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  SPIRITUAL AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE
  by Alan Martin
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Summary: This sermon delves into the concept of spiritual autoimmune
disease, where subtle influences and attitudes can lead to the breakdown
of relationships within families, marriages, and church communities. It
emphasizes the importance of filtering out toxic attitudes, maintaining
hope for one another, and extending grace and mercy to overcome
conflicts and judgments. The speaker highlights the need to cleanse
oneself of negative toxins to experience dynamic joy, peace, and hope in
relationships.

Topics: "Healing Relationships", "Extending Grace"
Scripture References: 1 John 5:14, 2 Corinthians 5:16, Ephesians 4:31, Galatians 5:22, Proverbs 4:23

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the concept of spiritual autoimmune disease,
where subtle influences and attitudes can lead to the breakdown of
relationships within families, marriages, and church communities. It
emphasizes the importance of filtering out toxic attitudes, maintaining
hope for one another, and extending grace and mercy to overcome
conflicts and judgments. The speaker highlights the need to cleanse
oneself of negative toxins to experience dynamic joy, peace, and hope in
relationships.

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CONTENT
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I didn't provide any notes for you tonight because I want you to use
your imagination. Alright, man. Alright? I want to talk to something
that's going to be relevant to a church family, an individual family,
any relationship you have.

I want to talk about something that's called the spiritual autoimmune
disease. You know what an autoimmune disease is? Yes. An autoimmune
disease is where the body attacks itself.

For some reason, something has happened in the body and the immune
system considers some cells of its own body as a threat and begins to
attack. And it can cause problems like diabetes, arthritis, high blood
pressure. It can affect people in many ways and it starts happening
before you even realize it's going on.

It can happen in a relationship between a husband and wife. It can
happen between brothers and sisters in Christ. It can happen within
family members.

It can happen between brothers and sisters, siblings, friends. But
what's going on? Well, the reason it's a spiritual disease is because
most of us don't understand this, but there is a spiritual realm of
demonic spirits and the devil. And because Hollywood always paints the
devil as some horrific, horrendous thing where someone turns their head
around and vomits green stuff over people.

You know, just horrendous things. That's not what Satan's about. Satan's
real, real work is subtle influences.

Subtle influences. Just suggestions to where you don't even recognize
it. Because if someone suddenly stood up in the chair and, I hate you,
you'd think, oh, there's the devil.

You know. But that's not going to happen. That's not going to happen.

But if you see someone take two tacos instead of one, look at that. Took
two tacos instead of one. He's selfish.

You don't recognize that, do you? You don't recognize that devil, do
you? Suddenly the body attacking itself. See, what happens is, and this
is what the Bible says, be angry and sin not, and neither give place to
the devil. Don't give him a place.

Now, what would that look like? See, most people don't even know what
that would look like. What would it look like to give place? Well, God
wants us to be people who love and pray for others, show mercy and
kindness for others, and where we meet a fault, to have hope and grace
to help the person overcome the fault. What the Lord would have us do is
see issues, because we're going to see issues in one another.

We're not finished. We all have quirks. Do you believe that? Quirks are
things about you that might actually rub someone else the wrong way just
a little bit, even in a husband and wife.

I mean, my wife might even think of some of those things about me. I
can't imagine that she could, but it may be. But if you do not recognize
that seeing something in someone else and not responding with grace and
mercy is the enemy at work, then you're going to be influenced.

You're going to be something the Bible calls leavened. Anybody know what
leaven is? Most of you ladies know what leaven is. It's called yeast.

And what do you use yeast for? For bread. And you know what? When you
put yeast in mixing it with your dough and your bread, there's a
chemical reaction between the yeast and the flour. And you know what it
begins to do? It begins to produce carbon dioxide, a gas.

