The Dangers of Flattery in Christianity: A Biblical Perspective

Understanding the dangers of flattery in Christianity

Defining flattery as a cloak of covetousness

Biblical perspectives on flattery from Psalms 12 and Ephesians 4

Identifying and renouncing the sin of flattery

Music Today, we are going to speak on a subject that I believe is much neglected and little talked about in the church these days, but yet is described as a very deadly and detrimental foe for those of us who journey on our Christian path. This clever tool of saint and the devil is disguised or camouflaged as ingratiating oneself to win favor by beguiling someone to take advantage of them for selfish reasons and motives. Beguiling means to lead into deception, to hoodwink them, to deceive through evil motives. Our subject today is why flattery is called a deadly sin. The Greek word kolekia means to flatter. Flattery is defined as a cloak of covetousness, not only as an effort to give pleasure, but with the motive of self-interest. Probably one of the greatest or the best scriptures that we could find on this subject in the absolute deception of this abominable and oppressive sin that puts people in prison would be found in Psalms 12, verse 1. Psalms 12, verse 1. Help, Lord, for principled and godly people are here no more, faithless and the faithful vanish from among the sons of men. To his neighbor each one speaks without use or worth of truth. With flattering lips and double heart deceitfully they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and tongues that speak proud boastings. Those who say, with our tongues we prevail. Our lips are our own to command at our will. Who is Lord and Master over us? Verse 5. Now will I arise, says the Lord, because the poor are oppressed, because the groans of the needy, I will set him in safety and in the salvation for which he pants. The words and promises of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times over. You will keep them and preserve them, O Lord. You will guard and keep us from this evil generation forever. Well, this verse shows the futility and the horrendous end for both those who are caught in this deception and for those who are instrumental in the entrapment of God's people in beguiling them with their cloak of covetousness for self-gain. These people speak vanity with their neighbors and with flattering lips and a double heart do their empty words flow forth as smooth talk and with enticing sound good appeal. Their feigned and false speech only holds out hope, but their empty and hollow words are only doomed to disappoint and cheat their prey by their lying lips. And Apostle Paul gives us great admonishment in regards to the subject which we are looking into today in Ephesians 4, 25, when he says, Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. Flattering lips speak of one who speaks with the lips of smoothness. And this is done with a double heart, literally a heart with double motive. A double-minded man is one who has faith on the surface, but underneath lies unbelief. This is saying that ungodly professors of the faith have two hearts, two lords, two ends, two ways. I believe we have all been guilty of the sin of flattery at some point in time in our lives, whether before conversion and even after our conversion. God's word declares, my people perish for the lack of knowledge. And it is my intent to lay this subject out before you today and unfold a greater insight for those of you who may be unaware of the depth of this kind, of this masked foe and enemy that steals many off their Christian path. And we are speaking of both the victims of this enemy and also the one who is used by Satan the devil as a tool of iniquity. I pray this word will be an enlightening word for both parties. The flattering tongue is one that needs a bit put in its mouth. But let's understand first the difference that honest and hearty praise is not sinful. And this should never be avoided. In fact, there probably is not enough of it in these days and times. There are many people who work in their lifetime and are heart sick and hopeless and discouraged, where one word of recognition would be like cold water to a wilting plant or to a thirsty soul. But let us understand that this is not flattery. Flattery is false praise. This is not praise which is to the recognition of the quality of someone deserving acknowledgement of their actions or deeds in a particular job, an exploit or a feat. To praise your child's looks or appearance or even his mind, for example, is only stimulating his or her vanity and this is flattery and a most disgusting and nauseating demonstration of it. this is where the flattering tongue ought to be bridled. There is the kind of flattery that seeks to please. And so because of this bewitching evil, it entices its victims with artful and insincere empty praises. And this is called lying. And of course it is wicked and dangerous. And it needs to be singled out and identified and denounced by those who recognize it for what it is. and it should be renounced by those who are guilty of this sin because of their own deception. All flattery is dangerous, but I believe one of the most dangerous of all, the forms of flattery, is the one who stands behind the pulpit, professing the faith and in this place of the Lord's business of the salvation and discipling of souls. There are multitudes of these kinds of self-deceivers, among them people of faith or God's people. And the reason for the bases and causes of these flatterers behind the pulpit is found in Jeremiah 17.9. Jeremiah 17.9. The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely mortally sick. And who can know it? Who could perceive and understand and be acquainted with his own heart and mind? I, the Lord, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doing. So the natural deceitfulness of the heart, this scripture says, is nothing more sick or perverse or