Your Greatest Weapon | Pastor Loren Covarrubias

I want to open with the scripture that I shared last

week from the prophecy of Daniel Chapter 11.

Daniel 11 · chapter mention

Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt

with flattery. But the people who know their

gods shall be strong and carry out exploits.

Those are the people who understand, shall instruct

money. Yet for many days they shall

fall by the sword and flame, by captivity and plundering.

Now when they fall, they shall be aided with a little help, but

many shall join them by intrigue.

I believe it's very important for us to have of discernment

concerning the day in which we live.

Now, the Scripture I read to us from the book of Daniel.

Daniel was a prophet who prophesied and had his ministry

during the time when the children of Israel were in the

capacity of Babylon. He literally worked in the

palace. He had direct contact with the

king of Babylon. And so he had a very influential

role. But in that role, God spoke to

him through dreams and visions and used him in a very powerful

way. In this particular reference of

Scripture, he's speaking about future days which are going to

come to pass that have already come to pass in one sense

concerning this prophecy. But whenever you're reading a

prophetic book, you have to understand there can be more of

a deeper meeting than just the original intent.

So these people wrote these prophecies many years ago.

We can see the accuracy of their prophecies and know their

prophets, but through the Holy Spirit, God can bring to us the

principles concerning those words and help us apply it to

our life in which we Live Today. So he's talking about an evil

person, and this evil person is going to try to control people,

and through intrigue or deception, he's going to lead

many different people astray. But in the process of that,

God's going to do some great things in his people.

I believe that's what God is saying for today.

Church with all my heart. Now, the heat that we want to

put in here today, and you'll notice it from the scriptures

I'll be talking about, is the God of this world or the spirit

of the age. We, the people of God, need to

understand there's more going on in the world than meets the eye.

There is a spiritual dimension and there is a natural

dimension, and we have to understand that God has equipped

us so that we can know how to operate in the spiritual

dimension so that we could walk in faith that God has for each

and every one of us. These are important things for

us to understand. But I also want to emphasize the

fact that he says, and my people will do exploit.

Now, what's an exploit? It means just something

supernatural, something powerful.

It would go along with the Scripture I've quoted often

times, he says, because I believe with everything in my

heart that God's going to do something that's exceedingly and

abundantly above all that we could ask or think.

How many believe in a God like that?

Amen. Amen.

But also he talks about giving his people understanding

concerning what was happening in those days.

And how do you know God wants us to be people of understanding in

our day. We don't have to be in the dark.

And that's where it's important for us to note what this

Scripture says. Also I read last week where it

says, but God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.

For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of

God. For what man knows the things of

a man except the spirit of the man who is in him?

Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the

Spirit who is from God, that we might what know all the things

that have been freely given to us by God.

And so I put over this Scripture deep understanding.

There's a Psalm that says and deep calls to deep.

What exactly does that mean? Well, when God created mankind,

the Bible says he created us from the dust of the earth,

breathed in our nostrils the breath of life, and we became a

living soul. So God created us body, soul and

spirit. What is our spirit?

Well, it is the God breath. There is a spirit of man.

The God breath gives him understanding.

So the Bible is very clear that our human spirit is the deepest

part of who we are, and we should be able to draw from our

human spirit in order to receive strength.

When you think about somebody thinking or having deep

thinking, of course we typically think about our mind and our

experiences. But God wants us to know that as

we meditate upon His word and upon His spirit, how do we know

that there's a wellspring of life inside of us that comes to

us by the Holy Spirit? And that's why it says that His

spirit is going to connect to our spirit.

So just like we have a spirit, God has a spirit.

We were created in the the elections of God.

It's so important for us to understand Last week I was

sharing how that before God did all the things of the creation

mentioned in Genesis chapter one that first of all it says that

the Spirit of the Lord brooded upon the waters in the face of

the deep. And then from there God began to

make some declarations. He created all things that we

know today, but it's important to know that there was a time

even for God when He was thinking, if you would.

