Otherworldly Weapons | July 13, 2025

for those of you guests with, we

don't always have sets built on the

platform unless it's June and July,

and that's because we take very,

very seriously our VBS Amen.

Amen.

Okay, so somehow this headphone has

been given buddy grief and we're gonna

try and see if it works for Rusty.

So, uh, and there it comes again.

Whoa.

Um, I hope you don't mind looking

at a blank screen up there.

'cause this is the deal.

Do I know how to build PowerPoints?

Yes, I do.

Do I want to build a

PowerPoint for Sunday morning?

No, I don't.

And this is why.

'cause if you can't see

these, these are my notes.

They're gonna get it worked out.

So y'all just bear with me.

I'm not gonna bail on it until our

sound technicians figure out what

they're doing, know what this is doing.

They're doing great.

Okay, so these are my notes.

If you can't see that, it's

just conglomeration mess.

Okay?

And that's, that's how I take notes.

I just, it's a mess, right?

But I know what it says

'cause I can read it, right?

It's interesting, I picked up a bible this

more, uh, this week for those of you who

don't know my story just a little bit.

Some of you do, some of you don't.

At a time in my life where God

was speaking to me and drawing

me, he was doing the same thing

in my father's life as, as well.

Only he was a six to seven

hour drive away from me.

I was living on my own in Texas

as a senior in high school, and

my folks had moved to Kansas.

My dad was still in the military and

God was working in my dad's life.

And at the same time, he

was kind of drawing me

kind of a weird perspective.

And, uh, as things would collide

and come together, I went to Bible

college and I got a degree in music.

And my dad, after he got outta

the military, went to seminary.

So kind of cool.

So unlike Andy, I did end up on staff

with my father only My father raised a

pa. I wasn't raised in a pastor's home.

I was raised in military brat.

Um, and then traveled all over the

world following my dad, who was

a, it was a, a full-time soldier.

And, uh, a very good one.

I dunno if that's good.

Soldiers end up being buried in

Arlington Cemetery, I guess sometimes.

Right?

And that's, that's where he's at.

That being said, he transitioned and this

week I picked up one of his Bible, but

I'm, and he's got post-its throughout and

notes throughout, and it was just very,

uh, his writing was worse than mine.

But, uh, it was cool just to read that

and see the legacy that he passed on.

Uh, because when he was, when he was a

soldier, he was all in, I mean, all in.

And when he transitioned to

Jesus, he was all in that army.

There was no compromise.

There was no hesitation.

He knew that over here, if you

didn't do your job, people died.

He also knew that over here, if you

didn't do your job, people died.

Over here.

Over here, they die spiritually

and they go to hell.

He took it very seriously and

he kind of passed that on to me.

But anyway, so I was reading

some of his notes and he was

like me, it was just a mess.

And I rewrite him two or three or four

times as I'm going through this and Andy

said, Hey, pump VBS pump vb S pump VB S.

So this is pumping VVS

pumping VBS pump and VVS.

That's why this is here.

But I thought it'd be awesome to talk

about the castle 'cause it's cool.

Right?

Does anybody remember what

Andy talked about last week?

Anybody remember?

Last week was the, was the, uh, youth,

but I think he talked about something

before that didn't, he had to do with VBS.

That being said, last week

was a youth awesome time.

I thought it'd be.

Cast, talk a little bit about it.

I'm not gonna be able to go along 'cause I

picked all these great songs and I'm done.

Just done.

You.

I, I don't know how, I

don't wanna be critical.

I cannot sit still when the

music's going like that.

I can't help but sing.

Russell said, Hey dad, if you need

to back off and save it, I got it.

I tried.

It ain't happening.

It just is not happening.

You know, when we get to heaven, I don't

think anybody's gonna be preaching.

Surprise, surprise.

All these pastors got a new thing coming.

I think we're gonna be worshiping.

All right.

I think there's gonna

be music out the wazoo.

It's gonna be awesome.

Okay.

It's gonna be incredible.

I'm just saying, you might

as well rehearse now.

That's what's gonna happen.

Only the nothing's gonna stop you.

Sometimes I think stuff

inside us kind of stops us.

You know, kind of, we're gonna talk

about strongholds this morning,

you know, stronghold that stops

us from just saying, you know,

Lord, I'm just gonna worship you.

