Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #24489 - How the Devil Comes After Us Pt.2 - Acts 25:14-27

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#24489 - How the Devil Comes After Us Pt.2 - Acts 25:14-27 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Amen.
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Open your Bibles, would you, to Acts Chapter 25.
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We're going to pick up what we left off last time.
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And this is Part 2 of the study that I've entitled How the Devil
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Comes After Us, and he certainly does.
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Now, when it comes to the devil, it's all too common for many
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today to blame the devil for everything.
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Like they give the devil credit for far too much.
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They they say it's all about, you know, anything bad that they
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do, it's because the devil made me do it.
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Can I just tell you, you can never say that the devil didn't
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make you do anything. It's always your responsibility.
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Did you know that in a culture that minimizes personal
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responsibility, the Bible reminds us that God always lays
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the responsibility upon the person that makes the decision?
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I didn't get one. Amen on that.
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But you just need to know it anyway.
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You have to understand because in the culture you live in that
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there is, you know, the culture, the world, as we'll see in a
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moment, always has a replacement for the truth of God's word.
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There's always a replacement. There's always something that
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comes in to tries to undermine truth.
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And when it comes to personal responsibility, the the area
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that it seems to be used by the culture the most is that it's
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easier instead of taking responsibility to play the
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victim. And you don't want to learn to
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do that as the culture might teach you to do that.
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Now, I may say that you hear that today and you might say,
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wow, very, very insensitive pastor for you to say that.
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And if you're thinking that, I just want to help you understand
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that you would be wrong. It's not an insensitive thing.
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I'm not in any way minimizing the reality that you might have
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been a victim of something. Something happened to you.
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I mean, in a real way, all of us have been victims of sin,
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whether it's our own sin or someone else's sin.
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It's not that. Of course we walk around wounded
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and hurt. But to take that on as an
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identity, to undermine personal responsibility is not the Lord's
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will for your life. And do you want to learn to take
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respite? You can't blame the devil.
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You can't blame someone else. It's the beginning of change
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really takes place when you and I take responsibility and we
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come to the Lord and we coming and we clean.
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We come clean before the Lord. Now when we're looking at the
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devil and we are in these studies, we're seeing the
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different areas of His life as he comes against us and comes at
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us. But the devil is not our biggest
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problem. You are the biggest problem.
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I'm my biggest problem. There's actually a threefold
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enemy that we have, not just the devil.
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So if you're taking notes, let me remind you of what the Bible
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teaches this threefold enemy in our life.
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Number one, we deal with the world.
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Or if you're thinking of the world, don't think of the globe,
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but rather think of culture. Or another way I like to to
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teach this is think about the atmosphere in which you live.
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What you take in the news media, television work, people's
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opinions, social media. Think about the atmosphere.
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The atmosphere in which you live is basically Antichrist, and we
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live in it. We work in it, we play in it, we
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breathe it in, we breathe it out.
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It's Antichrist and we have to have our eyes wide open.
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Here's what the Bible says. First, John chapter 2, verse 15,
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do not love the world or the things in the world.
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If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in
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him. So there's a compete, a
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competition of your love and your devotion and your
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commitment. And it's either the world, like
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the world's, always sending this message that this is all there
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is, this is all there is, this is all there is.
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And God is always reminding us that there's a coming Kingdom
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and a coming king that will make everything right and put
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everything back in order. And so you and I, we have a
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choice of what to love and where to give our devotion.
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Watch out for the world system. Secondly, we not only have the
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world, but secondly, we deal with our flesh, which is our
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biggest problem. That's our biggest problem, the
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flesh, and it's not just the skin.
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You know, I like to use the skin as a reminder, but the when you
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hear the Bible teach about the flesh, it's not Speaking of the
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skin. The Bible definition, the
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theological definition. And I got this from someone, but
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I've now adopted it as my own. Here's the best way to describe
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your flesh in a way you will remember it.
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Your flesh represents your old sinful habit patterns or your
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natural reactions, your natural reactions.
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For example, some of you have a natural reaction of anger.
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You're just an angry person, an angry person so that if
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something happens, you get really angry.
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You start yelling, punching holes in the wall, whatever that
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might be. That's your natural reaction.
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The Bible will call that your flesh.
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And it's going to be really interesting because when we get
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in after the book of Acts, we're going to go to the book of
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Galatians. We're going to study Galatians
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verse by verse. We're actually going to go
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through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, because
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that's where we've been in Acts. It's going to be fascinating as
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you put the pieces together. But in Galatians, the emphasis
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in Galatians is not just legalism and grace, It's spirit
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and flesh. And you're going to learn about
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that. And one of the works of the
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flesh is the wrath of man, works of wrath, outbursts of wrath,
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anger. That's your flesh.
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So that, you know, you might go around and you're just an angry
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person. Everybody knows you're angry.
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You know you're angry. And your response is, well, you
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know, I've always been that way. OK, Well then just say what it
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is. You've always been a man of the
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flesh. Oh, no, Pastor, I'm an elder.
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I'm a, I'm a important person in the church.
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And you're a man of the flesh. You're walking in the flesh.
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And you don't please God in the flesh.
