Hello and welcome to the House of Faith Ministries. I'm Lisa Kaine. I am recording this message today on Sunday, October 6, 20124. Welcome. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word and we bless your word that it does not return void. We love your word. We honor your word and we pray that your word impacts our lives. And Lord, teach us how to come back before you and be humbled before you. Thank you Lord. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. Welcome. Glad to have you here. This is a very interesting message. So we are going to be talking about when Satan provokes. When Satan provokes. Let's go to our opening scripture here in 1 Chronicles 21:1. And Satan, and that name is an opponent, adversary, or an arch enemy of good, stood up against Israel and provoked. He stimulated, pricricked, he seduced David to number Israel. Now, there's nothing wrong with the senses, okay? But notice that it was the devil here who was doing the provoking and he interested or got David to fall for his trick here. And I'm going explain the purpose of this teaching. So I want you to understand what we're going to what the end goal of this teaching is going to be. When Satan provokes us and he causes us to sin, what do we do about it? How can we undo it? The purpose of this teaching is to show you how to handle the situation no matter how bad the results are. Amen. So we have a situation here where Satan tells David to uh count do a census over Israel. And so David falls fall falls for he tells his kingdom all the people works for him. I want you to go count um the number of people. And this is how Joab responds in verse three. And Joab answered, "The Lord Jehovah make his people 100 times so many more because he keeps adding and augmenting to the nation of Israel as they be. But my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why then doth my lord require have you search out or strive after this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? Oh, this is very, very interesting. Joab recognizes that God doesn't need to know the number of how many people are in Israel because he's already got the number. He already knows it. So, this is a point where David is hearing from the devil and he's tempted. He's the one who wants to know what the count is, where the number of Israel is at this time. And this is the part that's causing some havoc. And Joab's recognizing this. He's like, "Hey, hey, you cannot do this. This isn't coming from the Lord." But King David is his king, right? So let's continue on and go to verses 5-7. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. So he went and did it. He he was obedient. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a 100,000 men that drew sword. And Judah was 400 three score and 10,000 men that drew sword. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them. For the king's word was abominable to Joab. And God was displeased with this thing. Therefore, he smoked Israel. So, the concept of this teaching here is to teach you what happens when um you are provoked by Satan. You're tempted by Satan. You fall for something that he's tempting you to do. You will know, by the way, what your sin is. So, here you're seeing that Israel is about to get smoked. God didn't like this and Joab knew better, but he he he held back. He still went and counted, but he held back because David is his king. So, he's being obedient, but at the same time torn. There are consequences to other people around here for the sin of what David just did. Let's continue on. Let's go to verse verses 11-4. So Gad came to David and said unto him, now Gad is the prophet at that time with David. And he says to him, "Thus say the Lord, choose thee, either three years famine, or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee, or else three days uh the or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coast of Israel." Now therefore advise thyself, what word shall I bring again to him that sent me? So God gives David three choices. H this is this is very very interesting. David falls for this seduction from Satan. He's provoked. So he sins. He sins as a king. He has a sin. And the sin that he's he did has a consequence. So God is saying, "Which one do you want me to do?" So here's David's response. He says, "And David said unto Gad, I am in a great straight." No kidding. He's feeling cramped, distressed. He says, "Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord." In other words, he's not going to choose any of them. He says, look at and look what he says. Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for very great are his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of man. So now, now the three choices are kind of David's worst fears here. He's brought his kingdom of Israel. He's got it secure. They're stable. And now, you know, his choices were, you know, um have a pestilence come through or have a the enemy come in and take him. He's got he's in a world of hurt here. He's feeling it. This isn't comfortable for him and this is his sin. So, he's hoping, okay, I'm going to throw myself into God's hands and let God handle this. So, what did say 14 say? So, the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel and there fell of Israel 70,000 men.

David just cost the lives of 70,000 men. And David is the heart of God, the apple of his eye. Can you believe that? How much more are we?

