Freedom | Vessels of Honor

Well, good morning.

I want to welcome you.

Welcome to Freedom Church.

We're glad that you're here.

Like every weekend, I see a lot of familiar faces, and then there's always faces I haven't met yet.

I know there's always first-time guests in the room, and we're always honored that you'd carve out some time on a Sunday and over your weekend to come and spend a service with us.

In fact, this is our best welcoming committee church.

Can we put our hands together?

Welcome everyone who's here with us this morning for the first time.

Yes, we are glad that you're here.

There's a lot that's happening here at Freedom Church.

Um, this is a really uh a really uh I would I would I would call it a special season for our church.

You know, we're not we're not very old as a church, we're about five and a half years old now, and and um, you know, we're in the middle of a series all about freedom, and I'm gonna tell you all about that here in in a moment, but it's a unique season.

We moved into this building seven months ago approximately, and um you know, and I was just talking to some of the team this morning, and we've kind of thrown that out there, that number, and it was just like it's only been that long, you know, it feels like home here already, and and that's really special.

And we started a journey, I you know, I'd say almost three years.

We're coming at the it's almost a full three years at this point, where we just said we we believe God was telling us there's more, there's more for our community, there's more for Freedom Church, and there's more for for you, you, your family.

There's there's more for us here together.

And we believe God is wanting to do that.

He's wanting us, and he's calling us.

It three years ago, he said he's calling us to make more space so we can do more ministry, so we can reach more people.

And for a lot of you, you're living right now, you're you're sitting in the outflow of what we believe God spoke to us all those years ago.

I think the fact that you're in this building, this is an outflow of that right there.

And so it's it's amazing to see what has happened, not just in five and a half years, but even just the last three years, that he would actually actually bring us to a place that we can call our our own and to be in our first permanent church home.

This is such an incredible honor.

You know, we five and a half years ago, this was just an idea.

I mean, really, and this ought to be encouraging for you because we all have, at least if you don't, I hope that when you the longer you're here at Freedom Church, you'll get a vision for your future, you'll get a vision for your life, get a vision for your family.

There's something about visions, though.

You get a vision for something down the road.

And here's the thing if you're dreaming of God-like vision, it's just not tangible yet.

Like it's just not there.

And so it requires something, it requires faith.

That's that's welcome to following Jesus.

This is a big word.

If you're new to Christianity, new to following Jesus, that's a really critical word.

In fact, the Bible's really clear you can't even please God without faith.

So it requires some faith.

And so you walk this out with with a hope.

I I'm pretty sure I'm hearing from God.

Well, welcome.

That's about as as sure as sometimes as you're gonna get when you're following Jesus.

I'm pretty sure I'm hearing from the Lord.

And you know what?

I'm gonna burn the ships, I'm gonna put it all on the line.

Five and a half years later, here I am standing in front of you.

I'm just going, oh, thank you, Jesus.

It was actually you talking, right?

My goodness.

Yeah, isn't that a big deal?

That's awesome.

Well, here's the thing: seven months in, and here's the truth.

We're already running out of room here in this space.

And uh, we're we've got like maxed out seating here.

Truthfully, to even maximize the space of this sanctuary, we actually need different chairs.

That's that's the honest truth.

These are very kind of traditional chairs, but um, for this kind of space, like maximize the amount of seating in here, we'd need different ones.

And it gets pretty crowded in here.

And truthfully, if you look around in here on your way out, you know, I'd say right now, just looking at the room right now today is probably about 75% full, somewhere somewhere in there.

Usually when you get to that that space, the room starts, it doesn't you walk in, your first time guest, you're like, where am I supposed to sit today?

And then if you've got a family of four, you're just like, I have no idea where to sit.

Right?

That happens.

And so, but we've had a lot of Sundays over the last, I'd say, four months, where especially in the 11 o'clock service, you come in here and uh we've got every reserve seating in that corner over there.

People are coming in here, having to sit in folding chairs, and they're just kind of like making their way out the door.

And so we've had a lot of services like that.

And uh, in our kids space right now is at pretty much 100%.

I mean, we it evacillates between 90 and 100 plus percent capacity down there in our kid space.

Now, for those of you that were in our previous building, let me just tell you that is a wildly that number means something wildly different than it did in our old building.

Wow.

Okay, so anyway, it's it's all good down there, but we need to make more space.

So this is another outflow of more space for more ministry so we can reach more people.

And so we are um we are preparing to launch a third service.

We're gonna be launching a third service.

It's gonna be on December, the weekend of December 5th.

That's a Saturday, actually, in December 6th.

We're gonna be launching a third service on that weekend.

So we got about seven weeks approximately to prepare for that.