And you know what? And as this byproduct of, actually immediate
fermentation starts to take place, and a byproduct of the fermentation
is carbon dioxide, and as it's producing carbon dioxide, which is a gas,
what happens to the bread? It starts to puff up. Now, when Satan is
having his place, and he's suggesting his little subtle things that they
are so subtle, if he were not subtle, you would detect it. So he is
seeking to influence us, to cause us to become puffed up against each
other, to form opinions that are reactions to things you see.

Because one thing I wanted to say, in this room, there's probably been
100, 200, 300 reactions. You've observed something. Someone has said
something, or someone didn't do something, and you noticed.

And what you may not even realize is, especially if it's the second or
third or fourth or fifth time you've noticed it, it may have begun to
ferment a little bit in your mind. To ferment. What happens when a
thought, a little opinion, begins to sit in your mind and ferment? Satan
has a place.

He has a place, and it's subtle. And the reason we don't recognize it is
because we think of Satan being a liar, and if what we're seeing is
true, yeah, that person did do that. Or what we heard, they did say
that.

And we think we remember it accurately. We don't think it's a lie,
because we think we got the facts straight. No, I did see that.

They did say that. I know. But the lie is not in what you've seen.

The lie is in the way he's keeping you from responding, the way God
would have you respond. With kindness, and mercy, and hope, and help.
What is Satan after? Can I give you a word picture? You want a word
picture? Let me help you here.

Okay. I found this over here. Okay, what is this word? It's brother.

All Satan needs to do is just do a little work. And now the brother is
a... He's a bother. Oh, you know, that bothers me.

It's just a simple thought, isn't it? What bothers you? What they said?
What they did? What they didn't do? And what happens? What happens when
it bothers you? You lodge it, right? Just lodge a memory. And when you
lodge the memory, you've given Satan place. And you don't even recognize
it.

Because you saw it. They said it. You lodge it.

And suddenly, when you see that brother, what you really feel is,
bother. And suddenly, your heart is not going out. You're not being
filled with the love of Christ.

And the caring, and hope, and mercy. Actually, when you begin to see
things accurately, it kind of creates a set of lenses. And you know, if
you begin to detect something in someone, you know what you'll do?
You'll look for it again.

And then, when you see it again, you've already got it registered once.
Satan already has a place. And so, when you see it again, you've given
more place.

And in this realm, and we don't even understand it, Satan begins to work
in unseen ways. It's very subtle. And he just begins to give us an
attitude.

Just an attitude. And it's an attitude. It could be as simple as.

And you may not say it out loud. But you may just think it in your
heart. You know, I don't really care for that.

I don't really care for that. You know what you just said? I don't
really care so much for that. Sometimes, sometimes you do this.

You know what? I don't really like that. They're awful loud. Or you know
what? They're hard.

And you know what we've just done? You know what I've just done? I've
lodged something a couple of times. I've observed it. I've confirmed it
in my mind.

And you know what I do? I make a judgment. I held court and nobody even
knew it. I held court inside my mind.

I held court. And the person was found guilty. And they didn't even
realize it.

But I sentenced them. I sentenced them to distance. I'm not going to get
close to you.

Or I sentenced them to you always. In my mind, you will always be. These
are things that happen with these spirits working.

And because spirits take advantage of occurrences, events, there are
times some of us may have a bad day. And others may not even understand.
You know, I don't understand this.

I put a fan for an area on Sunday morning, and I don't understand. The
fan ended up just on one person only. Someone could have a problem with
it.

But maybe the person was about to pass out. I don't know. You know, this
is what we have to be careful.

Now, how do you begin to know that you're being affected, you're being
corrupted, your body is suffering, or our church body is suffering from
little bit of occurrences? Because you know what happens? Like, say,
we'll take the kidneys, for example. What do the kidneys do in a body?
They're filtered. Because when we eat, and when we breathe, and where we
go, in our foods, in the things we encounter, in what we drink, there
are toxins, or there are byproducts that are waste products that end up
needing to be filtered out.

