But God Had A Church

Come on, there's victory in this place this morning.

Come on! Jesus in this place.

Come on.

The victory of heaven is in this place this morning.

I want to encourage you by the word of the Lord this morning that today is a day of victory in Jesus' name.

Jesus is still alive today.

He's still on the throne.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

We love you, Lord.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

Man, I am so excited to be in the house of the Lord with you guys this morning.

I I love being in the house of God.

It's just there's just something about it.

And it's a it's a good morning.

I'll tell you what, it's a lot easier to be able to get up in the morning when it's not 30 degrees and rainy.

So we thank God for a nice day this morning.

Praise the Lord.

I'm excited.

If you have your Bible, would you go ahead and uh get it out?

And if you need a Bible, go ahead and uh flag down one of the ushers in the aisles.

We'll be happy to be able to get that into your hands.

It's not many, it's not uh often that I get to preach with my father and my pastor in the room.

So I just want to give honor to Pastor Frank.

He's in the house this morning.

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord.

If you go ahead and uh lift your Bible on up, we're gonna make our Bible confession together.

Ready?

Go.

This is my Bible.

It is my primary source of spiritual nourishment.

I will read it every day and become all God wants me to be.

My mind will be renewed, my life will be transformed, I will become fully surrendered to Christ.

Therefore, I will hide his word in my heart so I can be all God's destiny to be.

Amen, amen.

Uh, if you would go in and turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter 16, verse 18.

Matthew 16:18

That's where we're gonna start this morning.

It says, Now I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock.

And upon this rock, I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

Can you say amen, Father?

I thank you that you have made a victorious church.

Thank you that we get the honor of being a part of it.

Would you help us this morning, Lord?

Speak to us by your word in Jesus' mighty name.

And everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

You can go and have a seat.

Thank you so much for standing with me.

We've been in this series lions, giants, and bears, but God.

And in this series, we've talked about different challenges that we all face in life.

Last week, Pastor Keyshawn brought a great message, and Pastor Frank has brought plenty of amazing messages in this series talking about the different challenges that we face in life.

And the good news is that for every challenge that we face, there's a but God.

And in this series, and last time that I preached in this series, I talked about trials.

And something I said about trials is that no one is exempt from them.

This is what we've been highlighting in this series.

Just because somebody is a Christian does not mean that they are exempt from the trials that we face in life.

Everybody faces challenges, but see, here's the problem.

Too many believers live like the battle is undecided.

They live as if they have to try to strive for victory or hope that there is going to be victory.

But the reality is the scripture teaches us that the battle is already won.

That we already have the victory.

There is already a decision in this battle.

And if you remember the last time I ministered on trials, something I said is that trials are indeed inevitable.

But get this victory is also inevitable.

For those of us that belong to Jesus Christ, victory is inevitable.

See, Jesus did not just win the victory and keep it to himself.

No, he won the victory and allows us to share in it.

In fact, he won the victory for us.

Victory is a reality in our lives, and I understand that we live in a very crazy world.

We, and here's the truth: the world is always crazy.

Ten years ago, I'm sure when Pastor Frank was up here, he was addressing crazy things happening in the world.

Twenty years ago, things were crazy.

Uh uh, you know, a century ago, things were probably crazy.

The world is crazier, uh, crazy and can and continually gets crazier.

Right now we have the war in Iran or whatever's going on over there.

We see gas prices going up, and the temptation can be to panic and to forget the very truth that while we all face lions, giants, and bears, there's always a but God.

And today what I want to remind you of is this.

I want to remind you that God had a church.

And the title of my message this morning is But God Had a Church.

And I have a sub, I've subtitled this this morning, The Overwhelming Victory of the Church.

I didn't just say the victory of the church, I said the overwhelming victory of the church.

It's not like it's just like we barely squeak out a victory and we just kind of get it.

It's kind of like the Knicks winning uh the last 13 games in a row in the playoffs.

It's overwhelming.

There's no question about it.

That won't be my only reference to the Knicks.

I just I just have to forewarn you.

Listen, I I am a my father made me a Mets, Cowboys, and Knicks fan.

Do you know what all three of those teams have in common?

They don't win.

None of them win.

I've been a fan for 26 years.

I'm 26 years old, in case you were wondering.

And for the 26 years of my life, the best thing that I ever tasted was getting close.

But close only counts in horseshoes.

