Welcome to Rock Harbor Church's channel on Sermon Audio. We hope this message is a blessing to you and helps you in your daily walk with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So please, settle in and grab your Bibles. Here's Pastor Brandon with this message. Father, we do thank you, Lord, for this evening that you have given us to come together and study, and we pray that the Holy Spirit would fill us to illuminate us to your word so we can live it out and understand it. And so, Father, bless our time now, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so we're gonna pick up on rewards, and we're getting to the reward of Thyatira, and that is to overcome the issue that's going on in Thyatira. And we've talked about this in terms of it having an application to 95 AD of what was going on in that particular situation where you had a woman inside the church that was acting in a Jezebel spirit to undermine the church. and caused people to commit idolatry and sexual immorality because of the guilds that they were involved in. And that was the compromise a lot of people made that if you're gonna be part of a guild, you had to do these things. And so she's probably in there telling them somewhat of the idea that, look, God understands your heart, God understands these, you know that these are not idols, but you gotta do what you gotta do to protect your job, protect your family. And so she would, lead them into that situation, just kind of like what we talked about last week, into compromising with the excuse of providing for you and your family and whatnot. Okay, so that, something like that was going on in 98, 5 AD. Then when you go to the historical aspect of the Church of Thyatira, obviously that refers to what we call the Pornocracy Era from, the whole era where the Catholic Church begins from like 1600, sorry, 600 AD to about 1517 with the Protestant Reformation. And so you're smack dab in the middle of the Middle Ages, you're smack dab in medieval times, if you wanna call that, in the Dark Ages, and really the pornography of all that was going on there. Instead of it being a woman, the woman in effect in that era is the whore of Babylon entering into Christendom and producing idolatry. And again, you have to remind yourselves of the Old Testament story of Jezebel, Queen Jezebel, Ahab's wife. what she was doing, she was the first one to introduce foreign gods into Israel's life as a nation. Now Israel had worshiped the golden calf and the calves that I think Jeroboam had set up, they had two calves, but they were in reference to Yahweh. They weren't in reference to a foreign god. They were always in reference to Yahweh. Even the golden calf of Aaron in the desert was in reference to Yahweh. So Jezebel is the first to bring outside influence, outside gods into the nation of Israel, and that's what is starting to happen in the church at this time, is you have a false religion, Babylon being that religion, infiltrating into the church. And we know that we looked at the parable last week of Matthew 13, that the woman in Matthew 13 represents the Jezebel, not Jezebel, the harlot who's introducing leaven into the three meals, that being Orthodox, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism. And so she is leavening the whole loaf. So, Again, just one more application to that. The Jezebel spirit and the whore of Babylon really is at work right now on a global scale and creating a false religion for the masses to worship. And it's a supra religion that covers all and includes all except biblical Christianity and Israel. And what you have to see when you look at the whore of Babylon is what I was saying last night at a thing we were having down south in Huntington Beach is it's an inversion. She does an inversion of God and his principles. See, everything's the opposite of what she does. So she inverts everything and she misuses religion for her benefit. to be like a glue that holds people together, a common element. So that's happening right now, and whether you call it wokeism or whether you call it whatever, cultural Marxism, neo-Marxism, post-modernism, all the isms out there, she is a blanket for all of that. In communism too, in Marxism, they would say they're atheistic ideologies, but they're really not, they're religions. Communism is a religion. So is Marxism is a religion. Socialism is a religion. They just don't worship the God of the Bible. They worship the God of materialism and whatnot. And so, she's out there and she's working now, and she's involved. I don't wanna take too much time with that, but that's another aspect of her. Okay, now, when you do a personal application, Obviously, I try to warn people of the whore of Babylon and what she's doing with the agenda. But then you have to understand that the Jezebel spirit can come to you in a personal way. And that's what a lot of people miss. They don't know how to spot it in their own personal lives. Jezebel spirit is not a charismatic idea. I mean, not the mentality, but the ideology is coming from the Church of Thyatira. And just like you look at this in a historical standpoint, you look at it in a church history standpoint, you have to look at it at a personal level as well for your personal application. And you have to address, okay, what is the Jezebel spirit then? What is it? What does it look like? And how, if I see it, do I confront it? How do I deal with it? And I'm gonna talk about that tonight. So I wanna go through verse 21 through 22 before I get to that. Well, let me get to that first then, and then we'll get to here. So on a personal level, what'll happen to spot a Jezebel spirit is you need to be looking for a lot of markers, okay? You shouldn't be familiar, obviously, with the story of Jezebel to begin with, to understand the markers. But when you analyze Jezebel and you analyze what this lady is doing in the church and you put it all together, you get a kind of a package of what to spot. So this kind of person, it's typically a female, typically. Sometimes they can be males, but typically the Jezebel spirit is a female. And it's usually given the idea of a female because of the seductiveness that the harlot would do, a prostitute would do. But it can be males as well, I would say. But in this situation, historically, it was a female. More than likely, it'll be a female. More than likely. I haven't seen too many males like this, although they do exist. But it's more than likely a female. So here's what they look like. And buyer beware. They're natural leaders, by the way. They actually can get a lot of things done. So when you're around them, they're a female leader, okay? They're sometimes too large and in charge, but a lot of times they cover up their large and in charge-ness with competency. And so don't be fooled by competency. If they're competent, then