Thrones And Dominions - Pastor Scott Silcox

Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week.

For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv.

Now join us for a message from Pastor Scott Silcox.

I know God is doing something very special in the world today, and He's doing something very unique in this space, in this house, in The Rock Family Worship Center.

And it's an exciting time to be a part of such a great vision.

Now, that was you missed a great opportunity.

You'd be like, amen, that's good.

Yeah.

I feel like when we start a new series, everyone's nervous.

That's kind of what I feel.

I'm getting nervous energy in here.

It's like, oh gosh, what are we going to get into?

What do we have to sign up for the next four or five weeks of our life away for this?

But I am excited about it because I do believe it is A, it's appropriate in terms of like the timing, uh, the time of year.

I told you a couple weeks ago, or maybe last week, I said, I can't wait to get in the next series because it's gonna be spooky.

And then and it and I don't know, it just felt like that's what you do in the month of October, uh, is just make sure that you cover some things that are spooky.

Um, and my daughter was literally, how many know you got kids that that that the algorithm just feeds nonsense this month?

Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

It's just ghosts and goblins and all the this the silliness that's out there.

But how many know that it's important for us to have a good framework as believers?

What is this?

What are we really up against?

And how are we to equip ourselves and how are Christians supposed to live in this world, continue to be the light?

Right, yeah, right, right, right, right, right.

And so we're gonna start with a series called Thrones and Dominions.

Woohoo! Thrones and Dominions.

And some people are like, oh no.

What are we doing?

Thrones and Dominions.

Thrones and Dominions.

Oh, I'm just I'm gonna I'm gonna do something in this series, and I'm introducing it to all of us and all of our campuses today.

So I'm asking everybody to lean in because the next few weeks are gonna be us really laying this out.

The best that I can do today, and I don't have enough time.

If I had 10 hours today, I could fill every last one of them.

Uh, but we don't have that today.

I'm not gonna keep you here that long, but I do, however, want to get us on the same page, at least thinking the way we need to be thinking, so we can get the most out of the series.

Does that make sense?

So you're gonna hear me abbreviate a lot today, and you're gonna say, I wish you would talk more about that, and I will, but don't egg me on, or we'll be here all day, okay?

So you listen real fast, I'll speak real fast, and we'll see what Jesus wants to do in the room today.

But I know this that he definitely wants us to prioritize him in the middle of this.

It's very, very important that we get this understanding right out of the gate.

Let me just say it like this.

I I started um trying to figure out how do I do this, how do we pull this off, and then I had this idea.

I think I got an idea.

Anybody ever noticed about a picture frame?

Is that the picture frame is always telling you something, but it's not telling you everything.

It tells you something, and it tells you a part of the memory that you want to remember or that you think is noteworthy.

But how many know that in the picture frame sometimes there's a whole world outside the edges of this?

There's a whole bit of world that you don't understand, and I think if we're not careful as believers, we try to come into a conversation like thrones and dominions, or the supernatural, or the seen and unseen, as we'll learn here in just a second.

I think that is really the appropriate language, and that is this is that what you see is reality and what you don't see isn't real.

But the truth is, most everybody is just viewing it through their own perspective.

How have you experienced supernatural power?

How have you ever dealt with uh uh a spiritual warfare?

When we hear spiritual warfare, we immediately some of us are immediately triggered.

Come on, don't I'm just telling you.

You hear spiritual warfare, you're like, nah, but I don't live that life.

I live that life.

I I remember uh anybody ever grew up uh around like like people who who would like spirit who understood spiritual warfare.

Let me say it like that.

Anybody?

Four people.

Awesome.

So let me know who I'm talking to today.

Well, the four that that know what I'm talking about know that they're they're it the way you were brought up, possibly, and it and and I can say this for myself personally, is that man, you were looking for a demon under every rock.

Stub your toe, it's the devil.

Right?

Any anything negative that comes your your way is immediately associated with the devil.

Like, that's him, I know it's him.

Hiding under that rock.

It's like, maybe, maybe, or maybe I just didn't see it.

And I stumbled over it.

And there is there's a balance to to what the scripture says about how we're to weigh these things out.

However, there are some in here say, nah, that's all under the blood.

Jesus paid for it.

We don't have to deal with the demonic, we don't have to deal with the supernatural, that doesn't exist anymore.

How many know that you might have grown up in a place where you just spent a lot of time avoiding a really serious topic, but it but we found enough scripture to legitimize why we never have to think that way.

I don't know about you, I don't know if you're reading your Bible enough to know this, but there's a lot in the Bible that we don't see.

Vice versa.

There's a lot we're dealing with today that isn't explicitly laid out in the Bible.

And so if you're not careful, we could get in a position where we dismiss the supernatural as though it doesn't exist, or though it's it's some other and other thing that we never have to deal with.

But how many know God brought us all into this together?

He intends for us to grow up in it and mature, to figure out how do we walk out life like this.

And so I chose to do this kind of like frame deal.

So I came up with this this idea that we're gonna basically take different pictures out of this wall and we're gonna talk through them via scripture.

Does that make sense?

It'll make sense as we go through it.

There's a couple of pictures here, and the idea that I was trying to get with this is real simple is that just beyond that picture in the middle, there's an amazing scene that we see there, but how many know there's a lot more on the edges?

Oftentimes, what we do is present to our families, to the public, what our experience is.

This is what I can get excited about.

Right?

This is this is what this is what I look like in frame.

But how many know that there is all of this world beyond here?

Things that you don't see, things you don't understand.

Isn't it interesting?

You very I I find myself sometimes getting lost in these little like um worlds where they they feed me.

I you know, you like one thing and and and then they just send you all kinds of stuff.

But but but have you ever been where where you get a picture of the picture?

Meaning somebody's standing there and they're all like smiling, but then someone gets a zoomed out photo of that, and there's like 10 other things happening in the room that don't look near as happy as that picture's looking.

Where everyone's like, oh my gosh, we're so cool, we're amazing.

And you look out, and there's like four people with their finger up their nose, some shirtless uncle in the corner, and somehow it's not Instagram worthy anymore, but but when we've cropped it and made it so that the image expresses what we want you to think about our life.

And oftentimes we do this when we approach the the throne, when we atop when we approach our our our relationship with Christ, is that we're hoping that we can just put a good front up so that everyone around us can see one image, but maybe they don't know the dark things that are happening below the surface.

