The End Times Church: Our Finest Hour - Leaders' Talks

This is our going into our third week on the series on war, on spiritual warfare.

The first week, which was a couple weeks ago, all of this is now downloaded.

It's online, was what we might call classically the gap theory.

And so I talked about that actually Genesis 1.2 is the second creation account.

The first creation account is Genesis 1.1, and then there's a gap, possibly of millions of years.

And we talk about Daniel chapter 12 and the war in the heavenlies.

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

So you need to get caught up on that.

It's pretty foundational to the series on war.

Then the second one, which was last week, two weeks ago, because last week my son was getting married, and I was presiding over a wedding.

What a contrast that was to have my son getting married on Saturday after the Supreme Court decision on Friday.

But um, so two weeks ago we talked about war, the origins of Lucifer.

We talked about the origins of Lucifer.

And so this coming week, where Jared is leading worship, we're going to be talking about the lion's strategies.

Listen, the lion's strategies for nations and how uh the enemy works to actually uh affect and impact entire nations on the globe.

So that's next week on third week on war, spiritual warfare.

Then July 18th, the next week is our Shindig.

And if there's been any confusion, I want to make this clear that that actually is a worship service.

So it goes from four to eight, and what we're doing is we're out in Falcon where we do all of our outdoor stuff, and where we had the uh Easter celebration, all of that, and that's at the um Sutherland's house.

So that's all online.

Information on that in Falcon.

Here's what it'll be: tons of games for the kids.

Bring your own food, bring your own camping chairs, hang out.

We'll have barbecue grills, we'll have bonfires going, and then we'll conclude the evening with a worship service and communion.

So that we won't be here.

So if you come here, it'll be empty, doors are locked.

Um, so that's that's in two weeks.

So next week, Jared Anderson continuing the series on war.

Next week, we're gonna be out at the Shindig that we're doing from four to eight.

And then for you that do we have, Amy, do we have any more camping slots left?

Three left.

Three left.

Okay, there's three camping slots left for our camping trip, which is August 5th to the 7th.

And is that right?

7th and 8th.

Oh, 7th and 8th.

So 7th and 8th.

And what I'm gonna do, I'm probably gonna come back and do our service for you that are not camping with us.

I will be here continuing the War Series, and then Ryan, our associate pastor, will do a worship service up there.

So that's gonna be fun.

So that, so if you want to sign up for that, talk to Amy Lathan right here, and she can sign you up.

There's three slots left.

Okay, gang.

Been a pretty sobering eight days.

The Supreme Court has made a decision legalizing same-sex marriage as a federal law across the entire United States.

Isn't it interesting that this is the 4th of July?

Some would say that this is the most momentous decision made in the United States since the Declaration of Independence.

The Supreme Court has invalidated the marriage laws of over half of the states, ruled against cultural precedent on marriage since the beginnings of civilization, and have gone against the laws of every major religion in the world by a five to four decision.

Five people, unaccountable and unelected, made this decision.

Justice Scalia said, these justices know that limiting marriage to one man and one woman is contrary to reason.

They know that an institution as old as government itself and accepted by every nation in history until 15 years ago cannot possibly be supported by anything other than ignorance and bigotry.

Supreme Court Justice John Roberts stressed his view that the court's five to four ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide lacked a constitutional basis.

Writing one of the court's four dissents Friday, he said, the majority's decision is an act of will, not legal judgment.

The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this court's precedent.

Roberts writes in his dissent.

Just who do we think we are?

Writing that he has no choice but to dissent, Roberts made it clear that his decision was based in, quote, the restrained conception of the judicial role rather than a personal view of the definition of marriage.

As he writes, understand well what this dissent is about.

It is not about whether, in my judgment, the institution of marriage should be changed to include same-sex couples.

It is instead about whether in our democratic republic that decision should rest with the people acting through their elected representatives or with five lawyers who happen to hold commissions authorizing them to resolve legal disputes according to the law.

The Constitution leaves no doubt about the answer.

Not only is the Constitution clear on the matter, Roberts argues, but also this court's precedents have repeatedly described marriage in ways that are consistent only with its traditional meaning.

Additionally, Roberts invokes the founders of the U.S.

writing: those who founded our country would not recognize the majority's conception of the judicial role.

They would never have imagined yielding that right on a question of social policy to unaccountable and unelected judges.

Roberts continues.

For the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians, and the Aztecs, he wrote, just who do we think we are?

Dr.

James Dobson calls this the beginning of the end of Western civilization as we have known it.

The National Organization of Marriage commented, quote, the U.S.

Supreme Court does not have the authority to redefine something it did not create.

Marriage was created long before the United States and our Constitution came into existence.

Our Constitution says nothing about marriage.

The majority who issued today's ruling have simply made it up out of thin air with no constitutional authority.

So men and women, cultures change.

Social policies change.

Political parties change.

Politicians change.

But some things never change.

The majesty of God never changes.

The plenary, substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ never changes.

God's word never changes.

The majesty of Christ through the mediation of God's word never changes.

The souls of men who need Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior never changes.

The love of God never changes.

The power of God working through those that are surrendered to Him never changes.

So in one sense, nothing's changed.

But in other sense, a lot has changed.

And what has changed is the reality that we no longer have, and I don't know that we've had it for years, but we certainly don't have it now, and I think we're going to see it crumble in the next three to four years, even more.

We don't have the props that we had before.

The early church didn't even have those props.

Most nations of the world don't have those props.

