Now, look, don't watch this movie, but I've read about this movie. There's a movie, I think, from 1980 called Private Benjamin.
And when I was reading about this, it kind of made me chuckle. The premise of this movie is it's a spoiled, ditzy, rich girl who wants something else out of life. And somebody tells her, said, well, join the army. The army, it's kind of like a spa.
It's really fun to join the army. So this wealthy, ditzy, rich lady joins the army thinking that she's kind of going to join an extended spa vacation. And she immediately complains. She shows up in basic training in her expensive clothes, her high heels, her stilettos. She goes to the basic training and she complains about the food. She says, no, I've eaten at five-star hotels that have better food than this.
Why is my food not good? And they give her olive drab clothes. I don't want to wear that. I'm more of a spring palate. I don't like olive green.
She complains the whole time because she thinks she's joining a spa, when in actuality, she's joining the army. And I read that description of that movie and I thought, you know, that sounds like the average Christian. The average Christian comes to church wearing their best, wearing their designer clothes with a consumer mentality. I want a coffee shop at my church that serves organic shade-grown coffee. I want the sanctuary temperature to be precisely 71 degrees.
I don't want to have to walk more than four and a half minutes from my parking spot to get into the sanctuary. Can I remind you something? This ain't a spa. This is an army.
You're not a consumer. You're a soldier. If you're going to follow Jesus Christ, you've got to have a soldier mindset, a warfare mindset. So we started talking about this last week.
We're going to talk about it this week and maybe even next week as well. The similarities, watch this, between being a Christian and being a soldier. And remember I said last week, because ladies, you need to hear this, this isn't just for men. So when you all hear me talk about being a bold soldier, whatever, talking to the men again. Remember I told you last week, you can be a woman and have a warrior spirit.
You all remember that? I gave you examples in the Old Testament of women of God who are also warriors. In fact, I ran across one this past week. Ladies, I just ran across this lady. Her name is Rosaria Butterfield. She has a new book out called Five Lies. And Rosaria Butterfield, she is a former radical lesbian that was a professor at Syracuse University.
She got radically saved and now she's speaking out against the LGBTQ stuff, the evangelical feminism that we see infiltrating our church. Get ready, I'll hit that in a couple weeks. It's going to be a fun Sunday. And in fact, I think the timing of this is great. If you look at Timothy, I think I'll be hitting that the Sunday after our women's conference.
So that's like nitro and glycerin. So at any rate, but you listen to her talk and you see her writings. She's more bold and confident than 99% of the males I'm listening to in the pulpit today. She has that warrior spirit.
So here's what I'm saying. You can be a soldier of Jesus Christ and be a man or a woman. We're all called to be part of this army. And so look, if you would, at the scripture that was kind of the springboard for this. Let's go back to 1 Timothy 1.18. Paul says this to Timothy. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good, what, warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.
By rejecting this, some have made a shipwreck of their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. So remember I said Paul is saying to Timothy right here in the very beginning, hey, Timothy, you're a warrior.
You're in a fight. And then 2 Timothy 2, verse 3, Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. Remember I told you last week, the first way that being a Christian, being a follower of Jesus Christ is like being a soldier.
Remember I told you last week, it's like a soldier. We have a commanding officer. That's in 2 Timothy 2, verse 4. Our commanding officer is Jesus Christ.
We talked about that last week. Second way that we are like soldiers is number 2. Like a soldier, we are in a war. Look at verse 4 of 2 Timothy, chapter 2. 2 Timothy 2, 4. Here's what Paul says to Timothy. He says, Timothy, no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits. Now, that Greek word is bio pragmatu.
Bio, life, pragmatu, practical or pragmatic. Here's what Paul says to Timothy. Timothy, no soldier gets entangled in the mundane affairs of life.
I did some studying this past week. During Paul's day, if you're a Roman soldier, there's a lot of things you couldn't do. You couldn't grow crops. You couldn't go to court to testify. You couldn't engage in a trade. You couldn't act as a tutor. You couldn't even get married while you were a soldier.
Why? Because the wisdom was you're fighting a fight. You can't get distracted by all this extraneous stuff. You got to keep your mind on the warfare. Beloved, I want you to listen to me. Some of us are getting entangled in the bio pragmatu, the just mundane things of life.
