Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #271 Revival Ready: When the Enemy Mocks: Pray and Stand Firm

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#271 Revival Ready: When the Enemy Mocks: Pray and Stand Firm · The OneCry Podcast

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Speaker0: Oh, he's mocking their worship. He's mocking their work.
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Speaker0: And I'm gonna bet you something, if you gave me enough time over a cup
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Speaker0: of coffee, I bet you— I bet I could find the ways that the enemy
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Speaker0: is mocking the work of God in your life. When's the last time you got
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Speaker0: honest about what's going on in your head? When's the last time you got honest
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Speaker0: with God about what's going on in your heart? When's the last time you got
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Speaker0: honest with God about what's going on in your flesh?
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Speaker0: I don't care if you wake up
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Speaker0: to an army No matter what army opposing you, if you bring
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Speaker0: the Lord into it, you got the majority.
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Speaker0: Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide
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Speaker0: call for spiritual awakening. The goal,
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Speaker0: accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth,
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Speaker0: stories, and reports.
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Speaker1: Well, hello again and welcome back to the One Cry Podcast.
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Speaker1: We're continuing a series this week that we started
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Speaker1: a few weeks ago With our host, Kyle Reno,
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Speaker1: as he's preaching at his home church, Crossgates Church in
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Speaker1: Mississippi. Pastor Kyle is sharing with us from
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Speaker1: the story of Nehemiah and the account of how God used
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Speaker1: him and brought revival also during a time of
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Speaker1: rebuilding within the nation of Israel. God used Nehemiah
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Speaker1: and He spoke to him, but He taught him many practical things which can also
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Speaker1: apply to our lives today. So let's listen in
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Speaker1: To this continuation of How to Be Revival
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Speaker1: Ready. Thanks for joining us.
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Speaker0: Now let me give you just a little context, catch us up. If you're here
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Speaker0: for the first time, I can give you a snapshot of where we've been in
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Speaker0: Nehemiah. We came out of a powerful chapter last week where Nehemiah,
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Speaker0: it's really his journal entry, that Nehemiah shares with us how God
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Speaker0: was aligning families next to other families.
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Speaker0: In chapter 3, you got a lot, a lot of genealogy,
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Speaker0: it in some ways, but he's given us that genealogy
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Speaker0: through the fact that God places people
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Speaker0: among other people to accomplish a work that will matter for generations to
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Speaker0: come. So you got in this chapter 3, and next to this family was that
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Speaker0: family, and next to this family was that family, and next to this family was
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Speaker0: that family. And what it was saying is that God was weaving together such a
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Speaker0: work of His kingdom that it was going to take every person praying their part,
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Speaker0: playing their part, bringing their portion to be a part of a revivalistic
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Speaker0: renewal in Israel, in Jerusalem specifically,
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Speaker0: and you couldn't be a bystander. Now, some decided to,
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Speaker0: but that's to their own shame and detriment. But every person had
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Speaker0: a part to play in putting their hand to the kingdom plow in this
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Speaker0: right now moment. And by God's grace, they had risen to the
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Speaker0: moment and was agreeing with God and was cooperating with
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Speaker0: it powerfully. By the way, let me celebrate real quick. Out of that,
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Speaker0: even last week and in the weeks Moving up to,
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Speaker0: we have Foundations, our membership class this morning. There are 65
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Speaker0: adults right now that are going through our Foundations. Come on!
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Speaker0: That's right! When you add their kids to
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Speaker0: it, I don't even know the number. It's crazy. But those
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Speaker0: are people that are saying, hey, they're discerning right now. Are we going to align
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Speaker0: with this work? Are we not going to merely just have church membership?
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Speaker0: Are we going to see the vision, the mission, the values of what God
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Speaker0: has put a specific imprint on Crossgates? And are we going
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Speaker0: to be a part of that? Now you see this Nehemiah
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Speaker0: 3 moment, everybody's fired up, everybody finds their part, and directly coming
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Speaker0: after that, guess what? Opposition.
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Speaker0: I get a privilege of studying the Bible in light of preaching to you,
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Speaker0: so I could spend considerable amount of time, learn from other people as well,
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Speaker0: interesting facts about the book of Nehemiah, really the journal entry
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Speaker0: of Nehemiah. You know, there's 10 verses of scripture
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Speaker0: about prayer. in the whole book, which is awesome. And these 10 different moments,
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Speaker0: we'll see a couple of them even today about prayer. It's primary.
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Speaker0: There's a few passages of scripture about the plan, a few
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Speaker0: passages like, what kind of work are you going to do? How are you going
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Speaker0: to do it? There's several good sections of scripture that
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Speaker0: teach us things about leadership and about how to be courageous
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Speaker0: and teaches us how to vision cast, all those things.
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Speaker0: But you know what is primarily found in the book of Nehemiah?
