THE FOG OF WAR

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So, Father, would your favor find us this morning again in the new?

Thank you for a church that confesses the historical Jesus and thank you for a savior who's not afraid of our history.

So now, Jesus, would you come?

Would you animate your church and your bride the life?

As your favor finds us, may we be ready to fight for kingdom kingdom.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And all God's people said, Amen.

Good morning.

You can have a seat.

I'll say, bless the Lord, if you'll say, Oh, my soul, bless the Lord.

Bless his holy name.

Good morning, Grand Parkway.

You guys look good.

It's always good to be back.

I'm Chris.

Um, I come around a couple times a year, and I just want to honor you guys.

First of all, uh, doing all this is not an easy task.

You guys have a great sense of hospitality from the worship team to the tech team to Michelle running slides, the child care workers.

A lot went on to make sure that you could come hear the word of God communicated clearly to your heart.

And so I appreciate that.

And then to get really biblical on you guys, I bring you greetings from the church that meets at the Brooks household, that meets at the Johnson household, that meets at the Moses household, that meets at the Buntons household, and that meets at the Slevis household.

Uh, we have five microchurches.

And on February 14th, we celebrated four years of a great and grand experiment to see if we couldn't do uh community discipleship and worship that's led by ordinary people.

And so thank you so much.

A big reason that we made it to year four is because of your church's encouragement and support of me.

It means a lot.

Thank you so much.

Um this morning I'm gonna open up God's word with you guys, and we'll be in Ephesians chapter six.

And as you're turning there, I just want to tell you a quick fond memory.

Um, I was doing some doctoral work and I had an advisor named Dr.

Terry Walling, and he kind of did church life and leadership.

He'd been pastoring for about 40 years, and we struck up a friendship which I'm really grateful for.

And we were talking one time, and uh he would do a lot of leadership stuff, but some of the places he would go to uh help minister to churches, he wound up in a lot of men's prayer breakfasts.

Do you guys have a men's prayer breakfast?

Awesome.

Uh, I'm sure it's better than the ones I went to.

Uh now, Baptist is my tribe, and uh most of the men's prayer breakfasts I grew up going to were real heavy on the breakfast, but kind of light on the prayer.

And so Terry said he would walk into there and he would try to wake up some sleeping men, and normally there was some veterans in the uh audience or in the fellowship hall, if you will, and he would say this to them there's a war being fought, and you're not in on it.

There, the love, the lives of our loved ones, our families, and our friends are at stake, and you've yet to join the battle.

There's a war ongoing, and we are losing it because either you don't know what's happening or you refuse to step in.

Now, I imagine that perks up some men, especially veterans, like there's a war being fought, and I'm not in on it.

Come here, preacher.

I'm about to introduce you to left and right.

But he's making their spirit stand up on the inside.

What is he talking about?

He's talking exactly what Paul reveals to us in Ephesians chapter six, when he tells us our struggle that we are engaged in is not simply against flesh and blood.

Let me pray for us and I'll read the word of the Lord.

Holy Spirit, would you give us eyes to see and ears to hear?

Jesus, would you go before us and make a way?

And together we say the words that ravage your heart.

Speak, Lord.

Your servants are listening.

Ephesians chapter 6, we'll start in verse 10.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Finally, be made strong in the Lord and his mighty power.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly realms.

Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.

And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

In addition to this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, be alert and always keep praying for all the Lord's people.

The word of God for the people of God.

Uh cultural war.

Uh, I'm not talking about any kind of physical war.

I'm talking about spiritual warfare that all of the biblical authors assumed was happening.

Uh, the title of the talk this morning is called The Fog of War.

Um, and I want to let you know two things that kind of went into this.

Uh, one is uh our microchurches meet, and then once a month we gather for what we call a macro gathering, and I get to preach and let it rip, and it's a lot of fun.

Um, and we read through the Bible together daily.