I'm just gonna let it go.

Well, when we get to the other side,

there's not gonna be any strongholds.

It's gonna be broken down and

we're gonna worship the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Totally and completely.

Okay.

But I couldn't stop, so

the voice may not last.

It's all good.

I'm relaxing right now.

This is the introduction.

Oh, good.

I've got all kinds of time.

Is Pre Corps here?

No, he is not.

Oh, bless him.

I'm not gonna compete with him.

Promise.

Or with Josh.

Thanks Josh for that last, but I'm

gonna give you a lot of scripture.

I didn't put it up here because

my notes changed so many times.

If I put it up there in the first

of the week, DAXs texted me,

Hey, can you get me the slides?

No.

'cause they're gonna change

before we get to Sunday morning.

They changed this morning.

I woke up in that daze and

thought, oh man, that's good Lord.

That's good Lord.

Scribble it down.

And I said, morning.

This page was blank.

So I'm starting here, going

here, coming here, going there.

Can you follow?

You think we could put that up there?

No, it's not gonna happen.

Have your Bibles.

Hopefully you have 'em.

Okay.

Hopefully you got one.

If it's on your technology, who's sitting

next to a person that is looking at

their Bible on their phone, I want you

to verify they're on their Bible app.

I give you permission to Snoop

Verify they're on their Bible app.

Okay?

Kids, if your parents, teenagers, if

your parents are on their phone, I

give you permission to check Dad out.

Okay?

Make sure he is on the word.

Perfect.

All right.

'cause this is what's important.

There you go.

I saw youth back there.

Go.

That's what I like.

Dude, don't be playing any games, okay?

Don't be playing any games.

Get in the word.

Okay, so another, you know, footnote.

Hey, dads, your kids need

to see you with a book.

Because if they come downstairs in

the morning and you're sitting up

with a lamp, with a cup of coffee

and iPhone, or your tablet, they

don't know you're in the word.

Get a book.

And when they come down, they

say, Ooh, dad's reading the word.

It means something.

I'm just saying, I'm just saying

Second Corinthians chapter 10

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

holes.

You know what a stronghold is.

Can you hear it?

Is it going away?

Is it cutting?

Is it cutting?

Debbie?

Little bit.

Little bit.

Well, if I need to cut it,

I will do away with it.

Okay.

My sound guy up here

says, do away with it.

Okay, here we go.

Testing 1, 2, 3.

Testing one Corinthians

second Corinthians.

Excuse me.

Chapter 10.

This is gonna be really hard because

I got a lot of scripture and, uh,

turning my pages is gonna get fun.

Okay, second Corinthians chapter 10.

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Let's, let's pick up in verse three.

Um,

for though we walk in the flesh,

we do not, we are not waging

war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not

of the flesh, but have divine power.

To destroy strongholds, we destroy

arguments and every lofty opinion raised

against the knowledge of God and take

every thought captive to obey Christ.

Father, thank you for your word.

Lord, I pray that your word this

morning will speak, that nothing

I say or do will come between your

Holy Spirit and the hearts of people.

That your word

will not return void, but will

plant a seed of truth in the

hearts of people this morning.

And I pray you water it and bring

it a harvest in your precious name.

Amen.

Ephesians chapter six says this.

For, we do not wrestle against flesh

and blood, but against the rulers,

against the authorities, against the

co cosmic powers, over this present

darkness against the spiritual forces

of evil in the heavenly places.

How many of you look around today

and see the warfare that is raging?

You can raise your hand if you're

not seeing warfare, raging.

You're not looking around, and

I'm not talking about Israel and

Hamas, and I'm not talking about

Ukraine and Russia or every other

little conflict, ice and illegals.

I'm not talking about that,

not talking about any of that.

But there's a warfare that's raging right

now that's taking captive and building

strongholds in the lives of people

that are sending them straight to hell.

And that's the warfare

Paul is talking about.

In Ephesians, he makes

it really, really clear.

We don't fight against flesh and blood.

You know, as believers, we should try

and remember that every day I don't

have a fight against other people.

Jesus died for those people.

He shed his blood on a cross.

For every person who has ever

lived, who is currently living or

who will ever live, he died for

them, which means he loves them.