There's already several people in our church that are already prepared and committed to be at that service at that third at that third service.

And so with this, this right here, this is more space for more ministry so we can reach more people.

And I'm really excited about it because our we're gonna do something a little different.

We have new here's our here's gonna be our new service times.

By the way, December 5th.

Okay, excuse me, okay.

This is our new service times, not next week, in seven weeks.

Okay, just okay.

Here's our new service times beginning December, December 5th.

We're gonna be doing a Saturday service at 6.30 p.m.

And then Sunday is gonna stay the same.

We're gonna keep Sunday the same.

And so here's what we're really hoping for with but by adding this third service.

I think there's two groups, we really believe that there's two groups of people this is gonna really appeal to.

Young families being there on a Saturday night, right?

That's gonna be that's gonna be really appealing.

Saturday night service at 6 30.

But here's the other thing we're really hoping to do.

We're hoping to reach a group of people in Williston that I don't think we we've talked about trying to reach, and and it's kind of hard.

And and that's that's people with shift work, that's people in oil and gas, that's people with with really odd schedules.

And in fact, we have several people in our church who are actually able to commit to groups and be at a group on a Sunday night, but at best are only able to come to church twice a month.

And that's if all the stars align and they don't have anything else going on that weekend.

You know, you know, you're with me, right?

So what we're really hoping for is that this would provide a new opportunity to just reach reach new people, give, give people who haven't had an opportunity to consistently be a part of spiritual family, to be a part of spiritual family here.

And so anyway, December 5th and 6th, we'll be launching a third service.

We'll have three services Saturday at 6 30, Sunday, 9 and 11.

Come on, this is exciting, isn't it?

You excited about this?

Yeah.

Over the next, over the next several weeks, a couple months, um, I will I will tell you, um, there's gonna be a lot, there's gonna be more things.

I have more things to tell you about.

There are there are things happening here at Freedom, some of the behind the scenes and things that we're preparing for, and we said it more space for more ministry to reach more people.

And so uh if you miss any weekends between now and the end of the year, there's a good chance you're gonna miss like an announcement of some sort.

And so that's your incentive, you know.

Don't miss, you know.

There's even more coming, but that's that's pretty exciting.

I'm excited about that.

Okay, we we have been on this spiritual journey that we have been calling freedom.

It's our freedom series.

We're this is week eight of that series, and we we we've done this before as a church.

We've gone on what we call spiritual journeys, and and the spiritual journey for us, when we say that, what we're what we're talking about is that there's a series that we're going through.

You all have books that you've been following along with through the week.

It's full of devotions during the week.

Um, and then you're getting in your groups and you're and you're gathering in a in a smaller group around this curriculum, and you're you're gathering around the teaching, and you're you're reading scripture, and and so we're all doing this together.

We're doing this together.

In fact, there's some variation of this that is happening along with your kids and your students as well.

Like there's there's some intentionality around what we're all learning together through this series.

And we've just said this, that this is culminating in what we're calling our freedom weekend.

And that's actually less than two weeks away.

It's the weekend of the 23rd and the 24th.

And we've just, for those that have been been all in with this spiritual journey, and specifically those who've been a part of groups, um, even if you've missed uh several, that's okay.

If you've been a part of groups, if you're a part part of a group, be there October 23rd and 24th.

And so you'll be, if you're in groups, you'll be getting more of the times of like when that starts and all that.

But that that weekend, 23rd and 24th, it's culminating in what we're calling Freedom Weekend.

And um we really believe this.

We really believe that this series um is gonna be a real catalyst for the spiritual growth of our church.

And I and I don't say that lightly.

This has been a series that we've had written down that we wanted to do for over five years.

We've said we want to do this series, and we just the timing has never been right.

The timing was just wasn't right, we weren't ready to do it, and now we are, and here we are, we're eight weeks into it, and I'm so encouraged.

Again, every week I hear stories.

I hear stories of steps being taken, some small steps, some some big steps, but spiritual growth and like formational steps to grow relationally, to grow spiritually.

And I'm super proud of you.

We we spent some time over the weeks talking about hard topics.

We've talked about forgiveness, we talk about the power of our words.

Last week we talked about God's words, like his the power of his word in our life and the and the significance of aligning our life with his word, and then and then getting his word like in our mouths.

And how how big of a deal that is.

This isn't small.

In fact, these things have these things have massive repercussions for the trajectory of your life, and and and and not just you individually, but the people you have influence with.

And if you have a family, not least of which your your spouse, your your your kids.

These are big deals, these are big topics.

And so we're gonna continue that spiritual journey this morning.

And one of the things I like to I like to say, and I kind of we kind of alluded to this last week as well, but um, I think it's really important to be honest about your Bible.

