The Way of Jesus 17.0

Okay, let's do this, shall we please?

Let's, let's dive in.

I'm covering the way of Jesus.

Today is gonna be a rollicking, good time.

As we consider the way of opposition and resistance for any of us who are

seeking, pursuing, desiring to walk in the way of Jesus, we are going to face.

Intense opposition and resistance in that place.

And so it's really important that we're aware of that so that we are

not blindsided, discouraged, taken out by that resistance and by that

opposition when we meet with it.

So.

Let us begin by looking at a few different passages of scripture, and

I wanna pick up a particular thread, um, as we consider these passages of

scripture, some of which we have looked at, looked at over the past month or so,

but there's a couple of extras as well.

So let's just have a look here on the screens.

We have got, firstly Matthew six 13.

And for those of you who are here last Sunday, uh, we actually.

I think Luke spoke into this particular verse of the Lord's Prayer where it

says, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

And then in John 17, again, another passage of scripture that we looked

at a few weeks back, holy Father, protect them by the power of your

name, the name you gave me so that they may be one as we are one.

While I was with them, I protected them and kept them

safe by that name you gave me.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world.

That you protect them from the evil one.

And then we've got Matthew 26.

Uh, we've also looked at this passage of scripture as well.

Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

And then Jesus returns to his disciples and he finds them sleeping.

And he says to them, couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?

He asked Peter, watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

And then in Matthew four, one to three, this is where Jesus

is tempted in the wilderness.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

After fasting, 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.

The tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, and from there

proceeds the three temptations, and so then Ma Matthew 16 22 23 has this very

interesting account where Peter takes Jesus aside and he begins to rebuke him.

Well done, Peter.

Well done.

And he says, never Lord.

He says, this shall never happen to you.

What is he referring to?

Jesus has said, just declare what's gonna happen to him, that

he's gonna have to suffer and die.

And Peter's like, not on my watch.

And so, um, he begins to rebuke Jesus.

And then Jesus turns to Peter and says, get behind me.

Satan, you are a stumbling block to me.

You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.

And so what pattern or picture or reality do we see emerging

as we consider these threads?

Through these different, uh, passages of scripture, what we can see is

a picture of evil, opposition of resistance, and of temptation.

So in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says these words, which are the foundation of

this series, from Matthew seven 13 to 14, Jesus says, enter through the narrow gate.

Wide is the gate.

Broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it.

But small is the gate.

Narrow is the road that leads to life, and only few will find it.

So narrow is the road that leads to life.

What is the heart of God for you as the one who created you as the one who

knows you and loves you completely?

What is God's desire for you?

Which we can interpret from Jesus's words here in Matthew seven.

Your Heavenly Father, he wants this for you.

He wants you to know life.

He wants you to know true, abundant, and eternal life.

That is why Jesus came.

But what we can also know from this passage is that the road

to life is not an easy one.

It is narrow.

And what does narrow imply?

Narrow implies resistance.

Narrow implies opposition.

The narrow way, the way of life is the way of faithful followship, obedience

and allegiance to Jesus and his ways.

And it is narrow because great other forces that press in

upon us as we seek to walk.

This way, great.

Other forces at work that seek to discourage, intimidate, deceive, and

tempt us off the good way of Jesus and into the way of destruction.

A common way of framing or identifying these forces is a threefold description

of the world, the flesh and the devil.

And we see this in Paul's letter to Ephesians, Ephesians two, one to three,

when he says, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which

you used to live when you followed.

The ways of this world when you followed the ruler of the Kingdom of the air, the

spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient, all of us also lived

among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following

its desires and thoughts like the rest.

We were by nature deserving of wr. And so that last little

line there is a fun one, right?

And we gotta remember when we hear that word not to apply human wrath.

Okay.

God's wrath is very different from human anger.

It is not impulsive, spiteful, vengeful.

It is steady.

It is a righteous opposition of a holy God towards evil.

That's what his wrath is.

It is his constant refusal to tolerate or compromise with sin, and

his determined purpose to judge it.

His wrath is never arbitrary and is not contrary to his love.

We need to remember that when we read.

Uh, passages like that, that talk about the Roth of God.

So our goal or intent through today's message is that you would be encouraged

and equipped to be able to identify the forces of opposition and resistance

that you may be facing right now.

To recognize them and then to know how to respond so that you would stay

faithful on the narrow way of Jesus, that you would know eternal life, the

life of God, and that you would not be deceived or intimidated off his good

way and into the way of destruction.

And we've gotta remember this church, 'cause we can fall pre

to this notion very easily.

There is no neutral.

Third way, we have said this before, but I'll say it again.

There is the way of life.

There is the way of death and destruction, and this reality is so clearly portrayed

all the way back in Deuteronomy 30.

An amazing chapter of scripture where through Moses, God says to his people,

the Israelites, as they prepare to the enter the promised land, he says this

to them today, I set before you life and prosperity, death and destruction.

For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to

him, to keep his commands to decrees and laws, then you will live and increase.

The intent of God is always that we would know life.

And the Lord, your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away, you're not obedient, and if you're drawn

away to bow down to other gods, you.

If you are drawn away, this is what we're gonna be talking about this

morning, the ways that we get drawn away from the good way of Jesus.

If you're drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you

this day that you will certainly be.

Destroyed.

You will not live long in the land.

You are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess this day.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I've set before you

life and death, blessing and curses.

Now choose life.

The heart of God is that you would choose and know life.

So why you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God.

Listen to his voice, hold fast to him.

For the Lord is your life.

Justice comes through over and over and over again.

