When Pigs Fly: Miracles of Deliverance - November 2, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Well, do you believe in miracles?

You know, you think about that

statement, when pigs fly, does anyone's family members ever said that?

Or have you ever heard that? Or is this so old that it's new again?

I mean, interesting statement. It's meant to be a sarcastic remark, right?

Like when you say when pigs fly, it's like, that'll never happen, you know?

Will dad ever spend any money? Well, when pigs fly, that'll happen.

Or like in my family, dad's going to let us get another cat.

When pigs fly, that ain't happening.

You know, when we think about just that phrasing of that, it just brings to

light, not only is it funny, and of course, this isn't my original thing here,

thanks to Life Church out of Oklahoma.

I was looking through things to, do you have something?

You believe in miracles. so there will not be any cats.

Okay. We're not preaching about that today. We are preaching about deliverance today.

So maybe my family needs to be delivered from something.

Actually, over the next four weeks, counting today, we're going to talk about

miracles and different kinds of miracles.

But I think a lot of times we talk, we say the word miracle,

we've just kind of make it, we've kind of watered it down a little bit.

So it doesn't really mean what it should mean.

For example, I thought I experienced a miracle a few times when we moved up

to McCall and I would come down to the Treasure Valley and right there in Eagle

where 55 meets State Street.

I got on State Street and I did not hit a red light from there all the way down

Eagle or up Eagle Road to the freeway. To me, that was a miracle.

Wow. Not only that, when Adam was sick, and when he was down in.

I almost said Valley Children. That's California. Sorry. When he was down at

St. Luke's downtown, I made it all the way from St.

Luke's downtown Boise, all the way down State Street, all the way out to Star,

Idaho, without a red light. A second miracle.

But really, it wasn't a miracle. It was just good timing, I think, as I was going.

But you see, we kind of do that when you go to Costco and it's a busy day and

you pull up and there's a lady leaving the parking stall and you're the next one in line,

sometimes you'll say, that's a miracle that I get this parking spot.

Now, all of those seem like they're ordinary things and all those are important,

but are they really miracles?

Because I kind of define miracles this way.

A miracle is when God intervenes. Now, I'm not saying that God didn't intervene

with all the green traffic lights or with your parking spot,

but when it really comes down to it, have you prayed, God, would you encounter this reality here?

And would you make something happen in a way that no one can be left to guessing

that this was God working, that this was God moving?

So miracles, when God intervenes and when you have problems,

when they come along, the things that miracles do is they help to build your faith.

When you believe in the miracles that they can happen, it's astounding.

A lot of times, especially in a secular day and age that we live in a secular

culture, they tend to discount miracles.

You've heard the one before about the professor and the excited freshman in

college, so excited to be there.

And he was a Christian and the professor decided to make fun of the scripture.

And he said, I want you to turn to the Old Testament and let's look at the story

of the Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea.

And he went on his tirade against this. And he said, you know,

the amazing thing is, were these pharaoh crossed.

That could not have happened because the area where they say he crossed,

the water was only four inches deep.

And so how could they split the Red Sea and walk across?

And the freshman, man, he was just so excited. Yeah, that's right.

And the guy said, the professor said, what are you so excited about?

I just disproved that this could happen. You heard my half an hour tirade against this.

Well, the college freshman was just so full of faith and just so excited.

He said, yeah, but the scripture says the entire Egyptian army and all their

animals, they drowned in only four inches of water.

That's amazing. That's a miracle. So either way, this college freshman was not

shaken in his faith, and he was just so excited that God would do this.

So we're going to talk about four types of miracles.

We're going to talk about next week the miracle of healing.

And so I hope you'll be here for that. We're going to talk about the miracles

of protection, how God comes in and he provides protection for you.

How God provides with miracles of provision.

And so that's an exciting one. But today, I really want to talk about miracles of deliverance.

Now, this is one you're like, Mike, Halloween's over.

We're going to talk about these spiritual, dark, spooky things today.

