Be Careful Where You Get Your Advice

Dr. Michael Youssef introducing this episode of Leading the Way Audio. Because children and grandchildren are watching their parents, they are watching their grandparents, and they're seeing what they're doing far more than they instruct them in saying. Have you ever stopped just mid-sentence, suddenly realizing, I just sounded like my dad, or I'm acting just like my mom? Well, the impact that your parents had and have on you makes up ingredients of who you are. How about your kids?

Can you sometimes see yourself in them too? It's kind of sobering, isn't it? Thank you for listening to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. This is a worldwide gospel ministry made possible by your prayers and your generosity.

You can learn more about the gospel impact on six continents when you go to ltw.org. Now today, Dr. Youssef takes us to the Old Testament book of 2 Kings, where you'll see a fiery example of how King Ahab and Jezebel's life of failed pagan worship paved the way to destroy the life of their son. Moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas take careful notice as Dr. Michael Youssef begins Leading the Way. Father and son were climbing a mountain, and then they came to a place where the climbing was so difficult and even dangerous. And the father asked the son to wait while he investigate the road ahead. But halfway through this treacherous road as the father gingerly navigating, he heard a voice that made him freeze in place. And the voice was that of his son, right behind him saying, Choose the good path, dad.

I am coming right behind you. Think of this one thing parents can be sure of is this, that their children are following in their path. Their children are watching where they're going and following them. In this series of messages entitled How God Works, we have a huge example of how children not only watch their parents, but they follow in their parents' footsteps. Ahab and Jezebel lived a godless lifestyle, so did their children.

Ahab and Jezebel compromised their faith in the worship of Yahweh, and they made Yahweh to be in the image of Baal, and their children did the same. Second Kings chapter one. After Ahab died, his son Ahaziah became king. And in less than two years on the throne, two years, that's it, he was leaning into a lattice work and he fell through that lattice from the upper chamber in the palace in Samaria, and he was seriously injured. So he sent messengers out telling them to go to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I'm going to recover from this injury or am I going to die like father, like son.

I could not help as I was sitting there before God and trying to prepare this message from the word of God. I couldn't help but think of Ahaziah perhaps saw his daddy celebrating all the Jewish holidays, but privately he trusted in Baal. Ahaziah perhaps saw his father pay lip service to his Jewish heritage, and privately he talked more about Baal than Yahweh. Ahaziah perhaps saw his daddy King Ahab go to the Jewish temple on Saturday, but then for the rest of the week he bowed to the idols of Jezebel. Ahaziah perhaps observed how Ahab, his father, had his own brand of religion, his own idea of God, his own brand of morality, his own brand of ethics, and Ahaziah followed in his father's footsteps.

Listen to me. Our children are watching. The world is watching. They want to know how a Christian walks.

They want to know how a leader walks. For when Ahaziah got into trouble, what did he do? Did he go down to the living God Yahweh, ask for help? No. Did he say, let me find if there is a God here? No. Did he say, well, let's find Elijah so he can pray for me?

No. When he got into trouble, he went to consult Beelzebub. In fact, you can go further than this in the history of Israel. When the kingdom was split after the death of King Solomon, one of Solomon's boys, Jeroboam, who became the king of the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, was such a wicked boy, was such an evil king, that he had set the theme for the next 19 kings to be wicked and evil.

Ahaziah was no different. He turned to the occult for a revelation about the future. My friends, I want to tell you, there are millions upon millions upon millions of Americans today who are turning to the psychic hotlines and to the psychic networks and to channeling and all kinds of occultic powers for counsel. And some of them go to church on Sunday.

There are so many skeptical journalists today on recent times, they have put their household seal of approval on these so-called traitors in channeling the dead. And the tragedy is, listen carefully, God is not amused. God does not take that very lightly. And the very fact that he is patient and that he is merciful and that he is waiting, it doesn't mean that he is not angry. In this series of messages entitled How God Works, I want you to look at how God deals with a Hebrew king, with a Jewish king, the king of Israel who consulted the occult.