Jesus did not come to condemn you, to make you feel bad, to constantly remind

you of all the ways you're falling short.

He came to lead you into life.

True and abundant life.

We need to remember, as the enemy seeks to always cause us to questions God's

character in our mind that the heart of God for you is that you would know life.

It's just that the pathway to that life is narrow and sometimes it's really hard.

It's good Dale's.

See the, when you think about this series, and if you're new to this series,

I would love encourage you just to go back and actually listen to the journey

that we've been on for actually about, I think two and a half, three months

now, um, is that the way of Jesus is actually awareness of the enemy schemes.

So if you wanna walk in the way of Jesus, you must be aware of what's actually

going on in the unseen, unseen realm.

Okay, so there's no, there's no following the way of Jesus

actually without resistance.

So if you're following Jesus, if you desire to follow the way of

Jesus, you gotta accept the fact that this resistance in a spiritual

realm is not, oh, this can happen.

This will happen.

And sometimes we don't like to talk about this, and that's why it tends

to go quiet on Sundays like this.

But second Corinthians chapter two, verse 11 says, in order

that Satan might not outwit us.

So there's a interesting image that, uh, there's a force at work in the

unseen realm that is trying to out.

You and it says in the same scripture for we are not aware of his schemes.

So being aware of his schemes is kind of our thrust today.

Um, so please be clear, we're not glorifying the works of darkness today.

What we're doing is exposing them so we can be aware of his schemes and

follow Jesus with eyes wide open.

There's a resistance that you can expect.

It's not, not.

If it can happen, it will happen.

So there's people we see in this Christian journey.

They get stirred up to follow Jesus, to seek his face, to cry out to God.

Prayer and fasting starts to stir on the interior of someone's soul.

And then all of a sudden they get distracted.

They get beat up.

They get derailed in this moment and what's actually

going on is there's opposition.

There's resistance, and many Christians can walk around unaware of the resistance.

So when this thing happens, we can actually conclude, oh, there's

actually something wrong with me.

That's an incorrect conclusion.

There's nothing wrong with you.

Welcome to the war.

Welcome to the resistance.

Um, we must be alert and wake up 'cause the stakes are high.

But make no mistake, there is an enemy.

He wants to outwit us and make you ineffective at carrying the

burden of the Lord in your life.

Remember we talked about the burden of Lord, the thing that God's placed

on you, an assignment of sorts, that is his burden that you are carrying

in order to outwork his kingdom.

Vision in life, in your life and through your life.

And so a word of caution as we talk about this topic today, um, like,

don't be a nutbag and consider that around every corner, right?

There's gonna be resistance.

The work of the enemy is everywhere, actually.

Way to think about it is there's two sides and two traps to fall on.

One side of the trap is to think that or every thinks a work of satanic forces

when you're face facing opposition.

And the other ditch on the other side is to go, oh, none of it's real.

There is no uh, resistance.

There is no satanic forces coming against me, and both of those dynamics are wrong.

Therefore, we have to pray God.

Give us a discerning spirit to see what's actually going on in the unseen realm.

Does that make make sense?

So what's helpful is also to challenge what are the baseline metaphors I tend to

use to describe the following Jesus thing.

One metaphor is we're in a war folks.

Now that's quite, quite harsh 'cause most of us are more comfortable

with the metaphors that we use to describe him, that are a little bit

more comforting because we live in a society right now that's completely

overwhelmed, anxious, pressured, and so we go for more comforting metaphors.

For example, like the Lord is my shepherd, therefore I'm a sheep and

he's leading me and he's guiding me.

Beauty God is a gardener, so I just gotta abide bear fruit.

The garden's beautiful.

Thumbs up.

God is my father.

He's my Abba, he's my papa, he's my daddy.

I can melt in the arms of his love.

Good metaphor.

Here's the bridegroom, and we are his bride celebrating his entrance.

These are good metaphors and biblically correct, central and true, but sometimes

we elevate those and misplaced the fact that God is the commanding officer and we

are in a war, and he is a warrior fighting for you and I. Isaiah 42 says in verse 13,

the Lord will march out like a champion.

Oh, come on, put on your war hat right now, like a warrior, he will

stir up his zeal with a shout.

He will raise the battle cry.

He will triumph over his enemies.

So when we think about this warfare picture or metaphor, we're not

approaching God like Abba, father, daddy.

We're approaching God like he's the almighty one.

He is the almighty one.

So following Jesus is not without resistance.

So a little quick theological framework just to help us, sometimes we may

hear people in this New Testament position is that Satan has no power.

Now, I'm sorry, that's in an incorrect statement.

Satan has a measure of power now, but what he doesn't have is legitimate authority.

He does not have legitimate authority, so we, when we don't use as followers

of Jesus as children of God, if we don't use our delegated authority in

Jesus' name, Satan will use his power.

Does that make sense?

I'm just sort of setting us up as we go into this realm of, let's

talk about the schemes of the enemy.

So I've kind of got a list here of the things we're gonna go through.

Um, some of them we're not gonna get to today.

So we're gonna touch on temptation, which they'll talk about,

gonna kind of affect some more.

And then we're gonna dive deep into deception, accusation,

division, distraction, pride, and self exaltation and isolation.

And there's a few others for your later on study if you want to.

Dive a bit deeper or come and harass me afterwards.

Dale, let's typically talk about temptation because that seems to have

a, a, a sort of an overarching effect.

Yeah, I mean, in, in a way, all of these things are temptation, uh,

because the ultimate scheme of the enemy is to tempt you away from the ways.

Jesus.