Now, it's hard for people sometimes to think that God

thinks. We just think about God in a

distant sense and we talk about Him as being a personal savior

and a person, etcetera. But I think we fail to

understand sometimes how God is a thinking God.

And that's important for us to note and understand because

guess what? He created us to be a thinking

people, but not just from the mind realm again, but from the

aid of the Holy Spirit, where deep begins to call the deep and

we can gain from that spiritual understanding.

There's a lot of things that happened in our lives

individually and also that happened in the world, and we

need to understand there's a spiritual dimension of these

things today. I felt LED of the Holy Spirit to

talk about some world history so that we can see some principles

of God's Word, how it impacted our world.

Because it's important for us to understand the very same things

that God speaks to us individually are the same things

that guide in the world in which we live.

And when we're speaking about the world, we're talking about

that which is outside the Kingdom of God and outside the

realm of how God wants us to operate.

And so it's important that we'd understand God wants us to have

spiritual understanding. I love church history.

And in church history you can look at the process of God

working. Since the time of Reformation,

God has been adding more and more truth to the Church of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, sometimes we get

stuck in the mindset that it's all about getting saved.

And so the idea is, well, who's saved?

Who's not saved? What do I have to do to be

saved? That should be something that we

settle very quickly in our Christian experience.

Remember, the Bible says we didn't choose him.

He shows us say man, And I love that Scripture I quoted even

last week, even before the foundation of the world, before

God was thinking about the world he was going to put us in, He

thought about us. I think that's so awesome.

His plan has always been unfolding according to how He

thought about it in the very beginning, and even what we

would consider the beginning before our beginning.

The Bible tells us in the Book of Revelation that even Jesus

Christ, the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the

world. And so God has this all planned

out, all thought out if you would, and yet He works in our

lives because He has created us in His image and liked us so we

can be a part of His plan. Now, again, the reason I wanted

to talk about how church history works, because oftentimes people

look at things and God and they'll say, well, do you have

to do that to be saved or do you have to do that to really be a

Christian? And so we're kind of parsing

things out and saying, well, you know, I'm just wanting to be a

Christian. I want to go to heaven when I

die. We have to understand that God

doesn't just want us to be alive.

He wants us to have the abundant life.

Amen. Charge.

And not only is it something that God wants us to realize He

can give to us so that we can have the best of life, we also

have to understand that He has called us to be a part of His

purposes in there. So it's necessary that we'd have

a deeper understanding. And so when I began to realize I

have a human spirit, you know, the Bible says that when I pray

in tongues, my spirit prays. That's probably the first time

when someone has that experience, they even know they

have a human spirit or how to relate to it.

And yet we don't have understanding.

So that brings us into the realms of God by his fear.

So I'm not saying what do I have to do to go to heaven or what do

I have to be saved? What can I experience that I can

have? The fullness of all things that

God has for me should be my attitude.

And I've been serving the Lord since I was a child and I found

out it's a progressive experience.

And guess what? It gets better and better.

It gets richer and richer, and the thing that God has for us

defies the natural realm. God calls us to live in a

supernatural realm, which is a realm above ourself.

And so we have to understand how important it is to recognize we

can get in touch with the Spirit of God.

And we don't just again get the baptism of the Holy Spirit

speaking another tongue so we can notch something else on our

experiences. We do that so that there can be

a level of intimacy with God that we never had before.

There is an Old Testament scripture that says my ways are

not your way, says the Lord. As far as the heavens are from

the earth, that's how far my ways are from your ways, says

God. But that same prophet in another

place in talking about counselor, God says, I don't

need your counsel. I was able to do this all

without you. But then when you go to this

chapter in First Corinthians chapter 2 that I read, it also

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

says that when we have the Holy Spirit, we have the mind of God.

So you might not be able to think it on your own, but you

can think it when you have his help.

