding power signs and lying
lying wonders why you can't help it
that's just the way he is he
just the devil can't help but lie and
the antichrist
are you ready for this the antichrist
will be the most
crooked politician the world has ever
seen
he will be such a slick smooth liar
get ready for the most crooked oh oh oh
pastor stephen he can't outdo so and so
don't just watch he'll make so-and-so
look like amateur league
when this guy comes forth he he will
have a fake anointing
an anti-anointing that's against god
and he will be crooked in all
that he does that's how you could that's
how you'll know now i'm not saying we're
going to be here
but i'm just saying that the elect the
elect will not be deceived why
because the elect knows that all of the
ways of the lord are straight
they're straight and this stuff over
here high
level crookedness
praise the lord hallelujah okay
power signs and lying wonders and with
all unrighteous
deception unrighteous deception
now many translations
if you go to biblehub.com and you look
this up
many of them say wicked deception what
are we getting back to
crookedness it's deception that's being
done on purpose
and it's wicked it's crooked it's
planned out it's plotted out
they know exactly what they're doing uh
that's why against president trump uh
against any good president wait you know
wait till election cycle
get about three months out before the
election here comes all the books
here comes all the books that are saying
he said this he said that
well hey you know it's it's all
unrighteous deception by people that
just flat out
raw lie and don't care and they're lying
and they're lying it's all planned out
the and the books start coming out see
all of that's planned
all that's planned all of it's staged
everything from riots the riots are
staged
that's why before the riot starts i
wonder how that pile of bricks got there
well that's amazing they could just
you think somebody could just pick a
brick up and throw it through the window
yes that's why they're put there before
all of those riots have ever happened
every single riot that's that's happened
in this nation
they're all pre-planned they're all
pre-staged the people are shipped there
they're
bust there they're paid for by co
corrupt wealthy people who have bad
motives and bad ideas for this nation
and they pay for all these people to go
out riot and loot
and burn and and pillage and yep there's
the pile of bricks
brought in with you by the pallet load
so that you can you know if you're if
you're a paid
rioter just grab your brick the window
go in and
you know steal all you know the stuff
and run off with it and
keep it and get paid for doing it and
then many of them go back and sleep in
the nice hotels
it's it's all unrighteous
deception praise the lord don't let the
smoke and mirror show
uh fool you oh the book came out pastor
stephen it said the most awful things
yeah it's all part of the plan
you've got to get sharp at this you've
got to get sharp at these types of
things because the deception
and the lawlessness is gonna it's gonna
be like hanging around
it's gonna be hanging around praise the
lord i don't know why
maybe i shouldn't say it but i'm gonna
just put a little bit out there
i i don't know why that in south africa
some of these false prophets um
are able to hoodwink so many of the
believers
and i uh there's there's like two of
them they're just like high
level false prophets and even with all
of the
information that's coming out of paid
actors and stage actors who got paid
thousands of rand
to go along with the quote word of
knowledge what a spectacular word of
knowledge yeah they got
he's got 30 or 40 people working for him
that are nothing but information
gatherers
and they gather that information without
you thinking they're
getting it uh because they're trying to
act nice to you and host you and take
care of you
but they're taking all of that back to
headquarters and all of that is reviewed
it's all plotted it's all planned it's
all rehearsed before the service ever
takes place
and then when the prophecies fly and the
words of wisdom fly
is all fake can't you tell it's fake
glory glory to the lord and i look at
so many of these people that are being
deceived and many of them are very poor
and they're impoverished and they're
desperate and they see this and they're
just
they're desperate for miracles are
desperate for god and these false
prophets are preying
on these on these people who have very
low levels of spiritual knowledge many
of them aren't even saved that are
coming to the meetings they're they're
uh it's tragic it's really it's really
tragic
and so uh see america
has been through a lot of that already
um
i won't say his name but this was a guy
that
one of these ministers in america go i'm
gonna i'm gonna go back about
three decades uh a little closer to four
now believe it or not
uh the great prophet who would go to the
meetings and give the great words of
knowledge
he would give the words of knowledge and
call people out by name and phone number
