Welcome To War | Pastor Jesse Gordon

Welcome to the Springs Church Podcast.

We are so glad you joined us.

Our mission is to reach the lost by raising up fully trained disciples that are empowered by God to impact their world.

We pray that you are challenged and encouraged as you listen to this week's message.

You know, this morning I have a word in a lot of ways to talk about the enemy and to expose the enemy.

Not to frighten you, but to equip you and to let you know the victory that we have in Christ.

So if you would just join me in prayer, God, we come before you right now.

And Father, I ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to come upon us, God.

You've met with us, and you love us, and it is your joy to give us the kingdom.

And so I pray right now, Holy Spirit, open every heart, open our ears, open our eyes to hear and to see what it is that the Spirit is saying.

Pray you would hide me and you would hide all of us right now in this moment behind the cross of Jesus Christ.

And we pray, Lord, God, Lord, that you would receive all of the glory, all of the honor, and all of the praise in Jesus' name.

Everyone said, Amen and amen.

One more time.

Let's give God praise this morning.

It's amazing.

Man, amazing.

Well, um, just recently, my wife bought us in our household new pillows.

And yeah, praise God.

Yeah, you can say that.

Amen.

Uh, it's it's about time.

We had like small pillows and big pillowcases, and we've we finally decided it's time she decided, it wasn't me.

It's time to get big pillows, and it's amazing.

It's amazing.

I lay my head down at night, and I have this thing.

I'm sorry if you your life isn't like this, but I have this weird thing where apparently I lay my head down at night and I go to sleep.

It's crazy.

It's just I lay down, I go to sleep.

It's like that.

Uh, some of you may be different.

Um, I'm not gonna mention any names, but it could be married to someone that doesn't work like that.

You have to write down lists and you have to like do all sorts of stuff.

Uh some of you are probably just angry.

Anyone can just fall asleep.

You just fall.

Anybody wave at me.

We got a couple people.

You can put you.

Anybody upset at those people that raise their hands and you're like, what is this?

Well, we'll pray for you at the end of service, I guess.

Uh Jesus loves you.

Well, for us, uh, you know, I'm sleeping, and you know, it's biblical.

The Bible says he gives his beloved rest, okay?

So I'm I'm in the presence of God.

I'm I'm just sleeping.

Sometimes I sleep with my hands up like this just because I feel like I'm praising God.

I'm in the presence of the Lord.

A couple, not too many nights ago, I'm there.

I'm I'm probably in my 19th Rim cycle.

You don't really know how that works, but somewhere in there, and about 18 inches to my right ear, a blood curdling scream takes place.

Blood curdling scream.

And when you're in the middle of the night, it's quiet, and you hear a scream go on.

I awakened, let me put it that way.

And um, you know, have you ever heard of fight or flight?

I mean, I love people and I I really do, but I am not a flight person.

Let me just tell you right now, okay?

I mean, you if you tap my shoulder, it's it's not me, it's just reaction, okay?

And I woke up in the middle of the night to a scream, and let me, I woke up, I woke up ready to swing.

I'm just telling you right now.

I mean, I came and I was I was ready to go to war, man.

Like, I didn't know if someone was in the house.

I didn't, I didn't know what was going on, but I woke up ready to swing, and I jolted out a bit, adrenaline pumping through my veins.

Anyone have that before?

I'm in adrenaline going, and my two-year-old was standing right there, going, Daddy, I can't find my pacifier.

And I'm let me just tell you, by the grace of God, both of us survived that night.

And that's a bit of a funny story, but the reality is there are lots of times in people's lives where you wake up and it's not cute, it's not sweet.

You wake up and you do realize that you are in the middle of a war.

You do wake up and you do realize that, yeah, this is a moment that I do need to fight.

This is a moment where, man, I I am here.

And my prayer and heart is as we look at the life of David, there's something in your spirit that awakens to the fight that many of you may not even realize that you're in.

The title of this message is Welcome to War.

Welcome to War.

1 Samuel 30, verse 1 says this.

1 Samuel 30:1

Now it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south in Ziklag, attacked Ziklag, and burned it with fire.

Now, just to pause here.

David is anointed to be the king of Israel.

