Are you ready for war in 24?
Yep, no, maybe so.
I'm not talking about physical war.
I'm talking about a spiritual war.
For the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal.
You're not gonna win this one with an
AR-15 and 20 rounds.
It is spiritual warfare.
And Christians have to be very vigilant in
the area of spiritual warfare.
We are in interesting times, aren't we?
In many ways, I truly believe we are
experiencing some of the judgment of God, without
a shadow of a doubt.
I don't know how you could argue otherwise.
We're not in the blessings of God.
We are, because in Romans 1, it says
God gave them over to a debased and
corrupted mind.
So a form of judgment is God giving
mankind over to himself.
And so we see all this perversion, all
these false narratives, all these lies out there.
However, at the same time, we are called
to be the remnant church that intercedes on
behalf of God's people and on behalf of
a nation.
And so it's interesting times.
Yes, evil is rearing its ugly head, but
we are able to fight against that through
prayer and fasting and worship and getting involved
in certain areas and making a difference and
speaking the truth and love, getting these messages
out there, of course, and getting your message
out there, your testimony, even what you do
on social media or the friends, the influence
you have, it speaks volumes as to our
spiritual character.
And I believe in intercessory prayer.
I believe that God can do whatever he
wants, but often uses those who will intercede.
How many times have we saw in the
Bible where God said, if you would do
this, I will do this.
Did you know Sodom and Gomorrah, according to
the Bible, I could be wrong, could have
been spared?
Think about that.
Sodom and Gomorrah could have been spared.
God said, hey, if there's 50 righteous, I'll
spare it.
And I like Abraham.
He negotiated God down, didn't he?
How about, that's how I feel sometimes.
Lord, God says, if there's just 5 million
in the United States I'm like, 5 million
really following you, fully surrender?
Can we get that down to maybe a
million?
Okay, for a million, you know?
And he was negotiating, but ultimately there wasn't
very right, very many righteous people in there,
and in their own right, interceding for the
land.
So God pulled them out and then brought
judgment.
He told Ezekiel, I sought for a man
from among my people who would build a
wall, not a physical wall, a spiritual wall
before me and the people that I might
not judge the land.
I sought for a man from among them
who would build a wall, stand in the
gap, and intercede.
And I didn't find anyone.
Is there anyone that intercedes?
The prophets would cry out.
And we find intercessory prayer in the New
Testament.
So to me, that's pretty encouraging.
Because I'm like, oh, look what's happening.
The devil's rearing his ugly head and evil's
prevailing.
I better just go run and put my
head into the dirt, into the sand.
Where are those birds that do that?
Ostrich, yeah.
But we're actually called to fight.
And in this battle, God's on our side.
That's pretty encouraging.
So there's not really a reason to be
discouraged unless we focus on that and we
stay there.
Right, if I scroll through the news, it's
like, oh, I don't know why, just yesterday
I saw that portion of the airplane that
came apart.
I'm like, I'm never flying again.
Can you believe sitting in that aisle?
Is it pew, it's on this side, right?
It's like nobody died.
It's like, that's amazing.
Just then you can see the night sky
and you're like, whoa, the passengers are so
calm, you know?
And then of course, you know, Russia and
China, and you start to scroll through and
you see Epstein finally getting his little black
book revealed and what's in this, and January
6th, it's like all this stuff is just
coming out and you can stay pretty negative
if that's where you camp out.
So I think it's good to know kind
of what's going on, and have a kind
of idea, but get back into God's word
and be interceding on behalf.
So I start to pray for these people
now.
I start to intercede for what's going on
in our nation.
And God blesses the prayers of intercessory people.
That is clear in Scripture.
How many times, I mean, I could, God,
there's so many rabbit trails on this topic
because Jesus would heal people not even with
the person knowing they're being healed.
They're just laying on a sick bed and
they're healed.
How did they get healed?
The intercessor went to Jesus.
My daughter lies sick.
Just speak the word and she'll be healed.
The man who couldn't get there on his
own so his friends brought him, house is
packed, go up on the roof, lower him
down.
They interceded.
If you focus on that, that's a pretty
powerful weapon of intercessory prayer.
A man by the name of Hal Reese,
or Reese Howells, I always get him confused.
I think it's Reese Howells.
He was a powerful intercessor during World War
I or II.
You can read his book on that.
And Gordon Cove, A.W. Tozer, E.M.
Bounds, a lot of people, David Brainerd, who
came here with the Native American Indians and
lived with them and brought revival to the
area and how they interceded and saw amazing
results.
And so I think we have to be
careful that fear doesn't push us back and
get us disengaged when we should be engaged
and hitting the powers of darkness head on
through prayer and worship and fasting.
And that's one reason why we have 6
a.m. worship.
So I know some of you have been
comfortable and bad, but there is 6 a
.m. worship if you ever want to come.
We just put worship on, we go into
prayer at 7.30, and that's how we
fight our battles.
It's important to dig in deep.
So Revelation 12, a couple weeks ago, we
talked about a dragon and a woman.
And now we're going to follow up with
that.
Still the dragon, still the woman.
Let's put this in perspective.
The dragon, most would agree, is Satan.
And then the woman, because of what we
talked about a couple weeks ago, it appears
that it's Israel.
When you talk about how she's clothed and
she's got the sun, I believe, at her
head and the stars at her feet or
the moon at her feet.
And in the Old Testament, that was a
picture of Joseph's dream and of Israel.
There's so many parallels.
To really understand Revelation, you've got to do
a lot of cross-references with the Old
Testament.
I don't want to say the number because
I don't want to mess it up, but
Revelation references the Old Testament lots of times,
like hundreds of times.
And so we have to really look at
Revelation through the framework of the Old Testament.
And so the woman is Israel.
The beast, I guess where we would say
the dragon, is Satan.
So we're going to catch up.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven
saying, now salvation and strength and the kingdom
of our God and the power of Christ
have come.
For the accuser of our brethren, Satan, has
been accused who accuses us before God day
and night.
He has been cast down.
And I went into this a couple weeks
ago that I believe, and of course, a
lot of other theologians, I'm not theologians, I'm
just a simple country preacher, but I can
do some reading too, you know.
They say that Satan has access to heaven.
And at this point, he no longer has
access to heaven.
And I had to think about that for
a minute because we just think, well, no,
it's kind of separate, but God can summons
Satan like he did in the book of
Job.
He was walking with the children of Israel,
or not children of Israel, the children of
God, the sons of God.
And Satan was there with them presenting his
case against Job.
And we also see, how is he accuser?
He accuses us before God day and night.
So obviously, there was some access.
He's not in heaven, but God can summons
him.
And it appears, and also a lying spirit.
Remember, God was there talking to the sons
of God, and a lying spirit said, let
me go and deceive the prophet.
So we see that Satan had access, and
it appears now that access has been denied.
No more access.
And so heaven is rejoicing over this.
