Jentezen Franklin - Flies In The Ointment
If you have your Bibles, I'd like for you to open them with me to the Book of Ecclesiastes 10. "Dead flies putrefy the perfumer's ointment, And cause it to give a foul odor; So does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor". I want you to notice the first part of that verse, "Dead flies putrefy the ointment". That word ointment would be in our vernacular the anointing oil. It was made out of five principles that were given in the Book of Exodus, a certain recipe that God gave the measurements that made the anointing oil.
And I think we need to understand this. The Bible calls Satan the lord of the flies. That's one of his biblical names; Beelzebub, lord of the flies. And he said there's these flies, and they get in the oil, and they make what should be a beautiful fragrance have a stench. There are certain Christians the way that they present Jesus instead of attracting people, they repel people. You ever met any Christian like that? It's almost like people run like roaches when they walk in the room because they just don't have... something's not right.
Now, I just got interested, and I started looking and went online and started looking for sermons about flies and started researching and listening to everything I could and reading everything I could, and I just wanna give you what I think is a spin on this text; that there are certain Christians who can get in the ointment, and it's not any more attractive, and I found out that there's a fly family. For example, did you know that there are butterflies, and the butterflies, the largest of the fly family. It has external beauty, but what was interesting; it is the weakest member of the fly family. It looks beautiful outwardly, but it's very weak internally. Externally, everything looks gorgeous and beautiful. Internally, it is devoured by smaller bugs. It has no inner strength.
Samson had great times when the Spirit came on him, and he did powerful, mighty things. But then, he laid his head in the lap of Delilah. He was a butterfly. Everybody would've looked and said what a powerful man of God. What a powerful, powerful person who is walking with God in the anointing, but the truth is flies got in and something internally was not happening that was happening, and it's a lot of show but not enough glow on the inside. Then interestingly, I found another member of the fly, I'm just gonna give you three. But I found one that they called the robber fly, and I thought, well, I've got to preach that one. It's a little fly with big wings that makes a lot of noise. I couldn't believe it. And what it does is it lets the other flies gather food and go back to get some more, and it will swoop in, and they said it makes a lot of noise, a whistling noise, all the time except when it's stealing, and then it gets real quiet.
And there are robber flies in the church. Malachi 3 said will a man rob God? He said, but you've robbed me in tithes and in offerings. And God said, but prove me in this area. He didn't leave it in a negative. He said prove me in this area and see if you do what I tell you to do. If I wanna open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, you won't have room enough to receive it. It'll spill over and spill over and spill over and spill over. But then the third one was the one that really got my interest in the fly family: the mosquito. It's part of the family of flies. Do you what they said, and I don't know why I didn't know this. I guess I knew it. I just don't think about it.
I often say, "A mosquito bit me". We say, "I have a mosquito bite," but technical you don't. They don't have any teeth. They don't have any fangs. All a mosquito has is a long tongue, and it's like a needle, and it goes in. The favorite hymn of the mosquito is, "Nothing but the Blood," and they stick their tongue in, and they're after one thing. Now, listen to me. I'm going somewhere. I promise. The mosquito wants to remove the blood. The mosquito wants to take the blood, and he uses his tongue to do it. A sharp tongue like a pin, like a needle, and he withdraws the blood that covers. A talebearer reveals secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter. A mosquito will draw, uncover, take off the blood, take away the blood, and then go over and infect somebody else with what they got from that one. And if we're not careful, we can do that, but there's a much deeper issue here that I want you to see.
Love covers. Mosquitoes spread. Isaiah said if I'm gonna have a tongue, give me the tongue of the learned. I pray this prayer almost every day of my life. I cannot remember hardly a day that I don't pray the prayer from the Book of Isaiah that says, "Give me the tongue of the learned that I might speak a word in season to him that is weary". It's one of the greatest prayers you could pray over your mouth to say, "God, I don't wanna have a poison tongue. I don't wanna lift the blood off people and then take it and spread everything I hear about hurting broken people, but Lord, if you're gonna use, fill me with the fire of the Holy Spirit so that my tongue is something that brings people a word in season".