You know, it gets kind of creepy. And really, I'm not sure about this.

Where are you going with this? Well, I think if we find ourselves in the camp

of not believing in miracles, or believing maybe they had their place,

but they are not around anymore.

Or maybe if you just discount spirituality altogether, there might be some in

here this morning that do that.

I just want to remind you of the devil's greatest trick that he ever pulled.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn't exist.

Because if the devil can convince the world he's not there, then he has free

reign to do whatever he wants in the life of unbelievers, in the life of believers.

But we know that scripture tells us something different. So as a foundation

this morning, I just want to invite you, if you're willing or able,

would you stand as we read Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12 from the word this morning?

Ephesians 6:12

12 and 13, excuse me. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms.

Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes,

you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we just come before you humbly,

Lord, but boldly, God, just to ask you to open our hearts and our minds to your word today.

Lord, open us to the reality that there is a greater battle taking place than

what we can just sense with the senses you've given us.

But Lord, spiritually speaking, there's something going on for the very lives

of everyone here, the very souls of everyone.

And so, Lord, we just submit to you today, God.

Help us as we talk about miracles of deliverance. Lord, what this means,

and Lord, the reality of how you work in the midst of all this.

And so, God, we're trusting you today for what you're going to do with us.

In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Thank you for honoring God's word. You can be seated. You know,

when we get down to it and what the scripture passage is talking about is,

you know, we're talking about things like demons.

You know, well, what is a demon? You know, okay, I saw some kids come to my

house and maybe they look pretty scary.

Was that a demon? You know, maybe you think of your mean Uncle Joe that died.

You definitely know he wasn't an angel, so maybe you're thinking he wasn't a demon.

Well, really what it comes down to is that demons are fallen angels.

Isaiah 14 and Revelation 12 give us a hint into this character in the Scripture

called Lucifer, Satan, the adversary.

And especially in Isaiah 14, Lucifer making the five I will statements against

God. Basically, Lucifer saying, I will be like God.

And we know his attempt to overthrow the Father in heaven, which didn't work.

And so he was cast out in Revelation 12.

Scholars believe that when it talks about the dragon coming down,

it's talking about Lucifer and bringing the third of the stars with him.

That's talking about a third of the angels went with Lucifer,

went with Satan, cast out of heaven in the attempted rebellion there.

And so when we think about this, fallen angels that got cast out,

that's the demons we're talking about.

Very real, as real as angels. There's one devil, one Lucifer,

one Satan, one adversary, but many demons.

And we could say that what the angels are to God, the demons are to Satan,

are to the devil. They're messengers.

Now, the two aren't equal. God is not equal.

Or excuse me, let me rephrase that. Satan, the devil, is not equal to God.

The devil is a created being, okay? He's got a definite end date coming to him.

Let me tell you that. That's what the Scripture says.

So there's no equality there, but he convinced a third of the host of heaven

to follow him in this rebellion.

And so this morning, when we're talking about mistakes that we make,

when we think about the demonic, when we think about demons and the spiritual warfare that goes on.

Where do we go wrong with demons? Now, I don't mean where do we go wrong with

our understanding, but maybe,

because sometimes what we do and what I've seen fellow pastors do in the Church

of the Nazarene and not in the Church of the Nazarene is that we get it wrong

when we overemphasize the demonic influence,

when we see the devil under every rock with everything that goes bad.

When I go out to the pastor mobile and it's got a flat tire because I haven't

put new tires on it yet. And I got to pretty quick because winter's coming.

Every time I see that flat tire, I can't blame it on the devil.

Oh, stinking demons. Look at what the devil did. Gave me a flat tire again.

No, dummy. I haven't fixed the leak in the tire. I haven't got new tires. It's not the devil.

Now, the devil tempts me to maybe say some things or get frustrated.

That's the devil there. But we can't see the devil under every rock,

under every problem that happens.

We might say, well, I ain't got no money because of that devil.

The devil keeps me poor and broke all the time. I just don't have any dollar to my name.

