The Unseen Hosts - Part 3

I'm going to jump into this. I don't really have a lot of

personal stories in today's sermon.

I really don't have any humor written into it, even though I

do like to crack a joke. If I say anything, it'll be just

off the cuff because the Lord gave me freedom to do it.

We are covering a lot today. All right, So if today feels a

little thicker than normal, it's because it is.

When you guys leave today, if you decide you'd like to grab

one, we're going to have a handout for you that is going to

go through a lot of the scriptures that we will touch on

today. Unless you are like a lightning

fast Bible nerd, you don't have to try to like turn to every

single scripture. I'm going to reference today

because it may feel a little overwhelming.

You will have about A7 page handout that you can grab on

your way out the door today. OK, just because we've got a lot

that we're covering, we're setting the tone for much of the

rest of this year. Today is called the Unseen

Hosts. So we started by just talking

about unseen things in general. There is a war that is

happening. There is a war that is

happening, and that was just two weeks ago that we were unveiling

this and unlocking this for a lot of people.

Last week we talked about the primary adversary that we see,

the accuser known as Satan. Well, Satan is a prosecutor and

Satan is the one that comes and accuses us.

And by the way, a lot of times those accusations, they are

rooted in something that is true.

So when you fail and he comes up, he's like, man, Can you

believe you did that? You failed again?

Well, a lot of times when he accuses me and it's something

like that, I've just learned to say, yeah, I did, but I don't

need to talk to you about it. And then I go to the Lord and I

repent to the Lord because he's not interested in helping me.

He's interested in tempting me and then launching the accuser

because I fell into what he tempted me to do.

It's pretty dirty. Today we're talking about the

unseen hosts. There are a lot of things out

there, and I'm going to be honest with you, I could go way

deep down this. I could probably spend a couple

months on this, but I am a firm believer that anybody who shares

a word from the pulpit, there needs to be a practical

application to your life for the spiritual.

OK. If you have questions about this

man, I'll chop it up with you to the best of my ability.

We'll message, we'll dialogue. I got a lot to say.

It doesn't all impact exactly where you Live Today.

Today is what we're going to try to talk about.

The first scripture that we're going to cover is going to be

Daniel chapter 10. To be honest, this is probably

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

the message I've been looking forward to the most because

we're going to explore some of the strangest passages or

scriptures in the entire Bible. And a lot of what we're going to

talk about are things that just don't really get preached on.

Doesn't make me better than other preachers.

I know a lot of preachers that are way better than me.

I just feel like I'm supposed to talk about it.

So here we go. But it's going to get a little

weird and I just want you to know.

So let's get weird. I want you to know that there

are a lot of really weird scriptures that people tend to

just skip over, and they do it because they don't understand

it. But in the words of the late

Michael Heiser, if it gets weird, it's important.

So today we're going to talk about the Nephilim, we're going

to talk about demons, we're going to talk about different

spiritual principalities, and we're going to talk about a lot

of the things that we struggle with and don't even know the

names of because if we don't talk about it, they run rampant

on us. Daniel 10 gives you a really

great clue into how the spiritual realm works.

Here's the interesting thing. If you look at this, instead of

just telling the the biblical account and everything of of

Noah, I want to talk about a version that a lot of people are

a little more familiar with. How many of you watched the Noah

movie with Russell Crowe, right? Highly biblically accurate.

I mean, there was a lot of water.

There was a flood. It's really interesting.

So if you haven't seen it, first of all, it's old now, so this is

on you. It's your fault.

Second of all, it's not really accurate, so I don't feel bad

about exposing it. But he starred in a movie that

was called Noah. And instead of just telling the

biblical account, which is crazy enough on its own, they decided

to spice it up for Hollywood just a little bit.

And so they introduced these giant rock monsters that they

were. They were called the Watchers in

the movie. And they helped Noah build the

ark and they helped him fight off invading armies.

And then they ascended into heaven after they died.

This is not what the Watchers are.

If you never read Genesis, you'd probably walk away believing

that the Bible was filled with those magical creatures that

never actually appear in the text.

It is filled with creatures that you would describe that way, but

that ain't it. The Bible is actually more

bizarre than what Hollywood made-up.

And here's the interesting thing about it.

Hollywood didn't invent the idea that there are strange spiritual

beings connected to the days of Noah.

They just told the wrong story. The Bible is stranger than most

Christians realize, but it's strange for different reasons

than Hollywood tries to imagine. There really are mysterious

stories about things called the sons of God.

There really are passages and scriptures and stories about

heavenly beings who rebelled, and there really are references

to giants and angels and spiritual rulers that are over

nations. The problem isn't that these

stories don't exist. The the problem is that most of

us have never been taught how they fit into the larger story

of faith and how it affects us today.

Before we go back to Genesis, though, I want to start

somewhere else because I really think it gives us a clear window

into what's happening where Daniel is in his life now.

Daniel is not the young man that was carried away into Babylon

anymore. Decades have passed since he has

been enslaved and captured and taken to Babylon.

He's now an elderly man who has faithfully served God through

multiple Pagan kingdoms. You know, Daniel and the lion's

den. You've got his friends Shadrach,

Meshach, and Abednego. Just heard about that on

Wednesday. Great job from Autumn Nichols

for those that were here, right? So he's watched Babylon rise to

power. He's still under the thumb of

Babylon, and he's watched Babylon fall to the Medes and

the Persians. And he has had these crazy

stories where he has interpreted dreams, survived the lion's den,

and remain faithful through all of it.

But God's people are still hurting.

Some of the Exiles have been allowed to return to Jerusalem,

but the reports coming back from Jerusalem are not good.

The temple's not been rebuilt. There's opposition there.

Nobody's really invested in trying to rebuild what God holds

so precious. So chapter 10 begins the way

that it does because Daniel is not in a good mood.

He is not celebrating, he is mourning.

And he spends 3 weeks fasting and praying because he

desperately wants to understand what God is doing.

How many of y'all have done the Daniel fast before?

Daniel fast? It's like just like vegetables,

right? Yeah.

I bet you Daniel's real mad that that got named after him.

It's like, is that really my legacy?

Listen to this. Why did it take three weeks for

his prayer to get answered? You ever pray for something?

You're like God, where are you? I mean, be honest about that.

I mean, you pray and you're like God, Do you even hear me?

You can at least give me a no if you're not going to do it.

Don't make me keep running this cycle if you're not going to

answer in the 1st place. A lot of us feel that way.

We're just afraid to say it because you know it's God and

you don't want to be smited. Just because you can't see God

at work doesn't mean God isn't working.

Chapter 10 starts this way. In the third year of the reign

of King Cyrus of Persia, Daniel had another vision, and he

understood that the vision concerned events certain to

happen in the future, times of war and great hardship.

When this vision came to me, I, Daniel, had been in mourning for

three whole weeks. All that time I had eaten no

rich food, no meat or wine had crossed my lips, and I used no

fragrant lotions until those three weeks had passed.

Now this is the new Living Translation.

They try to line it up with our timeline a little bit.

So on April 23rd, as I was standing on the Bank of the

Great Tigris River, I looked up and I saw a man dressed in linen

clothing with a belt of pure gold around his waist.

His body looked like a precious gem.

His face flashed like lightning and his eyes flamed like

torches. His arms and feet shone like

polished bronze and his voice roared like a vast multitude of

people. Just put yourself in the story.

