00:00:49.740 Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Freedom Church.
00:00:52.620 Can we give God a great big hand?
00:00:56.310 I was going to model this for you, but I figured I'd just show it to you.
00:00:59.280 We do have our new fall merchandise that just came out today that we have for sale
00:01:04.110 for you in the cafe. We have Freedom Church beanie hats.
00:01:07.830 We also have our zip-up hoodie. Freedom isn't our slogan, it's our testimony.
00:01:13.890 It's not just some cute tagline. This is how we live.
00:01:16.920 This is the lifestyle we live. It's our testimonies. Freedom is our testimony.
00:01:20.821 So please get some of those. There's also water travel mugs.
00:01:25.410 There's car air fresheners, you can see on the screen behind me, lots of other
00:01:30.000 merchandise. And if you're watching online, you have to come in to get one, so
00:01:34.950 sorry for you, but not quite sorry either.
00:01:37.920 But I want to say, with the merchandise, everything we sell is not because we're
00:01:41.610 trying to make money. We're selling this merchandise and using all the money to put
00:01:46.110 right back into kids ministry and freedom youth ministry.
00:01:49.260 So we're not doing it to make money. We're not making this a storehouse so much.
00:01:53.880 We're using those ones to be able to do more with the next generation, be able
00:01:57.900 pour more money and more resources back in.
00:02:00.480 And it's cold, so you need something warm to wear.
00:02:02.790 So there's some two-fold benefits to that as well.
00:02:05.610 I do want to make a mention before we get into the message today.
00:02:08.671 At 1:00 today, the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing a game called football, American
00:02:13.320 football for some people. But we are going to have a watch party right here.
00:02:16.980 So you're welcome to stick around or leave and come on back.
00:02:21.030 It's just a way we're trying to help people have some community, some fellowship,
00:02:24.540 some hangout, get to know some new people, make some friends.
00:02:27.930 At 1:00, we're going to have the game on the big screen right here in this room.
00:02:31.380 Even if you don't like football, you don't care about football, come hang out with
00:02:34.891 some good people. All right? We're going to have some chips and salsa, and people
00:02:38.580 told me they're bringing soup and dips and things to share.
00:02:41.250 The only thing I ask, no alcohol, but bring some food, bring some non-alcoholic
00:02:44.970 beverages, and let's have a good time.
00:02:46.740 Whether they win or lose, let's make some friends and spend some time together.
00:02:49.980 So you're all welcome to come back for that at 1:00 as well.
00:02:54.060 But today, we're going to continue the series titled "At War," recognizing that
00:02:59.490 there's a spiritual war that we live in, that there's a spiritual realm all
00:03:05.130 around us that we can't fully see or maybe even fully understand and comprehend in
00:03:10.590 our human minds. But the reality is, all of us have probably walked into a room or
00:03:15.209 you've been in a situation where you knew you felt something different than what
00:03:19.260 you could see. Anybody ever walk in a room, you felt something?
00:03:22.800 Maybe there's goosebumps, or the hair on the back of your neck stood up, like
00:03:26.010 something's off here or something's wrong, or maybe just a bump goes in the night,
00:03:30.930 and you're like, "What is it?" It's probably just something happening, water
00:03:34.410 heater, pipes. But there is a spiritual realm, and the Bible's very clear that
00:03:38.340 there's a spiritual realm as well. There's good and there's evil.
00:03:43.260 And I find many Christians, even just looking up statistics, many Christians,
00:03:47.910 people who call themselves Christians, they don't believe in demonic spirits.
00:03:51.810 They don't believe in Satan. And it blows my mind to think, how could you not
00:03:55.230 believe in evil? The evidence of evil is so evident all around us.
00:04:00.150 But likewise, there's people who don't believe in God.
00:04:02.580 They don't believe that there's anything good in the world because look at all the
00:04:05.490 evidence of the evil. And both of those tensions, both of those extremes are
00:04:10.380 faulty, where we can lean so heavily on we don't believe in evil and spiritual
00:04:14.671 demonic things, but then we also have people question the reality of God, the
00:04:18.720 reality of good, that there are things as angels, and there are good spirits in the
00:04:23.580 world as well. And this tension of both is what I'm going to try to talk about the
00:04:27.960 time that we have. There's so much that could be uncovered or covered with this
00:04:33.000 topic, talking about angels and demons and spiritual realm.
00:04:36.300 And I'm planning on next week talking a little bit more about what it means to be
00:04:40.290 reborn, so what it means to have an afterlife, that there's a heaven and a hell.
00:04:44.701 There's something beyond this life.
00:04:46.591 So I encourage you to make sure to be here next week and invite some more people to
00:04:49.980 come back with you next week to learn more.
00:04:52.020 But as for today, what I want us to do is to think about and see things through
00:04:56.370 spiritual eyes. We all see things in the natural, right? We all eat, drink.
00:05:01.320 We see things and interpret life through what we can touch, what we can feel, what
00:05:05.430 we can measure, what we can taste, and the things that are in the natural.
00:05:09.540 Many times we see the problems in our life. We see the diagnosis.
00:05:14.820 We see the issues. We see the bank account.
00:05:17.460 We see the challenges in our life because they are real things in the natural.
