Why Weak Sauce is the Best Sauce (Ephesians 6:10-12)

Joshua Kehler: how are we doing?

Good.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Please turn to Ephesians chapter six.

Let's look at verses 10 and I'm just gonna read the whole section to verse

20, finally be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might put on the

whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the.

For, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,

against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present

darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the

evil day and having done all to stand.

Stand.

Therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the

breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the

readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish

all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and

the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the

spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all

the saints, and also for me that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly

to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

For which I am an ambassador in chains that I'm may declare

it boldly as I ought to speak.

This is the word of the Lord.

Father, we just pray that you'd make much of Jesus in this place, holy Spirit.

In your power.

We know it's not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit.

By your Spirit.

And so, Lord, we lean into you.

We lean on you.

We're dependent on you, Lord, to illuminate and.

make much of Jesus to take this information that's in our heads

that we're gonna hear about stories that we're gonna hear about things

in scripture , and to move it into our hearts where it's combustible.

Where it becomes a fire where it changes us, where it melts us,

where it changes our very being, where we look more like you.

So refine us with your word this morning.

Encourage us with your word this morning.

Hold us up Lord and Lord, we just pray you would be glorified.

Save Lord.

Only you can.

You're our only hope.

There is no other.

You're the only name given in heaven, by which men shall be saved.

And so, Lord we lift you up this morning.

Be with our brothers and sisters all over the valley who gather and love you Jesus.

May they know that as much as they love you, you feel

infinitely more towards them.

, invincible, immovable.

. And so, Lord, pour your love out on your people this morning.

Today.

Be glorified.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible, and I'm gonna have to start keeping

a list because I say that a lot, I think as this has been pointed out

to me, but is the story of Nehemiah.

You guys know the story of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah was a cup bearer to the King of Persia, cushy job.

. He.

Maid as a Jewish person, he got to taste the food.

He got to taste the wine he was in, the assembly of royalty where

they made judgements a decreed.

He was set.

One of his relatives comes and he inquires about Jerusalem and

he's like, how's Jerusalem doing?

And he says, it's bad.

The walls are destroyed.

The people, not only the walls land ruins, but the people lying, ruin.

And it breaks his heart.

It wasn't new information for Nehemiah because he had that information for years.

It's always been that way since he was a cup bearer.

It's always been in ruins.

The people were in ruins taken advantage of by the adversary, the

enemies who would come in and plunder.

There was no protection, no walls.

But his heart breaks and he didn't get new information, but a new heart.

And one of the things that God does as he matures you is he

invites you into his mission.

And we have all the facts.

We have facts about the brokenness, the crime, statistics.

Holy moly, if you follow 2 0 9 times, You gotta , I don't know, watch Pollyanna

six times cuz you just feel so dark.

It feels so discouraging.

It feels like the Saints are, using a squirt gun on the fires of hell.

What difference is this making?

so you have all the information, but all of a sudden what God does

is he begins to put his heart in you for the lost, for the broken.

For those who suffer against injustice, those the enemy plunders spiritually and

physically, and he gives you this heart and you go like, Nehemiah, here I am Lord.

Send.

I'm willing to go, I'm willing to be a part.

I want to join your rescue mission.

So Nehemiah goes to the king.

He throws up a prayer, and the king's like, why do you look discouraged?

I don't pay you to look sad.

Nehemiah, this is a happy place.

I want happy things and happiness.

And he prays.

And then he says, king, how could I be happy?

Our walls lying.

The city is in a desperate situation and the king says, go for it.

Go and, rebuild.

I'll fund it.

I'll fund the expedition.

He funds it.

He provides, the materials and everything.

He goes and he scouts the walls of Jerusalem at night.

He meets with the elders, and as soon as they lay the first

brick, the enemy comes against.

As soon as there's the start of the work of rebuilding the enemy starts as attack.

As soon as the work started, the enemy came against them and everybody

was a part of this rebuilding.

You have blacksmiths working next to perfumers.

I love that.

What a picture of the body of Christ.

Soda verse guys, who wouldn't hang up The blacksmith guild, doesn't hang out with

the perfume mean guild . But when they're on the mission together, God's mission to

rebuild and to restore and to renew a city and a people so that they can flourish.

All kinds of people, kids parents, families, they all

took part on their place and the wall, and they began to build.

But man, the enemy came against them.

The tactic of discourage.

The tactic of slander and mockery, fear, intimidation, the tactic of a

distraction in subterfuge, attacks from outside and attacks from inside.

But they prayed and they said, this is God's work.

It's a good work.

We're gonna keep going no matter the opposition.

So Nehemiah, I love this part in the story.

It's around chapter four, takes some of the men of the city because because of the

opposition and he fits them with armor.

now because of the opposition.

He appropriates armor for their work.

And here's what it says, Nehemiah four 16 to 18.

From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction and half held

spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail.

And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah who were building the wall.

Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored

on the work, one with one hand.

And held his weapon with the other, and each of the builders had his swords

strapped at his side while he built The man who sended the trumpet was beside me.

And so he literally gives them a sword in one hand and a trial on the

another, and it is such a picture of the Christian life and the mission of God.

That he calls us not to be static till he comes back, but he invites

us into his joyous mission.

Not because it's some bummer, but because he knows how he made us and

he wants us to be full of joy and it experienced life and that more

abundantly, and he knows what it.

is to be a part and to partake in him redeeming and restoring and new

renewing and causing lives to flourish.

He knows what it's like to be Peter, James and John invited into that upper

room where he healed j Iris's daughter.

He reached into the jaws of death and he pulled her up out of the jaws of death,

pulling her literally out of the jaws of.

And restoring her life.

Could you imagine being the, what is this?

