Latest / First Love Revolution / Civilian or Citizen? | Soldiers and Citizens | January 17, 2023

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Civilian or Citizen? | Soldiers and Citizens | January 17, 2023 · First Love Revolution

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Revolution Church Message Series, the Weapons of the Kingdom.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: You can find the entire series in video and podcast format, as well as other messages, at firstloverevolutioncom.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Here's Pastor Rebecca with today's message.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: It's so good to see all of you and worship with all of you, and again, my deepest thanks for the way that you really poured out your love on him during that time.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Happy Wednesday, it is so good to be with all of you those of you online in the springs as well as we get rolling tonight.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: I just want to share with you a story about experience I had probably I don't know, it's probably 15 years or so ago, so I was relatively new on a church staff at a church in Chicago and we had two lead pastors at the time and one of the lead pastors invited myself and my husband, josh, into his small group with his wife Jen, who was also Greek, and so many of you know that my mom's side of the family is Greek, and so there's just this instant connection, you know, and there's something really weird about well, there's a lot of weird things about Greek people, but there's something really weird about us.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: We are like finding reasons to talk about being Greek like it just comes up, right, you're like, would you like a cup of coffee, by the way, do you like being Greek?
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Like it just comes up and it flows so naturally and so you know, it's something that we're really passionate about.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure the rest of the world has no idea why we're so passionate about it, but we are.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: And so, anyways, you know, there is this instant bonding and you know, a couple weeks into starting on staff, I was in a staff meeting.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: It was a large room and I was at the very back of it and our lead pastor, jeff one of them was on the stage and we had just had this powerful time of worship, just like, kind of like tonight, and he was going into preaching the message and all of a sudden he asked hey, is there anyone in the room who's Greek?
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: And I was like, yes, jeff, I am.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: And I mean my body almost just levitated out of my chair it was beyond my control really and I just this roar came out.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: I was like, yes, I am, and I was expecting like some applause or some excitement or some enthusiasm.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: And I guess I expected, like especially expected it from him, because he had asked the question enthusiastically and I had answered the question enthusiastically, and I kid you not.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: So I'm like standing there my arm in the air, all fired up, and he just looks at me with a blank look and I'm like this is really awkward.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Like I just responded to what you were asking, like I'm pretty sure this is like a hurrah, let's go opa kind of moment.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: You know it's just not happening.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: And so, anyways, I kid you not, I didn't know what to do, so I just stood there and he's looking at me as I'm looking at him and it's like that real quiet thing where it's getting more and more awkward.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden heads start to owl neck and turn and look at me as I'm still standing there, still looking at him.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: And so finally he says to me Rebecca, is there something you'd like to say to the staff?
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: And I was like no, I don't know.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: I actually just want to sit back down, if you just let me sit back down, and he goes okay.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: And so we stood there longer.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: And then he says Rebecca, do you want to tell us what you are?
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: And I was like yeah, jeff, I'm Greek.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And he was like great, is there a reason you wanted the staff to know that I'm like?
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Because you asked?
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Didn't you just ask if anyone's Greek?
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: He's like no, I didn't ask that.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: What I asked was this I have no idea to this day what he actually asked.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I only know what I heard.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: And literally the only thing I could do in that moment, I turned to a room just like this.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I was like I'm so glad you all know that I'm Greek, jeff, carry on, preach the word.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Come on, brother.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: And I sat back down and that was the end of that.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: And so, still to this day, he'll text occasionally and be like, hey, greek woman, you know I'm like, yeah, what's the point?
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Our reactions to things are based on our expectations.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Our reactions to things are based on our expectations and we see this in the scripture so clearly defined for us.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: 1 Peter, 4, 12 to 13.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory, he may rejoice with exultation.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: So get ahold of this.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Peter is writing to a group of Christians who have been persecuted and scattered because they were persecuted and now they're facing more persecution.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: He says yeah, don't be surprised, but rejoice, rejoice.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of us that would be a little surprised that that's the reaction that they're being told to have, and yet it is.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: I think, for honest, we have to stop and ask like, why?
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Why would that be the reaction that he's calling for?
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: And what we're going to see is it only makes sense if there is a specific expectation in place.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: So I don't know about you, but I read the scripture and then I kind of pay attention to what happens so often in the church and in the people of God and I see something very, very different than this verse.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Instead of seeing people not be surprised as though some strange thing were happening, something bad often happens in our life, whether it's spiritual attack or attack from people or whatever else, and we lose our minds, we lose our footing and all of a sudden we're surprised as though it's some strange thing.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Have you ever been there?
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Have you ever been there?
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Or thank you amen.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: So we have this moment where it's like it's some strange thing, and yet we have this verse.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: We have to ask ourselves why?
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Why am I freaking out?
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I'm so surprised as though it's some strange thing.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: And you know, when some Christians suffer I'm sure you've seen this it's like they go through suffering and all of a sudden, they throw a flag on God as though he's committed a foul and they quit church or they quit him.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Why, when we have this verse, what has happened that has caused so much of the church to become so shocked and dismayed and disturbed, in difficulty, even in suffering?
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: And, more importantly, what was different about these people, these people that are at the roots of our faith, who, when they went through suffering, they weren't surprised, but they actually further rejoiced in proportion to their level of suffering?
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: And how does Christianity change so much from what we read in our roots to be present to what is today?
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: And the real question for us is how do we return to our roots?