So, you know, that's that's what they say.

So I'm very excited about that.

But I'll tell you this: something that I'm even more excited for is I'm excited that every day I get to wake up in the victory of God.

Every day I get to wake up knowing that I have the victory of Jesus Christ and I get to live in that victory.

Can you say amen?

And so when I speak of this overwhelming victory of the church, when I say church, I am not merely just speaking of a building.

The church is the body of believers.

What does that mean?

If anybody receives Jesus Christ into their heart, they are a part of the church.

They are part of the body of Christ.

However, I do want to say this real quick because there's a lot of false information out there about Christianity.

People say, oh, you don't need to really go to church to be a Christian and all that type of stuff.

Well, actually, the Bible calls the church, the word for church is ecclesia.

What that means is gathering or assembly.

What does that imply?

That means that believers are gathering and assembling together.

And so, while as soon as we give our life to Christ, we are a part of the church.

In order for us to continue to walk in accordance with our faith in Christ, we must assemble and gather together, which is why the Bible says in Hebrews to not neglect the assembling of ourselves as we so often do.

And so it's very important to gather, just like we're gathered here this morning on a Sunday, and being in the presence of one another.

So, but the church ultimately is the body of believers.

And if you are part of this church, you have overwhelming victory.

Despite anything that you face.

I love how the apostle Paul puts it in Romans chapter 8, verse 37.

Romans 8:37

Look at what the scripture says.

It says, No, despite all these things, what things is Paul talking about?

Paul had just gotten uh done talking about the challenges that he had faced in being a preacher of the gospel and the challenges that he had faced in his faith, imprisonment and threats of death, and all these different things.

And he says, despite all these things, what does he say?

Overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us.

Overwhelming.

Overwhelming.

We're not squeaking out victory.

We have overwhelming victory is ours in Jesus Christ.

What does victory mean?

What do I mean when I say this word victory?

Let me keep it very simple.

Victory means we win.

Victory means we win.

If you are a Christian, you already won.

You are on the winning side.

There is no question about it.

Despite any challenge.

The fact that we win doesn't eliminate challenges once again.

It is the fact that despite any challenges that may rise up against us, we still know that we have the victory.

It's kind of like in game one of the Knicks versus Cavs, where we were down by 23 points in the fourth quarter with eight minutes left.

And what happened?

The Knicks came all the way back and won.

And despite the challenge, they still won.

Man, I saw this video today.

This is not like a religious statement.

I just saw this video this morning and got me excited.

Somebody, some New York City guy was in there and they gave him the mic.

They're crazy in Manhattan right now.

Give them a mic.

And he said, he said, again, this is not like a statement about anything.

It was just funny that he said it.

He said, My mayor is Muslim, my bagel is Jewish, Christian Dior, Nixon 4.

And I was like, I cracked up when I saw.

Say this, say I win.

If you are a believer, if you are a Christian, you are a part of this church, and that means that you win.

Jesus did not promise a trouble-free church.

He promised a victorious church.

And so this morning, I want to show you out of this text in Matthew 16 that I read to you before, I want to show you this victory that we have available to us, how it happens and how we can walk in it.

Look at the first thing I want to point out to you this morning is victory begins with knowing who Jesus is.

Go to Matthew chapter 16 with me, if you would, verse 13.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

We're going to walk through verses 13 through 19 this morning.

It says, when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

Well, they replied, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.

People have a lot to say about who Jesus is.

There's a lot of talk about who Jesus is.

There was a lot of talk about who Jesus was then, and there's a lot of talk about who Jesus is now.

See, at the time there were people that were saying, they were saying, yeah, Jesus, uh, we think he's John the Baptist, we think that he's Elijah, we think he's this, we think that he's that.

And people still have a lot to say about Jesus.

What do people say about Jesus today?

They say that, you know, he's a good teacher.

He's a good prophet.

It's a moral standard.

I think he has good morals that he teaches to us.

There's a lot of nice lessons from Jesus.

But I'm gonna make a statement this morning.

Either Jesus is a crazy liar that should not be regarded, or he's exactly who he says that he is.

Why do I say that?

Jesus is entire, entire teachings is based on this reality that he says that he claims to be himself uh in himself God and the savior of the world, uh savior of sin.

He himself continually reveals himself to be the Messiah and to be God.

And I've heard people on TikTok and on Instagram and all that type of stuff.

People say Jesus never claimed to be God once.

