Finding One's Identity

SERMON: 2016-10-30--ac16166--finding-one-s-identity-part-6 SOURCE DURATION: 00:51:37.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with theological exposition about spiritual warfare and continues through the sermon's main body (including scripture reading, prayer, and subsequent application) until segment [422], which concludes a major point of discussion. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- We have an enemy and that enemy will do everything he can. Number one to keep us from understanding who in Christ we are. Number two to keep us from experiencing what in Christ we are. And number three robbing us of whatever he can rob us of so that he can hinder our service in the kingdom of God. Thank God in Christ we have provisions to deal with that and that's what we're going to talk about together this morning as we turn to Ephesians chapter 6. We're going to read the verses 10 through 18. It's a classic passage on spiritual warfare. You know it well. We need to live it well. Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand. Stand firm then with a belt of truth buckled around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all of the saints. This is the Word of the Lord. Let's pray together. Father again as we turn to your Word this morning we acknowledge that it is but words and a page until your Holy Spirit comes along and quickens it to our heart, to our lives, and to our experience. Thank you so much for helping us find our identity in Christ. Help us so much. Thank you so much for helping us more and more live out of that identity and Lord help us to understand the hindrances that we face as we try to live that out and help us to know that in Christ we're already more than conquerors. So bless your Word. Protect us this Halloween season particularly. Lord help us to stand firm and to resist evil. Give me this morning the words that I need to speak what it is that you're saying. Keep distractions away from us. Let your Word penetrate deeply into our hearts and lives and may you be honored and glorified in all that we do today. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen. Well I pointed out last week that in order for us to flourish in our gifting and thus find our place in the world we there are three conditions that have to be met. The first condition is that we need a supportive environment that is to say a place where we're valued as individuals, where who we are matters, where we are allowed to be ourselves, where we are encouraged to develop our gifts, where our failures can be forgiven and our successes can be celebrated. Secondly we need mentors, people to walk alongside, people who can know what our gifting is, help us through the barriers where we get stuck and call us forth and empower us to become everything that God would have us be. And then I pointed out we need protection. We need protection from the forces of evil in the world that want to keep us from being all that God would have us be. And so it's not surprising then that here at the end of the book of Ephesians where Paul has been talking about our destiny in Christ and how God purposes to unite all things in heaven and on earth in the person of Jesus it's not surprising that he ends with this classic passage on spiritual warfare. We have an enemy his name is Satan and the more you and I become what Christ is calling us to be the more we live out of the deep places of our hearts the more we're going to discover how real he is. And so we need to be prepared and that then is why Paul introduces this subject. Listen again to a couple of these verses as we read them together. Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand. And as we look at this passage this morning the time that we have I want to try to point out three things in there that I think are just really important for us to understand in this life of conflict that the Christian life is by definition. And the first is this. The battle takes place on two levels. Listen again to how Paul puts it in verse 12. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Notice how he identifies there two levels of conflict. The first level of conflict is what he calls flesh and blood. Flesh and blood of course refers to members of the human race. And you will have found in your life as I have in mine that when you become serious about following Jesus, serious about using your spiritual gifts, serious about wanting to see God's kingdom come in power, then you're going to discover opposition from people around you. And very often that opposition comes from people around you not far away but people who are closest to you. That's why Jesus says, he puts it this way, Matthew 10, 34 to 36, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be the members of his own household." That's in quotation marks, it's actually a quotation from the Old Testament prophet Micah. I believe it's chapter 7. "Your enemies," he says, "will be the members of your own household." Let me talk about that a little bit because it's really important for us to understand why that is and how it works. Every relationship in the world is based on a give-and-take proposition. One gives, the other takes, and there's a degree of loyalty and a degree of obligation to one another. And so parents provide clothing, food, and shelter for the children. In return, they expect their children to honor