Spiritual Reality: Angels, Demons, & Humans (Pt. 2) | 10-11-26

All right, we're gonna jump back into our series Spiritual Reality.

This is spiritual reality part two.

We started this last week.

Angels, demons, and humans.

And I explained how I didn't name it spiritual warfare because I think most series like this, most conversations like this, are titled Spiritual Warfare.

And the reason I didn't is because spiritual warfare is only a small part of spiritual reality.

It's only a small part of the kingdom of heaven, of the unseen realm.

There is way more going on than just spiritual warfare.

And so I think it is an important part of it, but I don't want to hyperfocus on something and maximize something or major on a minor, if that makes sense.

So 2 Corinthians 4 16, one of our springboard texts, it says, Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly, say outwardly, we are wasting away, yet inwardly, say inwardly, we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Now that is two short verses in 2 Corinthians.

There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of verses like that.

And those two verses are rich.

There's a lot of truth in there, there's a lot of revelation in there.

But what's interesting is he says, you because of the dynamics that we live in with heaven and earth, with the seen and the unseen, with what is temporary and what is eternal?

Because of those dynamics, we can be wasting away and being renewed day by day at the same time.

The real question is, which one of those is more real to you?

Is the wasting away outwardly the thing that is dominating you?

Or is it the renewed inwardly day by day that is dominating you?

Which one is dominating you?

And then you could really boil down to the spirit or the flesh, right?

And what the Bible does for us is it gives us the truth.

We don't get to decide what truth is, we don't get to make it up, we don't even get to really have an opinion about it.

We can discuss it, we can explain it, we can have thoughts.

But the Bible is what determines what truth with a capital T is.

We decide whether or not we're going to believe it or not, whether or not we're going to submit our life to it or not.

And so I am not an expert on spiritual reality, spiritual warfare, angels, demons, humans.

I'm I'm not, I don't claim to be a theologian, I don't claim to be an expert on that.

And so what I do more than anything is I just read a bunch of scriptures.

Let's just, what does the Bible say?

And then maybe explain that a little bit.

And so the goal of this series is that the invisible spirit realm of the kingdom of heaven would become more of a reality to us than the seen natural realm is.

That's the goal.

When we're done with this series, whether it's you know November or in December, whenever we wrap this up, I want the results of it for this body of believers in Salina, Texas, to be that the invisible spirit realm of the kingdom of heaven becomes more of a reality to us than this seen natural world that we live in.

And, there's a big and in here, and that we would help others understand this great mystery, believe the truth about it, and live accordingly.

So this isn't just some revelation we want because we want to be tickled by revelation.

This is equipping us to do the work of the ministry in our city.

We believe that we have a word from God from Scripture in Ezekiel 47, all the way through Ezekiel 48, that says, if we do this right, if we see the river of the presence of God established in this city, that the end result will be the name of this city will be Yahweh Shema.

The Lord is there.

And I believe that we could see that happen.

And I believe that this series isn't just us diving into the deep things of God for knowledge's sake.

I believe that part of this series is equipping us as an ecclesia, as a church, as a body, a governing body of believers, to see that happen in this area.

This area is going to be known as a city where people just go, man, I don't know, God's there.

God is there.

I went and uh prayed, the mayor had me come pray over the city council meeting a while back, and I went praying and I prayed, I told him, I said, we believe that God has shown us in Scripture that if we do this church thing right here in Salina, that people from all over the place will begin to know Celina.

I'm not gonna physically change the name of Celina, obviously, right?

Which Salina already means heaven, okay?

So that's probably good enough.

But that people would know God's doing something there in that city.

God's doing something there.

God is there, and there will be people that just move here, and it's not gonna be because it's a it's the fastest growing city in America or any of that kind of stuff.

It's not gonna be because we have great leaders, because we do have great leaders.

There's gonna be people that sell houses and fill up trucks and move here because they go, God is there, and I just want to get in that.

Amen.

And that's not just gonna be because of river life.

God is sending other churches or other churches and they are on mission.