Who is this?

To be able to participate in such a way, the joy, the encouragement

that this person we're following is the one who conquers death itself.

What a thing.

And that's what we do.

We follow the one who conquers death itself.

You guys, God is not remodeling human lives.

He's not making good lives better.

He's raising the dead . , he's making all things he's making all things new.

, absolutely incredible.

Picture a trial in one hand and assort in another Cs not Cs.

Lewis Spurgeon.

He, his newsletter was called The Sword in the Trial because it was

such a part and a picture of the Christian life that as we build, we

battle and as we battle, we build.

And it's this beautiful picture given in scripture that when we are on God's

mission with God's heart, there will.

opposition.

, but that he does not leave us without.

Or without weapon.

And so as we join God, mission of renewal in the valley, as you seek

to rebuild a broken down, people, as the Holy Spirit rebuilds your

own life, there'll be opposition.

And we need known we need to know how to stand in the evil day.

And we need to know how to stand before the evil day in the skirmishes.

I as studying for this, I've just been thinking about it a lot, and somebody

said one of the commentators pointed out so much has happens in the skirmish.

The little things that we d we don't pay much attention to.

Skirmish isn't like a Braveheart war where everybody's, you know, thousands

of people are running at each other, but it's, you a little battle off to the side.

And one of the things they said, because what we're gonna see is

that the armor is actually aspects of the gospel that we wear.

. The breastplate of righteousness that covers your heart.

The helmet of salvation that covers your mind.

The the belt of truth that's foundational, that holds everything together.

In that day and age, you'd have this belt it was like an apron almost that held all

the other pieces of the armor together.

All aspects, different aspects.

Of the gospel that Paul, because he's been talking about the gospel this whole time,

and he's sitting next to Roman soldiers, tain to them as he is writing this letter.

He wants to give us a visual illustration at the end, and he wants

to say, now put it on every day.

And one briefly, one of the things that was pointed out by this commentator,

he said, just think of patience and control and go about your day.

Those are the skirmishes that so much happens over.

And gospel your heart, can you gospel your in that way?

Just on the way here, there was a guy who, you know, passed on the right and

cut right in front of a pickup truck, and I was about to say, man, what a

bonehead, but Mario is there, and I wanted to be a good example to him, although

I probably haven't been in the pa.

But anyways, I immediately grabbed my heart and I said, wait

a minute, why am I impatient?

Impatience is a form of pride.

It's that I think I'm superior over this person and I'm not seeing myself.

that I've been saved, not by my works or because there is anything better

in me, but purely by the grace of God.

So I have no standing to boast.

I have no standing to be proud to say, Hey, I'm better than this person.

And to think about the amount of patience that God has showed me, that God has

showed me in my life every single day, a hundred times a day, it's probably more.

He's like, oh, you're so cute.

A hundred times Josh.

That's great.

. Patience that he never moves his love, never angry, just gracious

and loving, never removing his affection for me, not against me,

never pulling any of it back, guys.

It healed me in that moment.

I was like, oh, and you gospel your heart.

I felt like, oh wow.

I had the helmet of salvation on.

I had the breast plate of righteousness like I just quenched.

And I just, it, like, I did battle, I did a little skirmish.

It, maybe it's not the evil day where everything's chaotic and

crazy, but there is that sense where, man, we gotta wear this every day.

And he's saying, put on the whole armor so that you can stand in the evil day.

He doesn't say, wait for the evil day to come.

Learn how to battle in the armor.

Put it on.

And so we're gonna see that this morning.

So I wanna look at the battle, the enemy, and the victory of Jesus the battle.

Ephesians six, 10 to 11.

Finally be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might put on the whole

armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

So the environment of God's work.

Where does it take place?

What does it look like?

What is the at?

This is almost shocking.

This almost gives you whiplash when you're, like, you, we

just talked about marriage.

We talked about relationships and mutual submission.

We talked about raising your kids.

We talked about being good employees and good employers and how the gospel

affects every area of our lives.

And then Paul is like, and remember, it's a battle.

It's this.

Yes.

Marriage?

Yes.

Family.

Yes.

Work.

Yes.

All these things.

Yes.

Relationships.

Yes.

Community.

And then Paul's like, but don't forget, it's a battle.

It's a battle.

It's a battle.

Instead of Paul saying, all right, sincerely, Paul.

God bless you guys.

He reminds us that it is a battle.

It'd be like.

You had a shopping list, your wife gave you a shopping list and said,

get eggs and milk and bacon, lots of bacon, and watch out for bullets.

Make sure you wear your Kevlar vest and make sure you don't die.

On the shopping list, you're like, whoa, wait, what?

I'm going to get eggs and bacon, and watch out, for the enemy.

That would be weird, but it would tell you something about the environment

that the grocery store is in.

Be safe, be careful.

Why does Paul introduce this theme of spiritual warfare now after talking

about gas gospel relationships, after talking about loving and serving people?

Say your boss sends you and some other employees to work with the blueprint,

lumber tools and the materials you'll need to accomplish your job.

And he says, oh, in addition, it's enemy territory and they'll be

shooting at you while you're working.

That's an important safety tip.

My boss, Tim, he said they were building Caesar Chavez high school in Stockton.

He's an electrical contractor, and he says, back then it was all or.

. And then they had cleared a bunch to get to the job site.

So it was a dirt kind of gravel, bumpy road, and they'd have

to slow down to open the gate.

It was fenced off where they were doing construction.

And they said as they slowed down to the gate, they said, A swarm of people from

the orchards flocked and robbed every tool off of the truck and about 30 seconds

, and it's like they went in, now know.

Okay.

This isn't, a normal place.

This is a place that we gotta be pay attention to and we gotta be aware of.

