War XII - Encounters and Freedom - War: Satan, Demons & the Fourth Dimension

It's time now for the road with Pastor Teacher D.

Hope.

We want to crowd out demons.

The way you crowd them out is you replace all those empty, dark spots with truth.

And you gotta learn to say it, gang.

You gotta learn to say it.

You gotta say it out loud to the enemy.

You gotta tell him where to go, you gotta tell it to him in the name of Jesus, and you gotta tell him truth.

You gotta say that's not true.

Tonight, I'm not going to that website.

Because I know that that website leads to death.

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 whole-hearted disciples of Jesus Christ and to see you grow in the grace and knowledge of his love.

If you're in the area, we welcome you to come out and join us for our Saturday night service beginning at 6 p.m.

We meet at Chapel Hill Church, located at 2025 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.

On this edition of the road, Pastor Steve will be continuing his series on spiritual warfare.

Today, he'll be discussing how to be set free from demons.

You'll discover the keys to having some real close encounters with the Lord, and in turn, learn how to get free from demonic activity.

This is a powerful and insightful message that we're sure you'll be blessed by.

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

Tonight I'm talking about encounters and freedom.

That's what I would call it.

This is part one.

There's so much to cover tonight related to spiritual warfare.

Let me just say this because there can be confusion, and I always have to start this way.

When I speak of the demonic, when I speak of the satanic, I do not want in any way for any of us to get the impression that I'm over-emphasizing something that your flesh can also do.

Now the reason I say that is this because we can, you've heard people say, kind of the devil made me do it.

Or something that excuses choices that we make that are of our own flesh.

Our flesh is real.

Whether it's demonized or not, it is real and can get you in a lot of trouble.

And so people have asked me questions about mental illness and demonization.

And I'll just say this I believe most mental illness is a result of at least partially demonization.

And if you don't know what I mean by demonization, go on our website, go back.

This is the eighth message.

I'm not gonna go through a definition of all that like I've done in the past.

There's a difference, by the way, between demon influence, what I would call demonization, and demon possession.

So I'm not gonna go into that again.

We've already covered that before.

But in relation to this, I believe most mental illness has a form of demonization in it.

But now hear this.

I believe most demonization that we that are kind of the rank and file of this world, not in mental illness, not being institutionalized or anything like that, I do not believe that most of that is mental illness.

I believe that is the influence of the enemy.

So what I'm saying is this one who is struggling with mental illness may be demonized, but those who struggle with demonization are usually not mentally ill.

So that's my point.

The reason I say that is because as we go into what I'm gonna talk about as far as demonization, I don't want you to freak out and start thinking that, well, I mean, kind of this impression of something out of Jesus of Nazareth or some movie you've seen where you're just kind of foaming at the mouth and falling off.

I don't think they work that way.

99% of the time, uh, demonic powers don't work that way.

They work through subtle areas of your flesh that often lead to shame and hiddenness that begin to affect you in ways, listen, that limit what God can do through you because you become half-hearted instead of wholehearted.

So let me give you eight practical ways that I've seen over the years that we can know whether one is demonized.

So I'm gonna give you eight thoughts on this.

There's about twenty, but I try to narrow it down to eight.

Number one, is there a particular sin, nagging thought, or insatiable desire for which you cannot seem to be set free from for a prolonged period of time?

Probably that's empowered by the demonic.

Number two, in the presence of worship, the sacraments or the power of God, do you regularly find yourself fearful, shaking, unable to speak, or desiring to flee?

Now it's kind of funny I'm saying this to you guys because you probably, if any of those are true, you wouldn't be here.

So, you know, if you know someone like that.

But seriously, you know, some are so bold that they would continue to come, but a lot of times that's why people aren't at church.

That's why people are not in a Bible study, that's why they're not in a small group, is because demonic powers are keeping them away.

Now, number three, and don't laugh.

Number three, and don't laugh.

Do you regularly fall asleep in church?

When the word, listen, when the word is preached, you zone out.

And I already know who you are, so you don't even need to worry about it because I'm easily offended.

And whenever I'm preaching, I get super loud and almost obnoxious.