We just happen to be blessed with founders who are called pilgrims and separatists and Puritans who came to this land because they were persecuted over there and they came here to build a new Jerusalem, a new land, with the hope that the kingdom of God could flourish here with a new sense of freedom.

But as we studied just a few weeks ago, when Satan was cast out of heaven, he was cast upon the earth, and he is the Lord of the earth.

Even Jesus acknowledged that.

When Satan came and tempted him in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, he said, I've been given all this authority, all the kingdoms of the earth.

And Jesus doesn't dispute that.

And he has, and we'll talk about this next week, he has power and authority over the kingdoms of the earth.

And so, in a sense, we wonder about our homeland, the place where we were born.

Men and women, this is not our home.

This is a hotel room.

We're just hanging out in a hotel room, and I tell you, for some of you, you have Hilton's, and some of us have days ends.

But we have a hotel room, and we're hanging out in a hotel room, and when we happen to get it, it had some kind of some Christian pictures on the wall, and it used to have some, maybe a Christian bed, or maybe it had a Christian desk or a Christian phone, and that's being taken away.

And so, oh but no other nation in the world's ever had that, and no, and no form of Christianity has ever had that.

So our props are kind of getting taken away, and in the process, we're becoming more and more a first century church.

And I'll tell you what, the first century church did just fine.

And they rocked this world and they turned the world upside down.

So let me talk here briefly about six things, six thoughts that I have in relation to our decision that came down last week.

First of all, I like this one.

It's my favorite one.

First one.

Jesus is still on the throne in majesty and power.

He's not up in heaven wringing his hands and worry about the five majority judges slash lawyers who made this decision, who are unaccountable and unelected.

He's still on the throne in majesty and in power, and you can just turn in your Bible, and it's still there in Revelation chapter 4 and Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention Revelation 5 · chapter mention

And guess what?

When John was on the island of Patmos being persecuted for his faith, it's either Domitian or Nero, who's the emperor.

And he goes in in the spirit and he sees this vision.

That's Revelation chapter 4 and 5.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

And Jesus is on the throne.

Nero's burning Christians.

Nero's using believers as wicks for his fires on his patio while he parties with his friends.

Domitian was just as bad.

We're talking about, we're talking about egomaniacs, demoniacs who are emperors of Rome that nobody voted on.

They got into power through intrigue and through murder and through assassination.

They're ruling, and Jesus is on the throne then.

And he's still on the throne today, and men and women, you can take that to the spiritual bank all the way.

Jesus Christ is still on the throne, and we still worship him in majesty.

Number two.

Number two.

This book, the Bible, is still living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and it's still our authority for all faith and practice.

At the road, we believe in the word of God, the Bible, as the inerrant, infallible, living, active, sharper than any two-edged sword, authoritative words of God for man.

Our authority and our foundation for everything in life comes from God's Word, the Bible.

We are grounded in God's word, and we are building this church upon God's word, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

So the Bible still works.

That's why we teach it chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

That's why we believe in what it says, and what has happened is this is now a demoniac Pandora's box that has been unleashed upon our culture to codify sin.

So, men and women, it's gonna affect every one of you in this room.

It's gonna really affect me in doing marriage ceremonies.

It's gonna affect us as a church.

I was just on a website last night.

I sent it to you, John.

I don't know if you had a chance to look at it yet, from uh from Dr.

Sparks as it relates to church and culture policy.

And don't ask me any questions tonight about that because we're not clear on all that yet.

Nobody knows.

I just know this that a polygamous couple already has come forth to get married this week.

So we've got a Pandora's box here.

It's gonna affect the curriculum of all your kids.

It's gonna affect Christian schools, it's gonna affect Christian hospitals, it's gonna affect churches, it's gonna affect all the nonprofits, it's gonna affect um uh issues related to um how and which you uh clarify sexual orientation, not just marriage.

It is Pandora's box.

It's gonna affect who's on boards.

They're gonna find out that you're a Christian, you're gonna be, you're gonna be challenged on that.

When you're on a board, you'll be you'll be booted.

There will be, it won't happen tomorrow.

It probably won't happen next year.

But it might.

I will say this, for example, those in support of same-sex marriage in the United States was 42% five years, no, 34% five years ago, and it's 57% in favor now.

That's in just five years.

So culture is being revolutionized.

So the the the the book that is the greatest deterrent, and believe me, the left knows this, is this book.

And so this book will be considered hate speech.

There's now a Queen James Bible, written in 2012, also known as the Gay Bible, a new assault on biblical orthodoxy and sexual purity, takes all the passages related to homosexuality and they are rewritten.

Paul, in writing at Timothy, says, The church is the living, is the church of the living God the pillar and ground of the truth.

We are the stewards and pillars of truth.

We will be labeled as hateful to stand for the word of God.

You will be on a watch list, you will be considered troublemakers, it will become illegal, it will become illegal for you to stand up for traditional marriage.

This is huge, folks.

Make no mistake about it.

Biblical truth is being challenged.

This is going to be the book that they'll go after.

So I want you to turn your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

So let's take, let's take a look at what the scripture says about marriage by looking at a couple passages.

You in the room that are for this decision and you're and you're pro-gay marriage, I wouldn't, I would be negligent and naive if I didn't think there's some of you in here.

Listen to me the whole way through.

Don't walk out yet.

Because I want you to understand what I'm saying in relation to being a Christian, a Jesus follower.

Um, but I'm I'm open to dissent.

I've already been on online with dissenting opinions, so I'm okay with that.

Genesis 2, 21.

Genesis 2.21.

By the way, I presided over a wedding ceremony for my son on Saturday night.