And, uh, just like the last line of the Lord's Prayer, which we've already

looked at, you know, lead me Lord to temptation, but deliver me from evil.

Uh, really what that last line of the Lord's Prayer is saying

is the prayer that, Lord, help me to stay faithful to you.

Help me to stay obedient to you.

When the temptations come, when the trials come, when the tests

come, help me to remain faithful.

Help me to remain obedient, you know, in word and way.

At the moment, we are looking at.

The book of Revelation, the heart of the book of Revelation

is a call to faithfulness in times of testing and trial.

And it is that reminder that Jesus is on the throne, he wins.

Stay faithful.

Don't give into the ways of evil.

Stay faithful.

And so behind every temptation is that, is that?

Jesus came to unify us with the Trinity Father, son, and Holy Spirit.

The enemy's scheme is the opposite of that.

To separate us from union with God, to separate us from one another, and he's

got a myriad of different schemes to do that, but they're all centered on

that, that purpose of destroying union.

Okay, so let's begin with deception and.

This is one of Satan's primary weapons is the distortion of truth.

And like I've already touched on it, so often manifests in things like

questioning God's character, sowing doubt about the ways of God, and it

often begins small with that little subtle question, did God really say?

Just a subtle whisper of uncertainty.

And sometimes people who, you know, just ask questions or just care about

the truth, can actually be carrying a spirit of deception about them being

fueled and animated by the ways and the energy of demonic forces as well.

And I'm not gonna drive into the waters of, you know, are they possessed?

Or oppressed or influenced, let's not, um, you know, let's,

let's not get distracted by that.

But we know there are these evil forces at work that sometimes I like

the phrase animate, that sometimes demonically animate our thinking,

our responding our attitudes, and we can then sometimes find ourselves

actually participating with the schemes of the enemy in bringing deception.

To other people as well.

You know, we, we and some, and so be, we gotta be really wise to his

schemes, not just as we receive them, but also, my gosh, have I

been suckered into participating?

Am I being a deceptive voice as well?

You know, this is an example here that I heard the other day,

example of how a single question can poison trust in this space.

Hey, I saw your wife talking to some guy at the mall.

Is your marriage okay?

You know, and we go, oh, I would never do that.

Oh, just, you know, that's a, that's a, you know, fairly obvious example, right?

What I'm talking about.

But there's sometimes we can fall prey to this and we can be on, um,

participating with the enemy schemes.

Um, John 8 44 says, A Satan is a father of lies.

Lying is his native language.

Half true, subtle doubt when repeated, destroy, trust and unity.

So questioning or criticism.

Uh, does not bring healing or truth, but only sows confusion and distrust.

Then you need to rebuke it, which is what Jesus did when Peter started coming.

Did you notice that you notice that Jesus didn't rebuke Peter?

'cause he knew it wasn't ultimately Peter that was at work here?

It wasn't the voice of Peter that was bringing discouragement, that

was trying to derail him from the path that was before him.

He knew what was operating, he knew it was a scheme of the enemy,

so he didn't make it personal.

He took the fight to where the fight actually was and we need

to be wise to that as well.

So be very, very aware of how deception can operate, uh, coming

against us, but also how we can be tempted to participate with too.

That's right, because this battle's not against flesh and blood, right?

It's against principalities and powers of this dark age that are

trying to, uh, resist us as children of God and resist the will of God.

This, have you noticed this deception thing?

Subtle.

They'll use that phrase half truths, that within it, that's where discernment's

really important because what happens is there's some truth in the kind of comment.

Do you know what I mean?

It's almost like, oh, there's something that's true there.

And that is what's hard to, to sort of navigate, um, that

the lies, the enemies saying.

Um, essentially there's a, there's, they're not just outright lies.

Like My shirt is red.

Okay.

It's not just an outright lie, you know, there's your shirt's

not red.

That's a lie.

No, that's a,

that's a lie.

That's what I mean.

Oh, right.

So it's easy to discern.

Right, right.

But my, my shirt is cotton.

Uh, I don't know.

Well, maybe, you know what I'm, I don't know.

But what I'm trying to say is the enemy wants to start a song of accusation

in your heart that you end up finish.

Like he puts enough of a lie just to get, garner your attention, and

then you wear the ones who finish it, which moves us to this next comment.

Accusation Satan constantly reminds us of our failures to trap us in

shame and guilt in shame and guilt.

The most effective work in this accusational space is the internal

accusation that operates getting you to accuse yourself, where there's an accu

AC accusation of the enemy, and then it's us agreeing with that accusation.

And so it slows us down.

It makes us feel unworthy.

Um, one of the things that we see is it's one thing for the world to accuse us.

We expect that in the sense of there is persecution, but there's another

thing completely when we're accusing ourselves or within the context of

the church of Jesus on the earth, where we actually see, uh, brothers

and sisters accusing one another.

To be honest, the enemy doesn't have to kind of release a spirit

of accusation, which is sort of forthright and sort of from from

A to Z. He just sort of begins it.

And guess who finishes it?

Sometimes we do.

Right?

And the first place, the enemy tax is an accusation of identity.

Just remember that that picture in Matthew four, this is the temptation

of Jesus in the desert, right?

What's the first thing he said?

The tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of

God, we just read that earlier.

So his first punch is a punch on identity because if he can get you on

identity, how the castle will fall.

Right, because identity is the foundation, accusing the validity

of your identity and then accusing the validity of your calling.

Listen, as you go after the burden of the Lord in your life, people may say

to you, ah, you're just too passionate.

Callum, this isn't sustainable,

Nigel.

It's just youthful zeal mate.

Yeah, you need to be more balanced, brother.