And God might be patient, but he will always have the last word. King Ahaziah, when he was injured, he wanted to know whether he was going to die or live. So the first thing he thought about is what he heard from his daddy.

And his daddy always took bail very seriously. So he sends these messengers to Ekron, where they had a god. God is Beelzebub. And they worshiped that god. And he said, go and ask him, because he's known to be the god of the future. And in an invitation to my daddy, I want to find out.

Am I going to die or am I going to live? We are told that boys love to imitate their fathers. Even small boys.

It's scary. I heard about young Billy who was allowed to sit in his father's seat at the dining room table when his daddy was out of town on business. And he was really excited to be sitting at that chair. But his slightly older sister was not very excited about that. And she resented this fact, and she resented this arrangement, and she sneered, and she said, so you are the father tonight, huh? What is two times seven?

And without a moment's hesitation, Billy's reply in a nonchalant way, I am busy, ask your mother. Ahaziah was imitating his father Ahab. Instead of coming in brokenness and contrite heart to Yahweh God, instead of coming in brokenness and repentance and asking God to heal him, asking God to forgive him, he went to inquire of the god of the flies. For that's what Beelzebub means.

Let me explain that to you and tell you what Beelzebub is all about. You know, he is mentioned in the Old Testament four times. Four times. All of them in this chapter. 2 Kings chapter 1. You see it in verse 2, verse 3, verse 6, and verse 16.

They're all here in one chapter. Beelzebub is as strange and eerie a name as my sound. He was a very powerful god.

And when you know that he was a storefront, you'll understand what I'm talking about. Early in this series of messages, I told you what Baal means. Baal means Lord or God. And in the Hebrew language, the word zubab as a verb means a fly.

In fact, it's the same in Aramaic and in Arabic. In its very ugliness, that word means the god of the fly. Beelzebub.

That's what it means. The god of the flies. Ekron was one of five major cities in Philistine. And it was the center of worshiping of Beelzebub. Not only the god of the flies, but he was called the god of the future.

Why was that so big? Because back in the Middle East in those days, you used to have plagues of flies. And I'm talking about a plague. I am talking about millions and millions and millions of flies that go everywhere.

I'm telling you, this is like the worst horror movie that you've ever seen. I mean, the flies are in your food, they're on your face, they're on your body, they're on your bed, they're in the streets, they're in the home. And you cannot get rid of them. They did not have repellents back then. They used to be terrified of the plague of the flies. And they believed that Beelzebub was the god of the flies. And Beelzebub sent these plagues when he's angry. And therefore, in order to appease him and to stop these plagues, they would absolutely bow down and worship him.

In order to rescind the plagues and appease Beelzebub. Beelzebub was also known to supposedly know what's going on. He knows the future, so what do you do? If you want to know there is a romance in the air. If you want to know that if you're going to come into some money or not. If you want to know if your job is secure or not. So what do you do? You dial the 900 numbers.

You get one of the prophets or prophetesses of Beelzebub and you ask them. Most research says that those people's predictions are 80% wrong. And the other 20% I'm sure is a good guess.

But it doesn't matter. Many of our people in this country feel good 50 dollars later. And they feel good about talking to somebody who's supposed to be a psychic, knows the future.

They feel good until they get the telephone bill and then they really get sick. I've heard people say, this is just harmless fun. It is not harmless fun. Listen to me. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 12.

I'm going to tell you about this harmless fun. Matthew 12, 22. Mark it in your Bible.

Cross reference it. There you're going to find information as to who Beelzebub is. Who is that fortune teller? Where is that fortune teller is coming from? What is this God of the Flies is all about? The Bible said they brought to Jesus a blind mute, demon possessed. Jesus healed him so he could both talk and see.

A marvelous release. A marvelous deliverance of a blind, speechless prisoner of demons. In verse 23, all of the people were astonished and they said, could this be the son of David?

What do they mean by this? Every faithful Jew knew that when the Messiah comes, he's going to deliver them from the power of Satan. Every faithful Jew understood that the mark of the Messiahship is going to be power over Satan, power over the demons. And what they were saying, can this be the Messiah? Can this be the son of David?

