Last spring I listened to a nationally-known Christian leader tell his story of how he almost ruined his family and his life. Unfortunately, that is not uncommon for Christian leaders these days. But what was so unusual was how God led him through his mess to find hope and freedom.

I can’t wait for you to meet the man – Carlos Whittaker. Carlos will be with us this Sunday (November 18) at all three of our Sunday services (9 AM, 11 AM and 1 PM). You don’t want to miss this and you still have time to invite others to join you.

Carlos was in trouble and he knew he needed help. Just as he was entering a week-long intensive counseling, he had a conversation with his dad. His dad’s words provided Carlos direction to help him find healing and freedom. His dad’s words were: “Carlos, don’t just keep getting rid of the cobwebs. It’s time to kill the spider.”

That idea not only helped Carlos kill his spider, but it provided him a story that resulted in a book by the same title – Kill the Spider. It was this spiritual metaphor that we used for the series that we’ll finish on Sunday. Not only is Carlos an author, but he’s also a nationally-known speaker and worship leader. He knows how to tell a great story that God will use to help all of us find the resolve to kill our spiders.

As an author, speaker, pastor, and blogger at Ragamuffin Soul, Carlos has lived much of his spiritual life in the spotlight. But, like any Christian, his faith story has its ups and downs. He spent decades trying to figure out how to be a “better person.” Time and time again, he strived for holiness only to get caught in the web of destructive habits, behaviors, and thought patterns.

You’ll find Carlos to be honest and hilarious as he shares his story. What you’ll experience is a self-deprecating man with passion-filled wisdom. He’ll remind us what we know – that it’s not enough to try and “stop sinning.” Rather, he’ll teach us that knocking out deep-rooted habits and issues comes by treating the issue, not just the symptoms. He’ll help us to kill our spider and finally be free from the cobwebs.

Diana, a long-time member at Pantano and a teacher by profession has taken this series to heart. She shared with me a worksheet she made to help her do what I challenged us to do last week – Identify, Reject and Replace the lie with the truth. Here’s the link to the worksheet. Print it out and use it to help you discover and replace your lie with God’s truth, which leads to freedom. And, don’t miss Sunday and invite someone to join you.

Voices

We all hear voices. And I’m not suggesting we all have a physiological condition of auditory hallucination caused by a psychotic disorder. We all hear “voices” in the sense that there are statements or beliefs that go through our head, sometimes over and over. We have beliefs that govern who we are and how we behave. We listen to, trust and give power to various “voices.” Those voices that are true, and especially those from God, help us live well. Those voices that are lies, hurt us and those in our lives.

Kill the Spider

That’s the basis for this important teaching series we are in right now called Kill the Spider. Be sure to watch each of the three messages in this series. The “spider” in our series is any lie we believe and make an agreement with. The “cobwebs” that spiders weave are the sins, bad habits or attitudes, reactions or behaviors that result from the lies we buy.

My Cobwebs

I had a lie that began to surface about 8 years ago. The cobwebs (the results of the lie) were regular days of depression, huge self-doubt and self-questioning which also caused me to be defensive at times. The biggest cobweb was the continual “voice” that I kept hearing – I was a failure as a pastor and leader. I tried all I knew and was stuck in the cobwebs. They wouldn’t go away. I had to go to a professional Christian counselor and pastor to get help to discover the lie.

Replacing My Lie

The basis of the lie was that our church had not grown much in the few years prior. I had bought the lie that growth and recognized success was the fruit of being a great pastor and leader. So if there was not much growth or success, then I was a failure. What a lie! I was committed to the journey to discover the lie, reject it and finally replace it with the truth. I discovered it through the example of the life of the prophet Jeremiah and the wise counsel of others. It became my life motto – God has called me to be faithful, not successful.

Keeping the Spider Away

It’s a huge task to discover, reject and replace a lie with the truth. It’s another thing to keep the lie away. We might kill the spider-lie, but the Evil One wants to bring back it’s cousin.

That’s when I understood the powerful truth Paul makes in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV) – 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  A stronghold describes how powerful lies can be. But we can demolish the lies by taking captive every thought or lie and kill it with the truth of Jesus. When the lie starts to raise it’s voice, we kill it again and again with the truth of God.

After I discovered my lie, rejected it and replaced it; I wrote a letter. I called it my “Capture Letter”, after this verse. I wrote it as a letter from God with 10 specific scriptures to remind me of the truth that would kill the spider-lie each time it tried to get access to my thinking. And it worked! I’ve been free from the lie for years and reject it each time it tries to speak. If you want you can read my letter here. We can be free and stay free from the destructive power of our lies. Be free! That’s the focus on the message this weekend.

Today is Halloween. Our life group, along with many other groups in our church, are doing what we’ve called the “Halloween Challenge”. Years ago, I challenged our church to make a difference on Halloween. We are serving our neighborhood on this night that has been a bit awkward for Christians. We are not celebrating evil or the devil for sure. Rather than run from or try to hide from the “holiday”, we are choosing to engage with people. Our group will be giving away hot dogs, drinks, candy, and this year, we are adding a hayride. We’ve found serving in this way is a great way to engage and connect with people and have the possibility of opening up spiritual conversations.

Several houses around us have decorated for the day with spider webs. What’s interesting to me is that you see these massive cobwebs, but you rarely see the fake spider! But that’s the way life is; we see cobwebs all the time, but rarely see the one who made the sticky, messy web.

Sunday we are beginning a three-week series called Kill the Spider. I got the idea from a book I read earlier this year with the same title by Carlos Whittaker. Spiders and their cobwebs are a great metaphor for the spiritual struggle we all face.

Do you struggle with bad habits, sin and personal junk that never seems to go away, messes up your life, and those in it? Maybe it’s constant worry, anxiety or fear. Maybe it’s the need to medicate away the pain of the struggle which manifests as an addiction like porn, overeating, drugs or alcohol. Maybe it shows up in things like anger, isolation, or the various ways we seem to continually sabotage relationships. Maybe it’s the constant effort to change by reading self-help books, attending classes or conferences. Maybe it’s an obsession with how we look, wanting others to like and affirm us, or the tendency to be codependent.

These things are like cobwebs. We keep trying to clean them out, but they come right back sooner or later. Why? Because in order to get rid of the cobwebs, we need to kill the spider that is making them.

We have to kill the spider! The spiders in our lives are the lies from the Evil One that we believe and agree with. The lies of the Devil will cause us to act in ways that we know are not good for us nor will they honor God. These lies create spiritual cobwebs that we and others see. But behind them is the real problem: the spider-lies.

When we are willing to identify the spider-lie in us, it is then, and only then, that we can finally replace the lies with God’s truth. We don’t kill spiritual spiders with insecticide. We kill the spider and find freedom by replacing the lie with God’s truth. We live by that truth. Jesus said that the truth is what sets us free (John 8:32). God’s truth allows us to really live and thrive, free of the cobwebs that are so despised.

Join us the next three weeks for this incredible series and teaching. Join us each week if you are wanting to experience freedom or know someone who needs to be free from their cobwebs. This is a great series to invite others to join you. Carlos Whittaker will be with us on Sunday, November 18th. You won’t want to miss his message or the series.