Well, it's not the devil's fault you go out after payday and spend all your

money. Well, you got a new outfit, you got some new duds, you got some new shoes.

Well, you got a new haircut, you know.

It's not the devil's fault you go and blow all your money.

When we think about blaming everything on the devil, not every problem is caused by demons.

Come on now. The devil didn't make you eat all that bag of trick-or-treat candy

you did not hand out on Friday night.

That's not the devil's fault, okay?

Not every problem is caused by demons. We tend to overemphasize that.

But we also, on the flip side, we tend to underemphasize the demonic influence on our lives.

Not every problem is caused by demons or the devil. but we can't discount that

there is some influence of the forces of darkness.

On the things that come at us, on the troubles that come at us,

on the things that happen.

And usually they happen to you and you're like, where in the world did that come from?

How did this happen? So there's kind of those mistakes that we make.

And I think what we need to do is to take a balanced view of this,

is to really say, okay, I'm not going to blame everything on the devil,

but I'm not going to say there isn't a devil, that there is some kind of evil influence.

After all, when we look back to Ephesians, hey, it says our struggle is not

against flesh and blood.

So it's not against flesh and

blood. What does that mean? There's some spiritual action taking place.

There's some spiritual forces against us.

And so very briefly this morning, before I get into really the victory I want

you to experience is what do demons do?

First of all, I want you to know that demons will tempt you to sin.

They will. They'll throw out those little traps.

In 2 Timothy 2.26, the apostle Paul is telling Timothy, okay,

I want you to watch out for false teachers.

You got to watch out for these guys because they're slick. They're crafty.

They're going to come in and they're going to oppose your teaching.

And they're going to do it with just the slickest logic you ever heard,

with the greatest oratory skills there ever were.

And so you be careful. And then at the end of this passage, we're going to pick

up this verse in verse 26.

He's saying, watch out for the opponents. And here's what he says about this.

The opponents of false teachers, they will come to their senses.

That's his hope. And they will escape from the trap of the devil who has taken

them captive to do his will.

Did you catch that? The trap of the devil?

Now, I want you to know the devil is not omnipresent.

That is an attribute that belongs to God. The devil is not everywhere at the

same time. So he has to employ demons to do his dirty work Those fallen angels

again that rebelled against God Got booted out of heaven.

So they're there to tempt. They're there to lead you away. Here's some examples.

Have you ever heard that little voice that's not God's that says,

go ahead and do that thing or take that? You deserve it.

Come on, take that sick day. You know your boss is relying on you, but just take it.

You've worked for this company for 20 years. You deserve one day off.

Or maybe, hey, just go spend your check on all that fancy clothing that you

need. You deserve it, after all.

Hey, go ahead and eat that whole bag of Halloween candy. Come on,

there ain't no trick-or-treaters coming around. You deserve it.

Or maybe you're flipping through your phone and some video comes up and you

hear little voices, watch it.

Come on, quit scrolling. Just check it out.

And three hours later, you're watching the same stupid video over and over again.

You've wasted that time or maybe your eyes caught something they shouldn't be

looking at. and there you go, just like King David, looking at something you shouldn't be.

It's going to cause you more grief and more turmoil than you expected.

Or maybe it's like something in the Garden of Eden where Lucifer,

where the devil tempted Eve.

Touch it. Come on, just touch that fruit.

Maybe you've been invited to touch something you weren't supposed to touch,

to take something you weren't supposed to take.

You can go on and on. Hey, just smoke it. Don't worry about it.

Everybody's doing it. You need to relax.

Hey, just go have that drink. It doesn't matter. You need to relax.

Your life is so stressful. You just need more of that.

Maybe it's shoot it up. Just take it. Come on. You're never going to get caught.

No one is ever going to know.

It's no big deal. Everybody is doing it.

You see, demons tempt you to sin. They throw these traps out waiting for you to step in.

Because what they do is they minimize sin so they can maximize destruction.