The people were absolutely ecstatic at what has happened. But then keep going and look at the predictable reaction of the Pharisees. Is it not by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow casts out demons? That's what they're talking about Jesus. And Jesus knew what they were thinking. He rebuked them. He rebuked their unbelief and he told them that Satan does not cast out Satan.

That a kingdom that is divided cannot stand. And the point is this, the Lord himself acknowledged the reality of that sinister, demonic force known as Beelzebub, the prince of demons. And when you are even tempted to look up the horoscopes, or call a psychic hotline, or consult the channelers, or use Ouija boards, or tarot cards, you are dealing with the storefront of Beelzebub, Satan himself. You're opening yourself to such dangers that I cannot even explain.

People listen to me. I want to tell you, young and old, that this is no harmless fun and games. You are playing with fire. You are tempting God.

You are opening yourself up to demonic forces. But look at verse 3 of 2 Kings 1. The angel of the Lord comes to Elijah and speaks to him. And he said, arise, meet these messengers. The king is sending them in.

This must be on the Mount Carmel. And the reason I think he was sitting on Mount Carmel is because it's about halfway between Samaria and Ekron. So he stopped them halfway, and the king knew that they didn't make it all the way down there.

And he sent them back. He said, go and tell your king is it because there is no God in Israel that you're going to inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron? Now, there has been 10 years from the time we saw Elijah confronting Ahab and Naboth, from that time on there has been 10 years. Elijah is now ready to confront the second generation of this godless family. Elijah gets up and he meets these messengers on their way down to Ekron, and he tells them exactly what the Lord told him. Is there no God in Israel that you're going down to consult Beelzebub, the God of Ekron? This is what the Lord said. You will not leave the bed on which you lie. You will certainly die.

Imagine the scenery. The messengers go back to King Ahaziah, and they deliver the bad news. This guy met us, and he said, well, describe him to me. And as soon as they describe him, he knew it.

He said, ah, that's Elijah. He's been a pain in the side of my father, and he's now a pain in my side. Let me tell you, my dear friends, and I want you to listen carefully.

Some of you know this already. Some of you have noticed that when you live a godly life in the midst of your ungodly family members or ungodly business associates or ungodly neighbors, whatever you might be, you are a pain in their side. Now, don't go out of your way to be one.

You already are. The reason you are one is because your very nature of godly walk, the very nature of your godly living has become a pain to them, has become a challenge and a frustration to them. It's both intriguing and irritation. It is both an enigma and a rebuke. And eventually, they have to react one of two ways. They're either going to repent or they're going to be more angry. Either they are going to turn to God or be enraged. And this is happening right here in this passage of 2 Kings chapter 1 with Ahaziah. Elijah's message and rebuke to him could make him repent and he could turn to God, but he didn't. He became enraged, he became angry, and he rejected God altogether. This king, like his father, rather than repent at the word of the living God, he chose bitterness and anger toward the man of God. So the king sends another company of 50 to eliminate Elijah. Verse 9, the captain said to the man of God, the king says, come down.

You've got to understand the Hebrew language. This is insinuating, this is disrespectful, this is being irreverent, this is scornful, this is rude. This is a contemptuous way of speaking to the prophet of the nation.

Today, this will be like equivalent to looking at somebody and saying, hey, you goody two shoes, come down. And Elijah said, well, if I'm the man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you. And the 50 of them went wham, disappeared. Don't you like to do that sometimes?

I am so grateful that God is God, and I'm not. King still would not repent. He sends another 50, and this captain does the same thing, and the same thing happens. And then the third group comes in. Now the captain of the third group wised up. He said, look, the king may be a fool, the other captains may have been fools, I am not going to be a fool. And he comes in humility and in respect to the man of God, asking him to come.

And you know what happened? God said to him, because of the humility of this captain, go with him. He said, Elijah, go down with him. Now Elijah is no longer afraid like he was with Jezebel.