We gotta be aware of what's going on.

We did a Popeye's in Sacramento and there was a drive-by, there was a bullet

hole in the glass of where we were working and somebody had actually died.

And it's like, okay, we gotta pay attention to where we are.

And that's, , but there's also, we need to do that spiritually.

It's so easy to forget that.

Real, Christianity is a fight.

This text tells you.

That a Christian is known as much from the warfare and conflicted

in their lives as from the peace.

True.

There is a new piece, but think about being joined to a new ally, right?

Who has enemies ? You immediately make new enemies because the allies

enemies become your enemies, right?

And it seems like there's.

A desire for the enemy of our souls are adversary, the devil right

to take out the body of Christ.

He wants to stop it because, think about Christians, their testimony

alone, the fact that they exist is new creations in Christ, means that he lost,

that God won every time we worship as a reminder.

Hell and all.

Its all the adversaries that King Jesus won over the enemy through

the cross and resurrection, that he's doomed, but he wants to take us out.

Listen to how scripture talks about her Christian walk.

First Timothy chapter six, verse 12.

Fight the good fight of faith.

It's a good fight.

Second Timothy four, seven.

I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race.

I have kept the faith.

James four seven, submit yourselves to God.

Therefore, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Romans 8 37.

Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Second Timothy th two verse three and four.

You therefore must endure hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this

life that he may please him, who enlisted him as a soldier.

Words that describe the Christian life, like strive to enter in

watch stand, fight right run.

A Christian can be known as much by his inner warfare, as by his inner peace.

Are we aware of this conflict and struggle of this battle that we are

called into two Timothy three 12?

Indeed.

All who desire to live godly life in Christ Jesus, cuz that's the only

way it's possible will be persecuted.

There's a happy verse.

Aw Tozer said, we tend to either treat the Christian life like a playground

or a battleground, and so often it's like, God, it's a playground.

and the Lord's like, yeah it's a battleground now, not to be like, oh

wow, the conflict, we're gonna get to the victory cuz the Victory's really.

really big and juicy and final and decided.

And, but now for the Ephesians, this was already a very relevant issue.

You guys remember in the Church of Ephesus, the Ephesians , it

was a very spiritual city.

It's roots were in the occult and Acts 1919, it says A number of

those who had practiced magic.

brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all,

and they counted the value of them and found that it came to.

Thousand silver pieces.

That's a lot of money.

That's a lot of occult, acts 19 where Paul enters Ephesus, and one of the things

he does is cast out demons and they, in Ephesus, is a local Ghostbuster squad.

They weren't very good but they're called the seven sons of s Skiva.

And they're like, wow, Paul's just doing it through like Jesus' name.

Like they, we, he's got the incantation down.

He's nailed it.

, they think it's great.

This is gonna be a boom for business cuz we're really bad at this.

They're still waiting for their first exorcism to happen, so they

start going up to demons and saying, I command you to come out by the

name of Jesus whom Paul preaches.

. Then one of the demons responds to the men acts in 1915 and says Jesus I know,

and Paul I recognize, but who are you?

And then verse 16 says, the evil spirit lept on them and mastered them so that

they fled out both naked and wounded.

They got their booties handed to them.

It was like these guys so steeped in the occult, like it's just

something we say an incantation.

It wasn't salvation for these guys.

It wasn't rescue, it wasn't Jesus.

And so they got handled.

So the Church of Ephesus is very aware of the spiritual

realm and the spiritual battle.

So the people of Ephesus were aware of this battle.

Are we aware of the battle that goes on?

If this is missing, I think it might be one of three things.

And this isn't for everybody in this room, but number one,

you're not spiritually alive.

It's just that simple.

You may have a form of godliness, but you haven't come to Jesus as your rescuer.

And Lord Matthew 7 22 to 23 says On that day, many will say to me Lord,

did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and

do many mighty works in your name?

And I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, workers

of lawlessness, you didn't know me.

You knew about me.

You used me, but we didn't have an intimate relationship.

Number two, you're not participating in God's mission of redemption and renewal

compelled by God's love in your heart.

Remember Paul, when asked Paul, why are you so crazy?

Second Corinthians, he says, to the love of God that compels me.

I stand under the F where the blessings come out and I can't help.

But be compelled like a geyser building up.

Its pressure.

It has to have an outlet.

And I could try to hold it back, but it's like Jeremiah, when he said, God,

I'm always getting in the situations.

I quit.

I'm not a preacher anymore.

I get thrown in pits.

I get thrown in jail for speaking on your behalf.

I'm done.

You don't even fire me when I have such a bad attitude.

I quit.

And he says, but the word of God was like a fire shut up in my bones

and I could not help but speak.

So where God's mission of redeeming and renewing goes forth, there

will be opposition conflict in spiritual war like Nehemiah.

Perhaps there's no opposition in your life because there's no mission in your life.

It's just that simple.

We get so busy with trying to hold it together and we mistake the primary

thing for the secondary thing, the primary thing, the reason we're here.

Why God put us as pilgrims on this earth is to make much of Jesus.

It would be better for him statistically to make the stones cry out and testify.

, they seem a lot softer, , more willing, more yielding.

But because he adores you, because he's put his name on you because you're in

him, he wants you to experience his.

To the full and he associates his mission with you.

That's incredible.

Like the great commission, like go make disciples of all nations and I'm

actually gonna be there through the person of the Holy Spirit empowering

you, teaching you what to say.

Like, like go change the world.

Go change the world where you're at, like.

And how did the, and we'll get to how the disciples did that, because

sometimes that's where it trips us up.

We're like, but I'm not talented enough.

I don't have enough gifts.

I can't, if you notice in the story of Acts, it was

when Paul was persecuted, he loved.