You don't give the war a second thought until you come on Sunday morning and have a maniac scream at you for 30 minutes and then you go back to your regular life. We're not to get entangled. Now, look, it's okay to watch the Super Bowl, but some of us are getting entangled in who's going to be in the Super Bowl, who's Taylor Swift going to date this week. We get so entangled in this stuff of life, and Paul says if you're going to be a good soldier, yeah, okay. It's fine to watch that stuff, but don't get entangled in it. You got to understand. Listen to me.
How many times have I told you this? I don't look at what I do as a job. This is a calling. I literally believe that heaven and hell, life and death, are at stake in what we're doing here. We are in a war, and Paul says if you're going to be a father of Jesus Christ, you've got to understand there is a cosmic battle going on all around us, and you're part of that battle. And what is that war that we're involved in?
Every analogy breaks down, but let me give you a quick analogy. The war that we're involved in, during World War II, Hitler had overtaken Europe. So the god, little g, of Europe was Hitler. And then the day came when the allied forces said, it's time for us to take Europe back from Hitler. And so on June 6th, a small group established a little beachhead on Normandy Beach. On the map, it wasn't much of anything, just a small little beachhead at Normandy Beach on the map of Normandy Beach, a small beachhead. And that little beachhead grew as the allied forces began to fight the Axis powers, began to fight the Germans, and it grew, and it grew, and it grew, and it grew. Until the day came, Hitler was dethroned, Hitler was defeated.
But it all started in that small little beachhead, inch by inch, yard by yard, the good guys pushed back the bad guys. Hey, according to Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve handed over their rightful authority of planet Earth to Satan. We reneged, we gave Satan authority on planet Earth. That's why, if you look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4, Satan is called the god, little g, of this world.
He is the Hitler of planet Earth. But 2,000 years ago, God started a rescue operation. Jesus Christ established a small beachhead of 12 men in Israel, and that 12 men expanded to 70 men, and that 70 expanded to 120, and those 120, the Bible says, expanded at 3,000. And for the last 2,000 years, we have been incrementally pushing back the kingdom of darkness and expanding the kingdom of God. That is the war that we're involved in. Y'all with me? We are pushing back every day the forces of darkness a little bit more until the day is going to come, according to Revelation chapter 5, where Jesus Christ takes back the title deed of planet Earth, and all heaven goes crazy because the kingdoms of this world are going to become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and he's going to reign forever and ever and ever.
That's the war you and I are involved in. You hear me say this all the time. In fact, I just prayed this over to this couple. I said, man, God bless him as they push back the kingdom of darkness and advance the kingdom of God.
You've heard me say that before. We're here to push back the kingdom of darkness and expand the kingdom of God. Where do you actually see that in the Bible? Jesus only uses the word church twice in the Bible.
Did you know that? One of the two times he uses it is in Matthew 16, 18. Here's what Jesus says. I'm going to build my church and the gates of hell. I'm not going to be able to stand against it.
You've heard me say this before. That is an offensive picture, not a defensive picture. Implication, gates are to protect against an invading force. When Jesus says the gates of hell cannot stand against the church, what he's saying is we are on the offensive, hell is on the defensive, and yet they can't stand against us. Armed with the power of the Holy Spirit and preaching the gospel, we're going to push back that kingdom of darkness.
Honestly, does that get your blood stirred up on a Sunday morning, or is it just I drank three cups of coffee here just a second ago? Does that get you a power? Look, that's the kind of war we're involved in. We're pushing back the kingdom of darkness, and we're expanding the kingdom of God. How do we do that?
How do we engage in that warfare? The first way we push back the kingdom of darkness and advance the kingdom of God is through the gospel. Watch this. Every time somebody gives their life to Jesus, watch this. You have just pushed back the kingdom of darkness that much further. When we send a family like this into global missions, and they share the gospel, and ten people get saved, the kingdom of darkness has just gotten pushed back by ten more people. The primary way, now don't ever forget this, the primary way we advance the kingdom of God is number one, by proclaiming the gospel. Y'all with me on that? Not voting.
We're going to hit voting in a second. That's not the primary way. The primary way we advance the kingdom of God is number one, through the gospel, and then number two, through godly living. I want you to look at Philippians 2.14.
Turn there if you would. Philippians 2.14. Philippians 2.14, I love this passage. Paul says, look, hey church, instead of the church, do all things without grumbling or disputing, or without grumbling or complaining, that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in this world.
