Watch Out!

Matthew 16:^5-6 “Later, after they crossed to the other side of the lake, the disciples discovered they had forgotten to bring any bread. “Watch out!” Jesus warned them. “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

A bait is something that is used to catch, ensnare, or trap an unsuspecting animal. If you go fishing, for those who like fishing, you need to put a bait on the hook before you cast it into the water. Then you wait patiently for the unsuspecting fish that will see this nicely prepared meal, mostly worms, and wonder where it came from. Sometimes, the fish will dance around the bait for a while before it eventually takes a bite. And the hook will lodge in the shaft of its mouth, and the rest is history. That fish will land in pepper soup, jollof rice, or somewhere nice for the fisherman. The same goes for wild animals. Lions can be ensnared and trapped.

Some of us have had to deal with rats in our homes at some point or another. If you have never had to deal with rats in your house, please let us know so that we can move into your neighbourhood. A lot of us have had to deal with rats, and one way of catching rats is to bait them. You bait rats by putting poison in meat, in good food. When the rat eats the food, it would have succeeded in eating poison, and it would die. Now, what happens to a lot of people is that they justify eating poison because it has meat. People come to me and say, “Pastor, that content, that material has a lot of good things, and they quote the Bible in it.” Or “I am following this motivational speaker; he brings you into self-awareness, and he is quoting the Bible.”

Sometimes, those materials or teachings are filled with new age poison. But because it has meat in it, it is not a reason to prove that it is fit for eating. Many people are gullible to the extent that once they see meat, they assume it is fit for eating. Ask the rat that died in your backyard yesterday, it thought the food was good because it had meat. Not knowing that you had put poison in the meat. We have been baited by culture, society, and the enemy. They have put poison into things that appear to be harmless. I have had to spend, sometimes, hours educating people. Many people justify eating the bait because it contains XYZ and quotes Jesus. But at the end of the day, you are in the mess you are in because with the bait you have eaten poison.

Read Matthew 16:5-12. God actually expects us not to panic when we see a challenge because of what He has done for us in the past. He expects that if you get to a “no-bread” situation, you will remember that He has fed five thousand people who did not have bread with just five loaves and two fish. Matthew 16:^9-10 “…Don’t you remember the 5,000 I fed with five loaves… Or the 4,000 I fed with seven loaves, and the large baskets of leftovers you picked up?”

Prayer: Father, help me to test every spirit and guard my heart, in Jesus Name. Amen!