Speaker 1: There was a day, oh, I don't have to scream anymore, thank you.
Speaker 1: A great preacher of preachers Charles Spurgeon back in the day used to speak to literally thousands without amplification.
Speaker 1: And he used to make it very clear that if you're going to be called to be in a pulpit back then, you better have a voice that can go.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Out West Bible Church.
Speaker 1: If you haven't been here before, my name's actually Scotty.
Speaker 1: Well, especially if you don't like the message, my name is Scotty.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 1: What a gift for me.
Speaker 1: I was up here all day yesterday with some of your people.
Speaker 1: I have a reputation for being something that's a little bit awkward within Christian circles.
Speaker 1: The term is called an exorcist.
Speaker 1: I love this church.
Speaker 1: already because most places it goes like totally dead silent people start like they don't even
Speaker 1: bother standing to get up they just kind of scoot across their seat and then they throw something to
Speaker 1: make a distraction where we looks that way and they go out the door um i'm here this morning simply to
Speaker 1: tell you about my jesus and if that causes some of you to have an exorcism today i am so happy
Speaker 1: yes so father as we come to you right now we say
Speaker 1: simply want to pray. I love how Steve said, let's pray together. I know I need prayer God,
Speaker 1: but we're praying together. My brothers and sisters that are here are praying with me.
Speaker 1: But then if there's people that are here today are literally listening on the live stream
Speaker 1: or watching this later, Lord, I've seen you do this so many times that you move
Speaker 1: simply through your spirit when your word is proclaimed. And so that's what we want to do this morning.
Speaker 1: But in order to do that, especially today I'm asking you, Father, to maybe do something a little different, would you literally envelop all of us here at Out West Mountain, out west Bible church in a seamless canopy of the blood of Jesus, literally establishing this as holy ground, cutting off all communication from the outside of the inn.
Speaker 1: And literally, if there are things of the enemy that have followed any of us in this morning,
Speaker 1: morning in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to come to attention and be muzzled this
Speaker 1: entire time so that the word of God will not be twisted, perverted, or stolen by you in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen. So I have to take a picture. Normally I take the picture to prove to my wife that it was
Speaker 1: actually preaching at a church because in my old days, maybe I kind of used that to maybe go watch
Speaker 1: the football games during Sundays, which I know some of you have considered because I've seen
Speaker 1: some of you actually brandishing your team's logo this morning.
Speaker 1: If you are brave enough this morning to simply honest,
Speaker 1: if you have something on your person,
Speaker 1: may not be a jersey,
Speaker 1: it may not be able to be seen,
Speaker 1: besides the guy who's wearing the Dan Marino jersey back there,
Speaker 1: love it.
Speaker 1: If you are here and you are a football fan
Speaker 1: and you literally have something on your possession,
Speaker 1: could be a key chain, could be a hat,
Speaker 1: could even be the boxers that nobody ever sees.
Speaker 1: We ain't going to go there.
Speaker 1: We're going to ask to see, but would you just raise your hand if you're here today
Speaker 1: that you actually have something on?
Speaker 1: Where's my?
Speaker 1: Okay, good.
Speaker 1: They're in your pocket, your keychain.
Speaker 1: Trust me, this doesn't mean like you've got demons on you because you've got that.
Speaker 1: They're going, the exorcist is asking me if I have these things on.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 1: Only that few of you?
Speaker 1: Okay, good.
Speaker 1: How many of you actually would admit the fact that you're a football fan, though,
Speaker 1: that you've got a team that you root for and pull for?
Speaker 1: Okay, keep your hands up.
Speaker 1: So everybody who's a football fan, if your team has actually won a Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: keep your hand up.
Speaker 1: Everybody else put your hands down.
Speaker 1: You can put your hands down, Victor's.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Victor, the reason why I took the picture,
Speaker 1: if you're not familiar with the ministry that I come from,
Speaker 1: it's called All Things Possible.
Speaker 1: And the head of that, who found is a guy by the name of Victor Marks.
Speaker 1: Anybody?
Speaker 1: If you know Victor Marks in our ministry, would you raise your hand?
Speaker 1: Oh, a good portion of you.
Speaker 1: Okay, so Victor's running for governor of Colorado, which you probably know.
Speaker 1: Victor and I are kind of competitive.
Speaker 1: Actually, that's an understatement.
Speaker 1: He's really competitive and so am I.
Speaker 1: He's literally speaking at a church in my home city right now.
Speaker 1: The pictures to show him that I have a bigger crowd than the future governor of Colorado.
Speaker 1: The only bummer about that.
Speaker 1: me just saying that as one of our board members is watching the live stream of this right now,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know if I'm going to have a job at the end of today. But that's okay,
Speaker 1: because the Lord takes care of me. I'm 61 years old, been ordained for over four decades.
Speaker 1: I come out of the Calvary Chapel system. I used to be the assistant to a guy by the name of
Speaker 1: Mike McIntosh in San Diego, Horizon Christian Fellowship. Some of you may know Mike.