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Speaker0: There are 4 whole chapters dedicated
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Speaker0: to how to overcome opposition. There's only 13
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Speaker0: chapters in the whole book, 4 chapters about
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Speaker0: opposition, which teaches us a principle of the kingdom of God.
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Speaker0: If you get serious about God's work in you, if you get serious about
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Speaker0: God's work through you, welcome to the war.
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Speaker0: If you make up your mind to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you make
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Speaker0: up your mind to be a part of the work of the kingdom, you make
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Speaker0: up your mind to be a part of the establishing of God's kingdom in your
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Speaker0: marriage, in your raising of children, in your workplace,
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Speaker0: if you declare, man, I'm going to put my hand
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Speaker0: to the work of the kingdom, you come on the enemy's radar in a whole
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Speaker0: new way. So opposition
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Speaker0: shouldn't discourage us, it should encourage us. We're on track,
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Speaker0: baby! We're moving towards something that actually matters. And so
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Speaker0: with that, we pick up chapter 1, Nehemiah 4,
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Speaker0: verse 1, Nehemiah 4, excuse me. Now when Sanballat
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Speaker0: heard That guy! Everybody say, that guy! That guy!
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Speaker0: Alright, because you know, next time you look at me, go, that guy! Alright.
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Speaker0: Now, when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall,
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Speaker0: and he didn't care if they talked about it.
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Speaker0: Newsflash, the enemy doesn't care if we talk about Jesus a little
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Speaker0: bit. Doesn't mind if we talk about the things of the kingdom, but the moment
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Speaker0: you actually start doing the work, watch out! Now,
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Speaker0: when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was
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Speaker0: angry and greatly enraged. That's double whammy.
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Speaker0: It's one thing to be angry, it's another thing to be greatly enraged. It means
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Speaker0: that he's burning, but he's going to actually do something
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Speaker0: with what's going on inside of him. He's enraged. He's going to
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Speaker0: move, which teaches us a principle, and I want you to write this down.
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Speaker0: I'm going to give you several things today. The enemy literally
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Speaker0: hates God's work in you.
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Speaker0: you. The enemy literally hates the idea of God
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Speaker0: working in you, and the idea of God working through
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Speaker0: you. Like, it enrages him! Like,
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Speaker0: it burns inside of the enemy to think about God's
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Speaker0: activity in your life, and through your life. 2 primary
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Speaker0: purposes of the enemy, by the way, and we don't wage war against flesh and
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Speaker0: blood, so any Even if somebody opposes you, that's a real person,
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Speaker0: like right in front of you. They're representing a person that's just as
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Speaker0: real, the enemy, Satan. And the enemy has 2
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Speaker0: primary agendas. Hear me now, is to keep every person he
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Speaker0: possibly can from ever coming to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Speaker0: That's the enemy. Enemy wakes up every morning. I want to keep as many people
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Speaker0: from seeing Jesus as possible. He's warring in this room right now.
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Speaker1: Amen.
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Speaker0: to try to keep some of us in this room that maybe you're here and
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Speaker0: you've never really put faith in the finished work of Christ. You've never been made
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Speaker0: new by the finished work of Jesus. The enemy is opposing you. He's saying,
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Speaker0: get distracted, check your phone, think about your week.
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Speaker0: He's opposing that. And the moment
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Speaker0: that somebody comes to know Christ, 19 for me, he can
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Speaker0: no longer touch my eternal life. Somebody say amen, right?
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Speaker1: Amen.
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Speaker0: That's signed, sealed, delivered by the blood
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Speaker0: of Jesus.
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Speaker1: Yes!
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Speaker0: So the moment I come into the kingdom, the enemy can never
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Speaker0: have my eternity. Let me tell you what he's after on the other
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Speaker0: side of that is the abundant life. To keep me
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Speaker0: from purpose, to keep me from significance, to keep me from living a life that
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Speaker0: truly matters. And get this, this morning, the enemy hates
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Speaker0: God's work in you. He hates the idea
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Speaker0: of God working through you.
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Speaker0: didn't spend a second thinking about the Jews until
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Speaker0: they decided to go to work. And the moment
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Speaker0: they decided to go to work, he's furious with them.
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Speaker0: Every person in this room will face this kind
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Speaker0: of opposition if you get serious about following Jesus.
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Speaker0: Y'all know what I'm talking about, don't you?
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Speaker1: Yes.
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Speaker0: You get serious about leveraging
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Speaker0: your one life, and your family, and your workplace with your integrity, that you make
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Speaker0: up your mind, I'm that you're going to make some changes,
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Speaker0: you're going to try to live differently by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Speaker0: Maybe a moment somebody stood before you like me, and like Nehemiah,
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Speaker0: they compelled you based off God's Word, by God's Spirit, to leverage
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Speaker0: your life for greater things, to not settle for temporal things, not settle for
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Speaker0: earthly things, to make your marriage matter, to make your family
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Speaker0: matter, make your job matter. And the moment you came to that decision and
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Speaker0: you surrendered You only have like a million of those surrender
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Speaker0: moments, by the way. Like, you know what? I'm going to surrender to that truth
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Speaker0: and I'm going to cooperate with that work. Every time
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Speaker0: that you do that, every time,
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Speaker0: opposite opposition meets us in a different way than ever
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Speaker0: before. I hate
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Speaker0: to break it to you, but you're in a war.