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I had this revelation in prayer last night, but I'll put it in
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the Bible study right now that the Bible says, listen, the
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wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
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That's what the Bible says. And some, you know, maybe it's
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not that, you know, you just like, oh, I've always been that
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way. Or you know, I'm just and you
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state some nationality, whatever.
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You know, I'm just this and we're just angry people.
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No, you're just a person of the flesh.
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That's our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is not the
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devil and it's not the world, it's me and not coming to God
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and coming clean before Him, repenting of my fleshly ways.
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Galatians chapter 5 and verse 24 says, and those who are Christ
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have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires.
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So you have a three fold enemy, the world, the flesh and the
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devil. We've been looking at the devil
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and but this is how it works. So if you look at these three
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things and you see the truths of of the scripture, let me show
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you how it actually how your enemies operate.
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This happens 99% of the time or so I I'm making that number up,
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but I'm pretty pretty close 9899% of the time.
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Here's how it works. You ready?
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The devil uses the world to tempt you into the flesh and
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then leaves. That's how he works.
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He devil uses the world to draw you into a place of sinful
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habits, and then he moves on because you take it from there
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and you'll deal with the consequences.
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You might choose to live and sin.
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You might choose to live in a perpetual state of compromise
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and weakness, or even worse, disobedience.
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And it's how he works. He just uses the world to tempt
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us, to allure us. Basically.
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The way he uses the world mostly is to lie to us and just
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constantly sin. Lie after lie after lie, waiting
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for the one that we believe. And then once you believe a lie,
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then you behave in that lie. I mean, think about one of the
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lies. God doesn't exist.
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And how many people do you know today that are living that lie
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as if God doesn't exist And they've just chosen they've,
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they've got different theories and different things and they,
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they have a whole alternative life that doesn't include their
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creator and sustainer a life of destruction.
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Now believers, you may not go that far.
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Those of you that are born again or have a walk with the Lord,
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you don't believe the lie that God that doesn't exist.
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You believe the lie that God doesn't care.
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And then you just kind of go off and you're like, I'll treat my
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wife however I want because God doesn't care.
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I'll go watch pornography because God doesn't care.
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You go pastor. I would never say that.
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I know you wouldn't say it, but you live it because you're
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living the lie that you believe. And that's how the devil
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operates. So we're looking at a little bit
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of how God, how the devil operates in this realm.
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And you'll remember last time we saw the five different elements,
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really we looked at 5 different ways that the enemy works.
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They're not exclusive, but it's specific to the season in Paul's
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life. Remember he's in a 2 year trial.
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He wanted to get to Jerusalem. He had this heart to preach the
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gospel. They warned him don't go to
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Jerusalem, it's going to be bad. Now he's living out the bad.
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He didn't care like they warned him it was going to be bad.
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He said I don't care, I'll do, God wants me in Jerusalem, so
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I'll be in Jerusalem. I'll take a good, bad, ugly, it
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doesn't matter to me, but he gets there.
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And now it's been 2 years of difficulty.
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I mean really, I think you could say that Paul is living out what
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Jesus warned Peter of. Remember what Jesus warned Peter
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of in Luke's Gospel chapter 22? He said, Simon, Simon indeed,
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Satan has asked for you that he might sift you as wheat.
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And that sifting of wheat speaks of separation.
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In this case, it's a very practical illustration of the
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sifting of the kernel of wheat from all the chaff and the husks
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that were on the stalk. And you would sift it and beat
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it and separate the two. And you get the idea that the
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devil loves to separate us from God, because if he can separate
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us from God, then he'll separate us from each other and he'll
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want to sift us through circumstances.
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A2 year trial is pretty serious. A5 year trial 10 year trial 15.
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It's very serious. It's constant.
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It's relentless. Remember, that was one of the
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elements we learned last last time.
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The devil's relentless. He doesn't give up, he doesn't
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let go, he doesn't stop. It's a constant continual.
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It's, I mean, you think about it, think about it.
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It's like, well, the best thing we could do, Pastor, is just get
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out of the world. If we could just get out of the
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world, we won't have to deal with.
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So let's just go move to the mountains, live in a cave.
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We'll never watch TV again, never be on social media.
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We won't even be attached to the air.
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We'll just live off the grid and don't worry about it.
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The problem is, is he's already planted so much stuff in us.
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We take it with us. It's all in our head.
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That's where the warfare really takes place.
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And so it's very important that we do minimize what we take in,
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but we also have to have our eyes wide open that there's a
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lot of it's already in US and a lot of it's in us because we
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invited it in and we live with the consequence of such actions.
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Sifting. That's where Paul is.
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He's in a place of sifting, wanting to separate Paul from
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his God, wanting to separate Peter, as we saw again, if
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you're taking notes, just by way of reminder, in Ephesians
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chapter 6 verse 12, it says we wrestle not against flesh and
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blood. So the battle is not with each
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other. It's a spiritual battle.
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Or again in Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse four, that we
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know that the Antichrist in in dwelt by the devil himself
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opposes and exalts everything above.
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All that is called God, all that is worshipped sitting as God in
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the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
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The devil loves to oppose the work of God in your life.
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You need to remember that so that the opposition is directly
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related and proportionate to the amount of work of God in your
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life. Some of you experienced things
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this week because of what was going to happen.
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Some of you, let's say some of you come to ServiceNow and then
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you're going to teach Sunday school.