them and to support them and to obey them and rightly so. When you're a friend of somebody, you cover your friend and your friend expects you to cover him. If you're working for somebody, the boss pays you and in response in return for being paid, certain expectations are laid upon you. Nothing wrong with that. Those are covenantal relationships. But in a fallen world, covenantal relationships always come at a price and because I'm doing something for you, I expect a certain thing from you. That's not necessarily bad either until you become a follower of Jesus. Because when you become a follower of Jesus, it is what Jesus wants of you that supersedes what anybody else wants from you. And that almost inevitably leads to conflict. And that's why Jesus says in Matthew chapter 10, as that passage goes on, if we can have those words up, anyone who loves father or mother, let me back up here, get that right, anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. You see what happens when you come into the kingdom, God demands ultimate loyalty. That loyalty exceeds all other loyalties. And so when people around you feel they lose control over you and you no longer do what their expectations are of you, then conflict results because they are hurt. Let me give you an example. You've heard us talk previously, I think in this place, about a woman by the name of Rosaria Butterfield. She was for many years a lesbian feminist English professor at Syracuse University, one of the leaders of the movement at a university level. And through the witness of a reformed Presbyterian pastor, she came to faith, not only, but then abandoned her gay lifestyle, eventually married a pastor, and now is the mother of a number of children. But if you read her story and you can find her testimony on YouTube, a number of versions of it, a marvelous story, you'll discover that when she turned her back on her old way of life and then became a follower of Jesus, there was a tremendous amount of hurt left in her way. Her lesbian lover felt betrayed, all the young people who had bought into the movement that she had initiated felt abandoned by her, and that's what happens to one degree or another. To the degree to which somebody wants to control you and own you and lose that power over your life, to that degree, they will resist you and resent you when you become a follower of Jesus. And that's why Jesus says there is a price to be paid, and it's often paid by those who are closest to us. And so there is a battle against flesh and blood. But, says Paul in this particular passage, that's not our only battle, that's not even our primary battle. Because notice again how he puts it. He puts it in our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms. Understand from a biblical point of view that when Jesus, and we'll leave that up for a moment, when Jesus created the world, the book of Colossians tells us he created both the visible world and the invisible world. Now we know a lot about the visible world and we are amazed at how big it is and how majestically it expresses the glory of God. But behind the scenes there is an invisible world that is every bit as glorious and as splendid as the universe you say. And the Bible tells us that that spiritual world is populated by spiritual beings who have been assigned certain areas of responsibility over the universe. And those are rulers, their authorities, and their powers. Now when Satan rebelled against God and fell into sin, a lot of those forces joined him. And when Paul tells us that our conflict is not just against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, and the powers of this dark world, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, he is talking about this whole horde of spiritual powers in the universe that are in league with the devil and who are determined with the devil to keep the kingdom of God from going forward and being realized and who have a vested interest in keeping men and women, boys and girls, under Satan's bondage. The Bible calls Satan the god of this world. He rules this world because he has gained access to it. God is still God overall, but the world belongs to Satan because he has gained access to the human race. How does he do that? Well, first of all, he has spiritual powers who are assigned to very specific geographical areas, just like a military commander has different divisions that are responsible for this area, that area, or the other area. So Satan has spiritual underlings who do his bidding. And if you read through Scripture and you run into the gods of the nations, the gods nations serve, then that's what the Bible is talking about. Spiritual powers that people have bonded with who offer life and happiness and success in opposition to the true God. Not only does he assign those powers geographically, he also assigns them to organizations and institutions and sources of influence. And so there are spiritual powers of darkness that are assigned to the media, or that are assigned to government, or that are assigned to entertainment, or that are assigned to education or philosophy, or even churches. Satan runs a whole complex organization, and his aim is to keep people away from the true knowledge of God in Christ, doesn't want them to know God, doesn't want them to experience God, wants them to be alienated from God, and more than anything wants them subject to his authority and