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I Am Who I Am - Guest Speaker: Matt Chandler

1 hr 13 mins 50 sec
00:00:00
01:08:40
You’re Being Hunted
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  3. Stand firm

You’re Being Hunted

Are you ready for the truth? You’re already in a spiritual battle — whether you realize it or not. The pain, confusion, and resistance you’re facing isn’t random. There’s a real Enemy working behind the scenes, plotting to exploit your weaknesses, steal your joy, and derail your purpose. He has a strategy. Do you? This week, Brian Tome exposes the spiritual reality many of us overlook and lays out a practical battle plan to help you recognize the attack, armor up, and fight back with confidence. It’s time to stop being hunted and start standing firm.

  • 00:00:02
    - Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.
  • 00:00:03
    Today we are stepping into the ring.
  • 00:00:06
    There's one of those things that I think
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    everybody feels at some point,
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    but so few people say out loud,
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    that's that life feels like a fight,
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    that no matter who you are, no matter where you are,
  • 00:00:16
    we just feel like we're coming up against it.
  • 00:00:19
    Not against our family, not against our friends,
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    not even against ourselves, but against the enemy
  • 00:00:23
    who wants nothing more than to destroy us.
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    That's what we're looking at today
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    about how we can fight back.
  • 00:02:57
    - If you've ever felt that tension
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    between who you want to be
  • 00:03:01
    and something pulling you into who you don't want to be,
  • 00:03:04
    then you're not alone.
  • 00:03:06
    Welcome into Crossroads. My name is Justin.
  • 00:03:09
    I get to lead the music around here,
  • 00:03:10
    which means I get to pick songs.
  • 00:03:12
    Not all of the songs, so don't email me
  • 00:03:14
    about the ones you don't love.
  • 00:03:16
    No, I get to pick some of the songs.
  • 00:03:18
    I picked that song because it has a feel to it right away,
  • 00:03:21
    and because it says something all of us feel.
  • 00:03:25
    Man, that we are in a fight,
  • 00:03:26
    that something is trying to tear us down.
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    And so that's what I believe.
  • 00:03:30
    I believe that there's a God who is for you
  • 00:03:33
    and wants life and freedom for you.
  • 00:03:36
    Regardless if you believe that or not,
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    you're in the right place.
  • 00:03:39
    So why don't you stand on your feet.
  • 00:03:41
    One of the ways we fight here
  • 00:03:43
    is to turn our hearts and minds towards the truth.
  • 00:03:46
    That's what we're going to do.
  • 00:04:01
    - You sing this with me.
  • 00:06:13
    - There's freedom and there's life in His words
  • 00:06:17
    and that's what He wants for you today.
  • 00:06:21
    So here's what he says to every single one.
  • 00:16:51
    - Let me pray for us.
  • 00:16:55
    And by pray I just mean to continue to talk to God
  • 00:16:57
    like we've just been talking to God.
  • 00:17:05
    If we're in a fight, God,
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    if something or someone's trying to tear us
  • 00:17:11
    from who You made us to be,
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    then it's time to drop the niceties.
  • 00:17:17
    Then it's time to stop meandering around it.
  • 00:17:23
    Let's call it what it is and say
  • 00:17:24
    the way I fight, the way to life is for me to die.
  • 00:17:31
    Die to myself, die to my selfish desires,
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    die to my drive to self protect, to self medicate,
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    die so that I may live because of You.
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    Because that's what You offer.
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    I want life, I want life, so I reach out to You,
  • 00:17:55
    the One who gives life.
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    I pray all this because of You, Jesus. Amen.
  • 00:18:00
    If you're online, so glad you're with us.
  • 00:18:01
    You can have a seat, or keep driving,
  • 00:18:04
    whatever you're doing there.
  • 00:18:34
    - Before I get started on my talk proper today,
  • 00:18:37
    you might have noticed there's some new tech
  • 00:18:39
    that got unveiled today.
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    And let me give you the background on this.
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    Part of the 10X, The Push for 10X a number of months ago,
  • 00:18:48
    a bunch of us committed above and beyond
  • 00:18:49
    what we regularly give to 10X
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    the impact of our church all over the world.
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    Part of it was technology that was going to be going to sites.
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    And today what we have here also is the Wonder Wall.
  • 00:19:02
    Let me tell you what this is about.
  • 00:19:03
    This has more computing power than the sphere in Las Vegas.
  • 00:19:08
    We have this because we have a guy who is an expert,
  • 00:19:12
    came to know Christ here at Crossroads,
  • 00:19:14
    was an expert on these sorts of things.
  • 00:19:16
    Ran a business that dealt with all the big acts,
  • 00:19:19
    production acts all over the world and others.
  • 00:19:22
    And it really put us in a really unique spot to do this.
  • 00:19:25
    And why would we do this?
  • 00:19:26
    It's not because we've raised the resources for this,
  • 00:19:29
    or even we have the talent to do this.
  • 00:19:32
    If you've been around Crossroads almost 30 years now
  • 00:19:34
    you know this, we are in an artistic and creative church.
  • 00:19:39
    Always have been. Always will be.
  • 00:19:41
    Massive amounts of money into
  • 00:19:43
    our Christmas productions that we've done.
  • 00:19:45
    We've hung houses that we've built
  • 00:19:48
    from the ceiling in our facilities.
  • 00:19:51
    And this goes back to the Bible.
  • 00:19:53
    The arts are meant to be used in the book of --
  • 00:19:57
    The first five books of the Bible,
  • 00:19:58
    as God's people going out there,
  • 00:20:00
    wandering around in a tabernacle,
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    which isn't a permanent temple.
  • 00:20:04
    And then later on they get a permanent temple
  • 00:20:06
    and they spend a lot of money for the worship arts in it,
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    a lot of money on furnishings,
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    a lot of money on the decorative gold, everything.
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    It's really, really important.
  • 00:20:16
    And then you see in the history of Christianity,
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    the church, until about the last hundred years,
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    the church has always been at the forefront of the arts.
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    You go to the Louvre and you'll find those,
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    many of those works were commissioned by the church,
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    da Vinci, Michelangelo,
  • 00:20:31
    not necessarily followers of Christ, I don't know,
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    but they were commissioned by the church
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    to create marble statues and paintings.
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    And of course, stained glass windows we have
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    and all sorts of things because we recognize
  • 00:20:43
    we serve a creative God and we want to create
  • 00:20:46
    and connect people to Him through visual beauty.
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    And so that's what's happening today.
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    We're only about 50% capacity with our Wonder Wall.