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Speaker0: That you live in a spiritual world, you live
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Speaker0: in a spiritual war. Maybe you
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Speaker0: decided to get serious about falling
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Speaker0: in love with Jesus. Maybe you got serious about
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Speaker0: the way that you would serve in the work of the kingdom,
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Speaker0: and all of a sudden it felt like, man, it should be all heaven breaks
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Speaker0: loose, but it seems like all hell broke loose. Maybe you
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Speaker0: got serious about returning first fruits. Don't you love the tithing stories?
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Speaker0: Like, well, hey, I tithed the first time, and man, I gave that amount,
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Speaker0: and For the first time, I called for faith and I went to
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Speaker0: the mailbox and I got a check out of nowhere for the exact amount.
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Speaker0: I love those stories. I love them. That's not everybody's story. Somebody tithed
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Speaker0: for the first time and your transmission went out the next day, right?
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Speaker0: Let's be real, because you
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Speaker0: live in a broken world and stuff breaks,
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Speaker0: and you also live in a spiritual war and the enemy wants to
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Speaker0: discourage you. He wants to find a
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Speaker0: way to defeat you before you ever get in the fray!
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Speaker0: Resistance comes from a bunch of places.
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Speaker0: I want to just talk to you for this. I'm telling you, I know the
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Speaker0: Lord's here today. I know He's about to
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Speaker0: help us so much, but you
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Speaker0: realize some things. We live in a
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Speaker0: war zone, and that war zone is expressed in at least 3 ways.
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Speaker0: One, we live in this— the scriptures say, in this world.
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Speaker0: That there is a world system that you make up your mind to live for
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Speaker0: the things of Christ and His kingdom, and you are swimming upstream.
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Speaker0: If you just follow the pattern of this world, you'll just
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Speaker0: exist and die. But if you make up your mind to
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Speaker0: live in opposition to the things of this world, but to live for the kingdom,
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Speaker0: you're swimming upstream and you're going to bump against people.
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Speaker0: You're going to rail against schemes and doctrines of demons.
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Speaker0: That the moment you start swimming upstream, you're going to feel the resistance
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Speaker0: of that. And that shouldn't discourage
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Speaker0: you to stop. That should encourage you to go.
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Speaker1: Amen.
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Speaker0: I got bad news for you. You're going to feel that resistance within you.
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Speaker0: In you is you! Come on now!
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Speaker0: Anybody else got the flesh in you?
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Speaker1: Woo!
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Speaker0: Yeah, right! I'm going to tell you something about the
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Speaker0: selfish inside of us. We hate God's work in us.
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Speaker0: Isn't that crazy? The Spirit loves it! The flesh hates
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Speaker0: it. The flesh rails against
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Speaker0: the work of the Spirit in us going like, I'm tired of surrendering.
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Speaker0: I'm tired of laying down my life. I'm tired of making decisions for
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Speaker0: the glory of God. I want decisions for the glory of me.
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Speaker0: You got that going on in you. You're a walking
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Speaker0: war zone.
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Speaker0: Got that inside of you. You want what you want.
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Speaker0: Amen. And God's saying, well, let's trade that want for a greater
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Speaker0: We hate the idea of God working through us because you know what we want
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Speaker0: to work for? We want to work for us. I want to build my life.
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Speaker0: I want to be comfortable, man. I want to be— I want things to be
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Speaker0: convenient. So you— we got the world, we got the flesh, and here's the next
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Speaker0: resistance we're facing. You got the devil.
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Speaker0: And I want to say this, and I hope you'll believe this.
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Speaker0: He's not some character, not some
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Speaker0: guy with some horns and a pitchfork. He's the enemy of your soul,
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Speaker0: and he hates your literal existence! Yes!
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Speaker0: He's been trying to steal, kill, and destroy you
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Speaker0: from Jump Street! Trying to rob you of life,
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Speaker0: rob you of integrity, rob you of purpose, rob you of significance,
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Speaker0: rob you of intimacy with God.
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Speaker0: So you got all that playing out in front of you,
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Speaker0: and Nehemiah was having a physical manifestation of that with
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Speaker0: Sanballat and Tobiah, and all they did was represent a greater
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Speaker0: enemy. Amen. So how did they attack?
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Speaker0: Let's learn. And he jeered at
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Speaker0: the Jews. He said in the presence of his brothers
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Speaker0: and in the army of Samaria. So you've got to read the scripture slowly and
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Speaker0: see it. Here's Sanballat who's saying to the Jews, he jeers
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Speaker0: at them. I'll explain what that means in a minute. In the presence of his
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Speaker0: brothers and in the army of Samaria.