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: You know, I believe that so much of the deception and the disillusionment in Christianity around the world today, it's actually due to a loss of Christian identity.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: See, they're parts of the Christian identity that are of critical importance and, honestly, I really believe we've lost touch with them.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: You see, who you are is foundational to what you do.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Activities follow identity and much of what we do, much of what we give our lives to you, it directly reveals what we believe about our identity, about who we are.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: See, identity, it's a powerful determiner of our lives.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: We attach to our identity, we find strength in our identity, we find security in our identity, we live our identity.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: And knowing that you've got to know this about the enemy of God and the enemy of our soul, knowing how critical and foundational and essential our understanding of identity is.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: There is something the enemy comes after always our identity.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: And he works so hard not to get us to not have an identity, but to have an identity in something else what we do, what we know, who we know, what we have, what we're good at, what our grades are, what our friends say.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Why Listen?
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Because he knows acceptance of another identity becomes a stronghold of idolatry, becomes a stronghold of idolatry.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: All he has to do to get us to take the bait and get off course is to get us to accept another identity and we're on the path of idolatry.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: So we need to ask you know, as living human beings, do we actually have roles and responsibilities?
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Do we have things we need to do?
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Do we have commitments to keep?
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, but listen, when we do those things with the wrong identity, they actually lead us into captivity.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Identity matters and our understanding of identity.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: It matters, and I've come to firmly believe like this is deep, deep, deep in my soul that we are surprised by fiery ordeals as Christians and we don't rejoice in proportion to our sufferings.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Precisely for this reason, we've lost our true identity.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: So who are we really?
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: What is the mirror that we look into that reflects back to us and tells us who we are?
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Is it an actual mirror of our looks?
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: No, you know.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Is it a mirror of others' encouragements and affirmation?
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: I just want to say this you know, sometimes it's like we find ourselves and we're so built up and we're so encouraged, as long as everybody else is really encouraged and affirming and saying great things about us, but then the minute somebody has something not so great to say, or the minute that the applause kind of goes silent, we find ourselves just, you know, descending into a place where we feel so stressed and anxious.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Listen, when that's us, we need to realize like I'm putting my identity in something else.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Is it the mirror of rewards and achievements and grades and accomplishment?
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Is it the reward of our security and our retirement saving?
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Of course it's not any of these things.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: It's him.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: It's him.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: He's the mirror, he's the reflection, he's the one that we look to to find our identity in All of our identity.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: All of our identity is found in relationship to him, who we are to him, belonging to him.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: We are his.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: That is the overarching category of Christian identity.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Say it with me, I am his.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: That's not even close to me.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Moving on, so if you want me to actually go to the next point, we're gonna do it again.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Say it with me, I am his Way to go.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: That is the core of our identity.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: But we have to ask, like, what does that mean and what does that have to do with this whole not being surprised when you know as a strange things, when you undergo suffering, when you have a fiery ordeal, what does identity have to do with that?
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Like, how are these two things connected at all?
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about it.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: When we talk about being his, yes, we are talking about being loved sons and loved daughters, and the truth is that is such a foundational truth, it's so essential, it's so critical we will not advance, we will not grow in our relationship with God, we will not grow in intimacy with him.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Until we really take hold of that truth.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Until you understand that you are his love son, his love daughter, you will never be able to rejoice in sufferings, because, deep down, when you suffer, when you go through hardship, when you go through setback, when you go through disappointment, the accusation in your soul will rise up he doesn't love me.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: So this is essential to being able to do what we're reading in the scripture.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: It's critical, it's essential.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: But as essential as that truth is the series that we're starting tonight.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: It's actually not devoted to that foundational truth of our identity in him.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: There's another truth about our identity that much of Western Christianity is deceived about.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: It's a lack of understanding of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Let me explain.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: It's a lack of understanding who he is, who we are and where we live.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: See, many of those who are called by Jesus' name, who identify as his, they're making a very dangerous mistake.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: They are living as civilians, but not citizens.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: That's how this happens.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: So we got to talk about this because we think they're the same.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: What is a civilian?
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Technically, a civilian is a person who, by definition, is not a member of an armed force, not a person who's engaged in hostilities.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: And see, I believe that most Christians perceive themselves to belong to God's kingdom, but they believe that they are civilians in his kingdom, not citizens of his kingdom.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of Christians running around like, yes, yes, I belong to the kingdom of God, and if you got into their soul and you found out what it means, they would really like be painting a picture of like I'm a civilian of the kingdom of God, meaning I'm not engaged in hostilities, I'm not in the armed forces, I'm a civilian.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: So what is the difference between being a civilian and a citizen?
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: And how do we come to believe that that's what we are?
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: How do we come to believe that deception that we're civilians rather than citizens in the kingdom of God?
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: It happens one of two ways.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: The first way is that we actually mistake and confuse the two terms.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: We equate them to be the same.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: So many of us think civilian and citizen are synonyms, but they're not.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: See, a citizen is what?
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a citizen is born of a particular country and has certain rights, or has been given certain rights because they live there.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Or, according to dictionarycom, they're a native or naturalized member of a state or a union who owe allegiance to its government and are entitled to its protection.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: So we have to ask you know, like, what are people citizens of?
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Because we're really trying to understand if where we get tripped up is thinking and living as civilians of the kingdom instead of citizens of the kingdom, we have to ask like, what are people citizens of?