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    We've got AR, VR, ghost frame.
  • 00:20:59
    I'm not even going to define those things.
  • 00:21:00
    All those are going to be coming down the pike
  • 00:21:03
    to really help people who are online.
  • 00:21:05
    This is a building that they'll never have.
  • 00:21:07
    But we're putting resources into you,
  • 00:21:09
    all of our sites and people online.
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    So I just want you to know that because
  • 00:21:13
    we're going to go to next level today,
  • 00:21:14
    if you haven't noticed already.
  • 00:21:15
    Before we do, let me pray, and then
  • 00:21:17
    we're going to start as I talk about the fight that you are in.
  • 00:21:21
    So, God, I'm honored to be able to be here today
  • 00:21:27
    because I don't know there's probably anything
  • 00:21:31
    more pressing we could talk about than
  • 00:21:33
    the fight that we're in, whether we know it or not,
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    whether we like it or not.
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    So I'm asking You to visit us,
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    Your Spirit would descend on us,
  • 00:21:41
    we would have grace to understand.
  • 00:21:43
    And we would leave here a little different
  • 00:21:45
    than we were when we came in.
  • 00:21:46
    And we pray these things according to
  • 00:21:49
    the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.
  • 00:21:57
    Ring Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen.
  • 00:22:01
    - The fight isn't won out there in the spotlight.
  • 00:22:06
    It's in the shadows.
  • 00:22:11
    Ring Announcer: The fight of our lives.
  • 00:22:15
    - When the time comes, you don't rise to the moment,
  • 00:22:20
    you fall to the level of your training.
  • 00:22:23
    Ring Announcer: Six rounds, each different opponent.
  • 00:22:28
    - To defeat your opponent you need to know your opponent.
  • 00:22:34
    Your opponent wants you to sleep through the battle,
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    but you will stand firm.
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    Ring Announcer: Round one, stand firm against passivity.
  • 00:22:50
    Let the fight begin.
  • 00:23:01
    - I don't know if you know it or not,
  • 00:23:03
    but you're in a fight right now.
  • 00:23:06
    Right now you're in a fight.
  • 00:23:07
    And if you don't know you're in a fight,
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    then right now you're already on the canvas.
  • 00:23:14
    You're either in a fight
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    or you're booty of somebody who is in the fight.
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    Shocking thing for some of us.
  • 00:23:21
    I have to explain it
  • 00:23:22
    because it's going to really bum you out.
  • 00:23:24
    Let me just say it real clear, though.
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    God is not a pacifist.
  • 00:23:29
    God is not a pacifist.
  • 00:23:32
    I'm not saying here that the wars
  • 00:23:34
    that America have gotten into have been the right wars.
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    I'm not saying there is a time not to sit out a fight,
  • 00:23:42
    but I'm saying on a macro level, spiritually
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    you have to understand that God is a fighter.
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    He is not a pacifist.
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    And if you and I don't recognize that
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    this is His character, this is His identity,
  • 00:23:56
    and recognize that that means that
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    our life is going to be a fight.
  • 00:24:01
    We're going to regularly be frustrated
  • 00:24:03
    and surprised by what takes place in us.
  • 00:24:06
    There are fighting battle metaphors
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    all throughout the Bible to describe your walk with God,
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    your spiritual walk with God.
  • 00:24:15
    So many that I want to give you a broad, broad view
  • 00:24:19
    of all of these instances, not all --
  • 00:24:21
    A fraction of these instances, instead of
  • 00:24:23
    doing a deep dive on one specific passage today.
  • 00:24:27
    So big idea number one, you are in a spiritual fight.
  • 00:24:33
    You're in one right now, right now.
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    Whether you like it or not, you're in it right now.
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    The book of 1 Timothy 6:12 says this:
  • 00:24:42
    Fight the good fight of faith.
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    It doesn't say,
  • 00:24:46
    think about good spiritual thoughts of faith. No.
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    Take hold of it. Fight the fight.
  • 00:25:07
    So many people have a hard time with their faith,
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    or may abandon their faith or question their faith.
  • 00:25:13
    They do so when they get hit in the mouth by life.
  • 00:25:18
    If you don't understand this life is a fight,
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    every time you get hit, you're going to wonder,
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    "Why is God doing this to me?
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    Why is this allowed to happen?"
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    It's because you're in a fight, that's why.
  • 00:25:29
    And you have to fight that fight.
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    And that means you're going to get hit.
  • 00:25:32
    Things are going to take place in life you don't like,
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    things are going to be hard,
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    things are going to be difficult because
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    something is coming after you and I right now.
  • 00:25:41
    Now there is a second law of thermodynamics
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    known as entropy.
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    I'm not talking about that kind of fight.
  • 00:25:49
    Second law of thermodynamics, entropy,
  • 00:25:51
    basically means that right now in the parking lots
  • 00:25:55
    your car is rusting right now because things are devolving.
  • 00:25:59
    Things are devolving and going down.
  • 00:26:01
    Like right now, if you packed away winter sweaters,
  • 00:26:05
    there's moths trying to break in to the closet
  • 00:26:08
    right now to eat them, right now.
  • 00:26:11
    Right now, if you're a woman, things are sagging,
  • 00:26:15
    they're sagging.
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    And men, we aren't ignorant of this either.
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    There's sagging for us, too, right?
  • 00:26:23
    Your house, your house doesn't get more clean.
  • 00:26:27
    It gets dust mites.
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    Your yard, the beautiful it is, the next day
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    it's not as good as what you just did.
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    This is the law of entropy.
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    It's a fight in some ways, but I'm not talking
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    about those, that kind of fight,
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    though that's a fight for sure.
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    I'm saying and the Bible is saying
  • 00:26:44
    and God is saying that there is an individual,
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    there are there are persons with personalities
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    that are working for your demise.
  • 00:26:57
    Not just your demise as in maybe an early death,
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    but your demise emotionally, your demise relationally,
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    your demise spiritually.
  • 00:27:07
    Big thought number two, you and I have a spiritual enemy.
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    There is a person, and that person
