Armored With A Sword

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Get your sword out this morning.

Turn it to Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

We have looked over these pieces of armor, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation last week, and now the sword of the spirit.

It says in Ephesians 6, 17, and take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

The Word of God.

Forty authors over 1,400 years, one cohesive story in 66 books.

Men have tried to burn it and banish it and dispel it and discredit it and outlaw it and censor it.

Yet it is the most widely read manuscript of every age.

The Bible says of itself, the grass and the flower fades, but God's word will forever stand.

It says it is forever settled in the heavens.

It's an all-time bestseller of all-time bestsellers.

They cannot get rid of this book.

I love my Bible.

And it's the only book out of all the books I've ever loved or liked that's loved me back.

I love my Bible.

It's been at the greatest and worst parts of my life.

I was thinking my time at Tennessee Temple University, where a lot of my spiritual changing happened on that campus, 600 miles away from home, away from mommy and daddy, away from any impression of this is how a Christian should be, but just me and my own walk.

And I opened the Word of God and began to obligatorily try to start a devotion time, a Bible reading and prayer time.

Because that's what a good little Christian does at a good little Christian college.

And so I set out to do that without mom or dad or without a Christian school or without somebody behind me, but just doing it because I knew it was a good habit.

And after a few weeks, God gave me sort of an epiphany on a chapter.

Some of you that have had this happen, a chapter that's not about what it was about to me.

It's a chapter about child rearing.

But Psalms 127, I begin to read it, and it says, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

And I just got stuck there.

Have you ever read something and read it and read it and read it again?

Said, What am I reading?

Well, God was telling me, Except the Lord build this house, they labor in vain that build it.

I can be in this college, be passing all the tests, be good little Christian, not get to merits, not get in trouble.

But why am I doing all of those things?

And this book began to tell me, unless the Lord builds this house, it's all vain.

And so I told God that day, God, as I looked at this word that began to show me it loved me.

I said, God, help me just to be real.

I want to be real.

And so after a few weeks, I began to experiment.

Maybe in your college days, you experimented.

I began to play different types of worship music with my reading of the Word of God.

Maybe different from you.

But that one morning in particular, man, God just had so wrapped up my heart in a few weeks.

And I don't know if you remember the old uh worship song, Shout to the Lord.

Man, it got me.

I began singing, Shout to the Lord.

And I'm just bellowing because I can't sing.

And reading the word, and I'm I'm in tears, and you know, cry singing, shout to the Lord.

All the earth let us sing, power, majesty, praise to the king.

And all of a sudden, my roommate from Honduras, who I did not know was in the room, said, Hey, bruh, you keep that down.

So I had to change my experimentation of the word of God, but the word of God has meant so much to me in my life.

I hope that it means much to you.

Let's pray.

Father, we love you.

And we thank you for the depth of this book.

God, we thank you for the value of this book.

We thank you for God, a manual and a manuscript that can manage our life.

God, I pray that not one person today would take this lightly.

God, I pray that we would leave here.

God, having a deeper love, a deeper understanding, a deeper trust and knowledge of this book.

Lord, we love you today in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, the first point this morning is this the sword cuts, Hebrews 4.12.

Many of you know this verse, but I want you to hear it again this morning.

It says, For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It says the word of God is sharper.

It uses the word sharper, comparing the sharper, that word is tamateros, and it means as if to cut with a single stroke, the word of God can do.

It's sharper than any other sword.

Have you ever tried to cut through something with a dull blade?

I mean, you get a dull enough blade, you can't get through Christmas wrapping paper, right?

Man, you know you've messed it up, right?

I know I have.

I had that, I was clipping my fingernails the other week and the clippers flipped out and broke on me.

I'm like, what?

Must have come from the Dollar General.

I need some expensive clippers.

But I thought about that dullness.

It says it's sharper than anything, Tamateros.