Actually, the zeal is a bit too strong.

You need to add some wisdom to these things.

You know, just like Mary was accused for her wasteful offering of the, of

the ointment on Jesus' feet, right?

Don't let the spirit of accusation discourage you, but throw fuel on the

fire because Jesus is your defender.

He is your defender.

It's not a battle against flesh and blood.

It's not a battle against you versus I. Your enemy's not the

person sitting next to you.

There's an enemy and it's really important to understand the direction of where we

are looking to see who that enemy is.

A lot of the time we'll get caught up because this is the physical realm that

we see, but there's an unseen realm.

Lemme remind you of that.

Just on the other side of this accusation coin is not where

you are being accused, right?

But maybe you are being the one who is being used as an accuser.

Because we're all susceptible, right?

'cause we're all broken.

No one's, you know, invulnerable to this type of dynamic.

So here's a tip.

If you find your heart getting bitter about a particular matter,

turn the moments, those moments from accusation into intercession where you

actually praying for the person that you're feeling a bit strange about.

Does that make sense?

Because if you activate the bitter and suddenly you're becoming an ag person

who's agreeing with an accusation of the enemy, so bitterness resentment is a key

concept to make sure you are not actually helping the enemy in this journey.

Does that make sense?

You're very quiet.

Are you?

Okay?

How do you defeat it, mate?

Let's just quickly talk about it.

Romans eight.

Mate, the three, the, oh, I've got five questions, but it's easy.

You just gotta read verses 31 versus 32, 33, 34, 35.

I'll just read 'em very quickly.

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

Mate, let's, let's, how do you battle in the midst of accusation if God

is for us, who can be against us?

Question.

God is for you.

So who can be against you?

Who he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for all of us.

How will he not Also along with him graciously give us all things.

These are weapons, these are swords.

Verse 33, who will bring any charge against those God has chosen?

You see where the fight's happening there.

Oh, that's strong.

Verse 34, who then is the one who condemns no one, but Christ Jesus, who

died more than that, who was raised to life and is at the right hand of God?

Interceding for us right now.

Verse 35, who can Sep separate you from the love of Christ?

Do you see the nature of the weapon?

We fight with the word of God, so don't just stand there and let the enemy preach

to you without talking back the word of God to the enemy's attempts to accuse.

Got it.

Say.

Got it.

So glad.

Next one we're gonna talk about, what are we talking about, Dale?

Division.

Division,

uh, I think

Romans, Romans eight.

This is, uh.

Always a very relevant one 'cause it goes back to the heart of what I

was talking in the beginning about temptation and, uh, that desire of

the enemy to always separate us from union with God, with his schemes.

And, uh, Satan loves to sow discord, loves in families, in

marriages, in churches, in nations.

Yeah, communities.

Um, you know, a few weeks back we looked at Jesus' High priestly prayer in John 17.

We touched on a little bit at the beginning, and so much of his prayer

is around unity, uh, in that whole chapter there in this massive prayer.

This prayer that they would be one.

And so the enemy comes for this hard because he knows that unity carries

nuclear level power in the kingdom of God.

And, uh, we need to be so, so, so wise to the enemy schemes in this

place where my family and friends.

Are you being tempted towards division right now?

Uh.

You know, there's, there's just the relational rubs we have in this life, but

then there's those moments, they're just like, I use that phrase again, demonically

animated, where there's just this.

I had it this week where I think it was Wednesday and it just came outta

nowhere, but I just found within myself this deep desire to just wanna fight him.

Here we go.

Oh, I'm fighting this out as you're, and it was,

and it was just over.

Little, little things.

But thanks.

Thanks for telling me.

You handled it really well.

Oh, were you on fire?

Were you?

No, no, no.

I was, I was resisting.

I didn't give full force to it.

I won't say I was a complete saint.

They won't be celebrating me next Friday night.

Let's say that, um, on Oh, halls Eve.

Um, you know, because I was so saintly in that place.

Well, you're not dead yet, but, um.

That's fine.

But it was just like, eh.

And it's like being wise in those moments and just going, what is going on?

What is going on?

So if you are finding yourself in that place, just be so, so wise.

And then one of the simplest ways to deal with, it's simply to say it going,

am really feeling like going toe to toe with you right now for some reason.

And it doesn't seem very rational.

And this is where, you know, when I go back to, um, uh, the, you

what I said earlier on there from Ephesians, you know, there's threefold.

Um.

Forces that can work against us to take us off the way of Jesus, which

is the world, the flesh and the devil.

And they often work together.

And so it is this, you know, working with your flesh, the desires of your

flesh to wanna be right, uh, to wanna have control, um, whatever it might be.

And then naval forces demonically animate these, these.

Broken parts of our nature and suddenly we find ourselves all in turmoil and

divisions coming in, and it's so, you know, what does Paul say about make

every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace?

You know, I think it's in Ephesians for make every effort, my friends,

as you're facing relational tension, wherever it might be in your world.

Are you making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit

through the bond of peace?

Are you inviting Jesus into that place?

Because if you try and do this in your own strength, it's often

very, very discouraging and hard.

But.

Jesus is happy to meet you in that place of your brokenness

and to bring his peace there.

'cause that's what you need, right?

'cause when his peace comes in that place, suddenly you don't even have the desire

anymore to wanna go toe to toe over that particular thing, or to wanna divide

or have nothing to do with that person.

And just to go back a few weeks, remember a message where I use that

brilliant analogy about a bladder.

Anybody remember that, that divine moment of inspiration,

you must go to the toilet.

Yeah.

So for those of you who missed it, oh, it was just, just gold preaching.