Speaker 1: A great man of the Lord, just a gifted evangelist. Mike's 81 now. He's 20 years older than
Speaker 1: still going strong for Jesus. And so it's an honor to be here with you this morning. My wife of 42
Speaker 1: years, oh, my better nine-tenths, as I refer to her as. I used that term this morning as a lady was saying,
Speaker 1: oh, you got to go meet Steve's wife, his better half. I said, that lady ain't his better half.
Speaker 1: That's his better nine-tenths. And the lady look at me kind of just like, it was puzzled.
Speaker 1: And then when I said, if I could use decimal points, I would because it's more than nine
Speaker 1: tenths, but most people don't understand decimals.
Speaker 1: Most of us went to public school.
Speaker 1: So we don't understand.
Speaker 1: So nine tenths is the closest thing that we can actually really understand there.
Speaker 1: But my wife of 42 years, we have 26 children.
Speaker 1: Yes, for those of you from LDS backgrounds, I am not.
Speaker 1: I'm Roman Catholic race, so maybe that could be it.
Speaker 1: But we actually have six biological and 20 adopted children.
Speaker 1: The youngest is...
Speaker 1: It sounded like a good idea back then,
Speaker 1: but it's just basically brought a whole lot of pain and heartache into our lives.
Speaker 1: For those of you who have gone through that with your teenagers in your early 20s,
Speaker 1: kids, you understand that.
Speaker 1: Just multiply that by a large number, and that's what we've gone through.
Speaker 1: But the Lord's faithful, and we do understand his heart,
Speaker 1: and we do understand maybe a little bit better than most,
Speaker 1: the pain and suffering that the perfect father goes through
Speaker 1: when he thinks about the billions of his children
Speaker 1: that are literally flipping them off every day,
Speaker 1: by the choices they make,
Speaker 1: and he's the perfect father, right?
Speaker 1: That's our God.
Speaker 1: He's so gracious.
Speaker 1: And if you're here listening today
Speaker 1: and he's not your father yet,
Speaker 1: he loves you.
Speaker 1: He loves you unconditionally.
Speaker 1: He loves you right where you are,
Speaker 1: but he loves you so much
Speaker 1: that he won't leave you right where you are
Speaker 1: if you come to him and say, I need you.
Speaker 1: And so this morning is,
Speaker 1: if you turn in your Bibles, please, to 2 Corinthians chapter 10.
Speaker 1: Oh, look at that.
Speaker 1: I got a text from the board member.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he said, we have to talk after the service.
Speaker 1: It's all good.
Speaker 1: Victor is a dear friend,
Speaker 1: and when he decided to run for governor,
Speaker 1: they began a search looking for who's going to be the next CEO
Speaker 1: for the ministry,
Speaker 1: and they were looking for qualified people
Speaker 1: like guys with MBAs who have done all the training and things like that.
Speaker 1: And I wasn't in the running and I was totally fine with that because I didn't want to be the head of the ministry.
Speaker 1: I knew what it took out of Victor and Eileen.
Speaker 1: I knew all the fiery darts that went at them when you're in the front.
Speaker 1: If you don't understand what Pastor Scottie goes through in the slightest bit, please pray for the man.
Speaker 1: To be a man of God today that will literally stand up for truth in both a physical world
Speaker 1: and as well as a spiritual world that truth is not seen as truth, that takes courage.
Speaker 1: And it also takes courage to have a guy come and fill your pulpit that you've never met before.
Speaker 1: Literally.
Speaker 1: He literally, I believe, took Josh's recommendation.
Speaker 1: So this is all on you, Josh and Kelly Golden.
Speaker 1: I give out your address, but I think everybody knows it already anyway.
Speaker 1: But this morning, I simply want to encourage us in how we, as believers, have it already within us because Christ dwells within us.
Speaker 1: The same power that raised him from the dead dwells in every single believer according to scripture.
Speaker 1: Therefore, we can defeat the devil.
Speaker 1: and all of his minions.
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry to use minions,
Speaker 1: because I know many of us think of the cute little yellow,
Speaker 1: you know, Cheeto-like things
Speaker 1: that have one or two eyes and they're cute and everything.
Speaker 1: But the reality of it is,
Speaker 1: the devil himself doesn't have black horns and red skin and a tail.
Speaker 1: It says he can make himself look like an angel of light.
Speaker 1: He makes himself very alluring.
Speaker 1: And many of us, it's very silent in here right now
Speaker 1: because we've danced with the devil in the moonlight before.
Speaker 1: But guess what, beloved?
Speaker 1: Greater is he that is in us than he that is in this world.
Speaker 1: And so I'm going to give you a couple little tidbits this morning
Speaker 1: because you have a great teaching pastor.
Speaker 1: And I love because being a Calvary Chapel saved, trained,
Speaker 1: raised, ordained person were expositors,
Speaker 1: meaning that we go through verse by verse.
Speaker 1: We go through books.
Speaker 1: And when you're a Calvary Chapel pastor visiting at someplace else,
Speaker 1: you're often tempted just to do the book of Jude, right?
Speaker 1: Or second or third John, right?
Speaker 1: But I have found that the freedom that I have in Christ
Speaker 1: is simply to go and do what he wants me to do.
