How the Enemy Attacks the Church | Strengthened to Multiply

I know last week we didn't go through a bunch of scriptures,

but just looking at apathy, Romans 12 says we need to be

fervent in spirit. We need to be.

Fervent in spirit, when in other words, we need to have zeal for

the Lord and then he gives the reason.

The reasons are are different practicals of being passionate,

you know, passionate and our love for one another, passionate

in our work and our service. And then secondly, regarding

loneliness, this is a go to passage for myself.

It's Psalm 68 that God is a father to the fatherless and he

puts the lonely and families. Amen.

So if you're coming in here and you're like, man, I deal with

apathy. God is going to give you he's

going to put passion in your hearts.

The zeal for my house consumes me.

Jesus is passionate, right? He's going to, as we seek him,

He's going to give you his passion for his purposes.

And then secondly, that if you're feeling lonely here and

you're feeling like I don't necessarily belong or I've been

here for a while and I still feel like I'm on the outside

looking in, right, then the promise of to you is that God

plays no favorites. He doesn't play any favourites.

Humans do and people in church do.

But you belong here. And we want to pray for you.

We want to invite you in and we want to invite you in not just

admissions, but into a family room called life group.

So you are you belong in this place.

Don't believe those lies from the enemy.

And then third, about immorality.

If you just find yourself in habitual sin, you keep, you

know, tripping up. There's there's two scriptures

that I felt the Lord put on my heart this week.

Actually the last couple weeks that I've been giving out and

different places where I'm speaking.

Within the church. But one, do not make provisions

for the flesh. Two, there's always a way out.

You don't have to. You don't have to, but if you

do, there's grace. Amen.

All right well here's what we're going to do is we're going to

you guys list. I know this you love them, don't

you? Just 1234 here we go OK, we're

going to do a lot of those we're going to do 4 and then eight and

then we'll close. All right they're going to be

pretty quick. Trust me on that.

They will be and then we'll, we'll land in worship.

All right, so, So what is a healthy church?

We we've talked about that. Please go.

I'm not going to I'm going to keep myself from going there.

But go back last week and and listen to the message and just

even that vision statement and then how I unpack that.

But we're in a series because we are called to strengthen a

multiply, strengthen families to multiply.

And there's a way in which we do that.

And it says in Acts 931 that we, that the people of God in that

city experienced peace and protection.

And so we felt that, you know, it is peace and protection or

spiritual warfare is not automatic.

You can't just be passive in the Christian life.

You can't just be like, oh, I'm just going to be protected.

Just because it is something that you actively do, you have

to wear the armor of God. All right, and we take land.

It's not just it's not just a defensive thing, but actually

it's offense. All right, it's taking land and

we'll unpack. What I mean by that in a moment,

but. God has called us to unpack the

Spiritual Warfare series because it is not something that we

should just automatically thinks going to happen.

So I want to. Equip you we don't want to just.

Inspire people, but equip them and then mobilize.

Them to the four corners of the earth.

With the gospel. Amen.

All right, so don't be ignorant of the enemy schemes.

How many guys this week, just curious, were ignorant of the

enemy schemes? You found yourself saying, OK,

maybe this is because the enemy is attacking us in this

particular area. Could just be as simple as like

husband and wife fighting over something silly, ridiculous.

It's like, wait, hold on, we're on the same.

Team. What's going on here?

What's happening? Let's resist the enemy.

Let's humble ourselves. Let's go back to God, let's

repent. Let's be humble, right and, and

work things out and be unified. And we realize and there's tools

that I'm going to show you in a moment how to how to fight the

enemy. But let's not be ignorant of the

enemy schemes. That's one of the reasons why

we're doing this serious. It's because we we can go

throughout our day knowing, yeah, there's a devil, yeah,

there's the flash, there's the world.

But we don't do anything about that.

We find ourselves ignorant in the enemy's schemes and we feel

defeated. And so there are three things.

So are a couple things I want to share.

John 1010 says that that the enemy comes to steal, kill and

destroy. But Jesus, again, the focus is

back on him. This is Jesus actually speaking

this in John 10. But Jesus has come to give the

abundant life. And then in.

First, John, 215 to 17, same author.

But John is saying this. He's saying, hey, be careful of

that. There's there's three enemies,

right? There's your own flesh.

There's the world and there's the devil.

The flesh is the inner desire to sin.

That could get how many, how many?

That is the inner desire to sin. The flesh got you in trouble

this week, right? Yeah, maybe a few of you guys,

maybe a few of you guys send the other side of the the room did

not send. Amen.

That's awesome. Real good theology there.

OK, the world. OK, so it's the ungodly

environment. It's unbiblical, like a

unbiblical worldview. You could say it like that.

So now you got not only you got the flesh to deal with the

temptation and right. And just giving into the flesh

because you have your own desires.

We can't just blame it on the devil.

But the second thing is we also live in a system, a world system

that is bent towards evil, right?

So we we don't like. I mean, that's all sounds very

like a like fatalism. I mean, like, what are we going

to do about that? But #3 is the devil.

He tempts us. So he is he is not he.

He is the originator, right of, of evil.

He fell from heaven. We don't have time to

necessarily go through the whole history of the devil, but you

could read in in Isaiah and, and Ezekiel, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel

28, which talks about the fall. And it's just I will, I will, I

will. So Satan is a prideful person

who hates God, who wants to tempt you to go to, to be, to

live a life far from God. So you got all three of those

things working together. And I just want you to have that

in mind as we go through this and even have that as a

framework in mind to not give into those three things as we go

throughout our day. So here's how the enemy attacks

us. There's four different ways.

One, it's habitual and hidden sin, habitual and hidden sin.

This is a, a way that constantly throughout the week, this will

destroy the church. So the enemy wants to destroy

not just your marriage, not just your family life, not just

yourself, which we'll talk about more individually next week, how

he destroys us through temptation, but just in general,

He wants to destroy the church through habitual and hidden sin.

Now, do you guys remember in Joshua 7 Aiken, he was taking

the spoils and it didn't really seem like all that big of a

deal, but. It was that.

Hidden sin that caused Israel to slow down, he said hey, we're

going to pause this thing you taking land into the prom, you

taking land into the promised land, right we're going to pause

this it's the same with like Miriam's Miriam's sin as.

Well, if you remember. In in in the book of Exodus that

Miriam's sin against Moses, he she was complaining against

God's given authority, God's leadership, and so that slowed

the camp down. She got leprosy.

So hidden sin actually it it, it it ruins our witnesses it, it it

saps our strength right. You guys know this like you'll

come back. The enemy will either get you

either in a when you're low or when you're high, right.

So when you're low, maybe you're feeling discouraged.

You're feeling, you know, someone said something to you

and he hurts you or you're you're you're you're you're

having a what do we call it the other day and engage in class?