and all of that stuff the street you
live on and all of that
and the whole time this was going on in
these meetings
his wife who's in on this fake lie
his wife is in a back room with the
radio
and he's out there you know giving all
these fake words of knowledge
with the with a receiver in his ear and
she's saying
uh the lady on the third row with the
red dress
yes uh see when these people would come
into the meetings they would fill out
healing cards
well they're taking that knowledge that
information and they're sending
it to the back room giving it to people
who are relaying it to him
while he's out there calling it all out
until
uh one of these famous skeptics said
let's find out what's really going on
and they took a private investigator who
had all of the scanning equipment
who could scan radio frequencies and
stuff like that and he picked it up
captured the whole thing on tape
and had it played at that time by the
most popular
late night tv host there was in america
exposing that guy
completely as a fraud well what did he
do well uh he went overseas for a while
and i remember when i was in europe
about 15 years ago in one particular
time when i was in europe
and i i talked to this one guy he was
driving me around i said well uh what
are you going to do tomorrow
he goes i'm going to go hear reverend
so-and-so speak i said reverend
so-and-so
i said are you familiar with this track
record of what he was doing in america
how he got busted
publicly in front of everybody as being
a total fake and fraud
well you know brother stephen i believe
he repented and uh
you know you know and so he's gonna go
over there and you know
and uh pull the wool over their eyes too
and uh worked the sheep over over there
well that burned out eventually now he's
back over here and he's
you know the small level meetings and
stuff like that what i'm trying to say
is yes there's there's false prophets
out there but my friends
it it's easy to start seeing through it
because you're going to get red flags
that say now wait a minute that that
seemed crooked uh i can't put my finger
on what's going on here
and it seems like there's miracles going
on see
also it's more difficult to tell if
you're watching on tv
or internet like youtube or something
because you can't be there in that
meeting
to discern whether or not what kind of
spirit is working here
what what is the atmosphere because if
it's if god's working
there's a beautiful atmosphere but if
you can't get there physically to kind
of like
get a sense of what's going on you're
just seeing this stuff happen and you're
like what's really going on
let me just tell you even still even if
you're not there
you'll get the red flags and they'll fly
real high and you're
like that seems really weird
uh and if you look at these things
carefully you'll start to notice
if it's fake it's going to have
crookedness in it
somewhere there's going to be something
because the enemy can't hide it
he can't he cannot he cannot help but
who he is
he is a liar he is a fake he is a fraud
he is a deceiver
and he's crooked he can't help it's
going to come out soon later he's very
bent
he's very crooked so if you watch
carefully enough
you'll see oh that doesn't make any
sense uh
that to me seemed very crooked and if
you see it repeat it and repeat it
watch out watch out oh but but it seems
so
yeah watch out you know i remember when
i was very young in ministry
i wanted to uh invite a certain
uh well actually it wasn't that it was
actually something different that was a
different one i learned on
a different lesson on that but there was
something i was wanting to write about
and
a pastor said um he said uh he said
brother stephen he said i know
that person he said be careful
he said he said i don't want you to in a
sense
promote that person because if you do
you know you could get mud on your face
uh if they're running back a bad track
record it's not like suddenly they're
gonna like say you know what i'm gonna
stop doing all that crookedness i'm
going to straighten up
you know so especially if there's been
exposure and they're keeping on doing
stuff like that
he said just be careful he said i
wouldn't want you to
you know have backlash come against you
because you know you
you kind of like you know gave some
exposure to that person
so i i yield it back on that and i
listened to him
i was very glad i did very glad i did
because the older ministers and i found
myself now in that position of
walking in these areas trying to help
younger ministers saying hey watch out
just because something seems
supernatural doesn't mean it's of god
so i'm not a skeptic i'm not a doubter i
am a full believer in
signs wonders and miracles but you have
to
you have to realize there are fake
things that are out there and they could
even masquerade in the church
pastor stephen how do i know it's easy
it's either straight or there's going to
be crookedness in it
so what straight will hit the target
what straight we'll have the anointing
of the holy spirit will have the
the power of the spirit riding on it