And then it goes on to say, and
they overcame him, who, Satan, by the blood
of the lamb and by the word of
their testimony.
And they did not love their lives to
the death.
Folks, I'm gonna give you something you need
to know for the rest of your life.
Here is the best way to overcome a
demonic attack.
Number one, are you a believer?
Because the blood of Jesus Christ puts you
on God's side.
Greater is he that's in you than he
that's in the world.
So right there, you, see, here's interesting.
I already know I have victory.
You have victory.
God says we have victory, but I have
to hold the line.
That's the hard part.
The devil wants me to do what?
I'm outta here.
Should I try?
I'm outta here.
I don't wanna do anything.
I don't wanna tell people about God.
I don't wanna plant a church.
I wanna quit.
I wanna go just golf and live in
Mammoth, win the lottery.
Right, just get out of the game.
I'm done, I'm out.
But we already have victory, so I have
to fight from a position of victory.
I have to hold the ground.
So do you.
And that's how we prevail against satanic attacks.
The blood of Jesus as a believer, putting
on the breastplate of righteousness, not my righteousness,
His righteousness, and then by the word of
their testimony.
I have come to find, and maybe many
of you know this too, if something's not
going out of me as far as my
testimony, doing things, I'll become stagnant.
And that's what, you know, I wanna encourage
some of you.
You don't just always sit on the pew.
You gotta put some feet to your faith.
Get involved, serve.
And just like I mentioned Mammoth, what, you
know, beautiful streams of river, rivers from the
high Sierras flow into something called Mono Lake.
It's disgusting.
I can drink out of Rush Creek.
Ah, so good.
You know, huh, Phil, we go up there,
and then you get to Mono Lake, it's
dead.
Like, you're talking, what, 20 feet, maybe?
See, there's gotta be, now there's other insults
and things, but there's gotta be an outflow,
outflow.
It's very healthy when you take in to
be, there's an outflow.
So they overcame Him by the blood of
the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony, reminding not only others, but themselves, Jesus,
you have brought me through the gates of
hell, and I am here to stand before
you.
It is grace that's brought me here thus
far, and it'll be grace that takes me
home.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
And sometimes, you know, it's okay to remind
yourself about what God did for you.
Oh, if it wasn't for God who was
on my side, don't get me started.
Where would you be?
I wouldn't even be here.
I should be dead at 15 or 16.
Oh, but for the grace of God.
And you remind yourself of the testimony, the
trials He's brought you through, how good He's
been to you.
Oh, when the enemy wanted to take me
out, that car accident should have killed me.
That person should have took me out, that
disease, that health issue.
Oh, but God was on my side.
You overcome Him by the blood of the
Lamb and the word of your testimony.
He's a liar.
He's a deceiver.
So sometimes it's okay to say, you know
what, that's not true.
That's not true.
You are a liar and a deceiver.
You resist the devil, he will flee.
Well, you're not resisting him like this.
Last time I checked, I didn't push against
anything.
Physically.
But I sure push against it spiritually.
How about you?
And by the word of their testimony, and
they did not love their lives to the
death.
The literal translation, I mean, of course it's
literal, but he's saying, and they did not
love their lives enough that it would keep
them from being a martyr.
They did not love their lives enough, like,
oh no, I'm gonna deny Jesus.
I don't wanna die.
They did not love their lives all the
way to the death.
And this is an interesting topic because all
of us will struggle in some form or
another, and there's something called self-preservation, you
know, that we wanna preserve self.
But the Bible tells us to die to
self.
Where we want to love self, love the
world.
And that's why Jesus said, you can't serve
two masters.
How can you serve this master, but still
serve this master?
You can't.
So I want to, most of us, when
you're not believers, you want to not die
to self.
Because it's all about self, is it not?
What's the most popular thing right now?
Smile.
Oh, I got Rush Creek right there on
my screensaver, I just noticed that.
Well, that's kind of funny, ironic, huh?
So, I used to have a screensaver, it
said, is it called screensaver?
Okay, God's sovereignty is my sanity.
That's a good one too, always remember that.
So anyway, we want to selfie, self-esteem,
self-promotion, all about self.
You see athletes, movie stars, what I wanna
be, I wanna make a million dollars, I
wanna do all this, and it's about, everything
is about me and my life and my
wants and my desires.
Bible says, die to self and follow Christ.
Now, that's why many people don't want to
do it.
That sounds stupid, they say.
People have told me, that's no fun.
Well, I've never met anybody ever who's fully
surrendered their life to God and who's regret
their decision.
Now, has it been easy?
No, they never get to their deathbed, I
don't know what that God business was all
about.
I just wasted my whole life serving Him
and following Him.
Why?
Because this one brings joy, unspeakable joy, unexplainable
joy, peace that surpasses all understanding, the God
of the universe is controlling my destiny, I'm
trusting in His sovereignty.
Wow, financially, it's tough, oh well, God's got
it.
I'm sick, well, what's He gonna do?
Take me home early?
It's like, life makes sense.
And this person, though, is fighting against everything.
Nothing good, why is half of Hollywood on
medication?
If not more, why are athletes so miserable?
Ask Michael Jordan how he feels now.
Tiger Woods, ask them.
They're miserable.
It's hard from going to be an idol
and a god to millions can't give them
that money, that money can't give them that
freedom, that satisfaction, that peace.
That's what's so alluring to so many people,
isn't it?
It's that I just want peace and joy.
I just want that so bad, and they
go to search for all the things that
can never bring it.
They have to find the one true and
living God.
That's why dying to self is so important.
And also, we can learn briefly, not learn
briefly, learn from what we briefly just read,
that salvation always brings spiritual strength.
They overcame Him.
They actually overcame the enemy.
So salvation brings spiritual strength.
I love that part.
You don't become weaker spiritually, you become stronger
spiritually.
Especially if you don't know Jesus, you can
change that today.
You can repent and you can believe and
have the peace that surpasses all understanding and
the strength that will guide you.
What often looks like defeat is actually victory.
Always remember that in God's kingdom.
What looks like defeat is actually victory.
These people were going to be killed, they
were going to die, but it was actually
victory because they overcame Him by giving their
lives.
What about the martyrs?
Oh, they're gonna die.
It's terrible.
And now victory because they're in heaven.
What about Jesus?
Did you know that they thought they had
victory?
The demons, the Bible says actually, if the
devil knew what was coming through that victory,
they would have never nailed Him to the
cross.
So they thought all hell was excited.
Can you imagine that party?
They're all excited.
Oh, the son, he's dying, he's on the
cross.
We've done it, we've done it, we've done
it.
And then, uh-oh, what does that mean?
It's finished.
What's he talking about?
Wait a minute, is that the ground shaking?
Is that the tomb opening up?
Is that the thick veil, the four-inch
thick veil in the temple, as tall as
this to keep the priest only once a
year could go into the holies of holy?