What do you do? Right now?

This being appears in front of you.

His voice sounds like a multitudes of people.

He looks like he's made of like a precious stone the the belt of

gold. He's brilliant.

He's blazing. Are you scared?

Probably only I, Daniel, saw this vision.

The men with me saw nothing, but they were suddenly terrified and

ran away to hide. And I get this.

I have been close to an angelic encounter before, and I could

tell that something holy was coming and instead of waiting

for it, I ran. I hate it, but I did.

It's a long time ago, he said. So I was left there all alone to

see this amazing vision. My strength left me, and my face

grew deathly pale, and I felt very weak.

Then I heard the man speak, and when I heard the sound of his

voice, I fainted and lay there with my face to the ground.

Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling, to

my hands and knees. And the man said to me, Daniel,

listen to this. He says, Daniel, you are very

precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say

to you. Stand up, for I've been sent to

you. When he said this to me, I stood

up, still trembling. And then he said, don't be

afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to

pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God,

your request has been heard in heaven.

I've come to answer your prayer. But for 21 days, the spirit

Prince of the Kingdom of Persia blocked my way.

Then Michael, one of the archangels came to help me and I

left him there with the spirit Prince of the Kingdom of Persia.

Now I'm here to explain what will happen to you and your

people in the future. For this version of vision

concerns a time yet to come. Man, the way they describe it,

you would think they're about to encounter Jesus, you know, a pre

Incarnate, you know, Messiah or something.

This is just one of the angels, and this Angel was on his way to

help Daniel and got delayed by a spirit power over Persia.

Older translations, we'll call it Prince of Persia.

And if you ever played those video games, now you know where

it got its name from. How is it that an angelic being

could be delayed 3 weeks, 21 days to come and answer a

prayer? And I don't really have an

answer for that other than warfare is real.

Maybe, maybe they know they can't stop the Lord from sending

His messengers to answer your prayers or to strengthen you,

but they can delay them long enough for you to stop praying

for you to disengage from the Lord.

Maybe that's part of it. Daniel had every opportunity to

feel discouraged. He had already been praying.

He had already been through these trials, and he had

overcome them. And the more that we overcome

trials, here's the sick part of being a Christian.

We feel entitled. Do you not think that there are

times that Daniel thought I stood firm during the lion's

den? I wasn't scared.

Then my friends went through the fire.

I've endured this and all of a sudden, before you know it, it

becomes God. After everything I've done for

you. Not a good place to be, but we

all get there at some time. We all get there.

God, I gave my marriage to you. I sacrifice my time for your

purposes. Why am I feeling this way?

Why is this happening to me? There's a war going on, and just

because you can't see it doesn't mean that it's not real.

I don't know about you, but I find it encouraging.

This story might have been discouraging to some people.

I find it encouraging. Sometimes help is on the way.

I just don't know it. So I have to keep praying when

the Lord comes to me. Like he spoke to Paul at one

point and he said, hey, my grace is sufficient for you.

You don't need to pray for this anymore.

Well then I'll stop praying. Until then, I'm going to keep

pressing in and I'm going to keep seeking him because he has

all of the answers. He is the source of life.

It's encouraging because if you've ever prayed and wondered

if your prayers were just bouncing off the ceiling or

cried out to God for your family or your health or your marriage

or your children or your future, or you feel like heaven has gone

silent, Daniel should always remind you that silence does not

mean inactivity. Daniel also raises another

question. Who is this Prince of Persia?

Who is this spirit that's over this area in Persia?

Well, nowadays we would call that a principality, but I want

you to know that back in those days, you may have just

considered them a fallen Angel, and we'll get to that shortly.

To answer Daniel's questions, we actually have to go back to the

book of Genesis again, and we have to look beyond the things

that we understand. We'll be in Genesis chapter 6

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

and we've got to like all the scriptures are going to be in a

line right here for you or most of them.

So you'll be able to write them down.

They should also be in your bulletin notes.

And like I said, if you want it, you've got plenty of reading

material when you leave here today.

But Daniel is not the first scripture to pull back the

curtain and discover that there's more happening than what

could be seen. In fact, by the time we get to

Daniel chapter 10, the Bible's already been telling this story

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

for thousands of years. What Daniel experiences is not

something new. It's just another chapter and a

larger story. When most of us think about the

story of the Bible, we usually think about 1 great rebellion,

don't we? And we talked about it last

week. What was this great rebellion

that we talked about last week? It's kids church today, right?

What were we talking about last week?

Jesus, you get a Jolly Rancher? Just kidding.

We don't have any. But we were talking about Adam

and Eve in the garden, and we were talking about the original

rebellion, right? So, so the enemy of our souls,

he comes to Adam and Eve. He's like, did God really say

this is the original fall? We've got this prosecutor, we've

got this important angelic being.

This Son of God is there and he is fallen and he is using his

ability to deceive. And it's so dirty.

If you think about it. You and I, we understand

deception. We've all been deceived before,

but Adam and Eve had never been deceived.

So they didn't even have a concept that somebody might lie

to them. They're just walking around the

garden with spiritual beings and, and they're tending to the

garden and they're naming animals and all of a sudden

you've got the accuser there. Well, if you're like me, then I

just grew up hearing this generic general story that is

actually not really laid out in the Scripture that at one point

the devil Satan rebelled against God and that he, he rebelled

using a third of the angelic host.

And when he did that, he and 1/3 of that angelic host were cast

host were cast down to the earth and that with original sin for

the spiritual beings. That's what happened.

There is no story in the Scripture that says that.

Like we discussed last week, Jesus says he saw Satan fall

like lightning from the heavens immediately after his disciples

returned and said the demons are listening to us, Jesus.

And he goes, oh, I know I saw Satan cast out like lightning.

He fell to the earth. In other words, the prosecutor

is out courts not in session anymore.

He doesn't have a job. That's a real time thing that

was being discussed. What if I told you there were

three great rebellions of the spiritual beings, and they're

all laid out clear as day in the Scripture?

The first one is what we talked about last week.

Satan, that ancient serpent in the garden, deceives humanity

into distrusting God, and so sinners the world.

Death follows, and the relationship between God and

mankind gets fractured. We're familiar with this.

The second rebellion is one that has confused Bible readers for

centuries. Let's read 4 verses at the

beginning of Genesis 6. Then the people began to

multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them, the

sons of God. Remember we talked about this

term. These, these are angelic beings.

The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any

they wanted as their wives. And then the Lord said, my

spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for

they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal

lifespan will be no more than 120 years.

Listen to verse 4 in those days and for some time after.

Maybe your translation says in the days of the flood and after

it giant Nephilites or the Nephilim lived on the earth.

For whenever the sons of God had intercourse that sexual

relations with women, they gave birth to children who became

heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.

I'll be honest with you, those 4 verses have probably generated

more debate than almost any other passage in the Old

Testament. Good Christians have disagreed

about them for a long time. I've heard some people say that

the sons of God there are simply the godly descendants of Seth

marrying the ungodly descendants of Cain.

Others, including a lot of Jewish interpreters before the

time of Jesus, believed that these sons of God are rebellious

heavenly beings who crossed a boundary that God never intended

them to cross. And what they did was they took

these spiritual beings and they took the form of flesh.