we'll have the conviction of the holy
spirit
upon it to live in a way where your life
glorifies the lord
and if you're not sure just kind of sit
back and be very
uh attentive and alert
praise god there was one
situation in in which uh
some good things were happening in a
certain ministry
and some minister friends that i knew
they they all ran
they ran to it and me and kelly both
just felt a huge
check don't don't connect with that
because that's going there's going to be
a melt down there
oh pastor stephen how could that that
that happened well there was a meltdown
and then people were like oh we just we
can't understand how
and you know me and kelly were just like
how could you not see that coming
there there were some good things going
on there but that the shaft of that
arrow
had a lot of bending in it and um
if if if there's too much
crookedness yeah you're not only not
going to hit the target
uh there could be an implosion and sadly
that's what happened and then you had a
lot of people that were disillusioned
and uh
you know oh how could we ever trust
prophets again and stuff like that well
that's part of the prophetic development
is just learning picking up on these
things
of the holy spirit that are pure and
true
wow wow uh one very godly
prophet very godly man and
i won't say his name but but but another
prophet overseas
said that jesus told him the names
of five ministers that were closest to
him on planet earth
and he said the lord mentioned that man
that prophet
well that prophet that was very close to
the lord
he had a situation one time where he was
he was asked to go
and um attend a certain uh you know
conference ministry conference and he
said that he went
and the person that was ministering he
said he wasn't familiar with that person
but it was a pastor that came out
and he started moving and
it looked like an anointing of the
spirit
but it was not of god it was not pure
and
this very godly prophet his eyes were
open and he could see
standing on the stage an evil spirit
standing next to the so-called man of
god
and as this minister would you know talk
and make people laugh
and do his do his thing there was an
evil spirit standing there playing the
violin
releasing an evil false anointing
and uh wasn't an anointing yes but it
was false it has an
area of coarseness to it
watch out for ministers that tell jokes
that are right
on the edge of being crude uh
look if they're gonna do that in public
in private they're they're not they're
going over the offense they're going
over the edge they don't just be crude
they're
they're they're just they get into the
dirt
watch out for stuff like that there's
evil spirits that
work sometimes with these people these
ministers even
that do this stuff and it's a false
anointing
get back to shooting straight
when your arrow your life is straight
remember remember
all the ways of the lord are straight
okay
straighten everything then you're going
to be okay
um some ministers that that were well
known
a couple of them let me
let me say this before i share that in
ministry
ministers there's a there's a
supernatural network
where you may not know that minister
but you know somebody who knows him and
they may not know
me but they know somebody who knows me
and really there is a linking where
within one or two people you all know
each other it's not like oh
you know there could be that person's
100 connections away oh no at the most
three at the most three
and so you all know each other but there
were two ministers very well known
that got involved in
this shady deal and
a couple of the pastors pulled all of
their church members into it
and some of those ministers because they
had they had a great
uh they had a good name and they knew a
lot of people
they pulled some people they knew into
it and the whole thing
uh was a fraud was a fraud
a total fraud how do you know pastor
stephen because
the person who was the head spokesman
for the fraud
told me himself confessed to me himself
he said
he said pastor stephen the whole thing's
a lie he said they've invested all this
money
thinking they're going to get this
return return on them and they're
planning on what they're going to do
with the returns
he said there will be no return she said
they don't even know what they've lost
all of their money
they've lost all of their money because
he said i'm the one that sold it to him
and he said there is no money it's all
been spent
all of the money massive amounts of
money and some of them gave their entire
life savings some of them uh you know
sometimes ministers
they don't have a typical retirement
fund like you know like 401
k where that's being put away or
something like that so but some of them
had taken all of their savings
their entire nest egg and they had put
it into this thing
believing the words of this man and this
team saying
you're gonna get it back at least seven
fold and some of you get it back more
than that
and the guy doing all that stuff came to
me in private said the whole thing's a
lie
they don't know it you know they've been