But do you know who presided over the first wedding ceremony?

Jesus did.

He made it, he created it.

And here's the first wedding ceremony.

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.

Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman.

A woman.

And he brought her, her, to the man.

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

So the father, son, and the Holy Spirit blessed the first wedding ceremony.

In Mark 10, Jesus said, Jesus said, don't miss this, okay?

Well, that's you know, that's Moses.

Moses, you know, he's he's an old guy.

He had a beard and everything, and and he was he was sexist and all.

So he he kind of framed it that way.

But Jesus said in Mark chapter 10, but from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

For this reason, a man shall leave his father, mother, be joined to his wife.

So God initiated, created, orchestrated, and anointed marriage between a man and a woman.

It's the most basic of all culture.

All cultures agree with that.

Aborigines and Papua New Guinea agree with that.

Now they have their own kind of ceremony and they do leaves a little different and limbs and stuff, but they agree with that.

And part of it's just the fact that biologically the plumbing works.

And so it's kind of obvious, you know?

And so in Malachi 2 2.15, it says marriage is for godly offspring.

So part of the reason God created marriage is that we would build great families, that we would have godly offspring.

And so it seems like to me it's kind of our darkest hour.

But in another sense, church, it's our finest hour.

Because Bible prophecies are being fulfilled before our very eyes.

We are at our best.

Now turn to Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 1, verse 26.

Romans 1:26

And this is one of the passages that gets a little bit of some.

Oh, another thing I should say about the Queen James Bible is in the introduction, it says that King James was bisexual.

And that's why they call it the Queen James Bible.

And to show the courage of these editors, you don't know who they are.

There's no editors' names on the Bible.

So I went to five or six websites to guys that are theologians that I appreciate their theological abilities and their exegetical skills, and they just said it's not even, it's hardly worth commenting on them because it's it's just such bad exegesis.

But Romans, it's called eegesis, by the way.

For you that are theologues, eegesis means you read into scripture what you want it to mean.

Exegesis means you read out of scripture what it was meant to say.

So Romans 1.26.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men, committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due.

Verse 28.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting.

So it's very, very clear God's view of this.

1 Corinthians 6.

First Corinthians 6 reads this.

Now remember Corinth.

Corinth was one of the most debased, immoral cities in the Mediterranean, in the early church.

They really struggled with sexual immorality.

He says, do not be deceived, because obviously they were.

Being deceived, could be deceived, and he wanted them to understand this is those who do not inherit the kingdom of God.

Neither fornicators, nor idolaters.

And I want you to understand, I'm we're gonna, I'm not gonna camp on any one particular one.

I want you to listen to all of them.

Do not be deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

Verse 11.

And such were some of you.

Hello?

I know this church pretty well.

I know many of you, most of you in this room, and a lot of you did this stuff.

And they did it in Corinth.

So he's not talking about the fact that you've done it or that you've been tempted by it or that you struggle with it.

He's talking about those who practice it as a regular part of their life.

Such were some of you.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God.

So, men and women, there's love all over this.

He's saying, look, this is the world we live in, and that's the world we live in now.

In the third millennium, many of us in this room have had adulterous affairs.

Many of us in this room have been thieves and robbers and drug addicts and we've been sodomites.

Some of you have come out of a gay lifestyle.

You know, that is the way it works.

Praise God, that's why we're here to change people's lives.

But he's saying those who practice it, those who condone it, those who are comfortable with it shall not inherit.

The kingdom of God is a normative practice in their lives.

Number three.

Number three.

In the latter days, persecution will increase against the church, but don't miss the second part of this.

Power will increase through the church.

Let me say that again.

In the latter days, and that's why we're going into Revelation in the fall.

We're going to study Revelation in the fall.

I mean, there's so much stuff.

I mean, I taught Revelation like eight years ago, and there's so much new stuff out there.

I can't wait to teach it.

We've got to get through war first, okay?

But in the latter days, persecution will increase against the church, but power will increase through the church.

At the road, we believe Christ is coming back and that he is preparing his bride to be a beautiful, spotless, holy, powerful people that will meet him in the clouds.

We believe that the scriptures are clear that in the latter days there will be growing persecution of the church, but that God will subsequently pour out his spirit upon the church, and we will be more empowered than any other generation before us.

At the row, we believe in church history.

And history is his story.

And in his story, we can see that it is in times of persecution, cultural fallout, immorality, and heresy that the true church has her finest hour.

This is an exciting time in our history.

This is a time for the church to stand tall, stay steadfast, be firm, and walk in God's love and power, like never before.

Some of you may have read the book that was written in 1953 called Fahrenheit 451.

We're living it right now.

We're coming in to Fahrenheit 451.

I encourage you to read that book.

It's basically a book that says that there will be censorship of all material and revisioning and rewriting of history, and the government will control everybody's mind.

And guess what will replace the family?

It already has TV.

In the book, it's TV becomes the family.

It's like we're living in George Orwell's 1984.

God gave Liz a dream a number of years ago, over 20 years ago.

And in the dream, God showed her that all Christian books in the latter days would be would be censored and that publishing would be illegal for Christian books that aren't according to the speech of the government, the speech of whoever's big brother.

Okay, big brother, that's what comes out in Orwell's 1984 Big Brother.

And so God said to her, build a library, taking Christian books and build that library.

Well, you guys remember just a few months before I resigned from Mountain Springs Church, I get a call from the slave, never met before in my life.

She said, My husband used to listen to you on the radio.