When the jailer was about to kill himself after he had abused Paul and Silas in

the harshest way, and the guy was about to kill himself cuz he knew the score.

He said, don't do it.

Let's go feast at your house.

I wanna tell your whole family about Jesus's salvation.

Like it was that kind of power.

It was a power that was dying to self.

It was loving enemies.

It was so counterintuitive to the ways of the world that it as from the

world's perspective, they said those changed the world and turned it up.

Yeah.

Have come here as well.

Number three, you.

Sin is like a narcotic.

It's like ambient man puts you to.

It says, there's always tomorrow.

Don't be crazy.

You won't make a difference anyway.

You're not ready.

You need more preparation.

And we let the siren song of Unres sin lu us into apathy or the

cares of this world and it's mini distractions choke us into slumber.

Do Christians fall asleep?

Do they go to sleep when it's time to be awake?

Yeah.

Paul writes in Romans 13, 11 to 12, to the church.

Besides this, the time your alarm clock's been going off.

That the hour has come for you to wake from sleep for salvation is nearer to

us now than when we first believed.

The night is far gone, the day is at hand.

So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Oh, he's talking about the armor.

He is talking about battle.

He's like, wake up in battle.

Wake up in battle.

For the sleepers, god's so gracious.

I just have to point out.

When Jesus was in the garden of the Yosemite, he said, guys,

please watch and pray for me.

And he comes back and he finds 'em all asleep and he says, you guys couldn't

watch and pray for one hour like this is, does Jesus ever ask anything?

And he says, can you watch him pray with me?

I need you to pray.

I'm gonna battle the powers of hell right now.

I'm gonna wrestle as I look into the cup, I'm gonna actually say, I

don't want to do this father, but I surrender my will to your will, pray.

And he comes with him and there sleep asleep.

But he's still, because he's a gracious God.

He looks and he says, but your spirit was willing, you wanted it.

Let's go.

So even for the sleepers guys, he just graciously wakes us up

and says, come on, let's go.

Mission is a war against spiritual forces.

Notice that it says in verse 12 of our passages for we do not wrestle against

flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the

cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil

in the heavenly places, wrestling.

Now Paul isn't mixing his metaphors.

He's not okay, so you're waring and doing battle and then you

wrestle, so we think I used to.

Soldiers in armor is one of his metaphors, and then wrestlers in the gymnasium.

My son, he wrestles, right?

And he's been wrestling.

He's killing it.

He's winning.

It's fun.

It's, even if he's losing, it's fun, but like, you're like, go get him.

And he's just attacks and, but there's rules, there's a referee.

That's not the picture that Paul's given.

No referee, no circle, no Matt.

This is the pictures he's given us.

Wrestling with your bare hands on the ground.

If you're shooting arrows or swinging swords, that's one part of the battle.

When you get to a place where you're wrestling with the enemy on

the ground with your bare hands, that's the most desperate life

and death moment of the battle.

So he is saying, you actually, the battle isn't just you standing

back and shooting from a distance.

He says, you're wrestling, you're on the ground.

It's desperate, you guys remember Saving Private Ryan where remember

the end where the guy who was a coward the whole time and his friend,

his fellow soldier is about to be stabbed with a knife and he has a gun.

and he just sits there crying and he lets his, his friend die.

It's like battle is desperate, you know?

and that's what Paul's doing.

He's saying, Hey, this is something we do, The Christian

life is a continual conflict.

Battle must be waged daily against the most relentless foes.

Be aware of the battle.

In this warfare.

There is no discharge to the mind of Paul.

The need for struggle was ever present.

Ever present.

Finally do this to stand.

The enemy, verse 11 to 12.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may able to stand against the schemes of the.

Before we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against

the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the

spiritual forces in the heavenly places.

The devil.

How do we know the devil and demons are real?

One brief point that I think all of us can just fall back on

cuz there's tons of skeptics.

We live in a modern age that's quickly changing to a

spiritual one, in the enlighten.

, we thought science was gonna solve and cure everything.

That science would fix the human heart.

That evil was a word we don't use anymore.

That the whole idea of s.

Spiritual reality, spiritual beings, a spiritual realm is archaic.

It's something that superstitious people think about, demons and evil

and influence on governments and motivations and stuff like that.

And it's stupid.

Nobody would be like that.

And then World War I Happened and they're like maybe it's a fluke.

And then World War II happened.

and I started rethinking everything.

But it's so crazy because the church adapts, the church adapts

to now we need to justify, oh no.

This is like, here's what he means.

It's not really a personal devil.

It's more like a, a way to say, evil can be personified in people.

Where it's this like dumb down thing.

Here is just the go.

You don't have to argue that the 10 points on why, evil is real.

Here it is.

The Bible presents them as real.

Number two, Jesus said they were real and taught about them and fought against them.

Everything about Christianity really hinges on Jesus.

What do you think about Jesus?

. Even in the Old Testament, there's critics of the books.

There's, was no a real person.

Was Adam and Eve a real person?

Or is that a metaphor for the creation of the world?

I is Jonah real?

Did he really get swallowed by a fish?

That doesn't make any sense.

That doesn't happen.

There's no fishes big enough to do that.

How can a man survive three days in a fish?

Ah, a thing.

But Jesus says, just like Jonah, who's three days, three nights in the fish.

So either you believe Jesus.

And if Jesus says it's true, then you're good.

If you don't believe Jesus, you got a lot of problems with Christianity

because he's our authority.

You see what Jesus says is real.

What Jesus did as real Jesus came to show us what is truly true about our

world, about heaven and hell, about the coming kingdom, all those things.

Christianity hinges on Jesus.

It hinges on Jesus is Jesus, did he live?

Did he die?

Did he rise from the dead?

