Satan can't stop us

Amen.

And God is gonna do it again in 2021.

You believe that?

Say amen this morning.

I am so excited about this new year for several reasons, but the main reason, I'm glad 2020's over.

Can I get them?

Amen.

It's probably been one of the toughest years ever that I can remember in my lifetime.

So that's saying a lot, church.

But one thing I know, and I agree wholeheartedly with God's word, is that God's gonna do it again and Satan can stop it.

I have been saying that everywhere I've going and gone.

And uh I'm so thankful.

Let me say something else too.

While you're turning with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 16, I am so thankful that I live in Alabama.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Amen.

I just came back from California spending a week with my grandchildren in Sacramento, California, and uh they're still not back in church.

And I thought to myself, Lord help us.

We need each other.

That's why God's word says we don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some are, but exhorting one another so much more as we see the day approaching so that we can encourage one another.

We need each other.

People are the suicide rate has increased, the attempts have increased.

It's been unreal what's happened since this virus attacked our country.

So, with that said, I want to bring an encouraging, unbelievable series of messages this month that God's gonna do it again and Satan can't stop it.

And that's what he, you're gonna see that in a moment.

But you don't want to miss a message, and I know we have hundreds watching.

It's amazing how many people text me and Facebook me.

Uh in fact, I've already had two say, Pastor, you forgot your word for the week yesterday.

I did.

I didn't forget it, but uh I was I was doing some other things and I got my because I was back on the airplane.

I've got to get back on schedule with these hours.

We'd lose two to three hours.

But uh uh I'm gonna do one this afternoon for this week.

So you'll you'll get it.

I promise I got a good word too.

But but you're gonna be able to be a part of this next month.

This next month's gonna be fantastic.

Starting Wednesday.

Wednesday, listen to me.

I have challenged myself for 2021.

Wednesday is my day of praying and fasting.

Every Wednesday this whole year.

I hope some of you will join me.

I'm gonna ask my staff, if they can, to join me.

And it's gonna be a time of praying and fasting.

We're gonna have an awesome worship night this Wednesday night.

We're just gonna worship the Lord and pray.

That's what we're gonna do.

We're still gonna have a wana.

We're still gonna have chills.

So we're going on.

We're not stopping that.

But for adults, we're just gonna come together and we're gonna worship him, thanking him for all that he did in 2020.

Hey, he saw us through.

Can we get an amen?

We're still here, and our church has been blessed.

I'm telling you, folks, I've seen churches out about to go under because of finances.

They're just about to shut the doors.

God has so blessed this church, and we've had a great year.

People saved.

The finances have not gone down much at all.

So can we give God a hand?

Amen.

To God be the glory.

We've not missed a Sunday.

So on Wednesday, on Wednesday, at 6 o'clock, right before worship, we're gonna meet.

We're gonna find a prayer room.

It may be here in Rick's office, or it may be in probably Rick's office right across the hall here.

And we're just gonna pray.

So come show up.

The first Wednesday of every month at 6 o'clock, we're gonna be in the prayer room.

We're gonna be in the prayer room.

You don't, hey, you say, well, I don't pray out loud.

Just come on and join us.

You can pray with us while we pray out loud.

But we're going back to praying.

We're gonna attack the gates of hell in 21.

We really are, and you're gonna see why in a minute.

We are.

So we're gonna start this Wednesday.

And by the way, for some of you businessmen, we did this at Open Door.

God blessed it greatly.

On Wednesdays at lunch, 12 o'clock, we're gonna be right here, right here, and we're gonna be praying.

We're gonna be praying.

Me and the staff right here, 12 o'clock, we're gonna be praying on Wednesdays.

Any of you businessmen want to join us sometimes at Open Door?

We had a prayer room on Tuesday and Thursdays at 12 o'clock, and we'd pray for about 30, 40 minutes.

We'd just get together, divide up, and depending on how many we had.

Sometimes we'd have 12 or 15, Rick.

