Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / Stop Fighting The Wrong People - March 22, 2026

Transcript

Stop Fighting The Wrong People - March 22, 2026 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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John 17 The high priestly prayer.
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When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted his eyes to
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heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, Glorify your Son,
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that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him
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authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom
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you have given Him. And this is eternal life, that
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they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you
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have sent. I glorified you on earth, having
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accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
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And now, Father, glorify me in Your own presence with the glory
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that I had with You before the world existed.
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I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave me out
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of the world. Yours they were, and You gave
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them to me, and they have kept their word.
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Now they know that everything that You have given me is from
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You, for I have given them the words that You gave me, and they
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have received them and have come to know in truth that I came
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from You, and they have believed that You sent me.
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I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world,
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but for those whom You have given me.
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For they are Yours. All mine are yours, and Yours
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are mine, and I am glorified in them.
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And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I
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am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your
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name which You have given me, that they may be 1 even as we
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are one. While I was with them, I kept
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them in Your name, which You have given me.
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I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except
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for the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be
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fulfilled. But now I'm coming to you, and
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these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy
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fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word, and
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the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just
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as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them
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out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil. 1 They
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are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
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Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.
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As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the
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world, and for their sake I consecrate myself that they also
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may be sanctified. In truth.
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I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe
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in Me through their word, that they may all be one.
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Just as You, Father, are in me, and I in You, that they may also
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be in us, so the world may believe that you have sent me
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the glory that you have given me.
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I have given to them that they may be 1 even as we are one, I
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and them and you and me, that they may become perfectly 1, so
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that the world may know that you've sent me and loved them
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even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also
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whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my
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glory that you have given me because you have loved me before
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the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous Father, even
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though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know
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that you have sent me. I made known to them your name,
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and I will continue to make it known that the love with which
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You've loved me be in them and I in them.
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Amen. Good morning.
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Thank you for braving the 2026 Hunger Games, Oh, I mean the
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Bakersfield Marathon to get here this morning.
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Welcome to Resurrection Church. My name is Daniel.
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I'm a lead pastor here. We're continuing in our series
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in the book of John. We're going to be at John 17
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today. In 1974, the last soldier of
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World War 2 surrendered. Now, if you're a little confused
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by that date because Japan actually surrendered in 1945,
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good, because it should, you should be a little bit confused
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of why it took an extra 29 years for the last soldier to actually
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surrender. There was a man named Hiru
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Onata. He was a Japanese soldier who
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had been stationed on Lubang Island in the Philippians, and
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he'd gotten his orders one year before the surrender in 1944.
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And explicitly his His orders were never surrender in case
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they try to trick you. So the next year, when Japan
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actually surrendered as a country, he didn't get the memo.
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He survived in the jungle of that island, conducting
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guerrilla raids, shooting at the locals and the police.
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Convinced the war was still going on.
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They dropped Flyers over the jungle.
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They delivered family letters and he concluded they were all
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tricks. He fought the wrong enemy for
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another 29 years until finally Japan went and found his now
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retired former commanding officer, flew him to the island
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and formally relieved him of duty.
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He wasted 30 years of his life. He wasn't weak, he wasn't a
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coward. He was devoted to fighting the
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wrong enemy. Wrong enemy, wrong energy.
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It's our big idea today. And The funny thing is that
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that's the story of every human on earth before we meet Jesus.
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Wrong enemy, wrong energy. Today we're going to spend some
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time talking about what happens when you change sides from God's
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enemy to God's child when Jesus saves you.
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And we're also going to talk a little bit about this thing that
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some of times we do after we get saved, which is forget which
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side we're on and shoot the wrong people.
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When Jessica was reading John 17, that is called the high
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priestly prayer. It is the longest recorded
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prayer that we have of Jesus. And it's it's also one of the
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few times Jesus prays out loud. We know he prays a lot in
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private. And he is at the Last Supper
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with his disciples, which the last few weeks we've all this
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has been about the Last Supper. There's 12 disciples and he's
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about a couple hours away from being arrested and ultimately
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going to the cross to die for our sins.
