Let me tell you something. Probably the greatest weapon in Satan's arsenal against you is guilt. Revelation chapter 12 11 says this, we overcome Satan by what?
The blood of the lamb. Here's what Satan will do. Are you going to raise your hands and worship Jesus? Aren't you the same lady that aborted her baby 10 years ago? Sir, are you going to raise your hands and praise Jesus?
Aren't you the same guy that cheated on his wife 15 years ago? Satan does that with his people. With God's people, when we try to walk with Jesus, he will pull out, Satan will pull out that weapon of guilt and he fights us with it. When it says we overcome him by the blood of the lamb, it's a reminder to us that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
Whatever has been done is in the past. It's covered in the blood of Jesus. I'm a righteous child of God. That's how I overcome Satan. It's like Jesus knew we'd forget that. Jesus knew every now and then we would need to be reminded of what he did for us at the cross.
When Satan reminds you of your past, you remind Satan of his future. One day he's going to burn in the lake of fire. One day we are going to stand victorious, not because of who we are, but because of what Jesus Christ did to the cross 2,000 years ago. And so I want you, if you would, to take out your communion packet. And if you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're not born again, just watch us while we do this. But if you're a born again follower of Jesus, I want you to take that piece of bread out. You know, Jesus said, this is my body, which is broken for you.
I'd like you to do this. Would you take that bread? And when you break it, I want you to be reminded that Jesus Christ's body was whipped to a bloody pulp.
He was bruised. He was torn up because of your sin. I want you to break that bread right now.
Would you do that? Jesus said, take and eat, for this is my body. I play this little game with y'all every time we do communion, but it's intentional. Take that next part off and look in that juice and let it remind you of the blood of Jesus that just from his head to his feet, his body was just bleeding. And I want you to remember that verse out of 1st John. It says the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us of almost all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from 95% of our own righteousness. Now it says the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And Jesus said, take and drink, for this is my blood, which is poured out for you. Wherever you're at right now, we should let it be you and Jesus.
Forget about everybody else in this room, right now it's just you and Jesus. And from the depths of your heart, I just want to say this. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for dying for my sins. Thank you for forgiving me of my filth. Thank you for who you are and what you did. In Jesus name we pray and the people of God said, Amen. Amen.
Thank you, beloved. And while we're at it, can we say hello to our brothers and sisters over at the North Raleigh campus who are watching us as well? Good to have you guys joining us. And soon we'll have Benson online. I said a couple weeks ago, it probably is going to be during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ that that's going to come together.
But one day we're going to have some folks over in Benson as well. So I need you to understand something. We talked about demons a couple weeks ago and the origins of demons. We're not getting back into that today. Listen to that sermon from two or three weeks ago. We'll talk about that.
But you need to listen to me. The major issues we are battling today are overtly demonic. It's not political.
It's satanic and demonic. For example, the abortion issue. Leaders of one party are now perfectly fine with a full term baby, nine months in the womb, being murdered in the womb. They call us science deniers.
I call them ultrasound deniers. That's a baby. But that's nothing new. In the Old Testament, you see the same phenomenon. But in the Old Testament, we see that there was a demon being named Moloch that would try to encourage women and men to destroy their babies. It's demonic in nature.
The whole gender confusion issue. That's demonic in nature. You know, there was a years ago and this is a secular scientific journal. This is not a Christian journal from Bob Jones University. This is a Christian scientific journal years ago published a case study.
They couldn't do this today, incidentally. But in this secular scientific journal, the journal is called the Archives of Sexual Behavior. They had a case study of a man named John who believed that he was a woman trapped in a man's body. Psychologists worked with him and recommended that he go through a quote gender reassignment procedure. This case study said that John changed his name to Judy and he started the gender reassignment process. In the midst of that process, he met a Christian doctor who recommended that he take part in an exorcism.
Supposedly, 22 demons were cast out of him over a three hour period. He immediately said he felt his masculine identity return. The doctors followed him for over two years and they were amazed that he showed a clear reversal in gender identity. And here's what this secular, secular scientific journal said.