Everything that a person places next to the Word of God will be dull in comparison to what the Word of God can do, the sharpness it does in a heart.

There's not a self-help book that can help you.

There's not journaling or meditation or therapy, no alcoholic drink, no drug, not enough solitude, not enough travel.

Nothing can peer inside of you, nothing can cut through our layers like basking in the word of God.

Why, Pastor?

Because this manual was created by the creator who created you.

If you wanted to know more about the Apple products, I would suggest you don't go get a manual created by Rick Wright.

You would probably want something created by Steve Jobs.

The word of God cuts like nothing else because it's like nothing else.

Listen to me.

A few things you need to know.

There's a word nafed.

Let me tell you three things that God breathed.

And God breathed and gave man the breath of life.

You were created by the breath of a God.

2 Timothy 3 says this about his book.

All scripture is God breathed.

Nafek.

And John 20, 22 says it says God breathed, nafekeik, on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit.

It is the God-breathed word given to God-breathed man, conveyed and eliminated by the God-breathed Holy Spirit.

It's all in line with one another.

And so when it peers into you, it's because it gets you.

It's a part of our makeup.

It is alive.

It speaks to me.

Swindoll said this about it.

It speaks to me.

It has feet and it runs after me.

It has hands and it lays hold of me.

I'm sorry, I said Swindle.

That was Luther.

The Word of God understands.

Letter A is this it cuts through sinfulness of man.

One definition of sin is the wrongful intent or motive of an action.

I want you to think about that for a minute.

It's not just a list of things, but it is the why of the things.

The Hebrews author said the word of God discerns the intent and the thought of the heart.

The intent is the word enoia.

The power, that word means the power to consider and judge something soberly.

So the way that you think about something before you do it, some might use the word premeditation.

Some of y'all know that a premeditated murder carries a different sentence than a murder that's done out of defense.

It was the intent.

You see, the word of God cuts right through all the information and right to the intent, the annoyia.

Did you intend to miss the mark?

Nobody here got dressed in their Sunday attire and had zero intent.

Everyone had intent when you got dressed.

Nobody said, I hate that, I can't stand that.

Fine outfit.

We have intent when we get dressed.

Nothing wrong with pants or shorts or skirts or a dress.

I mean, there was a time growing up, the jean pants in the church house.

You were asking for God's judgment.

But God in his age, as he's aged, he's been okay, he's okay with jeans now.

But there's an intent.

Right?

What is the intent?

Do you intend to draw certain type of attention?

Sin is the intent, the why.

That's why the Bible says you can be angry and sin not.

And some people say, well, that person's angry, what a sin.

Well, sin is not a list of things, it's the intent.

Jesus was angry.

I mean, flipped some tables, got right up in some people's face.

You can have righteous anger.

What is the intent?

Every time that I'm in the Word or in church and hear the Word, the Holy Spirit is activated as my convictor.

It's like a mirror.

I'm looking at it and it just gets me.

How many of you looked in the mirror this morning?

Anybody looked in the mirror this morning, you saw your hair messed up, and you went, I don't care.

It's messed up.

If you're the type of person that looked in the mirror and your hair was messed up and you walked away and didn't fix it, that means this to me.

You actually are the type of person that doesn't look in the mirror.

You're like, I know I'm good.

I don't need to look in the mirror, right?

But those of you who looked at it, if it was messed up, I'm gonna guess you fixed it.

Because you're here, church, I want you to know this.

You're the right type.

You're here to look and hear from the mirror.

You're already past the hard part of people that are not even here.

Now, will you, church, this morning take a look?

I hope that you'll take a look.

Letter B is this, it cuts through sinfulness.

Letter B, it cuts for sanctification.

To sanctify an object means to wash, to consecrate, and that means to be set apart.

Sanctification is only the result of salvation.

So a person here without Christ is not washed and being washed.

That's sanctification.

It is, I have been washed thoroughly by the blood and being washed consistently.