treacherous or false. And we must know, dear church, that Satan is the chief plotter and schemer in this disloyal and faithless work. And the familiar and widespread work found in these unregenerate people who deceive many is that their victims cannot distinguish the difference between the real or the profane. And many times this is because of lack of growth and maturity in God's word or ignorance due to new believers coming into the faith. And they cannot tell the difference with God's Spirit at work in his true ministers of the gospel versus the work of the deceivers who are professors of Jesus Christ but live contrary to the truth. Paul in Hebrews 6.1 encourages us to grow in our faith. And yet in these same verses he gives the perilous end for those who go about deceiving God's people. Hebrews 6, 1. Therefore let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teaching and doctrine of Christ, advancing steadily towards the completeness and perfection that belongs to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works or dead formalism and of the faith by which you turn to God. Verse 2. With teachings about purifying the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment and punishment. These are all matters of which you should have been fully aware of long, long ago. If indeed God permits, we will now proceed to advance teachings. Verse 4, it is impossible to restore and bring again to repentance those who have once for all enlightened, who have consciously tasted the heavenly gift and become sharers of the Holy Spirit, and have felt how good the word of God is and the mighty powers of the age and the world to come. Verse 6, if they then deviate from the faith and turn away from their allegiance, it is impossible to bring them back to repentance, for because while as long as they nailed upon the cross the Son of God afresh, as far as they are concerned, and are holding him up to contempt and shame and public disgrace, for the soil which has drunk the rain that repeatedly falls upon it and produces vegetation useful to those for whose benefit it is cultivated partakes of a blessing from God. But if that same soil persistently bears thorns and thistles, it is considered worthless and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. So if we, as God's people, do not grow in the grace, knowledge, and truth of God's word, we will be easily deceived by those who have deviated away from the faith and now wound and crush with their flattering mouths as they wreak havoc in the lives of the unsuspecting and naive people of faith. Proverbs 26, 28 declares, A lying tongue hates those it wounds and crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin. Flattery cannot compensate for the damage that it brings in its ruin. The flatter is the most dangerous of all people. They usually attack in the areas of where people are naturally most vulnerable in being assaulted. And this is where they are in most danger of being thrown off guard and giving their attacker entrance As our scripture says a flattering mouth works ruin And once the flatterer has gained entrance he goes for the execution of his victim He works ruin. Where a door is open to vanity or deceit, the individual's character will suffer ruin. Someone can have character traits or abilities that are admired and worthy of admiration. but flattery can be the downfall of any lovely and worthy attraction that an individual may have been blessed with. And whatever selfish motive or aim of the flatterer, his goal is wrapped up in the gratification of the ruin of the one who has received his flatteries and fallen into deception. And this is the way our scripture in Proverbs 26, 28 is defined. A lying tongue hates those it wounds and crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin. You see, there is just no way, absolutely no way, dear church. There is no building up in flattery, but only ruin and destruction for the victims and also the perpetrators. There is a testimony which gives a graphic depiction of what this verse is speaking to us today. The story happened sometime back, maybe in the 40s or 50s. But it is an ongoing story for many, many people who have good intentions as believers of our Lord Jesus Christ in every generation, but have not guarded their hearts, nor did they take time to grow and mature in the truth as they had learned it. There was a man from New York who, traveling in the South on business, met a young woman of great beauty and wealth. And after a short courtship, they married and returned to New York and plunged into a wild and mad whirlwind of merriment and high society living. The young wife before her marriage had been a gentle, thoughtful young lady who was anxious to help all who were suffering or in need and desired to serve her Lord faithfully. But now, as a new wife living in high society, she had troops of flatterers. Her beauty and dress were described and written in the society journals, and her clever remarks and wit went all around near and far. And her group of attendants was one of the most attractive, even for a stroll in the park. It brought much notice. In only a few months after she had made her mark in New York, she was intoxicated with admiration. She and her husband flitted from New York to Newport, from London to Paris, with no objective but solely for enjoyment and pleasure. And there were other men and women of their class who had some worthier pursuit, that is literature or the arts or even the help and assistance of the poor and the needy. But this couple lived only for the amusement and pleasures of life. Our once humble and contrite and beautiful, wealthy young woman was now looked upon as the foremost leader in society. And it happens that she was returning alone from California when an accident occurred to the railroad train in which she was a passenger and she received a fatal internal injury. She was carried into a wayside station, and