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If you're not familiar with the word sins, if that's something
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new to you, it's simply the Bible's word for rebellion
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against God. And So what he's doing is he's
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preparing these disciples for the fact that because they
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believe in Jesus, and because Jesus is about to go pay for our
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rebellion on the cross, they are about to be saved.
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They will cross from being humans rebelling against God, to
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being on his team, to being called his children.
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Now if you've never heard that that concept before, or maybe
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that's a little bit confusing to you, it is explicitly stated in
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another letter to an early church in Ephesus.
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In Ephesians 2, the apostle Paul will write a very clear
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understanding of what it looks like to go from God's enemy to
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God's child. It sounds like this, and you
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were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked,
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following the course of this world, following the Prince of
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the power of the air. That's Satan, the spirit that is
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now in work, at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we
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all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the
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desires of the flesh and the mind.
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And we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
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What what that says is it's not just the disciples in the upper
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room that were enemies of God before Jesus.
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It's every single one of us enemies lost, stuck in rebellion
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against God. Verse 4 But God, being rich in
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mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even
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when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive
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together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.
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The story of the Bible is that the commander comes into enemy
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territory, gives his life for us and drafts us into his army, but
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we never leave the battlefield. We never went and found God at
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all. It says, For while we were yet
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sinners, say me, we were reconciled to God by the death
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of his Son. Now, why all this background?
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Well, because John 17 is actually a prayer of protection
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over the disciples. Jesus knows that they're about
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to change teams. And so he spends this entire
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chapter praying for them. And if you read the end of the
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chapter, actually praying for us, because he says those that
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come later and he does this out loud, unlike most of his prayers
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that are all in private and he does it out loud for our benefit
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so that we would get to read it. What he says is he's going to
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leave the disciples in the battlefield, but all of a sudden
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they're going to be on a new team.
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And so there's a couple of things that Jesus is attempting
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to prepare them for and he's attempting to prepare us for
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because when you change teams, three things are going to
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happen. And I think they're really
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important. They're all kind of nested in
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this letter. Here's the first.
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Changing sides means new enemies.
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It also means new teammates. And the third thing, it's the
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same old war. It's actually not all that new,
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new enemies, new team mates, but the same old war.
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Now, now, what do I mean by three enemies?
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Well, in the Bible, God has three enemies that are
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constantly mentioned. They're mentioned in Ephesians 2
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that we just read. They're actually mentioned in
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John 17 as well. And when you and I go from being
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an enemy of God to being a child of God, His enemies become our
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enemies. And so Jesus spends an entire
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chapter praying protection over the disciples because he knows
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these are about to be your enemies.
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And listen, I don't want you to miss this.
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I think this is a really important chapter in the Bible.
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It's a really important concept for us in the church.
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And here's why. If you're in a fight, it's
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really important to know who the enemy is.
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Amen. If not, you might be shooting a
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friend. So let's look at it.
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Who are three God's three enemies?
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Who are these new enemies? Satan, the world and the flesh.
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Satan, the world and the flesh. Before God saved me, I was on
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the team of the world. I was on the team of Satan.
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But now that God has saved me, all three of these enemies are
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working against me. Who is Satan?
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Satan is the enemy commander. In John 1715, Jesus says this in
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this prayer. I do not ask that you take them
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out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil 1, the
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evil 1. Now that Greek word is paneros,
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PONEROS paneros. It does not mean.
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It doesn't mean abstract evil. Oh, yeah.
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Bad things. No, no, it's, it's personal.
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It's very specific, That word. He's naming an adversary that
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has a strategy. Now, in the Bible, we know Satan
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as the devil. We know him as Lucifer.
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He has some different names. At this moment when Jesus is
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praying, this Satan is active on the earth.
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He has minions. They're called demons or fallen
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angels and they're referred to throughout all of Scripture and,
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and Jesus believes that this is so important that he has to
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pray. He needs to pray protection over
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us from these spiritual forces. The Bible tells us the demons
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are real, that they have an an agenda, that they are the
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enemies of God, that they are unredeemable, that they are
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destined for eternal punishment and that if you're saved,
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they're after you. That's what the Bible says.
