Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Beginning of ministry at Ga-li-le- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: We've incorporated an extended time of prayer at the end
- 0:03Speaker 1: of the message, so if you feel so led as
- 0:05Speaker 1: we're opening God's Word, then you might keep that in mind.
- 0:11Speaker 1: We're going to do some important prayer. You know, if
- 0:15Speaker 1: I were the devil, I'd really be ticked off. I'd
- 0:20Speaker 1: be ticked off to see you here. I'd be ticked
- 0:24Speaker 1: off to see that you made it. I'd be ticked
- 0:27Speaker 1: off to see that you're engaged. I'd be ticked off
- 0:30Speaker 1: to see that you're thinking godly thoughts and dreaming about heaven.
- 0:33Speaker 1: I'd be ticked off. How dare you ponder God's story,
- 0:40Speaker 1: I would say. Don't you know I have a story?
- 0:43Speaker 1: I had plans for you. I had my eyes on you,
- 0:49Speaker 1: at least.
- 0:50Speaker 2: If I were the devil, that's what I would think.
- 0:56Speaker 1: If I were the devil, I would assemble all my
- 0:58Speaker 1: minions and my demons in my strategy room and I'd
- 1:02Speaker 1: give them your phone number, your picture, your email address,
- 1:09Speaker 1: and I would review with them your weaknesses one by one.
- 1:17Speaker 1: I would tell my staff about your bouts with doubt.
- 1:24Speaker 1: how I all but had you convinced that the Bible
- 1:27Speaker 1: was a joke. And now look at you, you and
- 1:31Speaker 1: your faith in God's word. That's what I would think.
- 1:36Speaker 1: So if I were the devil, I'd try a new approach.
- 1:48Speaker 1: I think I would try to take your joy I'd
- 1:53Speaker 1: try to load you with so much anxiety and fear
- 1:56Speaker 1: and dread and trepidation that you couldn't sleep at night.
- 2:03Speaker 1: The devil knows he can't touch your salvation because you're
- 2:07Speaker 1: a child of God bought with the blood of Christ.
- 2:10Speaker 1: And no one can snatch you from your father's hands.
- 2:14Speaker 1: He can't take your salvation, but boy, he can take
- 2:16Speaker 1: the spring from your step and the sleep from your night.
- 2:21Speaker 1: and the love from your relationships. So if I were
- 2:25Speaker 1: the devil, I might come at you from the intellectual approach.
- 2:32Speaker 1: I might use that professorial tone of voice and say,
- 2:36Speaker 1: do you really believe that the Bible is God's word?
- 2:43Speaker 1: Don't you know that sophisticated thinkers Mature philosophical thinkers have
- 2:53Speaker 1: long since dismissed the novelty, the folly of Jesus coming
- 3:00Speaker 1: out of the tomb. You don't believe that, do you?
- 3:04Speaker 1: You're smarter than that. You're more sophisticated. You're more educated. You're... Or...
- 3:18Speaker 1: if I were the devil, I might download a dump
- 3:24Speaker 1: truck of guilt on you.
- 3:27Speaker 2: Stinky, toxic, lethal.
- 3:34Speaker 3: Guilt.
- 3:38Speaker 1: And I would, every time you step forward in faith,
- 3:41Speaker 1: I would remind you of the times you fell, the
- 3:45Speaker 1: times you stumbled.
- 3:46Speaker 2: Just last week, just two.
- 3:49Speaker 1: Decades ago I'd just keep that scrapbook of sin circulating
- 3:54Speaker 1: through your mind and I would whisper you really think
- 3:58Speaker 1: there's enough grace in the world to cover you.
- 4:05Speaker 2: I would leave you just in the shadow of a
- 4:09Speaker 2: doubt if I were the devil I would and if
- 4:17Speaker 2: that didn't work.
- 4:21Speaker 1: I would try what seems to be his most popular
- 4:24Speaker 1: tool of the day, and that's distraction. I would post
- 4:32Speaker 1: my minions on every corner, every stairwell, every office, and
- 4:43Speaker 1: they would load on you things to do, people to see,
- 4:47Speaker 1: tasks to complete, sales to complete. Assignments to complete. One
- 4:54Speaker 1: thing after another.
