Thank you all so much. We really appreciate it. It is an honor for us to do this.
Um, I remember 13 and a half years ago, I argued with God, said, "No, I ain't doing this. It's not for me. I'm an evangelist. I'm not a pastor." And of course, He obviously had a different perspective on that because here we are. And I tell you, it's beyond words what we get to receive here just by you guys being here and supporting us. You know, I have no words. Do you have anything you want to say?
Absolutely. This year is going to be even better. That's right. Thank you, God. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You know, one of my joys is to be able to see people get revelation. And when they come to me and say, "You know, that message was right on time. I needed that. I was going through that, and I needed that." And that blesses me more than anything else.
You know, I studied to bring the truth, and I studied to just honor God by studying this word. You know, we were at the men's encounter this weekend, and Rex Sanders, Pastor Rex out of Beeville, said something that really struck me. It was, "A dream with a date becomes a goal, and a goal broken down becomes a plan, and a plan broken down with action becomes a reality."
And I heard that, and I was like, "My goodness, that was... they just... it spoke to me." Because a dream with a date becomes a goal, and a goal broken down becomes a plan, and a plan broken down with action becomes a reality. And it really spoke to me because on the 13th, when we did our vision casting, I told you that we're going to enter into a building project next year.
So I'm putting a date on that building project to start actual starting January 1st, but there's a lot of preliminary things that we've got to do prior to January 1st, one of which is going to the city to find out what we can and can't do. Okay? And so I have a date on that for next week, and I want to tell you something else.
We got another area that we're working on right now. Matter of fact, at the men's encounter, I was walking around looking at the outdoor areas that Brent and them have built, and it's like, "Oh, right there we have a need." And that is to build an area right behind the church so that we can set up a shaded area with a picnic bench and ashtrays. That way, oh, not trying to segregate, but just trying to give a place so that way it's not right in front of the door, you know?
And so I took pictures of it, and I sent it to Trey. I said, "Trey, here it is, a smoking area. Let's make this happen." Well, then I find out today, I asked him, I said, "Did you get my text?" He said, "Oh, yeah, with the canvas and the tin corner tops, we'll be here on the 31st."
And so next week, we're going to take a day, and we're going to erect a nice covered area. I have a picnic bench at the house that I'm going to restore and seal, and it goes out there. So you're going to see that happen in a week. A dream with a date becomes a goal, and a goal broken down becomes a plan, and a plan broken down with purpose and action becomes a reality.
And you're going to see this with our building out there for the youth. We've got plans for our slab to put a cover on it. So there's a lot of things happening for structural stuff here on the property that's part of our vision for next year, along with because God says we are in a generation or a harvest generation.
And what I was hearing about the kids at the college, the kids at the home, the kids at the high school, we're seeing them by the thousands, by the thousands becoming saved. We are in a harvest generation. And we as AAHC will continue to do what we're doing, but on a greater scale to be able to reach the unchurched, to be able to reach those who are far from God, to be able to reach those who are with God, but maybe they've walked away a little bit, and to be able to feed those of us that are still close with God.
And so the messages that God has been giving me for outlines is kind of different from what I've preached over all the years, but I'm still going to feed the sheep. But He's making messages for the unchurched so that everybody can understand the word of God, which brings me to my teaching today, which is going to be on, as you know, the five topics under the series name of "Can We Talk About It?"
And last week we talked about stress. This week we're going to be talking about spiritual warfare. And I encourage you to take notes because this is, if you will, an AAHC college course or education scores or a school class today. Because I have a lot of information of what Jesus, what the word says about spiritual warfare. And I think it's going to encourage you. It will build you up. It'll edify you, and it'll give you some information so you know who the enemy is and who he's not. Amen.
So I think that's going to be fun with that. I can sit here and talk because I've got it burning inside of me, but I know we've got some more music to play. We got some more worship to do. And I'll tell you, I'm excited. Are you all excited? Yeah. Awesome.
If you got your tithes and offerings, just hold them up. Let me pray over them.
Father, we just come to you in the name of Jesus. And we thank you so much, so much for the opportunity that you've afforded myself and Cricket to be able to be the pastors of AAHC, to be able to walk in love, to be able to teach and encourage and to educate, to edify and to bring a family together as one in unity. And we thank you for that opportunity.
Father, we thank you that you lead us. You've given us the vision of being a place of hope, salvation, and restoration. And we thank you, Lord, for the truth of the word as it goes forth to build each and every one of us up to be able to do the work of the ministry that you called each of us to do.
Father, I thank you for every dollar that's sown into this ground that you have anointed, and I thank you, Father, that you increase every dollar to allow us to continue accomplishing the vision that you've given to us.
Father, I thank you that we are in a harvest generation, a harvest season right now, and I thank you, Lord, that each and every one of us can go, as Paul said in Ephesians, boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to see an increase in the kingdom of God with people coming into your family by accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Father, I thank you for all things. I thank you for this day. I thank you for the word that will go forth today, and I thank you, Lord God, as the worship team comes together in unity that it does stir up the atmosphere and create the atmosphere for your glory to fill this place.
Father, we just thank you for all things. We give you praise and we give you glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Let's rehearse over our tithes today. We are prospering in every area of our lives, spirit, soul, and body. We sow in faith and we reap in joy. We will have more than enough to meet every need, to pay every debt, and to be a great big blessing to a lot of people. We're not running out; we're running over in Jesus' name. Amen.
Go ahead, guys, let's worship.
