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Fight the Good Fight_02 - Two Realms · Good News from The Grove

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Hey friends, this is Pastor Ron, Pleasant Grove Church. Thanks so much for taking
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the time to listen today. And here is some good news from the Grove.
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We're going to get in part number two of Fight the Good Fight.
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We're going to kind of still lay in some foundation.
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We're going to get to Ephesians chapter 6, Lord willing.
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But talking about Fight the Good Fight, we're going to talk about two realms.
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I'm not going to do much of a review.
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Let's just kind of jump into this. I've got a lot to cover, so let's just kind of jump into this.
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Two realms, okay? God created two realms or two dimensions, maybe what you want to call it.
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He created two dimensions or two realms.
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The spirit realm, I talked a little bit about that last week,
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which is invisible to us, right?
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That's the part we can't see, but it's reality. In fact, God is spirit.
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I mean, all of this natural realm, spiritual realm all comes out of him, but God is a spirit.
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The spirit realm was created before Genesis 1. One, we don't have any text that
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I know of, maybe just little blips and pieces of it on the creation of the spirit realm.
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We just are confronted with it in Genesis chapter three.
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When that being that Eve is talking to shows up, he's not from around here.
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You know what I'm saying?
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Something's different about him. So you see it popping up time and time again.
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Sometimes this realm is referred to as heaven.
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You've got to kind of watch the word heaven in the scripture when it's used.
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It might be talking about heaven like the spirit realm or it might be talking
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about heaven like the sky. I just kind of got to work it out in context and what all that is.
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It may be referred to as the heavens or heavenly places.
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You've heard that idea that we're seated with Christ in heavenly places.
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He's talking about the spirit realm right there.
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Referred to by the idea of rulers and thrones and
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powers maybe some other term terminology too that
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kind of refers to that spirit realm and God's created
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all sorts of spirit beings you know Steven
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Spielberg ain't got nothing on God I'm just gonna tell you you read some of
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the things that that Ezekiel describes and all those kind of things it's kind
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of out there it's like okay but he's very creative with what he does so there's
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there's a spirit realm and then there's the natural realm for lack of a better
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way thing to call it let's just call it the natural realm That's like our world.
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That's the creation or what we may call the cosmos, that kind of idea.
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It's sun, moon, stars, all the trees, all the creation, so to speak,
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and also flesh and blood. We're here.
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The humans are here in this natural realm, right? This is kind of our domain.
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Adam and Eve were called to rule over this natural realm, right?
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You see that in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, and called to be the image of God.
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They had a job. Their job was to be the image of God or the representative of God.
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OK, a lot of people try to think the image like, OK, well, we're body,
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soul and spirit, God's Trinity and God's three. I don't think it's really going there.
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I think it's going to you were created in the image and the likeness of God
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and you were to be my representatives on the earth. That's the idea.
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So to be the image of God is to be a representative. Think about the word image.
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It's akin to the word like idol, that kind of thing.
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You know what an idol is? Idol is a representation of another deity, right?
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So one reason God doesn't want us to have any idols, he's already made an idol. It's us.
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If I can use that, not in a bad way, but he's made us in his likeness and in his image.
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And if we want to know what God looks like, it's supposed to be like we're to
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be able to reflect that or at least represent that. You know what I'm saying? That kind of idea.
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So the spirit realm, the natural realm. All right. So these two realms,
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and we're talking about fighting this good fight, so we're kind of going somewhere with this.
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These two realms interact and influence each other.
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The spirit realm influences the natural realm. The natural realm influences
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the spirit realm as well.
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Well, and these two dimensions, if I can call it that, these two realms were
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were designed originally to cooperate together in the fulfilling of God's purposes
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and God's plans. They're designed to cooperate together.
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Heaven and earth are meant to be one.
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Right. Heaven and earth are meant to be one. In fact, that's the plan of redemption.
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And the whole idea of resurrection life is taking us right back to that,
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to the new heavens and new earth, where the tabernacle of God will then be with
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man in the new Jerusalem.
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So heaven and earth are meant to be one. And the rebellions we talked about
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last week, we talked about three of the rebellions last week,
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Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 6, and then Genesis chapter 11 with the Tower of Babel.
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The three rebellions we talked about broke that unity between heaven and earth. It broke it. Okay.
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And Adam and Eve, in consequence of the first fall, the first rebellion,
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were separated from God out of the garden. Right.
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All right. So everybody tracking with me so far?
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Jesus came to reunite these realms the way they're supposed to be,
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the way they should work together.
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He came to reunite that. That will be his ultimate goal, to get those two realms reunited again.
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All right. Functioning the way God intended. That's part of why.
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Think about the words of redemption, regeneration, redeemed.
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Yeah, redo it. Do it again. Exactly. So redeeming, right? Okay.
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And the forgiveness of sin is how God begins to restore part of that unity for
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us. God's very interested in forgiving you of your sins.
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It was a high price that Jesus paid, but God is more than willing to forgive
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sins if you will just ask him.
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Because he knows that that is what's come between you, that rebellion and that
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sin has come between you.
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And the forgiveness of sins is about beginning to restore that unity between you and God, all right?
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All right, so now, let's get to us.
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How are we involved in these two realms? Humans are a unique fusion of both realms.
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You come from the natural realm and the spirit realm. You come from both.
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We're made from the earth.
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Dust you are, and dust you shall return, right?
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When God got ready to make Adam, the first human that we all come from,
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he then, he took the dust of the earth and he formed him, right? Right.