I'm on like a 32-year streak of being washed.

Like I like a shower every day.

I have a hard time if I don't have a shower.

They tried to take me camping and I was in the sink, y'all.

I'm like, I got I feel sticky and weird, and people pay to come do this as it's relaxing.

It's not as relaxing as a shower was.

But that's what they want to do.

Consecrated, we're being washed.

The person being washed and sanctified, Galatians 5, 22 and 23 will begin to happen.

The fruit of the Spirit as you're being washed, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, patience.

But I want you to know a cut is part of the sanctification.

Anybody here have rose bushes?

I got some rose bushes.

Look at this picture.

It's pretty sad.

In early March, these things were in full bloom.

I mean, just beautiful.

There was 70 roses in this bush just popping out.

And in Alabama sunshine, this is what happens after a few weeks.

They go berserk, and in most cases, most of the roses fell off.

Well, what I needed to do with that bush, I took it and I began to cut on it.

And I began to cut it down and cut through it.

And I want to show you after one week, that is one week after cutting the same bush.

After one week, I had to cut through the rot.

I had to cut through the things that were rough, and all of a sudden, with some water being cut through, it allowed something to grow back even better.

I want you to know if something is rotting in me, I need to sit under the sword.

I need to sit under it because something needs to be cut.

Sin needs to be cut.

Did you know this?

That sin leads to more sin.

You can't be a cheater today and not be a liar.

You can't be a gossip and not be a hypocrite.

And you can't be a hypocrite and not be a liar.

And if you're a hypocrite and a liar, you're probably a cheater too.

Sin like rot spreads in you.

Let me add negative.

It's hard to be right, all those things and not just be negative.

When I sit under the word of God, though, even though something can spread and bask in him, because it's alive, it gets to work at my rot.

If I will allow that time.

It makes me want to be better.

You ever around somebody they make you want to be better?

Just being with them, just being around them, you're like, man.

Pastor Joe and I uh like to play ping pong.

And I'm not gonna brag, but I'm pretty good at ping pong.

It's kinda like I don't want to brag because it's a little bit nerdy.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, I don't know if that's good or bad, but I'm pretty good at ping pong.

Well, Pastor Joe kept wanting to play ping pong.

He kept wanting to play ping pong.

And Pastor Joe kept getting better and better and better at ping pong, and I'm like, that's it, I'm done.

You get no more practice from me because you're not gonna get better than, but but I noticed the more he would be around me and play ping pong, the better he kept getting.

The more I get in the word of God, the closer I get to being like Jesus, and the closer I get to being like Jesus, the more I want to be around Jesus, and the more I want to be around Jesus' people, and the more I want to be around worship, and the less I want to be around things that make me rot.

John 15, 4 and 5 said this: Remain in me as I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself.

I'm the vine, you're the branches.

If you remain in me, and I in you, you'll bear much fruit.

But apart from me, you can do nothing.

But what it takes first is that cut.

You see, once I get cut, then I can get clean.

You see, I think part of the problem for a lot of people, they'll come to a service like this or go through a week, and we only want to get to that surface level, right?

We're here, but we don't want to get deeper into the skin.

And we say, Pastor, I look, I'm okay with a little bit, but I really don't want to leave here cut.

And people come and they leave, and we're fine, and you know, we can have an altar call, we can do all that, but listen, don't let it be about me, because I don't want to get any deeper.

This is this is as much as I get.

Because when I get cut, it hurts, Pastor.

But I want you to hear me today.

If you're not willing to be cut, you're not willing to be changed.

If you're not willing to be changed, what are you doing week after week?

What are we doing?

Do we need another religious tradition?

We need betterment.

It made me think of the second point.

The sword cleans.

Made me think of this.

When you get a cut, then you're able to clean.

You remember what mama used to do when you got a cut?

She'd bring in when I was growing up, it was worse.

These kids got it easy, they got neosporin.

This stuff is glorious.