Speaker 1: And what he shared in my heart as I was coming this week and preparing was this.
Speaker 1: And it's something that I speak about a lot, but not everywhere.
Speaker 1: But there's something about what's going on right here in southeast Idaho.
Speaker 1: your church is stepping to the forefront
Speaker 1: to literally do battle with the devil directly
Speaker 1: and all his minions.
Speaker 1: And already, since I got here on Friday,
Speaker 1: I have seen, and you have people walking among you
Speaker 1: that this is their home church
Speaker 1: that can testify to the training that I brought with me yesterday
Speaker 1: is going to help you,
Speaker 1: release your body
Speaker 1: body of believers to be able to go out and to bring freedom in a way that it hasn't been brought
Speaker 1: before. It's all in the glory of the name of Jesus. It's all to glorify him. But I tell you,
Speaker 1: beloved, there are testimonies galore already from just 36 hours of being here, of people getting
Speaker 1: freedom that they never thought they could have. And so if you're here this morning, and even when I prayed
Speaker 1: that prayer this morning, if all of a sudden maybe you're thinking clearer or hearing clearer
Speaker 1: than when you came in this morning, you got to go see Josh, because he and Scotty and the church
Speaker 1: are already trained to help you get ultimate and total freedom in those areas of your life.
Speaker 1: Because it's not an anointing. It's literally what every believer has within us because we have
Speaker 1: the power of Christ in us. Do we not remember that our Jesus literally said that his followers
Speaker 1: would do what? Lessor things than him? What did he say? Greater? What did he do? Oh, he only just
Speaker 1: cast out demons, raised the dead, healed the lame, the blind. Those that couldn't hear?
Speaker 1: In my mind, greater means greater than those things. So my challenge to the church wherever I go is,
Speaker 1: are we even doing those things? And remember this.
Speaker 1: if the person that just died in front of you as a believer,
Speaker 1: don't try to raise them from the dead.
Speaker 1: They're not going to be happy.
Speaker 1: For those of us who have kids or you just like animated movies,
Speaker 1: it's just like the scene in Ice Age, right?
Speaker 1: Where the little squirrel that's always in the beginning
Speaker 1: trying to get to the gold made corn,
Speaker 1: finally gets to the gold made corn because he's dead.
Speaker 1: But just as he's about to embrace that, which he worships,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden he's being sucked backwards,
Speaker 1: literally sucked out of where he wants to be,
Speaker 1: And he twirls and stumbles and all of his, all of a bit just sucked back.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden he opens his eyes.
Speaker 1: And there's Sid the Sloth, who had just given him CPR.
Speaker 1: And Sid the Sloth just literally goes, I saved you little buddy.
Speaker 1: Well, Sid the Sloth got a beaten because he was there.
Speaker 1: I always tell people, especially in churches that don't know me, if I pass out and it appears
Speaker 1: that I'm dead while the service is happening, do not resuscitate is on my forehead.
Speaker 1: Just sing another praise song and leave and going, gosh, we can get home to the game early today.
Speaker 1: Praise you, Jesus.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians, verse 1.
Speaker 1: We're just going to go through six verses here and we'll get you out early.
Speaker 1: So it's one of those things as a guest speaker.
Speaker 1: You can have the people like you by letting them out earlier than what the normal pastor does.
Speaker 1: Or you can go a half hour longer than the normal pastor does.
Speaker 1: And then the pastor will love you because nobody here will ever complain to him how long
Speaker 1: He teaches him.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to be on your side today.
Speaker 1: Beginning at verse one, I, Paul, myself, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
Speaker 1: I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away.
Speaker 1: I beg of you when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence
Speaker 1: as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
Speaker 1: for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
Speaker 1: For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
Speaker 1: We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God
Speaker 1: and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience
Speaker 1: when your obedience is complete.
Speaker 1: Father, once again, thank you for your word that is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.
Speaker 1: It never returns void.
Speaker 1: It always accomplishes what you set it forth to do.
Speaker 1: So for my brothers and sisters that are here in person for those that are watching live stream
Speaker 1: and those who will watch this later, would you be true to your word as you always are changes from the inside?
Speaker 1: I'll be praying, Jesus name. Amen.
Speaker 1: So being a Calvary Chapel guy, there's no way I can go into chapter.
Speaker 1: of a book and not give you a little background. Here's the little background. Second
Speaker 1: Corinthians is a lot like Idaho Falls today. Corinth of that time is a lot like Idaho Falls today.
Speaker 1: Now we can get into the word. Okay. Do you get it? This is not some place that is necessarily,
Speaker 1: oh, it's so different. It was a place where a lot of trade routes came through. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: travel going through on the isthmus of Corinth. Everybody said that. Isseh
Speaker 1: Isthmus of Corinth.
Speaker 1: You know what Corinth was known for?
Speaker 1: They used to sing a song around December 25th
Speaker 1: that kind of got brought in to the fellowship
Speaker 1: once Constantine made Christianity,
Speaker 1: the official church of the Roman Empire in the 300s.
Speaker 1: You know what that song was?