He's the man after God's own heart, and him and his band of mighty men, they are fleeing from Saul, who is trying to kill David.

And David and his men, they have returned from trying to do the right thing, trying to fight a battle.

They're living in Philistah, they're not in the in the kingdom of Israel, they're separated, and so they're they're trying to the best of their ability to walk in the purpose and the call of God that God has for them.

And so they're they're attempting to join in this fight, which they're disallowed from joining in, and so they come home after three days, they come home, and this is what they come home to.

This is their their moment where they wake up.

In verse 2, it says, And they had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great.

They did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way.

So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.

And then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep.

Now, the Amalekites were enemies to the people of God in that day.

But I'm just here to remind you and to let you know, church, that was David thousands of years ago, but there is still an enemy against the people of God today.

That wasn't just true for David, that is true for you, and that is true for me.

Number one, if you're taking notes, write this down.

War means there is an enemy.

And I just want you to know, you may not realize this, but you are in a war.

And there is an enemy who actively is trying to destroy you and to come against you.

So I want to just explain a little bit of who this enemy is, not to bring fear in your heart, but to expose his work and to bring us into the victory that we have in Christ.

So, who is he?

What does he want?

And how does he do it?

Who is our enemy?

Well, first, let me know who your enemy isn't.

Your enemy is not your mother-in-law and whoever you dislike in Washington, okay?

Those are not your enemies.

The enemy's not your neighbor, the enemy's not your boss, the enemy, as a matter of fact, is not a person.

A human that you and I have.

Let me explain who the enemy is, Lucifer.

Isaiah 14, 12 says this how you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.

See, Lucifer is a created being that God had made, and the purpose of Lucifer was to be able to praise, honor, and worship, to glorify God.

So here's what happens: how you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations.

For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest side of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

Listen to this, and I will be like the Most High.

That's your enemy.

That's who it is who hates you.

Ephesians 6 12 says this for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

When Lucifer was cast down from heaven, a third of the angels went with him.

We would call those demons.

There's a real war that is taking place.

And let me just help with this, because there are other battles that you and I will face.

Okay?

We battle against the flesh.

The flesh is pretty simple.

The flesh are desires and attitudes that I have that are just very simply different from the attitudes and desires that God has.

Okay?

So the attitude and desire of God could be, Jesus would say, it's more blessed to give than it is to receive.

Well, my flesh may say, actually, I think it's better to receive rather than to give.

It's just a different way of, well, God, you do it this way.

I just want to do it differently.

Anything that's different from God is the flesh.

And we battle against these desires that we know God says, go this way, and in me, I'm going, well, I have a different desire.

That's the flesh.

That's a battle that we fight.

The other thing that we battle against as believers is sin.

Sin is what happens when God says, This is my desire, the way I've called you to walk.

My flesh wants to do something different.

I give into my flesh, and then the condition of sin is upon my life.

I now have to deal with guilt and shame and condemnation and those things that now I know that God said, Do this, I did something different.

I'm guilty.

Okay, Lord, how do I deal and navigate with this?

And those are very real battles, but I want to want to just remind you that in the garden in Genesis, it wasn't Eve with a tree.

It was Eve with a tree and a lying snake.

And if you don't realize that there's an enemy, you will get beat up and torn up and not know how to fight.

And God has given us the victory over that enemy.

But let me tell you, church, make no mistake, the enemy is real and the enemy has power.

So that's who he is.

What does he want?

John 10 10 says this the thief does not come except, or in other words, the thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy.

Which is very different than God wants, because God said, I came that you would have life, and you would have life abundantly.

You would have life to the full.

I came to give you life.

That's not what the enemy wants.

Let me just remind you the enemy, his desire is to deceive you, confuse you, twist you, use you, leave you for dead.

That's the enemy's plan for your life.

See, God has a plan for your life.

The enemy has one too.

That's his plan.

The only thing the enemy may want more than that would be this.

He wants your worship.

I always thought it odd that there would be people who would worship the devil.

Anyone else think that was odd?

Not just go out and do bad things.

We live in a world that that that in the past has sort of pushed away spiritual things and increasingly becoming more and more spiritual.

