Child Like Fight || Child Like Pt.1 || Pastor Adam Mesa

Welcome to the Lesse podcast. Here at Lesse we seek the loss, teach

the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by this

week's message. Well, thank you guys for being here today. Would you

stay standing for just one moment, real quick, We're gonna read the verse

of the day together as we go and stand for honor reading God's word during

our scripture reading today, our message will be found in First Timothy, chapter

six, verse eleven to twelve and twenty to twenty one. It says this,

but as for you, oh man of God, oh Woman of God,

flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness,

gentleness, Fight the good fight of faith. What you look at someone

say, fight the good fight of faith. Look at the other person that

you don't like as much and tell them fight the good fight of faith passes

the Timothy, take hold of the eternal life to which you are called and

about which you've made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses, Oh

Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babbel and contradictions.

What is falsely called knowledge, for by pre professing it, some have

swerved from the faith. Grace be with you well, Amen, and God

bless you guys. You may be seated. I don't know about you,

but I'm ready for a meal from the Word of God today. You know,

we're starting a new series for this month, and the sermon title for

a night if you're taking for today, if you're taking notes, is titled

Childlike Fight, A childlike Fight. This is to go along with our series

that we're childling childlike for this month, and Jesus has encouraged us to have

a childlike faith. He gives us this encouragement in Matthew chapter eighteen. This

is what Jesus says concerning the disciples. They were arguing about who would be

the greatest. They wanted to be the top dog. The disciples went to

Jesus, said, Jesus, who will reign with you in the kingdom,

Who will be your right hand, who will be your left hand? Who

will be the greatest? And so what happens is Matthew eighteen one to four.

It says at that time the disciples came to Jesus, who is the

greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus calling to him a child,

He put him in the midst of them and said, truly, I say

to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter

the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in

the Kingdom of heaven. You see what happens is we see within this text

and during this child like month, is we see that Jesus encourages the disciples

that they're viewing the Kingdom of Heaven wrong. They're viewing it in the eyes

of adults, and in the eyes of adults, adults tend to fight for

power and privilege. Adults tend to want to climb the corporate ladder or the

ladder of life. And so the Disciples are going to Jesus and saying,

Jesus, who of us and one of us can be the greatest in your

kingdom. They're talking about power, they're talking about prestige, they're talking about

privilege. And what Jesus is telling them is none of that has anything to

do with God's kingdom. Because if you're gonna be a child of God,

and if you're gonna be in God's kingdom, children do not base decisions based

off power. They base decisions based off of usually presence, not Christmas presence,

but the presence. In other words, my boys always fight on who

gets to go with Daddy somewhere. When we're wrestling on the couch and we're

cuddling to watch a movie. My son Matthias who's five, and my son

Thomas, who's too they will literally argue on who gets to get closest to

cuddle with Daddy to watch the movie. And then when one of them decides

to go cuddle with mommy, all of a sudden, the other wants to

go cuddle with Mommy. Not because there is a position or power that comes

with it. They literally want to be in our presence. There's like,

as long as I'm with mom and Dad, then I will be okay.

That's how children view things. And what Jesus is saying is he's saying,

why would you worry about what God can give you when you can have God

like what? What? Why would you be obsessed with what you can receive

in the kingdom when you could be in His kingdom. You'll be in His

presence. That's what childlike looks like. Childlike childlike faith and childlike relationship.

Is not opportunistic. It's loving. God, say God, I pursue your

love for who you are, not what I can get from it. And

so today, this weekend, we're gonna courage you with what it looks like

to build your childlike fight about. Because when my sons get to fighting,

I can swear that somebody's gonna kill somebody. There is a boldness in the

way that children wrestle and fight. I wonder what would look like if we

would recognize that there should be a boldness in our fight today in our faith.

I got a video of a couple of children. I got a baby

and a teenage girl that you could just see how bold they are regardless of

what the adult that they are fighting. There's a boldness in a child to

fight regardless of circumstance. Look at this video and see a childlike fight.