- 4:57Speaker 2: Do this.
- 4:58Speaker 1: Do that. Do this.
- 4:59Speaker 2: Do that.
- 5:00Speaker 1: Until if at all. If you even came home. You'd
- 5:04Speaker 1: come home exhausted. Worn out. Huffing and puffing.
- 5:12Speaker 2: Distraction. Busyness. Clutter.
- 5:17Speaker 3: Hurry.
- 5:17Speaker 1: Hurry.
- 5:18Speaker 2: Catch another flight. Write another report.
- 5:21Speaker 1: Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. Or distraction in the form of
- 5:33Speaker 1: what you read and see and entertain. I would Netflix
- 5:38Speaker 1: you to death. I would YouTube you. I would Amazon
- 5:46Speaker 1: TV you. I would Spotify you, Pandora you. I would,
- 5:54Speaker 1: oh my, my, my, my. I would suck you into
- 5:57Speaker 1: the vortex called Facebook and never let you out. I'd
- 6:03Speaker 1: lose you in that tangled cavern of Facebook, underground, disappearing,
- 6:10Speaker 1: staring at a phone or a computer for hours and hours.
- 6:16Speaker 1: Leading life.
- 6:18Speaker 2: Through a scream. Counting likes. Counting friends.
- 6:26Speaker 1: How many hearts did I get? Measuring self-worth according to
- 6:32Speaker 1: the number of people who looked at your Instagram.
- 6:37Speaker 2: Suck you in.
- 6:42Speaker 1: I would keep you so busy you'd never have time
- 6:46Speaker 1: to read God's Word. and most certainly never have time
- 6:50Speaker 1: to read the story we're going to read today. The
- 6:54Speaker 1: story that displays the strategy of the devil. Because he
- 6:59Speaker 1: knows if you know what he does, you might have
- 7:02Speaker 1: weapons with which to deal with him. But you know what?
- 7:06Speaker 1: I'm not the devil. And since I'm not the devil,
- 7:09Speaker 1: we're going to read the story. It's found in Matthew
- 7:13Speaker 1: chapter 4. Or if you're using your chronological Bible, the story,
- 7:19Speaker 1: it's on page 322. Then Jesus was led by the
- 7:23Speaker 1: spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
- 7:26Speaker 1: After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.
- 7:30Speaker 1: And the tempter came to him and said, if you
- 7:32Speaker 1: are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread.
- 7:35Speaker 1: Jesus answered, it is written, man does not live on
- 7:39Speaker 1: bread alone, but on every word that comes from the
- 7:41Speaker 1: mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the
- 7:44Speaker 1: holy city and had him stand on the highest point
- 7:47Speaker 1: of the temple. If you are the Son of God,
- 7:50Speaker 1: he said, throw yourself down, for it is written, he
- 7:53Speaker 1: will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift
- 7:57Speaker 1: you up in their hands, so that you will not
- 7:59Speaker 1: strike your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered him,
- 8:03Speaker 1: it is also written, do not put the Lord your
- 8:06Speaker 1: God to the test. Again the devil took him to
- 8:10Speaker 1: a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms
- 8:12Speaker 1: of the world and their splendor. All this I will
- 8:15Speaker 1: give you, he said, if you bow down and worship me.
- 8:18Speaker 1: Jesus said to him, Away from me, Satan, for it
- 8:22Speaker 1: is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.
- 8:26Speaker 1: Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
- 8:34Speaker 1: We are journeying coast to coast through the Bible, beginning
- 8:38Speaker 1: with creation, ending this coming May, Lord willing, in creation.
- 8:43Speaker 2: Revelation.
- 8:45Speaker 1: Last week we reached the continental divide and moved from
- 8:48Speaker 1: BC to AD. We moved from the Old Testament to
- 8:52Speaker 1: the New Testament. We looked at the birth of Jesus
- 8:55Speaker 1: and this week we're looking in the chapter that is
- 8:57Speaker 1: entitled Jesus's ministry begins. If you happen to have time
- 9:02Speaker 1: to read it or if you have intentions to read
- 9:05Speaker 1: it you'll find that this chapter includes some of the
- 9:09Speaker 1: most tender stories in the New Testament. Story of Nicodemus.