And we'd divide up into groups of three and we'd just pray.

Then the ones that could, we'd go have lunch together.

Uh but but I'm telling you what, we watched God move in such a great way.

And let me tell you something, businessmen.

Those 12 or 15 businessmen that were faithful to those prayer rooms, they wouldn't make every one, but they'd make one a week.

When we're just gonna start with one on Wednesdays, they were some of the best businesses in our church.

God honors that.

God blesses that.

And you don't have to be a businessman for God to honor that either.

Amen or businesswoman.

So we're going to attack the gates of hell in 21.

We're going after it.

Everybody's down and defeated and discouraged.

Well, there's only one way.

And I've got an illustration about Gettysburg today.

It's going to bless your heart.

Hey, when everything looks like it's over.

And we felt that way this year.

A lot feel this way now.

People still scared to death.

There's only one thing to do as a Christian.

When you're down and out, the righteous fall seven times, but they get back up.

Proverbs 24-7.

24-16, excuse me.

They get back up, and here's what you do.

There's one thing to do when you're down and out and you feel like it's all over.

Charge.

You don't quit.

You don't stay down.

It's not if you're going down.

It's when you're going down.

But you don't stay down.

You get back up.

Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

So don't miss this Wednesday.

Oh, it's going to be a great time.

It really is.

I preached this series almost 20 years ago.

I had forgotten about it, to be honest with you.

And I preached it right before open door.

We went into our great massive building program.

And I thought to myself, how timely.

And we were having some tough times back then, too.

It was, it was, it was, it was a tough time.

It really was.

In the 80s.

But God showed us that he would do it again.

And he did.

And we're in the same circumstances.

We're here, ready to go to the next level in this church.

I call it going across to the promised land.

Hopefully in March, we'll be going into the new building.

And I thought the circumstances are very similar.

In fact, when you study church history, you can see the circumstances.

Hey, in God's book, his plan about desperate times, good times, and then uncertain times.

It's a pattern.

It just rolls over and over and over.

So today we're going to look at, I think, one of the most powerful, encouraging scriptures to the church.

In Matthew chapter 16, verses 13 through 18, actually, verse 19.

Matthew 16:13–18

When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea, Philippi, he asked his disciples, and I like this, he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?

Who do men say that I am?

The Son of Man, am I?

And they said, some say that you're John the Baptist.

Some say you're Elijah, Elijah, Elijah.

And others Jeremiah.

And or one of the prophets.

Then Jesus made this profound statement.

Here's the second question.

The first question is very important.

Who do you think Jesus is?

That's a pretty important question.

In fact, it's probably one of the most important you'll ever ask yourself.

Either he is who he says he is, or he's a liar, or he's a lunatic.

I got good news.

He is who he says he is.

John 14, 30, I am my father of one.

He is God.

Then the second question, he says, He saith unto them, verse 15, but who do you say I am?

And then Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee.

But my Father, which is in heaven, he said, You could not have understood that in your own flesh.

This was not a fleshly answer, this was a spiritual answer.

This was a Holy Spirit of God confirming to your heart who I am.

And then he said, And I say unto you, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter.

Petros means little rock.

That's important.

Petrus, little rock.

And then he said, Upon this rock, Petra, different, two different Greek words, the big rock, the rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Wow.

Title of the message this morning, God's gonna do it again.

Satan kids, stop it.

I want you to notice something.

In verse 18, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Now the word gates, there is a very important word here in this whole thing.

You gotta understand it.

The gates of the city represent, and I think you got it in your notes.

Let me get mine outline and see what exactly what you got.

The gates of the city represent, and right, fill in your blank there, authority and power.

Authority and power.

The gates were where the main leadership of a city gathered.

It was kind of like the city hall.

It's where strategies were made.

It's where problems were solved.

It was uh like the city council, the mayor and the city council.

They made to, hey, they met to organize and strategically accomplish things for the city.