And when he died, we found in his will he gave you his entire library, 3,000 books, I think, something like that.

I don't know if I took all of them.

There were too many.

There were so many that were like repeats and stuff.

So I think I took like 2,500 of them.

How many, do we know, even know, Brenda?

How many?

You're working on it.

Okay, Brenda's working on it.

It's a lot, it's a lot of books, okay?

And so he gave us that.

I forgot about it.

She called me back.

I had resigned from Mountain Springs.

I went, oh, they didn't get it.

Because it was given to me.

I get it.

And so we brought the boxes and we're and we're forming a library downstairs.

That's weird.

I get chilled bombs thinking about it.

Do you realize how how positioned we are as a church to have no debt?

As a church, we have no debt.

I mean, if we had to, we could leave this building tomorrow.

We could go somewhere else.

I mean, we are very close to being like a first century church.

And in that sense, it's exciting because there's not that pressure, that that um weight, as it were, financially over the church to do what God's telling us to do.

And he's given us a library that we're building.

So I hope it won't happen in the next year or two, but it could be that publishing is gonna be struggling, and Multanoma is gonna be struggling, and we're gonna see that Christian books may get outlawed because they are hate speech.

Satan's influence and power, church, is rising.

But God's anointing in his end times church is rising.

We're gonna watch churches acquiesce theologically, acquiesce biblically.

We're gonna see pastors who it's more important to them that they've got their uh their tax exempt status and their salary than following truth.

Mark my word.

And we as an end times church are going to experience outpourings of the Holy Spirit.

We're gonna have a prayer initiative I'm gonna talk about here at the end, and there's gonna be there's gonna be outpourings of the Spirit upon the road.

I was out here in the parking lot the other day with a group of people, like 25 of us, we were praying for the church, and I saw in my mind's eye, and I can't tell if it was literally a vision or not, but I could see lines of people coming out the front door.

And the spirit of the Lord said to me, Those are lined up to be baptized.

Because there's gonna be an outpouring of the Spirit of God on the city of Colorado Springs.

God's gonna pour out his spirit, and God's gonna position us to be a part of his great work.

There is new attacks upon the church when we look at that beautiful and precious group of people and that AME church in Charleston and their response.

What a contrast to the response in Detroit and Baltimore to Charleston with this spirit-filled group of precious black saints who are slaughtered.

ISIS is going across the Middle East.

I was just talking to uh to uh Victor.

Um, Victor came back Thursday night from his work there in Iraq, and Christians are being slaughtered by ISIS.

We will be marginalized, boycotted, maybe even imprisoned because of our faith in our lifetime.

But this is when the church thrives in sharp contrast to the culture.

The early church couldn't vote on who the Caesar was going to be.

The early church was in opposition to the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin was the Supreme Court of Israel at that time.

They had no voice, they had no vote then, as we in many cases don't have now.

And yet, this church turned the world upside down in one generation.

By the third generation, the Roman Emperor Constantine had to make a decision about legalizing Christianity because Christianity was taking over everything in the culture.

Because, and here's how they did it: they outlived, they outprayed, they outworked, and they outloved, and they outgave the culture.

Men and women, we have to have a radical love, a radical praying, a radical marriage, a radical giving, and a radical compassion that sets us differently from the world because we're following Jesus.

The road did not go to Calvary for you.

This is not about the road.

The road didn't go into the grave and raise again.

Jesus did.

Everything is about Jesus.

Everything is about Him.

Everything we do is about Him and His radical love and His radical compassion and his radical care for those that are gay or non-gay or drug addicts or hookers or strippers or those that have found their lifestyle in areas that would just be amazing to us, such as some of you.

We have every one of those people in this church.

And God came and transformed them, made known through the mediation of Jesus Christ at the cross at Calvary.

And there will be increased suffering.

Turning your Bibles to Matthew 24.

Matthew 24.8 talking about the last days.

And then I skipped him.

Yes, I'm gonna say that.

Of course I'm gonna say that.

I got a feeling, whoever that was, and if you're in this room, correct me if I'm wrong, but um, you don't like the thought that you're gonna go through persecution.

Well, you know what?

Bring it on.

Bring it on.

I mean, it's been predicted.

Here's what Jesus said.

All these are the beginning of sorrows, verse 8 of Matthew 24.

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

And then many will be offended and will betray one another and will hate one another.

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

Now, I am a pre-trib rapture guy.

I really believe that.

I believe, hey man, believe God for the rapture, you know, pray for the rapture, but prepare for persecution.

Because I believe even leading up to that, we're going to see lawlessness increase even as we experience it.

So this is what Jesus said in Matthew 5.

So turn to Matthew 5.

Turn to Matthew 5.

And in Matthew 5, right after the Beatitudes, look at the very bottom of the Beatitudes, Jesus says this blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

So he's saying you're gonna get persecuted even falsely.

You didn't even say that, and they're gonna persecute you.

Okay?

So it's gonna happen both ways.

It's gonna be things that you say that are true that people don't want to hear, but on the other hand, you're actually gonna be persecuted falsely.

Rejoice.

This is so antithetical.

This is this, I mean, this is Jesus.

Okay, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.

So rejoice, rejoice, rejoice.

And it says the godly will suffer persecution.

You will the verb persecution means hunted down.

We may be hunted down.

I've got six acres.

I've got six and a half acres.

Some of you will be camping out at my place.

Now you can't have my bedroom, but you can have anything else.

Not my bedroom.

Rejoice! The badge of honor.

Persecution will happen to those who live godly lives.

If you haven't been persecuted, if you're not noted as a believer, that's a problem for you.