power. That's where the conflict rages. And the more of a threat you or I are to Satan's kingdom, the more we will experience that opposition. Most people don't even know the devil exists. And the reason they don't know the devil exists is because they're just going along with the flow. Start resisting the flow and you'll discover the kind of arsenal that he has in his weapons to keep you from succeeding in the purposes of God. I often compare it, think of a fast-flowing river that flows out to the ocean and you're floating along in the river stream. And as long as you're not fighting the stream, it just takes you where it wants you to go. You're probably not even aware of what's happening. Start heading for shore, fight the current, and you discover how strong it is. Spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. Why do you think it is that in our day and age we are seeing such a flood of philosophies and lifestyles coming at us from all sides and nobody knows where it's coming from. It's like the air is heavy with the forces of wickedness. Those are spiritual powers that have gained entry into our society and they are bound and determined to keep us from fulfilling the purposes of God in our generation. Don't ever be surprised that you wake up feeling heavy on a given morning. Don't ever be surprised that when you step out into some new area you get walloped in places where you've never been walloped before. Don't be surprised that when you get up to get ready for church you get nothing but trouble sometimes or church is the last place you want to go. We live in a world of warfare and we're not contending just against flesh and blood. We're contending against rulers and principalities and powers and the forces of evil in heavenly places. And if you've never run into them, just turn your face towards Jesus and see what happens. Count on it. Don't be afraid of it. Don't be bullied by it. Don't be bulled over by it. The whole purpose of this chapter is to teach us how to stand. But standing begins by realistically understanding and acknowledging how the real world works for the children of God. So the battle, first of all, according to Ephesians 6 happens on two levels. Flesh and blood. Behind flesh and blood stands principalities and powers that are being used of Satan to try to keep you from fulfilling your destiny in Christ. And that's true not only for Christians individually, that's also true for God's people as a whole. Second thing to note in this particular passage then is that Satan, who is extremely clever, don't ever underestimate him. Don't be afraid of him but don't underestimate him. That's a foolish thing to do with your enemy. He follows a well-defined strategy. He follows a well-defined strategy. Verse 11, "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." And the word "schemes" is the Greek word "methodeia" and you don't need to be a university graduate to know what English word comes from that, right? There is method to the devil's madness. He knows what to do and how to do it. And one of his primary strategies is to try to trick us. He knows he can just go marching up to you and me, pull us away from God, and make us do his will. Contrary to what Flip Wilson used to boast about back in the 70s, the devil can't make you do it. God puts a wall of protection around his people as we read in the story of Job. And that wall of protection to some degree even applies to people who are not Christians. There is a limit to what Satan can do in terms of invading the human race. And in order to get us to do his will, he's got to trick us and he's got to play on our weaknesses so that he can gain entry. Adam and Eve in the Garden is a good example. Cain's offering being rejected and God's response in his crouching at the door, "It wants to have you but you need to overcome it," is another good example of how Satan is constantly sending out his emissaries, poking you and me for weaknesses so that he can find a breach in our armor and enter into our lives to control us to a significant degree. Now how does he do that? Well, he's got multitudes of ingenious plans. He's been around for thousands and thousands of years. He has studied the human race for thousands and thousands of years. He knows you and me better than you and I know ourselves. And so, as I said, he is prodding. He is constantly at work. Where can I invade that person's life? Where can I get a foothold so that I can get them away from God so I can get them to not exercise their gifting, their calling, and their purpose? How can I make them fall flat on their fannies so they will not be a danger to my kingdom? So let me give you just quickly three things out of many, many more strategies, wiles, that he will use to try to wipe you and me out. The first is he'll try to get us to commit idolatry. The First Commandment is we all know, "As you shall have no other gods before me." God's purpose was as our sustainer and our creator that we live life in fellowship with him. As the temptation of Eve in the garden shows us, if he can drive a wedge between God and us, if he can show us that God is not good, that he is not to be trusted, then he can wean us away from God and bring us under his power. And if he can get us away from God, then he will make us turn to other gods, other sources of life that we cling to that will enable him progressively to experience more and more