you'll notice that they're competent, but the Jezebel spirit will try to promote their competency. They will try to tell you how good they are and show you how good they are, and many times they are very good. They are very smart, they are very capable, and they do get a lot of things done. But the natural leader in them, they'll try to hide it as much as they can by by, well, what I mean by that is they'll pretend not to be taking over, but they will. So a lot of these people volunteer without even being asked, and they jump in where they're not asked to be jumped in to, and they'll just take over. And you might think, like, if you're needing help and stuff, that would be a good thing for you, but it actually is not a good thing when people just, jump in and start doing things without being approved of. Because like, let's say you're, so the Jezebel Spirit will come into a church, for instance, and I'll give you an example, like we have a nominating committee. So each worker that we are gonna approve comes before the nominating committee, and that includes me, and includes people that are associate pastors and people on our staff that kind of understand and know people and understand ministry, and those people will be approved by the nominating committee. But those people that have the Jezebel spirit, they won't wait for it to be approved. They'll just jump in without being approved. They'll jump in without being asked. They'll jump in and start volunteering themselves. So these types of individuals are not wallflowers. They are not ones that sit on the sidelines. They totally get involved, but they have an ulterior motive for getting involved. And I'll explain that ulterior motive in just a bit. So you think, well, leadership is a good thing. Yeah, but not in this case. In this case, there's an ulterior motive. So then what they'll do is whatever situation they find themselves in, it could be at a job, but they could be at a church, they could be at a Bible study, they could be at a ministry that they're getting involved in, they will find, the people of influence, okay? They don't really care about people that have no influence, and they will find the person of influence and seek to get credibility with that person of influence, right? And then what they'll do is they'll try to bond with them. and they'll seek to bond with them. And they are good enough in their manipulation techniques to learn how to bond to people. And I'm not talking about in a bond in a sexual way or anything, but bonding to where you actually like the person because they become familiar to you. Like some techniques of bonding is like if you were gonna, go to lunch with a friend of yours, or not a friend, but an acquaintance, and you want to get close, you would ask them questions that, what makes them tick? What kind of hobbies do you like? What's your favorite meal? What's your favorite team? What's your this, what's that? And you find those commonalities that they like. And then you use that to bond with them. Now, that's a good thing, right? Because you want to get to know somebody, and you want to learn about them, and that way you can get connected. But they use those techniques in order to manipulate. So they'll find out what your favorite team is, they'll find out what your likes are, they'll find out what your hobbies are, they'll find out all those kinds of things, right? They'll find different things like that and then capitalize on that and use that against you, and you will think that they like you, okay? You will think that they like you because they're familiar with you. And just because they're familiar with you doesn't mean they like you. They pretend to like you, but they're gonna use you. That's the point. They're going to use you. And so, again, they're going to find the person of influence. Again, the way you can tell them is how do they treat people with no influence? Okay? They won't hang around with people with no influence. Like for instance, in the church, if they're not somebody that's on stage or somebody that's influential in the church, you think they're gonna waste time with them? No, they will not. They won't even give them a second look. They won't even say hello. They just pass on by. And obviously, that's a telltale sign is how people treat those who have no platform, those who are on the lowest end of the rung. You can tell it in probably if you go to lunch with them, is how they treat waiters and waitresses. Those people that have no influence in society, watch how they treat them. But if it's a big wig, if it's a big shot, you know, hey, this is a rich and powerful person, or this is a politician, or this is that, all of a sudden, they're right there in the front, right there. Okay, they're up there in the front, and they're doing everything they can to bond to that individual. And so it's a very deceptive thing, there's no doubt about that. So this person then, the ulterior motive starts popping out, and what they're doing is they're seeking Leadership, and they're seeking authority, is what they're trying to do. And they worm their way to do that. That's why they're wanting to get with people who have influence, and they want to get with people that have some type of power or money, if it's a boss, if it's the CEO, if it's whatever. they're gonna try to self-promote themselves in that leadership and promote themselves. So they don't wanna work from the very bottom on the way up. They don't wanna prove themselves. Like I was preaching on Sunday, you're faithful in a few things, Christ will put you in charge of many things. And the way it works in ministry is you're faithful in a few things, and then you earn your reputation of we can rely on you for little things, and therefore we can put you in charge of more things. That's how you earn your credibility. These people don't want to earn any credibility whatsoever, they want to go straight to the top. And the way they go straight to the top is by bonding to the leader. That's how they go straight to the top. They don't earn their stripes, they go to the top, and by bonding. And so, you know, menial jobs to them is not what they want to do. And so I've had a lot of people approach me throughout the years, and you can spot them pretty quick. They don't want to start ushering or something like that. They wanna start, I wanna be your new associate pastor. That's how they start, okay? That's how the conversation starts. I wanna be your women's leader. Who are you? What is your name? I don't know who you are. What? And so what you start, when you deal with that person, and I can spot them, is they wanna jump all the way to the top. Now, it's one thing if you're dealing with someone with experience, and hey, I worked in this ministry for 30 years and stuff like that. Yeah, they have a track record. But