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So we are to resist demonic attacks.
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We are to resist the devil. Now on a spin, just a few
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moments, I'm going to give you 2 things about Satan that I think
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are really important to note for John 17 and just for you as you
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follow Jesus. And here's the first thing.
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A lot of us will fall into one of two camps.
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We're going to either overreact or we're going to under react.
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We're going to overreact to spiritual things or we're going
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to maybe underestimate them. And we see both of those like,
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you can overreact to this. You can label everything as a
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spiritual attack. That's not correct.
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First of all, God has three enemies.
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So often times the thing that happens is not Satan at all.
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Listen, a lot of my problems don't have to do with Satan.
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They have to be. They have to do with me being
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dumb. It would not be accurate to call
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that Satan. I could make better choices.
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Amen. So we can overreact.
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And everywhere we look, it's a spiritual ward.
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It's a spiritual this, and it's demons this and it's Satan this,
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and it's not accurate. That's an overreaction.
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But we can also underestimate this in the Western world that
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we live in now, in Western civilization in 2026, man, we
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love to minimize the spiritual realm.
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We love to dismiss things like Satan and demons.
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And we just just, that's just what crazy people talk about.
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That's just an excuse people give to justify their own
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mistakes. You know, the famous author and
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theologian CS Lewis wrote a bunch of beautiful books, but he
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also wrote a book called The Screw Tape Letters.
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It's a fictional account of two demons strategizing how to get
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you. It's fascinating.
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And in the preface to that book, he says something before you
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read the book. It says this There are two equal
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and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the
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devil's One is to disbelieve in their existence.
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The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy
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interest in them. You can overreact or you can
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under react, and for the most part in the Western world, we
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under react. We underestimate one of the
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themes in the screw tape letters is later used in a movie that
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became incredibly famous, became one of the most famous movie
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quotes in this last century. An actor named Kevin Spacey says
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this. The greatest trick the devil
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ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist under
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reacting, under estimating. If you find yourself cynical
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about the demonic, but you, you, you follow Christ, you would
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call yourself a Christian. I would just challenge you with
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this. If you're easy to dismiss the
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influence in the attack of Satan that the Bible says is a real
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battle, I would just ask you. You know, it must be difficult
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to justify believing in an invisible God if you don't
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believe in his enemies that he tells you he has, whether you
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can see them or not. So Satan, the second enemy of
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God that is now our enemy is the world.
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That's the enemy's territory. In John 1714, which Jesus is
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praying, he says the world has hated them because they are not
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of the world. Now, when Jesus is praying a
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protection over us for the world, he does not mean the
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earth, the world. Actually here in John, the Word
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is cosmos in Greek that starts with AK and it it's not
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referring to the physical world at all.
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It's actually referring to the organized system of rebellion
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against God that not not people, the system culture, values,
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pressure, comfort, distraction. This is Satan's operational
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headquarters. I remember years ago I was
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driving into Las Vegas. Anyone ever driven in at night
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to Las Vegas? OK, you're driving in and the,
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and like the light show is like nothing you've ever seen.
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I I can't explain. If you've never done this, you
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know, they're just neon. And there's the now there's
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these LED signs and and it's and it's and it's, they built like a
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mini Eiffel Tower and a mini like New York, Manhattan thing
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and A and A and a castles and, and, and all like it just.
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And I remember driving in and also there's so much there's
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like hedonism rising these naked people everywhere.
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You're trying to cover your kids eyes and but I remember driving
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in and just thinking like the folly of mankind that we would
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build this and, and, and, and then thumb our nose at God.
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The Bible says the world broke and it is it is against God.
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I feel like all you have to do is drive to Las Vegas at night
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to know that the world was Satan's playground.
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And so, you know, before I was saved, I could live in the world
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and I and I could breathe in the world and it was like a fish in
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water. But the moment I got saved,
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everything pushed back because I was no longer of this world in
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it, but not of it. In verse 18, Jesus says, as you
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sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
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Jesus does not pray that we get removed from here.
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He prays that we're protected inside of it because he sent you
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into it. You are a soldier behind enemy
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lines by design. This is not an accident.
