There Is More Going On Than You Think (Part 1)

Dang, you guys are singing this morning.

That was fire helping him screwed up with the preaching.

If you got a Bible, go ahead and get that open to 2nd Kings in

the Old Testament, particularly chapter 5.

If if you can't find it, that's OK.

We'll have all the relevant verses on the screen for you so

that you don't miss anything as you're turning there.

Let me just kind of lay some groundwork here on my sermon

this morning is it's going to be unhinged.

As the kids are saying, I'm going to be a little bit

unhinged in my preaching this morning.

And I don't mean theologically or biblically.

I've labored really hard to keep this bibliocentric and solid and

biblical. But I might just say some

unhinged things this morning because this week is Pentecost

Prep week. Because next week is Pentecost

Sunday. So this week we're preparing our

hearts and minds for Pentecost next Sunday.

If you don't know what Pentecost means, the word, it literally

just means 50. It's a celebration that 5050

days after Jesus's death and resurrection, he sent the Holy

Spirit to his people. And so for prep week this

morning, what what I want to do is I'm going to preach kind of

1/2 sermon and I'll bring it to fruition next Sunday.

This is like I said this morning, this is the layup.

And then hopefully, by the grace of God, the dunk is going to

come next Sunday. So my big goal is painting the

backdrop. I What I want to do over the

next 35 minutes is I want to show you biblically how real the

spiritual realm is and how much we as Christians, to be

victorious in that realm, need to depend on the Holy Spirit.

OK? Specifically, I want us to see

how the spiritual realm is not as some modern people would

imagine it, not just me and God or you and God or us and God,

although there's an element of truth to that.

But biblically, what we see is that the spiritual realm is a

highly populated, even crowded realm that is populated by both

good spirits like angels and messengers and bad malevolent

spirits, what the Bible calls evil spirits, unclean spirits,

demons, Satan, and even what the Bible would call malevolent

gods. And so to paint that backdrop

clearly, I want to say whatever makes things stick.

I'm not afraid of saying true things, even if it makes me

sound like your crazy uncle, which at some point in the

sermon, maybe I'll wear that hat a little bit.

But here's a little bit of another preliminary point.

Sorry. I feel like right now I sound

like my, my preaching is starting to sound like it, like

an antidepressant commercial where they list at the end of it

all the possible negative outcomes that could happen when

you put this into your system. But this, this needs to be said.

I'm bringing the spiritual realm to the forefront.

And so I just need to remind you that this sermon is, it's not me

teasing out some significant shift in my theology or my

preaching. For the last 10 years of

pastoring, I think my preaching, our preaching has been marked by

gospel centered, Jesus centered biblical exposition dominated by

the themes of Jesus's death for salvation, a trinitarian

understanding of God, the gospel of faith alone in Jesus, and the

possibility of joy in the believers life.

So let me say this up front, OK, especially since this is like

1/2 sermon. I got to say this up front.

The most important thing you can hear from me this morning is not

my theology on demons, my demonology as they call it.

It's not any of the unhinged things I'm going to say about

the spiritual realm. Those are all secondary.

Take them, wrestle with them, reject them, whatever you do

you. The most important thing you can

hear from me this morning is the Gospel.

Amen. So everything I'm going to say

is on this foundation. Jesus is real, loves you, He

died for you, came in the flesh. He was crucified by faith alone

in Jesus. You're gonna have all your sins

forgiven. You're gonna have all his

righteousness given to you. By believing in the gospel,

you're made more than a conqueror in all your spiritual

warfare. So Jesus is king and there's no

other. Amen.

Amen. Let's do it.

I was in the gym the other day and somebody came over in in the

middle of my lift and tapped me on the shoulder.

So I took off my headphones and he he said, hey, I heard you're

a pastor. It's usually pretty fun when a

conversation opens that way. Usually there's a lot of

apologies for cuss words and stuff like that on their end.

Of course, he goes, hey, I heard you're a pastor.

And I was like, yeah, I'm cold. And I hold my hand out to shake

his hand. And he leans in and he says,

what do you think of aliens? I nobody.