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: And the truth is, in this world, people are citizens of all kind of things.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Yes, of course some people I mean everybody is a citizen of their country, but some people, you know, they really take pride and they identify their citizenship in something other than that.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Sometimes you'll talk to people and it's like I'm just a global citizen with humanitarian interests and they really identify with being this, like person of the whole globe who cares about people as a whole.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Sometimes people really the primary thing that they identify by is citizenship of a group, a political group, a group of friends, a group with particular interests.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: People are citizens of association sometimes, or philosophy.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: All these are forms of citizenship in the world.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: And what is the result of citizenship here and now, of our citizenship being attached not to heaven, but the here and now?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: The results can't be overstated.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Listen to me when we attach our citizenship to this world, when we attach our citizenship to the here and now, there are things that happen in our soul that are not good.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Three of them Citizens are accustomed to the culture and the ways of their place of citizenship.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Listen, at all times.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: We've got to understand.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: We are training our soul, we are training our spirit to be accustomed to the ways of heaven or to the ways of earth.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: And when we allow our identity to tell us that we are a citizen of some group, some nation, some political party, some friends, some whatever other than Jesus, we are literally training our souls to be accustomed not to him, not to his rule, not to his reign, not to his kingdom, not to his ways, but to whatever the customs of that party, that group are.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Citizens are also afforded the opportunities and rights of the place of their citizenship and they give allegiance to the secure and the source of their citizenship.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: So how does citizenship of this word, whether it's a geography or a government or an institution, how does that lead to embracing a civilian identity when so much of the world is at war and it's like, okay, well, if I'm a citizen of this world, how does that lead to becoming, in my mind, a civilian who's not at war when so much of the world is at war?
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Two ways, two ways that happens.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: One is us naively believing the enemy's narrative.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: You know, the enemy is hard at work and obviously not everybody lives in a place like ours.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: But I'm just telling you, if you just drive through Lone Tree or Highlands Ranch or Centennial or Colorado Springs or wherever you are, at just the right time, man, things seem awfully peaceful.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: When you look at the landscape and you look at the veneer that's been laid over the neighborhoods around us, the place that we call home, things look pretty good.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: And if we're not discerning and if we're not alert and alive in our soul, we start to be deceived and to believe that literally a veneer that the enemy has plastered over this world to blind us to the spiritual reality.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: We start to believe that that's actually the way that things are.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: And we look around and all of a sudden we're like man, this is extreme.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: It's talking about war and life and death and eternity and all these things, and it's like it's pretty good.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: It's pretty good, we have what we need.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Things are pretty peaceful and calm.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: That's one way.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: That's one way that we take a citizenship in this world and we morph into a civilian identity, simply by building a castle around us and securing the walls and turning a blind eye to the real state of things.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: That's one way.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: There's another way In a world in which there are plenty of wars and allegiances pulling at us, what's the second way that our citizenship of this world can get us living like civilians?
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: This is how, and I want you to really pay attention to this by actively being involved in the wrong war or a pseudo war, we become civilians in the true war, the right war, the real war.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: So one strategy of the enemy is just to get us to believe there is no war at all.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Things are good.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: The second one is to get you giving your life and fighting for a purpose that is some other purpose than the kingdom of God, because if he can engage you actively in that war, you become a civilian in the true war, the spiritual war, the war of the kingdom of God and the prince of the power of the air.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: And whereas a citizen serves and may serve as a soldier, civilians, by definitions they aren't soldiers.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: And so here's what I'm trying to say to this church we have so many believers who do not know that they are soldiers, and because they do not know that they are soldiers because they do not have the realization, the expectation, that they are in a war of inesimable significance.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: They find themselves struck by an arrow, or it skims them, and they're like what is that?
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: What is that?
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Why is something coming at me?
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Why am I getting hit by life?
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Why am I getting struck by that arrow?
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Why is the enemy attacking me?
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: I'm just a civilian.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: When the word of God says that we are soldiers in the kingdom of God, Second Corinthians 10, 3-4, it says for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Listen, if we were to return to our roots, church roots that aren't surprised by fiery ordeals and can actually rejoice in sufferings, we would have to reclaim this lost piece of Christian identity.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: We're not civilians, we are soldiers and citizens.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Listen, we are soldiers because we're citizens of heaven.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: We are soldiers here because we're citizens there.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Philippians 3, 20 says our citizenship is in heaven, for which we also eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: There is a war, church.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: There is a war, Don't get me wrong.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: Our king is on the throne and his throne is secure.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: But there is a war In this world.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: We are soldiers and we are citizens of the kingdom of God, whose kingdom is not of this world.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: We are those who are living behind enemy lines in a world under the powers of the principalities and powers of the air.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Listen, a true biblical depiction of what it means to belong to him is to be soldiers in the minority of a hostile territory.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: That's what it means.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: And those who recognize that we are at war in this world, they orient themselves.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: They live a different way.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: They have some different priorities.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: There are things that are absolutely essential and non-negotiable to them that for others are pleasantries.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Listen to me If you struggle to routinely call out to God in prayer, if you struggle to prioritize intercession, I'm speaking to you lovingly, but I just want you to know you're not aware that you're at war.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: You may be intellectually, but not deep in your heart, because someone who wakes up and they are on a battlefield and they're in war, they know.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: They know what's on the line, they know what they desperately need and they're crying out for what they need.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Those who recognize that we're at war in this world, they know what's on the line the glory of our king, his name and his fame.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: They know that every day he is assaulted and mocked and he's minimized and he's misrepresented and he's misportrayed and he's lied about and he's hated and he's betrayed.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: They know that there is a war here against his rule and against his way and against his wills and his kingdom and his praise and his reign.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: They know it's being waged every day, do we?
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: There's a war Church.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: There is a war for his glory and his worship, the name of our precious Savior, who came and died For us, who bled for us, who saved us, a God who loved us so greatly that he did that.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: There's a war for his fame, his name.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: There's a war with lives and eternities in the balance.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: There is.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: It's for your family, it's for my family, it's for your kids, it's for my kids, it's for your neighbors, my neighbors, your friends, my friends, your sons, your daughters, my daughter.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Listen, in this war we fight not only for the lives of the living, to live life on earth fully, but we're fighting for eternal lives, to be spared from eternal death.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: We're at war Church, but we have a kingdom full of people acting as if we aren't or acting as if we're civilians who are grateful that someone else is serving in our place and we think that we have the option to wave the white flag.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Listen, so many people.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: When it comes to this, it's like, well, I'm not going to do spiritual battle, I'm just not going to mess with the enemy and he's not going to mess with me and I'm just going to, like, wave the white flag and surrender.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Listen, when you wave the white flag, the enemy satiates, he doesn't back off, he doesn't give up, he doesn't give in, he advances.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: We're at war, but do we believe it?