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So we have we've got quite a connection with the earth. You know,
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there's a lot of talking in like health world now about about people like walking
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around barefooted and getting grounded.
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You heard that kind of stuff, that kind of deal, being grounded or back in tune with nature.
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You know, you can go full blown hip and get a yellow bus with all that stuff if you're not careful.
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One of the buses with flowers, a long one, a short one. Well, we got all kinds.
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But but this this. And so there is an element of truth to that.
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We are connected to the earth.
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You know, you think about it. I mean, we're dependent on creation.
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Where do you think our food comes? It don't come from Kroger, does it?
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You know, it comes from the earth. We're very dependent.
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We need the earth, and it's part of us. But we're also made up of part of God.
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We're this fusion of earth. We're this fusion of dirt and spirit.
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God breathed into Adam, and Adam came alive. He got animated.
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So what animates us is the very life of God.
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That's what bios is. It's life is.
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It's a mystery to us. We kind of can measure it.
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We know when it starts and when it ends, but it's a real mystery.
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But if you get into Genesis chapter two, you find out what that mystery is.
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What is life? Well, life literally comes from the very breath of God and God
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breathed into Adam that breath of life.
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And that breath of life was so potent that it transmitted all the way down through
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all the generations and all the generations.
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And it's continued on all the way to you and I. And we're still breathing on
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that breath. He breathed in Adam.
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That's pretty wild, isn't it? Huh?
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So you're made up of both realms. You're made up partly of your body.
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But you also have a soul and spirit that's that's kind
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of the supernatural part of us all right that's spiritual part
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of us so we're not spirit beings i hear people say
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things like we're spirit beings who live in
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a body no we're not spirit beings we are human beings there's a difference okay
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we are human beings there are spiritual beings out there angels demonic forces
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heavenly hosts of all kinds different things like that we are human beings that
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have a spirit and we We also have a body.
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Okay. And God's very interested in your spirit, man. He's very interested in
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saving your soul. But he's also very interested in saving your body.
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You know that. You know that's what resurrection is about.
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I mean, like the resurrection of the dead at the end of the age.
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The resurrection is about God redeeming your body.
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Because when God bought you through the blood of Jesus, he bought every part
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of you. He bought your spirit. Yes.
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We're back in tune with God now. Yes, he wants to save your soul. For sure. For sure.
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But he also is interested in this body and he's going to redeem it and we'll
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have a glorified body at that point,
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That's going to be good. I'm going for an S on my chest. What about y'all?
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I want to be able to fly. I don't know about y'all. I don't know how that works.
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It's super wrong. That's right. Hey, whatever. Whatever. When it comes down
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to it, I'll just be glad to be there. That's all.
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We're created to live on the earth and to see God's kingdom work done here on
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the earth. We're created for that.
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So our future is this. a glorified body
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living in an under a new heaven and new
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earth in the new jerusalem that's that's our future it's
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our future all right so that we're this fusion
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of both realms that's kind of interesting i'd like to think of it like that
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so we're kind of uniquely positioned to kind of deal with both sides of this
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coin we're talking about all right so now spiritual warfare that's kind of where
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we're at with the good fight the good fight we're getting into this idea of
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spiritual warfare here soon when we get to Ephesians chapter 6 especially.
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Spiritual warfare is about the clashing of these two realms.
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We talked about the unity was how it was supposed to be, but things aren't how
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they're supposed to be. We all know that, right?
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And there's this clashing and we call it spiritual warfare.
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You're not going to find that term necessarily in the scriptures,
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but the idea is all over the place.
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You know, the wrestling against flesh and blood, fight the good fight,
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all those kind of things.
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Spiritual warfare is the clashing of these His kingdom is God's kingdom versus
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the kingdom of darkness. Right.
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And this this whole idea of spiritual warfare is focused on maybe more than
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this, but it's certainly these things. It's focused on bringing God honor again.
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Bringing God's name honor again. That's what Jesus taught us to be about.
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You know, it's focused on salvation of people.
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The spiritual warfare, the goal ultimately is, is to rescue the souls of people,
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rescue people, period. Right.
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And in doing God's will. will every time you do God's will and every time you
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obey you know that spiritual warfare that is a testimony that is an honoring
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of God and that is a message that is sent to the heavenlies as well.
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Now, let's look at a couple of places right here that kind of deal with the
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supernatural work we've got to do.
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Let's go here. You got the notes right there in front of you?
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What's that one? Mark 16. What is it?
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Mark 16, 15 through 18. You'll know this. This is Mark's version of the Great Commission.
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And Jesus, he, Jesus said to them, go into all the world.
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Okay, that's the world. That's like everywhere. But he's also talking about
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like the world system. You go into the world where the world system is dominant,
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where the enemy is at work.
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You go into that world and you preach the gospel to everybody,
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to every creature, everybody.
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Right. So we see in this in this spiritual warfare is what we're going to call
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this. This is the Great Commission.
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But the gospel is a huge weapon in that. In other words, the world doesn't know
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what Jesus has done. Somebody's got to tell him the good news.
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You were to go out there and preach. I'm to go out there and preach and talk
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to him about it. And it's not preaching like behind this desk necessarily.
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It might be over a cup of coffee in somebody's living room.
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It might be at a restaurant somewhere. It might be in passing or it might be
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in a church setting like this.
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It might be in a Bible study or at the office or, you know, go into the world.
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Wherever they are, that's where we're going to be.
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Mm hmm. Every creature. I think that's just a way of talking about humans.