00:05:22.020 But I'm here to tell you that's not the whole story.
00:05:24.660 Yes, those things are real, but that's not the whole picture of what's really going
00:05:29.040 on, that there is a spiritual realm. There are spiritual realities.
00:05:33.600 There are angels who serve God's purposes. There are demonic forces who oppose God.
00:05:38.640 And above everything, over all this battle of light and dark and good and evil,
00:05:44.160 there is a God who reigns over it all.
00:05:46.951 Ultimately, the God of the universe is the one who's in ultimate power.
00:05:51.600 So we don't need to invent spiritual realities.
00:05:54.000 We need to look to God's Word and learn from what God has already revealed about
00:05:58.440 them. But the spiritual realm can feel scary at times, right?
00:06:02.730 Anybody, it's Halloween season coming up.
00:06:05.040 There's some scary, creepy stuff on TV that people are doing, haunted houses, and
00:06:10.230 I'm just going to say, I do not ever recommend anybody go to a haunted house unless
00:06:14.130 you're there to cast out demons and pray for the Holy Spirit because there's no
00:06:17.701 reason to be going and putting yourself in position to receive this demonic
00:06:22.320 activity, the evil. I know it seems fun, it's innocent, but it's demonic spirits.
00:06:28.230 It's evil spirits that you're putting yourself subject to.
00:06:32.040 But Paul mentions the spiritual realm many times, and Jesus talks about the
00:06:37.320 spiritual realm. He cast out demons. He dealt in the spiritual realm.
00:06:41.130 And Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, as I mentioned this last week, as we talked about
00:06:46.260 the armor of God, right before this, Paul says, "We do not wrestle against flesh
00:06:51.720 and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic
00:06:56.220 powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the
00:07:01.680 heavenly places." Notice what Paul doesn't say.
00:07:04.620 He doesn't say that people are never the problem.
00:07:08.070 I mean, sometimes people are the problem, but they're not the ultimate enemy.
00:07:11.880 Right? We unpacked a lot of that last week about we do not war against people.
00:07:17.341 We don't fight against flesh and blood.
00:07:20.311 We don't fight against people in our households.
00:07:22.230 We don't fight against people in our work.
00:07:24.000 We don't fight against people who vote differently than us.
00:07:27.600 But our war, our wrestling, our fighting, our battle is in the spiritual
00:07:33.331 realm. There is a spiritual dimension to life that we must learn to recognize, and
00:07:39.180 if we're only focused on the natural, we're going to fight the wrong battle with
00:07:43.290 the wrong weapons. Think about it.
00:07:45.331 If you're in a spiritual battle and you're trying to fight it with natural weapons,
00:07:50.220 you're never going to see the victory because God has given us spiritual weapons to
00:07:55.050 fight the spiritual battle. And God wants to open our eyes.
00:07:58.380 I believe every single one of us, myself included, to say, "God, open my eyes to
00:08:03.630 see more spiritually, to see what's really happening," because there is more
00:08:08.430 happening than what we can see in the natural.
00:08:12.438 There's more happening around us, more happening in the spiritual realm, and He
00:08:16.548 wants us to see His presence. He wants us to trust His word.
00:08:20.599 He wants us to stand in His authority and live with the confidence that God is for
00:08:26.388 us. Then who could ever be against us?
00:08:29.088 If God is on our side and He's already won the war, then how could anything come
00:08:34.638 against us and get us down? And I want to share with you a story from the Old
00:08:38.688 Testament, 2 Kings 6, and to give you a little context, and I just want to
00:08:42.948 encourage anybody. If you are ever bored and you're like, "I wonder what's on TV,"
00:08:48.108 open the Bible and start to read, and you will have a thrill of your life.
00:08:52.428 You just read 2 Kings, go through Kings. There's floating ax heads.
00:08:56.628 There's talking donkeys. There's some bizarre stuff in the Bible that God recorded
00:09:02.298 in history for us to see. And even this story, as we see, is such an exciting,
00:09:07.278 action-packed war movie. We all love the war movies.
00:09:10.518 Maybe not everyone, but the war movies. This battle, this good and evil.
00:09:14.658 What's going to happen? This plot that we're going to see in 2 Kings 6, but before
00:09:19.128 we even get to verse 15, the little context, there's this evil king of Aram.
00:09:24.198 He's trying to attack God's people of Israel.
00:09:27.228 So he's sending his armies, he's sending his chariots and horses and soldiers to go
00:09:31.728 attack the people of Israel. But God is speaking through a servant, a prophet of
00:09:36.918 His named Elisha. So Elisha's going ahead, and he's telling the good king, King of
00:09:41.538 Israel. He goes, "Hey, the king of Aram is going to attack you here.
00:09:44.538 Move your soldiers, protect this area, fortify this part of this town." And every
00:09:48.678 time the evil king tries to attack, they're already a step ahead of him.
00:09:51.828 And he's getting so frustrated, this evil king.
00:09:54.288 He goes to his people, he goes, "What's going on?
00:09:56.358 Every time we move, they're a step ahead of us." And they tell him, "Well, King,
00:10:00.288 there's a prophet of God." God is telling on us, basically, saying, he's telling
00:10:04.969 the king of Israel where we're going to be to stop our attack.