And if the kidneys do not filter the blood, those things stay within our
bloodstream, and they affect our overall health. If the kidneys get
worse and worse, because the body must cleanse itself, the kidneys
filter it out of the body, send it to the urinary tract, and it's
eliminated from the body. But if the kidneys aren't filtering, the
toxins start to accumulate, and it's all in the bloodstream, and every
single cell in the body is affected by the blood not being purified, by
the toxins leaving the body.

Instead, the body is retaining too much toxins. Let me tell you, when we
start retaining attitudes toward people, and you may not think it's
much, it's just a little bit about this person, a little bit about that
person, I've observed this about this person, and there's this person.
You know what needs to happen with those things? They need to be
filtered out.

They need the love of God, and the mercy of God, and the grace of God to
filter them out. And you know what I feel like sometimes, like what a
pastor is? He's the artificial dialysis machine. I shouldn't have to be
filtering those things out.

I shouldn't have to be saying, you shouldn't say that. That's not right,
that's a toxin. I want God to filter those things out.

We shouldn't bring those things in. This should be a safe place where
the heart of every one of us, toward every one of us, is pure. It's not
carrying toxins.

It's not carrying little attitudes that we don't even realize is a waste
product because we think we're accurate. We think our opinion is
justified. Until the filter of the Lord Jesus.

Because when we look at our sin and we want to be cleansed, how much of
that filter do we want to work? 100%, right? We don't want Him
remembering a single thing, do we? What does the Scripture say? We are
to love one another as Jesus Christ loved us. In other words, He filters
out all of our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And that
needs to be our heart and mind towards each other.

And it's something that I can't stress enough. Not only does it affect
the church, it affects a marriage, it affects a family, it affects
relationships between in-laws, it affects relationships... You know,
sometimes, think about it. Think about all the toxins that have built up
in your family history.

You know my grandfather. Or you know my uncle. Or you know my aunt.

Or you know my sister. Or you know, I've got this brother. How much
family toxins are... You know what family toxins do? They destroy the
love of family.

They destroy the desire to get together. Because everyone's carrying
these correct toxins, these attitudes, rather than... See, I'm not...
And one of the things that I want to say, these toxins, these waste
products, they happen. When we experience difficulty with these things,
they happen.

And so what we must learn to do is we must learn to recognize when we
encounter a difficulty, when we get rubbed the wrong way, when someone
speaks to us in a way that was difficult or hurt or bothered, or
sometimes when we see someone doing something to someone else and we're
bothered. We're disturbed. How do we filter that so that we're not
carrying a toxin and giving the devil a place? How do you filter that?
How? And I'd like to show... I don't have the Scripture to put up on the
overhead for you.

But in 1 John 5, I'll tell you about it. There's three verses that I've
never seen how much they go together. And listen very carefully to these
three verses.

I always read them separately. Sometimes we do that because in our study
Bibles, men put breaks, don't they? They group things together. And
these three Scriptures weren't grouped together by Bible.

But in having to be the dialysis machine sometimes, it caused me to
think about this. This is the verse that I'm talking about. It says
this.

This is the confidence that we have in approaching God. That if we ask
anything according to His will, and it's talking about prayer. If we
pray and ask for anything according to His will, we know He hears us.

And if we know He hears us, we know that we've received whatsoever thing
we've asked of Him. Those two things are always solid. I've memorized
those things, kind of learned them.

I've known those things. Those two are stuck together. If we ask
according to His will, we know He hears us.

And if we know He hears us, we know He's going to grant that request
we've asked. But I never added the next statement. And now I see it in
the mind of the apostle when he was writing.

He was actually leading to this next statement. You know what the next
statement is? And if you see a brother commit a sin not unto death,
pray, and God will give him life. What's the will of God? That we pray
for one another when we see sin.

That God give life when we see sin. Isn't that why He sent His Son? Not
for us to sit there in judgment and that you're condemned. When we see a
sin in a brother and sister, it's God's will that we pray.

And God give them life. You see it? That's His will. And that's how when
you do encounter things, when you do observe something, when you are
bothered by something, when you are hurt by something, that is the way
to respond in the Holy Spirit and turn something that the enemy is
trying to use to turn the body against itself.