Yes. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you for your grace and your mercy. Thank you that we are saved by your grace and by faith.
Father, we just thank you for this day. We thank you for the worship team. We thank you for all things, Father God. Everything. Everything. Everything. We thank you for it. We thank you for your presence. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. Praise you, Lord.
We thank you, Father. That's how we win, is through thankfulness and through the word of our testimony and the blood of the Lamb.
Father, we give you praise, and we thank you for all things. In Jesus' name.
Y'all can be seated if you aren't already. You guys, I like acoustic sets. It's just almost like a personal thing, you know? You don't have all the glitz of all the lights and everything going crazy. It's just three folks up here today, or five at times or whatever, but just that acoustic set that makes it more personal, makes our worship just personal.
And I like hearing Virgil on the bass. You know? One of these days, he'll learn how to play the bass like he does the drums. Praise God.
Praise God. Actually, I heard him say, "I wish I could play the drums like I play the bass," is what I heard him say. But, man, I just want to say welcome to Abundant Heart Church this morning. Amen?
Anybody excited to be here? Amen. I want to welcome you guys out there online, too. We wish you were here, but we're glad you're there. Something like that.
Let me think about what I just said. I didn't come here. I didn't come out right, did it? What should I have said? Oh, okay. Glad you're there, but we wish you were here. That's much better. Awesome.
We are one big church in many locations. We've got a lot of people that follow us online, and it just excites me. You know, I just want to say a big hello to everybody. Everybody. And it excites me that God has brought us together this morning.
This morning, for a purpose. For a purpose. You're not here in the building. You're not in the sound of my voice or on the camera or out there. We're not here by accident. God has brought us together here for a purpose.
And I'm expecting something out of today. I'm expecting us to receive revelation from the study of the Word of God. Amen. What are you expecting? Same thing? I hope so. Are you expecting to hear from the Lord? Are you expecting to receive something from the word today? Are you expecting to grow in the things of God? Amen. Amen. Amen.
Well, we are in week number two of our series that is, "Can We Talk About It?" And I find it interesting that last week, God totally changed what I was going to preach last week. Because I was actually going to go into a series on words, on speaking, on talking, you know. And it's like, you can plant a seed into the kingdom of God by the word that you speak.
And so I was going to talk about that very thing, planting seed with your words. But then God said, "No, you're not." I said, "Okay." He said, "This is where you're going." And I went, "Oh, well, I've never studied for that first message." Now this message I've studied a long time.
So we talked about stress and how to find strength through God when you find yourself in a stressful situation. And I believe that each one of these topics that we're going to cover over five weeks are very relevant for us today. Because I believe they are cultural conversations that are going on right now, both in and outside of the church.
Because there's a lot of things going on. If when you see the news, you see all the bad. But when you're praying and you're talking to God, He shows you all the good that's going on. You know, the word says that the wickedness will increase, but so will the spreading of the gospel. And we're seeing that.
And I am excited about what God is doing, even in what we see with our natural eyes going on in the world. But just understand through being more spiritualized, God is moving in the lives of people. Amen?
So as I said last week, we started the topic of stress. And I want to encourage you if you did not see it. If you weren't here or whatever, go back and rewatch it. Amen?
Next week, I'm going to talk about anxiety. Now there is a difference between stress and anxiety. And I believe next week is probably the week that you really want to talk about. You need to bring somebody who's far from God, invite them, let them come in and sit next to you here. We'll give them something to eat, give them some coffee or water.
But I think next week will help somebody who may be far from God or somebody who's actually going through anxiety or fear because I think we can help them. I think it'll encourage them. Then we have a message on forgiveness. Oh, forgiveness is going to be good. It's going to be real good. I'm not going to tell you what's going on. That's going to be really good.
And then we're going to wind up the five topics with a conversation about the Holy Spirit. And I think everybody needs to know about the Holy Spirit. Amen? And so I believe that all these messages are an opportunity for us to build our faith.
And my whole goal for this series is that we would know, believe, and live the truth. One amen. Okay. Let me try that again. Let me try that again. That we would know what we believe, all right, and that we have it deeply written upon our heart, right, and that it's not only on the inside, but we live it on the outside also. Amen?
So, today is an important day, I think. It's an important topic of study. Honestly, we need to recognize that any time we take a step forward in faith, we will always meet opposition. It always comes.
And so, today's topic is, "Can We Talk About It? Spiritual Warfare." Now, I know there's a lot of people who are very uncomfortable with this topic, talking about this topic. And it's basically because they haven't received any truth on it or any revelation on it. Amen?
And so, today, we're going to show you what the Bible says about spiritual warfare. Not what Ray says about it, not what anybody else says about it, but what Jesus says about it. Amen? Because God wants to equip us for the life that He wants us to live.
So, let me start with a quote from C.S. Lewis. And it says this: "There are two equal and opposite errors in which our race can fall about devils. That one is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors. They, the demons, are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or magician with the same delight." C.S. Lewis. Interesting quote.
So, from the beginning of this, the Bible is telling us that there are two extremes when it comes to spiritual warfare. There's a human reasoning materialist extreme, which is like a scientific mind that there's always a human answer for everything that happens. Then some, and you may have known somebody who is on the extreme on the other side where it's like a super mystical spectrum where it's all about Ouija boards and Denver Airport conspiracy and other things like that, okay?