Don't tell me that it can't happen because it says that the

devil himself masquerades as an Angel of light.

They can change to look however they'd like.

As far as we know, they came down here and mated with human

women to create these different creatures.

Now, how does this apply to you and I today?

I'm glad you asked to stick around.

There's a lot more to come. After studying that evidence, I

find that view that these hybrid beings were created much more

convincing. Throughout the Old Testament,

the Sons of God consistently refers to heavenly beings

instead of human beings, and that is certainly how Job used

the phrase. We talked about Job last week.

It's how the earliest Jewish readers understood it.

Both Peter and Jude in the scripture seem to connect a

specific group of angels who sinned with this event, and the

ancient Jewish world referred to those rebellious heavenly beings

as the watchers. So this is where that term comes

in, and if you've never heard that term before, don't let it

throw you. The name watchers doesn't show

up in Genesis at all. So if you've not made it past

Genesis before, it comes from Daniel and also later Jewish

writings like First Enoch, which is not in the Bible, but it's

still interesting to read. I'm not asking you to accept

writings that aren't in the Bible as scripture.

I'm just pointing out that they help explain how the Jewish

people of the days of Jesus understood these verses.

They believed that these rebellious heavenly beings,

we're being judged by God and imprisoned until the final

judgement. What they understood was that

several, maybe about 10 or so angels had come down in specific

and taught us things we weren't supposed to know, forbidden

knowledge ahead of our time. In the same way that the

prosecutor, the accuser, the devil showed up in the garden

and started to teach us about good and evil way before God had

a chance to allow us to mature and guide us into it.

The whole concept is that we were taught things like how to

make better weapons of warfare or how to how to empower our

bodies and find our identity through make up and things like

that. Or how to read the stars in

astrology and mess with things that we're not supposed to mess

with. There are spiritual things out

there that work that aren't connected to Christianity and

anybody who tells you that they don't work is wrong and they've

never read. When Moses goes to Pharaoh and

Pharaoh has his sorcerer's replicate miracles, it's just

that you are forbidden to try to access the spiritual realm on

your own terms and that's really going to matter in a moment.

So follow me as we're going through this.

So you have these angels that came down, rebelled against God,

started to create their own things that are happening.

And one of the reasons a lot of scholars believe this, by the

way, with Peter and Jude are referring back to Genesis 6.

It's because they speak of angels who sinned and are now

being kept in chains, awaiting judgement.

You and I, by the way, when we step into glory one day and

everything's made new, part of our job is to judge these

angels. Isn't that wild?

So if you think you're going to be just sitting on a cloud and

playing a harp for God or something, it ain't going to

happen. You got work to do.

OK? Now, I do want to be clear about

this. I'm only pointing this out

because that worldview that the Jewish people had is much closer

to what we would understand as Americans in 2026.

The important thing this morning is not answering every question

about the Nephilim or satisfying every curiosity we have about

the Watchers. It's important that we

understand this rebellion wasn't limited to humanity.

There are also sons of God that were in rebellion against him in

a spiritual realm as well. And the story doesn't stop there

either. We'll talk a little bit more

about the Nephilim, but I do want to make this clear.

Before I get to the third rebellion, I want you to

understand that these ancient heroes that are being discussed

in Genesis probably refer to a lot more than you think, and

you've probably heard some of their names.

Get to it in a minute. But the book of Genesis, most

people believe, And while it is historically attributed to

Moses, most people do believe that it was written around the

time of Daniel, around the time that the Jewish people were in

exile under Babylon. And they were writing down their

story to make sure that it wasn't forgotten because they

were becoming inundated with a Pagan culture that was telling

them to change and to adopt their gods and adopt their

practices. So they wrote it down so they

wouldn't forget it. They chose to reference these

ancient heroes because these ancient heroes exist in every

culture. All right.

The third rebellion takes place at the Tower of Babel.

Instead of spreading through the earth under God's authority like

He commanded humanity to do. Remember, be fruitful and

multiply, subdue the earth, make it bend its knee to the Lord.

What you see is humanity once again unites in a proud

rebellion against Him. They're not trying to glorify

God when they create the Tower of Babel, and I don't have that

in your scriptures up here, but they're trying to make a name

for themselves. They're trying to build a tower

that symbolizes their independence and their

greatness, believing they can establish their own Kingdom

without a creator. Now, a lot of scholars believe

that the Tower of Babel was probably what is called a

ziggurat. I don't know if you ever heard

that word. It's a fun word.

Don't try to spell it. You don't need to.

There's no test. But it's a really tall tower.

And essentially it was meant to be a man made mountain because

in the ancient world the mountaintop was considered to be

a place where earth would meet the heavenly.

That the gods were too good, depending on your culture, too

good to come down here and dwell amongst people.

Another reason why Jesus is the bomb, right?

But they believe that their gods would just live up on this

mountaintop and literally and figuratively look down on

humanity and what we're doing. So they said we'll make our own

mountain and we'll go back and we'll try to recreate what we

got from these angelic beings. We're going to go there and try

to recreate what happened there. Now, some people suggested that

they were trying to to to connect with them, and that's

why God took it so seriously and said, no, this isn't happening.

So what does God do? If you're familiar with the

Tower of Babel, he smashes it into pieces and spreads them

into different nations across the earth.

So now it's not a centralized area.

Now you've got people all across the earth.

So what's God going to do now? Because think about this.

Originally you had Adam and Eve in a garden and he's walking

with them and he's teaching them.

Right now you've got people that are expanding and they're

starting to embrace the teachings of these other angelic

beings that are leading them astray.

And he's now scattered them across the earth.

So what does God do? Deuteronomy chapter 32.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

Everybody loves Deuteronomy and Leviticus, right?

Well, because we avoid it, we miss a lot of important things.

Listen to this in in chapter 32 verses 8:00 and 9:00 when the

most high assigned lands to the nations, when he divided up the

human race, he established the boundaries of the peoples

according to the number in his heavenly court.

Perhaps your translation says that he divided up the earth

according to the sons of God, same thing.

So he looks at the earth and he divides it up according to these

spiritual beings that are his angels.

And it says for the people of Israel belong to the Lord Jacob

is his special possession. So here's what happens.

He takes these beings that are created, that are messengers

that serve him. And we'll talk about angels in a

in a moment. And they are across the earth

overseeing things for him. And right here he says, though

the people of Israel belong to the Lord, Jacob is his special

possession. So he says, you guys oversee

this for me, and I will oversee and start this journey of a

covenant with my chosen people right here in Israel.

This is one of those verses that most of us have probably read

without realizing how important it is.

Moses tells us that when God divided the nations, he assigned

them according to the number of the sons of God while Israel

remained his treasured inheritance.

And his goal was that eventually he would set things right there

and Israel would spread that light to the world.

Centuries later, we find the consequences of what happens in

Psalm 82. Just like humanity, a lot of

these spiritual rulers rebelled against God's purposes.

We're going to read the whole Psalm.

It's a very short one, but I want you to listen to it very

closely because this is a lot to take in.

God presides over heaven's court.

He pronounces judgement on the heavenly beings or the sons of

God. He says, how long will you hand

down unjust decisions by favoring the wicked, give

justice to the poor and the orphan, uphold the rights of the

oppressed and the destitute, rescue the poor and helpless,

deliver them from the grasp of evil people.