And because that seems so scary, we just avoid dealing with the issue.

And I want to just talk about how we can deal with the issue.

You will probably know this.

We are never going to shy about training our people for spiritual warfare.

This is the normal thing.

We've already done this.

Our women's conference even had an emphasis towards this.

Why?

Because we know we live in a time and an era where we're really it's it's the I believe the the enemy's number one goal is to silence the church.

It's to it's to cripple the church, to to to rob her of the authority that she has in the earth.

That authority is not something she's earned because we gathered in this room.

It's because Jesus, which we just celebrated that the meal today, as a as a remembrance of why we have authority is because of Christ.

And we gather here to lift him up, glorify his name, and we leave here equipped, ready to do what?

Advance the kingdom.

So somebody immediately was like, to to kill the demons.

No, it's not that's no, right?

No, that no.

And in fact, I would argue that you might have you might be getting yourself into more trouble.

That's right.

Like the sons of Skeva.

You know that in Acts, right?

Where they they stepped in and were like, hey, we saw Paul doing this, we'll just go ahead and and take that authority and and do it ourselves.

What happened?

They got the clothes beat off their back with a little message.

Paul, I know, Jesus I know, who are you?

And and and I want to try to get in front of that with us as a body.

You check, are you tracking with me, Smith Lake?

All right, check this out.

This is my my first passage of scripture I want you to go to today, Colossians 1, 15 through 20, because I think we have to identify this right out of the gate.

I want you to please, if you can, highlight it in your phones, use a highlighter in your Bible, underline it with a pencil, mark it, tag it, whatever you have to do, because you need to come back to this.

This is your anchor.

Listen to me, church.

This is your anchor.

And this is what it says.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.

Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were what?

Were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

And he is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, that in everything he might be what?

Preeminent.

For in him all the fullness of God was put pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

If you tripped and fell, and this was the only passage of scripture you have to anchor yourself for the rest of your life, can I tell you it's enough?

There's so much rooted in these passages about him, his role, his authority, what he has, and why does it matter?

Because his authority is what we're gonna start off with.

Because here's what when you're dealing with spiritual warfare, you don't want to put your emphasis first on what it is to name a demon or a principality because that is so that is not superior, it's subservient to the one who has all power.

So if you lead with spiritual warfare in your life or around you or in your family, trying to identify where everyone's broken before you recognize where he is whole, it has to originate here.

If it isn't, then you're on a ghost hunt.

Come on.

We want to see the body recognize that there is no spiritual warfare unless we start with, he has all authority.

He has all power.

If you're leading with, well, I have it, he gave it to me, I have the right to do it.

You you gotta pause and say, hold on, let me recalibrate, let me make sure that I know his place.

I put him in a rightful place, and I lead through him, not around him.

This is usually when you see spiritual warfare take a really bad, deep, terrible turn.

It's when you when we take it onto ourselves.

So let's go through this idea uh in Ephesians 1, 15 through 23.

The whole book of Ephesians is gonna be one we go through.

And I'll I'll just start by this.

Like, you have to understand why this book is so important, is because Paul's writing this letter.

The church in Ephesus is not is not just a really easy ground.

This is it's actually it's like it's actually very wealthy, it's very prominent, and it's mystical and magical, right?

It's like the whole thing is built around uh gods, like Diana, who is got a temple raised to her where they're creating little statues for everyone in the community.

And when Paul comes in, he's preaching to this church, and people are giving their life to Christ.

They're throwing down all of the strongholds in their life, and they're picking up new identity in Christ.

And you know what got him in trouble here was the fact that he upset commerce around idol worship.

Come on.

That's how we get the book of Ephesians, which I would argue is the one of the greatest books ever written.

But you have to understand this this book is all about spiritual warfare.

It's an entire trek through Paul trying to equip the church to regain trust.

I'm sorry, I keep stepping over this little bottle of oil.

I feel like I'm gonna smash it.

So thank you, Brian.

Appreciate that.

Good hands, sir.

Good hands.

Good night, coach.

Yeah.

Is everybody tracking with me?

We're laying a foundation.

Come on, touch your neighbor.

Say, we're laying a foundation.

Don't get bored on me.

This is this is this is this allows us to get what we need to grow.

Amen.

I want to get better at this.

I don't want to put my head in the sand.

Come on, somebody, we're moving into the month of October, and this is where we get the permission to act crazy.

This is where we give permission to the world to be like, yeah, it's just October.

This is the month of chaos.

No, no.

Amen.

All right, and we're gonna know how to approach that instead of just letting it pass or hiding in the church.

We didn't come here to hide, we came here to be empowered.

Came here to be empowered.

Why?

Because we do have authority because we're what?

We learned this last series.

What?

We're seated in Christ.

We have a powerful seat, Christ, all authority.

Let's read about what it says here.

It says, for this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all saints.

All saints, that's us.

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.

What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?

And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might?

Verse 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in heavenly places.

Come on, say heavenly places.

Come on, Fayable, heavenly places.

This is where he's brought him.

He's sat him in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

Does anybody get an uh just anybody cluing in here?

He is supreme authority.

His sacrifice qualifies him, puts him in a seat of power and authority over all things.

Everything, everything, every spiritual realm is subject to him.

Come on, you ought to be encouraged today.

Listen, you may be in this room or you may be at one of our campuses at Madison campus and you say, I'm going through hell, man.

I'm telling you, you don't know.

Can I tell you?

You serve a God who has all authority, all power, all dominion.

You have to start there.

That can't be what you figure out later.

That's where you start.

That's ground, base level.

It said, hey, I want us to grow as the body, I want us to be able to persevere and press in and to pray, and we're gonna get into some of the things that I think are missing that is needed.

But but listen, if you do not have this one truth ironed out in your life, that Jesus paid the price and he has and possesses all authority and dominion over every single power on the earth.

So when you stress out and say, Oh my gosh, it's all falling apart, really?

That's what you're seeing.

You're seeing that, and nobody's saying that's not true, what you're seeing, but we're also not gonna tell ourselves that he isn't in control of it.

The body can't turn around and just look through a limited view on what is happening around us.

We have to zoom out and say, Is God the supreme authority on the earth?

The answer is yes.

The answer is yes, but it's not that simple.

I wish I I wish it were that simple.