Is that veil being torn all the way
from the top to the bottom, gaining access
to, and now the dead in Christ are
being risen from the grave?
What happened?
Guys, this is such a serious topic.
I remember there was a book written when
we first started the church that I actually
used in a sermon illustration.
The title was, I Hope They Serve Beer
in Hell.
Well, they don't.
And it's not a party.
You won't be laughing and having fun with
all your buddies.
It's a place of torment and destruction where
you're never going to be close to God
again.
We engage in spiritual warfare with our testimony
and His blood.
I'm going to talk about that when I
continue in Revelation 12 in the next couple
weeks.
The title will be, as of now, Broken
by God, the Shepherd of the Shattered.
I'm going to talk about how important testimony
is and give you some incredible testimonies.
Well, I'll tell you a little bit right
now.
I didn't tell you at the first service,
but I was at a book sale.
It was like a dollar.
And you know the pillow guy?
What's his name?
Mike Lindell?
I'm like, oh, this is...
And from crack addict to CEO, I could
not put that book down for like three
days, every night.
The most amazing story, this guy, he's on
crack all the time.
He's up seven nights.
In a row, 14 nights sometimes.
He's counting cards in Vegas.
He's losing his marriage.
He's being threatened.
He's like, this is an amazing story.
And where the pillows came from and how
God gave him this dream.
And it's like unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
So many testimonies.
Many of you could give powerful testimonies.
And let me tell you, if you're younger,
you don't need a powerful testimony.
A nice, simple one is good too.
I gave my heart to Jesus at 12,
and I've been walking with Him ever since.
I don't know what divorce feels like.
I don't know what alcoholism feels like.
That's good.
Oh, praise God.
That's a testimony in and of itself.
It's just as powerful, if not more so.
So do not think you need to ruin
your life to have some powerful testimony.
It's not a good idea.
Here's a key to remember.
When you pass through the waters, they shall
not overflow you.
When you pass through the waters, they shall
not overflow you.
And this week, I read from a devotional.
It's called Streams in the Desert.
How many of you ever read that?
It comes out every day.
You can have it automatically sent to you
in email format.
It was written at the same time as
My Utmost for His Highest.
By Oswald Chambers.
Both written in the 1920s.
I believe one in 1925, one in 1927.
This one actually might have been before My
Utmost for His Highest.
And these writers went deep.
Try to read these devotionals each day.
They're very short.
They wrote this.
God does not open paths for us in
advance of our coming.
Darn it.
He does not promise help before help is
needed.
He does not remove obstacles out of our
way before we reach them.
Hey, there's an obstacle, get out of the
way.
Nope, it's usually right there, right in front
of me.
Yet, when we are on the edge of
our need, God's hand is stretched out.
Many people forget this and are forever worrying
about the difficulties which they foresee in the
future.
They expect that God is going to take
them away quickly before they even get there.
Miles and miles ahead.
Whereas He has promised to do it only
step by step as they may need.
You must get to the waters and into
their floods before you can claim the promise
there in Isaiah.
When you pass through the waters, God says,
I will not overflow you.
So you're actually, they're at the water's edge
or they're actually in the water.
And it's like, Lord, hey, hello.
He says, don't worry, that will not overcome
you.
The fires will not scorch you.
I am the Lord thy God.
Often, He doesn't remove things right out of
our way.
He gets us to the edge.
Noah or Moses, He had them get right
to the edge of the Red Sea.
What are we gonna do?
There's a sea in front of us and
here comes Egypt and Pharaoh and he's pretty
ticked off.
And it says, as soon as he was
near the edge with that, and then begin
to part.
Or Joshua crossing the Jordan.
Actually, one account is when the priest, I
believe, had the ark possibly and it wasn't
until they stepped down into the water that
the access was granted.
It's amazing.
I wish the opposite was true, don't you?
Oh, I see an obstacle coming up.
Lord, can you just remove it now?
Often, He waits until we're there and I
think it's to develop faith and trust.
That's true faith and trust.
Is it not?
You see those things sometimes where some people
just fall back and they're trusting that people
are gonna hold them.
I won't do that, but I've heard people
have done that.
But that's kind of what God does.
It's complete faith and trust.
Just step out, trust in Me.
But I might die, you might.
Yeah.
But is that a bad thing for a
believer?
It's scary, it's a little fearful, but it's
not a bad thing for a believer.
It's the most wonderful thing a person can
experience, being with their Savior.
And then Revelation continues.
Therefore, because Satan was denied, oh heavens, and
you who dwell in them, go ahead and
rejoice, rejoice, but woe to you on the
earth, for the devil has come down to
you, having great wrath because he now knows
he has a short time.
So apparently in the last days, evil ramps
up.
And nobody really explained this to me with
commentaries that I totally agreed with, but because
Satan's already here throughout the years, throughout the
centuries, throughout the millennial.
He's working evil, but this says he's cast
down from heaven and now he is even
maybe here in a more graphic way, a
more powerful way, we don't know.
But we do know that evil in the
last day ramps up and clearly we're seeing
that now, are we not?
Can you just go back for a minute?
Well, some of you can't because you're not
old enough.
But I remember as a little boy, the
Andy Griffith show, or what was that?
Yeah, or Leave it to Beaver.
Gee, Wally, now the filth and the garbage,
I mean, it's like, if you just fast
forward someone from that era, I think they
would be shell-shocked.
It would be like softcore porn, satanic cult.
I mean, you look at all these, and
you've seen the videos, like even LeBron James
doing the 666 and the breathing and all
this new age stuff and all these people,
it's not conspiracy theories, these guys, and Taylor
Swift and what she's dressing up as and
Katy Perry when she did all this demonic
stuff and Beyonce and all this, it's like,
it's just not even hiding it.
It's very, very demonic.
And the award shows, it's like, it's just
out there now.
Hell, Satan.
I mean, they're just, it's like unbelievable.
And just go back to the 70, you
take, if you took my mom as a
little girl back then and then put her
here, she'd be like, just traumatized because of
what we're now, what has happened is we've
become desensitized.
Desensitized.
What should alarm us now amuses us.
Just like you ever gotten to a cold
swimming pool?
She's like, oh, no, no, no.
But then you stand there for a minute.
Hmm, this isn't too bad.
This isn't too bad.
Wait a minute, now I'm at my waist?
A couple minutes later, I'm swimming in what
was initially shocking?
That's called desensitizing.
And you've got to be very, very careful
as a believer.
Because it can happen, it's called compromise and
lukewarm.
You've got to pull yourself out of that.
You've got to stop watching things that are
not God honoring.
And entertainment is not just entertainment, it's actually
influence.
It influences us.
But when the dragon saw that he had
been cast to the earth, he persecuted the
woman, who many think this is the nation
of Israel, who gave birth to the male
child, capital C for child, for Christ.
But the woman was given two wings of
a great eagle that she might fly into
the wilderness to her place where she is
nourished for a time, and a times, and
half a time.