Amen. So the Spirit becomes that place

by which we can commune with God in the deepest part of who we

are, and then we can have the peace that passes all

understanding. We can have the furthest spirit,

which is love and joy and peace and long-suffering and

gentleness and goodness and kindness.

Well, God, you have such a great plan for us.

I want to experience everything that God has for me.

Now having said that, I want to go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10

to say something that's very vital for us to understand.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty.

And God pulling down strongholds, casting down

arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against what

the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to

the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all

disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

And last week I was sharing how important it is that we would

take our time to get to know our God because this is those who

know their God will do exploits. Those who know their God will

have understanding. And God says, I want you to

realize that as a part of this process, sometimes you're going

to have mindsets, thought processes that are going to be

against the knowledge of God. And so you have to understand

how to deal with those things. And that is what the Bible talks

about, the struggle between the flesh and the spirit.

There's the carnal side of life, there's the spiritual side of

life. God doesn't want us to get out

of our natural life if you would, but He wants us to

realize that with spiritual motivation we can navigate the

natural life with the best experience possible.

And we're going to have the fullness of life as we do these

things. Now it's important to understand

that the weapons of our warfare, we're in conflict are not

natural things. Uses the word carnal here, but

I'm substituting natural because natural just means not

spiritual. And carnal is a word that speaks

of the flesh. And so it's natural, it's

fleshly, it's carnal. But how we know God made us a

body, soul, and spirit. So the physical part is

important, the emotional part is important.

All the parts are important. But we have to understand when

it comes to conflict, we have to learn how to operate in the

spiritual dimension of things and not allow ourselves to

experience something that's an exaltation against the knowledge

of God in our life. Now with that in mind, I want to

go to the Scripture in Ephesians chapter 2, because it says

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

something very important. And you he made alive.

How many out there are alive today?

Give the Lord a praise. Amen.

Amen. Now you were once dead in your

trespasses and sins, in which you walked according to the

course of the world, according to the Prince of the power of

the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of

disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in

the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the

flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath.

Well, you were just like everybody else until you were

born again and God made you a lie.

Now, to no longer live according to the course of this world, to

no longer live according to the spirit of the world, the God of

this age, we have to understand there's a process of development

that we go through as Christians where we go from immaturity to

maturity. The Bible says that when I was a

child, I felt like a child that acted like a child, but when I

became mature, I put away childish things.

When you're first born again, you hear about a lot of things

that Christianity is supposed to offer, and it's not not all

quite there yet. Why?

Because you have to grow into it.

That's why it's so important that we understand there is a

growth process in the things that God has for us.

But as we look at a scripture like this, we have to understand

this very basic principle that there is indeed a spirit that's

in the world called the God of this world.

And we have to understand how that works.

Now, when we think about that scripture, how it talks about

the world, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience,

we have to know that one scripture is called the God of

this world. In the book of Genesis, he's

called the serpent. In the Book of Revelation, he's

called the dragon. All different references, but

speaking about the same entity, which is the enemy that you

experience in this life. It's important for us to

recognize that so that when we are in the conflict of our lives

that we learned that well, if we want to have a spiritual

victory, we had to have spiritual equipment, if you

would, that we can through the Spirit become those who have

power over our natural side to experience truly the best that

God has for us. And so again, there's that

spiritual side, there is that natural side, and we have to

make the choice. Now in that verse, it mentions

the lust of the flesh and of the mind, and it also talks about

our human nature. And with that in mind, I want to

go all the way back to the book of Genesis chapter 3 and discuss

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

what that means. Now, this is a story about the

servant. Like I said, it's the same

continuous story from the beginning.

But in Genesis chapter 3, we know that God in chapter 2 had

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

created mankind, gave Adam a wife, put them in the Garden of

Eden, gave them access to all the beauty of the garden, the

fruit of the garden, even able to eat of the tree of life.

