Living Hope Fellowship Church...Sermons From the Pastor
GOD
KILLS
by Pastor Kevin Badgley
Good day, beloved. I pray that God will teach you, and bless you, and lift you up in the Spirit. I want you to go with me to I Samuel 2:6-9. It says, "The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail."
We need to understand something about Almighty God. Many people today are trying to serve God in ignorance. They are serving God according to their own thinking, their own will, their own ways, and what is worse yet, the ways of modern day tradition. Jesus says in Matthew 15:6, ". . . Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition."
The church world in general has destroyed the truth out of peoples' lives by telling them that there's another fashion to this truth. We have a greater education and understanding, so therefore we are going to teach you the good and right way. They are liars. They are called wolves in sheeps' clothing. Matthew 7:15 says, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." They are not teaching you everything in the Word of God.
The Bible declares in I Samuel that the Lord kills, and he makes alive: he can bring you down to the grave, and he can bring you up out of it. He can make somebody poor, and he can make somebody rich. He can mock and bring them to nothing, and he can lift them up. It depends on what they decide to do with his Word! Many people today do not believe that God kills. What happened to Ananias and Sapphira when they lied to Peter, the man of God? They brought him an offering right in the midst of a church revival. They told him they had sold their land for so much and that they were going to give him a blessing. They told Peter they were going to give it all to him. This was so all the neighbors would make a big "to-do" over them, and make them feel like they were somebody. They could "sucker" people into believing that they were saved and walking upright. However, they were trying to manipulate the Word of God. The Word of God is strict and God showed us right there in the book of Acts 5:1-11 what happened. God killed them when they lied to the Holy Ghost! Do you think that Satan killed them? No! God killed Ananias and Sapphira, and they are in hell right now!
God killed Pharaoh and all his army when they tried to follow the children of Israel across the Red Sea. They tried to follow the same baptism, the same experience in God, and the same miracles that God's people were experiencing. They were trying to take on a counterfeit. They were going to try to pass through the Red Sea just like God's church in that day and hour did. They were going to try to follow Moses, in a fashion, to destroy and overtake the children of Israel, and also to claim glory by being able to go down through a parted Red Sea. In other words, the devil's crowd was trying to go the same method to God as the church crowd, and they didn't make it. The Bible declares that the same Word of God that caused the sea to part by the lifting up of Moses' rod caused that Sea to come crashing in. Multitudes of tons of water came crashing in on the hypocrites, and on the sinners—the Egyptians who tried to chase down God's people. They tried to be like them, and tried to overtake them, and bring their own fashion, and bring them back into bondage. God have mercy on a preacher who says that the power of God is not real today. God have mercy on a preacher who says that devil possession is not real today, that says it's in your mind, and it's just a carnal thing, or it's a chemical imbalance, or some other foolishness.
The Bible declares in Romans 1:22, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." God calls people like that fools. He said they are fools that are claiming to be wise. They claim to have the full inside of the truth, yet what they are preaching and teaching is contrary to God's Word. God says they are fools, and they will split hell wide open. The problem is that the blind will lead the blind and they will both fall into the ditch. It says this in Matthew 15:14. "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." The people that are sitting under their ministries will go to hell with them.
Beloved, today, don't harden your heart against the truth of God's Word! God says he kills, and makes alive. He will destroy life, and he will create life. Where did anybody ever take away the power of God to kill? Where did anybody ever come up against God and say, No, you can't do it this way anymore? Romans 9:19 says, ". . . For who hath resisted his will?" Men have tried to resist God's will, but what ended up happening to them when they did? They were killed. Satan didn't kill them, God did.
Who killed Saul? You say, Well, Saul killed himself; he committed suicide. You are right. A suicide devil took him over because he lived in melancholy all the time feeling sorry for himself, but who sent that evil spirit against Saul? You had better read it, and find out before you start sending in any hate mail. The Bible says in I Samuel 16:14, "But the spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him." God sent an enemy against Saul, a devil to destroy him, but in his love and mercy God sent David to deliver him. David would play the harp, and Saul would be refreshed. Do you remember what the Bible says? The evil spirit would depart from Saul when David would play the harp. The devil would leave him for a time while the anointing was there. This is found in I Samuel 16:16. "Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well."
Saul had an opportunity while David was playing the harp and the anointing was there, to come clean before God, but he rejected it again and again. He wouldn't pray through. He wouldn't listen. He probably said, Another day, perhaps, a more convenient time, perhaps. I'm the king, and I'm not going to get on my knees before God in front of some little peon preacher, some little boy that is playing the harp. I'm Somebody, and I've known God longer than this kid has been alive.