But these oppressors know nothing.

They're so ignorant they wander about in darkness while the

whole world is shaken to the core.

Out of all the times you've seen the the Lord come down on us in

the Scripture and say you are oppressing the innocent.

You're not handling justice. You're not taking care of the

orphan. He's saying this to these

heavenly beings. Listen to this verse 6.

I say you are gods, you are all children of the most High, but

you will die like mere mortals and fall like every other ruler.

This is rise up O God, and judge the earth, for all the nations

belong to you. This is re establishing.

No, this whole earth belongs to him.

Now if you look back at the original context here, you've

got a really fun word which is called Elohim.

We actually sing a song called Elohim.

How many of you have heard that word before Elohim?

OK, anybody know what it means? It's multiples.

It's plural, right? So it can be, but it doesn't

have to be. It's sort of like the word

sheep. You can have a sheep, but you

can also have sheep, right? To quote Evan Baxter from Evan

Almighty, right? So it can mean both.

And this is where ancient grammar mixes up with modern

grammar. So he's saying when he says I

say you are gods, he's not saying that they're on an equal

playing field with him. He's saying you are spiritual

beings. You are these spiritual rulers,

but you're going to die like mere men.

There's a cost to what you're doing because you have oppressed

the innocent. Psalm 82 will really mess with

your understanding and your theology.

This is what it's saying though. In the Old Testament you can see

that the the words L and Elohim get used interchangeably in a

lot of different places. 1 is just referring to one God. 1 can

be used plurally, one of the number one places.

Again, we're going to mess up something you've heard before

When you look at Genesis and God says, let's make man in our

image. I've heard it taught and taught

it that that's a reference to the Trinity.

There's really no evidence that that's a a reference to the

Trinity. It's comfortable for us, but

it's not it's not possible in my view, and I'll tell you why.

Could you imagine? Could you imagine God looking at

the sun and saying, I have an idea, let's make man in our

image. That is what we're saying when

we say that's the Trinity. Here's the problem.

We understand that in this great mystery of the Father, the Son

and the Holy Spirit, that they are one God.

It's a triune God, that while we don't understand the whole

mystery of the Trinity, there's really not something that the

Father could say that Jesus would say.

Oh, what a great idea. I didn't know you were thinking

about that. Dad.

It, it doesn't make sense. And in the ancient context, what

you're seeing here is he's speaking to the rest of the

Elohim. He's speaking to the rest of the

heavenly court. Now I was talking to somebody

about this one time and they said, so you're saying when he

he said to the angels, let's make man, like they helped make

us. And I said, I don't know, I

helped make my kids, but also I know that God is their creator.

But if we're going to be more specific, it's just a grammar

thing. To be honest with you.

I mean, I'm glad I found one thing to make you laugh because

I don't have a lot of jokes written into this.

But when he says, let's make man in our image, I'm going to just

picture like after this, we're hanging out and I say, let's get

pizza, Jerry. Let's you and me get pizza,

right? And then I go and I buy pizza.

Well, you didn't get pizza. I did.

But I said, let's do it. And he looks at the rest of his

heavenly host, and he says, let's make man in our image.

Let's give this piece of earth, let's get this piece of flesh,

this mound of dirt. Let's give it the divine spark

that we have. That is a beautiful story.

And that's the story of us in our creation.

Psalm 82 says that as he took Israel and Judah as his own

special possession, that he trusted these areas to different

angelic rulers, and they fell, or a great many of them did.

Genesis 6, what we were talking about, talks about these

children that came from that union, the Nephilim, right?

It tells us that they became the heroes and famous warriors of

ancient times or mighty men of old, depending on your

translation, the men of renown. I want you to know that almost

every ancient civilization has stories about extraordinary

heroes that were larger than life.

How many of you have heard the story of Gilgamesh before?

You're probably forced to read it in college or high school.

But Gilgamesh? Anybody OK?

All right. How about how about Beowulf

fighting Grendel? Anybody remember that story?

OK, how about Hercules? Greek mythology, Right?

How about Perseus or Achilles or other heroes?

Guess what they all have in common?

They were all said to have one divine parent and one human

parent. OK, so is your pastor standing

up here and telling you that Hercules was real?

I'm going to give you a solid maybe.

I don't know. Here's the thing.

These legends that go throughout time, they all expand.

They're all ancient fish stories.

Fish was this big by the time you get done.

But what I'm telling you is there is a common thread that

there are these ancient heroes that could do things that are

incredible because they were some sort of hybrid.

Where does this come from? Because if even one person is

right about the story and their culture, it messes up your

theology. So we'll come back to hunting

down the the Nephilim and their ancestors a little bit later

towards the end. But I want you to understand

that it's almost as though humanity remembered that

something extraordinary had happened long ago.

But over generations, the memories became wrapped up in

mythology, exaggerated by storytellers and eventually

turned into legends and myths. They still dominate the box

office, by the way. The Odyssey made a ton of money.

Really well made film. Really.

Not the story of the Odyssey either, though.

My wife said it should just be called Odysseus, and she's

probably right. But this story is not new.

Think about everything that does make that kind of money there.

Superman, Thor. Wonder Woman, Captain America.

Yeah, I'm going to say it in church.

Harry Potter. Luke Skywalker, right?

So any of these, any of these, they all have some sort of story

about somebody who's been chosen to bring something good in the

midst of darkness. And we love to see the good

overcome the darkness. And let's be honest, we also

want the darkness to look really cool.

So even though Luke Skywalker's the hero, how many of y'all?

I mean, most of you were probably Darth Vader over being

Luke Skywalker, right? Anyway, why?

There's something in us that remembers this.

Now, if all of this feels like a lot this morning, that's OK.

It should. I'm not expecting you to walk

out if you're remembering where every spiritual being fit on

some heavenly organizational chart.

I'm not. I'm not even sure that scripture

gives us enough information for me to make you one.

But what I do hope that happens instead is that as you leave

here, I hope you realize that your world just got a lot bigger

than you thought it was. I think a lot of us have been

living with a very small version of our faith, a small version of

Christianity, where we feel like there's God and then there's

Satan, and then there's angels somewhere here, and there's

demons somewhere here. And we're right in the middle.

And it's so much more diverse and so much bigger than this

scripture talks about, a creation filled with spiritual

beings, heavenly authorities, rebellious powers.

And once you see this, I think some things will begin to

change. Let's talk about what you should

take as you walk out of here and your world becomes bigger.

First of all, please stop treating your Bible like the

supernatural parts or embarrassing leftovers from an

ancient civilization that didn't understand enough.

When Scripture talks about angels, take it seriously.

When Daniel talks about the Prince of Persia, I want you to

take it seriously. Can we move to the next slide?

I don't want you to immediately turn him into a metaphor.

When Paul talks about rulers and authorities in the heavenly

realms, I don't want you to skim past it because you don't

understand what it means. When Genesis gives you 4

incredibly strange verses about the sons of God and the

Nephilim, don't pretend that they're not there.

We are still after the flood, right?

Like so it's said that these things existed before the flood

and in the days after. You don't have to understand

everything that you read, but I will tell you this.

A mature Christian should be willing to let scripture,

scripture challenge their worldview instead of forcing

scripture to fit the worldview that you already have.

Here's a challenge I want to give you today.

Look for how often unseen language is mentioned in the

Word as you continue with your Bible reading.

