Haunted House - Week 4: Spiritual Warfare

We're going to start in Ephesians chapter six. Today, Ephesians

chapter six, we're gonna be closing out our Haunted House series.

We've been taking a dive into the supernatural. This is

one of those series that you probably need to go

back and watch all of the messages if you missed

any of them. You can do that, of course on

Facebook and maybe somewhere else too, but I know you

can do YouTube, Facebook, other play. Just call, just send

an email. We'll tell you where to find it. If

you can't find it, but it would do you good.

We started and we talked about holy ghost. Then we

talked about heaven and Hell, angels and demons, and today we're.

Going to talk about spiritual warfare.

We're going to take a little bit of not just

a cursory dive, but a little bit of a deeper

dive into spiritual warfare today because I think a lot

of times when we hear these messages about spiritual warfare,

what we go away with it is that, hey, when

the enemy attacks, I just need to pray more. But

there's a whole another level of spiritual warfare and understanding

the attacks that we uh that that we're trying to

navigate and overcome. And when we talk about those things

and we understand those things at a whole other level,

our warfare rises to a different level. The better training

you have, the better you can operate. Come on, somebody,

it doesn't matter what it is. The more you train,

the better you can operate your your when when the

battle comes. When the battle comes, you don't rise to

your reasonable expectation. You fall to your level of training.

Amen Ephesians, chapter six, Starting in verse ten, it says, finally,

my brethren, you know, I think it's when when I

hear the writers, especially Paul, when he says things like this.

It's almost as if he say, listen.

I talk to you about a whole bunch of stuff

to kind of get you ready for this moment.

He says. Finally, he says, I.

Had to write all the other stuff. I had to

get that stuff said to prepare your heart, because this

is what I really wanted to talk to you about

in the first place.

This was really the purpose.

Finally, I get to talk to you about what you

really need to endure and to overcome in these days.

He says, Finally, my.

Brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power

of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God.

That you may be able to stand against the wiles

of the devil. Let's stop right there for a second.

Put on the whole.

Armor of God, that you may be able to stand

against the wiles.

Of the devil.

Once she does, he doesn't say the physical assault. Come on, somebody.

He doesn't say the torture. He says, the wiles of

the devil. Because the enemy can only convince you to

step out from under God's protection.

The enemy can only.

Go as far as the Lord will allow. The enemy

has to play by the rules too. Come on, somebody,

And he says, listen, you can trick them, you can tempt.

Them, you can do all of those things.

But I know my people are going to grow, and

they're going to fortify their faith, and they're going to

be able to stand against your trickery and your deceit.

And I want to tell you that he hasn't changed

a single thing he does since the Garden of Eden.

And the reason is because we still fall for the

same junk.

Amen.

You know, it seems like over a few thousand years

humanity would learn, but we don't. Do You know that

even in the end animal kingdom.

I want you to hear this.

When tigers are born, all of the experiences of their

mother are transferred and encoded on their DNA. Studies have

been done that tigers have been trapped, and when their

cubs are born, they put them in the same situation.

Those cubs in the same situation as the mother that

was trapped, And immediately the cub, even though it wasn't

born yet, recognizes the trap that the mother fell into.

That even in the animal kingdom, they learn and they're

able to navigate. But for some reason, we just keep

falling to the same old stuff. Come on, now, we'll

abandon God's will where he has us planet for another

fifty cents an hour. God sent you there to reach somebody.

God sent you there there to be an influence on somebody.

And because somebody else offers you an extra two quarters,

let me just say it all week, you getting an

extra twenty that you're gonna spend his starbucks. Come on,

somebody and we'll we will, We will allow the enemy

to entice us with those two shiny coins. Wow, he

will do the same thing that he's done for ages.

He'll send somebody that you've never noticed that's never noticed

you to come by and tell you your hair looks

nice today, and suddenly you are passionately in.

Love with your new work, spouse and risten.

All that person meant was you should have been brushing

your hair this whole time. But he uses those same

employes and trickery to entice humanity. But not only we

must we stand against the wiles of the devil. It's

time for the church to realize that we've been equipped

and in powered to not only stand, but to go

and take ground. Put on the whole armor of God,

that you may be able to stand against the wiles

of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh

and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers

of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of

wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole

armor of God, that you may be able to withstand

in the evil day. And having done all to stand, Father,

I pray that every person in this building that we're equipped, empowered, inspired.