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You know, I mean, I mean, you might can preach it to. I know a few dogs need
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to be saved. Act like they got some.
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Anybody. I anyway, Steve pulled up with a couple of the day.
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I think they for sure need to be saved. Anyway.
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Anyway. Verse number 16. Anyway, he who believes and is baptized will be saved.
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Now, that's interesting.
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He said he who believes, believes the gospel, the good news of Jesus,
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the good news of the gospel of the kingdom, he who believes and is baptized will be saved.
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Why is believing in baptism so important?
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Well, if you get into a study of water baptism, water baptism is is part of spiritual warfare.
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Water baptism is is a declaration to the family, to the people,
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to your friends and also to the principalities that, That, hey, I'm on Jesus' side.
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That's what it is. I'm on Jesus' side.
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And it's a declaration of whose team you're on, so to speak.
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If we can say it like that, right? Everybody tracking?
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Good. So he said, believe and be baptized, we'll be saved. All right?
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Now, the blood of Jesus is what saves us. But baptism is what declares that,
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hey, I'm with God. I'm with him. All right?
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But he who does not believe will be condemned. them now he
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gets in some of our of our ministry this this spiritual warfare thing
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and these signs will follow those who believe in
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my name they will cast out demons uh-oh it got supernatural all of a sudden
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didn't right there okay they will speak with new tongues what's all that about
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you know well we see a thing that happens in the book of acts with the spiritual
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language but we Well, so,
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you know, if you get Jesus in your heart, your tongue changes. Did like that.
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I mean, some words can get up, walk out of here. You speak with a new tongue.
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I mean, because, see, the fountainhead of the tongue is rooted down in the heart, right?
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And from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And when God changes
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the heart, all that changes, right?
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Verse number 18, and they will take up serpents. Okay, what are we going on
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here? That sounds like some of my folks in them hills in Tennessee, huh?
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What are we talking about? Is it that? If you're tracking the story,
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what's the serpent about?
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That's the other kingdom, right? They will take on the other kingdom.
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We could say that. Another place it says tread upon serpents and scorpions, it says.
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Those are symbols if you know the text. How did he show up and how did the enemy
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show up in Genesis chapter 3? What did they call him?
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It was a serpent, right? So it has something to do with that.
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And if they drink any deadly thing, it will by no means hurt them,
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right? Taking in all the deadly poison of the world.
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It's not talking about strychnine. I don't care what you say.
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You know, if you ever heard Jerry Clyer talk about some of that kind of stuff, it's pretty funny.
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Going to a snake handling church and all that kind of thing.
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You ever heard that deal?
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I don't know where you want. Where's the back door? He said,
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we ain't got one. He said, where you want one? That kind of deal. Anyway.
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They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. That's part of the ministry.
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Okay. Now, is it these signs will follow all the preachers? Is that what it says?
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These signs will follow those who believe. We're all to be a part of this spiritual warfare.
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What was the next scripture I've got written down there? Romans 16, 20?
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Romans 16, 20. Let's get there. 16, 20.
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So he's closing out his letter to the Romans here.
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And he says, And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.
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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. I expect him to say the God
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of peace will crush Satan under Jesus' feet. But whose feet did he say?
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It's your feet, our feet. So there's something, let me tell you,
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there's something that's going to be about the walk of the people of God that
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will just keep crushing and pounding the enemy down under your feet.
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That's what you walk with, right?
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There's something supernatural about your walk with God, that God will use it
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to literally crush down the enemy and his work around us.
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Lots more we can say about all that, but let's get back to our notes here.
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You good? Questions, comments before we move on? You all right back there,
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Sandy? You just snuck in on me.
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Oh, you're not listening to me. It's okay.
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She has to hear me all day. It's all right. No problem. All right.
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So now let's listen. Let's get into some practical stuff here.
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Ministry in the two realms. Okay. Your ministry, my ministry.
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And we all have one, you know, whether or not we're are
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doing it are good at it that's another story but we all have a
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ministry kingdom ministry has work to
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do in both realms okay what were the two
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realms again what are the two realms spirit realm and
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the natural realm so we've got we got work to do
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in both realms ministry in order to be effective must do the spiritual work
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and the natural work we've got to do both all right and i i got thinking about
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this and kind of the idea that popped to mind was like in modern day warfare
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you think Think about modern-day stuff, not biblical times, but now times.
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The way warfare works today is they send in the air attack before the ground attack ever comes.
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And the air attack kind of softens up the place so the ground attack can be
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effective. Y'all saw the movie, right?
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So I believe the same thing's true about our ministry, is that the air attack,
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which is the work we do in the spirit, the praying, those kind of things,
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It makes way for the ground attack,
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if we can say the ground work, let's say it like that, to be done.
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So why did Paul ask the believers everywhere he went, y'all pray for me,
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pray for me, pray for me that a door would be open, pray for me that I'd be
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affected, pray for me as I go into here and go into there. He said it all the time. Why?
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Well, he knew that in order for him to be effective in the natural realm,
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dealing with people and preaching sermons and doing all the spiritual work had to be done.
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But if you go into the natural work without the spirit work being done,
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what's going to happen? Nothing.
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Not much at all. Really? You see what I'm talking about? But if you go into
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the whole idea and you just pray and all we're doing is praying and we're not
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doing anything practical, what good is that going to do?
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And see, what I'm saying is we're not real balanced in these two areas.
