Dwelling Place

Al Pittman: And that's exactly what the enemy is doing to many ministers and many people serving the Lord and many believers today is getting us to curse ourselves. The devil has no power over you. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Can we finally get that straight? Amen? He has no power over you than what we give him.

Announcer (Male): Thank you for listening to the Dwelling Place, a radio ministry from Pastor Al Pittman of Al Pittman Ministries. The purpose of this radio program is to encourage you, strengthen your walk with the Lord, and grow.

To support this program financially or learn more about the ministry, visit us online at alpittmanministries.com. That's alpittmanministries.com. Thank you for partnering with us. Now, here is Pastor Al.

Al Pittman: Praise the Lord. This is such an awesome conference. I'm just so blessed to be here with you guys. John Geraci, I know his dad, Gino, and seeing the succession and stepping into that role, we'll be praying for you guys. It's just awesome what God is doing.

This is the refresh. This is so cool, isn't it? That we all come together like this. What a great turnout. Praise the Lord. Give the Lord a clap offering for that. That's awesome. Just a shoutout to Ed and his amazing staff for putting this together. Thank you, Ed. So much. You guys are awesome.

Thank God for Grace FM. I mean, God is doing an amazing work. Thank the Lord for Ed having the faith to step out and do that. I had thought about doing it before Ed did it, but I didn't have the faith to step out. You know how God is. If you won't do it, I'll find somebody else.

So Ed did it and God has blessed it. People are hearing the Word of God all along the Front Range and everything, so it's cool. I get the privilege of meeting many of you who have been listening to our ministry on the radio. I met one gentleman who said, "You don't look anything like you sound. I imagined you to look different."

When people say that, I always tell them I have a face for radio, whatever that means. But I think that's what we're going to say for the first 10,000 years when we get to heaven and we see Jesus: "You don't look anything like I thought you would."

Because we've got in our minds the surfer Jesus with the blond hair and blue eyes. By the way, there were no blond-haired, blue-eyed people in the Middle East back in Jesus' time. Or we've got Jesus with an afro, talk about "right on" and all this stuff.

We have in our own minds what we think he looks like. He's not going to look anything like we think. We're going to go, "You don't look anything like we thought." That's all right. I guess I'm in good company. Praise the Lord.

If you have a Bible, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I've entitled this message "No Limits." No limits. When you leave here today, I hope that you will be taking a huge step of faith wherever your ministry is. For some of you, a huge step of faith is going back to that ministry. Amen?

God wants us to live with no limits. Recently, the Lord took me to the woodshed. I was sharing it with Ed a little bit about standing in it. Gino and I are close to the same age. We moved to Albuquerque around '91. Gino was still there on staff, and then I went on staff.

Of course, he went to Denver and all this, and now his son is stepping into the role. John's stepping in. That's a beautiful thing to behold. I've been talking a lot about succession with my board, the next step, the next phase, and all this. But sometimes from the pulpit, I'd say things like, "I don't know how long I'm going to be here."

God took me to the woodshed on that and said, "You stop it. I called you in 1974 sitting in Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs in the fall of 1974, and I heard God say to me as clear as I'm talking out, preach my word." He didn't tell me anything else. God will just give you just a little bit.

He didn't tell me how it was going to happen or whatever. He said, "I told you to preach the word in 1974 and I didn't tell you when to quit. There's no expiration date on the bottom of your feet. You keep preaching until I tell you to stop." Amen?

For many of you, God has called you into ministry to do what you're doing, and sometimes we want to put a limitation on what God can do. Well, God, I think I'll preach for the next year or two, then I think I will retire. Number one, there's no retirement in the Bible. Number two, my life is not my own; it belongs to Him. He'll tell you when to stop. Amen?

So if God has called you to whatever he's called you to do, don't put limitations on it. Don't tell God, like Peter, "Not so, Lord." I want you to go back and love those people. The ones that hate me? Yes, go back and love them. "Not so, Lord." Really? That's an oxymoron. "Not so, Lord." What has God called you to do?

God wants us to live and have a faith of no limits. So I want to talk to you about no limits, and we learn a lesson from the children of Israel in the wilderness, how they actually limited God. I want us to read first verses one to five here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. But before we go any further, let's pray.

Father, we ask for your blessing upon your word. I'm just here, Lord, to deliver the mail. This is your word. It's not my opinion. It's "thus saith the Lord." Give us ears to hear and hearts to receive your word. May you be glorified that we might bear much fruit. In Jesus' name. And everyone said, amen.