Here's how they concluded. What cannot be denied, however, is that a patient who is very clearly a transsexual by the most conservative criteria assumed a long lasting masculine gender identity in a remarkably short period of time following an apparent exorcism. The abortion issue is satanic.
The gender confusion issue is satanic. Marxism that is sweeping through our nation and going into our schools and even our churches is satanic in origin. Professor Paul Kinger in his book, The Devil and Karl Marx.
Professor Kinger is a professor at Grove City College. He actually traces Karl Marx's beginnings and his origins and he proves, I think, very, very conclusively that Karl Marx was inspired by demons. Karl Marx was fascinated by the demonic and he came up with this whole Marxist idea and now that Marxist ideology is permeating our culture. It's demonic in nature.
The entertainment industry is demonic in nature. Recently the show, the network FX produced a cartoon called Little Demon. This FX cartoon has about a woman who mates with Satan and produces the antichrist. And here's the show's description from FX.
Thirteen years after being impregnated by Satan, a reluctant mother, Laura and her antichrist daughter Trissy attempt to live an ordinary life in Delaware but are constantly thwarted by a monstrous force including Satan who yearns for custody for his daughter's soul. This is a cartoon we're producing in America now. Incidentally, FX is produced or overseen and owned by your favorite company, Disney. Disney has already come out on video admitting they're trying to brainwash your kids into the LGBT thing. Now they're producing stuff like this but y'all going to keep supporting them, aren't you?
Because even though they are partially responsible for the collapse of Western civilization, they got really cool theme parks so it kind of balances themselves out, doesn't it? It's demonic in nature. I'm going to remind you today that Jesus commissioned us to stand against the kingdom of darkness, to push back the kingdom of darkness and in love liberate people who want to be free from Satan. You believe there are people out there who are tired of serving Satan, Satan has destroyed them, Satan over-promised and under-delivered and they want to be free?
You believe there are people like that out there? Hey, Jesus has called us to deliver those people. And I want you to turn to Mark chapter 3 now. Mark chapter 3, we've been going through the gospel of Mark, we're now at Mark 3, 13. And I want you to see a group of men that Jesus commissioned to do what he's commissioned us to do, stand against evil, push back the kingdom of darkness, deliver those who are in bondage. Mark chapter 3 verse 13 says this, And he went up on the mountain and called to him those who himself wanted and they came to him and then he appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons. Simon to whom he gave the name Peter, James the son of Zebedee and John the brothers of James to whom he gave the name Boanerges which means the sons of thunder. Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed him.
So you understand what's happening? Jesus goes and he's got literally hundreds, maybe thousands of people following him. And he says, I got to choose twelve.
Who do I choose? And if you look at Luke's account in Luke chapter 6 verse 12, it says this, Jesus went into the wilderness all night long and prayed to God and then the next morning said, out of all these hundreds and thousands, I choose you twelve. Which tells me Jesus Christ before he made a major decision in life went and asked God's will. He needed God's direction. If Jesus Christ needed to spend all night asking God's will before he made a major decision, who do you think you are and who do I think I am to think I can just kind of shoot from the hip and make a decision? No, Jesus said you pray and seek God's face.
So that's what he does and he chooses these twelve men and in verse 14 he commissions them to do three things. He says, number one, go preach. Go proclaim the good news.
Go share the good news. Preach. Second thing he does is you go and pray for people, they be healed.
You heal people. And the third thing he says is you go cast out demons. Now today we're going to talk about casting out demons and that third thing that Jesus called us to do. And you say, now why focus on the third thing? He told them to do three things.
Why are you focusing on the third thing? Well, number one, here's the first reason I want to focus on the whole demon thing today. It's because proclaiming the gospel, that's not controversial. The Baptists agree with us on that. Praying for the sick to be healed, that's not controversial.