So a time is a year, times is
two years, and half a time is half
a year.
And that's where the three and a half
years come from in the pre-tribulation rapture
view where there's seven years with the Antichrist,
at three and a half years, Israel's no
longer protected, covenants broken.
I'll get into a lot of that later,
the different views I've been talking about.
And they say that this is a three
and a half year period where God protects
Israel.
But we also find here that persecution often
precedes God's promise.
So if God gives you a promise, get
ready for persecution.
Just ask, I don't know, Joseph.
Ask David, ask Moses.
Isn't it funny, we look up to all
these people, but do you ever read their
life?
Like Moses, like, I'm done, I'm out of
here like six times.
I'll intercede for these people, okay, but I
just can't continue.
David, hey David, you're gonna be king, great,
thanks.
When does it start?
Oh, after many years of hell.
Joseph, your family's gonna bow down to you.
Oh, isn't that wonderful?
I'll tell them my dream.
Don't tell them your dream.
Maybe that's for some of us today.
Don't tell everyone your dream.
There are dream killers out there.
And they will kill your dream as quickly
as they can.
Okay, Joseph, I'm gonna do all this.
Okay, but you're gonna go to prison for
a while.
A while, years.
So just always remember that.
There's persecution often precedes the promise.
So God's wanting to do something in your
life, right?
Let's say, okay, you're walking God's will.
What does the enemy wanna do?
Boom, discourage you, sidetrack you, stop that promise.
They wanted to stop the promise of the
Messiah.
Why did Herod try to kill all male
children under two?
The enemy's always trying to stop that promise.
You can ask my wife if she's here
later.
We were having a great, great time before
we announced we were planting the church.
Then all hell breaks loose.
Every kid was sick twice in a row
for like months.
I didn't even know what foot and mouth
disease was or strep throat and then this
is like, you've gotta be kidding, like I
got to a point where like, I just
wanna, I'm gonna have to quit.
That I can't, this is incredible.
But then you spend time with God and
you strengthen yourself again.
Anytime you wanna start doing something for God,
there is that persecution because the enemy tries
to knock you off track.
But then be careful, persecution often follows God's
promises.
Let's say you start a ministry.
Let's say you're leading a ministry or let's
say you're doing something in your home or
let's just whatever it is.
Okay, I'm walking in the promises of God.
I'm walking and doing God's will and this
feels great and the enemy doesn't want you
to camp out there.
That's where discouragement will come in.
And what will happen, a lot of times
this people are starting a ministry.
I tell new church planners all the time,
you know, as soon as they start a
church, they're all excited.
I'll look at, we have this many people
show up.
It's great, okay, wait till the honeymoon's over.
Then call me.
Wait till that honeymoon is over.
Months go by and now not everyone's there.
Not everyone's your biggest fan.
Not everyone doesn't like what you're doing.
You've got this conflict and turmoil.
There's satanic forces working against you and your
marriage and your testimony.
That's what he does.
Now that a person says I want to
follow Christ, there is a target on his
head and his heart.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood.
But remember to be prepared, to be forewarned
is to be forearmed.
See, I don't say all this to try
to scare people.
I try to prepare people.
Because I'm like, oh, okay, I knew this
was happening.
I knew the enemy's gonna try to discourage
me.
And we see this with ministries all the
time.
People want to start a ministry and then
it's down to four people.
Like, okay, maybe God didn't call me.
No, maybe you need to stop basing off
of numbers.
Success isn't numbers, success is faithfulness.
Success is faithfulness in the small things.
But it can get discouraging, can't it?
You start a ministry and it's going down
and down and down and down.
Or you want to witness to somebody, your
neighbors or your kids, and it seems like
the opposite's happening.
Like, forget this.
I'm telling you, discouragement is the number one
tool of the enemy for believers.
Because when we're discouraged, what's that word?
If you break it down, it's taking away
courage.
So when we're courageous, that's when we fight
spiritual battles.
That's when we truly make a difference.
Revelation 12, 15 through 17.
So the serpent spewed water out of his
mouth like a flood after the woman that
he might cause her to be carried away
by the flood, trying to destroy, if it's
a nation of Israel.
But the earth helped the woman, and the
earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the
flood, which the dragon had spewed out of
his mouth.
So again, we don't know exactly if this
will be an actual event, possibly in Israel,
or if it's more metaphor, but we do
know that this is an ongoing spiritual war.
And the dragon was enraged because the woman
escaped.
And he went to make war with the
rest of her offspring.
Guess who that is?
We're the rest of that offspring.
That's why Jesus said, talking to the children
of Israel and the Jewish nation, he said,
I have sheep in a fold you're not
aware of.
In other words, the Gentiles.
So we are believers in Jesus Christ, and
he is making war with us as well
against anyone who keeps the commandments of God
and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
So the enemy is coming after those who
keep the word of God.
Isn't that true?
The word of God and our testimonies, that's
what's under attack right now.
Anybody know who speaker Mike Johnson is in
the news?
And there's a guy named James Carville, I
think.
Is that his name?
Did I pronounce it right?
He recently said that Mike Johnson is worse
than the terrorist.
Why?
Christian belief.
The word of God.
They would rather deal with a terrorist, probably
because they're on the same side of evil,
than be confronted with the light.
That's a big challenge you're seeing in our
nation today.
It's not political parties, necessarily.
It's light and darkness, good and truth, air
and truth are colliding.
Kingdoms are colliding.
That's why we see all this ramping up,
and you see there's clear lines that are
being drawn in the sand now.
Look what's happening with children.
Did you ever think we'd be in a
country where it's okay to get a sex
change for an eight-year-old who thinks
they might be the opposite sex?
It's not only alarming, it's just mind-blowing
that people are so deceived, and they do
not see it.
Welcome to the spiritual battle.
So that is the spiritual battle we are
in, and only going to intensify in 2024.
But we need to stay encouraged, amen?
You need to encourage yourself and be an
encouragement to others, especially your children.
Put on your game face, especially for your
children and your grandchildren.
They don't need you to see you scared
and cussing at the TV, and worried about
all this and all that.
They need to see you positioned yourself correctly
in the center of God's will, and say,
yeah, this is tough.
This is not good.
Here's how we're gonna get out of it,
or here's how we're going to fight through
it.
Here's how we're gonna fight our battles.
Because fear is contagious, but so is courage.
It's easy to get discouraged when you think
that you're losing the battle.
And that's where most of us find ourselves,
don't we?
It's very hard to stay encouraged.
Because it's not...
Who's on our side?
Hollywood?
Who's on the side of God?
Hollywood?
No, no, no.
Washington, D.C.? Sacramento?
Mm, mm, mm.
Well, the news outlets, right?
Social media?
Literally nothing.
Nothing.
So you see this huge wave of corruption,
and you're trying to fight against it.
Well, welcome to spiritual warfare.
Joshua 1.9, I love it for this
moment.