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    has a corporate structure underneath of him,
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    known as demons.
  • 00:27:20
    I'm going to deep end today. Are we okay with this?
  • 00:27:22
    Are we okay with it?
  • 00:27:24
    Doesn't matter if we're okay with this or not,
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    you're getting it.
  • 00:27:30
    That wants to wreak havoc on your life
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    and on your relationship
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    or your potential relationship with God.
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    There's a bunch of different names used for this entity:
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    Satan, the devil, Lucifer, the evil one.
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    The dominant one in the Old Testament
  • 00:27:47
    in the Hebrew is the name Satan.
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    Satan means adversary or accuser.
  • 00:27:57
    In the book of Joel -- Excuse me, Zechariah 3:1,
  • 00:28:00
    here's a scene that's played out for us.
  • 00:28:13
    He is an accuser. He is an adversary.
  • 00:28:18
    He's always telling you you're a loser.
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    He's telling me you're not stacking up right.
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    He's telling us God's never going to get over that.
  • 00:28:26
    He's, "You're not good enough.
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    You're not strong enough. You're not smart enough.
  • 00:28:30
    You're not holy enough. You're not.
  • 00:28:32
    You're not spiritual enough.
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    You don't know enough of the Bible.
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    You don't pray enough. You don't impress God."
  • 00:28:37
    It's never ending.
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    It's a voice that happens and it's true.
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    Not it's true that you're a loser.
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    It's true that it comes to us all the time.
  • 00:28:47
    Then in the New Testament, the New Testament,
  • 00:28:49
    a dominant word for the name of this evil entity
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    is the devil. The devil. Matthew 4:1:
  • 00:29:05
    Now this right here will rock some of our world's entirely,
  • 00:29:07
    because you think that the closer you get to God,
  • 00:29:11
    the easier your life is going to be.
  • 00:29:14
    Someone has told you somewhere. You've picked up
  • 00:29:17
    that the more you love God, the more God loves you
  • 00:29:21
    and the more He gives you a life
  • 00:29:23
    that is a life that you want,
  • 00:29:24
    that's pain free and all that stuff.
  • 00:29:27
    I think God likes Jesus more than me and you,
  • 00:29:31
    and yet Jesus here, if you read this,
  • 00:29:34
    is led by the Spirit to fight with the enemy,
  • 00:29:39
    to fight with the evil.
  • 00:29:40
    And He's led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil.
  • 00:29:44
    And how did the Spirit tempt the devil?
  • 00:29:46
    Or how did -- Excuse me, how did the devil tempt Jesus?
  • 00:29:48
    I'm not going to give that whole story for you.
  • 00:29:50
    But he basically accused Him.
  • 00:29:51
    He said, "You know what? You're not the Son of God.
  • 00:29:53
    If you're the Son of God, throw yourself
  • 00:29:56
    off the top of this building
  • 00:29:57
    and let's see if angels catch you.
  • 00:29:59
    You're not. Come on, Son of God? Son of God?
  • 00:30:02
    You know, if you're the Son of God,
  • 00:30:04
    I'm not sure why you're hungry right now.
  • 00:30:06
    Here's some stones.
  • 00:30:07
    If you have power, then why don't you turn
  • 00:30:09
    these stones into bread if you're the Son of God?"
  • 00:30:11
    He's accusing him. "Come on. You're --
  • 00:30:14
    You don't feel God right now.
  • 00:30:16
    He's not around right now."
  • 00:30:17
    Because it says at the end of this it says
  • 00:30:19
    that then Jesus was ministered to by angels
  • 00:30:22
    at the end of the 40 days.
  • 00:30:24
    So for 40 days He's not feeling God at all,
  • 00:30:28
    even though He is God.
  • 00:30:30
    In His humanness, He's not feeling it at all
  • 00:30:34
    and He's being accused that, "You're not worthy.
  • 00:30:36
    Come on. What do you think?
  • 00:30:38
    You think you're important? You're not, not at all."
  • 00:30:41
    This word here is diabolus, diabolos,
  • 00:30:45
    in the word in Greek, where the word
  • 00:30:47
    where we get the word diabolical.
  • 00:30:50
    There is a diabolical plan to accuse you
  • 00:30:54
    and neuter you and squash you and make you less than.
  • 00:31:00
    Matt talked about this last week really well,
  • 00:31:02
    Matt Chandler. Wasn't Matt Chandler phenomenal last week?
  • 00:31:04
    Yeah, just great, right?
  • 00:31:06
    Matt said it really, really well.
  • 00:31:07
    He said no one's harder on you than you, right?
  • 00:31:13
    Well that's not really -- it is us,
  • 00:31:15
    but it's because we're agreeing with the accusations
  • 00:31:18
    being made to us that,
  • 00:31:19
    "I'm never going to amount to anything.
  • 00:31:21
    God's never going to use me significantly.
  • 00:31:24
    I remember what I did way back when, and so does God.
  • 00:31:27
    So I can't -- I can't do it because God's got --
  • 00:31:30
    I got to work that off.
  • 00:31:31
    And I don't have the capacity for this.
  • 00:31:33
    And oh, I'm such an idiot."
  • 00:31:34
    We have this self-talk.
  • 00:31:36
    This self-talk actually originated
  • 00:31:38
    with this personality that has been accusing us,
  • 00:31:41
    and we've chosen to agree with it and believe it.
  • 00:31:45
    And he's diabolically scheming to get us
  • 00:31:50
    to that place of feeling disconnected and not right.
  • 00:31:55
    I have -- one of my hobbies is hunting,
  • 00:31:59
    as many of you know, and as many of you hate.
  • 00:32:02
    But it's wonderful having a hobby that feeds me
  • 00:32:06
    pure, unadulterated meat with no hormones.
  • 00:32:10
    And it's really, it's really a good, good thing.
  • 00:32:12
    Most people don't know anything about hunting.
  • 00:32:14
    You just think that someone drives down the road
  • 00:32:16
    with hanging a gun out of a window and shooting at things.
  • 00:32:20
    There's a lot of very, very strict rules for it,
  • 00:32:23
    not just a code that hunters have, but also legal code
  • 00:32:27
    and all that sort of stuff.
  • 00:32:28
    And one of the things that you don't understand
  • 00:32:30
    if you don't hunt is just how it's called a sport
  • 00:32:33
    because there's rules you have to abide by.
  • 00:32:36
    You just can't do whatever you want.
  • 00:32:38
    There's rules you have to abide by.
  • 00:32:39
    And there's preparation and competition that goes into it
  • 00:32:44
    because you're competing against that animal.
  • 00:32:47
    You're trying to figure out what they do
  • 00:32:49
    And every animal is a little different.
  • 00:32:51
    And so you've got to figure out a scheme,
  • 00:32:53
    a plan to get that thing.
  • 00:32:56
    What are you going to wear?
  • 00:32:58
    How are you going to shower?
  • 00:32:59
    How are you going to wash the smells off of you
  • 00:33:02
    because they'll smell you.
  • 00:33:04
    A deer can smell you from a quarter mile away.
  • 00:33:06
    What time of day are you going to go out?
  • 00:33:08
    Do you have cameras to figure out where they are?
  • 00:33:11
    Are you using a call to call things in?
  • 00:33:13
    What time of year?
  • 00:33:15
    I mean, it takes, like, with deer season,
  • 00:33:17
    it takes months and months and months
  • 00:33:19
    when I went after one guy this last year,
  • 00:33:21
    and he beat me. I didn't get him, didn't get him.
  • 00:33:24
    I was like, "That's the one. I only want that guy."
  • 00:33:26
    And I didn't get him. It was bummer.
  • 00:33:28
    It happens sometimes. That's what it's called a sport.
  • 00:33:30
    But I was diabolically scheming to get him,
  • 00:33:35
    pick him up on cameras and everything else.
  • 00:33:38
    Have you ever considered that there's an entity
  • 00:33:41
    that is diabolically scheming to get you?