People are becoming aware.

But it's always been odd to me, not you would have people that would just do bad or evil things, but then they would actively worship the devil.

What is that?

That's what he's always wanted from the beginning.

That's Isaiah going, I've always desired that you would worship me.

If he can't get you to worship him, he'll get you to worship yourself.

Instead of worshiping God.

That's what he wants.

So the question is, how does he do it?

I'm gonna give you five things that the enemy does to come against the people of God.

Number one, he wants to deceive you.

Second Corinthians 11 13 says this for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

So listen, they have the appearance of being godly and of and of being someone that loves, but it's a false appearance.

Verse 14 says, and no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works.

Can I just tell you, when I says that the when I say that the devil wants to deceive you, the devil is not dumb.

Okay?

When when when Eve is in the garden, can I just say this?

The devil, the devil sounds very intellectual.

The devil sounds very yes, oh my goodness.

God said you couldn't have what?

I'm sorry, say it again.

What was it he said you couldn't have?

Oh, that tree.

What's wrong with why wouldn't God if God did God really Did he say that?

You mean God said that?

I'm just asking questions.

I didn't say any, I'm just asking questions.

Believe me, I don't know.

I mean to plant doubt.

God said this way was the way you were supposed to go.

What's wrong with your way?

What's wrong with that?

See, the deception that the devil brings is very simple.

He wants to leverage your flesh against you.

To go, oh, you you feel this way.

I want you to make it, I want you to lean into that feeling.

Lean into that.

Yeah, and there's a word for that pride.

My way is right.

God is holding out on me.

Huh.

I deserve this.

The enemy's desire is to deceive you.

Number two, the enemy's desire is to tempt you.

Now I find this incredible when Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist and he goes into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

The first temptation that Jesus receives.

Now, this this is this this is crazy to me.

Just think about this.

This is the temptation.

This is it.

This is the moment the devil has to finally get Jesus.

So what's the big temptation?

Is it gonna be a pretty girl that walks out?

Is it gonna be, is it, is it over?

Are you gonna cheat on your taxes, Jesus?

What are you gonna do?

Here's the temptation.

Jesus.

Do you like sourdough?

What it does for the gut.

I mean, it's incredible.

Sourdough.

Can I just tell you?

I don't think the devil is unlikable.

Oh, it's very likable.

It's very good.

I say this a lot, you know, just because it's funny doesn't make it right.

I think the devil's very funny.

That's the whole point of temptation.

Oh, it's very good, it's great.

What was it that the greatest temptation that the that the devil, Satan himself could bring, his greatest temptation is bread?

That's it.

You know, I had a youth student who just recently got saved in in radiate this summer, and God's doing incredible work in his life.

It's amazing.

He came and asked me uh this past week.

He said, Man, I've given my life to Christ and I'm reading the Bible and I'm listening to messages online and I'm really diving in.

And I've noticed I read something where it talks about uh gluttony.

And I don't really hear much about that in the Christian world.

What is that?

I said, Oh, that's brilliant.

That's brilliant.

Can I tell you what the temptation of bread was?

Anything that gets you to stop relying on God.

Anything.

Pastor Owen said it when we were in prayer and fasting.

Fasting is intentionally making ourselves weak so that way we learn to depend upon God.

The temptation is bread.

The temptation is the devil would love it if you were strong.

He would love it.

You're strong?

Oh, good.

You need to be strong.

No, no, no, no, no.

I need to depend upon Jesus.

I need to depend upon the Father.

I need to develop and learn of life of dependency upon Christ, not self-reliance on self.

That's the temptation that Jesus overcame.

The third thing the devil wants to do, how he does it, is to make you afraid.

Wants to make you afraid.

You know, I have a sister who's a missionary in the Middle East.

I actually met a lady who, after the first service, was also a missionary in the Middle East at the same time that my sister was, who experienced, man, really challenging difficulties, but she's there as a missionary to reach those who believed the lie of Islam and the deceptive power of that.

And she uh would tell me when she was a little girl, she would be in her room, and there would, as she was sleeping, feel this presence that just felt evil and dark into her room, and lamps would fall over and things would shift.

What is that?

Let me tell you what that is.

