.PNG)
INCUBATION
Isaiah 59:5
James 1:12-15
Introduction:
Today will probably be one of the shortest sermons that I have preached thus far as your Pastor. Yet, I believe that this is the word for the hour. The Holy Spirit is already moving in the house today. Hearts have already been softened and prepared for the Gospel to be preached.
I want to take a few moments and welcome all of our first time guest today and thank you for choosing to worship with us here at Renovation.
We have been in a series for the last few weeks regarding the Spirit of Python. Before I preach this today, I want everyone in the room o know that this is not preached out of judgement or condemnation.
I am preaching today out of love to help someone find freedom in Jesus name. To reverse the lie of the enemy over your life and let you know that you do have a purpose and your life does have value.
I have pulled the “Spirit of Python” out of Acts 16:16 where a slave girl was possessed with a Spirit of Divination. The word Divination in the Greek means Pythian which is where we get the word Python.
The Python Spirit is a spirit that is trying to choke the life out of you and your Future.
But as we began to go deeper today, I don’t want to talk to you today about the Python but about its offspring and the hatchery between your ears.
- The Hatchery of the Mind
Everyone is looking for Satan in the way that Hollywood has portrayed him.
In 2016 Netflix released the Series Lucifer. In this series Lucifer has “abandoned” his throne as they put it and he is made a protagonist and a hero of show.
Childhood dramas portray him as the devil on a shoulder. Dressed in black with horns and a pitchfork trying to get you to make a wrong decision.
But Satan does not come to you in the form of a protagonist or a cartoon figure on your shoulder. He comes to you with lies and false narratives. Trying to make you believe that God is withholding potential from you and that your current life has not value or purpose.
Making you believe that happiness is found in the bottom of a bottle or in the form of a pill. Making you think that the answer to your nerves and your stress is in the butt of a cigarette or in a joint.
Making you believe that your sexual desires, pornography, and preferences are normal and everyone does it.
Some of yall are in here looking at me funny this morning. “Pastor, You don't need to go too in depth with this today.” “We have teenagers in the room..”
Listen to me…
The average age of online exposure to pornography is 11 years old.
73% of teens int he U.S. from 13-17 have watched or have been exposed to pornography.
In the United States alone, 2.25 million middle and high school students are addicted to nicotine.
757,000 from the ages of 12-17 are addicted to alcohol in the US.
1.19 million students report binge drinking in the last month.
1 in 10 teens between the ages of 12 and 17 reported having serious thoughts of suicide in the past year.
Yet, you want to come in here with your religious mindset and believe that demons aren’t real. The devil is a fictional character that someone only made up to make us make right decisions…
Someone in the room has been made a statistic by hell and is actively dealing with at least one of the things I have mentioned.
Watch this…. 90% of Americans who are clinically addicted started before the age of 18.
Do you know what that tells me?
Their mind became a hatchery for eggs of Python.
The enemy will lay eggs of desire, doubt, fear, anxiety, and self esteem in your mind and if you don’t get those eggs out of your mind before they hatch, they will have you looking for answers in substances, emotions, feelings, and so on; that only Jesus can provide.
2. Where’s your Authority?
“Pastor, Tobacco is a plant.”
“Pastor, Marijuana is a plant and it is better for you than Tobacco.”
Smoking one joint is equivalent to 5 cigarettes in regards to the health of your lungs. But trying to justify one evil to support another is nothing but a lie of the devil.
Genesis 1:26 says “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, let them have dominion.
Dominion means sovereignty or control.
But dominion over what? Over the animals, the fish, birds, cattle, and over ALL of the earth.
Marijuana and Tobacco may be plants, but if it has dominion over you, you do not have dominion over it.
That can that you sit on gentlemen, is taking your dominion. You can’t fight the warfare in your home and contend with Hell for your babies as long as it has a hold on your life.
That cigarette that you cant wait to draw from after service, is taking your dominion. It’s taking your authority.