  • 00:33:45
    Diabolically laying a plan to have you on his wall.
  • 00:33:51
    And he knows what you and I look at.
  • 00:33:54
    He knows our weaknesses, because you just watch it, right?
  • 00:33:57
    He knows the issues we have and the self-talk we have
  • 00:34:01
    or how we're behaving.
  • 00:34:03
    And if I'm working to get a deer for half a year,
  • 00:34:08
    if I'm working that for a half a year,
  • 00:34:11
    he is -- he'll work it for decades to get you on his wall.
  • 00:34:16
    He wants you to not have the life that God wants.
  • 00:34:18
    He wants you to not have relationship with God.
  • 00:34:20
    He wants you to not have a peace that passes understanding,
  • 00:34:23
    that you actually still can have even when you're in war.
  • 00:34:26
    He will work and scheme a diabolical plan of accusing you
  • 00:34:31
    so you were neutered and rendered useless
  • 00:34:33
    and you are on his wall like. [laughter]
  • 00:34:37
    Just just frozen there.
  • 00:34:41
    And when you hear this, the proper response isn't,
  • 00:34:45
    "Oh, no, oh, this is horrible."
  • 00:34:47
    The proper response is to go, "Well,
  • 00:34:50
    I guess I better start fighting then.
  • 00:34:52
    Well, I guess I better start resisting.
  • 00:34:54
    I guess I better start standing firm.
  • 00:34:57
    I guess I better be a bit less passive.
  • 00:35:00
    I better get my rear in gear here."
  • 00:35:02
    In the book of Joel 3:9, it says this:
  • 00:35:09
    This is God talking, this is God talking.
  • 00:35:31
    God's people, that's what God says to us.
  • 00:35:35
    He says, "Look, look, look.
  • 00:35:37
    You guys are getting too comfortable.
  • 00:35:40
    You're getting too safe.
  • 00:35:43
    You're getting too lulled into a general malaise
  • 00:35:46
    of spirituality where you just think nice thoughts
  • 00:35:51
    and work on nice things and try to get more moral."
  • 00:35:55
    And He says, "Okay, come on, there's something going on."
  • 00:35:57
    Wake up the warriors, wake them up, wake them up,
  • 00:36:02
    and you have to get your garden instruments
  • 00:36:04
    and turn them into weapons, is what he's saying.
  • 00:36:06
    A tactic of taking over a culture,
  • 00:36:09
    it's been going on forever and ever and ever is
  • 00:36:11
    when you take over the culture,
  • 00:36:12
    get all the weapons out of the culture, get them out.
  • 00:36:15
    So when the nation of Israel was under pressure,
  • 00:36:18
    which is pretty much all of the Old Testament,
  • 00:36:20
    when they're under oppression,
  • 00:36:22
    Babylon or whoever coming over and take them over,
  • 00:36:24
    they get all the swords, all the spears,
  • 00:36:26
    all the arrows, they get them out
  • 00:36:28
    because they're not -- that way they can't be a threat.
  • 00:36:30
    That's why his verse says,
  • 00:36:32
    beat your plowshares into swords.
  • 00:36:34
    Take your pruning hooks, bend them out,
  • 00:36:36
    bend them out, make them spears,
  • 00:36:38
    because all you have are these peaceful things,
  • 00:36:40
    and you got to make them sharp.
  • 00:36:42
    You got to make them right.
  • 00:36:43
    This is, you know, what history of governments do.
  • 00:36:45
    It's what Hitler did in Germany,
  • 00:36:47
    came to power in Germany, "Get all the guns out.
  • 00:36:49
    Get all the guns out because I can't afford a coup."
  • 00:36:52
    It's be kind of hard to have a coup in America.
  • 00:36:55
    We have, like, three times as many guns as we do citizens,
  • 00:36:59
    which certainly brings problems.
  • 00:37:02
    Brings problems for sure, and has brought problems.
  • 00:37:05
    But what I'm saying here is this is a culture
  • 00:37:07
    that's been stripped of its warrior like tendencies.
  • 00:37:10
    And God is saying, "Hey, you gotta wake up."
  • 00:37:12
    And that's what I'm saying to you today.
  • 00:37:13
    You gotta wake up, man. You gotta wake up.
  • 00:37:16
    If you want to walk with God,
  • 00:37:17
    you have to start fighting with God,
  • 00:37:18
    not fighting against God.
  • 00:37:20
    Start fighting with God, because this is who He is,
  • 00:37:23
    it's what He does.
  • 00:37:25
    One author puts it this way:
  • 00:38:00
    Man, that author. Who was -- Who was that author?
  • 00:38:02
    That is -- Oh, that's me. Oh, that's me, that's me.
  • 00:38:07
    Damn. Damn, that guy can write.
  • 00:38:09
    That's good stuff right there, man. [laughter]
  • 00:38:14
    That's from my Five Marks of a Man Devotional Book,
  • 00:38:16
    available at bookstores everywhere, in case you wonder.
  • 00:38:23
    A few weeks ago, I took about half my talk time
  • 00:38:26
    and I just read a sermon by William Booth,
  • 00:38:29
    the founder of the Salvation Army.
  • 00:38:31
    It went over so well, I thought, "Man,
  • 00:38:33
    I need to stop writing my own stuff.
  • 00:38:35
    I need to just start reading other people's,"
  • 00:38:37
    because it was really good.
  • 00:38:39
    It was it was a meaningful time because
  • 00:38:42
    William Booth and the Salvation Army
  • 00:38:44
    have been very meaningful in history,
  • 00:38:46
    in world history, not just America,
  • 00:38:48
    but England and all over the place.
  • 00:38:51
    It's called the Salvation Army.
  • 00:38:53
    They've got generals and colonels and they wear uniforms.
  • 00:38:57
    Salvation Army.
  • 00:38:59
    I don't know if you can get away with starting
  • 00:39:01
    a nonprofit around a militaristic theme today.
  • 00:39:05
    We just accept it because we like the ring
  • 00:39:08
    of the bells outside of Kroger on Christmas time
  • 00:39:10
    and we're just kind of numb to it.
  • 00:39:12
    Salvation. Why did they call themselves Salvation Army?
  • 00:39:16
    Because they were doing what armies do,
  • 00:39:18
    trying to save people.
  • 00:39:21
    We have that phrase like I got saved.
  • 00:39:23
    Some of us don't even like to use that phrase.
  • 00:39:25
    Sounds a little churchy fuddy duddy.
  • 00:39:28
    What it means to say I got saved?
  • 00:39:30
    It means there was an oppressive influence
  • 00:39:33
    that was coming against me and was squashing me down,
  • 00:39:37
    and something came from the outside and saved me.
  • 00:39:41
    Saved me from myself.
  • 00:39:42
    Saved me from frustration.
  • 00:39:44
    Saved me from a Christ-less eternity.
  • 00:39:47
    Salvation Army, he got this phrase from the Bible.
  • 00:39:53
    And yet many of us think
  • 00:39:55
    Army is as far from Christianity
  • 00:39:57
    as postal is far from service
  • 00:39:59
    or jumbo is as far from shrimp.
  • 00:40:02
    We just think, "No, those things don't go together."
  • 00:40:07
    If you're in a church that sings hymns
  • 00:40:09
    you used to sing a hymn, though,
  • 00:40:10
    you're probably not singing it anymore,
  • 00:40:12
    Onward, Christian Soldiers. Onward, Christian Soldiers.
  • 00:40:18
    My gosh, if the pastor put that in the worship set
  • 00:40:21
    he'd get strung up today.
  • 00:40:23
    How about Onward, Christian Nice People?
  • 00:40:27
    How about Onward, Christian Emotionally Engaged People?
  • 00:40:32
    How about Onward, Christian Soldier?
  • 00:40:36
    Yet this is the dominant metaphor
  • 00:40:38
    for what you are enlisted in
  • 00:40:40
    when you come into the kingdom of God.
  • 00:40:42
    It's a battle. It's a war.
  • 00:40:44
    Ephesians 6:12 says this:
  • 00:41:02
    We're not talking about having a physical war.
  • 00:41:05
    We're not -- I'm not trying to justify
  • 00:41:06
    you having a Glock at all. Sorry.
  • 00:41:08
    That has nothing to do with physical stuff here.
  • 00:41:11
    This is spiritual stuff.
  • 00:41:13
    We don't wrestle against flesh and blood.
  • 00:41:16
    There's a wrestling in the spiritual atmosphere.
  • 00:41:22
    There are principalities and powers,
  • 00:41:24
    there's a corporate organizational structure,
  • 00:41:26
    according to this verse and others in the Bible,
  • 00:41:29
    a corporate and organizational structure of evil
  • 00:41:32
    that's underneath the surface that may account
  • 00:41:35
    for why the crazy things keep happening in our culture.
  • 00:41:39
    Why do we keep having mass shootings?
  • 00:41:42
    Why is mental health a runaway issue here?
  • 00:41:46
    Why have we never been more divided as a country
  • 00:41:50
    than we are right now ever?
  • 00:41:52
    Why? Why? Why are these?
  • 00:41:54
    It feels this way to me,
  • 00:41:55