We wouldn't be having this conversation.

We'd all be living into, and and and and the kingdom would be living through us in such a way that we wouldn't have to have this conversation.

The problem is, is that so often, I'm not talking about unbelievers, I'm talking about so often the believers get off track.

We begin to view everything through our circumstances and not through the blood of which was shed for us and for that circumstance.

Okay.

I can't stay here.

I want to.

I could stay here, but I can't.

We're gonna just do this part.

Here's the idea is that the Bible presents a world more spiritual than the skeptic believes and less superstitious than the sensationalist imagines.

What am I saying?

Real simple.

There are often two camps in the church.

There's the person who's had a lot of experience in spiritual warfare or in prayer and contending, and then there's those that say, listen, we just read the Bible, we know what it says, and if it's not in the Bible, then it's not there, and this is what we focus on.

And more specifically, we don't really even go past Matthew.

We won't want to go in reverse.

We're really New Testament, because in the New Testament there's grace, and God covers all those things, and He fixed all that stuff in the Old Testament, but that's not our Bible.

Our Bible's the New Testament, and we live there because we like the grace that's available for us, but we don't actually understand the fullness of the story.

And then there's those that stay in this camp that is constantly, if you sneeze wrong in this room, you're getting prayed for.

The devil.

He is it and I'm being, I'm gonna be facetious, but it's kind of funny.

It's like there is things to laugh about.

Like, this is how I know I grew up in a spiritual warfare camp.

You know how I know?

I'm in sixth grade, I'm on the playground.

If you don't know anything about me, I love playing sports.

I used to play them a lot, I do not anymore for obvious reasons.

Right?

I'm hurting just preaching, you know, like when I was a little kid, man, I loved it.

I loved kickball at recess.

Kickball was my thing, and if we weren't playing kickball, I didn't mind a good game of chase.

Chase was fun.

Chase was fun.

You know what I'm talking about?

Chase was fun.

Just some little girl running you down, or some group of girls running you down playing chase, and I thought that was so amazing.

Here's the problem is that one day I'm on the playground and I want to chase or play or kickball, and all of a sudden I see everybody's piled up around my buddy or my friend.

He later became my friend.

He really wasn't at first, but like this kid, and he had a New Testament Bible, and he was underneath the tree, and all he was holding court there.

And I was thinking, like, what is he saying to everybody with his little New Testament?

We're in sixth grade.

He's reading from the book of Revelation.

In sixth grade, he's talking about the seven-headed monsters.

He is in a sixth grade language, he's reading it aloud.

This just orator, he is just declaring to the recess that we have got to repent.

Now for the way we've been acting.

We're in sixth grade.

I don't know what we did to deserve this.

I'm not clear as to what it is my soul needs, but I know I don't want one of those demonic things he's reading about.

I don't want to see that.

This is how you know you grew up in a world where people around you were serious about it.

Come on, you know what?

Anybody know anybody serious about it?

How many know that might be a little early to get the kids started with the book of Revelation?

No teacher there.

No, no, just a kid guiding us, leading the way into the dark underlord of what the end of time is gonna look like.

And it was amazing how God gave him at age, what, 12 the revelation that saved that playground that day until the next day, and we chased and played kickball.

Come on.

Just trying to say that there are times where there's these extremes, but what we find out the Bible is got both and.

That's in your Bible.

That's what I meant by it ain't that easy.

When you see something in the natural, you you want to say, oh, that's what it is.

Remember when uh the the disciples were with Jesus and Jesus is praying for people, and and they're and he's coming across all of these blind and lame and deaf, and they wanted to know who sinned in his life?

Who was it?

Why, why, why are they this way?

Because somebody was sinned.

Was it him or was it his parents?

And what what it is is is in our humanity, we need a system to a frame to put it in.

I need the structure so that I can make sense of it.

Okay, Madison, are you tracking with me?

Come on, I'm I'm trying to tell you there is this structure.

There is something we do so that I can make sense.

I need to know what this is, I need to know how to function within it.

But I'm telling you, in the in the Bible, right?

It is not like that.

It's not cut and dry.

So, what do we hear?

We have this spiritual warfare doesn't begin with the power of darkness, it begins with what?

Supremacy of Christ.

So then we need to figure out where did it start?

Why, why is there spiritual warfare and why are we needing to engage at all?

If Christ has already accomplished it on the cross, then why and how did it even get here?

How did sin even creep in?

How has the enemy even got a foothold in the door?

How many know there's a snake in the garden?

So you gotta go back and you gotta read what that looks like.

Genesis 128, 1.28 through 31.

There's a snake in the garden, but before we get to Genesis 3, you have to read this first.

Why?

Because you're gonna see the authority has already been given before they're confronted with the sin.

Come on, I'm talking about the supremacy of Christ.

He has all authority, and then he does this, and God blessed them and gave, and God said to them, Be what?

Fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit.

You shall have them for food, and and and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and everything that creeps on the earth.

Come on, everything.

Isn't it interesting?

He's talking about everything that creeps on the earth.

You you have dominion.

We don't like that word.

It seems too powerful and aggressive.

It is, because we have the power, the dominion.

Here's your original instructions, Adam and Eve.

I'm talking to all of you.

You're all Adam and you're all Eve today.

Are you are you tracking with me?

I'm talking to Adam and Eve today.

We've been given this from the very beginning.

He says, I've given all of it to you.

And he says this, I've given it all of every green plant for food, and it was so.

And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was what?

And there was evening and then there was morning the sixth day.

It was good, it was complete.

He he had rested on the fact that I have made you and empowered you.

I have resourced you with everything you need for what you're gonna need.

And how many know?

Two chapters later, it gets tested.

Because the thing you have dominion over starts talking.

There's a snake.

There's a snake in my boot.

Just pull my pull my string.

Here I am.

It's like there's a snake in the garden.

There's a snake in the garden.

Like, like, let's read.

It says, now the serpent was more crafty than any of the other beasts of the field that the Lord had made.

And he said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of the tree of the garden?

Let's just, I want to just tell you this breakdown in Genesis 3 is about Satan undermining what God had given us authority.

He is re-presenting to them as a partial truth.

I want you to pay attention to this.

He's presenting as a partial truth.

We're talking about spiritual warfare.

Listen, this is how it starts.