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People either lean into the super spiritual type stuff and the real emotional
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kind of heavy duty stuff, or they lean into the real practical and say,
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ah, let's push all that spiritual stuff. That's just a little bit too weird for me.
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And they're handing out canned goods and all that kind of stuff,
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but ain't nobody getting nothing out of it except some green beans.
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What I want to do is hand out canned goods and then knowing and follow somebody when they eat them.
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You know what I'm talking about? Or do something in the name of Christ that
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absolutely makes a difference.
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It's in the practical realm, but somehow or another, because we've done the
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work on both ends, it becomes different.
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You see what I'm talking about? All right. So I got a couple of questions.
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What are some ways we do the spiritual work? We pray, right? Speak the word. Sure.
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Fasting, you see fasting and prayer in combination a lot of times in Scripture, right?
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Fasting helps temper you in such a way to where you can hear the Spirit in a more keen way.
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Sharper. Sharpens your ears. What else?
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Let's get to that in a moment. That'll be the practical side, the natural side.
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Sharing your testimony with someone in need. sharing testimony
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preaching the gospel that's spiritual work the
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word that's the sword of the spirit that when jesus got ready to deal with the
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enemy he pulled the sword out equal to deuteronomy boom boom boom boom so that's
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meeting them right there how
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about this do you do you know that worship is part of your spiritual work,
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Worship is very diverse. It's very multidimensional.
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But there are a lot of times in Scripture you see people singing songs.
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God had them sing a song or something before they even went to battle.
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Or maybe when they went to battle, they sang a song. What?
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How would you like to have been part of that crew and they told the band, y'all go first?
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Yeah. At that time, you're glad you're the tuba player because you're in the back.
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You see how this thing goes, right? But anyway, why would God say that kind of stuff?
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Because worship is part of our weaponry. Okay, so now think about this with
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worship. Hold that question right there.
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Hold it. Think about this in worship. Okay, we talked about the rebellions last week.
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Rebellion is when you exalt yourself against the knowledge of God.
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You exalt your will against God's will.
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You sin, you do your own thing. We've all been a part of that.
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We all know about that, right?
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See, worship is part of spiritual warfare in this sense.
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Every time you worship God, you are counteracting that idea of rebellion.
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Okay, now when you kneel before God, It is the very opposite of that rebellion,
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the very opposite, where you're humbling yourself before God.
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When you lift your hands and you do it right in the right spirit,
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you're not trying to be seen or nothing like that.
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When you lift your hands in worship, that is the universal sign of surrender, right?
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It always has been. I mean, John Wayne made it that way, I think. Now, David did, I think.
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That's the cowboy movies. Even the cowboys know about surrender, right?
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So it's the idea of what we're doing every time we worship.
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Because, see, we all still have that flesh we've got to deal with.
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We all still have that potential for that rebellion streak to come back any
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time. We know about that, right?
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And what we do in worship, part of that warfare is, is that every time we come
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together, every time you get an opportunity, maybe in your personal devotion,
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your car, riding, you just lift your hands or you sing or you humble your heart or you kneel.
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You're counteracting that rebellion that may even still be on the inside of
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you and say, no, I'm not with that rebellion. Boom!
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You see what I'm talking about? That's part of our warfare. and that's why there's
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so much warfare over worship, what songs we're going to sing,
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and are we going to drum or not to drum? That is the question.
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Some people are all fighting about all that kind of stuff, and the whole idea,
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the reason the enemy wants warfare about worship because he don't want you at
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warfare in worship. You see what I'm talking about?
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That's important. You've got to know it's all that. So worship's a big deal.
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What? You got something?
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I was just going to ask what worship is because we only see the angels sing
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at the laying of the cornerstone of the earth.
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Now the Bible does say that they worship, but it doesn't say they were singing. So I'm wondering what.
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Worship, the idea is worthy-ship. It's the idea of giving worth to God. Is that my phone? Okay.
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It's the idea of giving worth and honor to God. However you can do that.
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Now, through song, you certainly can do that.
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Through confession, you can even just do that through the posture of your own heart.
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You know, Jesus said it like this in different terminology. He said that the
23:06
greatest thing you can do in your life is to love God with all your heart,
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with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
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That's the first and greatest commandment. That's the greatest thing a person can do with their life.
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So you could break worship down into that whole idea. It's loving God.
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And how do you do that with your heart?
23:24
Figure that out. We've got to figure that out with all our soul,
23:27
with all our mind, with all our strength.
23:29
See, that's what I'm saying. It's multidimensional. It's not just the singing
23:31
part. Singing is wonderful. Because singing, if you do it right,
23:34
it can engage almost all that.
23:37
And heaven's going to be a singing place. Every time you open a book of Revelations,
23:41
it just sings to you. Somebody's singing.
23:43
Somebody's singing around the throne. Others are singing and people saying stuff to God.
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The Revelation song that we sing, it's going to be on repeat a lot.
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But we have a glorified body, so we'll be all right. Yeah, we'll be able to sing.
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That's right. That glorified body is going to tune some of us up, ain't it?
24:08
That'll be good. All right? So I don't know if that helps you,
24:12
but it's us honoring God in every way we possibly can. In every way you possibly can.
24:20
Else before we move on all right we got we got
24:23
some scriptures to track down here so that's some ways that's some
24:25
spiritual work what are some ways we do the practical natural work what'd you
24:29
say over here helping other people helping other people right jesus said the
24:35
second greatest thing you can do with your life is just as important as the
24:38
first and that's loving your neighbor right how are you going to love your neighbor
24:41
well that's a real practical thing right,
24:43
you love them through kindness you love them through goodness you love them
24:46
through you know charitable deeds benevolence feeding sheep that's what he told peter what's that.