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: Do we believe it and do our priorities Show it?
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: People walk around with me, not for, like, my official responsibilities, but in the hours that are unscripted, the hours that God sees.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: What would they conclude about where my citizenship is, based on the way that I live?
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: What would they conclude based on my prayer about where my citizenship is?
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: What would they conclude Based on my priorities and my finances, about where my citizenship is?
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: How many are claiming to be citizens of God but their true citizenship is in this world instead?
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: Second Timothy 2.4, it's a word that I really sense the Lord impressing.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: He has really been impressing this on me coming into 2024 personally, but I also really believe it's a word for our church, second Timothy 2.4,.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: So clearly there's to be a difference between Christians and the civilians of society.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: And is that to be true?
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: For some soldiers?
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: No, it actually says no soldier entangles himself.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: No, soldier, not one.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: No soldier entangles himself.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: And more specifically, we've got to understand this the word for soldier here it's not actually a noun.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: It's a noun in English, but it's not a noun In the Greek.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: It's actually a verb.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: It's a verb for someone who is fighting a war, someone who's serving in battle.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: In other words, soldier.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: It's not a title, it's a lifestyle, it's someone who is actively doing something, not just someone who takes on a name.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: It's also worth saying that in many of your English translations it'll actually say no soldier serving in active duty.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: It doesn't say that in the original language.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: And that's really important.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Because here's the thing If we're not careful, even if we understand that we are soldiers in the kingdom of God, what can often happen is that we can come to believe that we are on active duty and then we're off.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: We're on active duty and then we're off, but it doesn't say anything About.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: There is no such thing as active and inactive duty in the kingdom of God.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: There's not.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: We're at all times living as those who are fighting in a war, serving in a battle.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: In this world, where we are at war, our enemy never sleeps.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: He doesn't take a holiday.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: We may be spiritually as blind as a bat, but our numbness of circumstance, it doesn't nullify reality, human prosperity and we need to hear this Our human prosperity.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: It's not evidence of the absence of the spiritual war that's being waged.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: It's actually an attempt to numb us to the awareness of reality and, according to Jesus, it's actually one of the greatest threats to losing the war.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Matthew 9.24,.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: So often we see those in poverty engaged in the war at greater levels.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm just telling you.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: You start to go places where Christians around the globe are facing severe and significant persecution and they're engaged.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: They know there's a war.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: And let me tell you, when I have been in a room where I have heard them pray, I am humbled so significantly because I'm like oh, that's a war cry in the place of prayer.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: They know it because they live it and they see it.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: The truth is that those of us who are rich, we should be the most desperate battlers of all because we're the most at risk.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: All that to say from many today, war is something that soldiers.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: We think of war as something that soldiers do far away, but most of us think that that's not us.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: And the concept of being a soldier it's foreign to many believers.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: And the concept of being a soldier behind enemy lines all the more.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: But biblically, all who belong to God, all who belong to his kingdom, our soldiers behind enemy lines.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: And here's the thing the result of lacking this part of our Christian identity is our complete shock when hell breaks out against us.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Shock when hell breaks out against us and all of a sudden all these accusations against God erupt, instead of being able to rejoice for sharing the suffering of his name.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: But that's not all the lack of Christian identity.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: It's a cause for many spiritual pacifists.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: There are so many Christians today who are in a war and church.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: This is something like I'm going to talk more about this at the end, but I believe that this is a critical word for the year that we're heading into, not because we're about to get decimated, but because I believe genuinely, to the bottom of my toes, god has so much in his heart to do this year and that's not just fluff and it's not just lip service, like I have heard from the Lord in the place of prayer, and the stuff that is in his heart to do.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: It's like the kind of stuff that jaws drop and leave us in awe and leave us marveling at him.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: But here's the thing that being true doesn't mean that we're not in a war.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: We are in a war and yet there's so many spiritual pacifists.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm so shocked when God starts to teach him, when he starts to speak and he opens his word and he teaches us how to fight as soldiers in the war that we're in and he starts to reveal there's this weapon and there's that weapon and there's this weapon, and a spiritual pacifist is someone who's like I don't know.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Thanks Good, I'm good, god, I don't want that weapon.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, just imagine a soldier being in that position, like a soldier who's actually in a war, on a battlefield and somebody coming over and saying, hey, I want to entrust this weapon to you, and they're like no, I'm good, I'm good, I don't want it.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: And so often, when it comes to spiritual pacifism, what the reason that people state is is they're like I don't want that weapon because my personality is not really that aggressive.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: And I just find myself asking, like what does personality have to do with anything?
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: Why are we even talking about personality?
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: We're talking about a war with eternal significance for the glory of our king.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: What does personality possibly have to do with that?
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: I don't worship that way, I don't pray that way, I don't do the desperate crying out thing.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: It's just not my personality.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: What does personality have to do?
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: And if you're in that place where you're like, well, I, just I, it's just not my personality.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: I do want to encourage you.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: The scripture doesn't limit any of those things to personality.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: The weapons that God gives us, he doesn't dole them out based on your this type of personality and your that type of personality.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Do not let the enemy handicap you with a lie.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: You're not cut out.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: You're not cut off because your wired a certain way.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Church, do you know?