So we pick a book of the Bible out, we do break down text, and all of our microchurches read through it and reflect on it and hear the word of the God uh together.

And as I was coming up to a macro service, we were finishing Ephesians, and boom, we landed in Ephesians 6.

So I'm reading through it, reading through it.

And I came across this passage, and I have to confess to you, um, have you ever had a passage of scripture that was really, really significant for you in a certain season of life?

And then every time you read it, you're taken back there, and you're like, oh my gosh, God is so incredible.

Thank you for what you did in me and through me because of that.

Ephesians 6 is this for me.

I actually wrote a Greek exegesis paper, Gazuntite, um, in my seminary.

This was one of the last papers I submitted.

And so when I came across it, I have to confess to you, I just kind of skimmed it.

I'm like, I know what that means.

There's all this stuff, but I just wonder if the Lord has like fresh bread or wants to challenge me in another way.

But I just kept coming back to this text and felt like the Lord said, take another look, son.

Take another look.

And as I did, man, it just birthed in me a new sense of compassionate curiosity about what is this that's going on.

And so I began to read and read and read.

And there's a couple of books that are going to be saturated throughout the talk that will help me give the circumference of the spiritual war that we are engaged in.

One is Live No Lies, two is the God of War, and three is a book written by a fourth-century monk that I'll introduce to you at the end of the talk.

The second reason I really am attracted to this passage of scripture is I come from a long line of military heroes in my family.

I may have told you this before, but you're like my kids, you don't remember anything I say.

Um, so there's my grandfather.

He was in World War II.

He had the purple heart.

There's dad, look at Ronnie Brooks.

That's my mom and my dad.

Kids, just like us.

Um, he went to Vietnam, and then there's my, that's me, by the way, on the right, with my older brother Chad.

And Chad went to uh Operation Desert Storm as an 18-year-old, and he got the Army Accommodation Medal of Valor.

So there's incredible generational legacy uh of men and women who fight for their country and make incredible sacrifices.

And then comes along Chris, who's kind of creative and sensitive, and looks at that legacy and says, That's great for you.

I think I'll go into the ministry.

Joke's on me.

I didn't know that when I decided to follow God, I was following Jesus, who is at war and in conflict and was marching me straight behind enemy lines and enemy minds to take back what was rightfully his father's.

And so we're engaged in a spiritual conflict.

And church, I just want you to hear me very clearly this morning.

We're at war.

There is an enemy.

Jesus called him the devil.

His mission is to steal, kill, and destroy.

His method is lies, and his signature move is deception.

And Ephesians chapter 6 that I just read to you is your conscription and your commission to take up arms and stand your ground.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Now I need to be careful because Tennessee and Texas, you guys are a little bit alike.

I got some good old boys that are like, let's go right now.

I'm locked and loaded.

In fact, I'm carrying right now.

I appreciate that, but this is this is not a call to arms for Christian nationalism.

This is a biblical worldview, and I'll remind you that the rules of engagement are pray for your enemies and for those who persecute you.

And pray in all kinds, in the spirit with all kinds of prayer to take your stand against the devil's schemes.

Now, I I know this isn't fun sometimes.

I really enjoy when we get to talk about our relationship with Jesus as a journey, a walk with God, and a lifestyle.

But it is also true that the biblical authors have always understood following Jesus in terms of a conflict between two kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.

Now, for some of you, uh, if you're kind of new to Christianity, you're just considering the claims of Christ here this morning.

Thank you so much for being here.

I honor you for that.

I understand sometimes in our modern ears, you're going, dude, that's like totally unscientific and real list, unrealistic.

I I can I can understand that.

I'll remind you what C.S.

Lewis told us.

Uh, we can be guilty of chronological snobbery.

It's like a great British insult, isn't it?

The temptation is to look back at the ancient biblical authors and assume that because they were acutely aware of the spiritual forces that were impacting and influencing their lives, they're stupid.

They just didn't have a smartphone.

They must be naive.