That's what the enemy is all about.

Making sin look so small that it doesn't even matter. It's just like a little

fleck of something that you can just brush off.

Don't flirt around with sin, folks. Don't let demons be successful in that work,

because we know all throughout Scripture, it says that sin leads to a great

destruction. There's several examples of that there. So demons will tempt you to sin.

They'll also distract you from God's will.

They'll get you off course, distract you from the plan that he has for your life.

In 1 Timothy, again, Paul writing to Timothy in the first letter,

the scripture says, the Spirit clearly says that in the latter times,

some will abandon their faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

I didn't write that. Apostle Paul wrote that to Timothy, saying in the latter times, watch out.

Some will abandon their faith. I do not want a show of hands,

but I know that perhaps everyone or most everyone in here has experienced a

loved one or a good friend that

has cashed in and said, I'm not doing this Christianity stuff anymore.

Perhaps some of you even know pastors that have said that same thing,

especially through the COVID years.

They just cashed it in and said, no, this is too costly. I'm not doing this anymore.

I'm not going to preach anymore. I'm not going to share the gospel with anyone.

What kind of world are we living in?

And so people get confused. The confusion comes from the devil,

these deceiving spirits, these things taught by demons.

There's a philosophy out that say all roads lead to God.

And perhaps you've seen the bumper sticker. The bumper sticker spells out co-exist.

Have you seen that before? That's a great sentiment, but it is not the truth.

Yeah, I like the sentiment of everyone getting along, but we know that doesn't

happen. And in that bumper sticker, each letter of the word is a different religious

symbols, kind of putting forth this philosophy that all roads lead to God.

That we take a little bit of Buddhism, that we take a little bit of science,

we add that in, we take a little bit of Islam, we take a little bit of everything,

because it doesn't really matter because everything points to the same God.

Well, if you read your Bible, folks, we know that's not true.

And if you know anything about some other religions, you know that's not true.

You know that there's deceiving spirits trying to make a system of belief look

like the true system of belief, which is belief in Jesus Christ.

When we think about all roads lead to heaven or all roads lead to God,

you just need a little new age here, a little Christianity mixed in,

a little witchcraft, all that stuff.

And pretty soon, if you start down that road, you'll begin to hear,

well, you can't really trust the Bible.

You can't really believe what's in there. But don't worry, everything points to God anyway.

Well, don't worry, you don't really need the church. You should just sleep in Sunday morning.

Come on. You could have had two extra hours of sleep this day.

And so the further you start to get away, you step away from Christianity. It's a slippery slope.

And pretty soon you're going down that cursed water slide away from your faith.

You're wondering how you got there. I just thought everything led to God.

Well, not this slide, baby. It's going the wrong way. And when you think about

the reality of the distraction that happens, just make your own path.

You don't need the church. You don't need the people of God.

It's an individual religion.

Make it up. We know that's the teachings of demons.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg on that.

Folks, demons will tempt you to sin. Demons will distract you from God's will,

but they'll also inflict suffering on you.

We're told in the gospel of Matthew, of a story, Matthew 17,

of a man that comes to Jesus with a boy that's been sick.

And hear the desperation in this man's voice in Matthew 17, verse 15.

Matthew 17:15

Lord, have mercy on my son, he said. He has seizures and is suffering greatly.

He often falls into the fire or into the water.

This kid has some problems. Okay, those of you that are teachers out there,

have any of you ever had a student like this?

He was just a little hellion.

The way the scriptures phrase it was like, it's not his fault.

Something else is going on. Something else is at work.

Here's what Jesus says, bring the boy to me.

And verse 18 says, Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy and he

was healed at that moment.

Boy, teachers, if there's ever a time you need to pray for your students, I think it's now.

Parents, grandparents Ever a time to pray for Your kids that go to school with some of these It's now,

Jesus, we know, came to set people free. This young little boy,

innocent, had pain inflicted upon him by this demon.

Jesus took care of that right away. How did he get the demon?