What does he command me to do?

Love them.

Love them.

There is a stronghold in their life.

There is a big castle.

Keeping the Holy Spirit of God

from penetrating their heart.

The word stronghold in the Greek

right there in Corinthians.

That is the only place it's

found in the New Testament.

Now, there's a couple of Hebrew words back

in the Old Testament that have similar

translations, but this one time in second

Corinthians, the only place it's found.

It basically means fortress like a castle.

Think about how it communicated

in that time period.

Think about it, where people,

cities built walls to keep the bad

people out, to protect them from

the onslaught of other nations.

They built walls.

I, IE remember Jericho.

We think of a wall maybe a a what?

What?

What's a wall?

Who's in construction around here?

What's a wall?

All the weights are gone.

How thick is a wall?

You got two by four studs, right?

You got a wrap?

Installation.

Then whatever your siding is on

the inside, you've got sheet rock.

So what are we about?

Six inches, eight inches.

That's all you got.

That's it.

I don't wanna be real rude here,

but a tornado just wipes them

things out like it's a toothpick.

It's gone.

Has very little protection

for your, I mean we, we do.

I mean, we are kind of spoiled.

Little rain, little hail.

It's all good.

Replace the roof.

It's all good.

It's great.

Right?

The walls they had, the fortresses

they built, kept out armies from

the onslaught that was coming.

The walls were so thick, you could

drive chariots around the rim of it.

They built homes in the walls.

That's how big the walls are.

These are the walls that

are in people's lives.

These are the walls that

are in people's minds.

The warfare we're waging has

absolutely nothing to do with

the world and how they wage war.

The weapons, the war the world uses,

they bark over here and bite over there.

You'll get that later.

They bark over here and bite over there.

Physical weapons.

We also, the world wars with words,

don't they?

Critical condemning mean

angry, hateful words.

How about attitudes?

Have you ever had a worldly

attitude aimed at you?

Maybe you've had a worldly

attitude aimed at somebody else.

That's a worldly weapon.

That's the weapons the world uses.

Physical weapons that kill, and then

weapons of words and attitudes hate.

That's the weapons the world uses.

And Paul said, we don't

war with those weapons.

Our weapons are mighty.

Our weapons are holy to the pulling down

of strongholds, to bash down the castles

of the evil one and to take captive every

thought to make it obedient to Christ.

So let's talk about the strongholds.

Turn to Matthew chapter 15.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

We're gonna fly and I'm gonna

have to do it with one hand.

Matthew chapter 15 and

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

verse 18 and following,

in Corinthians Paul wrote

that we shouldn't look at

the outside or the temporary.

We should look at the eternal.

Don't be caught up in the physical.

Don't be caught up in what's temporary.

Everything you see is temporary.

You realize that everything

in this world is temporary.

Don't be caught up in looking

at things temporarily.

Let's look at things that are eternal.

You know what is eternal?

We are eternal.

We are eternal.

People are eternal.

That's it.

Nothing of this world

will survive to the end.

It's gone.

We are eternal.

We need to change our paradigm

from physical to spiritual.

Don't look and fight

the wars the world does.

Let's look at it from God's point of view.

In Matthew chapter 15, verse 18

Matthew 15:18

says, but what comes out of the

mouth proceeds from the heart?

And this defiles, a person for out

of the heart come evil thoughts,

murder, adultery, sexual morality,

theft, false witness and slander.

These are what defile a person,

but to eat with unwashed hands

does not defile anyone To Roman,

turn to Romans chapter one.

Hopefully you're gonna see a theme here

in Romans chapter one, verse 21 says,

for although they knew God, they

did not honor him as God or give

thanks to him, but they became futile

in their thinking and their foolish

hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise.

They became fools.

In exchange the glory of, of the immortal

God for images resembling mortal man, and

birds and animals, and creeping things,

they worshiped the created

thing rather than the creator.

In verse 25 says, because they exchanged

the truth of God, truth about God for

a lie, and worshiped and served the

creator, the creature, excuse me, rather

than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen and amen.

Their minds became futile, empty, vain.

In, in Ephesians chapter four, verse

17, Paul wrote, and he said, now

this, I say, and testified in the

Lord that you must no longer walk as

the Gentiles do in the futility of

their minds, that word futility right

there translates devoid of truth,

devoid of truth.