A kerfuffle. Is that right?

Kerfuffle. Yeah.

Just sounds nicer than a fight, you know, like.

But but anyways. If you're, if you're, if you're

fighting with your spouse, you know, you, you, you feel

discouraged. And so therefore you're open to

temptation even more. Or when you're at a high when it

says that David was right. He was, he was on the rooftop

and he should have been out at war.

He felt successful, he felt good.

And he obviously the enemy knew that would trip him up in his

success. And so David, the Bathsheba, and

then also in the New Testament, you see Ananias and Sapphira as

well, that that ruined the church's witness.

Did God allow the witness to be ruined?

No, because it said that right after that, after God took care

of business, it says that the church grew.

And so God will take something that is evil and turn it into

good. But sin ultimately brings God's

discipline in our life and not. Only that, but you've you know

the. Lack of power that you have.

When you give in to sin, you know that like that feeling of

like man, the. Power.

Of God just sapped like you, you know, those times of victory,

man, it feels so good. And victory does taste better

than defeat. And it, it, it's, it's amazing

still how weak we are, how we continually given to sin, even

though we know that there's consequences.

We know that our, our strength is sapped.

It weakens our witness. And then also this, you know

that the sin has a rippling effect in relationships.

It hurts people. You just take a rock, you throw

it in the water, right? The rippling effect, it doesn't

just affect you, it affects everyone else around you.

And as a people, you know, this is our response.

As a people, we cannot just have sin remain hidden.

We've got to talk about it, talk to someone that you trust.

You don't have to air your dirty laundry out for everyone.

There's nothing. You know some people.

I just want to speak to some people with a very sensitive

conscience. Some of you guys like have a

very sensitive, you feel like I have to, I have to confess to 5

to 10 people and then I'll feel good about myself.

But that's on you. God's never asking you to do

that. You just need to confess.

That never says how many just to confess it to somebody that you

trust, and you confess that sin to one another.

And you might be healed now. How many times you know?

You've read the passage first, John 19.

When you go to vertically, you're always forgiven.

Just confess your sin to him and he cleanses you from all

unrighteousness. We know that.

So as a people, we cannot let sin remain hidden in our lives

because of all the the string of consequences, and then we'll

lose our power, right? Why are we going to go on

mission? Why are we going to do all that

we do? Why are we going to go on campus

and share the gospel and be a witness and only to ruin it,

right? It doesn't make any sense.

And then so as a church, we cannot know about the SIM and

then be flippant about it, right?

We have to sometimes there are there are times where like in

Matthew. 18 We have to practice church discipline because you

know, as it says, like if you see your brother sin right, you

go to your brother and you work things out with them in private.

You're not, you're not gossiping about your brother's sin.

You go to them in private. Now, however, when you see them

and they struggle and they're, you got to discern, is it a

struggle or is it, is it, is it blatant sin?

Are they are they trying to are they, you know, is it says in

First Thessalonians 5, you know, we the the people who are

stubborn in their sin, they need a rebuke, right?

And and that's what it. Says right.

And for those who are weak, what do they need?

They need help. And for those who are broken

hearted, they need comfort. So there's something for

everyone that says be patient with all.

So when you're when you're going to your brother, come in with

patience. We want a culture that there are

times where we have to call that out because they're destroying

their life and they're hurting other people.

But we, we got to come in with grace and mercy.

Otherwise, we were our witness. As well as they were in their

witness, they were in their witness with sin rerun our

witness without dealing with it or the right way, right.

So we want to make sure that we're coming in not hot, right,

but we're coming in and we're going low and we're we're

submitting. We're saying, hey, this this is

this is something that I see. And if they respond well, what

does it say? You won your brother Amen.

That's good. That's what we want every single

time. It should never go past the

first step. But in our pride and in our.

Rebellion. It goes to the next step, right,

because you know, you they don't want to change.

And so now it's just bring somebody else in to increase the

pressure so that you can and increase the pressure.

We don't mean that in a bad way. We're saying increase the

pressure so that they feel, wow, this is serious.

Like God, I'm not hearing with one person.

I now I need another person to come in.

Have you ever been on that side of things?

Have you ever been on that side? That's that's.

Jesus is saying that don't ever, don't ever just go to that

stage, that that would be a good thing, right?

That's it. That's it.

It's meant to inflict a little bit of pain so that you don't

destroy your life, right? Isn't that what discipline is?

It's not to destroy you. It's just a inflict, just

enough. That so that you turn back to

him. Amen.

All right #2 The enemy attacks our church by dividing.

By dividing us, the enemy will turn the church inward.

Right. And so, you know, maybe this is

sitting against each other, but through anger and bitterness,

we're letting a fence to fester, you know, whatever, you know,

the giving the the enemy a foothold.

And so we so in Ephesians it says that.

You give the enemy a place, a beach head, to, to, to in your

life, and you don't want to do that.

In a lot, some ways that happens is through anger.

So now someone offends you and now you're angry with them.

And the worst thing you could do is quickly just say something

that you'll regret. And now you've given the enemy a

beachhead in that relationship. You've given him a place.

And so we as Christians, we don't want him anywhere near our

lives, right? We don't want him anywhere near

us, the enemy. But we could give the enemy a

foothold, a place in our lives, by giving into sin, specifically

into offense and. Anger and bitterness says that

the bitter root in Hebrews 12. Right.

It destroys it defiles many. How many of you got to

experience that on the back like like you've received bitterness

from somebody else or you've seen bitterness destroy somebody

else or maybe even yourself? How many of you seen that?

I mean a lot of us. This is how the enemy will

destroy us. If you noticed I.

Haven't said in these first two. Like a like a head is spinning

or somebody vomiting, you know, like the The Conjuring up like a

like an exorcist. You know what I mean?

If you notice I didn't say any of that.

Some of you like spiritual warfare.

That's at least for me. That's what like comes up right.

It comes out like. No no no, it's just you hiding

your sin and thinking you could get away with it, ruining your

witness. The enemy just wants to.

Destroy the church. So he's got tactics, he's got

ways, he's got skills. The second is he's like, hey,

I'm just going to sow seeds of discord.

We'll see what happens with that.

So the enemy throws that out there.

You bite the bait right in your flesh.

That seems attractive to you in the moment.

I'm going to figure things out my way.

I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, hold.

I'm going to hold bitterness on a fence so I can control

somebody else, right? And by you playing those games,

the enemy's games, we don't have to have a head spin or somebody

throw up. And this, that, that gets

accomplished. And it's, do you understand what

I'm saying? I, I'm, I'm doing this

painfully. I'm doing this on purpose

because spiritual warfare is a part of your life every day.

Every day it's a part of your life.

You wake up, boom, spiritual warfare begins.