Speaker 1: We wish you a merry isthmus.
Speaker 1: Free corn available.
Speaker 1: I had 26 kids.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 1: You got to do stuff to keep them occupied
Speaker 1: and keep them entertained.
Speaker 1: These people that were here, though,
Speaker 1: were known for their pleasure-loving.
Speaker 1: The Temple of Aphrodite was here.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've heard of that before.
Speaker 1: Literally religious rituals involving sex
Speaker 1: with temple, priests, and prostitutes,
Speaker 1: were normal at the time.
Speaker 1: So maybe it's a little bit worse off than Idaho Falls.
Speaker 1: Okay, I get it.
Speaker 1: But the reality of it is
Speaker 1: is that there's so much sexual deviancy going on
Speaker 1: within our world right now,
Speaker 1: and especially at high levels,
Speaker 1: it's a lot like it is everywhere in the world right now.
Speaker 1: One of the things that we do at all things possible,
Speaker 1: we have a protecting children's innocence task force.
Speaker 1: We focus on helping police in the United States of America
Speaker 1: hunt pedophiles.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Because of the past generations of leadership in states and at the federal level,
Speaker 1: there was this thing you might have heard it before called defund the police.
Speaker 1: Well, it happened a lot.
Speaker 1: And because the funding for so many things that were considered not necessarily beneficial,
Speaker 1: the money went away.
Speaker 1: And if you talk to your local law, I mean, how many of you here?
Speaker 1: I would imagine there's at least one police officer here
Speaker 1: that's here because you choose to be here.
Speaker 1: Do we have any active duty, LE here, police, sheriffs, FBI, HSI?
Speaker 1: Undercover.
Speaker 1: If you're undercover here, don't raise your hand.
Speaker 1: Oh, I see you.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: There's a dear guy from northeast Maine.
Speaker 1: Gosh, I just lost his name, but he's just.
Speaker 1: famous for saying he's a pastor he says
Speaker 1: I'm always packing when I'm preaching
Speaker 1: because I've got my Glock for the flock
Speaker 1: I pity the fool that
Speaker 1: comes in and tries to do something to my
Speaker 1: sheep I said oh I love that
Speaker 1: love that
Speaker 1: I don't have a cool
Speaker 1: saying for my SIG
Speaker 1: you know there's nothing about the church
Speaker 1: like my SIG for my pig
Speaker 1: you know it's not quite the same
Speaker 1: right
Speaker 1: but here we are this morning
Speaker 1: understanding that the background
Speaker 1: setting for this is not something that we need to go into depth to understand what Paul is saying
Speaker 1: here. Because what he's trying to tell them is even though there are people saying that, hey,
Speaker 1: when I'm with you, I'm nice, but when I'm away from you, I'm really bold and how I write really
Speaker 1: harsh things to you. That's what he's saying in those first couple of verses. He goes, well,
Speaker 1: the reality of it is, is I don't want to have the time when I'm with you, the short amount of time,
Speaker 1: to berate you and belittle you.
Speaker 1: And so when I'm with you, I'm trying to encourage you,
Speaker 1: trying to build you up.
Speaker 1: But when I'm away, I will address the things that you are doing wrong very directly.
Speaker 1: But this is what he wants to talk about in this writing to them that they're doing wrong.
Speaker 1: Verse three, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
Speaker 1: Everybody say waging war.
Speaker 1: When was the last time you thought of your faith in Jesus as a wage of war?
Speaker 1: If we're not realizing we're in a war, are we even in the war?
Speaker 1: I have been blessed since 2015 to be in the war against ISIS about 20 different times,
Speaker 1: embedded with both the Iraqi and the Peshmerga army.
Speaker 1: I've seen it up front.
Speaker 1: I've seen it up close.
Speaker 1: and I've seen it where they're just tripping out on the fact that, hey, crazy Americans,
Speaker 1: you're not like exactly here to kill like we are.
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily have all of the equipment either.
Speaker 1: I actually don't see like a weapon on you.
Speaker 1: Why are you here?
Speaker 1: Because you're here to set captives free, and when you set them free,
Speaker 1: you don't have anything to love on them with.
Speaker 1: You've got no basic stuff.
Speaker 1: You've got no water.
Speaker 1: You've got no milk for the babies.
Speaker 1: Because there's literally, we're watching people get set free by the droves and they're coming out.
Speaker 1: And they're so excited.
Speaker 1: But now with this freedom, where do they go?
Speaker 1: What do they do?
Speaker 1: And sure enough, that's what we were there for.
Speaker 1: And they would look at us and they'd go, you're Christian.
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 1: Say yes.
Speaker 1: You know we're Muslim, right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we know you're Muslim.
Speaker 1: And you still want to help us?
Speaker 1: God loves you.
Speaker 1: We love you.
Speaker 1: it's how the world finds out that the god of the universe the real god loves them even right where
Speaker 1: they're at but he loves them so much he doesn't want to leave them where they're at
Speaker 1: sometimes people would ask victor hey i notice that you're wearing like an a k in the pictures
Speaker 1: of you guys ministering over there and victor would say yes and people would say well is that like
Speaker 1: real official ministry if you have to wear an AK don't you trust that
Speaker 1: that God will take care of you?