We do that all the time. Casting out demons, that's controversial. That's the first reason I want to talk about it. Second reason I want to focus on casting out demons is power over demonic forces. That is the whole focus of this chapter. If you look at verse 11, it talks about Jesus casting out demons and they recognizing that he's the son of God. If you look at verse 15, he's casting out demons. If you look at verse 22, religious leaders are turning exorcism into an issue. That's the focus of this chapter. Remember I told you before, I read a scholar a while back. He said if you look at the gospel of Mark, he said one half of Jesus' ministry in the gospel of Mark deals with demons. So that's kind of the focus of this chapter and it's really the focus of gospel of Mark. And so that's why I want to hit this. But here's the thing. It's interesting.
Now watch this. The men that Jesus commissioned to go stand against satanic forces, there's nothing special about them. This list of 12 men here in Mark chapter 3, they are ordinary people. In fact, four out of seven of them may be blue collar fishermen.
Isn't that something? They just go out there in a bass boat and they go fishing and that's their job. They're not seminary trained, they're fishermen.
Possibly four out of the twelve, maybe seven out of the twelve. One is a right-wing nationalist. You see verse 18, Simon the Canaanite, Canaanite doesn't mean he's from Canaan. That word Canaan means in Hebrew, the zealous one. There was a super right-wing nationalist group called the zealots during the time of Jesus. And they were violent, they were mean, and Simon evidently was one of them.
And he gets saved out of that and he follows Jesus. So you got some fishermen, you got a MAGA right-winger in the group, and you got a left-winger. You got Matthew, he doesn't love his nation, he's a sellout, he's a compromiser, he betrays his people, he's an accountant.
You see, you got people across the spectrum in this group. And then, it's kind of interesting as well, these people by and large came from Galilee. Galilee was the agrarian part of Israel. Galilee was the Johnson County of Israel. And so most of the people there who lived in Galilee were farmers.
So put this together. You got some right-wingers, you got some left-wingers, you got some farmers, you got some fishermen. And then also look at the nickname that Jesus gave these guys. We don't really see the humor of Jesus sometimes, but it's there in the nickname. James and John, he calls them sons of thunder, which is a euphemism that they have a hot temper. They are hot heads. That's literally Jesus says, I'm giving you two guys that get mad all the time, I'm going to call you all hot heads. That's my new nickname for you. One, a man named Simon, Jesus nicknames him Rock or Rocky.
So you got hot heads, we got Rocky. And then in verse 18, do you see this man named Thaddeus? Thaddeus is not his real name. In fact, the ancient scholar, Jerome, called him Trinomius. Trinomius means the man with three names. His real name is Judas, it's not Judas Iscariot, it's a different Judas. His real name is Judas.
He's also called another time in the New Testament, Labaeus. And here he's called Thaddeus. You want to know what Thaddeus really means?
I'm not trying to be, I'm going to be very careful and I'm not going to be crude because my wife is sitting right there. So I'm just going to be Thaddeus literally means breast child. And you say, where do you get that name, breast child? It's a euphemism for a mama's boy. Like he's like a little baby who can't get away from mama's breast and he's mama's boy. So I want you to put all this together. Jesus and his disciples are about to go to another city.
He says, all right, hot head, Rocky, mama's boy, come on with me. And that's their nicknames. So these are just normal people. Again, if you look at Acts chapter 4 verse 13, none of them are seminary trained.
None of them are PhDs. These are normal, ordinary men. And so how did ordinary men, normal men, suddenly have power over demons? How did ordinary men suddenly get commissioned by Jesus and now they have authority over the forces of hell?
How'd that happen? Don't you listen to me. If you and I are going to fight demonic forces in this culture and stand against the rising tide of evil, there is one issue that you have got to settle in your mind.
And that big issue is this. What is your identity in Jesus Christ? In fact, Neil Anderson, who's one of the most biblically balanced deliverance ministry guys, he wrote this book called The Bondage Breaker and Victory of the Darkness. He's counseled thousands of Christians who struggle in their walk with the Lord and overcoming addictions, that type thing. Here's what Neil Anderson says.
