Victory Over Lies

You guys, thank you for being here.

My name is Russ.

If I hadn't had a chance to meet you, and I'm one of the pastors here at Church of the Grove, and uh excited to be with you today.

And um let me just celebrate a couple of things, and I hesitate.

Um I hesitate sharing like specific numbers because I to be honest with you, I just don't care about numbers.

It's it's one of those things that's you know, as long as I see God working and and I believe a church, a healthy church, you should see God at work and you should see growth.

Right?

Because we're called to make disciples.

And so as we add more disciples, we're gonna grow.

And I say all that to say that I want to celebrate a little bit about last week, and I want to say thank you, because you were a huge part uh of making last week such a great week.

And so between our two campuses, we we had the highest attendance we've ever had in the history of our church in 18 and a half years.

Uh had over four, yeah, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

Uh we had over 1,400 people that that that gathered with us um to celebrate a risen Savior.

Uh many of those just part of our family.

Many of those were people that you brought or invited or or maybe came uh uh because they're new to the community, and so not really concerned about the number part, other than to say thank you, because that's that's a lot of people, and and many of you moved to the Saturday service at three or five, and I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you, because I know that's that might be a big step for some of you uh to give up Sunday and and being with your family and and and doing the whole thing.

It might feel a little bit weird or different to come on a Saturday, but thank you for doing that because we were still packed on Sunday, but it but it was less chaotic than a couple of years we've had in the past.

And um and and so more important than all of that, and we're still trying to nail down exactly, but but 10 to 15 people for the first time trusted Christ as their Lord and Savior.

And uh, yes, praise God.

And and so now, here's the other part.

If you had any questions in your mind about our need to build a facility, last weekend ought to erase any doubts.

Amen.

So, right now, put your hand on your wallet.

I'm kidding, kinda.

Listen, listen, if Jesus has changed my life, then you know what?

I want to give so more people next Easter can come and we can gather people to hear about the gospel.

So it is a joy for Jill and I to um uh to be able to give to what God has done.

And so um and so let's dig in.

Normally, we're in a series, we started a series last Sunday called The Resurrected Life.

Um, and so we're we're gonna continue this series.

Today is a little different, and some of this series is a little different.

Typically, we teach through a passage, and today is a little more uh it's a little more Bible study around the topic of our identity in Christ and spiritual warfare.

So, as wonderful as last week was, this I'm gonna share a little personal testimony here and tell you how how I struggle with with some of the things we're gonna talk about.

So, as wonderful as last week was, and so and I and I'm typically toward the end of the crowd leaving to go out to my truck and um and go home.

And so so I I think you would imagine I would I was I was pumped.

I was excited.

There's so much energy uh on a weekend last weekend, but listen, it only takes one negative comment to me.

Now you may be the you may be able to brush stuff off, but I I guess I'm so insecure that we can have such an incredible weekend if one person mentions, well, the service went a little bit long.

Or, or, or, Russ, you forgot to mention this scripture.

It would have been perfect if you'd have mentioned and quoted this scripture.

Russ, um, you know, you know, you could go down the list of all my shortcomings, which there are many, but it didn't take but one to do away with all of the excitement, to displace every bit of that excitement, and and and I hear a voice inside that you'll never, here's what the voice says it'll never be good enough.

You'll never measure up, it'll never be the way that you want it to be, and there's always going to be something that you fall short with.

Now, in that, I don't how now I'm I'm sharing my my story.

I know that none of you have that issue.

None of you have a voice that speaks negatively in your in your mind, and it can be a small thing, it can be it can be a big thing, it can be a valid thing, or it can be an invalid voice.

And so we all have these voices that speak to us.

Many times they're trying that voice is trying to remind you of your past.

How in the world are you qualified, Russ, with your past to share the gospel and to pastor a church where God is at work?

That's a voice I hear.

And so, and where does that voice come from?

The enemy.

It comes from the enemy.

That is not God, that is not the Holy Spirit.

And and here's the question often that I hear is who do you think you are?

Who do you think you are?

And so this is this is not a new question.

It goes back to the Garden of Eden.

The enemy didn't start with a weapon, he started with a lie.