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Speaker0: So it's a show of force. It's an intimidation strategy.
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Speaker0: What are these feeble Jews doing?
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Speaker0: And then listen to the ways that he leveraged his words
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Speaker0: against them. Will they restore it for themselves?
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Speaker0: Will they sacrifice? Will they finish
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Speaker0: up in a day? Will they revive the stones
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Speaker0: out of the heaps of rubbish, the burned ones at that?
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Speaker0: Then Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he
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Speaker0: said— he jumped in— Yeah, what they are building,
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Speaker0: if a fox goes up on it, it'll break down their stone wall.
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Speaker0: Now, we might not resonate with the word, and he jeered at
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Speaker0: us, but I bet you we know what it feels like to be ridiculed.
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Speaker0: There's a lot of ways that plays out in life.
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Speaker0: Maybe when you start trying to live publicly for your faith, remember you've had those
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Speaker0: surrender moments like, you know what, I'm really going to try to be a Christian,
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Speaker0: a follower of Christ. And you showed up at the workplace
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Speaker0: and where you once maybe would have went along with the conversation, you try to
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Speaker0: say, hey guys, let's, let's do it a little different here. And then somebody says,
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Speaker0: oh yeah, you the Jesus guy now? You know what
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Speaker0: I'm talking about, right? Well, you start trying to make some subtle adjustments in your
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Speaker0: family and the kids you used to scream at and the wife you used to
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Speaker0: argue with. You might have said, hey, together? And they look at you like,
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Speaker0: what alien just walked into the room? Right? And the enemy
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Speaker0: came and said, it might work for some, it'll never work in your home.
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Speaker0: Come on now, let's talk! That the
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Speaker0: enemy jeers at us, that he ridicules our sincere surrender,
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Speaker0: and then has an army of Samaria that comes and stands in
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Speaker0: front of us and goes, this works for some, but it'll never work for you!
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Speaker0: You're disqualified from being that kind of family.
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Speaker0: You're disqualified from ever being that kind of lineage or that kind of man or
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Speaker0: woman of God. You got too much brokenness to be useful.
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Speaker0: Things are too far gone. Look at that burned rubbish. You're going to make
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Speaker0: that a wall again? The enemy
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Speaker0: mocks— listen to me— the very thing God wants to do. Will you restore
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Speaker0: it? it? Will you revive it?
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Speaker0: Let me tell you what the enemy's saying to us even in our day.
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Speaker0: Oh, you're going to see revival in America? Oh, you're going to see restoration?
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Speaker0: You really think those things will ever change?
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Speaker0: He mocks us as a people. He mocks us personally.
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Speaker0: Here's the truth, the enemy wants to mess with your mind. Amen.
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Speaker0: He wants to try to destroy your confidence in this ever being— that God
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Speaker0: ever being capable of these things in your life.
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Speaker0: Do you think your business can be redeemed? Really? Do you think your
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Speaker0: family can be restored? Really? Do you ever think you could be
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Speaker0: the kind of person that lives righteously? You're going to just keep
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Speaker0: doing the same thing over and over and over again. Do you not
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Speaker0: hear his hiss?
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Speaker0: Every season of my faith life, I've had to come to recognize
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Speaker0: how the enemy's trying to lie to me in that season.
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Speaker0: I'll never— I mean, I came to know Christ at 19, and guys, when I
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Speaker0: say my life was a dumpster fire, you have no idea.
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Speaker0: I'm telling you, I was, I was a complete
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Speaker0: and utter mess, which is true of anybody outside of Christ. Mine was just
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Speaker0: easy to see. And when I came into
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Speaker0: the kingdom of God, was rescued by the gospel of Jesus Christ,
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Speaker0: and was discipled, like, when I say I had to break ties with everything,
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Speaker0: I had to break ties with everything. And the problem
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Speaker0: was I had created a lot of the culture in which I lived.
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Speaker0: I wasn't merely a bystander, I was a leader.
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Speaker0: But man, when I came to know Christ and was rescued, I had to detox.
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Speaker0: Amen. lost. And so I was like hidden
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Speaker0: in Christ and was like hidden with people that love Jesus. Like, don't let me
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Speaker0: mess this up. Don't let me mess this up. I'll never forget,
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Speaker0: a couple months into my faith, I knew some of my friends was at a
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Speaker0: house that I had not seen and I missed them. I just missed my friends.
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Speaker0: And so I went to stop by just to say hey to them before the
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Speaker0: party hour got there, even though I used to be the ringleader of it.
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Speaker0: And I'll never forget this moment. I walked into the room and you
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Speaker0: ever seen those settings in movies or stuff when everything just stops,
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Speaker0: like, errrr!