I love this. He says, I have found one common denominator for all struggling Christians. None of them know who they are in Jesus Christ. So you think you just said a little prayer and got baptized and now you're going to heaven. You do understand there's a whole lot more to being a follower of Jesus Christ than you're going to go to heaven when you die.
Look, in the heavenly realms, there's something infinitely powerful about you. And I want you to see this because in verse 14, it says, He appointed the twelve. Look at this. Did you miss this? He appointed the twelve, first thing, that they might be with Him. You see that?
Here's what he's saying. If you guys are going to stand against the forces of darkness, you can't do it on your own. I've got to be with you. That is the key to standing against the forces of darkness. What is your relationship to Jesus Christ? Do you know about Him? Have you heard about Him?
Do you kind of like Him? Or are you with Him? And some of you all are saying, well, look, if I was walking with Jesus like Peter and James and John, and He was walking right with me, I wouldn't be scared of demons because Jesus is right here.
I'm going to say something pretty astounding. I want you to listen to this, and I believe I can back this up from the church, sir. You can have a tighter relationship with Jesus, a closer relationship with Jesus now than those disciples did back in Mark chapter 3. Because back in Mark 3, this is where Jesus is crucified and resurrected since the Holy Spirit. Jesus is just with them.
Spatially, spatial physics is He's outside them. He's with them the moment you get saved. That's saying Jesus now comes to live in you.
You can have a closer relationship with Jesus than these disciples had back then, and verse 14 is the key. Jesus calls you to be with Him. You and I have no spiritual power apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact, here's what Neil Anderson says again. Quote, a newly converted child of God has the same authority in the spirit world than the highest ranking church official does. Pastor, I ain't a reverend like you. I hate the title reverend. Pastor, I'm not a pastor like you. I don't have a seminary degree like you.
I don't care. Listen to me. The newest convert has the same amount of spiritual authority that I do because of who you are in Jesus Christ.
Are y'all with me in there? Look, I've shared this before, but we've got so many new people here. I read this a couple years ago, and it blew my mind. Charles Kraft, PhD, professor at Fuller Seminary years ago. Charles Kraft wasn't into Holy Spirit, demons, and all that kind of stuff until God did a mighty work in his life, and then he became very interested in the spirit realm.
I've told you this before. When people say Christianity is boring, you're not doing it right. What can be boring about demons and Satan and Nephilim and all this kind of stuff?
It ain't boring. And so when he really got into this thing, his focus is, I want to focus on people who were in the occult and got saved. And he said it was fascinating interviewing people who have been into Satanism and witchcraft and then got saved.
And he said that there was one woman in particular that fascinated him. She came out of the occult, and she said this, that while serving Satan, she had the ability to see the amount of spiritual power that people carry with them. According to her, every human being has a certain amount of spiritual power. But then she said this, the difference in power between Christians and non-Christians was absolutely amazing. When I was in the occult, I could immediately spot a Christian in a huge crowd, even at a great distance, by noting the amount of spiritual power he or she carried.
But then she said this. She said that she and those in her occult group never felt any threat from most Christians, even though they knew Christians were more powerful than they were, for the Christians had no idea how to use the power that is within them. You stick close to Jesus Christ, you'd be a born-again believer, you have incredible power in the spirit realm. How did Hothead and Bubba and Mama's Boy and Rocky, how did they suddenly have power?
Because they were with the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll tell you something. Well, I am just a convenience store worker, Pastor Chad. You are not just a convenience store worker. You are Jesus' representative at the convenience store, and when you walk into that convenience store, something happens in the spirit realm. Pastor Chad, I am just a teacher's assistant.
You are not just a teacher's assistant. You are Jesus' representative at that school, and when you walk in, something happens in the spirit realm because of who you are in Jesus Christ. And I think the clearest... Now, I want you to do this.
Hold your place there, or go on your little iPhone. I want you to go to Ephesians chapter 1, because I think Ephesians chapter 1, honestly, is the clearest, most concise passage. Sorry, Ephesians 1 and into Ephesians 2. It's the clearest, most concise passage on your identity in Jesus Christ.