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: We're at war, we're at war and we have to get to a point where we realize our sons and our daughters, they're at risk of being deceived into an eternity apart from God.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: And there has to come a point where, for the sake of our sons and for the sake of our daughters and for the sake of this next generation, it's like God will use any weapon.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: Teach me God, teach me God, teach me the, the weapons of your kingdom, to overcome, because God, I know it's on the line.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: There are lives and eternities on the line.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Don't you know that those who reject our king's kingdom, they end up forever in the dominion of his enemy?
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, listen, I know it's not very popular to talk about hell, but who do you?
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: Whose idea do you think it was to bury the teaching of hell?
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: God's no, the enemy.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: There's a war where real people will really spend all of eternity in God's absence and, just to get really real about what it's about, that enemy will torture them for all of eternity, enjoying their agony and their pain as like a mimicking of the worship that God receives were in a war.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: So why would you refuse to use a weapon to prevent that?
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: I want my daughter to know that she's a soldier.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: I want my daughter to know what weapons she has and I actually want my daughter to use the weapons that God has given her.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: I mean 1 John 3.8,.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: It says the Son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: I want my daughter to be used by God to actually be a part of what he's doing, to see the enemy of God, bruise and suffering, set back.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: I want her to live that life available to Jesus.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: For that, I want this for a church.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: I want every person in our church to know that they're a citizen and they're a soldier.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: They're a soldier and a citizen, and that's what this whole series is going to be about.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: We're actually going to dive deep and go into 10 essential weapons that you need to operate with a full artillery as a believer.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: The goal of this series is at the end, you will be a soldier who's aware of and who knows how to wield every weapon at your disposal in spiritual battle.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: Church, do you want to see God take more ground?
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, I do too.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: I do too.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: I'm like God.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: Equip us, equip us, god.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Our answer is yes.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: We want to be equipped to see you get all the glory.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: God, we want to see the maximal salvation.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: God, we want to see the maximal amount of chains of captivity broken.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: God, we want to see more people freed of addiction.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: God, we want to see millions of Joshua and Caleb generation rise up.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: God, we want it all, all that is in your heart to do.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: God, equip us.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: Equip us.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Our answer is yes, of course, to be very clear and explicit again, this isn't a physical battle.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: What does Ephesians 6-12 say?
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness and the heavenly places.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: So, before we get to the 10 weapons in the weeks ahead, what is the first thing that soldiers are told to do, shown to do to overcome?
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: That's what we're going to close with today.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: I want you to pay attention to this.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: 2 Timothy 2-4,.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: The first five words in English are actually two words in the Greek, best translated as no one serving as a soldier does what they do not entangle themselves.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: No soldier entangles himself.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: No soldier entangles herself.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: This is so important that it says entangles herself, entangles himself.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: Because what it tells us is that when we are entangled, we are not just victims of being entangled, we actually have a part to play in being entangled in such a way that we're not actually available for service.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: And it specifically says they do not entangle themselves in the affairs of everyday life.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: So the word for affairs there, it's the word from which we get pragmatic.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: There are practical matters, things that all of us are required to do every day, matters of life that we just have to get to.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: And it is speaking about this.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: But I want to press into what is it actually saying?
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: So to a very high level.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: This verse is telling us that some who think of themselves as civilians, they get their schedules so full of the affairs of life they have no space to be engaged in war, obviously an actual soldier.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: They completely disassociate with everything from this world, leaving it behind.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: Because, why?
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: Because they know that it will compromise the mission.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: But there is an equivalent to the Christian identity as a soldier and citizen who is not a civilian.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: Christians, as citizens of the kingdom of God, we're not to live our life in this world in the same way that citizens of the kingdoms of this world live.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: We're not to be entangled.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Yet when I look around all too often with Christians today, I see them making the same choices the world makes for them and for their children.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: I really sense that there's something that the Lord is looking for from us, and it's as we go into this next year, as we go into 2024.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: It's like God, my mission, my mission, my mission, my mission is to love you with all of my heart and all of my soul and all of my mind and all of my strength.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: And before I do anything, say anything, say yes to anything, contemplate, consider, agree to commit to anything, I'm going to ask one question Will saying yes to this entangle me in such a way that it compromises the mission?
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: Will saying yes to this and I'm not just talking big things, I'm not just talking about where we live, I'm not just talking about jobs will saying yes to this?
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: Lunch take me away from the mission of loving you with all of my heart and my mind and my soul and my strength, because I had time to meet my friend for lunch, but I didn't actually have time to seek your face today.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: See, there's a way that we get so accustomed to the world around us that we unwittingly entangle ourselves.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: So when God calls us into service, it's like, ah, dang God, I'm not quite free and I've got to take my time to be able to be available to you.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: And by the time we're available, he's already moved on to the next thing that he wants to do.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: Some of us, we are so financially maxed that if God called us to increase generosity, we're literally like I have literally spent and accounted for everything coming in, so that even if God called me to do this thing, I'm not free to do it because I've entangled myself in a way that there's no margin, there's no availability.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: Some of us, god is calling us to take time to prioritize a relationship and to be investing in someone, to be sharing the gospel with them, to be helping them grow spiritually.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: It's like, oh God, I've got all these other commitments, I don't have time for that.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: What is the scripture?
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: Wisely counsel us.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: No soldier entangles himself, no soldier entangles herself.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: And I'm just telling you this is me being very honest.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: I'm in a process right now, because the Lord spoke this word heading into 2024, where I am asking the Lord to literally go through everything.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: That is a standing commitment that I have and to show me where I have entangled myself and where I need to step back to be able to say yes to what he wants to do.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: And Church, I do want to say this.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: Sometimes we're like, well, I'll get to that when God calls me, and then I'll start entangling myself and I'll respond.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: But here's the thing have you ever thought about this?
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: So much, of what is in the heart of God to do, it's a miracle because of the timing in which it's done.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: Do you realize that?
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: Think about the wall with Nehemiah.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: Why did they marvel?