Where did it come from? Can kids be possessed?

Man, I don't have all the answers to that. That's a whole other study or sermon.

But I just know the picture we have from Scripture that this kid was.

And it was causing him so much trouble that the demon inside him was trying

to help him end his life by tossing him into a pond or tossing him into a fire.

But Jesus knew what to do, and he rebuked the demon, cast him out. The boy was made whole.

You see, Jesus comes to set everyone free, from the youngest to the eldest.

Jesus is the one. He's the liberator. But we know Satan's mission,

something else Jesus said, the enemy comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

That's Satan's mission. We know Jesus' mission right here on our wall.

Jesus came to seek and save that which is lost.

Because at the end of John 10.10, it says pretty much that, that Jesus came

to give life and to give it to you most abundantly.

Totally against the enemy wanting to steal your life, wanting to kill you,

wanting to destroy everything that you have.

Well, we know from the scripture that demons try to influence us.

They're just carrying out the bidding.

Depression. Demons influence that. I'm not saying if you're depressed today

that it's because of demons. Don't get me wrong.

Okay, that's not exactly not what I'm saying, but they want to lead you down

that path to where you have no hope at all.

Demons will bring things that will help to influence that.

Man, you ever been going through your phone like those videos?

Maybe you saw a great sermon clip of Pastor Mike from the service on Sunday

and you flip by it real quick because you already heard that, right?

And then you start getting these other videos. You're like, where are these

coming from? I'll tell you.

I'll tell you where they're coming from. There's some kind of influence going on.

Boy, as soon as I hit 50, I started getting some videos I never got before about

little blue pills, about some other ladies in there that said, don't tell your wife.

You start going through that. You're like, whoa, unsubscribe from that stuff. How did it even happen?

Well, there's some demonic influence even in the technology that we have.

We've got to be cautious. Man, it goes all the way back to the Sunday school

song. Be careful, little eyes, what you see.

Be careful, little ears, what you hear. I mean, you could go on and on with

that song, but there's a reason we teach those songs because when we're 50 plus

years old, we're going to need them.

Got to be careful. Demons want to inflect suffering and the suffering infliction

doesn't always start something like something that's bad.

Man, it can start like this. Oh, you know what? I've been doing good on my diet.

This one little Oreo is not going to hurt. Man, it looks so good.

It's even got some special filling in the middle for the holidays.

Before you know it, you're reaching down for another Oreo and the bag's empty.

And what started out good has not been good for your health.

Or your teeth. Or your diet.

But now say that Oreo is not an Oreo at all.

Maybe it's just taking some liberty with something. Well, you know,

God won't mind if I do it just this one time.

Oh, nobody's even going to know if I just participate in this once. Oh, you know what?

Nobody else knows where I'm at, so I'm just going to do like the Romans do.

Pretty soon, your life is so miserable, there's so much suffering and pain inflicted

that you don't know how you got there, but you're there.

You see, Satan's mission is to hurt what matters to the heart of God,

and I want to tell you that you matter to the heart of God.

And Satan is there to make sure that your life is so screwed up that you will

think that God doesn't even want you anymore.

But don't believe that lie. God loves you.

He gave Jesus for you.

As a matter of fact, what Jesus did for us is incredible.

We know the enemy wants to steal our joy. We know the enemy wants to obliterate our health.

We know the enemy wants to crush our children and our legacy.

But Jesus, he came to do something more incredible than that.

He came to bring redemption to thwart Satan's mission to really see about his

mission coming to fruition.

Because folks, remember what we read this morning, we're in a spiritual battle.

It's not just flesh and blood, but there's something going on that maybe we can't always see.

And so what I want you to have confidence in this morning, and I want to turn

the corner into the miraculous here, is that you have miraculous authority over

darkness in the name of Jesus.

That is, if you're a Christian, if you've given your heart and your life to

Jesus, if he's forgiven your sin,

he's cleansed you from all that unrighteousness, you've got authority.

See, we're not fighting with our own power.