I know we're all up to date on our Bible readings and we're all

in the middle of Jeremiah right now.

So as you continue through that or start, I want you to notice

how often there is something mentioned about spirits, sons of

God, ancient things. It is all over the place.

All right, Don't just skim past it.

I also want this to let you change the way that you

understand worship. Worship was powerful today.

Sarah, that was a great new song you brought to the team today.

That was powerful. How many you like that new song?

How many of you hated it? Look at that.

Oh, just you. No, I mean, it's so powerful.

I went over to Cassie. I'm like, Sarah picked that one

out. She went, yeah, I went Dang, me.

And I was like, they're worshiping.

We need that and it. And it really fit well with

everything else. But I want you to understand

that worship is something you can do on your own.

But when we gather in this room and we begin singing, we are not

trying to convince God to come down from that mountain right

from somewhere far away. For a few songs, Scripture gives

us a picture of the heavenly realm already full of worship.

The angels worship him, the heavenly beings worship Him.

All creation declares His glory. And one day, even those that

don't want to worship Him, we're going to have to bend their

knee. I want this to let it change the

way that you pray too. Because Daniel prayed for 21

days without knowing if anything was happening.

Most of us stopped praying after two or three.

And I want you to think about how differently you might live

if you actually believe this was happening to you in real time.

If you believe this war was happening in real time around

you and you understood that things were happening.

If you understood that the enemy was coming up and planting

thoughts in your head. And it may be as simple as look

at that person, they look good. It may be something as simple as

you disappointed them again. It may be as simple as you're

not going to change. I know you want to.

It might be as simple as him just coming up and whispering.

I know God can, but He probably won't.

If you believe that these are actually war tactics, you would

treat every one of these thoughts differently because you

would understand that so many of them don't even originate with

you, but you adopt them like they do.

And once you do, guess what you just gave power to?

We pray because this war is real, and we worship because

this war is real, and we obey when obedience is difficult

because it's real and our souls count on it.

So when this happens and you start to feel overwhelmed about

the war and everything that's happening, I want you to also

look above. So you've got to look beyond

what you know, but you also need to go ahead and look above

because you don't have it within you to take care of these

spiritual attacks on your own. Can we go to the next slide?

If I've done my job this morning, then there's a

possibility that some of you are sitting there thinking I was a

lot more comfortable when I didn't know any of this.

But once you start looking beyond the physical world, the

unseen world can feel enormous and overwhelming.

We just talked about the sons of God and the Watchers and the

Nephilim. It's a lot to put into one, and

we will unpack a little bit more of them probably about November

as we continue to go through spiritual warfare.

But I want you to understand this.

If we're not careful, opening our eyes to the unseen world can

produce the wrong response. Instead of becoming more

confident in God, it's easy to become intimidated by everything

else that's out there. And that's why the safest thing

for a mature believer to do is to lift your eyes higher than

any of the spiritual warfare that's happening.

Before we talk about how to do this, I want to answer 2

questions that Christians have asked for centuries because

we've been using these words throughout this morning and we

need to understand them. So let's start with angels.

What are angels? One of the problems is that we

have inherited most of our mental picture of angels from

paintings or if we're not that classy, Looney Tunes.

We have seen angels on Christmas cards and in movies and in

little figurines that people put on shelves.

How many of y'all remember watching Touched by an Angel?

Yeah, you know, it's crazy. There's no female angels

depicted in Scripture. None.

And now you know why they were so fascinated when they saw

human women, those ones that fell.

So if you like the show, that's fine.

It's a nice little Hallmark moment.

But what I'm telling you is the word Angel.

Some of you know this. It means what messenger, right?

It means a messenger the same way we thought that his name was

Satan, but his job is a an accuser.

Well, they're messengers, so we just assume they all look very

similar to one another. But they're so diverse and

different, we just lump them all into one thing.

So Scripture gives us a whole variety of heavenly beings.

Buckle up. We encounter the word cherubim.

We encounter seraphim, we encounter beings that are called

sons of God. You've got Michael, who Daniel

describes as an Archangel. That's like a war Angel.

We encountered the heavenly host.

And Scripture doesn't flatten all of these beings into one

category with identical roles. They've all got different things

that they're doing. There is an order and

distinction and purpose within God's heavenly creation for the

angels. But it does tell us something

really important about the angels who remain faithful to

God. In Hebrews 114, you can look at

all these beautiful scriptures laid out for you.

It says, therefore angels are only servants, spirits sent to

care for people who inherit salvation.

So even though there's a lot of different kinds, they've got a

specific job. You notice where that emphasis

falls. Angels are servants.

They belong to God and they carry out His purposes

throughout Scripture. They deliver messages and

protect God's people. They strengthen them, they fight

for them, and they worship God and they accomplish assignments

that God gave them. They're not out there doing

their own thing. But here is something that you

also need to keep straight because there are some

references to guardian angels and them watching over you.

Angels are not little gods, and I want to make that clear.

We do not pray to dead Saints. We do not pray to angels, and we

sure don't pray to demons. Well, some people have.

We don't worship them, we don't pray to them, we don't even

attempt to contact them, and we sure don't command them.

Our confidence is in an angel's protecting us.

It's in the confidence that God is protecting us, and if he

chooses to deploy an Angel, he does it.

Some are described as just messengers and some of them are

described differently. The cherubim are heavenly beings

that are associated with the presence and the throne of God.

You can find them guarding Eden after the fall, represented over

the Ark of the Covenant. Isaiah talks about the Seraphim

surrounding God's throne and continually declaring His

Holiness. I would show you a picture of

what people think they look like but freak you out.

But you can find it easy. Actually, if you go to Etsy,

they make some Christmas wreaths that look like those angels.

It's got a lot of eyeballs though, so you'll know it when

you find it. We don't know exactly how all

the beings relate to one another, and the Bible doesn't

give us the chart, but what's important is to know that

they're there. So those are angels.

What are demons? Well, this is where I want to

distinguish what scripture clearly tells us from the

ancient Jewish theology. OK.

The Bible just teaches us that demons are real spiritual

entities that are opposed to God.

They are not simply metaphors for mental illness.

I have heard people tell me before that those that were

afflicted with demons were the ones that were mentally ill.

And if that's true, it was only the mentally ill that recognized

Jesus when he walked around Israel because as Israel, as he

walked around Israel, it was the ones that were afflicted with

demons that said I know who you are Son of God.

So not the case. All we really know is that they

are evil or unclean spirits. But if you go to the ancient

Jewish theology in the world view of what they understood,

and there is no scripture that gives you one verse that says

here's where demons came from. Most of the Jewish thinking

believed that they were the disembodied spirits of the

Nephilim. Now I'm going to tell you why

that matters. A lot of us thought that the

demons afflicting us are these fallen angels.

No, no, no, a lot of them are still at work out there and

we'll we'll get to them, I promise.

I know it's a lot of information, but hold in there.

OK, so the Nephilim, if you remember, they're the offspring

of these heavenly beings and human beings.

They were not part of God's original creation.

It's part of why he said, you know what?

I'm limiting humans lifespan. And these these angels that

perverted what was supposed to happen got thrown into prison.

Now these disembodied spirits of the Nephilim, what are they

missing? They're not in heaven, they're

not in hell. They're roaming the earth.