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: Why was it a miracle?
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: They didn't say, oh, a wall was built over a decade, that's a miracle.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: That's not what happened.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: They said a wall was built, I think, in 52 days.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: That's a miracle.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: But here's the thing that couldn't have been done if the people of God were so entangled in their everyday affairs that they said, yeah, I know, wall thing on God's heart, but I'm really busy, I can't go over and I can't be a part of building the wall and defending it.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: See, church, there's a time that we're reacting to what God wants to do, entangling ourselves, and we're actually behind the time he wants to move.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: Because of that, we don't want to be lagging.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: We want to be in position, ready and available to him, saying God, use me, I want to be free and I want to be available to you.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: The other word, or the word for pragmatics here it's important, underscored, it's not just a matter of time, it's a word that has a significant financial background to it.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: This word was a mercantile term for trading and it was used for trading, for exchanging, for making a legitimate gain.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: And here's what I want to say about that To be entangled in the business of life, which is so much about our standard of living.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: It's actually another way that we can be entangled in living.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: Contrary to God's word.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: 1 Timothy 6.8 says if we have food and covering with these, we shall be content.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: I just have a sense, praying through this, that for some of us, the thing that God wants to untangle us from is a discontentment that's driving us for more and more and more financial gain, which is driving us to do more and more and more, which is driving us to be busier and busier and busier.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: If we have food and covering with these, we shall be content.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: Imagine trading and trading and trading for gain and more gain, and securing and securing and securing.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: And then a kingdom opportunity comes along and that gain, that stockpile that's not even available for the Lord's purposes.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: There's supposed to be something substantially different about soldiers, both in terms of entanglements of time and entanglements of finances.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: But when we lose track of our identity as soldiers and citizens of the kingdom of God, waging war for his kingdom to come, for his name to be lifted high, for his will to be done, we start to live entangled as civilians.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: We're not civilians.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: We are citizens and soldiers.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: We are soldiers and citizens.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: The word entangled was specifically a word for something that was woven together.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: The bottom line is this we can become so woven into our commitments that they actually become what we're tangled up in.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: Our citizenship is in heaven.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: Church, some of us.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: Tonight, the response is just to cry out to God and say God, make that real.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: I know that intellectually, but, god, I want you to drive it home in my heart at a whole other level.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: What does it mean that our citizenship is in heaven?
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: It means we are accustomed to the culture of the place of our citizenship, heaven, that we're afforded the opportunities and the rights of the place of our citizenship, heaven, that we give our allegiance to the secure of our citizenship, the king of heaven.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: And because heaven is not here and we are citizens of heaven and there is a king of this world who is opposed to our king, we will be in a war until Jesus's full reign comes and everything is brought into subjection to him and he receives all that he's due.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: Listen, don't become accustomed to the ways of this world and don't allow yourself to keep growing in appetite for the taste of this world.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: When you recognize what you value is becoming like what the world values, when you realize that what you prize is what the world prizes, when you realize what you want is what the world wants, when you realize your ambitions are what the ambitions of the world are, what your desire is starting to look like the world's desire and how you spend your time and your finances and your energy, they look like the citizenship of this world.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: Recognize what the enemy is trying to accomplish in your life.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: He's trying to get you to be a citizen of this world, not heaven.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: Because if we're citizens of this world, we'll be civilians in the kingdom and we'll be civilians when it comes to the true war, the real war.
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Don't become consumed with that.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: Don't become consumed with that.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: You know, as we're closing, there's just a couple examples of this that came to mind.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: You know, several years ago, I know, that God spoke to Shane and Wendy about homeschooling and I think, if I recall the story right, it was pretty surprising to them.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: Wendy actually was a public school teacher, shane went to public school himself.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: I don't think like he was necessarily like a homeschool fanatic Nope, she is shaking her head, he's not but the Lord spoke to him about that.
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: And the thing is, god spoke to them about that long before they understood why God was speaking to them about that.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: But them doing that positioned them to be able to say yes to so many things over the years that they would not have been available to say yes to If they had not heard God say hey, I need you to untangle from this structure, this system, so that you can be available and as a family you know they served, and there's so many things that God has called them to that I'm just telling you.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: If they were in a traditional model, there's no way that they could have been available to say yes to one of them being 24-7 worship.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, their family was up here at like banana hours, many nights in a row, their whole family and they were available when God moved because they had already heard from the Lord and responded to what he was saying.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: I think of Mike Smith.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: Mike Smith is another example.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: Mike loves golf, loved golf.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: Maybe he still loves it, I don't know, but he did love it at one point and God spoke to him and really said like hey, I want you to step away from golf.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: And God did not tell Mike a reason why, but it was just a few months before 24-7.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: And he has become one of the anchor servants in that ministry.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: The point is this the point is not homeschool or golf.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: The point is we all want to get with God and say God, what is entangling me, what can I get untangled from so that I can be more free to you than ever before Church?
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: God has been so generous to us.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: I'm marvel and I'm in awe and I'm amazed at the generosity of God.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: I really am.
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: I think of 2023 and I can't think of a better year.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: I really can't.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: I can't think of a better year.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: How he met us, how he poured his presence out, the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of testimonies of life and eternity changed the way he has made his presence manifest and manifestations of his glory.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: 2023, in many ways, was a high water mark that I'm holding and cherishing in my heart.
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: But I'm telling you as we step into 2024, I know that, I know that, I know that, I know that, I know God has far more in store.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: I'm telling you things I have not seen Years, have not heard.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: Our minds haven't conceived that level of thing and I'm not talking Christian fluff.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: And so why?
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: Why am I pleading now, like church, get with God and find out what is entangling you, to get free, because I genuinely believe this.
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: I genuinely believe God wants to do more in your life and use you like never before, and I want all of us to be free.