Preaching gold.

So

books will be written.

Books may be written.

Maybe I will be celebrated on all holidays Eve.

For those of you who weren't there, I was talking about the command of

Jesus after he is washed, his disciples feet at the last Supper, and, uh, he

says to them, a new command I give you love one another as I have loved

you, so you must love one another.

And really leaning into that word must and not as a obligation, not as a, from

a sense of guilt, shame, or condemnation.

Must I love.

The one and others in my world, but from an overwhelming desire to,

because I have been so compelled by the love of Christ in me.

So in the same way that when, and I'll go there again.

Some of you really did not appreciate it, but others of you're wondering where

the bladder comes into this picture.

In the same way when we have a full bladder and we must address that

reality, when we are full of the love of Christ, we must be compelled to love.

And so in this area of division, may love compel us to seek unity, not out

of obligation, but because Jesus set before us this commandment and only,

and only as we submit and yield to this commandment in our lives will we know.

Life and will we experience union with God.

Now, it's not that if we, when we stumble and fall right, we're

suddenly no longer God's children.

No, no, no.

But it will affect our experience of being in relational unity with

the Father, son and the Holy Spirit.

And so it is when you go, oh, okay man, I've been given, I've given over, I

found myself given over to schemes of the enemies in the area of division.

What are you gonna do about it?

Well, you confess, you repent.

You ask for forgiveness.

You say, I'm, so, would you forgive me for the bitterness and resentment I've

held against you for, would you forgive me for participating in ways of division?

And just bringing disunity and disharmony into this family, into this home, into

this relationship, into this church.

Yeah, because man, it happens in churches all the time.

Who's been part of a church split.

You know many of you have, you know, the sheer agony and pain of that.

Well, the enemy sits on the sidelines and rejoices while God's

people turn in on each other.

It's truly, truly awful.

This my friend should not be and it will not be.

If love compels us, we will be wise and we will have nothing to do with it.

We've gotta be really careful.

'cause sometimes we'll we'll tolerate division in one

another in the guise of love.

So this is why it's quite tricky.

Yeah.

Right.

So communication is really important.

So you can actually journey to a place of, and I think what I, the

tool I've always loved is, please forgive me for the bitterness and

resentment that I've got going on in here when I'm feeling, you know how

Dale was angry at me on Wednesday.

What she didn't say was, please forgive me for the weirdness

that I'm feeling towards you.

Right.

It would've helped.

'cause then well, you know, no, but I didn't even know it.

Right.

I'm like sitting there going, ah, you know, I'm, I'm going.

'cause it's bubbling away right?

In one of us.

Right.

So how do we, how do we, 'cause we're the ones who are feeling it, right?

So how do we then.

Expose it.

Talk about it.

That's a good beginning point.

Just to, let's talk about it.

Just I want you to understand Red Door family.

Okay.

So we have three aspects of who we believe Red Door is.

We are a catalyst for unity in our city, unity in the body of Jesus.

In our city, we are creative expressions of the gospel and we wanna plant churches.

But just on that first one, if you're a catalyst of uni unity in the city,

do you know what the enemy wants to do?

Build division.

Right?

So that's an elevated dynamic here that we've gotta be conscious of

the schemes of the enemy division.

And so if you don't think you're vulnerable to that, sorry, you

signed up to be a part of red door, you're vulnerable to it because

that's where he is gonna strike.

Okay?

Um, understand what I talk about Unity just very, very quickly.

Um.

And I think this is really important is there's different levels of unity.

Like for instance, if you haven't got unity in your biological family, right?

That's certainly, you want to try and address that as

a first, first port of call.

And I'm not suggesting that everyone here is that way, and

I know it's a journey, right?

For all of us.

But just think about it, level one in your, in your

family, in your local church.

We should be.

It's inspiring us or aspiring to unity here as a single local community.

And then if you, if some churches are in a denomination, right?

And so we, we are not, we're an independent community.

So if you're in a denomination, you should have unity within your denomination.

That would be fairly expect expected.

Would you agree?

Yes.

Now le I, I call it level four unity.

I'm like going, okay, well how do we, how do we go after Unity in the

body of Christ across an entire city?

Let's just deal with the city of Coburn first before we try

to address Western Australia.

What Red Door is going after is this unity in this body of

Christ in the city of Coburn.

The city of and once we do, and we're doing pretty well, I'll be honest

with you, but I tell you the enemy hates that 'cause it's a nuclear

bomb to his, his desires and plans.

So understand this is an elevated space for us as a church.

Does that make sense everyone?

You are now aware.

Very good distraction.

Shall we do distraction?

Excellent.

Satan does not need you to sin.

He just needs you to be distracted.

Well, that's, that's interesting, isn't it?

CS Lewis has a quote.

Um, I've got a bit of it there.

It's a bit strange to understand the quote, so I'll read the full one.

It does not matter how small the sins are provided that they are

cumulative, then the, they're cumulative effect is to edge the man away from

the light out into the nothing.

Murder is no better than cards.

If cards can do the trick.

You know, he's referring to like playing cards where you're gambling,

and you know what I'm trying to say?

Indeed, the safest road to hell is a gradual one.

It's a gentle slope.

A gentle slope of distraction starts gently, right?

And so this age that we're in, it's a war for your attention.

That's what's going on in 2025.

The modern world is getting you to pay attention to something that

seems to be urgent, to distract you away from the important.

You'll be targeted to give your attention to the controversial, to the

emotional, and when the system has got your attention, it's gonna track you.

It's gonna build, build a profile on you.

It's gonna develop, develop an algorithm to disciple you in the direction

that you give your attention to.

