You’re Being Hunted

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- Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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Today we are stepping into the ring.

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There's one of those things that I think

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everybody feels at some point,

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but so few people say out loud,

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that's that life feels like a fight,

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that no matter who you are, no matter where you are,

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we just feel like we're coming up against it.

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Not against our family, not against our friends,

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not even against ourselves, but against the enemy

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who wants nothing more than to destroy us.

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That's what we're looking at today

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about how we can fight back.

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- If you've ever felt that tension

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between who you want to be

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and something pulling you into who you don't want to be,

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then you're not alone.

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Welcome into Crossroads. My name is Justin.

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I get to lead the music around here,

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which means I get to pick songs.

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Not all of the songs, so don't email me

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about the ones you don't love.

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No, I get to pick some of the songs.

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I picked that song because it has a feel to it right away,

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and because it says something all of us feel.

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Man, that we are in a fight,

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that something is trying to tear us down.

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And so that's what I believe.

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I believe that there's a God who is for you

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and wants life and freedom for you.

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Regardless if you believe that or not,

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you're in the right place.

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So why don't you stand on your feet.

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One of the ways we fight here

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is to turn our hearts and minds towards the truth.

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That's what we're going to do.

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- You sing this with me.

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- There's freedom and there's life in His words

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and that's what He wants for you today.

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So here's what he says to every single one.

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- Let me pray for us.

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And by pray I just mean to continue to talk to God

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like we've just been talking to God.

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If we're in a fight, God,

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if something or someone's trying to tear us

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from who You made us to be,

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then it's time to drop the niceties.

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Then it's time to stop meandering around it.

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Let's call it what it is and say

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the way I fight, the way to life is for me to die.

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Die to myself, die to my selfish desires,

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die to my drive to self protect, to self medicate,

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die so that I may live because of You.

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Because that's what You offer.

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I want life, I want life, so I reach out to You,

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the One who gives life.

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I pray all this because of You, Jesus. Amen.

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If you're online, so glad you're with us.

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You can have a seat, or keep driving,

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whatever you're doing there.

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- Before I get started on my talk proper today,

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you might have noticed there's some new tech

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that got unveiled today.

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And let me give you the background on this.

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Part of the 10X, The Push for 10X a number of months ago,

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a bunch of us committed above and beyond

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what we regularly give to 10X

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the impact of our church all over the world.

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Part of it was technology that was going to be going to sites.

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And today what we have here also is the Wonder Wall.

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Let me tell you what this is about.

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This has more computing power than the sphere in Las Vegas.

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We have this because we have a guy who is an expert,

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came to know Christ here at Crossroads,

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was an expert on these sorts of things.

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Ran a business that dealt with all the big acts,

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production acts all over the world and others.

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And it really put us in a really unique spot to do this.

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And why would we do this?

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It's not because we've raised the resources for this,

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or even we have the talent to do this.

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If you've been around Crossroads almost 30 years now

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you know this, we are in an artistic and creative church.

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Always have been. Always will be.

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Massive amounts of money into

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our Christmas productions that we've done.

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We've hung houses that we've built

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from the ceiling in our facilities.

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And this goes back to the Bible.

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The arts are meant to be used in the book of --

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The first five books of the Bible,

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as God's people going out there,

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wandering around in a tabernacle,

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which isn't a permanent temple.

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And then later on they get a permanent temple

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and they spend a lot of money for the worship arts in it,

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a lot of money on furnishings,

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a lot of money on the decorative gold, everything.

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It's really, really important.

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And then you see in the history of Christianity,

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the church, until about the last hundred years,

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the church has always been at the forefront of the arts.

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You go to the Louvre and you'll find those,

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many of those works were commissioned by the church,

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da Vinci, Michelangelo,

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not necessarily followers of Christ, I don't know,

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but they were commissioned by the church

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to create marble statues and paintings.

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And of course, stained glass windows we have

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and all sorts of things because we recognize

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we serve a creative God and we want to create

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and connect people to Him through visual beauty.

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And so that's what's happening today.

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We're only about 50% capacity with our Wonder Wall.

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We've got AR, VR, ghost frame.

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I'm not even going to define those things.

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All those are going to be coming down the pike

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to really help people who are online.

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This is a building that they'll never have.

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But we're putting resources into you,

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all of our sites and people online.

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So I just want you to know that because

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we're going to go to next level today,

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if you haven't noticed already.

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Before we do, let me pray, and then

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we're going to start as I talk about the fight that you are in.

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So, God, I'm honored to be able to be here today

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because I don't know there's probably anything

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more pressing we could talk about than

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the fight that we're in, whether we know it or not,

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whether we like it or not.

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So I'm asking You to visit us,

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Your Spirit would descend on us,

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we would have grace to understand.

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And we would leave here a little different

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than we were when we came in.

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And we pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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Ring Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen.

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- The fight isn't won out there in the spotlight.

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It's in the shadows.

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Ring Announcer: The fight of our lives.

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- When the time comes, you don't rise to the moment,

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you fall to the level of your training.

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Ring Announcer: Six rounds, each different opponent.

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- To defeat your opponent you need to know your opponent.

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Your opponent wants you to sleep through the battle,

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but you will stand firm.

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Ring Announcer: Round one, stand firm against passivity.

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Let the fight begin.

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- I don't know if you know it or not,

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but you're in a fight right now.

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Right now you're in a fight.

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And if you don't know you're in a fight,

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then right now you're already on the canvas.

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You're either in a fight

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or you're booty of somebody who is in the fight.

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Shocking thing for some of us.

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I have to explain it

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because it's going to really bum you out.

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Let me just say it real clear, though.

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God is not a pacifist.

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God is not a pacifist.

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I'm not saying here that the wars

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that America have gotten into have been the right wars.

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I'm not saying there is a time not to sit out a fight,

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but I'm saying on a macro level, spiritually

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you have to understand that God is a fighter.

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He is not a pacifist.

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And if you and I don't recognize that

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this is His character, this is His identity,

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and recognize that that means that

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our life is going to be a fight.

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We're going to regularly be frustrated

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and surprised by what takes place in us.