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This is our mission field. Christian.
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Christian, would you stop being shocked when the world pushes
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back against you? It's not new.
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The world has pushed against Christianity since it started.
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We should not be surprised any longer.
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People are like, I'm going to move to Tennessee.
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It's still in the world. It's it's at the edge, but it's
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enemy territory. Satan, the world and the flesh,
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that's the enemy within. The Bible says that once sin
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entered the world all the way at the beginning of the story in
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the Garden of Eden when the first humans, Adam and Eve
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rebelled against God, that since that happened, every human born
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since then, that's you say me has been born with a sin nature.
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That's why we need God. So God saves us.
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We are a new creation and yet there's still this old nature
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that we are battling with. Romans 7.
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And so in John 17, Jesus prays for the disciples to have unity
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7 times. It is the request He asks for.
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The most in that chapter in this prayer is unity.
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Unity 7 times. Why?
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Why? Why would he do that?
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Well, what causes disunity between US and the church?
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James. James who is Jesus half brother
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becomes an elder in the Church of Jerusalem and he writes a
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letter and here's what he says causes disunity in the church.
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What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
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Is it not this that your passions are at war within you,
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that that new creation and that old sin nature are still
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fighting? You see, disunity is not a
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relational problem, it's a sin nature problem.
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So Jesus prays that you and I as believers would have a unity
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that looks like the Trinity. Now if you're not familiar with
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that word, that is God the Father, God the Son, and God the
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Holy Spirit. And they have a relationship
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that is so intimate and so perfect that Jesus says, I pray
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that the unity between believers in the church will be like this,
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a unity, a relationship with no sin nature.
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That's perfect. And the reason he asks 7 times,
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unity, unity, give them unity unity, unity, unity, unity is He
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knows. Listen, most of you already know
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what God's three enemies are. You already knew that these
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things existed. And yet we spend most of our
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time and our emotion fighting our boss at work, or our spouse,
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or people in our church or our neighbor, the flesh
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manufacturers enemies out of the people standing right next to
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you. Wrong enemy, wrong energy.
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And just like our Japanese soldier, you can lose 30 years
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fighting with somebody that was never a threat.
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So the the reason that Jesus spends an entire prayer asking
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the Father to protect you from these three enemies is he knows
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what's coming and he loves you far too much to leave you
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unwarned or unprotected. Satan, the world in the flesh.
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Now I told you this means 3 new things.
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One of them is new enemies. The second thing is it means a
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new team. Now a couple weeks ago I had an
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opportunity to, to preach on in, in John, this idea that we had
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become, because Jesus saved us, a royal priesthood, a holy
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nation. And so I don't, I'm not going to
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spend a ton of time on the new team.
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But what I'm trying to tell you is that if, if if you have been
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saved, you're all on the same team, turn to your neighbor and
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say, I'm glad you're on my team. Come on, let him know to let him
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know. The Bible speaks about this over
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and over again, the New Testament about what this looks
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like to be on the same team in Revelation 59 and 10, which is a
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picture of what heaven's going to look like.
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They're singing to Jesus and it says they sang a new song saying
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worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.
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For you were slain. And by your blood, you ransom
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people for God from every tribe and language and people and
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nation. And you have made them a
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Kingdom. And priests are God, and they
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shall reign on earth. If you follow Jesus, you are in
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the most decorated elite combat unit in history.
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SEAL Team Six ain't got nothing on you, brother.
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We've been fighting for thousands of years.
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And I want you to consider this. I want you to think about this
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for a minute. If you're saved, you have more
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in common with a Christian from Iran, from Yemen, from North
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Korea than you do with a conservative American atheist
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because you're on new team. Think about that.
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It's not about a political party.
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It's not about patriotism. It's not about demographics or
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or ethnicity. It's not about a sports team.
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Go Bears. It's not about a job or a hobby
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or anything else that unites us other than being bought by the
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blood of Christ. We are one in him.
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Turn to that person that you just told you you were glad.
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You just turn over there and say, I would have picked you
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anyway. Go ahead.
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I'm earning you points. Husbands, come on.
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I would have picked you anyway. You're on a new team, guys.