of his power and less and less of God's power. I was thinking about this the other day in the context of the nation of Haiti. Haiti, as you know, is one of the poorest nations in the world. They have undergone a tremendous amount of disasters in recent years, a devastating earthquake, and now most recently Hurricane Matthew did a lot of damage. But Haiti, many years ago, was a French colony and was populated by slaves and cruel taskmasters who proclaimed themselves to be Christians. So back in 1791, a fellow by the name of Dutty Boukman, a black slave, rounded up a number of people that were slaves, including a high priestess, a voodoo high priestess, and called the nation together to say, "We are going to get rid of these people and we're going to get rid of their God." And they held a voodoo ceremony in which they made covenant with spirits that they wanted their freedom from the French. Within 13 years, they had managed to declare their independence and in more recent years they have declared voodoo as the official religion of Haiti. Why? Because the Christian God, as they perceived it, caused nothing but trouble and so they went to their pagan idols and their pagan idols to this day continues to be the God of the nation. And what happens on a national level happens on individual levels too. You look at your own life, look at what happens when you open your heart up to God, you're expecting things from him, you pray for this, that, or the other thing, God disappoints you, you close your heart off, and now you become open to whatever else comes along that promises comfort and hope and encouragement. Satan's strategy is to wean you away from God and make you give your heart and your loyalty to some source, to some power outside of Jesus Christ. That's just one example. Let me give you another one and that is harboring resentment or harboring unforgiveness. If the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind, then the second commandment says Jesus like unto it is what? You love your neighbor as yourself. If the devil can can drive a wedge between God the Father and us, and he can also drive a wedge between us and our neighbor, then he is well on his way to creating the kind of anger that made Cain kill his brother Abel. And so Jesus has some very specific things to say about that. There is, for example, the parable of the unmerciful servant. You all know that story, I'm sure. A man had great debt forgiven. His own debtor who owed him practically nothing came to him. Instead of forgiving him, he threw him in jail. The master was furious, threw him in jail, and then Jesus ends that story with this powerful exhortation in Matthew 18 verse 35. This, I'm not sure what we have there. He says this is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from the heart. Paul teaches the same thing in Ephesians 4 26 and 27 when he says in your anger do not sin, do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and then notice the phrase there, do not give the devil a foothold. Later on, same thing again in 2 Corinthians 2 10 11, if you forgive anyone I also forgive him, and what I have forgiven, if there is anything to forgive, I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake. Unforgiveness opens the door to the enemy and weans us away from God, and I've discovered in my own life if I carry a grudge against something or somebody because of what they have or haven't done, if I don't own it and own it fast and deal with it before the sun goes down, it gets more and more difficult to try to resolve it. Have you ever noticed that? You get to feel really good about being angry and you justify it in your own mind and you have a thousand and one reasons for feeling the way that you are feeling, but in the meantime you're drifting away from God and you're drifting into Satan's hands, and I cannot tell you, I mean I've been in this business for a long long time and I know an awful lot of things about an awful lot of people as you can imagine, I am constantly amazed at how much unforgiveness there is in Christian community that we don't own or deal with because we just write it off and we say well it doesn't really matter. Well if you see somebody and you can't bless them and you're not happy to see them and you don't want to wish them well then maybe just maybe you're harboring just a tad of unforgiveness in your heart and you've got sin couching at the door and you better overcome it because the devil will play you until there is nothing left of your Christian life or your Christian journey. That's his strategy, he's been around for a long time and he knows how to do it well and he knows how to play on every one of your weaknesses in mind to try to persuade us how wrongly we have been treated, isn't that true? The way of the cross is the way of forgiveness. Well one more just very quickly before we move on and that is the fact that there is a thing in scripture called ancestral or generational sins. Ancestral or generational sins are the sins committed by the forebears, the consequences of which carry through unto the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. One example will suffice, there's a very fascinating story in Second Kings chapter 5 and that's the story where Elisha is approached by Naaman, a man from another country who has leprosy. You will remember the story and he gets healed by getting dunked in the River Jordan