God said, have I not commanded you?
Be strong and of good courage.
Do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the
Lord your God is with you wherever you
go.
I'm so glad he said that, because that
tells me Joshua was being a little bit
cowardly.
Why would he say, hey, I commanded you,
Joshua.
Be strong, be of good courage.
My servant Moses is dead, but now you,
Joshua, now you're taking them into the promised
land.
In other words, strengthen yourself.
In other words, get your stinking thinking out
of your mind and get your mind focused,
again, on the God of the universe, the
God who is Lord over the angel armies.
He rules kingdoms and he puts down kings
and raises another one up.
He is not worried, he is not concerned.
So we see here the weapon of faith,
the weapon of faith and trust.
We also see the weapon of taking our
thoughts captive.
I believe you can switch the screen.
The weapons of faith and trust and then
the weapons of taking our thoughts captive.
When you take your thoughts captive, this will
release you from the internal prison that you
may be in.
What about the weapon of influence?
Obeying the right influence will direct you on
where and how to wield your weapons correctly.
Guys, this is so important.
If I could just stay here for a
minute, I would on this topic of influence.
Who influences you, makes or breaks you?
Isn't it interesting, the big political divide in
our country?
Correct?
Let me tap into this for a minute.
I've had people, even the last couple of
weeks, all the good things, let's say about
Biden, right?
I don't know what they are, but there's
some good things, right?
And they're like, but this and this and
this, and then you got somebody else and
Trump or DeSantis, this and this and this.
And I wanna say, do you know what?
You don't know anything about, you don't know
if any of that's true.
Nothing.
You're being influenced, and I'm being influenced by
who we listen to or who we watch.
I can't tell you anything.
I just better make sure my source is
good, right?
They don't know any, we're just, oh, but
this and this, you don't know.
You're either being influenced by CNN or Fox
News.
You're either being influenced by the Huffington Post
or Epoch Times.
You know, we're just spewing out what we've
heard.
And so you get into the race battle,
and you get into this, you're just, all
these sides and transgender and fluidity, and they're
just saying what the bullet points are or
the talking points of their influence.
Influence plays a huge role.
So be careful who's influencing you.
Here's how you get through this battle.
You allow a God's word to influence you.
And you actually will begin to think like
God thinks, the thoughts of God, because that's
His word.
Isn't that amazing?
Influence is so important.
I'm gonna wake you up for a minute
and play a quick video of a spider
-tailed horned viper.
Have you ever heard of that?
I haven't either since last week.
So let's push play if it works.
Okay, that is actually the tail of a
viper.
That's not a spider.
So watch this.
See that spider?
That's not a spider.
Oh, look at it, the bird's hungry.
Poor little bird.
He thinks it is a spider.
The viper almost got that bird.
Aren't you glad I did the G version
so I didn't get the bird?
Okay.
And those listening on radio probably don't know
what I'm talking about, but it is a
spider-tailed horned viper that at the end
of its tail, it has a little thing
that looks like a spider.
And it draws birds in to get the
spider.
Instead, they get eaten by the viper.
That's how influence works, guys.
They dangle the carrots.
They tell you things that aren't true and
what you want to hear.
And I mean, I can get into so
much even about the global warming and the
climate crisis.
I mean, there's so much baloney, for lack
of a better word, out there.
Look at real science, real data, get your
information from the right sources.
Influence in this year is going to be
so important.
And I believe the greatest influence we need
to find is in God's Word.
The Word of God lets you know God's
will.
Okay, this will be life-changing for some
people, because I heard from the first service
as well.
I want you to think about this.
We hear this all the time, right?
The Word, the Word.
Yeah, I read the Word, pray.
I know, yeah, I got it, whatever.
Okay, listen, this will really make a difference.
The Word of God not only lets you
know God's will, but it also transforms your
mind to think more like God.
So think about how profound that is for
a minute.
You're going into this year, right?
Who know, this year you're gonna have the
same president or a new president or possibly
the elections on hold.
Do you know that's a possibility?
If you look and study, if you get
into some type of war that the president
can call no election this year.
There's gonna be some funny stuff going on.
So how do you respond in fear, anger?
What are finances?
What am I gonna do?
Do you have the mind and will and
counsel of God because your heart's been saturated
in His Word?
That's the only way you're gonna be able
to respond correctly.
Do you know how many people react and
make too quick of decisions?
And then wish they would have responded later?
Because they're watching this and this and this.
I need to do this with gold, this
with silver, this with 401k, this with cryptocurrency.
I need to do this, I need to
move to Idaho way up in the hills
of, I need to go the rolling hills
of North Dakota or where.
And it's just like, and you're responding to
all this stuff versus being saturated in the
Word of God and being able to think
like God.
If God gives you the thoughts, once you
commit your works to the Lord, your thoughts
are actually established.
So then you can make good decisions.
You cannot live in fear.
Why, because you have the mind and counsel
of God, not CNN or Fox News for
the other side, right?
Doesn't matter.
Dr. Huberman, how many of you have heard
of him?
Dr. Huberman, he's got lots of viral videos
out there.
He studies something called neuroplasticity.
And I'm not gonna read the whole thing
like he did the first service, but I
wanna read the end of it here.
Contrary to what previously was previously believed, brain
development does not only occur in childhood.
In fact, the adult brain is still capable
of self-directed synaptic growth.
Synaptic growth is between the neurons and the
signal it sends.
And your brain actually can be rewired.
Did you know that?
Well, we should, the Bible says, be not
conformed to this world, but be transformed, that's
what neuroplasticity is.
Neuroplasticity basically says your brain is this way,
it doesn't have to stay that way.
It's changing, it's developing based on stimuli or
daily habits being changed.
Do you ever have a pattern like why
do I think this way?
Why am I this way?
Why am I angrier?
And you can change that pattern by changing
your mind.
So this is huge.
The more time we spend in God's word,
the more we know his will and his
ways and his counsel.
The more it calms our heart because now
our brain is changing, instead of focusing on
fear, it's focusing on faith.
You are truly being rewired.
So as we go forward, make sure to
put God between you and the enemy.
Put God between you and the enemy.
If you sweat more in training, you'll bleed
less in battle.
That'll sink in on your way home.
If you sweat more in training, you'll bleed
less in battle.
In other words, we play like we practice.
We've gotta get, you don't get ready for
the challenge in the midst of the challenge.
Do you know that?
You know, I mean, I'm optimistic about this
year.
I'm not gonna be a doomsday, you know,
this, and it's like, well, we'll see.
I mean, God's still on the throne.
Last I checked, I've still gotta raise some
kids and lead a church, so I don't
know what to tell you.
I'm still married and gonna have to work
on a good marriage.
And what do you want me to do,
go hide?
Right, so we prepare.
So when things happen, maybe another shutdown, maybe
who knows, we're prepared as we, so we
go into it prepared.
So many people go in like, ah, I'm
freaking out.