When I planted a church, I thought people were going to ask

me what's my eschatology? You know, I thought people going

to be like, are you a Calvinist or an Armenian?

Are you going to be complimentarian or egalitarian?

That's what I was prepared for, and I have answers to those

questions. What I was not prepared for was

somebody with my hand yet to be shaken, doesn't even know my

name, saying, hey, what do you think about aliens?

I'm not a current events preacher.

I think that preaching is best done by going as deep as you can

possibly go into the biblical text and allowing that to do its

work and then bleed itself out into the community.

There are times and there are seasons and there are moments,

and these times and seasons are moments.

What they're marked by is whenever I have more than a

handful of conversations with church people about a singular

issue, if there's, you know, one or two conversations about

something, I'll just let the pastoral ministry do the work.

But once starts to like this last month, come up multiple

times, and you got a guy in the gym who figures out you're a

pastor and he won't seem to know what you think of aliens, maybe

you should touch it. Don't worry, it's not going to

be a sermon about aliens. I might have a comment or two or

a paragraph on them. It's not about aliens.

It's about the Holy Spirit, the spiritual realm, and our need

for the Spirit. So we're going to be in this.

We're going to begin this morning with what is probably

going to appear to be like an awkward Old Testament text that

you don't know how fits into this conversation, and we'll

figure it out together. So if you're able, let's stand

for the reading of the word God. What a text here.

This is Second Kings chapter 5, verse 15.

2 Kings 5:15

You don't know the context yet. That's OK.

I'll catch you up. Here's what it says.

Name my boy Naaman Nae Nae. I'm not going to call him that

again. Naaman returned to the man of

God and to all of his company again.

I'll catch you up. And he came and he stood before

him, and he said, behold, I know that there is no God in all the

earth but in Israel. I have a present for you now,

except now a present from your servant.

But he said, Prophet, as the Lord lives before whom I stand,

I will receive none. He urged him to take it, but he

refused again. Don't worry, I'll catch you up.

So then Naaman said OK, if not you're not going to take my gift

then can at least we do this? Please let there be given to me

to your servant 2 mule loads. Wait for it of earth, dirt,

soil, what can I have two mule loads of dirt?

Why For from now on your servant will not offer burnt offerings

or sacrifice to any God but the Lord.

We're really going to 0 in on that as I won't have time to

cover all this text. But in this matter, he keeps on

talking to the prophet. May the Lord pardon your

servant, for when my master goes into the House of Ramon, that's

the God they worship to worship there.

Even if he leans on my arm and I have to bow myself in the House

of Ramon. When I bow myself in the House

of Ramon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.

I'm not even I'm not even going to worship Ramon anymore, but I

will have to my master might lean on my arm and if I do that,

pardon me. And the prophet said to him, go

in peace, Heavenly Father, where are we going to get the soil

from? We don't have access to that.

And so Lord create just created us a, an openness and a

willingness to understand the biblical and specifically the

Old Testament understanding of the spiritual realm.

We have such a different cosmology than them.

And in some ways they had, I'm sure, a better cosmology than

us. And maybe in some ways we

understand the cosmos a little bit better than them.

But we have things to learn from them.

And so I just pray that we would open our minds and hearts to the

word of God. And I was praying God.

I was praying this morning and I was just like, Lord, if I say

anything foolish or unhelpful, just be gracious and plug the

ears of these people and let it just bounce off of their chest.

But if there's anything helpful, anything moving, anything that

creates dependence on the Holy Spirit and shows our need for

the Holy Spirit, just drive that into us.

And so it's in the precious name of Jesus that all God's people

prayed. Amen.

You can have seat, he's going back to Syria and he's like,

hey, I need 2 mule loads of dirt.

And of course that begs the question, what do I think about

aliens? A rumor circulated around the

Internet two weeks ago, and not just on the Internet, but it

actually ended up getting covered by most of the major

outlet sources. And so that's when you know that

something is worth talking about when it's not just on Reddit and

on Reddit comments, but circulating among major news

sources. And the rumor that's circulating

around right now is that the government hosted a briefing

where they invited several influential pastors throughout

the nation to talk about, you guessed it, the disclosure of

the governments private UFO files.