But the Lord said of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you

better not eat of that, because in the day you eat thereof,

you're surely going to die. And that's where the setting

begins here in this Scripture. So the serpent is telling the

woman, oh, God said you're going to die, You're not surely going

to die. Or God knows that in the day you

eat of it, your eyes will be open, you will be like God

knowing good and evil. So again, can you see how he's

planning thoughts that are against the knowledge of God so

that she will not trust God? So when the woman, having heard

this advice, saw that the tree was good for food, that it was

pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she

took of his fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband

with her and he ate. And of course, we know that from

that point they were kicked out of the garden.

But I want to share today how that same conflict is true even

in the day and hour in which we live.

I wrote a book called Wise, The Devil in Your Garden, and it

talks about these principles, but I felt so led to speak about

them even now in the context of the world we're living today.

We have to understand how this works in the world in which we

live. And we have to understand that

when it's talking about the serpent here, it's talking about

the opposition that we have. Why is the devil in your garden?

Well, the devil's in the garden because God wants us to learn

how to be an overcomer in this life.

He didn't choose us just to be children and eternal innocent.

He chose us to be the sons of God.

He chose us that we would be strong.

He told us He chose us so that we would have understanding and

we would know how to be victorious in this life.

It was the same in the garden and it's same true today.

Now we understand, or we should, that when Jesus Christ died on

the cross, He broke the power of the reign of Satan that He had

over mankind. But again, when that happened,

we still have Him in the world today not able to take control

of the world and not able to take control of your life.

But we also have to face the challenges and get spiritual

understanding so that we can be that victorious person that He

has called us to be and that when we face the temptation, we

do so with victory. I believe God has chosen you for

victory. I believe God has chosen you,

that you'd be an overcomer in this life.

And I believe that we're living in a time as never before, when

God is beginning to show us how that we might be an overcomer in

this life. And I also believe that we're at

that time frame of God's history, if you would, that we

would be able to take a step in God we've never taken before.

That's why I'm calling it a new day, because I believe there's

something available today that was never available before.

And so we can be an overcomer in this life as we tune into God

and say, OK, God, what is it that you want us to understand

now? This is a really a description

of what Eve faced and saw when she saw the tree.

So the tree would be in that sense, symbolic of what we call

the world, which is that world that plays that dimension.

That's opposite of the theme of God.

That's why the Bible says do not love the world or the things in

the world. For if anyone loves the world,

the love of the Father is not in him.

For all this in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of

the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the

world. The world is passing away and

the lust thereof. But he who does the will of the

Father abides forever. Now I want to share these

concepts, talking about how important it is to recognize

these temptations, but also I'm going to use it in the context

of history. As I was contemplating what I

was speaking this week, of course, I had every idea in my

mind that I'd be following up more concisely on what I spoke

about last week. And as the Lords give me these

ideas, I'm like, where is this going?

This is my sermon I thought I was going to have.

And then when I woke up and found out what was happening in

the Middle East, I realized why God wanted me to tune into that.

Now, the very first Sunday of the year is when our president

had sent the armies into Venezuela, capturing Maduro, and

I was sharing how that I really believe that God was going to

use those things. But most importantly, I was in

prayer that week for Cuba because always remember, Mount

Zion is in Havana, Cuba, Mount Zion is in Marvatille, Mexico.

Mount Zion is also in San Salvador.

So when I pray, I've got to pray for all these areas and they're

always on my mind, if you would, as they say in the old song.

And I'm thinking about these things.

And so when they did that, I saw some very positive things that

could come from that. Now, in thinking even about

what's happening in the Middle East today, President Trump has

this idea. There's an axis of evil that

contained the country of Iran, who were terrorists.

They used Venezuela, they use Cuba.

And in his mind also the cartels, because in his mind

also they're trying to bring these drugs into America, not

just to make money, but to destroy the United States of

America. And so that adds to that China,

which he sees as a great force against us.