We're fighting with the power of Christ and what Jesus Christ has done.

It's nothing in your own strength, nothing in your own ability.

If you have given your life to Christ, you've given your life to Christ.

You said, this isn't mine anymore, Jesus. It's yours.

I've given you all my yuck, all my sin, all my deadness, my brokenness, my trespasses.

It's all yours, my whole life. So if you've given all that you are to Jesus,

it's all his, and he wants you to live a certain way.

He's going to show you how to live in a life of holiness, a life of purity,

a life above the fray of sin, of not getting caught in those snags anymore.

In Christ, we have the power of Christ. It's his power working in us and working through us.

Goes all the way back to the New Testament again. Matthew 10, verse 1.

Matthew 10:1

Jesus called his 12 disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure

spirits and to heal every sickness and disease.

Wow. I believe that that authority continues today in the life of a believer,

even if a lot of believers don't believe that. Now, I know this gets a little scary.

Pastor, you want me to start casting out demons? No, that's not what I'm saying.

But I'm saying you have authority in Christ to live as Christ would have you to live,

to even overcome the demons in your very family okay might

be just the proclivities to something in your family for the curry family that

could be anger not my wife she's not a curry well she is now but she's a cane

oh wait that goes back to the scripture too just kidding honey yeah canes don't

get angry. Here's an altar right here, too.

Man, you should have had nursery duty today.

Things would have went a lot smoother. No, just kidding. I'm going to step out

of this hole right now. Shall we all pray?

Oh, Lord, help us. If we understand the difference between power and authority, it's kind of like this.

We've got some great law enforcement officers that attend church here and very grateful for them.

But can you imagine James Ferdinand?

He's out on 55 and there's a high speed chase and he hears about it.

And so he sets up down here right past the bridge and here comes a car speeding

and is coming through town.

And James holds his badge up and says, I order you to stop.

Does James have the authority to do that as a law enforcement officer,

even though he's just a little bit across the county line?

I think so. But is that guy going to listen?

Probably not. He's running from those kind of people. See, James has the authority.

The police officers, hey, stop. I want you to stop.

But he doesn't have the power to make that car stop. The power that resides

in the laws and in the states and the governments.

See, we as believers, we don't have the power to do that.

We have the authority to. We can call out sin. We can call out what we think is demonic.

We can call out bad behavior. I believe even we can rebuke demons and tell them

to stop their dirty work. But it's not our power.

You know i i didn't ask james but i should have you know when when he reads his oath of office.

I don't think he then has an s on his chest for superman and he can stop you

know a speeding car i think we'd have a lot more police officers if that was the case,

but there's a difference between authority and power it's not our power it's

the power of jesus christ and jesus has authorized us as a duly i won't say

oath but not sworn in either we're not church, we're not going to swear.

But you get the idea that we've got the authority in Christ to call out this

stuff as disciples of Jesus.

But it's Christ's power that does the work. It works in us first,

but it can work in the lives of other people.

See, God is a miraculous God, and God gives you authority over darkness.

But it's hard for us to remember this.

Why is that? Well, we live in a world where we have sense, as we see.

And man, we're just trying to get by. We're just trying to pay our bills.

We're just trying to make sure that the kids get up and get to school,

get to all their activities.

We're so busy, you know, trying to do the dishes and get the yard mowed before the snow falls.

We're trying so hard not to sell off our children, even our adult children.

I mean, life just gets us so busy in what we're doing.

We don't recognize the spiritual opposition when it happens,

that there's something opposing us, there's something coming against us.

And again, remember, don't assume that every problem is the result of demonic influence.

Okay, we live in a broken world, and that broken world is going to oscillate

out of sync with God and with God's will. And so stuff's going to happen.

Not good stuff to both the unbeliever and the believer.

But don't assume any problem isn't something that has an influence from the evil one.

You see, when you have a problem, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to employ practical and spiritual action when you encounter something.

I want you to do what's natural, that is what is wise and what is smart.