What I mean by that is like just being honest about what's in it and not pretending like we're all just the most astute Bible scholars and we just have it all figured out all the time.

And it takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of years, and it takes a lot of a lot of consistency within it to really understand it.

But I think it's also important to just recognize as Christians, we believe some weird things.

And I and I think, you know, it's amazing sometimes, you know, people will kind of have kind of be on the fence, they're not really sure about scripture, they're trying to try to understand it.

That might be somebody in here this morning.

You're trying to understand scripture, you're you're a little bit, you're it's kind of new.

There's some things in there.

It's like you really believe a guy built a big boat, and all the animals were all like everything in the world happened on that boat.

You really believe that.

It's like, well, yeah, I mean, we do believe the Bible, you know?

And it's like, but I think it's safe.

Like we can we can acknowledge.

I mean, you got a point.

That's kind of weird, you know.

We can say that.

We believe some weird things.

We believe God created everything with his voice.

I mean, that's that's out there, right?

I mean, he is God, so maybe it's not, right?

But but when you when you try to wrap your natural mind around it, that's hard to wrap your mind around.

I mean, a boat with animals, it's it's out, it's out there.

I mean, miracles like a red sea, like a giant sea and an entire nation, like over a million people being saved, like walking.

That's crazy.

That's absolutely crazy.

I mean, a virgin birth.

What are we what are we even talking about?

That's an oxymoron.

What are we talking about right now?

I don't even understand that, right?

These are hard things.

We believe a guy was sinless, was God incarnate, and died for our sins and then came back to life.

We believe some some difficult some difficult things.

And because it's difficult doesn't mean that it's but doesn't mean that it's not true, and it doesn't mean that it's not accurate, but but it is strange.

There's some strange things.

We also believe that there's like demonic powers.

We believe that there's an enemy, like a real enemy, that hates God and hates you.

We believe that.

And we see that throughout scripture.

And and see, there's a there's a part of there's a part of Christianity.

I want to be real clear.

You don't have to turn your brain off to be a Christian.

When we say faith, faith isn't, well, it just because you don't like you you just gotta resolve that you're never gonna understand all of it.

And so you just gotta like, you just accept it blindly.

That's not what faith is.

You can you don't have to turn your brain off to believe the Bible, but there's a that there's an aspect of our faith that involves a spiritual realm and supernatural things that a natural mind has difficulty wrapping its mind itself around.

And we live in a place, we live in America, where it's a very naturalistic worldview in America.

It's very hard to wrap our our minds around this because we live in a culture, just the West in general, where when we have encounters, maybe if you we see something that's might be demonically influenced or something that we go, that's deeply spiritual, we have other categories for it, right?

We can just we have ways of just going, oh no, no, that's just kind of like a psychological occurrence.

Oh no, no, no.

That's just sort of a superstition.

Like we have words that we can sort of kind of round up these occurrences and we can neatly fit them in in boxes to sort of insulate ourselves from the possibility that there's another spiritual cosmic realm and things that are happening in the unseen realm that that impact us in the seen realm.

I mean, this is in our Bibles, though, and we have to, we have to, we have to like be aware of this.

This is Acts chapter 10, verse 38.

Acts 10:38

We get a little bit of insight into this around Jesus' own ministry.

It says, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good in healing all who were oppressed by the devil.

There it is.

Like this was a very like understood aspect of Jesus' earthly ministry when he was walking, walking around.

I think this is important for all of us to understand.

We need we need to understand this, especially as we go on this spiritual journey and and and and expecting to step into a greater level of freedom.

All of us, we need to understand this.

Demons are real.

They are real.

Where we just sort of like pretend like there are no demons.

There are no, there is no demonic influence that's happening around us and in the culture around us, but that's not that's not how the Bible talks about demons.

That's not how the Bible talks about the spiritual realm.

In fact, it says stuff like this.

This is Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12.

Ephesians 6:12

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

He's not just being repetitive, like he's not just finding different ways to say the same thing over and over again.

There's like there's there's a lot that's happening there.

We get glimpses of this in the Bible.

I mean, we we see this all the way at the beginning of Genesis.

When we read like Genesis chapter six, we get some indications of some sort of like cosmic battle.

Like there's other beings, there's God, there's humans, but there's spiritual beings.

We we see this.

We see this, and we see that throughout the Bible.

We also see this in the book of Revelation.

We get some like stories here of things and occurrences that have happened.

And here's what I want us to understand is that the Bible doesn't say tons about this, but it does sell us something about it.

And and here's what it comes, when it comes to the demonic, when it comes to demons, when it comes to understanding these things, we're not we're not meant to be obsessed with it.

Like that's not what we do.