Where's my Xanax?
Where's my Vicodin?
Where's my two bottles of wine tonight to
get me through this?
And that doesn't get you through it, right?
For the night it does, and then you
wake up with more problems.
That's how that stuff works.
F.B. Meyer said, our God is Jehovah
of hosts.
That means the Lord of the angel armies.
He can summons unexpected reinforcements at any moment
to aid His people.
Any moment.
How many times have we seen that?
Many of you could testify to that.
Where God just, in the court, the court
just reversed His decision.
Or something was gonna happen legally or financially
or relationally, and it just, God just shifted
it.
Like, what just happened?
Believe that He is there between you and
your difficulty, and what baffles you will flee
before Him as clouds before the gale force
winds.
So here's the battle lines as we move
to the end of this message here, hopefully
soon.
It's been going on a lot of rabbit
trails, huh?
The battle lines.
Here are the battle lines.
The family and our faith.
Is that not the battle line that we're
in?
And from security to sexuality and from freedom
to fear.
These are the battle lines.
God's Word has something to say about everything
political right now.
Did you know that?
So I love when people say, oh, you're
just too political.
You actually give me a compliment.
Because God's Word says something about all of
these political hot buttons.
The thing is, you just don't wanna hear
it.
You don't want me to tell the truth
according to Scripture.
You don't think it has anything to say
about borders?
That's the biggest security threat we've ever had
in our nation's history.
Yet, we're not gonna do anything?
Well, as Christians, what do we do?
We help the sojourner.
We pray for those.
We wanna look out for families who truly
need help.
But I'm also called to guard my family.
I don't know about you.
We're called to be watchmen as well.
Did you know that God wants you to
get your house in order first before you
help others?
We're to safeguard ourselves and our homes, and
then we're better able to reach out to
others.
Perfect example.
Have you ever seen those oxygen masks fall
on an airplane?
Do you know it has the audacity to
say that you put it on before you
put it on your children?
How dare they?
Think about that.
When they ask, put it on, sorry, six
-year-old, sorry, me first.
No, now because you can help.
You're trying to do all this and you're
dying of oxygen.
You can't help.
You've got two kids or you're done.
See, it's not selfishness.
It's the order that God has given us
to be watchmen and caretakers and to help
those, defend the fatherless.
God's Word has something to say about all
these issues.
And boldness, boldness to secure all of these
God-given areas stirs up the hornet's nest
and clear demonic attacks ensue.
Kingdoms are colliding.
Didn't we see this?
The churches that remained open during COVID or
fought a lot of the mandates and things
like that, were they not the ones under
attack?
Absolutely.
So anytime there's boldness for these things, there's
a spiritual assault.
Kingdoms colliding.
If policies, procedures, rules, and regulations favor God's
Word, there's an immediate assault against them and
against those who dare to shine the light
in dark places.
The battle lines right now, right now what
we're going into, preparing for war in 24,
the family and our faith, the family and
our faith, from security to sexuality and from
freedom to fear, these are the battle lines.
You'll be seeing they're drawing them in the
sand.
And I wanna read something that I'm working
on an article that will really bring this
home.
Boldness to secure all of these God-given
areas stirs up the hornet's nest and a
clear demonic attack ensues.
Kingdoms are colliding.
That's what you're seeing right now.
As we begin to stand strong for these
areas, and what amazes me is people who
never used to stand for anything now are
standing up.
It's like enough is enough.
These popular podcasts, right?
These guys, I won't mention their names, but
they have millions of followers and now they're
finally, you know, enough is enough.
They're seeing that all of these things are
under attack.
And so if policies, procedures, rules, and regulations
favor God's Word, there's an immediate assault against
them and against you, against anyone who dares
to shine the light in the dark places.
Like any person God uses, from corrupt Balaam
to ungodly kings in the Old Testament, if
they direct people back to God or begin
to bless God's people, hell summons her best
generals to bring disorder, confusion, and fear.
And you're gonna see that in this year
when the two political parties begin to fight.
They're really not fighting over a person's character.
What we're fighting over is policies and procedures
that directly affect us and your children and
your grandchildren and God's Word.
That's why I get fired up about this.
God's Word has something to say about these
issues.
God is not happy.
We're not talking about paving the roads and
building bridges for the love of God.
We're talking about creating life simply to destroy
it.
We're talking about being able to kill the
elderly as they get older with assisted suicide.
We're talking about aborting a child even after
it's born.
We're talking about giving a 10-year-old
a sex surgery.
Folks, this is a big deal and we
need to wake up.
You know what?
You all better become political if you wanna
be honest.
We need to be talking about these things.
A consistent theme throughout Scripture is not to
fear God because God Himself fights for us.
Did you know that?
God fights for you.
But here's the key, we have a role
to play.
So here's the thing we often forget.
God fights for us, but often He doesn't
fight until we're in the battle.
You know, Lord, fight for me now.
I'm gonna wait till you get in the
battle and then I'm gonna fight for you.
We have a role to play.
He told Moses to stand and hold the
line.
He told Joshua to march around Jericho.
He told King Jehoshaphat to go out with
the worship team.
I mean, if David had to grab five
stones, he only needed one, just a sling
and a rock.
He said, I'm gonna grab five stones just
in case.
I like David, don't you?
That would be me.
Probably one for each of the lords of
the Philistines.
Let me grab one for Gath and Gad
and Ekron and Ashdod and all these.
And God just said, I just need one.
But he still had to fight.
See, that's what, when God goes before us,
when God fights your battles, that doesn't mean
you sit at home and watch TV.
That has nothing, you actually, sometimes you're called
to stand.
Sometimes you're called to make a difference.
I was able to go to the thing
we did, Don did at the library, where
we offered something alternative to the drag queen.
I don't even know how drag queens story
hour get a library, that's a whole nother
talk.
But we offered something for the kids and
it was packed.
It was completely packed at the library in
Lancaster.
Just offer, see, you gotta do something.
Just sitting at home praying might be good
for some things, but some things we gotta
go out and make a difference and shine
the light and hold the line.
God honors bold, tenacious faith that doesn't retreat.
Ask Peter or Paul or James, did they
have to do anything or did they just
sit back in their hut?
They had to do things.
But we don't wanna put too much emphasis
in our doing.
It's God who goes before us, but we
have to, because in God's will, you're either
advancing the kingdom, you're holding the line so
you don't go back, or you're retreating.
Going backwards.
And God says to hold that line.
Even today when an enemy takes ground, they
are often called to hold that line.
Failure to do so results in retreat and
defeat.
And this is where the majority of the
church finds herself today.
So I'm gonna go over just a few
things to remind you of spiritual warfare, because
armies check their weapons before war, correct?
And I had a lot more to go
into, but I'm gonna have to hold it
for the next time.
But 2 Corinthians 10.
2 Corinthians 10, very famous verse, but this
is so important for us today.