And that there's a demon under every rock and in every person that's not smiling, okay? That's an extreme. I've known people like that. Amen? Listen, we don't want to be on either one of these extremes at all. We want to trust God that He's going to help us to understand the truth of this topic, but not only understand it, but for us to stay in the middle, stay in perfect balance, and we're going to do this through God's Word. Amen?
So if you will, we'll turn to Ephesians. We're going to go to chapter 6, where I'm going to spend most of my time between verses 10 and 20. I want you to get your notes out. You guys online, you can download the PDF form or you can actually open up a separate window and fill in the blanks and follow along. I think this is something that we need to keep for future reference because we can archive it and then at some time we go, "Hey, what that crazy preacher say? Oh yeah, this is what he said," and you've got all this information.
So structurally, we're going to look at three foundational truths about spiritual warfare, and then we're going to look at three essential practices that we can do, how to put it into action, how to live it out. Amen? So we're going to know what we believe, and we're going to learn how to live what we believe out. Interested? Let's get into this.
The first foundational truth is simply we have an enemy. Very simple, but we do. We have an enemy. Ephesians 6 tells us, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you will have strength against him." But you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. King James says, "the wiles of the devil."
So we have an enemy. And the Bible calls him the devil, which means accuser. Other places in scripture, he's called accuser, Satan, which means adversary. It means opponent. Okay? Now the devil can create all kinds of fear in people's lives, saved or unsaved. And I'm sure you've had an idea of what he looks like. You know, the dude in the red suit with horns. Okay? Got a tail. Pitchfork. Yeah, that's him. No, it's not.
Or maybe you've seen pictures of him in the horror movies and in the media. Okay? That's not him either. Listen, I want to demystify Satan this morning. And it's important to understand your opponent, your enemy.
Now, I like to watch football. Win, lose, or die. It's a good draw. I am a diehard Cowboys fan, like it or not. There's another one. Did you know that the Cowboys are the most holiest team in the NFL? Let me prove it to you. In the 90s, they lived mighty. Won Super Bowls. They were awesome. And then they died when a new owner took them over. And I believe they're going to raise from the dead soon. Amen?
But every week, they take film from the opponent that they're going to play against on Sunday. And their goal is, before they start practicing, to know who their opponent is and who he is not. Or who they are not. So that when they practice, they can practice against what they saw in the film.
Now, what I want to do is I want to allow God's word this morning to be our film study, okay, for this day. So, who is the enemy? More than that. Turn to Ezekiel. Ezekiel 28. Verse 14 says, "You were anointed as a guardian cherub. For so I ordained you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created."
I highlighted that word, created. We're going to come back to that. Because I want you to know, your enemy is not... I'll get into that in a minute. Let me just say that. Your enemy is a created being. Okay? First, till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade, you were filled with violence and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God. And I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.
Now, look at Isaiah. Isaiah 14 tells us, "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn. You have been cast down to earth, you who once laid low the nations. You said in your heart..." Now, this is his sin. It's the "I will" sin. It's the sin of pride. Okay?
You said in your heart, "I will ascend. I will ascend to the heavens. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.
So as we see, he wanted to take God's place. That was his goal. And as he continued to say, "I will, I will, I will." And I'm sure he was loud and demanding. God, I'm sure in a gentle voice said, "No, you won't." Amen? And He kicks him out of heaven.
And since the moment that he was cast out of the mount of God, Lucifer, now Satan, has reigned against God's people. Anything that is of God, he is coming against it. Anything. He is the anti of everything that God is. And the Bible gives us a lot of names that describe his character and his agenda.
For example, here's a list of six names that I found in scripture. And they are: liar, adversary, destroyer, accuser, tempter, and deceiver. So the next title is Satan exists to what? Destroy God's children and to defame God's glory. That's what he's wanting to do.
So now let's look at who he is not. I was audibly called by God at the age of 12. While I was sitting there, I was sitting there, I was sitting there, I was sitting there, I was sitting there. I was sitting on a side of a hill of a Hills and Hollows Boy Scout camp in Denton, Texas. By the time I was 13 is when I really started getting into trouble. And I didn't stop getting in trouble until I was 40.
In 2000, when I turned 40, that's when I was saved through a mighty miracle of God in Austin, Texas. And I was like, "Who am I, God, that you would do this for me?" You see, that night, God changed my life forever. If you've experienced that grace and mercy of God, you ought to just give Him a shout. Amen. Amen.
So I'm saved. I'm loving Jesus at the very beginning. Still do. And I'm beginning to study His word. I lost my job. Cricket worked a job and a half, even two jobs. And I sat in my chair for five and a half months with the Holy Spirit teaching me topics. And the first thing He taught me was identity, who I am in Christ Jesus.
And then He taught me faith. And then He taught me divine healing. And then He started teaching me about spiritual warfare. This is way back when I've only been saved five and a half months. I learned a game called the opposite game. You ever heard of it? I want to play this game with you today.
Okay. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to say a word. And I want all of you out loud to say the opposite. Okay? You ready? Up. Hot. Win. No, not wind. Win. Lose. Left. Okay. One more. But this time I don't want you to say it out loud. I want you to say it in your mind. You ready? God.
Now, my first word was Satan. Y'all too? Can I tell you? You're wrong. What do you mean, Ray? He's the opposite. No, God has no opposite. The Bible says in Jeremiah 10, "No one is like you, Lord. You are great, and your name is mighty in power." Our God has no opposite.
The enemy is a created being. And he doesn't come close to our God in any shape, way, form, or fashion. As a matter of fact, God is the one who created Lucifer to be the worship cherub in heaven. Now, you've got to understand, we are not any kind of an Easter religion. We don't have any yangs and yongs and yings and whatever else that is.