This same strategy is exactly the strategy that is at work in our lives and in our world today.

It's when we lose the revelation that Jesus is the supreme being.

When we lose intimacy with the Lord, we no longer hear his voice on it.

Then we open ourselves for other voices.

Those other voices are never telling you to do something overtly opposite, because it would be easy to say, that's demonic.

Sometimes it's the seed to be just a quarter of an inch off.

Kinda.

This is what he said.

The devil paraphrases back to Eve.

Now Adam is in that seat as well.

He should be in a place to say, nah.

That's not exactly what he said.

That's part of it.

And oh, by the way, I have dominion over this situation.

Every creeping living thing I have to say over.

I'm saying we have the authority given to us to hear and listen to and to give ear to the things that are being brought to us.

And I'm telling you, some of us need to put pause on what we're listening to.

Get back into the intimate place with the Father.

Hear his heart for what's happening.

Get a compassion in your heart for what's happening instead of just trying to wield a bunch of sword scripture around, hang it up on our door, and hope it protects our house.

He protects your house through intimacy with the Father.

That's where it starts.

He doesn't care about your little.

Great.

Great.

You know the plans.

But there's like, I don't know, a lot more scripture in there.

I'm not trying, I'm not, I'm, I'm just telling you, as the church, the church has got to come up and got to mature in who we are.

What he wants to do on earth, what he wants to do through you.

You you're sitting on bridled power.

You're sitting on an authority in the spirit that some of you won't won't just give yourself to understand.

Instead, it's just like, I don't know.

Seems weird.

Let's just have grace.

Let's do grace.

Yeah, but you you need to have authority.

No, no.

You know, I just love the comfort of grace.

Like a big cozy blanket.

And it's good and it's awesome and it's great.

And how many know that it seems kind of careless to always give grace until you need it?

You know, we don't want to give it, but but we want to receive it.

Um, anyway, that's a side note.

So this is what he's going through here.

It says, Did God actually say, You shall not eat any tree in the garden?

Didn't he say that?

I don't think that's what I heard.

Right?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

Listen to this.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die.

What now she repeats, hey, he said we'll die if we even touch the thing.

He didn't say that.

You won't surely die.

I mean, merely a flesh wound.

For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes, this is his reasoning.

You won't surely die, and then the serpent gives reasoning behind it.

He says, This, you will not surely die, for God knows when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened.

And you'll be like God.

Now, now, everybody knows this.

If you've been following the Lord at all and you've read any part of Genesis, you understand this is that He they are already like God.

Right.

When we create, when God creates man, He creates him in the image of Himself, He says.

Let's make Him in our image, let's in our likeness.

Right?

This is the NIL before there was the NIL, right?

Name, image, likeness is right here.

I think they got the language for that in here.

Right?

This is the whole idea, is that we're he's already identified them from the very beginning.

From the very beginning, he's given them identity and authority and power, and here is the enemy who they have dominion over.

All they have to do is confront.

Alright.

You'll be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, now I want you, I highlighted this, I want you to underline this because I think this is very important.

When she recognized this, it was a delight to the eyes.

And what?

And the tree was to be desired to make one wise.

Just gonna stop right here.

I find it interesting.

The enemy always goes after two very specific things.

Your eyes, your eyes, what you're looking at, what you're given, given attention to.

And I know there are people who are like, you can't just say what you're looking at because I don't feel convicted over that when I look at so-and-so.

I'm just telling you, spend time with the father, he'll fix your convictions.

When he when when he uh when he adjusts his convictions because of who he is, and listen, there's no condemnation there, there's really just love there.

When you're with the father, he's not he's not trying to expose you or embarrass you.

He doesn't need to do that when he's the father.

The father just needs to show you, give, give clarity to the season you're in, and then show you a better way.

And here's the problem, though, is that usually we get our eyes set on something other than him, and it's always to puff up our wisdom in our mind.

It's it it I just continue to go back there.

It's like, and it makes me wise.

It was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to make one, meaning, who is she talking about?

One, the one who's about to eat it.

I will be wise.

I will be wise.

This is why we have to guard ourselves that when we're we're only motivated by our intelligence.

Come on, come on, but that's good.

I'm not, I'm not, that there's no, there's no stepping away from we need to be lifelong learners.

But I'm I'm telling you, you can see that the deception that comes into the body is to start to tell themselves, like, like you get too, oh my gosh.

I'm oh what time do we have?

Oh, we already got it close.

Oh Fayble, will you give me just a little?

I know you will.

I'm not Smith Lake, will you give me a few more minutes?

Just just a couple of more minutes, because I I want I want to get through this.

I want like look, let's let's talk about this.

Authority, then the number two thought here is this authority is given, control is taken.

Authority is given, control is taken.

What what what what is happening is is they're trying to take control of the narrative.

But they've been given identity, purpose, dominion, power, all the things given, but but but that wasn't enough.

And and the reason that is is because they they don't want the authority, they want autonomy.

They don't want authority, they they're realizing this has made us see that autonomy is really the the win.

Does that sound familiar?

We live in a society that wants to make everything about you.

You we no longer hold any traditional values, or we rarely do, very few hold on to them because now it's no longer about a covenant of marriage, it's about how I feel in the covenant.

And so you want autonomy, I want control, I want power to control my destiny.

I want that, and I'm telling you, that is what got us in the mess.

The mess we're in today, and the greatest sin ever done.

Listen, you say there's no grade in sin.

This one unlocks sin for all mankind.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Like this move, this stop and pay attention, this stop and listen, this stop and move into a direction, this changed the trajectory of life.

And it still here is my point.

And we have to combat it.

Why?

Because authority operates within what God has revealed.

Authority operates within what God has revealed, meaning you have dominion over these things.

Be fruitful, multiply.

This is what I've given you.

But they wanted more and wanted to do it on our own.

The second part of that is this control tries to possess what God has not already revealed.

Here's what we've got to realize.

And I want you to just circle and highlight and write it down, right?

Revealed real big because this is real important.

Revealed.

God is attempting to reveal what you need for the season you're in.

But you and I can't be so impatient to self-diagnose the season we're in and to outstretch beyond where he has already given dominion and clarity.

That's an obedience problem.

That's God said, do this, and you said, Oh, I don't like that.

Uh you guys remember, like, you ever been in a situation where like when you're talking about like um spiritual warfare in your life?