Do you understand the war that you're in?

It's a war over your soul. It's a war for worship.

It's a war of who will you worship when you're not getting

what you want, when you're hurt, when you're downcast?

What are you going to find as comfort when you turn your gaze?

I just read Exodus. 20 today in my quiet time like it it's just

Exodus 20 is just the 10 commandments of just.

Reread them. It's.

Like, oh, and sometimes you just read that.

I've read that before and I read it again.

I'm like, Lord, show me something new.

Show me something new. It was just it was as simple as

like an idol, right? The emptiness like taking the

Lord's name in vain, meaning that you treat his name as if

it's nothing if it's empty. And when we like when we find

ourselves in a needy place because we are needy people and

we are needy everyday. When we when you literally like

you don't understand what an idol like they turned to.

An idol not as I know they're like.

They're little objects, like I'm looking around for an object,

I'm not going to find one. I don't know why I did that but.

Like, you know, it's like Daggon, you know, but those

little, you know, like the those little things like Daggon, you

know, like his head cut, you know, his arm fell off.

They look ridiculous. You know, he just fell over.

You know, we, we, we look at idols like that.

Like the idols are just like these these like little the

statues. And look, if you've been to

Southeast Asia, I've been there. If we've gone to, you know,

different places around the world, you see these ginormous

statues of like a Buddhism. It's just it, it, it's kind of

eerie, you know, and these people who are like, I remember

running every day in Thailand and.

And, and I just saw like this woman, she would come and she

would just do like there was like this little like it looks

like a bird cage with the idols in there and there's got all

these flowers and stuff. And she would come every day and

she. Would just like bow all four

corners and do her little ritual and then go back inside.

And I'm running with God that morning.

I'm turning to God because I know he can help me.

She's turning to God, believing that God will help her.

Idolatry is not a statue. It's whatever you find comfort

in. That's a good one right there,

right? It's, it's not a, an immaterial

object. It's your phone.

That's why when we were in the Buddhist world, when we were in

Japan, I mean, it was, I mean, we had a meeting in Japan in at

a Buddhist temple, which we were crazy thinking about doing this.

It was Benji and I and we're sitting there.

You know, this guy's a business guy, right?

You know, Benji is a business guy.

So he's sitting there. He looks good.

You know, he's ready for the the thing.

They're bring out a tray of waters.

And we're having a meeting with the with like, with the

Buddhist, you know, like who who run The Who run the temple.

It's one of the largest temples in Kyoto.

And because we're trying to find a place to worship and I'm like,

what are we doing? So I so I'm like, OK, I'm a man

under authority. I need to go talk to leaders and

I'm like, is this OK that. You know, like.

Is this OK? That we bring our church and we

do worship and we do a teen times at A at a Buddhist temple

where there's a huge. As tall as this, this stage.

Huge. Huge.

Buddha, that's just like, you know, staying there and I could

just see us all like in my mind's eye, like all there we're

worshipping and, you know, and the people come in, they said

it's going to be open to the public.

And I'm thinking, why, where, where in the world you know

we're? All like, yeah.

And they're like, wow, look at all those Americans.

They become Buddhists. It's so cool.

You know, like I, I was just literally thinking that I was

like, and then we're going to have to like, no, no, no, no,

like we're not worshiping that. We're worshiping this God.

And like, I don't know. I just thought like, how are we

going to do this? But we're sitting there and it's

like, you know, I'm, I'm OK. Like people, you know, there's

another guy with us and, you know, they're like, oh, I don't

know, like, you know, is this kind of weird?

Is this guy? I'm like, dude, it's, it's not

weird. Actually, what my concern is

more is how people turn to their phones, not some dumb object

that's like twice this three, you know, four times the size of

us. That means nothing nothing to

anyone here, but every time you get a little anxious.

What do you do? Like where's my phone?

Do you bring? Your anxiety to God like he says

in Philippians? Or do you bring your anxiety to

your phone? I'm just asking the question.

I'm not condemning because I've been there too.

But I'm trying to teach you what is idolatry.

The enemy doesn't care what it is.

In the Buddhist world is something else.

In the Muslim world is something else.

There We in America, it's comfort.

It's it it. I mean, it almost be like we

have a statue of comfort. I don't know what he would look

like. Some plush dolls, some like

little cuddly looking thing. You know, it's like an image of

like how you run to comfort. But the reality is we don't need

that because it's in our pockets.

Our gods are in our pockets, our gods are in our head.

Whatever fantasy, whatever thing you think about whatever dream

dreaming and lot of getting lost in your own mind, just escaping

escapism is idolatry and the enemy is moving you and nudging

you towards those things and you know that they don't satisfy I.

Don't know what that has to do with division, but I I'm saying

like probably nothing, you know, I don't know where I was going.

Sorry, just got caught up into that, but OK, so back to that.

OK, like all right, so dividing the church so we.

Lack Another way of dividing church is lacking love for one

another. We lack love and so therefore

it's a there's a difference between righteousness and being

right. Some of you guys like you, this

is where legalism come in. You just want to be right.

How many times this week you just want to be right And so you

said things just out of being right rather than being

righteous. Being right is is not of God,

that's of the enemy that's going to destroy relationship.

They'll put a dividing wall between you and your and your

spouse or you and your roommate or whoever.

But being righteous, that has to do with heart motives.

I want to help this person because I want them to fall in

love with Jesus and be sanctified and look more like

him. Being right is about you.

It's a it's pride at its core. And you when you're, when

you're, when you're operating on being right.

There's no love when you're operating out of righteousness,

there's love. Amen.

So what are we doing this week as you evaluate last week, as

you evaluate the weeks before prior, is it?

About being right. God is righteous, He is right,

He's right all the time. Just go to him and say.

Laura what? What do we?

Need to do in this situation, give me wisdom, help me rather

than pride, tells you, hey, I need to be right in this.

I need to prove to everybody else and how right, right I am

because I'm afraid of looking stupid in front of somebody or

I'm afraid of, you know. Making a mistake I'm afraid of

maybe not looking as as as powerful as I as I possibly can

in front of the person that is just pride rather than humbling

yourself saying hey we're all weak we all need Jesus all right

OK pridefully looking at our own interests and preference

preferences like is is in Ephesians I'm sorry Philippians

2 it says that when we. Or Romans 12, when we look

higher, higher towards ourselves than we ought, right, We look at

ourselves as as being better than other people.

And so therefore we can't give preference.

And you know why ultimately you can't give preference to

somebody else? It's because you're not

satisfied in God if you woke up so.

Full of God. You could give anything.

If you knew that he would always replenish your banking account,

you'd give generously. If you, if you like, knew that

he would encourage you everyday, if you listen to his voice, then

you could go encourage somebody else.

But because you're lacking, you can't give.

