Contending for our Inheritance - Power To Rule

It's time now for the rope with Pastor Teacher Depot.

So for those who are going after the Lord, spending time in his word, spending time in prayer, contending, praying with your spouse, working out problems, working through issues, it seems to indicate in scripture you have the potential to be fruitful in every good work.

Man, that's good news.

Welcome to another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Steve is the head pastor of The Road in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

It's our vision to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ and to see you grow in the grace and knowledge of his love.

If you're in the area, we meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.

You can go to our website at theroad.org for service times.

That's thheroad.org.

Here now with today's message is Pastor Steve Holt.

The theme we've been calling power to rule tonight, I want to talk about this idea.

I'm going to give you a word that I don't use a lot, but I've been, it's kind of been resonating with me.

Sometimes I get these words, it's like it's not from the Lord.

It's not like I had a dream about this word.

But it's like a word that, like, I really dig this word.

And it's this word contending.

And I really like the word contending because it's better than like, I mean, a lot of times in the whole family, Liz and I use the word battling a lot.

We talk to our sons and daughters about battling for stuff.

You know, my son just got back from Nebraska, Omaha, and he's on the baseball team and just some tough stuff going on there with the baseball team.

And so whenever things like that happen, I mean, Liz gets into warrior mode.

And she says, We're going to pray about that.

And then, you know, they go into this total war room.

And so I think four or five times this week, uh, Liz got in there with Isaac and they warred.

Then she made him go online and take down all the names with their pictures of all the guys on the team and all the coaches.

And I saw where they had been writing stuff on each one.

So they were, they were warring.

And so we use this word warring a lot, but I like this new word.

And it's contending.

So I'm going to do three messages.

Tonight, I'm going to call it contending for our inheritance.

Contending for our inheritance.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to call it contending for an extraordinary spirit.

Contending for an extraordinary spirit.

We're going to look at Daniel.

And what does it mean?

And you know, extraordinary can be you can say extraordinary.

How do you have an extraordinary spirit?

Because Daniel did.

And Daniel is a type of an end-times worshiper and warrior, like nobody else, maybe outside of David.

David and Daniel are these prophetic men of the Old Testament that set the stage for the spirit-filled man in the New Testament.

And so instead of looking at David, God's led me to look at the extraordinary spirit of Daniel as one who I believe really grasped and lived in a hugely pagan secular environment like we have today in our country.

And he reigned and ruled as a government servant.

He really was almost like a vice president of his country.

The role that God gave him and what he did is amazing.

And it actually says of Daniel that he had an extraordinary spirit or an excellent spirit.

Same word, actually, in the Hebrew.

And then Tuesday night, we're going to talk about nobody will show up for this one.

You'll all be staying home.

But contending through tribulation, contending through trouble.

Another title might be contending to be an overcomer.

How do you overcome obstacles?

And so, as you can tell by the titles and this word, contending, that you are in a journey.

Do you get that?

It's a journey.

It's contending.

It's warring.

It's not quitting.

It's not giving up because things are not going to go your way.

To every person who has been able to be used by the Lord in their work, in their family, as a parent, it's someone who has contended day after day and probably has a lot of failures and a lot of mistakes, but they didn't quit.

They continue to contend for what God had for them.

And I was with, bless their heart, this couple whose son died.

Yesterday I was with them.

Tuesday is when he died.

He was 17 years old.

And it's a really sad situation.

But when I came in, I didn't go to the funeral bit, but I came to the kind of reception at their house.

And when I came in right before our service here to meet with them, I said, look, I get this word for you.

Turn a tragedy into a triumph by making some new choices in your life to contend for your marriage.

Because our chance now of divorce is huge because of the way this young man died.

And so we contend, you guys.

And some of you are here because you are warriors.

You have fought for your marriage.

You have fought to be where you are today.

Or maybe you feel like you're losing your grip, and that's why you're here.

Either way, I'm telling you, we're going to contend together, okay?

We're going to contend together.

So tonight I'm calling it Contending for Our Inheritance.

And Romans 5.17.

That's going to be the theme that you're going to hear again and again throughout this year at the road.

Romans 5.17.