00:10:09.378 So the evil king, he says, "Let's kill the prophet." If they kill the guy who's
00:10:13.818 telling on them and giving them all this information, they'll be able to overcome
00:10:17.538 the people of Israel. So the king sends an entire army
00:10:23.688 of soldiers and horses and chariots to where Elisha was.
00:10:28.938 So imagine this. The servant of Elisha, the man who's working with Elisha, the
00:10:33.858 prophet, he wakes up one morning, just a normal Tuesday morning, opens the window,
00:10:39.018 looks outside, and there's an entire army surrounding them.
00:10:42.618 It says there's an entire army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.
00:10:48.498 And his response, as most of us would probably be, "Oh, no, my lord, what shall we
00:10:53.358 do?" What he saw was an army of chariots and horses and soldiers
00:10:59.599 that was surrounding the city, and it didn't seem like there was going to be a way
00:11:04.458 out. The situation that Elisha and his servant were facing was real.
00:11:09.798 It was a real threat. It says, "But when the servant of the man of God got up."
00:11:15.378 Excuse me, reading the same verse.
00:11:17.118 Verse 16, the prophet Elisha, he responds, "Don't be
00:11:22.638 afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Now, the
00:11:28.698 army was real. The threat was real. The enemy was real.
00:11:33.438 They were surrounding them. But the prophet goes, "Don't be afraid." Now, it's
00:11:38.448 easier said than done. Right, Elisha?
00:11:41.508 Easier said that we would choose not to be afraid, but actually walking out, he
00:11:44.868 goes, "There's more with us than those who are with them." Now put yourself in the
00:11:49.998 servant's position for a minute. He just looked out the window, and he sees an
00:11:53.478 entire army surrounding them. And then Elisha says, "There's more with us than are
00:11:58.368 with them." And I'm like, well, Elisha, you're one guy. I'm one guy.
00:12:02.088 Now we got two. There's a lot more than two out there, Elisha.
00:12:05.928 The math isn't adding up.
00:12:08.508 How many times do we do that in life, though, as well?
00:12:11.028 We say there's so many problems. There's so much debt.
00:12:13.668 There's bills that need paid. There's all these things that need to get done.
00:12:16.878 And it's just me. I can't be in 15 places at once. I can't do everything.
00:12:22.969 And our minds get consumed with focusing on what the enemy is doing or just life
00:12:28.878 and stress. But the prophet Elisha says something so powerful here.
00:12:32.838 He says, "There are more with us than there are with them."
00:12:38.508 The servant was counting the enemy.
00:12:43.219 Elisha was counting on God. He was counting on what God could do, not focusing on
00:12:48.979 what the enemy could do. And in verse 17, he prays this remarkable prayer.
00:12:53.479 Elisha says, "Oh, Lord, open his eyes and let him see." He didn't say, "God,
00:12:59.689 help us with the enemy." He didn't say, "God, fix this problem." He said, "Open his
00:13:04.159 eyes and let him see." So the Lord opened the young man's eyes, and when he looked
00:13:07.878 up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and
00:13:13.729 chariots of fire. The army of Aram, the evil army, the enemy was real.
00:13:19.788 It was surrounding them. But the perspective shift that the servant of Elisha had
00:13:25.248 once he lifted his eyes, God opened his eyes to see that there was an army of
00:13:28.818 heaven that surrounded the city, surrounded the army that was surrounding them.
00:13:34.458 The servant saw the enemy surrounding the city, and he thought the battle had
00:13:39.768 already been lost. He thought there's so many of them.
00:13:42.768 He probably assessed their weapons. He assessed the number of them.
00:13:45.618 He assessed and probably thought, "There's no escape.
00:13:47.719 We're certainly doomed." Have you ever felt that way in life?
00:13:52.398 There's no way out. I don't know how we're going to make it through.
00:13:55.729 Honey, babe, whatever. Maybe you're just talking to yourself.
00:13:58.308 You're like, "There's no way we can get through this. How do we get through this?
00:14:02.028 We don't have enough money to make the bills paid. We don't have enough effort.
00:14:06.558 We don't have enough whatever it is.
00:14:07.848 We don't know how we're going to help our child, our grandchild.
00:14:10.698 We don't know how this situation or circumstance is going to turn for good." But
00:14:15.768 notice God doesn't make the army disappear.
00:14:18.948 In fact, He didn't even change their circumstances at all.
00:14:22.189 He simply changed their perspective.
00:14:24.589 He changed the servant's perspective to see that while it didn't look like God was
00:14:29.508 doing anything, God had already been at work.
00:14:32.358 God had already been surrounding the enemy when all he could see was the enemy
00:14:37.909 itself. The absence of visible evidence is not the absence of God's presence.
00:14:44.659 Just because you can't see God doing something doesn't mean He's not there.
00:14:48.678 Just because you can't see how this is going to work for good doesn't mean God's
00:14:52.159 plans and purposes will not be good, because that's His promise.
00:14:55.818 He promises all things will work out to good for those who love Him and are called
00:15:00.318 according to His purposes. But we must learn to live by faith, not merely by sight.