Once again, Lewis in his book on screw tape letters, he says there are two and equal opposite errors to which our race can fall about the devils.

One is to disbelieve their existence, the other is to believe and feel in an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

They themselves are equally pleased with both errors, and hail the materialist or the magician with the same delight.

Or said another way by the great theologian Kaiser Sose: the greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he did not exist.

There is a war being fought, and you're not in it.

There's a struggle for our friends, our families, and our loved ones because they are under attack and you have yet to join the battle.

There is a war underway.

And you're not in it either because you don't know what's happening, or you refuse to join it.

I would say to you this morning, even if you struggle with the concept of the devil, an invisible but real spiritual being that is at war with God and opposed to all that is good, I know you have experienced the struggle or the result of this conflict, that inner tug of war at your soul.

Questions like this why can't I stop all these random and reckless thoughts?

Why do I always feel this low-grade anxiety in my chest?

Why is my heart at war with destructive desires?

Why am I prone to the very behaviors I saw tear my family apart?

Why is it so hard to concentrate when I pray?

Why is all the news bad, polarizing and demonizing?

Why is there so much injustice in the world?

And you know what?

Why do I even care?

Billy Graham, uh the great evangelist, in his North Carolina draw when teaching on the invisible but yet real Holy Spirit would say, I've never seen the wind, but I've seen the effects of the wind.

And I would simply say to you, I've never seen the spiritual war, but I've seen the effects of it.

You don't need me to list out all the ways that you've been wounded and wept because of this war.

And you probably don't need me to list out all the ways that you've been complicit and caused casualties in this unseen war.

You do need to hear me say that each one of us, our lives, our relationships, and our responsibility are experiencing now more than ever the fog of war.

Have you guys ever heard that terminology before, the fog of war?

I confess to you, I've heard it.

I didn't know what it meant.

I thought it was a video game that my teenage boys played, right?

Because they want adventure and purpose and mission without any real life sacrifice or risk rejection, but I digress.

The fog of war, by the way, this is the definition.

It's the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operation.

The term seems to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary's capability, and adversary's intent during an engagement.

Paul is telling the Ephesians and us this morning, I do not want you to be uncertain in your situational awareness.

Shockingly enough, the military solution for the fog of war is military intelligence.

Now, there are a lot of people are trying to raise their IQ and their EQ these days.

What if we raised our MQ?

Our actual intelligence about this conflict that we are engaged in.

And according to the military and to Colonel Paul here in our letter in Ephesians, we do this by understanding your own capability, your adversary's capability, and your adversary's intent.

Finally, be made strong in the Lord and his mighty power and put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand.

That's your capability.

Sons and daughters of the King, Holy Spirit living and reigning within you, battle tactics for your everyday life to take your stand in the midst of this, because your battle is not against flesh and blood.

It is against rulers, it is against authorities, it is against powers in this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

That's the truth that is being laid out for you, and you need to confront it.

Your adversary is organized and has an army rank and file aligned against God and you, and his intent is to steal, kill, and destroy.

Now, real quickly, I'm gonna put the cookies on the top shelf, but I'm gonna point to him, okay?

I'm gonna try to, as quickly as we can, try to give you from Genesis to Revelation a declassified military document that has over 6,000 years worth of military intelligence about your adversary.

This isn't complete, but it is an overview.

You ready?

Buckle your seatbelt.

Uh regardless, uh, you have an enemy, his proper name is not revealed in scripture.

Some callers say that that's either a slight against him or it's the equivalent of he who must not be named.

But here are the nouns and verbs that refer to him: the devil, Satan, the evil one, the tempter, the destroyer, the deceiver, the great dragon, the ancient serpent who leads the world away.

Jesus also called him the prince of this world.

Um, and then he claimed that when in the temptation, when uh Satan claimed that the kingdoms of the world were his to give away, Jesus did not disagree with him.

So here we go.

He was created by God.

His original role seems to have been the spiritual formation of human beings through testing.