someone who doesn't have a track record but wants to jump and pole vault to the top is insane. And you should be able to spot that immediately. if they do that. Again, they might do this at your employment or whatever, but they're gonna try to get the highest positions by bonding to the leader, okay? So their issue is self-promotion. Self-promotion. So these people are very skilled at promoting themselves. They'll show you how good they are, they'll prove to you how good they are, and they're very, very capable. They can get things done. They can make it happen. And this is what frees up the leader sometimes to ignore that. Because the leader typically in any ministry or at an office or at a job, if that's the CEO or whatever, the supervisor, they're looking for employees that can take more loads off of them. Okay? That's common, right? I want to be able to have a highly efficient individual that can work under me and take some of my load off of my plate. Everybody would say that's unnatural. They capitalize on that. And so they will take it from you and then run with it, okay? But they're taking that from you if you give it to them. They take from that and then they use that to self-promote and use that to form their own following. And I'll get to that in a bit. So what ends up happening with these types of individuals as well is they provide inside information. because they go to the top. And so when they go to the top, they're able to gain inside information. They're able to get confidential information they would not normally have. And it's because they've pole vaulted themselves up and now they're hearing things that the average person wouldn't normally hear, that the customer wouldn't hear. and they're hearing things on the inner workings of things, and that's what they want to be. They want to be on the inside. Now, why do they want to be on the inside? Because when you're trying to gain a following, to follow you, if you have nothing to impress anybody with, the only thing you can impress them with is information. And so they want to get on the inside typically to get information. And then when they get information, information becomes a very powerful resource for them because they know a lot. And so then because they know a lot, people seem to give them automatic credibility because they're on the inside and they know the inner workings of what's going on and this and that. And so you can actually get a following if you have inside information. Now let me make a segue to an application that's going on, with current events and stuff like that. There are a lot of people in the prophecy world that are tinfoil hat brigades. There's no doubt about that. And because I travel in that circle, I know who the tinfoil hat brigade is. And these are the people who have conspiracy theories and there's no basis in fact, there's no truth, there's no evidence in what they're saying. And they traffic a lot of times in our circles. And it upsets me because I'm trying to be more conservative in my eschatology and the way I talk about current events and stuff and not get down rabbit holes that have no basis in fact. But there's a lot of people that gravitate to that. Now, what ends up happening with a lot of them, and I'm not saying they have a Jezebel spirit, but I wanna give you an application to this about inside information. Going down rabbit holes and into conspiracy theories makes people feel important. And then they feel that they have information to share. And so they share that information, but that information is incorrect. It's wrong. but they want to pretend that they have an inside track on information that no one else has. And so they'll have special apps, and they'll have special this and special that, and I saw this on Facebook, I saw this on X, I saw this on Telegram, I saw this on blank, whatever the inside dope is coming from. And what ends up happening when you're using social media is that stuff is not verified. So some dude could be in his backyard saying he saw a Nephilim walking through the backyard in Las Vegas, right? And people will believe it because that really happened, by the way. Someone really spun a yarn and people, oh yeah, there was a Nephilim in someone's backyard in Vegas. It's stupid. I mean, just off the chart, dumb, no verification, but people will believe it or, you know, whatever, whatever the issue might be. And what ends up happening is they attract a person that also wants an inside track on things. And really, the basis of that, their following is based on fear, because the person feels that if they have the inside track on something, then it will satisfy or soothe their fear about how they feel about the world. and for them, information makes them feel secure, but it's a false security because it's not real information, it's false information. It brings no security, really, it's a false security. Only the Bible will bring real security, okay? But rabbit holes and theories that works with people, like QAnon or Blueanon or any of those kinds of conspiracy cults, that becomes attractive. Now, here's what I find out. In our circle, we have that going on even with the people that follow us. There's people out there that will go down rabbit holes, and all it comes down to is wanting inside information. and it's kind of a gnostic thing where I have secret knowledge and no one else has, but none of it's verified. And so again, I'm just given an application for don't be so eager to get something on Instagram or something on some digital app because it's not verifiable. So somebody may say it, but it's not happening. We've had situations where Like we've had people say in Israel, oh, bombs are going off and this and that, and like World War III is getting ready to happen. And yet we've had people on the ground that I've talked to that were on the ground and saying, nothing's happening. I don't know why that guy's putting, posting stuff and saying things are happening, because I'm standing right here. And I don't know what to think about that. I don't know what to think about individuals who live in Israel, know it's not happening, and then go out and say there's bombs going off left and right when somebody I know in my circle is standing right over there saying it's not happening. I don't know why anyone would do that. Why would you lie? Just because no one else lives in Israel? Why would you lie like that? All this inside information stuff, it's a game. Look, stick with what you can verify, okay? You can't verify it with at least two or three new sources that are legitimate, then don't put it out there. Do not put it out there, because you're going to cause yourself problems, and then it reveals that you're just simply doing this for the clickbait, and you're just doing this for a following, or you want some type of inside track, or