Just to build up very slowly so no one will discover it quickly, to
slowly build up tiny little attitudes. You know, there's a statement
that men have made from a long time back, and we can say it's true.
Birds of a feather flock together.

So isn't it interesting how easy it is for you to find someone else that
has the same opinion about that person that you do? And of course, what
does that do? That just confirms your own opinion, right? Now you know.
You're not the only one. So the person definitely is.

Now, so the devil has two places. That's great. He doesn't just have
one, he has two.

And here's how you break that cycle. Someone comes to me and they share
something with me and they're hurt. Okay, I get it.

But they're bothered. They're disturbed. My role is not to deny that you
are bothered.

My role is not to deny that it happened. I don't want to do that. You
saw it.

You heard it. You know. But the filter is to keep it from being a toxin
to me and a toxin to you.

Let's pray and ask God to work and help that person see. Let's have hope
and patience that God can work and cause this person to come to see.
Because if it were me, what if someone is seeing something, I did
something, I said something, what would I want? What would I want that
person who saw me do it? What would I want them to respond? You know,
this is the one thing that I want to say.

It's so important. We need to be filled with hope for one another. You
know what people can sense? They can sense when you don't really hope
for them.

You're not speaking with them. You're not relating to them because you
hope to see their progress. You're hoping for change.

You're not leaving them in your mind as you're always going to be. You
believe that they can change. That is life-giving in a body.

And it's that kind of hope that filters out the toxins. That's what
keeps you from keeping the record and forming in your mind the opinion
that these spirits take advantage of. I don't think we understand it
enough because I don't think that I necessarily understand it enough.

A thought is all a spirit needs to do to influence you. It's a thought,
a suggestion, a thought. So let's say... I'll use myself as an example.

I think it's what's fair. Maybe you can relate to it. For whatever
reason, I've had some difficulties.

You know, either traffic or we had a whole lot of people at Daily Bread
and there wasn't a lot of help. For whatever reason, it's hot. You know,
I'm going from there to do this and that.

And so I'm just not at my best. And I come home. And the house is just
kind of not all together.

All it takes is my vulnerability to the thought. Where would the thought
come from? I might even think the thought's mine. But what if? What if
it's a spirit? Just suggesting, why don't you ask this? What have you
been doing all day? Was the thought mine? Was that thought hopeful? Was
it what I would want to be asked? You know, this is why the Bible talks
about that the mature Christian has trained their senses to detect the
thoughts.

Which, where did this thought come from? Because when you start
detecting the thoughts, you start stopping the influence. See it? You
don't have to give in to the influence, but it takes spiritual maturity
for that to happen. And this is one of the things we're all called to
be.

But one of the things I'm particularly called to be is a peacemaker.
Right? Peacemaker. How do we maintain peace? Because the scripture says
that we need to preserve the unity in the spirit in the bond of peace.

And you know what peace is? I can look around this room. Because there's
not a single person here who's my enemy. I have no enemies here.

I'm your friend. You're my friend. You're my brother and sister.

I've been a little bit late to learn this. I'm going to admit this. This
has taken something that I've not even explained well over time.

How in the world can I see a person who has some real strong issues? I'm
going to say they exist. People exist to sometimes have some real
issues. And they're difficult issues.

Relationally, they just are difficult. It's something I'm going to be
honest about. How do I maintain purity and filter every single time I
hear or see or observe that? How do I maintain that pure heart, mercy,
kind, patient attitude toward that person? Here's how.

I read this. You don't just get things from reading the Bible, by the
way. You think about it.

You go over it and over it and over it. And I wanted to understand this
thing that Paul said. Paul said this.

He came to this conclusion, he said. This is in 2 Corinthians 5. This is
the conclusion he came to. That one man, Christ, died for all.

One man died for all. Jesus Christ died for every single person in this
room. Everyone and everyone I'll ever meet.