which he wasn't too keen about doing and but his servants talked him into it and of course he was extremely grateful to Elijah and he wanted to give Elijah all this money, all these riches, these clothing, this clothing, gold and silver and whatever and what have you know. And he turned it down because you see the gifts of God and the blessings of God are not for sale. So you can't profit from what God gives freely. Well you will recall the story of his servant Gehazi. Gehazi looked at that and he said my master is an idiot. What an opportunity to fill our bank account. So what does he do? Well Naaman goes back home and Gehazi goes running after him and he says I've had some friends come over and my master has asked me to you know take you up on your offer and give me some silver and give me some clothing and and it takes two men to carry this for him so this is no pocket change. And then of course he comes back home you know twiddling his thumbs as if he's done nothing wrong. Big mistake because the problem with the prophet is they can see right through you and they know exactly what you've been up to and so Elijah holds them accountable and that's when we hear these words from 2nd Kings 527. Elijah pronounces judgment on Gehazi. Naaman's leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever. Then Gehazi went from Elisha's presence and he was leprous white as white as snow. Now think this through with me. Generations go on and you're studying your genealogy and you discover that one of your you're one of Gehazi's children. How do you think that's going to impact you? Well if the words of the prophet are true then the chances are the judgment on Gehazi will have traveled down the family line and there will be at least some in that family line who are constantly struggling with dreaded skin disease. They have no idea where it is coming from or what to do about it. That's generational sin and generational sin were warned about on a number of occasions in Scripture including Numbers 14 verse 18. The Lord is slow to anger abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and the fourth generation. He blesses you to a thousand generations. The blessings are always greater than the curses but the curses go to the third and the fourth generation. My personal conviction is that after three or four generations the the family is either totally blown up and disappeared or God miraculously steps in and he breaks the curse that he sets it free but my point is this if the enemy can get into a family through the sins of the forefathers he will relentlessly push that until the power of the gospel enters and breaks the power of that curse. A number of years ago in Haiti a number of evangelical pastors went to this place where this covenant was sealed and they pleaded the blood of Christ over the nation and they asked God will you please break the power of this curse and set these people free to know you the true and the living gone. Now I tell you this not to scare any of us but to help us to understand the strategies of the enemy. He is ruthless he is not a respecter of persons. The more you are committed to the Lord the more he will play you for whatever he can and our antidote of course and let me talk about that for just a bit yet. The antidote is the third thing that we need to learn here and that is we need to avail ourselves of God's protection. Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes verse 13 therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand. The emphasis here is on the individual believer and the believers corporately to remain standing no matter what the wilds of the devil are and how hard he comes at us. What God wants is for us to flourish in his kingdom and to run the race that he has said before us. He wants us to use our gifts to the fullness for the purposes of his kingdom so that Satan's kingdom may be defeated and God's kingdom may come but in order for us to succeed in that we have to have divine protection. Don't ever think you're smart enough or strong enough in your own self to resist the devil's temptation. He knows you better than you know yourself and even while you and I are watching the front door he'll try to come in through the back door. We often say he takes advantage of your weaknesses but your weaknesses aren't the biggest issue. The biggest issues are your strengths because that's where you're most likely to let your guard down. The only way to stand is in the armor of God. Jesus Christ in his life ministry death and by his resurrection has faced the devil head-on, resisted him in the wilderness, resisted him to the point of death, overcame him by his resurrection, is seated at the right hand of God Almighty has been given all authority and all dominion over every spiritual power anywhere in the universe and he shares that power and his authority with you and with me. That's the armor of God. Three very quick closing comments about the armor of God that we need to understand. First of all it's complete. Therefore put on the whole armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after having done everything to stand and then as I said the armor of God is complete. We won't take time this morning to go through every piece but notice every part of your being is protected by the armor of God. The Greek word is panoply and it references the completeness of the Roman armor. I believe Paul uses