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Speaker0: So I walk in and everything stops,
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Speaker0: and everybody turns and they see me. It's been months since I've seen people I
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Speaker0: had lived poorly with for a long time.
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Speaker0: And a voice came from the other side of the room, as loud and as
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Speaker0: demonic as possible. I knew it!
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Speaker0: We knew you'd be back!
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Speaker0: We knew it wouldn't last, and I'm telling you,
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Speaker0: the Spirit of God rose in me and said, I ain't back!
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Speaker0: Y'all can come with me, but I'm not going this way anymore!
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Speaker0: But in that moment, the enemy was trying to sell me a
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Speaker0: lie. Well, you're always on the pathway back
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Speaker0: to returning to this. going to return to this lifestyle,
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Speaker0: these things. That was in those early days. Can I tell
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Speaker0: you the lie that was being lied to me right here on the front row
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Speaker0: last week? Last week.
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Speaker0: Following Christ for a long time now, pastoring a church, been in
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Speaker0: a season of seeking the Lord, prayer.
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Speaker0: Like, I'm going to just— to my church family, had one
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Speaker0: of the best seasons with God. I just finished up right before last weekend.
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Speaker0: Amen! 40 days of specific praying
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Speaker0: for revival, awakening, and a move of God. I mean,
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Speaker0: like, I'm just saying, by God's grace, man, times in His presence and
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Speaker0: prayer, I'm sitting there all last Sunday and
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Speaker0: this is what the enemy's saying, you really think you're going to ever see revival?
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Speaker0: Been a lot of people that's had that same thought, Kyle.
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Speaker0: I mean, I'm talking about like this heaviness. Get up here, I got the
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Speaker0: Word of God in my hand, I preached the message, I hope that it landed
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Speaker0: well. I felt like it was true, and I'm preaching even though I don't feel
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Speaker0: it! Because the enemy's just lying, and lying,
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Speaker0: and lying, and lying! Like, oh man, be discouraged! Hey listen, why don't you— and
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Speaker0: I'm telling you, in me he says, just settle for good.
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Speaker0: I sit in my garage last Sunday with Katie talking,
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Speaker0: and she goes, how you doing? I said, I'm discouraged. She's like, you're discouraged?
21:17
Speaker0: Why are you discouraged? I said, I don't know why. I don't know why.
21:19
Speaker0: I just got the funk on me, man. Like, I feel it.
21:23
Speaker0: Then I walk in to start studying Nehemiah 4, and I went,
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Speaker0: that stupid liar!
21:29
Speaker0: He's jeering at me!
21:34
Speaker0: He's mocking me! He's saying, Kyle, you really
21:38
Speaker0: think you're going to see God move? You really think you're going to see Rankin
21:41
Speaker0: County impacted? You really think you're going to see Mississippi transformed?
21:45
Speaker0: You really see? And in that moment I'm going, that voice that I'm
21:49
Speaker0: hearing is not my Father! Amen.
21:54
Speaker0: So what I'm telling you is I don't care if you live faithfully
21:58
Speaker0: following Jesus to your deathbed, the enemy's going to show up there
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Speaker0: too!
22:02
Speaker0: Let me
22:07
Speaker0: tell you what burned me up this week in a righteous way.
22:11
Speaker0: I'm telling you, I've had— my week's been fantastic once
22:15
Speaker0: I figured out the warfare. I was like, he is a liar! the armor?
22:20
Speaker0: If you go back to that verse of scripture, it says, will they sacrifice?
22:25
Speaker0: Let me tell you what Sam Ballot was saying right there. Will they sacrifice?
22:30
Speaker0: He's saying, what are y'all going to do?
22:34
Speaker0: Y'all going to sacrifice some animals? Y'all going to pray some prayers?
22:38
Speaker0: Y'all going to sing some praise? And then there's
22:42
Speaker0: just going to be a He's mocking the worship
22:46
Speaker0: of Yahweh!
22:50
Speaker0: He's crossed a major line. A major
22:55
Speaker0: line. Oh, he's mocking their worship, he's mocking their
22:59
Speaker0: work, and I'm going to bet you something, if you gave me enough time
23:02
Speaker0: over a cup of coffee, I bet you— I bet I could find the ways
23:05
Speaker0: that the enemy is mocking the work of God in your life. Amen!
23:13
Speaker0: The ways that the enemy comes and whispers about, well, what do you believe in
23:16
Speaker0: God for? Why would you think that?
23:21
Speaker0: Now, how does he respond? Surreal, isn't it? Gosh, this is so real!
23:24
Speaker0: I love that our God knows where we're living.
23:28
Speaker0: Verse 4. This is— Nehemiah's a
23:32
Speaker0: dude, I'm telling you.
23:36
Speaker0: Hear, O our God!
23:39
Speaker0: He didn't say a word to Sanballat.
23:43
Speaker0: Sanballat comes, jeers, ridicules, says all
23:46
Speaker0: these things. Nehemiah says, Hear, O our God,
23:52
Speaker0: for we are despised!