Oh you see. You see in these two instances, a young teenager,

this last one, who's doing kind of imaginary sword fighting with this grown adult

man, and she has a boldness to go after his leg. And when

the referee says that she won, she begins to celebrate and run off the

same way with the baby, whether that's his dad or his uncle. The

baby has a boldness and a joy to get in the fight. But I

also think about just a couple of years ago on Instagram and TikTok, there

were these viral videos that started going around and here's what the viral video looked

like. It was either the mom or the dad. And what they would

do is they would go to their son or they were their daughter, and

their son and daughter would be anywhere between six and nine years old, and

they would tell their child, Hey, listen down the street, I just

gotta fight with the neighbor right now. They have a son, they have

a daughter. I'm well, I'm beat up their mom and dad. I'm

gonna need you to go with me, and you gotta beat up the son

or the daughter. And you can tell the kid would jump up, throw

the iPad down, throw the controller down, and be like, Mom,

let's go do whatever we gotta do. Dad, let's go do whatever we

gotta do. It was very rare in these viral videos that you would have

any kids go no, no, no, no, let's think twice,

Dad, let's talk. Let's no the kid, let's do it, let's

go why Because the child knew that as long as I'm fighting with my mom.

As long as I'm fighting with my dad, then I'm gonna be okay.

There's a faith within a child that says, if Dad's fighting with me,

then I'm gonna be all right. What would look like as children if

we go man? I got God on my side. It's what we sung

in worship today to say that the joy of the Lord is my strength,

to say, if God has strength, and if Jesus is the King of

kings and the Lord of lords, then what am I afraid of? What

am I intimidated of? What am I scared of? I need a fight

like a child, which says that's my dad, and I got my dad

named I got my dad in heaven, and I have Jesus on my side.

There's a boldness to understand that if God is for me, then who

be against me? That's what the childlike fight looks like. It's there's a

bit an old saint that says, it doesn't matter the size of the dog,

but the matter the size of the fight inside the dog. What does

your fight look like on the inside? What does that fight of faith look

like? When you're throne reports that you aren't a fan of when someone gossips

about you, when someone comments on you, when you go through a difficult

time, where what happens to your fight? Does it scare you, does

it coward you? Or does this look like an opportunity for you to start

exercising your faith muscles, to start exercising your fight within you, to say

that I can do all things through Jesus Christ, who strengthens me, that

God is in with me, and I can do this. What does our

faith look like? I'm encouraged by Second Corinthians, Chapter ten, verse three

to six. Here's what it says. Apostle Paul says, this is Second

Corinthians. For though we walk in the flesh. In other words, if

you cut me, I bleed, if you poke me on bruise. But

he says, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the

weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to

destroy. To destroy what destroy strongholds, We destroy arguments that every lofty opinion

raised against the knowledge of God. And we take every thought captive to obey

Christ. Be ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is come. Lead

you see what we have to recognize. Is this fight that you and I

are in. When we became believers and we said yes to Jesus, you

enlisted in a battle that you may not recognize. It's one that Satan is

not a fan of you being a part of. Oftentimes people say yes to

Jesus and they say, I didn't know life was gonna get so difficult when

I found Jesus. Well, that's because you joined the winning side. But

the thing is, in joining the winning side, there is a real enemy

out there named Satan, and he roams around looking for whom he may devour.

So before you said yes to Jesus, you were a part of his

army, whether you realized it or not. But when you said yes to

Jesus, all of a sudden, there was a target on your back and

you got into a battle that you didn't know you were in. That's why,

all of a sudden, when you started taking your faith serious, all

of a sudden, gossips started getting louder, all of a sudden, issues

started getting bigger. All of a sudden, arguments became more frequent. You're

going, what is going on with this? But that's because the enemy says,

I want to do everything within my power to pull this person off.

Course, I want them to deny God and I want them to deny this

relationship. And so the apostle Paul encourage us, and he says, but

if you would use the weapons that God has given you, what are the

weapons God has given me. God has given me the weapon of worship.

God has given me the weapon of prayer. God has given me the weapon

of his word. God has given me the weapon of peace. God has

given me the weapon of joy. God has given me the weapon of trust

in God. And so when you start to regulate these weapons, what the

Apostle Paul says is he says, it has divine power to destroy strongholds.

In other words, if you would stop fighting fleshly battles and allow God to

fight the battle, allow God to get in the mix, then what happened

is that is the only power, only God's spirit is the only power that

can defeat the war that you may be potentially fighting. It's a spiritual warfare.

And if you're going to fight a spiritual warfare with human ways, we

won't win. So the fight that we have is one against the spirit and

the way we destroy a stronghold this was a stronghold back in the day.