00:15:06.198 2 Corinthians 4:18 says that we fix our eyes not on what is seen,
00:15:12.288 but on what is unseen. Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is
00:15:18.078 eternal. So faith is not pretending the army isn't there.
00:15:23.418 Faith is not pretending that your problems and your challenges and your
00:15:27.018 circumstances are not real. Faith is simply believing and trusting that God is
00:15:32.988 going to bring you through whatever that situation or circumstance is.
00:15:36.888 Believing in what we can't see because what's unseen is eternal.
00:15:41.479 The spiritual realm is going to last well beyond our natural realm.
00:15:46.909 Every one of our natural bodies are going to eventually die and be buried in the
00:15:51.528 ground or cremated or whatever may happen to our physical bodies, but our spirits
00:15:55.698 are eternal. Our spiritual lives are the thing that's going to last for eternity,
00:16:00.258 whether with God or without God. So you can see the struggle, you can see
00:16:04.729 opposition, you can have uncertainty and still trust in God's promises, still stand
00:16:10.668 on God's word and on what He tells us He's going to do.
00:16:14.839 If we're going to understand the spiritual realm, we must begin by fixing our eyes
00:16:19.398 on what is unseen more than just what is seen.
00:16:22.939 The enemy is real, but Jesus has the victory.
00:16:28.189 The enemy is real, and he wins battles, he wins some efforts, he takes casualties,
00:16:34.128 but ultimately, Jesus has the victory. That's our ultimate hope.
00:16:38.808 Jesus wins in the end. Spoiler alert, read the rest of the book.
00:16:43.488 He tells us what happens. God comes back, Jesus returns, and He wipes out the enemy
00:16:49.308 with opening up His mouth, and a sword comes out. And again, it's amazing.
00:16:53.118 It's fascinating. If you just read Revelation.
00:16:55.068 You don't need TV or any other entertainment. Just read the Bible.
00:16:58.548 What God does in the end to the enemy. Jesus has the victory.
00:17:03.229 We do not need to be afraid of demons. We do not need to be afraid of the enemy.
00:17:08.268 We need to take it seriously and recognize the enemy is real, but Jesus ultimately
00:17:13.339 wins. So what are angels? So much I could cover about angels.
00:17:18.168 I'm going to try to give you a brief summary to help you just simply understand.
00:17:22.608 Angels are created spiritual beings who serve God and carry out His purposes.
00:17:29.058 So angels are not human beings. Angels are not little versions of God.
00:17:33.918 They are distinct, separate, created spiritual beings that carry out the purposes
00:17:39.858 of God. Now, I'll never forget when I first got saved, I became a Christian.
00:17:45.168 I went to a young adult group. I was a young man, went to a young adult group, and
00:17:49.339 they were talking about angels and demons.
00:17:51.378 And I remember asking this question like, "Well, why can't I become an angel?
00:17:54.888 Why can't we become an angel?" Because I believe what most of us have seen on
00:17:58.698 movies like "It's a Wonderful Life," or name any of those movies where if you're a
00:18:02.568 really good person, you get your wings, and you get to become an angel.
00:18:06.798 That's not biblical. And many of us, maybe you're sitting here today and you're
00:18:10.447 like, "I thought that's what I was living this life for, to get my wings, to be an
00:18:14.676 angel." That's just simply not biblical, and it's not true.
00:18:17.826 And I'm not making fun of you, because what happened is guys made fun of me.
00:18:21.216 In that group, guys are like, "What are you saying?" "Don't you know the Bible,
00:18:24.726 bro?" And I was like, "No, that's why I'm here." This is the first time I ever read
00:18:28.836 the Bible. And I knew in my heart and I purposed in my heart, the way I felt
00:18:33.846 criticized and put down for asking an honest question to learn, I said, I never
00:18:38.856 want to be a person, I never want to be at a church that puts people down for
00:18:42.606 asking questions. At Freedom Church, I invite you, I encourage you, I want
00:18:48.576 you to ask questions. Ask questions about the Bible, ask questions about faith, ask
00:18:53.556 questions about the church, because how else do you grow?
00:18:57.305 Movies and Hollywood and the world has this perspective of things, but the Bible is
00:19:01.716 what we stand upon. This is our standard. This is our moral compass.
00:19:05.886 This is what we believe and teach, and anything that contradicts the Bible, it's
00:19:09.546 probably not true, especially if it contradicts it.
00:19:11.586 There's things outside the Bible that may or may not be, but anything that
00:19:15.156 contradicts the word of God, we do not accept and we do not believe.
00:19:19.596 So angels are many different things, but primarily we see them as messengers, that
00:19:24.456 God gives them a message and sends them on a task to share a message.
00:19:27.816 We see this in Luke 1 when Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her she's going to
00:19:31.386 conceive a child, he's going to be the Messiah.
00:19:34.566 We see that they're servants in 1 Kings 19 with the prophet Elijah, that they came
00:19:39.306 and served him, they fed him, they cared for him. They're protectors.
00:19:43.206 In Daniel, when Daniel's thrown into the lions den, it says an angel came and
00:19:47.076 closed the mouths of the lion. They're protectors, they're servants, they're
00:19:50.556 messengers. Ultimately, angels are what created spiritual beings that do the work
00:19:56.016 of God. They serve God, and they also serve us.