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: I want to be free.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: I am actively doing this work in my life.
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: This is not me preaching to you.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: This is me sharing with you what the Lord has been doing in me.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: Listen, you've got to understand this the enemy.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: There's two things that he particularly comes after.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: He particularly comes after beginnings and endings.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: Why Beginnings?
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: Because if he can steal away what God wants to do before God's doing it.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: He gets to kill the story before it starts.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: Why endings?
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: Because if at the end of your life, if at the end of that chapter, if at the end of that testimony, the enemy can steal it away, he gets the whole chain of testimonies.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: We are at the start of a year, so be discerning church, wake up church, be alive and be alert in the spirit.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: Don't think for a second that the enemy isn't after the beginning of your year, because God has great things in store for you, he has great things in store for this church and my plea for all of us.
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: As Lord, I want to be a part.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: God has put this absolutely crazy prayer in my heart that I keep praying, like God, what if there was a church where you didn't have to contend at all for what you wanted?
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: And God, what if, like I literally am praying this, what if in Heaven's history books it was said that in 2024, there were a crazy group of people in Lone Tree and in Colorado Springs and in five other locations that we don't even know yet, who just said you will be done, amen, your kingdom come.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: And what if, someday, when we're standing in Heaven, there's a book that is pulled out and it says everything that was in God's heart to do.
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: This group of people said yes to you, church.
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: That's what I'm praying for, and we need to be free to Him in order to do that.
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: And I am praying that this is a year where not one weapon of the enemy prospers.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: I am praying bold prayers that God would take every weapon that the enemy tries to fire at us and he would make the enemy suffer the consequences for it.
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: I am literally praying.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: I talked to you about this earlier and I'm going to share this with you very honestly.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: I don't have all the words polished, so forgive me, but at the beginning of this year I'm telling you the enemy is coming after worship and there is a concerted effort to suppress it.
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: There is, it's notable, you can see it in the spirit, and there's two ways that people respond to that.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: One is that they just feel the suppression of the enemy and they just kind of give into it and it's like oh, that was a mediocre time of worship, I didn't really experience God's presence, and they literally allow the enemy to push their worship down.
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: But there's a different kind of people you know, and they're awake and alert in the spirit and they know what Jesus is worthy of.
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: And they rise up when they start to feel that suppression and they're like, okay, let's go.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: You want to suppress the worship of my king that I'm going to pray for the spirit of God that is alive in me to animate and fill me and give me power to worship my God like never before.
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: I'm literally praying that the enemy would be bruised mightily for trying to suppress the worship of this house.
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: And I'm pleading with you, church.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: We have a part to play.
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: We are soldiers.
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: We don't just sit back and take fire and say man really sucks for God.
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: That the enemy attacked and he got that, he got that worship service.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: We come in and we say, god, get everything that you would do.
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: And I am praying for you.
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: I am praying that this attack and the suppression of worship would literally be stomped out tonight, because there's a group of people who decide I'm going to bring God all and I'm going to bring him more and his worship is going to resound through these walls and into that world.
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: Listen, I'm telling you the enemy is going to come after us and he is going to try to throw the weapon of impossibility at us and to tell us listen, you guys have lost your minds.
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: What you are saying that God wants to do it's impossible, don't you know?
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: Don't you know?
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: Everything that God has ever done that brings him glory is impossible, church.
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: There's not one single thing that is possible by man's might or power or ingenuity or finances that has ever made people look at God and say, wow, he is God and he's awesome.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: But I will tell you, every time his people are crazy enough to believe that he is who he is and he whispers and says there's something impossible on my heart to do Revolution, church, there's this impossible dream in my heart to do.
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: And then a group of people say, yes, god, whatever you want, and the enemy starts to throw.
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: It's impossible, it's impossible, it's impossible.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: My prayer is that God would return that attack on the enemy's head, as the spirit leads us to retaliate with mountain moving prayers of desperation.
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: Every time the enemy tells you it's impossible, you go to God and you cry out and you say God, it is impossible, but all things are possible for you and for your name and glory.
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: God, get what you're due.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: Every time the enemy tries to come after us and entangle us in lower and lesser things.
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: Listen, every time you are feeling pulled, lulled, tempted into the things of this world and giving more of yourself to the things of this world, I am praying a bold prayer that that attack of the enemy would be turned back on his head.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: As every time we feel that temptation, we feel that pull, we step back and say God, use the enemy's attempt to lull me into sleepiness to give me a greater discernment and fire.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: For you, god, church, I'm praying for a year where the weapons of the enemy are brought to naught and the plans and purposes of God for this year, for this year, all that's in his heart to do, all of it is done, because he's worthy of that and so much more.
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: As we prepare to close, I just want to encourage all of us to bow our heads and close our eyes.
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: I believe that God wants to free many hearts in this room tonight and listen to me, it's not.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: You need to be untangled from this thing so that you can say yes to this thing that you already know.
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: Church, believe your God is who he says he is.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: Believe he is as alive and active and there are things he wants to do in your life and through your life this year that you don't have the famous clue about.
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: You've never even heard of it and if you did, you'd be like I, I, I blow my mind.
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: There are things, church, there are things.
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: There are things.
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: There are things, and he's looking for people who will be in position.
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: I just want to encourage all of us to get with God and say God, what am I entangled in that I need to be free of.
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: Listen, don't be, don't be dumb spiritually, church.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: It would be a very dumb thing to hear God say no soldier entangles himself and just to assume that we're not entangled.
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: We're all entangled.
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: I'm entangled, you're entangled, but there's a God who frees and my prayer is literally that every single one of us who knows Jesus Christ and is called by his name would leave not tangled, freer, actually able to testify to a specific thing that he set us free, that he untangled us from.