there she was attended to by a doctor from the neighboring village where she died. And the doctor reported that it was one of the most painful experiences of his life. He said, I had to tell her that she had but one hour to live. She was not suffering any pain at all. Her only consciousness of hurt was that she was unable to move. So it was of no wonder she would not at first believe me. She said, but I have but an hour to live. You tell me not one more than an hour. and this is all that has left me of all the world. It is not much, doctor, she said with a half smile. Then the others left the room and the doctor says I locked the door so that she might not be disturbed. She threw her arm over her face and lay quiet a long time and then she turned on me in a great frenzy and said, to think all that I might have done with my money and my time. God wanted me to help the poor and the sick, but it is too late now as I only have an hour to live. She struggled up and wildly she said, Why, doctor, I did nothing, nothing but lead the life of fashion, the fashion. Now I have only one hour to live, only an hour. But she had not even that, for the exertion proved fatal, and in a moment she lay dead at my feet. No sermon that I have ever heard was like that woman's despairing cry, It's too late, it's too late. Again, dear church, this story is told many, many times over with different characters and different circumstances in every generation. But nevertheless, our scripture in Proverbs 26, 28 states, A lying tongue hates those it wounds and crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin. There are many people ruined by the flatteries of others, where they have had natural abilities, character traits, and so on, that really are admired and worthy of admiration. But flattery many times over is the downfall for those Christians who do not keep their guard up and stay connected with the only one who can fight every battle that stands in the way of our Christian journey. Apostle Paul, in his epistle beginning in 1 Thessalonians 2.1, speaks on our subject of flattery by saying that it has greedy motive or pretense for self-gain. Let's begin in 1 Thessalonians 2.1. For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming among you was not useless and fruitless. But though we had already suffered and been outrageously treated at Philippi, you know, yet in the strength of our God, we summon courage to proclaim to you unfalteringly the good news, the gospel with earnest contention and much conflict and great opposition. Verse 3. words of flattery or to any cloak to conceal greedy motives or pretexts for self-gain as God is our witness. Verse 6, nor did we seek to extract praise and honor and glory from men, neither from you or anyone else, though we might have asserted our authority, stood on our dignity and claimed honor as apostles of Christ the Messiah. But we behaved gently when we were among you like a devoted mother nursing and cherishing her own children. So Paul says in these verses that flattering talk or literally a word of flattery can mean either talk which consists in flattery or talk which flatters. It makes little difference because both are evilly motivated. See, flattery combines the ideas of insincere and dishonest talk and the desire to use someone else for their own end by telling them that they are very good or telling them how great or smart they are or saying beautiful words about them. These all inspire pride, vanity, self-confidence, self-righteousness, and so on. Everything that is contrary to godliness and continually looks to be fed with more and more of the same. Again, our scripture, Proverbs 26, 28, declares a flattering mouth works ruin. And Paul was certainly laying this truth out before the people in 1 Thessalonians 2.1. When he said, we didn't come to you bringing talk to please you, nor did we use words of flattery as a cloak to conceal greedy gain. And he also said, nor did we seek to extract praise and honor and glory from you for ourselves. So one word of Paul describes the hidden motive of flattery, which cloaks itself in its pretense of lustful passion of covetousness. and that word is called greed. Greed means the desire to possess something that one does not have. It is the sin condemned in the Tenth Commandment. Greed in this way through words of flattery is cleverly cloaked by beautiful or enticing words. And this is what Paul was concerned about when he was speaking to his flock in verse 5 when he said, For as you well know, we never resorted either to words of flattery or to cloak, to conceal greedy motives or pretexts for gain as God is our witness. You see, the greedy motives of those who had crept in was the love of money. And that was their passion, not the promotion of the good news like that of Paul and the other apostles who had been approved of God because their hearts were pure in their intentions in serving their God. And their hidden motives that Paul was speaking about in the scripture was totally a self-seeking or to one's own advantage with a veiled desire to exploit the people of God. Paul said, you know that we did not flatter the people by anything we said, and God knows that greed was not our hidden motive. And he said, God is our witness. Paul and the other apostles were driven with a burning passion to build the kingdom of Jesus Christ in the lives and hearts of the people of God in their time. Paul in verse 3 says, For our appeal in preaching does not originate from delusion, error, or impure purpose or motive, nor in fraud or deceit. And in verse 5, he declares, but we behave gently when we were among you, like a devoted mother nursing and cherishing her own children. And you know there is nothing more beautiful than to see a loving mother care for her baby and tending to her children with such tender care and devotion And this is the analogy of Paul here, saying in effect that the church is like the