Even though we're going through the book of Revelation.

And what's exciting about the book of Revelation is the first three chapters is all about overcoming.

I mean, it's all about being an overcomer.

So I'm really pumped about Revelation, the whole scope of it, but also the very beginning because it so perfectly fits with where we're going to be as a church.

Because, church, I really believe this.

I really do believe what I'm about to say.

It's in my heart.

I don't know how to say it in a nice way.

I'm just going to say it, and maybe it's not the perfect way to say it, but this is it.

I don't, I think because of where I've been in the last two years, and here we are, we're doing a church, we're building a new work.

I don't want just a normal church.

I didn't sign up for a job.

I didn't sign up for security.

I love being a missionary.

I thought being a missionary was like the coolest thing.

Like you get in there and like nobody's been there before.

And there's no, there's no real Christianity.

There's no roots.

And so you get to go in and you get to be sometimes the first time that anybody's ever met a legit Christian.

Okay?

And so I'd be on these college campuses and I'd do stuff, and and these kids would come to know the Lord, and then they're all there, I mean, I would just create hell on earth for them because they get saved in a Buddhist or Shinto family, and all hell would break loose.

And so I knew that, you know, 50% of them would, after one year, they would just ditch it because it was too hard.

So I got in the like the fourth or fifth year of my time as a missionary, I would say to a kid, don't pray this prayer.

Don't pray this prayer.

And they go, What?

You know, I give this elaborate, pretty good presentation of the gospel, you know?

Abundant life, forgiveness of sin, new life, da-da-da.

But don't pray this prayer.

And then, what?

And I say, I you, it's gonna get you in so much trouble.

I mean, you're you could be rejected by your family.

It's gonna be hard to find a job.

And I just tell them the whole thing.

And then more of them would pray the prayer.

It was really crazy because I think there was something within them that wanted to do something significant with their life, and I feel that way now.

I feel more and more that way about what we're doing here.

So I don't want a regular church.

I believe, I believe you guys, my hope in prayer is that the legacy we have at the road is that you're getting equipped and it's actually making an impact and a difference the other six days of the week.

You know what I mean?

That you go in and you're actually impactful world changers in your world that God's given you, your missionary there in some way, shape, or form.

And so Romans 5.17 captures this scope of this.

For if by the one man's offense, death reigned through the one, meaning Adam, when he sinned, much more, now much more than just what Adam did, this principle in Jesus, those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.

So, in the same way, another way to look at this, is all when you look at your life and you look at the troubles of your life and the sinfulness and the rebellion and the jealousy and the envy and the lust that came from Adam that you inherited.

Pretty bad stuff, right?

I mean, that's what we struggle with every day, right?

In that same pattern reigned in you, pick up the newspaper, seems to rain in a whole lot of people in this city, definitely raining all over the earth from Adam, that level of rebellion and envy and strife and jealousy, now through Jesus Christ and what he did at the cross and way more abundance overflow of grace, righteousness, now reigns in you to reign over life through Jesus Christ.

So if you think, well, I don't know if I can do this stuff, well, just think about how bad you are.

I mean, think about how how bad you've been.

Think about all the dumb things you've done.

Think about how you've treated your spouse or you've or you've cheated or you've been envious or you've stolen money or you've embezzled all the things you've done, and you go, that was actually, I mean, that's really bad.

That in the same pattern, you can reign in life with the abundance of God's grace.

So if you think you can't do it, think about how how you did do it the other way, and now through Christ, not through you.

Because I don't really believe that everybody in this room that has followed the ways of Adam is satanically empowered.

I don't think you're demonically empowered.

Now you might be working under the reign of the Lucifer and his hierarchy of demons for sure.

That I mean that had a, but you're not necessarily demon-possessed or anything, but now you're possessed by Jesus.

Okay, so now you're empowered by the abundance of Christ.

Through Christ, you can now reign in life.

So we can be transformed, and I believe that's our inheritance.

That's the inheritance to begin to touch when we feel his presence in worship, when we sense him in prayer, when we're in his word, that's the ruling and reigning abundance of grace that's ours.

And we got to tap into that, gang.