Selflessness is destroying the church.

Can you imagine if somebody like the Lord nudges you and says,

hey, encourage that person, you're like, Lord, I don't feel

like it. Why?

Because I'm discouraged. So now that person doesn't get

encouraged because of your selfishness, rather just look at

him and say, God fill me like it's unbelief.

I rather you just say like, Lord, I have unbelief right now.

I just told that this week. I said, Lord, I have unbelief

right now in this particular area.

He's not surprised at that. My neighbor might be.

You're a pastor. You should have no.

Unbelief. I don't buy into that theology.

I'm imperfect as anybody else. I have unbelief in certain

areas, but I know one person who can fill the tank.

That is not my phone, that's not my wife, that's not my kids,

that's not circumstances. It's God.

And that's the only where I go. I need to go vertical.

Where is everyone else is trying to go horizontal to get their

needs met. That is destroying the church.

All right, so here's the deal. Do we need to protect the Church

from these things? Yes, of course.

But. So much of of a dividing like.

Dividing the church a lot of times, at least the way that

it's been taught here, I, I, I'm evaluating myself, by the way,

I'm not like saying somebody else.

I'm saying like there is a time and a place to evaluate the

dividing of the church as it relates to like as we would.

Call them wolves, people in sheep's clothing, right that

want to defy the church. I'm not talking about a divisive

person. That although we.

Although we are right, I mean, that is an issue, but right now

I'm talking about what's in the church.

I'm talking like I'm talking to the 99%, not the one potential

wolf. And those those are those are

there is a time for that and and we needed to address those times

and they're very difficult times, right?

No one likes those times. And the Bible is so clear that

Titus 310, right, rejected divisive person after the first

and second warning, right? Or Romans 16, seven things or

20. You can write these down for

later, but if you cause division, this is what he says.

Don't associate with them anymore.

Just disassociate with them and give it to God, you know, but

what we're talking about here is the 99% of us that divide every

day because of our unbelief and not getting satisfied in God.

That's what I'm talking about you.

See what I'm saying? That's where the enemy probably

does his the most. Work.

Because we're always like, where's the wolf at?

And you just look at yourself in the mirror, say maybe I'm

causing division in my relationships.

You ever think about that? Not in a way that wants to

destroy the church because you hate the church, but just

because of your sin and the enemy is eating you alive and

that because ultimately you're not getting satisfied in God.

Can I just say it this way? Idolatry always leads to

division. You can say it that way, OK.

All right #3 harmful teaching. This does destroy the church,

right? I spent a whole lot of time on

this being very obvious. But here's the deal.

I want to stay on this a little caveat and that will help us the

99 again, I'm not always speaking to the one.

OK, so the night at. Intentional or unintentional,

that's why it's so important for you to know the Word.

That's why it's so far. Is that like, oh, I want, I hope

the pastor knows the word. OK, All right, that's nice.

But it's good for that. It's nice, I I acknowledge that

that'd be good if he knows the word, but you need to know the

word because you can unintentionally lead people

astray because you're not in the word.

Now, does that put pressure on? Yes, a good amount, a necessary

amount so that you go back and say I want to be a student of

God's word every day. It's not just to make you feel

good. It's to a firm like it's your

firm foundation, right? It's, it's, it's to strengthen

you for the long haul because stuff is going to bombard you.

Remember the the third problem, not just your flesh, not just

the devil, but it's the world system.

And you, some of you guys are at our university called UCF.

That is it like literally its foundations are, is the world

system. So you need to know the word

right? Amen.

So that you not so that you unintentionally, right, So that

you, you won't unintentionally hurt people in your life group

or yourself, right. I mean, I, it's the same like

my, my kids are growing up like they, they had like the dual

enrollment thing. So they were taking classes at

different places before they got into UCF.

Well, I just, we wanted to make sure as they were younger that

they couldn't, when they couldn't really defend

themselves. You know, the first speaker 315

says, make sure that you know the words so that you can have a

response. Will when they're younger, they

they, they can't, they can't fight against the the the the

guy with a PhD. Yeah, now you're thinking some

of you guys are little ones. It's important that you teach

them the word of God and yes, going through the maybe boring

like it's nothing exciting. It's just.

You're right. Every day we're doing the word.

Every day we're doing the word. Every day we're doing the word.

So that when? The world system and Satan is

behind that and their flesh is working.

You know they won't get bombarded and taken out because

that can happen. Don't be a fool.

That can happen. And I'm trying to help you

understand that the world system hates your kid.

It hates you as a college student and it'll do whatever it

takes. And it's not just a philosophy.

It's not just like a biology or like, you know, all the class or

philosophy, all those things. But you know what else?

It's politically as well. There's a lot of political

voices on campus right now that are pulling you away, both right

side and left side. I don't really all that stuff.

It's not Jesus and so don't be. You know how many people like.

I I'll just say this right now, I'll be bold turning point USA

will cause people to go to hell without Jesus.

I said it. So if that's your God, you're

screwed. You're done.

You're going to hell if that's your God.

Likewise people on the left, man, I can go all I I have a

whole list for you guys, but on the right side, you know, I mean

seriously, that's easy. That's that's easy.

That's true. I mean that's the easiest one

that's super easy. We're not going to go there, but

I'm just saying like. It's not OK because I've heard

students even this week that are more, that are more loyal to

Turning Point than they are to Jesus.

That is damning. And the enemies behind that, the

enemies behind that, He's laughing at you.

That is foolishness. That's what I mean by false

teaching. I don't know.

I probably didn't think I was going to go there.

OK. So OK.

They are subtle. Do you understand?

You're subtle. You're subtle.

Disguising themselves as angels of light.

That means you can't detect it when you're biting into it.

That's a good one. That's a good one.

Means sitting there like, you know, because it's called

deception. Meaning deception means you

don't know what's happening. The only way that you'll know

that's happening is actually reading the Bible and walking in

the power of the Spirit. Amen.

It's the only what will happen. And listen, your friends who

even love you can deceive you unintentionally by telling you

something that is not true. And you're like, well, I believe

them because why do you believe them?

Because of what did they actually speak The word?

Is the word coming out of their mouth?

Is that they have, are they backed up by the the integrity

and character of their life? You have to be discerning in

these days. And what Aiden said up here is

so true. In the end times, there's a lot

of rumors of wars and all these other things.

And those are the big headlines. But I'll tell you about the

small headlines are just as destructive in your life.

They're the small headlines. Are those subtle lies in your

relationships, those subtle lies in your everyday life?

Yes, Israel, what's going on in Israel and all that stuff that

all matters, Yes, but you know, what's going on in your room

with within your own house matters.

That'll take you out. And I've seen it happen over and

over and over again. So you don't want to go there.

