In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of Achan from Joshua chapter 7. Achan's disobedience and greed led to his downfall and caused problems for the entire community. The preacher emphasizes the importance of being careful not to have a "Judas spirit" and warns against picking on God's people. He also highlights the example of Abraham, who refused to take any reward from the king of Sodom, acknowledging that everything he had came from God. The sermon encourages listeners to trust in God and seek His provision rather than compromising their integrity for worldly gain.

Well, I'm glad to be back with you again today on Eagle's Wings. I've been sharing with you last week at least a little bit how I want to share some things on the Holy Spirit and share things that God has been teaching us. This program we trust is a blessing to you. And my friend, if you haven't yet trusted Christ as your Savior, let me encourage you to do that. You think about your soul. It's the most precious thing that you have. And for all eternity your decision of what you do with Jesus Christ is going to be your life. If you decide for Christ for all eternity, you'll realize that that was the greatest decision, the most important decision, you ever made in life. If you decide against Jesus Christ, against receiving Him as your Savior, giving Him yourself, committing yourself to Him, letting Him be your sin bearer for all eternity, if you refuse and reject Him, you'll realize that that was the greatest, gravest mistake you ever made in your life. To those of us that know Christ, to those of us that know what it's like to walk in the power of the Spirit, to be free, to be led by God, we know that life is Jesus. Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. He said, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. As we go through the next few weeks, we're going to understand that it was God the Holy Spirit living in Paul and working in his life. And let me tell you something, the Holy Spirit will put you through a test. He will guide you. He will stretch you. He will teach you. He will... Actually, I believe he trains us almost like a military outfit would train their troops. I know when I went into the Air Force back in the 60s, the mid-60s, the first two weeks that I was in the Air Force, I was in another world. And I knew when I stepped off the bus, and this guy started yelling at me, that I'd made a big mistake. For two weeks, they liked to scare the daylights out of me. And then I found out later on they were trying to weed out the weak ones. Well, the Holy Spirit will weed out the weak ones. And I am here to try to encourage you to be a strong one, because we will experience the blessings of Christ, the riches, the richness of Christ is ours to enjoy. And you know, so many times we say, God, give me your power. Put your power upon me. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that I'll have power. That's the wrong motive. We're not filled with the Holy Spirit so that we'll have power. We will have power, but so that God will be glorified. With the Holy Spirit, even Jesus says that he will glorify the Father, he'll glorify the Son, won't speak of himself, won't glorify himself. He'll glorify the Father and the Son. So let's look to Jesus to guide us. You know, before I give you the message that God has given to me today to share with you, I'd like to share something with you about this deepness of walking with the Spirit. There's a little pamphlet entitled, Others May, But You Cannot, by G.D. Watson. And I shared it, oh, must have been a couple years ago or so with you, and I thought maybe I should share it again. And it goes like this, if God has called you to be really like Jesus, he will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility and put upon you such demands of obedience that you will not be able to follow other people or measure yourself by other Christians. And in many ways, he will seem to let other good people do things which he will not let you do. Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it. And if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent. Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their success, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. And if you begin it, he will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works. Others may be allowed to succeed in making money or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor because he wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence on him, that he may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury. The Lord may let others be honored and put forward and keep you hidden in obscurity because he wants you to produce some choice fragrant fruit for his coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for him and get the credit for it, but he will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you're doing. And then to make your work still more precious, he may let others get the credit for the work which you have done and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes. The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you with a jealous love and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite sovereign and has a right to do as he pleases with his own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in his dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be his love slave, he will wrap you up in a jealous love and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle. Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit and that he is to have the privilege of trying of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways that he does not seem to use with others. Now when you are so possessed with the Living God that you are in your secret heart pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven. Others may, you cannot, by G.D. Watson. This is why those that walk with God in such deep ways, sometimes they do things that you don't understand. I know there's many times I would like to share with you things that I'm doing, things that I'm up to, but the Holy Spirit says be quiet. Places that I go and the Holy Spirit says be quiet. You don't know how many times I've gotten into trouble with the Holy Spirit for boasting when he's used me in some way and for boasting about it. I'm opening up my heart to you. I'm not perfect. Now if you are, you and I probably won't get along because I'll mess things up because I'm not perfect. God is continually teaching me. He's continually teaching those that walk by faith. We admit that we make mistakes. We confess our sin. But there's more power, it seems, to those that are willing to humble themselves and admit that they are weak. Now I want to share with you today some thoughts about selling out to Jesus or selling out to the devil. Which is it? Which is it? You know, there's one part of that little thing there about making money. You know, many people that love the Lord have found that the devil has got them in this area of the money. God started off in 1966 and I believe I was saved then with a verse in Matthew, Matthew 6 33, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. And the reason that he dealt with me, I think, on that verse was because I was in college to to make money. I was not there to to learn, but I was supposed to be there to make money. So I've been told I was supposed to go there and get a degree and I was a psychology major and actually I was fraying my brain and all that stuff and I won't get into it today, but I believe a lot of demonism is involved in that area and that's because so many things are satanic in that area and it's dangerous area. It's a it's a powerful area when used in the right way, but when used in the wrong way, it's dangerous. But God got a hold of me and saved my soul, saved me from the temptation of making money and Satan's come back many times in my life and offered prestige and fortune to me. When I was getting out of the Air Force, they came to me and offered me, made me this, I didn't think it was so great of an offer, but they made me this offer if I would stay in so much this and that and rank and stuff. I said no, thanks. I've set my sail. I'm going with God. See you around boys, and I was gone. Years later when I was in my first pastorate, I'd pastored a couple years and then I decided I would get a little part-time job. I worked out a deal at a rock quarry where I would help them blast dynamite. I'd help load up that dynamite and stuff. When I had the time I'd go up there and work and then sometimes I said if you need, if you're in a bind and need a little extra help, then I'll bend for you. And it got to the point to where I can make more money in two weeks up there at that rock quarry than I could a whole month pastoring my church. And it got to be where I was really looking for more opportunities to go up there and work. And one day God the Holy Spirit came to me and in my spirit. He said drop it. And I did. I said I got to go. I can't work here anymore, and I went back to God. We can be drawn away. Many times I've had offers and and God the Holy Spirit's told me to walk away from them. Offer to have a big position in a big fancy church and the Holy Spirit said walk away from it. And one time I was in one church, I preached one time. They were without a pastor. It was a July 4th, and I preached one time and they came to me later that afternoon. I spent some time with the family and said we'll give you, it was like $23,000 a year cash, and this is a long time ago. This is many years back. I think it was over 10 years or so ago. And $23,000 a year cash and all these benefits. That was a lot of money. Be a lot of money to me now. I don't have that much now. And large salary. The Holy Spirit said walk away. I walked away from it. As I was traveling up into another state, they called me and tried to get me to come back. The Holy Spirit said don't listen, keep walking. Whatever it is that you are weak in, the devil will try to get you into that area. And we need to be careful in this area. Now, let me remind you that Jesus is all you need. Is he all you want? Does the devil have a corner in your heart? You know, he offered all the kingdoms of the world to Jesus. So don't think that he won't offer something to you. I want to share with you today some examples in the Bible of those who sold out to the devil instead of Jesus. And we'll make some comments on some that did sell out to Jesus. And the reason I'm sharing this is because so many of my pastor friends and pastors that I see and Christian workers are getting tempted into this area of money. It's a dangerous area. A dangerous, dangerous area. And actually it comes down to this point. Who will you trust to meet your needs? Yourself or God? Your job or your God? Your inheritance, your social security, or whatever, or God? Who is it you're really looking to to supply your needs? The way we live sometimes it astounds us even. How we'll have needs and we'll just lay it out to God. We have this need, Father. We're not going to worry about it. We're going to let you provide it. And God provides specifically on those needs. He does it. We have a journal of faith where we write these things down and keep a record of them. And every now and then I go back through that thing and I'm just amazed. God, He comes through. He gets excited when somebody has faith. What we're doing now in the church that we're in, the thing that we're believing God to do is so unbelievable. I'm not going to share it with you now. We're going to watch and see what happens. See what God wants to do. It just will blow you away. It's so big. But when God says do it, it's just like crossing the Red Sea. If God says do it, then you just do it. Leave the details to