00:19:59.226 They come and they do the work of God ultimately for us.
00:20:02.676 As Hebrews 1:14 says, that they're workers and messengers for our benefit as well.
00:20:07.416 It doesn't mean we command the angels, it just means God commands them to serve us.
00:20:12.576 Ultimately, angels are servants of God. They are not to be objects of worship.
00:20:18.516 Angels should never be worshiped.
00:20:19.986 I know there's some pseudo-Christian or religions that worship angels and worship
00:20:24.336 saints. That is not what we're supposed to do as biblical Christians.
00:20:28.746 In fact, in Revelation, the apostle John, he falls before an angel and the angel's
00:20:32.346 like, "Don't worship me, worship God only." We are not to worship the angels, but
00:20:36.966 we're to worship God and God alone. Our confidence is not in the angels themselves.
00:20:42.336 Our confidence is in God who commands them.
00:20:45.546 We don't need to chase angelic encounters.
00:20:48.156 We don't need to chase some supernatural experiences.
00:20:50.947 We worship Jesus, we obey his word, and we trust his sovereign care.
00:20:55.806 So what about demons? Well, demons are evil spiritual beings who oppose God
00:21:01.716 and seek to deceive, tempt, accuse, and destroy.
00:21:07.236 So the demons, one of the biggest things I find people talk about, we give so much
00:21:11.826 credit to Satan. We give so much credit to the devil.
00:21:15.036 The devil is a created being with very limited power, limited
00:21:20.437 ability, that everything bad that happens in the world is not Satan.
00:21:24.785 It can be demonic, it can be evil, but we live in a fallen world as well.
00:21:29.466 That tension of every inconvenience is not the devil trying to get at you.
00:21:34.266 Every inconvenience could be you didn't take care of something.
00:21:37.176 Like when your car breaks down and you've never had an oil change, that's not the
00:21:40.656 devil, that's you not taking care of your vehicle, right?
00:21:43.866 There's things that we do or even neglect to do that we can't blame Satan for, we
00:21:48.786 can't blame demons for, but demons are real. We see that all through the Bible.
00:21:54.246 We see that why would demons cease to exist just because they existed in Jesus'
00:21:59.016 time and now they don't exist, which I never understood that theology that some
00:22:02.736 people have. But demons are created spiritual beings.
00:22:06.036 They oppose God, so they're liars.
00:22:07.896 As Jesus said about Satan and anyone who follows Satan, they're liars.
00:22:11.496 He's the father of lies. He twists the truth. Satan and the demons know who God is.
00:22:17.316 They know who Jesus is, and they twist the scriptures to make something sound true
00:22:23.316 when it's really not. So there's deception.
00:22:25.866 They tempt us, just as Satan himself tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Luke 4.
00:22:31.776 Demons tempt us. They lead us into temptation. They lead us into sin.
00:22:35.437 However, we do not have to give control over to the demonic. They're accusers.
00:22:40.566 They accuse us day and night, as Revelation says, that the enemy, Satan and the
00:22:44.586 demons, they accuse us. They want to put condemnation on us.
00:22:48.336 And ultimately, they exist to destroy, to kill, to steal, to cause death, to
00:22:53.796 separate us from God. That's the work of the demons. So the enemy is real.
00:22:59.826 But again, remembering that Jesus has the victory.
00:23:04.296 If we were to talk about the Steelers playing here in a little bit, if they spend
00:23:08.616 all of their time all week only focused on their opponent, learning their plays,
00:23:14.046 learning their calls, learning who the players are and all their stats and
00:23:17.286 everything, and they never work on their plays, they're probably going to lose.
00:23:22.236 Because they're so fixated on the opponent that they don't know how to win the war
00:23:26.796 that they're supposed to be in, to run their plays, to run their game plan.
00:23:31.476 And as Christians, we got to be careful not to get fixated on the demonic, not to
00:23:36.546 get fixated on the enemy. And I think there's a level of understanding what demons
00:23:41.136 are and what their role is, but primarily, we got to know our assignment.
00:23:45.906 Jesus had very little explanation talk about demons, but he had a whole lot about
00:23:51.036 following him, about being a disciple, about taking up our cross, about living a
00:23:56.076 life as a Christian, not being so fixated on the enemy, but being focused on God.
00:24:01.656 Fix our eyes, fix our focus on God above.
00:24:06.846 The devil is not God's equal. This isn't a wrestling match or an even match between
00:24:12.006 God and Satan. God is the creator. Satan is a created being.
00:24:17.226 The being is limited. The being does not have all power.
00:24:22.086 God has all power. And in Christ, we stand in victory. In Christ.
00:24:27.816 If you're in Christ, you're in victory.
00:24:30.216 You're already on the winning team because it's what Jesus already accomplished on
00:24:35.046 the cross and being raised from the dead that gives us that victory.
00:24:38.766 So God has given us spiritual weapons for spiritual battles.
00:24:43.266 2 Corinthians 10 says, "We are human, but we don't wage war as humans do.