We don't get obsessed with it, but we are called to be aware of it.

We're called to be aware of it.

And and there's a reason that we need to be aware of it.

There's a reason that we need to we need to be able to acknowledge the realities of an enemy, a spiritual enemy who is not alone.

Because, because, well, we read stuff like this.

This is 1 Peter 5:8.

1 Peter 5:8

This is why we need to be aware of it.

Just be alert and of sober mind.

Here it is.

Why?

Because your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Resist him, stand firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

So there's an enemy.

We need to be aware of it because there is an enemy that's actively wanting to come after you.

In fact, we can say it this way demons want to destroy you.

They do, they they want to destroy you, they're not your friends.

Now, for some of us, we're like, well, yeah, obviously, demons are not my friends.

That doesn't that make sense.

What why though?

I think we need to answer this to kind of understand this better.

Why do demons want to destroy destroy us?

Believe it or not, I when you read scripture, I don't get the impression when I read scripture that they're terribly intimidated by human beings.

Quite the contrary.

We're we're kind of described as weak, we're kind of described as frail.

That's kind of how humans are are kind of described.

There's a perception there that I don't get the get that sense.

You know, we get some we get some insight within scripture that the devil is adamantly opposed to God.

And but he's God.

He's God.

He ain't gonna be able to touch God.

So so here's here's an enemy who's been put in his place.

And so if he can't touch God, where where do you where does he go?

He goes, I I'll just go after his kids.

That's what he says.

I'll just go after his kids.

I'm gonna go after the ones whom he made in his likeness, in his image.

I'm gonna go after them.

I can't touch you, but I'll go after what you I'll go after what you love.

And this is really important because it means this.

It means that the demonic influence, the things that are coming at you in your life, while they feel deeply personal, it's actually not even about you, it's about God.

It's actually it's actually all about God.

The only reason you have an enemy is because of who you're in.

You're in if you're in Jesus, hence you have an enemy.

And so therefore it's about it's about God.

What what does that look like?

If if you have an enemy that's against you, what is that?

What does that look like then?

For an enemy to come like a demonic influence like to come against you, to attempt to destroy you.

And it looks something like we we we we tend to think that the the win would be that you and I die.

Oh, you you're deaf.

Like there's a demonic influence I would like to just see you die.

But but but the Bible's really clear to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

So is that really the biggest win?

And I don't think so.

I think the biggest win is to get you into a place in your life where you begin to doubt God.

To get to lead you down a path where you you come to this place where you begin to ask the exact same questions that Adam and Eve asked, and you just go, Is God's way really the best way?

I don't that doesn't really make sense to me.

I d and I don't know, you know, I d that right?

The pressures of life begin to make more sense than the voice of your of your shepherd and see, and this is how the enemy comes at you.

He's got some tactics, they're super predictable, they're super common, they've been around forever.

It's not a big toolbox, it's a very small toolbox, but it's effective.

And it includes things like temptation, accusation, deception.

There we go.

This is, I just told you, this is the enemy's toolbox to come against your life.

Temptation, accusation, deception.

It's nothing new.

It's the same things all the time.

But I think it's really important that you you have to understand this.

He's out to destroy you, which means this.

It means this.

That those moments when you're experiencing temptation and accusation or trying to discern the deception coming at you, that the decisions before you aren't just about what's best for me, or what I want, or well, God will forgive me anyway.

Or what bit what difference does it make?

It's my business.

You know what?

When I'm older, I'll settle down.

You know what later on, maybe you know, listen, I've met this, I know I've been down this road before, but it's just not that big of a deal.

It isn't actually about you.

Don't don't forget, don't don't miss this.

Is it every temptation, accusation, and deception that comes your way is a crossroads moment to go, am I am I in Jesus?

Or am I going to succumb to a tactic of the enemy and play into his hands against against God?

It's about God.

It's actually not even about you.

It's not even about you.

Look, here's the thing we're we're called to be aware of them, but but not uh afraid of them.

So let's read this.

This is Ephesians 1.

It's Ephesians 1, verse 18.

Ephesians 1:18

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

That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the right hand, at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in this present age, but also in the one to come.

That's good news.

So the demonic might be real.

There's an enemy that wants to do to destroy you.

But here's the other part of it demons respond to a higher authority.

There is a higher authority.

And if you're in Jesus all believers actually have this kind of authority over the demonic.

Like you're not you're not helpless.

In fact there's not even anything to be intimidated about we have this authority.

And I find too many times I too many times we get and I don't you know I kind of understand where it comes from because you know sometimes the the demonic so it it makes for a good movie right it makes for a it makes for a a thrilling experiment movie where we hear things people got ideas and so a lot of effort a lot of attention gets put on the strength of the enemy but that's not the theme that's not the point.