And and and the same lies he attacked with so many years ago are still the foundation to the lies that he tells us today.

The apostle John, uh, who was a dear friend, as a matter of fact, he would say he was Jesus' best friend.

He called himself, you know, the one that Jesus loved.

If you read the Gospel of John, um John, John obviously knew he was pretty special in the eyes of Jesus because he talked about it pretty openly.

But he says in 1 John 16, he says, for all that, because here's what the world wants to do.

Here's your three enemies.

The enemy is Satan and demonic forces.

The second enemy is the world and everything in the world.

The third enemy that we face constantly is our selfish, sinful nature.

Those are three main enemies we struggle with.

And so 1 John 2.16 says, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life.

And he's talking about these three tools of the enemy.

He said, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world.

It's from our enemy.

Henry Nowen.

Um, if you if you don't know who he is, he he was very high up in the Catholic Church.

He left his prestigious position as a priest, and he and he moved to, I believe it was Toronto, Canada.

And um uh I actually have a friend who moved up there to work with Henry now.

And so he takes care of special needs people.

He takes care of people that have major physical issues, and he felt he felt like the prestigious place of living in a residence that that church leaders in the Catholic Church, you know, where they live pretty pretty well, he said, that's not me.

I want to be a servant like Jesus.

And so Henry Nowin says this.

He says, uh he took John's words out of 1 John 2, 16, and he summarized them in this way.

He says, I am what I have, I am what other people think of me, I am what I do.

Now, those are three lies of the enemy.

And and now it's just trying to reduce what John says down to a place where we can understand it.

John Ortberg, who is a writer, goes on to uh call these the three great lies of identity.

These lies shape how we how we see ourselves.

And if we're not careful, we'll spend our entire lives chasing after these lives.

Chasing after, trying to, trying to earn um a better, better word, a better word spoken over us.

And so when we live out our lives instead of truth, we become prisoners to pressure, to performance, and to people.

Can I just say that again?

When you listen to those lies and you act on those lies and you live and change your life to live according to those lies rather than according to the truth of God, you become a prisoner to pressure, performance, and people.

And that that's not a that's not a joyful, fun way to live life.

When your identity is connected to what you have, you will live in bondage to stuff.

You live in bondage to stuff.

You can never have enough.

You will be a slave to the latest trends and the newest gadget.

When you're longing, here's what else Ortberg says when you're longing for the approval of others, you can be a slave to the feeling of always having to prove yourself.

You say yes to everything.

That's me.

That's me.

So early in the life of the church, if any of our staff needed money for ministry, they came to me.

You know why?

Because I always said yes.

I still do that.

That's why they don't allow people to come ask me for money anymore.

They go to one of our meaner, you know, more controlling, serious-minded, you know, pastors, you know, like Nathan.

I'm kidding.

I'm kind of kidding.

Nathan, we God is a Nathan is bl is a blessing because Nathan, Nathan's on top of it administratively, where I'll just give everything away.

So do not ask me for money on the way out of church today.

Okay?

The answer is no.

I can say no to a big crowd.

If you ask me personally, I'll just start digging in my wallet, handing you stuff.

I shouldn't have shared that.

And so you say yes to everything because you want others to like you.

That's me.

You have you put on a happy face on the outside, but it comes crumbling down if somebody disapproves.

That's very it's this is my story.

Lies are endless.

Lies are endless from from pleasure to comfort to greed to lust.

The enemy is strategic in getting us to believe.

Listen, to believe.

There's a theme this today.

The word, the key word for the day is believe.

Believe.

And so um the enemy is strategic in getting us to believe that if we follow these lies to the end, that we will have acceptance and love and our deepest longings will be fulfilled.

But here's the reality: we aren't really free.

This mindset and these wrong beliefs, listening to these lies, lead us rather to freedom and to bondage.

And Neil Anderson, Neil Anderson, you're going to hear us quote Neil Anderson a good bit because he's a foremost authority on spiritual warfare, deliverance, um, demonic activity in the life of believers, oppression, possession, all of these things.

And he is a solid gospel, Jesus-centered minister, and and his writings have had had a profound impact in my life, and and I'm excited about our staff and our church been able to hear a little bit from Neil Anderson.