Or whatever, should I say, project they had going on.

It was the power of, in fact, here's what you want to put.

It was the strategic, organized power of the city.

That's what it was.

That's what it means.

So we see that Satan's strategy then, and by the way, he's got a strategy, and we're gonna see that in Ephesians 6 as we get down to about the third point.

But he's got a strategic, organized power.

He's in fact, there's three differences in Ephesians 6 when we look at how well he's the principalities, the power of darkness.

I mean, he has an organized team of demons.

Are you ready?

To strategically attack us.

Now listen to me, church.

What's happening, hey, and what happened in 2020 was strategically organized and prepared to attack God's church.

I believe that with all my heart.

He's trying to what?

Shut down the church.

In fact, let me tell you what he wants to do.

Here's what his main central task and desire is: fill it in in the blank.

To prevent God from being glorified and worshiped.

That's it.

That's his main task.

He doesn't want God to get any of the glory.

He doesn't want God to have any worship.

You remember what Paul said?

Whether we eat or drink whatsoever we do, we what?

Do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10 31.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

He is strategically trying to deflect the glory and the worship from God.

Because guess what?

What does God want more than anything?

Don't miss this.

The hour has come and now is that true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth.

For God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth, which now watch, the Father desires for us to do.

John 4, 23 and 24.

In fact, remember, hey, here's some examples.

Here's some examples.

Remember number one, the first example, Lucifer fell from heaven.

You know why?

Because he wanted to be more powerful and popular than God.

Do you remember that?

Isaiah 14, verses 12 through 15.

Isaiah 14:12–15

You've got to read those verses.

It talks about how God, how Satan wanted to be more powerful than God.

And then when you read Revelation chapter 12, 7 through 9, you see that the battle goes on in heaven against Lucifer, and guess what happens?

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Yes, he loses.

Amen.

And he's kicked out of heaven.

But his whole purpose was to get glory and worship and praise to himself.

Another example.

Remember Eve in the garden?

Genesis 3 5?

Remember what he said?

Oh, has God said, Oh, you can't eat of that fruit?

Oh, yes, you can.

And guess what?

When you now remember this, when you eat of that fruit, guess what he what did he tell Eve?

You'll be like God.

You'll be like God.

What was his strategic plan with Eve?

To give her to eat of the forbidden fruit so that she could have the glory, so she could be worshiped.

She would be, hey, as important or more important than God.

She'd be like God.

Then there's a third illustration.

Remember in Luke chapter 4?

Luke 4 · chapter mention

I meant Satan literally goes after Jesus.

And he says, Oh, if you'll do this, if you, hey, if you'll cast yourself down and raise yourself back up three different times, he said, if you'll do this, you know, you can have all the power of the universe.

Satan was kind of dumb there, really, not knowing he already had all the power.

He created it.

Hello.

But what did he do?

Three times he said, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written.

Thy shall worship the Lord thy God, and him only shall thy serve.

So I want you to see this strategic plan.

Let me tell you, everything that happened, this is gonna be good.

This is gonna encourage you.

Everything that happened in 2021 happened for a strategic purpose, and that was for Satan to deflect the praise and honor and the worship and the glory to an awesome Almighty God.

That was his purpose.

With the virus, with all the right, everything.

Hello?

You with me?

Well, I got good news.

I'm about to have a running spell.

I've been wanting to preach this.

Woo! Hey, I want you to know this morning.

There's six things Satan can't do.

Can I get an amen?

Oh, this is gonna be encouraging.

You need to take this outline and you need to keep that thing right in your Bible when all hell breaks loose in 21, and it will.

Because Satan's not gonna stop till Jesus comes back.

But the difference is we can be on the retreat or we can be on the offense.

We can be on the defense or we can be on the offense, and we're gonna be on the offense.

I've been watching football for two weeks, and I'm gonna tell you what, you know what I've learned?

You know what I've learned?

You know what I've learned?

The team that has the best offense wins.

