The Art of War . Authority HC

Hey Red Door family, welcome to house church today.

So great to see you.

If you're tuning in from home with your group, big welcome today.

As you know, We've The last Sunday of the month we do, not our 10am

service at Hammond Road, we do house church in homes all over the place.

And so a big welcome today, as you can see behind me, this piece of art

was, painted by our own Joe Frost.

Joe and the team, we did a recording in Fremantle at the

Naval Store, a few weeks back.

And, um, today, we're If you click on the worship resource, you'll see, a bit

of the, making of this piece of artwork, you'll see Joe painting, you'll see a

depiction of, John 12, which this story is all about, the anointing of Jesus

in Bethany, and also you'll see, one of the songs we recorded on that night.

Please enjoy that.

It's come up really well and I pray that Jesus is exalted through your

worship this morning or whenever you're tuning in, to house church today.

A few things going on in the life of our church coming up in

November on the 28th of November.

It's a Thursday night, at Timber Cafe.

Our Red Door women are doing their end of year wind up.

It's a dinner.

There's a registration cost, there's a ticket cost, but you can register at

the website on the screen right now.

Like I said, 28th of November, Thursday night, 6.

30, doors open for a 7 o'clock start.

We'd love you to register for that, as soon as you can.

Next we have our annual Love Attack coming up next Sunday.

It's the 3rd of November next Sunday.

So at both 10am and 5pm, we're going to be doing our Love Attack.

Now, you might be thinking, wow, this is the first I've heard of

this, this is a bit late notice.

But I want to let you know it's okay.

The Love Attack this year is going to be a little bit different than the other years.

We are going to be love attacking the persecuted church worldwide.

We are going to be giving an offering on that day at both services,

specifically Um, for we'll be collecting an offering specifically for the

persecuted church and giving to the opens door, open doors ministry.

And so, um, that's how we're going to be love attacking this year by love

attacking and praying for and blessing the persecuted church and hearing

about, the, the dynamic within that part of the body of Christ globally.

Um, lastly, I just want to encourage you to take communion today as a

church family, as you gather, prepare the elements, pray for each other.

Share in the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus as we remember

His death, His death on the cross, His death for our forgiveness.

And so enjoy doing that together this morning.

I look forward to continuing just in a minute, with our series, The Art of War.

And so we're going to be continuing that today and encouraging you to have

some discussion and prayer afterwards.

Awesome.

We'll see you in a minute.

Hey Red Door Church family, welcome to our continuing series on the art of war.

Today I want to open with a story that involves the British Army, a conflict

between the British Army And the Continental Army of America in the 1700s.

This is the battle where we've got the Red Coats and the Blue Coats.

The Red Coats of the British Army, the Blue Coats, the Blue and White

Coats, the Americans, the Patriots, fighting for independence from Britain.

And so you can picture a scene, an open field, a battlefield, two sides

facing each other at a distance, both sides poised for war, but

no one has opened fire just yet.

The tension is high.

The tension is building.

Who will fire first?

Now, on the other side of this, field of war, there's an adjacent forest, and in

that forest, the arms dealer is hiding.

Wanting to increase his sales of ammunition, he takes aim, and he

fires from the trees and hits one of the redcoats, one of the British.

And they think that the Americans have opened fire.

And in an effort to only fire when fired upon, they return fire,

and suddenly the conflict begins.

The conflict is in full swing.

Many perish, and the arms dealer is rubbing his hands together, as both

sides have fallen for his cunning scheme.

I really like this image.

It begins with the question, who is your enemy?

Now, we've mentioned before the enemy is defined as the flesh, the

world, meaning by that the systems of thinking in our world, and the

devil, the evil one, and his demons.

When we focus our attention on the works of the enemy, the arms dealer,

we need to be aware that in our relationship Our relationships, the

enemy is not your spouse, the enemy is not your neighbor, your enemy is not

your co worker, your boss, that enemy is not the one driving on the road.

next to you who potentially doesn't know how to drive very well.

As I make this a little bit more personal, my enemy is not the one

who is sleeping during a sermon that I've spent all week preparing.