And he he writes in a very easy way to read.

It's one of those books you can grab and it will absolutely change your life.

But here's what he says: he says a major strategy of Satan is to distort the character of God and the truth of who you are.

That is the enemy's probably primary objective is to distort the character of God.

He doesn't want you to know God as God truly is.

And I'll tell you the most important theological belief you'll ever have is that God is good.

All the time and all the time.

And so, more than just a saying, you believe that.

God is good.

The enemy doesn't want you to believe God is good.

The enemy wants you to question God's goodness.

Hey, if God, if God was all-loving, how would he let happen that some of the things that we see in this world?

If God was all-powerful, why doesn't he just put an end to it and stop it?

And maybe Isaiah had something when he says, God's ways are not our ways.

And so sometimes we are unable in our humanness to completely see the big story like God.

And so don't let the enemy use your lack of certainty in trying to understand world events, change what you believe and know to be true about the character of God.

And so here's the big idea for today is the voice that you believe will shape the life you live.

The voice that you believe.

Where am I going to believe this voice over here?

You're not good enough.

You'll never measure up.

Look at the trail that you've left.

Look at your past.

If everybody knew what you did when you were 14 or 15 or 16 or 7 or 20, 21, man, they wouldn't, they wouldn't, they wouldn't, they wouldn't think you should be in church.

As a matter of fact, I I mean, there's people that show up, and I'm like, oh my goodness, they shut up to church.

And I find myself like, you know, is this is this for real?

Is this for real?

But the voice you believe will shape the life that you live.

And so we're in a battle for truth, and the battle is being fought in your mind.

The battle is in our minds.

The lies can seem overwhelming.

They can seem impossible to overcome.

However, because of what we celebrated last week, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we celebrated, and everybody would say, hallelujah, to the resurrection of Jesus.

Yes, we're excited about that.

Listen, because of that, we can live and walk in truth.

Easter and the resurrection, what we looked at last week, what we study about, the reason we come back to that and are reminded whether it's it, and it shouldn't be yearly, it should be weekly, it should be daily.

It isn't just about Jesus winning the victory over death.

It's about you walking in victory over the lies that the enemy wants to constrain you with.

Because listen, if you put your faith in Christ, he can't change your eternal destiny.

But if he can't change your eternal destiny, he wants to make your life on this earth as miserable as possible, and he does it by telling you lies, the enemy.

And so, can I just pray for a second?

Lord, would you let us help us see you as you are, and God, move in our life in such a way that we begin to truly believe what you say about us and our life on this earth and in eternity, and Father, help us have help us to be so grounded in truth that we can spot the lie and turn the lie away and refuse to believe it.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

And so if we're gonna live the abundant life, you know, Jesus said the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

And he said, But I've come that you would have life and have it have it more abundantly, have it to the full.

That's John 10, 10.

And so if we're gonna believe that, we've got to be people who walk in the truth.

And so the goal this morning is just to lay a foundation about how the enemy works and show you how Jesus works in our lives to help us overcome the lies that the enemy wants us to believe.

And then we move into the practice of how you will overcome the lies that you believe.

And here's there's some major aspects of truth I want I want you to buy into this morning.

The first one is this the enemy is the accuser.

The enemy is your accuser, Jesus is your advocate.

What is an advocate?

What is an advocate?

Somebody that stands in in pla in stands for you, stands in place for you.

What was the answer over here?

Is it somebody that talks on your behalf?

Yeah, somebody that talks on your behalf.

It's somebody that's got your back.

It's somebody that that gives a good reference, and and somebody that stands in between potential harm or judgment, and you say, wait, wait a minute, wait a minute.

I I can vouch for them.

I've got their back.

I saw the whole thing, and and they are they are innocent.

And and and so an advocate is somebody that stands in your place, stands in in behalf of you.

And so this is so important in determining what voice you're gonna listen to.

The enemy's voice will always sound like accusation.

While the voice of Jesus is always a voice of being an advocate, a voice of standing in your place.

And so we see it in the book of Job, this crazy story where Satan is standing in God's presence, accusing God's servant Job.