That's the enemy trying to make you afraid.

So that if I can stop you here, I don't have to deal with you whenever you're entering into the enemy's territory to take back what the enemy stole.

Fear is designed to stop you, to make you stop yourself.

Can I just tell you right now, Jesus overcame death, hell, and the grave?

He overcame the devil, he overcame, and so the enemy's desire is that you would go, Oh, look at how difficult, look at how dangerous, look at how powerful that is.

I'm powerless to move forward.

And I want to tell you, he's half right.

You are, but if you're in Christ, you died, and Christ is alive in you, and he overcame death, hell, and the grave, and now the devil doesn't want to deal with you on this end.

So if I can make you afraid, I don't have to deal with it.

I just want to remind you, God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.

So we reject the fear that the enemy tries to place on your life to stop you, and we accept the spirit of God and the power and the presence and he walks with us.

Number four, just two more.

I'll move quickly.

Number four is if he can't deceive you, tempt you, if he can't make you afraid, he will oppress you.

First Timothy 4 1 says this.

Now the Spirit expressively says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

Can I just tell you?

I told us, I said that my sister was a missionary to the Middle East.

Islam, when Muhammad received the revelation of Islam, first thing he told his wife was, I believe this was a demon.

His wife said, No, that's an angel.

It's a demonic doctrine.

LGBTQ.

I'm just here to let you know, it's a demonic doctrine that tries to oppress people and shove them away from receiving the power of God.

And I'm gonna tell you, those people that believe that are loved by God who can redeem them.

And our call is to love them and to reach them with the love and power and victory of Jesus and bring them out of that darkness into the kingdom of his marvelous light.

That's our responsibility.

But make no mistake if the enemy can't make you stop of your own accord, he will do everything he can to destroy you, to oppress you.

And the last thing he'll do is accuse you.

Revelation 12, 10.

We'll read the whole passage in a minute, but that's where Satan Lucer is called the accuser of the brethren.

And I believe this happens to many Christians.

Where there's thoughts that come at you again and again, accusing thoughts.

How dare you! Who are you?

I know what you did.

Ha! And I know what you did five years ago.

If everyone knew.

God can never use your life.

I know what's happened.

Now listen to this.

If the enemy can't get you to accuse yourself, he's just as happy to try and make you accuse others.

And if you think the job of a spirit-filled Christian who's experienced the grace of God is to walk around and to point out everyone else's flaws and what disqualifies them and how God can't use their life, and how no, no, no, I know your sin and I know your sin and I want to publicize it and I'm gonna make it big.

If you think that's God, I just want to tell you your Jesus is my devil.

Because he's the accuser of the brethren.

But I want to tell you that Jesus came into the world because the world was already condemned, and he came into the world to give them life, and to redeem them, and whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

So we have an enemy, and war means there's an enemy.

Number two, well, welcome to war.

Welcome.

1 Samuel 30, verse 6.

1 Samuel 30:6

Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved.

Every man for his sons and his daughters.

Now I just want to pause here for a minute.

This can be what happens in the life of a believer.

You experience the attacks of the enemy, the oppression of the enemy, and what the enemy would love is for in that moment for us to turn on each other, to start blaming everybody.

It's their fault, it's their fault, it's their fault, it's their fault.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Look at what David does.

But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

Church, I'm just here to remind you, it's time to strengthen ourselves, not in our might or our power.

It's time to strengthen yourself in the Lord our God.

To be strong and mighty in the power of his might, not our might.

2 Corinthians 10 3 says this.

For though we walk in the flesh, it it's giving, this is real, okay?

You still gotta pay your mortgage, you still gotta feed the kids, and you gotta do an oil change on the car.

You you can thank me for that later because somebody forgot.

You need to go change your oil.

I know it.

All right.

We walk in the flesh, it's real.

We have real life that goes on.

You still gotta deal with traffic, but listen to this.

We do not war according to the flesh.

Church, I want to let you know he's saying we don't war that way, but we do war.

We war.

It means it's a fight, it means it's war for the weapons of our warfare.

The language of this is not casual Christianity.