Neosporin, nothing about neosporin is bad.

Right?

When I would sit down, my mom would look at me in my eyes as if she was an honest person.

And she would say, just sit there, baby.

It's gonna be okay.

It's gonna be okay, she said to me with a straight face.

And then she went and got this brown bottle.

And there was my cut, and then she would get another bottle of sort of red, and first she would say, Okay, baby, I'm gonna pour this on your cut, right?

On my big open bruise.

And she would pour hydrogen peroxide, which isn't too awful bad, but they lied about it.

She said, It's not a big deal, it's just gonna clean it.

She poured that thing in.

I said, Mama, you lied to me.

Then she said, This next one might sting a little.

Micuricome or methylate.

This stuff was blood red.

It's like you was already bleeding, it made you bleed worse.

Poured it on there, and I'm like, I don't want like I don't, I need something to hold on, to chew on.

I'm like, this is torture.

Oh my soul.

But once I got cut, I could take in some medicinal things.

I could take in some fixing.

The problem for a lot of people here, you've got an inside problem, and you are unwilling first to be cut so that that can come out and you can be fixed by the word.

You can't leave here with that same thing.

You need the doctor to do a little bit of cutting.

Well, letter A is this it cleans through coaching.

I want you to turn your Bible to 2 Timothy.

Another familiar passage, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.

It says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

You see what it said there it's given by God and is profitable, it's good, and it gives you a list of things.

The first thing it said is doctrine.

I need you to put on your uh classroom headset for a moment.

Doctrine.

That word is Didaskalia, and it means what to instruct.

What is doctrine?

I've got a picture for you here.

In any church that you go to, these are ten major doctrines.

And maybe you're here and you're going, wow, what is allogies?

Okay, just hang on for a second.

Look at the middle column.

It says the doctrine of these things.

If you're going to a church and they don't present these things ever in a message, there's a problem.

These things are needed, the doctrine, and the doctrine means basically this: what we should believe.

The doctrine of the Bible, the doctrine of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, angels, Satan, and demons, man, sin, salvation, the church in end times.

And you can see over there we use these big words, but this is the breakdown of what they mean, okay?

When you hear these things, what are you learning about doctrine?

It says the Bible is good for doctrine.

It's good to explain to you what it is that you should believe.

A recent survey was given by the Gospel Coalition.

It said 65% in this survey.

Of U.S.

adult Christian said they were Christians, and 52%, over half of those accepted a worse, a works-based salvation.

Means they don't understand the doctrine of soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, what it means to comprehend salvation.

15% of those surveyed said they don't know what will happen after they die.

They don't have a proper understanding of what we call eschatology or end times.

They don't understand that doctrine.

And on and on we could go through the survey.

But the Bible is a book of doctrine.

It's to be read, taught, and listened to and learned.

And if you know what you believe about it, then you'll be ready to give an answer.

Listen, you're not here every week just to be preached to.

If you hear something that comes down this line, this is not a TED talk for the saints.

If you hear something, then mark it in your Bible.

Look, I used to tell teenagers all the time a good leader reads with a pen.

So come and write.

That has to do with soteriology, salvation.

That has to do with the Holy Spirit, pneumatology.

Come ready to understand better.

Don't be here feeling bad if you're unsure, but don't stay unsure.

List it out.

It's about doctrine.

So the sword cleans to that coaching of what we should believe in.

Then the other part is instruction.

That word is padia, and that's the meaning of the whole self-training.

The sword of the Spirit is living and active.

As you read the Word of God, this alive book, and the Holy Spirit illuminates our understanding, we are coached through the cleansing of our life, how to apply it.

That's what instruction is.

Doctrine is what we should believe.

The instruction is how do we then accomplish this with life?

How do we live out what we say that we believe?

How do we do it?

How do we be doers of the word of God?

Not just James 1.22, hearers only.

Okay?

And so it's for instruction.