00:24:48.996 We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of
00:24:54.456 human reasoning and to destroy false arguments." Last week, we talked about
00:24:59.046 Ephesians 6, the armor of God, the spiritual weapons that we put on to fight
00:25:04.536 against the strategies of Satan. In 2 Corinthians, he's talking more about our
00:25:08.856 minds and the strongholds and how we can be swayed.
00:25:12.606 It actually is the attack against the belt of truth, against the word of God, that
00:25:17.046 in our culture, the word of God is being twisted, it's being changed.
00:25:20.706 There are so-called Christians that are removing parts of the Bible or saying, "You
00:25:24.396 know what? I don't like that. We're just going to not follow that anymore." I'm
00:25:27.636 like, I don't like stuff written in here either, but it's not up to me to decide
00:25:31.116 it. We obey the word of God. So when there's things in the Bible like pray for your
00:25:35.526 enemies, love your enemy, give all your stuff away, I'm like, I don't like that,
00:25:40.116 but it doesn't matter what I like. It matters what God says, and are we going to
00:25:43.957 obey him or not obey him? So any church that says that this is subjective or
00:25:49.567 optional, they're not really a Christian church.
00:25:52.416 This is what we stand upon here at Freedom Church, is we stand on the word of God,
00:25:56.406 because this right here, when he says we use God's mighty weapons, the word of God
00:26:01.026 is the sword of the spirit. The word of God is the ultimate truth.
00:26:04.806 It is not subjective, it is objective.
00:26:07.207 There is such a thing as absolute truth, and we cannot fight with human reasoning
00:26:12.756 to destroy false arguments. We use God's weapons.
00:26:16.056 In verse five, he says, "We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from
00:26:21.427 knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ."
00:26:27.786 We must be a people who teach truth.
00:26:30.666 We stand upon truth, uncompromising truth, because that's the only way to
00:26:34.927 tear down the strongholds, the schemes, the walls, the things that
00:26:40.806 are built up in people's minds. This actually talks about tearing down pride,
00:26:45.216 tearing down deception, tearing down lies that people are believing.
00:26:51.156 I know people are like
00:26:52.957 pastors shouldn't be political. I completely disagree with that because politics
00:26:57.006 have become so spiritual that we're missing out now.
00:27:00.336 It's like churches can't talk about spiritual biblical truths because something has
00:27:04.687 become political Now, I'm not going to become political.
00:27:08.232 I'm going to stay spiritual, and I'm going to speak to spiritual issues.
00:27:12.522 The pride in the culture, the lies of hundreds or whatever it is, the number of
00:27:17.232 genders, and all the ideology and the confusion, those are lies from Satan.
00:27:22.212 And it's not that we hate people. We love the people. We care for the people.
00:27:26.472 We must have compassion for every single person.
00:27:29.832 But we can still speak truth, uncompromising, that it's male or female, that
00:27:34.813 there's a husband and wife is what makes a marriage before God.
00:27:38.622 And we can still love anybody who disagrees with that, but not compromise on what
00:27:43.362 is true. That the world is celebrating all these horrible, sinful things that are
00:27:48.162 laid out in the Bible. And it's not that we fight against people, but we need to
00:27:51.672 speak truth and be uncompromising with a heart of love, with a heart of compassion,
00:27:57.072 to tear down the things that are preventing people from knowing God.
00:28:01.422 Our primary goal is we want people to know God, to have a relationship with God, to
00:28:06.313 know Him personally, to know that God wants to know and have a relationship with
00:28:10.513 you as well. We capture the thoughts that hold us in captivity.
00:28:15.102 We teach them to obey Christ. Not what I want, but what does Christ want?
00:28:20.292 What does God teach us in His Word? So we don't fight trying to earn victory.
00:28:25.572 We don't fight against people, but we fight so that people would know God and to
00:28:29.862 build His kingdom and expand His church. How do we do that?
00:28:33.102 One of the ways, in James 4:7, he gives us this very simple process.
00:28:39.283 "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
00:28:44.893 Ultimately, the goal is not fighting the devil.
00:28:47.052 It's not fighting against the enemy. It's submitting ourselves to God.
00:28:51.582 When you really humble yourself, you submit to God as the one who commands the
00:28:57.222 angels, as the one who commands us, who teaches us how to obey Him.
00:29:01.783 When we submit to Him, that's the best place to be in.
00:29:05.502 I love how Jesus, when His disciples were sent out, and He said He sends them out
00:29:09.582 to help people, to deliver people, to cast out demons.
00:29:12.942 They come back to Him with joy and excitement.
00:29:15.342 They're like, "Jesus, the demons even obeyed us," and like, "We cast out the
00:29:19.872 demons." And Jesus,
00:29:22.002 seemingly unexcited, says, "That's cool.
00:29:24.703 You should be more excited that your names are written in heaven."
00:29:28.272 That our goal is not to celebrate that demons obey us or that we have this power.
00:29:33.192 The most important thing to celebrate is that our names are written in heaven, that
00:29:37.393 we have salvation, that God has made a way that my sins could be forgiven, that I
00:29:42.313 don't have to pay this debt that I could never pay anyways, but by His blood, by
00:29:46.692 His resurrection, I can be free. I can have eternal life with Him.
00:29:51.912 That's what ultimately leads us to submitting ourselves, to humble ourselves to God
00:29:57.102 Himself.