That is such a fallacy and so incorrect.

You don't even understand the scriptures.

Uh it's like when Jesus said, your mistake is that you don't know the scriptures and you don't know the power of God.

People that say that have no idea what they're talking about.

Because Jesus said, uh made a statement saying, I am.

And when he said this, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of that day, they took up stones and wanted to kill him.

Why?

Because they understood that he was saying, I am God.

And so Jesus absolutely, not just in that place, but in other places, not said he was God and showed himself to be God.

And so get this.

If you have a guy going around claiming to be God and then basing everything he says on that reality, he's either a lunatic and a liar, or he's exactly who he says that he is.

And I'm here to tell you this this morning: the empty tomb is evidence that Jesus is exactly who he said that he is.

It's not about what people say that he is, it's about what Jesus says that he is and who he proves himself to be.

Can you say amen?

Jesus is not just a good teacher, he's not just a moral example, he's not just a good prophet.

He is our Lord and He is our Savior.

Verse 15.

After Peter asked them who people, or rather, Jesus asked them, who do people say I am?

Verse 15, then he asked them, but who do you say I am?

But who do you say I am?

The most important question for us to answer in life is not who do people say that Jesus is, but who do you say that Jesus is.

Everybody must personally answer this question.

This doesn't change who Jesus is, it changes what he can be in our lives.

How you answer that question determines who Jesus can be in your life.

Jesus, you can, you can uh, you know, Jesus is a healer, it's very clear.

But if you don't believe him to be a healer, then he cannot be a healer in your life.

We have to believe Jesus to be who he said.

Jesus is savior.

I'm telling you, this is a fact.

I'm not telling you that it's a suggestion.

He is savior, but he must be savior to you.

You must decide that he is a savior so that he may save you.

Everybody must decide for themselves.

People have this understanding I was born in church, Pastor Joey.

Or my mom prayed for me, my grandma prayed for me, my grandma has faith in Christ.

That's great that other people in your life have faith in Christ.

That's amazing.

But can I tell you this?

Jesus is not gonna ask you when you stand before him.

He's not gonna say, What did your grandma say?

He's not gonna say, What did other people say?

He's gonna say, Who did you say that I am?

This is a question we'll all be confronted with, and that every human being is confronted with.

Anybody that is intellectually honest will say that Jesus existed.

Even atheists will say that Jesus existed.

There is too much evidence that he did.

Anyone that says that he isn't is just unintelligent.

That's just the reality.

That's that's facts.

The question then becomes who is he then?

And that's a question that each and every single one of us need to answer.

Who is Jesus?

It doesn't change who he is, but it decides who he can be in our lives.

To some Christians, Jesus is still hanging on the cross.

He's still hanging on the cross in defeat.

Almost as if the cross is defeat, which it's not.

He's still hanging there on the cross.

And so guess what?

Because they have the mindset that he's still hanging on that cross and he never got back up again.

Guess how they live their life?

They live their life in defeat.

Because to them, Jesus is a defeated, weak being.

But that's not how the Bible teaches him.

Who is Jesus to you?

Is he still hanging on that cross?

Or is he or is he exactly what the Bible says?

I'm telling you this this morning.

Jesus is not still hanging on the cross.

Jesus is not still in the ground.

Jesus is alive today.

And the Bible says, because he lives, we may live also.

He's alive.

He's alive this morning.

He's not dead.

He's not, he's not still on the ground.

I'll tell you this: if Jesus did not get back up, Christianity's false.

Because the very fact that he defeated death is proof that we too shall defeat death.

Why?

Because the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is on the inside of us.

And if he was defeated, then we are defeated.

But the good news this morning is that Jesus did not lose, he lives.

He's alive.

Who is Jesus to you?

Every person must answer that question.

Who do you say that Jesus is?

And every person that answers that question, saying that he is the Christ, just as Peter says, has guaranteed victory.

Verse 16, I want to show you this.

Second thing I want you to see is that Jesus built his church on his victory.

Jesus built his church on his victory.

So Jesus asked him, he says, Who do you say I am?

And what does Peter say?

Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, or you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus replied, You are blessed, Simon, son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you.

You did not learn this from any human being.

Now I say that you are Peter, which means rock, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the powers of hell will not conquer it.

Peter understands something.

He understands that he is the Christ.

Now, a lot of people think that Christ was Jesus' last name.

He's Jesus Christ.