Is a stronghold was a large wall, a containing wall that would be outside

of a city, and it would protect the city on the inside. If

you can get through the stronghold, then what happens is you could overtake the

city. The Great Wall of China is the largest stronghold that has ever been

built. And so what happens is is what the apostle pause encouraging us.

He's saying, there are strongholds that either may be built in your life or

maybe in other people's lives. And the only way you can tear those strongholds

down, those built up things is the only way you can tear those down

is with vine means, God's means. It's the only way. And so

the battles that we're often fighting in the flesh are often ones that only God's

spirit can overcome. So you and I have to get good at the childlike

fight begins to trust God above our own flesh a lot of times, which

can be real difficult. It could be really hard. I mean sometimes it

could be real difficult for me. But I often look at the early Church

and see how they handled things. Because we are called out as believers to

handle things different than the way that the world handles things. And so it

makes me reflect on our early church fathers. And there happened to be a

thing. If I were to ever ask you, what do you think is

the first type of a relic or painting or design that has ever been in

history founded depicting Jesus, Like when do you think it was? What do

you think it is? Most of us would say, oh, I think

the first thing that we've ever found concerning Jesus was maybe in a church.

It was probably a painting. He probably had a hand on his head or

something like that. Well. No, the first artifact that has been found

year to day, which was found a hundred years ago, it concerns it

concerns a depiction of Jesus and it was found in Rome. It was found

in kind of a dormitory of gladiators. And I have a picture of it

for you to see. And here's what the picture was. The left is

the original and the right is all of it just kind of clearly done for

us. And what you can see in this picture is is you see a

man on the left which we see his name in Greek. His name is

alexe Menos, and then there is Jesus on the cross, but that isn't

Jesus's head. Jesus has a donkey as his head. And so actually what

happened was is it says Alexemenos in Greek worships his god. And what a

group of gladiators. More than likely we can tell there was a gladiator who

had come to faith in Jesus Us. And this picture they reckon is done

anywhere between one hundred and two hundred ADS, so just seventy years after Jesus.

And so a man came to faith in Jesus as a gladiator, and

all of his peers begin to make fun of him for following Jesus, and

so one of the guys draws a graffiti art of putting a donkey's head on

top of Jesus in a humorous way. It was often said that many of

the Romans and the Greeks, they would have a running joke when it came

to the Jewish people. They would say this. They would say that as

the children of Israel, the Jews were going through Israel, going through the

wilderness after Egypt for forty years. The only way they found their way out

is they followed a herd of donkeys because the donkeys were smarter than they were.

And so when the Romans or other people would convert into Judaism, they

would draw donkey heads on top of Jesus and say that Jesus was the king

of donkeys, the king of idiots. And so I just want you for

a moment, right now, one of your co workers is talking to you

and they write on your desk a picture of Jesus with the head of a

donkey. What are you doing? I mean, I just think about it

for a moment, like what are you doing? Then? I know I

don't know about you, but I mean we would have some words we're gonna

start exchanging, maybe some fists that we start exchanging. I mean, at

the very men, if I'm Alexa Mentos, I'm a gladiator, Somewhere than

likely there's a sword somewhere, There's something somewhere like it's gonna go down.

You just called Jesus a donkey, like it is gonna happen. If today

a company or individual called Jesus a donkey, every person would go on the

picket lines. We would go on the boycott lines. But I look at

it. And then I think to myself, how did the Christians react when

people said that stuff? Believe it or not. I have a statement from

one of them, Tertullian, one of our great church fathers. He said

this. He said, Okay, our God is the head of a donkey.

In other words, he's saying, God is the head of everything.

He's the head of a chicken, he's the head of me, he's the

head of a horse, He's the head of everything. So he says,

our God is the head of everything. But then he goes, but you,

in fact, worship the donkey and its entirety. Talking to the Romans,

they were pagans, he said, not just the head. And then

you throw in a pina, the patron saint of donkeys, and all the

beast of burden, and all the cattle, and all the wild animals.

You even worship their stables. Perhaps this is your charge against us, that

in the midst of all these indiscriminate animal lovers, we save our devotion for

donkeys alone. Here's what he's saying is he's saying, unlike you guys who

worship every living thing and everything. You worship every opportunity, every new thing,

every new religion. You guys are onto it. But far be it

for us that we worship one god. Far be it for me that I

give my life solely to Jesus Christ. So what Tertullian is saying is he's

saying, we ain't like other people. We don't jump from thought after thought,

religion after religion, new thing after new thing. That's what the world

does. The world is looking for every new science, every new religion,

every new purpose, every new prayer, every new crystal, every new candle.

