No Switzerlands… pick a side

The reading of God's Word today comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, verses 14 to 36.

Luke 11:14–36

Please follow along in your bulletin.

And he was casting out a demon, but it was mute.

When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds were...

But when some of them said, he cast out demons by Bezabal, the ruler of the demons,

others to test him, were demanding of him a sign from heaven.

But he knew their thoughts and said to them,

Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself falls.

If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?

For you say that I cast out demons by Bezabal,

and if I, by Bezabal, cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?

So they will be your judges.

But if I cast out demons by the finger of God,

then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house,

his possessions are undisturbed.

But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him,

he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied,

and distributes his plunder.

He who is not with me is against me,

and he who does not gather with me scatters.

When the unclean spirit goes out of a man,

it passes through waterless places seeking rest,

and not finding any, it says,

I will return to my house from which I came.

And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.

Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits,

more evil than itself,

and they go in and live there.

And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

While Jesus was saying these things,

one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to him,

Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed.

But he said,

On the contrary,

blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.

As the crowds were increasing,

he began to say,

This generation is a wicked generation.

It seeks for a sign,

and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.

For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,

so will the Son of Man be this generation.

The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment

and condemn them because she came from the ends of the earth

to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

And behold,

something greater than Solomon is here.

The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment

and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

And behold,

something greater than Jonah is here.

No one,

after lighting a lamp,

puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket,

but on the lampstand,

so that those who enter may see the light.

The eye is the lamp of your body.

When your eye is clear,

your whole body is also full of light.

But when it is bad,

your body also is full of darkness.

Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.

If therefore your whole body is full of light,

with no dark part in it,

it will be wholly illumined.

And when the lamp illumines you with its rays.

This is the reading of God's word.

The following is a letter documenting the correspondence between two demons in our world.

My dear Wormwood,

I was quite disappointed to learn of your patience' conversion to the enemy's side.

While your incompetence in preventing this from happening will not go unpunished,

all is not yet lost.

Though he is now a Christian,

and you have lost that battle,

our war is still on,

and requires new tactics for which we have an entire specialized arsenal.

Do not try with arguments to persuade him to leave the enemy.

That will only embolden him all the more.

No, make him comfortable now.

Put his mind at ease.

Convince him our battle is either over,

or that it never happened.

You must not let him learn,

or feel in any way that he is in the vanguard of our war.

Now,

busyness is one of our Father Below's greatest tactics.

If he can be made so busy with practical,

ordinary, daily concerns of work,

relationships,

and even church activities,

he won't have time to spend with the enemy,

or to think about eternal matters.

Trust me,

once he's been secluded from the enemy by busyness,

you can begin to show him so many other humans around him

who unknowingly serve our cause,

who have more money,

who are more attractive,

powerful,

and even nicer than him.

He can then become convinced that others are happier than he is,

and therefore they have no need of God.

You see,

over the course of thousands of years,

our Father Below has conditioned the human mind

to subconsciously think

that it has all the time in the world,

and he can straddle the fence in this war of souls and eternity.

Make him forget

that he is now an important part of our enemy's army,

and that his home is heaven,

and not really earth.

Lull him into comfort and security in this world,

and he will quickly forget his duty to the next world,

and those around him who are trapped in our plans,

and destined for a well-deserved destruction

and habitation with us down below.

Before too long,

he will become convinced

that as long as he doesn't stray too far

into being too bad or too good,

that he can remain neutral and comfortable.

When he has the fantasy of being neutral,

firmly plant in his mind,

he becomes a valuable weapon for our cause,

since he will have no idea

he's been following our orders.

Keep him in this state of numbness

as long as possible,

as the damage we can do

by these simple lies

in his life

and those around him

will be great.

Your affectionate uncle,

Screwtape.

Wow.

I don't know if I can get my voice that deep.

God has equipped people in the body

with many talents, huh?

How you guys doing?

Good?

Good?

Good, good.

Okay, well,

you know,

as I am a pastor

and a dad

and a husband,

I wear a lot of different hats.

As a pastor,

I have a couple burdens

that weigh on me.

One of the burdens is

that sometimes we would forget

or somehow that we would forget

why we are here as a church.

We've said from the very beginning,

you see it in documents,

you see it in the website,

that we are here for the glory of God

and for those not in church on Sunday.