    and if any of these things are true,
  • 00:41:57
    it's because it's not by accident.
  • 00:41:59
    There's a spiritual system,
  • 00:42:02
    and you're invited into a conflict
  • 00:42:05
    to thwart that spiritual system and have God's way.
  • 00:42:09
    You're invited, if you will, into the family business.
  • 00:42:12
    This is God's family business, is fighting evil
  • 00:42:15
    and having this world operate the way
  • 00:42:17
    that He wants it to operate.
  • 00:42:19
    Now for this, I'm going to give you some military metaphors.
  • 00:42:21
    I haven't even begun to give you Bible verses.
  • 00:42:23
    This is not like, "Oh, Brian's on like a militaristic thing."
  • 00:42:26
    No, the Bible is on a militaristic thing.
  • 00:42:28
    The Bible is on this thing.
  • 00:42:30
    And I just want to keep giving you stuff
  • 00:42:31
    because there's different angles to your life
  • 00:42:34
    that will make sense if you see these.
  • 00:42:37
    Military metaphors. The Bible tells us in Ephesians
  • 00:42:40
    don't give the devil a foothold.
  • 00:42:43
    Don't give the devil a foothold.
  • 00:42:47
    This is a military metaphor.
  • 00:42:49
    If you know much about Normandy, D-Day,
  • 00:42:52
    end of World War II, you had the allies that went in
  • 00:42:56
    and we tried to establish that beachhead in Normandy.
  • 00:42:58
    And that's exactly what happened.
  • 00:43:00
    That is, in essence, the same term here.
  • 00:43:02
    It's a military term that means a foothold.
  • 00:43:05
    What you do is you go into a region
  • 00:43:08
    and you want to get one place.
  • 00:43:09
    Like, I got this place. Got it.
  • 00:43:11
    And once you secure that, then it trickles out
  • 00:43:14
    and you can start making different advances.
  • 00:43:16
    And this is what the evil one will do in your life.
  • 00:43:18
    This is what the accuser will do with you.
  • 00:43:20
    He will take ground that you give him.
  • 00:43:23
    And like, "Okay, I got that. I can be here.
  • 00:43:25
    I can be here. You stay there. Good."
  • 00:43:27
    He takes that ground and you think he's going to stay there.
  • 00:43:29
    He doesn't. He just permeates all through your life.
  • 00:43:34
    An example that all of us relate to
  • 00:43:35
    and we all know is alcohol addiction, right?
  • 00:43:39
    Someone gets a dependance on alcohol and like,
  • 00:43:41
    "Okay, it's just an alcohol thing."
  • 00:43:43
    Of course it's never, no, it's never an alcohol thing.
  • 00:43:46
    It's a foothold. It's a foothold. It's a beachhead.
  • 00:43:49
    And then it affects your relationships
  • 00:43:51
    and then it affects your work life
  • 00:43:53
    and then it affects your character,
  • 00:43:54
    because then now you have to lie to cover it up
  • 00:43:57
    and it infiltrates everything, even though it was just --
  • 00:44:01
    It was just a couple drinks.
  • 00:44:03
    Just a drink too much on a Friday night
  • 00:44:05
    every once in a while.
  • 00:44:06
    Then it just starts growing and growing
  • 00:44:08
    and growing for many people, it's a foothold.
  • 00:44:11
    Whatever your beliefs are, whatever,
  • 00:44:13
    that's just one example, but there's so many others.
  • 00:44:15
    Here's another one. 2 Timothy 2:3-4:
  • 00:44:18
    Endure suffering as a good soldier.
  • 00:44:22
    Endure suffering as a good soldier.
  • 00:44:26
    2 Timothy 2:3-4:
  • 00:44:27
    Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
  • 00:44:31
    No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits,
  • 00:44:34
    since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
  • 00:44:38
    When I look at people who are struggling with their faith,
  • 00:44:41
    who are abandoning their faith,
  • 00:44:43
    who are deconstructing and walking away
  • 00:44:45
    in a really huge way from the faith
  • 00:44:48
    or a dramatic fashion letting people know.
  • 00:44:54
    Just about always is because life has been
  • 00:44:56
    really hard for them and really, really difficult.
  • 00:44:59
    And they thought that the closer they got to God,
  • 00:45:01
    the easier life was supposed to be.
  • 00:45:03
    And now it looks like
  • 00:45:04
    God isn't upholding His end of the bargain.
  • 00:45:07
    That's not what the Bible says.
  • 00:45:09
    It says endure suffering as a good soldier.
  • 00:45:13
    No one who's ever in a war goes, "Why is this not easy?
  • 00:45:17
    Why is this? Why?
  • 00:45:18
    Why am I having to stand in mud in a foxhole?"
  • 00:45:21
    Because it's World War I, because you're in a fight.
  • 00:45:25
    And when you serve Christ, you will endure suffering.
  • 00:45:29
    I don't know if you've ever heard it that clearly.
  • 00:45:31
    I'll be the one to tell you so when it happens,
  • 00:45:33
    you go, "Oh, I heard about this."
  • 00:45:34
    Endure suffering as a good soldier.
  • 00:45:37
    Now, if you don't want suffering,
  • 00:45:38
    then don't get in the faith.
  • 00:45:40
    You can be what's known as a civilian,
  • 00:45:42
    which means you be like everybody else.
  • 00:45:46
    Civilian affairs, civilian affairs.
  • 00:45:50
    When America goes to war,
  • 00:45:51
    they make sure the GIs are taken care of,
  • 00:45:53
    our men and women of service are taken care of.
  • 00:45:55
    So they they go, "We don't want you worrying about housing.
  • 00:45:57
    We're going to take care of your housing."
  • 00:45:59
    That's a civilian affair.
  • 00:46:00
    "Don't want you worried about your food budget.
  • 00:46:02
    We're going to take care of your food."
  • 00:46:03
    That's a civilian affair.
  • 00:46:04
    "And filing for income taxes? We're going to push that out.
  • 00:46:07
    We're going to push that out because you're suffering.
  • 00:46:10
    You're focused on the collective whole,
  • 00:46:12
    and we're going to do something different for you."
  • 00:46:15
    You're going to get a level of suffering
  • 00:46:17
    the closer you come to Jesus,
  • 00:46:18
    it's going to be a good suffering.
  • 00:46:20
    It's going to be a meaningful suffering.
  • 00:46:21
    It's going to be meaningful difficulty.
  • 00:46:23
    But it's going to come.
  • 00:46:25
    Or you can just be normal. You can be civilian.
  • 00:46:29
    How do you know if you're normal or not?
  • 00:46:30
    Well, somebody who earns the same money that you make,
  • 00:46:36
    lives in the same neighborhood you you live in,
  • 00:46:39
    have the same education that you have,
  • 00:46:41
    does their life look the way your life looks?
  • 00:46:44
    If the answer -- And if that person
  • 00:46:46
    is not a follower of Christ and you are,
  • 00:46:49
    does their life look the way yours does?
  • 00:46:51
    If the answer is yes, then you are a civilian.
  • 00:46:55
    You're not making difficult decisions to advance the cause
  • 00:47:02
    that is going to lead to difficulty and suffering.
  • 00:47:05
    I'm just reading the Bible,
  • 00:47:07
    endure suffering as a good soldier.
  • 00:47:09
    So bad soldiers don't suffer. Good soldiers do.
  • 00:47:14
    We make decisions that make our life more difficult
  • 00:47:17
    because we're serving our King
  • 00:47:19
    and it's a meaningful effort.
  • 00:47:21
    And it's worth every, every single drop of sweat,
  • 00:47:25
    every drop of blood. Worth it, worth it.
  • 00:47:28
    And it's hard and it's fulfilling
  • 00:47:31
    and it's peaceful and it's glorious.
  • 00:47:32
    It's really hard to explain
  • 00:47:34
    if you've never been in the fight,
  • 00:47:35
    but I'm trying to get you in the fight.
  • 00:47:37
    Let's keep going. Put on the armor of God. Ephesians 6.
  • 00:47:41
    Ephesians 6 says this:
  • 00:47:43
    Put on the armor of God that you may be able
  • 00:47:44
    to stand against the schemes of the devil.
  • 00:47:48
    There it is, the schemes of the devil
  • 00:47:50
    who's trying to thwart you and give you a horrible life
  • 00:47:54
    and separate you from your God.
  • 00:47:55
    And there's a whole chapter on pieces of equipment
  • 00:47:58
    that God puts on us.
  • 00:48:00
    Now, why would the Bible tell us to put on the armor of God?
  • 00:48:04
    Because there's bullets coming your way.
  • 00:48:06
    Actually, in that, in that context,
  • 00:48:07
    there's fiery darts coming your way.
  • 00:48:10
    And so if you and I don't armor up
  • 00:48:12
    and recognize that we're in a battle,
  • 00:48:14
    we're going to be taken down.
  • 00:48:16