The language of this says it's time to enlist as a soldier under the lordship and king of Jesus Christ, but they're not carnal, our weapons of warfare, they're not carnal or fleshly or of or of the way I would do it.

That's not the way that they are.

No, no, no, no, no.

But they are mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

Sound familiar?

Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Now, I just recently reread The Cross and the Switchblade, which tells the story of David Wilkerson, who was a pastor in Pennsylvania that left uh Pennsylvania and went into New York City at a time where teenagers and gang violence and drugs were rampant, and he went there feeling from God that he was he was supposed to be there and help bring deliverance.

A teen challenge was birthed out of that.

We had Teen Challenge in the first service this morning, and I heard an incredible testimony of a of a man who's in Teen Challenge, who today his his wife and son came, and today, this morning at the 9 a.m., his son was washed by the blood of Jesus and gave his life to Christ.

Incredible.

And that ministry is going strong, but here's what David Wilkerson discovered.

He discovered that they would go in and they would they would reach these teenagers, and many of them, they would get saved, young men and young women.

But if they had a heroin addiction, where they they pumped the heroin straight into their blood, a mainliner, he found that even if they were saved, they would go back to heroin.

If if maybe their addiction was a little bit less than those are things that they would start to walk in freedom.

But if but if there were they were a mainliner, no matter what, studies within, they it didn't matter, they would always go back to heroin, and it really discouraged him until they discovered that when that individual was filled with the Holy Spirit, this is what they discovered.

He discovered that when if a heroin addict was filled with the Holy Spirit, he said this there were multiple times that people they would be heroin, they would go back to heroin and the Holy Spirit wouldn't let them.

They would be there.

Guys, I'm just here to tell you the weapons of all warfare, they're not carnal, but they're mighty.

They're mighty in God, and I'm here to tell you it doesn't matter if you're a heroin addict, it doesn't matter what type of addiction you have, the power and the might of God, the power of Jesus Christ is greater than anything you and I could experience.

It's the power of God.

So the question is, how do we war?

Revelation 12, 7 says this.

And war broke out in heaven.

It's the apostle John writing, giving a picture of the end times, and here's what it says Michael and his angels fought with the dragon.

The dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

He was cast to the earth, and angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come.

For the accusers of our brethren who overcame them, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

Jesus just did not overcome my flesh.

He did not just overcome sin.

Jesus overcame the devil.

Verse 11.

And they overcame him.

I want to tell you, in Christ there's an overcoming power.

Listen, there's still a battle, there's still a war, but they overcame.

How?

By the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

And they did not love their lives to the death.

Church, I want to tell you, I want to I want to give you a quip.

I want to give you a tour.

When you feel the opposition of the enemy, when you feel the temptation of the enemy, when you feel the accusations coming against you, I just want to tell you, just to pause before I get is to let you know, you and I are powerless against him.

I just want you to know that.

The same way I'm powerless against sin is the same way I'm powerless against the enemy.

So I don't try to fight the enemy in my own power and in my own strength and through my own wisdom.

No, no, no.

Here's what I do.

Number one, I plead the blood of Jesus over my life.

I plead the blood of Jesus.

His blood speaks a better word, his blood washes me clean, his blood protects me from everything that the enemy throws at me.

No, no, the blood of Jesus.

What do you plead?

I know what you've done.

Do you plead guilty?

I plead the blood of Jesus.

That's what I plead.

We plead the blood of Jesus.

Makes us into a new person.

And you feel those spots coming against you.

Oh, I plead the blood of Jesus.

Number two.

Can I just tell you you need to share your testimony?

First with yourself and then with others.

I believe that Christians can forget.

We can forget our own testimony.

We can forget what it was like to be in that head.

We can forget what it was like to be hopeless, powerless.

But then when we experienced the love and the power of Christ, it brought us into something new.

This past Wednesday I got to the blessing of hearing my wife share her testimony with teenagers and radiate.

It was just amazing hearing her share when she was a young teenager and thought there was no hope and there was no future, and the life that she was destined to live was going to be not a life that she wanted to live and didn't know what to do, and prayed and cried out to God, and she felt the arms of God, God wrap around her, and she went to school and said, Who's a Christian that can that can help me know what to do with this?