something like that. But anyway, that's a segue. But anyway, let's go back to Jezebel. So Jezebel thrives on inside information. Okay, so what she does is she goes into the office, she goes into the business, I don't care, it could be Lowe's, it could be Home Depot, it could be Walmart, it could be a church, it could be anything, and they will go there and try to get inside information. And that's how they get power, is inside information, okay? But the problem is, once they have the information, the Jezebel spirit has a blackmailing, blackmail spirit to her. And so with the information they have, they use it to blackmail people. They hold information over them because they know information. And so they'll make comments to people about something that they know, and it becomes a form of blackmail. Like, I'll reveal this if you don't do what I want you to do. I'll reveal this, okay? So that's how they use information. They use information to blackmail people, okay? That's why you have to be, when you're dealing with this individual, they're a very dangerous individual. These are the people that will take you to court, okay? In the end, they'll try to be your friend, but at the end, they'll take you to court, okay? It's no joke with these people. They're real, they're in the church, they're in your businesses, they're in the society, and they're demonically driven, okay? The other thing is they will try to seek to neutralize the male authority wherever they go. So they will seek out the male authority. If the male authority is weak, they got them. If the male authority is hard, then they have a hard work, and it's gonna take longer to work on them. So that's, if it's in your office, if it's in the church, if it's Home Depot, it doesn't matter. They will find out where the male authority is and seek to undermine that authority. They will neutralize it as much as they can. Now, they can neutralize in many ways. Sexual enticement, there's all kinds of things like that. They can bring about physical illness. They can bring about discouragement to them. They can bring financial misconduct to them in different ways. They can instill doubt in the person's decisions, so the male leader starts doubting what they're thinking. And really, discouragement is probably the biggest thing, because discouragement takes away people's hope, and once you take away a person's hope, you can pretty much use them. And so she seeks to take away their hope, like it's just, it's not gonna work, it's a failure, you're stupid, you're dumb, whatever, and she'll make you feel like that, right? But the issue then becomes when she neutralizes the male, she's seeking to bring division and chaos into the organization, into the job, into the church, into the Bible study, into wherever she's going, it's to cause division and chaos. It's not order, it's chaos. Then eventually she'll claim her own authority. Once she has inside information and she's gained a footing in some type of position at the job or wherever, they start claiming their own authority. Now, what I mean by that is when you're in the military, you have to follow the authority lines, right? You just, you follow that authority. What she does is she gets in a position and then overextends her authority. She starts doing things that's not in her job description. She starts doing things that no one told her to do. And she starts moving beyond the boundaries in which you set for her. Okay? So she moves beyond them. And you might think, well, this is fine because she's taking more off your plate, but no, she's not. She's extending authority is what she's doing. She's moving. And if you don't corral this, if you don't put a boundary around it, she will take everything you will let her have, okay? And that's part of this claiming authority. Before you know it, she'll be running your whole operation. She'll be running this, she'll be running that, she'll be running this. And it may not be de jure, but it'll be definitely de facto. That's for sure. She may not even have that, but she will extend and extend and you will constantly start seeing yourself as reigning this in, reigning this in. And if you have to stay on an employee, or whoever in your Bible study or whatever, and you're constantly reining them in, reining because they overextend, overextend, you're dealing with it. Because most people, normal people, know their boundaries. They know where they end and others begin. The Jezebel spirit doesn't know where anyone ends or begins, they just continue to flow like a blob, right? Extending, extending, extending until someone tells them no. When you do tell them no, they get mad. Her goal is to control. So she's gonna attack, dominate, manipulate. They'll cry a lot of times to get their way. They'll use fear tactics, they'll use rejection. And rejection tactics on men really work really well, by the way, because most men have rejection issues. And so the woman will know that the guy has a rejection issue, and so she'll make him feel like dirt. and actually go through the motions of rejecting him and giving him those feelings in a way of manipulating the individual with who has rejection issues. And again, I would say about 85 to 90% of males have rejection issues, so she uses that. They'll pout, they'll use guilt trips, they'll do silence, feign sickness, self-pity, those types of things are all manipulative tactics, but they're not real, but they use them. You must understand that she hates men, okay? That's first and foremost. And she may be married, but she hates men. There's a lot of people that are married and hate men. whether it's going back to their father, or their grandfather, or their brothers, or something like that, there's an insecurity with them with men. So they won't tell you this, but they do hate men. And they're married to men, and they have children with men, but they hate them. They totally hate the man. And they hate masculinity, and they hate manhood. Okay, so in her marriage, she's constantly questioning the man's decision, constantly, constantly. She won't submit to her leadership. She pretends she submits, but she doesn't. Now, she has figured out a way to manipulate her husband into thinking that, and the manipulation is to make him think that he's in control, but when he's really not. And that's the most deceptive thing you could possibly do, is to make someone think they're in control when they're really not. And the way she can do that is through rejection. She can manipulate her husband through rejection and use sex to manipulate him into that rejection mode. Because typically, the guys who have rejection issues, will feel the rejection most in bed, most in sex. So she knows how to use sex to cause the rejection, the manipulation to happen in order to control him. So the guy will think is that he'll get sex