Speaker 1: I loved it one of the first times I saw him
Speaker 1: after service when somebody actually approached him
Speaker 1: and said that Victor says,
Speaker 1: do you lock your door on your house at night?
Speaker 1: What does that have to do with it?
Speaker 1: Well, when I'm over in places
Speaker 1: where people want to shoot at me,
Speaker 1: I want to be able,
Speaker 1: if they're shooting at me
Speaker 1: and possibly going to hurt somebody
Speaker 1: that's indefensible behind me,
Speaker 1: I want to be able to shoot back to protect them.
Speaker 1: I think that's the same reason
Speaker 1: why you lock your door at night, right?
Speaker 1: just in case somebody wants to try and come and hurt your family?
Speaker 1: And if they come in, do you actually maybe have a weapon that's loaded near your bed
Speaker 1: so that you can actually defend your family?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: Beloved, this is what's going on in the physical realm,
Speaker 1: but do we understand that there's literally a war waging in the spiritual realm
Speaker 1: for the souls of people?
Speaker 1: There's a spiritual war waging to make those of us
Speaker 1: who have already been sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit,
Speaker 1: to not let our little light shine.
Speaker 1: There are demonic entities that are literally speaking lies into our brain so that we will hide it
Speaker 1: under a bushel.
Speaker 1: And I'm here to tell you today, we have everything we need to defeat that plan of the enemy.
Speaker 1: Because right here in verse 3, we see that Paul tells us under the unction of the spirit
Speaker 1: that though we are walking in the flesh, we don't wage war.
Speaker 1: according to the flesh. Why? For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power
Speaker 1: to what? Destroy strongholds. And this is where it gets a little, you know, a little tough for people to
Speaker 1: understand because sometimes the thought that a Christian can have a stronghold jumps into
Speaker 1: wrong theology would say, oh, you mean that they're possessed by the devil? No.
Speaker 1: not at all how many of you here would admit the fact that there's sometimes thoughts that come to your mind
Speaker 1: that you have no idea where they came from and they are nasty and ugly and evil
Speaker 1: hmm hmm steve's better nine-tenths just said it's pretty normal for her
Speaker 1: oh she's talking for steve sorry she said it's pretty normal for steve
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 1: Hey, guess what, beloved?
Speaker 1: What does that tell us?
Speaker 1: Where is the battlefield?
Speaker 1: Where's the war waging for the enemy trying to get influence on the life of the church?
Speaker 1: There's all these amazing, cool Christian kids' songs that speak such truth to spiritual warfare.
Speaker 1: Like, be careful little eyes what you see.
Speaker 1: Be careful little ears what you hear.
Speaker 1: For the Father up above is looking down in love.
Speaker 1: So be careful.
Speaker 1: Why do you have to be careful?
Speaker 1: Because this is where the enemy is trying to get a foothold
Speaker 1: into our lives so he can build a stronghold.
Speaker 1: In America, we've seen that this has been a very effective form of warfare,
Speaker 1: especially against men, using these types of things
Speaker 1: and these things that we sit behind
Speaker 1: that you can watch things that God only designed
Speaker 1: that you were supposed to have with your wife
Speaker 1: and you can watch things that were never designed
Speaker 1: to happen with anybody.
Speaker 1: And we get sucked in.
Speaker 1: And we allow the enemy to get a foothold.
Speaker 1: And what does the enemy do with a foothold?
Speaker 1: He builds a stronghold.
Speaker 1: And if we don't deal with the footholes and the strongholds,
Speaker 1: what does that do to us?
Speaker 1: it basically takes the temple of God that each one of us is,
Speaker 1: doesn't give it over to the enemy like he gets to own it,
Speaker 1: but he gets free rent in some rooms.
Speaker 1: Would we agree that that's maybe a good way to look at it?
Speaker 1: And if you don't think that's a good way to look at it,
Speaker 1: this afternoon go read Nehemiah chapter 13
Speaker 1: and see what the high priest of the temple named Elia Shib
Speaker 1: did back then.
Speaker 1: when he allowed his daughter to marry Tobiah the Ammonite
Speaker 1: and then took a couple of the rooms that were in God's temple
Speaker 1: and cleared him out and let Tobiah live there,
Speaker 1: even though God had said there will be no Ammonite
Speaker 1: in the congregation of Israel for up to 10 generations
Speaker 1: for the evil that they did against my people.
Speaker 1: So here he is the high priest of God's temple
Speaker 1: going directly against what God said
Speaker 1: for the sake of a political alliance with their enemies,
Speaker 1: and then totally lambasting God's holiness
Speaker 1: by clearing out a couple of the rooms
Speaker 1: in the temple that he was the high priest over
Speaker 1: and allowing that what shouldn't have been there to be there.
Speaker 1: Does that possibly sound kind of like maybe some of the things
Speaker 1: that we do with some of the things that are out there
Speaker 1: in our culture that are acceptable?
Speaker 1: Or even things that aren't acceptable?