Amen.

So that's our goal.

Now let me say this.

This is not, uh we're gonna be talking about some things that are hard to understand.

We're gonna be talking about some things that are crazy.

And listen to me, it's not to incite fear, worry, stress, or anxiety.

If you begin to have feelings of fear, worry, stress, or anxiety because of the things we're gonna be talking about, that's not from the Spirit of God.

Jimmy Evans says this.

He says, fear is a prophetic spirit from hell trying to give you a negative view of the future so that you will make a fear-based decision that God cannot honor.

God never honors fear-based decision.

God honors faith-based decisions.

And he goes on to say that fear is expecting the devil to move, faith is expecting God to move.

And as much as you know the presence of God by peace, you know the presence of evil by fear.

And so don't let that come on you during this series.

Listen, the whole series we're doing exists within the context that Jesus Christ has been given all authority and all power over all the works and power of the enemy.

Amen.

It's from that context and from that reality that we're having this conversation.

We explore these spiritual realities and truth, truths from the profound reality that Jesus is the victorious and supreme power and authority over all the other powers and authorities and his and as his disciples who are filled with the Holy Spirit, we have the same full strength, power, and authority of the one we submit to and follow.

Amen.

Jesus had fear.

He felt fear, he embraced fear, and Jesus acted above his fears, and I believe he'll have some disciples in us if we can act above ours.

So don't take any comfort in not talking or thinking about these spiritual realities.

The only real advantage that the devil and his demons have over us is stealth.

It's if he can keep you from realizing that he's actively doing something in your life.

It's the only advantage he has.

Because he's a thief.

So he can steal something that doesn't belong to him, and and the only thing that can stop him is if you stop him.

You gotta catch him, you gotta see him, you gotta go, wait a minute.

I'm blah, he's lying to me, and I started believing it.

He's stealing from me and I I didn't catch it.

How do you know that the devil doesn't steal$10,000 at a time?

A dollar here, a dollar there, fifty cents here, right?

He skims the till.

He skims the till.

The Bible says he was a merchandiser, it uses that word.

That means you're skimming the till.

He was skimming the till.

He was taking a little bit of worship for himself in heaven.

He was skimming the till.

He was taking stuff that didn't belong to him.

And that's what he tries to do in our life.

If he can keep us distracted or deceived about his existence and his strategies, then we would allow him to still kill and bring destruction in our lives and families.

There's a difference between having authority and exercising authority.

Amen.

And so I used to actually call this, I preached a similar series of messages about almost 20 years ago, and I titled it a spiritual clue.

And um, have you know when you get older you soften a little bit?

Thank God.

You soften.

I think I love some young zeal, though.

I love some young boldness.

But I I called it a spiritual clue.

And the whole message was we need to get a spiritual clue.

So now I call it a spiritual reality.

You're welcome.

But I'm still gonna talk about getting a spiritual clue because how many of you know we need to get a spiritual clue?

Have you ever met someone that was just clueless or oblivious to something?

Like no self-awareness at all?

Have you ever been to a party or a park or a restaurant and encountered parents with small kids that were oblivious to the going-ons of their children, of their little angels.

Ever been in a place and and the and the dads, and I'm talking about little kids, like toddlers, like you can't take their your eye off them, like you can't do anything, right?

You know that that season doesn't last forever.

You do get out of that season.

And then you can actually have a conversation at the park, okay?

But when there is a season where you can't.

And when our kids were in that season, we would go to a party, we would go to a park, and and we would completely follow them around the whole time.

Taking care of our business, handling our responsibility, dialed into what mattered, not checking out and just being completely clueless, and now everybody else is having to take care of our stuff.

And so what happens is sometimes you look around, you go, man, they're checked out.

They are completely clueless.

We don't want to be those people.

How many of you have ever stopped in a parking lot to let someone walk across?

You know where I'm going with this.

And it's almost like when they see you stop, they slow down to walk across.

And then they stop and check a text message while you're three feet away from them and had to stop what you were doing and where you were going to let them go.