and then he feels empowered that he's in control, but he's really not. What he just did is he succumbed to her sexual temptation, and he bought into it, and now really she's gonna work around him to do what she wants him to do, because if he ever wants sex again, he's gotta comply. Otherwise she'll turn off the waterworks on him. That's how a Jezebel spirit works. Now that's in a home, that's in a marriage, and there's plenty of that going on constantly in marriages, and people know how to really use sex to manipulate in very negative ways. So she'll do that, but at the end of the day, she can't stand male leadership. The individuals themselves are very insecure and they're wounded. They're typically wounded narcissists. They have been wounded early in life, typically probably by a male, probably their father, probably, I don't know, it could be a boyfriend. It could come from molestation, it could come from rape, it could come from neglect, it could come from absentee, it could come from a death of a father, it could come from various sources of why the woman is insecure and wounded. And that insecurity and that wound has never been healed, ever, ever. And they carry it with them. And they're 35, and they're 45, and they're 55, and they're 65, and they're 75. And they're still carrying it with them. They never get really over it. They never work on their issues. And so what ends up happening is they have a love deficit. So since dad burnt them, or since their boyfriend burnt them, or since their cousin burnt them, or whoever, their brother did, or whoever, whatever male burnt them, right, they have a love deficit, and so they're working with that as an insecurity, and that love deficit causes them to do all kinds of wackadoo stuff. When you have a love deficit, you really don't know what love is anymore. You lose the ability to know what real love is. And so what love becomes to you is almost performance-based. Contractual, not covenantal love. Covenantal love is totally not in this person's mind. It's contractual. So the guy she marries typically is a contractual basis that if you do good to me, I'll do good to you. And love is being good to me and I'll be good to you. But if you're not good to me, then I won't be good to you. And so it's a performance-based contract in which the person is operating on. And there's plenty of that going on all the time in Christian marriages. I'm not saying that's because of a Jezebel, but contractual love versus covenantal love is something that a lot of people don't understand. So she's doing that on a contractual basis. So what will the house look like? What will the job look like? What will your office look like if you have this woman in your office? Well, they're gonna constantly need affirmation from you. They need a constant pat on the back that you're doing great, you're doing wonderful. Oh no, I'm not, I'm not that great. Oh yes, you are. And so they constantly have to be affirmed. You constantly have to be, they have to be platformed, and they constantly have to be in the spotlight in the office. You may have ran into somebody like that. Now in the church, because they need constant affirmation, because it's not readily available, because people just don't go up to you and say, what a wonderful job you're doing, and that typically doesn't happen. So how do they get affirmation if no one's coming up to them saying, you're so wonderful, you're the best thing since sliced bread, I can't believe it, you're amazing. You're just, you're like, wow. So what would you do if you can't get the verbal? Then what do you gotta do? You have to platform yourself. You have to get on this stage. This is the stage you have to get on. So this is why in music, the Jezebel spirit typically infiltrates into music. Typically. Not all the time. But that's one way. Because the Jezebel spirit has to be platformed. Okay? Now, I want you to think it in your own personal life. Where is your platform at? How do they platform in your family? Well, maybe it's getting a platform with mom and dad. Or maybe it's being at your job, being at the front office and where everyone in the reception area, where everybody comes in. That's how they platform themselves. They've got to be in a public location where everyone sees them. That's the principle. They do not settle for you putting them in the back room and no one ever sees them. They can't handle that. They won't. They've got to be up front. No, it's just necessarily music. It means like the woman that came to me and said she wanted to be the women's ministry leader, and I don't know who she is. I mean, what in the world? But that's a Jezebel spirit. Why? She platformed herself, she wants the highest position, and she's never earned it, right? It doesn't necessarily have to be in music. It could be in anything. They want the highest position that gives them the most exposure on a platform. Now, a lot of guys try to do this. We've had people in our ministry that are guys trying to get on my platform. And I wanna say, I earned my platform, you didn't. You don't get to get on my platform. I earned my platform after 20-something years in ministry. You just don't get to jump on my platform and think you can ride my coattails. And there's been men that are trying to do that, and they're no longer with us anymore. But they've had this Jezebel spirit of wanting to platform themselves. And so this is a real deal. And I need to warn you because it probably will, at some point in your life, hit you if it hasn't already hit you with a woman or somebody or an aunt or a mom or somebody. So here's the other thing, they need to be popular. So the platforming gives them a popularity, and then they have to have this acceptance and approval from people because of that, and so they eat that up. And then, again, and then having a position gives them the ability to have people dependent on them. They love people being dependent on them. And it's the total opposite of what I'm trying to do on a Wednesday night or on a Sunday. I am trying to make you independent of me. I'm trying to make it to the point you don't need me anymore. that when you read the Bible, you can read it on your own and you've learned so well that you can teach yourself. That's the whole goal. My goal is not to make you dependent on me. My goal is to give you as much information as I can and you take it and use it and become independent of me. That's the whole goal. But she doesn't want anyone independent of her. She wants people dependent on her. not only for information, but for power and authority, and anything that she can offer, she wants that dependency. So what you'll see is they'll have groupies around them. They will have a following around them. And it might be five people, it might be 12 people, it might be 30 people, I don't know. But they will