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That's why it's crazy when you hear someone talking bad about
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another church. Those are your team mates.
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We love those guys. You know those guys are Valley
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Baptist. They're amazing.
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We tell them that all the time. You know the guys doing Pastor
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Jeff over at the Bridge? Awesome.
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I am constantly texting him. I am so proud of them and I
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appreciate them so much. Why?
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They're our teammates. Why wouldn't we?
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That's crazy. The third thing is that's not
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new is the war. It's just the same old war.
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New enemies, new team, but this is the same old war.
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It's an ancient battle. Now we might have a new
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perspective or a new power, but you all, this battle ain't new.
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It started in the Garden of Eden in the beginning of the Bible.
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Now you may not have realized you were in it before.
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Before salvation, you couldn't see it.
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You get saved and all the sudden you can.
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It's always been there. We were just blind.
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And now we see from the first book of the Bible, Genesis, to
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the last book of the Bible, Revelation, it is talking about
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this battle, this problem. Now I do want to remind you that
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the end has already been written.
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Jesus wins. The only question is whether you
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show up to the battle or sleep through it like that Japanese
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soldier did, mixed up, loyal to the wrong side, exhausted from
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fighting the wrong war. Now listen, if you really want
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to be encouraged, and I, I highly recommend doing this.
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I do this. I, if you want to be encouraged,
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read some of our church fathers. Read, read preachers and
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theologians and pastors from like 400 years ago, 600 years
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ago, 800 years ago. And here's why.
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We'll encourage you. They were having the same
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problem. Your problems are not new.
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Every time you're like, oh, I can't believe.
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Open up something like 1640 and you're like, huh, that sounds
27:29
familiar. They have a new problem.
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It's the problem. Now I'm spending a ton of time
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talking to you about this. Why?
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Why? Well, Jesus thought this was
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important enough to pray an entire chapter specifically over
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these things in our lives. And so this next part when we
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talk about how we actually apply this, I think is, is like one of
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the most important things that you're ever going to learn about
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doing life in church. So give me a for for the last
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couple seconds here, lean forward.
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You won't fall over. Go ahead.
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You can lean forward. I want you to pay attention to
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this, this part. This is really important.
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Listen to me. Some of you are exhausted.
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Some of you are overwhelmed, some of you are even angry, and
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I want you to know that Jesus Prayer in John 17 is exactly
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what you need to hear. When I look at our church, when
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I look at American churches, I think there are two things that
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if you read John 17, it should help wake us up to.
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And here's the first. Some of y'all forgot we were in
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a war. Like Jesus is really clear.
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The Bible is super clear that when he saved us, he
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intentionally left us an enemy territory, commissioned us for
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battle, equipped us in the Spirit, gave us teammates and
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and trainers and and wrote out an entire battle plan.
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And what you know, we do with all of that, we do what I am
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really good at. We forget when my wife at the
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beginning of the week goes through the whole calendar and
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she's like, and then the kids have this and they have the
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orthodontist appointment and don't forget that you got the
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PTA thing and you got to go to this and then take guy to
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swimming. And we go through the entire
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thing and I look at her and I'm like, OK, I got it, but just in
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case, tell me the whole thing again.
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I wasn't listening. We forgot, we forgot.
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Now that's just frustrating if you're married to me, but but
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it's deadly if you're forgetting what Jesus has been trying to
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tell us for years. It's you're in a war.
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It's deadly. It's deadly because what will
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happen is we'll get this unrealistic expectations.
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We start to expect it to be easy You we start to expect to the
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Christian life's going to be like a vacation, not a
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battlefield. So, so so then you can't find
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any joy in the battle. Christian, listen, this is a
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battleship, not a Disney cruise. There's not a single part of
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Scripture that tells you this is going to be easy.
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It doesn't exist, so stop expecting it to get easy.
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The second thing is actually worse than the first.
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Some of it is forgetting, but some of it here, here, we see
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this. You know what?
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We've lived it. In the midst of what is a cosmic
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battle against spiritual forces, we turn and start fighting one
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another. That's why Jesus prays for unity
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seven times in this prayer and in church after church.