He sat on God's divine counsel, but he chose to rebel against God's rule.

For thousands of years he has held sway as the prince of this world in an ongoing quest to seize autonomy from God and redefine good and evil as they see fit.

Jesus came to destroy the devil's work.

Tie up that strong man and plunder his house.

Jesus' kingdom was and is still nonviolent.

However, he likened the kingdom of God to a warlike assault on the gates of hell.

In this ongoing war, harm, spiritual, mental, emotional, and even physical is a very real possibility.

We are warned to stay alert, sober-minded, for the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

Our great hope is in Jesus' return when he will finish what he started.

And every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

The glory of God, our Father.

And we will take our place as co-rulers with Jesus.

Just a quick context, we also read in Ephesians 4.8 that at the cross, when he descended into hell, he took captive all those spiritual forces, the devils and his demons.

Colossians 2.15, we are told that God stripped the spiritual rulers of their powers and authorities with the cross.

He has won victory.

He's disarmed them, he disgraced them, and he has triumphed over them.

John 12, 31, the time, this is Jesus right before he's going to the cross.

The time of judgment for the world has come.

At this time when Satan, the prince of this world, shall be cast out.

And when I am lifted up on the cross, I will draw all men near to me.

Now, if you condense and coalesce, I know that was a lot of information, but there is this perplexing language, right?

Jesus is defeated, Satan and his forces, but yet he still has some kind of power or struggle that's happening here.

We know at the end time, like he's going to be cast into the lake of fire and we'll live and rule and reign with Jesus.

I get that, but so what about this time right here?

The best way I've ever heard this characterized is by a theologian named Oscar Coleman, and he uses the example of D-Day and VE Day.

Uh, when we stormed Normandy, right?

That was D-Day, and that was on June 6, 1944.

And historians would say that is the decisive victory that won the Allied war for us against the Germans.

Ever since that moment on, they were backpedaling on retreat.

But it wouldn't be till 11 months later at VE Day that we got Germany's unconditional surrender.

There were multiple battles and still multiple casualties, even though they had lost the war.

We find ourselves in the already and not yet kingdom of God, inaugurated by Jesus' arrival, his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and we're waiting his return.

He is defeated, but he is doing everything possible to cause as much havoc as he can to God's people until his final defeat.

Finally, be made strong in the Lord and his mighty power, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand.

So now we know we have an enemy.

So now let's have some situational awareness around his schemes, his fiery darts.

The schemes here is the Greek word methodia, which means craft or deceit.

It means, hey, look over here why I do something right here.

He wants to distract you so that he can deceive you.

My dad, who was in Vietnam, um, he came back and uh he didn't talk much about it, which I find out happens a lot of times for most veterans when they see things they can't unsee.

But he did tell me he would tell us a couple stories.

And one of it was uh when he got over to Vietnam, he was a private.

Name ever watched the uh show Mash, but I just lost like a younger generation, but I apologize.

I I was one of my dad's favorite shows, and I can always remember like watching it like 5:30 right before dinner.

You're like, oh okay, mash is on, we're gonna get mashed potatoes soon.

But he would tell me, like, I had this idolized vision of my dad, like he fought in Vietnam, and I wore some of his cool army gear.

And I'm like, dad, give me some like cool stories to tell my friends so I don't get beat up.

Uh and he's like, Chris, uh, you know radar at Mash?

Yeah, that was me.

I was a clerical guy.

Uh apparently my greatest superpower was I could type fast.

And so that was my main position.

I'm like, oh, that's not gonna help with me getting swirlies in the toilet, dude.

Uh but he said, Well, I actually did, as a part of being enlisted, have to go on patrol every month to guard the perimeter of our base.

And he said, The first time I went out there, I'm this young kid, I'm nervous, I never see anything like this, and I get partnered up with like this grisly old vet.

And he is none too impressed with me.

He's probably seen it, done it all, and he knows he's got a kid shaking in his boots.