Him. I want to take you back over to Joshua chapter 7 and start off with a fellow that we were all familiar with. And we'll know all these things today. But I think that the Holy Spirit is wanting us to pay attention to this area. In Joshua chapter 7, you remember the story about Achan, how they went to Ai and they got beat. And through this, God used this to get Joshua's attention about some things that they were doing wrong. One, they were trying to do things the way they did them according to the ways of man, going back with 3,000 instead of the whole army. But they'd picked up a little problem along the way. Achan had picked up some stuff called the accursed thing. The Lord said unto Joshua, get thee up, wherefore thou hast thus on thy face. Ezra sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them. For they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Now, Achan was the one that did it, but God was saying they. And I think that one of the things that we've forgotten today in our churches is that if one member sins in the church, it affects the whole body. And you can't get away with it. Be sure your sin will find you out. My brethren, if there's sin in the church, and you know about it, and you're not doing anything about it, it's going to get you. It will pay. Sin always pays. Well, you know what happened here. They got a hold of Achan. They made him fess up to what he had done, and they did him in. Now, be sure your sin will find you out. Many years ago, I knew a preacher in the same fellowship that I was in. He had the hardest, evilest look on his face. He was drier than a well in the desert that hadn't produced water for a hundred years. Mean-looking face and image. His countenance was just bad. And I wondered, why? What's going on here? And I found out that this man had some wealthy lady that had offered to pay for his education if he'd go back to the university and pick up a big PhD. And he did. But what he did is he sold his soul, I believe, to the devil. It cost him. Instead of having a big, huge church, it split. And that thing, to this day, has had huge problems. I mean, they had a debt of a half a million dollars or more on this thing that they couldn't pay. All because of this thing of being tempted to go get this degree. And by the way, this power, pride type thing, goes along with money so many times. I was thinking back over in 1st Timothy, in chapter 6, how Paul warned that godliness with contentment is great gain. And back in verse 5, he said, Perverse disputings of men, corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. My brothers and sisters, we buy the lie of Satan so many times, as ministers, our people in the church, when we think that we've got to have so much money. Oh no, all we've got to have is God. He'll lead you to know how much money you need, but all you really need is God. He says, let's be content. If we've got a little food, we've got some clothes, let's just be content. Because he says, They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which, while some coveted after they have erred from the faith, pierce themselves through, would many sorrows. Be careful, be careful, be careful in this area. But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, and he goes on into that. Let's be careful. You remember old Gehazi, how he went after Naaman, told him he wanted a little money. You know what happened to him? You remember what Elijah said? He says, Okay, you got it, but listen, you're gonna have the leprosy. And the leprosy that was on Naaman went to him. He got what he wanted. He was greedy. He lied, and he got it, but he paid the price. Is it worth it? Is it worth it? Listen to what Paul said in 1st Timothy 3, 3, that the bishop, the pastor, the spiritual leader in the church is not to be given to wine, no striker, not greedy of philtre, lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. Be careful. Dangerous days we live in. You remember the young rich ruler that came to Jesus? We come to this story a lot of times, this young rich ruler that came to Jesus, and he wanted to know what he could do to inherit eternal life. You remember how it ended up? Jesus put his finger on his idol. He said, Yet lackest thou one thing, sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shall have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich, and the Gospels record that he went away. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. I have found that among rich people, many, many, many, most of them are trusting the fact that they are rich to get themselves to heaven, even in fundamental churches. Their self-righteousness comes into their soul, this thought that they are righteous and above everybody else, because they have so much money. Oh, be careful, be careful that you're not trusting the fact that you have a lot of money to get you to heaven. Matter of fact, if we would have went on down in in 1st Timothy chapter 6 and in verse, where was that, in verse 17, I think it was, Paul told him to, 1st Timothy 6, if you can excuse the rustling of leaves, but he said in 17, Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded. Pride and money go together. Nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. I'd like to take you through, I won't have time today, and show you all the scriptures about the richness that we have in Jesus, all the scriptures of how rich we are in him. Oh, what a wonderful thing to have the richness of Jesus Christ. Jesus is all you need. Is he all you want? I had a friend that I, he used to pastor the first church that I pastored. This man went off to Africa. He's still over there now, but when he went, he walked away from a five million dollar farm and a ranch operation. Gave it up. Gave all his inheritance and everything up. As far as I know, I don't know if he'll get any inheritance on it. I don't think he did. But when his dad died, his other brothers and sisters got everything. Gave it up. Left it all for, and went after Jesus. I was thinking about, over in Luke, in chapter 4, you know, I shared this with you a little bit earlier when we started off, that Satan offered to Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. So be careful that he doesn't offer you a little corner in this world also. Remember in Luke 9, 23 through 25, 26, all in there, Jesus said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. How many do you know? I know a lot of them. They have not been willing to take up their cross because they were too busy going after the things of this world and the money. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged if he gained the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? How many do you know? That I know also, they're too busy making money to take time to worship God, to take time for fellowship, to take time for prayer. My friend, be sure your sin will find you out. There'll be a payday some day. Oh, you remember what Luke said in Luke 9, 62? No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Jesus said that. Have you been looking back? You say, all the stuff I left when I followed Jesus. My friend, you didn't leave nothing but a dunghill behind. That's what Paul said. He left. You didn't lose anything. I have seen many pastors' wives ruin their pastor's ministry because they were not willing to take the shame of having little in the pastorate. My friend, God's gonna judge you if you've been keeping your pastor poor, and you've been keeping your pastor humble when you could provide for him and and take care of needs. God's gonna judge you. I'm no treasurer. Sometimes I feel like that that money is theirs. It's not yours. It's God's, and God's gonna judge you, just like old Judas. Just like old Judas. You know what it says in John chapter 6? When Jesus spoke about Jesus, he says, one of you is a devil. How would you like to be called a devil? One of you is a devil, and that was Judas. And you know in John, if you go over to John chapter 12 and verse 4, you know how Mary Magdalene came and was pouring that ointment on Jesus' feet? Judas was the one that got everybody to rumbling and grumbling about what she did. Then said one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him. Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? And John recorded this. He said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, let her alone. You be careful if you're picking on a man or a child of God, woman of God, in this area. You be careful. God is gonna get you if you have a Judas spirit. You know, we have to watch it. Paul, in the book of Acts, when he was preaching, when he was leaving, he was weeping, because he said, be careful, because I know that after I leave, many grievous wolves are going to enter in, not sparing the flock. He says, be careful. Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, who to feed the church of God, which he had purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. I'm sad to say this, but I've seen many pastors that were wolves and sheepskins, fleecing the flock, always after the money. Now, I know that many times the pastors are not taken care of the way they should be. So you guard yourself, that you don't let your pastor get into this temptation. You know what Paul said about himself? He said, I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Isn't that a good spirit to have? What you have, brother, I haven't coveted. One of the the commandments are strong in the area of, thou shalt not covet. That still applies. Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. What have you sold him for? A little pleasure instead of prayer? Do you have more pride than power? What about old Demas? Paul said, Demas had forsaken me, having loved this present world. And what about over in James, when James said that we're not to love this world. He says, you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. We better be careful we don't have a Judas spirit, a Demas spirit in us. Remember what Jesus said? The care of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he become unfruitful. Don't be deceived. You know, I know a preacher. Now, you can think he's crazy, but I know a preacher that was offered up to 10 million dollars. He went to God and asked him about this offer, and the Holy Spirit showed him, don't take it. This is not for me. It's from the devil. He took the offer. He took it out to the trash barrel. He put it in, and he burned it. Ten, up to ten million dollars. I don't know exactly how much it was. His kids don't know about it. I think he shared it with his wife. Up to ten million dollars, and they didn't have much in their checking account and hardly anything in a savings account, and he says, God, I'm going to be like Abraham. I'm going to lift my hand up to you and let you provide. Isn't that a beautiful thing? You remember when Abraham went to rescue Lot, and he, and the king of Sodom said, I'm going to give you some goods. Let me give you some people. Let me give you some reward, and Abraham said, I've left up my hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, the Possessor of Heaven and Earth, that I will not take from a thread, even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abraham rich. It's a wonderful thing to know that what you have, you have received from God. If you need it, if you need it, go to God and ask him for it. Don't go finance yourself. Go to God and ask him for it. He'll provide. He's a great God. He's a wonderful God. He does provide, and he wants to provide for you. I've got some more things to share with you, but our time's about gone for today. Let me just encourage you to get to know God, to let him be all that you need. Remember, Jesus Christ is all that you need. Is he all you want? Till next time, God bless you, my friend.