And found a Christian who she knew that that led her to the Lord right there.

You can be saved right now.

And I'm telling you, I was watching, not just I watched the teenagers.

I saw teenagers going, Oh, I felt like that.

That's me.

Will you describe that's my life?

But you're saying that God took you out of that pit, your feet which are in my reclaim, and he lifted you up and he put you in a in a solid place, he gave you a hope and a future and a purpose and a life.

He did that for you.

Well, God, if you can do that for them, sign me up.

I'm in.

Come on, wait, wait, God did that for you.

Oh, God, I want that.

Don't forget your own testimony, and don't let the powerful tool that God has given you lay dormant.

They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the Word, the Word, the spoke, the word of the testimony.

Let the power of your testimony go forth.

Let people, man, how are you doing?

Let me tell you what God's done in my life.

That's how I'll tell you how I'm doing.

How are you doing?

I'm tired.

No, I'm not tired.

Stop saying that.

How are you doing?

Let me tell you, God touched my life.

Here's what he did.

Man, he saved me.

I was getting a haircut the other day, and all I could do, I'm just telling a story to my barber, story after story after story of the transformative power of Jesus Christ.

Let me tell you what God did in that teenager.

Let me tell you what God did in that person's life.

Yeah.

And let me tell you, you put your faith in Jesus, he can do the same for you.

Let the testimony go.

The third thing.

They did not love their lives to the death.

Third thing that you can do, the greatest tool you have to fight is to worship Jesus.

Can I remind you?

The devil's a better musician than anyone in this room.

Worship is a life laid down.

To say that nothing in my life, including my life, is greater than God.

I want to worship Jesus.

Which is why when we do come in, we do sing and we do lift our hands, and we do have people that close their eyes and say, This isn't about you or this is about Jesus.

There's something that happens in this place.

Faith begins to stir.

And when you're in a place of darkness, and when you're in a place and you put your foot, let me tell you, let the worship of Christ go with you.

Oh God, I magnify, I lift you up, I exalt you.

Jesus would say this if I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.

Here we go.

Number three, we're finishing up.

We win this war.

We win this war.

We win.

1 Samuel 30, 16.

And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out all over the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoils which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

Those are the Amalekites, the people.

They think that they've won.

They think it's over.

Ha! We did it! We took their children, we took their life, we took their hope, we took their future.

Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped, except 400 young men who rode on camels and fled.

Verse 18 So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away.

And David rescued his wives, and nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them.

David recovered all.

Church, I want to tell you, David, David is a picture of Christ.

See, they they came back to Zikla after three days, and they found it had been destroyed and burned to the ground.

There was someone who would come after David, who for three days would come and it would seem like all the hopes were destroyed and burned to the ground.

And Jesus, when he was in the tomb, the devil said, Ah, we finally won.

We beat him.

I can throw a party, I can dance.

But let me tell you, someone greater than David came.

David strengthened himself in the Lord.

Jesus rose from the dead, rose from the dead.

And now, church, I just believe this.

See, Jesus rose from the dead, and now I I'm not just content to sit here and be glorified.

I'm going into the enemy's camp, and I'm taking back what's mine.

That's mine.

Those are my kids.

That's my family.

Those are our teenagers.

That's our future.

That's our hope.

And let me tell you, you and I aren't David.

You and I are David's mighty men.

But when we came back, we're in despair.

If it wasn't for the grace of God, we'd have given up on God.

Jesus strength and power gets up and says, I'm going to get them.

Do you want to come along for the journey?

Because there's spoils for you too.

Can I just tell you there are spoils of war?

Our spoils aren't houses, land, cars, fame, or fortune.

Our spoils are nine teenagers.

Our spoils are our kids.

Our spoils are the family.

Our spoils are the ministry that God has called us to.

That we're no one else is it has the world, has no answers, no power to overcome.

Guess what?

There is one who's greater.

There is one who's powerful, one who can redeem anything.

I'm going with him.

So, church, this was the word I believe that God gave for us.

Is that there are those that maybe you've been stuck at Ziklak and you used to be out fighting the fights that God called you to fight.

You got stuck.

I want to tell you it's time to war again.

If you're a prayer warrior, it's time to pray again.