Do you see what he's saying? When you live a godly, holy life, not a perfect life, we all messed up people, but when you live according to a different standard, a godly standard, a standard of holiness, in this dark, messed up world, when you stand at the gas station where you work, and you're standing for Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, and everybody else is using profanity, but you don't use profanity. Everybody else takes God's name in vain, but you don't take God's name in vain.
Everybody else is just mean and bitter, and you're joyful and kind. What you're doing is your light is pushing back the kingdom of darkness at that gas station where you work. When you go to your school, and you're standing for Jesus on the university campus, you're standing for the Lord Jesus Christ, you're walking with Jesus, you are a light on that dark university campus. You are pushing back the kingdom of darkness, and you're expanding the kingdom of light. Does that make sense?
Do we got a second? Can I take a quick aside here? Paul says in verse 14, do all things without grumbling or complaining. I think we're starting to get loose with this here at Cross Assembly. Honestly, I think that's our sin of choice. We complain about the cost of the women's conference. We complain about where we're having to park. We complain about Ron's song selection. Incidentally, that's a sin. You do understand that, right? I think this microphone, the battery's going to end.
It's just a new mic, so at any rate, whatever. All right, so how do we advance the kingdom of God? Number one, we advance the kingdom of God through the gospel. Number two, we advance the kingdom of God through godly living. Number three, we advance the kingdom of God through standing for truth and righteousness.
All right. Anybody know what the key spiritual warfare passage in the Bible is? Anybody know what it is? Ephesians chapter six. In Ephesians chapter six, that is the most intense study on spiritual warfare in the New Testament.
And here's what Ephesians six says. In Ephesians six, the spiritual warfare passage, the central command is not go bind territorial spirits. Not against it. It's not go cast out demons. Not against it. Do you know the central command in the spiritual warfare passage?
Do you know what it is? Over and over and over again, Paul says, just stand firm. Just stand firm. Just stand your ground. Just don't back down. Stand your ground. Stand firm.
It's almost like Christ our commander is over and over and over again yelling, hold your ground, troops. Hold your ground. Don't back down. Don't compromise the word of God. Just stand your ground. Beloved, listen to me.
In these last days, when all hell comes against you, if all you do is just stand your ground through the power of the Holy Spirit, you're gonna be more than a conqueror through him who loved you. I'll be honest with you. I'm just tired of Christians wimping out. We wimp out on everything. Honestly, we are. And what we'll do is we'll say this. We're gonna compromise on some things because we want to attract this world to Jesus Christ. Let me ask you something.
Since when has becoming like them attracted them to him? It doesn't work that way. Stand your ground. Be strong. Be bold. Be courageous.
Be different. Either the Roman army has something, they call it the Roman tortoise. When they would be in an intense battle, the commander would say, lock your shields. And all these Roman soldiers would come together and their shields had these interlocking parts. They would lock their shield to the shield of the man next to them. And then he would lock his shield to the next guy. And they actually had a little roof on their shields.
And so when it was over, it looked like a giant tortoise. And it would frustrate the enemy so bad because all these enemies would come against the soldiers and all those soldiers would do is lock their shields and stand their ground. Can't tell you why I think it makes Satan really mad. When we lock our shields with each other and we stand our ground, hell hates that. And so how do we push back the kingdom of darkness? Number one, through the gospel. Number two, through godly living. Number three, through standing our ground.
Let me do a fourth one and we'll hit this more next week. But I also do believe in power encounters, being filled with the Holy Spirit and having power encounters and binding demons and casting them out. Jesus says in Matthew 12, 28, he says, casting out demons?
That is a sign. Here's what Jesus said. It's not me. It's not Benny Hinn. It's not some weird Pentecostal that said this. Jesus says in Matthew 12, 28, when you take authority over demons and cast them out, that is a sign that the kingdom of God is advancing.
All right. So like a soldier, we got a commanding officer. Like a soldier, we're in a war. And in like a soldier, we have enemies. We have enemies. Now, who's our... Oh, look. Who's our enemy?
Satan. Okay, but it's a little bit more complicated than that. Going back to the World War II analogy, every analogy breaks down at some point. But going back to the World War II analogy, if I were to say to an American back in World War II, who's your enemy? Well, Hitler. Yeah, Hitler and Germany. But also Japan and Italy and Hungary and Romania and Bulgaria and others. Collectively, all these countries were known collectively as the Axis powers.