23:55
Speaker0: Turn back their taunt on their own heads, give them up to be plundered
23:59
Speaker0: in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not
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Speaker0: their sin be blotted out from your sight. For they have provoked you
24:07
Speaker0: to anger in the presence of the builders!
24:11
Speaker0: My man went off!
24:15
Speaker0: He had not read where Jesus said, pray for your enemies when they persecute you,
24:18
Speaker0: right? He hadn't got to that New Covenant teaching
24:22
Speaker0: yet. Let me tell you why. Not that God's not the same
24:26
Speaker0: and doesn't work the same way. Nehemiah knew something. They've crossed the line.
24:31
Speaker0: And this is what he does. Instead of getting into the argument on the horizontal,
24:35
Speaker0: he goes to the vertical. He says, oh God,
24:38
Speaker0: get them! That's one of the best prayers
24:42
Speaker0: you can ever learn to pray. One of the best. I just gave
24:47
Speaker0: you a prayer that we're going to pray at the end of this service.
24:48
Speaker0: In whatever way the enemy's attacking your mind, whatever way the enemy's taking
24:51
Speaker0: courage out of your heart, in whatever way the enemy's trying to destroy your faith,
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Speaker0: say, oh God, get them! Oh God, get them!
24:59
Speaker0: Get the enemy! Get the enemy!
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Speaker0: Rebuke the enemy!
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Speaker0: Lord, they despise you, and because they despise you, they're hating us.
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Speaker0: You know what happens in this moment? We can learn from Nehemiah,
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Speaker0: is when we bring the Lord into the war through prayer.
25:22
Speaker0: Let me tell you what happens, sadly, we sit with it too often by
25:25
Speaker0: ourselves. ourselves. We sit in the
25:29
Speaker0: war by ourselves. We sit with our thoughts by ourselves. We sit with our depression
25:32
Speaker0: by ourselves. We sit with our anxiety over these things by ourselves instead
25:36
Speaker0: of going, God, help! God, hear! God,
25:44
Speaker0: now! When's the last time you got honest about what's going on in your head?
25:47
Speaker0: When's the last time you got honest with God about what's going on in your
25:50
Speaker0: heart? time you got honest with God about what's going on
25:53
Speaker0: in your flesh?
25:58
Speaker0: I don't care if you wake up to an army opposing you. If you bring
26:01
Speaker0: the Lord into it, you got the majority. I love
26:06
Speaker0: what John Piper says. Let me read a long quote to you about prayer.
26:09
Speaker0: He said, the reason— the main reason prayer malfunctions
26:13
Speaker0: in the mouth of God's people is because they are AWOL.
26:17
Speaker0: I mean, they're trying to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into
26:21
Speaker0: a domestic intercom to call up
26:24
Speaker0: the butler for another pillow, or instead of calling the general for
26:30
Speaker0: fire cover as they go toward the city. If all prayer is
26:34
Speaker0: to use to buzz the intercom for a few more comforts,
26:38
Speaker0: or to let God know you got a tummy ache and you
26:42
Speaker0: want the butler to bring some aspirin, the heavenly butler,
26:45
Speaker0: Prayer malfunctions. It will malfunction
26:49
Speaker0: in your life and you'll stop doing it except maybe a minute or two a
26:53
Speaker0: day, because what's the point? It's just no big deal. I can get
26:57
Speaker0: along, frankly. I got doctors, I've got insurance policies, I've got
27:02
Speaker0: grocery stores, I've got a car, I got everything I
27:05
Speaker0: need, really. Thank you. So then what's the point
27:09
Speaker0: of prayer if it's just an unnecessary add-on And the reason
27:13
Speaker0: it's unnecessary add-on is that we don't know that life is
27:17
Speaker0: war and what prayer is truly
27:21
Speaker0: for. If you want to mobilize your prayers,
27:26
Speaker0: then you get to know that life is war and that prayer is a wartime
27:29
Speaker0: walkie-talkie. It's not a domestic
27:33
Speaker0: intercom to ring the butler to bring another comfort into the
27:36
Speaker0: den where we already are more secure than we ever should be.
27:41
Speaker0: So my picture of the Christian life is that once you get saved, you get
27:45
Speaker0: recruited.
27:49
Speaker0: And God doesn't recruit Christians
27:53
Speaker0: for ministry. He recruits unbelievers to be saved, and then
27:56
Speaker0: for war! If you're saved, you're a soldier!
28:00
Speaker0: Right. And He recruits us, and then He
28:04
Speaker0: gives us a walkie-talkie called prayer, and He says, here's the way it works.
28:07
Speaker0: There's a frequency to this walkie-talkie. It's got one frequency, only one,
28:10
Speaker0: and It's wired
28:14
Speaker0: to the general, and the general, he has perfect oversight.
28:19
Speaker0: He's got the lay of the battlefield. He has the place for you to fight.