The idea of that is that we're missional,

we're outwardly focused,

we're about talking to people

wherever God has us at our workplace

or wherever we're traveling,

and we're about sharing our lives

and the gospel with them there

and also bringing them here.

But meeting them where they're at,

my fear is that sometimes we forget that

or I forget that.

Another thing that I have a burden for

as I think about my life

is I forget why we're here.

If you read the documents

and see on the website,

we say that Watermark, we believe,

exists for the glory of God

and to allow people

to take their next step

in their spiritual journey.

I think sometimes we forget that also.

When I teach a sermon,

I have this incredible burden

that you're going to hear it

and you're going to go,

this is where I need to be right now.

And you're going to walk away just,

that's just impossible.

But we're here on a journey

and a journey consists of many steps,

taking them and changing.

So our hope is after you hear a sermon,

you come to worship

and you experience community

and you eat great food

and you have the Lord speak to you

in this time,

you start thinking,

okay, what is the next step for me?

Now we don't want anybody

to stay where they are.

If you stay where you are

the same place this year

as you are next year,

then we feel like something's gone wrong.

But it's a journey

that we take little steps

and so all along we're saying,

okay, God,

what is the next step in my life

and how can I honor you

and please you

as I walk in this direction?

When I was looking at this passage

for quite a while,

I was reminded of this story

of this missionary doctor in Africa

and the story,

which is true,

said that this doctor

was reaching out

to this tribe in Africa

and one day

the princess of the tribe

came to meet him

and as she walked up to his house,

she saw a mirror

hanging by his door.

Well, it was just a normal mirror.

It was a mirror

that he used to shave

and brush his teeth

and get ready every day,

but this lady

had never seen a mirror.

And so she's attracted

by the glinting of it

and she went up

to the glinting of it

and she saw it

and she grabbed it

and she looked at it

and she pulled it up

to her face

and she saw the most ugly

and hideous face

she'd ever seen.

Well, she pushed it back

and she looked on the back side of it

to see what was back there,

but there was nothing.

And she asked the doctor,

what is this?

This is a mirror.

Well, what do you use this for?

Why, I use this to look at myself

and to understand

what I look like.

And asked her,

she was convinced

that there wasn't a trick behind it.

She said, I want this.

I must have this.

And the doctor goes,

well, this is my only mirror.

I need this to shave

and brush my teeth

and there's not another mirror.

I need this.

She goes, I'll pay you

vast amounts of money for this.

I'll give you all these

elephant tusks of ivory

and anything you want,

I'll give this to you.

Well, the doctor thought about it

for a while and he said,

I need this.

It's going to be months

before I can get another one,

but for the sake

of the relationship

with this lady,

I'm going to give her

this mirror.

And so he gives

the princess this mirror

and she takes this mirror

and she looks at it

very intently

and stares.

And then all of a sudden

with just a violent movement,

she throws it to the ground

and shatters it

in a thousand pieces.

And the doctor looks at her like,

and she goes,

there.

You're never going to tell

on me again.

Now the reason I tell

that story is because

that is how I feel

sometimes

when I come to God's word.

We come down

and we open God's word

and it's a mirror

to our souls.

It shows us what we're really like

and what we really are

and you can't hide

from a mirror

because a mirror

always tells the truth

and sometimes we just want

to throw it away

because it's too hard.

But when we come

to God's word,

we see that there's

two things working.

There's his holiness

and his character

and there's our incredible need

for him

and our brokenness.

And as we grow

on this journey,

in between there

is the cross

and grace

and forgiveness

and mercy.

And if we forget

mercy and grace

and we just see

judgment

and hard things,

we just become

we become

not good.

We walk in fear.

And if we just see grace

and we don't see truth

and holiness

and God's character,

then we forget

why we have grace

and we just start doing

whatever we want to do

because we forget

who we are.

But when we come

to God's word,

my prayer is that

we'll see all of these things

brought together

and we'll fall in love

with Christ.

Today's passage

is an interesting passage.

Last week,

we talked about

prayer

and you're going to understand

why we talked about prayer

because today,

we're going to talk about

choices we need to make.

And in this passage,

I think we're going to see

three choices.

We're going to see choices

that we have to make

in what side we're on.

We're going to see choices

we're going to have to make

in what power

we choose from.

And we're going to see choices

that we have to make

in how we're going to live

our life every day.

If you look in your bulletin,

we're looking at Luke

Luke 11:14–36

chapter 11

verses 14 through 36.

I think that I'll probably

only get to 28 today.