The enemy is not, that church leader down the road who won't come and

pray with the other pastors of Coburn together on a Thursday morning.

And nor is the person my enemy or our enemy who leaves the church.

especially after you've invested so much time into their lives.

And yes, I am getting personal here, but we need to get personal

when we consider who is our enemy.

Who is the real enemy?

Because every reaction that comes out of our lives says more about what's

going on inside of us than it does about the other person or the situation.

The enemy is not the person sitting next to you, Newsflash.

There is a real enemy who wants to get a foothold in your life so

he can steal, kill and destroy.

He does this based on a few, primary schemes.

I'll listen for you.

Got them on the screen as well.

Fear, condemnation, shame.

Intimidation, deception, accusation, temptation, and division.

I'm going to throw a lot of scriptures at us today.

1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 12, But you, man of God, flee from all this,

1 Timothy 6:12

and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.

Fight the good fight of the faith.

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when

you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

That word, take hold, fight the good fight of faith, they're not passive,

they're not apathetic, they're not, not, um, a sense of just going

through the motions kind of posture.

It's showing up, it's taking a stand against the enemy's schemes.

As we discussed a few weeks ago in Ephesians chapter six.

Let's look at that again, Ephesians chapter 6, verses 11 and 12.

Ephesians 6:11

But against rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of

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

Where is this struggle taking place?

In the heavenly realms.

Now, who is in authority in the heavenly realms?

That's the question.

Who's the boss?

Who's the boss?

Glad you asked.

Let's look at Ephesians chapter 1 verses 19 to 21 that says that power

Ephesians 1:19–21

is the same as the mighty strength he, God, exerted when he raised

Christ from the dead and seated him at the right hand in, guess what?

The heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and

the name that is invoked not only in the present age, but the age to come.

So, Ephesians chapter 1 describes Jesus as having all

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

authority in the heavenly realms.

But the question is, who is seated with him?

Glad you asked.

Ephesians 4 and 6.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us

alive with Christ, even when we were dead and out transgressions, it is by

grace you Been saved and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him.

Repeat that, seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

So the macro story of the arc of human history kind of looks like this.

In the beginning, God gave man or authority in the garden.

Dominion at creation.

Now at the fall, Adam lost, man lost, humanity lost that authority because

we gave it over to Satan at the fall.

Then at the cross At Calvary, Jesus took back authority off Satan.

He was the perfect representation of humanity.

100 percent man, but simultaneously 100 percent God, and He took back authority.

And He has the authority, but guess what?

He gives that authority to us.

Matthew 28, He gave all authority.

All authority is given to Jesus, and He calls us to go as His

ambassadors with that same authority.

same authority.

God has delegated authority to you and I, to us.

It is not God's desire to settle our spiritual disputes for us.

He actually has desires for us to utilize the authority that we have been given,

that we have been invested into us by Him.

Luke chapter 10 verses 19 to 20, this is before Jesus went to the cross,

Luke 10:19–20

but he hints at this same image where it says, I have given you authority

to trample on snakes and scorpions to overcome the power of the enemy.

Nothing will harm you.

However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice

that your names are written in heaven.

Now, As we consider this scripture, think of the post resurrection Holy Spirit

authority that Jesus hints at here.

He's hinting at all authority.

So this scripture, even though we consider this scripture in John

John 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10 as a statement towards church leaders, now that we, have been

incorporated into the family of God.

We are co heirs with Christ.

We are a royal priesthood.

We have been given that same authority.

Just as those church leaders, we are children of God and we carry

that same authority that Jesus is hinting at there in Luke 10.

So the key statement here in Luke chapter 10 is, I have given you Authority.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Authority means delegated power.

Not only the responsibility but the spiritual power to enforce compliance.

What compliance are we talking about?

We're enforcing the kingdom of God here on earth.

May, as it is in heaven, may it be on earth.

Earth.

Authority is the right and power to act as if Jesus himself is actually

present in that very circumstance and moment you are standing in.

So the activation is not just praying and requesting for the darkness to

flee in relationship to the spiritual warfare we find ourselves in, not

just asking God to do it, but actually participating and Activating and

declaring the victory of Jesus.