We have a God who is almighty and an enemy who is not. We have a, excuse me, we have an enemy, but he is what he is, and he's not what he's not. And he's not our God. He's not opposite of God. Amen? He's not anywhere near our God. He is not omnipotent. He is not omnipresent. He is not all-knowing. He is not all-powerful. Amen?
He and his minions, the demons, have limited power. So the next slide is, God is mighty. Satan is not almighty. Amen? And this is where we have to start. We have to know who our enemy is and is not.
So, here's a second foundational truth that I want to give you. We have an enemy, number one. Number two, we are in a battle. So, let's go back to Ephesians. It talks about this battle. Now, there's a lot of language throughout the New Testament about this fighting, about this warfare.
Paul says that we are fighting the good fight of faith. Paul says that we are soldiers. Amen? Amen? And he uses another phrase here in Ephesians 6, verse 12. It says, "And so, this is what Paul's talking about. Your battle's not against another man, another woman, any flesh and blood. But, look at what it says. But, against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
So, we are in a battle. But, it's not against people. The word struggle is very important here. Many people think of spiritual warfare as like an every now and then battle. So, let me do this. Let me try to illustrate. Let me try to illustrate an every now and then battle.
Okay? So, there's the battle lines. Let's do this. The army of God is on one side, the army of Satan's on the other side. Over here, you got the army of Satan that every now and then, he sends a missile over here. And the army of God has got their shields up to shield themselves from it.
And every now and then, the army of God hurls a missile back over to the other side. It's kind of like a World War II mindset. The word struggle paints a totally different picture of this. The King James uses the word wrestle.
The Greek word for wrestle is palay, is how you pronounce it. It's spelled really crazy, and I couldn't write that down. You can go look it up yourselves. But it's pronounced pa-lay. And it's used to describe the spiritual conflict that Christians have.
Now, this tells us a lot about the battle that we're in. This is a hand-to-hand, face-to-face combat that we find ourselves in. It's a wrestling match against the enemy. And it's personal. You've got to understand, the enemy is after us, and he doesn't stop.
This battle is not over. This is not a now-and-then battle. It's a full-time wrestling match. And we have to be ready for it. The other day, I went with the family to the Marble Falls homecoming football game. And I noticed that the team, our opponent, was from San Antonio. I couldn't tell you where.
And they had the same colors as the Marble Falls Mustangs, but opposite. Okay? But what I noticed about the team that got stomped by Marble Falls was that there were people on there that had some great, awesome ability, but they seemed like they just didn't want to be there.
They just seemed like, "Man, I just, you know." But then I saw some other folks, like on the Marble Falls Mustangs, that not only had great ability, but had a heart. They wanted to be there. They were aggressive. They were going to win. There were even folks that were on the Marble Falls team that didn't have the great ability, but they had that same heart.
"I'm aggressive. We're going to win." Okay? Now, I'm kind of a competitive person. Yeah. So you've got a scale of one to ten on aggressiveness, on competitiveness. One is, "I'm not into sports. I really don't care." The other is a ten, which is one chromosome from going to prison from the football field. Amen?
I'm about an eight. And Cricket's okay with that eight at times. She thinks that it's a little excessive, a little extreme, to be an eight at the grandson's t-ball game. "Hey! It's t-ball! Let's win!" She thinks that's extreme.
"Hey, it's t-ball, guys. Get aggressive." I'll tell you what. I love watching the grandkids play baseball. It's an amazing thing because I've watched my 11-year-old grandson, Corbin, go from two to three times t-ball to now he's in a select league and has been for several years, and he's one of their top-rated pitchers and second baseman.
His brother, Case, is not in t-ball anymore. He's in coach pitch, and he's just as aggressive. Okay? But he also races go-karts. Yeah. He's an eight. I'm telling you.
Okay? But let me tell you something. It's a dogfight out here. Sports is a dogfight. Isn't that right, Tay? He knows. He was involved in it for a year or two. But it's a dogfight. They're coming after your family. It's a dogfight.
Look at someone and tell them, "It's a dogfight." Spiritual warfare is a dogfight, y'all. Wished it wasn't. But it is. It's a dogfight. It's a dogfight against temptation. It's a dogfight against the enemy coming after your family. It's a dogfight coming against anger. It's a dogfight against worldliness. Come on. It's a dogfight.
I'm telling you. It's a dogfight. Whether we like it or not, we're in a hand-to-hand, face-to-face combat with an enemy. And we've got to gear up to what is happening in the spiritual realm. Amen?
Here's what Billy Graham said about spiritual warfare. He said, "Spiritual warfare is not an option. It's necessary. If you're a child of God, you're in a battle for your faith."
So I condensed it down into a remix. And I'll show you that one. It says, "Billy G, you know, we're going to get this up to modern days. Billy G." Okay. Billy G, his remix is, "It's a dogfight." Amen.
Can I give you some good news? Hey, Boudreaux, I got some good news for you. Y'all remember that last week, right? I got some good news. I got some bad news with Boudreaux. Good news is you got 24 hours to live. Bad news is I tried to call you yesterday.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not getting into Boudreaux jokes today. I just thought we'd mention it. Let me show you something. I got some good news for you.
We fight from a place of victory. We don't fight for victory. We fight from victory. Amen. Amen. We as children of God, we have nothing to fear because we fight from victory. Why is that true? Because we had Jesus on the cross.