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Well, you experienced opposition this week because of your
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commitment to serve the kids. That's where it came from.
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So what happened? Why I have such a hard week?
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Well, part of it is because you're teaching the kids.
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Some of you, you made a decision to get right with the Lord.
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Just you made a decision. You know, I don't like my life
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the way it is right now. Maybe right now you're in a
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major marital thing. Your husband wants nothing to do
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with the church, nothing to do with God, but you finally made
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the decision. I'm not going to let that hold
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me back, and I'm going to come and worship God whether you come
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with me or not. And you go Amen to that.
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That brings opposition. That's why many people don't
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make that decision. They don't want to deal with the
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opposition. But the enemy loves to oppose
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everything that God's doing in our lives, and we stand strong,
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as we'll learn. When we get to Ephesians, we'll
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spend quite a bit of time looking at spiritual warfare in
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depth so that you have a very balanced understanding of
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spiritual warfare. Not the weird stuff that's out
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there today, just weird, weird stuff.
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You know, like I remember years ago I saw with my own eyes.
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So some things I read about, some things I've seen with
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myself and I saw some dude on television on one of the
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Christian, so-called Christian channels he had.
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He was there fighting the devil and he took the devil by the
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hand. He swung around.
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Oh you devil, I swing around, I throw you out of here.
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If that really worked, why does the devil come back every week?
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I don't understand it. It's like the dude does it every
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week. The Bible doesn't say to take
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the devil and swing around your head and throw him out of the
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building. The Bible says resist the devil.
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And you know what the response is?
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He will flee from you. So you want to learn what the
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Bible has to say. So I mean, you could be swinging
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whatever you want around your, you know what, whatever that is,
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but it's not true. You don't win the spiritual
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battle living in lies. You win the spiritual battle
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living in the truth. And it's very important in this
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day in which we live because we're living in the days where
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just like the Bible says, it would be very easy to raise up
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for ourselves teachers that we want to hear that kind of give
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us a comfort level that even though they're some kind of
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pseudo comfort level, they're not teaching us the truth.
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So we're spending a little bit of time on looking at the devil.
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And one more thing before we jump back into the text is this.
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Just remember, the devil is not God's equal.
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Did you know that He's not all powerful?
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He's not in the same place. Like he's not the God's equal
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at. He's not God's equal at all.
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He's a created being. However, it is important to
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understand these two truths. Number one.
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Number one, you and I are no match for the devil in our own
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strength. I paused on purpose there.
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You are no match for the devil in your own strength, your own
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wisdom, your own thinking. We're no match.
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He is more powerful than us toe to toe.
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It's like I'll take you on devil.
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All right, let me step back six paces so I can watch this take
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place because you're about to get whooped.
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However, the devil is no match of the power of God that resides
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in you. As you abide in Christ, you are
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stronger. I want you to consider that for
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a second because sometimes I'll use the phrase abide in Christ
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and you go, what does that mean? Well, the word abide, first of
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all, we get this teaching from Jesus.
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He says if you abide in me, I'll abide in you.
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The word abide, the Greek word meno just means to stay, means
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to stay put. Once you're in something like
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right now for the last many minutes or on the radio or even
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watching on YouTube right now, you haven't turned off, you
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haven't left yet. Instead, you've chosen to abide
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in this room or under this teaching, You're just staying
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put. You're not moving, not running,
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not you're staying put. And one of the ways that you can
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choose to stay put is reading your Bible.
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When you read your Bible and pray, you're staying in one
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place at one time receiving truth, and I don't know if
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you've realized this or not, but it's worth repeating or hearing
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for the first time. When you are reading your Bible,
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you are not looking at pornography.
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At the same time, you're not. So far I haven't had anyone
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e-mail me or text me and say Ed, I do it all the time.
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You don't because you're in the Word and the Word itself is the
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power to keep you away from sin. I mean, you, you think about it,
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it minimizes it, it, it minimizes temptation, keeps you
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out of sin and replaces lies with the truth so that the more
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you're in the word of God, the less you are sinning.
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Not just some big sin like pornography.
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I, I, it could be anything. It could be that what we talked
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about earlier with anger, but you got to understand abiding
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will keep you from sin. Being here today, 90 minutes, 90
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minutes of refuge, 90 minutes of rest has kept you from sin and
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has even given you the strength for some of you kept you from
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sin, but not temptation. So you got all these temptations
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and you're wrestling, but even being in the place where you are
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pointed toward God, you have been protected even from taking
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the bait of that temptation. Imagine, imagine the power that
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yours in Christ if you're out by yourself, isolated, which the
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Bible says is not wise. If I choose to isolate myself
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from the body of Christ, isolate myself from the Christ of the
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body, then I'm very, very vulnerable.
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And so remember this. You're no match for the devil in
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your own strength. However, he's no match for the
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power of God in you. When you abide in Christ, he
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can't take advantage of you. When you're in Christ, he can't.
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I think sometimes we identify again, we may not play the
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victim like the world does, but I see Christians play the victim
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all the time. All they do is talk about how
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bad things are, how send, how they keep sending, how they
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can't get over it. And and like, you need to start
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celebrating the victories. You need to walk out here today,
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especially if you're wrestling with sin and you're kind of
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stuck somewhere. You just need to leave here
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today, starting the habit. You know what?