See, the stronghold that we

deal with on a day-to-day basis

is a stronghold of the mind.

Have you ever been in an argument with

somebody and you're trying to convince

them that they're lost and going to hell?

Have you ever been in an argument of

words about the, about the scripture?

Have you ever tried to convince

somebody that they're wrong?

Let's take the scripture out of it.

'cause everybody's been in an argument

where you're trying to convince somebody

that they're wrong and they're not moving.

How'd that go for you?

Were you able to convince them?

Why?

Why couldn't you convince them?

Aren't you right?

Something in their mind?

Has them convinced they're right.

You're not gonna convince

them, you won't move them.

We sometimes spend a lot of

energy and emotion trying to

convince somebody with the word

and with our words, they're wrong.

You're going to hell.

I learned that kind of early on.

I got to Bible college and didn't have

a lot of experience with all this.

I was really raw.

But I saw some guys in the dorm and

they were PA ministerial students.

They were, we called them preacher boys,

you know they're studying to be pastors.

They had 10 pound

Thompson chain references.

A lot like what Marty

carries every Sunday.

Okay, that was funny.

You gotta give it up.

He still carries that big Thompson chain.

Nevermind it's a big study Bible.

And on Friday nights these three or

four of them would get their study

bibles, these big honking bibles.

And I went to college in East Texas

to say backwoods my, not go far enough.

When I was in college in the

seventies, there were still people

living so far back in the woods.

They didn't have running water

and they didn't have electricity.

There was no paved road to get

to their house back in the woods.

That's how backwoods, I'm

talking about way back.

Redneck is not an exaggeration.

Okay?

These guys would grab their

bibles, go down to the local Sonic.

Now, Sonic was where, I don't know

you kids today probably can't get it.

Maybe those over 50 are gonna get it.

Uh, that's where they would drag.

That was the strip.

You know, they would run their

hot rods round through Sonic

does the circle come back around?

Through Sonic?

You're buzzing, man.

Everybody's waving at the chicks.

Everybody's cool, you know,

all showing off their cars.

And all the cowboys would sit on

their trucks with the back end down

on the back of the truck, cowboy hats

pulled down and drinking as much beer

as they could possibly put in that.

That was it.

That was a Friday night.

And these preacher boys would go

to go down and save the world.

Now I gotta give 'em credit

for their enthusiasm.

But every Friday night they would

come home bloodied and bruised.

And I'm not, that's not figuratively.

'cause they got in the face of

these drunk boys and these drunk

boys just gave 'em a whoop.

And they would come back to

the dorm suffering for Jesus.

And I'm like, not sure that's

what he means, because they're

beaten against a stronghold and

they're not doing it the way.

I don't get that.

So I tried a different angle.

I went to work in town

with all those cowboys

and I kept my Bible in my back pocket.

A little New Testament.

Wasn't the smartest guy on the

block, but I knew that didn't work.

So I tried a different angle

and I just hung with these guys and I

loved them and I spent time with them.

And when they asked, when opportunity

presented itself, when there was a

hurting moment, I put my arm around him.

Sometimes I'd open the

scripture and say, you know,

this is my Jesus.

A couple of those

rednecks just look me up.

Every time I get back to school,

they come looking for me.

I mean, they would go all over

town looking for where I was.

Come find me at a restaurant or on campus.

Glad you're back.

Let's go get a Coke.

Okay, cool.

Whatever.

I, I just saying, the weapons we fight

with are not the weapons of the world.

What are we gonna do to, to

tear down the walls of the mind?

Well, this is what we do to

tear down the walls of the mind.

We start with our weapons.

The weapons God provides us

first starts with our faith.

In Hebrews chapter 11, if you haven't

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

read it, you should go read it sometime.

It's the faith chapter talks about all the

faith of all the Old Testament all the way

through a lot of Old Testament figures.

But there's one little

bitty verse round verse 13.

13 or so that said it was the faith that

caused the walls of Jericho to fall.

Now, if you don't know the story, the

children, they crossed over the Jordan.

They crossed the Red Sea,

they cross the Jordan.

They're coming into the promised

land that God says this is yours.

And they get to this big city, Jordan

or Jericho, big walls fortified.