But I also want you to fight against the spiritual darkness.

Fight against it. Pray.

Never forget when our youngest, Adam, our oldest, excuse me,

Adam, was sick for a long time around his fourth birthday.

Here's a kid that should be just excited and having fun.

But he spent his whole fourth birthday party sitting in a lounge chair,

one of those little fold-up ones.

We're like, this is not normal. What's going on? And so of course we're praying,

God, give us wisdom. What do we do with our kid?

And took him to the doctor and nothing wrong with him. He's okay.

His legs hurt all the time. What's going on? Oh, just growing pains. So finally.

You know, the cane in my wife, she just got riled up. Come on,

we're going to Valley Children's Hospital. We went there and they discovered he had leukemia.

I don't know what that is.

They wanted to start stuff right away. And I'm like, okay, great.

We took him to the best doctors we could to do the best work they could,

but we just didn't leave it at that.

Next Sunday, I was hitting my face on the altar at our church and praying, Lord, heal him.

Lord, deliver him from this.

Crying out in my heart, God, this is one thing I can't do for my son. Only you can do that.

A small, still voice. I still remember it today. A sense of peace even came

over and said, he's going to be okay.

That's all I needed to know that we're going to keep going on.

Well, we didn't stop his chemo treatments. We didn't stop him going to the doctor.

We wanted to do what was natural, what was wise.

And we continued to fight the spiritual battles with him. And guess what?

God healed him up of it. Praise the Lord.

God did a work in his life and a second work later on.

You know, when it comes down to it, if you're battling anxiety,

go to the doctor, but also pray in the name of Jesus.

If you are in a situation where you're suffering emotionally,

go to counseling and pray for deliverance from whatever is coming against you

that you can't understand.

When we think about doing the practical and the spiritual together,

if you've got a child that's rebelling, take away their screen time, take away their phone.

Yeah, they're going to holler, they're going to yell, but also pray for them

and love them unconditionally. Fight those spiritual battles.

If you've got a loved one that's battling alcohol, it's battling substances,

man, get them to go to a godly 12-step program, but also pray for spiritual victory in their life.

It's not an either or, it's a both and.

God has given us these solutions. It doesn't mean you have a lack of faith,

but it means you exercise that faith to fight those battles in the realm you

can't even see or understand.

If you've got a big decision to make, use wisdom, use discernment,

but also follow this prompting of the Holy Spirit.

He'll tell you, don't do that. Or, hey, this is the way to go.

You better get to doing it.

Follow God in that. I want you to remember this.

When Jesus rose from the grave, he defeated darkness. What did he defeat?

Darkness. What did he defeat when he rose from the grave, right?

Darkness is defeated. Evil is defeated. It's got an expiration date on it.

We've got to be convinced and remember what Jesus did when he rose from the grave.

The price of the debt of sin was paid through the blood of Jesus.

That was already taken care of.

When Christ rose from the grave, boy, it brought victory.

Victory over death, which is the curse of sin. Hallelujah.

When we think about this, that you have authority over the darkness in whose name?

Jesus' name, because Jesus rose again from the grave, victorious over sin, victorious over death.

And what is darkness? Darkness is not the opposite of light.

Darkness is the absence of light. And there are many dark places in this world

that need some light to shine in.

And Jesus has made each and every one of us lights. We know that Jesus is the light of the world.

And if we believe that Jesus Christ dwells within us, then we know we've got

a light emanating from us.

It's not our light. It's not our power. It's Jesus.

John 1.5 says, The light shines in darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Folks, anytime there is darkness and you walk in, there's light.

Jesus is in your life. If Jesus is in your heart, you are the flashlight that exposes darkness.

You are the flashlight, the light that shows sin.

When you go to those dark places, there's an exposing that happens.

There's a light that shines.

Jesus is the light of the world.

But in your circumstances, when that anxiety starts to creep in,

well, you take authority over that darkness in the name of Jesus and say, I will not be anxious.