And this is what we're

talking about

is we look at the choice

of what side

we're going to be on.

Now remember,

Jesus had just taught

this lesson on prayer

and he said that we,

this is how you pray.

It's the only time

his disciples ever

taught him how to do anything.

And he said,

you pray knowing

who God is.

You pray knowing

how to pray to him.

You come to him

as a father

in a child's relationship.

And you know why

you come to him

because he's good.

And today we look at

why we need to come to him.

Why we need to pray.

Verse 14 says,

and he was casting out

a demon and it was mute

and the demon had gone out

and the mute man spoke

and the crowds were amazed.

The word in Greek

is like they were like,

oh my gosh.

But some of them

in verse 15

and we know who these are

because of Matthew

and Mark's account,

they're the religious leaders.

The religious leaders

have been finding,

trying to find a way

to crucify Christ.

They've been trying

to find a way

to label him

as a blasphemer,

a guy who hates God.

And so they watch

these things happen,

these incredible things.

He's casting out

these demons

and they say,

he cast out demons

by Beelzebul,

the ruler of the demons.

Now it's a very

interesting word there.

Basically what they're saying

is that Beelzebul

is the name

that the Jews

finally gave

to the devil.

It was the ruler

of the Canaanites.

They worshiped Baal.

His name was Baal the prince

but they called him

Beelzebul,

the Jewish people did

because it meant

that he was

the Lord of flies.

And so after seeing

all these miracles

they look at what Jesus did

and they say,

you are the Lord of crap

because that's where

flies come to.

Can you imagine that?

You're the Lord of the flies.

Others,

to test him,

in Greek the word

basically means

to find fault,

to trick him.

It's the same word

that was used by Satan

when he took him out

into wilderness

to tempt him.

They were demanding

a sign from heaven.

They wanted to see

something huge.

They wanted to see

an eclipse

or something

that was out of control.

I thought about

this passage a lot

because we live around

people all the time

and say,

if God could just

show himself to me,

if Jesus could just

show himself,

then I'll believe.

But here you have people

who are with Jesus

every day

and they saw

amazing things

from him.

Feeding 5,000,

catching fish,

healing people,

bringing people

from the dead,

freeing people

who are demonically

possessed

and all of these people

say,

I still don't believe.

Would we really believe

that Jesus walked

in the room right now?

The people in Jesus' day

didn't.

They wanted a sign.

But he knew their thoughts

and he said to them,

so he's listening

to their thoughts

and he can hear

their hearts.

Any kingdom divided

against itself

is laid waste

and the house divided

against itself falls

and if Satan is also

divided against himself,

how will his kingdom stand?

He said,

for you say

that I cast out demons

by Beelzebul.

So he gives them

this benefit of the doubt.

So let's say I do.

I do cast them out

by Beelzebul.

Well then how do

your sons cast them out?

Because it was well recorded

that Jewish historians

throughout history,

that Jewish guys

would go around

and they would

exercise demons.

Some of them

would do it

with incantation,

some of them

would do it

with a potion,

but it happened.

And in the Talmud,

the rabbis always said

that anybody

who could cast out

a demon was definitely

the hand,

the finger of God

and Jesus says,

okay, let's say

that I am.

How do your guys do it?

If I, by Beelzebul,

cast out demons

by whom you,

do your sons

cast them out

so they will be

your judges

but I,

if I cast out demons

by the finger of God

and the minute he said that

they would have thought

back to Egypt

with Moses

in front of Pharaoh,

it's the exact same words

of God's handwriting,

it's the exact same words

of God's finger

writing out the Ten Commandments,

everybody would have understood

what he was saying.

If I write out

and do these things

by the finger of God

then the kingdom of God

has come upon you.

God is here.

The Messiah is here.

If these things

are really happening,

God is in your presence.

What are you going

to do about it?

How are you going

to react

when a strong man

fully armed

guards his own house?

His possessions

are undisturbed.

But when someone

stronger than he

attacks and overpowers him,

he takes away from him

all his armor

on which he rallied

and relied

and he distributes

his plunder

and immediately

the people would have known

who he was talking about.

The strong man

is Satan,

the devil.

And he has this world

under control.

and his possessions

are who?

Who are his possessions?

Us.

His possessions are us.

You have an owner.

Everyone has an owner

or a master.