And this rumor has a fair amount of skeptics.

And so maybe this didn't happen, but this rumor has also been

confirmed by a few of the people who claimed to have been at that

meeting. Apparently in this supposed

meeting, which either did or didn't happen.

I just think we'll be talking about it in the months to come.

Apparently, these government officials didn't disclose to

these pastors what exactly was in the government's UFO files.

If you're keeping up with that at all.

They did their first file dump last week.

I'll save you the time. It was a big nothing burger.

It was mostly blurry pictures, blurry videos that you've

already seen circulating around. Apparently the juicy stuff, if

there is, is still waiting for us in the future.

And so they didn't disclose what was in the government's UFO

files, these pastors. But apparently what they did

brief these pastors on was #1 the future file releases and

disclosures are going to be brutal.

And #2 Dun, Dun, Dun, what's in these files has the capacity to

shake the faith of American Christians.

And so apparently they told these pastors, prepare your

people. According to American folklore,

President Jimmy Carter wept after first reading the UFO

files and was depressed for two or three weeks, allegedly.

Which all begs the question, what's what's in there?

What could it? What could that mean?

And is there room in the Bible for the existence of

extraterrestrial lives or aliens?

And I think the answer to that is a resounding yes.

Do I think that the current alien topic is actually fake and

could be a distraction? Did I get a clap for that or was

that a Boo? Was that a clap?

All right, cool, cool. I was wondering who was wearing

the tinfoil at do I think that the current alien topic is

actually fake and could be a distraction to get people not

focused on other global current events?

And yeah, I think there's a possibility that's what's going

on. Sure.

Do I think that aliens are actually what the Bible refers

to as demons Again, yeah. I think that there's a

possibility that that's true. When it comes to discerning the

nature of extraterrestrials, supposing that they're real,

which again, is a big suppose what I would do if I were you is

I wouldn't focus on appearance. I would focus on the messaging,

the message that they do or don't bring if there's a point

of contact, for instance, or, I don't know, a tape recording

that gets released in these files between aliens and humans

in the future. And these extraterrestrial

beings offer us a message that sounds eerily like a gospel,

some promise of healing or eternal life or World Peace

under the condition that we give them our loyalty or faith or

allegiance. If that's what happens, well,

well, well. I feel quite confident calling

these demonic beings. And interestingly enough, if you

take all the people who have had claimed experiences with UFOs,

you can, you can go ahead and take all the crazy uncles who

drank too much beer that night and had some backwoods.

You can throw that out, right? But if you take the experience

of pretty, pretty intelligent, academic, literate people who

have supposedly had these experiences, interestingly

enough, even you have negative experiences, which doesn't need

explanation. But even the positive

experiences with them, they tend to return to earth with an

almost identical message. You can have health, you can

have peace, you can have salvation if you give us your

allegiance, which is really interesting biblically because

Galatians says chapter one verse 8.

Even if we or an Angel from heaven to preach to you a gospel

contrary to the one preached to you, let him be a cursed.

Interesting. What does that mean?

What does that imply? This is what the verse implies.

It implies the possibility that a heavenly being could appear

with a false gospel. And so to tie it up with a bit

of a bow, here are my my two favorite quotes from theologians

on the subject of extraterrestrials, real or fake.

Who knows, maybe time will tell. But the phenomenal Catholic

theologian Carl Reiner said, quote Christianity is the

religion of the absolute future, and so if there are other

spiritual, corporeal beings in the cosmos, then they too stand

within the horizon of God's creative and gracious will.

The Christian therefore, needs not be disturbed by the

possibility of extraterrestrial rational beings.

Get this? Why?

Because Christianity does not need to be disturbed by the

sorry for Christianity does not teach that man is the absolute

center of creation, but rather that God is the center of

creation and that all creation exists from him and toward him.

Isn't that good? Or my buddy John Piper, who I

went to school with. No, I do like it.

I do like his writing. He says quote, no UFOs are

showing up except by the plan of God if they are fake.

He rules over the fake. If they are real, he rules over

the real. There are no cracks in complete

sovereignty. God's in control.

Nothing squeaks through. God governs illusions.

God governs atmospheric conundrums.