So we're actively participating in His victory.

This is what it means to walk in the authority as children of God.

Spiritual warfare, though, is not a horizontal tug of war,

but a vertical chain of command.

We must never envision ourselves as operating on a level playing

field with Satan and his demons.

Alone and in the power of our own identity, we don't stand a chance

against the forces of darkness.

But in Christ, and on the basis of who we are in Him, and in light of

the authority of the risen Jesus that has been bequeathed to us, Satan

and his demons are a defeated foe.

Don't ever think yourself as the one at the end of the rope and

Satan at the other end of it, both struggling to overpower one another.

No, you are in Christ.

You are in Christ, who is over all, and Satan is beneath you in Jesus name.

You are in the heavenly realms, seated with him.

So, let's have a look at how Life kind of works.

One way of thinking about it, there are the truths that we believe, the

truths that we believe affect our feelings as individuals, as humans.

Truths affect feelings, feelings affects decisions, decisions affects habits, and

habits affect the trajectory of your life.

And in that process, in between the moments of truths and feelings

and decisions and habits, in those moments, in between those

moments, the enemy can create havoc.

But we have weapons to fight with because the authority that we have been given by

Christ to us 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4 says the weapons we fight with

are not weapons of this world on the contrary friends They have divine power

to demolish Strongholds so strongholds those strongholds I mentioned before fear

condemnation shame intimidation deception accusation temptation and division.

Those strongholds can be dismantled and they're dismantled by truth.

How does that occur?

Because when we're believing lies, these things are activated,

can be activated in our lives.

When we believe something as true, it has power.

It has power in our lives.

Lies create a stronghold for the enemy.

And so the journey of identifying a lie is based on a prayer.

God, show me by the power of your Holy Spirit, show me things that I'm believing.

They're actually lies, but I'm believing them as true.

Reveal to them, to me, expose them to me, so that I can repent.

Lord, forgive me for believing them as true.

Forgive me.

Cleanse me.

I renounce them off my life.

Renounce just means that I'm severing the effects of those lies off my life.

They're severed from me.

And I trust that Holy Spirit, you will renew my mind.

As I focus on your word, that those lies will not reattach to me because

I've trained myself to think that way.

That's the challenge with lies.

We've got to rewire our brain, but we are not alone in this.

Holy Spirit come and reveal to us, heal us and renew our

minds to God's way of thinking.

When we are walking in truth, when we are walking in light, we walk in an authority.

that continues to grow, continues to develop.

And it's not that you never had the authority before.

It's just that you're now walking in it.

You've always had an authority in Christ as a believer, but you haven't

walked in it as though you should.

And as we allow the truth to form us, to create in us a pure heart, clean

hands, we give less and less room for the enemy to run riot in our lives.

And therefore we stand in the authority that when the enemy does attack, And

He will at times, we can see it early.

We can see it for what it is.

And we have the wisdom and discernment, because we are people of truth, to

declare it off our lives, to rebuke it, to resist it, to renounce it off our lives.

Because we see what the strategy of the enemy is.

And God does not want us to be confused.

He wants us to be clear and confident, knowing who we are and knowing who He is.

As we bring this to a close, remember that When we take authority over the forces of

darkness, it's not you doing this alone.

It's a partnership with Jesus.

The authority that you carry as a believer is only as strong as your walk with

Jesus is a partnership together with Him.

If you're alone, if there's no Jesus in your world, I'm

sorry, there's no authority.

If there's no truth in your world, I'm sorry, there's no authority.

But as we walk in truth, as we walk with Jesus, who is the truth, Authority comes

and we walk with boldness and confidence.

Today, I would love you to share together these questions that are

on the one, on one page document.

Please jump on the link on the app or on the website and follow those prompts.

Follow those questions.

Don't forget to take communion together, pray for one another

and, be vulnerable with one another.

It's a safe place, your house church, to be vulnerable in a place where you

can believe and pray for one another.

That lies would be exposed and truth would come in Jesus name.

Hey, bless you, take care, and we'll see you

soon.