Moreover, brethren, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 1: "I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ."

But with most—he said "all," right?—but with most of them, God was not well-pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. What was scattered in the wilderness? What was scattered in the wilderness was hopes and dreams and visions, promises never realized.

And why? Because they lusted after evil things. There are so many believers whose hopes and dreams and visions lie scattered in the wilderness due to our own lust for evil things. We live in a time whereby many believers are not finishing well. Do you know of any?

By their affections, they have limited the hand of God in their lives. The Bible says in Psalm 78, verse 41, "Yes, again and again they tempted God," speaking of the children of Israel, "and limited the Holy One of Israel." That sounds kind of strange to our ears.

How do you limit God? God is God. God does what he wants to do. How do you limit God? We can actually limit God through our own affections. The children of Israel limited God just as the believers in Corinth limited God by their affections for evil passion.

2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 12, Paul writes, "You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections." We live in a society given over to its affections, whereby men are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Did Paul not warn us about that? That in the last days, men would be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

We live in a time whereby ministries are being destroyed by those affections. A recent Barna report revealed this—kind of give you an idea of the culture we live in—but teens and young adults view not recycling as more immoral than viewing porn. That's the culture that we're facing today.

This report went on to say that most pastors, 57%, and youth pastors, 64%, admit they have struggled with porn, either currently or in the past. Overall, 21% of youth pastors and 14% of pastors admit they currently struggle with using porn. Now, I don't want to beat up on porn. Porn is a sin. But so is pride and all the other affections that we may have.

As with the children of Israel—you remember the story in Numbers chapter 25, and the reason I'm bringing it up is because it's a sin that can subtly eat away at your ministry and whereby you fall into a state of unbelief and you begin to limit God. In Numbers chapter 25, there at a place called Acacia Grove, the children of Israel had been in the wilderness for 40 years.

They're getting ready to cross over the Jordan into the promises of God, and there at Acacia Grove, they fall into this idolatrous relationship with the women of Moab. They're having sexual relations with them and worshiping their idols and all this, and God had to judge them there at Acacia Grove.

They lost thousands of men who were involved with the Moabite women who were stricken by the Lord before they could actually cross over into the Jordan. But here's the lesson there: that at Acacia Grove, where Balaam said, "I cannot curse them. I can't curse what God has blessed," the devil had an ingenious plan and plot.

So he said, "Okay, you can't curse them, but we can get them to curse themselves." And that's exactly what the enemy is doing to many ministers and many people serving the Lord and many believers today is getting us to curse ourselves. The devil has no power over you.

Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Can we finally get that straight? He has no power over you than what we give him. And so they ended up cursing themselves and lost thousands of men to this plague that God had brought into the camp of Israel because they had given in to their own evil desires.

Paul presents here within our text, as we continue to read further in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, a list of things which threaten to limit, to make casualties of us in the wilderness, so to speak. Now, again, this is not a message of condemnation. Everybody gets kind of quiet.

But it's a message the Bible says to not indulge in the evil works of darkness but rather to expose them. I want to shed light on it because I know there are a lot of believers who have been run out of the ministry because they've ended up putting limits on God and not believing God.

A lot of believers who have been deceived and who have given up on the Lord, who have not finished well. God wants us to finish well. Do you believe that? So Paul gave us a list of things that the children of Israel wrestled with, struggled with, or gave in to, we should say, that we should avoid so that we don't become casualties in the wilderness.

We want to see you back here next year at Refresh. Not a casualty in the wilderness. The first one has to do with idolatry. In verse 6, he says, "Now these things became our examples, learn from this, to the extent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play."

Idolatry. In Amos chapter 5, it's an interesting idea because when we think of the children of Israel going in the wilderness, we think of them following Moses and just worshiping the Lord and all of that. But Amos sheds a little light on what was happening in the wilderness.

Amos says, the Lord says, "Did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness 40 years, O house of Israel? Yeah, you did. But you also carried Sikkuth, your king, and Kiyyun, your idols, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves. Therefore, I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus," says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

So while they were following the Lord and making sacrifices unto the Lord in the wilderness, they were still holding on, clutching their gods. And how many times we have done that? It's easy to get up as a pastor and to preach a message and to teach and do all these different things, and you can still have a secret place in your heart of idolatry after sacrificing to the Lord.