Well, letter B is this, it cleans through correction.

It said in 2 Timothy there, reproof and correction.

The what not to do's.

The what not to do's.

Anybody ever seen these caution labels?

The what not to do?

Caution labels say some funny things.

I was reading through this and found some cute ones this week.

Here's one.

On a bottle of dog shampoo, it says, do not feed this to fish.

On a hairdryer made by Vidal Sassoon, it said, do not use while sleeping.

I don't.

Here's one reflective sunshade that you put on your car window.

It said, do not drive with the sunshade in place.

I got to thinking about it like, you know, this means somebody did it.

A washing machine, literally on the label, said, do not put a person in this machine.

Here's my favorite.

I had to get a picture of it.

A letter opener.

Look down at there.

It says, safety goggles recommended.

Can you imagine opening envelopes?

Oh no, don't stop.

You gotta put your goggles on.

That's very dangerous.

Like, that's from Staples.

I hope somebody here puts safety goggles on when they open their letters.

Please send me a picture.

The last one that I read said, Rowena irons.

Do not iron clothes while on body.

Whoo, that's hot.

Reproof and correction, the do-nots.

Here's a few the Bible says do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Do not love the world, neither the things that are in the world.

Do not be a hearer only, be a doer.

We said this this morning with our team.

Don't be anxious.

But with everything in prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God.

There's a whole line of do-nots.

See, when I align myself with the Word of God, I put my life on the altar of correction.

I put my life there.

And it's not, hear me.

It's not for the faint of heart this morning to be cut open.

You know what it says about this, about who we are?

We're called Bible believers.

If you're a Bible believer, that means you've accepted Jesus Christ as Lord.

It's not some are in and some are out.

We are all to be able to be corrected in this way.

It means to believe in totality.

I have to put my whole self on the altar for correction, for examination by this word.

I have to look at this mirror.

I want you to look at Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

It's comparison.

Why do we have to do all that, Pastor?

Ephesians 5, 25 and 26.

It's talking about the picture of a husband and his wife as the picture of Jesus and his church.

But look what the words.

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

Why?

That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

The word of God does that for the soul, for the inner man.

It purifies thought, it scrubs our motives, it cleans our conscience.

About five years into youth ministry, God um took me to the prayer closet, literal.

We had a prayer closet in our old church.

And um I came in one week and we had 12 students, and that was a really low number for us, and I just got discouraged.

Um in Connorsville, it was fair week, so listen, everybody goes to the fair.

But it was Sunday night, and I was discouraged, and I thought, if we go to camp this year, I said, I in my mind, we'll be lucky to take 30 teenagers.

And I got this thought, I just got thinking, I don't know if it's Satan or what, but I got, if we don't have teenagers, if we don't have youth, why does the church need a youth pastor?

And I just got discouraged about that, and I said, God, I don't know what to do.

And in the middle of all that, one of my leaders came to me and I thought, oh good, this we're gonna meet, and no, and it's gonna be like, you know, a plan.

And he said, I'm done with youth ministry, and I'm like, so God sent me to the prayer closet, and I began a fast, and I didn't know really the direction, but I went in this prayer closet and I thought, I'm gonna go in here and pray over youth ministry, and God would send teens, and God would work on parents who don't get their teens involved in church and get them, you know, so involved in sports and all of that.

And I just had all this list in my mind, and the prayer closet was set up in stations.

There were seven or eight stations that had different things.

There was a cross in there for prayer requests, but station one was Psalms 51.

And it said, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

And then it said, See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way to everlasting.

And I sat under that station, I began to pour my heart to God.

And I thought, I'll move station to station.

Well, after that hour, I came in the next day.

And I sat in station one, and I came in the next day.

Search me, oh God, and try my thoughts.

And I came in three days and four days.

I spent the next 21 days looking at this heart and trying to find out what it was.

I was trying to get to station too.

But God kept correcting things that I wasn't seeing.