By the way, somebody, some prophetic person just came up to

me early when we were praying, they said boldness and I was

like, I got you. So that matters to pray before

service number four, external attacks, persecution is is so

important. Persecution.

Like you know what the enemies play with?

That is, is is to provoke such fear in you that you're

paralyzed. This happens all the time with

me. I'll be honest, this happens

more like more times than I actually wanted to.

I'm like Elijah. I'm the biggest baby in the

room. I'll have these like great, like

great exploits for the Lord. We're doing it and I'll be like

running. Away at the smallest little

thing into a cave. And be like, oh Lord, like, I

don't even know I want to do this anymore.

Maybe I'll just work for Southwest Airlines.

I love them. You know, whatever.

I'm like, I was thinking I was like, I'll just be a flight

attendant, but I'm like, that's terrifying.

I'm like every time I look at those guys and like the planes

going crazy and I'm like, I'm glad I'm not working and I'm

sitting. But you know what I mean?

Like the the enemy will try to paralyze you from the mission of

God. What you're made to do what

God's called you to do, right? How many times does that happen?

How many times does that happen? You're like, you feel the sense

of like world mandate the Jesus flag.

Yes, Amen. I'm like all for that.

You know, that's great. Where are you when you're

cowering in fear? Are you waving the Jesus flag

still? Because that's what it matters

the most. Just know that that's what

actually matters the most. When you're waving that flag and

you're like, let's go and deep down you're fearful.

That's what matters the most. That is true faith.

I'm not saying you need to get there tomorrow.

I'm just saying you need to get there eventually because that's

what God's called everyone of us to do.

And the enemy will take you out first.

Peter 58. The enemy prowls around like a

roaring lion. He is waiting to pounce on you

at any moment. First Timothy 312 the godly will

be persecuted. You can't avoid this.

You know, sometimes I really do believe the lie of like, you

know, if I could just get to a certain point of holiness, then

I won't be persecuted. Which is so ridiculous because

the more godly you live, the more persecuted you will be.

But if you even think about going the other way and say, you

know what, maybe a little, live a little.

Less godly, the enemy will be off my back.

That's not good either. Hey, maybe that's, you know,

going to incur the Lord's discipline in your life, and

that's not fun either. But then also there is a joy in

pleasing God that the guys who don't get to enjoy that are

rebelling against God and playing games.

To play games with God never brings about joy.

So Matthew 5. Says pretty clearly in John 15,

they'll persecute Jesus, persecute us.

So therefore we don't love our neighbors, right?

Our love our enemies. I'm sorry, love our enemies and

we are truly blessed when we're persecuted.

We're to pray for those who attack us.

Romans 12/14 bless those who persecute us.

Those are the hardest things in the Bible that you read.

But it's only for this. Those passages are only for.

Listen very carefully. They're only for people that are

actually doing it. So if you're living in apathy

and you're kind of playing the games with God, like you're on,

you're on the fence. You're like, I'm kind of having

a little bit of the world a little.

Bit of Jesus, you'll never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever get

to experience the joy of persecution because the enemy is

not interested in your life. Those are hard words, but

they're true. So those are the four things the

enemy's aim is to persecute. You in Romans or Revelation 12,

right? He's the accuser of the

brethren. And it says they overcame the

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

They did not shrink unto death. They did not shrink.

They did not shrink back even in the face of death.

Those are the true heroes, and there are plenty of them around

the world. Maybe, perhaps we'll produce a

few of them here. OK, how do we fight back?

This is we got 11 minutes, so we'll just go quick and I'm.

Giving I'm going to be the game show guy again because I'm

giving away books. So game show John again.

Here we go. All right, you're ready.

OK, so the first one is how do we fight back?

This is this is Ephesians. This is where Ephesians come in.

You remember I've got so I'm going to get rebuked again from

my wife. My wife's like you didn't do

Ephesians. You're a liar.

You didn't do Ephesians, OK. All right, so you could read

Ephesians for homework. That'd be great, but Ephesians

teaches us, the book of Ephesians teaches us how to war

against the enemy. And it's not just Chapter 6, OK?

It's not just chapter 6. So our main focus so #1.

This is the. Number one way we could fight

against the enemy. Our main focus in this church is

on Jesus. That's how we do it.

Just talk about Jesus, just talk about Jesus, sing about Jesus,

pray to Jesus, like just share Jesus, whatever it is just it's

all about him. It's all about him.

And I just you know what? I, you know what I was thinking?

I I I love this. I love this illustrate when we

were in. Miami it just came to me now

the. Lord is so good because I'm

like, why did I I? Was running and I was thinking

about something about Miami and I forgot it, you know?

But now I remember. OK, so here's the deal.

So when we're in Miami, we did this.

Tim remembers this. Tim, you were Jesus at one time.

You're still like Jesus. OK, but but do you?

Remember that play that like the where you're standing there and

you're like, you're kind of what's that thing called the

Lifehouse one where they're like you're, you're, you're, you're,

you're, you're creating Eve and you're dancing with her and

you're speaking to her and all these things.

And then the enemy comes in and it's like the enemy of

alcoholism, or it's the enemy of money and greed is the enemy of

lust and all these things. And they come in and they're

trying to, you know. They're they, they have full

rule and reign because the enemy is playing off as something

that's in their heart. They give in to sexual morality

because lust is in their heart. They give in to blowing their

whole life because greed is in their in their heart.

They misuse finances. It's already there and the enemy

plays on it. But I love this part.

This is what I'm talking about when I say like Jesus has to be

at the center of everything. There's there's if you've ever

seen the play, it is a powerful play.

And we're going to do it again as we go overseas.

We're going to do it again in Baton Rouge this this week in,

in March. But there's this part where

Jesus just blows away his enemies because he resurrects

from the dead, right? I mean that the enemies are

like, we won, you know, and they have like the little sheet up

and, and Jesus is on the ground and then all of a sudden it's

like it is finished, you know, And then like the, the sheep

gets thrown down and the enemies just fall apart.

And then the enemy they get up from and they start, they start

coming with their little claws and they're trying to get close

to Eve, who's saved now Jesus has saved her and they're trying

to get close to Jesus, but they're like going like this.

They they, they are cowering because the light is so bright.

If you stay like in that image, when, when, when Eve is right

next to Jesus, there's No Fear in her as the enemies are

crawling towards her to try to bring her back to a life of sin.

Can't do it. The closer you stay to Jesus,

the farther away you'll be from the enemy.

Got to stay close, stay close. Just even saying Jesus, Jesus,

Jesus staying close. The enemy doesn't want to get

near Jesus. He knows it's going to happen.

You've seen that. Throughout the Gospels, what are

you going to do to me, Son of God?

You know, like they're freaking out.

They're not freaking out with you.

They're freaking out of who you're close to.

All right. The bowl, the there's another

illustration I I got. I had an image.