- 9:13Speaker 1: The story of the Samaritan woman. The story of Jesus
- 9:16Speaker 1: stilling the storm. But it also includes what is a
- 9:19Speaker 1: very supernatural story. It is the encounter in the wilderness
- 9:26Speaker 1: between Jesus and the devil. It really sets the stage.
- 9:33Speaker 1: It reveals to us what's going on in the cosmic world.
- 9:37Speaker 1: The conflict between God and the fallen angel by the
- 9:42Speaker 1: name of of Lucifer, the devil. And it reveals to
- 9:46Speaker 1: us the strategy of Satan. So we're going to focus
- 9:51Speaker 1: on that particular story. The name devil in Greek is diabolos.
- 9:58Speaker 1: The only reason that's important is the Greek verb for
- 10:01Speaker 1: divide is diabolane. So diabolos, diabolane, the devil is a divider.
- 10:11Speaker 1: He came to split. He likes to split marriages. He
- 10:14Speaker 1: likes to split friendships. He likes to interrupt communities. Any
- 10:19Speaker 1: place you sense gossip or tension or separation or hostility
- 10:24Speaker 1: or unforgiveness, it smells like the devil. That's the scent
- 10:30Speaker 1: of the devil. What he did in the Garden of Eden,
- 10:33Speaker 1: separating Adam and Eve from God, is what he wants
- 10:37Speaker 1: to do with every person. Separate us from God and
- 10:41Speaker 1: separate us from each other. He's the opposite of Christ
- 10:43Speaker 1: who said, love the Lord your God and love your neighbor.
- 10:47Speaker 1: The devil wants us to avoid or not worship God
- 10:50Speaker 1: or even hate God or doubt God and avoid and
- 10:54Speaker 1: hate our neighbor. He dwells in the world of isolation.
- 11:00Speaker 1: Loneliness is his payday. If you're lonely and separated, then
- 11:04Speaker 1: he's smiling and rubbing his hands with glee. He is,
- 11:10Speaker 1: according to the Bible, the serpent, the tempter, the enemy,
- 11:15Speaker 1: the evil one, the prince of demons, the father of lies,
- 11:19Speaker 1: the murderer, the roaring lion, the deceiver, and the dragon.
- 11:24Speaker 1: He's not absent from or peripheral to God's story. He's
- 11:28Speaker 1: right at the center. He was the angel who attempted
- 11:32Speaker 1: to usurp the throne of God in the beginning. Sometime
- 11:36Speaker 1: in the creation story, Satan had this thought. I will
- 11:41Speaker 1: ascend to the heavens. I will raise my throne above
- 11:43Speaker 1: the stars of God. I will sit enthroned on the
- 11:46Speaker 1: mount of assembly On the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon,
- 11:50Speaker 1: I will ascend above the clouds and I will make
- 11:52Speaker 1: myself like the most high. Lucifer wanted to write his
- 11:57Speaker 1: own story in which he was the hero and God
- 12:01Speaker 1: was the afterthought. But God was not going to let
- 12:05Speaker 1: him do so. Satan wanted to take his place, but
- 12:08Speaker 1: God was not and is not going to move. So
- 12:11Speaker 1: he said this, he said, your heart became proud on
- 12:14Speaker 1: account of your beauty and you corrupted your wisdom because
- 12:17Speaker 1: of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth.
- 12:20Speaker 1: I made a spectacle of you before the kings. Now
- 12:24Speaker 1: we cannot understand what in the world is going on
- 12:28Speaker 1: without understanding what's going on with God and the devil.
- 12:31Speaker 1: In fact, the reason the son of God appeared was what?
- 12:35Speaker 1: To destroy the works of the devil. That's gonna happen
- 12:39Speaker 1: ultimately today. in the inauguration of the new kingdom when
- 12:42Speaker 1: the devil is cast forever out of God's presence into
- 12:45Speaker 1: the lake of fire and his works will be forever destroyed.
- 12:49Speaker 1: And so it was that the ministry of Jesus began
- 12:52Speaker 1: with this showdown with the devil. By the way, the
- 12:54Speaker 1: devil wants a showdown with you. He wants a showdown
- 12:59Speaker 1: with you. He'd love nothing more than to bring a
- 13:04Speaker 1: season of attack upon you. Some of you are in
- 13:06Speaker 1: that season right now. He cannot take your salvation. But boy,
- 13:09Speaker 1: he can take a lot from you. And you and
- 13:11Speaker 1: I need to know how to respond. And thanks to
- 13:14Speaker 1: stories like the one we're going to read, we do.