They're looking for all of those things. But Tertullian says, I have

reserved my devotion for one man, and one man alone, and his name

is Jesus. Tertullian did not get his sword or start using his words.

He just said, if he a donkey, then he's the only donkey I

follow. He's like, he's not engaging in their level of fight. He's

not engaging in their level of banter. He's not engaging in their level of

eye for an eye. Here's how the world fights the world's eye for an

eye. Gossip for gossip, slander for slander, anonymity verse anonymity, retaliation

for retaliation, comment against comment unfollowed against unfollowed block versus block. But the

way that we are called to fight is we're called to fight like Jesus.

How does Jesus fight? I'm glad to know that Jesus fights in a divine

way, because if we're gonna win people to Christ, we cannot fight the

way that other people fight. We can't get in the arena the way other

people get in arena. Because you may think that you are fighting with the

flesh, but you are not fighting with the flesh. You are fighting a

spiritual fight. And so if we're gonna fight like Jesus today, here's the

first thing we gotta do is we gotta start with Jesus. If we're gonna

fight, we gotta start with Jesus. We gotta ask ourselves, Jesus,

how did you fight? He fought with peace. He wasn't a pushover.

He wasn't someone that just took anything. But Jesus fought for peace. If

you just study Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and look at the

way Jesus argued. There would be times people would try to disrespect him and

he would keep it pushing. There would be times that people would try to

trick him and he wouldn't even respond to their answer. There would be times

he would be teaching and someone would interject him, and he wouldn't even give

them the time of the day, and he would keep preaching. Jesus fought

to be peaceful. There was a time where he went back to his hometown

and people were trying to punch him, and Jesus, it says, he

stepped away and he left. Moments people started throwing fists. He just said

bye bye. He's walked away. Jesus fought with peace. That's what he

calls us to fight with. John Chapter sixteen, verse thirty three. Jesus

says this, I have said these things to you that in me you may

have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart,

I have overcome the world. What Jesus says in this statement is he

says, if you're trying to fight the way the world fights, then when

you fight the way the world fights, you step into tribulation. You step

into chaos, You step into the way that everyone else does it. You

step into the way that everyone else talks. You step into the way that

everyone else lives. You step into the way that everyone else gets retaliation but

Jesus says, but if you would step into my way of doing things,

he says, I have come to give peace because I have overcome the world.

And so Jesus's way of fighting begins to move towards a peaceful place.

That's what we pray for people, because people are going through things today.

People are oppressed with things today, like Pastor Diego said a couple weeks ago,

and if you think that that's a fight of the flesh that we got

to twist in, it's a spiritual fight that we're fighting. There was a

young woman who deemed one of our leaders yesterday and she said, Hey,

whoever you want to share this with, please share this. But I've been

coming too abundant living for the past couple of weeks. And when I came

first came to abundant I had in my past. I hadn't been involved in

a lot of things, and so I had spirits that would talk to me

like I would hear voices. As she said, my first time coming to

abundant living, I started to be open to the things of God. And

then as I would do that, I left one day with one voice less.

I still had voices, but it was one less. And then she

says, and then I went to church again, and as I went to

service, I left again with another one less voice. And then she says,

but then I went to the women's night on Friday, Chad fifteen hundred

women, which I like, I can't even believe, you know phrasing.

She says, I went to the women's night on Friday, and I can

tell you this is I left service with no more voices in my head.

I'm completely healed, I'm completely free, I'm completely at peace. That's what

a fight looks like. You and I are not fighting a fight of the

flesh. We are fighting a fight for peace. We're trying to give people

peace of their mind, peace of their souls, peace of their spirit,

and it starts with Jesus. There is victory. So that person who comes

to me, we have to begin to evaluate and say, I know there's

a person that stands before me, but the fight that I'm in is not

who stands before me. When your son or daughter comes to you and they

reject you, when they come to you and want to go run the streets,

you gotta say, I am not fighting with him or her right now.

I am fighting with something inside of them, and so you gotta put

up your gloves. You gotta build up your fight and say, I'm going

to begin to intercede and pray for them at all costs, because this fight

is a divine fight, and we got to break strongholds. People come every

Sunday who have strongholds that have been built up in their life, and only

the word of God can penetrate a stronghold. The next thing we have to

do is we have to captivate our thoughts. You gotta captivate your thoughts.