Oh no, what are we gonna do?

And God tells him, he says, I

want you to walk around the city.

All the people walk around

the city, don't say a word.

Be quiet.

They carried the ark in front,

the trumpeters trumpeted

one day all around the city.

They just were six days

all around the city.

Quiet, trumpeters, trumpeting, arc

carried in front, trumpeters, trumpet.

Can you imagine when the people

of Jericho thought they're kind of

foolish, ain't they all around the city?

Six days.

Seventh day, we're gonna

go around seven times.

Once we get around seven

times, we're gonna raise our

voices and a shout to the Lord.

They did.

Walls fell.

Ever heard a lot of speculation.

Wow.

They shouted so much

that the ground shook.

Well, the trumpets were so loud,

the ground shook, the walls fell.

You know what the

scripture says in Hebrews?

Their faith crushed the walls.

God told 'em to do it.

They believed it, and the walls came down.

Hmm.

Interesting.

God said it and I believed

it, and the walls came down.

Hmm.

Okay, faith, here's a couple other

weapons that God says that we have

at our disposal that we need to use.

Here's one that we overlook, prayer.

Oswald Chambers said in my almost first

highest, I cannot tell you where it was.

It's an, it's a yearly um, devotional,

and you can go look for it.

Remember what he said one time?

He said that God doesn't

give us discernment for the

purpose of condemnation.

He gives us discernment for

the purpose of intercession.

Lemme see if I can define that for you.

If those words flew past you.

Discernment is when we

actually see something.

God reveals something to

us about someone's life.

Maybe it's a person you work with.

Maybe it's a person in your family.

Maybe it's a member in your household.

I don't know.

God speaks to you and gives

you insight into their lives.

A need, a stronghold.

As a believer that stronghold

should not be addressed with

condemnation or criticism.

God didn't give you that discernment

to criticize or condemn that person.

He gave you that discernment to pray

for them to intercede on their behalf.

That's the weapon he has handed You.

Pray, pray that God tears down

the stronghold in their life

that's keeping 'em from Jesus,

because you won't convince them.

Only the Holy Spirit of

God will convince them.

Only the Holy Spirit of God will convince

them we can't do it, but we can pray.

We can pray

and we can praise.

You know, every once in a while.

Um,

I, uh,

I, I, I don't take credit.

I never have.

Um, I've been doing this worship thing

for a long, long, long, long, long time.

Goodness.

A long time.

By 1977, I think, or 78.

77 78, when I took the first position

I had as a choir director in a church,

as the music director in a church.

Um, that's when I started.

Didn't know beans from buckshot.

I didn't know anything.

But I, it, it never ceases to

amaze me that, uh, whenever I'm

saying, Lord, lead me to what you

would have for Sunday morning.

And over there somewhere in the ether is

the pastor and he's saying, Lord, lead me

to what you would have for Sunday morning.

Now, I've been in churches where the

pastor said, I'm preaching on this.

You need to have songs that align.

That ain't my jive.

If I don't dig with that action, is

that man really listening to the Lord

or is he just, I don't dig with that.

Whatever.

Let God be God.

It's amazing.

You would be floored.

Totally.

It would blow your mind.

How many times we show up on a

Sunday morning and the worship set

goes right with the pastor sermon.

The God just does it.

I don't do it.

And Andy and Marty don't do it.

Nobody's preaching does it.

God does it.

And it's not like, wow.

I dunno why I was surprised.

'cause he just keeps showing up like that.

Right.

So this week worship pastor and

preacher are the same entity.

I'm doing the rehearsal this morning.

I'm like.

Dude, God, these are awesome songs.

'cause they're going right with

what I'm talking about this

morning and he's going like, duh.

But I didn't think about it when I did it.

I really didn't.

I mean, I was ruminating on this for a

while and I guess what, what drove it was

more or less the times in which we live.

I mean,

I don't like watching the news.

I don't like it.

It's, it's, it's just gross.

But we are living in a messed up

world and it ain't just the good

old US of a, it's around the world.

It's everywhere.

We are deteriorating at a very rapid pace.

I do, I need to even go further, go back

and read all of chapter one of Romans.

Go back and read what Paul was

writing to the Roman church at the

time, and when he said what he said,

okay about their thinking, they

became futile in their thinking.