- 13:18Speaker 1: The Bible says we're not ignorant of his schemes. We
- 13:22Speaker 1: know what he's up to. When General George Patton counterattacked
- 13:25Speaker 1: Field Marshal Rommel in World War II, Patton is reported
- 13:29Speaker 1: to have shouted, I read your book.
- 13:33Speaker 2: Because he had.
- 13:34Speaker 1: Read a book written by Rommel entitled Infantry Attacks. He
- 13:39Speaker 1: knew the German leader's strategy and he planned his moves accordingly.
- 13:43Speaker 1: We can look at the devil and we say, you
- 13:45Speaker 1: know what? I read about you and I know what
- 13:48Speaker 1: you're going to do. We know, for example, that Satan
- 13:51Speaker 1: will attack weak spots first. If you want to fill
- 13:55Speaker 1: in blanks, that's your cue. He will attack weak spots first.
- 14:02Speaker 1: 40 days of fasting had left Jesus famished.
- 14:07Speaker 2: So Satan.
- 14:08Speaker 1: knowing the stomach of Jesus was empty, began with the
- 14:13Speaker 1: temptation to turn stones into what? Into bread.
- 14:17Speaker 2: Just the word bread would be appealing. It was a
- 14:20Speaker 2: weak spot.
- 14:22Speaker 1: He knew Jesus was hungry. He knew the stomach of
- 14:26Speaker 1: Jesus was empty. Where are you empty? Where are you empty?
- 14:35Speaker 1: Are you hungry for something? Are you hungry for approval?
- 14:40Speaker 1: Are you hungry for financial success? Are you hungry for intimacy?
- 14:48Speaker 1: Are you hungry for community? Are you hungry for a
- 14:51Speaker 1: father's approval? Are you hungry for acceptance? Are you hungry
- 14:56Speaker 1: for something? I would suggest to you the devil knows
- 15:02Speaker 1: your weak spot and he knows my weak spots. He
- 15:06Speaker 1: would say to us, now go turn stones into bread.
- 15:08Speaker 1: In other words, fix it yourself. Take matters into your
- 15:12Speaker 1: own hands. The response of Jesus is, no. When it
- 15:17Speaker 1: comes to bread, you say, give us this day our
- 15:19Speaker 1: daily bread. In other words, go to God with these needs.
- 15:23Speaker 1: So the rule of thumb is, take your weak spots
- 15:28Speaker 1: to Christ before the devil uses them against you. Acknowledge this.
- 15:34Speaker 1: This is a struggle that I have. This is a
- 15:36Speaker 1: challenge that I have. Lord, I give it to you
- 15:39Speaker 1: so that when the devil tries to take it or
- 15:42Speaker 1: take advantage of it, you've already given it to Christ. Now,
- 15:47Speaker 1: if that doesn't work, Satan will do this. He will
- 15:50Speaker 1: raise a question about identity. He'll leave you second guessing
- 15:56Speaker 1: your place in the family of God. To Jesus, he said,
- 16:01Speaker 1: if you are the son of God, In other words,
- 16:06Speaker 1: you need to prove it. Let's see some kind of demonstration.
- 16:12Speaker 1: Let me see your resume. Let's see what you can
- 16:15Speaker 1: do if you are really the son of God. Satan
- 16:20Speaker 1: loves to leave us questioning if we are really in
- 16:24Speaker 1: the family of God or not. And he wants us
- 16:28Speaker 1: to think that if we're in the family of God,
- 16:32Speaker 1: we have to prove it, occasionally prove it, By doing
- 16:35Speaker 1: something more, perform more, achieve more, accomplish more. If he
- 16:43Speaker 1: can make you think that your relationship with God or
- 16:47Speaker 1: your place in the family of God depends on you,
- 16:50Speaker 1: he has you because you're not and I'm not strong enough.
- 16:55Speaker 1: We're gonna mess up. The wonderful call of the Christian
- 16:59Speaker 1: faith is that our relationship with God depends upon God.