When those times come and you just know something is off. You say,

I take authority over whatever this feeling is in the name of Jesus.

And you pray that Christ would resolve the situation.

Right now, I've got to let you know this. I know our time's getting away.

We've still got some great stuff we're going to do here.

But the enemy is active in our congregation, trying to throw these little traps,

trying to throw these little darts your way, trying to stir up dissension.

Because the enemy sees that sometimes there's not any people out where he wanted

them in the dark places because they've come into a place of light.

They've stepped into the light because some others that had the light have shown

them the way to Jesus. and he's not happy about that.

And so he's trying to stir up dissension among the brethren,

as we call it, official religious terms, right?

He's trying to stir up trouble with you. And he does this by having miscommunication run rampant.

Well, did you hear what Sister So-and-So said? I don't know if you heard.

Well, let me tell you. And usually what they tell you is not going to be what Sister So-and-So said.

And it's going to make you mad and that person mad.

And If you've got a problem with someone, go to that person and take care of it.

Don't let the enemy get in and start to do his little evil ways with his little imps.

Go to that person and say, I love you, but I heard this. Is this what happened?

Well, no, that ain't what happened. Where'd you get that from?

Well, let's just solve it right now. And then it's done with.

And you say, all right, brother, sister, high five.

Let's go on, get back to what we were doing for Jesus.

Anything that tries to disrupt the unity of the church is sin we don't want

any part of that no matter how good the gossip is we don't want any part of

that so i'll tell you today if there's ever something that i've done on purpose

or accidentally or someone else said i did please come talk to me.

Let's solve it. Let's get it dealt with. And then let's move on to what God has for us.

That's the standard that we should all be working in, right?

All right. Enough on that. That's a whole nother sermon I crammed in there real quick.

But just remember, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

We're not fighting for victory. Jesus already won. So what are we doing?

We are fighting from a place of victory.

We've already won. We've already got the championship.

And I wish Boise did yesterday, but they didn't. But we're fighting from the place of victory.

We are the champions in Christ. We are the champions, my friend.

Jesus fought for us to the end, and he's going to keep doing that.

I'm sorry, Emma, I embarrassed you like crazy.

Y'all need deliverance from my horrible singing today. It's coming. I see the clock.

But we are the champions in Christ. We've got to remember that.

When the tempter wants to come to you And get you alone and say Just do this

this one time No one will know Say I'm not doing that I've already got victory

over that In Jesus name Leave me Get out of here you little imp I don't need you hanging around,

Don't say that to your spouse Ever.

Your spouse is your spouse The two shall become one flesh It's not just a physical

thing It's a spiritual thing Unless you're going to look in your mirror And

call yourself an imp Yeah.

Let's just not go there. We've got victory in Jesus' name.

And so let's live in that victory. We're champions in Christ.

Let me remind you again of the scripture.

This is from the New Living Translation, same scripture we read before.

For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers

and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world,

and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so that you will be able to resist

the enemy in the time of evil.

Then after the battle, you will be standing firm.

You put on the full armor of God. You're going to go through the fight.

You're going to go through the temptation. You're going to be victorious and not succumb to it.

And you're going to stand after that battle in victory, in the same victory

that Christ has afforded to each and every one of you.

So let's be encouraged. I already hear the victory music playing right now. Hallelujah.

So I want to invite you, step into the light. Halloween was a time of darkness.

That's why I like that it's followed by All Saints Day, because we step into

the light, right? Out of the darkness, into the light.

Surrender yourself to Jesus and be made new. Let him do something within you.

Maybe you need to pray a prayer like this this morning. Heavenly Father,

I'm tired of living in darkness, and I trust you with my life.

Will you forgive my sin and make me new? Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

Fill me with your light so I can live for you.

Just a simple prayer like that, to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin,

to ask Jesus to show you how to live as a child of light so that you can take

that same light that you found and,

into those dark places of this world who sorely need to know that there's a

better way. There is hope in Jesus.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon as well as other sermons and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.