    We're not going to have the life
  • 00:48:17
    that is the life God wants us to have.
  • 00:48:19
    And then 2 Corinthians 10:4, another military metaphor,
  • 00:48:22
    which is spiritual weapons of warfare.
  • 00:48:24
    For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
  • 00:48:28
    but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
  • 00:48:36
    This is a war that you're not going to train MMA for
  • 00:48:41
    and go buy something to store for.
  • 00:48:44
    This is a war -- Man, I'm getting the coughs.
  • 00:48:50
    Why not just throw me that water, will you?
  • 00:48:53
    Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
  • 00:49:03
    All right, where was I? War. War. That's where it was.
  • 00:49:11
    Sometimes a cough is just a cough, by the way.
  • 00:49:13
    You know, sometimes.
  • 00:49:14
    "Oh, the devil's making me cough."
  • 00:49:15
    No, you just have a dry throat.
  • 00:49:17
    Just freaking relax. Freaking relax.
  • 00:49:22
    All right, number three.
  • 00:49:24
    You must use spiritual weapons.
  • 00:49:27
    Spiritual weapons.
  • 00:49:29
    These are weapons
  • 00:49:30
    that are counter to the weapons of our world,
  • 00:49:33
    counter the ways people think.
  • 00:49:35
    I'll give you an example.
  • 00:49:39
    There was a guy who left Crossroads
  • 00:49:41
    a number of years ago.
  • 00:49:43
    And a little thing about me,
  • 00:49:45
    I am way more insecure than I give myself credit.
  • 00:49:50
    When someone leaves Crossroads I always feel bad,
  • 00:49:53
    I feel horrible.
  • 00:49:54
    The evil one accuses me, says I haven't done my job,
  • 00:49:58
    I didn't work hard enough on this and that.
  • 00:50:00
    And then the evil one accuses me by saying,
  • 00:50:02
    "Just think they're an idiot.
  • 00:50:04
    Just think horrible thoughts on them.
  • 00:50:06
    Just hate them. Root for their demise."
  • 00:50:09
    That's kind of how I feel, right?
  • 00:50:11
    And so when I'm talking on a topic like this
  • 00:50:15
    or like any topic, as I go to work on it,
  • 00:50:18
    God goes to work on me.
  • 00:50:20
    Which sometimes is great and sometimes it's not great.
  • 00:50:25
    So I'm working on this and I'm realizing, "Oh man,
  • 00:50:29
    oh, that guy who left Crossroads those years ago,
  • 00:50:31
    I've kind of given a foothold of bitterness
  • 00:50:35
    towards that person.
  • 00:50:36
    I've allowed myself to just, like, every time
  • 00:50:39
    I think of [muttering]
  • 00:50:41
    and almost root for their demise
  • 00:50:43
    and hope they see how well Crossroads doing.
  • 00:50:46
    I hope they feel like a turd right now."
  • 00:50:48
    And you know, all these things.
  • 00:50:50
    You know, fatigue makes cowards of us all,
  • 00:50:52
    is another military term.
  • 00:50:54
    That's not in the Bible, but fatigue makes cowards of us all.
  • 00:50:57
    When we went through COVID those years ago
  • 00:50:58
    and all the other political stuff,
  • 00:51:00
    there's a lot of things I didn't do
  • 00:51:03
    that I should have done, a lot of things
  • 00:51:05
    I did do that I shouldn't have done,
  • 00:51:06
    and a lot of it I just got tired
  • 00:51:08
    and I was making some cowardly calls.
  • 00:51:11
    And some people got frustrated and left.
  • 00:51:13
    And there's a lot of things that I would do over
  • 00:51:16
    exactly the same way that people got upset
  • 00:51:19
    and left over, a lot of people.
  • 00:51:21
    And I'm not going to tell you which,
  • 00:51:23
    I'm not going to tell you which.
  • 00:51:24
    But he left over that whole thing.
  • 00:51:26
    And as I'm wrestling with this, this talk,
  • 00:51:29
    I realize, "Man, this is not a horrible guy.
  • 00:51:32
    He's not a bad guy. Actually, he's in the family.
  • 00:51:35
    And I've allowed a beachhead, a foothold to exist here.
  • 00:51:42
    And I need to fight with a spiritual weapon."
  • 00:51:44
    Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself.
  • 00:51:46
    When he says love your neighbor as yourself,
  • 00:51:48
    this is really critical because the love
  • 00:51:51
    that you can have for somebody else is preceded by
  • 00:51:54
    the amount of love you can have for yourself.
  • 00:51:57
    I'm not talking about the selfish self-love.
  • 00:51:59
    I'm saying if you allow the evil one to accuse you
  • 00:52:02
    that you're unworthy, you're unlovable,
  • 00:52:05
    that you have issues, you're not going to amount to much,
  • 00:52:08
    you're not going to have a level of love
  • 00:52:09
    to love your neighbor as yourself.
  • 00:52:11
    Whatever, however much you love yourself
  • 00:52:12
    and the evil one doesn't want you to love yourself
  • 00:52:14
    and love others,
  • 00:52:15
    that's what's going to dictate for other people.
  • 00:52:17
    So as I'm going down this pity party
  • 00:52:19
    and this anger thing, I realize,
  • 00:52:20
    "My gosh, I'm not -- I'm not --"
  • 00:52:23
    But not only that, Jesus says we should love our enemies.
  • 00:52:27
    We should pray for those who persecute us.
  • 00:52:29
    And I haven't prayed for this guy at all.
  • 00:52:32
    I haven't blessed him. I haven't loved him.
  • 00:52:35
    And so I said, "Okay, we're going to rectify that right now.
  • 00:52:38
    We're going to change that right now."
  • 00:52:40
    So I started working on it and what I did,
  • 00:52:42
    I started sending them texts,
  • 00:52:43
    still sending them some encouraging texts. Hey.
  • 00:52:47
    And we had a little banner going on
  • 00:52:49
    for about 3 or 4 texts for over an hour or so.
  • 00:52:52
    And I gotta tell you, like, bam, bitterness gone.
  • 00:52:56
    Bam, bam, like felt more love for him.
  • 00:52:59
    Bam, bam, like, immediately I was like,
  • 00:53:01
    "Oh my gosh, I feel more free."
  • 00:53:02
    You know why I have more freedom?
  • 00:53:04
    Because I kicked the evil one off the foothold.
  • 00:53:06
    I said, "Get back in the freaking ocean.
  • 00:53:08
    This is my life. It's not your life.
  • 00:53:10
    You don't get to bring that crap in here.
  • 00:53:11
    Actually, you did get to bring it in here.
  • 00:53:13
    And I let you stay here for five years."
  • 00:53:15
    And there were other things that were going on in my life,
  • 00:53:17
    too that I noticed I don't want that.
  • 00:53:20
    You have to see that there's things
  • 00:53:22
    you're going to have to do differently
  • 00:53:23
    that are not based on physical might,
  • 00:53:26
    but based on spiritual truths.
  • 00:53:28
    And that's the weapons of our war.
  • 00:53:30
    2 Timothy 1:7 says:
  • 00:53:40
    So the spiritual weapon comes from the Holy Spirit,
  • 00:53:43
    when you give your life to Christ,
  • 00:53:44
    if you ever give your life to Christ, if you have,
  • 00:53:46
    you give your life to Him and He fills you with His Spirit.
  • 00:53:49
    And it's an ongoing filling of that Spirit.
  • 00:53:52
    It's a different entity. It's a power source.
  • 00:53:55
    And that identity of that entity
  • 00:54:01
    is one of love, power, and self control.
  • 00:54:05
    The Bible says the Spirit does not give us a spirit of fear,
  • 00:54:09
    which is exhibit A for me as to why
  • 00:54:12
    America has gone the wrong way.
  • 00:54:13
    We are not the land of the free.
  • 00:54:15
    We're the land of the fear.
  • 00:54:16
    I've talked about this many, many times.
  • 00:54:18
    Never in the history of the world has any culture
  • 00:54:20
    have more fears, paranoia, psychoses, meds,
  • 00:54:24
    whatever than we have.
  • 00:54:25
    We are the most hung up people at all.
  • 00:54:28
    We're afraid, and that's what happens
  • 00:54:30
    when the Spirit of God doesn't have rule of your life.
  • 00:54:34
    And when there is fear, there isn't love.
  • 00:54:37
    If you're afraid of someone
  • 00:54:39
    who's a different nationality
  • 00:54:40
    or a different skin tone than you,
  • 00:54:41
    if you're afraid of them, we would never admit that.
  • 00:54:44
    But if we're afraid of them, guess what?
  • 00:54:45
    You can't love them. You can't love them.
  • 00:54:50
    If you're afraid of the police, you can't love the police.
  • 00:54:55
    If you're afraid of your neighbor,
  • 00:54:57
    you can't love your neighbor, whatever it is.
  • 00:55:00
    That's why God has not given us a spirit of fear.
  • 00:55:03
    I can't fight the unconventional
  • 00:55:06
    spiritual weapon of warfare of giving love
  • 00:55:09