have groupies around them, and those groupies are typically dependent in nature to begin with. They don't go to other independent women. They go to dependent women, and then they gather them. They gather vulnerable women, hurt women, those types, okay? They don't like dealing with another self-sufficient woman. They're very jealous of other self-sufficient woman, especially if the woman has good looks and is smart. They totally can't stand that. They cannot stand a competition with another woman that is probably equally or better than them in capabilities and looks. They cannot stand that. And so they're very jealous, because of their insecurities, obviously. So anyway, They're performance-based, like I mentioned, in their relationship, so they will perform very well for you. They are typically perfectionists in their attitudes, and that's why they're so good at performing, because they do a very good job. But spiritually, they're legalists. They'll strain at gnats and swallow camels though. So while they're manipulating somebody by lying, they'll be legalistic on small little things of tithing, mint, cumin and dill, right? They'll do those things, but ignore the weightier matters in their life. They're subtle and they're deceptive. They'll use flattery, gifts, innuendos, insinuations, and discrediting. They're proud and rebellious, they seek their agenda, and they have a rebellious spirit, and they're totally out of order, a religious spirit. So what I mean by religious spirit, Religious spirit means that they have a form of spirituality, but deny the power thereof, as Paul told Timothy. And so, real true spirituality is based on the individual who is obedient, okay? That's true spirituality, is the person that's obedient. And man, when you see obedience, you don't have to say anything. You don't have to talk, that person's obedient. You just see it, okay? It's evident for everyone to see. Because she is not obedient, she has to cover herself with spirituality, false spirituality. Well, how do you do that? You talk a good game. You talk Christianese. You talk in flowerly language and spiritual language, and you're always talking about how you love Jesus, but yet you don't obey. And so another way of having a religious spirit is they do religious things, right? They do good things. at soup kitchens and they're helping the poor and they're helping this and they're helping that. And so they do a lot of social justice types of activities to cover up their lack of obedience to God because the lack of obedience is glaring and it's really hard to cover up in their personal lives. So they have to cover it with all this other junk and garbage, which is nothing but spirituality or religious spirit. So that being the case then, This is either happened to you, it is happening to you, or it will happen to you. And that's why the Church of Thyatira is so important for you to understand. It's not just simply the Whore of Babylon, the Whore of Babylon will come to rest in a person in front of you. That's how bad it is. That's how she weasels into every church. Now, let's make a church application. The reason that a lot of these churches have been taken down is because the environment was already set by a Jezebel spirit years ago in that church that has now made the church woke today. So it's not something that happened overnight. The Jezebel spirit had been working in maybe a decade into the male leadership of the church, platforming herself, getting authority, and making decisions to where now the church is woke. So that's what you have to do when you investigate each church. How did they go woke? Well, look at what happened in their leadership. See what undermined the leadership. Ask those types of questions. Was it a Jezebel spirit? Well, who knows? I don't know. But anyway, what you have to do is identify it. Once it's identified, you must eliminate it. And the only way you can eliminate it is you must get rid of them. You must fire them. You must eventually kick them out of your church. You must kick them out of your Bible study. You must say, we're not the place for you. And you even must do this in your own family. Because the Jezebel spirit is working to manipulate you and destroy you. That's the idea. Now again, you, I hope you never have to, but I'm just telling you, why would God put this situation in the church of Thyatira if it's not a common occurrence? Well, it is. And that's why it's in one of the seven churches of Revelation. And this is what must be overcome. You must overcome this. It's not just overcoming the Catholic Church, it's what made the Catholic Church so decrepit. And it was the whore. So you have to overcome the whore. You have to overcome the Jezebel in your personal life, in your office, at your business, at your church. You must overcome her. And then, if you overcome her, then you will be rewarded. So I wanna stop there and answer any questions you might have until I get to what he decides to do with her. Okay. Let's get the mics. Hold on. Pastor Brandon, Uri for our online wants to know, can someone repent from this Jezebel spirit, and does it happen? Yeah, they can repent of it if they recognize what's happening in their own personal lives and why they're doing it, and it comes from a place of, like I said, insecurity, and that insecurity leads them down that path. Now, how do they get down that path? Demonic influence. That's what starts it. So the demons, go after people who have unsolved problems in their life. So if a woman has an unsolved problem with men, whether it stems from her father, it stems from a boyfriend, it stems from a cousin, whatever, a rape or molestation, neglect, whatever it might be, if they're wounded and that wound is not healed, then the demon will take advantage of her wound and manipulate her to use her in a Jezebel situation, and the person won't even know it's happening to them. But the demon will influence that. I'm not saying take away the person's responsibility, I'm just telling you that's how it starts. It's a demon taking advantage of a wounded individual. That's how it goes. And then it's off that. But yes, people can repent and stop, but typically they don't. I'm not saying they can't. I just haven't witnessed it. Where am I at? Yes. My question is this. How common, Brian, is this in female pastors who are head of their church? Absolutely, it's in the female pastors. That is the clearest sign, doctor, of a Jezebel spirit is a female pastor. That is the clearest sign that that's happened. And look what's going on. Think about this. We left the Southern Baptist Convention, guys, many, many years ago. And I saw this brewing, and that's why we're done the nominational. But what was happening? There was a push for female pastors. What's happening right now in the Southern Baptist? There's a push for female