Robert Morris - Stop Believing Lies
Okay, so I'm going to do a three week series called, "Three Steps to Victory". And, you know we're in a war, and so when you're in a war, do you have a strategic plan for victory? How are you gonna win the war? And so, I'm gonna give you three steps. These are the best three steps I can think of to be able to win this spiritual war that we're in, so this will be the next three weeks, all right? The first one, here's the title to this week, is "Stop Believing Lies", "Stop Believing Lies". I remember praying with a woman at the altar one time. She said, "Pastor, you need to pray for me". I said, "Okay, what do I need to pray about"? She said, "Well, Satan's been lying to me". I said, "So, you know it's Satan, right"? She said, "Yep". And I said, "And you know it's a lie, right"? "Yep". I said, "Well, then why do I need to pray"? She said, "I don't know". And I said, "I think it's because you're believing him". She said, "I think you're right".
So, but we all do that, we do that, and we're in a warfare. So, I want to tell you a few... well, you're gonna laugh at the first of this message before I get to my three points, because I want to tell you a lie that I believed growing up that affected me because I believed it. Because if you believe a lie, it gives Satan a foothold. It's the first thing he did with Eve, if you remember. He told her a lie so he could get her to sin. She had to believe the lie before she sinned. So, and we'll look at that Scripture. But, I believed growing up that I was accident prone. I heard it a lot. I can remember being in the emergency room and hearing one of the nurses say, "He's probably going to be in the emergency room his whole adult life, 'cause he's just accident prone".
And I'm gonna get to something, but so, in 2007, we went on a family vacation to Colorado, and we were playing Frisbee golf. So, it's not a contact sport. It's not supposed to be. And so, I finished the first hole, and you walked to another, like T-box. It's where they have a little mat, and you throw the Frisbee and there's a basket, and however many times it takes you to get it in it, that's your score, you know. So, I see the mat in front of me, you know, let's say 50 feet away, and I'm looking for the basket. And so, I'm walking like this, you know, looking, and I stepped in about a two foot hole, and my foot broke. A bone in my foot broke when I stepped in it, and then I fell and my shoulder hit the rock, and my shoulder socket, my shoulder, yeah, I guess the ball, broke the socket. 40% of the socket shattered. It came completely, tore the labrum.
I remember the doctor said to me, "You tore your labrum 360 degrees". And I remember saying to him, "There aren't any more degrees, are there"? And then I broke my foot, so when I'm coming back from Dallas, I have a boot on my foot. I have a crutch, only one crutch because you can't put this arm on a crutch. I have my arm in here. I'm in a lot of pain because I'm coming back to have surgery, I haven't had it yet. My shoulder kind of keeps popping in and out, you know? Isn't this great? So, but I'm walking on, but everybody - everybody asks you what happened. I stepped in a hole. And you could see them, it was like, oh, idiot. You know, I mean it was just like no sympathy, and I'm in pain, you know? And so, I thought, I gotta come up with a better story than this, you know?
So, the next guy that asked me, he said, "What happened"? I said, "Skydiving". He was like, "Oh, wow, really", you know, so. And then I thought, well, I can't say that 'cause it's not true, you know, so let me think of something I can say. I can't say, and I thought, well, maybe I can say I fell off a mountain. But I didn't really fall off, I fell on, you know, the mountain. So then I thought, oh, you know what? I can say I stepped in a ravine. You know, that sounds better. I was on a mountain in Colorado and I fell in a ravine. I fell in a ravine. The next lady that comes up, "What happened"? "I was on a mountain in Colorado and I fell in a ravine". I just wasn't expecting her to question me. She said, "How deep"? Two feet. And then it was the same thing - oh, idiot, you know. I mean, you know, so.
So, I've had lots of accidents growing up and my first accident, when I was three years old, that was a ravine, I think six to eight feet deep, trying to do a tricycle too fast, fell face first. My two front teeth went through my bottom lip and then lodged in my bottom lip. Had my first surgery when I was three years old. And then, surgery, I don't know whether it was a year later or what, to remove the scar tissue. Yeah, so my dad's going like this. Thanks, Dad, for the painful memory. So anyway, but my lip was just really big and they removed scar tissue, but I remember thinking how big my bottom lip was growing up. I don't know if you've ever thought that you looked different and you were weird, you were the freak in class, but you know.