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Thank you, God, for the minute you gave me a victory.
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Because you know what happens when you start thanking God for
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minutes? Minutes become days, days become
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weeks, weeks become years and years.
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They become your testimony of the power of God in your life.
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All right, let's get back to the text.
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Come to Acts 25 now with that introduction, which took most of
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my time, but it's very important because there's not much.
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It's just a narrative, right? With there's not much in the
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text. Sometimes you read ahead and you
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go, how is he going to get anything out of that?
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You trust me, I'll pray and I'll figure it out.
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You just keep praying for me. Verse 13 Now it says after some
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days King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet
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Festus. And when they had been there
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many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying
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there is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix, about whom
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the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me when I
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was in Jerusalem asking for a judgement against him.
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To them I answered, it's not the custom of the Romans to deliver
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any man to destruction. Verse 16.
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Before the accused meets the accusers face to face and has
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the opportunity to answer for himself concerning this charge
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against him. Verse 17.
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Therefore, when they had come together without any delay, the
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next day I sat on the judgement seat and commanded the man to be
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brought in. And when the accuser stood up,
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when the accusers stood up, they brought no accusation against
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him. Of such things I supposed, but
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had some questions against him about their own religion and
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about a certain Jesus who had died, but whom Paul affirms to
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be alive. So now that's just a repetition
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of what we learned happened last weeks.
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He called for Agrippa. Why?
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Because Paul said I need to go to Rome.
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Remember, He was said, why can't I just send you back to
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Jerusalem and you can go handle this?
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And Paul said, no way, I'm not going back to Jerusalem.
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I want my I am a Roman citizen. I want my day in court.
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And he was using his citizenship to progress the gospel.
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But we know behind the scenes, right, there are things in our
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lives that we see, but there are things in our lives that we
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don't see. And we know what we see.
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Paul standing there, he's saying, no, I'm not going back
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to Jerusalem. I'm going to Rome.
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Hardly, because partly because you'll remember when Jesus came
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to encourage him in his discouragement, he, he came
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personally to encourage Paul. He says what you've done in
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Jerusalem is right, great job, but you're also going to go to
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Rome. And I think that planet, a seed,
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it's like I'm going to Rome. I'm not going back to Jerusalem.
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That's backwards. That's sometimes in your own
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life, you have to think that I'm not going backwards, I'm going
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forward. I'm not going back to Jerusalem.
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Already done that. I'm going to Rome.
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But behind the scenes, what was happening?
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You remember they set an ambush up to kill him.
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So what's seen in the physical realm, which we don't fully
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understand what's why, why we might be making a decision or
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why going forward, there's something going on behind the
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scenes that God has taken care of and he's literally saving his
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life as he stands for what is right.
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So here, Festus, he calls Agrippa.
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He's knows that he has to get someone that's more important
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than him above him in the food chain of his leadership.
22:38
And he brings Agrippa in for help.
22:40
And he's like, I, I can't, I don't know.
22:43
I don't know what their problem is with this guy.
22:44
There's no serious charges. Everything that they said about
22:48
him is not true. I wanted to send him back, but
22:50
now he doesn't want to go. Now, this brings us to a sixth
22:55
point of the attack of the enemy.
22:57
But before we get to 6th, let me repeat the five.
23:00
Remember last time we learned that the bed of all the attacks
23:03
of the enemy seems to be discouragement?
23:06
And then we learned that he's relentless, never gives up.
23:09
Then we learned that he wants to see our lives ruined and
23:12
destroyed. We also learned that he loves to
23:15
use the tool of accusations. And then finally, we learned
23:19
last time that he loves to remove us from a place of
23:21
safety. Here's number six.
23:24
Satan loves. He loves to confuse the truth.
23:29
He loves to bring confusion. You know the Bible says in First
23:34
Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 33, God is not the author of
23:39
confusion. Let that sit right Now, those of
23:44
you that are confused, those of you that are uncertain,
23:47
uncertain about life, uncertain about the Bible, uncertain about
23:50
relationship, all the confusion in this room, I want you to
23:53
understand God did not author that confusion.
23:57
It didn't come from him. Now it comes from a lot of
24:01
different sources. Whatever confusion comes from it
24:04
is a convenient tool. Imagine this you're, you're,
24:07
you're discouraged and the enemy just pounding you like a
24:11
woodpecker. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
24:13
Just constantly never letting up.
24:15
He, he, he's moving you from a place of safety, so now you're
24:19
vulnerable. And then he gets and uses the
24:22
confusion in your life. Don't you think just those few
24:25
things would make you very vulnerable to being destroyed
24:28
and ruined and make a big mistake that you can't undo, a
24:32
big sinful mistake? I think it's very, it's very
24:35
possible that that's the environment where difficult
24:38
things happen. And he loves to use confusion.
24:41
He's the master at it. He's the master at confusing.
24:45
He loves to see Christians confused doctrinally,
24:48
emotionally, spiritually, practically.
24:52
The more confused we are, the less effective we are for the
24:55
Kingdom. Some of his most masterful work
24:58
is done in the church. But like, here's one that's
25:02
that's so common that brings a lot of confusion.