Just assume it's true for a minute.

Follow me on this. What are they missing?

A body? You ever wonder why you don't

see demonic possession so much in the Old Testament, but you

see it in the new? Because eventually they're

looking for something they don't have any more.

In the ancient worldview, all the believers in the days of

Jesus, this is what they believe demons to be.

They understood them as being the unnatural offspring of

spiritual beings and human women.

So, yeah, I guess Hercules could be afflicting you today if you

think about it. But I want to be really careful,

you know, because if you find something in your Bible that

says demons are the spirits of the dead Nephilim, you, you got

it from Timu, right? It's not, it's not a Bible to

trust that Scripture is not in what we know to be true

Scripture. But let me make a case for you.

All right, let's go to Matthew 12.

I've got it in order of how I'm going to hit these Scriptures.

Matthew 12, let's look at the words of Jesus.

He says when an evil spirit or demon leaves a person, it goes

into the desert seeking rest but finding none.

Then it says, I will return to the person I came from.

So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept in an

order. Then the spirit finds seven

other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the

person and live there. And so that person is worse off

than before. That will be the experience of

this evil generation. Where's Caleb on this one, Huh?

These are the red letters of Jesus.

I want that song. He talks about these spirits

that go out into the wilderness, but they can't find rest.

So what are they craving? They look for a body and they

come back. And if you allow them in or you

allow them on you, they will come and they will attack you,

right? One of the reasons I talk about

unity in a church so much is not just because I want us all to

buy the world of coke and everybody get along, right?

Warfare is real and it is so much easier to fight it when you

have people that know your battles and they've got your six

and they're praying for you and they're interceding for you

because you know what? They work together.

Jesus just said he may go out into the wilderness and he may

come back and just bring 7 more even worse than him.

Why would you not want to work together against that?

But just in case you think I took that out of context, we're

going to read a nice little chunk here in Luke chapter 8 and

Luke 8 · chapter mention

we'll probably review the scripture again when we get to

the to how to combat demonic forces after we've given proper

time to the Holy Spirit. Listen to this in Luke chapter

Luke 8 · chapter mention

8, starting in verse 26. So as they arrived in the region

of the Garrison across the lake from Galilee, and as Jesus was

climbing out of the boat, a man who was possessed by demons came

out to meet him. For a long time he had been

homeless and naked, living in the tombs outside of town.

As soon as he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down in front

of him. And then he screamed.

Why are you interfering with me? Jesus, son of the Most High God,

please, I beg you, don't torture me.

This is important. Do you already see the authority

structure here? You don't see a demon go.

All right, Jesus, you're in for it now.

What happens immediately immediately falls to the ground.

Please don't torture me. They know what's coming.

Verse 29 it says Jesus had already commanded the evil

spirit to come out of him. This spirit had often taken

control of the man even when he was placed under guard and put

in chains and shackles. He simply broke them and rushed

out into the wilderness, completely under the demons

power. So Jesus demanded, what's your

name Legion? He replied, for he was filled

with many demons. The demons kept begging Jesus

not to send them into the bottomless pit.

There's already some spiritual beings that are being locked

away and they don't have a good ending coming.

They know this. You may be familiar with the

story. So there happened to be a large

herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby.

That's very helpful for ancient Jewish culture.

It's actually not. It's unclean animal.

Why are they there? And the demons begged him to let

them enter into the pigs. So Jesus gave them permission.

You know, I'm showing you just a glimpse of what a genius Jesus

is. See, he gets he's about to get

rid of all this unclean food, like in one swoop.

Why would they rather go into the body of a pig?

You know why? It's a body.

Don't make us go back into the wilderness.

Don't put us in the bottomless pit.

Don't just cast us out into the air.

Can we at least be in the pigs? But in the same way that one

night I was late here, I was vacuuming, and I could tell

there was an angelic presence and I freaked out and I ran out

of here. I'm just telling you there is

something that happens sometimes when the spiritual interacts

with the natural, and we do tend to freak out.

Understand that as we continue this story.

So Jesus gave them permission. Verse 33.

Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and

the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and

drowned. You think it's something that

freaks out people? Imagine those poor pigs.

When the herds been sought, they fled into the nearby town and

the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran.

I bet it was something really freaky to see.

People rushed out to see what had happened.

A crowd soon gathered around Jesus and they saw the man who

had been freed from the demons. He was sitting at Jesus's feet.

By the way, that is the the posture of a student sitting

there, learning from a rabbi, fully clothed and perfectly

sane. And they were all afraid.

And then those who had seen what happened told the others how the

demon possessed man had been healed.

And all the people in the region of the Garrison begged Jesus to

go away and leave them alone. A great wave of fear swept over

them. So Jesus returned to the boat

and left, crossing back to the other side of the lake.

The man who had been freed from the demons begged to go with

him, but Jesus sent him home, saying go back to your family

and tell them everything God has done for you.

So he went through all the town proclaiming the great things

that Jesus had done from A lot of people want to go with Jesus

on that journey, but sometimes the mission was for you to go

and witness to your family and to your community and to your

shop. There's a lot happening in this

story. We'll get back to it in a few

months, but first and foremost, I want you to understand the

balance of good and evil here. Do you know what it is?

It's incredibly lopsided. The name Legion is supposed to

sound terrifying. When Jesus asked the demon his

name, he says legion because many demons have entered the

man, and the Roman legion could contain thousands of soldiers.

This demon is not trying to give a literal number, but he is

trying to do something that would be intimidating.

And Jesus is just completely unfazed.

He's underwhelmed. So whatever's happening inside

of this man has completely overwhelmed every human attempt

to help him. He's been driven away from home.

He's living in a graveyard, and everyone around him has

apparently reached the same conclusion.

There's nothing that can be done to help this guy except for

Jesus. I wrote this in there.

This is a story that I've had shared with me, and I want to

share it with you because it's terrifying.

I know somebody who told me that they willfully one time asked

for demonic help, prayed to to demons.

This does happen. And they asked for help from

other spirits because they wanted to look a certain way,

because they wanted to drop weight and because they wanted

to be able to make different friendships.

And instantly these things happened.

There was a friend circle. Their bodies started to look

different over time and eventually they realized that

they were telling them something bad.

This is somebody I know by name, so this is not something I saw

on the Internet. As she started to lean on Jesus,

what she kept hearing was you're dragging the people who love you

down. You deserve to die.

This is what she would start to hear.

One time as she went to go and eat, she said she felt physical

presence of a hand on her throat trying to stop her from

swallowing her food. What I'm telling you is that

there are real things that happen out here that are

terrifying. Do they always manifest like

this? Thank God, no.

But you either believe that this man was this crazy and lived

amongst the the graveyards and was this afflicted, or you think

it's a metaphor. And if it could happen, then why

could it not happen today? So we don't play with these

things. We don't look for them, we don't

hunt them. Were there thousands of demons

in there? I don't know if there were

literally thousands. I like to think there were.

You know why? I like to think there were

thousands side of one person because that means thousands of

them had to obey one sentence from the Son of God.

That's the actual balance of power and that's why we look

above. Let me read through this a

little bit quickly. Colossians chapter 1 shows you

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

something that should bring you a lot of courage.

We'll start in verse 15, just 5 verses right here, 6 verses.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all

creation. For though through Him God

created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.

Do you hear that? Both.