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There are fighting battle metaphors

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all throughout the Bible to describe your walk with God,

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your spiritual walk with God.

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So many that I want to give you a broad, broad view

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of all of these instances, not all --

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A fraction of these instances, instead of

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doing a deep dive on one specific passage today.

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So big idea number one, you are in a spiritual fight.

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You're in one right now, right now.

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Whether you like it or not, you're in it right now.

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The book of 1 Timothy 6:12 says this:

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Fight the good fight of faith.

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It doesn't say,

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think about good spiritual thoughts of faith. No.

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Take hold of it. Fight the fight.

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So many people have a hard time with their faith,

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or may abandon their faith or question their faith.

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They do so when they get hit in the mouth by life.

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If you don't understand this life is a fight,

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every time you get hit, you're going to wonder,

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"Why is God doing this to me?

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Why is this allowed to happen?"

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It's because you're in a fight, that's why.

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And you have to fight that fight.

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And that means you're going to get hit.

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Things are going to take place in life you don't like,

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things are going to be hard,

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things are going to be difficult because

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something is coming after you and I right now.

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Now there is a second law of thermodynamics

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known as entropy.

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I'm not talking about that kind of fight.

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Second law of thermodynamics, entropy,

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basically means that right now in the parking lots

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your car is rusting right now because things are devolving.

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Things are devolving and going down.

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Like right now, if you packed away winter sweaters,

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there's moths trying to break in to the closet

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right now to eat them, right now.

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Right now, if you're a woman, things are sagging,

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they're sagging.

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And men, we aren't ignorant of this either.

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There's sagging for us, too, right?

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Your house, your house doesn't get more clean.

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It gets dust mites.

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Your yard, the beautiful it is, the next day

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it's not as good as what you just did.

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This is the law of entropy.

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It's a fight in some ways, but I'm not talking

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about those, that kind of fight,

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though that's a fight for sure.

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I'm saying and the Bible is saying

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and God is saying that there is an individual,

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there are there are persons with personalities

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that are working for your demise.

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Not just your demise as in maybe an early death,

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but your demise emotionally, your demise relationally,

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your demise spiritually.

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Big thought number two, you and I have a spiritual enemy.

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There is a person, and that person

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has a corporate structure underneath of him,

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known as demons.

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I'm going to deep end today. Are we okay with this?

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Are we okay with it?

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Doesn't matter if we're okay with this or not,

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you're getting it.

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That wants to wreak havoc on your life

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and on your relationship

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or your potential relationship with God.

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There's a bunch of different names used for this entity:

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Satan, the devil, Lucifer, the evil one.

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The dominant one in the Old Testament

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in the Hebrew is the name Satan.

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Satan means adversary or accuser.

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In the book of Joel -- Excuse me, Zechariah 3:1,

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here's a scene that's played out for us.

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He is an accuser. He is an adversary.

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He's always telling you you're a loser.

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He's telling me you're not stacking up right.

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He's telling us God's never going to get over that.

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He's, "You're not good enough.

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You're not strong enough. You're not smart enough.

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You're not holy enough. You're not.

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You're not spiritual enough.

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You don't know enough of the Bible.

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You don't pray enough. You don't impress God."

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It's never ending.

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It's a voice that happens and it's true.

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Not it's true that you're a loser.

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It's true that it comes to us all the time.

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Then in the New Testament, the New Testament,

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a dominant word for the name of this evil entity

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is the devil. The devil. Matthew 4:1:

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Now this right here will rock some of our world's entirely,

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because you think that the closer you get to God,

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the easier your life is going to be.

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Someone has told you somewhere. You've picked up

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that the more you love God, the more God loves you

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and the more He gives you a life

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that is a life that you want,

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that's pain free and all that stuff.

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I think God likes Jesus more than me and you,

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and yet Jesus here, if you read this,

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is led by the Spirit to fight with the enemy,

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to fight with the evil.

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And He's led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil.

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And how did the Spirit tempt the devil?

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Or how did -- Excuse me, how did the devil tempt Jesus?

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I'm not going to give that whole story for you.

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But he basically accused Him.

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He said, "You know what? You're not the Son of God.

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If you're the Son of God, throw yourself

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off the top of this building

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and let's see if angels catch you.

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You're not. Come on, Son of God? Son of God?

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You know, if you're the Son of God,

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I'm not sure why you're hungry right now.

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Here's some stones.

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If you have power, then why don't you turn

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these stones into bread if you're the Son of God?"

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He's accusing him. "Come on. You're --

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You don't feel God right now.

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He's not around right now."

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Because it says at the end of this it says

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that then Jesus was ministered to by angels

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at the end of the 40 days.

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So for 40 days He's not feeling God at all,

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even though He is God.

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In His humanness, He's not feeling it at all

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and He's being accused that, "You're not worthy.

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Come on. What do you think?

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You think you're important? You're not, not at all."

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This word here is diabolus, diabolos,

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in the word in Greek, where the word

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where we get the word diabolical.

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There is a diabolical plan to accuse you

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and neuter you and squash you and make you less than.

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Matt talked about this last week really well,

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Matt Chandler. Wasn't Matt Chandler phenomenal last week?

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Yeah, just great, right?

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Matt said it really, really well.

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He said no one's harder on you than you, right?

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Well that's not really -- it is us,

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but it's because we're agreeing with the accusations

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being made to us that,

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"I'm never going to amount to anything.

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God's never going to use me significantly.

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I remember what I did way back when, and so does God.

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So I can't -- I can't do it because God's got --

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I got to work that off.

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And I don't have the capacity for this.

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And oh, I'm such an idiot."

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We have this self-talk.

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This self-talk actually originated

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with this personality that has been accusing us,

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and we've chosen to agree with it and believe it.

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And he's diabolically scheming to get us

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to that place of feeling disconnected and not right.

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I have -- one of my hobbies is hunting,

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as many of you know, and as many of you hate.

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But it's wonderful having a hobby that feeds me

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pure, unadulterated meat with no hormones.

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And it's really, it's really a good, good thing.

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Most people don't know anything about hunting.

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You just think that someone drives down the road

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with hanging a gun out of a window and shooting at things.