25:05
And I want you to associate confusion like how you feel and
25:09
think about something like it doesn't seem right with being
25:11
stumbled, right? Not stumble.
25:14
Like the idea of stumbling is you're walking along, you're not
25:17
paying attention or, or you are walking along, just not really
25:21
needing to pay attention and you get tripped.
25:23
That's stumbling. You get tripped.
25:25
You, What's that? What were you talking about?
25:26
This was safe place. I already checked the church is
25:28
a safe place. How could I, how could I be
25:30
tripping, fall on my face in church?
25:33
And here's how one of the most common ways in church that this
25:36
happens, somebody offends you in the church, another Christian,
25:43
they hurt your feelings, say something dumb, talk behind your
25:46
back, lie about you, gossip. I mean, it gets worse.
25:49
It could be something so simple and it can get go so worse.
25:52
And here's the response. I don't know what to do.
25:55
I didn't know that happened in church.
25:57
I can't believe it. I trusted her.
26:00
I trusted him. And before you know it, you are
26:04
so confused of something that is so common and it's in that
26:10
confusion you like start to think, you know, I don't like
26:12
this church. I don't like this pastor.
26:13
I don't like this. I don't.
26:15
Before you know it, you live in the realm of confusion when
26:19
here's the truth. This church, that church, any
26:23
church, every church, someone's going to offend you.
26:26
That's the truth. You shouldn't be surprised about
26:29
it. I didn't say you'd have to like
26:30
it. I just say you need to know it.
26:33
It's just the way it is even here, even standing here
26:37
teaching you a Bible, giving some off notes, comment or
26:40
something. You go.
26:41
I can't believe that pastor offended me.
26:43
He he said that to me. I didn't.
26:45
I can't technically, I guess I did say it to you, but not
26:47
personally. I don't have your name on here.
26:50
I don't have a big picture. Make sure you Jack with this
26:52
person and you got this person sitting in seat number six row
26:56
seven seat 6. I mean, so now you guys are all
27:00
counting to see. It's like I don't have it in
27:02
here. It's not there.
27:03
Like it wasn't personal. It wasn't on purpose.
27:07
But if you don't, if you're not careful, I can't believe it.
27:10
I just don't understand. I don't understand confusion
27:12
stumbling. I don't understand because
27:15
here's what happens with confusion.
27:16
You think that the solution to confusion is explanation.
27:21
If I just understood it, then I wouldn't be confused anymore.
27:24
But that is not what the Bible teaches.
27:27
The antidote to confusion is not explanation.
27:31
You say, Well, Ed, what is it? If I don't understand the whole
27:34
situation, what is it that God wants to give me to deal with
27:37
confusion? If that's your question, I'm
27:39
glad you asked. Listen to the Bible.
27:41
You ready? Here's the answer from God.
27:44
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.
27:51
That's the answer to confusion, the peace of God.
27:56
So you kind of police these all together.
27:58
It's almost like a Bible study in and of itself.
27:59
But if you piece these all together, you have stumbling,
28:02
you have a fence, you have confusion, and then you the
28:06
antidote is peace. You also have to factor together
28:09
now. Now that God is using peace with
28:12
confusion, you have to go over to Philippians and remember to
28:16
be anxious for nothing. So now you got anxiety and
28:19
worry, anxious for nothing. But in all things, by prayer and
28:24
supplication, with Thanksgiving, make your request be known, made
28:29
known to God. And the peace of God that
28:33
surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts.
28:35
That's your feelings and your minds.
28:38
That's what you think in Christ Jesus.
28:40
So you have all these together and you see with confusion the
28:44
enemy disrupts them all. And what he steals from you is
28:48
the peace that's yours. By faith.
28:51
That's settled peace. You're just settled.
28:53
I trust God. I don't know what's going on,
28:55
but I trust Him. I don't know how it's going to
28:57
end, but I trust him. It's the peace of God that
28:59
surpasses all understanding. Sometimes that's even
29:02
misinterpreted, like, well, it's a peace that you won't
29:05
understand. No, actually that's not true.
29:07
As a believer, you do understand peace of God because you know
29:11
Him, so you trust Him. It's the piece that passes all
29:15
understanding to everyone else outside of your life looking at
29:18
you. They can't understand it.
29:20
It's almost like that piece that's drawing them to your hope
29:25
and your settled piece. Because this is how it works.
29:28
People will look at your life and go, I don't know if I was
29:30
you, if I was living your life, I don't think I could handle it.
29:33
Boom, that's the open door. Because you would say, you know,
29:37
I can't handle it either. I don't know what I'm doing.
29:39
I don't, I don't understand this.
29:41
But I tell you this, I'll tell you what I do understand.
29:44
I love God because He first loved me and I trust him with my
29:49
life. And I can think, well, I don't
29:51
know what's happening right now. I don't know how it's going to
29:53
end. I don't know how it's going to
29:54
be solved. I do know this.
29:56
There's been 20 other things in my life that I didn't know how
30:00
it was going to be solved. And God took care of them.
30:03
And you might even share one of them your testimony.
30:05
Just want to that's where Paul is.
30:07
He's just sharing his testimony. You won't believe what's
30:09
happening. You won't believe what God has
30:10
done in my life. These guys are a bunch of liars.