Jesus Christ died for them. Now, why did he die for them? In the hopes
that they would be reconciled to God, right? Okay, when Paul became
convinced of that, here's the very next thing he said. If that's what
you realize, that Jesus Christ died for all, here's what he said.

He said, therefore, we don't know anyone anymore after the flesh. What
does he mean by that? After the flesh is in their natural. I can see the
natural.

I can see what a jerk this person is. I can see the issues he had. I can
see how rude or I can see how proud or I can see how self-centered.

But can I see the person underneath all of that that Jesus Christ died
for? Can I see the person that Jesus Christ knows is possible to be
saved from his present state? And if I can see that, I'm actually loving
them like God loves me. Because I'm seeing what God can make them, not
just who they are now. See? And that's, I treat everyone I see that way
differently.

Because when I'm only seeing with these natural eyes, and when I'm only
listening with these natural ears, I'm carrying the toxins. I'm keeping
the ledger. And without even realizing it, I'm allowing very subtle
opinions to be formed in me.

And especially over time, when you have not recognized them and you're
not filtering them out, things happen. When, for example, when the body
is not producing enough insulin, sugar builds up, doesn't it? And does a
person know right away that sugar is building up? No. It can affect
alertness.

It can affect energy. It can affect clarity of thinking. It can affect
vision.

It can affect circulation. All because sugar is not being properly
processed. And when we do not process our interaction with each other,
with grace and mercy, we build up these kind of toxins on a relational
level.

And what happens is, people don't recognize that they've given the devil
a place because their memory seems accurate. And feelings are very real.
Feelings are real.

People say it for a reason. The guy gives me the creeps. They mean it.

There's something there. And I'm not saying that... Some of those are
natural responses. But we're called to live a life beyond the natural.

To love like God loves us. And this is something that I'm going to
admit. I do not understand it.

It's taken me longer than I would have wanted. But I do not believe that
the Church of Jesus Christ has done a good job of this very basic thing.
And because of that, people have had difficult experiences in the
Church.

And not recognizing that Satan has his little places here and there
through these little attitudes that have been formed through the
difficulties we interact with each other when we're busy. At times,
we're just... At times, we're too quick. We said something without
thinking about it carefully.

We said it in a way we shouldn't have said it. And we may not even
realize what we... Yeah, for some... Speak up! Yeah. Yeah.

No. It's a good question. Remember, even God in His goodness can't
encourage harmful things.

Even God has boundaries. God backs off at times, even. You know what I
mean? For a reason.

God resists the proud. But God is able to do so and still maintain hope.
You know, not giving up on someone.

It's okay to recognize their present state. It's pretty bad. And right
now, I can't be what you need.

I mean, God at times has to kind of step back and wait for a person to
be open, to be helped. You know, God can't force Himself on everybody
either. And so there are times it's okay for us to set boundaries.

My encouragement in this, and it's not that... We can't cover the
entire, you know what I mean, ramification of this. But for us
especially, let's kind of keep it in the immediate relationship in our
lives that God has given us. Here, if we can learn to filter out these
things and not allow the attitude to form, especially the attitude that
even the Scripture warns about, do not grow weary in doing good.

Because evidently, dealing with people has a tendency to like... Is that
why we say, I'm tired of your... You know, we feel that way. I don't put
up with any more... We grow weary. And the Scripture warns about it.

Here's the danger. When we grow weary with people and we speak out of
that weariness, oftentimes it's like we're saying, I don't have any hope
for you. And we forget that even as bad as you are right now, as much as
you're messing up right now, I just want to maintain, this is not the
end.

If there's still time, I hope for change. I don't have to put on rose-
colored glasses and pretend it's okay now. I don't have to do that.

Ugly is ugly. Hard is hard. Mean is mean.

Proud is proud. I mean, those are things you can see and detect. Even
God sees them.

My encouragement to us is not to allow that to form a judgment. Like, I
finished. It's one thing to assess and properly see where a person is
at, but don't leave them there.