Motivated.

To be the one that, at the end of the

battle is still standing with our banner raised high.

Father, that you would fortify.

Our minds, that you would help us beat our flesh

into submission so that we could more closely follow you,

or we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. So he says, listen, hey,

it's not the prince. It's not flesh and blood. It's

not people. It's not things. Those are the thing. That's

not what we're wrestling against. That's not the Now. I

want to just let me. Let's say it this way.

If it can hurt your body, it's probably not the devil.

He doesn't care about your flesh.

He'll use your flesh, but he doesn't care about your

flesh because he doesn't have flesh. He wants to inflict

pain at.

The soul and spirit level.

His goal is to torment you. His goal is to

drive you emotionally crazy, because when he gets you in

an emotional state, he can use you to do his

bidding and to hurt others. God's desire is for you

to be fortified and built up, and that every single

day we look a little more like him, because when

we look a little more like him, we look a

little less like him. In Second Corinthians, chapter ten, starting

in verse three, it says, for though we walk in

the flesh.

We all walk.

In the flesh. Now, I'm not talking about being in

the flesh.

As a matter of fact.

Listen, if you hadn't, if you haven't listened to our

latest podcast, The Salt Box, you need to go and

listen to that, because there was an interesting little thing

that happened in the beginning of the podcast. Normally, when

Pastor Clay announces and he says, hey, this Pastor Clay

and out here with the Chief himself in the flesh

is what he normally says in that And then we

later on in the podcast actually started talking about being

in the flesh. And he looked at me and he said,

I'm glad I didn't say from the very beginning that

you were just going to be doing this podcast in

the flesh, amen, because even though the devil pulls me

over there, sometimes.

It's not where I like to operate.

We took a whole different look at the supernatural in

that podcast, and I think it's one that supplements this

sermon series very well. For though we walk in the flesh,

we do not war according to the flesh. For the

weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in

God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every

high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

Step one in spiritual warfare right here, it is bringing

every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and

being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Here's we want to start spiritual warfare. We want to

run into the to the to the worst neighborhoods. We

want to run into the hospitals, we want to run

into the jails, and.

We want to wage war on the enemy. But the reality.

Is is that he's sniping us every single day before

we can even get to the battlefield, because we don't

understand that the very first, the very first battlefield is

anything in our own minds that exalts itself against the

knowledge of God. Because what happens is that we live

in this fast paced, busy world and we're inundated with

so many things, and we have that initial thought that

that that inception of thought, and it happens one time,

and we think, oh, where did that come from? And

then it happens again, and we dwell on it a

little longer, and then we have that thought again and

pretty soon we have built this fantasy world in our

mind that exists outside of the Kingdom of God and

outside of our small group and the relationships we built

around us. Because nobody can see into my mind and

they don't know that that's the place that I retreat to,

and our mind becomes a place.

That the enemy wins.

But this says, listen, you need to understand that you

have to bring those things into captivity and you have

to put those things to death. So when you're in

your your goings and comings and ins and outs and

all of the things that you do, and those thoughts

pop into your mind, you immediately stop. When you have

that thought that's contrary to God's word, this exalting itself

against the knowledge of God, you immediately stop and you say,

I rest that thought in the name of Jesus.

Try it. Let's engage in.

Let's do hands on lab activity right now.

Let's try this. I want you to.

Say out loud, I unrest that thought in the name

of Jesus.

Go I rest that thought in the name of Jesus.

I freeze that thought in place, I bring it into captivity.

And then I say, and I put it to death.

By his blood. I rest this thought in the name

of Jesus, and I put that thought to death by

his blood, because his blood cleanses all unrighteousness, and anything

that's contrary, anything that exalts itself against the knowledge of

God is unrighteousness.

Okay, So I rest that thought in the name of Jesus.

I put it to death by his blood, and I

move through it by the.

Power of Holy Gooth. Now what some of y'all.

Some of y'all didn't even write that down. Some of

y'all didn't even write that down. You're gonna have to

go back now to Facebook and watch it again. That

means you're gonna have to go through all that music again.

Come on, somebody, you're gonna have to listen to the

offering again, and you're gonna have to go online and

give again because you're gonna be compelled.

Amen. If you would just.

Bring a notebook, you would only have to give once

a week. I'm trying to give y'all a discount the

price of a notebook or the price of the offer

in every single week.