Um I I've I've had times where uh when I was a kid, uh I was having extreme crazy nightmares, like wild nightmares, the kind of nightmares that are terrifying.

I mean, just as a kid, and and they were just incessant.

They just could they never stopped.

Now, now I live in a home who is who is praying over me and covering me and equipping me and putting me in the right scenario, and and this is long before we had like uh access.

Like we got you guys have access now.

You just have access to anything.

We didn't have access, right?

You're at the house, you the only access you had to anything was managed through the flow of mom and dad initially, or at school, but for the most part, I was in the right environments.

I was all in the right environments in the right home.

We were in church.

It felt like 19 times during the week.

It felt that way.

It did.

I mean, we I don't know how many services we had, but they were a lot.

And when we had off days, we were gonna have an off day, and then we'd mysteriously be in a church service at the end of that day.

I remember driving out to the cane fields of Louisiana and and and doing revival nights in people's homes, thinking we were gonna go play and have a good time.

And I get there and it's like, oh.

We're here for church.

And the only thing you had to hold on to is you could smell the gumbo cooking in the kitchen.

And you're thinking, if I can survive this, what waits is be.

But how me know, like at some point, you you gotta find out what is going on.

This is every night, this is every night, this is every night.

What I didn't know that I found out later on is that my parents were actually in a very, very large-scale spiritual warfare with some demonic forces that were in our community.

And for those that say, Man, this is wild, I don't know what you're talking about.

I'm just trying to tell you is that this is not accidental, it's not weird.

When especially in you in Louisiana, you're dealing with a lot of voodoo and Craziness down there.

That's how we got Lane Kiffin.

So, I mean, I'm just kidding.

Just kidding, man.

I gave you what you wanted.

You wanted that.

But there's a lot of chaos.

And what I didn't know until I grew up later is there was an assignment on spiritual leaders in that community.

And it was coming from a group of a coven, if you will, of demonic worshipers.

And they were out to kill and destroy all the ministries in the Baton Rouge area.

And they had made a direct connection to we're going to take, we're going to take Curtis Silcox and that ministry, he's out.

We're doing that.

And it was an on on all out all-out warfare.

And the beauty is, is as a kid, they never made me have to carry that.

They weren't sitting me down and be like, now listen, there are going to be demons around.

Thank you.

However, I know that they were standing in the gap for something bigger, not just for our family, but for all the families that were represented in their church and specifically over that community, because God really wanted to do something great there in that community.

And so there are times where the enemy is so upset at the progress the kingdom is making that it will turn and put an onslaught against people at times.

And how many know you you need you need to be in the right place with the Father during that time?

Or you'll get really confused and really frustrated.

And and so I found out later, and as we walked through that, we would pray and go through it, and eventually that began to lift.

And there's a whole story attached to it.

I won't go into all of it, but I think just so that you know, I'm not talking, I'm talking about talking about my view, talking about lived experience.

Talking about I I can tell you some lived experience, but I can also tell you that there are times where we're just in our house with my own kids now, and we're like, man, there's that we're protecting the house, we're protecting the home, and then my little one's having bad nightmares, and then I'm thinking I'm going through the checklist.

And you say, Man, that's weird.

You're just giving more power to the enemy.

It's like, no, no, no.

I'm I'm through through my time in prayer with the Lord, I'm sensing there's probably something going on.

Because I have to check my work.

Okay, God, am I preparing a place, a safe haven for my family?

Am I doing that?

Yes, I am.

Yeah, so okay, God, these kids are your kids, they're not my kids.

I dedicated them to you.

So, so they shouldn't be living in torment, they should be peace on their life.

They're too young to deal with that kind of stuff.

And then I realize that I might have brought something into my house.

And you say, Man, yard, this is spooky, mumbo jumbo.

It's like, okay, I here's my life experience.

Is that some point my wife's like wakes up in the middle of the night, she's like, oh no, it's this thing is in our house.

I remember so-and-so gave me this.

I don't even know where it came from, but I'm gonna get that out of my house.

I just gotta get that out of my house.

And it was cool, like, yeah, it's great, it's great.

Listen to me, it's great because that's that's us listening to the father and obeying.

I need to tell you something.

I need to tell you something.

And she and I have had this conversation a lot.

We talk about a lot.

Do I think the devil is in that toy?

I do not.

Now hear what I'm saying.

I I do not think that inanimate object is possessed.

I'm just saying, I can't turn around and be like, cast it out, or we would have kept the toy.

Get out of this good toy.

No, but it what it did was it was associated to another thing that my daughter had seen, and it triggered her to constantly, you know, fear, and fear began to take over whatever that was, and all we did was just remove it.

We're not gonna have fear in our home.

We're not gonna invite fear in when we live in a place where we're constantly defending, we're not gonna have fear in our house.

And I don't care if that's baby, if that's the thing that's making you nervous, we just get it out of the house.

See that that that seems less weird than be like, we're going through the streets and taking all the cabbage patch kids.

Run for your lives.

The cabbage patch kids are the reason we're all in trouble.

No, no, no.

It's the garbage pill kid cards, those are the ones.

Armpit Brit was just that was the guy, that was the name of it.

See, I'm dating myself.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Garbage Pale Kid?

Yeah.

How many of those do we put up in smoke, right?

I mean, like we did my point is is is is early before we even got there, there should have been something else in place.

And I'm and I want to talk to you about it for just a second.

Okay, so I I have to ask you to ask yourself this question, Smith Lake, Fayable, Madison, Huntsville.

Do I want authority or do I want control?

Which one do you want?

We want authority.

I don't want control.

I'm not here to create the narrative.

Control is if I control the narrative, then I can then create a system that says this is how God does everything all the time.

And the Bible doesn't show us that.

Like, for instance, Job doesn't under Job didn't have the privilege of reading Job 1.

Job doesn't get the cheat notes.

Job doesn't know God is allowing some things.

Job's just receiving the onslaught.

So we are acting like Job.

Just be encouraged, Job.

You've heard the Lord.

No, Job has not heard the Lord.

He hasn't.

He's being tested.

And in God's just infinite wisdom, he knows Job's gonna pass this, and the enemy is gonna be shamed for it.

I'm just saying, it's not all black and white like you think it is.

There's no just systematic thought on this, but there is something we have to pay attention to.