That's actually a pro scripturally, that's actually a problem for you.

If nobody knows you're a believer, you've got big issues.

Because Jesus says this is kind of the way it works.

If you stand for righteousness, if you stand for Christ, people aren't gonna like it in this culture because the God of this age has blinded their eyes.

2 Corinthians 4, 4, Ephesians 2, 2.

It's right there.

So we love, we're gonna outlove, we're gonna outlive, we're gonna outpray, we're gonna outforgive this world.

Right?

So that's my fourth point.

Show the love of Christ to everyone.

Just show the love of Christ wherever you go, whatever you do.

Love people.

Don't worry about what they're involved in.

Don't worry about the kind of struggles that they have.

We all have struggles.

Now I swore I wasn't gonna say anything about our president, but I gotta say this one.

I'm sorry.

For you that are Democrats, please forgive me.

This is fact.

This is fact.

This is from April 9th, 2015, USA Today.

Quote, President Obama is lending support to efforts to end conversion therapy that seeks to change the sexual orientation of gay, lesbian, and transgender youth.

President Obama wants to stop conversion therapy.

That'd be like Exodus International, groups like that, that take, and some of you have come out of that, where you've come out of a gay lifestyle, and actually the counselor begins to lead you to Jesus.

And through leading you to Jesus, letting his transforming work and power of the Holy Spirit give you a new identity in Christ.

That's going to be outlawed.

There's a day coming wherein those who do that will probably lose their marriage license.

You're welcome here.

You're welcome here.

We'll set you up.

You can set up your tent here.

The reality is this will be outlaw.

Listen, folks, this is really important.

Someone who struggles, and many of you in this room probably do.

The uh national average would be 2.3% of people struggle with same-sex attraction.

Not 10%, but but 2.3%.

Um just because we have same-sex attraction doesn't make you a gay.

I happen to have different sex attraction, and it doesn't make me an adulterer because I don't act on it.

And so, men and women, we don't we don't evaluate people according to their sexual orientation any more than we evaluate someone who's a drug addict according to their drug addiction.

We evaluate them, we're contending for the person's dignity, we're contending for the greatness in that person created in the image of God.

We love them, we bless them, we're there for them, we embrace them, we invite them into our home.

We love them, for the love of Christ constrains us.

We are contending for the faith.

And I don't mean that just apologetically.

We're contending for the greatness of every person.

We're contending for the dignity of every person.

Their dignity and their greatness comes forth when they know Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior.

So we battle for that.

We sweat for that, we pray for that, we love for that.

That's what this is all about.

I was at a baseball game yesterday, and one of the parents on the team and I were talking, and he started sharing me his story.

Um, it was just phenomenal.

And he knew that I was, he had looked online and saw that I was teaching on spiritual warfare, and he wants me to go and help a couple that's struggling with their um three foster care youth that seem to be demonized.

And it was fascinating.

He's telling me the story, dude, when did you get saved?

He said, I got saved in 2007.

I said, Man, you know more in the in the last eight years than probably two-thirds of the Christians I know.

What's going on?

He says, Man, you would not believe my story.

So he starts telling me a story.

I mean, I didn't, Glenn, I didn't even get down to watch the game until the fourth inning because I was just, I was sitting under a tree back there, and Paul and I were just going nuts talking.

This guy's story is unbelievable.

I think he probably I'm gonna bring him here to give a testimony sometime about the spiritual warfare stuff and all the demonic activity in his family.

It's unbelievable.

I don't evaluate Paul according to the New Age philosophies and new age religions as part of.

I evaluate Paul by the dignity and the beauty and the power and the love of Christ that flows through him.

So we gotta remember we don't evaluate people according to their sin.

We don't evaluate people with who they were.

We evaluate who they can become in Christ.

And so we love them and we battle for their hearts and we battle for their lifestyle and we battle for their souls, we battle for their marriages.

That's what Paul did, that's what Peter did, that's what we do, that's what the church does.

And so, you know, the argument comes well, what about the woman at the well?

Or what about the woman who is about to be stoned, and then Jesus says, you know, judge not.

Anybody who can judge, you know, don't cast the first stone, and da-da-da.

We all know the story.

But we leave out that one part.

Go and sin no more.

So, men and women, we don't condone sin, we evaluate it.

We have the ability to speak the truth in love.

How loving would it be if we go to see our family doctor and he does the report, the pathological report, and he finds out you've got cancer and you're gonna be dead in the next year because of cancer.

But then he knows that, you know, it's their 30th wedding anniversary, and uh, they're going to Hawaii.

They've never been to Hawaii, and the whole family's coming over.

That's in six months, and then in nine months, they're just gonna have this massive family reunion.

It's gonna be awesome.

We don't want to do radiation.

Why do we want to do chemotherapy and that kind of stuff?

I mean, that's gonna really mess up their life.

I mean, they're they're so they're so happy in their lifestyle.

And so, of course, we would say that that is criminal.

That'd be considered criminal if he didn't say, Look, you got cancer.

You're gonna need radiation, you're gonna need chemotherapy.

We've got to, you know it's gonna be tough, it's gonna be hard, it's gonna mess up your whole life for the next year, but that's what you're gonna do because that's your only option if you want to live.

And so, men and women, we come and we face people, they're happy, they love their lifestyle.

Who are we to say anything?

It's because the love of God constrains us.

We're battling for the dignity of man, we're battling for the greatness that's isn't within the heart that was created by God that can only come and be made known through forgiveness and freedom that comes through Jesus Christ.