And so we also see it at the beginning of the book of Zechariah.

Zechariah 3.1.

I told you this is a Bible study, so we're we're jumping around a little bit.

I know you may not be able to flip to every verse, but Zechariah 3.1, you can write these notes down.

These notes are in your app, Church at the Grove app.

Zechariah 3.1.

Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord.

The accuser, Satan, was there at the angel's right hand making accusations against Jeshua and the book of Revelation.

The enemy is called the accuser of the brethren.

Revelation 12, 10.

Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, it has come at last.

Salvation of the power of the kingdom of God and the authority of his Christ.

For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth, the one who accuses them before our God day and night.

So we've got victory, victory, salvation, the kingdom of God, and then God banishes Satan to this earth.

Which I'm like, I've got a question for you, God, when I get to heaven.

I'm gonna ask you, why why did you send the accuser to us?

And and I and I and he probably lays it out pretty well in scripture, but but I I want to still a question I have.

So we see the enemy operates in lies.

He's a hater of truth.

John 8, 44.

For you are the children of the father of the devil.

Who's he talking to?

He's talking to religious leaders.

That's that's that's something I've I would love to hear somebody tell me that.

You are the you are the children of the fat of your father, the devil.

How encouraging that would be.

And you love to do the evil things that he does.

He was a murderer from the beginning.

He has always hated the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he is consistent with his character.

And he is a liar and the father of lies.

He's always looking for someone to devour.

1 Peter 5 8.

Stay alert, watch out for your great enemy, the devil.

He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

You ever see one of those?

Documentaries or or or animal shows, National Geographic.

And the gazelle is just, you know, is hopping across the plains.

He's just having a good old time.

Doing great.

Thank you.

And for those of you watching video, that means you you give extra.

Alright, so so.

And so the lion pops up.

He's looking for that gazelle.

You know why?

He prowls.

He prowls.

That's what the enemy does in your life.

He's an accuser.

The original word is out of the Greek is katagoros, and it refers to specifically a legal accuser, someone who makes formal charges against you in a courtroom type setting.

And the image you hear is of Satan acting like a prosecutor.

Satan is your prosecutor.

He is wanting to find you guilty.

You're standing before God, and he is bringing continuous accusations against God's people.

Satan is relentless in his accusations and he accuses God's children continually.

He hates God.

He hates all that God's about.

Which means he also hates God's mercy.

He hates God's grace.

He hates God's forgiveness.

And so not only does he bring the accusation before the Lord, but he also desires to remind you, as believers and followers of Jesus, that you have sinned in your life.

You aren't worthy to stand before God.

You're not worthy to enter into heaven.

He sows doubt in your hearts and your minds.

And we'll talk about shame in the coming weeks.

But this is what he hopes his accusations will fuel is shame and more shame.

He wants us to listen to his accusations and not believe the truth of what God's word says.

Satan's strategy is accusation, intimidation, and deception.

He speaks lies like, like.

You'll never be free.

You'll always be the same.

You can never conquer that sin.

You can never get over it.

Your past will always be a remembrance, a memory in your life.

It'll always come back.

God could never really love you.

But I want you to imagine yourself sitting in a courtroom.

Hopefully, you've never had to do that like I have.

You're sitting in a courtroom, not just any courtroom, it's the courtroom of heaven.

God is seated as the judge, and he is a holy and just judge.

You're standing at the defendant's table, and the charges are serious.

Every sin you committed, every failure, every thought you hoped no one would ever know about, everything is laid out.

And your accuser walks in, the prosecutor, Satan.

He's dressed in high-powered prosecutor clothes, right?

I mean, he's got the, you know, he's decked out.

And so he slams down the file, which is thick, that says, I've got proof that they're guilty.

Look at what he or she has done.

Lust, lying, bitterness, pride, hypocrisy, every single offense is laid out as he makes the case against you.

And he has proof.

And he puts all that proof on display.

I mean, you're guilty.

I'm guilty.

All I could imagine is just hanging my head.

You hang your head, he's not wrong.

He knows what you've done.

You have no defense.

But then your advocate walks in.

Jesus walks in.

He's your advocate.

