Victory in Christ: Embracing Grace and Spiritual Warfare

"Romans 8 begins with this and if you're a follower of Jesus this is a verse you're going to want to memorize all of Romans 8 actually but Romans 8 1 and he says therefore there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death it's amazing but what Paul's saying it anchors us every time we gather it moves us to worship the way that we do it's because he says we're saved by grace we're rescued out of the dominion of darkness and we know that like grace, grace, grace, grace, grace and then we leave here and we spend the 165 hours left of the week and we instead of living in grace we spend it striving in our own strength and it's and striving only creates disappointment striving only creates this perceived condemnation God's disappointed with me I didn't deliver I didn't do what I was supposed to do and we come into a gathering like this and we sing these songs and the enemy puts this little thought and the thought is God is disappointed with you" [00:15:38] (87 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"God's not surprised by your failures God's not surprised by your weakness He's not surprised by your frailties in fact it's the very weakness that you are that He moves towards you to give you grace and this is why we celebrate communion every week because we're reminding ourselves we're not strong we're never gonna be strong we're never really gonna have this life figured out but what we can do is we can drop anchor in grace it's all we got He's enough for us He's enough for you" [00:17:11] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"And so make no mistake, the enemy is intent on getting your capital city, like the most coveted place of spiritual geography, which is your mind. Because what we said is if he gets your mind, if he gets your thinking, your thought life, then he gets your entire life. So it shouldn't surprise us when the Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 12 too, and again, if you're memorizing scripture, this is one you're going to want to just hold on to. It needs to be like right at the front banner of your mind. It says, therefore, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So the point is that the battle for our life, it begins and ends right here in our mind, in our thought life." [00:38:35] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"What I'd like to do, and what we said, if you weren't here, is we essentially said the enemy's coming in all the time, and he's just planting lies. He's planting deceptions in our life so that we'll shipwreck our life, so that we'll go off the rails, do our own thing, depend on our own strength, and because if you know Jesus, the very spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, so you have power over your mind. So you can take those lies, and then you can replace those lies with what God says about himself, what he says about you, what he says about the world, what he says about people around you, and in doing that, we can take those thoughts that he plants, and we can just send them back in right back to the pit of hell where they belong." [00:40:52] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Your goal is not to tap into strength. You're weak. And you're, whatever little strength you do have as a human is not going to move the needle. He's like, so finally, brothers, be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, the spiritual forces in the heavenly realm. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand. And after you've done everything to stand, stand." [00:47:01] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"And when you and I get saved, when we meet Jesus, like for real, we are recipients of a most epic rescue mission ever. And then when we get rescued, then we get on a rescue team. And when we get on the rescue team, immediately he gives us weapons for the war. So, nothing more sad. Nothing more discouraging as a pastor, honestly, than seeing Christians that are just like not in the fight. Not invested. Not risking. Like just staying at home. It's like, man, you were rescued at great cost." [00:48:20] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"And so, he's like, I've given you the shield of faith. And then he's like, and then you've got the helmet of salvation. And we gave a nod to this helmet last week, because what we said is that you and I have got to have a deep knowledge of the love of God. Because the war is hard. The war, it gets dark. And in the fight, when you find yourself in the fight, you're going to realize, I'm weak, and I'm frail, and I'm inconsistent, and I'm not as sly, and I'm not the fighter that I thought I was. And all of a sudden, you realize, halfway through the fight, the victory is not coming at my hands." [00:51:44] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"And so when the enemy comes in and he puts a lie, a deception in our minds, we've been given this weapon of the sword of the spirit to dislodge the lies and then to fill our minds with the truth. We renew our minds with the truth of who God says he is about himself, the truth that he says about us, the truth about the world, the truth of the mission, the courage, the faith that he's given all of us in Christ." [00:52:59] (27 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Every time we're gathered, I'm just going to be like, we got to be Bible people, guys. Like we have to memorize scripture. We have to hold the promises of God over our life. Not just like on Sundays or, you know, on Mother's Day or on Easter. Like we got to hold the promise of God over our lives like every hour. Because listen, whatever you think on is what you're going to become. Whatever you think on is what you're going to, you think about money all the time, you're going to be greedy." [00:54:05] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Listen now, Jesus, he, he, he, he's serious about the word. Jesus says this in John 8. He says to the Jews who had believed him. So these are, these are disciples to the Jews who believed him. He said, if you abide in my word, you are really my disciples. Isn't it interesting how he used that little adverb? He's like, I mean, he's not like, I'm your disciple. He's like, but if you, if you're really going to be my disciple, then like you abide in my word." [00:59:04] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"And the point of being in scripture, the point of, like, submerging ourself in who God is, is it gives us confidence. We're not in the fight on our own. And actually, the victory's not even dependent on us. We have a father that's secured the victory on our account and yet he, like a father to a child, he just invites us in. Not because he's depending on us to win, because he wants us to participate. We're co-heirs in the kingdom with him." [01:05:44] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)