28:22
Speaker0: He knows it's dangerous.
28:26
Speaker0: The wartime walkie-talkie is to help you locate yourself
28:30
Speaker0: in the fight. It's to help you have the resources and
28:34
Speaker0: the strength and the courage you need to be there. It's to call in wisdom
28:38
Speaker0: for the words to say. That's right. Yes!
28:41
Speaker0: It's the call for help and firepower when
28:45
Speaker0: danger comes, and if you get wounded,
28:49
Speaker0: it's the call for healing so that you can keep on fighting,
28:53
Speaker0: not get more comfortable. If you try to turn your walkie-talkie
28:57
Speaker0: to an FM station, FM station,
29:00
Speaker0: so that you can call up your favorite disc jockey and just play your favorite
29:03
Speaker0: tune while you cross your legs under a palm tree,
29:07
Speaker0: it will not work. Prayer was made
29:11
Speaker0: for war. Oh,
29:15
Speaker0: people of God, could you imagine what could happen in
29:18
Speaker0: this room if God mobilizes a couple thousand warriors?
29:23
Speaker0: That when the enemy comes tomorrow to discourage you, or distract
29:27
Speaker0: you, when he comes to get us off course, or off plot, or off plan,
29:31
Speaker0: or when your flesh is railing against you, and you go, God,
29:34
Speaker0: help! God, give me strength! Give me courage!
29:38
Speaker0: Give me words! Give me wisdom! I'm tired! I need strength!
29:44
Speaker0: So here's the truth. Every opposition is an opportunity to pray.
29:49
Speaker0: Every opposition. Let me tell you what the enemy actually does. He hurts his own
29:53
Speaker0: cause when he opposes you if you take that opposition as an
29:57
Speaker0: opportunity to pray. That when the enemy opposes you,
30:00
Speaker0: he just presses you closer to God! Come on!
30:04
Speaker0: He's like, every time I do something, they get closer!
30:08
Speaker0: Every time I try to distract them, they get more focused!
30:12
Speaker0: Every time I try to weaken them, they actually get stronger in the Lord!
30:22
Speaker0: The truth is, we're all living in a war zone, and I'm telling you what
30:25
Speaker0: I got in my heart today, and I'm just— I'm going to be done in
30:27
Speaker0: a second. I think there's a whole lot of people,
30:31
Speaker0: you limped in here.
30:34
Speaker0: You limped in here. You've been beat up a long time.
30:38
Speaker0: You tried to get serious about God at some other season of your life,
30:41
Speaker0: and maybe made
30:45
Speaker0: some mistakes. And the truth, if you're just honest, you say,
30:48
Speaker0: Kyle, I'm just doing this because I know I need to do this, and the
30:51
Speaker0: reason I'm here is because I know it's the right thing to do, but I
30:54
Speaker0: gave up on being a fully alive follower of Jesus Christ a long time ago.
30:57
Speaker0: Amen. I don't think God can use
31:01
Speaker0: me that way. I don't think I can walk with God that way. I don't
31:02
Speaker0: think I could be that kind. I know they're out there. They've got to be
31:06
Speaker0: that radical extreme because for me, I tried and it didn't work.
31:10
Speaker0: I failed. I gave up.
31:13
Speaker0: I got disillusioned. I got discouraged. I was disappointed.
31:20
Speaker0: And the enemy has layered a lie for too long, and it breaks
31:25
Speaker0: in Jesus' name today! Amen!
31:34
Speaker0: Amen! You know what they did next? And I'll be done. Miss Laurie, you can
31:37
Speaker0: go ahead and come.
31:40
Speaker0: They went this way. So we
31:43
Speaker0: built the wall. Hallelujah, right?
31:48
Speaker0: All, and all the wall was joined together to half
31:52
Speaker0: its height, For the people had a mind to work.
31:57
Speaker0: Amen! So they went this
32:01
Speaker0: way, then they went to the wall. They went
32:05
Speaker0: this way, then they went to work.
32:08
Speaker0: The enemy's standing right there, by the way. The enemy didn't go, oh darn.
32:14
Speaker0: The enemy's still there. Listen to me. The enemy was running in his head,
32:18
Speaker0: listen to me, and they were working with their hands.
32:23
Speaker0: Because here's the truth. Most of the enemy's strategy
32:27
Speaker0: is just talk.
32:31
Speaker0: It's just talk. Now, I know he can oppose us, he can afflict us,
32:34
Speaker0: he can do different things, but most of the enemy's warfare
32:38
Speaker0: is words.
32:42
Speaker0: They made up their mind to keep praying. To keep
32:47
Speaker0: putting forth effort, to keep following Jesus the next
32:51
Speaker0: season of your life, to keep falling in love with Him, to keep
32:55
Speaker0: striving by the power of the Spirit to be the man of God, the woman
32:59
Speaker0: of God, to serve in the church, to believe for the advancement of the kingdom
33:01
Speaker0: of God. I'm just going to keep going, I'm going to keep going, I'm going
33:04
Speaker0: to keep working, I'm going to keep moving, and I'm
33:08
Speaker0: going to do it for the long haul by the grace of God,
33:11
Speaker0: by the power of God.