Quit trying to justify leaving your authority in the hands of a substance and realize that the eggs are hatching in your mind.
One of my favorite foods is a Kristy Kareem Doughnut. When the hot light is on its like Heaven. One doughnut may not hurt. But I got 11 more and how many knows once you eat one…its hard to stop there.
You might not be able to see the negative effects that it has on my body right now. But do not be deceived…I’m gaining 10 lbs from this one doughnut.
You may think that your thoughts aren’t harmful. That looking at a woman or a man in a lustful way isn’t harmful. Smoking that cigarette isn’t harmful. Dipping isn’t harmful. Sex before marriage isn’t harmful…
You may not see the effects of sin immediately but sin has an effect.
As a matter of fact, Paul said in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. Sin has a penalty and listen to me, it may seem fun in the moment. Enjoyable and pleasurable in the moment but in the end there is a dead end.
3. Incubation
Pythons lay an average of 100-110 eggs at a time. Once the eggs are laid, the female snake will coil around the eggs, shiver, and raise the temperature of the eggs; making the environment right for them to hatch.
The scientific term for this is Incubation meaning the process of maintaining a controlled environment to support the development or growth of something.
James said it like this…
“When a desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin.”
Sin Begins with a thought
Sin begins with a though. But what you think on eventually becomes something you talk about. When you talk about it long enough, it becomes an act.
“Pastor, I can’t help what I think…”
While you might not be able to control everything that comes to mind, you can control how long it stays there.
What you think will eventually become an act.
But watch this…if the female python ever stops incubating those eggs, the environment is no longer controlled by her and the eggs go bad and never hatch.
Some of you are letting the enemy control the environment of your mind and because of this you have perverted thoughts, sinful thoughts, lustful thoughts…
Job said in Job 31:1…I have made a covenant with my eyes…What does that mean Pastor? It means he got his eyes under the subjection of the spirit and he realized he didn’t have to continue looking at things that opened doors for sinful thoughts to come into his mind.
Some of you need to get your eyes under the authority of the spirit so that you slam the door on the tactic of the enemy and learn how to say no!
Some of y’all have already took the cheese and you have fell for the bait.
It’s just a cigarette.
It’s just a drink.
It’s just a video.
It’s just Netflix and chill.
It’s just a video game.
It’s just a conversation.
It’s just a lie.
It’s just a word.
It’s just SIN.
It’s just sin and sin brings forth death and a separation between you and God.
Sin does not happen over night. It’s something that is incubated and hatched but when it hatches, it grabs your life and all of the sudden one pack becomes 3. One drink becomes a case. One video becomes subscriptions. Netflix and chill becomes a single parent who doesn't feel worthy.
Y’all can act cute all you want to, but when sin is what is around you, it will eventually rub off on you.
“Well, this is who I am Ryan, I was born this way.” I was born into alcoholism. I was born in to drug addiction. I was born a homosexual. I was born with depression. I was born this way….
You’re exactly right! But that’s why Jesus said YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!
Jesus is the best recovery program that one will ever find. When he saves you, he will cloth you and put you back in your right mind.
He’s not leaving you in the same position he found you in.
The wages of sin is death but the Gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus.
Look at your neighbor and tell them…Get the eggs out!
4. The Secret Place
Some of us in the room today have secret chambers in our life that is off limits to the Holy Spirit. Inside those chambers are the things that we do not want to let go of.
If you can’t surrender, you are not a victor.
You might hide it from Pastor. May hide it from the leaders of the church. You might hide it from the youth group. You may even hide it from mom or dad…but you will not hide it from God.
God see’s what is done in secret.
Ezekiel had a vision in Chapter 8. In this vision 70 elders were in the sanctuary with abominations and Idols all over the wall.
In Numbers, Moses selects 70 elders to share the burden of leadership with him.
The 70 elders that we see in Ezekiel are direct descendants of the 70 Moses instructed.
As we fast forward to Calvary, we see where Jesus is accused and crucified at the hands of 70 men who are referred to as the Sanhedrin Council.