So just go buy a notebook and write it down

and listen.

You need to practice this starting this afternoon, when you're

sitting there watching the NFL and that anger and you

don't listen. You don't you never even played football, and

you're mad because the referee made a bad call about

a team that you've never emen to their stadium. Come on, somebody,

and you get mad. You say to yourself, I rest

that thought in the name of Jesus. Anger has no

control over me. I rest that thought in the name

of Jesus. I put it to death by its blood,

and I moved through it by the power.

Of Holy Ghost.

And every time I have those stray thoughts, every time

those things that exalt themselves, I carry it through that

say listen, I do this every single day, multiple times

a day.

I do this. I didn't make it up for this message.

That's why I don't have to look at my notes

to know it, because I do it.

I rest this thought in the name of Jesus.

I put it to death by his blood, and I

moved through it by the power of Holy Ghost. And

if that's where you're playing, if that's what you're doing

every single time you have that thought, you have already

positioned yourself to win in the game of spiritual warfare.

Because It starts right where you are. If you're not healthy,

you can't help other people. If you're bound in your mind,

you can't go into adverse places and environments because of

those familiar spirits that will.

Attach themselves to you.

Because he's already learned what you like and what you

dwell on and what you think about, and he will

pull you down because you have won the individual battle

of the mind.

That's my battle.

The first level of spiritual warfare is my battle.

The second our battle.

In James Chapter four, verse seven, Therefore, submit to God.

You know if we can master. If we could master.

That, we wouldn't need to preach another sermon.

Ever, doesn't matter.

What is a Submit to God. Resist the devil, and

he will flee from you. What I thought I couldn't

get rid of him. I thought he was just beating

me up. I thought he was better than me. I

thought he was stronger than me. I thought he had

the upper hand all of this. Listen, if you just

resist him, he leaves no punch throng, no wrestling.

Submit to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee because the moment

he realizes you won't give in, he's moving on to

someone who else is weaker, and someone that's more in it.

More that he can enfluct, couldn't remember the word, more

that he can influence. Oh my gosh, that he can

influence easier. I'll love it when I.

Can't find them.

That's just that's just terrible that y'all laugh at me

when I struggle, he says, Submit to God. Resist the devil,

and he will flee from you. Draw near to God,

and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands,

you sinners, and purify your hearts. You double minded, he says, listen,

stop trying to play in both fields. Stop trying to

serve God for the benefit, and serve God and serve

the enemy for pleasure. Resist the devil when temptation comes,

and he will flee from you. And you do that

by submitting to God, submitting what to God, submitting everything

to God, submitting your children to God.

Listen, stop.

Stop letting your children run your home.

You are the parent.

You give the direction, You tell them where to go,

and you tell them when.

To be there.

And you do it because God put you in charge.

And if you are not running your household, if you're

not leading your children, you're in disobedience to God. If

they say, oh, I don't want to go there, but

you want them to go there, you take them and

you put them there. I don't know how many times

over the course of my ministry I've had people come

to me and say, Pastor, we're gonna go down to

so and so because our kids like the youth group

or like the children's group better over there. So we're

going to start going to church over there because we

want our family to be together. And almost without fail,

when that has happens, that family ends up not in

church anymore because they have left the place that God

has called their family. To start parenting your child in

a godly way and stop letting them run over you

and bulldoze your spiritual life. You put them where they

need to be. Your kid needs to be discipled at

an age appropriate level.

Let me say that again.

Your child needs to be discipled at an age appropriate level.

That means they need to be learning the concepts and

the precepts at the cognitive level that they can learn.

Let me just I want to share something with you.

A child in elementary school years doesn't even have the

ability to really grasp what worship is because that cognition

switch of submission, understanding what submission is. That's why they

will look at you and you say, don't do that,

and they because they don't understand, they don't cognitively understand submission.

If they don't understand submission, they can't worship because worship

is submission.

That's what worship is.

So now they may mimic movements, come on, somebody, They

may mimic the movements they see, but they really don't

have that same connection because they don't understand what it

is to submit.

So do the best.

Thing, be the parent and move your child into a

place where they can begin to learn to do spiritual

warfare and engage on their lip.

Come on, now, I'm your pastor. I love you.

That's why I tell you these things. He said, says, listen,

resist the devil. You got to get about the business.