Now, watch this. You and I have an Axis power of three different enemies. You're not just fighting, Satan. That's bad enough. Would you like to hear the three enemies that you and I are fighting?
Okay. Number one, jot this down. Jot down Satan. Satan, in verse 20, Paul mentions Satan as being one of our enemies. Do you see that in 1 Timothy 1-20? Ephesians 6, verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the... Who? Devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
It's interesting. Do a word study one time on the different categories of evil spirits that you're fighting against. Do you see this? Rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces.
Do you see that? There's actually a hierarchy. Satan is not chaotic. Satan has a very organized hierarchy of demonic entities that he sends against us.
Now, I want you to listen to me. Satan is not the opposite of God. God has no opposite. Satan cannot be omnipresent like God is. You know what I mean by omnipresent?
You can be everywhere at once. Satan's not like that. He's finite.
He can only be in one place at one time. In fact, I'll even say this. You know, a lot of times we'll say, you know, Satan's been fighting me. Actually, you're not that important.
Statistically, he's probably not. Honestly, Satan's probably not statistically fought any of us in here, okay? We're not that important. But he has sent his emissaries against every one of us. Every one of us has come under demonic attacks.
So does that make sense? I understand what we mean when we say we're fighting Satan. But actually, we're probably fighting his emissaries, these demonic entities. And some of us have stronger entities being sent against us than others.
Does it make sense? It'd be interesting to do a whole study on that sometime. We don't have time for that today. But that's who we're fighting. Satan and his emissaries.
And it's kind of interesting. Do you see this in verse 11? Paul talks about the wiles of the devil or the schemes of the devil. The Greek word there is methodia. What English word do you think we get from that?
Yeah, it's interesting. That noun form of that word is not used anywhere else in Greek literature. It looks like Paul made up that word.
I love Paul's confidence. If he wants to make up a word, he's going to make up his own word. So he kind of makes up this word, methodia, which means Satan has a methodical, systematic plan of attack for every one of us.
Did you know that? So who are we fighting? We're fighting Satan.
But we have a second enemy in this war. And that's the flesh or the sinful nature. Romans 7, 23. Paul says, but there is another power within me that is at war, there you go, with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. And in verse 25, he identifies that power. He calls it, now here's the Greek word, sarx, flesh or your sinful nature.
Now watch this. Your first enemy is Satan, his demonic entities. Your second enemy is this power inside of you called the flesh or the sinful nature. And Paul says, it's that thing that, when I say I want to do that, because that's what good people do, it makes me do the other thing.
Have you been there before? I want to follow Jesus, but there's something in me that's fighting that. I want to flip past that channel on my TV, but there's this thing inside of me that's pulling me the opposite direction.
What do you call that? That's the flesh or the sinful nature. So your two enemies are Satan and the sinful nature.
Listen, I got to deal with this with Pentecostals all the time. You know, everything goes back to Satan with all of y'all. You know, well, she is obese. Well, she's fighting the demon of gluttony.
No, she's obese. He had a moral failing, but he was fighting the demon of lust. No, he was fighting his flesh. Look, not everything is Satan.
This isn't an extended version of Nightmare on Elm Street. We're not fighting Freddy Krueger and Satan all the time. There is a war within us called the flesh.
Does it make sense? And so in this war, where we're pushing back the kingdom of darkness and expanding the kingdom of light, we're fighting Satan, we're fighting the flesh, and then number three, we're fighting something the Bible calls the world, the cosmos. It's not the people in the world. The Democrats are not your enemy. Trump is not your enemy. They are manifestations of this world system.
Does that make sense? When the Bible talks about the enemy of the world, the cosmos is this. It is the collective flesh of the human race. All the sinful nature of the human race coming together as one, that is this cosmos.
That is this wicked system. If you want to see a manifestation of it, look at Hollywood. Watch The View. Those are the manifestations of this cosmos that stands against God, against the things of God, against the things of righteousness, that world system.
Again, look at it this way. Satan was the head of a party in Germany. What was the name of the party he was the head of?
The what? Nazi party. Hitler, I'm sorry, Hitler was the head of the Nazi party. Satan has his own Nazi party. It's called the cosmos. It's called the world system.
Does that make sense? Satan is the head of the cosmos, like Hitler was the head of the Nazi party. Listen to me.