Well, that's pretty simple.

Is that not true?

Makes sense, doesn't it?

So, as Christians, why don't we need to be on the defense when we ought to be on the offense?

And by the way, I read the last chapter, folks.

We win! Now watch.

Man, this is so good.

Number one, the devil can't stop the building of God's church.

Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

That's what he said.

Notice what he said.

I will build my church.

The foundation is on the big rock, Jesus, not Peter.

Hey, it will endure.

I see the foundation of the firmness, the church will endure forever.

And I see the favor, all authority and powers given to his church.

Folks, do you understand something?

Please listen to me.

His church has the power.

You and I, as part of God's church, we have the power to defeat and overcome Satan.

In fact, you go to the book of Revelations when I was preaching through the revelations.

In fact, Carolyn handled me till I finally preached through the whole book, and I'd never done that before.

Chapter by chapter of the book of Revelation.

And in chapters two and three, we had the letters written to the seven churches of Asia Minor.

And you know what?

They had three things in common, all seven churches.

Number one, they each had a descriptive name of who Jesus was.

Secondly, they all were giving, they were given the message, he that has ears, let him hear.

In other words, what he said was, get ready, give me your attention, listen to what I'm about to tell you.

And now he's talking individually to each of the seven churches.

And you know what I found?

As I went back and looked at that, he had one message to all seven churches.

After he told them to give, hey, give their ears to hear, here's what he says: you are winners, you are overcomers.

You are overcomers.

All seven churches.

Turn to your neighbor and say, We're overcomers.

We're overcomers.

Jesus said in John 16, 33, hey, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna go through tribulation.

Hey, we've been we've been through tribulation in 2020.

This church was hit hard in December.

Three deaths, and there's a lot of other stuff going on that I'm not even gonna I'm not even gonna bring it up to give Satan an opportunity to glory in it.

Not even gonna speak it.

But it's been it's been a battle.

I was ministering, and the whole time I was gone on the phone with situation after situation and helping people work through some things.

Major.

When I'm not here, I'm still here.

I want you to know that.

Is that not true?

We're here, and it's not just me, it's the whole church.

But I'm a phone call away, I always have been, or a text away, and and and it's and And I love that.

I love to be able to minister.

But now listen, we're overcomers, church.

And there's nothing Satan can do.

Hey, Satan cannot stop the building of Jesus' church.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

He can't.

And I don't care what people say.

They can stay home, they can not go, but Jesus' church is going to be built.

And it's being built.

And I'm so excited about that.

He can't stop it.

He can't stop it.

Well, and let me say something.

When God's building the church, you have one or two attitudes.

Ready?

Fill it in.

One, carelessness.

Carelessness.

You flip it.

You will flip it.

Basically, say it doesn't matter.

It's a done deal.

Oh, I'm saved.

It doesn't matter anymore.

I'm not going to hell, so I'll just go ahead and live my life like I want to live it.

That's not salvation, folks.

That's carnality.

Okay?

Just a flippant attitude.

I had an intern when I was president of Tennessee Temple.

I always, my ministry always paid scholarships for men and women that I'd bring into my office to help us, especially the young preacher boys I was personally mentoring, and my ministry would pay for their education.

That's what we did.

God blessed us, we bless back.

So Jesus saw some ministries, which is still today.

Everything we did was given either for scholarships, mission work, or helping churches.

That's what we did.

And God so blessed that all those years.

But I had one intern, Paul.

He used to come in and he was a sharp young man.

He used to say, Well, Dr.

Lovett, it is what it is.

I kept thinking that.

Okay.

There's only one problem with that.

I couldn't see that biblically.

So one day he came in and I said, if he says it again, I'm on, I got him.

He said, Dr.

Lovett, we're dealing with a problem.

He's always, because they handle all my problems with the students.

And if you ever got into my office, it was bad news.

Usually my GAs handled it.

But long story short, he came in and he says, Well, here's we went through this problem, and what do you think we ought to do here?