Welcome to 2025.

Man, and the system is driven by a spirit of individualism and consumerism.

That's the system we live in.

So if you're thinking, gee, this attention thing's tough.

Gee, this is so easy to be distracted in 2025.

Well, you, you're right.

And it's actually a scheme of the enemy to get you a distracted from

the person of Jesus onto the temporal.

Right.

We need to do an attention audit in our lives.

What are you giving attention to this week?

The phone's got a great tool on it.

It's called Screen Time.

It tells you how many hours you looked at something.

When was the last time you looked at that?

Are you too afraid to?

If you're too afraid to, maybe attention audit is so something that's needed.

Just to give you a quick, just a one thought on attention.

Okay.

The problem with distraction and attention is most of the

time it's delusion, distraction.

You're distracted by something that is more akin to a fantasy world.

I'm, I'm distracted by that 'cause it promotes some sort of fantasy that

I really want and I don't have it.

Right.

That's the key driver of, of distraction.

And the reason why we do that is 'cause we are looking to the world to feel

something on the interior of our souls that it was never designed to do.

Only God can feel the interior of our souls.

Would you agree?

So the, the, the fight or the battle is to see the delusion in

the thing that is distracting you.

If you can see the delusion in the distraction, you will begin

to work towards having, uh, authority above that scheme.

Does that make sense?

Excellent.

Just quickly.

Oh man.

There's so much to talk about.

James four, seven.

Do you know James?

Four seven.

It says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Do you know the scripture?

Most of the time we misread it 'cause it actually says, submit yourselves

to God, therefore, and then resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Most of the time we're just resisting the devil and we're filling ineffective in it.

It's because we didn't submit to God.

Submit to God going, what does that look like in the area of distraction?

What it looks like is I'm gonna be more distracted by the presence of

God than I am by my little Instagram feed on profile, the thing that's the

algorithm that's trying to feed me right.

Submit myself to God.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna get rid of social media.

I'm gonna go to a prayer meeting.

I'm gonna read his word more diligently.

I'm gonna worship God.

I'm gonna put on you understand what I mean?

Right.

Surrender submit.

Next one we're gonna talk about is called

just a quick, um, final thought on that distraction one, I

thought you might,

um, even things like doctrine and theology can be a distraction.

Uh, you know, one that's constantly, seems constantly relevant for me, which

I just so grieve, the wasted time on this topic within the body of Christ

in the Western Church is over women in ministry, and I don't wanna stir

that out pri right now, make it be a distraction, but it is, trust me, it's

not a problem for the persecuted church.

They're not spending hours and hours of resources trying to determine.

What it says in Timothy, okay?

Because they're too busy just holding up the name of Jesus in the darkness.

See?

So even the word of God matters of doctrine that can seem so

important, can be such a huge distraction from the mission of God.

You know, the end of your life when you're giving an account

before God, is he gonna go?

Well done.

You spent three decades arguing over one Timothy.

That was so great.

No.

Yeah, that's.

No, you know, I'm not saying these things don't mash right, but I'm saying

when we give them too much weight, you got, you gotta ask yourself,

is this drawing me closer to Jesus?

Am I becoming a more loving, kind, compassion, compassionate person?

Is this forming me more into salt and light in the world, or am I, is it forming

me more into a hardened person who's arguing and just withdrawing more and.

Um, so these, these spaces, these things that can seem so important,

can actually have the potential to be the biggest distractions, all right?

And often these, these, what we're talking about here, can, they can

often all weave together as well.

Um, so it's not like we can just dis distinctly diagnose, oh, this one thing.

It's like often there's multiple, um, of these forces working together.

And so this one that we're talking about now, pride.

Yeah, often is at the root of so many of these things.

And so what are we talking about here when we talk about pride?

And I think one way of really framing it well, and it's so interesting this

morning, this is from a, um, encounter, I think it is in actually, you should know

Alex, because you emailed me this passage of scripture this morning from Luke 18.

Was it?

Uh, yes.

Yes.

So as I'm reading this passage of scripture, I get a text message from

Alex here of the exact same scripture.

So listen up people.

Clearly, God wants us to hear from this one.

And so Jesus is relaying this story and he says to some who are confident of

their own righteousness and look down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, won a Pharisee, the other, a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed.

God, I thank you that I am not like other people Rob as evil, do as adulterers

or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week and I give a 10th of all I get, but the

tax collector stood a distance.

He would not even look up to heaven.

He beat his breast and said, God have mercy on me as.

Sinner.

I tell you that this man rather than the other, went home justified before God.

For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who

humble themselves will be exalted.

And so my friends this morning, we read that story and we go, oh

gosh, I would never be like that.

Pharisee.

Yeah.

Don't be so sure.

Right.

I, I really wanna hit this one hard because we are really good in very

subtle ways of holding ourselves higher than those around us.

And we, it happens in politics, it happens in churches, it happens in families.

We have this little way.

Of self righteously, exalting ourselves over others that I am

smarter or I am more loving, or I have done this better than that person.

Right?

And it comes in really, really subtly.

Stomp it when you see it, have nothing to do with it.

It is disgusting, okay?

In light of what it costs.

Jesus.

Okay?

To bring you into relationship with the father.

Okay?

We, the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

We say this regularly, no one in here is better than any other person, and it is

one of the enemy's most subtle schemes.

You know, we, we, we think about pride and we often just go to the

obvious examples of obviously arrogant people who are exalting themselves.

Uh, don't get distracted by that.

Just think.

Offer your heart to examination before the Holy Spirit.