You're fighting against that every time you go on Facebook or Instagram or you have people tell you that your views of the Bible and marriage are outdated. That is the cosmos coming against you. Here's what I don't understand. It's that system that Christians are trying to curry favor with.
You can't do that. I'm going to tell you something. The cosmos will never like you. You will never fit into the cosmos. If you follow the Lord Jesus Christ, you will always be at enmity with that world system. Y'all with me on that?
It's interesting. We've always had traitors. Paul talks about in verse 20, two Christians who said, I'm tired of following Jesus. I'm tired of serving the kingdom of God, and they've gone back to serve the cosmos. There's always been traitors in this battle. Christians get really upset when they find out about a high-profile Christian leader that has renounced his faith and joined the world. We're in a war.
That happens all the time. In the Revolutionary War, we had a man named Benedict Arnold who said, I'm tired of fighting with the patriots and being on their side. I'm going to join forces with the British. The Battle of Thermopylae, you've heard of the 300? The 300 were destroyed by the Persians because they had a traitor in the midst that went to the other side. If you're in the war, you're going to have traitors.
We have that in Christianity, so don't get upset when you hear about Christians who've renounced their faith and gone to the other side. We're just part of the war. All right, so let's do a quick review. We're in a war, number one. Number two, we have three enemies in this war. Satan, the flesh, what's the last one?
The world, this world system. Now, how do we fight this? I'm not going to get into a lot of this today, but if we're in a battle, what do we do? How do we overcome these enemies that come against us?
Well, I want you to look real quickly. This is a beautiful verse in Revelation chapter 12. A man named John is exiled on the island of Patmos, and in Revelation 12, he gives a big picture of this cosmic, satanic battle that we're in.
Then he says something very interesting. In verse 11 of Revelation chapter 12, he talks about us, those of us who are part of the army of God. He says, and they, we, have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives, even unto death.
I've never seen this before. Here's what I love about reading the Bible. If you notice about the Bible, the more you read it, the more things you find that you've not seen before.
I saw something this week I've never seen before. He says we overcome these demonic forces by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and not loving our lives unto death. Do you know right there, he's addressed Satan, the flesh, and the world?
We overcome by the blood of the Lamb. Do you know Satan is called the accuser? His greatest weapon against you is accusing you. You're no good. You're wicked. God could never love somebody like you, and yet the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness, and so when the accuser launches his accusations against us, all we have to do is plead the blood of Jesus and say, Satan, you're right about all those things.
I am not worthy, but I've been made worthy by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what's interesting? I was talking to somebody who served in a Muslim context the other day about this.
He said this is right. Our missionaries come under more satanic attacks during Ramadan than any other time of the year. Our missionaries serving in the Middle East, and many of them have told me this, that during Ramadan, those demonic forces will manifest, and there'll be times at night while they're sleeping that they'll wake up and somebody's choking them, and they'll see a dark figure, and they're gasping for breath, and they all say the same thing, but as soon as we say the blood of Jesus Christ, that demonic entity leaves.
Why? We overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb. The word of our testimony, that's how we overcome the world, that second enemy, because in John's day when he's writing this, if you're a Christian, you were brought before an altar of Caesar, you are commanded by the world system, burn some incense and renounce Jesus, and the world, the cosmos, will leave you alone, and did you know what they would do? They would say, take your incense, I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is my Lord, he is my savior. They would say to the world system, I belong to Jesus. That's how you overcome the cosmos.
And they love not their lives unto death. See, that's how you overcome the flesh. The flesh, the simple nature says, I gotta preserve myself, I gotta guard myself, I gotta make sure I am self-actualized, I gotta make sure I am protected, and you overcome the flesh by saying, flesh, I don't care if I live or die, I just belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, they can kill this flesh, and the moment they kill my flesh, I'm standing in the presence of the Lord Jesus, so I don't care what happens to me, I don't care if I live or die, I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you overcome Satan, the flesh, and the world. It's a powerful thing.
Let me close by this. Would you like an example of how overcoming Satan by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, and by not loving your life unto death, would you like an example of what that looks like? In, I think it's 2015, 2016, I used a sermon illustration on Mother's Day that I'm still getting a lot of grief over, okay? So I talked about this on Mother's Day. I talked about the ISIS raid in Libya where they captured 20 Coptic Christians and decapitated them, you remember that? I preached that on Mother's Day, and in retrospect that was an unfortunate illustration to use on Mother's Day. But I don't know if you remember that. 2015, ISIS goes into Libya, they capture 20 Coptic Egyptian Christians, and they take them onto the seashore, and they tell them, renounce your faith or you'll be beheaded. And I love this beautiful drawing from the voice of the martyrs.