God governs all the reaches of space and everything in it, or

everything that could be in it. Isn't that good?

And so at the end of the day, who who knows?

I've never been to a UFO conference.

That's Andrew Johnson's job. I'm mine.

I've never, I've never. I've never been to 1.

And this sermon is even about aliens.

But as I was talking to some random dude in the gym about

aliens, and as my social media blew up with articles about

aliens and the possibility of them from major news outlets, I

will tell you this. It hit me.

This realization hit me like a bag of bricks.

I went, Oh my goodness. Right now the unbelieving world

is taking aliens more seriously then Christians take the reality

of demons in the powers of darkness.

I was like, these people are taking aliens more seriously

than I sometimes take the spiritual realm.

The secular world's more open to aliens than the churches to the

spiritual realm. And so there you have Naman in

the Old Testament, right? Here's the context of what's

going on in that passage. He's a military leader in Syria.

He gets leprosy. So with the advice of a it's a

it's a great story. You should go reread all of

chapter 5 S at the advice of a a little Israelite girl who's been

taken captive and held hostage in Syria, he sends a messenger

to Israel asking for help. The prophet Elijah in Israel

sends back a message and says, hey, wash yourself in, wash

yourself in the Jordan River 7 times.

And Naman doesn't act of faith and it works.

He's cleansed that weird. Here's where it gets weirder.

Naman is so psyched. And this is where we show up in

our text that he goes to Israel to meet with Elijah.

And he shows up with these gifts.

And Elijah says, no, I don't. I don't want the gifts.

And then it gets weirder because then Naman says OK, if you're

not going to receive my gifts, can can I at least have some?

Get this, get a load of this guy, get a load of soil, get

this he says, can I at least have some dirt, 2 mule loads of

dirt from Israel to take back with me to Syria.

Not strange. Look at verse.

Look at verse 17 really closely. This is the actual text, not the

cold Ike standard version. Then Naaman said OK if not,

please let there be given to your servant. 2 mule loads of

earth. Pause right there.

Here's my main point. What I you're the preacher, what

do you say about this? Especially like how do I preach

application for this right? OK, everybody after church you

got to go to Menards, look for 2 bags of soil, read the label

closely because it's got to be from the promised land and Old

Testament promised land because the soil is not the same

anymore. But that's a different

conversation. We can unpack that later.

Get 2 loads of soil from there and then bring it, bring it

home. You're going to do that?

What do I, where do I get my soil from?

Look at the text. The text says 2 mule loads of of

earth. How how are we going to do that?

I don't think anybody in our church owns mules, right?

I don't think so to maybe Craig had No, no, nobody owns meals.

What are we going to do? Two mule loads of dirt.

How do you apply this? What's going on?

Why does Naman want soil from Old Testament Israel to bring

back with them to Syria? We see like a child on vacation

who wants to collect seashells to always remind himself of his

time in vacation. No, look at the second-half of

verse 17. Bible, Bible, Bible Bible.

We believe the Bible. Why?

For from now on your servant, he's not going to worship or in

this language will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice.

Ramon would be the name of the God in Syria to any God but the

Lord Yahweh, the biblical God. What Naaman is showing you right

here is that Naaman believes that the land of Old Testament

Israel belongs to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

And so these two loads of dirt and the power take with them to

give them the strength to resist the influence in the power of

the Syrian gods. Here's one of my favorite living

theologians, Peter Lightheart on this subject.

He says, quote, Naman assumes that Yahweh are the God of the

Bible, can be worshipped only on Yahweh's land.

And so he asks for soil. Why?

Because he wants to establish a little piece of Israel in Syria,

like a little holy island in Gentile territory.

For Naman, land and worship are inseparable realities.

It's called cosmic geography. If you want to go really nerdy

this week. So if he's to worship Yahweh

faithfully, he must stand on holy territory in the midst of a

demonized nation. He needs to form a beachhead of

Yahweh's Kingdom within Syria. So Naaman's, Naaman's got a job,

right? He's probably got a family, He's

probably got a kids, and that job is back in Syria.

He just fell in love with Yahweh.