Is he the authority?

Is he the son of God?

It always hinges on that.

I trust that Jesus understands all the reality of the realities

of the universe better than I.

If you believe that Jesus is the son of God and reveals truth, you don't have

the option not to believe in an active and vibrant spirit world because he did.

Faith is accepting what I cannot understand based on what I can understand.

So if you understand that Jesus is God, you can accept what he says

about the world you can't see, right?

Yeah.

Because we put our faith in Jesus.

CS Lewis said in his book, screw Tape Letters, that when it comes to

devils and demons, they're two equally wrong and equally damaging heirs.

Over believing in the devil, and one is not believing in the devil of all at all.

He said one is to disbelieve in their existence.

The other is to have an unhealthy interest in them.

? . Or we could say underestimate on the one hand and overestimate on the other.

Why are both these extremes bad?

Because they reduce evil and simplify it.

And we need a nuanced and complex view of evil.

If you say everything is the devil or nothing is the devil,

then that actually is simplistic.

That's a simplistic way of looking at the world in the universe.

I remember a Christian talk show lady who was driving to work and broke

her fingernail on the way to work and said, can you guys pray for me?

I'm just under so much warfare.

I was like, what?

Yeah.

Or it's to see there is no devil, there's no personal devil or

demons or spiritual realm, right?

In the movie the Children's movie, silence of the Lambs , Larry's cla Starling is

meeting Hannibal Lecter for the first time, and she says a question, we're

all asking about the mass shootings that are taking place everywhere.

How can you be this, what happened to you?

What is this?

I can't understand.

How can you be this kind of way?

Here's what Hannibal Le says.

Nothing happened to me.

Agent Sterling, no off.

Nothing happened to me.

Officer Sterling, I happened.

You can't reduce me to a set of influences.

You've given up good and evil for behavior.

Officer Starling, you've got everybody in moral dignity pants.

Nothing is ever anybody's fault.

Look at me, officer Starling, can you stand to say, I'm evil.

I am evil.

Officer Starling,

it's this whole idea like, no, nobody's that evil.

There's not something, helping pull the strings.

I was talking to my doctor.

My neurologist said she's Chinese and she just heartbroken,

couldn't make sense of it.

Why would somebody do this?

The mass shootings that happened two, two weeks ago the the Chinese New Year

I just can't make heads or tails.

How does this happen?

How can this happen?

So we need a complex view of it.

It's not.

The devil made me do it.

No, that's simplistic.

It's not that, ah, there's no devil that doesn't explain the gross atrocities that

we see, humans participating in, there were German citizens that hung themselves.

after things came to light and or went on trial and they believed that they

just got swept up and participated in that kind of nationalism, that was

destroying a whole race of people.

Oh it's cleansing and it's keeping the disease out.

. Those people thought they were good people.

There is a influence and aggravation in the human heart,

that's why he says it's cosmic.

It's big, pulling strings here and there the world and that it's

powers that there's a real evil that's trying to influence and

put its presence on the world.

And again, remember, The whole thing about Satan is he's an angel of light.

He's not like, woo, here I am.

Did I scare you?

It's all about being invisible.

It's all about, they say, the most dangerous lie is the one

that has the most truth in it.

It's like the one degree off.

It's the brownies with dog poop, right?

There's barely any, but it impacts the whole thing, kind of thing.

I wouldn't want to eat it, oh, it's only got a tablespoon.

Oh a tablespoon Richard Baxter on depression, and here's why.

Christians have always had like a nuanced view of good and evil.

He said he was a 17th century pastor Theo.

In talking about depression, he said way back then, he said,

sometimes depression is physical.

What you need is food or medicine or rest.

You need a good night's sleep.

He says, sometimes there's a psychological cause cast down in your temperament.

What you need is lots of love and affirmation and support.

Sometimes it's a moral cause.

You might feel guilty about something or feel angry about something and feel

guilty about being angry about the thing.

Sometimes it's sic, sometimes it's spiritual.

. So let's not overestimate the devil's power.

Be strong in the Lord.

He says, don't be afraid.

Don't run or retreat.

He says, stand.

He doesn't say you might stand.

He says, you will stand.

Expect success.

Fight from a place of victory.

, but we don't underestimate the enemy's power either.

We're we.

true to reality.

First Peter five, eight says, be sober minded.

, don't be clouded.

Don't be numbed down.

Be mindful.

Be watchful for your adversary.

The devil prowls around like a roaring line.

Seeking someone to devour.

Behind the world of flesh and blood.

Paul recognized the presence of a powerful and active spirit world.

Cosmic powers of darkness.

Spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places are spiritual

forces of unbelievable power.

We see it in the oppressive governments, in the dysfunctional

relationships and bouts with loneliness and depression and even sickness.

And in the struggle with pride and temptation.

There is always something larger and more powerful at work, a world

you can't see with your eyes.

What Satan is after is not your recognition.

of him or his ways, but your destruction.

Tony Capella said, appearing in movies telling us that romantic love and sexual

pleasure are the keys to fulfillment.

He's the one behind an economic system that teaches us that money

is the key to success and happiness.

He's the one who sits in the psychologist chair offering

ultimate hope and life apart from.

He works in and through governments that coddle people into thinking

that government help is the answer.

He's the one teaching from our pulpits that life is about you.

That God wants to make you rich, that hell is not real, and that

the standards of the Bible are for different, a different time and place.

He is the one who whispers to you that it is a ridiculous idea to believe in God.

He is not after your recognition, but after your destruction.

The devil's power.

a couple things.

It is a permitted power.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there

is no authority except from God.

. So he's not equal with God.

God, you just, I don't know.

Sometimes you watch cartoons or I don't know, and you just

think like, God, I'm the devil.