    and blessing to other people if I'm afraid of them.
  • 00:55:13
    You also can't have fear and can't have power.
  • 00:55:17
    There is power that comes when the Spirit takes over you.
  • 00:55:21
    There's not power that comes when fear comes over you.
  • 00:55:23
    I mean, again, I'm not talking about
  • 00:55:25
    immediate power that comes, you know, with adrenaline.
  • 00:55:30
    I'm talking about something different.
  • 00:55:32
    The reason why many of us have not kept to
  • 00:55:35
    a spiritual discipline, maybe of losing weight,
  • 00:55:38
    is because we're afraid that we would die early.
  • 00:55:40
    Well, fear never motivates us long term.
  • 00:55:43
    It has to be the Spirit of God.
  • 00:55:44
    The Spirit of God gives us a different identity
  • 00:55:46
    and instead we should say, "I have the Holy Spirit.
  • 00:55:49
    That means I have self control
  • 00:55:51
    because God's not giving me a spirit of fear.
  • 00:55:53
    Fear will not give me long term motivation,
  • 00:55:55
    but of power, love, self- control, or self-discipline.
  • 00:55:59
    I have that right now."
  • 00:56:01
    Now here's the money verse, Luke 10:
  • 00:56:05
    Behold, I have given you -- this is Jesus talking.
  • 00:56:09
    I've given you authority to tread on scorpions
  • 00:56:13
    serpents, serpents and scorpions,
  • 00:56:16
    over all the power of the enemy,
  • 00:56:18
    and nothing shall hurt you.
  • 00:56:21
    So Jesus says, in this battle, this spiritual battle,
  • 00:56:25
    I'm giving you authority.
  • 00:56:27
    I'm giving you authority,
  • 00:56:30
    authority to tread on these evil things.
  • 00:56:33
    I don't think that scorpions and snakes are inherently evil.
  • 00:56:37
    I don't think that at all, but Jesus is using
  • 00:56:41
    these things as metaphors of you will be able
  • 00:56:45
    to enter into the fight and be victorious.
  • 00:56:48
    Aren't most of us, aren't most of us
  • 00:56:52
    a little freaked out by scorpions and snakes? Right?
  • 00:57:15
    I don't know if it's how they move.
  • 00:57:18
    I don't know, but what it looks like,
  • 00:57:20
    it's just for most people,
  • 00:57:21
    scorpions and snakes are just, ew.
  • 00:57:24
    And so Jesus is using these created beings
  • 00:57:28
    that we freak out about, and He's saying,
  • 00:57:31
    "I'm giving you power and authority to step on them,
  • 00:57:35
    to trample on them."
  • 00:57:38
    This verse a number of years ago,
  • 00:57:40
    gosh, 15 years ago or so, maybe 20, a long time ago,
  • 00:57:43
    when I started going away for the summer
  • 00:57:46
    or for a good portion of the summer on summer break.
  • 00:57:48
    I was meditating on this verse
  • 00:57:50
    and thinking about this verse because
  • 00:57:53
    I was bumping into people who were talking about
  • 00:57:55
    having visions or they were involved in,
  • 00:57:58
    they said physical healings.
  • 00:58:00
    And I was interacting with more and more of these folks.
  • 00:58:02
    And it's like the evil one was accusing me,
  • 00:58:06
    "See, you don't have that kind of power.
  • 00:58:07
    You don't get to see those things.
  • 00:58:09
    Those things aren't real, at least not for you.
  • 00:58:11
    God doesn't want to use you or have you see those things."
  • 00:58:14
    And I was kind of being accused that I was less than,
  • 00:58:16
    not that other people were, but internally.
  • 00:58:18
    I was like, "What's wrong with me?
  • 00:58:19
    I don't have visions. I don't see these things."
  • 00:58:22
    So I went away and I was just meditating on this verse.
  • 00:58:25
    What does it mean to trample on scorpions?
  • 00:58:26
    What does that mean? What does that --
  • 00:58:28
    How does it mean?
  • 00:58:29
    What's it like for me to be able to do that?
  • 00:58:31
    In the middle of the night I did something
  • 00:58:33
    that's not too uncommon, I got up to take a whiz.
  • 00:58:38
    And I would stay at this house,
  • 00:58:40
    the same house in Key Largo for 10-15 years going.
  • 00:58:44
    It's a friend has a house down there
  • 00:58:46
    he doesn't use in the summer because
  • 00:58:47
    no sane person wants to be in Florida in the summer,
  • 00:58:50
    but that's where I get a free house,
  • 00:58:52
    so that's where I went.
  • 00:58:53
    Let's go down, down, go down to Florida.
  • 00:58:56
    So I get up in the middle of the night.
  • 00:58:57
    I go in to take a whiz, and I walk into the bathroom
  • 00:59:00
    and I felt a presence in the bathroom, a presence.
  • 00:59:05
    I've never felt a presence before in any bathroom
  • 00:59:08
    when I've gone into.
  • 00:59:10
    I'm not the kind of person who goes into dark rooms, woo.
  • 00:59:12
    I walked into this bathroom in the middle of the night
  • 00:59:17
    hundreds, 100 times probably.
  • 00:59:19
    Never walked in and go, "There's something in here."
  • 00:59:21
    I walk in, I walk in this. It's dark.
  • 00:59:24
    I walk in, take a few steps, and I said,
  • 00:59:27
    "There's a presence in here."
  • 00:59:30
    And I go over, I turn on the lights.
  • 00:59:36
    And there on the floor.
  • 00:59:38
    There on the floor is a scorpion.
  • 00:59:42
    The first scorpion I've ever seen in my life.
  • 00:59:46
    A scorpion right there.
  • 00:59:48
    I've been meditating on this verse.
  • 00:59:49
    Never saw one, felt the presence in the bathroom
  • 00:59:53
    and there it was.
  • 00:59:55
    And now, now, as a result of this, the question is
  • 01:00:03
    what am I going to do about it?
  • 01:00:35
    Now I've clued you in to an evil entity
  • 01:00:39
    that's gunning for you, that wants you
  • 01:00:40
    and wants to accuse you.
  • 01:00:42
    I've clued you in. This is the truth.
  • 01:00:44
    This is the truth.
  • 01:00:46
    I'm more certain of this than I am of 12 times 12 is 143.
  • 01:00:57
    There is an entity that's coming to you.
  • 01:00:59
    There is a presence
  • 01:01:01
    that is wanting to sap your spiritual joy,
  • 01:01:04
    wanting to take away your purpose,
  • 01:01:06
    wanting to trample your relationships,
  • 01:01:09
    wanting you to be foggy about who God is,
  • 01:01:12
    wanting you to be frustrated with life
  • 01:01:14
    and have you separate from all that God has for you.
  • 01:01:17
    It's not by accident. That's the norm.
  • 01:01:20
    I've just clued you in to this, it's real.
  • 01:01:22
    And now the question for you is
  • 01:01:24
    what am I going to do about it?
  • 01:01:26
    And this is the same question for me.
  • 01:01:28
    I turn around and I saw this scorpion.
  • 01:01:33
    What am I going to do about it?
  • 01:01:34
    He's in there. What am I going to do about it?
  • 01:01:36
    What are you going to do about it?
  • 01:01:38
    The thing I'm talking about that you know is for you.
  • 01:01:40
    You know you came here today because of that thing,
  • 01:01:43
    because of that foothold.
  • 01:01:45
    Many of you know it. You know exactly what it is.
  • 01:01:48
    What are you going to do about it?
  • 01:01:50
    You're going to approach it.
  • 01:02:05
    You have to squash it.
  • 01:02:07
    You have to not have fear.
  • 01:02:09
    You have to go towards it.
  • 01:02:11
    In the book of Romans 16:20, it says this:
  • 01:02:21
    Crush, grace of our Lord be with you.
  • 01:02:23
    The God of peace will crush him under your feet.
  • 01:02:26
    So it's the power,
  • 01:02:28
    God has not given us the spirit of fear,
  • 01:02:30
    but of power, love, and self-discipline.
  • 01:02:32
    It's Him, His Spirit, His power, but how?
  • 01:02:36
    How does He win the battle?
  • 01:02:39
    By you getting over there and putting your foot on it.
  • 01:02:44
    You have to get engaged in the game.
  • 01:02:47
    You have to go in power towards the thing you're afraid of,
  • 01:02:51
    towards the thing that has occupied your life.
  • 01:02:54
    You have to move there.
  • 01:03:00
    I kill that scorpion.
  • 01:03:01
    By the way, I didn't have the faith
  • 01:03:03
    to kill with my bare heel, but I did kill it.
  • 01:03:07
    And I came home and I brought this scorpion.
  • 01:03:11
    This was the scorpion. I brought it back dead.
  • 01:03:13
    And I had it put in acrylic.
  • 01:03:14
    And this acrylic used to be clear, but as I said,
  • 01:03:16
    it's about 15 years old or so right now.
  • 01:03:20
    And it's all chipped because for 15, 20 years,
  • 01:03:24
    however long it's been, every time before I preach,
  • 01:03:27