The real point is if you're in Christ is not the strength of the enemy that's not why we're talking about demons.

That's not why we're not because we're what we're emphasizing is the strength of your God.

The strength of God the power of God and that power according to Paul here in Ephesians that same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is actually present alive and active on the inside of you and me who are in Christ I think some of us if if you're just kind of like oh yeah that that's good.

You know it's just like I I don't think you're actually hearing you're you're hearing with your ears but it's not getting in your in your heart right now like let it get in you that's a big deal.

That's a lot of power that's a significant thing.

That same power lives on the inside of you what is that higher authority?

What is that?

I think we have to like parse that out a little bit what is this higher authority if they respond to higher authority what is that higher authority first and foremost it's right here the highest authority is the name of Jesus it is Jesus it's his name it's his name look at Philippians 2 verse 10 it says at the set at the time or I'm sorry at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father the highest name is the name of Jesus you know you go back to the Ten Commandments there's this commandment don't take the Lord's name in vain.

Philippians 2:10

That is not talking about your language contrary to popular belief.

That has anything honestly has absolutely nothing to do with that.

Okay?

Nothing.

You know what it has to do with it has to do with God going I've decided to put my name on a group of people so don't take my name on yourself and go and represent yourself like you don't belong to me.

Don't take my name in vain you and me listen to me if you're in Christ you carry a new name you've had a new name put upon you it's it's the name of Jesus Christ.

Don't take his name in vain.

You've taken his name if you're in Christ you have that that's the name that's the power it's the name of Jesus Christ.

You know there's there's stories in the Bible you know there's stories of there's a really popular story of Jesus casting a demon out of a man and and he comes to him and he says what's your he asked the demon what your name is and he comes back and he says our name is Legion he says and so and then people have taken this one verse because it's the only one they've taken this whole verse they've created this whole theology about how you confront the demonic whole ministries devoted to this it's not small books written about this all kinds of stuff breaking down the hierarchy of hell I'm serious.

You know there at that time there were contemporaries of Jesus at this time actually itinerant Jewish exorcists would were around at this time and there and what are the pagan practices we know this is well documented within pagan practices in this time is that within pagan practices they would actually have encounters that they were much more comfortable talking and being aware of the demonic in that age than than we are and they would go around and they would they would actually document they would ask that was a popular question who are you what's your name and I'm talking about pagan practices they would write down those names they would they would they would write those out and then they would try to use those names then they would ask things like this Who do you respond to?

What demon do you respond to?

And they would tell them.

So they would write that down and then they would go off over here and so the next time they would have an interaction they would try to recall those names that they wrote down from this previous time and they would regurgitate those in order to exercise some authority this is well documented we also have some evidence that the Jewish itinerant exorcists would do the same thing.

We see this in the book of Acts there's a whole group of people that's what they are they're Jewish exorcists and they're going around they're like wow what Paul's doing is really effective Jesus Christ?

Okay let's write that down and they go over there and they go hey for in the name of Jesus Christ whom Paul is preaching we tell you to leave and those demons beat the tar out of them why because it isn't a magic spell first of all it's not a magic spell Jesus Christ is not a magic spell it's a name it's an identity it's a person you now belong to you go well hold on a second what was Jesus doing why was Jesus then getting his name why is he asking his name I'm gonna tell you why he's asking his name because everybody watching him would have understood the the the ritual and the practice of asking a demon's name he asks that demon's name he looks at him he tells him his name and Jesus pretends like he didn't say anything.

You want to know why?

It doesn't matter what your name is it doesn't matter what your name is it doesn't matter how many there are of you it doesn't matter who you answer to in hell I don't care.

Every knee bows to the name of Jesus that's the only name that matters we never see him do it again.

We never see anybody else do that again in in scripture it's really he makes it really clear there's only there's only one and they say and it's the highest and it's the only one that matters and his name is Jesus it's the highest authority here's another source of authority that's the authority of the word it's the authority of the word your Bible this is important I mean we talked about this last week it's really important to know your Bible and to have to to know his word Jesus if you read in Matthew 4 Jesus is led into the wilderness he's tempted by Satan and they're very real temptations you know turn he was fasting for 40 days and nights and so he gets this temptation to turn bread into or turn the rocks into bread and and he he says oh no man does not live on bread alone but and uh every word that proceeds from the mouth of God that's due to he's quoting scripture just so you know that's straight out of scripture it's straight out of his Old Testament.

He comes on and he says well he he takes him to this high place and he says cast yourself down it's a temptation to like everyone's going to see this and you're not gonna die and the angels will catch you and it's gonna be really fantastic and the temptation is you can you can quickly like everyone will quickly know you are who you say you are if you do this.