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There's a lot of very, very strict rules for it,

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not just a code that hunters have, but also legal code

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and all that sort of stuff.

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And one of the things that you don't understand

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if you don't hunt is just how it's called a sport

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because there's rules you have to abide by.

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You just can't do whatever you want.

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There's rules you have to abide by.

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And there's preparation and competition that goes into it

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because you're competing against that animal.

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You're trying to figure out what they do

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And every animal is a little different.

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And so you've got to figure out a scheme,

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a plan to get that thing.

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What are you going to wear?

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How are you going to shower?

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How are you going to wash the smells off of you

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because they'll smell you.

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A deer can smell you from a quarter mile away.

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What time of day are you going to go out?

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Do you have cameras to figure out where they are?

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Are you using a call to call things in?

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What time of year?

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I mean, it takes, like, with deer season,

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it takes months and months and months

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when I went after one guy this last year,

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and he beat me. I didn't get him, didn't get him.

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I was like, "That's the one. I only want that guy."

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And I didn't get him. It was bummer.

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It happens sometimes. That's what it's called a sport.

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But I was diabolically scheming to get him,

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pick him up on cameras and everything else.

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Have you ever considered that there's an entity

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that is diabolically scheming to get you?

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Diabolically laying a plan to have you on his wall.

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And he knows what you and I look at.

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He knows our weaknesses, because you just watch it, right?

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He knows the issues we have and the self-talk we have

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or how we're behaving.

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And if I'm working to get a deer for half a year,

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if I'm working that for a half a year,

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he is -- he'll work it for decades to get you on his wall.

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He wants you to not have the life that God wants.

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He wants you to not have relationship with God.

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He wants you to not have a peace that passes understanding,

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that you actually still can have even when you're in war.

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He will work and scheme a diabolical plan of accusing you

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so you were neutered and rendered useless

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and you are on his wall like. [laughter]

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Just just frozen there.

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And when you hear this, the proper response isn't,

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"Oh, no, oh, this is horrible."

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The proper response is to go, "Well,

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I guess I better start fighting then.

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Well, I guess I better start resisting.

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I guess I better start standing firm.

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I guess I better be a bit less passive.

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I better get my rear in gear here."

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In the book of Joel 3:9, it says this:

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This is God talking, this is God talking.

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God's people, that's what God says to us.

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He says, "Look, look, look.

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You guys are getting too comfortable.

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You're getting too safe.

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You're getting too lulled into a general malaise

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of spirituality where you just think nice thoughts

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and work on nice things and try to get more moral."

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And He says, "Okay, come on, there's something going on."

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Wake up the warriors, wake them up, wake them up,

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and you have to get your garden instruments

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and turn them into weapons, is what he's saying.

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A tactic of taking over a culture,

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it's been going on forever and ever and ever is

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when you take over the culture,

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get all the weapons out of the culture, get them out.

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So when the nation of Israel was under pressure,

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which is pretty much all of the Old Testament,

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when they're under oppression,

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Babylon or whoever coming over and take them over,

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they get all the swords, all the spears,

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all the arrows, they get them out

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because they're not -- that way they can't be a threat.

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That's why his verse says,

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beat your plowshares into swords.

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Take your pruning hooks, bend them out,

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bend them out, make them spears,

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because all you have are these peaceful things,

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and you got to make them sharp.

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You got to make them right.

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This is, you know, what history of governments do.

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It's what Hitler did in Germany,

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came to power in Germany, "Get all the guns out.

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Get all the guns out because I can't afford a coup."

00:36:52

It's be kind of hard to have a coup in America.

00:36:55

We have, like, three times as many guns as we do citizens,

00:36:59

which certainly brings problems.

00:37:02

Brings problems for sure, and has brought problems.

00:37:05

But what I'm saying here is this is a culture

00:37:07

that's been stripped of its warrior like tendencies.

00:37:10

And God is saying, "Hey, you gotta wake up."

00:37:12

And that's what I'm saying to you today.

00:37:13

You gotta wake up, man. You gotta wake up.

00:37:16

If you want to walk with God,

00:37:17

you have to start fighting with God,

00:37:18

not fighting against God.

00:37:20

Start fighting with God, because this is who He is,

00:37:23

it's what He does.

00:37:25

One author puts it this way:

00:38:00

Man, that author. Who was -- Who was that author?

00:38:02

That is -- Oh, that's me. Oh, that's me, that's me.

00:38:07

Damn. Damn, that guy can write.

00:38:09

That's good stuff right there, man. [laughter]

00:38:14

That's from my Five Marks of a Man Devotional Book,

00:38:16

available at bookstores everywhere, in case you wonder.

00:38:23

A few weeks ago, I took about half my talk time

00:38:26

and I just read a sermon by William Booth,

00:38:29

the founder of the Salvation Army.

00:38:31

It went over so well, I thought, "Man,

00:38:33

I need to stop writing my own stuff.

00:38:35

I need to just start reading other people's,"

00:38:37

because it was really good.

00:38:39

It was it was a meaningful time because

00:38:42

William Booth and the Salvation Army

00:38:44

have been very meaningful in history,

00:38:46

in world history, not just America,

00:38:48

but England and all over the place.

00:38:51

It's called the Salvation Army.

00:38:53

They've got generals and colonels and they wear uniforms.

00:38:57

Salvation Army.

00:38:59

I don't know if you can get away with starting

00:39:01

a nonprofit around a militaristic theme today.

00:39:05

We just accept it because we like the ring

00:39:08

of the bells outside of Kroger on Christmas time

00:39:10

and we're just kind of numb to it.

00:39:12

Salvation. Why did they call themselves Salvation Army?

00:39:16

Because they were doing what armies do,

00:39:18

trying to save people.

00:39:21

We have that phrase like I got saved.

00:39:23

Some of us don't even like to use that phrase.

00:39:25

Sounds a little churchy fuddy duddy.

00:39:28

What it means to say I got saved?

00:39:30

It means there was an oppressive influence

00:39:33

that was coming against me and was squashing me down,

00:39:37

and something came from the outside and saved me.

00:39:41

Saved me from myself.

00:39:42

Saved me from frustration.