The love of God.

Fifthly, this is really important, this is really on my heart.

We need to show this culture what a spirit-empowered Christian marriage looks like.

We are failing.

Our marriages look like the world, and in some cases they look worse.

I was talking to a man the other day who said, Yeah, I worked at Intel and I was working at Intel and I was really into new age, even a little bit of satanic stuff.

It was pretty cool.

And uh, and these guys were always witnessing me, saying, You're gonna go to hell if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Twelve guys on the line with me, and three of them were having affairs with other people within the 12.

So I don't want to have anything to do with Christianity if that's what it's like.

The divorce rate is just as high in many cases in the church as outside the church.

We have not built training centers.

We are not training and equipping our people to have godly, beautiful, powerful, life giving, joyful marriages.

Irreconcilable differences.

My wife and I will be married 30 years in September, and we still have irreconcilable differences.

Just ask her.

But we have a reconciler made known through Jesus Christ, and we're constantly giving it over to him.

She hasn't changed that much.

I haven't changed that much, but under the mission and the calling and the love of Christ, we're still married, and we're still madly in love on most days.

In Article 3.3 of our ministry distinctives in our church constitution, let me read it to you.

It's under the rubric of marriage and family.

We believe that the family is still the most important building block of society.

Jonathan Edwards once said, Every family is a little church.

We desire to plant and develop churches and ministries that build strong marriages and homes.

We value the equipping of men and women in their biblical roles as husband and wife, father and mother.

We desire to foster a home life that is full of joy, forgiveness, and faith.

We realize that many children are not born into families, and thus we have a passion for the orphan and the widow.

We have a high value for seeing orphans discipled and restored into viable families.

We adhere to the biblical view that marriage is between one man and one woman, and thus only do marriages between a man and a woman.

We do not perform same-gender marriages as we view this as antithetical to the clear teachings of Scripture.

And then I give all the passages that support that.

God chose marriage, men and women, as his primary symbol of his love for the church.

In Revelation 21 and 22, there is this communion, there is this marriage feast, and it's between the groom, Christ, and his bride, the church.

God represents his love through marriage.

That's the symbol he chose.

He could have chose a wrestling match.

He could have chose a uh, he could have chose the Sanhedrin, he could have chose many different symbols, but the one symbol, the one symbol, Old Testament, New Testament that he gave us is marriage.

So wouldn't Satan, in his attack upon the church and upon you as image bearers of Christ, attack the family, the marriage as his primary in his crosshairs bullseye for his attack upon the body of Christ.

Sixthly and lastly, let me finish with this.

We must have an excellent spirit.

We must have an excellent spirit.

And listen, and pray for revival in the church and awakening in America.

Pray for revival in the church and awakening in America.

Now, the reason I said it this way is because if you don't have an excellent spirit, then I don't care how long or how much you pray, you ruin your witness.

Because here's what happens when you start having an excellent spirit, and listen, everybody here's contending for morality in your own life.

Let's just face it.

I mean, I mean, anybody's, oh, I don't struggle with that anymore.

You're such a liar.

I mean, we all struggle with stuff.

And so we're contending for ethics and we're contending for moral things in our life.

We're always struggling to stay true to our husbands and our wives if we're married and to stay true uh uh sexually and so forth in our singleness.

And so we're contending for that, right?

And so we have this excellent spirit as we contend.

It doesn't mean that we're perfect in all that, it means we're contending for it.

And so, with that excellent spirit, listen, this is really important, we we purchase territory when we pray.

Don't miss this.

I'm gonna I'm gonna talk more about this next week.

But when you pray with an excellent spirit, you actually gain, you you actually purchase spiritual territory against and away from the enemy that the enemy has.

So that's why some people pray nothing happens.

Other people pray God moves.

Because when you come with a lifestyle that's good and excellent, and I and again, I'm not saying perfect, but I'm saying you're contending for holiness in your life.

You're serious about God, you're serious about Jesus, you're serious about his word, and you're going after it, and you're failing, and you're messing up, and your Bible falls on the floor, and things like that happen in your life.

That's normal stuff, you guys.

But here's what's abnormal, here's what's supnormal is that we keep going after God.

And when you pray, demons know you're praying.

That's why the sons of Skeeving, like, hey, we we know Paul, but who are you?

And they just ripped his clothes off.

I mean, do not go into demonic, demonically held territory if you're not walking with the Lord.

I was just talking to a woman earlier who said that this guy, two guys here in Colorado Springs, I believe, went in to cast out a demon in this guy's house, and they go in, and the demon knows the secret sin of the guy who walks in.

Now that's not a good day.

Let me just tell you that, you know.

And so he goes in, you know, he can cast out a demon, and he's God's man, and then the demon says, You have nothing on me because you're involved in da-da-da.

And he calls it out in his life, and the dude's out of there.

Listen, folks, here's the deal.

I want to be known.

I want to be known in hell.

I want a lot of you guys, I want your name known in hell.

I want the road known in hell.

It's already known in heaven, but I want it known in hell.

Most churches are not known in hell.

They're absolutely no offense whatsoever to demonically held territory.

Because there's not a sense of the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of God's word.

And so what happens is when we begin to pray, we're purchasing territory away from the enemy.

That's called spiritual authority.

Some of you have it, some of you don't, but you can get it.

You can get it.

You can gain it.

It's when we go into prayer and we're and we have an excellent spirit and we're crying out to God, and it's sincerely from our hearts for our nation or for our church or for our pastor or for our husband or for our wife or for our children.