pastors, and some of them are actually becoming female pastors. Rick Warren was all for the other pastor taking over for his wife to become a pastor, didn't he? Yeah, it's a push, but what it really was is it's a push of a Jezebel spirit. Now the problem with the Jezebel spirit in a female pastor is she will eventually produce false doctrine at some point in time. At some point in time, she will. Because look, you can't say that someone that's out of order, I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man, 1 Timothy chapter 12 through 14. You cannot just violate that and think there's no ramifications for that. You decide to violate that, guess what? You've opened the door for demonic influence and doctrines of demons. At that point, it won't be too long until you see Bethmore go off the rails. Have you not? Okay, I can trace Beth Moore's history all the way back when 2nd Houston was allowing her to preach on Sunday night. And I remember being in the Southern Baptist at that point in time, I said, is anyone gonna tell 2nd Houston to stop her from preaching because she's out of order? She's violating 1 Timothy chapter two. I mean, no one did. So they let her, and what happened? Beth Moore kept going on and going on and taking more and taking more and taking more and taking more to where now she's a false teacher. Okay, she's teaching contemplative prayer. She's teaching all kinds of wackadoo stuff at this point. I think she's charismatic now or something like that. I mean, she's totally out of the Southern Baptism again, or out of that, and now she's went full-blown like Sid Roth type of charismatic stuff. I mean, out there, crazy, off the chart. And then making, and you say, well, what's wrong with what she's doing? Let me just give you one. When you say that bringing in Catholic doctrine is part of salvation, you're wrong. That's a false teaching when she did that. And she said that Jesus included the Catholic doctrine or whatever. No, no. The Catholic doctrine is a works-based doctrine. It is Jesus plus the sacraments. You cannot say that that religion is faith-based when it's works-based. And she did that. Well, when she did that, that's it. You're denying faith alone. So when you deny faith alone, that's an essential, that's a false teaching. And that's, that alone, but there's more, there's more you could give in respect to what she's saying, but she's at this point now, she's taken full, full Monty on people giving her platforms. And I think she's just totally out of control. I think John MacArthur said it the best about her. You remember what he said? She needs to be quiet, that's what he said. That's what he said. That's what he said, you can look it up. John MacArthur said she needs to be quiet. I would agree, she's a false teacher at this point. Okay, I got questions. Where am I at, where am I at? Yeah, Barbara. I was gonna ask you, I think you kind of started to answer that, but I was gonna ask you to expound on one of your last comments was, how did it start in the Catholic Church and then grow? Yeah, it started, obviously the Catholic Church, you know, what you're looking at today is a little bit different than what started in 600 AD, but there's where the nucleus of the Catholic Church today is, is about 600. So what happened before that is you had the Church of Pergamum, that era of church history, and Babylon or the whore of Babylon made its way through Pergamum into the church. And so it embryonically started there with a compromise. And if I, maybe I said it in the spring, this is how the movement happened. So Babylon itself had the Babylonian mystery cults. You guys remember that, right? And it was all centered in Babylon. It goes all the way back to Nimrod, right? So the Babylon mystery cults were there. And then as you recall in history, when Daniel and the children of Israel are sent into exile in the Babylon, Medo-Persia then takes over while they're there, remember that? And obviously Cyrus the Great was there, Darius and all them are there. But what ends up happening when the Medes and Persians take over Babylon, the Babylonian cult religion moved. They didn't stay there, they got out of Dodge. And they ended up moving into Asia Minor, which we now call Turkey. And they actually centered into the area of Pergamum. And then, you know, obviously in the Churches of Revelation, Pergamum is mentioned. And Jesus says where Satan has his throne. So it indicates that Satan's throne has moved from Babylon to Pergamum. It moved to Asia Minor. Because he says that's where the church is, where Satan has his throne. Now where Satan's throne is today, I'm not sure. I know eventually it will be back in Babylon one day. That's where Satan will have his throne. I don't know where it's at right now. It could be in, yeah, Washington DC is a good, good. It's probably the best theory out there, right? Washington DC, right smack dab right there on the White House, right? Satan's throne. But anyway, so it infiltrated the church and then in church history, in the era of Pergamum, you start getting these compromises. And what ended up happening is over the years, these compromises turned into doctrines. And these doctrines turned into now official Catholic teaching. And by the time Augustine's in place, I mean, he's codifying certain things in church history that we would shake our heads and say, I don't know where you got that from, dude. He started pulling from Gnostic Manichaeanism. He started bringing in fatalism, saying that the kingdom is spiritual, not a physical kingdom. And there was no challenges really to Augustine. So Augustine's teachings got championed in the Catholic church. And just even before that, man, you started having all kinds of weird stuff, prayer beads, prayers for the dead, all kinds of weird stuff was infiltrating into the church. And then somehow, I shouldn't say just somehow, but the church leaders allowed it. and sanctified it and set it apart and said, yes, this is what we're doing here. And we would all shake our heads and saying, well, you can't just say that. Well, probably some of them weren't even saved, some of these popes and bishops and stuff like that. I mean, after a while, when you married the church with the state, you had people in the Catholic church that weren't even saved or really in the church universal because when you had the wedding of the church and state, in order to be a member of the state, you had to be a member of the church. And so you had all these pagans coming in with their own junk, and it just diffused everything. And so things like that develop. And Something stupid, for instance, I'll give you an example, like infant baptism, where did that come from? It came from something really stupid, and I know this is gonna sound like bizarre, but this is how it developed into a doctrine. So