00:39:44

Saved me from a Christ-less eternity.

00:39:47

Salvation Army, he got this phrase from the Bible.

00:39:53

And yet many of us think

00:39:55

Army is as far from Christianity

00:39:57

as postal is far from service

00:39:59

or jumbo is as far from shrimp.

00:40:02

We just think, "No, those things don't go together."

00:40:07

If you're in a church that sings hymns

00:40:09

you used to sing a hymn, though,

00:40:10

you're probably not singing it anymore,

00:40:12

Onward, Christian Soldiers. Onward, Christian Soldiers.

00:40:18

My gosh, if the pastor put that in the worship set

00:40:21

he'd get strung up today.

00:40:23

How about Onward, Christian Nice People?

00:40:27

How about Onward, Christian Emotionally Engaged People?

00:40:32

How about Onward, Christian Soldier?

00:40:36

Yet this is the dominant metaphor

00:40:38

for what you are enlisted in

00:40:40

when you come into the kingdom of God.

00:40:42

It's a battle. It's a war.

00:40:44

Ephesians 6:12 says this:

00:41:02

We're not talking about having a physical war.

00:41:05

We're not -- I'm not trying to justify

00:41:06

you having a Glock at all. Sorry.

00:41:08

That has nothing to do with physical stuff here.

00:41:11

This is spiritual stuff.

00:41:13

We don't wrestle against flesh and blood.

00:41:16

There's a wrestling in the spiritual atmosphere.

00:41:22

There are principalities and powers,

00:41:24

there's a corporate organizational structure,

00:41:26

according to this verse and others in the Bible,

00:41:29

a corporate and organizational structure of evil

00:41:32

that's underneath the surface that may account

00:41:35

for why the crazy things keep happening in our culture.

00:41:39

Why do we keep having mass shootings?

00:41:42

Why is mental health a runaway issue here?

00:41:46

Why have we never been more divided as a country

00:41:50

than we are right now ever?

00:41:52

Why? Why? Why are these?

00:41:54

It feels this way to me,

00:41:55

and if any of these things are true,

00:41:57

it's because it's not by accident.

00:41:59

There's a spiritual system,

00:42:02

and you're invited into a conflict

00:42:05

to thwart that spiritual system and have God's way.

00:42:09

You're invited, if you will, into the family business.

00:42:12

This is God's family business, is fighting evil

00:42:15

and having this world operate the way

00:42:17

that He wants it to operate.

00:42:19

Now for this, I'm going to give you some military metaphors.

00:42:21

I haven't even begun to give you Bible verses.

00:42:23

This is not like, "Oh, Brian's on like a militaristic thing."

00:42:26

No, the Bible is on a militaristic thing.

00:42:28

The Bible is on this thing.

00:42:30

And I just want to keep giving you stuff

00:42:31

because there's different angles to your life

00:42:34

that will make sense if you see these.

00:42:37

Military metaphors. The Bible tells us in Ephesians

00:42:40

don't give the devil a foothold.

00:42:43

Don't give the devil a foothold.

00:42:47

This is a military metaphor.

00:42:49

If you know much about Normandy, D-Day,

00:42:52

end of World War II, you had the allies that went in

00:42:56

and we tried to establish that beachhead in Normandy.

00:42:58

And that's exactly what happened.

00:43:00

That is, in essence, the same term here.

00:43:02

It's a military term that means a foothold.

00:43:05

What you do is you go into a region

00:43:08

and you want to get one place.

00:43:09

Like, I got this place. Got it.

00:43:11

And once you secure that, then it trickles out

00:43:14

and you can start making different advances.

00:43:16

And this is what the evil one will do in your life.

00:43:18

This is what the accuser will do with you.

00:43:20

He will take ground that you give him.

00:43:23

And like, "Okay, I got that. I can be here.

00:43:25

I can be here. You stay there. Good."

00:43:27

He takes that ground and you think he's going to stay there.

00:43:29

He doesn't. He just permeates all through your life.

00:43:34

An example that all of us relate to

00:43:35

and we all know is alcohol addiction, right?

00:43:39

Someone gets a dependance on alcohol and like,

00:43:41

"Okay, it's just an alcohol thing."

00:43:43

Of course it's never, no, it's never an alcohol thing.

00:43:46

It's a foothold. It's a foothold. It's a beachhead.

00:43:49

And then it affects your relationships

00:43:51

and then it affects your work life

00:43:53

and then it affects your character,

00:43:54

because then now you have to lie to cover it up

00:43:57

and it infiltrates everything, even though it was just --

00:44:01

It was just a couple drinks.

00:44:03

Just a drink too much on a Friday night

00:44:05

every once in a while.

00:44:06

Then it just starts growing and growing

00:44:08

and growing for many people, it's a foothold.

00:44:11

Whatever your beliefs are, whatever,

00:44:13

that's just one example, but there's so many others.

00:44:15

Here's another one. 2 Timothy 2:3-4:

00:44:18

Endure suffering as a good soldier.

00:44:22


00:44:26

2 Timothy 2:3-4:

00:44:27

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

00:44:31

No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits,

00:44:34

since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

00:44:38

When I look at people who are struggling with their faith,

00:44:41

who are abandoning their faith,

00:44:43

who are deconstructing and walking away

00:44:45

in a really huge way from the faith

00:44:48

or a dramatic fashion letting people know.

00:44:54

Just about always is because life has been

00:44:56

really hard for them and really, really difficult.

00:44:59

And they thought that the closer they got to God,

00:45:01

the easier life was supposed to be.

00:45:03

And now it looks like

00:45:04

God isn't upholding His end of the bargain.

00:45:07

That's not what the Bible says.

00:45:09

It says endure suffering as a good soldier.

00:45:13

No one who's ever in a war goes, "Why is this not easy?

00:45:17

Why is this? Why?

00:45:18

Why am I having to stand in mud in a foxhole?"

00:45:21

Because it's World War I, because you're in a fight.

00:45:25

And when you serve Christ, you will endure suffering.

00:45:29

I don't know if you've ever heard it that clearly.