30:13
Let me tell you something about the truth of God's word and the
30:16
power that he's shown. So watch out for confusion.
30:21
And that phrase I don't understand.
30:24
You don't need to understand. That's not necessarily the
30:28
answer. The answer may just be that God
30:31
gives you a peace in your lack of understanding or in your hurt
30:35
or in your pain or in your grief, or you trust Him and you
30:40
write it out. Or as we've learned in other
30:43
Bible studies, God gives you the perseverance or the endurance or
30:47
the Greek word Hoopa Monet to get through it.
30:51
You'll get through it by faith. We'll notice verse 20.
30:57
Now Festus continues to to describe the situation and he
31:02
says and because I was uncertain of such questions, I asked
31:07
whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there be judged
31:10
concerning these matters. But when Paul appealed to be
31:14
reserved for the decision of Augustus, I commanded him to be
31:18
kept so I could send him to Caesar.
31:21
Then Agrippa said to Festus, I also would like to hear the man
31:25
myself tomorrow. He said, you shall hear him.
31:30
So the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great
31:33
pomp and had entered the auditorium, the commanders of
31:36
the prominent men of the city at Festus command, Paul was brought
31:42
in. So he continues to describe the
31:45
scenario. He's sending him to Rome.
31:48
And in this his desire is to share his story with everyone.
31:52
He, he definitely wants to be found innocent, I think, but he
31:57
sees a greater purpose here that whoever he's standing before,
32:00
whoever is in front of him, he's going to share his life story
32:05
and point people to the life and the death and the resurrection
32:08
of Jesus, which is the call of God upon us.
32:11
Remembering, we learned in the beginning of the book of Acts,
32:14
the believers, the early believers were told to wait in
32:16
Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
32:19
They will become what witnesses Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to
32:24
the uttermost parts of the earth.
32:26
So that's the call of God on our life.
32:27
That's the call of God on Paul's life.
32:29
But one thing I found with evangelism and maybe even the
32:34
situation where where like Paul here, number one, he has this
32:38
call to evangelize, but #2 the situation of his life is out of
32:42
his hands. It's a very scary place to be,
32:45
isn't it? He doesn't know how it's going
32:47
to end. So far, so good.
32:48
He's still alive. He doesn't know he's been saved
32:51
by an ambush, by the way. We know that in the Bible, but
32:53
he doesn't know that. So far so good.
32:56
He's going for person to person and it seems like he's still
32:58
there even though he got thrown in jail for two years, house
33:01
arrest being restricted. Like the whole thing is very,
33:05
very difficult to live just like your life.
33:07
I mean, if we heard some of your stories layer upon layer, we
33:11
wouldn't know how to live your life or how you do it except for
33:15
your faith in God. That's where Paul is, the
33:20
stories in this room, the challenges, the layers, the
33:22
difficulty, the trauma, the home you grew up in, the divorce you
33:27
endured, the divorce of your parents, I mean on and on.
33:30
The list goes, just one after another after another after
33:33
another. This is the danger that we want
33:37
to look out for in evangelism perhaps, or even when situations
33:42
are outside of your control. Here's another way the enemy
33:45
loves to use and come after us, and that's by using fear.
33:50
If he can just get you scared, you have a tendency when you're
33:55
fearful to make irrational decisions.
33:58
That's just the way it is. We saw this in the last few
34:02
years with the government mandates and COVID, the real,
34:07
the real virus of COVID, where it created a lot of fear among
34:13
believers. And I, I've spent most of my
34:18
effort and energy as a pastor to try to keep everybody's eyes on
34:22
the Lord. And one way that I did that is
34:25
to, to teach you as a church to stop making fun of people that
34:29
are fearful. The fear is real.
34:33
It doesn't make any sense for, you know, making all the shirts
34:36
and you know, why are you so fearful?
34:37
God hasn't given us a spirit of fear.
34:39
Like, are you serious? Fear is a tactic of the enemy.
34:45
What do you mean you're not fearful?
34:46
Some people were so well, I have faith.
34:49
Well, other people don't. Well, I'm so strong in the Lord.
34:53
Not everybody's as strong as you.
34:56
You got to look out for more others more highly than
34:58
yourself. The Bible says, I know what the
35:00
Bible says. I know it says right here in
35:03
second Timothy chapter one, verse 7.
35:05
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power and
35:08
of love and of sound mind. So to everyone that might be
35:12
fearful day, like confusion, you know that that fear did not come
35:15
from God, it's not from God. And that God could give you the
35:21
courage to face whatever you're going to face that you're afraid
35:23
of right now. Standing before Agrippa,
35:26
standing before Festus, some unreasonable, unlawful thing the
35:31
government wants to do that instills fear.
35:34
Look, God can give you the strength to endure anything,
35:39
especially things that are outside of your control, and it
35:42
never represents Jesus well. When you make fun of people for
35:45
normal reactions to very scary things, it just doesn't make
35:49
sense. It's not the gospel.
35:51
The gospel is that He takes fearful people and He makes them
35:54
strong. So you should be like Daniel One
35:57
day. I would like to be like Daniel,
35:59
truly. But if you threw me in a lion's
36:02
den, I don't know that I'd be running around scared.
36:05
I think jumping on their heads or something.
36:08
I don't know what I'd be doing. But if I was in a den with
36:11
lions, I think I'd be freaking out.