24:54
Exactly you know why you need to learn love the unlovable because
24:58
that's what you were at one time and jesus loved you anyway you know so that's
25:02
that's you know you know why jesus said love your enemies he wasn't telling
25:07
us to do nothing he wasn't gonna do he said love your enemies that's the way
25:12
the kingdom expands is through this supernatural kind of love so that That comes
25:15
out in all kinds of practical ways now, right?
25:18
So what else did Jesus say about practical ministry? And it's not rocket science.
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How do we practically help people?
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We share the gospel. If they're hungry, we do what? We feed them.
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If they need clothes, what do we do? We clothe them. If they need shelter, what do we do?
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We find and get them a place, you know? And he said, if they're in prison,
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we visit them, go to them.
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You know, prison ministries today are great and all that kind of thing,
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But he was specifically talking about a certain kind of prisoner.
25:46
He was talking about those believers who get who during that time were being persecuted like crazy.
25:52
And he said, I want you to have the guts to bear witness of me and those people
25:56
that have been arrested for my name.
25:58
I want you to have the guts to go in there and stand with them on the other side of the bars.
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The possibility could be you could get in on the other side of the bar,
26:06
the wrong side of the bars. But you have the courage to stand with your brothers
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and sisters who stood for me.
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That's that's a whole nother kind of prison minister right there.
26:14
And to, you know, in those days, they didn't have cable TV and government meals.
26:20
Family and friends brought them all the food. So he said, you just have the
26:23
courage to go and take care of your brothers and sisters in prison that have
26:26
been arrested for my namesake. I think that's what he's talking about.
26:29
You take them, you take them to biscuits. But what if, you know,
26:33
you take them to go visit them. You see what I'm talking about?
26:36
See, that's a different kind of courage and faith right there.
26:38
That puts a whole other faith in the deal.
26:41
Anyway, all right? So you see the practical ideas. That's just practical every
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day, day in, day out, helping meet people's needs, whatever they might be, right?
26:50
That would be practical side, all right? So we got to do both of those.
26:53
So now, as we read these scriptures, keep these two realms in mind.
26:57
All right, now look at this. This is kind of our text that we're going to pick apart here soon.
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Ephesians 6, 10 through 12. Finally, my brothers and sisters,
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be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
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Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
27:13
of the devil. Now, we're thinking two realms here now again.
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For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. That's one realm, isn't it?
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But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
27:26
of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
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That's all that from principalities all the way to the spiritual wickedness
27:33
in heavenly places. That's all another round, right?
27:37
We're just thinking two rounds. I want you to see some others here.
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So what does Paul mean by principalities and powers? You got some fill in the blank here.
27:45
Rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Yes.
27:53
In your bible now this is not something we're making up he just
27:56
said that your fight is not against people right flesh and blood it's not against
28:00
people as much as people get on your nerves get in your way it just happens
28:06
don't y'all talking about we're talking about them people who just walking slow
28:09
and shoveling you know all kind of stuff we're talking about that sunday anyway,
28:14
all those those people are not not the enemy and he begins to describe them
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in all these different These are words that are used to describe the spirit realm we talked about.
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And if you pick it up on scriptures, we won't have time tonight,
28:28
but you start seeing these words scattered throughout, even in the New Testament,
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but also in the Old Testament.
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So Paul's theology is by revelation of the spirit.
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Up to this point in time, he's got the greatest revelation of who Jesus is and
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the working of the spirit. He's the one who wrote the book on it, so to speak.
28:45
God had him write the book on it. But Paul also has a thorough understanding
28:48
of the Old Testament. He's drawing from all of this.
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All right. All right. So now, now think again. Ephesians 1, 20,
28:56
21. Think two realms again. All right.
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And I'm jumping right in the middle of a thought here, but just for the sake of time.
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It says, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated
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him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
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Okay. That's that other realm. Right.
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Far above all principality and power.
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Okay. That's talking about that other realm. That's the dark side of that realm.
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And might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age,
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but also in that which is to come.
29:26
There's a lot of theology right there. But I just want you to kind of see the
29:29
idea that he's talking about, that what Christ did on the cross was not just
29:34
about forgiving your sins.
29:35
It had something to do with the spirit realm as well. You see that?
29:41
Verses 116, for by him, by Jesus, by Christ, all things were created that are
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in heaven and that are on earth.
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Visible, thinking two realms, right? That's the visible realm where I live in
29:52
that realm. And invisible, oh, that's that other realm, okay.
29:57
Whether thrones or dominions or
30:00
principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him.
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And all these principalities and powers, the scriptures in the Old Testament calls them the sons.
30:11
Sons of God, all those principalities and powers that we see even showing up in the Old Testament.
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They were created for the sake of Christ.
30:19
They chose to rebel against it, but they were initially created for his sake. All right.
30:25
And I'm trying to blow your mind tonight. So we're not even halfway there yet.
30:30
All right. First Corinthians 2, 6 through 8.
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However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this
30:37
age, nor of the rulers of this age, you see this phraseology is popping up all over,
30:44
who are coming to nothing, but we speak the wisdom of God and the mystery,
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the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory,
30:52
which none of the rulers of this age knew,
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for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
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Well, who killed Jesus? Well, that's kind of a long list, isn't it?