It's because somebody's out there's falling asleep and you're dressing, and you're really making me mad.

Okay.

So number four, do you regularly have frightening dreams, hear voices, or have excessive fears?

Number five.

Do you regularly struggle with bouts of depression and hopelessness?

And I put those together.

Depression and hopelessness, and at times seriously contemplate suicide, even thinking of how you would do it.

Remember what I've said in the past that the purpose of demons and the purpose of Satan is to steal, kill, and destroy your life.

See, demons hate you because you're created in the image of God.

Even as a non-believer, he hates you.

He's out to get you.

So I believe almost all suicide is dem is through demonization.

Number six, do you regularly struggle with a particular sickness or illness?

You've received prayer, seen doctors, and still it is not healed.

It could be there needs to be a confrontation against a spirit.

And we'll look at a passage that relates to that even tonight.

Number seven, do you see spectres in the night, shadows that move, or regularly have a deep fear of darkness?

And number eight, a desire towards self-harm, like suicide, but also cutting, overeating, undereating, alcohol, or drug abuse.

Well, Marina Adams is this beautiful young girl here in our church who I just love her.

I love the whole Adams family.

They're just a precious family.

She uh, after hearing a message one night, wrote a poem.

And a lot of you young people have given me poems and songs you've written, and they're just, every one of them have been just astoundingly beautiful.

And this was one of them.

And through a conversation we had, I asked her to share a testimony about something that she went through.

So I've got her testimony tonight, so let's look at the video as uh Marina shares with us.

Hello everyone.

Um, my name is Marina Adams, and most of you will probably recognize me from either leading worship up here in the Mang Sanctuary or leading it down in children's church.

Um I'm going to be sharing my testimony this weekend with you, so here we go.

Um my story actually started a little bit before seventh grade.

In elementary school, I had lost a lot of family members, um, whether they had died for disease or other reasons, we just had a lot of people die in our family.

Um, but seventh grade was a lot different because that was the year that we lost Josh.

And Josh was a really close friend to my brother, and he was a freshman that year, and our family took it pretty hard, and because it was like losing someone out of our own household because he was with us all the time.

And that same year I had actually um been used by God to talk one of my friends out of suicide, and it just opened the world of darkness, and like I became very aware with all of that at a very young age.

I was 12, and um, so then fast forward to my freshman year, I had talked five people out of suicide at this time, but um I had to switch schools because the school I was at closed, and so I felt really isolated at this new school because it was the type of school that if you had grown up in it, you had a lot of friends, but being put in as a freshman, um, everyone already had their friend groups, and so I was really wasn't comfortable with anyone.

And even the people, the few people that I considered friends there, I really didn't feel comfortable talking through my problems with.

So I felt very isolated, and I was everything had just become so real that year with taking in the fact that I had all these people die, and everything just caught up with me.

And so I became very depressed, and so my depression and my isolation mixed in a terrible, terrible way, and um I ended up resorting to self-harm as a coping mechanism that year.

Um I was fortunate enough the next year to switch schools, but at the same time I was afraid because I was switching schools, and self-harm had already become such a big part of my life, it just became normal to me, and um even when I wanted to stop, I couldn't because it was such a struggle.

Um, but I ended up stopping for a while, and then up at Windstorm around that time, I was having these really bad urges again, and um I just couldn't fight it off.

I didn't know what was happening.

Um, but then Anna got up one night and she was sharing a song that she had written, and the words that she was singing was Purify Me as gold with the power of your blood.

Um, and in that exact moment I heard God say, I paid with my blood, so stop trying to pay with yours.

And it hit me really hard, but I'm kind of a doubting person, I want to make sure that it's from God.

And so, as if to reassure me, Isaac then stood up and started reading a poem he wrote called I Am a Bloodwashed Saint.

And that really just changed my life and it impacted me in a really big way.

Um so, in closing, I wanted to read a poem that I I wrote about my struggle.

Um I actually shared this with Pastor Steve, and that's how he asked me to share my testimony.

So this poem is called The Garden.

I walk alone through a darkened garden, shaded by sin, cracked at my feet.