36:13
And even if they were all like Kitty cats, you know, I still, I
36:16
don't know that I would pet them.
36:17
So I don't know what I would do. And sometimes that's how like,
36:21
you have to admit, like, you got these great exploits of faith.
36:24
You go, well, you know, if I was, I'd be like Daniel.
36:26
I hope I would be like Daniel. That's the right language.
36:29
I hope I would. I think I'm closer than that
36:32
than I was 30 years ago. But I think I, I mean, I know I
36:36
would probably, I, I mean, I don't even know what I would do,
36:38
but I don't, I, I don't know if I would fully be like Daniel.
36:41
So I have to remember this when I'm afraid.
36:45
That's a very vulnerable place for me.
36:48
I need to be careful when I get scared of something, when I hear
36:52
something and it scares me. When I see something and it
36:55
scares me when I think of what's happening in our world and it
36:58
scares me. I need to remember that God is
37:01
my Lord and he will help even in scary situations that God has
37:08
not given me that spirit of fear.
37:11
I created it or culture created it or like the devil used the
37:16
world to make me scared. And when I'm scared, I'm not
37:19
effective and I need to learn to walk in the wisdom of the Lord
37:24
has. I mean, I think of sharing the
37:26
gospel. You know, when I was a newer
37:27
believer, I was so scared to tell somebody about Jesus.
37:34
I was. So I didn't know what to say.
37:36
What would they say if they yell at me?
37:38
What would they do if I got it all messed up?
37:40
What if I did it wrong? What if I'm rejected?
37:44
On and on the list goes. But you know, I got over that
37:46
fear and then moved on to the new fear and on to the new one.
37:51
Like I got over it. I got over it just like you and
37:54
I, we will get over it. And just like looking back over
37:57
the last few years, we did get through probably the hardest
38:01
years of our generation, the hardest.
38:05
And to think that in the coming of the Lord, the closer we get,
38:08
it's going to get even harder and more difficult.
38:15
I want to show you a scripture. We didn't turn it all.
38:17
Turn over to Isaiah 41. As we wind down here, finish up
38:21
this chapter, I want to share this scripture.
38:23
I share it with my kids as I disciple my kids over the years.
38:26
I share it with myself. There's quite actually quite a
38:29
few verses. If you want to e-mail me, I'll
38:31
send you verses on fear. This is an area of your life
38:35
where God can just build up faith in you.
38:37
But this is one of them right here.
38:38
You might want to start right here.
38:40
Isaiah 41, chapter 41, verse 10. This is one of those verses you
38:44
can hide in your heart that God can use in scary situations.
38:49
Verse 10, Isaiah 41, Fear not, for I'm with you.
38:56
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
38:59
I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you.
39:03
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
39:06
So isn't it interesting? The antidote to fear is not God
39:10
saying I'll come in and change all your circumstances.
39:12
The antidote to fear is I am your God.
39:15
You're going to be fine. I am your God.
39:19
I'm going to be with you. I have a strength for you that
39:22
you don't currently have or feel or think you'll ever have in
39:26
that situation. And you will get the grace that
39:29
you need to endure the moment you need to endure it.
39:32
Isaiah 4110, come back now and let's finish the chapter.
39:37
It says in verse 23 the next day when Agrippa and Bernice came
39:41
with great pomp. If you like to write in your
39:43
Bibles, you can circle that. Sometimes we use that word
39:45
today, Pomp and circumstance. That means it's a big to do.
39:49
It's a huge, huge gathering. Historians would tell us that
39:56
Agrippa would come arrayed in his most expensive purple robes
40:01
and garments, and that festive would Festus would come to this
40:05
pomp with his scarlet robes. It was a big do.
40:09
A big deal. They come together and enter the
40:12
auditorium. Verse 23.
40:14
The commanders are there, all the prominent men of the city
40:18
are there. And at Festus command Paul was
40:21
brought in and Festus said, King Agrippa and all the men who are
40:25
here present with us, You see this man about whom the whole
40:28
assembly of the Jews petitioned me both at Jerusalem and here
40:32
crying out that he was not fit to live any longer.
40:35
I mean, the guys standing before the leaders of the government
40:39
with a death sentence like that, like they are saying that Paul
40:43
has committed something worthy of execution.
40:48
That's how he's standing there. Think about how you would feel
40:51
unjustly accused with the threat standing before the judge or
40:57
before the Supreme Court. But all the leaders, as corrupt
41:00
as they are of the government, they're standing there and
41:03
you're there and your life is in the hands.
41:04
That's where Paul is. If you want to get a sense of
41:06
the emotion of the moment, that's where he is.
41:10
And we all, we emphasize how strong he is and how faithful he
41:14
is, and that's to encourage us. But it's a very difficult
41:17
situation that he's in and has been.
41:20
But God gave him the strength. It says in verse 25, when I
41:25
found out that he committed nothing deserving of death and
41:28
that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I decided to send him,
41:32
which implies the possibility that Festus would have let him
41:36
go had he not said Rome. But Jesus said he's going to
41:42
Rome. He wants to go to Rome, so he
41:45
stays in custody. Notice I have, I have nothing
41:48
certain verse 26 to write to my Lord concerning him.