That was the temptation and he and he quotes scripture again it's actually just a few chapters later from where he quoted it the previous verse and he says oh no no no we don't you're not to test the Lord your God like we don't we don't test him and my my point is this is this even Jesus wielded the authority of God's word even Jesus so Jesus Christ is the highest authority his name the authority of the word you gotta you gotta know his word I think this is really important too because I know when I talk to people I talk to many of you um you know I we're all in different seasons right we're all in different seasons of our life and and I know for I talked to many of you and it's like you're in a season some of you are in a season where you're able to like study scripture and like you you're you're you're more faithful and consistent in scripture than you've ever been before and I and I love that.

And then there's others of you you're like I'm just trying to like not drown you know in the demands of life right now.

And so you know you're trying to like how do I I want to be in scripture this is why we do the slow read every week again we talked about that last week this is why we encourage the slow read you know it's just like reject the oh reject the temptation to make scripture a burden in your life right so go to the slow read read that every day we say do this but I'm gonna say this too the power of God's word is not in your ability to regurgitate it word for word.

No this is important because this this is how this is how a large group of people turn Christianity into a superstitious exercises you're the the the power and the authority that you and I get to walk in is not contingent on you being articulate it is not contingent on you remembering what chapter book chapter verse and oh I miss some prepositions in there.

Are you kidding me?

You think that's the source of your authority I I assure you you speaking well even remembering the verse I don't listen you you you you find yourself in a moment with your kid your kids come home and they're battling some accusations to their identity like who they are who they are in Jesus you have other kids lying to them telling them and your kids are going to come to you and they actually reveal these things to you you go make no mistake that's a demonic influence and for you as a parent in that moment to be like I just wish I knew the scripture my goodness you know enough you know that that's not true how about that Jesus this isn't true I know it I don't know where that's at exactly but I know the pastor told me it's in there then you can go back and find it later but wield the word like just be like no that's that's not accurate that's not who you are in Christ oh I know I'm a new creation in Christ can't remember where that's at exactly but AI will tell me later you know something like man just yeah I'm serious when it comes to scripture like his burden is light his yoke is easy when you're feeling heaviness around things like prayer and scripture that's not the spirit that's not the spirit that's not the spirit okay Jesus Christ his name his word the authority of the blood of the cross that's the higher authority I mean he died but he didn't stay dead he shed his blood there's there's there's power in that you go I don't really understand that why why did he have to die why blood that's kind of an odd thing you know what I agree it is kind of odd why why why die why why blood I mean the Bible says that that the life is found in the blood life is found in the blood why is that I these are things that are hard to understand that that is a fair that's fair but we do know that that is the way that scripture describes it and we also see that in other worldviews we see that in other religions there there is this like innate understanding that there is power in blood there's there's an there's an understanding there and I'm telling you that the authority that you and I have is found through and made possible because of the blood of the cross and I think for a lot of us I think again we're called to be aware of demonic forces and spiritual forces of evil but not obsessed with it.

And and I think I think sometimes we we so wildly overestimate the power of the enemy in our lives and wildly underestimate the power that's been given to us.

You know there's tremendous power and just you remembering we don't think about that just remember like take a moment and just remember what Jesus did on the cross.

Remember what he did for you you're battling temptation accusations deceptions like you're navigating those things in your life I mean there's so much power in just being able to remember I mean look at this Revelation 12 verse 11 they triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony well I don't know about my what's my you know a testimony that's kind of like an intimidating Christianese word right what is that it's like it's this it's going I remember when I was like really broken I remember when I was depressed I remember when I was when I was struggling I remember when I was lost I remember when I didn't have any vision for my family I remember when my marriage was a was a wreck I remember when I was a a horrible parent and and selfish and and and and and impatient I remember but and then Jesus got a hold of me and it's like man it's been a few years it's been a year it's been 20 years.

Revelation 12:11

I'm just not the same person that I I'm telling you that's spiritual warfare like there's power in just remembering what God has done for you through the blood of the cross he's made you and me new you need to spend some time on that again don't overcomplicate this you start got temptation accusation deception just take a pause just pause for a moment take a deep breath and just go you know what I remember where I came from I remember I'm not gonna forget and Jesus did that for me.

Let me give you some like practical things to do because I think I I want to I want to I want to bring this like big topic of like you know the cosmic forces you know spiritual forces of darkness are big words right it sounds like a Lord of the rings film right and I just want to it's like let's bring this down here a little bit let's bring it down here a little bit so so you can begin to see this in your everyday life.

