While reading a chapter of the Bible every day is a great start, and you gotta start somewhere, because you've never read the Bible, that's a good place to start, but please hear me, it's just the start. And here's what I mean, we're gonna cover, what we're gonna cover today, and it's gonna be a lot, we're gonna cover the Bible, I mean, a lot, all right? You cannot learn that from, I read a chapter of the Bible once a day, all right? See, the Bible, and here's what I'm gonna explain, the Bible is one story, cover to cover, right? It's made of many different books, 66 of them, many different literary forms, a lot of different writers, and it was written over 1,600 years, but it is one story, and here's the story, of who God is, what he is like, and his intended relationship he has in mind for you and me when he created us, and then, when that relationship gets broken, we're talking about that today, at just the right time, God sends Jesus to repair and rebuild and make it possible for us to enter back into a relationship with God.
[00:39:35]
Everything that is broken and violent and destructive in the Old Testament is pointing the need for a savior to come and make things right, right? The Hebrew word is shalom, peace, as it was meant to be.
[00:40:50]
For the last several hundred years, the church has drifted into this habit, and church, I don't mean just flat, I mean across the world, of reading the Bible and then skipping over the weird parts. I don't understand that, that part of the Bible, because again, you read it, and it just goes, it's weird, it's crazy, it's impossible. It's unexplainable in modern day logic and thinking, but what we find are, some of the weird parts are the most important parts. And what we have to do is kinda change our mindset, all right? What did they believe when they wrote it, right? How did they see God, how did they think the world operated, and how do we interact with, with God? We cannot project our world view of 2025 onto theirs. We must bring their context into ours and make the adjustment on our end.
[00:42:00]
If I were to ask you, anybody in this room, or really Christians around the world, like, what Jesus, when the Messiah gets here, what did he have to do? Like, what was the mission of the Messiah? Here's what most of us would say, most Christians around the world, we would say this. Well, here's the gospel. I'm a sinner, it means I've fallen short of what God's told me to do, and the wage of sin is death, so then Jesus died on a cross, he paid for my sin, making it possible for me to experience forgiveness and eternal life with God. I'm saved by grace through faith and what Jesus did for me on the cross, and if that's what you were thinking, you're right. All right, you're correct, that's the gospel, all right? One of the jobs of the Messiah was to pay for the wage of sin that emanated from the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.
[00:43:52]
If you're open to that idea, that concept, that reality, and you're open to the idea that somehow Jesus dying on a cross can pay for your sin, and then you're open to the idea that there is a Holy Spirit, which I think most of us, right, right? Then you have to open your mind just a little bit more, and admit if there's a Holy Spirit, there's probably spirits not holy, right? At work, all right? So you with me, not. Okay, so let's keep going, all right? Job number two of the Messiah is heal the depravity, I'll come back to that word, heal the depravity of man through the Spirit of God. And you hear depraved, it doesn't mean you're the worst person ever, it's just you're as bad off as you can be, like your boat's going down, okay? The best way to think of or define the depravity of man would be when a person's mind, their thoughts, their values, their behaviors are being formed or influenced and controlled by spiritual influences that are not from the one true God.
[00:47:01]
This is the definition of depravity of man. Spiritually stealing, killing, and destroying men and women who are made in the image of God. Why would they do that? If you can't go after God, go after his image. This is why there's a target on your children. They remind the demonic world of God. The Messiah must find a way to reverse and rescue people from depravity and brokenness and heal that.
[00:51:44]
Jesus prophesies that he will do that by sending his own Holy Spirit. Like they're begging him not to leave. He says, I have to leave because unless I leave, I can't send the Holy Spirit. But when my Holy Spirit comes and lives in a person, that Holy Spirit will transform that person more and more back into the image bearer of God that they were created and born to be and to do.
[00:52:06]
Jesus fixes curse number one by dying on the cross, rising from the dead. Jesus fixes curse number two by sending the Holy Spirit to live and transform those who believe.
[00:52:24]
The job of the Messiah is to regather the scattered nations which he will do because in chapter 12 we meet Abraham. Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation and out of that seed Jesus the Messiah will be born. So when is that, when does he start regathering the nations? Skip way, way, way ahead, six weeks after Easter on the day of Pentecost. All of the 72 nations except one, Spain, Paul goes after them later, but anyway, they all gathered in Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost and while they're there the Holy Spirit comes, descends on them and the church is born and the beginning of the gathering begins as all of those new Christians return home to their 72 nations.
[00:53:59]
Every time that Jesus confronts a demon or an unclean spirit they know who he is. He didn't have to introduce himself, they recognize him, they have history, how much, centuries, and they're terrified of Jesus. They look at him and say what do you want to do, are you gonna do to us son of the most high, are you gonna destroy us now? Same demons, new day, true in Jesus day, it's true in 2025.
[00:57:17]
As good as God has done for you, if you don't do something with the seed that has been given to you, it will die. Not your salvation, that's secure. Your life, it will disappear. Nothing will ever change.