You hear that dichotomy, that comparison.

He made the things we can see and the things we can't see, and

now he's going to list the things we can't see such as

Thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was was created through Him and for Him.

He existed before anything else, and He holds all creation

together. And then it goes on to talk

about how Christ is the head of the church and how we should

follow Him. After everything that we've

learned this morning, I want you to hear that scripture

differently. Everything that you could see

and everything that you can't see was all created for Him and

through Him, and it all bows its knee to Him.

Jesus is the Creator. The creation will never have the

upper hand against the Creator. I think Christians sometimes

accidentally imagine spiritual warfare, as though Christianity

teaches some sort of cosmic version of good versus evil

where you've got 2 nearly equal powers that have been fighting

and one of them is going to get the upper hand one day.

And that is just not the case. It's not a biblical picture at

all. Satan has never been God's

equal. Satan's not even God's opposite.

The opposite of Satan isn't God because Satan doesn't belong

anywhere near God's category of existence.

There's nothing like Yahweh. And just in case there's any

question about whether that authority is limited to His

earthly ministry, in Matthew 2818, Jesus himself said I have

been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

That doesn't just sound religious anymore, does it?

Now you know, He's been given all authority in heaven and on

earth. Both realms are underneath him.

OK, now when Jesus says all authority in heaven on earth has

been given to him, I don't want us to hear that.

Another familiar Bible verse. I want us to read that and

understand how powerful he is. And I want you to know what it

means when you take his name as Christian and you represent him,

the power and the authority that you carry.

You like to sing that God's your champion.

That's one of my favorite worship songs and we sing.

I have the authority that Jesus has given me.

That's the power he shares with you.

That's why his disciples could come back and say, we the demons

are listening to us. He's like, I know it's crazy,

isn't it? Just he said, don't rejoice that

they listen to you, just rejoice that your name is written in

heaven. The unseen world may be

complicated, but I want you to know that the throne is not

contested. So if learning about the unseen

world makes Jesus seem smaller, we've learned it wrong.

He is so powerful and He is so loving and He is so willing for

you to access Him. How many of you have ever been

near to see somebody have a demon or a fowl or unclean

spirit cast off of them? Anybody here?

OK, I mean, I just want you to know, like this happens.

I've seen it happen in America, I've seen it happen in

Guatemala. I've seen it happen with

somebody on my on my team in Guatemala one time who was

trying to punch me. And thankfully there were three

other people from this church holding their arms down because

I talk a good talk, but I don't take a good punch, right.

So it happens. If you're looking for a

fictional book that would unpack this a little bit.

I'm not talking about the this present darkness yet, although

that is a very good book. Read the screw tape letters CS

Lewis the screw tape letters. Every chapter is a different

letter and it's written from one demon.

His name is screw tape and he's writing to his I think it's a

nephew to Wormwood and he's writing and trying to give him

tips on how to harass somebody. But what's really great again,

spoiler, but you know, it's it's old.

By the end of the book, you find where the person who's been

harassed by this demon, he passes away and in that process

of transferring himself from the earthly life into the eternal

existence, he starts to see heavenly beings, including

seeing Wormwood. And he is not impressed with him

either, in the same way that Jesus is not intimidated by the

demons. I'm telling you that as you

crossover from this life to your eternal life and you get a

glimpse into these things, you are going to understand how

small they are in comparison to the God that you serve.

And he, he basically kind of rips a new one for, for Wormwood

there. And he says, you know, you made

a mockery of him and not only did he see you and he wasn't

scared, he saw Jesus. How dare he?

I want you to understand the same thing that they write about

in that book is the same thing here for you.

These demons, they can tempt you, but they cannot make you

choose. The choice is still yours.

The question now becomes, what do you do with all of this?

Because if your worldview is that big, then what do you do?

And I'll just give you a couple things.

And I, I want to, I promised I'd come back to the Nephilim for

one final thing. And I'll do that before we leave

today. The first thing that I want you

to do today is make Jesus bigger in your spiritual imagination

than the enemy. Last week we talked about stop

living like the enemy is winning because he's not.

But a lot of us act that way, like, Oh no, what are we going

to do? There's so many people attacking

me. Make sure Jesus is bigger in

your mind than his enemies are. His enemies are your enemies.

Jesus is powerful, OK? He walked this earth to teach

you how to walk it out until the day that you step into glory

with Him. The second thing that I want you

to know is this. Stop measuring spiritual

authority by how scary something is.

A lot of times we are intimidated and we're scared and

we assume that since we're really scared, they must be very

powerful. That is a lie from the pit, OK?

Just because something terrifies you doesn't mean that it's

really powerful. Man, When my kids were little, I

had a three-year old come around the corner and I thought my

heart was going to jump out of my chest, but I could still beat

them in an arm wrestling competition, you know what I

mean? It's no, it's no way to

understand how powerful they are.

They're just good at intimidating you.

One of the reasons I think they don't fully reveal themselves to

you is because, much like you read in CS Lewis's screw Tape

letters, you would not be really afraid.

They'd probably look like those two little things in Hercules

the animated movie. Remember them?

Were they in pain, in something? Panic.

Thank you, I will not. All right #3 this is a good

catch phrase today. Stay in your lane.

Don't try to do what God hasn't called you to.

Ignore that typo. These are not the words you're

looking for. Stay in your lane.

You know why? It is not your job to hunt them

out. It is not your job to call them

out. It is not your job to try to

find their names or to try to write down the way that they are

laid out. It is your job to be obedient.

When God says go pray for Him, you go pray for Him.

You go lay hands. When God says I want you to

release that to me, you say yes Sir.

By the way, we are normally faster to go pray for him than

we are to let go of something he tells us to.

But we need to be equally quick with both hands on this.

Stay in your lane. Don't try to be something you

don't need to be some sort of spiritual power Ranger for

Jesus, right? He's he's got enough power.

You need to know when to stand instead of run.

Don't run from the spiritual. If there is a good manifestation

of an Angel of the Lord coming, stay there for it.

Take my words for it. If there's something evil

coming, guess what? You have the authority to deal

with it. And the last thing I would just

tell you is use all of these things you're learning to

increase your confidence, not your anxiety.

Is it bigger? Is there a whole lot more than

you knew? Yeah.

But you know what? There comes a time, Christians,

where we have to grow up and we have to enter the war.

I'm so glad that my kids don't have to pay taxes, and I wish I

could protect them from it forever.

But one day they will. One day they'll join the

workforce. One day they'll get older and

they will encounter all of the things that I've encountered in

one way or another, and they'll have to learn how to handle as a

man and a woman. And for us, we're under the

protection. We were on milk and one day we

have to move to meet, right? Don't stress over them.

Don't let this increase your anxiety.

If you understand how powerful Jesus is and you're on his side,

you should walk out of here easy breezy.

Before we finish this morning, this morning, there are a few

questions still bouncing around, and one of them might be this.

Well, what happened to the Nephilim?

Well, that's part of why I wonder what's happened to the

Old Testament. I wish that we had some more

depictions of the whole Old Testament.

Those wars are all targeted. Genesis tells us they were on

the earth before the flood, and interestingly, also afterward.

When Israel enters the promised land, they encounter people that

are described in ways that sound familiar.

Scripture introduces us to these words.

Maybe you've read over them and they sound familiar.