Remember what Neil Anderson said? The number one problem I've seen with all Christians who struggle is they don't know who they are in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1 and 2, if you don't know who you are in Jesus Christ, I want you to memorize Ephesians 1 and 2. I mean, y'all memorize Scripture.
Anybody ever do that, or is that too old-fashioned? Memorize some Scripture. Memorize Ephesians 1 and 2. If you understand who you are in Jesus, that'll change your life. Look at this.
Now, remember... Let me give you some background here. Ephesians, according to Acts chapter 19, Ephesians, it's a letter written to a church in a town called Ephesus. And most of these Christians, according to Acts chapter 19, were former witches, warlocks, demon-inspired people who get saved in Acts chapter 19, and when they come out of that mess, they burn all their magic books. They quit their jobs. Y'all do understand, some of y'all are going to have to quit your job if you're going to follow the Lord Jesus. There are some jobs you can't have and still follow the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? They quit their jobs and they followed Jesus.
And these former witches and warlocks collectively comprised the church at Ephesus. Now, I'm going to switch over to the New Living Translation here because it makes it a little bit easier to understand. But as I read this, I want you to understand, here's what I'm saying. Here is who you are in Jesus Christ. Here is the authority you have over forces of darkness in Jesus Christ. Look at Ephesians 1, 19. I also pray that you will understand, church. Hey, not just the church at Ephesus 2,000 years ago, this is for cross assembly as well. Cross assembly, I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe in Him.
It's amazing. When Paul prays for this church, he doesn't pray. Oh, Lord, I just pray that you bless Him, help Him get through tough times.
May they have a great day today. He doesn't pray that. He says, look, Father, I pray for one thing. I want that church to understand just how much power they have.
And it's interesting. In the Greek language, there are four words for power in the Greek language. In verse 19, in the original Greek, all four words are in that one verse. It's like Paul is saying, I can't emphasize this enough.
Use whatever word you want to use. Power, authority, strength, whatever word you want to use, it's yours in Jesus Christ. Look at verse, keep going. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Now, He is far above, and these are spirit levels, spirit terms. He is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else, not only in this world but the world to come. Here's what He's saying.
Watch this. He says the same power that breathed life into the Lord Jesus Christ when He laid in that tomb and Jesus came walking out of that tomb, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, that same power, He's saying in those verses, has defeated all the spirit forces of darkness, same power. Now, He can stop right there and I'd be blessed, but He keeps going. Look at verse 22. And God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him a head over all things for the benefit of who? The church. And the church is His body. It is made full and complete by Christ who fills all things everywhere with Himself.
Here's what He says. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that defeated the forces of darkness. And now Jesus has taken that power and He said, now it's y'alls, and He's given it to us. Implication, we have power over the sources of darkness.
The whole point, look at this, the whole point of this passage is this. Satan's not going to be defeated one day in the future. Oh, Lord, come back and defeat Satan.
It's not something that's going to happen in the future. Here's what that passage is saying. Jesus defeated him in the past, at the cross, at the cross of Jesus Christ. The power of Satan was defeated.
That's what He's saying. Jesus, when He died on the cross, He defeated Satan. In fact, I love this story. I heard this story a little while back. Listen to this, a family of four were out for a drive when a bee flew into the back window of the vehicle. The two children who were in the back start screaming, Daddy, Daddy, there's a bee, there's a bee.
And the kids start freaking out. The father reached back as he's driving, and he grabs that bee in his hand, and the stinger went deep into the palm of the father, and then he released that bee. And the bee is flying around again, and the kids are all freaking out, Dad, Dad, Dad, the bee, the bee.
And the father showed the kids the stinger in his hand. He says, the bee is now harmless. Look at my hands. I have taken the stinger of the bee.
Listen to me. Jesus Christ is saying to us, look at my hands, look at my feet, look at my side. I have taken the stinger of Satan.
He has now no power over you because I have taken the stinger. And beloved, when you start to understand this, everything changes. You say, now how does this apply to us?