00:29:58.992 So back to the story with Elisha and his servant. The situation hadn't changed.
00:30:05.143 Okay, so the army shows up. Elisha says, "God, open his eyes.
00:30:09.222 Show him what's happened." He opens his eyes. He looks up.
00:30:11.592 He can see the heaven's armies around the natural enemy.
00:30:15.313 But nothing at this point had changed. They're still in this place of danger.
00:30:21.311 They're still in this place of a real enemy.
00:30:24.283 And
00:30:26.203 it continues on, says that the enemy begins to advance. I believe it's in verse 18.
00:30:31.393 "As the Aramean army advanced toward him, Elisha prayed, 'Oh, Lord, please
00:30:37.242 make them blind.' So the Lord struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked." He
00:30:42.402 doesn't say, "God, make them go away." That's what I would pray, like, "God, get
00:30:45.432 rid of them." But he says, "Make them blind." And this next part I find funny.
00:30:50.143 We'll see if you agree. Verse 19, it says, "Elisha went out and told them, 'You
00:30:55.602 have come the wrong way. This isn't the right city.
00:30:58.722 Follow me, and I'll take you to the man you're looking for.'" I find that comical.
00:31:02.712 He's in so much physical threat and danger. Elisha is.
00:31:06.522 They're there to kill him, and he's the one who walks out, God makes them blind,
00:31:11.832 and he goes, "Oh, you came to the wrong place.
00:31:13.692 Let me take you there." And they just follow him. They just believe him.
00:31:17.203 And God's sovereignty is leading them to follow Elisha.
00:31:22.482 And he takes them to the city of Samaria.
00:31:24.672 Samaria was under the rule of Israel at the time, the king of Israel, and marches
00:31:29.022 these guys right into Samaria. And then he says, "Oh, Lord, now open their eyes and
00:31:33.852 let them see." So the Lord opened their eyes, and they discovered that they were in
00:31:37.692 the middle of Samaria. Now, the king of Israel's like, "What shall we do?
00:31:42.942 Should we kill them all?"
00:31:45.042 He had all the power over the
00:31:48.162 Aramean army. He could've wiped them out.
00:31:51.222 Instead, they showed them mercy, and they sent them back so they wouldn't come back
00:31:54.402 and attack. The point here is God didn't change their circumstances right away.
00:32:00.402 But they saw things spiritually. They did pray.
00:32:03.612 And then God did make a change in their circumstances.
00:32:06.192 We don't always have that change in our circumstances.
00:32:08.802 We don't always have God show up in the ways that we ask Him to.
00:32:12.522 Like he said, "Please make them blind." If he didn't make them blind, God would've
00:32:15.432 done something else. Probably was all part of God's plan of showing us here today
00:32:20.382 of how we can have eyes of faith, to trust God even when it doesn't make sense in
00:32:25.422 the natural. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Faith shows us the reality of what we
00:32:31.122 hope for. It is the evidence of things we cannot see." You don't have to
00:32:37.092 understand everything. You don't have to see everything that God is doing in order
00:32:41.052 to have faith. In fact, I say if you could see and understand everything God's
00:32:44.563 doing, it really wouldn't be faith, right? You would just be seeing things.
00:32:47.772 So faith is a reality of what we hope for, that Jesus is victorious.
00:32:52.783 Jesus wins in the end. That's the ultimate hope that we have, that our salvation
00:32:57.732 and eternity is set in the cross of Jesus Christ.
00:33:01.692 And then the evidence of things that we cannot see.
00:33:04.872 We cannot see what God is doing all the time, but we have to trust His character,
00:33:09.162 stand on His promises, and believe that God is going to do what He said He's going
00:33:13.453 to do.
00:33:15.372 So Elisha,
00:33:17.292 he says, "Open his eyes," and then he says, "Help me in this situation." And then
00:33:21.492 he gets this place where he even shows mercy to the
00:33:25.122 Aramean soldiers.
00:33:28.332 But what this isn't saying is that we will never have problems or struggles.
00:33:34.482 The enemy was real. The threat was real.
00:33:37.393 In the moment, especially the servant, he didn't know how it was going to happen.
00:33:40.632 But the promise of the gospel is greater than any threat that's coming at us in our
00:33:45.042 life. Right now, maybe you have something that you're feeling surrounded by.
00:33:49.662 Maybe it's a diagnosis, maybe it's a loved one or a family member.
00:33:54.582 Maybe there's a situation going on that you're like, "I just don't see how I'm
00:33:57.672 going to get out of this."
00:34:00.763 I had so many stories and so many times I can think back to where I thought, "God,
00:34:05.502 there's no way out.
00:34:08.082 There's no way that we're going to make it through.
00:34:10.362 There's no way that there's going to be hope for this next season."
00:34:16.182 And Russell was sharing this. I didn't share it first service, but I felt like
00:34:19.002 maybe somebody needs to hear this this service.
00:34:20.472 But this morning, I was getting some really nasty texts from a family member.
00:34:26.263 They've never been to our church. They're just saying stuff from the past, saying
00:34:30.342 stuff from 30 years ago, and just bringing up stuff and just attacking and accusing
00:34:34.722 and just saying all this stuff. I'm like, "Where is this coming from?