mother who nourishes and feeds and loves and cares for her children, as God cares for each of us individually with loving kindness and mercy and wholehearted devotion. This is totally opposite of those who come to wreak havoc and tear apart what God desires to build up. People who flatter, especially those who stand behind the pulpit, are not servants of the Lord. But they are serving their own bellies, their own appetites, their lustful appetites. And mammon is their God. Their motive through their flattery is to ruin or spoil their victims for their own gain. and their hearts are not sincere, neither is their profession or their intention. Jesus Christ is the only one who is worthy of our praise and worship. He alone did all by his death, burial and resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins that we might have eternal life, which comes only through him by faith and his grace. we aim to serve him and to promote his interest and obedience to his divine commands. Only the pseudo-professors of the faith cloak themselves with the uniform of saint and with impure motives and words to deceive, to destroy and kill the uninformed, the ignorant and unregenerate people of God who may be still growing in his grace and knowledge or are negligent of putting on Christ and his armor so that they may grow in wisdom and discernment to identify the wolves in sheep's clothing. Look with me in 2 Corinthians 11, 12. But what I do, I will continue to do, for I am determined to maintain this independence in order to cut off the claim of those who would like to find an occasion and incentive to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms that we do. Verse 13, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen masquerading as apostles of Christ. And it is no wonder for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. So it is not surprising if his servants also masquerade as ministers of righteousness, but their end will correspond with their deeds. Verse 16, I repeat then, let no one think I have lost my wits. But even if you do, then bear with a witless man, so that I too may boast a little. What I say in the way of this confident boasting, I do not say with the Lord's authority by inspiration, but as it were, in pure witlessness. Verse 18, For since many boast of worldly things, and according to the flesh, I will glory, boast also. For you readily and gladly bear with the foolish, since you are so smart and wise yourself. For you endure it if a man assumes control of your souls and makes slaves of you or devours your substance, spends your money and prays upon you or deceives and takes advantage of you or is ignorant and puts on airs or strikes you in the face. These who masquerade as ministers of righteousness seek to serve their own bellies merely to have a way of making a living for their own personal gain. And having one's own private interest by serving under the pretense of Christian zeal leads to sure death in the end. Many, like this, use God for their own means. Instead of making godliness a gain for others, they use him for their own gain. And one day, if they do not cease to repent, these flatterers' sweet tastes in the moment will come quickly to be judged by the great judge himself. they are themselves deceived because of their evil motives and intentions. They seek to deceive others and do not think for one moment that they are used by the great deceiver himself who is saint and the devil. But the simple, the innocent, the unsuspecting and inexperienced, those who are not amply protected and grounded in the truth are their victims. And we have seen so far in this word today that flattery is truly a deadly sin. And it also works ruin and will lead to death if not recognized for what it is and overcome and cast out. We have seen what flattery really is. It is a sin in disguise of the semblance of beautiful words, sweet words, and words that tickle our fancies in the way of pride, vanity, and vain imaginations. There is a self-flattery and a flattery from others, and the motive of these is always bent on revenge, envy, covetousness, self-gain, and greed. The love to be flattered is a sickness within our human nature. It is an excessive desire for praise and laudation. When this desire prevails within your soul, dear one, you will certainly be the recipient of Satan's devastating ruin. And another way this sick foe is at work in our human nature in the way of seeking to be flattered is by giving to others on unnecessary occasions. This is motivated by seeking our worth as a person, by way of our actions, our qualifications, by trying to please in order to hear great and good things others may speak about us. And this falls under the category of the love to be praised or flattered. It is again an excessive desire to be praised. Love for undue praise is sin. It destroys godly virtue and is self-seeking. And it robs one of the true love of God because it is seeking the soulish way of happiness and fulfillment. Self has become an idol. And God's promises will never be apprehended in the lives of those who love themselves in this way. Seeking praise through flattery is self-love. And let me say this, precious one. This is like an empty hole that will never be satisfied or quenched unless repented of and renounced. We have already mentioned the proper praise that is good and godly in the ways of acknowledging someone for a job well done or a child who may be in need of encouragement and can be praised for a job well done in his or her effort in schoolwork, you know, in their physical labors, and yes, even athletic accomplishments or musical abilities and so on. This wholesome praise is different, as we have discussed, from pumping up their pride and vanity, which leads them in the conquest and desire to have that enemy constantly fed. People's lives are ruined because they sought to please and fell into ruin because they never measured up. and Satan