- 17:04Speaker 1: not upon us. And everything we do is because God
- 17:08Speaker 1: loves us, not in order to get God to love us.
- 17:12Speaker 1: You can say amen to that if you want to.
- 17:15Speaker 1: That's huge. That's huge. Satan wants us to buy into
- 17:21Speaker 1: a system that's called legalism. Legalism says, do more and
- 17:29Speaker 1: God might love you. Legalism is a pursuit of innocence,
- 17:34Speaker 1: not a pursuit of forgiveness. Legalism says, I've got to
- 17:39Speaker 1: be busy for God and hopefully God will accept me
- 17:43Speaker 1: and maybe, perhaps, someday.
- 17:45Speaker 2: He will save me.
- 17:47Speaker 1: The wonderful message of grace is God has already looked
- 17:50Speaker 1: at your life and he has decided to buy you
- 17:53Speaker 1: and equip you and claim you for his kingdom. Satan
- 17:57Speaker 1: comes along and says, well, that may be true, but
- 18:00Speaker 1: you know... He looks for fine print. He looks for
- 18:05Speaker 1: fine print. It's what he tried to do with Jesus.
- 18:11Speaker 1: But Jesus wouldn't even sniff the bait. Three times Jesus repeated,
- 18:18Speaker 1: it is written, it is written, it is written. In
- 18:23Speaker 1: the book of Jesus, God's book was enough. Jesus said,
- 18:29Speaker 1: Reacted and responded to temptation by quoting scripture. Jesus reacted
- 18:37Speaker 1: to and responded to temptation by quoting scripture. You wanted
- 18:42Speaker 1: something fancier, didn't you? You wanted a little razzle dazzle.
- 18:47Speaker 1: You wanted a little lightning from the sky. Maybe a
- 18:51Speaker 1: few oak trees uprooted and flying, you know. Jesus responded
- 18:57Speaker 1: to temptation from the devil. By doing what you can do.
- 19:00Speaker 1: And that is, he quoted scripture. Take that devil.
- 19:05Speaker 2: It is written. It is written.
- 19:07Speaker 1: It is written. So when nothing else worked, Satan tried this.
- 19:13Speaker 1: He might tell you to show off in church. Now
- 19:16Speaker 1: this is going to surprise you. Then the devil took
- 19:20Speaker 1: Jesus to the holy city and had him stand on
- 19:22Speaker 1: the highest point of the temple. He said, if you
- 19:25Speaker 1: are the son of God, throw yourself down. We would
- 19:29Speaker 1: assume that temptation would be limited to the Las Vegas
- 19:32Speaker 1: or Madison Avenue areas of the world, but it's not.
- 19:38Speaker 1: Satan loves to tempt people in church. He took Jesus
- 19:42Speaker 1: to the holy city, had him stand at the highest
- 19:45Speaker 1: place of the temple, and said, now do something impress
- 19:49Speaker 1: me with what you can do you ever wonder why
- 19:52Speaker 1: so many religions are full of trying to impress people
- 19:56Speaker 1: instead of worship God now you know the devil's still
- 19:59Speaker 1: up to it he's trying to convince us he's trying
- 20:03Speaker 1: to pervert worship and cause us to worship people or
- 20:08Speaker 1: worship leaders, or even worship preachers, or worship somebody else.
- 20:13Speaker 1: All in the scope or in the arena of religion.
- 20:17Speaker 1: Because if he can get us to worship anyone or
- 20:20Speaker 1: anything less than God, he's accomplished his purpose. Now he'll
- 20:26Speaker 1: try one more trick. At least he did with Jesus.
- 20:29Speaker 1: He will promise heights. Promise heights. He'll promise first place,
- 20:36Speaker 1: the peak, the pinnacle. The devil took Jesus to a
- 20:40Speaker 1: very high mountain.
- 20:43Speaker 2: Up, up, up, he went.