Speaker 1: That's what happens.
Speaker 1: So if we give over a little bit of the,
Speaker 1: room of our holiness. And guess what? Our lights don't shine as bright as they can.
Speaker 1: People don't necessarily see that we're different in our lifestyles. And this is one of the
Speaker 1: areas that the enemy's been very effective. And that's trying to get us to believe that
Speaker 1: the church needs to be more like the world in order for the world to come to the church.
Speaker 1: Actually, beloved, it's just the opposite. Ask anybody currently who used to be of the world
Speaker 1: why they didn't come to church,
Speaker 1: and often you'll hear because they were just a bunch of hypocrites.
Speaker 1: They did everything that I did when I wasn't a believer,
Speaker 1: and maybe even worse.
Speaker 1: We need to understand.
Speaker 1: This is what God wants from us, beloved.
Speaker 1: As his body, we need to be holy because he calls us to be holy.
Speaker 1: And he gives us all the tools to be holy.
Speaker 1: But we have to meet him in this process,
Speaker 1: in this work of sanctification.
Speaker 1: We destroy arguments.
Speaker 1: Verse 5, and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God
Speaker 1: and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Speaker 1: Anybody had a political argument recently with somebody?
Speaker 1: And it didn't necessarily need to be argument.
Speaker 1: Because an argument literally is just a discussion
Speaker 1: between people that don't agree.
Speaker 1: An argument can go to an extreme of a heated argument.
Speaker 1: So if you've just had an argument,
Speaker 1: a discussion with somebody lately about something political,
Speaker 1: raise your hand lately.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: How many of us have had arguments lately
Speaker 1: about something spiritual with somebody?
Speaker 1: Oh, good.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 1: This is how people get challenged
Speaker 1: about what they're thinking not being correct,
Speaker 1: is that we have a dialogue.
Speaker 1: Now, I want to strongly encourage you,
Speaker 1: make sure that when you're having the arguments
Speaker 1: about the things of the Lord,
Speaker 1: that you are always the one that's the most calm.
Speaker 1: That's not easy, is it sometimes?
Speaker 1: That is not easy.
Speaker 1: But I do know this.
Speaker 1: The scripture tells us that the wrath of man
Speaker 1: does not produce the righteousness of God.
Speaker 1: I have never met anybody that said,
Speaker 1: my testimony is me and my best friend.
Speaker 1: He used to yell at me all the time about how wrong I was about Jesus.
Speaker 1: And then eventually, yeah, that brought me home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that brought me to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Actually, in Romans it says,
Speaker 1: it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.
Speaker 1: How do people see the kindness of God
Speaker 1: if the people in his church are mean to them?
Speaker 1: They don't.
Speaker 1: beloved this is what we're called to do we're called to be the light of the world and is this stuff
Speaker 1: easy absolutely not i am samoan welsh irish and chinese that is a formula for a grade a temper
Speaker 1: and it exists only when i yield to my flesh because god wants to take that response that gives me
Speaker 1: natural, you know, divine indignation, you know, holy indignation about things that God hates as well.
Speaker 1: But then he wants to take and move me from there to lean into my spirit and allow that to
Speaker 1: motivate you to be able to speak what I want you to speak, how I want you to speak it.
Speaker 1: That's the hard part, beloved.
Speaker 1: But understand, we have that ability, don't we?
Speaker 1: we don't personally, but how do we have that ability?
Speaker 1: Jesus help me.
Speaker 1: There's oftentimes when we find ourselves having to throw up the quick prayer.
Speaker 1: It's okay.
Speaker 1: Go back and read Nehemiah chapter one.
Speaker 1: You'll see that guy threw up a quick prayer.
Speaker 1: He didn't tell the king, let me get back to you
Speaker 1: after I go and pray and fast for a week.
Speaker 1: Because sometimes you have to be God's representative on the spot
Speaker 1: when you weren't thinking that you're going to have to be it.
Speaker 1: So you throw up the quick prayer and you speak slowly
Speaker 1: and you encourage them to talk so that you can listen.
Speaker 1: And while you're listening within yourself,
Speaker 1: you're praying to God, give me wisdom and I want to say
Speaker 1: and how to say it and what not to say.
Speaker 1: Because if we do that, we get empowered to be able to do what,
Speaker 1: to destroy the arguments.
Speaker 1: Because the arguments are often based on the fact
Speaker 1: that it's a lofty opinion.
Speaker 1: Because there's so many people out there that literally think they know better than the God of Scripture.
Speaker 1: And beloved, I'm here to tell you that sometimes saraly that some of those people are actually as children.
Speaker 1: We all need to be able to humble ourselves before Almighty God and admit the fact that he's the only one who knows everything that's going on.
Speaker 1: And if we will lean into him and if we'll yield to our own understanding and lean on his understanding,
Speaker 1: And guess what?
Speaker 1: We can experience his victory right there and then.
Speaker 1: But this last part of verse 5,
Speaker 1: taking every thought captive to obey Christ.
