The Unseen Reality

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, Awakening Church.

Great to be with you.

Thanks so much for joining us on this 4th of July weekend.

Um, today we're kicking off a brand new series called Supernatural.

Would you say that with me?

Awesome.

And before we dive in, let me pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this time.

Thank you for just the worship.

My soul needed that to be reminded of your power, your grace in our lives.

And right now, in this moment, would you open our eyes, open our ears and our heart to what you have to say to us?

That we would uh hear from you and become more and more like you, Jesus, in whose name we pray.

All God's people sin.

Amen.

Why is it why is it the moment you really start to try to follow God?

It feels like all hell seems to break loose.

The moment, why is it the moment like you go like, you know, I'm leaning in towards something that's truly good?

Life starts to fall apart.

Move towards healing or freedom or purpose in your life.

Like all hell just seems to break loose.

Like uh you you realize I, you know what, we really need to start working on our marriage and bring health to it, and then you end up getting into one of the biggest arguments in your marriage, right?

Um, you want to begin to uh, you know, live your life for Jesus, but then you just begin to have this sense of dread and despair, like he doesn't want you.

You need to restore that friendship, and suddenly the wound that feels fresh again, the offense feels bigger, and pride starts to build a case.

You need help with that addiction or anxiety or anger or insecurity or the thing you keep promising yourself you're done with, and suddenly hopelessness whispers, this will never change.

You decide, I want to honor God in my relationships, and the loneliness gets louder.

You want to pursue purity and that temptation seems to roar back into your life.

You want to live generously, get out of debt, finally trust God with what you have, and then something breaks or falls apart, a bill comes, fear whispers, you can't afford this.

Why is it the moment you take a move towards freedom, you experience resistance or towards healing, and wounds start aching, towards obedience, and temptation starts roaring towards what's good, and it feels like all hell starts to break loose.

What if the resistance isn't random?

What if there's more going on than what you can see?

Years and years ago, uh we came home and in our backyard, our patio umbrella was in the middle of our yard.

And there's glass all over the deck uh as the string lights broke.

Now, I wasn't there uh when it happened, but I know exactly what happened, and so do you.

The wind blew.

The wind blew and lifted the umbrella up out and it just smashed everything.

Something that I could not see had an impact that we could see.

We're no strangers to the invisible realities around us impacting, influencing our life.

In fact, just for a moment, would you do this?

Take a breath in.

And a breath out.

Your very life independence is upon your breathing air upon which you cannot see.

The Bible tells us there is an unseen spiritual world all around us.

We are not merely physical beings having occasional spiritual experiences, we are embodied spiritual beings living in a world with visible and invisible realities.

And so we cannot reduce life to only what is physical, visible, or even measurable.

There are spiritual forces of good and spiritual forces of evil at play.

And just like the wind and my umbrella, sometimes you have to clean up the effects of something you cannot see.

Today the sermon title is The Invisible Reality.

Would you say that with me?

If you got your Bibles, would you open up to Ephesians chapter 6?

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

We're gonna spend the next month in Ephesians 6 together.

Uh in Ephesians 6, the Apostle Paul begins to describe and help guide us in this invisible reality that we find ourselves in.

In chapter 6, verse 10 of Ephesians, uh he begins it this way: Finally, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

What I want to do with our time is just give us three truths about this invisible reality.

We're not gonna unpack all of them fully, but we're gonna uh take the entire series for it.

But I want you to be able to walk out of here with three core truths that the Apostle Paul tells us about this invisible reality that is so important for your life, my life, and our walk with Jesus and navigating through life.

Um, and what I want to do with this text is I actually want to walk through it backwards, if you will.

So I'm gonna start in verse 12 and we're gonna end in verse 10.

Can we do that today?

We just work through it backwards.

And the very first thing that I want you to see about the invisible reality is this is the Apostle Paul tells us that you are in a spiritual battle.

You are in a spiritual battle.