You gotta refresh your purpose. You gotta remind yourself all the time, what

did I say yes to when I said yes to Jesus. You got to

begin to captivate those thoughts. Galatians chapter five, verse twenty two to twenty

three says this. It says, but the fruit of the spirit is love,

joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self control. Against such things, there is no law that that's what can

begin to penetrate our mind. Because as we begin to captivate our thoughts,

as the apostle Paul encourage Timothy to do, is we have to get to

a place where we are able to captivate those things that begin to speak to

you, that want to derail you. It happens to me all the time,

that though, those thoughts that begin to try to encourage you to go

in one direction or another, that thought that says, Adam, why don't

you just clock out of being a Christian for three minutes and just and just

just cuss back out of them, just cuss him out. Why why don't

you just follow them in the McDonald's parking lot and it's just four minute,

No one will know, nobody's around, just got four minutes, But just

let them know what's really on your mind. Maybe that's not with you.

Maybe it looks like this, Oh well, I'm at work, nobody's around,

and that and that coworker that I've been flirting with. Let me let

me go hang out with them a little bit by the water cooler and exchange

some flirtatious words. It's just a thought. It's just I know I'm married,

but it's just friendly. Just a work wife, it's just a work

husband. It's just a little it's a thought that's living in your mind right

now. It has started, it has it has bought a foldable chair and

it has sat in your mind and it's something that you play with. It's

something that you dress up with, it's something that you take home, it's

something that you sit in the freeway start thinking about. That's why Paul says,

you gotta take that thing captive and you gotta Hey, not with me,

not happening with me. I don't operate the way the world operates because

I'm in a fight every single day that I wake up. And like Paul

tells, Timothy, you better fight the good fight of faith. You gotta

fight this fight. I love the way Manny Pakiau says that the Christian boxer,

he says this. He says, if you work hard in training,

then the fight is easy. Don't wait until the battle is at your doorstep

to start training. Don't don't start all all of a sudden the battles here

and now, okay, now I'm at church, glory, glory cha more

than another? Oh communion? Can I get three of those? Google Google

goo Google goo goo goo goo goo goo goo. Don't wait until the battles

at your doorstep to start taking this fight serious. You got get in training

every single day, training every single day. Says this is what my life

looks like every day I got time for some prayer. I'll have time for

worship, I'll have some time where I read my Bible. Because one day,

the biggest battle that I will ever face will come on my doorstep.

And if I start training now, then the fight will be easy. But

if I'm not training right now, then that fight just maybe the fight that

takes me out. Don't let the fight, says this in back in First

Timothy, chapter six, verse twenty. This is what Paul tells Timothy.

Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. God has deposited things inside of

you. When you said yes to Jesus, God began to deposit things into

your life. And he says, oh, Timothy, you can replace him.

Put your name there. Put your name, I say, oh,

Adam, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid irreverent babbel and contradictions that

is falsely called knowledge, for by prefer that's seeing it. Some have swerved

from the faith. Some have swerved from the faith. You know, the

only time you end up swerving is when you and I aren't paying attention.

Rarely does someone have to swerve when they actually are paying attention. Like like

like like when I'm in my car and my phone goes off and I look

for a second and then I look up, go oh, I gotta swerve

out the way, or if I or if I'm in my car and all

of a sudden, my kids are acting up, and I take my chocolate

off on one foot and I turn around. Matthias stopped Tommy's I turn around

and oh, hit my brakes. It's because I'm not paying attention. Because

I'm not doing what I need to be doing. My eyes are not on

the road, and so I end up swerving. Paul tells Timothy Yours,

you may cause yourself swerving, and it ain't because the enemy is coming after

you. It's because you kept you took your eye eyes off of Christ.

You took your eyes off the purpose on why you said yes to Jesus.

That's when the swerve comes. I'll talk to people all the time. They

find themselves slipping on sin. I'm like, yo, tell me how often

you and your Bible. They're like, uh, what's that? Oh the

thing you read on stage on Sunday? Um, y'all don't have one.