And then, people would emphasize it, like, "You know, you have a big bottom lip, you know"? And I'd want to say, "You know, you have a big bottom". You know, I don't know. I tried not to, but anyway. This is B.C. - this is before Christ, so you can't judge me! Then, when I was eight, I was hit by a car. And put my arm up like this when I hit the pavement, and it hit my top lip. And took all the skin off my arm. And so, my top lip swelled up. So, in 2007, when I, you know, broke my shoulder and all of that, and I'm lying around recovering, and then, you know, all of the therapy you got to go through, I remember just saying, "Lord, Lord, I've had so many accidents. Have I opened a door to the enemy"? And the Lord, I felt like He went just like this - "Yep". I mean, He didn't even have to think about it, you know? He didn't even have to go, like, "Hmm, let Me think about that", you know? He said, "Yep". And I said, "What"? He said, "You believed a lie".
Do you know how to know if you believe a lie? If it doesn't surprise you. In other words, I've had people say to me, "Pastor, we need you to pray. My husband's just been diagnosed with cancer, but it didn't really surprise us because, you know, his daddy had cancer and his granddaddy had cancer". Or, you know, "My husband has heart disease, but it doesn't surprise us because his daddy died of a heart attack and his granddaddy died of a heart attack". See, when it doesn't surprise you, you've believed the lie. See, you've forgotten that you've been adopted into the new family. And so, Satan tells you this is normal. It's not normal for kingdom children, so we have to understand that.
So, you've got Genesis 3. I told you that I'd just read it to you, Satan lying to Eve. "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden"'"? Now, I'm not gonna take the time to read it, but just the chapter before, here's what God actually said. "You shall eat of every tree of the garden, except the tree which is in the midst of the garden". So, God says it positively, Satan says it negatively. And then in a moment you're gonna see Satan outright lie. "And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die"'. Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die'".
You see the lie? God said you will surely die. Satan says you will not surely die. Please hear me. The first step to sin is believing a lie. You need to think about what lie have I believed? I can remember when I began learning about freedom ministry and things like that, I remembered these things about being accident prone, and I thought, well, I've broken those words. But, here's what the Lord said to me. He said, "Yeah, but you still believe them. In your heart, you believe you're accident prone. You believe it's normal for you to have accidents, and I need you to stop believing that". So, let me tell you three ways that we can open the door to the enemy by believing a lie, all right?
Here's number one - the sins that we continue. The sins that we continue. In other words, if you're gonna persist in a sin that you know is a sin, and you know it is and you can do something about it, and all of us can as believers, you're opening a door to the enemy. And let me just take one that all of us can relate to, and that's unforgiveness. This is what Paul said about unforgiveness, 2 Corinthians 2:10. "Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For indeed, if I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ", now watch this, "lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices". "Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices". That's pretty amazing, isn't it?
So in other words, if you hold onto unforgiveness, Satan's coming in. He said, "Lest Satan take advantage of us". In other words, he has an open door. I can remember one time just lying awake at night, replaying it over and over in my mind what someone had said, and just, you know, what I'm gonna say next time I see that person, you know? And by the way, if you rehearse something in your mind, you haven't forgiven, because forgive means to release. It means you release that person. And Satan convinces us - here's what he convinces us. If you release them though, then nothing's gonna happen to them. Well, first of all, it's not your responsibility. It's God's responsibility. And second of all, if you don't release them, something's gonna happen to you. That's what you need to know.
And so, I'm just replaying it over and over in my mind, and all of a sudden it was just like the Lord said to me, "Stop it"! I mean, I felt like He was almost trying to say, "I'm trying to get some sleep", you know, "stop it! It's 2:00 in the morning, stop it"! And I said to Him, "But Lord, he was wrong"! And the Lord said to me, "Of course he was wrong! That's why you forgive him. You don't forgive people who are right"! Now, just think about that. We have every reason to not forgive someone, but if you don't forgive them, there's a door open. Now, we have what we call "Freedom" here at Gateway, where we help people. The way the enemy will hit you once you go through freedom ministry... is with pride. I've seen it thousands of times, and I am an expert in this area.