That kind of goes along with this too.

It's like a bowl of fruits, right?

Like a like a one of those kind of bowls.

And if you. Fill it with all good stuff like

it in this image I just saw like literally like fruit, but it's

it's filling your your life up with good things in the Lord,

like good things like even going to life group.

Leaning in, leaning into the Word of God, leaning into

prayer, filling your life up with good things.

There's just no room for anything else.

And in my mind's eye, it was just like you're trying to get

one other thing in there, like all these good things, the fruit

of the spirit that like God is filling your life.

And and then maybe there's an attack or an external attack, or

maybe there's something you know, that the enemy wants to

bring into your life. Or maybe it's as simple as like

he's. Tempting you back to your old

life, your old way of sin, and you're like, I just don't have

room for that because I'm so full in God.

Focus on it. Being filled with Jesus.

The second thing, a way to fight back is you need to take

ownership over your sin. The Holy Spirit is going to

convict you and that is a gift. It's a gift.

We cannot just blame the devil for everything.

And I know you've heard me say that multiple times, but it's so

the devil through temptation of mixture with the world system

that we live in, full of lies. It does give opportunity to the

flesh. And So what we need to do is

say, OK, Laura, I'm going to take responsibility for my part.

I'm living in this world. I did not 'cause this world

system to, to behave the way it does.

And I can't control the devil. But what I can do is say I have

sinned and I go back to God. I and then I, the enemy is

resisted. Resist the enemy by what?

Submitting to God and he flees. The enemy flees every single

time, right? So Romans 7 says there's still a

battle and we're just going to have that battle.

But Colossians 215, Jesus disarmed the powers of evil on

the cross, and it put the focus now on on Jesus.

He's disarms the enemy. He broke the power of it.

And that is good news, right? Because you want to speak that

over yourself, that if temptation feels so strong, you

feel like you can't. No, just think about this way.

He disarmed the enemy on the cross, cut his arms off right.

He disarmed him the. Power.

Of it. And I was, I was telling

somebody earlier, it's like the, the, you know, he when you get

saved. He breaks the power.

Of sin, right and then when you finally are free, free, free in

heaven, he removes the presence of sin or somebody 11 time said

that sin sin is sin is still resident but it's not raining.

It's, it's still, it's still there.

It's still like it's still a. Part.

Of you but it's not raining it's not raining in your life

anymore. That is so good that's that's

true because otherwise when you believe it that you have no

other choice but the thing you're going to do it.

OK, all right, Some are like where's the books?

OK, here's it here it is so understand your identity and

Christ. All right, so you could just

print this off online if you want to.

I did originally compiled by Neil Anderson.

Who am I in Christ. This is good.

I would speak this over for years.

I'd speak this over my life and I need this constant reminder.

What is it saying so I'm accepted.

So it's just say I'm a child of God.

I'm a disciple, I'm a friend of Jesus.

I've been justified. I mean united with the Lord, I'm

one with him in spirit. I've been bought with a price.

I belong to God. I'm a member of Christ's body.

These are truths to speak over yourself on a daily basis.

It is so helpful. If you want the.

Book version here it is we do this in ADS so who wants this

one Victory over darkness here you go wait you're you're not in

ADS OK there you go awesome if you're in ADS you're going to

get that OK so do that every day that that we so Ephesians 26 as

we are seated with him in the heavenly places we have we can't

have this Valley View of. Looking up, Oh my gosh, this big

mountain, I don't know, I'm going to be buried in sin for

the rest of my life. You know, get on top of the

mountain with Jesus and say that thing is small and tiny and I

can be a victory over in him. Amen.

All right #4 we fight for unity. We fight for unity here.

Ephesians 4/4 through sixes, where one spirit, 1 hope, 1

Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one Father of all right.

He has broken the walls of hostility.

We know that has to do with like.

Jew and Greek or black and white, Hispanic, whatever, Yes,

like racially, but just unity in the spirit.

Like it's not just a racial thing.

It's more than that. It's like just, you know, some

people just naturally gravity take to certain people.

Are they like certain people because they're like them.

That's not the church, by the way, You can have friends,

that's fine. Have.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but be unified if

they're not like you. That's the way it's supposed to

be. It's a body with many members,

many parts. Reread First Corinthians 12,

it's a great passage just to and then this summer we're going to

go to Israel, but on Mount Hermon.

I don't know if we could get up that high, but like it's about

910 thousand feet up high and it's, it's a great passage.

Psalm 133 speaks about this, that in the in the winter time,

there's lots of rains. Right now there's rains.

But when we're there in this, we're taking a small group.

But when we're there in the summer, when there's, it's like

there's no rain, not a drop of rain insight.

And it says that the dew on Mount Hermon in Psalm 133 is

how, how beautiful when brothers dwell in unity.

It is like the dew on Mount Hermon.

It's like you're, you know what dew is, right?

It's just this, it's, it's it's it's not rain.

It's not the rounds, not saturated.

It's just on the surface and you can feel it, it's wet, right?

Just even a little bit of unity goes a long way.

That's what he's saying. Just a little bit.

Come on, work with me. Just a little bit of unity in

your marriage. Goes a long way, doesn't it?

Just a little bit of humility, just a little bit of love goes a

long way. He'll move the needle in your

life, right? Amen.

So oh, what I was going to do, OK.

So here we go. So here's another.

One bait of Satan. All right, so.

Some of you guys be honest, right?

You might have some bitterness and offense towards people.

It might be with whoever, I don't know.

Maybe they really did hurt you and you have to work through

forgiveness. But this book helped me so much

before we planted the church. I don't know when it was

published. I don't remember now.

When was it published? I don't have to look at it.

The Spirit and therefore we can be fruitful in our

relationships. Amen.

OK, so we. As a church.

We need to do our job and teaching you how to.

Have a high standard for how to treat one another in

relationships. Amen, Santi.

OK, so, so all right. Right here.

Here you go, buddy. There you go.

That's awesome. When your friends, when your

friends actually like. What's that?

Michael OK, here you go. Here you go.

Dick, I don't want to kill you. Like, like, Dick.

OK, Dick. Dick.

What? I I mean, we honor you.

We honor. OK.

So do you feel honored? OK.

Yeah. OK.

Good. All right.

There you go. OK, so the enemy takes a lot of

pleasure, guys. And betrayal, abuse and

bullying, apathy, jealousy, idolizing and even idolizing

friendships. I don't have time to unpack

that, but that was probably the best.

Part of the book. Is he?

He keeps that towards the end because you look, your friend,

ultimate friend is Jesus and he will feel you so that you learn

how to have a normal horizontal relationships.

Amen. That is so good.

We need more of that, OK. Number six, fear the Lord.

Holiness. All right?

I mean, these are big, heavy topics.