And so the strong man

guards his house

and the only thing

that a strong man

is worried about

is somebody stronger

and when the stronger

person comes,

Jesus,

he attacks him,

he overpowers him,

he pins him down,

he conquers him completely,

he takes off his armor

and he distributes everything.

Well, Jesus is just

describing what happened.

He just cast out a demon.

He just bound

the strong man

and he freed this guy

like he does

in our lives.

And then he says

something very specific.

My mouth is dry.

All this time

he's trying to share

that we're in this war,

that there's these two kingdoms

that are fighting each other.

There's only two kingdoms.

There's a kingdom of God

and there's a kingdom

of the devil.

Is there a third kingdom?

No, there's not a third kingdom.

There's two kingdoms.

There's a kingdom of God

and there's a kingdom

of the devil.

And all these passages

Jesus is trying to say

that we're in the middle

of this huge war

that is much greater

than anything we could talk about,

that Satan is real.

He's trying to grab people

to his kingdom.

He's trying to keep them blinded.

He's trying to let them forget

that there's a battle going on.

In verse 23

he says something

very hard and harsh.

He says,

he who is not with me

is against me

and he who does not gather

with me scatters.

Did you hear what he said?

I mean,

the minute he said that

everybody would have just,

he who is not with me

is against me

and he who does not gather

with me scatters.

I mean,

Jesus is saying there,

and this is huge,

he's saying there's no,

there's no neutrality.

You can't sit on a fence.

There's no Switzerland.

There's no place

in between the two kingdoms

where you're safe.

You're either in one kingdom

or in your other kingdom.

Either you're working

for the kingdom

or you're working

for the other kingdom,

but there's no,

there's no neutral place.

You can't be indifferent.

You can't say,

well,

I just,

you know,

I don't know.

I'm just trying

to make a decision still.

I haven't heard enough yet.

But what Jesus is saying

to his disciples

and he's saying to us

is that

every one of us

is in one of two camps.

Now,

I'm not saying

that if you don't

follow Christ right now

that you're demon possessed.

That's not what

the passage says here.

But the passage says

that if you're not

a Christ follower

that you're in demon territory.

And that Satan

has control

of where you walk

and what you do

and who you are

and what happens

in your life.

And Jesus says to us

and he says to them,

hey,

we need to make a choice.

Every woman,

every man

is either for Christ

or you're against Christ.

Every woman,

every man

is either for Christ

or you're against Christ.

Jesus doesn't allow

a spiritual reality

of a center

in between place.

He's saying

we gotta choose.

How do we choose?

What does it mean

to take that next step

into choosing?

He uses very specific words.

He says gathered.

And the minute people

in Jesus' day

would have understood this,

they would have thought

of a couple things.

They would have thought

about the shepherds

that go out

and get the sheep

and gather them.

But they would have thought

about this passage

in Judges.

And there's a story

in Judges 8

where Gideon

is about to go up

against the Midianites

and the Midianites

have an army

of like 30,000 people.

And God basically

whittles Gideon's army

down to 300 men

and God gives them

victory over the 30,000 people.

And after the battle

is over,

Gideon is chasing

these guys

and they're corralling them,

they're gathering them,

they're destroying them utterly

and they come to this city,

Sukkoth.

And they go to the city

and say,

we need your help

because we're in the middle

of this huge battle

and things are raging

and we need food

and we need refreshment

and we need you

to come join us

because we need your help.

And the people of Sukkoth

said what?

You know,

it's not really clear to us

who's going to win this battle.

We really don't know

what side we want to be on.

I think we'll just stay

right in the center

and see what happens.

And Gideon says,

okay, you can do that.

But after I win

through God's power,

I'm going to come back

and we're going to have a talk.

And the talk's not going

to be very good.

It's going to be hard.

What Jesus says here

is in reality,

in spiritual world,

that it's impossible

to remain neutral.

That Satan sees neutral people

as his.

And you might walk around

and say,

I'm neutral,

I'm Switzerland.

But the demonic forces

in our world today

don't honor neutrality.

They want us to pick a side.

The next passage I see

as we read through this

in verses 24 through 28,

we get this choice

and the choice is,

do pick a power.

How are we going to live?

And Jesus tells this story

and it's a very interesting

parable in a story

and it's never told before

and he basically says,

this is what happens

when we try to live our life

in our power.

He says,

when an unclean spirit

goes out of a man,

it passes from waterless places

seeking rest

and not finding any

that says,

I'll return to my home

from which I came.

And when it comes,

it finds it swept

and kept in order.