You see, a lot of people here today they don't want to get corrected.

We struggle.

Our pride says, Man, I hate that.

I hate to be corrected.

Don't correct me in public for sure.

And pride says, I'm not going to.

I'm not going to fix this.

Pride doesn't want you to be wrong.

And it takes humility to say, I need help.

I need work.

Pride says, talk about other people's problems.

Pride says, you're good, they have issues.

Well, let me, I want you to see something in James.

Go over to James chapter 4.

James 4 · chapter mention

I'm getting back to the end of my fast story in a moment, but in James 4, verse 1, and then I want to look at 6 through 10.

James 4:1

Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Do they not come from your desire for pleasures that war in your members?

Verse 6 through 10, but he gives more grace.

Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

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

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse, here's that word, cleanse your hearts or your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts double-minded.

Hear this about being cut today.

Lament and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he'll lift you up.

Did you see these action words?

It said, cleanse your hearts or your hands, purify your hearts, and then it says something that we don't like.

It said, grieve, mourn, and weep over what's wrong here.

Allow a cut.

That's what happened to me.

I didn't have some big, gaping, sinful hole.

I hadn't been involved in immorality, but God began to, for 21 days, to show me where there was just a little bit of dirt here and some dirt here and some dirt here, and where I thought I was just fully surrendered, going in here to pray, bless God, over some teenagers.

God showed me that I needed a lot of work.

And where I thought I was in love with God, I really wasn't in love with God like I thought.

And where I thought I was really surrendered to God, I wasn't quite surrendered in a lot of areas.

Oh, I loved God, but as long as He was on my timeline, my agenda, making my business flourish, making my life fine, we were good.

But I wasn't too okay with God if things were bad.

God took three weeks of my life and he said, You need to be in love with me.

You know what happened at the end of those three weeks?

Unexplicably, except for we can explain things because exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think is in the Bible.

I took 60 kids to teen camp.

I couldn't get 12 on a Sunday night, but God began to work on me and He had all the answers outside of me.

It was never about me having those answers.

Church, can I be transparent with you this morning?

I wish you would come to the prayer altar today and allow yourselves to be washed by this word.

I wish that you wouldn't leave today with dirt that you came in with.

Or the third point this morning is this the sword combats.

The sword combats.

Look at verse 1 through 5, we'll start there, and then we'll hit 7, 8 through 10.

But it says, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and when he had fasted forty days and forty nights afterward, he was hungry.

Now when the tempter came to him, he said, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

We'll pause there.

Letter A is this the sword combats the lord of the enemy.

Then Jesus was led.

This is important.

It says he was led by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was led to a place that you and I probably wouldn't want to be led.

He was led into the wilderness.

That world word for wilderness is bereft, it's solitude, it's alone.

He was led, hear that.

He was led by the Holy Spirit into a place that was all to himself.

Eremos.

It's desolate.

And it says he was led there to be tempted.

Or to make a trial or a test.

We have learned throughout this study we need armor because there is a test.

Satan's lores.

Jesus Christ had gone here what had happened.

He had gone 40 days fasting.

He had gone into the wilderness.

He was led there.

He had gone 40 days fasting.

Have you ever gone 40 days fasting?

Jesus, 40 days.

And he was hungry.

Some of you have been lusting for lunch for the last 15 minutes.

And you had breakfast.

40 days without food.

The enemy is cold and calculated.

You see that first temptation?

40 days without any food.

And Satan looks at the circumstances and he, you know, like, is Satan that smart?

No, this is what else would he do?

And he says, Jesus, turn that stone to bread.

If you're the Son of God, won't you turn that stone to bread?

40 days without food.

And he's talking about bread.

Y'all ever had Red Lobster biscuits?

I remember the first time, almost like it's romance.

I went to Red Lobster.

If you had A B honor roll at my school, they'd take you to different places throughout the year.