31:05
Right here, he attributes the killing of Jesus. Well, of course,
31:08
you could call the rulers of this age, you could call it, you know,
31:11
that could have been Pilate. That could have been Caiaphas, you know,
31:14
the religious leaders of the Jews. It could have been the leaders of Rome.
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But this verbiage, Paul uses rulers of this age to talk about spiritual beings.
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OK, so the enemy had something to do with the death of Christ.
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In fact, you remember at the Last Supper when it says that Judas,
31:32
it said that Satan entered into him.
31:35
He was behind the deal, wasn't he? Mm-hmm. All right.
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So now let's look at a few scriptures about that realm. And I'm just going to
31:43
probably look at a couple of these, and you'll have them in your notes for the
31:45
rest of them, all right? Let's talk about Cain and Abel.
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Now, remember the two realms. Now, we're dealing with both realms,
31:52
the natural realm and the spirit realm, okay?
31:55
Cain and Abel, a lot of revelation in this story now.
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So you know the backstory, Cain and Abel were both bringing an offering to worship
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God. Cain's offering was refused.
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Abel's offering was accepted. He was a shepherd. He brought a lamb,
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and God accepted that offering of Abel.
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Cain was a farmer. He brought some fruits and vegetables and stuff,
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and God didn't accept that.
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Now, it's not because it wasn't blood. I know preachers talk about all that,
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but there are all kinds of Old
32:27
Testament offerings where you can bring produce and you can bring food.
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It wasn't the actual offering.
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It was something to do with Cain's heart.
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God accepted Abel. Abel, by faith, it says in Hebrews, offered his sacrifice.
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Cain, some other kind of way. We don't have any revelation on why Cain did not
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offer up his in faith, it seems. You see? Okay.
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And Cain is livid about it. And Cain is kind of of the heart that he would rather
32:56
take his brother down than to change his ways.
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Okay. And God comes to him. him that's the
33:04
most interesting thing about the story of Cain and Abel Cain
33:08
is he's got murder in his heart God knows it and
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God comes to Cain to try to talk him out of this deal that's pretty big because
33:17
he's always the God who comes now okay Jesus is the proof of that so the Lord
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said to Cain why are you angry it's a good question and why has your countenance
33:29
fallen if you do well Well,
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if you were to do the right thing, will you not be accepted?
33:34
If you did the right thing, would you be accepted? What would be the answer?
33:37
I mean, God just don't like Cain. Is this the problem? No, God's defended himself right here.
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He said, No, man, it's not just about you. If you did the right thing,
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he's implying you already know.
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You know what you're supposed to do. You ain't doing it, boy.
33:50
He's implying that, right?
33:52
And if you do not do well, this is where the revelation comes in.
33:56
If you don't do the right thing, sin lies at the door. Now, we're talking about
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these two realms right here.
34:02
Sin lies at the door and its desire is for you.
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But you should rule over it. Now,
34:09
you got to kind of get into dig out the Hebrew to kind of get an idea.
34:13
God right here paints a picture and says, Cain, you're at a point of decision
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and you're at a point of temptation and you're really jacked up about this deal.
34:21
And you got to make the right decision here. But if you do not make the right
34:25
decision, I want you to know that there is a power.
34:28
There is a ruler. He calls it right here. He calls it sin in the English.
34:33
It says sin lies at the door in the Hebrew. That word means this.
34:37
It is the picture of a crouching beast that is ready to launch on its prey.
34:44
Sin is almost given like a personification in this Hebrew word.
34:48
And he says, you're one decision. Watch your step right here.
34:52
You're one decision that if you go into this, this is going to hijack and take over your life.
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You ever made a decision like that? To where all of a sudden, it's changed now.
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You're changed. And you're captive now.
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He is saying, Cain, you be careful. Therefore, there is something you can do in the natural realm.
35:16
You can make a decision right here and it will unleash a spiritual force against
35:20
your life that is absolutely going to destroy you.
35:25
Folks who've dealt with addiction and things like that, they know about that.
35:28
You know about that, that power that he's given sin right here.
35:32
You know about that, right?
35:33
And then all sins got addictive qualities to it.
35:37
But it's personified like a power. you see that there is he's coming to Cain
35:43
and he's saying Cain there's a realm out there that you don't even know about
35:47
son and there's a darkness out there and there's a spiritual wickedness out
35:50
there that is waiting to absolutely snatch your life away from you,
35:55
and he said don't give don't don't give don't give heed to that instead he said
35:59
you should rule over that but here's the truth either you're going to rule over
36:04
that or it's going to rule over you.
36:06
We all know that song and dance we've all
36:09
i went both ways with it you
36:12
know i'm talking about i made the bad decision and something launched
36:15
on my life and literally nearly destroyed it
36:18
but i've also at this stage in my life learned to rule over some things said
36:24
now you're not playing them tricks no more we ain't doing that you know i'm
36:28
talking about what i'm talking about out of these spiritual dynamics now so
36:32
sin is more than just a decision between right and wrong,
36:37
it can be the unleashing of a power into your life that hijacks you you see what he's talking about,
36:43
and if we had time and you wouldn't want to tip out of here we could all testify
36:48
to some of that couldn't we for real which is one of the ways now that i coming
36:53
out of some of that both since i I've before Christ and even since I've been
36:58
a Christian and even a pastor,
37:01
we have an empathy and a sympathy for people who are in that situation now.
37:06
And that that should inform your ministry and how you and your compassion to
37:10
help people and not be judgmental.
37:12
How could you be judgmental about somebody who's in sin?