They gave up.

God just said, okay, dude, if that's

what you wanna believe, that you think

that two women can have a baby, or two

men can have a baby, or a man can be a

woman or woman, could y'all go ahead.

That's all cool.

He gave up their natural,

they went against nature.

Duh.

That, that's it.

That's the stronghold.

I look around me and I

say, Lord, what's going on?

You're not gonna drag people to your side.

You're not gonna convince them that wrong.

You're not gonna, oh, oh, God's word says.

That's not gonna work.

We need to pray.

We need to praise.

That's what tears the strongholds down.

I'm looking through the scripture this

morning and I'm thinking like, wow, wow.

For God so love the world that he

gave us, his only son, that whoever

believes in him should not perish.

Bring all your failures,

bring your addictions.

Lay them down at the foot of the cross.

Jesus is waiting there.

Let praise be the weapon

that silences the enemy.

Let praise be the weapon

that conquers all anxiety.

Whew.

Let it rise.

Let praise arise.

We're seeing your name in the

dark and it changes everything.

Everything we sing with all we

are, and we claim the victory.

Let it rise.

Let it rise.

We'll see you break down every wall.

We'll watch the giants fall for fear

cannot survive when we praise you,

the God of breakthroughs on our side.

Forever.

Lift him high with all creation.

Cry.

God, we praise you.

Let faith be the song that

overcomes the raging sea.

Let faith be the song that

calms the storm inside of me.

Let it rise.

Let it rise.

This is what living looks like.

This is what freedom feels like.

This is what heaven sounds like.

We praise you.

What a beautiful name it is.

What a beautiful name It is the

name of Jesus Christ our king.

What a powerful name.

It's what a powerful name.

It is the name of Jesus Christ our king.

What a powerful name It is nothing.

Can stand against what a powerful

name It is the name of Jesus Christ.

I raise a hallelujah

in the presence of my enemies.

I

raise a hallelujah

louder than the unbelief.

I raise the hallelujah.

My weapon is a melody.

I raise the hallelujah

Heaven comes to fight for me.

I'm gonna sing

in the middle of the storm.

I'm gonna sing louder and louder.

You're gonna hear my praises

roar up from the ashes.

Hope will arise.

Death is defeated.

The king is alive.

Sing a little louder in

the presence of my enemies.

Sing a little louder,

louder than the unbelief.

Sing a little louder.

My weapon is a melody.

Sing a little louder.

Heaven comes to fight for me.

Sometimes I don't think we really

understand the power of praise and

the power of prayer in our lives.

The power of prayer and

the power of praise.

I don't know what strongholds are

in your life, but the strongholds

that are in our lives are much

like the strongholds of the world.

We build them up, fear,

anxiety, worry, doubt.

Philippians says, be anxious for

nothing but in prayer with prayer

and supplication and thanksgiving.

Let your request be known unto God

and the peace of God, which transcends

all understand, will keep your

hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Two verses before that where he

is talking about being anxious.

He says, give thanks in all circumstances.

Give thanks.

Let your gentleness be evident to all.

You see, the strongholds that are in

the world and the strongholds that are

our lives, God will rip down, tear down.

It's his power that can do it.

And then the stronghold that he

builds up in our lives is his,

and nothing can stand against it.

Nothing.

And nobody, because he is

the stronghold, not us.

So my challenge for you this morning is,

number one, what are the strongholds in

people around you that you're fighting

against rather than praying and praising?

And then number two, what are

the strongholds in your life that

you've allowed to be built up?

Anxiety, fear,

anger, sin, whatever that is.

We don't need to go down to the

nitty gritty of what those are.

You know?

What is it you've built up in your

life that has control over you?

In Romans chapter six, he says, he

died to set us free from all of that.

In chapter seven, Paul said,

I do what I don't wanna do.

I don't what I do, I do.

I'm having this challenge.

And then in chapter eight he

says, but thanks be to God.

He's given me the victory.

We don't have to live there.

What are the strongholds in your life?

What are you building up?

What are you, what is

coming between you and God?

Because the weapons that he has provided

to us, faith, prayer, and praise.

Oh, and one more

The word,

the strongholds of our

lives will be torn down

if we'll stop and quit fighting

the weapons of the world.