How long you've been a Christian? Five years and you gonna have to get

a bible. Bro, you need a Bible. You got you can't you

your eyes are not on the prize. So so we want to find ourselves

a place. Oftentimes we're swerving because we're not paying attention. We have no

pay attention to our faith. We have no process for our faith. We

have it for everything else. I wake up every day at six am and

I go to the gym. I wake up every day, and every every

time, on the way home, I go to Dairy Queen and I get

a nice small ice cream cop We got systems for everything. Right Friday's,

I walk Victoria Gardens and I get a cup of coffee. And I walked

and then you say, what does your what's your faith through? To look

like, I don't, I don't know. Am I supposed to have one

of those? I was like, well, we got it for everything else.

You know, Monday's is Chick fil A Day and Taco Tuesday and all

these other things. Like we can't get a routine for our walk with Christ.

We can't build something. We say, Hey, I'm in a fight.

I'm in a battle every day. Maybe I should take my faith a

little serious. If I find me in battle after battle after battle. And

here's the thing. If God is for you, who be against you,

you have victory in you. You can do this as long as you start

letting God on your side. It's like when David went to fight Goliaths.

David didn't fight a life in his own strength. He said, God was

with me in the wilderness. He'll be with me in the battle. And

that's what faith looks like. God, you were with me here, You'll

be with me there. That's what that faith in that fight looks like.

And so the last thing is is then we have to use our weapons.

I use your weapons. You gotta wield the world through prayer. We got

to use these weapons. And so God has blessed us with the weapon of

worship. God has blessed us with the weapon of obedience. God has blessed

us with the weapon of prayer. God has blessed us with the weapon of

his word, and the word of God that you could begin to wield in

your life. You could begin to see that this divine fight that you're in

God can begin to break strongholds when you can start to be doing some things

that go and submit to the things of God. Here's what it looks like

is it looks like going to someone and finding a friend that can say this

in your life. You say, hey, i'm struggling in your marriage.

Here's a divine stronghold that begins to happen. I'm struggling in my marriage.

I'm starting to look at my coworker. And your friends say, enough of

that. Let's pray right now for your wife. Let's do it right now.

Let's pray right now for your husband. We're not going there to captivate

that thought right now. Hey, I'm struggling right now, I'm thinking about

stealing from this area, stealing from that area. That's no, we're not

gonna do that right now. Let's go to God in prayer. Right now.

Let's commit some things. We close with this. First Timothy, chapter

six, he says this. As we close, Paul tells Timothy, but

as for you, oh man of God, as for you, O woman

of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness. That's what the fight looks

like. Pursue righteousness, Pursue godliness, pursue faith, pursue love, pursue

steadfastness and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, which means there's a

bad fight you can fight. Take a hold of eternal life to which you

are called, about which you made the good confession in the president presence of

many witnesses. There's a bad fight we can fight. The bad fight we

can fight is the fight of the flesh, the fight that calls us every

single day to get even to be even to go and argue to go and

Connie, to be hay full, vengeful, unforgiving. The bad fight is

the one that says, item, just operate in the flesh, just ask

for forgiveness later, just go to church and raise your hand from an ultra

call. It'll all be erased. That's the bad fight. Start convincing yourselves

of things that will make it okay. Well, they get it to you,

you do it to them. But what he tells Timothy is Timothy,

there's a good fight of faith fight, the good fight, the one that

leads towards peace, the one that leads towards strongholds being broken down. And

so the way that we could begin to prepare for our fight is we have

to get to a place where we're able to spar with the word of God.

And then you can fight some friends you can spar with, But here's

what it looks like. I got some you know, I got my sparring

gear right here, so I can you know, I'll give my spar on.

There we go, get that. See, I give my gloves.

This is what our faith on to look like every single day. And so

we get our gloves. And here's what sparring looks like. I get a

Bible. I go on Amazon, or I open up it on my phone,

and then then I open up the Bible, and then I look like

this. I go Joshua one nine. Have I not commanded you be strong

and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, For

the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And then I go

to the next verse, and I say, Hebrews chapter twelve, Verse one,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us also lay aside every way and sin which cleans so closely, and

let us run with endurance the race that has been set before us. And

then I continue to read my Bible, and I read provert of chapter fifteen

one. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up

anger. Psalm chapter forty two, verse eleven. Why are you cast down?

No mussul, Why are you in turmoil? Within me? Hope in

God, for I shall again praise in my salvation and my God. See

we start to fight. John Chapter five, verse thirty nine to forty.