41:53
Therefore I brought him out before you, and especially
41:55
before you, King Agrippa, so that after the examination has
41:59
taken place I may have something to write for.
42:02
It seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to
42:05
specify the charges against him. So you have this big occasion,
42:11
you have Paul before these religious rulers on his way to
42:15
Rome, and Festus doesn't know what to do.
42:18
He can't find anything. And I love this word here in
42:22
verse 26 that he is examined. He's been examined.
42:27
The idea behind that word is he's being interrogated.
42:30
This poor prisoner is being going to be interrogated.
42:34
But as we see in the next chapter and we get there next
42:37
time, Paul's not going to be the one being examined.
42:42
Agrippa will be. His whole life will be laid bare
42:46
before this man that's been falsely accused.
42:51
And as we close with Paul standing before Agrippa,
42:54
understand we have two very powerful men.
42:58
You got Paul and Agrippa. Here is chapter 26.
43:01
Agrippa speaks to Paul in verse 1.
43:03
You have two very powerful men standing here, except that you
43:06
wouldn't be able to see it on the outside because 1 is in his
43:10
robe standing on the throne looking down, and the other is
43:14
in his tattered clothes or whatever, completely at the
43:17
mercy of Agrippa. But here's what you would see.
43:20
One is powerful outwardly, but the other is powerful inwardly.
43:26
And by the end we by the end of chapter 26, you've got Agrippa
43:31
who is sure and confident. The other is shaky and curious.
43:37
On the other hand, you have the power of God living in one man
43:41
and the power of this world system in the other, and they're
43:45
really no match for each other. Which reminds me of the final
43:47
point when it comes to the devil.
43:49
And you'll see it by the time we get to the end of the book of
43:52
Acts even, or just 26. And it's this, don't forget
43:55
this. Satan fights from a place of
43:58
weakness, not string. He's a defeated foe and he knows
44:03
it. He knows it.
44:05
There's no question. He knows that he's defeated.
44:09
So he fights from weakness and not strength.
44:13
Let's close in. Revelation, would you turn over
44:15
with me Revelation Chapter 20, just to remember, the devil
44:18
knows where he's headed. He knows that it's over.
44:21
He regrets, I believe, the decision he made in rebellion.
44:26
It's an irreversible decision for the devil.
44:28
He can't undo it. His life has been sealed.
44:31
And this is the seal. This is the weakness.
44:34
Yeah. He might be relentless.
44:36
He might use our discouragement. He might be destructive.
44:39
He might be the accuser accusing us day and night.
44:42
He might be taking us out of places of safety.
44:45
He might be using our confusion. I mean, if you think about it,
44:48
he got all these points to go. Whoa, wait a minute.
44:50
Whoa. What's going on?
44:51
Am I even? How can I possibly have victory?
44:54
Well, just remember this because the devil knows.
44:56
Verse 10 of Revelation chapter 20.
44:58
The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and
45:04
brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they
45:08
will be tormented day and night, forever and ever.
45:14
He knows, he plays. That's why he's so desperate.
45:18
That's why he's taking advantage of our vulnerabilities.
45:22
He's desperate, wanting to take as many.
45:25
I believe, like even as I close, there's some listening right
45:29
now. It's like, come on, pastor of
45:31
church, you don't believe in the myth of the devil, do you?
45:35
Not only do I believe it, but I've seen its destructive ways
45:39
first hand. I believe what God has taught us
45:43
in his word. And that may be the biggest
45:47
stumbling block in your life today, friend.
45:48
You don't believe God. You just don't choose not to
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believe him and take your life into your own hands.
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I think most of us have lived that way for at least part of
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our lives, like literally consciously living that way,
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doing our own thing. But God is calling you away from
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that. And I do believe in the devil,
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and I do believe in the attacks, and I do believe in a culture
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that's Antichrist. But I believe in a God that is
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greater that he changes lives and he's able to redeem even
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what we might think is unredeemable through the blood
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of Jesus Christ. So Father, we pray for the
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strength to persevere and to be strengthened in the inner woman,
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in the inner man. I know our biggest.
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I know my biggest problem is my flesh.
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It is not people, not situations, as difficult as they
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might be in my life. My biggest problem is me and and
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the posture of my life and the position of my heart before you.
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And so I pray, God, for that that needed strength to abide in
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you, that you might abide in me, I might enjoy and live a life
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that pleases you, Lord, truly. And I pray that for our church,
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we're not here to play games. God, you know, you know our
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seriousness. You know our commitment.
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You know our desire to know you. And so, Lord, encourage us as we
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are reminded of the victory that's ours by faith that we
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wouldn't take on a role and an identity that doesn't reflect
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the power, the majesty, and the goodness.
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We are new creations in Christ. All things have passed away.
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I mean, our old simple habits, they don't have to come with us
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anymore. You've given us a new direction,
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New Hope, new strength. And I pray, I felt like today,
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Lord, I pray for those in difficult marriages.
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That's a real thing. And I just pray over them right
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now. I pray God that even when you
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are doing a work of restoration that you would also soften
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hearts, give patience, strength, Lord Jesus name, Amen.
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We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study,
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delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
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For prayer, call us at 87730 Grace that's 877-304-7223.
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To listen to this message in its integrity or to join us for our
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live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
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or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.