Joey Santora, Jesus Christ.

Not the same thing.

Not the same.

Someone's gonna clip that and be like, this false prophet said that he was just like you.

That's not what I'm saying, just using an example.

Christ was not his last name.

Christ was a prophetic title.

Christ was a prophetic title.

In the Old Testament, it was prophesied that the Christ, that the anointed one, to keep things simple, the Savior of sin would come.

And what Peter is saying in that moment, he's saying that you are exactly who the scriptures promise, you are the Christ, you are the one who is going to save us from our sin.

And he's understanding you're the Christ.

You're the Christ, your Savior.

And he confesses this.

It's a powerful confession.

You are the Christ.

And then Jesus says, Upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against us.

Some people have suggested that the rock that Jesus would build his church on is Peter.

They say that, yep, what he's talking about, Jesus is saying that I'm going to build my church on Peter.

Peter is going to be the one that is going to be the foundation of the church.

May I submit to you what the text is actually saying in the original language.

The problem is this there are two separate words that are being used for rock in this text.

Two different Greek words.

The New Testament was originally written in Greek.

Petros and Petra.

Let me explain.

When Jesus says, you are Peter, which means rock, this word is petros.

What does it mean?

Petros means pebble or part of a rock.

But then he says, and upon this rock, and he uses a different word.

He doesn't say petros, he says petra.

What is that?

That just means the rock or bedrock.

What is Jesus trying to say?

Jesus is saying that Peter would indeed play a part of building the church.

He would be influential in building church.

He'd be a pebble, yes.

But the rock that Jesus is talking about is not just a man.

The rock that Jesus is talking about is on the confession that he is the Christ.

Jesus did not build his church on any man other than himself.

The church of Jesus Christ is built on the simple reality that he is Lord and that he is savior.

He is the Christ.

He is the one who would save us from sin.

And guess what?

We still live in that reality, and any Bible-believing church is still based on that reality that He is the Christ.

He is the Savior of sin.

He leads us in victory.

He's the head of the church.

That's Jesus.

And I love what he says.

He says, I'll build my church.

I'll build my church.

And the gates of hell won't prevail.

I like that statement.

And I love that he says that.

Because he's telling us something.

He's telling us two things.

First off, the fact that he even mentions that the gates of hell will not prevail suggests that the gates of hell are going to try.

There's going to be attempt.

But hell cannot stop the Church of Jesus Christ.

Hell cannot stop the Church of Jesus Christ.

Can I tell you this?

There have been empires that have risen.

The Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, there have been governments that have risen.

There have been philosophies that have risen up.

There have been false Religions that have rise.

But can I tell you this?

Each and every single one of them have fallen.

But the Church of Jesus Christ is still standing.

2,000 years later.

We are still here.

All those other guys that tried, they're dead.

Nero, he's dead.

Diocletian, he's dead.

Everybody that's ever tried to persecute or come against the Church of Jesus Christ, they're all dead.

Anybody, any philosophy, Charles Darwin?

Dead.

Any mindset, any religion, Buddha?

Dead.

Muhammad, dead.

There's only one that is still alive.

And his name is Jesus Christ.

And because he lives, we live.

This is the victorious church of Jesus Christ.

He is alive.

He is alive.

Can you say amen?

See, something that people don't even realize is that hell has tried.

Hell has really tried.

I said this in one of my uh uh one of my uh youth services, and when I said it, a lot of my youth were very surprised by it, which shocked me because this is something that I learned in history class, and I'm surprised that they don't learn in history class.

Actually, I shouldn't say I'm surprised, but I'm disappointed that they don't learn it in history class.

See, if you study history, you see that the church has existed for 2,000 years, but it hasn't just been an always a sunshine and rainbows run.

In fact, it's been very challenging in many times throughout history.

You know what they actually attempted to be able to burn the Bible?

But you know what they found out about the word of God?

Is that you can't get rid of the word of God.

The word of God is unburnable.

You can't get rid of the word of God because the Bible says that the word of the Lord will remain forever.

You know what they tried to do?

They tried to in the Roman Empire, they tried to persecute Christians so harshly, hoping that this movement would go away.

They tried to scold them, the religious leaders of uh the the days of Peter and of the days of Paul.

They tried to stop them and silence them.

But can I tell you this?

All those religious leaders and all those empires are dead, but we are still here.

The church is still alive, we're still moving.