He says, for our struggle, our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

In fact, that word struggle, next slide please.

Our word struggle is uh literally means hand-to-hand combat.

Like our struggle, our wrestling, our fight is not against flesh and blood.

And one of the enemy schemes in our lives is so often is to try to make that person the enemy.

Your boss, your coworker, your classmate, your ex, your spouse, your parents.

Our battle isn't against people.

There's something else going on.

There's actually, scripture tells us there are forces at play in our world, and we see the effects all over.

He says, rulers against authorities against powers of this dark world.

C.

S.

Lewis said it this way in the screw tape letters.

I'm rereading it right now.

It's fascinating.

I encourage you to read it if you haven't.

It says there are two equal and opposite airs into which our race can fall about the devils.

One is to disbelieve their existence.

And actually, that is where much of our culture up until this moment has landed.

Silicon Valley materialism.

It's like, oh, that supernatural stuff, a bunch of quackpots, you know.

And then the other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

Fascinatingly, this is where our culture is headed.

The rise, especially with this generation, the rise of spiritism, uh, terracard, um uh uh psychics, uh, all the rest has become mainstream and part of our culture of realizing this material world isn't answering the deepest questions.

And so now I'm turning it to uh try to discover something beyond it.

And they themselves, he says, are equally pleased with both heirs and hell, a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

You are in a spiritual battle.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul would say it this way: for though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

You have been given resources, divine resources for this spiritual battle.

He goes on.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

First, I want you to recognize this spiritual warfare requires spiritual weapons.

Uh, in part three of this series in two weeks, we'll actually cover this in talking about what does it look like to put on the full armor of God.

For today, I just want to highlight this point.

The battle, the Apostle Paul would say, begins with your thought life.

Remember what he said?

Take captive every thought unto Christ.

Uh, Glenn did a great job last week preaching.

If you were here, can we just encourage him?

He just did an awesome job.

And and he talked, he talked about the lies the enemy wants to tell you about, about Satan wants to deceive, he wants to whisper lies about your identity, whisper lies about who God is, whisper lies.

And what happens is we begin to believe them and we begin to think and we begin to say, This is who I am, and it plays on repeat.

And what uh Paul is telling us here is so powerful.

He says, take captive every thought, don't believe everything you think.

Take it captive and examine it.

Is this true?

Is it according to what God says about me?

Is it according to what he says about himself and the world around us?

The battle begins in your thought life.

And so, what you allow into your mind is one of the most important decisions you make each and every day.

What you allow, what you take in, and frankly, we just take in so much mindlessly, thinking it does have no effect.

And it's shaping and it's impacting.

We must understand and acknowledge that you are in a spiritual battle, which then means if you're in a spiritual battle, you have a real enemy.

This is what he says in verse 6, uh chapter 6, verse 11.

Put on the full armor of God.

Why?

Well, you need armor, you need protection, why?

So that you can take your stand against the devil's scheme.

You have an enemy.

See, we tend to underestimate our spiritual enemy, and so as a result, we don't see need for the spiritual armor, and we go out unprotected.

Jesus would say it this way: the thief comes only to steal kill and destroy.

I've come that you might have life and have it to full.

You have an enemy that hates you, that wants to take you out and wants to see you miserable.

Uh in fact, scripture tells us many of the names of Satan, uh, or the evil one, or the enemy, and it actually describes his character for us to understand more of his tactics.

And so I just want to take uh just a quick second, name the enemy.

Uh, because some of this we think, oh, Satan, that's his name.

No, actually, it just Satan literally means adversary.

And in our mind, it's not the guy with, you know, red horns and all that.

Like, that's that's not Satan, by the way.

Um, that cartoon picture, in fact, he often disguises himself as an angel of light, scripture says.

Adversary, he opposes the work of God in you and through you.

He's against everything good, everything wholesome, against everything that will bring you life.

Devil literally means slander.

Slander distorts truth, twists motives, spreads accusations.