- 20:45Speaker 1: Thinking, I guess, that Jesus would get dizzy from the
- 20:48Speaker 1: thin air. And he wouldn't think clearly. And then Satan said,
- 20:54Speaker 1: he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and
- 20:56Speaker 1: their splendor. And he said, all this I will give
- 20:59Speaker 1: you if you will bow down and worship me. Satan
- 21:05Speaker 1: hasn't changed. What does he want? He still wants to
- 21:09Speaker 1: be worshipped. Satan is a narcissist. He's an egotist. His
- 21:16Speaker 1: world revolves around himself. And he wants worship. He certainly
- 21:25Speaker 1: doesn't want you to worship God. He wants to be worshipped. Now,
- 21:32Speaker 1: I really don't think the odds are high that you're
- 21:35Speaker 1: going to go to some voodoo store and buy a
- 21:40Speaker 1: statue of the devil and take it into your living room,
- 21:43Speaker 1: light candles and fall down before it. I don't think
- 21:47Speaker 1: the odds of that are very high. It just doesn't
- 21:49Speaker 1: happen much in this culture. Happens in others. But here's
- 21:55Speaker 1: what I think. I think Satan is happy with convincing
- 22:00Speaker 1: you to worship anything or anyone short of God. If
- 22:06Speaker 1: he can convince you to worship a girlfriend or a boyfriend,
- 22:10Speaker 1: if he can convince you to worship a career or
- 22:13Speaker 1: a retirement account, if he can convince you to give
- 22:17Speaker 1: everything you have to get that lake house or that
- 22:20Speaker 1: boat or whatever. You see, when we worship something, we
- 22:25Speaker 1: depend upon that thing or person for our identity and strength.
- 22:30Speaker 1: That's what worship is. And we align ourselves with that
- 22:34Speaker 1: thing or that person. So the devil knows if he
- 22:38Speaker 1: can get me to worship a bass boat, then someday
- 22:41Speaker 1: that bass boat is going to rot and I'm going
- 22:43Speaker 1: to be disappointed. And he'll just chalk that up to
- 22:47Speaker 1: another victory. The reason God wants our worship, please hear this.
- 22:53Speaker 1: The reason God wants our worship is not because God
- 22:56Speaker 1: has an ego problem, but because he knows if we
- 23:00Speaker 1: worship small things, we'll be heartbroken. We'll go from defeat
- 23:05Speaker 1: to defeat to defeat. We'll worship that person only to
- 23:09Speaker 1: be rejected. We'll be heartbroken. We'll worship that career only
- 23:14Speaker 1: to be dejected and be heartbroken. We'll go lurching through
- 23:18Speaker 1: life up and down, up and down. And finally, when
- 23:21Speaker 1: we get to the final days of our life, we'll
- 23:23Speaker 1: be cynical and disappointed. We'll say life wasn't all it
- 23:26Speaker 1: was cut out to be. For our own good, God says, worship.
- 23:33Speaker 1: Worship the endless, strong, powerful, loving, radiant king of kings.
- 23:39Speaker 1: Let your mind be consumed with heavenly thoughts. Let me
- 23:43Speaker 1: indwell you and empower you. Because that is the bread
- 23:49Speaker 1: of life. Now Satan knows that. So if he can
- 23:54Speaker 1: convince you to worship someone or something less than him,
- 23:58Speaker 1: he has you. But now you know what he's up to.
- 24:05Speaker 1: Now you've read his book. Now you know that he's
- 24:08Speaker 1: a defeated devil. Now you know he's nothing more than
- 24:12Speaker 1: a West Texas rattlesnake whose head has been chopped off
- 24:15Speaker 1: and he's just squirming in the dirt, slapping his rattler around,
- 24:19Speaker 1: making a lot of noise. Now you know what to do.
- 24:24Speaker 1: The Bible gives you two tools. Number one, pray.
- 24:29Speaker 3: Pray. Pray.
- 24:32Speaker 1: Pray when the devil knocks at your door turn to
- 24:35Speaker 1: Jesus and say would you please.
- 24:37Speaker 2: Answer that.
- 24:41Speaker 1: You don't need to deal with the devil on your
- 24:44Speaker 1: own you don't need to go into some odd hocus
- 24:48Speaker 1: pocus exorcism closet and do some type of mystical stuff
- 24:52Speaker 1: that all you got to do is turn to God
- 24:56Speaker 1: glance at the devil but gaze at Christ glance at
- 25:01Speaker 1: the devil He is around, but gaze at Christ.
- 25:06Speaker 2: Pray.