I have strayed many times before, eaten bitter curiosity, tasted lies.

I smell poisoned envy everywhere I wander, it's unavoidable.

I slice my skin on thorn bushes, plagued with thoughts of loneliness.

I find refuge on a boulder as it crumbles beneath me.

I lie on the ground, screaming to the void, someone save me.

And then I see him.

I see a man running to my side, clothed in white light and redemption.

He breathes the love my lungs crave.

He helps me to my feet with pierced palms and the strength to move mountains.

He wraps his almighty arms around me.

He tells me he's long awaited my cry.

He calls me daughter, he holds me close.

I do not walk alone anymore.

I realize now I never did.

Thank you.

Awesome.

When I first read that poem, I just wept.

Um that's from her heart.

And you guys hit the road, that's the vulnerability we need.

That's the vulnerability that sets us free.

That's the vulnerability that breaks the power of shame.

And Marina, as a young woman of God, is getting set free from the cutting.

And she's been free for a while now because of the choices that she's made.

And you can be free too.

You can be set free.

Let me talk about how to be set free.

And that's what I want to cover really tonight is how we can be set free in the area of demonization.

And I want to look at two things.

It's called the process of freedom, two areas that we see, two ways that we see in the New Testament of freedom.

One is called a power encounter.

I'm gonna call it a power encounter, and the other one is what I'm gonna call a truth encounter.

Now, some have heard of the power encounter, may not have heard of the truth encounter.

If you're familiar with Neil Anderson stuff and some of the stuff he wrote years ago in the 80s and 90s, he mentioned it, but it never really caught on.

I hardly ever hear anybody talking about truth encounters.

I still hear people talk about power encounters.

Well, both are important, and both are in the New Testament.

Both were taught by Jesus and exhibited and modeled by Jesus and by the early church.

So let me start with a power encounter.

Let me explain what a power encounter is.

Jesus often crossed the paths of people that were demon-possessed and demonized.

He met people that were extremely demonized and those that were moderately demonized, and he cast the demon out on the spot.

That's a power encounter.

A power encounter is when the kingdom of God encounters the kingdom of darkness, and there is a flash, a battle, a fight, a release from the kingdom of darkness by the kingdom of God.

Because the kingdom of God always wins, church.

Do you understand that?

When you use the name of Jesus, there's power in that.

I've known non-believers that use the name of Jesus and cast out demons.

Now I know that sounds weird, but it's because the name of Jesus has that much power.

So it's amazing.

Now they got saved right after that.

I mean, it was pretty cool.

But the reality is that sometimes you could have just a little bit of faith that God can use you.

I mean, just a little tiny bit of mustard seed faith, and God will use you, even though you don't know anything.

You're, I mean, you don't know anything theologically.

You don't know much about the word.

You might even be new to the Lord, or you might not be new to the Lord, you just don't know anything.

I mean, a lot of people, a lot of people have been believed the age, when did you become a Christian?

Oh, I got confirmed when I was 16 in the Lutheran church or the Episcopal Church.

And they believe.

I mean, they really do believe.

They believe in Jesus.

And so I don't know if they're saved or not, but it but seems like they are.

But they don't know anything.

That they've never had a quiet time, they don't know anything about a devotional life.

They're not growing because they've just never been taught, but when they start learning, oh man, and they just go for it.

And they they dive in because they uh want to follow Jesus.

They should know.

And then you tell them something like a little dinky thing, like, you know, name of Jesus got power.

Yeah.

Well, you know, when you get that thought, that lingering thought, you'll just say, name of Jesus, I command you to go.

And then you can say that until the cows come home to some people, especially coming out of sometimes even Pentecostal or evangelical background, but they don't ever do it.

And it's like they know it, but they don't do it.

And then here's this other person, doesn't come any background out, they don't know squats about squats.

And they just believe you, and they start to do it, and then they get set free.

And you're like, what is this?

It's because they did it.

Gang, do you understand what I'm saying?

It's you can know it, you can know it, and you can know it, but if you don't do it, it doesn't do any good.

And so they do it.