And by the way, Jesus didn't go to the cross for His own victory. He went to the cross for the victory for you and me. Amen. He went to the cross. Oh, my goodness. He went to the cross.
The book of Colossians talks about it big time, especially in the first few chapters. Let's go to Colossians chapter two. Look at verse 13. "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive in Christ. He forgave us all of our sins." Praise God.
"Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them." Where? By the cross.
How awesome is that, folks? Isn't that awesome? So the enemy thought, "Hey, man, we're going to publicly humiliate this Jesus dude when we get Him up on the cross." But the Bible teaches that when Jesus got on the cross, He became sin. Come on.
So that sin would die. Are you with me? When sin dies, it gives us life. Jesus made a public spectacle of the enemy. He hung, I want you to hear this, He hung the enemy on the cross so that death. Death is now dead.
You want me to say that again? Okay, I want you to see this. Jesus went to the cross. You've got to understand the cross. When I teach on the cross around Easter, you've got to understand that there's a power of death on the cross.
This is not my notes, but we'll go there. I'm going to run late. Y'all are okay with that, right? I figured you would be.
Okay. Paul wrote Galatians, and when you look at Galatians 2:20, it says what? "I've been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, but not I. Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live by the faith, I'm sorry, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of, not in, of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Now, what you've got to see here on this rabbit trail, and I'll get back. When Paul was penning this, this is the way Ray sees it, my mind. God is going, "Paul, look at the cross. What do you see?"
Paul says, "I see Jesus." And God says, "No, no, no, Paul, look deeper. What do you see?" And Paul says, "I see Jesus crucified on the cross." No, no, no, Paul, look a little deeper. What do you see? And he went, "I see me in Christ on the cross."
What happens is, when we accepted Jesus Christ, everything that we were died in Christ. You see this. That's the reason why Corinthians tells us, "Therefore, any man or person that's in Christ Jesus is what? A new creature." Why? Old things have passed away.
In other words, everything that you were prior to your accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior is gone because the power of death on the cross has taken it away. And then he finishes saying that all things have become new.
So, when you go look at Jesus on the cross, what I just said, Jesus took and hung the enemy, which is sin and death, on the cross. And when He hung him on the cross, death died. Sin died. It's gone. Amen?
So, what happened is, is the power that the enemy thinks he has is gone. There's nothing there for those that are in Christ Jesus. Amen? When that happened on the cross, it gave us the victory. Are you with me?
So, how do we live in this victory? Well, I'm glad you asked. Back to Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 13. "Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to what? Stand. And having done all, stand."
No amens. Come on. Are you all with me? Okay. So, when you're in a wrestling match, in high school, I wrestled in high school, but when you're in a wrestling match in high school and in college, and I'm not talking about WWE or F or whatever it is, you have an opponent in a circle.
And the object is to move your opponent outside of the circle. Okay? Jesus dying on the cross created a circle, a victory for us.
So, our opponent who comes in trying to not only knock us out of the circle, but he's trying to knock us out of victory. We make our stand in that victory, and we do everything that the Bible tells us to do, and we stand. Are you with me?
If you will stand firm. Church, you have nothing to fear because you stand victoriously in Christ Jesus. Spiritual warfare is actually simply standing firm in the circle of victory in Christ. Are you with me?
Yes. This is the third truth. So, how do we apply this truth? How do we live this out? I'm glad you asked. You guys are asking great questions.
I want to make sure that we are equipped to step out into this crazy world that's a dogfight. Amen? And be able to stand firm and live this out. So, there's three essential practices that I want to give you. Here's the first one. Build up our spiritual strength.
Build up our spiritual strength. Back to Ephesians, verse 10. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power." Now, I want you to see something. We don't find strength in our own strength. We are strong in His strength. Amen?
Which is why the word "be" is so important. The text says what? "Be strong," not "get strong." Are you with me? Be strong, not get strong.
So, getting strong in God. It's not about human effort. So, how do we become strong in God? Or how do we be strong in God? God, you guys are asking great time. Great questions.
By spending time in the word of God. Come on. By spending time in prayer. Having an intimate relationship with God. Getting into His presence. Have an intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Being baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, "You shall receive power once the Spirit comes upon you." Different than when you got saved and the Holy Spirit came and abides in you. Okay? I don't have time to get into that. We will talk about the Holy Spirit soon.
And then we spend time in worship. There are things that bring strength to us. And it's not, I want you to listen to me, it's not us doing these things that strengthens us. It's the receiving from God while we're doing these things that strengthens us.
Is that okay? Do you understand that? Because we're going to receive from God through His word, through the prayer, through worship. We receive, and that's what strengthens us.
Listen, anyone here and in the sound of my voice has probably heard, "Be strong in the Lord," but yet they have been discouraged because they've tried to be strong in the Lord. You've tried to pray, you've tried to read the word, you've tried to worship, and just, it's not working. You've tried this.
Listen, you've been faithful in trying it over and over and over and over, but let me encourage you real quick. The Bible never said to try. What? No, it didn't say to try. Matter of fact, it has something completely different from trying.
I believe that if you get this revelation, it'll radically change your walk with Jesus. It's found in 1 Timothy 4:7. It says, "It has nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales. Rather, here's the key, train yourself in or for godliness. Train yourself for godliness."
You were never told to try. Instead, you were told to train. Now, let me show you the difference between try and train. Okay? First, try. To me, make an attempt. Which is generally a pass-fail attempt.