fed this lie he said but i'm getting out
and he totally got out he totally
in some ways just disappeared he said i
feel such guilt and conviction and shame
but he can he confessed that to me not
to expose him
not to expose names but but he just the
holy spirit had him share that with me
and i talked with him and shared some
things that i thought would help him
to go forward with you know how he
should handle what he should do but
i'm just telling you there's there's
stuff out there i've seen it
forms a deception crookedness if it's
crooked
stay away from it stay away from it
praise the lord
you don't have to do crooked deals to
get to the top you get to the top
by being a straight shooter let
everything about your life be straight
whoo praise the lord
thank you jesus father i pray for your
people today that they shoot straight
with their words with their money with
their character
with their ethics that they will not
compromise their integrity in your word
for anybody for anything not even for
not even for a billion dollars
thank you father and that there will
never be a justification for doing wrong
they'll throw all that out and say here
i stand
hallelujah now father we give you praise
we give you praise for spiritual
backbone
and we thank you that you're gonna
you're you're there are many
that you're you're gonna pull out of
your quiver and you're going to shoot
them because
they refuse to compromise you're going
to reshoot them
and release them on that destiny target
hallelujah and some of you
god has included in your destiny package
a plan for great prosperity
well pastor stephen god will just pull
me out any time to shoot me yes yes but
yield to the polishing of the shaft
yield to the polishing the refinement
so the shaft is straight straight on
glory glory
glory glory i was intrigued about a
great man of god i heard in india
who had a very strong anointing and he
had a he had a very big ministry
although i'd never heard of him
and uh this man was actually in northern
india he yet a lot of powerhouse
ministries in south india
but in north india you know
not quite as well known as some of the
strong
churches and ministries that are in
south india but he was up there in the
north
and when i found out about his ministry
he'd already passed away but
there was some literature written about
his life
and uh one of the stories was that he
was praying
asking god for a certain amount of money
and
he presented that to the lord and the
next day
while he's walking through a very busy
area while he's walking through a very
busy area
there laying on the ground was the exact
amount of money that he had prayed and
asked god for
oh pastor steve but he must have picked
it up shoved it in the pocket and got
out of there before anybody could claim
it
no he picked it up and said did anybody
lose this money
whose money does this belong to and with
as loud of a voice as he could
to announce it and to walk around and
try to locate the owner
oh pastor stevens that's my blessing or
is that something that somebody lost and
you need to return it back to them
because it belongs to them
um be a straight shooter because you
know if you would have lost something
you would want somebody to try to at
least make an honest effort to get that
back to the rightful owner there
there are some things yes you they don't
have an id they don't have a number and
it is what it is you know you
you do the best that you can but you you
at least
need to do all that you could do
to put yourself in the shoes of somebody
else of trying to
say hey you know let's do this the right
way
hallelujah live your life very
transparent
in these areas oh pastor steve nobody's
watching
god's watching all the time and let me
say this also
don't think that others aren't others
are watching
true story sam walton the founder of
walmart
was considering hiring a certain person
for an executive position and
had heard that you know the guy had a
good hustle had a good work ethic
but he had also heard some other things
that he could be a little shady
well this was a high level executive
position so
um mr walton and some of his other staff
said let's take him out to lunch and
let's just talk and
dig a little deeper just kind of get to
know him a little bit before
we offer a position like this so they
went to a cafeteria
as you know at a cafeteria you get your
tray and you come down the line
and uh you know you tell them if you
want a salad then if you want you know
chicken
steak or fish or whatever you know the
entree is and you get a dessert and
then at the end this you know the
dessert and the rolls and stuff like
that
well uh mr walton was in a position
where he wasn't trying to look he
couldn't help but notice something as
they went down the line and they got to
the very end of the line
just before you pay the cashier you have
all the food
there on your tray this is like you know
like a buffet
uh style and you have all your food
there and he gets this
this man that was there for this
opportunity to get promoted