In Greek,

the word is beautiful.

And then it goes

and it takes along

seven other spirits

more evil than itself

and they go in

and they live there

and the last day

to that man

becomes worse

than the first.

Jesus is trying

to show us

and try to show

his disciples

that there are

many ways to live.

There are many ways

to clean our house.

But you gotta be careful

how you do it.

I mean,

if you look at the world today,

people,

we're very complicated people.

We're social

and spiritual

and physical

and there's so many

different dynamics

and I've seen so many people

change their lives,

lose 80 pounds

and become disciplined

and they all do it

through some kind

of power and strength.

And Jesus says,

be careful guys

where that power

comes from.

I think the question

for us today

I often hear is,

does it work?

Will it help me?

I mean,

will I feel better

if I become a Christian

or if I become a Buddhist?

Does it make my life easier?

Does it make my life sexy?

I mean,

if Christianity,

maybe you've heard this,

I don't know if you've heard this,

but I hear it all the time,

if Christianity won't give me

what I want,

I might as well be a Buddhist.

I mean,

I found real peace

in going to the Hindu temple.

What's wrong with that?

It works for me.

I mean,

these books that I'm reading

and these self-help books

and these seminars,

they've really helped me

change my life around

and Jesus gives this warning here

and he says,

be careful guys

because if you try to

renovate your own life,

if you try to modify

your behavior

and you leave a vacuum

in your life,

then something's going to

come into that vacuum.

And the passage says

that your old life

is going to be worse

than your new life.

I mean,

he wants us to think about

that there's a way

to get change

and there's a way

to get power

and there's a way

to clean our house

and there's a way

to give ourselves

up to something.

I mean,

we all give ourselves

up to something,

don't we?

Don't we?

Look at your business cards.

Look at your titles.

Look at how you talk

about your heritage

or who you are.

We all give ourselves

up to something

and Jesus is warning us

in this sense.

He says,

be careful

because these powers,

they're going to change us.

They're going to make us different.

And if you try

to change yourself

by anything but me,

it might work

for a while.

I mean,

you might find peace

going to the Hindu temple.

You might find peace

sacrificing dogs.

All of these things

might give you peace.

But it doesn't mean

it's right.

Where's the power come from?

How do we change

in our life?

In 1930,

the Great Depression

hit the world

and my grandparents

went through it

and they said afterwards,

we will never ever

be poor again.

They got self-control.

They got a vision.

They got power.

They got a drive.

They got their house

in order.

Their focus

and their goal

was not to be poor,

not to depend

on other people

because people are worthless.

You cannot depend

on anybody else.

And this power

drove them

and this power

changed them

and this power

changed the way

that they saw people.

This power changed

the way they saw stuff.

This power changed

the way they interacted

with their world.

And the question

I asked myself was,

were they better off

then

or before?

some people would say

the problem we have

in our world today

and the economy

and the way

everything is going

is because of that

that we wanted to change.

A very close friend of mine

was taught at an early age.

He said the key to life

was to be very educated

and always maintain control

of his emotions.

Real men are tough,

smart,

and never show

their emotions.

emotions.

He clung to these things

and he used them

to change himself.

He got smarter,

he got stronger,

he got colder,

he forgot his feelings,

and he got his house

in order.

Fear

drove him

in everything

that he did

and he changed.

Is he a better person?

I don't know,

I guess it depends

on who you ask.

His wife would say

that she doesn't even know him,

that he feels distant

and that she feels used by him.

His kids are turning out

just the way that he is

and all of a sudden

he's starting to think,

is that a good thing?

But he grabbed that power,

that power of being stupid

and poor

and he used that power

to change his life

and to get his life in order.

And now he's looking at his life

and he's wondering,

did he allow seven demons

to come into his world

and make his life worse

than it was before

he grabbed onto those things?

I mean,

there are many ways

to fix ourselves,

guys.

We can use religion,

we can use education,

we can use money,

we can use power,

we can use relationships,

we can use 12 steps,

we can use self-help books,

we can use titles.

Did I say we can use religion?

We can use all these things.

We can harness that power

and they will work

in our lives

for a while.

But what Jesus says

in his passages,

at what cost?

Is our life better

after all these things?

Are our families better

after all these things?

Are our relationships better

after all these things?

Or will we let seven demons

come in and control us?

The passage says

that if the power

doesn't come from Christ

in the gospel,

then the emptiness

is going to be filled

and you have to be careful

how you fill it.