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We are eating each other alive for petty differences.
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It's so common the Bible actually leaves us a detailed
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instruction about how to go tackle internal conflict, and we
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rarely use it. In fact, it's so common, it's
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launched a new phrase in our culture called Church Hurt.
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You guys heard that? You ever heard Church Hurt?
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Barna did a study about American Christians, said that one in
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every three Christians that leaves the church points to a
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conflict with someone in the church.
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That's why they left. You're, I don't want you to miss
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what I just said. I want you to think about in a
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military conflict if 33% of the casualties were from friendly
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fire. I would say we have a problem.
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Let me tell you how else I know that it's really common because
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I've done it, because I've done it.
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My wife and I at our last church had been there about 10 years
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when we begin to feel like we were being called to to go
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somewhere, but we couldn't figure out what it was.
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And so we're what we did it. We went to a pastor's and our
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family, our parents and we just asked them to all start in our
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group and just pray for us. And so I don't know about you,
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but I have this weird thing where I think if I pray for it
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that God has like a 24 hour timer, like he's going to, he'll
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be telling me in about a day, like 2 days maybe a year went by
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of praying and we still didn't have any clarity.
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And I was so frustrated because I knew we were being called and
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I couldn't figure out where. And so I had a choice.
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In that moment, I could have taken that discontentment and it
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could have been holy discontentment, but I didn't.
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Instead, what I did is I, I turned it on my pastor, Pastor
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Tim. Now Pastor Tim had discipled me,
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mentored me, loved me, walked through me with a lot for during
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the loss of a child. And in that moment, because I
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was frustrated, I turned my angst and my anger on him and,
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and the Lord was very gracious to me in that season.
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Like I never never really burned that relationship by by losing
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it. But let me tell you something.
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I thought some very terrible things about him and I said some
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things I shouldn't have said. And I'm, and I, again, it was by
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the grace of God that it never got really bad.
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And then later, as God actually gave us clarity on where he was
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sending us and where we were supposed to go when we went
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there, I looked back and went, Oh no, I was, I was so ashamed I
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had to go and talk to him. I'm so sorry.
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And you know, Pastor Jamie, he was here like 2 weeks ago
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commissioning the Heimburgers that he sent.
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He preached here in January. He was very gracious to me,
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thankfully. Church, I'm begging you to stop
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forgetting that we're at war. So remember who the enemy is and
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stop eating our own. And if in this moment you're
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beginning to realize that, man, we all struggle with this,
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that's why Jesus left us an entire prayer.
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And you're thinking, how do I go about doing that?
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Well, here's the good news. Jesus actually left us
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everything we need. He's pretty good like that.
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And so I printed these into your insert.
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They're directly out of scripture.
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Let's go over them. They're the things that we do.
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They're the battlefield advice. And I want you to take it home
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on your on your insert. And I want you to, I want you to
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put the magnet on it on the fridge up next to Bobby's report
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card that you're proud of. And I want you to keep it up
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there. And I want you to look at it
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every single day. Three things.
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Here's the first reorient. Every morning, Colossians 32
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says set your minds on things that are above, not on things
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that are on the earth. So before you pick up your
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phone, before you check the news, before you do whatever it
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is, it's going to start to bother you or doom scrolling or
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I don't. Just spend 60 seconds telling
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yourself the truth about who you are and who the enemy is.
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Soldiers don't stumble out of the barracks and wander into the
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battle. They have a briefing.
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So, so, so before your feet hit the ground and you begin to race
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off into your day, your Bible, your prayer journal, some some
36:08
moments actually reorienting you before the world gets a hold of
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you and tries to disorient you. IA couple of us actually listen
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to this, but we have Bible reading plans.
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We're doing a Bible in the year plan here as a church.
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And so, but it's about 4:15 AMI start my Bible plan.
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Not because I want to check a box because I need to be
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reoriented before the day starts as I have a tendency to drift.
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Secondly, reorient daily. Refuel often.
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Refuel often. Matthew 44, Jesus says man shall
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not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the
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mouth of God. Jesus, when he says this is
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being attacked by Satan in the wilderness and he doesn't fight
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back with willpower. He refuels with the word.