What's this look like in your everyday life and there's three things I think you really need to you need to to get a hold of as you walk out here today here's the first one and this is a massive step toward toward spiritual warfare and not allowing an enemy that wants to destroy you to get the upper hand in your life here it is submit yourself to God you know submit yourself to God that's a really popular word people love that word submit have you noticed that I just love that submit thank you I'm so encouraged today submit nobody likes that word some of you are like all the hair on the back of your neck is standing up over that word you're like submit what are we talking about here you know submit yourself to God but it is a Bible word look at James 47 submit yourselves then to God resist the devil and he'll flee from you and see there's an order to this there's an order to this it's it's not just well just start shouting in the darkness oh man it's a demonic influence oh everybody start praying in tongues as loud as you can and just enemy get out of here well there's a lot of people that would like want you to believe that that's the that's the way to do it but there's an order to this it begins with submitting yourself to God then resisting the devil and then he flees from you.

I hope you see the order here this is really important so there's a big difference between shouting at the darkness versus bringing your life under Jesus's leadership before we start talking about demonic forces and the power of the enemy I said it's incredible spiritual warfare I don't have to I don't have to know the secret incantations what's the verse and how do I say it and if I say it just way with lots of authority then I then I can secure no no no bring your life under Jesus's leadership that's what that means to submit.

Allow Jesus to be the leader what's a leader do a leader sets a vision for the future that's what a leader does a leader sets a vision a leader kind of gets out in the front of every for everybody a leader kind of sets tone creates language like says hey here's some ideas this is where we're going let's go like that's a leader a leader leads from the front typically like that's how that goes what's it mean to submit it means to bring your life under the leadership of Jesus allow him to set that kind of pace for your for your life you know I get I get these questions on and off not not very often but every now and then it's like can a can a Christian be demon possessed and of course even when we ask that question that usually the language and the what we're thinking has been informed by some Hollywood movie.

That's what we're typically thinking of so I'm gonna give you a very honest answer.

This is a very honest answer about evangelical Christianity and what what Christians believe okay you ready can it can you can a person be demon possessed there's there's a few different categories for that can a demon own you and if you're in Christ there's absolutely zero debate about this amongst in within Christianity nobody debates this so you you you're you're safe to like get a hold of this one okay the answer is emphatically no there's no demonic power that can own you this is not that is not real nobody believes that nobody ever has believed that okay there's no debate over that the second category is dominate can a can a demonic power dominate your life now this one's debated there are a lot of like very astute and faithful Christians uh that have very different opinions about whether a Christian can be dominated by a demonic force what do I mean by dominated I mean like like a person who's in Christ like is has a moment where the where like a demonic spirit like speaks through them like that's what I'm talking about.

And it's like can that happen?

And there's a lot of people that would say absolutely not there's some that say absolutely I take the position that it is possible but it should never happen.

That's probably what I would see in that it shouldn't happen but I think it I think it is possible and I'll tell you why here in just a second third one is demonic influence can can can can demons and the enemy influence you and the and again this one is virtually not debated across all Christianity and the answer is emphatically yes absolutely you can I mean we saw that in Peter Jesus looks at his one of his three closest disciples looks right at him and just says get behind me Satan this is Peter okay so if Peter and he was with Jesus in the flesh I'm just saying like it's yeah I think it's pretty clear like it's possible to be influenced demonically so how does this happen what what what is the significance of that why why submit my life why bring my life under Jesus's leadership and here's a big one again daily bring my life under Jesus's leadership how close doors close open doors in my life what does that mean close open doors this is Ephesians 4.

In your anger don't sin don't let the sun go down while you're still angry don't give the devil a foothold now what do we mean by that I hope I'm just like crushing some religiosity stuff this morning that's what I really believe.

I really hope that there's some really stupid ideas around this stuff and I'm hoping to like write the ship a little bit for some of you.

Okay.

What does it mean then to close open doors?

It is not all the religious little extras that we attach to the Bible and we just go that's what no no no no it's sin.

It's unforgiveness it's bitterness like these are the things this is what scripture's talking about it's like unrepentant sin in your life like these are the things that the enemy gets a hold of and exploits in your life.

It's why this idea that somehow I can hang on to to this sin.

And it's okay if I do this one.

It's in the secret nobody really knows about it and even if they do it's not hurting anybody and it's just sort of my thing and so I'm gonna hang on to that but then over here I'm gonna live a faithful life with Jesus uninhibited by any demonic spiritual forces out there that will want to destroy me and I'm gonna live into my calling and then live into my purpose full of joy that doesn't work that doesn't work because you are you are a whole you are intended to be a whole person.