Yahweh, cleanse them, heal them. He wants to worship Yahweh.

He can't just leave Syria and live in Israel.

He's got a family of kids, a job.

So he's got to go March back into what we could call enemy

territory, a land that is under the spell in the influence of

false gods. So what's he do?

He grabs 2 mule loads of dirt naman.

He's trying to create like a portable temple, right?

He wants where when he's got this soil in his pockets, the

clothing back then have pockets, robes, OK, when he's taken, when

he's taking his soil with him, he wants to be a little place

where heaven is invading Syria. He's taking, I'm going to say

this slowly. He's taking holy ground to the

on converted nation. If you know Acts 2 really well,

you could probably preach my next sermon.

He's taking holy ground with them to the unbelieving nations.

There's no easy way to say this. Naman rightly sees the world

outside of Old Testament Holy Land as occupied by real dark,

malevolent spiritual forces. Yes that are under the

sovereignty of God, but yes still have real influence.

The Old Testament, not we think of sometimes we think of the Old

Testament as like that's the history book and then the New

Testaments, the spiritual book. No, no, no, all the Bible and

the Old Testament is actually surprisingly clear that the

spiritual realm is real and that the powers of darkness are real.

Take a look at Second Kings chapter 6.

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

You don't have to turn there. Second Kings chapter 6 verses 16

2 Kings 6:16–17

through 17. What's happening is Elijah is in

a battle and they're outnumbered and through prayers he ends up

seeing himself surrounded by what he couldn't see before an

angelic army. Here's the actual text quote he

said do not be afraid for those who are with us are more than

those who are with them. It's kind of a crazy uncle

moment. We right like you're the you're

the bad army. I'm the good army.

I don't mean that. I'm just saying for the sake of

the illustration right now he's looking at this and saying, oh,

we're outnumbering you right now.

What? He sounds crazy.

Then Elijah prayed and said, oh Lord, please open up his eyes so

that he may see. And the Lord opens the eyes of

the young man and he saw and behold, the mountain was full of

horses and full of Chariots of fire all around.

Elijah, what can you take from that?

Not only is the spiritual realm real, but it is sometimes an

unseen realm. Indeed, there's more going on

than you think. Daniel Chapter 10 An Angel

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

appears with a message to Daniel and explains to Daniel why the

Angel arrived so late. You know what he says?

Read your Bible, he says. Quote Daniel 1013 to 14.

The Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days, but

Michael, one of their chief Princess, came to help me.

This is an Angel, for I was left there with the kings of Persia

and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people

in the latter days, for the vision is for days yet to come.

This Angel just told Daniel that he was late because in the

spiritual realm on his way to earth, another spiritual being

wrestled with them for 21 days. The Prince of Persia, Prince of

Persia is not an earthly ruler at this point in the Scriptures.

He's a being in the spiritual realm who wrestled with an

angelic messenger and delayed that messenger for 21 days.

And he's described in the terms of cosmic geography, he's over

Persia. He's got a stronghold in Persia.

He's got influence in Persia. So not only is the spiritual

realm on scene, it's also populated by good sometimes and

sometimes evil figures who sometimes have special power

over some areas. Yeah, there's more going on than

you think. Where?

What are you going to do about it?

Where are you going to get 2 mule loads of soil to keep you

from the powers of the enemy? There's just more going on than

you think. Or for Samuel 16, King Saul's

and rebellion against God. And the Bible says that this

happened to him, quote Now the spirit of Yahweh, the Lord, the

biblical God, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.

Did it remain a vacuum? No.

And a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.

And so these powers of darkness are real.

They're geographical. And what's scarier is that they

are personal. They don't just want Persia or

some geographical or political influence.

They want you. They want your soul.

Indeed, there's more going on than you think.

Where you can't find that soil at Menards.

What are you going to do? And then we turn to Christian

history. Again.

Same thing. The history of Christian

theology teaches us the same reality.

Arguably the most brilliant theologian of the 21st century,

although he's got plenty to disagree with, Carl Bart says

quote, the demons are not myths, they are the impossible

possibility of a reality opposed to God.