    I put this up on a table and I put my foot up on it.
  • 01:03:31
    And I pray that the lies of the evil one
  • 01:03:33
    will get stomped and trampled on.
  • 01:03:35
    That's what I do.
  • 01:03:36
    I pray for you every time before I preach.
  • 01:03:39
    That's what I do, I put my foot up
  • 01:03:41
    and it gets knocked off and it gets chipped
  • 01:03:42
    and the edges do, because I realize
  • 01:03:44
    that this is a spiritual weapon of warfare.
  • 01:03:47
    I'm trying to in preaching,
  • 01:03:48
    and anybody who preaches from any of our stages
  • 01:03:50
    is trying to give you a spiritual weapon of war,
  • 01:03:53
    which is the truth from the Word of God
  • 01:03:55
    that is totally contrary to normal popular opinion.
  • 01:03:59
    And that's why normal popular people
  • 01:04:01
    are so screwed up and so lonely and so whatever.
  • 01:04:07
    It's not working in our culture.
  • 01:04:10
    And some of us have to see this
  • 01:04:11
    and have to actually fight it, have to get there.
  • 01:04:14
    You can do this.
  • 01:04:15
    Now, it's not like Béla Karolyi from the Olympics,
  • 01:04:18
    but you can, you can do this.
  • 01:04:20
    And book of -- last verse I'll share with you today.
  • 01:04:23
    Here it is, Romans 8:37:
  • 01:04:32
    You are not a victim. You are not a victim.
  • 01:04:35
    You are not an innocent bystander.
  • 01:04:37
    You are more than a conqueror.
  • 01:04:39
    You're not just a conqueror.
  • 01:04:41
    You're not just somebody who can go and tread on things.
  • 01:04:44
    It says you are more than a conqueror. More.
  • 01:04:47
    You have more ability than you think that you have.
  • 01:04:51
    You have more capacity than you think you have.
  • 01:04:53
    Why? Because God loves you more than you think He does.
  • 01:04:57
    Because He wants to use you more than
  • 01:04:58
    you even think that He does, because
  • 01:05:01
    He has unending patience and unending forbearance.
  • 01:05:04
    It's who He is and what He does.
  • 01:05:06
    He doesn't accuse you.
  • 01:05:09
    He folds you into His business.
  • 01:05:11
    He folds you into His family.
  • 01:05:13
    He folds you into His movement
  • 01:05:15
    and He actually gives you a piece of Himself,
  • 01:05:17
    the Spirit, so you can go about
  • 01:05:19
    doing the things He wants you to do.
  • 01:05:22
    And what is it? It's a fight.
  • 01:05:25
    It's a fight. I don't care what it is.
  • 01:05:29
    Dealing with your friends. It's a fight.
  • 01:05:31
    Dealing with your husband. It's a fight.
  • 01:05:33
    Dealing with your aging parents. It's a fight.
  • 01:05:35
    Dealing with your kids. It's a fight.
  • 01:05:37
    Dealing with figuring out how to honor God
  • 01:05:40
    in the workplace. It's a fight.
  • 01:05:41
    Dealing with -- It's a fight.
  • 01:05:43
    And you can do this because you are more than a conqueror.
  • 01:05:48
    God, thank You for giving power
  • 01:05:50
    that goes beyond expectation.
  • 01:05:52
    And we ask You to give us more power.
  • 01:05:54
    We ask You to give us more of Your Spirit.
  • 01:05:56
    And God, some of us in here right now,
  • 01:05:58
    we just want to receive You. We're like,
  • 01:05:59
    "Gosh, I get it. I want that power. I want that Jesus."
  • 01:06:02
    So we just say, "Jesus, I ask You to come into my life.
  • 01:06:06
    I give my life to You."
  • 01:06:09
    We say, "I want Your forgiveness.
  • 01:06:11
    I ask You to fill me with Your Holy Spirit."
  • 01:06:15
    And others of us say, "God, we're sorry for being deluded.
  • 01:06:20
    We went back in and we're thankful for having us."
  • 01:06:23
    We pray these things according to
  • 01:06:25
    the name of the conqueror, Jesus. Amen.
  • 01:06:29
    - Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
  • 01:06:31
    I hope that you heard specifically
  • 01:06:33
    that God wants you to fight back
  • 01:06:36
    against whatever the enemy is throwing your way.
  • 01:06:38
    And that's the whole reason our church exists,
  • 01:06:41
    to do our best to help you in the fight
  • 01:06:43
    and to equip you to fight back well.
  • 01:06:45
    There's lots of different ways that we do that,
  • 01:06:47
    but one of my favorites is actually
  • 01:06:49
    the Crossroads Anywhere app.
  • 01:06:51
    It's full of all kinds of stuff,
  • 01:06:52
    from daily scripture reading to guided reflections
  • 01:06:55
    to great sermons, great music,
  • 01:06:57
    incredible content articles, and so much more
  • 01:06:59
    that I don't have time to get into.
  • 01:07:00
    But just a few things depending on, I don't know,
  • 01:07:03
    what your specific fight is.
  • 01:07:04
    Maybe it's isolation and loneliness.
  • 01:07:07
    Well, we've got something coming up for you
  • 01:07:08
    that's called Summer Social.
  • 01:07:10
    It's ways that we're equipping people
  • 01:07:12
    all over the globe to throw parties,
  • 01:07:14
    make their patio, their living room,
  • 01:07:16
    their backyard, whatever, to make their spaces
  • 01:07:19
    the place where connection and friendship happen.
  • 01:07:22
    We'd love to send you kits.
  • 01:07:24
    You can go to Crossroads.net
  • 01:07:25
    or in the Anywhere app to make that happen.
  • 01:07:28
    Maybe your fight is hearing from God,
  • 01:07:30
    like you're feeling stuck
  • 01:07:32
    or feeling not sure of what way to move forward.
  • 01:07:34
    Man, you should join us for Online Night of Prayer.
  • 01:07:37
    It's coming up this Thursday at 7 p.m. eastern
  • 01:07:41
    and it's an incredible time for you to receive prayer
  • 01:07:44
    and specifically hear what God might want to say
  • 01:07:47
    to you in this season.
  • 01:07:48
    I've done this myself and it has been powerful.
  • 01:07:51
    God has shown up in huge, huge ways.
  • 01:07:53
    Join us at 7 p.m. this Thursday.
  • 01:07:56
    All this stuff and more again is in the Crossroads app.
  • 01:07:58
    You'll just click the little happenings tab
  • 01:08:00
    and it's all right there for you.
  • 01:08:03
    Now the app, our services, the stuff we do
  • 01:08:07
    in developing world and all over the globe
  • 01:08:09
    happens because there are
  • 01:08:10
    incredibly generous, faithful people
  • 01:08:12
    who are a part of this community.
  • 01:08:13
    They're normal people.
  • 01:08:14
    There are no corporate sponsors. It's you and me.
  • 01:08:17
    And if you've got questions around
  • 01:08:18
    what Crossroads believes about money
  • 01:08:19
    or you want to step into the fight yourself,
  • 01:08:22
    you can do that in the app or at crossroads.net.
  • 01:08:26
    Guys, thank you so much for joining us.
  • 01:08:28
    We'll see you next week for week two of Stand Firm.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up! This is content that reflects on the Weekend message and how it can apply to your life. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion

  1. Anything from cat fights to MMA, what’s the craziest fight you’ve ever seen?

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. What can make it difficult to realize or remember that you have a spiritual enemy and you’re in a spiritual fight?

  4. What can make it challenging to enter the fight, to confront problems and/or the enemy?

  5. Read 2 Timothy 2:3-4.

    What are the “worries and distractions of the world” that you tend to struggle with?

  6. Is there a place in your life where God has put an exclamation point but Satan keeps trying to attach a question mark?

  7. Read 2 Timothy 1:7.

    What is one way you can fight fear with power, love, and/or self-control?

  8. What’s one step you can take this week to start to confront your enemy and fight?

  9. Let’s end our time praying together. You can say something like;

    “Dear God, it’s sometimes hard to realize that we are in spiritual battles with an actual enemy who wants to take us down. Please give us the courage to confront and Your strength to fight. Whether we’ve been fighting battles for a long time or a short while, see us and help us. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

__Bonus Questions __

Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • What makes it easy to give in to fear? Is there fear somewhere in your life right now?
  • Think about ways you cope with difficulties vs. fight battles. Are those things different or the same to you? Is there anything you’d change for the better?

Jun 1, 2025 • 1 hr 8 mins 36 sec

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