makes sure of this. So, what is the best way for us then to be free of this deadly sin or disease called flattery? Number one, dear saint, you can begin to understand that flattery is sinful. It is deadly and it will lead one into ruin. And ruin, according to Nelson's Bible Dictionary, is total collapse or failure. And it is the remains of something completely destroyed. It is moral and spiritual ruin that comes to those who worship idols or hear the words of Christ and do nothing with them in the way of practicing and honestly living in them. Jesus spoke in Luke 6 46 and he said why do you call me Lord Lord and do not practice what I tell you for everyone who comes to me and listens to my words in order to heed their teachings and does them and I will show you what he is like though verse 48 he is like a man building a house who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock. And when the flood arose, the torrent broke out against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been securely built or founded on the rock. But he who merely hears and does not practice my words is like the man who built his house without a foundation, against which the torrents burst and immediately collapsed and fell, And the breaking and the ruin of that house was great. Another point, second point, that we as Christians can do in the way of being delivered of this foul foe of flattery is to give heed to the bad title or name that it carries in the eyes of God. In Job 32.21, Job declares, I will not, I warn you, be influenced by respect for any man's person and show partiality. Neither will I flatter any man, for I know not how to flatter, wasting my time in mere formalities, for then my maker would soon take me away. Job knew that to flatter would be sure death for him. It would give sweet pleasure in the moment, but it is worthy of death in God's book. He says, my maker would spare me no time before he would cast me far from him. And dear ones, this is not cast into China that he would be banished to, but this would be into the lake of fire. It's only good to keep ourselves in the place of holy fear and healthy respect for God's judgment that Job demonstrates for us here. It is God who can take us away in his wrath if we do not conduct ourselves in the way that we should according to his precepts. And the more closely we view the majesty of God, who is our maker and his son Jesus Christ, the more we dread his wrath and justice, the less danger we will be in the sinful pleasures of life or the flatterings of men or be one who is used as an instrument of Satan in this deadly sin. The third point for us to consider in the way of being free to flattery is to take a good look at the awful and the horrendous miseries that has filled the world with. And we see this in the fashion world, where it dominates the headlines with the drop-down necklines, daring slits up the skirts and below the hip pants that reveal private areas of the body with the slightest bending or sitting motion. I was in a store a few weeks ago and a woman was bending over to reach something on the bottom shelf and her whole gluteus maximus was exposed And my first impression was to run over to her and say, Lady, I don't think that you're aware of this, but your whole backside is exposed when you bend over. but then I think it must have been the Holy Spirit who gripped me in the reality of a possible confrontation that I would be told to mind my own business. It would not be my exhortation that this woman was looking for but it was a word of flattery that she was seeking by exposing an area of her body that should have been fully clothed. fashion is only one of the ways that flattery has brought ruin upon the world people in the business world flatter one another to get ahead and ride on each other's backs by self-seeking motives to reach the top of the pinnacle we see the ruin of the business economy in the united states today because the work of flattery pride vanity and greed and these are only a few of the many results of this deadly disease and the effect and ruin that it has in the world. We've already covered flattery from the pulpit or in any form of ministry earlier in this word today, but it is the most despicable in the eyes of God. An apostle Paul gives us warning in his epistle of Romans 16 verse 17 when he declares, I appeal to you, brethren, to be on your guard concerning those who create dissensions and difficulties and cause divisions in opposition to the doctrine, the teaching which you have been taught. I warn you to turn aside from them, to avoid them. Verse 18, for such persons do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites and base desires. By ingratiating and flattering speech, they beguile the hearts of the unsuspecting and simple-minded people. And a fourth point in our consideration of being freed of flattery is, you should suspect and be aware of all those who come to you with undue and excessive praise. Proverbs 29, verse 5 declares, A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a threat. Verse 6, In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare, but the uncompromisingly righteous man sings and rejoices. And you will absolutely be free when you reject the praises or flatteries that issue forth in appealing to your vanity, pride, and so on. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I remember I was ministering in prayer line alongside another woman who was ministering to a woman next to me. And I heard her say boldly to the woman she was praying for, I do not receive your flatteries. I reject them and will have no part of them, and I rebuke you for this sin. She called it what it was, and she stopped it. Praise God. The fifth point you should be aware of is that you should reject the friendship of anyone who turns something that ought to be given godly praise into flattery. This friend ought to be warned of their sin, and then if not repented of or renounced and turned away from, this friend ought to be rejected from your list of friends. Psalms 36 verse 1 declares, Transgression, like an oracle, speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. There is no fear or dread of God before his eyes. For he flatters and deceives himself in his own eyes that his iniquity will not be found out and be hated. The words of his mouth are wrong and deceitful. He has ceased to be wise and do good. Verse 4 He plans wrongdoing on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not reject or despise evil. Verse 5, look on flattery and your love for it as diametrically opposed to God in the truth of all his word. Very clear. Very, very clear. And our sixth point here to remember in regards to being delivered from flattery is that you must grow in the knowledge, grace and wisdom and ways of God and develop a pure love to all things that are good and righteous and generous in the eyes of God. And of course, all of these ways are found in God's holy book of life. And lastly, seek humility. Humility is opposite of pride. You will no longer care to hear and love the excessive praises of men. This is a violation to the ways of God and shows gross irreverence towards his ways and actually is robbery of his purity and righteousness. Guard your hearts, because what is sacred and holy unto God belongs to him. He is jealous over your soul, dear one. Guard your heart and be diligent in keeping it. You see, God will reject a divided heart. Flattery cannot be mixed in the pure and righteous ways of God because he is holy. You and I and all others who profess to live in Jesus Christ are called to a royal priesthood. In 1 Peter 2.9, the word declares, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, God's own purchased special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people at all, but now you are God's people. Once you were unpitied, but now you are pitied and have received mercy. Beloved, I implore you as aliens and strangers and exiles in this world to abstain from the sensual urges, the evil desires and passions of the flesh, your lower nature that wage war against your soul. We are called to live in the light of Jesus Christ, and we are called out of darkness into the marvelous light of the truth. There is no longer a divided heart here. Dear church, we have received everything we need to overcome the enemy with all of his hordes of hell that come to destroy the holy temple that God is building within each and every one of us. Flattery is truly a deadly disease and difficult to deal with because it is generally, it has a good sounding appeal to it, its deeds and its actions. but the scripture shows us that the most clever of all flatterers is a man's own heart. Your own heart will flatter you, even about your own sins. The enemy sees fit to have you live content and self-satisfied in your own sin because of a double heart or being double-minded. But today, even as simple and short as this teaching is on this grave sin called flattery, You can see that we have a great physician who loves us very much. And one, if you have been convicted by the Holy Spirit during this word today, Lee and I would like to pray for you. We would like for you to believe with us that the Spirit of grace wishes to set you free of this deadly sin called flattery and would have you walk in the freedom of his truth and his ways until he comes to take you home, to live with him forever in his eternal kingdom. Please bow your heads out of reverence to God, and we will pray and agree in prayer for your deliverance. Holy Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before you this day calling upon our great physician and deliverer whose greatest desire is to set the captives free from the bonds of sin and disease. Lord, we are not looking for a little healing for this deadly sin called flattery, but gracious Jesus, we are asking for complete healing and deliverance in this word today, in this prayer today. Lord, you are more than able because you who have created us, You are more than capable to restore us completely, and no other power surpasses the power of your omnipotent love for us. Almighty God and Father, there is no greater power and authority but that which you have given to your dear Son, Jesus Christ, who is able to break the powers and yokes of darkness over your people who cry out for your mercy, your grace, and deliverance. Lord, in the name of Jesus, and by the power and authority in his most holy name, and by his blood, we declare to the powers of darkness which bind and imprison your people to let God's people go in the name of Jesus Christ. We speak specifically to the spirits of flattery which have bound and captivated God's people, And we command them to release the people of God from the dark prisons that they have held God's people enslaved to. And we bind you, Satan, in your future efforts from enslaving God's people again. And we loose the spirit of truth and freedom over God's people. Now, Lord, we ask and agree in the name of Jesus and according to your word, that chains and bondages which bind the captives be cut free now by your holy angels whom you have released to minister to your very own in the way of deliverance and healing. Thank you, Lord, for your word in Matthew 18, 18, which declares, I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. Father, we thank you for the victory and the promise of agreement in prayer that today your people are set free of the sin of flattery. we ask Holy Spirit that you will be with them in power and might as they walk forth in this new freedom and keep them Lord and surround and give them greater discernment and strength to recognize this enemy called flattery thank you Father in the name of Jesus for releasing the captives this day in setting them free all glory and honor be yours Amen and Amen Thank you.

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