You search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life, and

it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to

me that you may have life. You see, you begin to spar by

reading God's word. And then what happens is, as you could join a

neighborhood group, you can start doing community, and then you can find a

friend, and you can start speign with a friend. They pray for me,

do this life with me, walk with me. And now all of

a sudden, you find yourself not only in the fight, but winning victories,

winning battles because you now know what it takes. Because you have the

word of God, which can literally break strongholds. The word does not return

void. The word of God can break every chain and every stronghold, and

interceding and praying for people can begin to activate God's word in places that you

could only dream of. And so next time, before you fight the battle

say a prayer. Say God, would you lead me and where I need

to go right now? That's the Lord's prayer. Lead me not into temptation,

but deliver me from the evil one. That's part of the Lord's prayer.

Lord, deliver me from whatever this is. God's word does not return

void. And you and I are in this fight together. So why not

every week when we gather together, start sparring together. We could pray for

each other, we can worship together, we can glorify the name of God

together, and then we can begin to fight like the way children fight with

a boldness to say that God's with me. And if God is with me,

who be against me? Because we can do all things through Jesus Christ.

Let's pray today God, we thank you for your word. Today,

Father God, I thank you. As we've gathered together. Lord, Then

as your word begins to penetrate our heart's, Lord and transform our hearts,

as we can begin to see you do a fresh new thing in our lives,

to build up our boldness and our courage. God to not be in

bed and just lay there in a way that broken and anxious and lost.

But today may we be found joy and hope, that's found in you today,

Jesus, may we begin to build up that courage inside of us that

says that our God is big, and our God is great and the joy

of the Lord is our strength. So God, today, may we not

cower away from the fight or hide from the fight. But may we put

on our gloves God, and may we begin to recognize that it's your weapons,

Lord that can break every stronghold, that has divine power that can penetrate

any heart. And God, may we begin today to captivate every thought Lord

and put it away and know that we have victory in Jesus Christ. In

Jesus name, Amen and Amen, Praise God. Well, family, if

you just give me two more minutes, is this the most important part of

our services where we make an invitation of faith? And so with these few

moments, I would love if you're here in the courtyard of the cafe air,

in this room, if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ,

this is the opportunity to do so. You know, tomorrow is promised for

no men. One day all of us will stand before God. The beauty

is that Jesus lived, Jesus existed to restore our relationship with the Father.

That was his whole mission. His whole mission for thirty three years was to

make sure he goes to the cross, to make sure that he has the

wrath of God poured on on him for our sins. And he knew three

days later he would come out of that and he would know that there was

victory over death, because Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for our life. And

so the only type of person who doesn't inherit heaven and inherit health is the

person that is prideful that says, Jesus, I don't need saving, I

could do this on my own. Well, one day we all will have

to answer for God, and we will either answer to God for all the

things we did, all of the sins we've committed, all the ways we've

fallen sharp and we will either be judged based off of what we did,

or we could be judged based off of what Jesus did. And if we're

judged off of what Jesus did, there is salvation in the work of Jesus.

There is rejection in our work because there's no amount of good deeds that

you could do on this earth that would ever compare to our bad deeds,

every thought, every decision that has fallen short of the glory of God.

And so today we have an opportunity to say, Jesus, not only do

I repent to my sins, but I receive you as my Lord and savior.

Romans Chapter ten, verse nine and ten says that if we confess that

Jesus died on the cross and rose three days later, and we believe that

he is Lord, we will be saved. It's a great hope. It's

a great joy to know one day you and I will all inherit eternity because

of the work of Jesus. And it starts with today. As Jesus would

knock on your life, would you answer, and would you receive this love

and this grace from God. You don't have to pray for it, you

don't have to work for it, and you don't have to pay for it.

All you have to do is receive the work of Jesus. And so

today's we're gathered here together, would you all repeat this prayer after me?

By no means the prayers not the thing that saves you. What we're doing

is we're affirming the work that the spirit's already doing. Right now, So,

wherever you're at in the court yard, in this room, would you

join me and saying this, Dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I

confess of my sins. I believe in my heart that you died on the

cross and you rose three days later. From this day forward, I call

you Lord, and I call you Savior, and I commit to follow you

for the rest of my days in Jesus name. Amen. We really hope

you enjoyed the message, and if you said yes to Jesus, we just

want to say congratulations and give you a free devotional to help you walk out

your faith. Click the link in the description or head over to Grow Faith

to download your devotional. Oh and be sure to subscribe and share this podcast

with your friends. Thanks for listening to a LC Podcasts and I hope you

tune in again.