And use the weapons that

God has put at our disposal.

It's been a very difficult week for me.

I don't, uh, yeah.

Is what it is.

Been a just kind of a wait.

Don't know why.

I, I, I, I, I just don't, I told Debbie,

I says, I, I just don't understand it.

It's just a weight.

I'd like to say it's anxiety.

I, I don't know.

It's not high blood pressure.

That wouldn't definitely do it.

A lot happening, A lot going on, but

it's just a weight.

Be anxious for nothing.

Be anxious for nothing, rusty.

And as we were singing this morning,

it was like God just lifted it.

Not just in this, but the, the

rehearsal time is worship time.

Yeah.

Sometimes we bang it out, but

it, it can be very worshipful.

So if you wanna come for two

hours of worship, show up at,

uh, about 8 45 to nine 30.

We're rehearsing if you wanna

be part of two worship services.

That's the first one.

It may not be real.

It might break down a couple

of times and we'll redo it a

couple of times, but that's okay.

That's what rehearsal is.

But you can participate.

We'll invite you if you want to.

You don't get enough in the regular one.

Just come early.

We're here we go, right, Austin?

Yeah.

Okay.

When we were singing through those

songs this morning and it was just

like God said, I got you Rusty.

It's okay, man, because sometimes it's

everything I can do to try and fix it.

Go rest.

Go get alone, get quiet.

Get in the word.

I don't feel like getting the word.

Go pick up your guitar rusty in just.

Worship.

I don't feel like doing that.

It's just too much of a headache.

Uh, we make all these excuses, right?

God leads us.

The Holy Spirit prompts us, and we

have all these excuses that we make.

I don't have time.

I don't want, I gotta get this done.

I gotta get that done.

We're trying to get outta town.

I gotta go.

I gotta go.

I gotta get this done.

And God just says, Hey, shut up, stupid.

And we're singing these songs this

morning and God just says like, oh wow.

Thank you Lord.

Let praise be the weapon.

Calms the storm inside of me.

It takes all the anxiety.

Let praise be the weapon.

Lord, I praise you.

I will praise you.

I don't know what the

strongholds are in your life.

They're all around us in the world.

Let me challenge you, pray,

praise, and read the Word,

and whatever stronghold

is in your life, pray.

Praise.

And read the word.

I would challenge you, pray,

praise, and read the word.

When the armies of God went out to

battle, they sent the choir ahead of them.

They sent the choir in front.

The musicians in the choir went out front.

I don't know that I like that

too much, but hey, so be it.

That's what they did.

You wanna know why God was

teaching his people a principle.

It's not your strength, it's your praise.

It's my strength.

That's what God was teaching them.

You praise, I'll fight you.

Praise I'll fight.

What a principle.

Hey, I think sometimes God looks down

and says, Hey knucklehead, you praise.

I'll fight

you.

Praise I'll fight.

You hearing it, you praise.

I fight Rusty.

I can't sing.

I don't care.

And God doesn't care.

Just praise.

Just praise.

Worship him.

He does the battle and rips down

the strongholds in your life and

in the lives of people around you.

I've gone over my bad.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you so much that we

don't have to carry the load.

Thank you so much that you say,

lay it down and you'll lift it up.

That we can take your yoke

because it's light and it's easy.

Why?

Because it's the power that you

give us to walk through this life.

God forgive us when we struggle in our

own self to do everything we're supposed

to do, and we forget that if we stop

and just look at you and worship you and

praise you, and read your word, and pray

that you'll hear our voice, that you'll

break down the strongholds that are our

lives that keep us from being closer to

you, Lord, brick by brick, rip it down.

I pray.

I pray for each person in this

room and each person who's watching

on the video, Lord, tear down

the strongholds in their lives.

Tear down what is standing

between them and you.

Whatever it is, fear, anxiety, anger,

rage, whatever it is, any type of sin,

tear it down so that they can know you.

So they can know how much you love

them, how much you care for them,

that you died for them, that you

want only to draw them to yourself,

that you have the best for them.

Father, tear down the strongholds

that we build up in our lives

and be glorified.

We are grateful to be here today.

Thank you, Jesus.

We praise you.

Amen.

Have a good day.

Shalom.

Be well.