Just like you tapped into darkness, tap into life.

That fires me up.

Because I know how to tap into darkness.

I mean that seriously, if I just have three days when I'm not in the word, I'm not regularly in the word, I'm already up to no good.

I am, man, I'm telling you.

And you think, gosh, at least you have a little more momentum than that.

I don't.

I don't.

And so God has designed us to so need his abundance of grace to reign in life.

Because we are up to no good.

And so God is calling us, guys, here in 2016 to be a people that are gonna contend for this inheritance that came right from the Genesis mandate.

It's just right a part of the Genesis mandate.

So look at Genesis 1, 26.

So in Genesis 1, before there was even sin, so before there was even darkness over the earth that had touched the humankind, because I believe that Satan was already here.

I believe Lucifer was already moving.

But before all that occurred, in the purity of the creation, right after God made man and woman, he gave them this mandate.

I don't think this mandate has changed.

Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

Verse 27.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him male and female.

So this is men and women.

Both men and women have this mandate.

Now it's different.

I do believe roles are different, but the mandate is the same.

Then God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue it.

Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

This is the original mandate.

So within you is this subcreation.

I'll call it subcreation ability.

I'm stealing from J.R.

Tolkien.

Tolkien, as a writer, was asked the question, why do you write?

And so in one of his books speaking of what causes him to create, he called it sub-creation.

And what Tolkien said, this is the Lord of the Rings guy.

You guys know that, right?

Okay.

So Tolkien said of God the creator that he could create out of nothing, we have to create with something.

So, created, what does it say?

Created in the image of God.

That's the very beginning of the mandate.

Is that let us make men in our image according to our light.

Now, here's what's interesting.

In all other myths and all other religions of the world, the creation of the heavens and the earth is always a great war.

In some of the myths, you have giants fighting each other.

And in the giants, one of the giants in fighting vomits up the earth.

And so only in Christianity, only in Christianity do we have a God who created because he loves to create.

So here's the deal.

So when we look at musical instruments, for example, somebody at some point in history had something and began to create and make a sound out of it for beauty.

You see, that's the image of God within you.

So he called it, so Tolkien called it sub-creation because we're not true creators, because only the true creator can create out of nothing.

But what we do is we have a sub-creation of the one creator that when we create, we create with something.

And so we take clay or we take wood or we take marble and we create from that because that innately is what you're called to do.

Because you're created in the image of God and you're drawing on His likeness as a creator of beauty.

So we are to be fruitful and multiply.

So we're to take what we've been given, and we are actually called by God as part of our inheritance to be imaginative and innovative.

And I'm going to challenge you a lot this year that every one of you have something within you that you're supposed to rule over and multiply because you're created in the image of God.

So through Christ, we do that.

Through Christ, we're a biochemist.

Through Christ, we run a business.

Through Christ, we're a mechanic.

Through Christ, we're a trucker.

Through Christ, we we build houses.

You see?

And it's supposed to be fruitful and multiplicational.

So tonight, the reason I was a tad late was tonight I was at Starbucks at King Supers, and I'm getting a hot chocolate with Josh, and I'm pretty cognizant of my time.

But this guy comes up and he goes, Steve Holt.

And I turn around and goes, Man, I was just watching you on YouTube tonight.

That YouTube you did.

I was thinking about you and I looked you up and I and I love this YouTube man.

What are you?

I heard you're doing the road.

Somebody told me that, and da-da-da-da.

This guy was a pastor who attended Mountain Springs when we were, oh, Montebello back in the 90s.

I haven't seen him since.

His wife walked out on him for another guy.

He tells me briefly a story.

And he took what he had left, he invested it, and he started cleaning windows.

And then he got into cleaning carpets.

And then he bought a truck.

And then he bought another truck.

And then he bought another truck.

He's being fruitful.

And he's multiple.

I pray for the glory of God.

He didn't seem like he was ashamed.

He was actually kind of excited about it.

He said, Oh, my sons are working with me.

He was taking his God given gift under a tragic situation.

And I'd say, this guy's an overcomer.

He's battling.

He's contending for his inheritance.

Do you guys understand what I'm saying here?