And so we go out to the watchtower and he just briefly explains Hey, Private Brooks, 100 yards out.

We got landmines and charges dead around the whole perimeter.

You see anything, hear anything, don't do anything.

Just wake me up.

I'm going to sleep.

That guy goes to sleep, and my dad's just sitting there.

And sure enough, he starts hearing things.

That's a twig that snapped.

Oh, that sounds like a gun being cocked.

And he's trying to fight it down, but he keeps hearing it.

So finally he wakes up the guy next to him and says, Hey, I think I hear something.

Guy wakes up, listens, like, nothing, it's your imagination, Brooks.

Leave me alone.

This happens two or three times during the night.

And the guy keeps escalating in his anger, and my dad is escalating in his fear.

My dad said, always told me there's no atheists in foxholes, but he also told me he had never been more happy to see the sunrise in his entire life.

So before they get off their post, they go out and they're supposed to check the charges to make sure everything's okay that are 100 yards out.

And they get about 25 yards out and see all the charges dug in fresh holes.

What had happened that night is the enemy had snuck in, dug them up, moved them as close as possible, and then retreated back in the woods and started making noises.

So they would detonate it and blow themselves up.

I think Satan loves to deceive us the most.

This is a good trick by the enemy.

I think this gives us insight by the way he wants to work with us.

He wants to deceive us as soldiers, thinking we're protecting ourselves and instead we're destroying ourselves.

I also think Satan loves it when we're isolated and alone and afraid.

And I especially think he likes it.

Amen.

And the next generation is coming up as petrified.

And they're destroying themselves.

Because you have not stepped in to your God-given authority or responsibility.

Maybe this is why the Bible tells us, Wake up, O sleeper, and let the light of Christ shine on you.

So that's his schemes and his patterns.

Uh this is his playbook.

Just watch this.

He starts with deceptive ideas that lead to your disordered desires that become normalized in your behavior and our society and our culture.

The biblical words used for that are the devil, the flesh, and the world.

You know this in theory.

You have a deceptive idea or thought, it becomes normalized in your behavior, the flesh, and then you find a bunch of people who are doing the same things who excuse it, and it becomes normalized in a sinful society, the world.

Teenagers, when you look at your parents or you're trying to follow Jesus, and they are holding up a biblical, moralistic worldview that will lead to life and not to death, and your only comeback is everyone else is doing it is bankrupt.

The devil, the flesh, and the world.

We go in that moment that we start hearing those thoughts and temptations and those deceptive ideas, when they go from just a thought to a behavior and into our muscle memory, that's when we go from the fog of war to prisoners of war.

We have voluntarily surrounded our rights and responsibilities to the enemy.

And this war should be at the foremost of our hearts and minds.

Dallas Willard said it this way: we truly live at the mercy of our ideas.

Looks like this.

There's a grown man who has a fractured relationship with his father and is kind of distanced, but the only time he came home or interacted with his son was by discipline or telling him all the things that he didn't do, right?

And when he grows up to be a man, he starts to believe the deceptive idea.

I'm not enough.

And so he overcompensates that stratificate sense of inadequacy with deadly addictions and unholy ambitions.

It's not so much that you believe the lie, it's that you live the lie.

It's like a stay-at-home mom who's constantly anxious and angry and begins to believe the lie and live into the lie that if my children are experiencing difficult things, I'm a failure as a mother.

It's kind of like the teenage girl who scrolls endlessly through curated pictures on our social media feed and hears the lie, sees the lie, believes the lie, and begins to live in the lie.

I only have worth if I look this way or do these things.

And no matter what he does in the kingdom, he's dreadfully aware that the lie is you are not enough, and you are not doing enough.

I have to be perfect.

Because if I fail or I struggle, people suffer.

Inside and out.

And now, even though he loves God, anytime something difficult happens to him, he thinks God hates me.

And he's just waiting to get me.