For though we walk in the flesh, we
do not war according to the flesh, for
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty in God.
And remember this, words can serve as weapons.
Your words are weapons as well.
That's what we're being hit with a lot
of things, aren't we?
In Sacramento, they're writing words on legislation.
Washington, words, and this person's speech and words,
and this article, words, words can be weapons
as well.
Divine power is needed.
Basically saying this battle is not going to
be fought with our hands and with weapons
that we think of.
It's gonna be a spiritual battle.
For the pulling down of strongholds, casting down
arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought,
not some.
Now I've got my YouTube thinking over here.
I got my conspiracy thinking over here.
I'll follow this ungodly movement over here, but
then try to serve God on Sunday, maybe
get to Wednesday study when I can.
Maybe open the Bible.
No, every thought has to be brought under
God's control to the obedience of Christ, and
being ready to punish all disobedience when your
obedience is fulfilled.
In other words, it reads as if we
have an obligation.
As we're obeying God, we're to expose the
unfruitful works of darkness.
That's what I said earlier, demolishing stinking thinking.
And high things, he talks about high things
are here.
High things are proud things.
We see, are we seeing any pride today?
Pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, casting down
every high thing, every prideful thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God.
So all these prideful people shaking their fists
in the face of Almighty God, we are
called to pull down those things, not necessarily
physically, but in prayer and fasting and worship
and going in contented and make a difference
in our community.
Be that salt, be that light.
Every thought here, every thought, again, I wanna
talk about this for a minute.
Lingering thoughts that are fed can grow.
Why he says every thought is because of
this.
Do you ever have a lingering thought that's
not probably a good one?
And if you notice, if you keep feeding
it, it just keeps growing.
This happens a lot with offense in the
church.
You ever been offended by somebody in the
church?
Give it time.
They offended you, they upset you.
And what do you do with that thought?
If you continue to kind of let it
straggle out there and you begin to think
about it, you begin to feed it, it
begins to grow and it becomes a root
of bitterness in our heart.
And we have to remove that as quick
as possible.
Being ready to punish all disobedience.
Obedience draws a line in the sand and
it is a weapon.
This is so important about obeying God's Word.
It's not just obeying it for the sake
of obeying it.
You're obeying it as a, it's a weapon.
As you obey God's Word, you feel the
Spirit of God.
And you can go out and do things
that God wants you to do.
Now I'm gonna step on some toes in
a minute.
You okay with this?
If not, now might be a good time
for a bathroom break.
I won't look.
But I'm gonna talk to you briefly.
It's really important about an often overlooked war
zone that will help a lot of people
this year.
An often overlooked war zone.
Physical health can affect spiritual health when we
are convicted to make some changes and we
fail to do so.
Okay?
The spiritual and the physical are interwoven.
I'm gonna read here from Joel, I think
it's Joe Becky and Nick Thomas.
They wrote a book.
If you don't believe me, spend a week
sleeping no more than four or five hours,
eat nothing but junk food and see how
it affects your walk with the Lord, your
emotions and your ability to handle life's problems.
So why is this so important?
Shane, why do you bring this up?
Well, a couple different reasons.
Everything from anger and anxiety and depression and
fear and laziness, all of these things are
often affected by how we treat the temple
of the Holy Spirit.
So to avoid this topic to me doesn't
make a lot of sense because it really,
really impacts us at a very deep level
and that's why I'm unapologetic on this issue.
God has called me in this unique area.
The fruit has been overwhelming that we hear
from people and often the critics of what
I'm talking about are just convicted.
So I can't allow the conviction of critics
to determine which way I take the direction
of the ministry God has called us to.
Here's why, food can affect mood.
Addiction can dull the sword of the spirit
and gluttony can quench faith and rust the
breastplate.
Think about it.
If what I said is not true, let
me know after service.
But if it is true, because what I
see is a lot of people not taking
care of this and they're going through life
very fragile, very emotional, high strung, irritable, anxious,
moody.
They run to the doctor, run to their
prescription.
They can barely get through life.
Spiritual warfare, are you kidding me?
I can't even get through this life.
And a lot of it has to do
with what we're putting in.
Straight up, I've seen it more times than
I can count.
Thousands and thousands of pastors, give me a
break, thousands, when I worked in all the
time, all the time, it affects at a
very deep level, affects at a very deep
level how we can function.
And I just think I want to help
those people who want to take that step
and they know they are convicted.
And that's why we promote fasting often.
Fasting, on the other hand, increases spiritual strength.
Fasting increases spiritual strength when instead of overindulgence,
weakens us.
Now I'm a fellow struggler, so don't feel
like I'm pointing you out.
Is my problem eating too little or eating
too much?
Hello, I can relate.
And I know how I feel when I'm
doing better.
And I know how I feel when I'm
ignoring the convictions of God.
Ephesians 6, 18, pray at all times hmm,
pray at all times in the spirit with
every prayer and request and stay alert with
all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
Now I didn't get to a lot more
of what I wanted to say.
I'm going to hold that on a little
bit, but it ends with this, pray at
all times in the spirit.
Now you can, you know, some people make
that into speaking in tongues.
Other people make it into something else.
The bottom line is there should be, your
prayer life should be in harmony with the
Holy Spirit.
You're praying for the things of God.
You're praying and you're making every request be
known.
As your heart pumps blood, life, to every
cell in the body, prayer pumps spiritual life
to the body.
Did you catch that?
Your blood is amazing.
Life and death is in the blood, or
life and death is in the power of
time.
Life is in the blood.
In Leviticus it talks about everything that is
in the blood is very, very alive and
brings a lot of things to the body.
And just as that heart pumps that blood
to every cell in your body, prayer pumps
spiritual life to the body as well.
Blood brings nutrients and oxygen to the cells.
Prayer is also life giving in itself.
Blood carries away physical waste.
Prayer carries away mental waste and demonic strongholds.
Blood fights infections.
Prayer fights spiritual contamination.
Oh, if you are weak in prayer, you
are weak everywhere.
Amen?
We should post that in our homes.
If I am weak in prayer, I am
weak everywhere.
Folks, to be armored up for this next
year and to really have on the whole
armor of God, we don't need necessarily a
lot more information.
We need a lot more prayer.
We need to be seeking God like never
before.
Some of us need spiritual dialysis.
I even put it in red so you
don't miss it.
Does everyone know what dialysis is?
Well, if you don't, the body is no
longer functioning very well.
The kidneys and things like the liver and
things that used to clean the blood can
no longer do their job.
So your blood has to go out of
the body into a cleaning mechanism and then
it's put back into the body.
And that's what happens to a lot of
us.
Some of us need spiritual dialysis.
We need to be cleaned up in this
area.
We need to filter through God's Word and
filter through prayer and get back on our
faces before God.
And again, a reminder of what I started
with.
They overcame him by the blood of the
lamb and by their testimony and they did
not love their life to the death.