The Anakim, the Raphaim, the Emem, and the Zam Zuman.

These are all words in the Bible.

I didn't make them up. These are people remembered for

extraordinary size and strength. The Book of Numbers actually

connects the Anakim with the Nephilim.

Later on you meet famous giant warriors.

You ever heard of one that David fought?

It's a big story. Goliath right from Gath.

And there's other enormous warriors that are associated

with his family. Deuteronomy tells us that King

Ogg of Bashan was one of the last survivors of the ref I am,

and it goes out of its way to describe the enormous dimensions

of his bed. Your California king has nothing

on what King Ogg of Bashan had. Why?

Because he was unnaturally large.

He was part of the Nephilim. Now, exactly how the Nephilim

appear after the flood is one of those questions that Scripture

doesn't completely answer. Everybody's got a different

theory when they look into it. I've got my own theory on it

too. But sometimes I do get asked

this and I talk about it. Could there still be giants

connected, all of this somewhere in the world today?

Sure. That sounds really confident,

doesn't it? I don't know specifically, and I

don't think Scripture gives you enough to wonder if there are

giants walking around here. But also, I've just read enough

and I've learned enough about the Scripture that I am not

going to be so arrogant as to say there's not a chance that

could ever be there. No, the Book of Revelation

scares me. We'll talk about it a little bit

next week. I don't really know everything

that's going to happen, so I'll just let God handle that.

But could it happen? Yeah.

I'm open for whatever God is allowed to happen and however it

unfolds according to to him. But this is what I want to take

away today, and I hope this gives some peace.

If you've ever read through the Bible and you found parts of it

distressing or uncomfortable, did you ever read through some

of those old stories of war where they wipe out different

cultures and you felt uncomfortable?

I mean, I did. Anybody else?

OK, the rest of you are heartless.

Just kidding. Just kidding.

Why is the language sometimes so severe?

And he says, wipe out every single one of them.

Why does this territory matter so much?

This is not a land grab for God's special little babies, OK?

And I want you to understand this.

These cultures that they were invading we're so deeply

connected to idolatry and the occult practices and rebellious

spiritual powers. And some of the people that

Israel encountered were specifically assigned to these

giant clans too. In the biblical account, not one

of those giant figures was ever presented as a champion fighting

for Yahweh. Again and again, they appear

associated with the people standing in opposition to them.

So there's even another layer here that I'm just going to

throw out there to you. The Old Testament talks about

rituals that they had some people that would consult with

the dead and invoke some of these ancestral spirits or the

spirits of these ancient heroes. Sometimes they would mark their

body for these dead giants, for these dead champions.

And we look at this and we say today, look, it says not to get

a tattoo. I'm not going to express my

opinion on that today, but perhaps you have an idea.

You don't mark your body for the dead because they were marking

their body for the dead and asking to be imbued with the

power of an ancient spirit so that they could go to war

against God's people. And God was saying, hey, hey,

let's not, let's not cut ourselves and ask for a demon to

come inside of us. I think it's good advice.

Some scholars have even suggested that there were

traditions there in an ancient belief that they would do this

as a regular basis, not to remember the fallen dead, but to

be empowered by fallen dead people.

And they would get deceived by different spirits.

So what's happening here is even as you look at the Tower of

Babel, where people are trying to grab a hold of knowledge and

power they weren't supposed to, and God scattered them, He's

saying, no, this is my nation, you are my people.

We're going to start this in a way.

I'm going to make this covenant with Moses.

I'm going to honour this covenant with you.

And we are not going to become impure.

We are not going to have other cultures and these demonic

things come and invade us. So, and, and hear me on this

man, I love the United States of America, but we got all sorts

here, right? So you and I, we have this job

because we're not sitting in one pristine country that's just

under the bubble of God as we know him.

We are surrounded by things and we are not called to go and take

them out by a sword. We are called to go and to love

them and to bring them back. Jesus sends you and I out as

sheep amongst wolves so that these wolves can become sheep.

And it's very important that you understand this.

So what happened to these other rebellious spiritual beings?

Well, they used to be called, they used to be called angelic

beings. Now we understand them as this.

Paul calls them principalities. So we just read about it,

Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 82, He places these angelic beings as

regional overseers, but they fall and they're corrupt.

Now you understand as you go around the globe how you can

look and you can see different spiritual oppression, and it's

all the same in certain regions. Why?

Because these different spiritual beings have set up

shop for themselves and called themselves gods.

And he says you call yourselves gods, but you're going to fall

like men. But remember this, even if you

even if you ever encounter somebody who's under oppression

from an area there, every single human being on this planet is

made in the image of God. Every single one of them.

I don't care their belief, I don't care their lifestyle.

I don't care any of that stuff. You can get to that in time.

They're all made in the image of God.

You do not war against flesh and blood.

You war against the powers and the principalities and the

spirits of darkness that are in this world.

Guys, this is what we're up against.

Here's your final scripture of the day.

I know we're just a few minutes late, but I really needed you to

know this today. Hebrews 12 says this in the 1st

2 verses. Therefore, since we are

surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of

faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down,

especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us

run with endurance the race that God has set before us.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who

initiates and perfects our faith because of the joy awaiting him.

He endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and now

he's seated in the place of honor beside God's throne.

It is tempting to assume that that is a stadium full of angels

that's watching us run our race. I don't think that it is.

It's a beautiful picture. It's just probably not true.

The chapter previous to this talks about the Hall of Faith

and it gives us names like Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab,

Gideon, David, Samuel, and generation after generation of

people who trusted God when they couldn't see how the story was

going to end. You and I are in that lineage.

We are also running that race even though we can't fully see

the way that the story is going to end.

So when do we stand firm? When we're under attack?

When do we run? When Jesus says run, that's when

you run your race and you keep your eyes fixed on Him.

If you are concerned about your nation and you want to

intercede, do it, but fix your eyes on Jesus.

If you're concerned for your family, be concerned, pray for

them, but fix your eyes on Jesus.

If you're concerned about any sort of thing going on in your

life, be concerned and pray, but don't take your eyes off of

Jesus because the second you take your eyes off of him,

you've got one of these demonic entities coming in and saying,

hey, what about this? What if this family member

abandons you? What if this person falls?

What if this business crumbles? What if you get fired?

What if, what if, what if, What if you shut up?

You have my permission to say that the next time you hear that

thought, and I don't care if it's a demon or if it's you

talking to yourself, tell them both to shut up.

What if I just take my eyes off of you and I look above and I

look to the one who has that much power and trusts me to

carry some of His power on this earth?

What would change then? I'll just tell you this, we got

one more. We got one more sermon in this

series that comes next week, and then I'll be on a team with

Guatemala. When I come back, we'll talk

about the power of the Holy Spirit and how He changes our

lives. But I want you to understand the

next week we're talking about the unseen truth, which is that

there is a victory and we sing about it.

We talk about it. I think we believe it with our

head. I get that, but you can't

actually see that victory any more than you can see the enemy.

Since we don't visibly see the enemy, we don't treat the enemy

like a real enemy all too often. And since we don't see the

actual victory, we don't act like we've really got that

victory. But guys, it's there, and we're

going to talk about that victory that Jesus shares with us next

week. Amen.

Would you all stand up so we can end with worshiping God?

And I hope that we worship Him differently than we did this

morning.