These are also decedent's of the original 70 that Moses selected.
Somewhere in the chambers of secrecy, eggs were planted in the minds of Godly people causing them to venture further away from God.
Momma, Daddy…don’t let the eggs in your mind be the snakes that your children have to deal with later.
There was a generational slide between Numbers and Ezekiel and by the time Matthew wrote the gospel they were sinful people in religious positions.
What could have been dealt with in the Old Testament would have prevented their hearts from waxing cold.
What you don't deal with, they will eventually have to and the weight of the Python is heavy.
I told you last week of how we used to have snake shows at school. They would line up about 10 students and let them hold this snake because 1 person could not handle the weight of the full grown Python.
While the spirit of Python might be too heavy for you and the sin might be too much for you, let me remind you of the son of the living God!
Who came to a world of sin to fulfill a the first prophecy ever given. He lived a perfect, holy life. He bore stripes on his body for our spiritual and physical healing.
He shed his blood for the atonement or cleansing of sin.
He rose again on the third day and defeated death, hell, and the grave.
It is this Jesus who was prophesied by the father in Genesis when he said that He would bruise the serpents head with his heel.
By yourself, you may not can handle it, but hen you walk with Jesus; he bruises the head of the serpent that tried to lay eggs in yours.
Is there anybody in the room who is thankful that Jesus is still the answer for every struggle, every worry,. And ever sin sick soul.
Is anybody thankful that he is still bruising the head of the enemy. That he is uprooting everything that the enemy has planted in your mind.
Come on somebody…praise him in this house today if he has turned your life around and gave it purpose and meaning.
Give him praise in this house today!
Conclusion:
I want to show you today how one moment can change your life. One decision to act on a thought.
When you think it makes you look cool…so you start smoking - That’s a string.
When you watch your first pornographic video - That’s a string.
When you try your first drink - That’s a string.
You try your first drug - That’s a string.
You cut yourself for the first time - That’s a string.
You think seriously about suicide for the first time - That’s a string.
None of this happened over night. Before strings were ever attached, they were thoughts. But overnight…a slippery slope of bad thinking because a lifestyle of bad decisions.
Now you are trying to do right but the enemy is using you like a puppet because you laid your authority into his hands.
You go to church and you try to worship and everyone else is praising but your hands are controlled by your actions and your thoughts.
But the preacher starts preaching on Calvary. You start hearing about an empty tomb. A blood that washes white as snow. Stripes that heal.
Then you realize…Jesus took the key from Satan.
If he doesn't have the key to his own house, why does he have the key to yours.
The grip of the enemy starts loosening and eventually you start calling out to Christ “Save me” “Heal Me” “Deliver Me”…
Everything begins to change when you call on that name.
I celebrate with people who say…”Pastor, I used to smoke 4 packs a day…now I am down to 1.”
Some of you are too stiff necked and pharisaical to celebrate that. “They are still smoking…”
Yes sister yea yea they are…but not as much as they were.
Sin doesnt happen over night…so sometimes freedom takes time. One step at a time.
I’m sorry that everybody didn’t get it like you got it but the prodigal didn’t suddenly appear at the fathers house the moment his heart was pricked in the pig pin. No, he had to journey back.
They are getting eggs out of their mind and letting Hell know that the Hatchery that it once ran in their mind is out of business.
If you are here today and you say Pastor, I’m no where near where I should be with God…you are in the right spot.
He doesn’t wait for you to get it together before he saves you. All he needs it for you to ask him and profess him to be the Lord of your life. He will do the rest!
Maybe you are here and you have been saved, being sanctified daily…but struggling. You don’t have to be ashamed of your struggle.
Today’s struggle becomes tomorrows testimony.
I know it’s gonna be a hard time for people to get out of their seats and come to the altar today. The truth is this….no one should be left in their seats after a sermon like this. Everyone of us in the room today to could pray this prayer…
God, get my eyes under the subjection of the spirit so that there are no open doors in my mind.