00:45:31

I'll be the one to tell you so when it happens,

00:45:33

you go, "Oh, I heard about this."

00:45:34


00:45:37

Now, if you don't want suffering,

00:45:38

then don't get in the faith.

00:45:40

You can be what's known as a civilian,

00:45:42

which means you be like everybody else.

00:45:46

Civilian affairs, civilian affairs.

00:45:50

When America goes to war,

00:45:51

they make sure the GIs are taken care of,

00:45:53

our men and women of service are taken care of.

00:45:55

So they they go, "We don't want you worrying about housing.

00:45:57

We're going to take care of your housing."

00:45:59

That's a civilian affair.

00:46:00

"Don't want you worried about your food budget.

00:46:02

We're going to take care of your food."

00:46:03

That's a civilian affair.

00:46:04

"And filing for income taxes? We're going to push that out.

00:46:07

We're going to push that out because you're suffering.

00:46:10

You're focused on the collective whole,

00:46:12

and we're going to do something different for you."

00:46:15

You're going to get a level of suffering

00:46:17

the closer you come to Jesus,

00:46:18

it's going to be a good suffering.

00:46:20

It's going to be a meaningful suffering.

00:46:21

It's going to be meaningful difficulty.

00:46:23

But it's going to come.

00:46:25

Or you can just be normal. You can be civilian.

00:46:29

How do you know if you're normal or not?

00:46:30

Well, somebody who earns the same money that you make,

00:46:36

lives in the same neighborhood you you live in,

00:46:39

have the same education that you have,

00:46:41

does their life look the way your life looks?

00:46:44

If the answer -- And if that person

00:46:46

is not a follower of Christ and you are,

00:46:49

does their life look the way yours does?

00:46:51

If the answer is yes, then you are a civilian.

00:46:55

You're not making difficult decisions to advance the cause

00:47:02

that is going to lead to difficulty and suffering.

00:47:05

I'm just reading the Bible,

00:47:07

endure suffering as a good soldier.

00:47:09

So bad soldiers don't suffer. Good soldiers do.

00:47:14

We make decisions that make our life more difficult

00:47:17

because we're serving our King

00:47:19

and it's a meaningful effort.

00:47:21

And it's worth every, every single drop of sweat,

00:47:25

every drop of blood. Worth it, worth it.

00:47:28

And it's hard and it's fulfilling

00:47:31

and it's peaceful and it's glorious.

00:47:32

It's really hard to explain

00:47:34

if you've never been in the fight,

00:47:35

but I'm trying to get you in the fight.

00:47:37

Let's keep going. Put on the armor of God. Ephesians 6.

00:47:41

Ephesians 6 says this:

00:47:43

Put on the armor of God that you may be able

00:47:44

to stand against the schemes of the devil.

00:47:48

There it is, the schemes of the devil

00:47:50

who's trying to thwart you and give you a horrible life

00:47:54

and separate you from your God.

00:47:55

And there's a whole chapter on pieces of equipment

00:47:58

that God puts on us.

00:48:00

Now, why would the Bible tell us to put on the armor of God?

00:48:04

Because there's bullets coming your way.

00:48:06

Actually, in that, in that context,

00:48:07

there's fiery darts coming your way.

00:48:10

And so if you and I don't armor up

00:48:12

and recognize that we're in a battle,

00:48:14

we're going to be taken down.

00:48:16

We're not going to have the life

00:48:17

that is the life God wants us to have.

00:48:19

And then 2 Corinthians 10:4, another military metaphor,

00:48:22

which is spiritual weapons of warfare.

00:48:24

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,

00:48:28

but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

00:48:36

This is a war that you're not going to train MMA for

00:48:41

and go buy something to store for.

00:48:44

This is a war -- Man, I'm getting the coughs.

00:48:50

Why not just throw me that water, will you?

00:48:53

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

00:49:03

All right, where was I? War. War. That's where it was.

00:49:11

Sometimes a cough is just a cough, by the way.

00:49:13

You know, sometimes.

00:49:14

"Oh, the devil's making me cough."

00:49:15

No, you just have a dry throat.

00:49:17

Just freaking relax. Freaking relax.

00:49:22

All right, number three.

00:49:24

You must use spiritual weapons.

00:49:27

Spiritual weapons.

00:49:29

These are weapons

00:49:30

that are counter to the weapons of our world,

00:49:33

counter the ways people think.

00:49:35

I'll give you an example.

00:49:39

There was a guy who left Crossroads

00:49:41

a number of years ago.

00:49:43

And a little thing about me,

00:49:45

I am way more insecure than I give myself credit.

00:49:50

When someone leaves Crossroads I always feel bad,

00:49:53

I feel horrible.

00:49:54

The evil one accuses me, says I haven't done my job,

00:49:58

I didn't work hard enough on this and that.

00:50:00

And then the evil one accuses me by saying,

00:50:02

"Just think they're an idiot.

00:50:04

Just think horrible thoughts on them.

00:50:06

Just hate them. Root for their demise."

00:50:09

That's kind of how I feel, right?

00:50:11

And so when I'm talking on a topic like this

00:50:15

or like any topic, as I go to work on it,

00:50:18

God goes to work on me.

00:50:20

Which sometimes is great and sometimes it's not great.

00:50:25

So I'm working on this and I'm realizing, "Oh man,

00:50:29

oh, that guy who left Crossroads those years ago,

00:50:31

I've kind of given a foothold of bitterness

00:50:35

towards that person.

00:50:36

I've allowed myself to just, like, every time

00:50:39

I think of [muttering]

00:50:41

and almost root for their demise

00:50:43

and hope they see how well Crossroads doing.

00:50:46

I hope they feel like a turd right now."

00:50:48

And you know, all these things.

00:50:50

You know, fatigue makes cowards of us all,

00:50:52

is another military term.

00:50:54

That's not in the Bible, but fatigue makes cowards of us all.

00:50:57

When we went through COVID those years ago

00:50:58

and all the other political stuff,

00:51:00

there's a lot of things I didn't do

00:51:03

that I should have done, a lot of things

00:51:05

I did do that I shouldn't have done,

00:51:06

and a lot of it I just got tired

00:51:08

and I was making some cowardly calls.