So I'm gonna get to it.

Ephesians 2, 1 through 7.

This is him Paul is talking about to the Ephesian church, right?

They've they've pulled themselves out, but there's something interesting in this, right?

It says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked following the course of the world, following the prince of power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

Now, this is strong language.

What is he saying?

Hey, before the message of Christ came to you, you were what?

Lost, broken, going to hell.

You were manipulated by a different spirit.

You're being controlled by the flesh, by your desires.

And we're going to talk about this.

Paul uses three terms here, but it's important that we don't make them one.

And I have a feeling some of us have made them one deal.

So listen, it's among whom all once lived in their passions of their flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind.

And we're by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, but God.

In your Bibles, highlighted.

People joke, but boy, if you just get that in your spirit, when you sit there and talk to a negative Nancy, Debbie Downer, who just fills your ear full of what's not gonna happen or what could have happened, and this was broken, and that's broken, and this is gonna fall apart.

Once Debbie's done, give her a but God.

We ain't here talking about what didn't happen, we're talking about who is in control of this, but God.

He is capable, amen.

Being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in where?

Paul's trying to tell him.

I'm telling you what's happening, guys.

You have authority, it's been restored through Christ back to you.

Come on.

Johnny, somebody, somebody play piano.

Somebody make make everyone feel like we're closing.

We want you to feel like that's there's an end coming.

Uh I'm sorry.

I know some of you are worn out, you're tired.

I'm sorry.

I I just stayed up late watching team, but um just give me a just give me a little bit and get through this right here.

Um I just want to talk about this.

This is the word I'm I'm I'm telling you we're we're we're missing in uh in the body.

I originally told Brian, did I not tell you this the other day?

I was gonna do a scale.

Holy Spirit whipped me over that.

I got home, I'm like, I'm doing a whole thing on a scale.

That was gonna be my whole premise of the whole thing.

And he said, You can't do a scale because you're gonna tell people that it's 50-50 and that balance is the goal.

Balance is not the goal.

Balance is not the goal.

Discernment is the goal.

Balance saying it's gotta be 50% physical and 50% spirit, 50% has to be seen and 50% has to be unseen.

And if we do that, we start grading each other on where that falls, hoping that we can find balance in the kingdom, but the balance in the kingdom can only be found through discernment.

Discernment.

The goal isn't balance, the goal is discernment.

Why is that?

Because sometimes you need repentance, and sometimes you need discipline, and sometimes you need medicine, sometimes you need rest, and sometimes you need deliverance, and sometimes prayer.

But guess what?

Most of the time you need more than one.

Sometimes it's several at one time, and in order for the body to really understand, you got to, we have to get back to discernment.

So, like, um oh, oh, oh, here's a good, here's a good, here's a good thought on on discernment.

Okay, so so when the disciples are trying to to cast out demons and he comes to Jesus and they say, Hey, that it there won't be subject to us the way they're subject to you.

And and what does Jesus say?

They it's not working.

The disciples are saying, hey, dude, the training ain't working.

We were just out there, and it ain't working.

And and then he says, Hey, let me help you to zoom out of the picture a little bit.

And then and then he says something that has confused us for some time because he says, those only come out in what?

Okay, so so is he saying that prayer and fasting only only get rid of certain demons?

Because that's what it says.

No, no, no, that's exactly what it says.

No, these only come out with prayer and fasting.

The problem was is he didn't say what those were.

He doesn't say, oh, that is a demon of, oh, that is his name, oh, that is someone you need to make yourself familiar with.

See, see, we we have whole organizations that want to spend more time understanding the names of demons than the sound of the father's voice.

You think by making yourself knowledgeable in that that you'll have more power, but there's not more power because all power belongs to him.

You have him, and so in proxy, you now have all power.

And so educating yourself into knowing the darkest things that are going on in the earth, and you wonder why your your hope isn't being built up, and there isn't peace in your life, and there seems to be chaos every time you look up, might be you're on the wrong diet.

And he says, these come out with prayer and fasting, and it's and this is this is this this is this is discernment.

Now listen, well what does prayer and fasting do?

You ought to ask yourself, oh, if these only come out in prayer and fasting, there should be a natural pause, not to know what the demon is that is moved by that, but to say, wait, hold up.

Prayer and fasting is the activator.

What happens there then?

And what Christ modeled for the disciples was a lifestyle of fasting and prayer.

Why?

Because fasting does what in Ephesians Paul's trying to say, you were men of your flesh, even in the church.

He's writing a letter to the church.

This isn't he's writing it to the lost one in Ephesus.

That's to the church.

You were men and you are operating in the flesh, and because you're operating in the flesh, you have a um you have a perspective that has to change.

And you know what fasting and prayer does?

It kills the hunger of the flesh, it silences your humanity long enough for him to press beyond your natural circumstances and into the supernatural power and authority you can have access to.

That fasting and prayer, it's both.

It's not just fasting, that's a diet.

Oh, I fasted.

No, no, no.

You you just wanted to get the extra two pounds off.

It feels good to call it fasting.

Prayer is the is the two sides of that road.

It's the two guardrails of discernment.

Fasting quiets the flesh.

Doing it over a period of time puts me in a place where I'm not hungry for what man gives, but I'm hungry for the word of God.

And as I get hungry for the presence of the Lord, then what does he do?

Through prayer, I begin to hear his heart and I begin to connect with what to say and how to say in a situation.

So when people say, you know, like, hey, I'm going through something heavy in my life, don't be mad at me when I say, Have you fasted and prayed yet?

No, but I'm in counseling.

Great.

That's one physical step in the right direction, but you still haven't asked God yet.

Come on.

I know that's not popular.

Don't want to hear it.

I know, like, like counseling is the right thing, it is absolutely the right thing.

Partnered with.

Partnered with.

Hear what I'm telling you.

I'm telling you, if the body of Christ wants to get awakened into her potential, her calling, her authority, her power.

What God's done in you, it's real simple.

It's you've got to get in the intimate place with the Father again.

Fasting and prayer get you there the fastest.

And the reason you do it is because in that place, you get a spiritual awareness and you get discernment.

That means whatever comes into your world, you no longer react to, but I'm discerning the spirit of which is being brought to me.

And now I can actually move forward in advancing the kingdom and partnering with the Lord.

And can I just say this one more time?