Why?

You cannot stop the advancement of the kingdom of God.

You cannot stop us.

We are moving forward, and we cannot be stopped.

We are an indestructible, unmovable force.

Hell can try all that they want to, hell can try to slow us down.

They ain't gonna stop us.

Because Jesus said, I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not be able to prevail against us.

Why is the church unstoppable?

Because of what Jesus said.

Jesus didn't say Peter would build my church, Jesus didn't say Pastor Frank would build my church, Jesus didn't say Joey would build my church.

He said, I myself will build my church.

And guess what?

Since he's building it and he is the victor, there is nothing that can stop him.

He is the all-powerful one.

He is Jesus.

But I want you to get this tonight, and this is where this sermon is gonna kind of shift here for a second.

We have victory.

It's clear.

I just taught it out of the scripture.

Jesus shows that his church is in victory.

But we have a responsibility to enforce our victory.

To enforce our victory.

Understand this.

This is a reality that that forever changed uh my thinking.

Something I was very confused about is I understood that Satan was defeated, but I also saw that he still tried.

And I'm like, I don't understand, but he's defeated.

Why is he still fighting if he's defeated?

And something that I uh quickly began to realize is that Satan is defeated, but he's not destroyed.

One day he will be destroyed completely, be cast into the lake of fire for all of eternity.

He's defeated, but he's not destroyed.

And so this is kind of how I understand Satan.

Satan is like a kindergartner that you play a board game with.

If you really want to, you you you win.

So let's say you win the game.

What does the kindergartner do?

Throws a tantrum, starts throwing up the the board, starts throwing the pieces around, starts kicking stuff around, starts throwing a complete temper tantrum.

That's exactly what Satan does.

He has been defeated so badly, and he's still throwing a temper tantrum 2,000 years later.

He's still doing the most, he's still trying his best.

But we have a responsibility as believers to not just sit back and take it, but to do something about it, to enforce the victory that God has given to us.

We don't have to be one of those gentle parents that just allows our kids to throw a temper tantrum when they when they do that.

You know, they're just expressing their self.

Tell your child to stop it.

I'm not a parent yet.

I'm not a parent yet, but oh, when I am.

There will be no gentle parenting.

Where, you know, let me just come down to their level for a second.

They're just, you know, I know that they just, you know, threw at threw a rock at me, but you know, we have to understand.

No! No, no, no, no, no.

This is why we have a problem with adults these days.

They've never been, they haven't been disciplined properly.

Dad, maybe you could have done some gentle parenting for me.

You could have come down, you could have come down to my level.

But see, Jesus actually gives us the ability to do something about the devil.

We are not powerless.

We it's not just like, oh, the devil, if only we could do something about it.

No, there is something that we can do about it.

And this is the third thing I want to show you this morning.

I'm excited.

It says, Jesus gave his church the authority to operate in victory.

Jesus gave his church the authority to operate in victory.

That's the third thing I want to show you.

Look at what verse 19 says.

Jesus said, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven.

Whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

Say keys.

The keys, what are they?

The keys are a symbol of authority.

Sometimes what I'll do is I will go up to one of my students, which I have a number of them sitting scattered around in this in this section over there.

I have some students and leaders.

Sometimes what I'll do is I'll take my keys out and I'll say, hey, would you mind going to my office and grabbing this for me real quick?

And when I give them those keys, I am now I am now transferring the authority that those keys carry to them.

What am I saying?

I'm saying you have access now to go where I can go.

You have access to go where I can go.

What is Jesus saying here when he says, I will give you the keys?

He is saying that we now have access to the authority that he has access to.

See, I'll give you the keys.

Here you go.

You can you can do what I what I do.

But and this is exactly where authority is enforced.

If I give those keys, let's see, I'll pick on one of my students over there.

I'm gonna pick on Amanda.

Hi, Amanda.

If I see, if I if I go up to Amanda and I say, Amanda, can you go run to my wife's office real quick?

This is the key to be able to get in.

Here you go, and I hand her the keys.

And she goes and she takes the keys and she goes to go back to the office, and then she gets there and she goes, Oh, the door's locked.

I can't get in.

Comes back, Pastor Joey.

I can't get into Pastor Brown's office.

I gave you the keys.

Yeah, no, oh, yeah, I didn't use them.

We have to actually choose to enforce the authority that Jesus has given us to use what he has made available to us.