this analogy because you'll remember that he was under house arrest for two years in Rome. That's when he wrote many of these letters and he was in the constant companion of soldiers. He knew what they wore and what they needed for the battle. The armor of God is complete. Put on the full armor or the panoply of God. Secondly it's our job to put it on. It's our job to put it on. You can pray lead us not into temptation and that is constantly our prayer but the fact remains you and I are responsible to put on each piece by prayer. As the hymn says let me read it to you here. Each piece put on with prayer that is to say we need to avail ourselves of God's resources in Christ so that all our areas potential areas of vulnerability are covered by the armor of God and then of course we need to put it on before before the battle because you'll notice how the passage puts it put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand. Imagine being a soldier and you're just lounging around and your guns over here and your swords over here and your helmets over there and all of a sudden there is the battle cry the enemies upon us that is not the time. That is not the time to start putting it on. How you fare in the fight as how you fare when it comes time to die is not generally decided at that particular moment it is decided by how you lived. Did you live with your thinking protected? Did you live with your heart protected? Did you live with a belt of truth around you? Did you stand and what truth is? Did you walk in peace in as much as it depended upon you? Did you hold on to the shield of faith with which you can quench all the fiery darts of the evil one? Have you wielded the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God? Have you stood firm? You live that way then when the day of evil comes you'll be prepared to stand. It'll be too late in that hour to try to put it on. Think of the parable of the virgins the five who were ready and had oil and the five who fell asleep and ran out of oil had to go buy it. Unable to at that last moment because the door was closed. Now why do we talk about that this morning? Because we live in a day and age where the gates of hell in our society have just been opened. I have never in my lifetime and I'm not as old as some of you here. Older than a few of you. I have never seen such an unprecedented flood of evil flood our society or such a publicly concerted effort to try to discredit the Christian life and Christian community. Cornerstone Christian Academy we talked about them last week. Facing a human rights challenge in the next couple of weeks over wanting to teach the biblical view of marriage. That's trend setting. If that appeal is sustained every Christian organization is at risk you say well that's not going to happen well wake up to reality. Just this couple of weeks ago the U.S. let me read you the exact title of it. A U.S. Court of Appeals in California upheld a California law passed earlier in the year telling pregnancy crisis centers that they must provide abortion counseling or risk closure under the law. Parolife people have to provide the resources or the direction for that to happen and to bring it even closer to home if you're following the news just very recently two very distinguished bioethics professors have just published a paper calling for an examination of medical students before they go into medical college to weed out those who will not support pro-abortion pro-euthanasia or any of the things that are part and parcel of the medical profession today. That effectively if they were to succeed in that will keep most Christian young men and women from succeeding as doctors which is the aim because you can't let [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:49:25.440; remove through 00:51:37.000] your personal biases get in the way of [CUT] providing health care that's the argument and that's the same argument that the lawyers have been using against Trinity Western University to keep Christian young people from serving as lawyers in the field. I am saying the abyss has been opened don't ever think that people who have benefited for generations of Christian generosity are about to apply that same generosity to the Christian community because we are a threat to everything the devil stands for and if there ever was a time when you and I need to put on the armor of God stand firm and shout the battle cry in faith now is the time so whatever God puts on your heart wherever he calls you just stand against the wiles of the devil see the victories aren't I could go on about this but I will try to restrain myself that the victories are not won by big movements and by big moments victories are one in the privacy of your heart the privacy of your life the privacy of my life where we stand for truth and stand for God and the devil doesn't have any power over us because we belong to Jesus that's what God is looking for in your life and mine so let's ask him to give us the courage to be men and women of faith who would rather die than sell out because we know that in the end we've read the last chapter of the book and the kingdoms of this world no matter how noisy big or loud they are they're all going to yield to the authority of our king whose name is Jesus Maranatha even so Lord come quickly [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:51:37.000; resume after this marked segment]