The brilliant Catholic The brilliant Catholic theologian

Thomas Aquinas, who has rarely been outshined, argues that

these beings are gifted even though they're deprived of

everything good, Aquinas said. Quote.

The demons retain their natural gifts insofar as these are from

God, but they're deprived of the order to the good, Aquinas is

saying. What he's saying is they're

competent, they're intelligent, they're gifted, they're probably

charming. Jacques Elul, a French Reform

theologian, argues again that they are not only deceptive, but

geographic and personal. He says, quote, Jacques Lewis

says the demonic powers are not imaginary.

They are the spiritual realities at work behind political, social

and ideological structures. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot more

going on than youth. Sometimes.

Not all the time, not all the time.

I was at a was at a baseball game yesterday and but before I

was, I was hanging out with the Newmans.

And before, before the baseball game, Sutton and I were making

some bets because sometimes we like to make some bets to

heighten our experience, the baseball game.

And so Sutton was like, not on DraftKings, just with each

other. And so we were, we were talking

to each other and, and Sutton goes, OK, if someone hits a

Grand Slam today at the game, you owe me a pack of Pokémon

cards. And so I, I got my phone out and

I was like, OK, what's the statistical probability and

likelihood of a, of a Grand Slam at the game?

Because I've never seen one live.

I've been to a lot of baseball games.

And essentially they broke it down and it was just under 5%.

So roughly one in 20 games you see a Grand Slam.

And so I was like, oh, I'm gravy, I'm good.

So I was like, yeah, I'll take that.

That's a bet I'm willing to make.

So we made that bet. And sure enough, what anything

happens in the second inning? There's a runner on 1st and 2nd.

I'm like, I'm good. And the pitcher beams the guy

batting. So all of a sudden, bases are

juiced, bases are loaded, bases are juicy.

First, second, third, three people on base.

I'm starting to get like a little bit nervous, but I'm

like, still, the statistical probability of this happens is

pretty low, right? I swear.

Like, I don't know if the Newmans know the pitcher from

Purdue and have like a relationship with him, but

almost like this guy was on Sutton's team.

He throws him a big meatball down the middle of the plate.

Bam, it's a Grand Slam. Like, are you kidding me, dude?

Less than 5%, one in 20. I put my hands in my face like

this, right? I'm like, I can't believe that

just happened. I look up and Sutton, Sutton,

just look at me like this. I was like, yeah, man, you, you.

I can't believe it. One in 20, but not 0.

When you experience a struggle or temptation in your life,

there's probably a greater probability that it's because of

your own sin, stupidity, and flesh in the spiritual realm.

Read the book of Romans. Romans 16 chapters long.

The devil doesn't even show up until chapter 16.

One out of 16 chapters about everything the book the Church

of Romans is going through. It's about spiritual forces, but

it's not 0, so I like that one in 20 number.

This is probably as close to it practical as I'm going to get

this morning. I would encourage you as your

pastor for every thought you have about demons and the

reality of spiritual darkness. Think at least twenty thoughts

about the goodness of Jesus for everyone.

Think 20 thoughts about the goodness of Jesus.

Do not imagine that there are demons in every book.

Certainly do not imagine that every person you don't get along

with is demonic. What are the chances?

Do not stay late obsessing over YouTube videos after videos with

unbiblical charts with 1000 pins connected by bare thread string.

It's not always spiritual, it's sometimes this.

For instance, last night I was a little nervous about this

sermon, and so I came over up late to try and prep it, and I

couldn't prep it because I had this massive migraine.

So I was like, spiritual warfare?

Was it spiritual warfare? Maybe.

I also felt like the Holy Spirit filled the room thickly, and it

was like spiritual warfare. And in the kindness of the Holy

Spirit, he whispered to me, there's probably a greater

likelihood that it was the 20 sugar cookies you ate at that

grad party, right? I was like, probably it's not 0,

it's not 0. Spiritual war, maybe not

spiritual war. Maybe.

I do know this. Ironically enough, some people

who do see demons behind everything can't see Jesus

behind anything. You guys like that one?

I'm going to read it again. That's good.

OK, some. Oh, man, I lost my spot.

Spiritual warfare. Yeah, sometimes people who see

demons behind everything can't see Jesus behind anything.