So there's power in the name of Jesus.

And so when Jesus would come, his disciples are following him, a bunch of fishermen, kind of uneducated group of guys, and they've been around, remember, they've just been around the synagogue, they've been around the Pharisees, they, you know, if they've been in Jerusalem, they've been around the Sadducees.

Um, to them, religion is all about the ritual of the temple and the ritual of the synagogue.

And then this guy comes along, this outlaw preacher, and he's and people are like doing funny things when he shows up.

They start manifesting spirits and all that, and then he looks at them, he calls them out by name, and he casts them out, and the person usually squirms a little bit, and then they're free.

And they're like, this is bizarre.

Okay?

That's a power encounter.

That's what a power encounter is.

So turn your Bibles really quick, give you a couple kind of little summation here.

Matthew chapter 9, and I'm just gonna read a few verses, and we'll kind of look at a progression of how the early church viewed this also.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

So Matthew 9, I'm just gonna give you one example, verse 32, Matthew 9, 32, of Jesus casting out a demon who was causing a man to be mute.

So as we've talked about over the last few weeks, that demons usually do something to their host that's somewhat negative.

So, and it's not just emotional and spiritual, but a lot of times it's very, very physical too.

So here's an example of it.

So, verse 32, as they went out, behold, they brought to him a man mute and demon-possessed, and when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke.

So he got healed.

Bam.

That's a power encounter.

That's what I mean.

Kingdom of darkness, faces, kingdom of light, Jesus cast it out.

They're watching this.

Everywhere they go, they're seeing this happen.

And then we go to Matthew 10, 1.

And when he had called his twelve disciples to him, he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of diseases.

The reason that's all together is because that's often how it works.

That there's a combination of healing that comes with freedom that comes through deliverance.

And so he gave them power.

Gang, he's given you power.

Every one of you that have the Holy Spirit have the power to walk with the authority of Jesus Christ in your life.

The reason you've never seen it happen and you never experienced it is because you don't believe it yet.

And I'm hoping that you'll start to believe it.

Because if you do, your life will be really different.

I can tell you that.

Because what'll happen is if you start to believe it, guess what God does?

He starts putting people in your life that you can help, that you can minister to.

It's amazing to me, young people that I get around, we do a little seminar or something on how to share your faith.

So learn how to share the four spiritual laws, they learn how to share their faith or something.

And then they lead like three or four people to the Lord in their high school that week, and they're just they come back fired up, they can't believe they did it, and they never believed that anybody was even open.

But the reason is it's because they got equipped, then God could entrust to them people that were seeking.

And I mean, God has an economy of his time too, okay?

And so he puts you in the path.

So as you start getting equipped and growing and stuff, God's gonna put people in your life that you can totally minister to.

And folks, that's what it's all about.

Have you figured out it's not about you?

It's not.

I mean, we think it is, but nobody cares about you.

They don't.

I mean, God loves you and all that.

I mean, I love you too.

I think you're great.

But the reality is, you know, nobody cares.

I mean, our level of importance has risen due to Facebook.

Because you're always like, how many likes did I get?

You know, how many comments?

Those people don't care.

I mean, they don't.

I mean, you know, I mean, they do, sort of.

Five minutes, two minutes, 30 seconds they care.

But then they've liked like a hundred of people like you that day.

They don't even remember who they liked.

So when you can understand that life's not really about you, it's really freeing.

Because then you can quit trying to impress everybody, right?

And you can start loving people, and you can be wholehearted in loving people and caring about them because here's what I know is that's why we're here.

It's to make an impact, to make a difference in people's lives.

So that's why we're getting equipped so we can grow in that.

So, somewhere along the line, that the disciples figured it out.

Now turn to Acts, and we see Paul in action.

So it's not just Jesus.

The church took this power encounter methodology into the early church.

We now we have testimonies that go up until the 20th century, and then probably the 20th century has been the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit since Pentecost of this kind of activity.

Acts 16, 16.

Acts 16, verse 16.

Acts 16:16

And I love this is a great story.

I love this story because this, oh man, every pastor can relate to this story.