00:51:11

And some people got frustrated and left.

00:51:13

And there's a lot of things that I would do over

00:51:16

exactly the same way that people got upset

00:51:19

and left over, a lot of people.

00:51:21

And I'm not going to tell you which,

00:51:23

I'm not going to tell you which.

00:51:24

But he left over that whole thing.

00:51:26

And as I'm wrestling with this, this talk,

00:51:29

I realize, "Man, this is not a horrible guy.

00:51:32

He's not a bad guy. Actually, he's in the family.

00:51:35

And I've allowed a beachhead, a foothold to exist here.

00:51:42

And I need to fight with a spiritual weapon."

00:51:44

Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself.

00:51:46

When he says love your neighbor as yourself,

00:51:48

this is really critical because the love

00:51:51

that you can have for somebody else is preceded by

00:51:54

the amount of love you can have for yourself.

00:51:57

I'm not talking about the selfish self-love.

00:51:59

I'm saying if you allow the evil one to accuse you

00:52:02

that you're unworthy, you're unlovable,

00:52:05

that you have issues, you're not going to amount to much,

00:52:08

you're not going to have a level of love

00:52:09

to love your neighbor as yourself.

00:52:11

Whatever, however much you love yourself

00:52:12

and the evil one doesn't want you to love yourself

00:52:14

and love others,

00:52:15

that's what's going to dictate for other people.

00:52:17

So as I'm going down this pity party

00:52:19

and this anger thing, I realize,

00:52:20

"My gosh, I'm not -- I'm not --"

00:52:23

But not only that, Jesus says we should love our enemies.

00:52:27

We should pray for those who persecute us.

00:52:29

And I haven't prayed for this guy at all.

00:52:32

I haven't blessed him. I haven't loved him.

00:52:35

And so I said, "Okay, we're going to rectify that right now.

00:52:38

We're going to change that right now."

00:52:40

So I started working on it and what I did,

00:52:42

I started sending them texts,

00:52:43

still sending them some encouraging texts. Hey.

00:52:47

And we had a little banner going on

00:52:49

for about 3 or 4 texts for over an hour or so.

00:52:52

And I gotta tell you, like, bam, bitterness gone.

00:52:56

Bam, bam, like felt more love for him.

00:52:59

Bam, bam, like, immediately I was like,

00:53:01

"Oh my gosh, I feel more free."

00:53:02

You know why I have more freedom?

00:53:04

Because I kicked the evil one off the foothold.

00:53:06

I said, "Get back in the freaking ocean.

00:53:08

This is my life. It's not your life.

00:53:10

You don't get to bring that crap in here.

00:53:11

Actually, you did get to bring it in here.

00:53:13

And I let you stay here for five years."

00:53:15

And there were other things that were going on in my life,

00:53:17

too that I noticed I don't want that.

00:53:20

You have to see that there's things

00:53:22

you're going to have to do differently

00:53:23

that are not based on physical might,

00:53:26

but based on spiritual truths.

00:53:28

And that's the weapons of our war.

00:53:30

2 Timothy 1:7 says:

00:53:40

So the spiritual weapon comes from the Holy Spirit,

00:53:43

when you give your life to Christ,

00:53:44

if you ever give your life to Christ, if you have,

00:53:46

you give your life to Him and He fills you with His Spirit.

00:53:49

And it's an ongoing filling of that Spirit.

00:53:52

It's a different entity. It's a power source.

00:53:55

And that identity of that entity

00:54:01

is one of love, power, and self control.

00:54:05

The Bible says the Spirit does not give us a spirit of fear,

00:54:09

which is exhibit A for me as to why

00:54:12

America has gone the wrong way.

00:54:13

We are not the land of the free.

00:54:15

We're the land of the fear.

00:54:16

I've talked about this many, many times.

00:54:18

Never in the history of the world has any culture

00:54:20

have more fears, paranoia, psychoses, meds,

00:54:24

whatever than we have.

00:54:25

We are the most hung up people at all.

00:54:28

We're afraid, and that's what happens

00:54:30

when the Spirit of God doesn't have rule of your life.

00:54:34

And when there is fear, there isn't love.

00:54:37

If you're afraid of someone

00:54:39

who's a different nationality

00:54:40

or a different skin tone than you,

00:54:41

if you're afraid of them, we would never admit that.

00:54:44

But if we're afraid of them, guess what?

00:54:45

You can't love them. You can't love them.

00:54:50

If you're afraid of the police, you can't love the police.

00:54:55

If you're afraid of your neighbor,

00:54:57

you can't love your neighbor, whatever it is.

00:55:00

That's why God has not given us a spirit of fear.

00:55:03

I can't fight the unconventional

00:55:06

spiritual weapon of warfare of giving love

00:55:09

and blessing to other people if I'm afraid of them.

00:55:13

You also can't have fear and can't have power.

00:55:17

There is power that comes when the Spirit takes over you.

00:55:21

There's not power that comes when fear comes over you.

00:55:23

I mean, again, I'm not talking about

00:55:25

immediate power that comes, you know, with adrenaline.

00:55:30

I'm talking about something different.

00:55:32

The reason why many of us have not kept to

00:55:35

a spiritual discipline, maybe of losing weight,

00:55:38

is because we're afraid that we would die early.

00:55:40

Well, fear never motivates us long term.

00:55:43

It has to be the Spirit of God.

00:55:44

The Spirit of God gives us a different identity

00:55:46

and instead we should say, "I have the Holy Spirit.

00:55:49

That means I have self control

00:55:51

because God's not giving me a spirit of fear.

00:55:53

Fear will not give me long term motivation,

00:55:55

but of power, love, self- control, or self-discipline.

00:55:59

I have that right now."

00:56:01

Now here's the money verse, Luke 10:

00:56:05

Behold, I have given you -- this is Jesus talking.

00:56:09

I've given you authority to tread on scorpions

00:56:13

serpents, serpents and scorpions,

00:56:16

over all the power of the enemy,

00:56:18

and nothing shall hurt you.

00:56:21

So Jesus says, in this battle, this spiritual battle,

00:56:25

I'm giving you authority.