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That's what he's telling you. You cannot sustain a fight
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you're not eating for. This doesn't have to be
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complicated. Open your Bible app, start a
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reading plan, get in a group somewhere centered around the
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word of God where you have people asking you, hey man, what
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has God been telling you this week?
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Hey, what's God been teaching you this week?
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Hey, what are you convicted of this week?
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Hey, where has God encouraged you this week?
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What are you doing? You're refueling.
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The enemy loves a hungry soldier and some of y'all are starving.
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Reorient daily, refuel often. And lastly, remember that the
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end is already written in Revelation 1911 when we get a
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picture of what heaven's going to be like.
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It says. Then I saw heaven opened, and
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behold, a White Horse. The one sitting on it is called
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faithful and true. And in righteousness he judges
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and makes war. Jesus wins when the battle feels
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like it's going the wrong direction, and it will feel like
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that. You are allowed to skip forward
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and read the last chapter. It's not a cliffhanger.
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The king rides out. Every enemy falls.
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Every knee will bow. You're not fighting toward an
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uncertain outcome. You're fighting toward a settled
38:34
one. This is the the Bible's formula
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to fix our battlefield problems, and we don't do any of it in our
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own strength. Jesus actually told us you will
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receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
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That's not motivational language.
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That is the power to fight this fight.
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You're not doing it on your own. So brother, sister in Christ,
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who is exhausted today, who's been fighting the wrong enemies,
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stop shooting at your brothers and sisters.
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Stop surrendering to this world. It's against you.
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Stop collaborating with your flesh.
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Jesus has been praying this prayer for you since before you
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were born, and he is still praying it over you.
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And he is not disappointed. If you get confused about who
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the enemy is, that's why he has this prayer.
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This is why he's explained all these things to us, precisely
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because he knew this would be difficult.
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And this prayer is still active. Wrong enemy, wrong energy.
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We can end that today. Perhaps there's another person
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that's listening to this, maybe, maybe online, maybe here in the
39:54
room and and you, you don't know the God of the Bible.
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Now, maybe you're here today and you're still on the wrong side
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of this battle. You've been in the jungle your
40:05
whole life, fighting for the wrong things, loyal to a side
40:08
that is never going to win, and exhausted from a war that was
40:11
never yours to fight. That's not a character flaw, by
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the way. That's called the human
40:17
condition. The Bible says that every single
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one of us was born behind enemy lines, Children of wrath,
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serving a system that was working against us.
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And most of us don't know it. But the commander didn't send a
40:34
memo this time. Jesus came himself while you
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were still his enemy. He died for you.
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That's not a recruitment pitch for a religion.
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That's a rescue operation for a soul.
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And today he's offering you a new life, a full pardon, a new
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team, a new identity, and a new name.
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Child of God. So as we close, will you bow
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your heads and close your eyes? Because I want to give you that
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invitation from the Bible right now.
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If you would like to surrender your life to Christ and follow
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him as King, simply repeat this prayer after me.
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Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner who can't save myself.
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I want you to save me and adopt me into your family.
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I surrender everything to you, be my Lord.
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Please Jesus, if you prayed that prayer for the very first time,
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will you raise your hand for me to see?
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Thank you, thank you. You put your hands down in Jesus
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name, Amen. Real quick.
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He gave your life to Christ moments ago.
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Welcome to the family. In just a second we're going to
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respond to this sermon. We're going to sing a song and
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there's some tables in the back. They say I raised my hand as we
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sing. I want you to just find your way
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back there. We want to celebrate with you.
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We're excited for you, especially if you've given your
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life to Christ recently and haven't told anyone about it,
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come tell someone about it. If you're online and you just
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gave your life to Christ, you just put it in the chat.
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There are people waiting to celebrate with you.
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I can guarantee you. Will you stand?
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We're going to close with a song and some announcements.
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Our prayer team is going to come up if you need prayer for any
42:51
reason. We actually really love praying
42:53
with you and for you, so we'll sing.
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If you gave your life to Christ, you go to one of those tables in
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the back. You move as the Lord leads you.
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We love you, Church.