They're just completely oblivious to anybody else around them.

No consideration.

A lack of consideration, a lack of awareness.

They're clueless.

Listen to me.

We can't afford to be clueless and oblivious about the unseen realm.

We have to dial in.

The Bible said, fix your eyes.

It says, tune your ears in Proverbs.

That means it doesn't just automatically happen.

There's something you have to do to be able to see what you need to see and hear what you need to hear.

You got to dial in to what is true, what is really true.

If I said, if I asked you this question, is the earth real?

Every one of you would say, Yes.

How do you know it's real?

Because I live in it.

I make decisions every day that tell me, that tell you that I believe the earth is real.

But how many of you also believe that God created it all?

Yes.

How many of you believe that God is real?

That Satan is real?

That heaven is real.

That hell is real.

Angels are real.

Demons are real.

These things are real.

And listen, I hope the angels aren't looking at me and scratching their head and saying, man, he doesn't have a clue.

He's oblivious.

Look at what's going on in his life.

Look at what's going on in his house.

Look at what's going on in his church.

And man, he didn't have a clue.

That's one of the things I say, oh God, please don't ever let that be true.

Listen, how many of you know the angels, and you could say the demons, they're watching us.

It's not meant to be creepy.

It is a little creepy, though.

They're watching us.

How do I know?

The Bible says that they are.

Listen to Ephesians 3 10.

It says God's purpose in all of this.

Now, last week I read much more the context of this, but for time's sake, I'm just going to read verse 10.

God's purpose in all of this was to use the church.

Who's the church?

You to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in heavenly places.

He's using your life, your faith to display, to educate the spirit realm.

I don't have it here, but how many of you know that scripture talks about that God is revealing the mysteries to them through the mystery of his plan of salvation and redemption through Christ, He's revealing those mysteries to the angels that they sit and they watch and they anticipate learning about the mysteries of God as it unfolds in the human race through Jesus Christ.

So there are demons.

Listen, if God were to just open all of our eyes right now, and you could see everything going on in the unseen realm.

Because remember, it's here.

When Jesus came, and we read this last week, when Jesus came preaching the gospel, what was the gospel message that he came preaching?

It tells us, it says, Jesus said, the time promised by God has come at last.

Listen, the kingdom of heaven is near.

In other words, what he's saying is the separation between heaven and earth is closing.

Those two worlds are coming together.

And he says, the time promised by God has come at last, the kingdom is here.

Listen, repent and believe.

Why did he say that?

Well, repent means change what you believe to be true, change the way you think.

It could be change what you see, change what you hear, dial in, fix your eyes.

Jesus was saying, promises are being fulfilled, and I don't want you to miss it.

Something more important is here than the earth, and I don't want you to miss it.

Because he loves us.

If God were to just open our eyes right now to everything going on in the unseen realm, I believe we would all absolutely freak out and probably pass out.

I know some people that see some stuff, but they don't see everything.

I've never seen an angel or a demon, but I know people who have.

I believe in them, and I take comfort in the scripture where Jesus said that you believe because you have seen, but more blessed is he who believes and has not seen.

And so I used to pray, God, I want to, because I I had a I knew a pastor and sat down with breakfast with him one time.

He was preaching at our church, and he comes down from his hotel room and he sits down with me and Pastor Denny, and and he was a little bit late, and um he goes, Well, I had a nine-foot-tall angel at the foot of my bed this morning, and he talked to me, and he told me what he wanted to do, what God wanted to do in church this morning.

And we had a conversation.

And you listen, I believe him.

A hundred percent believe him.

Great man of God.

And uh, but I talked to Denny, and Denny's like, I've always wanted to see that, and I never have.

And it's not a lack of faith.

And I I would pray, God, I want to see that.

I want to see that.

And he gave me that scripture.

He said, You're actually going to be more blessed if you don't see it and you still believe in it.

I said, Okay, I'll take Jesus at his word then.

But I believe that if God were to open all of our eyes right now, and those people that have those encounters, they they don't see everything.