Where are the subtle ways that I am being tempted to believe that

I am more right than other people?

That uh, I am somehow better than them before Jesus is, is really, really,

it's a really a gross posture to have.

And um, and it's not that there's, you know, freedom in this for us, but

I think one of the questions that's good to ask ourselves before God.

What is compelling me to this?

Why do I want to compare myself to somebody and then exalt myself?

The heart of it is comparison.

Okay.

Because some of you'll do the opposite.

You'll do the compare thing and then go, oh, there's so much better than me.

It's still pride.

Why is it pride?

Because it's putting you at the center.

Okay, so that's, that's, that's the heart of pride, is that

whisper of is all about you.

You better compare, and if anyone's better, you better figure out a way that

you can tear 'em down and exalt yourself.

You know?

Do you find yourself having to be recognized?

If something happens and nobody acknowledges that you were a part

of that good thing that happened, do you find yourself having to somehow

speak up about it, having to somehow have glory directed towards you?

Again, I'm not saying this to condemn anybody.

We all operate in little ways and we've all got our own weaknesses in this

spaces, but to go to that deeper place and ask, oh, what is compelling me to

wanna be so acknowledged in this space?

What is compelling me to wanna compare to?

To wanna drag others down, to wanna think myself better than others.

Uh, no good can come from this.

There is no life in this place.

And, um, I think we gotta take really seriously Jesus's words in Matthew

seven when he says, don't judge.

You two will be judged from the same way you judge others.

You are gonna be judged.

The measure you use is gonna be measured to you.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye?

And pay no attention to the plank in your own chances are if you are being tempted

to judge somebody for their behavior, their attitude, whatever it might be.

Chances are there's a roller and great plank rolling around in your

own eye, um, that's actually causing you to see this thing in the other

person because it's a lens through which you are looking through.

Do the plank.

Do the plank, right?

The plank is good for your physical core.

Plank is even better for your spiritual core.

So there's a problem with the plank, right?

Let's just call it out.

When you've got a plank in your eye, you actually don't know

you've got a plank in your eye.

Like It sounds like do the plank.

Yeah, but I ain't seeing no plank 'cause I'm so damn deceived.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

So there is a spec plank comparison, but the person with this plank

in their eye, and guess what?

I'm the plank master by the way.

Right.

Sometimes I don't see it.

Praise the Lord.

I've got this wife who has no problems telling me about the multiple

planks sticking outta my face.

Right.

I'm his helper.

That's scriptural.

So I was just saying mainly to men in the room.

Um.

Just, just be aware that we don't see the planks and when you're told about

the plank, it's probably not gonna be visible in the first 14 seconds of being

told you've got a plank in your eye.

You actually need to sit down with it and like sit in it and go, okay Lord,

you need to go show me this plank.

'cause I ain't seeing it.

Right.

It's 1134.

I know we're going there.

I told you this would go over.

Okay.

No, no.

So that's

pride and self exaltation.

Keep going, keep going.

One thing that helped me about the, the pride dynamic is just recognizing,

recognizing, well, lemme say it like this first, you're not special.

I'm not special.

Anything that's special in me you see is a gift of God.

So the gift is more about the giver than the recipient of the gift.

Does that make sense?

So the gift says more about the re the giver of the gift

than the recipient of it.

So anything that's good going on in your life is the grace of God.

Let's put Jesus at the center, not ourselves.

Amen.

How you going this morning?

Are we okay?

Yeah, we're good.

Come on.

I feel like you're leaning forward, so that's good.

Yeah.

Is that leaning forward?

But they won't for much longer.

No, they will.

They will.

They've got stamina.

I can feel it.

Uh, the next one is isolation.

This is the last one.

So we're gonna try and land on this.

Um, the enemy isolates to destroy.

Right.

So just think of, you know, uh, lions hunting the weak.

They look for the lone wildebeest.

It's the fox looking for the, the lone sheep, the lamb.

There's safety in numbers, there's strength in numbers.

Isolation, distorts perspective.

It weakens faith.

It opens the door to deception.

So stay connected to God's people.

Uh, don't become a self-righteous remnant that thinks, ah, I'm

the only one who gets it.

Be careful.

Be so careful.

'cause what that is doing is that enemy's trying to subtly give

you a, a, a thought to isolate you more and more, more and more.

Um, be part of a local church.

Even if you're in ministry, be part of a local church.

Podcasts are not enough.

How many times, I feel like I've said that.

Anyone heard me say that before?

Two of us podcasts are not enough.

You've gotta be in community to do the rub thing to to, to get

in on each other's nerves, right?

You gotta do it.

Unfortunately, we need embodied community.

Satan wants you to be trapped in an orphan spirit.

Let me just explain what I mean by orphan spirit.

So when, so we all carry degrees of an orphaned spirit.

Why?

Because, uh, that's why we need Jesus, because he's our ultimate father.

When, when he said yes to us, because of his death, his resurrection on

the cross to his son Jesus, right?

He made us sons and daughters of God.

We are COEs with Christ secure.

And that will never change, right?

But it's running at a strong, that's what sin does.

Sin stirs an orphan spirit on the interior of our souls.

The enemy knows this.

Right.

So what he wants to do is when you feel like an orphan spirit, right?

You conclude, I'm alone in the world.

That's what, that's what an orphan spirit concludes.

I'm alone in the world.

And it actually pushes you more and more towards isolation.

And in isolation.

That's where there's danger.

Does that make sense?

If you want to learn more about the orphan spirit, Romans eight 15, Galatians

four, five, Ephesians one, five.