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then he said, Well, I guess Dr.

Lovett just is what it is.

I said, No.

It is not.

It is not what it is.

It's not, it is what it is.

It is what you make it.

We can do something.

We've got God on our side.

We're filled with the Spirit of God.

We can make a difference.

And we don't have to take the status quo.

We don't have to be flippant.

We can be confident.

Being confident of this very thing that he which begun a good work in you will perform into the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1.6.

Faithful is he who's called you, who also will do it.

Oh, he will perfect those things which he started in you.

Psalms 138.

So 1 Thessalonians 5.24.

Philippians 1.6.

Are you hearing me, church?

Confident.

We have boldness and confidence by our faith in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 3.12.

Proverbs 28:1, the righteous are bold as a lion.

Proverbs 28:1

It is not, it is what it is.

It's what we make it through the power of God.

That's so true.

That's so true.

Confidence.

I'm a Civil War nut, history nut.

Gettysburg, I'll tell you how bad it is with me.

I shouldn't say this because I'll never live it down.

I'll tell you how much I love the Civil War when I married Susan.

Our honeymoon, one of the first places we went were Gettysburg.

I'd never been on that battle site, so I wanted to tour the battle site.

I'd read all the books and all the maneuvers.

And I had come to one conclusion.

The key to that whole battle was one heel.

Anybody else studied it?

Anybody?

Don't tell.

What hill am I talking about?

Don't know?

Well, it's famous.

Roundtop.

Roundtop was the most strategic heel in the whole battle.

It's where they had cannons and that they had the advantage of just bombarding the Southern Army completely.

I mean, it was and here's the thing.

The Union Army had not gotten their big guns there yet.

And Lee knew that.

And Lee knew that if we could take Roundtop, we, I say we, the Southern Army, would then have the advantage over the Northern Army.

So whoever had Roundtop had the most strategic advantage in the war, in that battle.

So guess what?

The Union had their men up on Roundtop.

Lee had his men at the bottom.

And there was a man named Colonel Chamberlain who was given that order to hold Round Top at all cost.

We could not till so they could get the cannons and all there.

So guess what?

He's there.

All of a sudden, the battle begins.

The Southern army's rushing to the top of the hill.

They hold them back.

They come back.

The second time they rush again.

They hold them back.

They go for the third time.

I meant we're talking about just unbelievable battling and shooting and just what I mean.

You couldn't even see each other.

The smoke of all the muskets and all was so thick.

So they're getting ready for the fourth charge.

And each time they had advanced almost to the top.

So this time, the commander of the Southern Army says, We're gonna take it this time.

We've got to take it this time.

Up on top of the hill, Colonel Chamberlain.

By the way, let me tell you something about Colonel Chamberlain.

He's a dynamic Christian.

Seminary graduate, also, as well as West Point.

Seminary.

Actually went on to be the governor of Maryland twice.

Unbelievable man of God.

So he says, and all the men start running to the Colonel Chamberlain saying, We're out of bullets, we're out of bullets, we're out of bullets.

We gotta go, we gotta go back to the main group of men and get more bullets.

And then he and Colonel Chamberlain said, No, we're not, we can't move.

We're not moving.

And they kept on and they kept on.

In fact, he said, Here's what we're gonna do.

Bring out your bayonets.

Put your bayonets on your rifles.

And they're all looking at him, but we have no bullets with him.

He said, I said, put your bayonets on the rifle.

We're about to charge.

And sure enough, they put those bayonets on those rifles, and they let out a cry that you could hear for miles, and they charged down that hill, and the cry was such a glaring cry.

They thought the whole Union Army was coming down that hill, and the Southern Army disbanded.

And the next two days, you know the rest of the story.

The Northern Army won probably the greatest, most strategic battle in the Civil War.

Called Gettysburg.

And folks, that's it.