Are in this like, cosmic battle.

Battle from all eternity past, no, he's a created being, he.

An angel, maybe a worship leader.

So it's a permitted power.

It's a limited power.

You guys worth the story of job?

God says, Hey, have you seen my servant job?

Is it he amazing?

It's so good.

The glimpses that we get of how God looks and talks about his

saints and saints, like that's cuz you got a hedge around him.

If you remove that hedge.

If I could get to.

he would curse you.

And what does God say?

He says, you can do this, but not this.

It's a limited power.

, God knows the exact proportion of our strength and endurance and will

not allow Satan's temptations to go beyond what we are able to endure.

He never gives us too much.

. . the third century when St.

Felix of Nola was running from his enemies, he took refuge in a

cave and so he hiding in a cave.

His enemies are trying to come kill him, and all of a sudden he sees spiders

start working on the mouth of a cave.

And they form webs that encloses the whole mouth of the cave.

Just as soon as they're done, soldiers, the guys the enemies walk and see

the spider web and they think, oh, that's been like that for months.

And they move on.

, and here's what he says about it, stepping out into the sunshine.

Felix de declared where God is a spider, web is a wall, and where

God is, A wall as a spider web.

First Corinthians 10 13.

No temptation has overtaken you.

That is not common to man.

God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape

that you may be able to endure it.

Number three, it is a resisted.

Satan does not have a smooth path.

Ruth Paxon rights, nor an easy time for his power manifested

for harm against God people.

God's people is met by a barrage of prayer, both from the faithful

high priest in heaven and his heavenly prayer warriors on earth.

It is a broken power.

Number four.

Luke 11, 21 to 22.

Jesus says, when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, His goods

are safe, but when one's stronger than he attacks him and overcomes

him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.

What is the point of that?

Jesus is saying, I'm the stronger.

He says, if it's just about getting the demons out clean

slate, they're gonna come back and you're gonna be seven times worse.

, what you need is you need to put someone stronger in their

place if you've been overcome.

It's not about just getting rid, it's.

me being put in their place.

The true power.

It's a broken power.

He's a fatally bruised foe.

His head crushed at the cross of Jesus Christ.

We belong to Jesus the stronger Christus, Victor, Christ, the victorious.

First John four.

Four, I used to say probably still does if the enemy's attacking, hit 'em with a

four by four , which is a big piece of.

It's kinda like that.

The Rock movie, what was that called?

Where he carried around a beam?

I dunno.

I always pictured that I put those two together.

First tall walking tall, boom.

Yes.

Why hit 'em with a four by four?

Because it says in one John, four, four little children, you are

from God and have overcome them.

For he who is in you is greater than He who is in the world.

We have to think about the enemy.

Do you guys play poker?

Do you any of you play poker at all?

Once in a while.

Once in a while.

I'm really bad at it.

Yeah.

Yeah, me too.

One.

The person who I've found, like whenever I play with my wife, Andrea, she wins

every time and she hardly knows how to play because it's like, I'll go on and

you can't do that, but maybe she has something, and then I'm like, ah, I'm

folding on, two pair or something, with ACEs high, and then she's got nothing.

She's like, oh, I just thought, I thought I'd go all in and see what happened, and

I'm like, oh, every time I lose every single game because she just bluffs and

I can't tell if you're in, you bluffing.

She's the best bluffing.

Overtake over.

Exactly.

But what's amazing is that's all Satan has

he has no good cards.

He's a bluffer.

That's it.

And the only thing he, the only power he has is to get you to

believe that he has a good hand.

He's defeated, he's lost his pot.

He doesn't ever even think anything to bet on, but if he can get

you to believe he's got a hand.

, that's how he gets you.

. He's a shadow.

He's defeated, he's def defended, like he's a lion that ro in a book.

We used to read Streams in the Desert.

Is it?

I don't know.

Yeah, but it's the old lion who doesn't hunt anymore, that roars and pushes you

into the young lions who tear you apart, and so they always say in the devotional,

run to the roar, he's defamed, he's the only power he has is the power You.

. , Mm-hmm.

. Mm-hmm.

, you know, through fear, through pride, that's through worry, anxiety.

, I think we need to I'm not a super traditional guy, but the

Greek Orthodox Church had this tradition that I wanna bring back.

, this is the best I didn't even know about this till studying this in the Greek

Orthodox tradition, the day after Easter was devoted to telling jokes, they felt

that they were imitating the cosmic joke.

God pulled on Satan in the resurrection.

That where Satan thought he'd won day one, Saturday.

Oh.

Sunday morning, he's defeated.

He smashed the head of the serpent.

The proto Evangeline the seat of the woman.

His heel will be bruised, but he will crush the serpent's

head, defang de powered, and death itself destroyed, undone.

So they tell jokes and the spirit of that.

That is fantastic.

. So Polish your dad jokes up.

Get your top 10 list.

I think we're gonna make a day of it.

I love it.

Finally and I'll be done.

The victory of Jesus.

Finally be strong in the Lord in the strength of his might.

Now we wanna all engage in the battles of life from a position of strength.

We just do.

And the way we see the world do it so often, we want to do it right.

We wanna have lots of money in savings and a good job.

So we're strong financially, we'll engage life and its problems once we're secure.

If you're younger, when you think about your future, you feel better

if you're strong in talent, right?

I've got a lot of gifts.

I've, I'm out there.

I'm gonna find, you know, I'm gonna hone.

Uh, If you're needing to make a decision, you wanna be strong in

your ability to figure out the right decision and make it right.

If you're trying to raise kids, you wanna be strong in your

abilities to guide and shape them.

That makes sense.

It's totally normal.