But beware, it's a scheme of the enemy to isolate you, to put you

on your own and you, and you're thinking, oh no, I chose to do this.

Uh, did you?

Yeah, well you tempted away and deceived away.

Deceived away.

So be really, really wise to that one.

'cause it's rife, um, in our culture.

And, uh, and it's, and it's, and it's horrible.

It's really horrible and destructive.

One final one that just came to me during worship this morning.

So I wanna say this 'cause I feel like God really put this one in my heart and its

probably relevant for some of you here.

And it's the temptation towards discouragement and uh, and I

was just brought to one King's 19, the story of Elijah.

And Elijah says these words, I have had enough Lord.

And Elijah is just in his posture.

He just wants to quit.

He's just, he's just wrecked shot and he's just taken on all these

prophets of B. He is just done this amazing work for the Lord.

One woman comes against him and now he's just, he's so discouraged,

discouragement has just gripped his heart.

So if that's you this morning, if you just feel like I've just had

enough, Lord, I can't take anymore.

I'm done.

You know, I don't wanna be in church.

I don't wanna be with these people.

I'm done with this ministry, this job.

Where is the voice discouragement operating in your life?

Rebuke it.

Okay, so at the end of Ti Titus chapter two, it says this, encourage and

rebuke with all authority, specifically talking to leaders there in the church.

But you have authority over your own life, right?

And so we rebuke.

In your own life, okay?

Where are you being discouraged, rebuke that discouragement and

encourage with all authority, rebuke and encourage your own soul.

All right.

Stop being Satan's whipping post, like stop just taking it, rebuke it

when it is coming at you because you have the authority in Christ to do so.

So just shut it down.

Come on.

All right, we got some things.

No, it's good.

I'm, I'm encouraging you.

No, I know you are

good,

but.

But the time is not encouraging me right now.

It's fine.

Is everyone okay?

Yes.

If you need to go, just go.

It's gonna gonna say no, we're family.

Need to go because you've got something on.

It's okay.

Do you remember this Two weeks ago, three weeks ago?

Yeah, if you haven't got a copy of that, I'm actually gonna pray over

us this all in a minute, right?

Um, just grab it.

Um, I'll put, I'll put all these on the notes of the podcast as well.

The next one is, um, last year we did a series on spiritual warfare.

There was a handbook that was, that Dale generated.

I think Luke and Dale worked on it.

Um, if you want to grab that, that's there as well.

That goes into even more detail than what we've talked about this morning.

And then lastly, just something we've developed this week and we've

put like links to this on the thing.

What do you call?

It's what I just said.

Oh, sorry.

Oops.

Signed out

Ephesians six Prayer.

Like use Ephesians six to help you to pray.

Sorry about that.

That was a bit, bit, bit catty, wasn't it?

Uh, no.

I'm very humble as I Okay, good.

Um.

I love doing this in, in public.

It's great.

Um, anyway, that is a link to Ephesians six, just to help you to pray.

All right, I'm gonna bring this home.

Is that okay?

You got anything else you wanna say?

No.

You pray man.

You go.

Alright.

You are good at this.

I'm good at this.

Am I?

Well, praise the Lord.

Anything you're good in?

See, see me as Jesus, not me.

Alright, so just close your eyes.

If anything today from what we've talked about, has prodded where you go

like, so let me fra reframe it for you, where you felt like, oh, I think I'm

falling, susceptible to this scheme.

That's what the, the, the reality would be like for you.

I think I'm falling susceptible to this scheme, and so what

we're gonna do, if you've got that, just hold it in your heart.

That thing, what it is that we've been able to articulate this

morning, and what I'm gonna pray is these, this, this little pattern of

battle, um, through this document, and I'm praying this for all of us.

Okay?

So here we go.

This is an example as well, how you can pray yourself.

You don't need someone like me to pray for you and pray for yourself as well.

Okay?

So.

Father, we just wanna thank you today in Jesus' name for everyone who calls

Red Door Home, who's experiencing the schemes of the enemy today.

We ask, and thank you, God, that you are exposing those strategies

and schemes to the light right now.

And Jesus, in the face of that, we confess you as Lord and we bring

our lives under your lordship.

We are children of God.

We crucify the flesh and we repent and renounce sin Satan in the world.

I am not my own.

I've been brought with the price.

Today I cut off every single person here today, youngest to oldest of every demonic

assignment, agreement, and attachment.

In Jesus' name.

I cancel every curse, every hex, every vex, every spell, off our lives

in the name of Jesus and confuse every scheme, system, strategy, and

structure, and snare of the evil one.

As they touch our lives and before they touch our lives, in Jesus' mighty name,

we are covered in the blood of Jesus.

I cover every single one of us over the blood of GE with the blood of Jesus.

It speaks a better word over us today.

In Jesus' name.

We are concealed in the shadow of your wings, divinely concealed.

You are our refuge.

You are our fortress.

A place, a canopy, a wall of fire in the name of Jesus.

Over our lives, over our.

Families over our houses, our homes in Jesus' name, and ask Father that

your spirit would grant clarity in hearing and seeing God's wisdom

and revelation in Jesus' name.

I pray for every one of us to have a fresh conviction of the spirit.

That faith would be stirred to follow Jesus more earnestly and more hung with

a hunger that is insatiable because we want you, we want more of you.

Jesus.

And Father, we ask your spirit to come and bring a fresh joy onto our hearts, that

even in this conversation right now, that this would not be heavy or burdensome, but

a fresh joy to bring lightness, because Jesus, your victory is our victory.

And we declare that over every one of us today, youngest to oldest, in Jesus'

mighty name, and everyone said, amen.

Amen.