[00:59:16]
The mountain where Jesus meets with Moses and Elijah, the mountain of transfiguration, the mountain where God announces, just like at his baptism, this is my beloved son, listen to him. This is the same mountain back in Genesis six, where the sons of God came down and had sex with the daughters of man, and spread depravity to mankind. Ground zero. Jesus goes to ground zero, and picks a fight with the demonic world, and goes, you wanna fight? Let's go, right? And the demonic realm didn't know what he was talking about, but they played right into his hand, and in less than two weeks, Jesus is dead on a cross, and in a grave. In two weeks and three days, he rises from the dead, right? Because here's why. Because you can't have forgiveness of sin without a crucifixion. It's gotta be a death, wage of sin, right? And you can't have a Holy Spirit until Jesus returns to heaven and sends the Holy Spirit, and you can't have the church regathering in the nations unless the Holy Spirit moves in us.
[01:01:15]
Have you ever experienced, I might be the only one, but have you ever experienced that in a lot of religion, in a lot of churches, in a lot of Christians, they aren't really interested, they're actually threatened by what God actually might want to do? Because, and here's why, it's outside of their comfort level, that's outside of my level of understanding, but I call baloney on that. Hey man, all right, yeah. I think, I think we do understand what God might be doing. Here's what we know, if we follow what we know God is saying and doing, it will disrupt our plans and our lives. And so we either ignore God, or here's what we do, we ignore, we attack the people who are actually trying to follow God's voice. Am I the only one who's ever experienced that? Right?
[01:02:43]
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his house, his goods are safe. So in order for your spiritual life and the life of your family to be safe, a person must be strong, like fully armed, armor of God, guarding every part of your life. This is the verse I always teach to husbands and fathers. You must be strong, you're the gate, you're the strong man, you're the door. You must guard your home, your marriage, your children, so that they know they are safe. Because if not, spiritually first they're gonna get attacked and then by extension, what happens next? We'll hit your family, look at this. But when one's stronger than the owner of the house, stronger than dad or husband, right? When he attacks him and overcomes him, he, the strong man, takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils.
[01:04:37]
There is no neutral when it comes to spiritual warfare. There is no neutral, say that. There is no neutral, it's not kind of in, kind of out. No, you're out. You're in or out.
[01:05:54]
I was going through a bad time, my marriage was on the rocks, I was really addicted, I had bad mental health, I'm in a suicidal ideology, I was trapped in pride and fear and shame and insecurity, I was broken from something that happened to me decades ago that convinced me I'm just a weak, unlovable piece of crap that people used to get what they wanted from me and then they just threw me away, that's who I am. But then, then you met Jesus, come on, all right? And in that moment, in that moment, you actually believe, you were loved, like you might be lovable. You were forgiven that he actually wanted you in his life, that your past didn't have to be your future, you actually had hope, remember? You actually had hope and that lasted for several minutes. Maybe it stays, maybe you stretch out a couple years because when you met Jesus, here's what, your life was focused on, I can't do that anymore and I shouldn't do stuff like that anymore. That's what following Jesus meant. Here's the bad things I don't want in my life anymore and you meant it. But that doesn't change people.
[01:06:53]
When Jesus takes away your sin, that just gets you back to zero, back to the starting line, all right? It erases all the marks of sin from the pages of your life. But now you have to get to work, not to be saved. I mean, get to work intentionally to write a new story on those new pages. See, Jesus took away curse number one. He forgave your sin, but you never asked him to take care of the curse of number two. Hey, Jesus, fill my whole life with your spirit. Lead my life, show me what to do now. Not just what I can't do anymore, I'm forgiven. Now what? Your house, your heart has been swept clean by Jesus. But unless you actively decide what you're gonna put in that empty house, clean as it might be, somebody else will try to fill it for you.
[01:09:28]
A strong man, a strong woman must guard and actively fill their house, their heart, their family, intentionally with the things of the spirit.
[01:10:07]
The reason we, man, we look at porn or alcohol or try to get a big pile of possessions is we're trying to medicate something that is demonically broken in us. And the answer is not, well, just stop it. That's way too simple. Just stop doing that. I wish it was that easy, all right? No, the answer is, what am I gonna do instead of that? What am I gonna fill my life with instead of the demonic things that I used to out of my brokenness? I have to do something different from now on. There is no neutral.
[01:10:37]
So why did I spend the first 75% of this talk working through the history of sin depravity and why the world is so broken? And here it is, write this down. Same demons, different day. Same demons, different day. Because sin is real and sin kills. Because the enemy comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. Because even though you claim to be a Christian, nothing really changes long term in your life because depravity is ruining our lives and the Holy Spirit living in you is your only hope. And the church is Jesus' plan to bring us back together into community, to spur one another on, to link arm in arm with one another and go, you don't have to do this by yourself. He's at work in all three things right now. The Messiah is still about the same three agendas.
[01:11:34]
You said it at Caesarea Philippi. The gates of hell will not stop your church. We're gonna charge the gates of hell. We're gonna take back, we're gonna take back what belongs to you. We're gonna take back families. We're gonna take back marriages. We're gonna take back gender. We're gonna take back all these things that have been hijacked by this world. You're gonna use your church to bring the world back towards Eden. That's what we do. The only thing that can stop us is bickering and disunity and lack of forgiveness and lack of giving one another grace. And so we put down our stones. We link arms with one another. We say, we're your church. Here we are. Send us. We're forgiven. We're filled with your Spirit. Now we're an army. And the gates of hell are shaking.
[01:15:17]