00:34:36.852 Why are you doing this?"
00:34:39.342 And I spent a lot of time this morning back and forth trying to help them.
00:34:44.442 And I share that because
00:34:46.572 we've both gone through so much in life, and I think the thing that I started to
00:34:50.743 feel in the natural was he's true. It's true.
00:34:54.162 A lot of things he was saying were true, things I did as a young kid, things I did
00:34:57.522 as a teenager, things I did in my past, that he's like, "How are you a Christian?
00:35:01.332 How are you able to follow God? How are you a pastor?
00:35:03.882 How are you going to lead anybody? You can't even save yourself." And he's saying
00:35:06.852 these things to me, and I'm like, "You know what? It's kind of true.
00:35:11.502 I don't deserve. I'm not up here because of my record.
00:35:15.042 I'm not up here because of anything I've done. I'm up here because I know my past.
00:35:19.692 I know the wretchedness of who I was.
00:35:22.123 I know the sinfulness and the selfishness I used to live in.
00:35:25.692 But God changed my life, and now I want to help other people."
00:35:33.792 Anything good that comes to me, somebody said it yesterday, our victory and
00:35:36.552 freedom, anything I get good from Eric, I know it's from God.
00:35:39.312 It's spiritual, and that's a compliment and a cut, but it's true.
00:35:43.812 If I say anything good, it's because God has given it to me.
00:35:47.682 If you ever hear something positive or you hear something helpful, you hear
00:35:50.532 something encouraging, it's because God has given it to me. It's not Eric.
00:35:53.472 It's God through me, and that's my prayer. God, use me. God, may you use my life.
00:35:58.542 God, use the stuff that you've redeemed me from to help people move forward, to
00:36:03.582 help people know God, to find freedom for their own life, to discover their
00:36:07.422 purpose, and to be able to make an impact in other people's lives.
00:36:10.512 That's why Freedom Church exists. That's why I'm here, to use my life.
00:36:14.382 Say, "God, use me however you see fit." And it's not because of my record or my
00:36:18.882 accolades. It's only by the work that Jesus Christ has done for me.
00:36:22.752 And maybe you're here today, and you're feeling like you're not good enough, that
00:36:25.692 you're not worthy to be used by God.
00:36:27.822 I want to read to you Romans 8:38 He says, "I am convinced," Paul is saying this.
00:36:32.646 He says, "I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.
00:36:37.656 Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today,
00:36:43.506 nor our worries about tomorrow. Not even the powers of hell can separate us from
00:36:49.206 God's love." That God's love cannot be pulled away because of your sin.
00:36:53.976 It can't be pulled away from a demon. It can't be pulled away from an angel.
00:36:57.876 Nothing can separate us from God's love.
00:37:01.056 And he says in verse 39, he says, "No power in the sky above or in the earth below,
00:37:06.336 indeed nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of
00:37:11.076 God that is revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord." The context of this,
00:37:17.016 and worship team can come on up. The context of this, he's talking about asking, of
00:37:21.276 all these things that can be accused of us, all this stuff that comes against us,
00:37:26.376 if God did not spare his own Son, would he spare anything else from us?
00:37:31.416 He says no, "But overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved
00:37:37.206 us." Overwhelming victory is ours as Christians.
00:37:40.567 If you are in Christ, that means you've given your life to Jesus.
00:37:44.406 You've accepted the work he did on the cross for you.
00:37:47.076 You not only believe that he rose from the dead, but you put your faith, you put
00:37:51.306 your hope, you put your confidence in him. That's the only way you can be saved.
00:37:56.376 Because the demons believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but it's putting your faith
00:38:00.516 and trust in him that ultimately leads you to salvation.
00:38:04.656 That's where the victory lies. And whatever situation, whatever circumstance you're
00:38:09.576 going through right now, maybe it's a family member that's going through some
00:38:13.236 stuff. And I know there's so many people right now that have family members and
00:38:16.446 loved ones that are going through some serious stuff.
00:38:19.836 If you're not going through it, I know somebody close to you probably is.
00:38:24.186 I want us to stand to our feet in this moment, and we're going to sing a song.
00:38:28.806 In fact, there's going to be prayer teams as well as we get ready to close, and the
00:38:32.166 prayer teams are going to be up front on either side because we fight with the
00:38:37.297 weapons, not of this world, but God's weapons, his truth.
00:38:41.556 We war with worship. We war with prayer.
00:38:45.276 That's why we're going to have prayer teams that go to war with you.
00:38:48.246 We're going to stand with you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God,
00:38:51.936 but nothing can separate us as a people of God when we stand together in prayer, in
00:38:57.636 worship, in victory. We can see God move in mighty ways.
00:39:02.376 Open our eyes to see, Lord, what you are doing.
00:39:06.817 This song says, "It may look like I'm surrounded, but I'm surrounded by you." That
00:39:11.436 this is how we fight our battles. We fight with worship, we fight with prayer, and
00:39:16.236 I invite you to come forward, receive prayer from one of the teams on either side
00:39:19.686 of the stage. Let's worship, and I'll be up in just a moment to close us out.