I and I believe it's a gift from God because we wouldn't be able to handle it.

We would not be able to handle it in these human bodies.

We would not be able to handle it.

There's angels and demons all over the place, in this room, in this school, in the city.

They're everywhere.

They're everywhere.

And they are ministering spirits.

Angels are ministering, demons are ministering.

Angels are ministering truth, demons are ministering lies.

Angels are ministering light, demons are ministering darkness.

I don't mean that on this side for a minute.

Demons are ministering darkness, angels are ministering truth.

If you could see every demon and angel right now, you would absolutely be blabbed.

We wouldn't get anything else done.

I'm glad God hides it from us because we wouldn't get anything else done.

That's the reality, though.

I want you to understand that's the reality.

That's true, that's real.

There are demons everywhere, and they're oppressing and possessing most of the people that you see in the course of a normal day.

And let me tell you something.

We're going to talk more about this in other messages in this series.

I'm not going to get distracted with it today.

But demon possession doesn't look like what you've seen in the movies.

Doesn't look like what you've seen in the movies.

Matter of fact, do you really think Hollywood would try to accurately portray any type of biblical reality?

Of course not.

They want you thinking that it looks like this, so that if you don't see that, you are like, no demon here.

Alright, we're going to dive into some stuff in a couple weeks.

It's going to blow y'all's mind.

But it's Bible.

It's going to be scripture, not my opinion.

1 Peter 5.8 says, stay alert.

Why would he have to say that?

Why would he have to say with an exclamation mark?

I didn't put that there.

Holy Spirit put that exclamation mark there.

Why would he say stay alert?

Because it's possible that we won't stay alert.

It's possible that we will get distracted.

It's possible that we would not be clued in, dialed in to what's happening.

Stay alert.

And then he says it again.

Watch out.

Another exclamation mark.

Double emphasis.

For your great enemy, the devil.

Wait a minute.

Who's he talking to?

He must be talking to God.

Was Peter talking to God?

Was the Holy Spirit through Peter talking to himself?

Whose great enemy?

Your great enemy.

Stay alert.

Watch out.

Your great enemy, the devil.

He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

I think it's the King James that says, looking for him whom he may devour.

That's important language.

Whom he may devour, whom he has permission to devour.

But let me just ask you a question.

1 Peter 5.8, do you live like that is your reality?

Do you live like you have an enemy?

I love David prayed in the Psalms.

He says, Lord, make us wiser than our enemies.

How do you know it's important to be wiser than your enemies?

Well, you're not praying that prayer if you don't believe you have an enemy.

Do you live like there's a battle to fight?

Some of you men are like, man, I fight all the time.

I'm not talking about your wife or your teenagers, okay?

Do you live like there's a battle to fight?

This is why the apostle Paul tells Timothy, fight the good fight of faith.

Because there's a bad fight, and there's a good fight.

And let's make sure we're fighting the good fight, amen, of faith.

Timothy had a tendency to look too hard at the natural.

Timothy always had to be reminded.

That's why Paul was always like, if you read the context, you'll see it.

Paul Timothy had insecurities and he was dominated by some of his physical limitations and his age and all these different things.

And Paul was always having to tell him, don't look at anybody let down look down on you because you're young.

A fan into flames, the give that come on, Timothy, like, come on, buddy.

Activate here, activate.

And uh that's why he was telling him, fight the good fight.

Ephesians 6 10 says, a final word, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on all the armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil.

Listen to that.

Who's got to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil?

Who are we?

Is this before the cross or after the cross?

Is this before Jesus was given all authority and power over heaven, earth, and everything under the earth?

It was after he was given all authority, but we still have to stand firm against how many of the powers?

All the and the strategies of the of the He has strategies.

Do we know what those strategies are?

Do is it a reality to us?

Listen, for we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world against mighty powers in this dark world, against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

What he's taught, he's talking to people who are in the earthly realm, and he's saying we are engaged in a battle that is in the unseen realm.

It's connecting.