00:56:27

I'm giving you authority,

00:56:30

authority to tread on these evil things.

00:56:33

I don't think that scorpions and snakes are inherently evil.

00:56:37

I don't think that at all, but Jesus is using

00:56:41

these things as metaphors of you will be able

00:56:45

to enter into the fight and be victorious.

00:56:48

Aren't most of us, aren't most of us

00:56:52

a little freaked out by scorpions and snakes? Right?

00:57:15

I don't know if it's how they move.

00:57:18

I don't know, but what it looks like,

00:57:20

it's just for most people,

00:57:21

scorpions and snakes are just, ew.

00:57:24

And so Jesus is using these created beings

00:57:28

that we freak out about, and He's saying,

00:57:31

"I'm giving you power and authority to step on them,

00:57:35

to trample on them."

00:57:38

This verse a number of years ago,

00:57:40

gosh, 15 years ago or so, maybe 20, a long time ago,

00:57:43

when I started going away for the summer

00:57:46

or for a good portion of the summer on summer break.

00:57:48

I was meditating on this verse

00:57:50

and thinking about this verse because

00:57:53

I was bumping into people who were talking about

00:57:55

having visions or they were involved in,

00:57:58

they said physical healings.

00:58:00

And I was interacting with more and more of these folks.

00:58:02

And it's like the evil one was accusing me,

00:58:06

"See, you don't have that kind of power.

00:58:07

You don't get to see those things.

00:58:09

Those things aren't real, at least not for you.

00:58:11

God doesn't want to use you or have you see those things."

00:58:14

And I was kind of being accused that I was less than,

00:58:16

not that other people were, but internally.

00:58:18

I was like, "What's wrong with me?

00:58:19

I don't have visions. I don't see these things."

00:58:22

So I went away and I was just meditating on this verse.

00:58:25

What does it mean to trample on scorpions?

00:58:26

What does that mean? What does that --

00:58:28

How does it mean?

00:58:29

What's it like for me to be able to do that?

00:58:31

In the middle of the night I did something

00:58:33

that's not too uncommon, I got up to take a whiz.

00:58:38

And I would stay at this house,

00:58:40

the same house in Key Largo for 10-15 years going.

00:58:44

It's a friend has a house down there

00:58:46

he doesn't use in the summer because

00:58:47

no sane person wants to be in Florida in the summer,

00:58:50

but that's where I get a free house,

00:58:52

so that's where I went.

00:58:53

Let's go down, down, go down to Florida.

00:58:56

So I get up in the middle of the night.

00:58:57

I go in to take a whiz, and I walk into the bathroom

00:59:00

and I felt a presence in the bathroom, a presence.

00:59:05

I've never felt a presence before in any bathroom

00:59:08

when I've gone into.

00:59:10

I'm not the kind of person who goes into dark rooms, woo.

00:59:12

I walked into this bathroom in the middle of the night

00:59:17

hundreds, 100 times probably.

00:59:19

Never walked in and go, "There's something in here."

00:59:21

I walk in, I walk in this. It's dark.

00:59:24

I walk in, take a few steps, and I said,

00:59:27

"There's a presence in here."

00:59:30

And I go over, I turn on the lights.

00:59:36

And there on the floor.

00:59:38

There on the floor is a scorpion.

00:59:42

The first scorpion I've ever seen in my life.

00:59:46

A scorpion right there.

00:59:48

I've been meditating on this verse.

00:59:49

Never saw one, felt the presence in the bathroom

00:59:53

and there it was.

00:59:55

And now, now, as a result of this, the question is

01:00:03

what am I going to do about it?

01:00:35

Now I've clued you in to an evil entity

01:00:39

that's gunning for you, that wants you

01:00:40

and wants to accuse you.

01:00:42

I've clued you in. This is the truth.

01:00:44

This is the truth.

01:00:46

I'm more certain of this than I am of 12 times 12 is 143.

01:00:57

There is an entity that's coming to you.

01:00:59

There is a presence

01:01:01

that is wanting to sap your spiritual joy,

01:01:04

wanting to take away your purpose,

01:01:06

wanting to trample your relationships,

01:01:09

wanting you to be foggy about who God is,

01:01:12

wanting you to be frustrated with life

01:01:14

and have you separate from all that God has for you.

01:01:17

It's not by accident. That's the norm.

01:01:20

I've just clued you in to this, it's real.

01:01:22

And now the question for you is

01:01:24

what am I going to do about it?

01:01:26

And this is the same question for me.

01:01:28

I turn around and I saw this scorpion.

01:01:33

What am I going to do about it?

01:01:34

He's in there. What am I going to do about it?

01:01:36

What are you going to do about it?

01:01:38

The thing I'm talking about that you know is for you.

01:01:40

You know you came here today because of that thing,

01:01:43

because of that foothold.

01:01:45

Many of you know it. You know exactly what it is.

01:01:48

What are you going to do about it?

01:01:50

You're going to approach it.

01:02:05

You have to squash it.

01:02:07

You have to not have fear.

01:02:09

You have to go towards it.

01:02:11

In the book of Romans 16:20, it says this:

01:02:21

Crush, grace of our Lord be with you.

01:02:23

The God of peace will crush him under your feet.

01:02:26

So it's the power,

01:02:28

God has not given us the spirit of fear,

01:02:30

but of power, love, and self-discipline.

01:02:32

It's Him, His Spirit, His power, but how?

01:02:36

How does He win the battle?

01:02:39

By you getting over there and putting your foot on it.

01:02:44

You have to get engaged in the game.

01:02:47

You have to go in power towards the thing you're afraid of,

01:02:51

towards the thing that has occupied your life.

01:02:54

You have to move there.

01:03:00

I kill that scorpion.

01:03:01

By the way, I didn't have the faith

01:03:03

to kill with my bare heel, but I did kill it.

01:03:07

And I came home and I brought this scorpion.

01:03:11

This was the scorpion. I brought it back dead.

01:03:13

And I had it put in acrylic.

01:03:14

And this acrylic used to be clear, but as I said,

01:03:16

it's about 15 years old or so right now.