Okay, Acts 16, 16.

Now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling.

This girl followed Paul and us and cried out, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaimed to us the way of salvation.

Now, you would think that's a pretty good advertisement.

You know, you got this lady following around.

She's a magician, she's a sorcerer, she's a sorcerer's daughter, probably, probably a whole line of sorcerers running through her family.

Usually does work that way.

And she's proclaiming the truth that only a demon could have told her in the fourth dimension about who they are.

But it's starting to really get Paul ticked off.

Verse 18.

And this she did for many days, but Paul was greatly annoyed.

So I don't know what's going on, but she's like really annoying.

So he turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

And he came out of her that very hour.

Now I think what's happening here, there's all kinds of, uh, what would I say, kind of values happening in the situation, different culture that he's in, and stuff like that.

But he didn't want to cast out the demon.

And the reason he didn't want to cast it out is because what happens next.

I mean, all hell breaks loose, and he's in all kinds of trouble because he cast it out and he gets thrown in jail and all that.

Because he knew that there was probably a high-level spirit on her, and also through those who were reaping the benefit of her work.

So he strategically and tactically didn't want to cast out the spirit, even though he knew he was demonized, but finally it just drove him nuts.

And some of you, as parents, have some kids that just drive you nuts.

And I'm telling you, I'm not saying it's a parenting style you should use, but sometimes they just need to cast out their demons.

Yes, it's really true.

It's really true.

I'm not kidding, you know.

And you guys know we've had to do that in our household, so whatever.

Um, but that's a power encounter.

So sometimes you need to have a power encounter like that.

Well, secondly, it's a truth encounter, and that's more what I want to emphasize here tonight is a truth encounter.

Um, a truth encounter is different from a power encounter in that it is using the truth of God's word, his promises, and our identity in Christ against the enemy.

It's different.

A truth encounter is an encounter of the truth of God against the deceptiveness of the enemy.

So don't miss that.

Quite frankly, a truth encounter is discipleship.

A guy that I really like a lot, um, and I read a lot of his stuff, is a guy named Richard Rohr.

He's a Catholic priest.

And I was reading some stuff around the fire yesterday.

I came home and I just it was kind of cool, and I put a fire out in the fire pit, and I was sitting out there just reading just a really good book of his.

And um, he said this.

I thought this was really good.

He said, you know what discipleship is?

Discipleship is simply becoming a mature man or woman.

Becoming a disciple is about maturity.

It's moving toward from being wild to being wise.

You realize we need more wise men who aren't so childish anymore?

Do you know we need more wise women, not so childish anymore?

You know, we need men who talk more and women who talk less.

I mean, it's true.

We really do.

So the reality is, is that a truth encounter is when you are being, you are regularly in God's word and truth is encountering you, and you are now countering, listen, you're countering lies and deception that you believe in in your heart with the truth and the promises of God.

So it's more powerful than a power encounter.

Because, see, a power encounter gets the demon out, but if you don't change your habit patterns, they come back.

And it's really hard to get them out again because then you don't believe that you were really set free the first time because all kinds of stuff starts being said to you.

Well, see, I told you it didn't work.

I told you what they said is not true, and then they usually end up in a worse state than they were before.

Jesus said that.

But see, what a truth encounter does is it's not as sexy and it's not as cool and it's not as happening because you don't see the person, you know, get free immediately.

They gradually get free.

To me, it's the difference between taking a shotgun into the barn and just blowing away the mice.

That's a power encounter.

That's kind of cool.

Guys like that kind of stuff, okay?

Or you go in and you start cleaning up the barn, and the mice have nothing to feed on, and they go to somebody else's barn.

They leave.

So it's the difference between blasting them out, and listen, this is important, crowding them out.

We want to crowd out demons.

The way you crowd them out is you replace all those empty, dark spots with truth.

And you gotta learn to say it, gang.

You gotta learn to say it.

You gotta say it out loud to the enemy.

You gotta tell him where to go, you gotta tell it to him in the name of Jesus, and you gotta tell him truth.

You gotta say, that's not true.

I'm not, tonight, I'm not going to that website.