And I was sure at the time that as I was praying for Cuba, I

just felt like, wow, God, something's happening, you're

going to make a change here in Cuba right now, they're

suffering as they never have since that happened because

there's the separation from Venezuela and they're not able

to get oil. And so in our church, there's a

very rare occasion they actually have electricity in the church

or even in our passengers homes. Hence there's no running water

oftentimes. So they're going through a very

difficult period, but they're comfortable with the process

because they really are looking for God to liberate their

country. How many will prey on that same

mind? Amen.

And so that's very important to me when thinking about the

cartels. This past week was in the news.

There was this tremendous thing happened in Mexico.

They had to shut down the airport in port of Arte.

And some of the favorite places I have for vacationing over the

years, they're on the Pacific Coast.

And that's where the cartels are strongest.

And because they killed one of the cartel leaders, there's all

kinds of problems there. And it is our president that's

encouraging them to do that, give them the information in

order to figure that out. Now, the church we have in

Marfa, Teo, there's cartels there.

A year ago they had a mayoral election.

There were two people running for the mayor of the city, and

both of them were assassinated by the cartel.

Can you believe there was still somebody that wanted to run for

mayor after that? I can't.

But they got a mayor, whatever. And our pastor has received

calls from cartel leaders himself.

And so they're always trying to manipulate things.

Now they feel pretty safe as long as they're not crossing

their paths, if you would. But I just want you to

understand why we should have a burden for all the nations of

the world and what exactly is going on there.

Amen. Because again, we see how God is

at work in the earth and we have our church in San Salvador.

And amazingly, there's been a change in political leadership

there. President Buchelli has changed

the country from being the most dangerous country in the world

to the safest country in the world.

So I'm like, thank you, Jesus. You do answer prayers.

Now, I said all that to say that in my mind, I can see how the

God is using the president to accomplish these things.

And I have this great expectation because I really

believe the Bible teaches us that the last great move of God

is going to be in the Middle East.

There's all kinds of information coming out about the underground

church in Iran and what God's doing.

And, and I'm just looking for there to be a Lucene, if you

would. These are amazing days in God.

Now, even though when I watch the news and I watch what's

happening, I have this idea. I think I know what's going on,

but I have to be honest with you, I might not know what's

going on at all. I've been serving the Lord long

enough that I can honestly say there's times I thought I knew

exactly what God was doing and find out He was doing something

different. And there's times when I thought

the devil was after me and I found out it was God.

I mean, it's like, how did God do that?

But because I live in the natural world, I'm obviously

going to observe these things. There's a place where we're

going to be connected to these things.

But the important thing for us always to know is that our God

is God all the time. Amen.

And I want us to realize too, and this is something as the

Lord was speaking me and I was a prayer about history, how that

these principles that I'm going to talk to you today, starting

with the pride of life, have worked in history.

And they're simple principles, but literally they can define a

whole country or a whole nation. I'm a part of what was called

the baby boom generation. Our parents were considered the

ones who were older than that, going through the Great

Depression and World War 2. Now, my parents weren't quite

old enough to do that, but they were kind of classed into that

group of people if you would. But there was a war called World

War 2, and it was a very, very big and terrible war.

Now, if you were to look in the history of the war, you would

know that in Europe there was a man named Adolf Hitler.

And Adolf Hitler was the instigator of ultimately World

War 2 happening. He became the head of Germany.

And from there he began to invade all the other countries

of Europe and eventually declared war on the United

States. And so that's the war that was

going on. Now, what I want you to see is

that how he led the people of Germany to do that is he began

to appeal to their pride of life, began to tell them that

the German people were a superior race.

They were called the Aryan race, if you would.

They considered the Jews the lowest.

And that's why after a while, people consented to the

Holocaust and all the things that were involved in that.

They looked at the Slavic nations, like the people who

live in present day Ukraine, as a part of a inferior race.

And the idea was to take over those countries, keep as many as

alive as they would need to have for slaves.