So, David says something and I want you to see this because I I'm hoping that you can understand how we can get out of this situation because now there are consequences. 70,000 men died. Okay, let's look at what else happens here. So, uh verse 15, and God sent an angel into Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was destroying, the Lord beheld and he repented. Simply what that word repented is

he sighed. He let it go. He he he he's sorry. He's pitying the situation of the evil and said to the angel that destroy it is enough. Stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Orin the Jebusite. Now, there's a lot to this teaching. So, I'm only covering right now the purpose of how to get out of the sin that you caused. Okay? We we're all tempted by the devil. We have all fallen for that temptation. And this is how we get back to the Lord. How we get ourselves right with the Lord. So, I'm showing you this because I want you to understand now there are consequences because as you saw, God said it's enough. He took 70,000 Israelites and he he said that that's going to pay this price here. So now David, watch this because he sends his angel of the Lord over to Orin and he's got him standing there visible to the naked eye, visible to the humans. Okay? And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heaven having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel who were clo clothed in sackcloth fell upon their faces. Okay, first thing David did is they put themselves in sackcloth. They got down on their hands and knees, put their face down on the floor. This is their form of repentance back in the day. So David, who has already put himself in God's hands, he's now there with his whole leadership team and they're all in sackcloth and they are bowing before the Lord. and he looks up and he sees this angel between heaven and earth and he sees it over Jerusalem and he's oh I mean watch what he says here in verse 17 and David said unto God it is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed but as for these sheep what have they done let thine hand I pray thee oh Lord my God be on me and my father's house, but not on thy people that they should be plagued.

Little does David realize or even know what he is prophesying here. This is the golden nugget I want you to catch. David's like, "This was my sin, not theirs." And David's like, "Put it on me." Now remember though, God can't do that to David because David has a blessing in his life, promises to him. So even though David might have sinned, the the consequence of the sin comes off of David because of the promises over him. There are promises his lineage is going to bring the Messiah. And by the way, the sin will be poured out on the Messiah on the cross. So David is asking for that sin to be placed on him. It's going to be placed on his great great great great great however many greats there are Jesus the son of the living God. It's going to come through his lineage. So he is saying you know come on me do it on me. But here's the thing that I want you to see as someone who serves Christ and is Christlike. The consequence of your sin will not land on you. It lands on whether you are forgiven, whether you forgive, whether you have the mercy, whether you're humbling yourself before the Lord. Like David did here, there was still a consequence. 70,000 Israelites have died. Now, imagine yourself in a a situation where you committed a sin. Now, see, you have blessings as a believer in Christ. You have blessings. If you have the blessing of long life and if you're dwelling with the Lord, you have blessings of authority and power. You are the ones talking about you and me who dwell and share this type of teaching. We're the ones that have the authority that we can bring down kingdoms.