Remember those pictures? They were led out to the beach, and every one of those 20 dropped to their knees and began singing songs of praise to Jesus Christ, and every one of them lost their lives. But there's actually a 21st man on that beach. There's a lot of questions about him. He looks different. He was identified as Matthew, a yard guy. He was either from the country of Chad or the country of Ghana. We don't know his story. He may have been a member of ISIS. He may have been a member of this group that was actually decapitating these guys. He may have been a member of ISIS. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and captured by ISIS and brought out with those guys.
We're not sure. What we are sure about is he was not a Christian. And so one by one, as ISIS is executing these Christians, they come to this man who, again, is either a member of ISIS or was captured by ISIS but is not a Christian, and they said, if you don't renounce Jesus Christ, we're going to do the same thing to you that we've done to them. And after hearing them sing songs to the Lord, after watching these men lift their hands to Jesus as they died, do you know what that 21st man said? He said to ISIS, their God is now my God. And he knelt down and was executed as well. And beloved, that is a powerful example of how we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and we don't love our lives even unto death.
And on that day in 2015, Satan made a strategic error because when those men died, the kingdom of darkness was pushed back a little bit more and the kingdom of God was expanded. There is something powerful about Spirit-filled believers lifting up holy hands and shouting praises to the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan can't stand it.
He puts his fingers in the ear and he runs out like a screaming little girl. He can't stand God's people praising Jesus, singing to Jesus, shouting to Jesus at the top of their voices. But, beloved, we serve the greatest commanding officer the universe has ever seen. We are on the winning team. We are part of the conquerors. We are part of the overcomers.
We have overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and we don't love our lives unto death. Can the people of God do some spiritual warfare right now? Can you stand with me and lift up your hands and lift up your voices and let's just start praising Jesus Christ in this place right now.
I'm serious. With your voice, start praising Jesus. Lift up the name of Jesus. Lord, we bless you. Jesus, Jesus, it's all about you, Jesus. Bless the name of Jesus.
Jesus. I'm filled with wonder Oh, struck wonder At the mention of your name Jesus, your name is power Breath of living water Touch of Martha's mystery Holy, holy, holy Is the Lord God Almighty Who was and is and is to come With all, with all creation I see Praise to the King Jesus You are my everything And I will adore you Holy, holy, holy Is the Lord God Almighty Who was and is and is to come Who you are With all creation I see Praise to the King of kings You are my everything And I will adore you Wow. Man, can we just linger here in the presence of the Lord for just a second? Whether you know it or not, you've just engaged in spiritual warfare. Through your voice, through your praise, through the word of your testimony, whether you know it or not, you've just pushed back the kingdom of darkness just a little bit more.
Man, I was going to say this. We're getting ready for the third service here, and I'm trying to shorten my sermons just a little bit, but I meant to say this. It's political season. I believe you're a follower of Jesus Christ, engaged in politics. That's one of the ways you stand for what's right as you vote for what's right.
I believe that when you vote a certain way, you are voting either principles that reflect the word of God or principles that are antithetical to the word of God. So do all that. Don't understand.
Do all that stuff. But nothing you can do holds a candle to what you just did right there. When you sing praises to the Lord Jesus, you shout praises to Jesus in the heavenly realms, nothing is as powerful as that.
And beloved, you've heard me say this a lot. We're standing on some uncharted territory. This year may be the best year you've ever had, or this year could be a challenging year.
You're like Joshua, standing on the brink of the Jordan River, about to take the promised land. And it's February. Some of you are nervous.
Is my stocks going to do this or are my stocks going to go down? Are we going to have another COVID thing just in time for the election or is there going to be... There's a lot of questions we have. But here's one question I don't have. I know who I am and whose I am. I know who is in charge. I know who's in control. I know that. Everything else just kind of falls into place. So let me say to you what God says to Joshua.
Which means cross assembly. Be bold. You be strong. You do not be afraid. And you don't be terrified of anything this year.
Why? Because the Lord your God is going to be with you. The commander of the hosts of heaven will be with you. The king of kings and the Lord of lords will be with you everywhere you go. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen and Amen. God bless you. Let's go change this world for Jesus Christ.