- 25:08Speaker 1: And number two, arm yourself with God's word. Arm yourself
- 25:13Speaker 1: with God's word. Load your pistol with scriptures and keep
- 25:17Speaker 1: a finger on the trigger.
- 25:20Speaker 2: It is written. It is written. It is written.
- 25:25Speaker 1: In his book, God's book is enough. Jesus overcame temptation,
- 25:29Speaker 1: not with special voices or supernatural signs, but by remembering
- 25:33Speaker 1: and quoting scripture. That's it. You don't need to buy
- 25:38Speaker 1: and bottle healing oil from Israel. You don't need a
- 25:42Speaker 1: prayer shawl that the televangelist is selling. You just need
- 25:48Speaker 1: a Bible to read it and receive it. God's word
- 25:54Speaker 1: is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is
- 26:00Speaker 1: essential In this ongoing warfare. Pray long and hard. Pray
- 26:05Speaker 1: for your brothers and sisters. So according to the apostle Paul.
- 26:10Speaker 1: What are the two tools? God's word.
- 26:13Speaker 2: And prayer.
- 26:15Speaker 1: And this conviction. That God's spirit. Who is in you.
- 26:19Speaker 1: Is greater than the devil.
- 26:21Speaker 2: Who is in the world.
- 26:23Speaker 3: Amen.
- 26:24Speaker 1: So Lord thank you. Thank you for pulling the curtain
- 26:27Speaker 1: back on the devil. showing us what a wimpy rat
- 26:30Speaker 1: he is. We pray now for strength because he's been
- 26:35Speaker 1: messing in our world. He is messing in our world.
- 26:40Speaker 1: And Lord, we're praying that we can learn to deal
- 26:42Speaker 1: with him, respond to him. We reclaim the unity and
- 26:45Speaker 1: the promise that comes through Jesus Christ. And we offer
- 26:49Speaker 1: this prayer through Christ. And all who agreed with it said.
- 26:57Speaker 2: Thank you for watching.
- 28:33Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you.
- 30:18Speaker 3: You don't have to stay close. As long as you're
- 30:25Speaker 3: somewhere out there. That's enough for me.
- 30:30Speaker 4: I don't need to hold you near me.
- 30:38Speaker 3: Don't need promises to keep.
- 30:41Speaker 5: Just the thought that you are breathing Somewhere in this
- 30:45Speaker 5: world I see Even if I'm not beside you Even
- 30:52Speaker 5: if you never know There's a quiet kind of comfort
- 30:57Speaker 5: Just in knowing you still glow.
- 31:02Speaker 3: I don't need forever I just need you to exist.
- 31:13Speaker 4: You don't have to stay with me.
- 31:16Speaker 5: You don't have to feel the same. Just as long
- 31:20Speaker 5: as you're still out there calling softly through my days.
- 31:26Speaker 4: You don't have to look my way.
- 31:30Speaker 5: You don't have to be my home. It's enough to
- 31:35Speaker 5: know you're living in a world I'm not alone. I
- 31:43Speaker 5: won't chase you through the distance. Won't disturb your chosen life.
- 31:50Speaker 5: I'll just keep you in my silence like a star
- 31:54Speaker 5: that shines at night.
- 31:57Speaker 3: Through the dark and through the blue.
- 31:59Speaker 5: I still think of you.
- 32:11Speaker 4: Me you don't have to feel the same just as
- 32:16Speaker 4: long as you're still out there calling softly through my
- 32:21Speaker 4: days you don't have to look my way you don't
- 32:26Speaker 4: have to be my home it's.
- 32:29Speaker 5: Enough to know you're living in a world i'm not alone.
- 32:51Speaker 3: I don't need to be your light.
- 32:54Speaker 5: I don't need to cross your mind All I need
- 32:57Speaker 5: is just the truth That you're somewhere Still alive.
- 33:06Speaker 4: You don't have to stay with me You don't have.
- 33:10Speaker 6: To feel the same Just as long as you're still
- 33:15Speaker 6: out there Calling softly through my days You don't have
- 33:20Speaker 6: to look my way You don't have to be my
- 33:25Speaker 6: home It's enough to know you're living
- 33:32Speaker 3: In a world I'm not alone.