Let me help you see it like this.

There was this woman, her name was Doris Schwartz.

And Doris Schwartz, she was a lady who lived in extreme poverty.

She was homeless, she walked around, and everything that she had she put in one bag.

And so she walked around and she lived out of this bag, and she, you know, kind of scrounged up whatever she could, and that's the way that she lived her entire life until one day she died.

And they can't when they found out who she was, they contacted her family, and their family arrived, and they said, She was living like that?

She had access to a multimillion dollar trust fund her entire life.

And they actually, most research that I could find suggested that Doris actually knew that she had access to this trust fund, yet still lived this way.

It sounds so silly to us, but in the same way, it's so silly that we wouldn't use the authority that Jesus has given to us.

We have been given the keys, we have been given the ability to operate in the authority that Jesus has given to us.

Why wouldn't we use it?

He's given it to us.

It's our job to actually use it and access it.

The Church of Jesus Christ has been given the authority of Jesus Christ.

What do I mean when I say that?

You actually have the authority to do what Jesus did.

You have the authority to do what Jesus did.

What did Jesus have the authority to do?

I was reading a chapter of Scripture the other day, and I was just so blessed to see the authority of Jesus.

The whole chapter was about his authority.

And what do I what do we see?

We see Jesus having the authority over the storm.

We see Jesus having the authority over the demonic.

We see Jesus having the authority over sickness.

That same authority that Jesus had when he walked on earth.

Guess what he's saying?

You have that authority.

It's available to you.

Let me say something that might bother some people.

The same things Jesus did, you can do.

Oh, I don't know about that.

That's actually a Bible verse.

John 14, 12.

The same works I do, you will do.

And even greater works you shall do because I'm going to the Father.

That's a scripture in the Bible.

What is Jesus saying?

Did you know that you have the authority to do something about sickness in your life?

You have the authority to do something about demonic interference in your life.

You have the authority to do something about the storms that are in your life.

You have the authority of God on the inside of you.

It's not your own authority, it's the authority of Jesus Christ.

It's authority to do what Jesus did.

So, what does this mean?

This means it only applies to the things that Jesus did.

I'll tell you a funny story about that, real quick.

There's this preacher that I follow, and he uh, I guess I think he was like preaching on authority somewhere or something.

And he went home with his daughter.

And when he got home, his daughter wanted a sandwich.

And she was like three.

And she said, Dad, make me a sandwich in Jesus' name.

It's like, see, that's not how that works.

I know that, I know that you would like to just go up to people and say, do this in Jesus' name.

But that's not how that works.

Rather, this is an authority that we can demonstrate over the demonic, an authority that we can demonstrate over things that are not of God in our lives.

The things that Jesus did, we have the authority to be able to do.

But let me encourage you with this.

We have to make a decision as believers to actually stand in victory.

To stand in it.

Because remember what I said before.

Just because we have authority, just because we have victory, doesn't mean that the enemy is not going to try.

It's not just just because we have that authority doesn't mean that he's not going to try to trespass on our property.

So we have to actually do something about it.

It's kind of like this.

How many of you guys have ever played whack-a-mole before?

Wack-a-mole, some of some of you guys, some of you guys are like, uh no.

Like, I don't see where this is going.

Well, whack-a-mole.

You get the little mallet?

The moles are popping up.

That mallet's our authority as the believer.

Those moles are when the devil tries to pop up in our lives.

We have to take our authority and we have to whack it right back down.

That's our responsibility to do.

But if we don't use our authority, those things just do whatever they want.

Walk all over us.

We must actually enforce this authority.

The thing that that is is amazing to me is there's so many believers that are so consumed with the power of the devil and not the power of God.

There's so many uh people just in general, and sometimes even believers.

They're so consumed with the power of the devil.

They're like, yeah, you know, the devil.

I'll tell you a funny story.

I don't really like to post on my personal social media a lot about my personal life.

If you follow me, you'll see me post a lot of things about ministry.

Maybe, you know, if it's my wife's birthday or a friend's birthday, I'll post something about it, that type of thing.

I don't really like to post what I'm up to.

I don't, I just don't like to do that.

I don't want people knowing where I am.

I don't want people weighing in on my on what I'm doing with my life, all that type of stuff.

But some people, it's like they they wake up out of bed and they take a photo of their floor and they're like getting out of bed.

It's like it's like nobody needed to know that.