If your gift is faith, it's time to believe for a revival.

If your gift is worship, then it's time to close your eyes and not look at anyone else, but to magnify and glorify the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords.

If your gift is to encourage, then encourage.

If your gift is to give, then give generously.

If your gift is whatever gifting he's given you, guess what?

It's time to get back in the fight.

It's time because there's spoils of war, there's more for us.

When we go to three services, it's not empty seats.

No, that's an opportunity for a life transformed by the power of Jesus.

He made alive together with him, forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Verse 15.

Having disarmed principalities and power, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them.

I hope, in some sense, that your view of the enemy got greater, that you realize the enemy has real power.

But I hope that today you realize that the power of God is greater than anything that you thought about the enemy.

So I would ask you if you would stand to your feet.

We're gonna come around this altar and we're gonna pray.

But before we do that, I just want to let you know the victory we have in Christ, the hope we have in Jesus, the strength that we have, it's only if you are in Christ.

If you are not in Christ, this does not apply to you.

You are left to fight on your own.

But I have good news.

God's touched and changed my life and so many others.

He wants to do the same for you to deliver you and save you.

If you would right now, just cry but bow your head and close your eyes very quickly.

And if you say, Pastor Jesse, I want that.

I need to be saved, I need to be delivered from the power not just of sin and of flesh, but of the sin, the power of darkness itself.

I I want God to save me, make me born again, transform me from the kingdom of darkness.

No, I want the kingdom of marvelous light.

If that's you, raise your hand.

One, two, three.

Who's that?

Anybody?

One, anyone else?

Keep those hands up.

Anyone else?

Two.

Three.

Amen.

That's three people that said they want to follow Jesus.

Can we give glory and honor and praise?

Church, I want you to pray with me right now.

It's not the prayer that saves you, it's the faith in Christ.

But I want us all to join together with these three and pray this.

So would you join me?

Repeat after me, dear Jesus.

You lived, died, and resurrected so I could live in your life.

So I believe in you.

Fill me with your spirit, make me born again.

I plead the blood of Jesus over my life in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

Amen.

Now listen, for those of you that are Christians, I we I would want to spend some time at the altar for these things quickly.

Here we go.

For those of you who did not realize that you're in a fight and you've been losing, you didn't realize the fight of your life.

It's it's not just natural things, it's supernatural, it's a spiritual fight.

And you're saying, I'm coming, and what am I to do?

I'm gonna plead the blood of Jesus over my life.

Oh God, I plead the blood.

Two, for those that are in the fight and you've started to fight in your flesh to make yourself strong, to make your no, no, no.

We fight by being dependent.

We fight by saying, No, devil, I don't want any bread.

I'm gonna live off the words of God, I don't need anything.

I have Jesus.

Are these for those that feel like maybe all is lost?

Maybe you feel like there is no hope.

You man, I've given up hope.

I'm here to tell you, in Jesus' name, there is hope in Jesus.

All of the families, they weren't dead, they were just in captivity.

And Christ went into it.

The Bible would say this that He took captivity captive.

You're in captivity, I'll put all that in captivity.

I'm greater than that.

That there's hope to come down.

And so, what do you do just to say, God, I'm just gonna worship you.

I just want to be filled, Lord God.

One more time, fill me with the awe and wonder of who you are.

One more, don't let me ever lose the wonder of your presence.

Don't let me ever lose the greatness of who you are.

So if that's you, any of those things, I just want you to come down to the altar right now.

God, we come before you.

We come before you, Jesus, and we just ask, Lord God, oh, fill us with wonder again.

Fill us, Lord God, that we thought that the enemy was so powerful and great.

Oh, God, help us to pick our eyes up off ourselves, off our sin, even off the opposition, and to put it right back on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

We plead the blood of Jesus over our lives, over our hearts, over our families, over our kids.

We love you.

Oh Lord, we love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's worship.

Thanks for listening to the Springs Church podcast.

We pray that you were encouraged, uplifted, and challenged by the message today.

If you need prayer or want to learn more about the church, we would love to connect with you.

Visit the New Year page on tcjacks.com.

We pray you have a great week walking in all that God has for you.