I'm trying to say to you that sin and mosquitoes have something in common. They both want to take away the blood, and it's the Blood of Jesus Christ that draws us near to God. It's the Blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all unrighteousness, and sin like a mosquito, is trying to lift the blood and bring disease and death to our families, to our marriages, to our children, to our dreams, to our hopes. Galatians 5:9 said, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump". Just a little, bitty, tiny thing. It's just a little thing, but if you allow it to set up a breeding ground in your life, it will lay its eggs and produce and take and take and try to lift the blood.
When we begin to understand that it has to be intentional to fight against that which wants to lift the blood and take the blood. They talk about online what would happen, what America or the world would look like if mosquito control was not exercised. They gave a picture of the world, and they said if it's not intentionally limited and controlled, health issues on apocalyptic levels would take place. They said it would an annoyance like we wouldn't believe. We could go nowhere. The whole world would be filled if we did not purposely and intentionally fight those insects that are trying to withdraw the blood. Negative impact on the worlds economy.
Well I want to ask you a question. What would the church look like without sin control, and let me ask you a more personal question, what will your home look like and what will your life look like unless you intentionally learn how to fight and burn incense in the morning? It's so amazing to me. If I'll just be consistent in the word. Pastor, how many chapters do you read a day? It doesn't even matter. It's not about that. It's just taking the time in the morning. God, here I am, and just speak to me. It's not how long you do it. It's just the consistency of it morning, night. Just reach over and pray. Plead the Blood over your family. Plead the Blood over your marriage. Just grab those children before they go to bed and pray with them.
You would be amazed how that environment in the middle of a swamp becomes mosquito, not completely ever will we ever get so holy that anything we can do can kill all mosquitoes, and you'll have a dot here and there every once in a while, but they will not cover you. You won't be their smorgasbord. Take a praise break, and I'll keep preaching. I'm going somewhere. I promise. Do you know that every year this time of the year they have a campaign called And they encourage people to remind people to be aware. That's what I'm preaching today. You don't just play with sin. You just don't let stuff get in your family and in your life and all in your home and all in your life. You don't play with that.
That's why we come to church. We come to church to remind one another. That's why we sing. That's why we pray, be sober, be vigilant, fight the bite, get your family up and come to church. You know what you're doing sitting here listening to me preach? You're fighting the bite. You know what you're doing when you're opening this Book? You know what you're doing when you're having prayer, you turn the TV or the computer off and you just talk about the Lord a little bit? You are fighting the bite.
The Bible compares water to the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "Out of your belly shall flow a river of living water". And if you go in these resorts, what you will see is rivers, and you will see water works, and you will see water fountains, but you'll never see just stagnant water. Water has to always be flowing, or you will begin to attract that which wants to lift and take the blood. What I'm preaching to you is I'm concerned after a pandemic that there are millions of Christians who have become stagnant it in their walk with Jesus. We've become stagnant and stale, and that's where sin begins to breed and reproduce and take over.
The best way that we can make sure we're not breeding ground for the eggs of the enemy to be implanted into our family and into our home, the lies of Satan, the best way that we can combat that is to have a move of the spirit. It's not about just coming to church and hearing a talk. Something's gotta happen. You can't become a butterfly Christian who just says, "Yes, I go to church, and I go". If you don't move, the eggs are gonna get planted on still water. We need the moving of the Holy Spirit in this church. I don't wanna become a professional preacher. I don't wanna ever get up here and lean on some gifting that God has given me. We need the moving of the Holy Spirit. We need the flow in our worship, we need to flow in our preaching, and we need to flow in the pews where we actually get moved and say I'm gonna do more than sit here and take it in.
When the word of God gets going, something starts moving, and then it's up to you to respond. The four lepers in 2 Kings said, "Why sit we here until we die"? Man, I feel like preaching now. Here I go. I'm sorry. If you came visiting, get ready. Here it comes. Free Chapel is not a still water church. This thing was not born in some dead, dry denominational religious setting. If we ever lose the moving of the Holy Spirit, we don't have anything to offer. If we're just like them, we don't have anything to offer, but boy if we will let the river flow, if we will let the river cleanse, if we will let the river heal... I want the flow back. I don't want still, stagnant full of mosquito eggs. Acts 17 said, "In Him," watch this; three things, "we live, we move, and we have our being". Sandwiched between we live and we have our being is we move.