And everybody after a while bought into that because what

did they do? They fell to the concept of the

pride of life. Now, Hitler wasn't a person who

thought, wow, I'm going to get these people to believe in the

pride of life so I can take control of the world.

No, actually, it started out with him in that manner.

If you study his personal life, you'll find out there were a lot

of difficulties of his life, a lot of things that would give

him an in the natural, a sense of insecurity.

So I'm sure he encouraged himself first of all by saying,

wait a second. I got to see myself in a

positive light. And so that's when he began to

build his philosophy about Germans being the superior race.

He was a German. He wrote a book called Mine Kemp

where he told everybody, hey, this is the plan for our

country, all of this war that we know about.

And the reason people considered was something very simple.

It's love, not the world, neither things of the world.

And was I talking about the pride of life on the other side

of the globe for the United States?

It was a World War to us because we also had a war in Asia.

And guess what? The Japanese people felt the

same way. They had a emperor by the name

of Hirohitu. There was a guy named Tojo who

was the head of their army and they had this idea they were

superior. And because of that they would

go in other countries and thought nothing about killing

people. I read a book once called The

Rape of Nanking and that's literally where they went into

the capital of China and with swords killed 3, 100,000 people.

That's such a horrible thing. But it all come from this simple

principle that God warns us about, which is the pride of a

life. And so it's something obviously

that we need to understand. We need to be careful of

ourselves because often times we'll even tell people that,

won't we? Oh, you need to feel good about

yourself and build yourself esteem.

Now as Christians we have to understand that we should build

our self esteem. We should build our God esteem.

My confidence is not who I am in the natural.

My confidence should be in who God has said I am.

Amen. So I'm not trying to build up to

me. I'm trying to build up the

Kingdom. My identity isn't what I've

accomplished. My identity is God.

It's a very simple thing. Sometimes they get subtly drawn

into the thinking of the world, but I want you to understand how

literary nations can become captive to something that goes

against the very word of God. And the end result of World War

2 was something like 80 million people die.

How many know that's a tragedy and not why we need to say love

not the world and do not love the pride of this life in your

confidence in yourself. But understand that God has a

way. He wants us to walk different

than that. Next in history, I'm going to

talk about the lust of the eyes. And after World War Two, what

happened is two major countries came out of World War 21 was the

Soviet Union. The other was China,

unfortunately. And part of this was the fact

that we allied ourself with Russia.

Winston Churchill had said that I'll make a pact with Joseph

Stalin. I'd make a pact with the devil

if it would get me to defeat Adolf Hitler.

Well, in the end, that's exactly what he did, because it was

proven that Joseph Stalin was indeed the devil in Allah a lot

of ways. And he espoused something called

communism, which really is built on the lust of the eyes.

It's saying, look at what other people have.

Shouldn't you have those things? And so the idea is you have to

take from those who have and then enrich yourself and

everybody else. And the ideal setting was what

they called the dictatorship of the proletariat.

In other words, everything would be evenly distributed.

Now, the reason I want you to see this is because the leaders

were built on covetous thinking. And so in the end, if you're a

covetous person and you have a philosophy that's covetous, even

though you may not call it that, in the end, covetousness is

going to rule over you. And that's what eventually

happened. You know, Joseph Stalin was

guilty of killing 20 million of his own people.

Why? He was afraid somebody was going

to take his place. So they were always purges.

There was things that he did. One of the reasons Ukraine is so

opposed to being a part of Russia is because literally 10

million of them died from a forced famine that Stalin put

upon the country because it was the broad basket of the country.

And so he wanted to take over all the farms, etcetera.

But I just wanted to say how easy it is for something like

that to be an individual's motivation.

But in the end, that motivation will not only destroy you, but

it will destroy people around you.

Same thing happened in China. Is Mao Zedong was guilty of

killing 40 million of his own people.

How many of these are statistics that are almost unbelievable?