They're just kind of flying through here.

OK? So just be holy, all right?

All right? Just be holy.

Yeah. OK.

All right. So OK, here we go.

You all right? Here's the deal on this.

Do you want to know the ultimate weapon against the enemy is your

holy life? He can't touch you.

Can't. Legally, he can't mess with you

when you have, when you're under the shelter of the Almighty.

Psalm 91 is something that people pray over themselves all

the time because they're fearful of something bad happening.

And the only way that you are ultimately protected from the

enemy schemes is to hide in him. And by hiding in him, you become

like him, you walk with him. And by becoming more like him,

you actually have authentic relationship with him.

You know, it's interesting. It's the one of the funniest

stories in the Bible is the seven sons of Skiva, right?

It's pretty funny. Because when they do it, they're

like. They're like, OK.

You know, they're these, these seven sons, they're about to

like, pray for this exorcism to happen.

And and there and this demons like I know Jesus and I know

Paul. Who are you?

Let me just say something. If you ever have an exorcism

where the devil speaks to you that way, you might want to run,

like run as fast as you possibly can.

I don't know. I don't know if they're faster.

Than human beings. That my guess is they probably

are, but I'm just saying we don't know for a fact.

We could measure that somehow. I don't know.

But the reality is you want to run.

What is the point of that passage?

What is the ultimate point of that passage?

That an authentic, real relationship with Jesus

intimidates the enemy. It is not a formula.

It is not in the name of Jesus, whatever you could say in the

name of. Jesus all you want, but if your

life is not in line with Him, the enemy is going to slime you.

It's like, I don't really just think about the Ghostbusters

right now. I don't know why.

But OK, all right, so all right, what do we got?

All right #7 develop a rich prayer life.

Amen. We need more of that.

We don't have. Time to go through that.

But ultimately Paul is saying that in Ephesians 314 to 21,

right, that we just be strengthened.

He's like getting on his knees. He's saying, oh Lord, I want you

guys to experience. The love of God.

Because he knows that that before he even gets to the armor

of God, he's like, man, you need to know the love of God.

Because the armor of God is not some magical formula that you

just put on every day. It's it's your identity.

It's who you are in Christ that you believe.

These things meant are meant to be be believed and lived out,

right? OK #8 and lastly is the wear of

the armor. And can I just say this?

We're not. You're thinking, how in the

world are you going to do this? I'm not going to do this, don't

worry. I'm not going to go through

every single armor and just unpack it all.

We could do that some other time.

So no, no, no worries. We you will go home quickly, OK,

very quickly. But I do want to just say this,

that the armor of God, as I've been studying more about the

armor, it is not just a mantra. It is not the the enemy.

I mean, see how silly this is? The enemy is not scared of you

because you have a mantra. You're like, I put on the

helmet, I put on the helmet, I put on the helmet.

But do you believe that your life is secure in him?

That's the helmet of salvation. He's not interested.

Like I got the belt on. I got the belt on.

I got the belt on. I got it on.

Come on, I got it on. No, no, no.

The belt holds you up. It's truth.

Are you a person of truth? Are you full of lies?

Are you a person of truth? Or have you given into the

enemy's lives? Not about necessarily about your

identity per SE, but are you a person of truth?

Are you in the light? Are you hiding in darkness?

Because if you do, you could say, oh, I got the, I got the

belt on. I got the belt on.

But you know what? You don't, You don't because it

is about living it out. I think it's just like a light

bulb came out. I'm like, man, I've.

Been studying this for like the last 25 years you know.

Like just those moments of like, no, no, no, we need to live this

out. Like as you're looking at the

belt of truth is Jesus is truth. So therefore, when we walk in

obedience and integrity, in our speech and in our conduct, if we

are people of truth, the enemy will leave us.

The second one is the the breastplate of righteousness.

Jesus gives us his righteousness.

Why is that important? That's like super important.

That means there's nothing you could do about that.

Like he. Gave you his righteousness by

faith so. What are we going to do?

We're going to live out in that truth.

We're going to live out in that purity, the purity.

And devotion to Jesus. We're going to hate sin.

The shoes of the gospel, Peace. There's a couple ways you could

look at that one. Just keep sharing the gospel.

Because there's something about you just sharing that reminds

you of the grace of God in your own life and that keeps the

enemy away. But not only that, but you have

peace with God. You know, like I was just

talking to somebody. They're like, I don't know if I

have peace with God because I still see sin in my life.

You were going to be eaten alive by the enemy.

You have to know that there you have peace with God by faith.

And you still have sin. The issue is not that you still

have sinned. God knows that He's not trying

to get you to be perfect. What He's trying to get you to

understand is that you have peace with God.

Therefore, you don't have to have that those anxious thoughts

and believe this lie that you're not saved because you still have

remaining sin. You have.

Peace with God and nothing could ever change that.

Nothing, nothing #4 is the shield of faith.

Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.

This is not just trusting in his promises because we already have

the sword of the Spirit is the word of God.

Yes, we haven't gotten there, but it's trusting in his

promises. It's the.

Biblical, it's prophecy. It's First Timothy 118.

It's that word that Etson gave me.

He's like, man, you know what? That treasure, trust that you

have that's like 80 pages long. That's First Timothy 118.

That's you feeding off the promises of God so that you will

not shipwreck your faith. Do you have that treasure chest?

Not just the Bible, but the words spoken over, He said.

Don't you remember the prophetic utterances that have been spoken

over you? Helmet of salvation just told

you that you have secure and all areas of your life.

You're secure in Him, nothing to take you out of His hand.

Sword of the Spirit, this is what I told you earlier.

You must study the Word every day so you're not fooled by the

enemy's lies. Amen.

We take land, all right. I don't have any other books

left. OK, so I think we're good there,

but I just I want to close with this.

There is I just I don't know if it was.

I don't know if there's like people in the room, you know, as

we close this. But I I've been thinking about

this whole week in the topic of shame.

And I don't. Know who deals with that here?

But I don't know if it was just something, maybe it was just for

myself. I don't know.

But I just kind of gone back and we're not talking about like

you've sinned royally and you know, like you continue to like

your sin and you're believing this lie that God doesn't want

you to have any shame. There's a good kind of shame in

the Bible that if you are really in sin.

You should feel. Ashamed about that sin, you

shouldn't love it. You should hate it and God will

allow you to go through the period of time maybe where

you're just like, I'd want to repent, I'm going to season a

repentance. I'm looking at the sin and I'm

grieving it the appropriate way. 2nd Corinthians 7.

Shows you the. Steps of repentance and what

that looks like, What we're talking about is something

different. We're talking about the enemy

reminding you of something that's already been dealt with.

We're talking about the hiding, we're talking about you running,

we're talking about just the the many different.