Because I know that that website leads to death.

That kills my heart, that kills my intimacy with my wife, that kills my intimacy with my children, it steals my joy.

Have you ever had that, guys?

I mean, you come in, you've had a great time, you know, the teaching at the road is so awesome.

And uh anyway, you had great worship and everything, and and you've spent time with the Lord, and then you go in and you look at porn, and you just killed your heart.

And the next day you're like, that was so stupid.

And it's the enemy at work.

But it's because you acquiesced to these fleshly desires, instead of saying to the fleshly desires, I'm not going there.

I'm not doing that tonight.

I'm done with that.

I'm going in to get into God's word, or I'm gonna spend time with my wife, or I'm gonna go do something with my kids.

You've got to learn to say it and believe it, but it's not possible without doing what Romans 12 says.

So, Romans 12, 1 and 2, we just read it in our antiphonal reading.

Let's look at that again.

Romans 12, 1 and 2.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies.

And he's talking about physical, emotional, mental, your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

So we begin to prove God's perfect will through the renewing of our mind and church, the greatest, most magnificent, most powerful, most significant way we renew our mind is God's word.

Being in God's word.

You say, well, God's word's kind of boring, and I've got that bookmark, and it's been really boring lately.

Guess what?

Everything in life is boring.

Sometimes it's boring.

Ask any elite athlete, and he will tell you that training is sometimes boring and hard and difficult and arduous.

You ask any military man who's been in combat, any military man who's trained in a skill and then maybe hasn't been in any combat, hasn't been in war, but they're prepared for it.

It's boring sometimes, it's hard.

Everything in life that's worthwhile will take sacrifice.

It will.

And so Paul is saying, renew your mind.

Renew your mind.

If so, you'll come to understand the perfect will of God.

This is what we're talking about, gang.

This is a truth encounter.

This is more important than empower encounter.

This is more lasting than empower encounter.

It is the way of discipleship.

And it's harder.

It's harder than the power encounter, but it has a more lasting impact.

I've had so many guys over the years come to me, they want me to get their demons out, and I'll say, get in a discipleship group.

Well, I thought we were, I want to get the demons out.

No, we'll get the demons out.

But it's gonna take a year versus five minutes.

Because I'm not trusting in that person's life sometimes that if we get those demons out, and we can, because I'm definitely stronger than any demon by the power of Jesus, not me, but the power of Jesus.

I can get that demon out.

But there's no disciplined life, there's no guidance in their life, there's no allies in their life, there's no small group in their life, there's no mentors in their life.

Forget it.

It won't happen, it's not gonna work.

And so I'd rather just take time, okay, they maybe there's some even some regression there, but we just start pouring into them truth.

That's why, church, it's so important that we're in God's word when we meet together.

That's why we go chapter by chapter and verse by verse, because it's the best way to disciple us as believers in Christ.

It's why you need devotional life, and that's why we talked about our advance.

Being wholehearted worshipers means that we're going after intimacy with the Lord through his word, intimacy with him.

Okay, look at 2 Corinthians 10.

2 Corinthians 10.

Now, I, Paul, myself, am pleading with you, and this is very interesting because he's saying the same thing here.

I'm pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent and bold toward you.

Is that the impression you get in 1st and 2 Corinthians is that Paul's demeanor was weak.

Some say that he had a problem with his eyesight.

They believe that he couldn't see very well.

Um, some have said that he might have even struggled with epilepsy and some things like that because some stuff that he said.

Um So he says, Look, I'm weak among you, but I'm gonna be bold in writing this.

But I beg you.

So he said, I plead with you.

Now he says, I beg you.

I mean, this is this is Paul like on his face, saying, You gotta get this.

I beg you that when I'm present, I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

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.

He's saying, look, if you think you can do this in the flesh, if you think you can do this because you got great ability and skill, if you think you can do this because you're a bold uh Roman centurion or warrior in and of yourself, it is not gonna work.

Carnal, fleshly weapons don't cut it in this arena.

Because here's what he says in verse 5: Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

So he's saying here that this is arduous work to be set free.