Like I, I'm, I want to be, strong in this area so that I know you know what to.

what the gospel teaches you as counterintuitive though because

it teaches you not to be strong in yourself, but to be strong in the

Lord and in the power of his might to let him be your strength and

power in security in every area.

The gospel is the opposite of being strong in yourself.

The great example is Abraham.

Oh Abraham.

God told Abraham that he was going to make his descendants number and the millions.

. The problem was, is that when God told him that Abraham didn't have any kids,

he was 90 and his wife was 75, and they're like, did this message get lost?

Like when Daniel was praying to get his message, was there a cosmic battle?

Were you supposed to bring this, like when I was in my twenties?

So because he is physically weak, he had to be strong in God.

And he's called the father of faith because that's what it meant to

have faith in God, to stand where your weak covered in God's strength,

and you won't do that unless you're convinced of your own weakness.

All of life is dependence.

I love the story of Solomon because Solomon, here's, I'll

tell you why on the surface, why I love it, and then why I really.

Solomon is praying and he's gonna rule the nation of Israel.

And so he goes and he prays for wisdom.

God says, Hey man, I'm gonna give you wisdom and uh, because you didn't ask for

riches or long line, give you those two.

So I love it because here's a leader and he just says, what

I really need, God is wisdom.

, I've often prayed the.

, God give me wisdom, hoping he'll give me the riches in long life.

, like I can twist his arm . But what's interesting about Solomon is God gives

him the wisdom and his life is ruins.

Proverbs is great.

Song of Solomon is amazing.

Ecclesiastes is incredible.

, but he ends up with a thou uh, you know, thousand wives or, and concubines his

heart's pulled to worship other gods.

It leads to, the division the northern Kingdom of Israel and

the southern Kingdom of Judah,

that's not typically what you'd expect When God gives you a supernatural

gift of wisdom on your life, that at the end it just all ruined.

It's all vexation of spirit.

It's empty.

That's why I love.

in the New Testament.

It doesn't just say that God will give us a wisdom.

It says that he'll be our wisdom.

, it's different.

I think sometimes we want God power me up.

Mm-hmm.

And I'll go out and God says, no, be dependent on me because I'm your wisdom.

Be dependent on me because I'm your strength.

Be dependent on me for everything we want.

We want to hit the smoothie with all the nutrients on a Sunday morning

and drink it down so that we can be on mission during the week.

And God is saying no.

You gotta be rooted in me for everything, for life and godliness like in me.

Be strong in the Lord.

That's a really important word in the Lord and the strength of his might.

Right.

Uh, I love Gideon.

Gideon was being called an enemy, and gide and judges six, 12 to 14.

And, And Gideon, he says, I'm literally shelling sunflower seeds in a cave.

That's how ridiculous what he was doing.

By hand they used to thresh the wheat.

They'd throw it up in the air and the wind would blow it.

You couldn't do that in a case.

So he is literally picking each thing off.

It would take a million years to have enough food, he's afraid.

And he says, I'm the least in my father's house.

I'm in the least of the tribe.

Like, you've got it wrong.

And the angel Lord, after he said that, appeared to him and said, the Lord

is with you, almighty man of valor.

and he is like, you've got the wrong person.

I am the least I am weak.

That's what he says.

And the Lord turned to him and said, and this I'll never forget cuz I

don't think it's a mistranslation.

Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian.

Do I not send you?

He says, I'm weak.

And he says, that's might

I'm the least.

That's might.

, right?

When you're realistically weak in your life, you helplessly

look to God to be strong.

You're worried about your family.

How about your kids turning out right about your marriage?

Do you feel weak in that?

Congratulations.

You're eligible for God's strength.

. Maybe you have a huge decision in front of you, not sure what to do.

In other words, you feel weak to make the decision.

Then trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean.

on your own understanding.

Be strong not in your abilities, but in your confidence in

him and his care for you.

Are you worried about financially being stable in the future?

You can do one of two things.

You can look at the future through the lens of your own strength,

how much job security I have.

Or you can be strong in your confidence in God to take care of you and the future.

Look to the birth of the air.

Look to the lilies of the field.

Solomon and all his glory was not a rate as one of them.

How much more value are you?

To me than those things.

You cannot be strong in yourself and strong in God, and it is only where

your sense of weakness that you will be strong in God, where that hits you,

where that is realized, that is strength.

It's all through scripture.

Very important truth about Jesus's life.

All of Jesus's miracles started with the problem all of.

Jesus purposely did not go around pulling rabbits out of hats or

catching bullets in his teeth.

He did not just do a show.

Remember, who was it?

Herod.

He wanted a show.

Let's see some magic.

I hear you're the greatest magician.

Nobody knows how you do it.

Jesus didn't do a thing, didn't even talk to him.

, when did Jesus respond?

When they're problems?

If you have a problem, if you have a.

Good news, you're a candidate for a miracle.

Bad news, no problem, no miracle.

The only ones of you that are eligible for mighty displays of God's power

are those that are weak with problems.

So the question, where do you feel strong right now in the whole scheme of battle?

Satan's really good.

He's a good adversary.

That's maybe where you're the weakest, because that's where you're

least likely to depend on God's.

And you're no match for Satan.

Where do you feel weakest right now?

That's an invitation to trust God.

Those who look to themselves for strength will quickly find it in short supply.

Those who are mighty in their confidence in God will find that

he and his willingness to help and his power to do so are a deep,

deep, well that never runs dry.

Isaiah 40 31 says that even the youngest men, I love that

part, the strongest, the best.

It's that next generation that seems full of testosterone and

vigor, like has an endless supply of energy, will grow weary and stumble.

But those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.

They will mount up with wings like eagles.

They will run and not be weary.

They will walk and not faint.

Those who wait upon the Lord sit with, be rooted in, we might

say in the New Testament ab.