I've seen it over and over and over, because once people go through freedom ministry, they get free of a lot of things and they feel like I know something that other people don't know. I just met with our freedom ministry team from all of our campuses, all of the staff, and I warned them about this. I said, "Guys, you teach freedom to other people, but you better keep getting free yourselves, and you better quit looking down, don't look down at someone else, because immediately, Satan's got you. As soon as you think that you're smarter than someone or you're freer than someone, you're in bondage. If you actually think you're freer than others, you're in bondage, Satan's got you". I mean, Satan is the most cunning. He's brilliant. As soon as you learn something new, he tells you how good you are. That's how good he is.
So, first of all, sins that we continue. Any sin that you continue can be an open door to the enemy. Here's the second way that we open a door to the enemy through believing a lie - the words that we speak. The words that we speak. I'm accident prone, just normal. Words that we speak. Let me show you. It's in Scripture and it's very clear. Proverbs 18:21, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue". Do you see that Scripture? "Death and life are in the power of the tongue". That's the Bible. Now, let me say this. Some take this to an extreme and say we have creative ability with our tongues. Okay, you don't. You don't. Let me tell you what this means. This means that you can agree with the One who has creative power, or you can agree with the one who has destructive power. That's what this means.
In other words, you can agree with life, or you can agree with death. You can agree with God, or you can agree with the devil. But, you don't have creative power. I tried. I said, "Let there be a red Corvette in the driveway". There was no red Corvette in the driveway. But, God has creative power and He has life, so you agree with God's Word over your life with your mouth, or you agree with Satan's words over your life. And, look at this verse, Proverbs 6:2. "You are snared by the words of your mouth". A snare would be like a trap, like a small animal in a trap. You're trapped. You're in bondage, let's say it that way. You're in bondage by the words of your own mouth.
And then I want to show you Numbers 30. This is a Scripture, some of you might not have ever even see this Scripture, but I want to show you how words can bind and how words can be broken. And that's the good news, they can be broken, but they can bind. Watch. Numbers 30:1, "Then Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, 'This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth'". Look at that! He shall do what comes out of his mouth.
"Or if a woman makes a vow to the Lord", and I'll tell you why in a moment he's using a man and a woman. It may not be what you think. I'll tell you why in a moment. "If a woman makes a vow to the Lord, and binds herself by some agreement", now here's the clarification and you know, "while in her father's house in her youth". In other words, he's simply speaking of someone who's under another person's authority, okay, and that's why this is important. "And her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself". I told you words could bind you. "She has bound herself, and her father holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand and every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand. But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the Lord", the Lord, "will release her because her father overruled her".
Do you see how simple this is? In other words, if someone who has a spiritual authority hears you say something foolish with your mouth, that person with spiritual authority can break those words. That's what this is saying. So, I just read you the verse. You can bind yourself with your words, and words can be broken. There it is right there in the Bible. Think about all the things that are said, the curses that are spoken, and children hear them, like I heard I was accident prone. I heard I was gonna be in the emergency room my whole life. I believed those things. I believed them. You'll hear your kids say things. You can break those words. For instance, a child will say this, "I'm just stupid". You say, "You're not stupid, you have the mind of Christ". Or they say, "I just can't get math". You say, "You can. I overrule that in Jesus' name".
And you just tell them, "You belong to Gateway and Pastor Robert is a genius at math, so you're gonna be a genius at math, too". You're a genius! You're smart! We need to overrule things that are spoken. I'm telling you, the words that you speak can keep you in bondage. It's clear in Scripture, because it means you believe it. "Out of the abundance of the heart", do you want to finish the verse? "The mouth speaks". You say, I don't understand how just saying something - because it's in your heart. You know how it got in your heart? Because you believed a lie. But this book is truth, so you can speak the truth and you could break the lie.