"I'm going to try this, and it may or it may not work." Okay? "I'm going to try this, but..." Somebody's butt's getting in the way. You follow me? Train. Train is to engage in a process of growth.
To engage. Train is to engage in a process of growth. Train is a life-giving truth from scripture. Train is the process of growth. We'll all have ups and downs during our training time, right? But over time, I will train and grow strong in God. Amen?
Here's the key when you're training. You just don't quit. This is what the Bible teaches us about pursuing God. For us to train. We don't try to ride a bike, right?
If you were to judge your ability to ride a bike according to the first time you rode a bike, you'd never pass the test. Instead, you had your mom or your dad who was right there with you. The training wheels are off, and you're riding, and all of a sudden you start doing this, and you go to fall. They're there to catch you before you bust it. Amen? You're training.
Think about training for a marathon. Now listen. I'm not a runner. I'm not a runner. If you see me running, you better run too because something's chasing me. And you better outrun me.
Because you don't have to be faster than me. You just have to outrun me if you're going to get away from whatever's chasing me. Okay? But now I'll tell you, if it's chasing me, I've done emptied every round of my pistol. Okay?
All right. Just thought I'd let you know. Training for a marathon. No one tries to run a marathon. Everyone trains for a marathon because you can't show up with zero miles under your belt and expect to run 26.2 miles. You can't do it. Amen?
But many folks try to do this with the things of God. Training in a marathon is training. They literally run hundreds of miles to train themselves to be able to run 26.2 miles. You can't do it.
Can I lift some weight off of some people today? It's not about getting strong in God. It's about being strong in God. It's about receiving from God. So we wake up tomorrow and we go at it again and again and again. We get in our word. We pray. We worship. We continue. Every day we do this. Make it into a practice. Practice, amen.
I encourage everybody to do the first 15. You get up in the morning, you brush your teeth. Whatever it is you do, me, I go get my coffee. And I go outside, and I let my dog out. And lately, it's getting dark now. It's not getting light early enough.
And so I turn on my little lights on the patio, keep them dim. Hook up to my speakers outside. And I got worship music playing real low. And I break out my phone, and I go through my plans that I'm reading through. And here lately, every day, I go to Romans chapter 8. And I read it over and over and over and over, okay?
And then when I'm done with that, you know what I do? I turn the worship music up just a little bit, and I break open whatever book I'm reading. Right now, I'm reading "The Dragon's Prophecy" by Jonathan Cahn, okay? First 15 minutes.
And the thing about it is, if you build on this first 15, who knows? Maybe in a year, you're doing your first 20. Or your first 30. Do you see what I'm saying? You're training. You're building up. And all God wants is some time with you. That's all He wants.
And so these things are tools to help you get into His presence. Amen? Here's a second one. Be covered in the full armor. Be covered in the full armor. Back to Ephesians. Verse 14.
"Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."
I love how practical this is. The Apostle Paul is using the metaphor of this armor to the people that he's writing about so that they would see what? A picture of a Roman soldier. You've got to understand, it's a parable. It's an illustration of times at that time. Okay?
And being Romans all around them. And he was also alluding to something else that you may or may not know. He was alluding to the 59th chapter of the book of Isaiah. In verse 17, it shows a picture of Jesus in the armor.
Okay? So what Paul is doing is, he's trying to show you, let's suit up like Jesus so that we can stand in this time of battle. Now I want to show you something that's really cool.
You remember those six names that I showed you, that I found in scripture, of the characteristics of the enemy? Now what I want to show you is, each piece of this armor combats one of those names. Okay?
Every attack that comes our way, God has armor for us. Number one, the belt of truth versus liar. Liar. You've got to understand, the enemy will lie to you about everything.
He'll lie to you about who you are, what you have, what you can do, what you can do in Christ Jesus. But we wear the belt of truth. Amen? Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, think about such things." Amen?
Second piece, breastplate of righteousness versus accuser. Second Corinthians tells us, "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be what? Made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus."
This isn't him. I just want to tell you who him is. Christ Jesus. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus if you're saved. The enemy, he's a condemner. He will always accuse you. He loves to accuse you of your past.
But remember about the past. It's gone. You got no past. That's good English, right? You got no? Yeah, that's text English. He'll tell you over and over and over, you have been disqualified.
And what we do is we tell him over and over and over, "Oh no, I'm not. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus." Amen? The next piece, shoes of... the next piece, shoes of peace versus temptation.
You see, this helps us because we are fighting against temptation. Temptation of this, temptation of that. Do you realize that sickness is a temptation? The shoes that the Roman soldiers wore had spikes in the bottom of them.
And so what this did is it allowed the soldier to dig in and stand firm. Going nowhere. Amen? Do not yield any ground. So God is saying, "You have that. You have those shoes of peace with the spikes so you can dig in and make your stand." Amen?
Every time the enemy tries to get you to go to the right or go to the left, you go, "Uh-uh," you stand. Dig in and do everything that you know to do, but you stand and you stay right in the middle, right balanced. Amen?
That way we don't give any ground, and we do this by the peace of the gospel. Okay? First Corinthians says, "No temptation has overtaken you. God will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."
So every temptation that comes at you, God gives you a way out, and we stand against those temptations. "No, I'm not doing that," amen? We can stand firm on the onslaught of the enemy coming at us, and we can fight back with what? Truth.
With truth, God will always make a way out. The next piece, shield of faith versus adversary. Adversary. Isaiah 54:17. "No weapon formed against me shall prosper."