And those are just some of the stories that I know from the men and women in my church.

I'm sure you'd have similar or different ones about all the ways that you've believed the lie and then leave the lie.

We don't want to be voluntary prisoners of more anymore that are taken captive by those deceptive ideas.

We want to understand Satan's schemes and we want to be able to stand and withstand the fiery darts from the enemy.

So thanks be to God.

The truth can set you free.

And as the text was just read, Jesus came to set captives free.

So I at the risk of sounding overly simplistic, but Paul likes to tell his church repeat the basic essentials again and again and again.

I want to give you a battle-worn and proven strategy and tactic this week.

Scripture and prayer.

You're welcome.

You came here this morning just to hear that.

Seriously, scripture and prayer.

Scripture.

Jesus was tempted by Satan himself.

And what did he use to resist the devil so they would flee from him?

I think if it works for Jesus, it might be actually helpful for us to do it.

Man shall not live by bread alone.

You shall not test the Lord your God.

You shall worship the Lord your God only.

Paul uses scripture to let us know we have access to the armor of God.

He doesn't want us wandering, witless, and weaponless into battle.

He wants to arm us to the teeth so that we can take our stand.

This is why we read scripture, pray scripture, memorize scripture, journal scripture, so that when the tempter comes attempting and the deceiver comes a deceiving, you can talk back just a little bit.

In the words of the great theologian, Crocodile Dundee, that's not a knife.

That's a knife.

Sword of the Spirit.

Start getting that in you so you can fight off those deceptive ideas and those lies.

I would also say prayer.

Pray in the spirit.

This is Paul with all kinds of prayer and requests.

Be alert.

Always keep praying for God's people.

Pray without ceasing.

Begin in prayer.

Pray in His warfare to the last breath.

So I implore you, beloved.

Pray.

Prayer walk.

Prayer talk.

Listen in your prayers.

Talk in your prayers.

Sing your prayers.

Worship through your prayers.

Laugh in your prayers.

In the middle of conversations, be praying to the Lord, what should I say and what shouldn't I say?

Shout your prayers, whisper your prayers.

In the words of an old revivalist, when all those prayers fail, try tears.

I told you earlier there was going to be a book by a fourth-century monk.

His name was Evagoras.

He was pretty well known as a great exegesis orator and pretty much a spiritual guide and stud at the time.

And he was part of the Egyptian fathers in the desert.

One day a letter arrives to him by a young monk, and he just asked him, Hey, I just joined the monastery.

What would you do to tell me to fight the temptations that I'm fighting?

Because living the monastic life is very difficult.

And I would think a stud like this guy's like, I ain't got time to answer your little petty little pen pal stuff.

But he actually did respond.

Navagaris went through and he listed out 478 responses to temptations.

He actually categorized them into eight things, which would later be redacted into seven things by Pope Gregory, called the seven deadly sins.

478 entries, all that begin with this.

Against the lie that says this.

The book was entitled Talking Back, A Monastic Guide for Fighting Demons.

Delightful.

Hey, what would it look like if you guys started developing your own guide for talking back?

What does a stay at home's mom look like for talking back against the spiritual warfare of demons?

What does a middle school boy's handbook and guidebook for combating the demons and temptations of being in middle school?

What does it look like for you to develop a handbook that says, hey, this is a battle tactic for fighting demons for a traveling accountant?

Here's the common temptations I faced, and here's the prayer and scripture that you can step into.

What lives have you been living that need to die?

What thoughts need to be destroyed with an arsenal of prayer?

What strongholds of generational sin are just waiting to be broken by an unlikely prayer warrior like you who decided to take their stand against the devil's schemes to look back at your family tree and tell the one who has been defeated thus far and no further.

I imagine little by little we would start taking our stand and taking ground.

I imagine we would stop whispering and whimpering our worship songs and treating them like a battle cry for the Lord's army.

I imagine we would stop looking at our quiet times as optional, but actually essential to equip yourself for the day and the challenges to come.