Go read um I uh Psalm 149. We have this authority to do that. So now what happens is because we're given that authority and we know better. So when Satan comes in to uh provoke us, he attacks us. In this case, he he tempted David. David knew better. But what he was thinking was, "Oh, God knows the number. I I'll know the number." But remember the promise to Abraham, his nations that follow him will be like the sand. Counted like the sand. You can't count the sand. Can't count the stars. It'd be like the stars. So Satan was like, "Aren't you curious as to how much how big you are now? I bet you are." And they would sit there, I am curious. Let's go count thinking it's it's he justifies it in his mind. How many of us justify sin in our minds in our lives? Well, that's exactly what happened here. So, what when David realized what they had done because Gad the prophet's telling him he he's humbling himself before the Lord, but the Lord still took 70,000 men. There is a consequence. Remember the promise to Israel, too. I am a jealous God giving your sins to the third and fourth generation. He So, so here you are. So, your children and your children's children, your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren will be impacted by your sin just like your greatgrandparents have their consequence of sin on you to the fourth generation. So that means that has to break. You have to break the curses. So David's going to break this curse here. He's going to break it because he's like telling the Lord, I can't believe you just did what you did. Uh I don't know, you know, where do I go from here? I've already humbled myself. I'm giving myself into your hands. What do you want me to do? Because remember, this was attack on Israel from Satan. Now remember also Israel should not have had a king. They should have still just been one nation, but they had asked for a king. And uh um Samuel was all offended. God says, "Listen, they're they're rejecting me. They're not rejecting you." So God put gave them a king. Gave him King Saul who failed miserably. And now they're he's showing him King David. Even though David has a heart after him, he's showing he's still a sinner. Should have not chosen a king. Now that you chose a king, you had to oy that king. Now you have the consequences of what that king did. That sin is on you, which they gladly agreed to accept when they agreed to have Saul as their king. So now you see why this had to go on to the people besides the blessing on David who did follow God and had and was after God's heart. So you can see the dynamics playing here of what the Lord is dealing with. So how do you get out of the situation? Because you have your blessing on your life. But guess what? Satan provokes you from time to time. We all trip. We all fall. We have all fallen of the short fallen short of the glory of God. So it there's a time where we can come back and have restoration in our lives from that sin. The consequence still there. It the deed the blood has been made for that. So we still have the consequence of Jesus on the cross for our sins. He had to do that. So that still had to happen. The 70,000 still had to die. Understand that. Now look verse 18. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Orna in the Jebisite. And David went up at the saying of Gad which he spake in the name of the Lord. So now David is being obedient to the Lord. This is awesome. So David humbled himself. The blood price still had to be paid. So we can see Jesus coming to pay that price for our sins because that is the consequence of being provoked by Satan. Now the best way is just to tell Satan to get below your feet. That's how you deal with being provoked or tempted by Satan. And you have that authority. I don't think David did have that authority back in that day and he had to deal with the consequence. So those of us who end up falling for temptation and you do fall that consequence is there but it is forgiven but it had a price to pay Jesus on the cross. So every time as a believer in Christ you fall for that you're just piercing Jesus' heart deeper and deeper. This is why it is very important to recognize it upfront. The moment you repent, the moment you have the helmet of salvation on, the moment you have a knowledge up here with the helmet protecting you that keeps you from falling for the provocion of Satan. Let's go there. Let's go to Romans 7 24 and 25. Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Paul is recognizing, listen, I have sinned. In fact, he's the one who says, "I was the Pharisee of the Pharisee, but I went persecuting the church and I was killing them. I sinned." And he says, "Oh, wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death." Then he goes, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." So then with the mind, remember the helmet of salvation I just referenced with the mind, intellect, thought, feeling, or the will. I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Now, when we're provoked, we are dealing with the law of God and the law of sin. And when we fall for the law of sin, we have to remember. So David had to create an altar on that threshing floor by orin there. And he had a he ended up buying that land to build that altar because it was made in remembrance of the event that took place and his prophetic word that the sin will be placed on his lineage on his family which it was and it was the sin of the entire world. Oh, I hope you're getting this. This is powerful. And then look at Romans 8 1 and 2. There is therefore now no condemnation. No more verdict to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. So every time you're walking in the spirit, you've got your helmet on. You cannot be provoked anymore. You're in a different place. You're equal with Jesus. Yes. In Psalm 8, we're told that we're made a little lower than the angels. But when Jesus on his way up, he was ascending from the grave three days after and he stops to talk to Mary Magdalene and says, "Don't touch me. I haven't ascended yet. Says, I go to my father, your father, my God, your father, your God. He equalized us to him. So there's no more condemnation, no more verdict, and there's no way the devil can provoke us anymore. It's done. It is finished. Jesus finished it. Oh, hallelujah. Look at what else he says. He says, "And these are the ones who walk after the spirit, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free, exempt from the law of sin and death." Now there's no more consequences. So the moment you do fall and sin and mess up, you say, "Jesus," and it stops. There's no more consequence to your nation, to your country, to your family, to your household. Your sin stops here and now. So now when things happen, you're dealing with God. You're not dealing with Satan anymore. He He's a tool that God uses, but other than that, you're dealing with God. And what did David do immediately when he realized he did wrong? He humbled himself before the Lord. The purpose of this teaching is to show you how to humble yourself. You're to go to God and ask for forgiveness immediately. Now, I want to show you the psalmist. I want to show you what the psalmist said about these situations because we do face situations. We face them. Look at what he says in Psalm 23:4 and 4-6. Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. And that word comfort, by the way, is to sigh. That's the Holy Spirit. That's God bringing comfort. I forgive you. We're not going to let this thing go on anymore. We stop it here now. comforting you. He's telling you that all it is is thy rod, thy staff, they comfort me. Yeah, I'm going through a serious situation that is close to death. Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. It's not evil now. It's God. And we don't have to fear God. God has life in the palm of his hands. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. Oh death, oh death, where is your sting? There is no more sting. Because the moment we're out of this body, we're in the presence of God. And that can't be any better than what we have now. Hallelujah. That is just so much better. That is better. That is multiplied better. And right now we have a duty. We're to be here. We have to We're called to pray, to intercede, to walk in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to walk with the Lord. Let his rod and staff comfort you. Yeah, it's rough. You're close to the shadow of death here. You're close. You see a loved one close. It breaks your heart. But then you remember what Jesus did on the cross. And you're wow, Lord, you got me. You got me. You got me taken care of. Look at this. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runth over. You know what that says? When you are at that table with the Lord and all the enemies are watching you, your eyes are on God and you're eating the fruit he brought on the table. You're talking to him. You're telling him, "Man, this one hurts. Lord, this one's hard." He's saying, "I've got you. I've got you. It is taken care of." And you say, "Thank you, Lord." And there is a peace. It's hard because our minds go places where we don't want them to go, especially when we have a loved one who is suffering. But then we go to the Lord and we give it to him and the enemies are watching and they see how you're reacting and this is your testimony. You're telling the world the devil don't have me. My eyes are on God. His rod, his staff, they comfort me. Look at verse six. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In other words, no matter what happens, no matter what the consequences are, I'm going to come to the Lord, and I'm going to dwell with him because he's my comfort. He's the one in control. He's the one who created all of this. Even if I don't understand why a loved one is being attacked or even if there is sin that was a consequence and this is a provoked sin by Satan and he provoked the situation. He made it so bad. I can still go before the Lord, humble myself and say, "Lord, I'm going to dwell in your house forever no matter what." And that stops Satan in his tracks because we have the freedom, the equality with Jesus, our Messiah. Messiah who is life. He rose from the dead. Don't you think he's going to raise the rest of us?