Well, I had Honorole, they took us to Red Lobster.

I know nothing about Red Lobster, first time.

I went in, they sat down and they put these cheddar biscuits in front of my face.

And I didn't know if it was gonna be good.

It didn't look like something I normally ate.

I saw the chives and stuff.

I took a bite and I thought, what is that?

Sweet heavens.

I took a bite of that one and continued.

I ate seven biscuits before they could ever bring me the all-you-could eat shrimps.

I was killing it.

Heather makes these homemade yeast cinnamon rolls.

Oh.

I know, I just know there's a section of heaven with homemade yeast cinnamon rolls.

But can you imagine 40 days?

And he's thinking, oh boy, a nice hot roll with heaven dust on it.

Oh man.

Come on.

Jesus raises his head up.

And this is interesting to me.

He does not read but says the word of God.

Think about how powerful a thing it is.

When you and I say the word of God, we quote back.

We're restating something based on something someone else has said.

Jesus was stating the thoughts of God from the Word of God that was given by God as one who was one with God.

His original thought.

And he was quoting back Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, that was penned through Moses, and he said this Satan, man, first he said, as it is written.

Deuteronomy 8:3

Very important, those four words.

As it's written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Church, when we are met with a lore of Satan, there's four really important words.

When you're met with a temptation, four really important words for your life are these.

As it is written.

As it is written is really important for the decisions that you make in your day-to-day.

Before you pull that plug, before you walk that walk, before you make that choice, as it is written.

Do we know what is written?

That's an important question.

Do we know what is written?

Tests happen in a moment.

Okay?

Life tests aren't like school tests.

They're not put on the calendar.

You don't get a study sheet or an open book.

Life tests happen in a moment, and what we have studied is put to the test as it is written.

Like that.

What you've studied, what you've memorized and put in your heart will prove your merit on test day.

That's why the psalmist said, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

Church, I want to tell you, this sounds very classroom, but scripture memorization is vital for any Christian.

What are you doing to memorize scripture?

There's an app, I won't have time to pull it up, but you can look on your phone, and it's called the App Bible Memory App.

It's an awesome app for retaining the Word of God.

You go in there and it tests you day by day, and you get to put in what verses you want to memorize.

And I'm telling you, you need to practically speak, you need to have the app.

But another practical idea, I'd love for you to take this challenge.

One at least one verse per week.

Can you put one verse per week to memory?

You know, verses the memorization of scripture has been something.

Look, I could have jumped on the other side of that fence.

I was rebellious.

I got it all in me.

I'm like that little kid that you saw that just wanted to touch the hot stove.

It's all there.

What's the word you use when you see a little kid like that?

It's not rotten, but whatever.

I got that.

I'm a sinner like that, and I just and then because the word of God, I've been memorizing the word of God for a long time, and it's there.

And because of it being there, you know, the Bible says Proverbs 15.3, Proverbs 15.3 has been for me in so many times.

It says, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

And I'll get ready and the Lord.

And 1 Corinthians 6 says, Therefore hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man, but there will always be a way of escape.

And there's just that moment, and I'm about to make a choice, and that verse hits me, and I go, no.

And Philippians 2, 14, I've been working on, I've been telling you, I've been working on it.

But it says, Do all things without murmuring or complaint.

I don't want to complain.

I don't want to complain about things.

I feel like I'm complaining about my complaining right now, but I don't want to complain.

So because that verse is there, I bite my tongue all the time.

I told y'all, people, people complain all the time.

If you're trying not to complain, you'll find out how many people complain.

And just be negative.

And you had to, it's just a way of life for some people.

Oh, that rain sure is.

Praise the Lord for the rain.

The rain allows us to have vegetation, right?

Like, it's really hard.

And because I memorize Ephesians 4 29 back to my tongue, right?

It says that I should not let any corrupt communication proceed out of my mouth, but that which is used to the building of others up, to edification.