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: Pray God, what is it?
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: And God, what do I need to do to untangle myself from it?
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: As we're praying on that, I just want to speak to a second group in the room, if you're here in this room and not a whole lot of this made sense to you, but you're hearing the way that we're talking about God and it's really striking you like he's not just a figure somewhere up in the heavens, like he can be known.
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: I want to speak to you.
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: If you're in this room and you came here tonight for hope, if you're listening online and you're listening for hope because it feels a million worlds away, I want to tell you there's hope tonight.
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: His name is Jesus Christ.
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: He is God and he came from heaven to earth for one reason to die on the cross for our sins.
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: He didn't have any being God.
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: He's perfect, but he died for our sins my sins, your sins, the ways that we've been wrong, done wrong and gotten it wrong.
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: And he died for a reason because our sin separates us from God.
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: Our sin, which is wrong.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: It separates us from a God who is pure and perfect and holy, and it will separate us for all eternity, unless, unless it's washed away.
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: And there's only one who's sinless, who can do that, only one who died for our sins, and his name is Jesus.
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: So if you're in this room tonight or listening online with all heads bowed and eyes closed.
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: If you're here and you're saying I want to say yes to a relationship with him, I know.
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: I know I need his forgiveness.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: I believe that he's God.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: I do believe he died for my sins and I want I want to give my life to him, to follow him as God, to love him with my heart and to know his love.
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: Then, with all heads bowed and eyes closed, I just want you to raise your hand and say that's me, because in a minute we're going to pray and I just want to know who we're praying with.
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: I saw your hand so awesome.
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you, praise God.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: God, I thank you that you are a God who loves so much that you gave infinitely more than we can ever comprehend To forgive us, to wash away our sin and to bring us in relationship with you.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: And for those who raised their hand and made that decision, I'm just going to encourage you, right where you are, to pray from your heart.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: God hears you just repeating after me Jesus, I believe in you and I know that I need you.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: I know that I've sinned and I know that I cannot wash it away on my own.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: Only you can.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: Jesus, I believe in you and I trust in you, not me, not me being good I know that I'm not Not other sources of salvation just to you.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: Only you can save me, jesus, save me, forgive me.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: Jesus, I give you my heart and my life to follow you and to love you all of my days, and I pray fill me with your spirit, give me a heart that burns with love for you.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: God.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: I pray for every person who prayed that prayer.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: I pray right now that your spirit, god, would fall in power on them and fill them freshly from within.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: Lord, we love you, we love you, we love you.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: And God, I find myself often saying who are we, lord?
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: Who are we that we should have the privilege of being called your people and experiencing your presence?
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: And God, I just want to pray over this house.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: God, an insanely audacious prayer that is possible for none of us, but only you.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: God, let 2024 be a year unlike ever before, god.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: God, I'm asking for me Everything that you want to do.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: God, please, god, let it be a year where you receive that.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: And, god, if I tried in my own strength to stay faithful to you and say yes to you, I would fail in less than a minute flat.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: God, I need your spirit to help me.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: Give me a steadfast heart, god, a consuming passion for one thing for you, god, I pray.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: I pray, god, ruthlessly, show me everything that is entangling me so that I can be free to you, so that you have your way, more than ever before.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: And, god, I pray that over every person in this room and online, we want you, lord, we want you to have your way, we want you to have us.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: And so, god, I pray even now that your spirit would fall in power.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: God, I pray that your spirit would start to speak and convict, do what only you can, god, this isn't about us assessing some self-help strategies to be a little more free to you, god, we are asking you to come in.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: Come in, god, as a violent wind.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: God, we pray that you would start to blow and even in this time, that restraints and chains would break.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: God, I pray that lower and lesser loves would become laughable.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: In this time, god, I pray that things that are restraining and constraining us, god, things that are affections and things that we're giving our priorities and our time to God, that you would start to shake like an earthquake in our soul, god, and those things would be loosed.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: God, I pray that this people would be of people who are wholly available to you, unlike ever before.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: And, god, I pray and I ask God that the testimony that is written, god, of you receiving all that is in your heart to do that, god, it would be a testimony back to you, god, it would be a testimony back to you, god freeing us, God, you leading us, god, you empowering us, you having your way, you speaking, you providing you, guiding that, all of it, all of it, all of it would be a testimony of how beautiful you are, how matchless you are.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: And, god, I pray over your people now of power, this power by the Spirit of God.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: God, I pray tonight that people who are purposing their heart to align with you, god, they would feel the power of your Spirit rising up inside of them.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: God, I pray, lord, that they would run with the freedom and the strength that comes from you.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: And, god, I pray that in this house, in this place, we would be a people who know who you are, who we are and where we live.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: God, I pray that when fiery arrows come our way, we're not surprised as though some strange thing is happening.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: We know what happened to our King, that he was nailed to a cross, that he rose again and that he reigns, and that one day we will reign with Him in eternity.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: Lord, god, we are longing and eager for your name and for your glory and for your fame to be made known here and church.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to ask you to stand up as we're closing in prayer.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: God, I pray over every person in this room.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: I pray over every person in this room, every person listening online, every person in Colorado Springs.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: God, I pray right now, by your Spirit, that at the start of 2024, no weapon of the enemy will prosper.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: I pray, god, that everything that we need to do right here, right now, in our hearts, responding to you, would be done, so that everything you want to do tomorrow and this week, and this month and this year would be done and have your way.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: Your kingdom come, your, will be done in our lives as it is in heaven.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: Your kingdom come, your will be done in Lone Tree and Colorado Springs as it is in heaven and church.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: As we close, I just want to encourage us in this final song, just to purpose in our hearts, with all of our heart, saying God, have me, have me entirely.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: Spirit of God, free me so that I can be yours as I've never been before.