Sincere, God hears that prayer.

He now hears that it moves something, it actually pushes back darkness.

It diminishes the power of the demonic and it elevates the power of the spirit.

Now you may not see it right then, but I tell you folks, it's working.

It is working.

Every great revival, every great awakening was preceded by people of God on their knees, crying out to God.

So turn your Bibles.

I promise the last time I asked you to turn your Bible.

But turn your Bible to Daniel chapter 6.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

It's in the Old Testament.

And if you open right in the middle, you're gonna hit Psalms and then just go right, turn right.

Daniel chapter 6.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

I could not believe that when I was reading that today.

Daniel chapter 6, uh, excuse me.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

Last week I was reading Daniel chapter 6, and it was so appropriate to this message and to our current situation.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

I just thought, wow, this is this is it.

Daniel 6.3, look at Daniel 6.3.

This is where this excellent spirit idea comes from.

Then this Daniel, you guys remember, Daniel's high up in the government, secular government, Darius, total pagan, you know, total pagan, idolater, probably worships idols and stuff, and Daniel's working.

Folks, you you you should, some of you should be, I mean, God's called you to work in a secular environment.

Stay there.

Be there, be a witness.

I mean, don't don't think that, you know, you gotta leave that.

I mean, stay in there.

Stay in there.

So, so Daniel's in there.

I mean, he's in the middle of it, okay?

He's already been through a couple situations that are pretty dicey.

Uh look at verse 3.

Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps because of an excellent spirit within him.

I say to you, young people, in your homes, as a young teenager, develop an excellent spirit.

The way you develop an excellent spirit is you go after God.

You take this Bible, whether your family reads it together or not, and you go into your room and you seek God with the word.

I don't care what mom and dad are doing.

You go after God.

You hear mom and dad crying and fighting and having issues in their home.

That's not your job.

You're not going to fix their marriage.

You get in there and you pray for that marriage.

You get in there as an I mean, that's how you develop an excellent spirit.

Excellent spirit's not like, oh, he's got an excellent, see, he's born old.

You know, you're just so much more.

No, it doesn't happen.

I mean, maybe for a little while, a little bit of grace.

But the reality, grace comes through an excellent spirit with a fighting spirit for the things of the kingdom.

And so Daniel had that.

So listen to what happens next.

So everybody's jealous.

All the other leaders are jealous of him because you'll see, verse 6.

So these governors and satraps thronged before the king and said, Thus to him, King Darius, live forever.

All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, I mean stop right here.

The verses before, if you look at those, say that Darius is about to make Daniel the top governor, the top satrap in the kingdom.

And so these guys are jealous.

This is what they do.

King Darius, live forever.

All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions any God or man for thirty days except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.

Verse 8.

Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which does not alter.

Supreme Court, okay.

Therefore, King Darius signed the written decree.

It's law now, because it's law across the land.

Can't do anything about it.

So Daniel, you know, he got a he got a picket sign, and he goes out and he starts protesting.

Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home.

And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and he prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

Church.

Daniel is a type of warrior and worshiper of the last days church.

He opened his windows where everybody could see.

And he let everybody know.

Nothing's changed in my life.

I do this every day.

I'm not gonna wring my hands and worry about it.

I'm gonna worship God.

I'm gonna pray to him.

And he goes, remember, into the lion's den.

And so will some of you because of your faith, because you have an excellent spirit.

This is a time to be a worshiper and a warrior and a man of God.

It will take courage, it will take strength.

And so I lied.

Turn one more time.

I lied.

2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 7, and I promise I'll shut up after this.

2 Chronicles 7.

We talked about this a few uh, let's see, about a month and a half ago on the National Day of Prayer.

I want to look at 2 Chronicles 7.14 again.

But I want you to look at verse 13.

Look at the verse before verse uh 14.

Look at verse 13.

God says, When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people.

So let's just stop there.

You see, what God does is God creates situations, He creates persecution, He allows things to happen in your life that are bad, bad, not good, where you don't know what to do.

I married that woman.

I married that man.

If you haven't said that yet, you've not been married very long.

But, you know, you you know, you go through stuff that's really, really hard in your life, and this is, I mean, he's talking about on a global, national scale, but the reality is this happens in our personal lives.

He's doing it now on a national scale.

God is trying to wake up the church, not to change the culture.

Listen, we're not here to change the culture, we're here to influence and impact the culture for Jesus.

This is the God of this age's culture.

We should not be surprised by what's happening.

But this is what he tells us to do, because God wants to heal our land.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.

Men and women, God is so generous.

He wants to prosper us, he wants to work according to our prayers, God wants to work with us.

It's the most remarkable statement in scripture that God wants to work with us, He wants to use us sinful, frail, selfish, arrogant, egotistical people, and He wants to work through us, and He wants to contend for His kingdom through you and me.

That's awesome! God wants to do that, He does that, He could do it Himself, but He chose to do it through us.

He can He could use angels, but He doesn't use angels, He uses us.

Less than angels.

That's how generous and how good and how awesome God is.

And when we when we contend for the faith in prayer, I'm telling you folks, something happens in the heavenly.

And so I'm calling it the 714 Initiative.

714 prayer initiative.

You got a piece of paper when you came in.

Would you look at that card with me?

And so for the month of July, here's what I want to challenge us to do is take your watch, take your phone, and put that alarm on at 7.14.

Maybe uh 7.14 a.m.

and p.m.

And if that's too bold, then just choose one of them.

But 7.14, set your alarm.

You know, slide that little thing down and click on that, and you got 7.14.