01:03:20

And it's all chipped because for 15, 20 years,

01:03:24

however long it's been, every time before I preach,

01:03:27

I put this up on a table and I put my foot up on it.

01:03:31

And I pray that the lies of the evil one

01:03:33

will get stomped and trampled on.

01:03:35

That's what I do.

01:03:36

I pray for you every time before I preach.

01:03:39

That's what I do, I put my foot up

01:03:41

and it gets knocked off and it gets chipped

01:03:42

and the edges do, because I realize

01:03:44

that this is a spiritual weapon of warfare.

01:03:47

I'm trying to in preaching,

01:03:48

and anybody who preaches from any of our stages

01:03:50

is trying to give you a spiritual weapon of war,

01:03:53

which is the truth from the Word of God

01:03:55

that is totally contrary to normal popular opinion.

01:03:59

And that's why normal popular people

01:04:01

are so screwed up and so lonely and so whatever.

01:04:07

It's not working in our culture.

01:04:10

And some of us have to see this

01:04:11

and have to actually fight it, have to get there.

01:04:14

You can do this.

01:04:15

Now, it's not like Béla Karolyi from the Olympics,

01:04:18

but you can, you can do this.

01:04:20

And book of -- last verse I'll share with you today.

01:04:23

Here it is, Romans 8:37:

01:04:32

You are not a victim. You are not a victim.

01:04:35

You are not an innocent bystander.

01:04:37

You are more than a conqueror.

01:04:39

You're not just a conqueror.

01:04:41

You're not just somebody who can go and tread on things.

01:04:44

It says you are more than a conqueror. More.

01:04:47

You have more ability than you think that you have.

01:04:51

You have more capacity than you think you have.

01:04:53

Why? Because God loves you more than you think He does.

01:04:57

Because He wants to use you more than

01:04:58

you even think that He does, because

01:05:01

He has unending patience and unending forbearance.

01:05:04

It's who He is and what He does.

01:05:06

He doesn't accuse you.

01:05:09

He folds you into His business.

01:05:11

He folds you into His family.

01:05:13

He folds you into His movement

01:05:15

and He actually gives you a piece of Himself,

01:05:17

the Spirit, so you can go about

01:05:19

doing the things He wants you to do.

01:05:22

And what is it? It's a fight.

01:05:25

It's a fight. I don't care what it is.

01:05:29

Dealing with your friends. It's a fight.

01:05:31

Dealing with your husband. It's a fight.

01:05:33

Dealing with your aging parents. It's a fight.

01:05:35

Dealing with your kids. It's a fight.

01:05:37

Dealing with figuring out how to honor God

01:05:40

in the workplace. It's a fight.

01:05:41

Dealing with -- It's a fight.

01:05:43

And you can do this because you are more than a conqueror.

01:05:48

God, thank You for giving power

01:05:50

that goes beyond expectation.

01:05:52

And we ask You to give us more power.

01:05:54

We ask You to give us more of Your Spirit.

01:05:56

And God, some of us in here right now,

01:05:58

we just want to receive You. We're like,

01:05:59

"Gosh, I get it. I want that power. I want that Jesus."

01:06:02

So we just say, "Jesus, I ask You to come into my life.

01:06:06

I give my life to You."

01:06:09

We say, "I want Your forgiveness.

01:06:11

I ask You to fill me with Your Holy Spirit."

01:06:15

And others of us say, "God, we're sorry for being deluded.

01:06:20

We went back in and we're thankful for having us."

01:06:23

We pray these things according to

01:06:25

the name of the conqueror, Jesus. Amen.

01:06:29

- Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.

01:06:31

I hope that you heard specifically

01:06:33

that God wants you to fight back

01:06:36

against whatever the enemy is throwing your way.

01:06:38

And that's the whole reason our church exists,

01:06:41

to do our best to help you in the fight

01:06:43

and to equip you to fight back well.

01:06:45

There's lots of different ways that we do that,

01:06:47

but one of my favorites is actually

01:06:49

the Crossroads Anywhere app.

01:06:51

It's full of all kinds of stuff,

01:06:52

from daily scripture reading to guided reflections

01:06:55

to great sermons, great music,

01:06:57

incredible content articles, and so much more

01:06:59

that I don't have time to get into.

01:07:00

But just a few things depending on, I don't know,

01:07:03

what your specific fight is.

01:07:04

Maybe it's isolation and loneliness.

01:07:07

Well, we've got something coming up for you

01:07:08

that's called Summer Social.

01:07:10

It's ways that we're equipping people

01:07:12

all over the globe to throw parties,

01:07:14

make their patio, their living room,

01:07:16

their backyard, whatever, to make their spaces

01:07:19

the place where connection and friendship happen.

01:07:22

We'd love to send you kits.

01:07:24

You can go to Crossroads.net

01:07:25

or in the Anywhere app to make that happen.

01:07:28

Maybe your fight is hearing from God,

01:07:30

like you're feeling stuck

01:07:32

or feeling not sure of what way to move forward.

01:07:34

Man, you should join us for Online Night of Prayer.

01:07:37

It's coming up this Thursday at 7 p.m. eastern

01:07:41

and it's an incredible time for you to receive prayer

01:07:44

and specifically hear what God might want to say

01:07:47

to you in this season.

01:07:48

I've done this myself and it has been powerful.

01:07:51

God has shown up in huge, huge ways.

01:07:53

Join us at 7 p.m. this Thursday.

01:07:56

All this stuff and more again is in the Crossroads app.

01:07:58

You'll just click the little happenings tab

01:08:00

and it's all right there for you.

01:08:03

Now the app, our services, the stuff we do

01:08:07

in developing world and all over the globe

01:08:09

happens because there are

01:08:10

incredibly generous, faithful people

01:08:12

who are a part of this community.

01:08:13

They're normal people.

01:08:14

There are no corporate sponsors. It's you and me.

01:08:17

And if you've got questions around

01:08:18

what Crossroads believes about money

01:08:19

or you want to step into the fight yourself,

01:08:22

you can do that in the app or at crossroads.net.

01:08:26

Guys, thank you so much for joining us.

01:08:28

We'll see you next week for week two of Stand Firm.

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