And what does it begin with? Well, something very simple.

The principle, the Word of God says we should be mindful of

ourselves, but when we see it in nations, it becomes obviously

much bigger. And this is a something that I

want us all to see and understand.

Because something isn't true because everybody believes it.

Something's true because it's in the word of God.

Give the Lord a praise on that. Jesus said to his disciples, I

sanctify them by the truth. Your word is true.

And so when things become popular, everybody's behind it.

It's very easy for us to fall into it.

That's the system of the world. But know that you're a child of

the most high God and you don't have to follow the ways of the

world. You want to guard.

You're thinking at all times and say, well, what does God's word

say about it? Because guess what?

We have to understand God's way is going to be a way of life.

Then ultimately talks about the lust of the flesh, which is any

human desire we have that motivates us in our behavior.

Now God created us. Like I said, body, soul and

spirit. So how many you know, desires

are a good thing. There's something God give to us

and that's why the Bible says that if we trust in the Lord and

believe in him, he'll give us the desire of our heart.

That's amazing. But if we're unrestrained and

we're thinking we have to decide what's going to make us happy,

the end result, it's not going to be too good.

And I use this part to talk about how important it is for us

to understand today in Western society in the United States,

how important it is for us to realize there's so much that's

available in the world and the society we live in, saying,

well, everything's OK, be happy. Do what you want to do.

And so it becomes easy for us to think that, well, if I pursue my

own desire, I'm going to be happy.

But God says, let me chart out a life for you because I know you

better than you know yourself. Come on, church, put your trust

in me, says the living God, and let me bring my word to pass in

your life. And so this is what the Proverb

writer says. There is a way that seems right

to man, but his end is the way of death.

The person who laborers, laborers for himself, for his

hungry mouth, what drives him off.

And this Scripture tells us how important it is for us to always

to discern. That's human wisdom.

This is God's wisdom and liberal thinking.

The idea is that, well, everybody was born good.

So if you're good to people, everything's going to work out.

That was the plan. And this is international news

too, if you would, in history, well, back in 1978 and I say

said, you know what, We need to be nice to China because if

we're nice to China and we trade with China, we start selling

them stuff and vice versa. They'll become our friend.

They'll just be a part of the system.

Well, how you know, that hasn't quite proven to true.

Yeah, they'll sell the stuff and yes, they will be a part of the

system, but they've also become the most powerful force in the

world other than the United States as far as economic power

and population wise. They got three times as many

people as we are, or we have, I should say.

And so again, sometimes we just follow philosophies.

Again, that seems good and it seems to make a lot of sense.

But God says, well, in our human idea and our human motivations,

we're going to never think enough is enough.

So you can take a country like China that went from very poor

to being very rich now, and guess what?

It's not enough. And so again, we have to be

mindful all the time how important it is for us to

recognize that God's way is the best way.

Now in the book of Galatians, it says do not be deceived.

God is not mocked. For whatever man sows that will,

he also reap. For he who sows through his

flesh, will of the flesh reap what corruption, but he who sows

through the Spirit, will of the Spirit reach everlasting light.

And so let's not grow weary with doing good, for in due season we

shall reap, if you do not lose heart.

And the principle of sowing and reaping is so very true.

And when you look at history, just like the examples I used

today, when people did the right thing, they were blessed in the

long run, when people did the wrong thing, in the end, it was

indeed a way of death. And so we have to understand how

important it is for us always to think in terms.

I'm going to sow the seed of the word of God, and I'm going to

have my confidence that I, I do that God's word is going to come

true and we're going to see the blessing.

But also we have to understand there was this process where

people who do the wrong thing, they face corruption.

And guess what? You can look at history and find

out what we're saying is true. Now, could have I used a Bible

story to explain the same thing? Yes.

But I felt like God was speaking to me to use history because

sometimes we'll read the Bible and we'll see that as a biblical

realm. And then we get up and live our

life and we see that as a different realm.