So I don't know where everyone is here
this morning, but they overcame Jesus by the
blood.
So number one, has the blood of Jesus
Christ washed away your sins?
If not, you have to start here.
This is where it all begins.
That blood is so powerful, it is so
precious that they overcame him by the blood
of Jesus and their testimony and they did
not love their life.
What does that have to do with anything?
Well, if I love my life, I'm definitely
not gonna love the things of God.
Do you see the opposing force here?
Oh, I love my life.
I'm not gonna say anything bad.
I'm just gonna get on the side of
Mark Zuckerberg so I can use his bunker
in Hawaii.
I don't want you two to be upset
and I love my life and I want
people to like me and it's all of
it no matter what it takes and now
God calls me away from all that.
Whoever loves his life will lose it.
Die to self.
Lord, whatever you want me to do, what
is your will for me?
I'm yours.
That's like the complete opposite of this.
This is mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.
My will, my desires, the money I wanna
make, the career I wanna have, mine, mine,
mine, mine, mine.
God says die to that.
Give it to the Lord.
Lord, what do you want me to do?
And I can tell you, I've never, ever,
ever heard someone say when I fully surrendered
my life, it was the worst decision I've
ever made.
Have you ever heard that?
Now they might go through some challenges.
They might say I fully surrendered my life
and all hell broke loose.
It's not what I thought.
It's not my best life now.
This is challenging.
This is warfare.
But they never regret surrendering their life to
God.
Why?
Because he's in control.
No matter what happens.
Lord, this is your bill.
This is your financial situation.
This is my health crisis.
Lord, it's yours.
My situation I'm going through, Lord, help me
through.
And it relieves so much pressure.
Why is this group always on medication, always
depressed, and they're millionaires in many cases, or
billionaires, or they've got the famous athletes.
They're miserable.
Because you were never designed to be an
idol and have people worship you.
You were designed to worship God.
That's the big difference.
So we would love to pray with you
this morning next door in the prayer room.
If you want to make that decision today
and say I've been playing games with God.
I need to repent.
I need to finally repent and believe.
Not leaning on my parents' testimony.
Not leaning on my past good works.
I need to make this decision.
And that's why we have communion available too.
So communion's going to be available during the
closing worship.
And communion is a time where we remember.
Quite simply, you remember the blood that was
spilled.
And that's what each one, you just pick
up this, pick up both of them, and
the element, the little wafers underneath, this is
a reflection.
This is a reminder of his body.
The body that was broken.
The body that was bruised.
I don't know why he had to go
through all that.
It's just incredible when you look at the
magnitude.
And it was spit on, hit, mocked, ridiculed.
The body was ripped open for you and
for me.
And you remember that body.
And then you remember the blood that was
shed.
Without the shedding of this blood, there is
no remission of sin.
There's no removal because a penalty had to
be paid.
So when we know the Bible talks about
the wrath of God is being poured out
and we are under that wrath.
We're under the condemnation of God.
What's the penalty a sinner can pay?
My own blood?
No way.
The blood of Jesus.
And so we remember both of these at
communion.
And you take it during worship, you can
come up at your leisure.
But the Bible also says make sure to
examine your heart first.
And this is so important because many people,
they're gonna hold on to that bitterness.
They might have, again, maybe somebody in the
church.
This church, they're gonna, you know what?
I don't care.
I'm gonna hold on to that bitterness.
I'm gonna be, I hate them.
I hate them.
Have you ever felt that way?
No, nobody?
I'm gonna give you one more opportunity.
Maybe I'm ashamed to admit it, but I
have.
I have.
If you went through what I went through,
you'd hate some people too.
But you can't stay there.
You say, Lord, that's a wrong thought.
If you forgave me, how much more?
You say, love your enemies.
If you love a believer, what good is
that?
Everybody does that, but love your enemy.
And you take that thought captive.
Say, Lord, that's wrong.
And I repent.
And you change your mind about that situation,
about that person.
Very quick, very easy.
Will it try to come back again?
Sometimes, especially if they're a stinker.
Right, they keep probing you.
And they keep messing with you.
My biggest thing I have to do with
this area is those armchair quarterbacks and those
critics who are nasty.
They don't even live here.
And they're just nasty, mean people.
Say things about my wife or my kids
or church or me.
That hate just comes up.
Boy, I hope I don't run into you
somewhere.
Because I might be old school Shane Idleman.
I don't know.
Lord, that thought's wrong.
Help me.
Lord, that's wrong.
That's the flesh.
Lord, please.
And as you do that, joy comes.
Have you ever been there?
Joy comes.
And you love them.
How do I love them now?
And I'm praying for them.
I love them.
I truly do.
And then they post something mean in a
couple weeks, and then here comes the hate
again, right?
But when you take communion, Paul said examine
yourself.
Examine your heart.
And don't take it in an unworthy manner.
So be like me saying, you know what?
I do hate that person.
I don't care.
I hope they go to hell.
I'm not cussing.
I'm just saying I hope they go, you
know.
I don't care.
And I take in communion.
That's an unworthy manner.
Because I'm unrepentant.
I'm unrepentant.
And I'm taking the blood that's supposed to
clear the record and clear my heart.
I'm taking the blood in an unworthy manner.
So I think it's so important to get
our hearts right.
Or don't take it.
I mean, be honest and don't take communion
then.
If you're, Lord, I'm struggling through this.
I can't get there right now.
I cannot forgive that person.
Then don't.
I wouldn't take it.
Because Paul goes on to say that's why
many of you are sick and have died.
Whoa!
But I can see that.
And it wasn't, you know, 2,000 years
ago, somebody named Ananias and Sapphira.
God didn't play.
They lied in the early church.
Gone.
And I can see somebody coming in.
Every time we do this.
I hate them.
I don't care.
I hate them.
I don't care.
And they just keep, you know, a couple
years go by and that bitterness will destroy
you from the inside out.
That hatred and that sin.
Or what about, you know what?
I know I shouldn't be doing what I'm
doing.
I'm living with my girlfriend, but I don't
care.
And I'm gonna live with her tonight.
And we have no plans.
And they go through communion?
That's an unworthy manner.
Says check your heart.
I can keep going down the list if
you want.
I can get your zip code at some
point.
Let me think here.
How many people come and take communion and
have no real desire to give up their
porn habit?
Don't take it in a worthy manner.
Get your hearts right before communion.
It's so powerful.
Do you know why I have them put
this up here now?
It's a reminder.
Do you know this used to be up
front in the early church for hundreds of
years?
Not this?
Everything, the whole service was centered around communion.
And you can research, I think of the
reformers and the pulpit became the primary.
Which, you know, it's probably not in and
of itself a bad thing, but we drifted
away from the whole reason why we're here.
Communion is central.
It's powerful.
No other promise.
So that tells me, if it can make
me sick or lead to death, could it
also bring healing?
There's power in the blood.
Take it in a worthy manner.