The unseen realm is connecting to the seen realm, and there is a battle.

There are strategies, there are things that we have to know and we have to do, and we have to fix our eyes, and we have to watch out and stay alert and all of those kind of things.

Do you really believe?

So this is, and I'm I'm not just asking you this question.

I'm also asking this question because I have to stay alert.

Even as a pastor, even as a spiritual leader, that word applies to me.

You can drift.

I call it soul gravity and spiritual gravity.

There's a tug and a pool.

All we have to do is nothing, and we will drift.

And I want to stay alert.

I want to stay dialed in.

I want to stay having a spiritual clue.

Do you really believe that this is true?

These things that I've said, these scriptures that we've read.

Let me ask you this then.

Do you live like you believe it?

Does it ever affect your choices or your decisions?

Does it affect the way you talk?

Does it affect the way you behave?

Does it affect the way you spend money?

Does it affect uh does it does it uh uh affect the way you spend your time?

Your calendar?

Does your calendar reflect it?

Where are you storing up treasure?

Which reality dominates your life?

It's like it's the one thing that should determine everything else.

I don't know about you, but when I'm getting dressed in the morning, a lot of times I'll pick out my clothes the night before because when I'm tired, I don't want to make a decision the first thing in the morning.

I want to have coffee.

Amen.

And so I'll do it the night before, so I just it's done.

But when I'm picking out what I want to wear, I will have a desired item that I pick first.

Anyone do that?

It might be a shirt, and I go, I want to wear that shirt, which means that's gonna determine what pants I wear, and that's gonna determine what shoes I wear.

That's gonna determine whether I wear a hat or I don't wear a hat.

And maybe it's the hat.

The hat might be the desired item.

I'm wearing a hat today, and so I'm not gonna wear that shirt.

I'm gonna wear this shirt and wear these pants and these shoes.

Sometimes it's shoes.

How many of you, your shoes drive your outfit?

You're like, I'm wearing those shoes today.

I'm sporting those today.

Then that determines what pants you wear, what shirt you wear, right?

You understand with me?

This is this is how the spiritual reality works.

It's the one thing that determines all these other things.

It's the one truth, the one reality that determines how you act, how you live, how you treat people, how you spend your money, how you approach situations, how you approach challenges, how you approach offense, struggles.

It's the one thing that should determine everything else.

Romans 8, 5, listen, says those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things.

When you're dominated by the sinful nature, you think about sinful things.

But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.

Amen.

I want to be dominated by the Spirit.

And so we have to make the unseen a reality every day of our lives.

Because it is unseen, it's out of sight, out of mind.

We can forget, we can forget that we're we have to do business in that in that realm.

We have to buy, sell, and trade in that realm.

We have to govern in that realm.

Matthew, so so I want to jump here, and this is how we'll close with reading some of these scriptures.

But if you read the teachings of Jesus, Jesus came preaching the kingdom of heaven.

In other words, Jesus' whole ministry, in essence, was dedicated to helping people understand the unseen realm.

And then Paul, more so than anybody, but also Peter, also Jude, Paul had these revelations of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and his writings reflect it heavy, heavy, heavy.

But all of Scripture does this.

But let's just read a few.

Matthew 6, verse 1.

Matthew 6:1

This is Jesus' teaching.

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen.

Say seen by them.

What's that motivation?

The seen realm.

If you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven.

Where is he?

In the unseen realm.

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people to be seen by them in the seen realm, but do them instead for your father to please your father who is unseen.

So when you give to the needy, don't announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others.

Listen, I tell you, truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

So what he's saying is you can have an earthly reward or a heavenly reward, but you can't have both.

And the determining factor of the reward you receive is which kingdom you're operating according to.

How many of you know the Bible says if you want to come to God, you must believe that he exists.

You must believe that he is real and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

So then in verse 5, Matthew 6, 5, he says, and when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, to be seen by others.

What's dominating them?

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full, but when you pray, go into your room, close the door, pray to your father who is unseen.