Some of you don't want to be set free, and you're gonna be in the same place three years from now, except you'll probably lose your marriage in the process.

Because you play around too much, you're just playing games with religion.

First of all, you I mean, if you're gonna play around, I'm gonna really make you uncomfortable on Saturday nights, so you probably won't ever come back.

That's fine.

I mean, seriously.

But if you want to get serious about becoming a disciple, if you really want to grow, come hang out.

Because truth sets you free.

And so Paul is saying here to the Corinthians, look, you guys, you've got to cast down these false belief systems, these false arguments that have been set up by the enemy in your life.

That you're a loser, that you can't be set free, that it's always his fault, or it's always her fault.

Does anybody here get Time magazine?

Anybody get Time Magazine?

Good church.

Um, no, no, I get I get Time magazine and um and my dad pays for it.

And my dad's a Democrat, he loves Time magazine.

Okay, what can I say?

Time magazine.

Okay, I like Time Magazine.

Here's why I like it.

I like Time Magazine.

I like to hear what the culture's saying, and there's a whole culture section.

I like to read that.

Anyway, listen, this is pretty cool.

Last week, one of my favorite heroes, heroines, is Brene Brown.

You guys know how much I love Brene Brown.

I quote her from here.

Anyway, great interview with Brene Brown in Time magazine.

Um, I wish I'd have brought the article with me.

There were aspects of it in my blog.

If you saw that in my blog about uh Ashley Mad, was it Ashley Madison?

Is that it?

Ashley Madison.

And the pastor and professor at New Orleans Baptist Seminary committed suicide because of the shame because his name came out when that whole thing was uh, when that whole thing happened with Ashley Madison.

She says a very interesting thing, though.

She said, the difference between those who live wholehearted lives and those who don't is your ability to be uncomfortable.

People who live in shame can never face discomfort because they they hide.

They just hide and they blame others, always blaming others.

But the person who finds wholeheartedness is someone who can actually press into their shame, press into their hiddenness, and say, I'm going to do the hard work of uncovering this with vulnerability and get set free.

Now she's not even talking to Christians.

And I can tell you right now, man, we got the Holy Spirit.

We can walk in freedom.

Face our shame, face our stuff.

It's the key, also.

That's what Paul's saying here.

So the truth encounter disciples the person while they're getting set free.

The truth encounter is well worth the time it takes because as we learn and grow, we're becoming Christ-like at the same time.

In the New Testament, Jesus used the truth encounter much more than he did the power encounter because 85% of Jesus' ministry in the New Testament is his teaching ministry.

So here, now it's interesting, isn't it?

Pharisees and Sadducees, you talk about a demonized group.

Hello?

You kidding me?

The Pharisees and Sadducees were way more demonized than that mute we just saw.

I mean, these guys were really up a creek without a paddle as far as living in falsehood and the ritual of the temple.

Jesus never did a power encounter with any of them.

You know what he did?

He gave them truth encounters.

He always gave them the word.

He preached the word to them, he gave them truth, and it just flipped them out.

It flipped them out.

And so a truth encounter is way more powerful.

But in the right context, and I believe the right context is always the local church.

It's the best context for setting people free.

Because we have community with each other.

Most of us here at least know someone in here, and some of you know a lot of people here, and most of us are in D groups or C groups, some kind of a small group.

You can have a power encounter and a truth encounter.

That's pretty cool.

Because I'll give you a story.

One time, this guy named Jerry, that's his real name, but I'll never see him again.

I don't even know where he lives now.

But he was a missionary in Okinawa, and we were together, we started hanging out together.

I was discipling him and stuff, and he was a missionary with another organization.

And one day we're sitting in the lobby at this university, and he starts sharing with me how I said, Hey man, let's go snorkeling tomorrow.

Let's go and snorkeling.

Oh no, no, I can't do that.

Let's go scuba diving.

I can't do that.

I said, What's your problem?

And he said, I'm scared of water.

I said, What are you talking about?

He said, I've been scared since I was a little kid of water.

I can't.

I said, Can you swim?

He said, Yeah, I can swim, but I'm scared of water.