When Paul was talking about the shield of faith, he talks about the flaming arrow. They'll come. But the amazing thing is the truth of the word of God, this shield of faith, this shield of God doesn't just stop the arrows, protect us from the arrows, but it extinguishes the fire. Amen?
No weapon formed against us shall prosper. The next one I believe can be one of the most important ones for this year of 2024 and years to come. And that is the helmet of salvation versus destroyer.
The enemy is trying to destroy our minds. There's a focused demonic attack against the church. There's also a focused demonic attack against our young generation. And he comes to steal, kill, and destroy the minds of people, saved and unsaved.
And if we're going to fight for our younger generation, we need the victory ourselves. We have to have the revelation that we have that victory that we talked about just a few minutes ago.
Because we need the light in us to be able to shine the light into and dispel the darkness that's around our kids. That's right. Isaiah says this: "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you."
That perfect peace is a promise of God. And I believe the word says that the promises of God are what? Yes and amen. Amen? Every time the enemy comes, excuse me, in the attack with fear or worry or doubt or unbelief, we take a step into the presence of God and remember, remind ourselves who He is, God is.
Remind ourselves who the enemy is not and who has the victory. Amen? Here's the last one. The sword of the Spirit versus deceiver. Deceit is the primary attack of the enemy.
The sword of the Spirit is both defensive and offensive. It's the only weapon, the only piece of the armor that does both defend and offend. Okay? It offends the enemy. I'm telling you.
Just like when the enemy came to attack Jesus in Matthew, in Matthew chapter four, when Jesus was in the desert. No matter what the enemy was doing, what did Jesus do? "It is written. It is written. It is written. It is written."
The devil kept... we see three different temptations that the devil did. And if you know, if you've studied this, you know that those three temptations include every temptation that humanity can go through.
And Jesus said every time, "It is written." What we do when that comes is we start recalling the promises of God. "It is written. I am healed by the stripes of Jesus's back. It is written. My God shall supply all my need according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus."
I got scriptures back there that you can have that will help you in Him healing on and on and on. See, when the devil keeps doing this and we recall the promises of God, look what John says. He says, "Sanctify them by what? The truth. Your word is truth."
God's word is a sword in our mouth. And you've got to understand something. It not only protects us, but it makes the enemy flee. The Bible says, "Submit to God. Therefore, the enemy will flee." Something like that.
Okay? And you've got to understand, in the Greek, the word flee means run and start terror. Amen? The enemy comes to attack one way, and he flees in at least seven more.
This is the armor of God. Now, here's a truth that I want to give you. God makes the armor available, but we must choose to suit up in the armor. Amen?
We are living in a very crazy, ungodly world. And let me tell you again, it's a dogfight. We need to suit up in the armor and never take it off.
Do I have time to tell you a real quick story? In September of 2000, I got saved June 11th. This was September. God was teaching me about spiritual warfare.
I woke up by my wife shaking me and commanding a devil off of me. There was a shadowed figure that was choking the life out of me while I slept, and she ran it off. There was a war going on outside, on the roof, everywhere. Even the dog was going crazy.
Cricket got up. I was in a stupor. I couldn't speak. I couldn't say. I couldn't do anything. I just sat on the side of the bed. And Cricket was running through the house, to the kids' room, throughout the house, anointing the house, commanding these things out of the house.
Okay? And she ran by me, and she took, not this Bible, but my original Bible that I've got, and threw it in my lap. And I took that Bible in my hand, and finally the word Jesus came out of my hand, or out of my mouth.
And when it did, a lot of people said, "The light, brighter than the noonday sun, shined down." And Jesus appeared before me. And He gave me a ring. He gave me a helmet. He gave me a sword, a shield, a belt, boots. He completely dressed me in my armor.
And this is what He said to me: "You are one of my warriors. And I call you today to go forth. Fight for the truth of my word." And He disappeared.
I have never taken that armor off. And I'm telling you, you need to get this armor on you and never take it off because when you take it off, you become vulnerable. Amen?
So we have what? A belt of truth. We have a breastplate of righteousness. We have shoes of peace of the gospel. We have a shield of faith. We have what? Helmet of salvation. Very important piece. We have the sword of the Spirit.
All of these pieces are made available to you by God. You have to make the decision that you're going to put it on. And I love this scripture. If God be for me, who can be against me? Amen?
So how do we live this out? First of all, we build up ourselves in the strength of God by training. And we suit up in the full armor of God. Amen?
Here's the last one. Boldly advance the gospel. Still within the Ephesians 6 context of spiritual warfare, Paul continues in verse 18. "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Pray also for me that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly," the King James says boldly, "make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly or fearlessly as I should."
So the idea of spreading the gospel continues in that the armor defends us, but the gospel takes ground. Did you realize there is no armor on the back? Why is that? Because we don't retreat. We never retreat.
We step into God, but we never retreat. Remember, we dig in. We stand firm. Amen? We fearlessly make known the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The theology of spiritual warfare is found in Matthew, chapter 16, where Jesus says the church will advance in such a way that the gates of hell will not prevail. We are called to storm the gates of hell, which is out here in this world, how? By spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, shedding light in the darkness that surrounds the people.
The Bible says that the enemy has nothing to withstand the onslaught of the word of God going forward. He doesn't have a defense against it. We are strong when we are advancing in this spiritual warfare.
As I've said earlier and I've said multiple times, we are in a harvest generation right now. We saw more salvations in the year 2024 than we have any other year that we've been a church. It's 13 years.