You know why? Because he's now going in obedience to the word of God, and he's going on the authority of the word of God. He waited for a word from the Lord, the Lord said, you go there. So he goes all the way to the king's bedroom, and he looks him in the eye and he said, is there a God in Israel that you have sent consultants to consult and inquire of Ekron's God, Beelzebub? I'm telling you, you're going to drop dead, and he drops dead. Some of you probably are saying, why in the world do you get these obscure passages from the Bible, and you make an issue of them today?

I want to tell you why in all seriousness. Because I believe that our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the way we see God at work in the scripture should teach you, should teach me to know what pleases him and what displeases him, what honors him, what dishonors him.

The very fact that he acted quickly back then, it should not make us think now that he is not acting again like that. In fact, what is happening here was a fulfillment of God's warnings hundreds of years before. If you look at Leviticus 19, 31, listen to it. God said, do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. And in Leviticus 20 and verse 6, God said, I will set my face against the person who turns to the medium and the spiritist. God's judgment is not an arbitrary judgment. God's judgment only comes after a whole lot of warning.

Whether you are in a generational sin and whether you feel caught up, whatever you feel that you're in a bondage, it would be erroneous, it would be untrue if I would stop here. Because the Bible gives us the good news. And the good news is found in the rest of Matthew chapter 12. Where we saw how Jesus delivered this man from demon possession. Where he was accused of being an agent of Beelzebub.

Here's what Jesus told the Pharisees, verse 29 of Matthew 12. How can anyone enter a strange man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? And then he can rob his house. Here's what Jesus is saying, that he, the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, has entered into Beelzebub's very house. And he bound him and he set out his demons and out, he sent out his minions of hell scurrying and running here and there and everywhere. Releasing his people from captivity. Philippians tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ disarms the principality, he disarmed the powers, he disarmed them from their weapons which they used against God's people. Only Jesus Christ has the power to set you free today.

Why? Because by going to the cross of Calvary, Jesus disarmed Satan. By going to the cross of Calvary, Jesus bound the strong man. And he no longer have hold over Jesus' people. Whatever bondage you are under today, whether you feel it's been a generational bondage or a personal bondage, Jesus can set you free right now. From those generational bondage, the sins that bound you, that harassed you and maybe now binding and harassing your children, you can be set free. That is the good news of the gospel.

From the strongholds that you're seeing in your parents' life with which you yourself still struggling, Jesus can set you free. You no longer have to live in fear. You no longer have to live in anxiety.

You no longer have to take a pill to pop you up and a pill to make you sleep. And the question is this, do you want to be freed? Do you want to be freed from anger, resentment and self-pity? Do you want to be freed from the controlling spirit? Do you want to be freed from a spirit of criticism, a critical spirit? Do you want to be freed from the strongholds in your life?

Jesus can set you free. You're listening to another life-impacting episode of Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Listen to more compelling content for free when you visit ltw.org. Now that's also the place to learn more about the podcast, the app and other ways to engage with Dr. Youssef's challenging content, ltw.org. You can partner with Dr. Youssef in his vital work around the world by becoming a frontline mission partner. As a frontline mission partner, your monthly gifts will help Dr. Youssef expand Leading the Way's outreach through every form of media, equip believers to impact their communities for Christ, as well as reach the unsaved and unreached around the world. Brand new frontline mission partners will receive special ministry benefits, including the On the Frontlines photo booklet, as well as exclusive ministry updates and a 20% discount on all resources at ltw.org. In addition, for a limited time only, new partners will receive a complimentary copy of Dr. Michael Youssef's popular book, Conquered, Your Battle Plan for Spiritual Victory. Become a frontline mission partner today by committing to give financially each month, and you'll be joining with Dr. Youssef as he proclaims the gospel all over the globe. Sign up today at ltw.org slash frontline. If you would like to call and speak to a ministry representative about ways that you can stand with Dr. Youssef, here's the number 866-626-4356. That's 866-626-4356. And the website again, ltw.org. Hey, we want to thank you for listening and do plan to join Dr. Michael Youssef once again next time for another powerful, leading the way when he passionately proclaims uncompromising truth from the pages of God's word.