That is good. Yeah, Satan's defeated. Yeah, Jesus. Okay, how does this apply to us?
Let me give you three ways. And this isn't anything new. Sometimes you don't need to be taught, you just need to be reminded. I've been saying the same three things for years now. I wish somebody would finally get it. Listen to me.
Here's how this applies. Number one, realize we are in a war. Mark chapter three, three times there's demonic warfare, satanic conflict. Paul is writing to a young pastor years later at the church at Ephesus. And he says, Timothy waged the good warfare, 1 Timothy 1.18. Timothy, fight the good fight of faith, 1 Timothy 6.12. Timothy, be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, 2 Timothy 2.3. Implication, we're in a war.
I think we're oblivious to that in the church in America. I've used this illustration a thousand times. I still love it. You've heard me say this before. In Rocky 1, you remember Rocky 1? When Rocky, a no-name boxer, is going to take on Apollo Creed, the heavyweight champion of the world. And it's not even a real fight, supposedly. It's supposed to just be an exhibition fight.
How many of y'all have seen Rocky 1 before? Raise your hand. Okay, so good. I'm in the right church.
I was kind of wondering if I needed to go to... All right. And so in Rocky 1, Rocky's this no-name from the streets, kind of slow, kind of dim-witted. Apollo Creed comes to the fight and he is dressed up. I think he's wearing the Uncle Sam outfit. And his hair is just right and he's laughing and he's having a good time and he's dancing around.
He's just having fun. And then the fight begins. And Rocky starts throwing some punches. And Apollo's still not taking him seriously. He's still dancing around.
He's still goofing off. And after that round is over, Apollo goes back to his ring and he kind of messes with his hair a little bit, makes sure he looks good. And I love what Apollo's trainer said. He said, Apollo, you see that guy over there, Rocky?
Yeah. He said, he doesn't realize this is a game. He thinks he's in a real fight. You better start taking him seriously. And I wonder if Satan wants to...
Pardon me. If God wants to take the Church of Jesus Christ into the corner and says, you see that man Satan over there? He thinks this is a real fight. Y'all there wondering how you're going to dress coming to church. Let's have a good time. Let's party.
Let's make sure we wear skinny jeans and have smoke and all that. You're into all that kind of stuff. You see that man, that Satan over there? He doesn't realize this is an exhibition. He thinks it's a real fight. You better start taking him seriously.
Win a war. And unless you think I'm saying let's rise up and be violent. I'm not saying that because I believe this. I believe when we get mad at the people, it's misplaced anger. I'll be honest with you. When I see what's going on in our culture today... Can I tell you my new little hissy fit now that I'm getting angry about? When I see that children's hospitals across America are castrating our young boys and chopping the breasts off of our young girls all in the name of gender identity, that makes me mad at doctors and mad at... I'm getting mad.
And then I have to get reminded. They're not the enemy. Satan is the enemy.
The old Puritan writer William Gurnall back in the 1600s put it best. He said, spend your wrath on Satan who is your chief enemy. Men and women, they're only his puppets. When the enemy comes rioting up in the battle, the valiant soldier is not angry with the horse that the enemy is riding on. He's angry with the horsemen. Thus must we do with the wicked. We are not to vent our wrath against them, but against Satan who rides them and spurs them on. Number one, we're in a war. We better start taking this fight seriously. Number two, stay close to Jesus.
Remember, Jesus says to a bunch of ordinary people before he sends them out to combat the force of darkness. He says this, stay close to me. Stay close to Jesus.
You stay close to him, there's no weapon formed against you that's going to prosper. Stay close to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, maybe I'm going to start doing this. I'm asking you to do this.
I think I'm going to start doing it as well. I'm going to memorize the first chapter or two of Ephesians. And when you read the first two chapters of Ephesians, or when you memorize the first two chapters of Ephesians, note how many times this phrase occurs. In him, in Christ, in Jesus, over and over and over again, Ephesians 1 and 2 that's talking about our authority uses that phrase in Jesus Christ. We say I asked Jesus into my heart and I got saved, and I understand that, but it's more accurate to say when I got saved, not Jesus came to live in me, but I went and I live in him.