Is that what you get with the Lord in fasting and prayer?

You get this discernment which has been lost in the body.

We get it back.

But here's what else you get.

And this is the thing you have to ask yourself.

Am I what's my motivation to frame in spiritual warfare?

It is this, and that's the only way, and we have to do this, and you, you, it's all portals, and that's it.

No, no, there are portals, but it ain't just portals.

The Bible doesn't squish the Bible down into one narrative.

He keeps this idea that God is doing something, and he's moving on every front.

And so you have you have to figure out.

I'm not telling you this is how you have to live, I'm telling you how to live is on your knees in prayer, fasting, and find a place of discernment.

When you're there, you get this you get a compassion for people.

See, you no longer do spiritual warfare because you want to control the narrative or the situation.

You do spiritual warfare now because you're compassionate towards the one who is broken, lost, and confused.

And because that becomes your motivation, I think you and I will be shocked at how often God moves in on what he established.

I think you'll be shocked that he moves in so much quicker instead of fighting demons and wrestling demons, and you don't have your sleep, and I don't have rest or peace, and I'm being tormented in the night.

If you're dealing with that kind of stuff, I'm telling you that there is a way out.

And that way out is intimacy with the father.

Fast and pray.

Man, I can't, I can't.

I can't keep going.

I gotta go.

Oh, stand up.

Stand up, all campuses.

Stand up.

Stand up.

It'll be 19 emails before I get home today.

I'm just kidding.

When I say that kind of stuff, I'm not kidding.

You guys don't you guys don't send that many emails, so please don't don't be mad when I say it.

I just internally I'm just showing you my just showing you my own insecurities.

Like I'm afraid I'm gonna upset too many people.

I don't want to hold you, but I want to empower you.

I don't want to waste your time.

I'm not here to waste your time.

I'm here to tell you there's things in this room people are dealing with today.

And and the problem is that that some people think I'm coming for your your like your like extracurricular life.

Are the things that you've you've opened doors to in your life.

I'm not coming for that.

I didn't come up here and and list off all the areas and people you need to avoid in the month of October.

I didn't give you a spiritual hit list for October.

Hey, we're gonna set up camp against X.

No, I'm I'm we're not setting up camp against nothing that the Father doesn't send us on assignment to.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

I don't have to war like that.

I'm seated in Him.

That progression right here where it says the world, the flesh, the devil, Paul goes through this and he basically identifies these are what is at work.

It's the world, it's the flesh, and it's the devil.

The problem is, is if you're not careful, you'll squeeze them all to one.

And you'll say, That's it.

That's it.

It's just only the devil.

Maybe it's just not just the devil.

Maybe it is three very distinctive things that are at work.

My fallen humanity, which is my flesh, the world of which we've let chaos unleash in our world.

And guess what?

We're we're not we're not we're we're not uh uh free from the guilt of that.

We are part of that, we are part of aiding in that.

I mean, you got you gotta be honest with yourself.

I I've aided in that, my world being what it is, and then there is very much a real devil, and there is a devil's hell, and it wasn't created so that we can go.

He he gives an out freedom, a way out.

His way out is the cross, his way out is his son Jesus, and when the body of Christ falls in love with that again, that message, instead of looking for some some strategy or some, you know.

I feel like sometimes we treat our life like an escape room.

We're just picking up things.

Have you ever been through an escape room?

A couple of days I think we're gonna do one just for fun, just so I can remind myself of how chaotic this is.

But you get a time frame and you bust in the door, and you have to solve this major problem and get yourself out of the room you're locked in, and it is pandemonium.

There are no rules, everybody's kicking stuff over, everybody thinks something is a sign.

It's not

Like, it's like this water bottle.

They're like, that has nothing to do with this.

I'm gonna left that over there.

I'm gonna draw that in here.

But it could be a clue.

No, it's like not a clue.

This is how we're doing life.

We're just running around and be like, I know he's underneath here.

Get him out.

No, it's not underneath there.

I don't want to spend my life running from point to point, constantly trying to stir up what it is.

All I have to do is get in a frame of mind that says, if I will humble myself, if I will submit myself to the Lordship of Christ, if I'll allow him to give me a vision, if I will silence my flesh long enough to hear what he has to say in the matter, if I'll fast, if I'll pray, and then he'll give me discernment for the hour.

I'm tired of listening to online social media prophets who haven't given themselves to intimacy with the Lord, they've spent a hundred hours studying what you want to hear and not hearing the Father's heart on his people.

And can I tell you, if that word is not laced with compassion and love and deep, deep, deep love, then it didn't come from the Father.

If you lead with anger and frustration and division, you are not of your father Jesus.

You're of your father the devil.

That's hard to hear, but it's period.

Read the Bible.

Look at what he did.

Look at what he prepared for us.

I mean, take take the garden when he finally kicks Adam and Eve out.

He closed them, he does all that he needs to do for them, prepares them, he sends them out, but he puts cherubim in front of the the doors, doesn't he?

For the gates, so that they can't come back in and stay in perpetual sin.

His heart is always to pull you in a place and to guard you from what you'll stay in longevity.

He's making himself and you, even through consequence, available.

I'm here for you.

Go back and look at the tabernacle in the temple.

And if you know what was on the temple, you know that there's cherubim on the ark, and there's cherubim in all of the imagery in the temple.

All the curtain itself has cherubim sewn into it.

Why are you even mentioning this?

Doesn't make any sense.

I'm here to tell you that the why it makes sense is because when when the veil is torn at Calvary, when he has finally given his life for you, the veil, the the keeping intimacy from the Father is lifted.

It's imagery from the garden.

From the garden, all the way through to this thing, he's trying to tell you, I'm breaking forth.

It was an invitation in him breaking out.

What Paul is establishing in Ephesians, and what we're doing today is an extension of that, is to yield ourselves to our Creator and stop leading through the speculation or our just one singular view.

Oh, this is how it is, and this is the only way it is.

Well, maybe just come out and look around the edges.

Maybe God's doing something, and this is what I'm just trying to tell you.

I'm I'm passionate about this because I believe in this series we can see the body so equipped, so ready not to not to run out of here and fight the devil, not to run out of here and pick fights with the devil, to run out of here and get intimate with the father.

And can I tell you, I I'm telling you this.

People that know how to go to the father, I can trust that.