And uh, and I said, That's and I remember I just said this, you know, kind of Freudian slip.

I just said, that's so demonic.

And then I was like, no, no, no, I'm not saying it's demonic.

I I and he says, Do you think it is?

And I said, No, probably not.

I just, you know, well, yeah, you know, it actually might be.

That's kind of weird.

I don't know anybody who's afraid of water like you.

So through an interaction that we had, asked the Holy Spirit to come, and he was taken back in the prayer time to being on a ski trip in his dad's boat when he was eight years old, where it suddenly took off to, you know, to get the skier up, and he fell out.

And he saw in a vision right there with me, he could see the surface of the water floating away.

He was going underwater and that he couldn't breathe.

He was full of fear, and then somebody heard the splash of someone diving in, picking him up, pulled him up, put him into the boat, and the relief that he felt that he had been saved, and then his dad rips into him for falling out of the boat.

And at that point, fear, I believe a demonic spirit of fear entered into his body at that point.

And from that day forward, he he never wanted to be near water again.

So he tells me, I'm like, I'm not hearing him tell this, and what do you see?

And he's telling me, oh, and he tells me more, whoa! I'm like, this is weird, man.

This is like Holy Spirit stuff.

And so I so I cast out this spirit of fear, and he flips over the couch in the lobby of this college.

So people are like, what is going on?

And I so I cast out like a bunch more demons.

Anyway, cast him out, do snorkeling the next week.

He was set free.

We went snorkeling like every week after that.

I just want to make sure that this guy really got into the water a lot.

Okay.

But anyway, then we started doing truth encounters.

In other words, we began a discipleship relationship to help him grow.

So my point is that's where a power encounter and a truth encounter can be very, very effective.

Steps to freedom.

Here's a few things I just want to throw out as we close.

First of all, you need to know Christ.

If you don't have a personal relationship with Christ, if you've never given your heart to Christ, if you're not born again, you need to do that tonight because you can't get set free without Christ.

Number two, confession and honesty.

Be honest.

The beginning of freedom is honesty.

And that is where we are honestly confessing our sin.

So if there's something that you're hampered by here tonight, it takes guts, it takes courage.

But I challenge you to come up with someone in prayer.

And believe me, you can't say anything we haven't heard around here.

Um but you're not going to get set free if you don't become vulnerable.

And you can't be vulnerable without a passion to be healed.

And so encourage honesty and let us pray for you.

Pray for that area.

Repentance.

To repent of known sin.

I mean, if you're involved in pornography, you need to repent of that.

If you're involved in an affair, you need to repent of that.

If you're involved in jealousy, you need to repent of that.

If you're a gossip, you need to repent of that.

If you're someone who is constantly bad mouthing others behind their back, you know, you need to confess it.

That's not good.

It's really a bad thing, by the way.

Because I've done it too.

But I mean, seriously, if you're talking about people to other people, about that person, you're just inviting demons in your life.

Gossip spirits.

And then what happens is your spiritual life takes a nosedive, or, like I think most people, you're carrying this weight and you don't even know it.

And you're like, why do I always feel so heavy?

Or why can't I get a breakthrough in prayer?

That's because you need to clean up these areas of your life.

And so let us pray for you.

And then we're going to command those afflicting spirits to leave.

You keep being under God's word, and you're going to get set free.

You will.

It may not be overnight, but over time you're going to get more and more free.

Isn't that cool?

And then give yourself completely to God wholeheartedly.

You've been listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We pray that you've been blessed by the message today.

Our hope is to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

And that's why we teach the Word of God verse by verse, scripture by scripture, and precept upon precept.

We're excited about all the things God is doing in the lives of our faithful listeners.

We understand that there are many trials and tribulations in this world.

Love to be able to pray for you as you encounter difficult times.

Drop us a note at Let us know how we can pray for you.

Write us at the road.

PO box 88485 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.

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Again, the address is The Road, P.O.

Box 88485 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.

If you're in the area, please stop on by and join us at The Road for our Saturday night service at 6 p.m.

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Thanks again for tuning in today.

And be sure to catch us again next time for another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.