I am in Jesus Christ. Stay close to Jesus. Third application, so remember we're in a war. Number two, stay close to Jesus. And then number three, have an overcoming mindset.
I'm just telling you, we whine about everything, we get upset about the liberals, we get upset about the left, we get upset about everything. We don't carry ourselves like more than conquerors through him who loved us, do we, church? If you're going to wage a good fight, you must have an overcoming mindset.
Again, I'm going to go back to that Neil Anderson quote. He counseled thousands of Christians who were living in defeat, and he says this, I have found that one commonator exists for all struggling Christians. None of them know who they are in Christ. I wish we could see ourselves, not just the way God sees us. It doesn't sound radical.
I wish we could see ourselves the way Satan sees us. There's a TV show called NCIS. Have you heard of that before? It's like some naval investigative thing. And there's one episode of NCIS where there's an old man that's accused of some crime, broken old man, former Marine, and the prosecutor, the Navy prosecutor, is out to get him for some reason. He just doesn't like the old man. The prosecutor is nasty to him. The military police kind of harass him. They mistreat this old man, and the day comes for him to walk into court.
And a friend of that old man is tired of the prosecutor being nasty to him. He's tired of the military police being nasty to him. And as that old man is walking into the court, his friend pulls that old man's tie to the side, and there pinned to his chest is the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is the highest medal any soldier can get.
And it was for conspicuous bravery at the Battle of Iwo Jima decades before. And when that courtroom sees the Congressional Medal of Honor, their whole attitude toward that old man changes. The prosecutor salutes him. The military police salute him.
The courtroom salutes him, not because of who he is, but because of that medal that is pinned to his chest. And I'll tell you, 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ defeated the forces of darkness at the Battle of Mount Calvary. And God pinned on his chest the cosmic Medal of Honor.
And the moment you got saved, Jesus takes that medal off his chest, and he pins it to your chest. And now every time you walk into a room, demons salute. Satan salutes. The forces of darkness salute.
Fallen angels salute, not because of who you are, but because of who he is and what he did. And I know sometimes it looks like this world is falling apart. I know it looks like evil's getting worse. But one day, there'll be no more babies killed in their wombs.
One day, there'll be no more children mutilated in the name of gender identity. One day, evil will be pushed back. And you say, Chad, how do you know it? I know it because I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat upon him is called Faithful and True.
In righteousness, he does judge and make war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no one knew but he himself. And he was clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name was called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he will smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, for he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God.
And on his thigh and on his robe a name was written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, let the Church of God praise the name of Jesus Christ. Every victory is yours. Every victory is yours. You rose. You reign. Death is carrying the grave.
Tell your God to find your name. You rose. You reign. One King. One King.
Every victory. One King. God's highness is the enemy. One King. Who waits for all his glory. Jesus.
Jesus. One King. One King. One King.
Every victory. One King. One King. God's highness is the enemy.
One King. Who waits for all his glory. Jesus. Jesus.
Jesus. There's a battle going on out there. The battlefield is out there. We fight the good of fight and fight of faith, not with the AR-15s and guns and knives. We fight our battles with the power of the Holy Spirit. We fight through prayer and fasting. We fight through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and in the end we win. You believe that?
We win. So I say to you what was spoken over Joshua, before Joshua looked at his battlefield. Did y'all know there were giants back then?
Did you know there were forces of darkness that wanted to eat his lunch? And I believe Joshua was a little nervous. And so God says, Joshua, come over here and listen to me. Joshua.
Which is Hebrew for Joshua. Don't be worried. Don't be afraid. Don't be terrified. Because the Lord your God is going to be with you, Joshua. Everywhere you go as you go and fight this battle, and I say that to you, do not be afraid. Do not be terrified. For the Lord your God is going to be with you this week, 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, beloved. Let's go change this world with Jesus Christ.