And as we continue to fearlessly, boldly spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will see more people saved. They may or may not come to this church, but they're going to give their life to Jesus Christ.
And if we need to, we'll help them find a church that they can grow in. Hopefully here. Okay. But I'm okay just as long as they get saved and they find a church that they can grow in.
It's what we've been doing for 13 years is what we've been accelerating over the past two years. And I'm going to tell you what, we're going to continue to advance in this. We're going to continue to increase in this until Jesus comes back. Amen?
So church, it's a dogfight. We're going to suit up, right? We're never going to take our armor off, right? We're going to take the gospel and we are going to go with God with us into the world and spread that gospel.
And let me tell you what, you don't go in there condemning people or the Bible says you shouldn't be doing that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
One more story and I'll close. Y'all don't mind. It's only 12:20. I still got a couple more hours, right? Not really.
As I said, June 11th of 2000 is when I was saved by a mighty miracle of God. When we went home in December for Christmas, when I say home, Denton, Texas, the president of the motorcycle club that I was a part of, him and his lady had a tattoo parlor.
And I'd go in there every time we went to Denton, I'd go in there to visit. Well, this time I'm saved. And I walk in and I see Corky. She's sitting over there with a couple of her artists talking. She said, "Hey, Ray, how are you?" That's great.
And I was waiting to find, to see Walls, and I didn't see him. But I heard the chains that were on his side of his pants jingling back around in the office area. And when he came through, he came through the piercing area and he looked at me and he goes, "You look like somebody who's found Jesus."
And I said, "I have. And I can't do the things that I've been, that I used to do." He said, "That's okay. We need somebody to marry and bury the brothers."
Okay. Each year I went on the third Christmas when I walked in, Corky looked up at me and she goes, "Well, praise God you're here. We were praying that you were going to be here."
And I was like, "What?" Made sure I was in the right place. That looked like Corky, but that sure doesn't sound like Corky.
Okay. About that time, I hear the change rattling again. I look up and here he came around and came through the piercing. And I looked at him. I said, "You look like somebody who found Jesus." He said, "I did. And it's your fault on what I do."
He said, "You came in here every year. You didn't come in here with your Bible. You didn't come in here condemning. You didn't come in here judging. You came in here loving on us like you always have. And I knew it was genuine."
When we go to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world, we don't do it with a condemnation. We do it with love. We don't have to say, "Where the Bible says this." You don't have to say that. You can speak to people and tell it, give them the word. And they never know it's the word, but their spirit does.
And when you love on them, no matter what they look like, no matter what they say, no matter what they do, listen, it's okay. Because we may be the only Jesus they ever see.
And I believe everybody needs the opportunity to either have seeds planted or seeds watered. Is the enemy going to come against you? Yeah, he may, but always remember, he is defeated and you are standing in the circle of victory.
You have an armor that you've put on, and you have them shoes. I love them shoes of peace because when you get dug in, there ain't nothing moving you. Amen.
Let's pray. Father, I just give you praise. And I thank you for the word that went forth today. Father, I pray that nuggets have been imparted into the hearts of people today. Revelation has been given today. Some understanding has been given today and that all fear has been dispelled.
Because we know who the enemy is and who he is not. Father, we thank you that we stand in a circle of victory given to us by Jesus Christ. And we thank you that the enemy, when we dig our feet in with the gospel of peace, the enemy will never move us.
Instead, when we speak the truth with the sword of the Spirit, he will run and start terror away from us. And we thank you, Father, for that victory. I thank you that each person in here is a soldier in the army of God.
With the purpose of spreading, fearlessly, boldly, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that we can see the kingdom of heaven increase with more and more souls.
With every head bowed and eye closed, I want to speak to everybody here and out there. You may be in a battle. And you may be losing. And you may not really understand. You may not really understand what's going on.
And you may have never known Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Or maybe you did and you've backed off. And now the army of the enemy has been attacking you. And you've gotten to a place to where you really don't know how to use the armor, how to use the word.
But what I want to offer you today is the opportunity to have Jesus in your life. Whether for the first time or to come back into relationship with Him. That with Him, you too can be standing in that circle of victory.
You too can have that armor of God on you. You too can use the word of God like Jesus did. "It is written." To fend off all the attacks of the enemy. And then to be able to share what you received from Jesus to other people.
And if that's you, I want you to whisper a little prayer with me. I'll help you with the words. Just say this with me. "Jesus, I receive the forgiveness that you did for me on the cross. I thank you that today I make you the Lord of my life. You are my Savior. You are my Savior.
And I say thank you that my sins are forgiven. I believe you are the Son of God. And I believe that you died on the cross and that God raised you from the dead. And today, I surrender my life to you completely. In Jesus' name. Amen."
Well, I hope y'all received something today. Something to get you through tomorrow and the rest of the week. Next week, we'll talk about anxiety. And it'll be a great week to invite somebody who's far from God or who may be going through some kind of anxiety or fear or battles right now.
Because I would love for them to come in and get free of that. But with that, we want to say thank y'all for being here. Thank y'all for joining us up there. If up there, if you guys feel led to sow financially into this ministry, you can. You can go to our website, AbundantHeartChurch.org.
There's a secure giving portal there. All financial gifts, we greatly appreciate it. God uses it. He increases it. So that we can continue doing what He's called us to do. And that is to be a place of, excuse me, a place of hope, salvation, and restoration.
With that, we love you guys. God bless you. Have a great rest of your Sunday. And we will see y'all on Sunday.
on Oct 27, 2024