Linger be at home win.

Look at Jesus' strength, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

And it's very important that we see how he that be strong in the Lord

and in the strength of his might.

Paul, when he writes and says the Lord, , it's talking about Jesus.

So be strong in Jesus and in the strength of his might.

So he's saying, be abstract about this, and just think God's infinitely

powerful and he'll just like zap you and give you this, this

crazy, power, and you'll whatever.

What he's pointing out here is the, That Jesus was strong and he says, God makes

you strong and that, and how was that?

In the Old Testament, God is said to be a divine warrior when they

cross the Red Sea and they get out of Egypt, and God liberates the

children of Israel from slavery.

Miriam.

Moses' sister sings a great song and says, God is a divine warrior, and

he fights against evil and injustice.

He has liberated us.

He has won the Great Battle of the Red Sea.

That's in her song.

God is a warrior.

He's a divine warrior.

He's liberated.

His people remember holding you.

Egyptian army drowned.

As the history of Israel goes on, it gets clear to see when Israel becomes evil.

When Israel becomes corrupt, when Israel becomes oppressive,

God goes to war against them.

He fights against them, which shows that God is not a tribal deity.

That's like, oh, this is my people.

Don't worry about it.

He's against evil.

Whoever does it, he's against injustice, whoever does it, and by the end of

the Old Testaments, the prophets, because they were under the boot of

another oppressor and another oppress.

And another oppressor were yearning for a time when the divine warrior

would show up the way he did and led them out of Egypt and liberated them,

obliterated the enemy in the Red Sea, that some divine warrior would show

up and liberate them from the Romans.

And the Jesus comes and he calls himself, son of man.

The son of man was a figure mentioned in Daniel seven who would lead the

host of the Lord, the armies of God to defeat evil on the earth.

They're like, he's here, the warrior, the divine warriors come.

when Jesus shows up and he says he's the son of man, all the disciples said, wow.

Finally the divine warriors here.

He's going to fight against evil and injustice.

He's gonna take our enemies out.

He's gonna slaughter them.

He's gonna pay 'em back.

He doesn't act that way, does he?

He doesn't wound.

He heals.

He doesn't raise an army.

He wanders about teaching and feeding and loving people at the climax of his

life when the soldiers are after him.

Peter gets out his sword and Jesus says, put it away.

What kind of divine warrior is this?

Definitely the ones the one they weren't expecting, but the

answer is the only kind we need.

because if Jesus had come back to put down the Romans, that wouldn't

have changed the human condition.

The hearts of every.

Woman and child, be they Roman, be they Greek, be they Gentile, be they

Samaritan, or even be they Jewish.

Secondly, if Jesus had come back to destroy all evil, none of us would

be left because evil was in us.

We are the problem.

What did he.

. Jesus did not come with a sword in his hands.

He came with nails in his hands.

He didn't come to bring a sword of God's judgment on evil.

He came to bear the sword of God's judgment on evil.

It fell on him.

Yes, Jesus Christ overcame evil with good.

He gave himself, he died on the cross for a sin so that he could

not just end the Roman empire but to end sin and death in evil itself.

He did that by forgiving him and saving his enemies and dying for his

enemies so that someday he can come and end all evil without ending us.

That's the battle.

That's the warfare we should be participating in.

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and the power of Jesus might.

What was Jesus' might.

That's the battle, that's the warfare we should be participating in.

Why look carefully, Jesus loved his enemies.

That's how he overcame evil.

He forgave his enemies.

He laid down his life for them.

He said when he was on the cross and they were mocking him,

spitting on him, blaspheming him.

Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing, and it changed the.

Like that's the power he supplies infinite amounts of it, like

that's what he's calling us into.

If a grain of wheat falls into the ground, a grain of wheat falls into

the ground and dies, it remains alone.

But when it dies, it bears much fruit.

He's calling us into a sacrificial strength, right?

Jesus says, Hey, if you love those who love, I don't know if

that takes supernatural power.

Till you really get to know them.

Yeah.

But I say to you, love your enemies last, those who persecute you now that

might need supernatural power, and that's the power that he supplies.

Is that kind of.

laying one down's life, gerding ourself with the garments of a servant and

washing people's feet who have stabbed us in the back, ah, who've betrayed

us, who've taken advantage of us.

Who've, that's a crazy kind of love.

That's the power he supplies.

That's the economy, that's the the atmosphere of his kingdom.

So let's pray.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you for just this word and Lord I'm so often one who

just wants you to fill me up.

And our weakness is your strength made.

Perfect.

Lord I look at this little Nathaniel growing up and so utterly desperate

for everything he could now do, like sign language that he wants

food, but he can't get it himself.

But like our father's heart, the parents' heart is just to like move.

Yes, with all speed and haste.

That's what is your father's heart over us.

I pray, Lord, that we would rest in you, that we would let you be everyth.

that you would be our wisdom, that you would be our strength, that you would

be our victory, that you would be our hope, that you would be everything.

That we wouldn't base our hope on how much we accomplish for you,

but on how much you've done for us.

That our worry and our anxiety, or our desire to control.

That Lord, you just rescue us from that.

That you rescue us from temptation, Lord, that we would see how good you are.

How good is God?

How great are you that Jesus, the son of God, the un caused cause?

The infinite one would come for me die.

Would bleed for me, would bear all of what's obviously wrong and all

that's hidden would take that on himself and suffer the righteous

judgment that was against me.

Praise Jesus.

Praise Jesus.

Thank you Lord.

, we love you.

We raise a hallelujah.

In the presence of her enemies, there's no competition.

God be for us, who can be against us.

So Lord, may we make it our aim to be in, in rooted, abiding with you.

Praise you God.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.