I'm not talking in religious terms.

So this contending for your inheritance is not just a spiritual truth, it has to be worked out in real life.

And most of us have jobs that we do that has nothing to do with the church.

Do you realize that when you when we pray, give us this day our daily bread, what we're praying?

Martin Luther really hammered this.

See, Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk.

And back then you were really, really seekers of the kingdom.

You became a monk.

So that meant you didn't get married, you didn't have a family, and you went off to the monastery and all you did was walk around and chant and stuff and crawl on steps and ask for forgiveness of your sins because you were going to get holy.

Well, Luther, when he discovered the concept of grace and faith, he kind of blew the whole Catholic system up.

And he began to talk about what we call the priesthood of all believers.

That you're a priest wherever you are.

You're a priest wherever you are.

Okay?

So he said this.

He said, look, you pray this prayer and you just release all kinds of stuff.

You pray for your daily bread.

Guess what that well, you're praying for your daily bread that you're praying for the guy who's got the sickle, who's out in the field and he's cutting the wheat.

You're praying for the guy who works the thresh that takes the wheat and separates the chaff and turns it into flour.

You're praying for the guy who takes the flour and puts it in a bag.

You're praying for the guy who puts it in the bag who goes to the market and sells it to the woman.

You're praying for the gal who goes and gets up at four o'clock in the morning and milks the cow.

And then she takes the milk and she separates the cream and she puts it in two buckets and they take it to your door, and you've got milk when you wake up and you come out, and there's milk right there.

You see what you've done?

When you just pray, God, I just pray for my daily bread.

You've set in motion priests, priests, and all their different jobs.

And so, church, contending for your inheritance is right where you're at.

And it's being cognitive of the Spirit of God giving you even innovation and imagination for how you bring glory to God right where you're at.

That's the original mandate to be fruitful and multiply.

Isn't that cool?

So then look at Ephesians 1.

So in Ephesians 1, this is the way Paul prays for the Ephesians.

Verse 13.

In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory.

Verse 15.

Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Verse 18, that the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance.

There's that word again, in the saints.

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to those who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come.

But don't stop there.

We often do.

Look at verse 22.

And he put all things under whose feet?

His feet, Christ's feet, and gave him to be head over all things.

Now, this is the part we miss.

To who?

To the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

This is breathtaking, church.

He's saying that you're gonna, I want you to contend for his exceeding power, because what Christ did is he rules over all the principalities and powers.

He is seated at the right hand, he's put all things under his feet, but he's given us that same power and authority to the church.

Now, this is significant stuff because the church doesn't believe it.

It's like I said in one of the earlier messages when we were, when we were um in Joel, and I said, you know, we were looking at stuff like uh harbingers, and we were talking about harbingers across the land, and what are the what are the three major footholds or strongholds of the enemy?

I told you what I thought the most significant stronghold of the enemy in our country was.

Does anybody remember what it was?

It was not pornography, it was not that's it.

Louis said it.

The number one stronghold of the enemy is unbelief.

And I would add, kind of in that is fear and unbelief.

It's what keeps us down.

It is the number one strategy of the enemy in our lives, is for us not to believe this stuff.

Not to believe it.

You hear me say it, and you go, yes, yes, amen.

And then we just we don't believe it two hours later after we leave.

This belief is huge in contending for our inheritance because what it's saying is that Jesus is the head, and he's put all things under his feet.

He's really taking us back to the Genesis mandate, and he's saying, I've given it to you, and I've called you to be seated in the heavenly places, and I've called you as a church into the Father of glory.

But here's how you're gonna get it.

Look at verse 17.

I think that's such a key passage, is verse 17, where he says, That I may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

J.I.

Packer wrote one of the great classic Christian books called Knowing God.

And when I was a new believer, I read that years ago by J.I.

Packer called Knowing God.

Now, a lot of you, you'll read it now, and it's like, oh, this is really boring.

And um, and I've tried to reread it a few times, and it is kind of boring, but but here's what was exciting about it it's really about the attributes of God, but knowing God, because folks, you gotta know him.

Not just feel him, you gotta know him, and you gotta know who you're worshiping.