he's there and he gets his rolls he gets
a cup of rolls
and he gets he gets several pats of
butter
the butter is 10 cents a piece he takes
the butter
and slides it underneath uh
one of the plates under the plate so
that the cashier can't see
the tabs of butter and when mr walton
saw that
he just kind of nudged some of his guys
and said this guy's a no-go
he's a no-go if he'll cheat on tabs of
butter
that cost a dime each and he's trying to
slide four of them underneath the
underneath the plate lip so that the
lady can't see it no no no we're not
hiring a guy like this
we need a straight shooter and that's
what god needs to
father bless your people let this be
ingrained
in their spirit thank you
in jesus name amen
and amen hallelujah hallelujah
glory glory
thank you jesus there's an anointing
hallelujah
the holy spirit's dealing with hearts if
you're watching today
and you don't know christ as your lord
and savior
and you feel in your heart conviction of
your sins that's the holy spirit
it's the holy spirit drawing you to
jesus who is the solution
for your sin problem would you like a
new spiritual condition
where your sins are washed away and your
old sinful nature
is removed and you're giving and you're
given a new spiritual heart
would you like that pray this prayer
after me say jesus
i am a sinner but i know that you are
the remedy for sin
you shed your blood at calvary
as an offering for my sin
and god received that offering so jesus
i put my faith and trust
in you wash my sins away
jesus give me your new life right now
jesus write my name in your lamb's book
of life
thank you jesus for a change of heart
thank you lord
thank you lord and strengthen me to
serve you all the days of my life
as a straight arrow thank you jesus for
saving me
he's heard your prayer you are now born
again you belong to christ
live for him there are some backslidden
christians
and there are some bent arrow christians
you've heard this message and you feel
you have felt the convicting power of
the holy spirit
you can't you can't keep on living like
this doing the stuff that you've been
doing
and expect to look at jesus straight eye
you can't you can't look at any might
die you're convicted you know what's
been wrong some of the things that
you've done
right now pray this after me say jesus
i can't live like this anymore as a
crooked arrow
jesus wash my sins away i repent
and i'm not going to do it anymore i
change and i change now
i change now thank you jesus now polish
polish me jesus i yield i yield polish
me
so that you can work through me and you
can shoot me straight and true
thank you thank you thank you hallelujah
thank you um thank you
amen the lord has heard your prayer and
you have been restored in the right
relationship with him praise god
praise the lord hallelujah
you know another story speaking of
prophet kenneth copeland he talked about
the time a businessman
came to him and said i have a deal
that i want you to pray with me and come
into agreement with me concerning it's a
business deal
and should this deal go through i'll
send
the tithe to your ministry and an
offering on top of that
and brother copeland said now i can't
come into agreement with you unless i
know
the specifics and the arrangement of
what this deal is
well the man said there is a boat that
it's a ship actually and there is
content and product on this ship
that has a very high value uh and you
know we're talking like a million dollar
value something like that a lot of
content
on this boat and he said i can buy
everything on that ship because of
something that's happened to
paperwork or something like that i can
buy
all of the contents on that ship for
pennies on the dollar
and i can turn around and resell it to a
market that's wide open to receive it
and brother copeland said um
what are the contents the businessman
quote christian businessman unquote said
well um
it's cigarettes he said
you you want me to come into agreement
with you to sell cigarettes
who were you planning to sell these
cigarettes to he said i can take them
and sell them to the arabs
they love cigarettes so so you're
expecting me to present the gospel to
people at the same time
send cancer to them the man says well
you know i'll give the tithe
and i'll give an offering to brother
copeland's like no no i can't be
involved in anything like this
well the man says it's legal but just
because it's legal doesn't mean it's
ethical
in the eyes of god i can't be involved
in anything
that's going to pump cancer into
somebody's body
i knew a good christian man in the local
area remember this is north carolina
before i tell you that story one time me
and kelly were in
uh israel and we're in a certain part of
jerusalem
and there just happened to be a whole
lot of smoke in the air cigarette smoke
from all these guys smoking cigarettes
and
my wife she said to the tour guide she
said oh
she said brother iran she said i wish
uh that there wasn't so much smoke in
certain areas of israel particularly
like this one area of jerusalem
he goes well kelly it's all coming from