Ways that like people feel worthless, hiding, paralyzing,

whatever. And I just want to share with

you a a story. We don't have to read it.

You guys know it already, but from Matthew 524 to 34, you

remember the woman who is bleeding for 12 years.

And I think this is really going to minister some people in the

room this morning. And I think that Leviticus 15,

just a little history when someone is bleeding like that,

there what is known as the ceremony ceremonially unclean,

that everything she touched became unclean as well.

It's. Fairly harsh, right when you

think about, but God was again teaching something wasn't that

woman, It wasn't like God was rejecting her.

He was just teaching Israel something about that, about the

the it's hard to understand. I mean, but the reality is that

he was showing us the dangers of sin, that when you, when

somebody gives in to sin for long periods of time, it affects

them so much, eventually effects other people.

She couldn't go to the temple and worship like others could.

So this woman like had some serious shame.

And probably it says here that she spent a lot of her money,

like the majority of her money. And here's where the

disappointment, hopelessness comes.

It didn't work. How many times we find ourselves

there, which just doesn't work. No matter what we do, we're

trying different things. It just doesn't work.

In our own strength, there's an actual problem in our lives.

There's an actual issue. There's an issue.

I don't know what that issue is. What's the issue for you?

Everybody here has an issue and you're trying to find and it

brings a level of shame, right? Brings a level of like I maybe I

could, you know, and until I fix this thing, I'm just not going

to live life. And you're trying and you're

spending your efforts and your money and you're trying so hard

to try to. Fix that issue.

She's not working. It's not working and there's

just a lack of peace in her. She's running away.

And you? Know I don't know people are.

Ridiculing her and she's got all this anxiety and it's just

crazy. But what what Jesus did, he he

did three things. The first thing that Jesus did

is he healed her. That's good.

It was more than physical healing, but he did heal her.

Of all her, all her turmoil. The blood stopped immediately.

Second thing he did is she gave her peace.

Gave her. Peace, he says that, he says.

Now go in. Peace.

You know what else he says? He said Be healed.

Go in peace. What My, my, what?

My daughter. Not woman, not lady, my

daughter. Why is that important?

Because Jesus not only just gives her physical healing.

He. Rid her of her shame.

He placed his hand on her and says, not only do I want you to

be physically healed because. That's not going to change

anybody. But I want you to understand

that I I'm giving you peace with me with God and I'm riding you

of your shame. I'm giving you identity.

You're now my daughter. Isn't that amazing?

Isn't that incredible? Jesus didn't live just a live

alleviate physical suffering, but her shame, her paralyzing

anxiety and worthlessness, and. Hiding.

Some of you guys are hiding. Some of you are hiding.

You're like, you don't want to be here.

You actually just had this thought of like, sometimes this

happens to me. So like, it doesn't happen to me

physically, but it has to be emotionally sometimes.

Like like I'll feel like I just had a bug on me.

And I squashed it. The enemy is trying to do

something with this. Maybe I don't know, but this

this. OK, so that's never happened to

me before, but, but I, I, I just, I, I want to say this that

sometimes like people get prophetically, they get like,

they get like a, you know, like a pain in their shoulder and

they're like, I never had a pain in my shoulder.

So maybe somebody else has a, has a pain in their shoulder.

And so they just prophetically say, OK, somebody have a pain in

their shoulder. We give, you know, God wants to

heal you, whatever. And that that's great physical

healing. Awesome.

But I just, I had this feeling of like, I don't know what it

was, this intense feeling of like, I want to hide and I don't

want to come to the household of the Lord.

And I just wonder how many people felt that way this

morning. Like they, they're, they're,

they're in shame, they're wanting to hide, they don't want

to be here. But it took every bit of energy

to make it to the household of the Lord.

And God's saying, I want to heal you of that.

I want to heal you of that. It might be 3 people, but praise

God. I mean, that's awesome.

It's worth it for three people. I just, I want, I want to just,

I want the Lord. And you know, maybe, you know,

there's maybe it's your, your situation is not that intense.

Like the woman? But there is another interesting

story in Psalm 3 where David was embarrassed and he was

humiliated. His the competency as a king was

doubted. He was forced.

And where he was forced in the wilderness, Why was he there?

Because Absalom was standing at the gate and he was calling.

People to himself rather than his his dad.

So he was taking the Kingdom from his dad.

And what did David? David felt shame.

David ran and he. Hid in the wilderness and isn't

this awesome? Look at what he does.

Look at what how beautiful this is.

Look at like it says in Second Samuel 15, he stole the hearts

of Israel. Against David.

And David felt like, just like a chum.

He felt like, what is wrong with me?

Well, I can't. I, I mean, I, I, I, I can't fix

this. I cannot fix this.

You ever feel like that? I can't fix this.

And your head is down downcast and listen to what this is what

God saying to every person that might feel like this today in

Psalm. 33 says this he. Says But you got her a shield

about me and my glory and a lifter.

Of my head just. Remember when Joe you in this

week, when we were there in in in Waco, he was just like, hey,

buddy, lift up your head, lift up your head.

Don't let don't keep your head down and you know is is.

You know, as Judah's playing basketball, the little guy, you

know, he's like a he's like an engine.

You know, he's like, he's a point guard.

He's flying up the. Court and the times where he

gets tripped up is when his head is down, his coach is like, keep

that head up, keep that head up, keep that head up because when

his head is down, somebody else can't.

He just can't swipe that ball away, right.

And so God is a lifter of our heads.

Why? Because he loves us.

There's grace. He's saying, lift up your head,

I will come through. I will breakthrough for you in

your life. And we just say right now every

person, just why don't we stand to our feet?

Why don't we just receive mercy from him, receive grace right

now all around the room. Lord, we just thank you.

Lord, we thank you for what you're doing.

Maybe the band could play that patient song again.

Just there's just something about that song, just how He's

patient with us, how he's patient with us.

And Lord, we just thank you for your ministry this morning.

Lord, we, we thank you, Father, for what you're doing.

Psalm 3 says you're a lifter of our head.

You're a lifter of our head. We just thank you.

You're a lifter of our head. Lord, you're a lifter of our

head. We just look to you right now.

We might be hiding in The Cave. We might be hiding in The Cave

right now. We're like, wait, God doesn't

want us. People don't want us for running

away. But that is not the truth.

The truth is the truth is he will find you in The Cave like

he did with Elijah. He he will find you in The Cave

like he did with David. He will find you in The Cave.

And he says, I am a lifter of your head.

I'm a lifter of your head this morning.

Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you for your grace and

your mercy. Would you minister to us right

now? If you need prayer, why don't

you find your way up here? We'd love to pray for you.

We just maybe you can't. You just still you, you find you

find yourself in unbelief. You just can't get there.

And we'd love to help you out this morning in Jesus name.