So, the words that we speak, and here's number three, the thoughts that we think. The thoughts that we think. You say, I don't see how that can affect - well, watch. Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he". "As he thinks in his heart, so is he". If you think it - if you think you're accident prone, you're accident prone. It's amazing. It is amazing what we believe as truth becomes truth in our lives. That's why we need to say it in the Word. Jesus said this in John 8:32. It's a real famous Scripture. You probably know it. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free".
Okay, here's a really simple question. You're gonna love this. If the truth sets you free, then what does a lie do? That was good, by the way. As the young people say, that was tweetable. That was good. If the truth sets you free, then what does a lie do? Holds you in bondage. I gotta say that again, 'cause I want you all to get this. Jesus said it. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free". So, if truth sets you free, what do lies do? They hold you in bondage. It's all through Scripture.
Numbers 13, this is when the children of Israel went to spy out the land. 12 spies, 10 came back with a bad report, 2 came back with a good report, and it was Joshua and Caleb. Here are the 10 that gave the bad report. Numbers 13:32, "And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, 'The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw'", by the way, all of them were and the land didn't devour anybody. But, "All of the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like", watch how important this is. "We were like grasshoppers in our own sight; and so we were in their sight".
Now remember, everything in the Old Testament happened to them naturally, but it represents something spiritual to us, so that's the enemy, okay? So, listen. We were like grasshoppers in our minds, in our thoughts, in our hearts, and so we were like grasshoppers in the enemy's heart, in the enemy's thoughts then. Because we saw ourselves as grasshoppers, the enemy saw us as grasshoppers. See, every lie contains a little bit of truth. There were giants in the land. That's true. There were giants. The kingdom truth is our God loves to kill giants. He has no problem with giants. He can kill them with a boy and a slingshot. Giants are not a problem for Him.
Let me tell you something else that's so good about Satan lying. He fabricates evidence to back up his lies. He fabricates evidence to back up his lies. Do you remember when Joseph's brothers threw him in the pit? They took his coat, they tore it into pieces, they put animal's blood on it. They brought it back to their father, and listen to what they said. "Is this your son's coat"? Jacob then said, "My son has been torn to pieces by wild animals". They didn't say that, he said it. You know why? Fabricated evidence. Satan will fabricate evidence and you'll say, "Well, I know this is true though, because this, this, and this has happened". It doesn't matter what's happened in your life. Listen to me; it matters what this Book says. It matters what the Truth says.
So, in 2007, when I fell and God started showing me I believed a lie, I was recuperating and Pastor Jack Hayford called me and said, "How are you doing? I've been praying for you". I said, "I'm doing well". I said, "Can I tell you something that I think God's showed me through this process"? He said, "Yeah". I said, "I think I've believed a lie and opened a door to the enemy, because I've heard all my life I'm accident prone. I've had lots of accidents. You know, I can't even tell you". Matter of fact, at that time in 2007, I had counted. I had broken 16 bones - 16.
But, I've broken all of these bones, so I'm telling Dr. Jack Hayford about it, and I said, "I feel like I believed a lie and God showed me that", and he gets quiet on the other end of the phone. And he said, "God just spoke to me". And he said, "I want to speak something over you prophetically, because none of Messiah's bones", you know, that's Messiah would be the Hebrew word for Jesus, obviously. Well, Yeshua would be for Jesus Christ, Messiah would be for Christ. This is what Jack said. "Because none of Messiah's bones were broken, and because you are part of the body of Messiah, I declare no more broken bones". That was in 2007. This is 2019. I've not broken a bone since that time, not one. You want to get to victory? Number one, stop believing lies.
You know, Satan is good at what he does. Jesus said that he's a liar and he's the father all lies; and he will do everything he can to lie to you about yourself, and about others, and about God. He lied to Adam and Eve about God. So I just want to just declare to you today stop believing lies. Don't listen to Satan. Recognize lies for what they are. They are lies to hold us in bondage, and Satan is lying to all of us. I'm so proud of you for watching. God led you to watch this program today because there are some lies that Satan's told you that He wants to set you free from today. So let's believe the truth and not believe lies.