37:14
How in the world could you be judgmental? Are you serious?
37:17
You know, that power ate your lunch one day.
37:21
And it's not that we excuse it or sweep anything under the rug,
37:24
but we've got a great empathy for people.
37:26
Man, I hate to hear that. How can I help? Seriously.
37:31
Anyway. All right. Now, let's see.
37:36
I need you to go on your own later and read 1 Kings 22, 6 through 28. And then.
37:46
Let me read 2 Kings 6, 8 through 17. Let me read some of that.
37:52
That's a very important story. Was it 6, 18? Is that what it said?
37:57
2 Kings 6, 8. Okay. Okay. Is this the one I want? Let me see.
38:04
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the one I want. Okay. Now, the king of Syria
38:07
was making war against Israel.
38:09
And he consulted with his servants saying, this is the king of Syria talking,
38:13
the enemy, right? Right. My camp will be in such and such a place.
38:16
And the man of God who was Elisha. Remember, we're talking about Elijah on Sunday
38:20
mornings. But Elisha is the is the successor of Elijah. Right.
38:24
And the man of God, Elijah, sent to the king of Israel, said,
38:28
beware that you do not pass this place for the Syrians are coming down there.
38:33
So Elijah or Elisha was giving intelligence basically to the king of Israel
38:38
saying, hey, this is what the king of Syria is going to do. Now,
38:42
how did Elisha know that?
38:44
By revelation of the Spirit. The Spirit of God told him what the enemy was going to do.
38:48
He gave word to the king of Israel and said, don't go here. So the king of Israel
38:52
sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him.
38:54
Thus he warned him and he was watchful there, not just once or twice.
38:58
And therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing.
39:02
He called his servants and said to them, will you not show me which of us is
39:07
for the king of Israel? Who is telling this cat where we're going to be?
39:13
One of y'all is selling us out. Who's spying? And they say, and one of his servants
39:18
said, none, my Lord, O king.
39:19
But Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words
39:24
that you speak in your bedroom.
39:27
This is before Facebook was doing all that stuff. God was doing this a long time ago.
39:34
So he said, go and see where he, go to that prophet Elisha. I won't take him
39:39
out. That's going to be a bad idea.
39:41
That I may send and get him. And it was told him saying, surely he's in Dothan.
39:45
Therefore, he sent horses and chariots and a great army there.
39:49
And they came by night and surrounded the city that Elisha was in.
39:53
You get the picture? They're going to take him.
39:56
And when the servant of the man of God of Elisha arose early,
40:00
sun come up, he went out and there was an army surrounding the city.
40:05
See him kind of on the hillside right there. He's got it surrounded.
40:08
Horses and chariots. and his servant said
40:11
to elisha alas my
40:14
master what shall we do what are we gonna do man they're everywhere these these
40:19
boys are here they're serious i don't know what we got i got three rocks and
40:24
a slingshot i don't know what we're gonna do you know and elisha's over there
40:29
making eggs and biscuits i ain't even worried about nothing he looks at that young man he says,
40:34
do not fear for those who are with us,
40:39
are more than those who are with them.
40:41
How many biscuits you want? You want your eggs scrambled? How could you eat at a time like this?
40:46
Oh no, man. We're going to eat breakfast. Just chill out. Don't be afraid.
40:50
There are more with us than with them. And look at what he says.
40:53
This seasoned prophet says, Elisha prayed.
40:58
And he said, Lord, I pray that you open up his eyes that he may see. at you.
41:04
The Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold,
41:07
the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
41:13
We're talking about two realms, okay? The natural realm was all of the Syrians
41:17
all over the place, surrounding the place.
41:20
And this cat that could only see the natural, he was freaking out.
41:23
And if you can only see the natural, that's where you're going to be.
41:26
And the world's going to be falling apart. And Jesus will look at this.
41:29
He said, I'm telling you, these things are going to happen. So you don't give
41:32
up. You don't lose heart.
41:34
Because if all you can see is the natural, you're going to lose heart.
41:36
And he said, God opened up his eyes.
41:38
And when he opened up that servant's eyes, he saw that there was another realm
41:43
that was dominant over the realm that he could see.
41:47
And he saw the chariots and horses or the host of the armies of God is what
41:52
he saw. He said, okay, we're good.
41:54
I'm okay now. The story goes on. You could go.
41:57
They come and get Elijah. Elijah strikes them with blindness,
42:00
sends them out to the... it's kind of comical, actually, in one sense,
42:04
unless you're the guy to get struck anyway.
42:06
What if God was to open up our eyes like that?
42:09
Now, I'm not saying we're going to see these kind of things every day,
42:11
but there are times in our lives where we need to understand there are more
42:14
for us than are against us.
42:16
What if we could see that? What if we could get a glimpse of that,
42:20
or even just from Scripture get faith for that?
42:23
Our country's not in good shape.
42:25
As Christians, we're starting to see persecution in our lifetime. time.
42:29
And if it continues to go down that road, we're going to see lots more.
42:33
What if we could get our eyes open to another reality of that spirit realm?
42:37
What if? It'd be a lot different, wouldn't it?
42:40
Some of what we do is we get faith out of the word. We see this.
42:45
So can I believe? I mean, I'm not fighting a bunch of Syrians over the hillside right there,
42:51
but can I get my faith lined
42:54
up into that and say Lord open up
42:57
my eyes so that I can understand at least even
43:00
if I don't see it I mean I don't I don't know if anybody's opened up and saw
43:04
that Ram anybody here saying that I don't know if you physically see that but
43:08
by faith can you believe that and that's a great question how do we get that
43:13
kind of faith well let me tell you this whether you believe angel armies or
43:17
whatnot I mean the scriptures full of that kind of stuff all right.