Imagine we'd stop walking away from our rights and responsibilities with feeble excuses and start locking arms and locking eyes with other people and running full tilt into the breach once more.

I imagine it wouldn't be pretty or perfect.

I imagine it would be filled with decorated and wounded warriors alike who refuse to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the war that's raging all around us.

If that happens, I imagine this.

At the end of days, when we stand before God, you wouldn't have to say, I fought a good fight.

Your battle scars would speak for themselves.

Amen.

Finally, be made strong in the Lord's mighty power, so that you are able to take your stand against the devil's schemes.

There's a war being fought.

Will you join us?

Holy Spirit, unto you, all hearts and minds are open from hue, no secrets are hid.

Cleanse our thoughts and our imaginations by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit as we worthily magnify your holy name.

Amen.

As you engage in the struggle and the battle tactics raging in your own life.

Speak, Lord.

Your servants are listening.

We hear and we heed the call to the battle.

It's not news to us, so we're not afraid of duty or danger.

We understand both of those.

We also understand that our enemy is a created being.

He's not creator, so he cannot create anything.

He doesn't have that capacity.

He can only pervert what you've created.

And so what he does is he sneaks into our camp while we're sleeping because we're not alert, we've fallen asleep, we've become so accustomed to it, we've heard it our whole lives.

He digs up these things that we think protect us and he moves them a little closer.

And then he backs up and makes noise and watches us destroy ourselves.

And so, Lord, we're uh mindful of his schemes.

I pray for behaviors that you would give us, Holy Spirit, reveal behaviors in us that need to happen this week in a response to the belief that we heard this morning.

But this is our prayer.

We prayed in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest today, thanks for being here.

You're always welcome here.

Uh, if you're our guest, all we ask of you today is if you would, is just uh text the word welcome to that number on the screen behind me.

I guess that's a record of your visit.

We want to help you take your next step of your spiritual journey.

We want to help you understand things.

We want you to come to church and learn and understand God's word and God's truth.

Because Jesus said you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.

We don't want to bind you up.

We want you to be the freest cat in the room.

Uh, so that people get around you and they're like, Whoa, if you've been coming into Grand Park for any length of time, one thing you'll you realize is that we don't do a lot of rah-rah.

We don't have smoke machines and lights and everything and dancing monkeys.

Uh, and here's why.

We don't want Sunday morning to be the experience.

We want you to be so equipped that you're the experience people have.

Okay?

And so that's just our theology informs our methodology.

Our methodology does not limit our theology.

Uh we we we we work hard to keep those things in the right order.

So uh it just if you're new and you're like, hey, y'all sing and and teach the Bible, yep, that's it.

Uh because that's what you were created to know and experience and enjoy.

Uh, we've always got things going on in the life of our church.

Make you aware of those every week by way of our video announcements.

So check out the screen behind me to see what's coming up.

Here's what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Hello, my name is Beautiful Pennington, and I'm excited to share a bit about our welcome team and why it's such a vital part of our church community.

Serving on the welcome team is important because we're often the first point of contact for newcomers.

A friendly greeting and a helping hand can make all the difference in someone's experience here at Grant Parkway.

We want every person who walks through the doors to feel valued and at home.

It's about creating a welcoming environment here where everyone can connect and thrive.

Right now, we need your help.

We're looking for 20 more volunteers to fill our current positions and prepare for future growth.

We're in need of four front door greeters, five lobby greeters, six golf cart drivers, and five ushers.

Together, we can ensure that every guest feels welcomed and loved.

If you're interested in joining our welcome team or want to learn more about serving, you can look for me in the lobby or the sanctuary or contact TravisDunham at Travis at Grandparkway.org.

Together, we can create a welcoming atmosphere for everyone.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Join us as we partner with Covenant Church of the Highlands to support their hurricane relief efforts by doing reconstruction projects at their church and providing some disaster relief help in their community.

