Hardwired with Jeff Wickwire

There is a brand of Christianity in modern culture that is all about the experience. Big conferences, celebrity speakers, and trendy outfits. And while there may be sound teaching spread at these events, it can be hard to tell if that is the focus of the events. Pastor Jeff reminds you to always place God at the center of your worship. People need spiritual nourishment to grow in their faith. They need the solid food of God’s Word, not the big flashy experiences that create shallow faith.

Whether we like it or not, there is a market for false prophets in Christian culture. People desire a new revelation from God, and they’re willing to look past some major red flags if they like the prophecy they are hearing. Pastor Jeff warns us in today’s message to be on the lookout for these false prophets, but he also reminds us that the best way to discern false teaching is to compare it with Scripture! God doesn’t contradict Himself, and His prophets won’t contradict His Word either.

God did not promise that you would have an easy path through life. Scripture is actually full of examples of people who follow God with their whole hearts, still being faced with trials, because that’s just the reality of how the world works. But Pastor Jeff isn’t just giving you bad news today; he wants to remind you that God will always give you a way to endure the temptations that you face in this life! It may be difficult to see, and you may have to listen for His voice, but the Lord always will provide a way out.

Temptation is all about repeating patterns of sin, and Satan is very good at exploiting your patterns of behavior. That’s why Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount that if something is causing you to sin, you should cut it out of your life. Pastor Jeff reminds you today that your own human strength is limited, and that if you are regularly putting yourself in situations where you are easily tempted, you may not always be able to resist the devil. You need to learn to give temptation a wide berth.

There are people out there who just want to find a hidden meaning in something. A common version of this phenomenon is people who believe in the importance of numbers and how certain patterns of numbers carry spiritual or supernatural meaning. But Pastor Jeff wants you to realize that God isn’t cryptic like that. If He is going to tell you something, it won’t be in patterns that only certain people with supernatural senses can see. He tells you what you need to hear, straight from His Word! 

When you think about the way the devil is portrayed in human culture, there’s almost always a deal involved. There are many fictional stories of people signing their souls over to the devil in exchange for power, favor, or even good health. And while those stories may be fictional, Pastor Jeff reminds you that the temptation is real, all the same. The occult wants you to think that you can gain access to power by following their teachings, but what you’re really doing is opening your heart to demonic influence. 

One of the ways people try to conflate Christianity with Islam is by claiming that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. But Pastor Jeff reminds you today that Muslims are reading a different sacred text! The Quran is not the Bible, and vice versa. So, even though both groups claim to be worshipping the same God, only one can be the true and inspired Word of God. You can’t serve Jehovah and Allah; you will one day be asked who you serve, and you will be held accountable for your choice.

If people are good at being one thing, it’s being stubborn! How many times have you received correction from someone, and how many times has your first reaction to that correction been to get defensive, or to dismiss the criticism completely? Well, Pastor Jeff reminds you today that a cult member may not be able to escape the deception on their own. You need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to get through to someone who is too stubborn to see how trapped in lies they have become.

When we talk about cults, it can be easy to think of their members either as people who are extremely gullible or even as evil individuals seeking to deceive curious souls. But Pastor Jeff wants us to remember one important thing about people involved in cults: they are all beloved children of God! We shouldn’t seek the destruction of those caught in cults; instead, we should be interceding for them in prayer, asking for freedom from the deception they have become trapped in.

Understanding that you are not under the condemnation of sin doesn’t give you a blank check to keep living however you want. Because if you fall back into a life of sin and disregard your need for forgiveness, the influence of sin can creep back into your life. Make no mistake, without God’s influence in your life, sin will destroy you. Pastor Jeff warns you today not to let complacency push you back into a sinful lifestyle, but allow yourself to be transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit in you.