33:17
Speaker0: That prayer and hard work, man, they go together. I love
33:21
Speaker0: what Hudson Taylor said, I've seen many men work without praying,
33:25
Speaker0: though I have never seen any good come of it,
33:29
Speaker0: but I have never seen a man pray without working.
33:32
Speaker0: Hallelujah! Here's our prayers,
33:36
Speaker0: here's our effort. God is absolutely
33:41
Speaker0: opposed to us earning anything. He is not opposed to our effort.
33:45
Speaker0: He welcomes it. He said, join me in this. Work with me in this.
33:49
Speaker0: Be a part of this. Prayer and hard work is
33:53
Speaker0: how the kingdom is advanced.
33:57
Speaker0: It's pretty simple. Prayer,
34:01
Speaker0: hard work. That's how the kingdom is advanced in your life personally,
34:04
Speaker0: in your family, in your workplace, In this church,
34:08
Speaker0: in this region, in this area. The combination of those
34:12
Speaker0: things, man, are electric! That's where
34:16
Speaker0: change comes. But unfortunately,
34:20
Speaker0: too many of us are too discouraged.
34:24
Speaker0: We bought a lie somewhere along the line.
34:28
Speaker0: He goes back, if you read all of it, it's just way too much here
34:31
Speaker0: for me to do today. I wanted to so bad. I got to Yeah.
34:33
Speaker0: 3 other sermons right here!
34:39
Speaker0: But they get discouraged in it again. They get
34:42
Speaker0: tired. The work's too big, it's too daunting.
34:47
Speaker0: The enemy comes back and says, you know, they hear plans
34:50
Speaker0: that's plotted about how they're going to fight them physically. They're going to war.
34:55
Speaker0: One of the best passages of scripture, which I'll move
34:58
Speaker0: into in the Yes. In the weeks ahead, specifically 2 weeks from now,
35:03
Speaker0: you see the fact that they got a sword in one hand and a trowel
35:07
Speaker0: in the other. Working, warring,
35:09
Speaker0: working, warring, working and warring. And listen to me,
35:13
Speaker0: our war might be different now in the New Covenant, but it's no
35:17
Speaker0: less work and it's no less war.
35:21
Speaker0: But what I feel like today is there's just way too
35:25
Speaker0: many of us that's on the I'm not.
35:29
Speaker0: She still comes, but she gave up a long time
35:32
Speaker0: ago. The enemy's
35:36
Speaker0: bought— sold you a bill of goods, and somewhere you bought it. I'm gonna tell
35:40
Speaker0: you something, that's easy to happen. The enemy has been lying
35:43
Speaker0: a long time. He's pretty good at it.
35:47
Speaker0: Some of you are so discouraged you don't know what to do next.
35:51
Speaker0: Maybe you'd let us Pray for you. Maybe you just want
35:55
Speaker0: to come to the altar and pray by yourself and say, hear me, God,
35:57
Speaker0: I need help.
36:01
Speaker0: What a great challenge to us from the Word of God and from
36:05
Speaker0: Nehemiah's life, how when we're called to work,
36:09
Speaker0: we're also called to warfare. As we see Nehemiah
36:13
Speaker0: working alongside with others, he faces so many things
36:17
Speaker0: that come from the outside, come from, from the enemy,
36:21
Speaker0: things, forces that are not in his control, and also His own
36:25
Speaker0: personal thoughts. He struggles with those things. We,
36:28
Speaker0: in our own Christian walk, can struggle with those things, and they can sideline
36:32
Speaker0: us from what God wants to do in and through our lives.
36:36
Speaker0: I hope you have taken some great things from
36:40
Speaker0: this message and that we can put those things into process and,
36:44
Speaker0: and ask God to work within us to help us
36:48
Speaker0: to stand firm as we follow hard after him.
36:52
Speaker0: We're praying for revival and spiritual awakening. And so
36:56
Speaker0: as we do that and we align our lives with God's purposes, we're going
37:00
Speaker0: to see negative things come against us. We're going to see attacks,
37:05
Speaker0: and we're going to have thoughts that try to derail us from what
37:09
Speaker0: God has— his perfect and good plan. So let's continue
37:14
Speaker0: to press into what the Lord wants. Let's pray these things in.
37:18
Speaker0: And let's honor him as we seek him for
37:22
Speaker0: revival and spiritual awakening. Thanks for joining us again
37:25
Speaker0: this week, and we invite you back next week as we
37:29
Speaker0: have another message, another time in the Lord,
37:33
Speaker0: and we share how to become revival ready.
37:37
Speaker0: God bless you. Have a wonderful week.