your state
you know it was it was a hilarious thing
he said but he's right
it's all coming from either north
carolina or virginia these are the two
greatest exporters of tobacco in the
world
but back to north carolina this one man
that was doing some things here around
the church helping out
uh i said i said where do you work at he
said i work for the so-and-so
uh tobacco company and i i'm the guy
that repairs all the tobacco machines
the cigarette machines you know if you
go to
done they sell them in stores but
sometimes certain buildings and
uh and places like that or maybe hotels
they they sell
cigarette machines so you put your money
in and you get the pack of
cigarettes out and he says you know i i
work on all the machines and keep them
working really good
and um you know all i can say on that is
that we're all
at different levels and you may be
watching me and maybe
you're a christian and you love the lord
but maybe you're working in vegas
and you're you're selling the tickets to
the show
that is just loaded with the most gross
forms of perversion
i i've known people that have done that
one one lady she said oh she was a
christian
she says i hate working this job she
said i feel so
filthy and dirty after working a job
and doing what i do well why don't you
quit get another job
well i got to make 11. that's somebody
that doesn't know the covenant well
you're never going to get to the top and
that's fast steven you pull some deals
on the side
that's a person that's not that's not a
straight shooter
that that's a person that doesn't know
if you walk right with god
you can come into a covenant with him
and you'll
never go hungry you'll never know
insufficiency
you know unless you're fasting praise
the lord
but outside of that hey got plenty of
food even if you are fasting there's
there's food over there you're just not
eating it
but there are some people they they
don't know that so but you know we're
all in different places of growth and
grace
so i would encourage you move quickly
move quickly on to the ways of the lord
all of the
lord are straight praise god now let's
take communion
hallelujah hallelujah by the way here's
here's the manual for straight shooting
right here
thank you jesus hallelujah
let's grab some unleavened bread i use
these little wafers okay grab something
grab that or something like that
grab some grape juice let's pray father
we thank you for the bread the juice
we consecrate it and set it apart now
through this prayer
and we thank you that this is blessed
this is now the body and the blood
of christ our savior
our example our straight shooter
our arrow with the polished shaft
father as we receive the body of jesus
we ask that you just keep us polished
because we could have been polished ten
years ago but we we're pretty rough
today so lord keep us polished
thank you thank you
let us hit the target we thank you
father god that there's also destiny
times
to get pulled out of the quiver we thank
you for the polished work
we give you all of the praise thank you
father in jesus name
amen let's receive the body of the lord
praise god
father thank you for the blood of jesus
that cleanses us from our sins and
iniquities
father we thank you that we understand
that iniquities have an
element of crookedness in them
things that we would do that we know
they're wrong and we know that they have
crookedness
but we thank you for forgiveness through
the blood of christ that our sins and
our iniquities
when confessed and turned from there is
forgiveness
and you remember them no more father we
receive the blood of christ with great
great thanksgiving
in the name of jesus we pray amen let's
receive
praise god again acts chapter 13 verse
10
will you not cease perverting the
straight ways
of the lord the lord's ways are straight
the enemy's ways are crooked as you grow
in discernment you will be able to
discern between what is straight
what is crooked what is right what is
wrong
what is true what is a lie what is
transparent honesty and integrity
and what is deceit praise god
and every spiritual
function will be alive in your spirit
soul and body and a lie a lie will not
ever
set right with you hmm crookedness
even if you can't initially put your
finger on why do i feel this is not
right
as you continue to shoot straight you
will eventually find out
praise the lord hallelujah
hallelujah hallelujah praise god
father we thank you we thank you for the
genuine
and that this is one of the reasons why
there has been
a lot of fakeness even fake miracles and
fake prophecies and
uh lord there's the genuine but the
genuine is about to go a lot deeper
and the real miracles and the real glory
the greater glory
that we have been longing for is coming
and it's driving the enemy crazy
because he knows it's going to come and
he's all these flare-ups but it's coming
so thank you father especially in the
midst of the glory help us to shoot
straight
thank you father in jesus name
amen and amen thanks for watching i'll
see you on the straight narrow
god bless you bye bye