You know what I mean? It's not over. If they change, we'll be happy. You
know what I mean? Can we maintain that? I hope they don't end up this
way.

I hope their life does not end up this way. There are times, even, you
have to separate in a relationship because it's too difficult. It's
toxic.

It's dangerous. A drowning person that's freaking out and panicking,
they'll tell a person that goes to rescue them, be careful, don't get
too close or they're just going to grab you and you're both going to go
down. You almost have to let them sometime wear themselves out before
you can step in and help.

We can't fix everything, but what we can maintain is hoping we'll have
that opportunity sometime. Maybe I can't do it now. Maybe it'll take
some time.

Maybe this person is going to take three tacos for ten years. And one
year, wake up and say, you know what? I've been kind of selfish. I'm
like, you know what? That is so good.

I want that to be my reaction instead of, it's about time, idiot. You
know? I don't... You know, I just... Yeah. Yeah.

I know. Yeah, I know. Let me tell you something that just happened to
me.

I don't want to be too graphic, but this just happened. I send out
things, I send out the message to people that are going to attend and
someone didn't attend and I had their old number. So I sent the message
to them and it was the spouse of the person that is no longer here.

The spouse attended. One of them is still here. But I sent it to the ex
and the ex sent me back a pornographic response.

And how am I to respond? You see? I just feel like my wife saw my shock
on my face. I mean, it just like took me back. Huh? It was just a
picture.

Just a pornographic something. I mean, I don't know what to describe it.
But what she wanted to know, what was it? And what I said was, what I
had to decide right then was, okay, this person's still got an issue.

I mean, that's what I said. And then my heart needed to beat. Lord, they
need your help.

They're going to need your help. I mean, I'm not going to do it again.
No, no, no.

Oh, I'm going to send them a dollar. No, that's not what... No, it's
just, okay, realize that was a mistake. Block.

You know, cancel. So you have to take action. But in my heart, it's
going to be, wow, Lord.

I just hope that this, that, you know, that people break through.
Sometimes it's just pain, acting out of pain. It's fine, you know, just
give them time.

This is, the main thing I'm trying to say tonight, that's why I didn't
put, I couldn't put it in notes. I tried to put it in notes, and it's
just, it's not that easy to do. But what I can, but the heart of it is,
most of the times, the attitudes that break down relationships are very
similar to the little things that we keep and attitudes we form towards
each other that we don't even recognize are happening.

Because we're not actively being filled with love and mercy and grace
and praying for one another. As your pastor, you come in this room, and
I am praying for you. I see you in my mind, and I pray for you.

And that is something, that's my filter. I'm, when I'm going to my
father, I'm asking for mercy and grace, and I'm asking him to work in
your life. That's my desire.

And it's like, whatever else I may have observed or seen, it's just, I'm
not aware of it. It's just, it's like I'm free. I'm free from it.

And all I'm aware of is that God loves you, and I would desire you to be
blessed. And what that keeps me from is I'm not building up toxins. I'm
not building up attitudes towards people.

I can be genuinely glad to see everybody is walking in love. It's what
the scripture talks about. And it's just something that, I don't think
churches have spent enough time trying to actually bring about.

I was telling someone recently, we had a conversation, that it's not
okay. And I mean this. It's not okay for anybody here to have an
attitude about anybody else.

I'm letting you know. It's not okay. It's not okay for you just to be
here and say, well, I'll be here, but I ain't going to have anything to
do with it.

That's not okay. I can't detect it, and I may not know it, but that's a
toxin. And the Holy Spirit knows it every time you walk in that door.

And that shouldn't be. There needs to be the same love, and the same
respect, and the same hope, and the same grace to one another, to where
we are in this environment where we are here to see all of us helped
from our issues, not left in them, not condemned for them. And I believe
that when we're like that, I believe God has said, okay, you're safe
enough for me to bring people that need help.

But we have to learn to keep a pure heart and a clean heart, and a heart
full of mercy. And by doing that, we'll stay free of these little
attitudes. And I want to say they're very subtle.