And you know how I can trust that?

It's because when I'm with the father, I also get discernment.

And this is how the body builds each other.

So that when Thor gets negative around me, I say, Thor, oh man.

Now you know I chose Thor because he never gets negative.

I have to choose people that don't get offended, you know, and he won't.

But when he gets negative, I have to be able to say, Hey, my brother, hey, have we taken it to the Father?

What's the father say about it?

I know we have good strategy because we're smart people.

But maybe before we try to solve it through strategy and system, structure, maybe we just ask the Father.

I don't know.

And he'll give us discernment.

In that discernment, he'll give us the right thing to pray through the right heart.

Does that make sense?

Heavenly Father, we love you today.

I thank you for your people.

Thank you for what you're doing in the service.

I thank you for what you're doing through the series.

God, I I'm gonna even, I'm gonna just I'm I'm gonna make it so much more personal.

God, thank you for what you're doing in me.

I don't want to be the same.

I want to be like you.

Submit myself to you.

Submit this congregation to you, our campuses to you.

There's nothing that we can do outside of you.

God, I do never want to be so intimately acquainted with what's dark.

And to know that I've wasted all my time when I could have known you.

And God, forgive me where I've been cynical.

Because time and experience will cause you to undermine what is happening in the world.

But Lord, you you never did either of that.

You held a healthy tension with the Father.

I hear what the Father says, then I do it.

I fast, I pray, I hear the Father's heart of compassion.

When you would heal, it was because you were compassionate.

When you would feed people, it was because you were compassionate.

Not one ounce of flesh was leading even the supernatural work that you were doing.

That's our prayer today.

Holy Spirit, would you refine us?

And would you give us the discernment the body of Christ needs to really walk in the authority that you've given us?

We're asking you to forgive us for an attitude of autonomy.

We're asking you to forgive us that that because we didn't want to confront our past or we didn't want to confront the the things we're letting in our eye gates and our ear gates, that we just we dismissed it as saying we need to see it in the Bible.

But God, God, we're sorry that we've been playing petty games like that.

We're a submitted body under the headship of Jesus Christ.

We're asking to lead our church to lead us individually.

This body, this temple.

Why?

Because you have amazing and wonderful things you want to do on earth, and you want to do it with us.

And God, we are not naive, we will not put our head in the sand, we are not, we are not being silly or flippant about what we face in our society, in our world, but God, we're asking you for discernment on how to pray, how to lead, what to do, what not to do, what to build, what not to build, God, where to go.

God, we know this.

What we have is today, what we have is now, and for every person at every campus, Smith Lake, this is not a call for you to come to Huntsville because you're exactly where you need to be in Smith Lake.

God has you there for a purpose, He has you there for a destiny, He has you there to advance His kingdom, to be a light on a hill.

You celebrated an amazing anniversary, 45 years.

There is purpose there.

We're asking you, Holy Spirit, show us what it is for this season, for the next 45 years.

For Fayable.

God, what do you have for us?

What are we to do?

How are we to be your light?

How are we to shine in the darkest of places?

God, we give ourselves to that to that mission to know you and to make you known wherever we go.

God, I thank you for my brothers and sisters in Madison today.

I surround them in prayer.

I cover them today.

For every person under the sound of my voice who doesn't know you, that's in this room and in all the other rooms around, and those are in their living rooms.

God, I pray through your work, through the Holy Spirit, you would draw them to you.

Not to this church, not to us, not to a man, but to you.

The savior of the world, the king of the universe, all power, all authority, all dominion.

It's yours.

And we find our confidence there, not in who we are, not in who we're not, but in who you are.

Our kinsman redeemer, our faithful father, our friend that sticks closer than a brother, our hope, our joy, our passion, it's all you.

So, God, we're asking you, if you're anywhere in this room in in in and listening to me online, and you say, I I I need discernment for where I'm at in my life.

I want you just to lift both hands and I want to pray over you specifically this prayer.

You say, I want discernment.

I've got a lot going on in my life, and I just need the discernment of the Holy Spirit to know exactly where to go, what to do.

I'm tired of doing it on my own.

I'm tired of saying uh what I think I know.

I'm tired of trying to just spend hours of educating myself.

I need real guidance.

If that's you today, I just want you to lift up both hands, close your eyes, and I just want to pray over you today, and this is how we're gonna end.

And these guys can sing behind me.

If you want to, you can sing, but I just I feel like we gotta do this.

Holy Spirit, we invite you into this house.

We ask you for a fresh discerning of spirits.

God, where there have been things we're playing around with, where there are things we've been given ear to, where there are things we've been lax, where there have been things we've been not on our guard, God, where there have been things where we've left open doors, God, we ask you through discernment to show us if that exists, give us the grace, the mercy, and the ability to confront it with compassion, with humility.

God, we recognize this.

You're a restorer of time.

For all the things lost, for all the broken dreams, for all the disappointments, you restore all those things.

But you can't do that if we're not in alignment to your heart.

God, align our hearts to you.

God, we don't come into this situation this week or this month or the next month or the next six, seven years.

God, we're talking about for eternity, God, we want to be a people who stop and get your opinion on it.

We need your discernment.

What is real, what isn't real, what is seen, and what is unseen, and how am I to move forward in that?

How do I approach it?

That's our cry today.

That's our ask today.

Holy Spirit, come.

Reveal, show.

God illuminate the dark areas, the things that have been hidden, either by the world or the flesh, or maybe the devil himself.

I don't know what's in this room, I don't know what's going on in the rooms around here, but I know this.

You know every man, woman, boy, and girl, and none of it makes you afraid, none of it makes you nervous, none of it is so hopeless that you can't save, none of it is beyond reach, and all of it, all of it, all of it deserves to give you glory.

When you break through, when you break through, that's our prayer today.

Discernment.

Help us to know what is right, where should I be?

What should I let into my house?

What should I guard?

God, we can't learn those things if we don't do it with you.

Forgive us for putting our worldly structures and our past experiences and leading with those as though that's the only thing you've ever done.

No, God, we want to be the type of people, the body that stays on ready to move when you say move, and to stay put when we need to stay put, and to speak when it's time to speak, and to be quiet when we need to listen.

Lord, that's our heart's desire, and we submit ourselves to you humbly, this body, that you would move just like that.

We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impactful.

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Have a Jesus filled with you.