When you're out of bullets, when you're down, you don't, you I mean, you've you've come to the end of your rope, you've done everything you know to do, and you've done it as to the best of the ability you can do, but it looks like you're going down.

No, that's not the time to quit, and it's not the time to retreat.

It's the time to charge.

And that's exactly what Jesus meant.

And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

The gates of hell cannot stand against a church that is charging, charging, hey, ramming the gates of hell.

Hey, ramming the power of Satan, pulling down all the strongholds of Satan.

Through the power of the word of the living God.

Number two, Satan can't penetrate the blood of Jesus Christ.

Can I get an amen?

Oh, listen to this.

Oh, preachers, you got to hear this, Acts 20, 28.

This is what Paul said.

Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

I saw three words there for pastors and for all of us, but specifically, Paul's talking about himself.

He says, We're overseers, we're shepherds.

That's why we minister.

We doesn't matter time.

Our job as shepherds is 24-7.

Because that's who we are, and we love you, and we love our people.

And we're here to take care and to minister and to help any way we can, and the best way we can is love people and show them the truth.

Thank God for a church that does that.

As Deider said, thank God for our church.

And then he says, notice the other word feed.

We're to feed the word of God, it never returns void.

And then here's the main emphasis with this point, which he hath purchased, the word purchased with his own blood.

Do you realize this church costs Jesus his blood?

That's why the church is so important.

Let me tell you how important it is to God.

He sent his son to die on a cross, to shed his blood, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

Oh, hey, their life is in the blood.

That's how much he loves his church.

How can we love it any less?

Can I get an amen?

How can we love it any less?

So when you come, when you drive in that parking lot this year, like I love what Adam said.

You got 100% attendance.

Have a goal not to miss a service this year.

I want to be here.

I want to hear what my pastors teach me.

Our Sunday school teachers teach me.

I want to be a part of that.

I want God to speak to me.

He purchased it with his blood.

Wow.

That's what I'm talking about.

Number three, Satan can't hurt us if we put on the whole armor of God.

Can't hurt us.

You know, in Ephesians, you may want to look at this.

It's a very popular, it's the armor of God.

But I want you to notice something that I saw that I really had never paid attention to because I was so interested in.

I preached this passage a lot, putting the arm on.

But I didn't see one word.

God pointed this out to me.

And by the way, anytime I preach a message I've preached before, I don't just get it out and review a little bit.

I exergetically go through it again so it'll feed me.

Show me things I didn't see the first time.

And it does every time.

So I want you to notice, we uh we jumped to the it says in verse 10, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, power of the mind.

Man, we start talking about the being strong in the Lord and putting on the whole armor.

And by the way, the whole armor of God was very cumbersome to a soldier.

So a lot of times they would take off parts of the armor.

Sometimes a helmet or the big old heavy breastplate, they'd take it off a lot.

And can I tell you what we do when we are Christians and we take off any part of the armor?

We're no longer a spirit-filled Christian, we're a carnal Christian.

You have opened yourself up for Satan to take you out.

Somebody say that's good, preacher.

Amen.

So the whole armor.

You can't be, you can't come to church once a month.

You need to be here every Sunday.

You can't just show up when you feel like it.

You need to be there.

Why?

Because Jesus loves you and he loves his church and he purchased it with his own blood.

Folks, that ought to get you excited about coming to church.

This isn't just a ritual.

This is a, hey, this is an organism.

This is a family.

Now watch.

So all that, but go back.

Verse 10.

Finally.

I never I've never looked at the word finally.

I just read it and gone, Dave.

Finally means something that has already taken place.

Now that we've accomplished this, we've got this done, finally, now put on the armor of God.

Now watch this.

I went back and studied Ephesians 4 and Ephesians 5, and you know what I realized?

Relationships.

If you and I don't have our relationships right, there will not be a finally.

We will not be able to put on the armor of God because when my relationship with God's not right, I'm living in sin.

Now I know that's a powerful word, but when my relationship's not right with my wife, my prayers will be hindered.