Speaker 1: Now, the vast majority of us raised our hands
Speaker 1: when we, and I asked the question,
Speaker 1: do we ever get thoughts that come to hear that are like,
Speaker 1: we know they're evil?
Speaker 1: Well, what do we do when those thoughts come like that?
Speaker 1: Literally lift up that shield of faith
Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus, I rebuke that thought.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to encourage some of you to start doing that out loud.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm not necessarily saying out loud that you've got to scream at so that in the middle of
Speaker 1: Walmart while you're going down and get your can of baked beans to have with your hot dogs
Speaker 1: that night that you like or are you screaming.
Speaker 1: I rebuke that thought in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: That'll clear the aisles, yes.
Speaker 1: If you're going to do that, wait until you're actually in line to check out.
Speaker 1: Do that and then it'll clear and you can get out.
Speaker 1: but we have to realize that though we are walking in the temporal world here,
Speaker 1: this stuff is not the real world.
Speaker 1: This all burns.
Speaker 1: The real world literally, C.S. Lewis used to refer to it as something that was like a parallel
Speaker 1: universe that we're walking along.
Speaker 1: And sometimes God gives us the blessing of maybe getting a foot inside the eternal realm.
Speaker 1: And he brings us back here because there's so much stuff in there
Speaker 1: that is so beyond us and some of it's so good and some of it's so evil that we just couldn't
Speaker 1: handle it. But we need to understand is that we have the ability when these things come
Speaker 1: because those fiery dots, fiery darts of the enemy, their thoughts usually, and their thoughts
Speaker 1: usually that are based in lies and they are wrapped in the bacon of sin that we have succumbed to
Speaker 1: before.
Speaker 1: Never thought of it that way before.
Speaker 1: The bacon of sin,
Speaker 1: because, man, you wrap bacon around anything
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden it tastes good, right?
Speaker 1: Whatever your least favorite
Speaker 1: vegetable it is, for those of you who like those
Speaker 1: little small cabbage things that they
Speaker 1: call something different, but they're only just many cabbages.
Speaker 1: What are those things called?
Speaker 1: Brousel. Oh, nastiness.
Speaker 1: But you wrap those things in bacon.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'll eat those all day long.
Speaker 1: This is the way the enemy works, though.
Speaker 1: That's what rat poison is, right?
Speaker 1: 98% stuff that is five.
Speaker 1: and good to a rat and 2% of the stuff, it'll kill him.
Speaker 1: This is what the enemy does.
Speaker 1: He wraps the lies that he sends your way
Speaker 1: in the bacon of whatever it is
Speaker 1: that'll get you to take it.
Speaker 1: We simply need to lift our shield of faith
Speaker 1: and say, not to day Satan, no.
Speaker 1: And I claim the truth of God,
Speaker 1: and I claim the name of Jesus,
Speaker 1: and I claim the blood of Jesus to stop that.
Speaker 1: But sometimes you might need a little bit more help from a brother or sister to simply come along
Speaker 1: and help determine whether or not you have this cloud of negative witnesses following you.
Speaker 1: Like, anybody remember, Pigpen from the Charlie Browns?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Pigpen had this horrific cloud of dirt because he never bathed and never took care of himself.
Speaker 1: And it became almost like his badge of honor that he didn't realize how dirty and filthy he was.
Speaker 1: beloved that can be us in the spiritual realm just going through not even realizing that we have this
Speaker 1: negative cloud of witnesses that are there and they've been messing with you're here and you have
Speaker 1: been lied to that you cannot tell anybody especially at church because they will think less of you
Speaker 1: I'm here to tell you if that's a lie that you've been dealing with you need to go see pastor
Speaker 1: Mr. Scotty, Pastor Josh, and they'll help you get rid of those demonic entities that are
Speaker 1: literally feeding those lines in your pig pen cloud of negative influence. Because it's available to us
Speaker 1: because of what Jesus has done and what he has given us in his spirit. And then we close today
Speaker 1: with being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. This isn't about us,
Speaker 1: punishing disobedience. This is about the spirit of the Lord. Who is the only one that is able to
Speaker 1: righteously judge? Jesus. We have to, as the body, realize that there's some people in this world
Speaker 1: that we cannot stand, and maybe you even use the H word that ends with E, and has two letters
Speaker 1: in between it, that's a prepositional word. Those people
Speaker 1: aren't our enemy.
Speaker 1: They were made in the image of God.
Speaker 1: You know what God says about him,
Speaker 1: both Old Testament and New Testament?
Speaker 1: I take no delight in the death of the wicked,
Speaker 1: saith the Lord,
Speaker 1: but my desire is that all would come to repentance,
Speaker 1: Ezekiel 33, and then you come over into Peter.
Speaker 1: The Lord's not slack concerning slackness,
Speaker 1: as some consider slackness,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't want any to perish,
Speaker 1: therefore he's long-suffering.
Speaker 1: So, beloved, we need to understand.
Speaker 1: It's all a spiritual battle.
Speaker 1: and we have been lied to by the enemy for so long that number one, he doesn't exist,
Speaker 1: and that number two, everything's his fault.
Speaker 1: How many of you remember Flip Wilson back in the 70s?