He is your representative.

Jesus.

The Lamb who was slain.

He approaches the bench and he says just one thing.

Everything on that list.

Judge.

Dad, father, pretty good when the prosecut when the defending attorney is related to the judge.

He says, everything on that list, listen, listen.

I paid for it.

I paid for it.

How did he pay for it?

He says this the penalty has already been served.

I bore the judgment.

So he or she could walk free.

And with that, the judge bangs his gavel down.

Case dismissed.

The accuser is overruled.

The debt is paid in full.

The prosecutor, the accuser, has nothing left to say.

Hallelujah.

And if you are in Christ, that is you.

That is you.

That is you, our advocate.

He represents us.

He gave his life.

He has the authority, sinless life, surrendered his life, suffered to take and pay the penalty we all deserved.

He paid the penalty.

He died a cruel Roman execution death.

And then to prove that he had power to set us free, he spent three days in the grave, and on that third day, he bodily rose again to prove that he had power.

Isn't that a beautiful picture?

Jesus doesn't just forgive us, but he stands in our defense.

He is our advocate.

1 John 1, 2 says, My dear children, I'm writing this to you so that you will not sin.

If anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father.

He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

So that word advocate in the original language is it's a it comes from the same word that is translated as the Holy Spirit.

The word Holy Spirit as a noun is paraclete.

And it literally means one who comes up alongside of you.

And so our advocate, Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, comes up alongside of us.

In a legal sense, it refers to someone who pleads a case on behalf of another, a defense attorney, a counsel for the defense.

It also carries broader meanings like helper, comforter, intercessor, encourager.

If you go to court and you sit at one of those tables as the accused, who stands right next to you or sits right next to you?

Your Lord, your advocate.

It stands with you.

Jesus stands with you.

Augustine said this.

He said, Our Lord is not only the one who takes away sin, but the one who pleads for the sinner.

And the apostle Paul says in Romans 8, one of the most, maybe, maybe my favorite chapter in all the by all the Bible.

He says, What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?

If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

Since he did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?

Who dares accuse us, whom God has chosen for his own?

No one, for God Himself has given us the right standing with himself.

Who then will condemn us?

No one.

For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.

Which I don't think this verse is in your notes, but it makes me think of Romans 8:1.

Romans 8:1

It says, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You are not condemned, you are received if you believe.

When the enemy distorts, or what the enemy distorts, Jesus redeems.

What the enemy distorts, Jesus redeems.

And so the enemy is always going to distort the truth.

He's always going to twist it.

John Mark Comer sums up the devil's lies this way.

He says, Who is God?

Who is God?

And the idea is you can't trust him.

And then the second lie of the devil, who are you?

Who are you?

You are what you feel, what you do, or what others say about you.

That is a lie.

You are the person that God says.

You are the person, you are who you are because God says who you are.

Let God speak over you.

Don't let the devil speak into your life.

And then the third thing he says that is the way the devil lies is what, in describing what the good life is, here's what the world will say and how they would say it.

You'll only be happy if you follow your heart.

And so these ideas permeate our society.

One of these lies will be found in every song you listen to.

Listen, listen to me.

And I'm not anti-entertainment.

I like a good movie.

I can listen to a song that is, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't, I think the whole idea of saying secular or Christian song, I don't, I've never, I've never known of a song that got saved and baptized, okay?

So there are songs that are sung from a Christian perspective.

And then there's songs that are fun to listen to.

They may not necessarily be about God, per se, overtly, but but they're encouraging songs.

And so so, but as you watch movies and you listen to music, you need to listen to the message.

Every song you listen to, every movie you watch or every conversation you have, it is somehow going to reveal to you a world system belief.

Like what is what is what is what is the message out of that song, out of that movie?

You're gonna come to places where there is a conflict between what is being presented in that movie or song or that entertainment and what the word of God says.

And I'm not saying you have to boycott everything, but but I um we need we need to learn and we need to teach our kids how to have discernment.

So the last thing I want to share with you is this the truth of the resurrection frees you to live, listen, from your identity, not for your identity.

The truth of the resurrection frees you to live from your identity, not for your identity.

You're not condemned.