It hit a lot harder the first time.

I should have left it at that. But that's a that's a win for

the Kingdom of darkness. I think demons would gladly

declassify all their files about themselves if that would get you

to obsess over them and forget about Jesus.

They probably demons probably believe in that old axiom.

No such thing as bad press. And yet I don't want you to

become hyper spiritual about everything.

And yet I don't want you to become materialistic in your

theology. That's called being a Christian

atheist. Christianity is not just true

information. We have to reckon with Bible

verses that say, quote, be on guard for the devil prowls

around like a roaring lion seeking to devour you.

We don't want that to happen. We have to reckon with Bible

verses that say, quote, this is Paul in the New Testament,

brothers, I do not want you to be unaware of the schemes of the

devil. Somewhere between you don't want

to be ignorant and unaware, but you don't want to be that person

who won't take responsibility for any problems because you're

always blame shifting demons. Somewhere in there here maybe

here's the spot in the middle. Spiritual warfare is real and

you you're not adequate for it. Not you're not strong enough to

engage in spiritual warfare. And and when I'm not trying to

be mean, we are spiritually weak.

Let's be honest, modern Christians are whiners.

Modern Christians don't come to church to worship the risen

Jesus Christ. If it's raining, forget

spiritual attack. Daylight savings wipes out 30%

of church attendance in the western world.

We don't come worship Jesus if we only got 7 hours of sweep

instead of eight. And you think you're good

against demonic powers? The forces of darkness resist

the devil. Jesus is enthroned before us on

worship on Sundays, and sometimes we struggle to sing

along and we mumble the songs because we're afraid that we're

going to sing off key. And you're going to take on

demons. No, you think you got it in you

to win a spiritual war? No, we are like infants who have

been dropped into a war without armor.

And yet the Bible says, the Bible says, all this is real and

you don't have, you're helpless in the face of all of it.

And then it says, do not fear. Why not?

And yet the Bible says do not be afraid.

Why not? Satan, demons, darkness, false

gods, maybe even aliens. I mean, if the alien stuff is

real, if the government UFO files are dark and shocking as

the rumors make it sound, which is a big if, I think we'll see

three things #1 not a single true Christian will lose their

faith #2 multitudes of fake Christians will leave the faith,

probably by being deceived by some extraterrestrial religion

promises or gospel. So I think we'll see that.

And I think we'll also see #3 that multitudes of spiritually

curious unbelievers will convert to Christianity because it'll

finally get them to recognize the reality of the spiritual

realm and see their need for Jesus.

Do not feel, don't be afraid. Why not?

Why do I think that? Because of Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

I'm sure that neither death, nor life, heights nor depth, nor

angels nor rulers is that all there is, nor anything else in

all of there's other stuff in creation, nor angels nor rulers,

nor anything else in all of creation will be able to

separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It won't separate you from Him if you're in Christ.

It won't. It's 2026.

We've got 2000 years of discoveries that have happened

since the death of Jesus Christ and nothing has stopped them.

Neither evolutionary theory or the human genome or quantum

theory or black holes have stopped the gospel.

Where does that power come from? How can we live with such

confidence that nothing, no future filed dump, no future

discovery, nothing is the word the Bible uses.

How can we be confident that nothing will separate us from

the love of God? You don't live in Old Testament

Holy Land. You live here in Des Moines.

What do you got for soil? Is there any soil to keep you

safe that you can carry to the nation?

So you don't even own mules to take the soil home with?

Where are you going to get the soil?

And only Pentecost answers that question next Sunday.

Heavenly Father, I pray that you would strengthen us in your Holy

Spirit, that you would increase our spiritual intelligence, but

keep us from going off the rails.

Nothing and all of creation will separate us from the love of

God. That's a God who deserves

worship. That's a God who deserves

praise. That's a God who should get all

my joy. That's a God who's going to get

my whole life, the God for whom nothing will separate me from.

And so Lord, stir us up in in your spirit, and may we just

treasure this time that we have with you this morning.

So it's in the precious name of Jesus that all God's people

prayed, Amen. Let's stand together and let's

worship this God in spirit and in truth.