they come up with this idea that people have original sin, and if a baby dies before being baptized, then the baby's gonna go to limbo. Right, have you heard that before in Catholic theology? So the baby's eyes gonna go limbo. Well, the moms were like, we don't want our babies going to limbo, so we're asking and petitioning the church to baptize our babies. So guess what? They caved in to the moms asking to be baptized babies before they baptize you as an adult. So they started baptizing babies, but the mode of baptism, which was carried on from the early church was what? Immersion. So guess what? You want your baby to be baptized, what did the priest have to do? He dunked your baby underwater. Well, the mamas didn't like that. And they petitioned and petitioned, and so what did they ask for? Can't you just simply sprinkle them instead of dunking them? Sure, no problem. So because of mother's requests to have their babies baptized and then not to have them dunk, came infant baptism by sprinkling, or we call in theology, paedobaptism. And you're thinking, That wasn't because some dude read a passage and said, you know, that's teaching that Cornelius' family was all baptized and so it includes the kid. No, no, no one was making that argument. They were saying, we gotta cave in to the pressures of the whims of the people. And so in church history, you'll see doctrines emerge that are just simply ridiculous because of human pressure on the church itself. Now think about this. Is that any different than what happens today? The church puts pressure on the pastor, hey, you need to be woke, you need to be about this, and what does the church do? Caves in, right? It's the same thing, and it's not because some guy's reading some highfalutin theology, it's because he's getting pressure from people. So it's just weird stuff like that, Barbara, and you shake your head, and you're like, oh, that's awful. Where did that come, but yet, I grew up Catholic, and we never questioned that. Right, that this is what the priest said, so we're just gonna do it. But then when you get to the root of it, and we're like, well, that's stupid. Where did you get that at? But in Catholicism, you're never taught to question. You're never supposed to question, right? My priest always said when I questioned him, I would just rather have a beer with you, man. Okay, okay, okay. But that's how they roll. They don't wanna talk theology. So Barbara, that's a long answer, but it's crazy. I'm glad I'm out of it. Okay, any other questions about Jezebel? We all good? All right, oh yeah, yes ma'am. Let's get a mic for her. I'm gonna embarrass myself. What if you recognize some of the traits, okay, but yet balance that like with Sunday service about using the, doing what God is calling you to do. There has to be a balance. There is, and you would have to do some introspection. Jezebel, Spirit, I can tell you this, is not doing any introspection at all. They're on an agenda for control. Versus someone that has good leadership qualities. Well, yeah, but here's what a good leader would do. They would see their flaws, like, hey, man, you know, sometimes I'm a perfectionist and I can't expect that out of people or whatever, I need to back off on that. So they know their own flaws, but they're still a good leader. But a good leader knows that I know my flaws, I know my weaknesses, and I have no problem submitting to authority. Jezebel does not like submitting to anyone's authority at all. And so good leaders, just like in an army or anything, they say, okay, it's a colonel, I submit to that leadership, and they come under it, they have no problem doing it. And another thing about a good mark about a leader is just like with the talent thing on Sunday, they're faithful in a few things. You can trust them with a little, and they have no problem. What's the problem with Jezebel? She doesn't like the little things. She wants the top instantaneously, and she will not, if you tell a Jezebel spirit, go clean the bathrooms, not gonna happen, not gonna happen. Go work in the back room where no one sees you for the next five years. Go work in the back room. Now, there's some people that are good servants and say, that's perfect for me, man. I'm a behind-the-scenes person. Okay, there's a lot of people, that's actually a good spirit, because they don't want to be vaulted. But you tell a Jezebel spirit, you're gonna be in the back room for the next five years, they ain't gonna do it. They ain't gonna do it. When someone, you know, they'll come and they want to pole vault all the way to the top, I'll say, you know what, that's great that you wanna serve and everything, and that's wonderful, but I said, you know what I really need? I need this to happen. And I'll usually do a small little thing. and say, I need you to show up on Sunday morning and help us set up in the morning the chairs in the auditorium. That pretty much eliminates Jezebels. Because they won't do it. They won't do it. They won't do it. So my thing is, she has no introspection. She doesn't see her weaknesses. But it started because of unsolved wounds in her. And she's turned into, now here's the thing, and that's an application for all of us. These wounds that we have from life, and we all have them, if you don't resolve them, if you don't work on them and process them with truth, that wound will be capitalized by demons. And they will take full advantage of that and use that against you. So ultimate combination. So let me talk to the men, since we've been hammering a Jezebel woman. So men, the reason you can be manipulated so easy by a Jezebel spirit and not even know it's happening to you is because you haven't worked on your rejection issues. And because you haven't worked on your rejection issues, anytime a woman tries to manipulate you, you will fall for it. you will not see it because the ultimate that you want is love and acceptance and Jezebel knows how to play right into that. That's why so many men fall into the temptation of a Jezebel spirit is because they are so good at it and they suck the guy in through flattery, through manipulation, through gifts, through all kinds of stuff that he's wanting because he has a rejection attitude. So it cuts both ways. Right? It cuts both ways. So my thing is, let's just all work on our junk so it doesn't happen to us, okay? That's the real basis of it all, male or female, because this is a very dangerous thing because it's demonically controlled. That's the danger of it. Okay. Thanks for joining us for another lesson. We hope that this message is a blessing for you and helps you grow towards a more mature understanding of God's word. For more information about our ministry, we invite you to check out our website at rockharborchurch.net. Until next time, remember, keep looking up for our redemption draws near.