It takes faith to believe. But you got it. I know you do. If I can have the faith to believe, you can too. And it's been challenging. Yay. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. My God is comforting. He's with me. He's getting me back out of that sin. He's bringing me back away from it. He's nullifying the verdict against me. There is no more condemnation. I am free. free. Free.

That's Jesus, our Messiah. And that's what he did on the cross. And that's where you and I get to come in today and share the gospel. Share the good news. Jesus, yes, he was born, but he died and he rose from the grave. And he came back. He came back with his body. He's got a body. He says, "Go ahead, put your hands, your fingers in the holes of my hands and feet. my side. And then he's asking for meat. You got something to eat? I'm hungry. That's Jesus our Lord. So if he can be like that, guess where we're going to end up? This is how we nullify being provoked by Satan. We humble ourselves before him. We call on his name. Thy rod, thy staff, they comfort me. He anoints our head. So our head is pro protected. We're not dwelling on that evil. We're not looking at the evil. We're looking in his eyes at the table that he set before our enemies because he wants to show us off. He wants to show off. Look at how much she loves in me. She is trusting in me. He is trusting in me no matter what. And the enemies that are watching and they're watching. We have a cloud of witnesses. There's demons. There's the devil himself. They're watching and they get mad. Yeah. That's the way this works, my friend. So come back from sin. Don't let it be prosperous. No weapon formed against us shall prosper. This is when you get to start quoting those scriptures. You get to put your eyes on God. You say, "I love you. I'm dwelling with you. I'm going to just be here with you. Share your word. I'mma open up your word. I'mma read it. I'm going to dwell in it. I'm gonna let it fill my heart." That's the God of whom we serve. And that's because of what Jesus did on the cross. He's the altar. We go back to the altar of the cross. So David not only humbled himself, spoke directly with God, asked for forgiveness. He got up. He built an altar to remember. So every time you have holy communion, you remember what Jesus did on the cross. He took the sin of the world and he bore it. He took it. He nullified it. And the verdict says we are not guilty. Yes. Oh, and this is the time when you have all hell breaking loose, you put your foot down on the devil's face and you smush it in and you say, "No more." You call on God and you say, "I worship you, Lord. I praise you. You make my cup runth over. You fulfill me. You anoint me. You call me to you and I come." That's how you deal with the devil. When he comes to provoke him, you kick him out. Amen. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word. Oh Lord, let it enrich us and let us not ever forget your word. Let us not forget what you did on the cross. Let us humble ourselves and come before you. Let's call on you, worship you and keep our eyes focused on you because you are God. You are our creator. You are our savior. You are our redeemer. Thank you. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. God bless you. I will see you in the next message.