Because it says,

then it goes

and it takes along

seven other spirits

more evil than itself

and they go in

and they live there

and the last state of the man

becomes worse than the first.

The last state of the man

becomes worse than the first

and Jesus is telling us

and he's telling his disciples

and everyone who will listen

that unless God changes you,

unless the Holy Spirit

fills you,

that there's a vacuum

and that vacuum

is going to get filled up

by something

and you better be careful

because what fills it up

might not be what you want.

Let the Holy Spirit

fill it up.

So we choose a side

because there's no Switzerland.

We're asked to choose a power

and make sure that it's not our own

but it's the Holy Spirit

who's doing this

and then finally

we're asked to choose

a lifestyle,

a response

and we see that

in verse 27 and 28

and I think this is hilarious.

Please don't do this to me

as I'm preaching or talking

but as Jesus was saying

these things,

one of the women cried out

and raised her voice

and she said,

blessed is the womb

that bore you

in the breast

at which you nursed.

Now what do you say about that?

Thank you very much.

Can some of the ushers

escort that lady

out of here please?

I mean,

in her goodness

she's trying to praise Jesus.

In her goodness

she's trying to praise

and compliment Mary

and everyone who hears that

hears these words.

Blessed are you

from where you came.

Blessed is your mother

because of you

and he redirects her

really gently

and he says

in a South Alabama twang,

ma'am,

the reason my mama

is blessed

is because she heard

God's word

and she obeyed it.

Ma'am,

the reason my mama

is blessed

is the angel

came to her

and said,

Mary,

this is what's

going to happen to you

and she looked

at that angel

and she said,

the hand servant

of the Lord

may be done to me

as you said.

And Jesus is telling us

and he's telling

his disciples here

that we have a choice

how are we going

to respond

to what goes on

around us

and he says here

that God's people

respond

by listening

to God's word

and obeying it.

God's people

respond to his spirit

by listening

to God's word

and obeying it.

I mean,

we can obey

a lot of things

but here in this passage

Christ says

true change,

true hope,

true blessedness

happens

because we hear

God's word

and we can obey it.

Now,

how does all this

even happen?

How can I even

do this

in the passage

it says really clearly

because there was

a strong man

who had you

and me bound,

who had control

over everything

that we have,

who made all

of our decisions

for us

and controlled

our life.

And this stronger man,

Jesus,

comes in,

he breaks

those bondage

chains.

He gives us

freedom.

He gives us

hope.

He gives us

mercy.

He gives us

grace.

He gives us

a new family.

He says,

walk with me.

Walk with me.

there's a war

going all around us.

There's only

two sides.

We have a choice

to make every day.

We have a power

to choose from

and we have

a response.

And we have

a savior

who is beside you

all the way.

No matter

what you're going

to experience today,

no matter what happens

in your life,

no matter who you are,

no one can say,

but you don't

know me,

this is really

happening to me.

Jesus says,

I know you.

And I freed you.

And you have

a choice.

Are you going

to walk with me

today?

Are you going

to trust me?

Are you going

to realize

that I'm good?

Let's pray.

Father,

we just thank you

for this day.

We thank you

for your word

which is so powerful.

We thank you

for the message

that we see

in your son.

We thank you

for the choices

that we have now

as your children.

Help us to see

the battle

around us.

help us

to realize

that there's

kingdoms at war

and that we're

not neutral.

Either the war

on one side

or the other.

Father,

help us to realize

that the power

to change

comes not

because we try

really hard

or we do

really well

or we read

a book,

but the power

to true change

comes because

of your son

and through

your spirit.

Father,

thank you

for the response

that you give us

to do every day

that we have

a choice

to listen

to your words,

to hear your words

speak to us,

to see the words

of life

come into our life

and you ask us

to obey.

Some of us

in here

realize

that's impossible.

It's impossible.

And your word

says,

yes it is.

It's impossible

in your own strength.

But the stronger

man has come in

and he's freed us

and allowed us

to choose

and to walk

and to read

and to obey

and to follow.

Father,

may we be a church

and a people

who point people

to the stronger man

every day

in our journey.

Help us,

each one of us,

to realize

what it means

to take

small steps

of change

to trust you.

And Lord,

we come before you

in the middle

of this war

and we realize

how lost we are

and we can just

cry out to you

and claim your victory.

We pray all these things

in your son Jesus' name.

Amen.