Uh, we don't use the word slander so much anymore, so I thought I'd define it for you.

Slander is using your words to tear someone down, distort their character, or spread something harmful about them.

The devil works through distortion.

He takes what's true and bends it.

He takes what God has said and twists it.

He takes what someone meant and then corrupts it in your mind.

This is why slander is so destructive.

It's not merely relationally unhealthy, it's spiritually demonic.

He's called the father of lies.

Jesus calls him the father of lies.

Uh, deception is his native language.

Jesus said, when he lies, he speaks his native language.

He lies about God, about you, about sin, about freedom, about your identity, about what makes you truly human.

He's called the evil one.

This is his character.

It's corrupt and is intent on destruction.

He does not want your flourishing, he does not want your freedom, he does not want your healing, your wholeness, your holiness, your joy.

He wants to vandalize the image of God in you.

He's called the tempter.

He wants to make sin look satisfying and obedience look suffocating.

And then on the flip side, he's the tempter saying, Hey, come on, come on, try it.

God's holding out on you.

You're missing out.

He tempts you into something that looks good on the front end, but ultimately brings death in your life.

And then on the back end, he's called the accuser.

He weaponizes shame and condemnation against God's people.

He says, Come on, try it.

And then the minute you step into that moment, he goes, What were you thinking?

How could you?

You're a failure.

God could never love you.

You're a waste of time.

And he begins to lob accusations and condemnation.

That is never the voice of God, by the way.

That is never the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:1 tells us, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

Condemnation is vague.

Condemnation speaks a word against you that you are all bad.

The Holy Spirit does bring convictions to bring us into healing and wholeness and life.

And so Peter would say it this way: be alert.

Be aware.

Church, we gotta be alert.

We're often walking so unaware of the invisible reality that we live in.

Be alert, and of sober mind, your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a what?

I was just saying if you're still with me.

Like a what?

Let me ask you this.

When does a lion attack its prey?

Come on, come on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that was good.

That was good.

Um, this morning, literally, we're we dropped off the kids from uh my son to go on the mission to Mexico trip, and we're driving back, and this wasn't a lion story, there's not lion, there's mountain lions around here, but um but literally we're driving back and it looked like a wolf.

It was uh it was a I think it was a really large mixture of wolf, German shepherd, but it was on its own.

Uh and it was just walking down the street.

I'm in a car, that thing scared me.

I was like, oh.

But here's the interesting part lions are predators.

They don't attack in broad daylight generally.

Like you just said.

What does a lion do?

Waits till nightfall, waits till you know you're isolated from the herd, picks off the weak.

See, the enemy hasn't changed his tactics, but he's still pretty dang smart.

When you're isolated, when you're alone, when you're just uh on your own, he wants to prey on your weaknesses.

He says, be alert, your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

Let me just give you four schemes that we need to be aware of of the enemies working in our life, of how he wants to attack and um and take take us captive.

First, the area is the first scheme is the area of discouragement.

He wants to wear you down until you lose heart.

Discouragement is not just an emotion, it's a strategy.

Why try?

Nothing will ever change.

This is not worth the work.

They'll never change, you'll never change.

Discouragement drains you of courage, narrows your vision, and makes obedience feel pointless.

Hope is spiritual oxygen to the soul.

When hope is gone, people stop dreaming, stop trying, stop praying, stop risking, and eventually stop obeying.

Remember years ago, Pastor Ray Johnson was at uh Westgate Church where I was working, and he shared this story and always stuck with me.

And he said his daughter asked him, he was doing a school project and was interviewing her dad, and at the end of the interview asked him, Dad, leading the church, what's the most important thing that you do?

And he said, Well, that's easy.

Stay encouraged.

Because I'm no good to anyone if I'm discouraged.

A discouraged saint is a defeated saint.

And the enemy wants to discourage us.

And we get discouraged because and then we begin to isolate and alone, and he just begins to whisper those lies.