And I like to point out from time to time, the things that

are true in the Bible are true in everyday life.

Amen. Church.

And we have to know that and understand that because the

world is becoming more corrupt, but yet God's having a people

that are becoming more like gold and precious things, Amen.

Because we're going to arise and shine, and God's glory is going

to be seen upon us. In this particular scripture

Jesus is speaking about no one can enter a strong man's house

and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman and

then he can plunder his house. Now Jesus was talking about that

concerning Satan, whom he defeated on the cross.

And how many know that's the strategy of war in the Middle

East? And I got to admit that when I

see them blowing up the man who says we're the great Satan kind

of makes me feel good inside. That's kind of movie.

I like how many guys out there like those kind of movies.

Money is always mad when I pick out the movies.

But anyway, there is a warrior inside of us, right?

So we like to win wars. But the truth of the matter is

we have to understand how that it's important for us to see how

that even though Jesus defeated our strong man that we stand

against, He still allows us to go through these trials so that

we can learn how to become strong in the Lord and in the

power of His might. Now, I put up your Children of

Wrath because I want to point out something to you that's very

important in that scripture talking about the world.

It talks about how by nature were children of wrath.

Now, this is such an important thing to understand because in

my viewpoint, if I look at the Middle East, you know, they're

going to talk about all kinds of different theories about why

this is going on, why that's going on.

But what I see over there is a part of the world where

everybody is angry. They're so angry, they kill each

other, and they do. It isn't just US against the

Muslims, as some would say. There's Muslims against Muslims,

there's ethnic group against ethnic group.

There are so many little armies in every little country, if you

would. Why?

Because people are angry. And that's why when we look at

the Middle East, one of the lessons we should learn is, you

know what? We shouldn't allow ourselves to

become angry. How do you know?

We live in a world today where people like to make you mad.

It's almost like that's how they get you on their side.

And so this is a warning from heaven.

Don't get mad. Don't let the sun go down on

your wrath. Don't allow yourself to be

caught up in the anger of the world, but have the peace that

passes all understanding. When you're even involved in a

situation of conflict in your marriage, people are going to

try to make you mad about your situation.

Say to them, I'm not going to get mad, I'm going to let God do

something miraculous in my life. Hallelujah, because I don't have

to get mad when I have God on my side.

Again. It's normal for us to have our

human reactions. That's why we shared my normal

reactions. And all this just so you can

see, we aren't human beings, of course, but in the end, we have

to understand how that the God of this world, the spirit of the

age, can hold us into captivity if we're not careful to keep

ourselves planted before the Lord.

That's why in the scriptures I read today, I just want to end

with the last one that I read in the text.

Take on the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which

is the word of God. Let God change you as a person

and then take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word, and

be a people of prayer, always praying with supplication in the

Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance

because it doesn't always happen all right away.

And supplication, which means with intensity of commitment for

all the Saints. And that's why I pray for Cuba,

and I pray for El Salvador, and I pray for all the people I know

and even are nations that I don't know.

But the Apostle Paul said for me that utterance may be given to

me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery

of the gospel and church. The most important thing that we

all should know is the most powerful tool in the world is

the gospel of Jesus Christ that will change our world.

Amen. The apostle Paul said, I'm not

ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God and to

salvation. So let's bow our heads for just

a moment. And this was a lot of

information. And I know that history is not

typically people's favorite subject, but it's so important

that we would understand. If we will learn from history,

we won't have to repeat its mistakes.

And when we see the word of God actually is true in individual

lives and nations and all the nations of the world, we should

be able to make our commitment to understand.

I'm going to make a choice. I'm going to go God's way,

Father, let us be a people at Mount Zion fully committed to

your way, releasing your power to our generation and to our

world. We thank you for that, Father,

in Jesus name, Amen. This is Pastor Lorne Coverbius

from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us

today and invite you to connect with our church family by

visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.

God bless you.