If I'm gonna open this mouth, I gotta build somebody.

It said, let no, not one, not a little bit, not any gossip, none of it, no lie, no corrupt communication.

Man, we got a lot of corrupt communication.

Some all the time by haven't got it down, but the word is helping me get better.

Are you memorizing the word so that you'll get better?

Well, he tempts him after that.

He says in verse 7, he tempts him, he says, Come up to this pinnacle.

He says, jump, Satan does, jump off this.

Surely the angels that have charge over you will throw themselves to you.

Jesus said to him in verse 7, It is written.

There's a theme there.

You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

The letter B is this.

The sword confirms who is Lord over everything.

Confirms who is Lord.

Look at verse 8 through 10.

Again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him.

Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

And Jesus said to him, Go away with you, Satan.

For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

He said, Be gone, Satan.

This weapon has come from above, church.

Jesus Christ swung this sword in thunderous fashion, showing us he knew how to use the word of God.

It made me think of something because I think we have sort of a twisted idea sometimes of Christianity.

And I want to share this.

Psalms 18.

Got time to turn there, turn there.

Psalms 18.

I want you to see verse 34 and a few others.

Jesus went on offense.

Psalms 18, 34, he says, He teaches my hands to make war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

Look at verse 37.

I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them.

Neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed.

Verse 38, I have wounded them so that they could not rise.

Go on down to verse 40.

You have also given me the necks of my enemies so that I destroyed those who had hated me.

They cried out, but there was none to save, even to the Lord, but he did not answer them.

Then I beat them as fine as the dust before the wind and cast them out like dirt in the streets.

That does not sound like a love poem.

David said, I pursued my enemies, I wounded my enemy, I beat them and cast them out like dirt.

Listen, I want you to know today, Christian, you're not here just to defend.

We're not here just to be passive.

I'm so tired of this ideology that you're a Christian and like we're some kind of godly doormat.

Jesus said, Turn the other cheek, Pastor.

I only got two.

Okay?

You can hit me twice.

We're not some conscientious objector.

We're not to opt out.

Jesus said this: you're for me or you're against me.

The problem is for so many people, they don't want to take a stand because they're so busy in the stands.

Fake, follower, or fan.

He said, There's some fans who are watching Christianity and go from the sidelines.

There's some fakes who are exactly what it sounds like.

They'll come on Sunday, they'll sometimes be around it, but when it comes down to their heart and the intent of who they are, they're really not.

It's just a fake, it's a show.

It's they like this.

And then he says a follower is somebody who is a full court, all in, really truly surrendered.

I hear people say it all the time.

Pastor, I just don't want to get into it.

It is time to get into it.

It's time, it's about time that we would get into it.

Jesus was in the fight, he threw up the sword and he said, Be gone, Satan, as it is written.

Then the devil left, he was gone.

But I want to tell you about the battle and we'll wrap up.

See, the battle that we are in has gone on since Genesis.

It's about glory.

This battle is about one thing, it's about the glory of God.

Who gets glory in your life?

When we stand, God gets glory.

When we stand through adversity, God gets glory.

When there's a death in our life and we're able to remain standing, God gets glory.

When you walk through a disease and you're still left standing, God gets glory.

And when you have a prodigal child that's run, but you're still standing, God gets glory.

When you're standing on the promises of God, when you lost your job, God gets glory.

See, we're standing there waving the sword, saying this.

I don't trust Satan in this hardship.

I haven't put any bank on this headache that's come in my life.

I have not put any weight on that trial, but I'm standing by the sword of the Spirit on the Word of God, and he gets glory.

I don't believe your lies because I'm holding on to truth.

And in that battle, God gets glory.

The battle is about one thing: who gets glory?

And I want you to know an encouragement today, Christian.

When the last word of the last chapter closes for all of eternity, God gets glory forever and ever.

He gets glory and worship and honor and praise.

He gets the glory.

If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.

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Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.

We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.