Then your father, listen, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Now, Matthew 6 9, understand this, where this isn't, this is like a very familiar passage of scripture that's right in the middle of this teaching.

He doesn't, it's not a different teaching, it's the same teaching because then he continues in verse 17.

But Matthew 6.9 says, then, then, this then is how you should pray.

What does this then mean?

It's a conjunction that means, in light of what I just said, right, about the seen and the unseen and doing your acts of righteousness and all this stuff, in light of basically what kingdom are you operating in?

In light of that, this then is how you should pray.

Our Father in heaven.

Where is he?

In heaven, the unseen realm.

Hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth in the seen realm, as it is in heaven in the unseen realm.

Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Then verse 17, Matthew 6, 17, he says, But when you fast, so he got he jumps right back in, it's the same conversation.

When you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your father who is unseen.

And your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Now, how many of you know that can be a good and bad thing?

Um He sees what's done in secret.

How does that make you feel?

How does that make you feel?

Does that make you feel good or does that make you feel bad?

If that makes you feel bad, you're operating too heavily in the seen realm.

You're letting the seen realm dominate you because you're not living according to the unseen realm.

If if when I say God sees everything that you do in private, and you go, wow, that's awesome.

You get it.

You're dialed in, you you're staying alert, you're watching out, you're being careful, you're living according, you live like there's an enemy.

Right?

If you lose sight of that, you start living like there's no consequences to what you're doing, as long as nobody sees it.

Somebody always sees it, and the only one who matters is the one who sees it.

Amen?

This is just uh designed to help slap us in the face a little bit, okay?

I understand it's in your face.

It's supposed to be.

It's designed to shake us and to go, get a clue.

Get a clue.

Pow.

Stop, stop being so dominated by this world, this light and momentary world that is passing away here today and gone tomorrow.

The scripture we opened with said that the the how we live in the earthly realm affects the eternal realm.

It matters.

It's consequential.

Those realms are consequential to each other.

Then he goes right into this.

Check this out.

It's not a separate conversation.

Verse 19.

So we just we just finish with verse 18.

Who sees what's done in secret will reward you.

Verse 19, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, seeing realm, where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves.

For who?

Store up for yourselves.

He's not saying don't store stuff up for yourself.

It's okay.

He's just where you store it matters.

Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth.

Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.

In other words, that investment is protected.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And who do you do it for?

If we could have the worship team come back up for a minute.

Why do you do what you do?

And who do you do it for?

I'm asking myself that.

I'm asking you that.

Galatians 5, 25.

Close with this, and then I want us to just have a moment in the presence of God to respond and reflect on the truth that we've heard today.

Verse 25.

If we are living now by the Holy Spirit's power, let me back up because that was a big word.

If.

If's a big word.

If we are living now by the Holy Spirit's power, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

Then we won't need to look for honors and popularity which lead to jealousy and hard feelings.

Okay.

So what he's saying is the much easier life that you can create and build for yourself is the one that's led by the Spirit.

It's the one that is what's driving it is what you cannot see.

What cannot be seen by men.

Why do you do what you do and who do you do it for?

He says, if if we will follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our life, if we'll live according to the kingdom of heaven in every part of our life, what is every part of our life?

Every part of our natural life.

So if we'll take every part of our natural life that's in the seen realm and align it with what is in the unseen realm, what he's saying is it will protect you and deliver you from the hamster wheel and the trap of spending your life looking for honors and popularity, looking for acceptance from people, looking for validation, being a slave to those type of systems and those type of things which lead to jealousy and hard feelings.

In other words, you don't win.

Nobody wins when they pursue those earthly things, when they do what they do to be seen by men and women, when they make decisions to be seen by people because they want to be somebody, or do you know what I'm saying?

Like reputation.

We deal with that a lot in this area.

I would say it's one of the strongholds of our area is pretense and popularity and striving for status.

It's a big stronghold in this area.

It's one of the things we are wanting to see, at least for the for the Christians, torn down in this area.

Not to please man in this world that is seen.

Let's stand together and we can.