Whoever you are, if you reject the Word of the Lord, the devil will come right back, and soon conviction won't bother you. You won't have any heart felt experience to repent. You won't have any desire to repent at all, and you will be cut off. The Bible says in Romans 1:28, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." That is when God has killed them spiritually. Generally, they don't last long physically, either.
Many are wailing and weeping as they talk about folks that have killed themselves over trials and tribulations. I've heard preachers preach that these that have killed themselves go to heaven. That's a lie from the pit, and the preacher will go there with them. If you kill yourself you will go to hell, because you killed yourself out of obedience to a devil. That last thing that you will have done was listen to a devil saying, Go ahead and do it, and get out from all this pain and trouble. Then you obeyed him.
The Bible says in Romans 6:16, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Are you listening? You've become a servant of the devil at your last moment, and you killed yourself, and there was no room for repentance. You had no time to repent; you couldn't repent. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"
What do you think that God's going to do to a person that obeys the devil in his last breath? He will send him straight to the pit. There is no hope, although I've heard preachers trying to pray them out. People try to pay enough money to a preacher to pray them out, but they are being fooled and duped by a religion. God doesn't honor that, and it's an abomination in his sight.
Preachers, let's believe God today, and start following his Word. Let's start preaching the truth. Many today out there say, Yeah, I agree with you, but they won't preach it, because they don't want the persecution. Let's not worry about that. Matthew 6:34 says, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Let's go on, and believe God to protect, keep, honor, and anoint those who are preaching the truth.
God said in his Word, in Deuteronomy 32:36, "For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left. There is almost nobody fasting, and praying, and seeking God. The power has diminished and left the church, and they have a vain show, and there is no anointing. God has killed them. He has killed their ministry. He has destroyed the workings of the power of God, because he is the power of God. How does he do that? He does it by withdrawing himself, by leaving them. Do you remember when Jesus came into Jerusalem, and the children were shouting, Hosanna? The Pharisees and the church world were screaming and hollering.
Matthew 21:15-16 says, "And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased, And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" Then it says in Verse 17 that Jesus left them. "And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there." He withdrew himself. The Truth left the presence of the church. So what did they do? They won't admit that he has left, so they make up something that looks like it. They make it the best that they can remember from what it looks like. They counterfeit it, and try their best to get God to usher back in. All the while the devil is laughing his head off, because he is giving them religion and binding them up tighter and tighter for hell—them and their people.
Come out of it, beloved, and be set free today in Jesus' name, because God still kills, and he still makes alive. Today people will preach that God makes alive, even in the worst of situations. That's true, but I want you to also know that according to God's Word, he still kills! God still destroys.
Who do you think destroyed Jericho? Do you think the devil did that? He did not. God did, and destroyed everything in there including man, woman, boy, girl, ox, ass, every lamb, and every sheep. Everything in Jericho was cursed by God, and he commanded the children of Israel to destroy it. They were commanded not to partake of any of it, lest they be cursed also. If God has destroyed something, consequently, and you still go there, and you still hold on to their traditions and beliefs, you will become cursed like them.
A common excuse that I hear from people that are supposed to be saved, delivered, and filled with the Holy Ghost (contrary to what their church denomination believes) is, I'm staying here because God is wanting me to stay and deliver this people, and bring them to the same experience, and change this church around. Very rarely has this ever come to pass. The fact of the matter is that the scripture declares in 2 Corinthians 6:17 says, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you."
Don't be a partaker of the church world's sins. God wants a holy people. He is not calling the "church world." He is calling a remnant out of a people, who were no people. God's wanting people to be free, but they must come in the fear, and admonition, and the warnings of the Lord. God still kills, and the church world is already dead. We are not rejoicing in it, but we are praising the Lord that the truth is coming out. The Bible says even in the "love chapter" that everyone likes to quote (I Corinthians 13:6, "Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;" You are hearing the truth right now because God's Word is being preached. It is not being skimmed over, but it's being preached in the depth, truth, and the hardness thereof. God does not want his people to be ignorant of Satan's devices. The greatest device that Satan has to fool and send people to hell is to make them think that they are fine with God. He lies and says that God doesn't kill, or condemn, or judge anymore, and they can make it the way they are going. I'm telling you today, beloved, according to God's Holy Word, you cannot make it that way. You cannot make it in your current state.
God says he kills and he makes alive, and God has not changed one iota. You say, Well, I don't believe that. That's too hard. It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. It is still so according to God's Word and you must come in line with it, or be found a liar, and miss heaven. Today, beloved, don't miss God. Don't miss God. God wants to set every captive free. Let him make you alive today before he kills you.
Email the pastor at
© Living Hope
Fellowship, Inc.