Sikkuth was a Babylonian god, the god of war and in chase. And Kiyyun was the star god of Saturn or Molech. Remember Molech? So it's possible—these are not just little gods. These are the god of war and chase, the god that I'm trusting in for my victory, the god of Molech that you have to sacrifice to in order to be blessed in your life and all of that.

These are gods they were hanging on to through their carnal affection. God will not be well-pleased with sharing our hearts with any other idol. What is it maybe in your life that you're holding on to and God is saying let it go? Now's the time to let it go.

The second thing that he warns them about here is sexual immorality. This will leave you a casualty in the wilderness. Verse 8: "Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell." He's talking about the men at Acacia Grove in Numbers chapter 25. 23,000 fell. Do not commit sexual immorality.

I want you to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verses 13 to 20. I just want to read it because I think it clearly says what the Lord means for it to say here. In verse 13, it says, "Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power."

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," he says, "shall become one flesh."

But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a person does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. I take you there to read that because sometimes we hear in our society today, people don't know who they are, why am I here and all that. Paul answers that question right here when he says the body is not for sexual immorality; the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body.

What's my purpose in living as a believer? For me to accomplish all that I want to accomplish? No, I am to live for the Lord. My body is not my own; I belong to Him. And this is why I bring this up about sexual immorality, because a lot of times we have been trained that your body—and look at any movie or any love scene—you look at any of these scenes, it seems like the goal the world says is that sex scene, that yielding of that woman's body or the man's body.

That's really what it's all about. That's really what the real goal is in life. That's what our kids are hearing. That's what young people are hearing. That's what our whole society is hearing: that your body is for sexual immorality. When the Bible says that your body is not for sexual immorality, but it belongs to the Lord and the Lord for the body.

You belong to Him. If we can get that straight in our heads, it would help us. I'm a red-blooded male, too. Hallelujah. And there's temptations that come my way and come your way. But when you understand and you settle it in your heart that I am the Lord's, this body belongs to Him and He belongs to this body.

We are the temple of God. Therefore glorify God. You're not your own, but you've been bought at a price. We belong to Jesus Christ. Isn't that good news? Now, we say amen to that, but we live as if our body belongs to us. It doesn't. The body belongs to the Lord and the Lord for the body. Therefore glorify the Lord in your body and in your spirit.

See, here's the deal. If you don't master your body, it'll jack up your spirit. Come on. You're drinking 19 cups of coffee every day. You're irritable. "Honey, could you..." "What?" "Honey, I just want you to take the trash out." "I'm getting the trash!" I'm serious.

If we're not good stewards over our bodies, if we don't master these bodies—Paul said, "I beat my body under. I bring it in subjection to the spirit, lest after preaching to others, I myself have been disqualified." And so we have to bring our bodies in subjection because here's the deal: if you don't, your spirit's jacked up.

And if your spirit is jacked up, it jacks up your body. You've got a nasty attitude about folks. You're getting in fistfights at church and all—you know what I'm saying? None of you guys do that, do you? But I've known some denominations, Sunday morning on the steps of the church, we're throwing down right now. "I didn't like what you said, Pastor." All right.

But I love that your body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord. Oh, really? I'm not supposed to give myself to my boyfriend or whatever. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with sex in marriage in the confines of marriage. I'm not knocking that. But the reality is that the bottom line is my body belongs to Him.

Announcer (Male): Learn more about Pastor Al and his ministry by visiting alpittmanministries.com. Also consider supporting us financially. You can send a check to Al Pittman Ministries at PO Box 50584, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80949 or visit us online.

Thank you for your prayers and your support. Your generosity keeps this radio ministry going. Lastly, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us by emailing info@alpittmanministries.com. That's info@alpittmanministries.com. We look forward to hearing from you. Again, thank you for joining us and we will see you next time on The Dwelling Place. God bless.

Have you been wanting to hear Pastor Al teach live? Well, now's your chance. Your sanctification is under the Father's authority. How God's going to provide for you is under His authority. How God is going to strengthen you is under His authority. Faith is trusting God for His part while doing my part.

Join Pastor Al at Legacy of Faith Church in Denver, Colorado on Palm Sunday, March 29th. There Pastor Al will be teaching a dynamic Palm Sunday message that you don't want to miss. Doors open at 9:15 AM, service begins at 10:30 AM. Head to legacyoffaithchurch.com to get directions or get more information. That's legacyoffaithchurch.com. We'll see you there.