You belong to Jesus.

You're you're not a slave to sin.

You have the spirit that frees you from the power of sin.

You're not destined for death.

You are alive in Christ.

Neil Anderson says this.

We're often pulled by our feelings.

And feelings are not necessarily inherently bad or evil.

They're pretty important for things like, you know, finding a wife or a husband or you know, loving your kid.

I mean, all you know, feelings are not always bad, but we don't want to let our feelings rule us.

We don't want to, we want to we want to focus on truth rather than feelings.

And here's what Neil Anderson says.

He says, you don't feel your way into freedom.

You believe your way into freedom.

Matter of fact, can we say that together?

Can we read that sentence together?

One, two, three, go.

You don't feel your way into freedom, you believe your way into freedom.

So of the resurrection of Jesus, we're no longer held captive to the lies of the enemy.

We don't have to live powerless to the enemy's accusations.

We can walk in freedom and in power.

But if you're gonna walk in this victory, you must determine what lies that you are listening and believing.

What voices are you listening to?

Are you listening to what the world would say?

Or are you look are you walking in the truth of what God says about you?

So what lies are you believing?

One lie says, a lie of the devil says you'll never be able to change.

Another lie, because of your sin, you can't run towards God.

So hide from him.

Or avoid him.

One lie will say you're just not good enough.

Another lie says, you have messed up so badly, there is no coming back.

That is a lie from the devil.

And so I want you to, we're we're gonna we're gonna have a moment where where we're gonna show some truths up on the screen.

And I want you to, I want you to think about this prayer, and and the prayer might go something like this I reject the lie of, and you fill in the blank.

You fill in the blank.

I reject the lie of, and I receive the truth that I am who Jesus says I am.

And so as our team just kind of plays softly over us, I want you to sit in a moment.

I want you to sit in a moment, and and and and we're gonna throw up a slide.

And the first slide talks about how I am accepted.

And it gives statements about how you are accepted through Christ.

And then it gives you the scripture.

And I and I, if you're like me, you're you want to you want to I want to write down every scripture and take every note.

I'm gonna give you permission not to do that because I really want you to, yeah, take a that's a good idea, take a picture of it.

And I want you to I want you to focus more on internalizing these truths than trying to just write everything down.

The second slide will say, I am secure.

And it'll walk through some statements, and I want you to read those statements, and I want you to apply them to your life.

And the third one says, I am significant.

Now, this is listen, this isn't pie in the sky, motivational, you know, uh mumbo jumbo.

This is the truth of Scripture.

This isn't just to boost you up and to completely dismiss the reality that we are constantly dependent on the Lord.

But this is how God sees you.

And when we really get this, when it sinks in, I can remember key moments.

Because of my past, I remember key moments where, and I remember where I was, and I remember the sermon that was preached, and I remember what was said, and I remember my response.

Where I had encounters that literally changed my life and my outlook.

Listen, I wouldn't be here if God had not set me free.

I am the most unlikely person to all my classmates that I graduated with.

If they had a superlative for the least likely to be a pastor, I would have been voted that.

And so I want you to, I want you to just take a moment.

So we'll start with that first slide, and and our team's just gonna play.

I want you to sit in it.

Pray.

Receive it.

Yes, the Lord.

Just say yes, Lord.

Yes, Lord.

Help me believe, Lord.

Help me believe, help me, help me put this to make this a reality in my life.

You see it, Father.

Speak to us through these words that come directly out of Scripture.

We're accepted, we're secure.

God, we have we are significant.

And God, would you move in the lives of people, especially those that are here, that this message is geared toward believers.

There might be here, people here that need to begin their relationship with Jesus.

And we want to help you with that.

If you are here and God is working and you need somebody just to pray with you, I'll be down here on the front row.

I know that uh there's a young man named Brandon right here.

Brandon, raise your hand.

Um, Brandon would be so happy to pray with you over here on this side of the room.

Um, one of us would be happy to pray with you.

I know Ruth would be glad to pray.

Um if you if you would rather a lady to pray with you, she'd be happy to pray with you.

So just sit, I'm gonna let you sit.

I'm gonna let you sit for this part, okay?