This is an excellent opportunity to serve, connect, and make a kingdom impact.

Want to learn more?

Come to our interest meeting on Sunday, March 2nd, right after the second service in the Fellowship Hall.

We would love to see you there.

Finally, on March 23rd and 30th, come learn the history and mission of Graham Parkway Baptist Church.

You'll learn why membership matters and how to get connected at GPBC.

The sessions will take place in room 204 from 1030 to 1145 a.m.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Well, one last uh thing I want to remind you of.

Uh, Chris Brooks, how long you've been coming and speaking and doing things here at Grand Parkway?

Somebody asked me, I didn't know.

I said five to seven years.

Yeah, it sounds about we'll go with that.

All right, so anyway, I told you at the beginning that we have four core values: gospel, community, mission, and blessing.

We believe that the gospel produces a community of people on the shared mission.

Central to that mission is to be a blessing.

Uh, and so today we want to bless Chris Brooks.

And so I found this box uh in in in it came.

We got something in the mail this week, and uh, I wasn't lying in the email.

Wade Bird just had a little box and was wrapping it up with some paper, and I was like, I'm gonna kill you.

Um, and I took one of my wife's cut coat knives that we're still paying on, uh, and I cut a little slit in it.

Uh by the way, I hate Cody Cooper, a little kid in our church was knocking on the door selling those things, and then it was like, oh, and here's the scissors, and they come apart.

And if you buy this, you get this.

And I'm like, and then the kid leaves my house and I got a wooden block full of the most expensive knives I've ever bought in my life.

And I'm like, I'm gonna kill you, Cody Cooper.

Um, and his parents are probably here somewhere today.

I love Cody.

I did his wedding last month, okay?

I still want to kill him.

Anyway, uh, this is what this is for.

If you if you've been blessed by Chris, and not just today, but when he's come, and you want to you want to say, hey, I want to, I want to bless you back.

You just come and stick in this little slot right here.

It's kind of crooked because the cut coat knives are overrated.

But anyway, uh, and we just want to bless Chris.

And so everything you put in that box, he'll go home with today.

I maybe let him just haul this box to the airport.

Uh, but anyway, that's it.

We just want to bless Tim.

No strings attached.

If you're like, hey, I didn't come prepared for that.

That's okay.

No, no pressure, all right?

So when you're dismissed, Chris will be standing over here.

Uh, and if you want to come speak a word to him, but if you want to come and say, hey man, I want you to just go build to go do this to other churches, okay?

And I just want to bless you and your family.

Then you can come stick it in the box, everything will go straight to him, all right?

Would I conclude our service of the spoken blessings?

Well if you would stand to your feet.

Hold your hands out.

By the way, also today, uh, if when you came in, people, our new devotionals are in.

Uh, if you'd like to grab one of those, they're here on the edges of the stage, and our our our welcome team has them in the lobby.

Hold your hands out.

Lord, we hear something like today and we just want to say out loud uh because the enemy tries to pervert everything.

Uh, we're we're not afraid.

We are fully equipped for everything you ask us to do.

And so we're we're so not afraid.

We say to you, God, that we want to drown in your laughter and we want to die in your arms.

Old and full of years, with battle scars all over us, and we show up at the gates of heaven, then the PA announcer comes on and says, ladies and gentlemen, now entering into glory, Sheila Smith, and heaven's gonna go crazy.

Like baseball players when someone hits a walk-off home run.

So we're not gonna live in fear, and we're not gonna live with a sense of uh uh uh fatalness, just everything's negative.

You're our dad and you're forest, and that's enough for us, Lord.

Let a cloud of favor just reign over this place and these people.

Now, Lord, we're gonna depart out of here, and we're gonna live in the fullness of everything you've called us to and equipped us for because the battle's already been won.

We're here just to announce the victory of God over all things.

The kingdoms of this world to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of us Christ.

Therefore, you can depart and live in victory.

So do so in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.