And the way we do those things is surrounding ourselves

with a support structure. I just want to go ahead

and tell y'all, I just looked at the clock. You're

gonna be late today. We're not gonna hit twelve oh

seven today. Can I have a few more minutes to normal?

If you've got an airplane to catch. You can go

ahead and go, Just slip out quietly and go by

the kiosk on your way out. In Matthew chapter sixteen,

verse eighteen, it says this, I also say to you

that you were Peter, and on this rock I will

build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not

prevail against it.

He says, listen, when you were stable, when.

You have submitted your life to God, when you have

learned to resist the devil and he has to.

Flee from you.

I'm about to go somewhere with this. Y'all about to

get excited, So get ready. If you've loosened up your belt,

you might want to put it back on because you

may jump up and run in just a minute. Okay,

he says, resist the devil and he has to flee

from you.

And then we get over here.

He says, listen, we change your name from Simon unstable

to Peter, which means stable like a rock, firm, ready

to go, and the gates of Hell will not prevail

against you. Now watch, we think some reason we've always

thought that spiritual warfare.

Was about defense.

It was I'm standing here, I'm going through a situation

in circumstance.

I'm hunkered down, and man.

I'm praying in tongues three times more than I've ever

prayed before. And I'm reading twelve scriptures every single day.

And I fasted breakfast, y'all. I slept till eleven, but

I fasted breakfast.

Right. And I'm here, and I'm impervious.

I've got like the soldiers, three hundred spartans around me

with their shields, and.

I'm okay, how many.

Of you have ever been charged by gate? What that

says is the gates of Hell can't stop you from

encroaching upon them. The gates of Hell can't prevail against

you because they can't keep you out. And here's the

enemy's plan. You give him a little bit, and he

sets up a gate. You give him a little more, and.

He sets up a gate.

You give him a little more, and he sets up

a gate. And he says, this is mine now, this

is my territory now. And he says, puts up a

big sign, beware a dog. Prosecutors will be prosecuted to

the fullest extent of the enemy. And we are afraid

of those things. But what it says here is that

the gates of Hell can't prevail against you. If he's

taken something from you, he has no right to keep

it because he just.

Tricked you out of it. Now, let's bury these scriptures together.

He says, submit to God, resist the devil, and he

will flee, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against you.

So that means every time I resist him, the gate

has to move.

Pastor.

The enemy has just bound my kids up, and I

don't know what to do. I love them, and I

call them and I try to talk to them. You

charge it, You go right into it. They say, oh,

I just those people just don't love me anymore. And

you just put your head down and you say, yeah.

What about that time when they stood in the gap

for you when you were sick in the hospital and Pastor.

Prayed for you and he believed God for you?

And then I told small groups about it, and then

they put a basket together for you, and then we

told Miss Betty about it, and Miss Betty broadcasting on

the internet, and that had a million people praying for you.

What about that time? What's what the enemy does? He

moves the gate back. Oh, I can't stay there anymore

because they're resisting me.

My plan doesn't work. I need a raise on my.

Job, but the enemy says I'm not good enough, I'm.

Not strong enough.

So I just charge it, and I say, listen, I've

been here a long time and I see our company,

and every since i've worked here, we make more money.

Because the blessing of God is all my life. And

I'm either gonna leave and take the blessing with me,

or you're gonna give me a raise and I'm gonna stay.

So what are we gonna do? Charge it? Because when you.

Resist the enemy, he has to flee. He has to

give ground. He can't keep the ground because God has

given it to you, and that ground is yours. So

stopp being afraid of somebody that can't hurt you in

the first place.

You know, got me wound up today. So the first

that's it's my battle.

Then it's our bay, because we've got a support structure

working around us, helping us get through it. And once

we've mastered those first two levels of spiritual warfare, we're

ready for their battle. Because there is a hurting, broken

community that doesn't understand they're hurting and broken.

They don't understand the weight of darkness. That's pressing against

their lives. And we're so.

Busy embroading these battles in the first two layers of

spiritual warfare that we never get to.

The finally, my brethren.

In Mark chapter three, verse twenty seven, Jesus says, no

one can enter a strong man a strong man's house

and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man,

and then he will plunder his house. Strong Men set

themselves up, and they flex, and they hold people in bondage.

And Jesus himself says, listen, you can't talk somebody away

from the strong man.

He'll hold them.