1 Peter 3.

When my relationship's not right with you, my prayers will be hindered.

My walk with God will be hindered.

So how in the world can I put on the armor of God when our relationships are divided?

That's why Paul said, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit, hey, in the bond of peace in Ephesians 4.

Amen?

And Ephesians 5, the relationship between husbands and wife, and the relationships between parents and children.

Children, hey, kids, teenagers, listen to me.

And by the way, I'm a big kid.

I'm a 67-year-old kid.

Hey, hey, if your relationship's not right with your parents or your friends, you can't have a right relationship with God.

So that's the first step.

Get your relationship right with God and with others.

And then finally, you're ready to put on the armor of God and attack.

And by the way, we don't put this armor of God on to be a defensive soldier.

We put the army of God on, John, because we're charging, we're marching.

We're going to battle.

Number four.

By the way, Psalms 133:1, blessed are those who live together in unity.

Psalms 133:1

But number four, confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Look at 1 Corinthians 12, 3.

No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

Hallelujah.

Again, what is Satan wanting to do?

To draw the praise and adoration away from what?

God to him or to you.

That's his whole purpose.

That's his strategic plan.

That's why he brings temptation.

Somebody said, Well, I got to deal with temptation first.

No, you don't.

The reason you're being tempted is so that he can distract you from worshiping and praising God.

What you just need to do is make sure your relationship's right with God and other people, and you got the armor of God.

And if you do, then you've got to be confessing that Jesus is Lord.

It's Romans 12, 1 and 2 is what it is.

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service.

Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Amen.

Amen.

So that's what it is.

Confess that Jesus is Lord.

To say Jesus is Lord is to say, are you ready for this?

And then woohoo! Thank you, Holy Spirit.

To say Jesus is Lord is to say that Jesus is risen from the dead.

To say that Jesus is Lord is to say that He's Jehovah Jrah, the Lord that provides.

He's a healer.

He's a way maker.

Is that not good, church?

I don't care.

Hey, we went through hell this last year.

But he's the way maker.

Amen.

We literally, Satan attacked us with everything he's got.

And we're still here.

We're still here.

Jesus said, I'll build my church.

And the gates of hell can't prevail.

Satan can't destroy the church.

He can't stop the church from being built.

I don't care how many closes down in California, all over the United States, he can't stop the church.

By the way, let me share with you right here before I hit five and six.

Let me tell you there's one thing that you and I can give God.

Now listen, don't miss this.

This is powerful.

There's one thing that you and I can give God that He hasn't given to us.

One thing.

Praise.

Praise.

Adoration.

Thankfulness.

I love what he says.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my heart.

Psalms 34, 1.

Psalms 22, 3.

God inhabits, listen, inhabits the praise of his people.

Is that not?

Hey, you know when you praise in him, and my my music stays on up.

What is it?

W D J C?

I'm just I I go to work praising the Lord.

I go home praising the Lord.

I just praise the Lord.

Now every once in a while I'll get a my girl, thinking about Susan.

But most of the time, it's praise music.

Just praising him.

Because I need that, folks.

I need it.

Because everything your pastor usually deals with, it's kind of like it's either real good or real bad.

You never get the in between.

And I need the real good to offset the real bad.

And when there was a real bad situation happened recently, I mean it broke my heart.

Somebody's killed, murdered.

In fact, you need to pray for Adrian's brother.

Well, Adrian's family, but his brother was murdered.

Hogan.

His youngest brother.

So, I mean, there's something going on.

Good, bad, ugly, all of that.

But let me say something, folks.

Listen to me.

As bad as it is, Jesus is still on the throne.

And you get up.

You get up.

You have to.

And you praise him.

Amen.

Number five.

Satan, number one, can't prevent God's church from being built, can't penetrate the blood of Jesus, can't hurt you if we put on the whole armor of God.

Hey, he can't stop the confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord.

He'll never say that Jesus Christ is Lord.

I like that nickel.