If you're not having a moving of the Holy Spirit in your life, how long has it been since you got and felt a move of the Holy Spirit on you that you were moved, you were moved with compassion, you were moved by a hunger for the presence of God? What keeps mosquitoes away is the flowing water. What keeps sin away, what keeps sin held at bay is applying the Blood of Jesus and praise and worship and burning of the incense morning and evening. That keeps it away, but also refusing to allow the move to die in us. The moving of the river of the Holy Spirit, the moving of the water. At the pool of the Bethesda the Bible said there were sick people all around, and the angel came and when he troubled the water, it was still and no miracles happened. But when he troubled water, he took his sword and just stirred the water, and the moving of the water produced. They put a man in who was paralyzed, and he was instantly healed.
Notice that the miracle was in the moving. I don't know what I'm trying to say, but man, when you come to church and all you do, it's just here the whole time, you know what you are? You're a still pool. I don't mean to get in your business but really I do I'm a pastor. This is what I have to do. I sense this church needs a fresh moving of the Holy Spirit. We need it. I need it. You need it. I can't make it off yesterday. I can't live off what God used to do. He is here now. He is a miracle worker now. He can help you now. Hallelujah! I yearn for a move of the Holy Spirit. Tell somebody beside you there's a miracle in the movement. We can't get satisfied. We can't get complacent, we can't live off just coming to church and going through another service.
God, never let this church get like that. He said your body is my building. Your body is my temple. Be intentional about not letting the enemy set up little puddles where there's still water 'cause it may seem like a little thing, but a little leaven leavens a whole lump, and I want you to be intentional to fight that bite. I want you to be intentional to stand up against what you know is wrong. And I can't promise you if you've got an addiction or something that you won't ever, ever, ever be tempted ever again. That's not gonna happen till we get to heaven, and all of us have that, by the way. All of us. Nobody in here is walking around. Those little things coming out of your back are not angel's wings. That's your shoulder blades. Don't act so holy, you butterfly. Yes, preach it to them, and you're weak inside and when you're weak, my point is that's when you need to get fresh sacrifice. That's when you need to say, God, I need a move. I've gotta have a fresh move.
The thing I wanna close with is when I read Ecclesiastes 10, it said, "Dead flies are in the ointment," and I got a streak of joy that went through me. I'd never seen it like this. Always read that as kind of like a negative thing, and I even preached it at the beginning as a negative thing, but the more I thought about it, dead flies in the ointment. The thing that I can guarantee will kill the flies, every one of them in the fly family is fresh oil. The anointing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the anointed one. He said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. For He is anointed. And I feel that anointing here this morning. I feel it. I feel it.
Psalms 92. "But my horn you will exalt like a wild ox". One translation said like a unicorn. So, that don't mean nothing to you, but here, I have been anointed, come on, say it out loud big and bold. I have been anointed with what? Fresh oil, and what does the oil do to the flies? If they do mess up and come in here, their wings get in it, and they get sticky and before you know it, they're wallowing around and before you know it, they die. Oh, I believe, I believe that the anointing destroys the yoke, the Prophet Isaiah said, and lifts the heavy burden. Don't you want it? I close with this. I promise. This is the last closing.
Psalms 23, "Thou anoints my head with oil". What does that mean? When the sheep would graze, they would eat, and the flies would fly around and if they're not careful, they lay their eggs in their ears. The mosquitoes would lay their eggs, the flies, the mosquitoes would lay their eggs in their ears, and it would drive them insane.
So, the shepherd, when he sees one struggling will take oil and pour it on the head because there was something in the oil that was repugnant to those insects and particularly to serpents because their nose was down, and it would cause them to back up. That is the picture that the psalmist David said, "He anoints your head, your thinking". Don't we need, don't we realize the battleground? We're fighting depression, discouragement, fear, worry, anxiety, but the Lord says I promise you. I've got the weapon that kills all those flies. It's called I shall anoint your head with oil. You don't have to be bound by depression and fear and discouragement and the past and guilt and shame. But He anoints you with something that kills the flies.