Scheme of the enemy is discouragement.

Secondly, it's derailment.

Derailment is this he fills your life and he wants to tempt you away from obedience through compromise.

Maybe it's the besetting sin that keeps you stuck.

Or you get off mission or purpose, focused on comfort over calling.

Compromise begins to undermine your character or integrity.

Third area is the area of distraction.

So discouragement, derailment, distraction.

He fills your life with noise, so you miss what matters most.

He wants to keep you busy, numb, entertained, spiritually unaware.

There's an old adage that says, if the devil can't make you busy or make you bad, he'll make you busy.

And we Silicon Valley, that that's our slogan.

How you doing?

Busy.

We add, we you know, we want to spiritualize, well, we don't want to make it good, so busy but good.

You know, I'm busy, but I'm busy but good, you know.

Distraction and then division.

He wants to separate you from God, from truth, from community, from your spouse, from your family, from people who help you stand.

The enemy has been having a filled day in the church when it comes to division.

Bitterness, gossip, right fighting, consumer Christianity, talking about people rather than two people, carrying an offense but calling it discernment.

Protecting my pride while calling it conviction.

And we feel justified.

Division begins with hurt that doesn't get healed, an offense that's not surrendered, assumptions that never get clarified, a conversation that never happened.

The enemy loves division because a house divided cannot stand.

And so he works to divide marriages, he works to divide friendships, he works to divide uh families and churches and generations.

We have to first understand you are in a spiritual battle and you have a real enemy that wants to discourage you, derail you, distract you, and divide you.

Now, there's a reason we went backwards through this verse.

Can you imagine ending where I ended it began?

We just feel like, oh, happy weekend, great.

You have victory in Christ Jesus.

This can all sound really overwhelming and intense, and if it's the first time you've ever heard some of these things, it's very like, okay, what is going on?

Um, you know, I've been trying to understand there, you know, I look around at the world and I do see the effects of evil, and okay, evil is not just a force, but it is a I see that there is agency and things that are happening, there's this world system that's going on.

Okay, I I see some of this.

I I can't fully explain it, but it's so overwhelming.

What do I do with all this?

And and is there any hope in all this?

You have victory in Christ Jesus.

Finally, I want you I want us to say this together.

Finally, finally, help me out.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

That word be strong.

Uh in the Greek, it's in the present passive imperative.

Okay.

Uh present tense means meaning that it's an action that you keep doing.

It's not a one-time event.

It's saying be strong and keep finding your strength.

This isn't a daily activity.

This is a you know, moment by moment activity.

It's not a one-time, like I'm strong in the Lord, and then it's just the rest of the way just ghosting.

It's like every single moment be strong in the Lord present, and then it's actually passive.

It's not your strength, it's not try harder, it's not work harder, it's not somehow you figure out how to like, okay, I got an enemy and I'm gonna like tough it out.

It's allow yourself to be strengthened by God.

Be in his strength daily, depend on his strength, and it's an imperative, which is meaning simply that it's a command.

Isn't it amazing that God commands us with the very thing that he provides us with?

But he says, I want you to find your strength in me, and I already have it.

And just would you run to me?

Would you surrender to me?

Would you come to me?

Would you bring your that moment?

Would you bring uh would you bring that moment where you're feeling discouraged to me?

Would you bring that moment when you're just feeling most tempted?

Here's the interesting part.

What would happen in the middle of your strongest temptation, in the middle of actually stepping into sin, you bring Jesus into it?

What happens often, friends, is this we start to feel tempted and we feel like God doesn't really want us.

Lie number one, God doesn't really want anything to do with us, and that he's like away from us, and so then we just go into it, and then we feel like we have to have some sort of space and time until we can finally turn back to God, and that's all lies.

He's with you every single moment, and he's one to give you power in those moments.

If you will just simply go, okay, I'm gonna I feel weak, I'm gonna be strong, not because of my power, but because of his power.