43:21
Did the Lord Jesus say that he'd ever leave you nor forsake you?
43:24
Did he say he would always be with you?
43:26
And if he's with you, well, he's got his angel armors with him too.
43:29
But if he's with you, what else does it matter?
43:32
You see the unfolding of the book of Acts. And the book of Acts is like a highlight reel.
43:38
It's like a highlight reel of 40 years. It spans 40 years of history.
43:42
And it's a highlight reel of those 40 years. So you can put together a pretty
43:45
good highlight over 40 years of time. I could do it with my life.
43:50
You could do it with your life.
43:51
He could look pretty good. A lot of normal days in between there.
43:54
But the book of Acts shows us a people who were on the earth who had that kind of faith.
44:00
To believe even though they were outnumbered in the natural,
44:02
in the spirit realm, God was with them. Yeah, sure.
44:07
But Paul comes along in the scripture where we draw our faith from. Okay.
44:12
We don't just walk by what we see in our natural eyes.
44:17
Because, you know, some people see things in the spirit, but it's just pepperoni pizza.
44:21
You know, we've got that kind of thing, too. But OK, Paul tells us,
44:24
Paul tells us specifically.
44:26
Right there in Ephesians 6, what we just read, that we are we are in a war with
44:30
principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness, rulers of darkness.
44:34
He talks about that. Right.
44:35
OK, so we got it. You got a choice to make whether or not you ever see that.
44:41
And hey, you may spend your whole lifetime and never see a demon.
44:44
You probably don't want to, to be honest with you. you know but do I have faith
44:48
to believe that that's the reality and how where do I anchor my faith in that
44:52
well it's in the text and that's where we not only take the Bible seriously
44:57
but we believe what it says.
45:00
In this room has felt spiritual opposition. Everybody's felt that.
45:05
You don't need to see it. You can feel it.
45:07
I'll tell you what, we could go take a ride across Lake Pontchartrain.
45:11
And if I got you and said, and I prayed over you before we got there and said,
45:15
Lord, I ask you to let them feel what I feel when I ride across the Lake Pontchartrain.
45:21
And there is a point on the bridge of Lake Pontchartrain where the switch in
45:25
me flips and I know I am in enemy territory without a doubt.
45:31
How do I know that? Well, it's a discernment. You just know.
45:35
And New Orleans is a wicked place.
45:38
It's extremely underneath. I mean, and that's just kind of a real easy answer.
45:43
I mean, we already know that.
45:45
I mean, they got chicken feet and blood slinging everywhere around there.
45:48
You know, but you go in there. I mean, you feel.
45:51
Let me tell you what happens to me, too, on the flip side of that, on the positive side.
45:56
But when I am off and I go travel or go visit Lily or come back and I come back
46:02
into my territory that God has given me to work.
46:07
I know, I know where about is.
46:11
And I, and when I get close, I'm not talking about the land,
46:14
I'm talking about the area.
46:15
It's that apostolic thing. When I come into this, this territory, I know I'm, this is mine.
46:20
And there's an authority that comes over me that I know I'm where I'm supposed
46:24
to be. You see what I'm talking about?
46:26
And I can work that. And I do have the ability to speak to things and do things
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and help people on a level that I don't have other places.
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I'm in somebody else's territory. That makes it. Well, you know, jurisdiction.
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We know that's that's kind of spiritual jurisdiction. You know,
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you just can't go over to Holmes County and do your thing, can you?
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And I can't go. I can't even go back to Memphis and do what I do here,
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because that's not where my my boundary of habitation is.
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That's a positive area, but I know that spiritually speaking.
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What I want you to do today, I'm not trying to get you to figure everything
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out. The Bible is a book to make you go, what in the world?
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So that you go home and you mull it over, you chew on it a little bit longer.
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Well, most people don't. They don't chew on it no more.
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They just say, well, I don't know what he's talking about.
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Where's the grilled cheese? Or you go home and turn on Dallas and you watch
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Dallas and you don't ponder these things.
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If you don't ponder these things, you don't get them. OK, because it's meditation.
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You got to think them through. And God's wired it up to where you can't get
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it the first time. Nobody does. You won't get it the 10th time.
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You won't get it the first five years or 10 years. It's a lifelong journey. He's got us on.
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What I want you to do is to get your spiritual senses and antennas up to know
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that you and I got work to do in the spirit realm. And we got work to do in the natural realm.
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You good? If you're not good, that's good.
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And I'm OK with that. We just got to work it out. We'll pray.
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All right, Father, thank you.
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All right, so your word just kind of challenges us in all kinds of ways, Lord.
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You got a particular kind of knowledge in the Bible that we're not accustomed to anywhere else.
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And Lord, your revelation is needed for us, not to make us weird,
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not to make us strange, not to make us floating off the ground or humming in
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B-flat and all that kind of stuff.
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Your word came to give us the food that we need to do the work that we're called to do.
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So I pray you'd help us, Lord. Help us to understand what we need to see in
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the spirit realm, not to get too preoccupied with things, but also not to neglect it.
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Help us in the natural, in our work, Lord, to know that we can't do anything
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unless you bless it and you give us the strength and you undo us with power.
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So help us, Lord. Help us to be a people that do what you want us to do while we live.
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In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.