You worship out of knowledge.

So some guy comes up to me on the street, says, I want to give you$10,000.

All right, you know, why?

I just saw you, you know, I just saw you walking by and I just had this feeling.

Like, you know, I can I can trust him.

Do you know anything about me?

No, not really.

I just feel, I get, I mean, I just feel something.

I feel something when you, you know, when you came in to to the coffee shop.

I could feel it.

All right, and so I just want to give you$10,000.

Is that ridiculous or what?

Okay.

Or someone comes up to you and says, you know, I want to give you$10,000 because I've been studying you.

I've been following you.

I've seen how you handle people.

And I'm looking for someone I can trust.

And you have integrity.

You know, I heard about what happened at this situation, and I'm and that was noteworthy.

And I want to bless you with this because you've been a blessing to me with that.

How does that make you feel the two options?

Well, here's what we have: we have a church today that's looking for the most goosebumpy worship they can have, or the coolest feeling that they can have when they walk in a place with the presence of God, and I'm dig that, and I want that too.

I think that's great.

But then you're entrust, I mean, what does that do to God the Father when we come to Him with open hearts and empty heads?

And so it's John Wesley that said, I want men and women who have heads on fire and hearts on fire.

So to know God, and so this is this is really, this is really the contending part for our inheritance, is that we might have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

You can't know how to walk it out.

I feel so concerned about our students who are going off to college.

If they don't have some kind of a grasp of the knowledge of God and who God is in a spirit of wisdom and revelation from the Lord, then soon as the cutest little gal that comes walking down the dorm room and she wants to go to bed with them, they're in the sack.

And we're seeing our kids do that.

Because there's no understanding of the knowledge of God because we haven't put in the time to study God.

You see, it's in studying God that you get revelation from God.

You know, you don't just get revelation because you're eating ice cream and you see the numbers, you know, on the grapefruit surprise.

And it's got the number, it's$7.77.

Oh, I can just feel something there, and God spoke to me, and that color is the color of revelation.

You guys, I came out of the vineyard.

We used to call it vine weird, not vineyard.

I mean, I've been around some of the weirdest prophetic people ever.

And some of the stuff they say to me, it's like, seriously, are you a Martian or something?

I don't even know what you're talking about.

You know, and I just want to hear someone say, I was studying God's word for hours.

And I got this revelation from God.

It's CC, getting revelation out of knowing God.

I want us to be a church that knows God.

That's why we go chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

That's why I work hard to prepare.

And I and PB and J want you in God's word because it's in knowing God, not knowing about God, but knowing God, studying God, that you get revelation.

I study, I try to study my wife.

And I walk with fear when we go into the Christmas season.

Because I've botched it up so many times on the gifts that I've given her.

And so I know, man, don't do that.

So God has emotions.

God has a heart, God has a vision for your life.

You will not discover it by just having great worship sets.

You'll discover it in his word, praying, seeking him, spending hours in his word, reading his word, praying, and asking God for revelation and wisdom.

He'll speak through visions and dreams and all those things, but at the core of who he is, he's a God who wants to be known.

And that's your inheritance, church.

You discover his inheritance by contending for it.

So Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

Again, Paul, he's praying for the Colossians, verse 9.

Colossians 1, 9.

For this reason, we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

He's saying the same thing.

I want my son Daniel, I want my daughter Anna, I want my daughter Deborah, I want my son Samuel, I want my son Isaac, I want charity, and I want Josh to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

They've got to contend for that.

I can't do that for them.

They have to contend, they gotta want that.

That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing.

Now, we all like that part.

We want all our kids to be walking worthy of the Lord and pleasing him, but you can't get there.

You can't get there without knowledge of his will, digging into wisdom and spiritual understanding to grab hold of your inheritance.

It's like gold.

It's like you've got to dig for it.

There's gold down there, and we dig for it.

It's contending for it.

In our heart, God, I want to know your will on this.

God, I want to know you.

I want to rule and reign in this life.

It really matters.

Because most people don't.

It really doesn't matter.

It matters to you.

You're here on a Sunday night.

You don't have to be here.

You voted with your feet.

That speaks volumes about who you are.