When I was a freshman in high school, we were in the locker room, and I saw this group of boys breaking into this locker.

This kid was actually right there standing there, and they grabbed his disman.

If you don't know what a disman is, um it used to play music, and it was a little CD that spun, and if you went on a run, it would skip every time you ran.

Um cool part about it is many of them had bass boost, and so you're like, oh, I want to increase the bass.

Here we go.

Anyways, um they steal his walkman, which was awesome.

And in that moment, I felt maybe a tinge of courage or stupidity, I'm not sure which.

And I said, You can't do that.

And then that group of boys, there's about five of them, they look at me and I go, Oh, and one yells, get him! Oh and so I ran out of the locker room, and as I'm running, they're running after me, doors flinging, and and as I come out, uh Giuseppe Ciramante, the captain of the football team.

I mean, this dude is built like a Greek god.

I mean, he is huge and massive.

He's a senior, I'm a freshman, and he's standing right there, and thank God he just happened to be going to our church.

His family went to our church at the time, and so I run out and he's standing there, and I stop and I turn around and the boys stop, and he stands behind me, arms crossed, these five dudes.

You mess with Ryan, you mess with me.

You mess with Ryan, you're messing with me, and those boys ran and they took off.

Not because I in that moment became stronger, not because all of a sudden I found the strength to take on five guys on my own, but because I ran out of that locker room and I happened to run into a power stronger than me.

Giuseppe was there waiting, and with him standing behind me, my enemy flee.

They just took off running.

See, the invitation isn't like how do you try to be stronger?

The invitation is run to Jesus.

Run to him.

You have Holy Spirit power.

The invitation is the same power that raised Christ from the dead, now lives and dwells inside of you, and he's standing behind you, and he's saying, if you mess with him, you're messing with me.

And when Jesus stands behind you, the enemy flees every single time.

So be strong in the Lord.

Be strong in the Lord.

What's that mean?

Just run to Jesus.

Whatever moment you feel you're in, whether you're feeling discouraged, whether you're feeling distracted, whether you're feeling like I'm just caught in a mess of sin, whether you're feeling like, man, I keep going down that addiction.

I don't know what you've been wrestling with, or that anger, or that bitterness, or that jealousy, or that like I'm just struggling at work.

Like, like whatever moment you find yourself in, run to Jesus.

I need you.

Jesus, I can't on my own strength.

You dear children are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater.

See, in Christ, we don't fight for victory, we fight from victory.

You already have the victory because of his finished work on the cross.

And right now, in this moment, to whatever you're facing, your savior is standing behind you saying, This is my child.

And you mess with my kid, you mess with me.

Where do you need him to show up?

Where do you feel defeated right now?

What voice of hopelessness has been overshadowing your life that you've been running from, but you haven't run to Jesus.

Today you remind yourself of the gospel once again.

I'm not somehow trying to get to victory.

Jesus has won the victory, and I am simply, simply running to him to allow him to fight for me.

Apostle Paul earlier in Ephesians would pray this prayer, and I want simply to close our time praying it over you.

As a way that we run to Jesus, experience his strength, his power.

You might just want to sit in this this week, pray it over the areas of your life that feel broken or defeated or hopeless or discouraged, where the anxiety is louder, the shame is louder, the heartache is louder.

If you wouldn't mind if you're comfortable, just open your hands as a posture of receiving.

This is my prayer for you.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, may be opened up, may be just brought to the realization in order that you may know the hope to which he's called you.

You have a future.

Hope is the confident expectation that a better tomorrow awaits.

He has defeated sin, death, and Satan, and he is returning.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that you may know the hope to which he's called, the riches of his glorious inheritance and his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Mess with my kid, you mess with me.

That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly realms.

Right now, in this moment, resurrection power is available to you in Christ.

Jesus.

And as we continue in worship, would you simply bring whatever you've been carrying to Jesus?

Discouragement.

Places you feel defeated.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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