And when that buzzer goes off, that that uh that ringer goes off, whatever you use, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to take this out, to carry this to work, put it in your Bible, carry your Bible to work.

Um, whatever you want to do.

If you need more than one of these, you want one at home, one at work, get more.

We got 300 of them.

But this is for the month of July.

I want you to, when that buzz goes off, or that alarm goes off, I want you to read this.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, and I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land, then turn it over.

And you start with yourself.

He says, here, you know, if my people who are called by name will humble themselves.

So you say, Lord, I'm humbling myself before you.

I confess my lack of passion and zeal.

I confess sins in my life that are hindering my relationship with you.

And you can look these passages up, they're really powerful, and God will show you.

I mean, some of you are involved in some bad stuff.

Some of you are involved, I mean, you're regularly looking at porn, you're regularly defiling the body of your wife by looking at someone's airbrushed body on the internet.

And if you're married, you know nobody's body looks like that body.

That's a fake body, okay?

It's called image sex, it's called image sex.

And a lot of you in this room are doing that because I know the national average, even in the church.

Well, I can't change Stephen.

If you knew what she was like, I know what she's like.

She's a woman, they're weird, okay?

They just are.

But that doesn't mean you can't be transformed through the power of Jesus Christ as you seek him because you're contending for her soul, you're contending for your soul, and God knows how it should work, and when it works right, it's beautiful.

It's beautiful.

You ask him to forgive you.

1 John 1 9.

If you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you all your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

That's what God does, he forgives.

Ask him to fill you with power and love through his Holy Spirit.

Ask God to re to refresh you to your first love for him.

Pray that you would be revived to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Then pray number two.

God, bring revival.

Revival is something that already exists.

So we're talking about the church.

God, I ask that you shake up and bring fresh power to the road and to the church in Colorado Springs.

God, pour out your spirit on the road.

God, pour out your spirit on the churches of Colorado Springs.

Number three, God, I pray that you bring a great awakening in our city, a great awakening upon our nation.

God, wake up the non-believer, wake up those around me who don't know you.

Give them, pray them hungry.

Pray them hungry.

You see, revival is about the church and awakening is about the culture.

Revival is about the church, awakening is about the culture.

So you can't make someone who doesn't want to know Christ know desire Christ.

Man, I like my life.

Quit talking to me about Jesus, man.

I dig my life.

I like getting drunk on Friday and Saturday nights, and it's just cool with me.

Okay, then that's cool with you.

Lord, I just pray.

I just contend for John's salvation.

God, give him a desire.

Do something in his life where he wants to know you.

Uh, work in his life, God, pound his heart.

I ask you to do that.

Guess what?

God's gonna go, oh, I don't want to answer that prayer.

What a dumb prayer.

And that's what God does.

That's who he is.

That's that's the DNA of Jesus.

So you start praying according to God's will.

What does 1 John 5, 14 say?

Amen.

If you pray according to his will, he'll do it.

He'll move mountains.

It says that it says that on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, will be loosed on earth, be loosed in heaven.

So the key is what are we binding and loosening?

We're binding and loosening what Jesus tells us to bind and loose.

Because it's God's will.

And when we pray according to God's will, He moves mountains through your prayers.

As flimsy as they are.

Well, Steve, I don't even know how to pray.

Well, then just read this.

I swear, if you'll just read it, just take two minutes to read this, God will get your heart.

Every day, it'll just get, it'll get stronger and stronger and stronger, and you'll miss a few days, you know, because we what was that about?

714.

That's why is that thing ringing?

And you go to your next point.

Oh, yeah, that dumb piece of paper that the pastor gave us.

And then by the third or fourth day, you finally figure it out, you know, and you read it and you start doing it, and then you go, oh, my kids are acting nicer.

This is weird.

I mean, she actually looks beautiful today.

He actually doesn't stink today, you know, whatever.

But the reality is God moves in answer to prayer.

I swear he does.

It works.

Okay, I want to end with this, and then I'm done, and we're gonna go into worship.

We've got Hillsong in tonight.

Okay, Hillsong flew in from Australia.

It's gonna be awesome.

Um, how about doing this?

I'm gonna give you three things.

Uh, if you have a family or you're married, uh you're with your family, what if we did this?

What if one night this week, you just, as you guys were eating together, and I hope you eat together sometimes, but if you have one night where you eat together, uh ask your kids this question.

What from Steve's message, what things never change?

Because they're in here, your kids are in here, right?

So it looks to me like everybody's listening.

They're they're really focused.

Nobody's sleeping in here tonight.

This is really good.

I really get offended by sleepers.

I just want you to know.

But I'll just say this you who sleep, this is the best place to sleep.

It's better than staying home.

So come and sleep because the food's gonna be good tonight.

But the reality is, is that you know, ask your kids, maybe Monday night or tomorrow, ask him, what did Steve say never changes?

What were some of the points that he said never changed?

Number two, why are we praying 2 Chronicles 7.14?

Why do we pray 2 Chronicles 7.14?

Ask people that.

Ask that question.

And then lastly, ask your family, why do we need a revival in America?

Why do we need a revival in America?

I mean, what the what are we doing?

What's this game we're playing?

I mean, listen, you guys, I I I don't know how many are saved in this room.

Most of you probably are.

At some point in your journey, you took off Satan's jersey, and you put you you joined his team, you joined Jesus' team.

So you were on Satan's team, now you're on Jesus' team, you're wearing his jersey, and you're on his team.

Why?

Why is it just life insurance or is it about being a worshiper and a warrior?