Speaker 1: The devil made me do it.
Speaker 1: What was he doing back then?
Speaker 1: He was ridiculing the church who at that time had basically tried to blame the devil
Speaker 1: for everything that was happening in their life,
Speaker 1: when so much of it was simply us getting the repercussions of what we were choosing.
Speaker 1: And rightfully so, he was making fun of the church.
Speaker 1: But the church now needs to understand.
Speaker 1: There are some things that the enemy is doing,
Speaker 1: and there's some things the enemy is just coercing you to do,
Speaker 1: and you're taking the bait, hookline, and sinker.
Speaker 1: So beloved this morning,
Speaker 1: I'm sent to you by God.
Speaker 1: I don't know if Scotty will ever want me back after you talk to him.
Speaker 1: But the reality is, God is speaking to many of them.
Speaker 1: you today about a challenge that he's given each and every one of us concerning where we're at
Speaker 1: and our walk with him and what we're willing to do to get it to a better and deeper level of
Speaker 1: what he really wants from us. So as the worship guys come up, look at that, Steve landing the
Speaker 1: plane a little early. Welcome. Yeah, they're like, what?
Speaker 1: If you're here this morning, or you're watching the live stream,
Speaker 1: or you're watching this later as it's recorded,
Speaker 1: and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior,
Speaker 1: and something got through to you today,
Speaker 1: and you realize today is the day of salvation for you,
Speaker 1: make your peace with them right now.
Speaker 1: There's no magic words to say.
Speaker 1: He's listening to your heart.
Speaker 1: but just in a little guidance all you simply need to do is acknowledge the fact that you know that you're a sinner
Speaker 1: and that you know that if you were to die today in your current state without him that hell is your destination and rightfully so
Speaker 1: but that you're actually hearing that this god loves you and is willing to take you right where you're at
Speaker 1: if you'll simply believe that he loved the world so that he sent his one and only son to die in the cross for you
Speaker 1: and he would have done it had you been the only person throughout human history that bowed
Speaker 1: your knee to him.
Speaker 1: There's no greater love.
Speaker 1: Make your peace with them now
Speaker 1: as we get a musical interlude
Speaker 1: for a few seconds
Speaker 1: and then I'll continue the prayer here in a second.
Speaker 1: And then maybe you're here this morning or listening or watching
Speaker 1: and there was a time in the past where you committed yourself to him.
Speaker 1: You accepted him into your heart and you accepted his forgiveness and you made up your Lord,
Speaker 1: but you've drifted away,
Speaker 1: that the things of the world have literally pulled you away
Speaker 1: and you realize it's time to come home to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He's standing with his arms wide open,
Speaker 1: and you take that one step towards him,
Speaker 1: and what you're going to see is him come running to you,
Speaker 1: just as we saw in the story of the prodigal.
Speaker 1: Take that one step to him now.
Speaker 1: Admit the fact that you've been away,
Speaker 1: ask his forgiveness,
Speaker 1: accept his love,
Speaker 1: be empowered by his spirit to move forward,
Speaker 1: and I ever, ever stray again.
Speaker 1: Once again, there's no magical formula of words to speak.
Speaker 1: Just tell them from your heart.
Speaker 1: He's listening.
Speaker 1: And then for the rest of the body, Lord, that you have died for.
Speaker 1: We just thank you for where we are at.
Speaker 1: now, but Lord, we never want to be complacent.
Speaker 1: We want to continue to grow.
Speaker 1: We want to continue to grow in the grace and the knowledge of you.
Speaker 1: And we want to be used more for the advancement of your kingdom.
Speaker 1: We literally want to sow more into things that are going to have eternal ramifications.
Speaker 1: And so whatever giftings you've given us, God, may we use them for the advancement of the
Speaker 1: kingdom of heaven, storing up our treasures in heaven, not on earth.
Speaker 1: And then Lord, some are asking, Lord, I want to be used more.
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, would you do that for your own glory's sake, for the glory sake of the Godhead?
Speaker 1: Expand the tent pegs and the borders of those of your children who are desiring to see more of you and to work alongside and more of what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Would you do that for your own glory's sake?
Speaker 1: We pray for Pastor Scott is he's ministering to people who are.
Speaker 1: literally walking through the valley of the shadow of death right now.
Speaker 1: Would you bring comfort to their souls?
Speaker 1: And for those that don't know you as Lord and Savior,
Speaker 1: would this moment of them looking at their own mortality
Speaker 1: be something that you would use as you speak through Scotty,
Speaker 1: as you minister through him,
Speaker 1: to bring people to know you as their Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1: And then, Father, as we just worship you through this one last song together,
Speaker 1: and as we go from this place to this,
Speaker 1: May we rejoice that we came to meet with you,
Speaker 1: that you honored our faith and you met with us,
Speaker 1: that we heard from the one true living God,
Speaker 1: and that we would go from this place rejoicing
Speaker 1: that the God of heaven's armies,
Speaker 1: the one who created and sustained the universe,
Speaker 1: loves us unconditionally.
Speaker 2: We pray this all in Jesus' name.
Speaker 2: Amen.