They're very subtle. And if they weren't, you would detect them. Think
about it.

Satan's biggest strategy is to not even be detected, right? So if he can
leaven you, just a little yeast. There's a verse I'm going to say. Some
of you know it.

It may be new to some of you. But a little leaven... Leavens the whole
lump. Leavens the whole lump.

So you may not have realized, you just had a little attitude today. It
was just a little attitude. Most of it was 99% pure.

Is that right? No, no. Everything you think, say, and do is affected by
that little. If the whole lump is leavened, the littlest attitude, the
slightest attitude towards someone is leavening every part of you
towards everyone else.

You don't even realize you're affected. It's just like a person can have
diabetes and not even know it. Or they can be in early stage of kidney
failure and not even know it.

So just because you're not aware of it doesn't mean it's not happening.
This is why we want to encourage one another. Our goal amongst one
another is purity.

Purity. Pure love. Having the same love being one in spirit and purpose.

And that's our goal, okay? But what the good news is you love and share
grace and mercy and hope with my issues that I'm still working on. I'll
share love and mercy and hope with the issues you're working on. And
we'll work on each other together.

We'll help each other together. And we'll forgive one another when we
need to. Like the Scripture says.

And that's how we stay healthy. That's how relationships stay healthy.
That's how marriages stay healthy.

That's how families stay healthy. And take this and go back home tonight
and think about, wow. Think about some of the toxins that have been in
your family history.

And make it your ambition to cleanse yourself of those toxins and don't
participate in that toxin anymore. Be careful. It doesn't mean your
family's going to change overnight.

What it's going to mean is you're going to be healthier. Your joy, your
energy, your vision, your spiritual life will begin to rebound and live
in the way it should because these latitudes, these toxins, they affect
the believer's joy and peace. They're like little weights that they add
up so little that you don't realize you're carrying them.

But they weigh on you. All of us know we can function, but we're not at
our peak. We're not in the zone.

We don't feel well. You still go to work. You still got to mow the lawn.

You still got to get up. You still do. But it's not the same as feeling
great.

So I'm talking about trying to cleanse ourselves of these attitudes
towards people so that our joy in the Lord will be dynamic and our peace
and our outlook and our hope. Here's the beautiful thing. Because when I
am full of hope for you, guess what I get to experience for myself?
Hope.

I mean, I'm just full of hope. I may not be perfect yet, but I am full
of hope that God is going to work with me. He's not giving up on me.

He's going to share with me. There's more for me to experience goodness
in Him. How can I hope for myself if I'm not hoping for you? You see?
Hope is a spiritual... It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

And when I am cleansing the toxins, I'm not keeping any record about
anybody. My goal and my place is as a brother in Christ. I'm going to be
your friend.

Let me give you one other word picture before I end tonight's study.
Okay? Oh, yeah. Okay.

We have divorce, right? Terrible. We have families that... Okay. What is
this word? Huh? Friend.

Friend. You know I can change this word? That's a fiend. That's an arch-
enemy.

Huh? A fiend. A fiend is an arch-enemy. A fiend is a devil.

A fiend is a criminal, a crook. What happens to relationships where two
friends suddenly become total enemies? A friend becomes a fiend is
because someone gave up hope. Someone just... It's all the toxins are
there.

And it happens to marriages. It happens to families. It happens to...
Sadly, it happens to churches.

And I don't want it to happen to me. And can I say this? I don't want to
be the dialysis. I don't want to be the one that has to be catching the
toxin and saying, Don't say that.

Don't do that. Would you have a good filter? Check your filter. Get
cleansed on a regular basis.

You know? Be in the Lord. Be in the Lord. Rejoice in His mercy for you.

Remember how much mercy you've received. It's like vitamins. And then
you become full of mercy for everybody, right? Alright.

Thank you.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/vE-FXEADKZc.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/alan-martin/spiritual-autoimmune-disease/
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