You can't convince somebody stop trying to argue people into

the Kingdom of God. You can't argue somebody into the.

Kingdom of God.

No matter how good at it you are, you cannot

do it. In Mark chapter sixteen, starting in verse nineteen,

it says, I will.

Give you the keys. I will give you the keys of.

The Kingdom of Heaven. That's a nice set of keys.

They pave the streets with gold. What do the keys

look like. I will give you the keys of the

Kingdom of Heaven. And whatever you bind on earth will

be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth

will be loosed in heaven. He says, you've got to

bind the strong man over your community.

What does that look like.

I'm on my way to work and I drive by

in elementary school and I throw my hand up and

I say, Lord, protect those children from every pervert and

every predator that would.

Come and try to do harm to them.

I bind that thought process and I cast it away

in the name of Jesus. And I take authority because

you've given it to me. You see those things happening

around you, and you begin to take authority over those things,

and you say, God, you showed it to me, and

now I bind it in the name of Jesus.

I bind it, and I cast it away.

It can't exist here anymore, because light and darkness can't

exist in the same place. And You've made me the

light of the world, and I'm here, so darkness can't

be here. And when we begin to aggressively attack the

strong men in our community and in our family, in

our extended relationships, then people begin to be set free,

and we begin to see the flames and fire of

revival spread through our community. And it may not even

nobody may even know that it was you that did it,

our church that did it. It doesn't matter. I don't

care where they go to church. I would love for

you to pray and bind and break and set free

and fill up Black Christ's Place, and fill up free

chapel and fill up Listen. I don't care where they

go to church, as long as they're out of harm

from the enemy.

Listen.

The word gives you the authority. You've been given authority

by the word. Were a if you were a supernatural

police officer.

The word is your badge.

It says you have the authority to do these things.

You have the authority to bind, You have the authority

to break, You have the authority to pull down.

You have the.

Authority to arrest. You have the authority to do those things.

And if the enemy won't listen to the word, he

won't listen to the authority, then he has to deal

with the Holy Ghost because he hadn't just given you authority,

has given you the.

Power to do it.

He's equipped you with what Scripture calls dunamus, the same

word we get dynamite from an explosive power that dwells

on the inside of every believer the Holy Ghost, and

he's waiting for you to exercise it because he's equipped

you with a weapon of mass destruction against the enemy.

And we have sat back for far too long. He's

given us the city. It's time to go take the city.

I'm sorry, I get excited more than y'all do sometimes.

In Romans chapter one, verse sixteen, I want to wrap

this up, Glen, You guys can go ahead and get ready.

In Romans chapter one, verse sixteen, it says, for I'm

not a shit aimed of the Gospel, not ashamed of

the Gospel of Christ.

For it is the power of God.

The salvation for everyone who believes, for that Jew first,

and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness

of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it

is written, the just shall live by faith. Stop living

your life by the obstacles that are placed in front

of you, and start living your life by faith. Every

battle is one, but you have to engage the enemy.

If he can convince you to sit there with your

hands tied and your mouth closed, he will continue to

dominate and domineer over you. And that is not the

life that God intended for you to live. In John

chapter ten, verse ten, it says, for the thief comes

only to kill, to steal, and to.

Destroy, But I that eye is Jesus.

But I have come that you may have life, and

have it more abundantly, or have it to the fullest,

or have it without limit, however you want to say it,

whatever translation you want to read it in, God says

I've got more for you than you've ever experienced, But

you have to stand against the devil. I want to

challenge every single one of you to stop living in

the shadow of fear and stand up win the battle

over your mind, when that oppressive battle that presses in

against you, so that you can start winning the battle

over our community and the lost, hurting and broken people.

That you come in contact with.

That's a point and purpose us of spiritual warfare.

It's just as easy, just as easy to begin as saying,

I arrest that thought in the name of Jesus.

I put it to death by his blood, and I

move through it by the power of Holy Ghost.

Start right there.

Every time you say listen, you're recovering, you're coming out

of addiction.

Every time you have that thought, do it.

You think your wife is the meanest person on earth.

Every time you have that thought, do it. You think

your husband's the laziest person on earth. Every time you

have that thought, do it, you think you're going to

be broke forever. Every time you have that thought, do it,

and then start helping other people do it, and then

team up with them to go into the community and

begin to buy the strong Man and see people set free.

Everybody's staying with me all over the building,