You can't split yourself up right you're going you're trying to go in two different directions at the same time it doesn't work that way you need to know this sin always leads to bondage always like there there is no there's no sometimes about it it it always leads to bondage but here's the here's the truth and we got to understand this is that demonic forces spiritual forces of darkness are not just some category for explaining things that are unexplainable these are real spiritual entities and we see this in the Bible they are vying for your allegiance they're vying for your attention and you think well I don't have any interest in following the demonic really because it comes with great promises of things like wealth and sex and power you sure about that oh it's tempting for a reason the accusations are appealing for a reason there's a lot more happening here and this is what we have to understand when we start talking about submitting my life to Jesus and closing open doors because a lot Of us, we want to get rid of the pain, but but are we prepared to also let go of the benefits of those demons and those lies?

That's real.

Here's the other thing we got to do every day: confront your enemy daily.

Confront your enemy daily.

2 Corinthians 10, verse 5.

2 Corinthians 10:5

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

And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We get some insight there.

How does this stuff come at us?

How do how does how did these how do these temptations and lies, accusations, how does this all come at us?

Arguments?

Pretension?

Thoughts, which means for you and me, you don't have to accept every thought that comes to your mind.

You don't you you you shouldn't believe every thought that comes to your mind.

You shouldn't believe every feeling that comes over you.

You shouldn't.

You have been given the if you're in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit who wants to lead and guide you into all truth and to help you to discern between what is good and right and wrong and true and beautiful.

And you you you can't just accept everything that comes at you.

You need a filter.

You need to filter these things through.

Hold on a second.

That sounds good, but is that leading me to Jesus or away from Jesus?

Oh, that sounds compelling, but is that what is that what scripture says?

You know what?

I I get that, that kind of makes sense to me, but is this really what's leading me toward the life, the calling, and the purpose that He's put inside of me?

Like, is that what it is?

We gotta be a little bit more diligent about running these things through the filter in our minds.

We don't have to accept them all.

I'm gonna leave you with this verse right here.

It's Ephesians 5, 8.

It says, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Live as children of light.

Live as children of light.

We don't have to be obsessed with demons.

We we need to be focused on becoming more and more submitted to our Savior.

His name's Jesus.

Let's pray.

Jesus, we're grateful for you.

We thank you for what you did on the cross for us.

We thank you for the power of your word.

We thank you, Father.

We thank you, Father, for being so good to us.

We thank you that that while we have an enemy that's against us, we're so grateful for you that you actually loved us while we were your enemies.

We were your enemies.

May we never take that for granted.

If you never committed your life to Jesus this morning, you're not in Christ.

You need to be in Christ.

I want to give you that opportunity right now.

In fact, if you're in here and you're going, I I need to, maybe for the first time, maybe you didn't even know what it meant to be in Christ.

The fact that he died for you, rose again, sended to the right hand of the Father, sent the Holy Spirit to indwell you, to empower you for purpose, for mission, for witness.

Maybe you didn't even know that.

That's what it means.

And then when you're in Christ, he says he resurrects you with him.

Like you get to be live.

You may die, but you get to live in him.

It's an amazing thing what he did for us.

If you never committed your life to Jesus, I just want you to make this prayer your right, your prayer right now.

Make it your own.

Just tell him in your own way.

Jesus, I give you my life.

Thank you for saving me.

I believe that.

I believe what you did, and I'm committed to following you for the rest of my life.

Thank you, Jesus.

Let's stay, let's just stay praying for just a moment.

I think for all of us, we just need to take a moment.

We just need to give the Holy Spirit a little bit of space this morning.

Because when you get a hold of the authority that's been given you in Christ, when you get when you get an understanding of what Christ accomplished on your behalf on the cross, it changes the way you think about your life.

It ought to.

I mean, it changes.

I'll give you an example.

If I'm aware of areas of my life that are not submitted to God, when I understand what he did for me, I get excited to repent.

That doesn't sound very normal, but it's real.

You get excited about it.

I'm excited to repent.

I'm excited to bring my life under your leadership, Jesus.

I know what it means.

Let's just make some space.

Holy Spirit, would you make that known to us right now?

Are there areas of our life that are not fully submitted to you, that are not brought under your leadership?

Are there ideas about life, relationships?

Is there ideas about what it means to be successful, to work, to live, to raise kids, to whatever it might be?

Is there ideas that are not, that I have and I've adopted that aren't aligned with your leadership?

Would you make that known to us right now?

And we just say right now, whatever that is, we give it to you.

May not even know how to bring it under your leadership, but we trust you to lead us and to guide us.

And we commit to take the steps necessary to bring our life under your leadership, to close those doors and to follow you faithfully.

We love you.

We love you.

We love you, Jesus.

Come on.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Everybody said, Amen, amen.

Come on, put your hands together.

Tell Jesus thank you.