You contended to get here.

You had all kinds of temptations to not get here.

You're here.

That's what I'm talking about.

And I would call it the spiritual gravity of the enemy.

The spiritual gravity is always pushing us down.

And we got to fight to rise up into the knowledge of his will.

But he's not done yet.

He says this that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work.

Now, either Paul is mentally deranged, clueless, or he's actually speaking a truth here.

He seems to be saying in his prayer, it is possible to be fruitful in every good work.

Why would he pray it if it wasn't true?

Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, church, those go together.

Those go together.

You can't be fruitful in every good work and not be increasing in the knowledge of God.

So for those who are going after the Lord, spending time in his word, spending time in prayer, contending, praying with your spouse, working out problems, working through issues, it seems to indicate in Scripture you have the potential to be fruitful in every good work.

Man, that's good news.

But are you getting why I'm so into the word contention?

Because you gotta contend for it.

You've got to want it's like I was listening to a radio, listening to radio last night on the way out.

It was some workout guru guy with the radio broadcaster, and he was asking him, now you know, all of the gyms right now are packed with people.

Nobody can get to their machines and everything because it's it's January.

It happens every year, but they'll all be gone by the first of February.

Okay, so just hang in there because they won't last long.

And so he was asking, now, how do we how do we change that?

You know, how do you change that?

And I thought what she said like is true in what I'm talking about here, and that is this that so well do, you know, don't go with a defeated mentality.

And what she defined a defeated mentality was like trying to do everything at once.

I'm going to the gym five days out of the week.

Or I'm going to the gym six days out of the week.

I'll take Sunday off.

And then, you know, you just burn yourself out because nobody, you just can't do that.

But she said, do what you can, start there.

And I would say that here.

You know, start where you can.

If you're in a place where you're not regularly having time in the word, then start, just just try to do one day a week.

If you're doing none, then do one.

Don't say, I want to be, you know, I want to be contending for my inheritance, and I'm gonna fight, so I'm gonna fast, you know, four days a week, and I'm gonna go after the Lord.

That's ridiculous.

That's dumb.

That's the way people do workouts, and you'll be done by February.

But but rather, what can you do?

Start there.

You know, read God's word every other day if you can't do it every day.

But set those kind of goals.

Strengthen with all verse 11, strengthen with almight according to his glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

So here we go again.

There's that word again, this inheritance word, that God has given us this inheritance, and we can contend for it through his power.

So contend.

Let me give you the dictionary definition of contend.

Struggle to surmount.

Contend means to struggle to surmount a difficulty or danger.

Struggle to surmount a difficulty or danger.

Cope with, grapple with, and here's my favorite: take on.

Take on.

So the 1010 battle is this.

The 1010 battle is this, is that the thief, the thief comes only, his only purpose of the thief is to steal, kill, and destroy.

But Christ came that you might have life and might have it abundantly.

So the thief, his sole purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy your inheritance.

And the sole purpose of the Lord is that you'd have an abundant life.

A joyful life, a fruitful life, a happy life.

And so that's the battle.

That's the battle before us.

So in 1 John 5, we read this.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding.

Don't miss this, that we may know Him who is true.

We get back to that knowing God again.

And we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ.

This is the true God, and this is true eternal life.

So we know that the whole world is under the sway of the wicked one, but we know God, and eternal life has begun.

We have an understanding of that inheritance by being in Him.

And so Jesus was the one who said, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

So let me close with this.

And we're going to cover what it means to have an extraordinary, extraordinary spirit.

Tomorrow night.

I'm itching to give it right now, but the mind can only absorb with the rear end can handle.

Okay, why are most believers not enjoying their inheritance?

And I want to say it's fear and unbelief.

It's fear and it's unbelief.

Fear, based in shame.

Number two, fear of failure.

Fear based in shame is number one.

Fear of failure, number two.

Number three, unbelief that God will actually come through.

Unbelief that God will actually come through if we trust him.

And then fourth, and this is really key, unbelief that God is good.

We really don't believe God is good.

So fear basing shame, fear of failure, unbelief that God will come through, and unbelief that God is good.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Steve Holt.

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