Um but uh every Wednesday I get ready to go to youth and I stop at a gas station real quick, and I pick up an energy drink.

And please don't give me a lecture on energy drinks after service.

I I understand they're not the best for you.

I do not drink them all the time.

I drink them like once a week, alright?

That's it.

And we can just keep that there.

But I need to listen, I need to be jazzed up for the youth, alright?

You'll uh our our our youth are excited about the things of God, and so I need to make sure to pop an energy drink to match that excitement, alright?

So one day I picked up a monster.

Some of you might know where this is going.

And I I said, this is like three years ago.

They used to have this flavor of monster.

I drink mostly zero sugar stuff these days, but I uh uh I decided to get this monster chaotic.

It was like my it's like my favorite monster.

It's discontinued these days, but I I uh decided you know what?

I'm gonna post a photo of my monster chaotic on uh on on social media.

I never post anything at all.

What harm could that do?

All of a sudden, my DMs are flooded with you really shouldn't be drinking that because did you know that the M in Monster is actually Hebrew for 666?

From people that didn't attend church, people that have not graced the doors of a church building in years.

Not a single person that DM'd me attended church, which by the way, let me just help you.

As somebody that actually went to Bible school, let me help you for a second.

The Emmin monster does not say 666 in the in the Hebrew.

I know that people try to make it Pastor K.

Sean's like, amen, amen.

It does, it does not say that.

It's people just fishing for anything these days, but this is what I learned from that, and this is what God actually showed me through that, that people are more worried about the power of the devil uh than they are about the power of God.

Oh, you know, what do you think?

What do you think the devil's doing, right?

I don't care.

I don't care because I have the power of the living God on the inside of me.

Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

I'm not concerned with what the M on a monster can means.

I'm concerned with the victorious church of Jesus Christ and seeing it advance forward by any means necessary.

That's what I want.

That's what I want.

I want to be a victorious Christian.

I'm not concerned with all of that other stuff.

You had people, and I'm not getting into Halloween or anything like that, but you have people around Halloween that are afraid to go by Snickers because you know what if it's like cursed candy?

What are you doing?

If you use the same mental energy to advance the kingdom of God and enforce your victory in Christ, we would be in a better state right now.

Use your victory, use it, use the authority that's been given to you.

We have to choose to stand in victory when lions, giants, and bears rear their head.

I'm not here to tell you this morning that that you know you're never gonna face anything, nothing's ever gonna happen, that there is you aren't gonna have to stand in victory for a while.

I'm not here to say any of that.

I'm here to say that that's exactly what you should do.

Should stand in that victory when these lions, giants, and bears, or whatever you want to call them in life, begin to come our way.

For every lion, for every giant, for every bear, we have to remember there is always a butt God.

I am not consumed with what the lion is saying.

I'm not consumed with what the giant is saying, I'm not consumed with what the bear is saying.

I am consumed with what God is saying.

I want to know what his word says, and I'm gonna stand on it like this, and I'm gonna say, I'm gonna believe God in every situation.

Oh yeah.

This is the victory of the church.

It's available to you.

Oh yeah, you can walk in it, you can live in it.

Man, I've been waking up the last couple of mornings.

Uh like for like I think it's been, I wish Ben was here.

I think it's been 43 days since the Knicks lost.

I've been waking up in the morning, and I've been like, uh maybe my younger students will know this.

I'm sorry if this is like over some of y'all's head.

I'm not calling you old, but you know.

There's like this scene from Rio where like this, like, you know, they're like waking up and there's like all happy music playing, and then and then they're like looking outside and stuff like that.

And that's how I've been waking up knowing that, knowing that the Knicks are on this winning streak.

I'm excited about it.

But here's the reality that's exactly how we should be waking up as people of God, knowing that we have the victory of God available to us every single day.

Every day I walk up, I walk, I wake up in victory.

Every day I wake up, I remember that I have the authority in God to be able to do something about any scheme of the devil that may come my way.

There is a standing that we must do.

And just as the Bible says, after doing all that we can to stand, stand therefore, what does that mean?

That means that you're standing in victory at the end.

This is a prophetic proclamation over your life.

That after you do everything you can do to stand, stand.

It's time for the people of God to stand on business.

It's time for the people of God to stand on the word of God.

Don't let the enemy trespass where he doesn't fall.

This is the word of the Lord.

God's helping us this morning.

You guys can stand to your feet with me.