Hawaii 3 – Overcoming Evil

Well, what a beautiful uh day we've hadtoday. Yes.>> Uh yesterday my wife and I took the roadto Hannah.And um [clears throat] today's Thursday.Yes. After a while, it all kind ofblurs. But on th Wednesday, we took theroad to Hannah. What I did was Ifollowed another car 10 ft behind for600 bends.And my wife kept saying, "What abeautiful sight to the right." So Iquickly glanced to get my eyes back onthe road.

And so I was in like tunnelmode, tunnel vision all the way thereand all the way back. We stopped at afew places. It really is stunninglybeautiful. God has blessed you here inHawaii with some lovely um naturalenvironment. And uh on Tuesday, I sat athome and wrote a sermon for a few weekstime uh because that's kind of what I dowith my life.

But it's just a realprivilege to spend some time with youall. And uh tonight uh we're going totalk about the topic is topic is calledovercoming evil. And in our first nightwe saw from the prophecy of Daniel 2 thestatue the head of s head of gold allthe way down to the feet of iron andclay. We saw there that God is incontrol of history. God is bringinghistory to a climax.

And if God is incontrol of the flow of history, we canask God to be the Lord of our lives aswell. We can trust God with thedirection of our lives. And last nighton Monday night, we saw that there waswar in heaven. Do any of you rememberthat there was war in heaven and Christwon there and there was war in theGarden of Eden and Satan triumphed overAdam and Eve, but God gave the promiseof redeemer. And then when Jesus came,he didn't just came to um buy us backfrom slavery to sin.

Jesus came todestroy the works of the devil. I sayamen to that. And so [clears throat] inin on Monday nights, we saw that Jesushas never lost a battle with Satan. AndI invited everybody here to say, "Well,maybe maybe I should ask Jesus to fightthese battles for me." And tonight,we're going to talk about how we getinvolved in our own lives. I've calledthis overcoming evil.

And um these[clears throat] are not theoreticalconcepts. You know, in America today, weare a society drowning in the occult.We see it almost everywhere we go insociety. The entry- levelvel occulticactivity is fortunetelling. Having yourpalm, your fortunes told from your palm.Maybe a tea leaf reader. Uh maybe umhaving someone draw up some tarot cardsfor you.

Maybe visiting an astrologer tohave them put together your horoscope.And then people take these horoscopesvery seriously. And then the next levelup of a cultic involvement is is whereyou're visiting a medium. you're they'rechanneling fallen spirits and you wantto see your long lost grandma and theybring up a spirit who looks like yourgrandma. And then the highest level ofsatanic involvement in America today iswhat we call SRRA. That satanic ritualabuse and that is where that's among thesocial elites in society.

That's whereyou know the uh the top lawyers, the topsurgeons, the top politicians, that'swhere they gather and uh a bit like umJeffrey Epstein's Island. They engage incertain acts of abuse on infants. Theyoften sacrifice those infants. Theydrink the blood and they do this as anact of worship to Lucifer. This iswithin our society today.So don't think that [clears throat] it'snot going to touch you or your family.It will one way or the other.In a sense, Christ and Satan are allfighting for me and for you.

And theprize is eternal life.And I want eternal life. The older Iget, the more I realize how short lifereally is. And I I get more and moreconcerned about eternal life.So, I invite you to bow your heads withme. Then we're going to discuss thequestion of overcoming evil. Shall wepray?Dear God in heaven, [clears throat] Ithank you that you brought us safelythus far through this week.

I thank youfor the way your angels have watchedover us all the days of our lives.Father, we thank you for the manyblessings we've experienced in life. ButLord, many of us come from homes wherethere's a story to tell. Father, we knowwhat happens when evil knocks on ourfront door. Lord, we've all experiencedloss. Some of us have lost parents.

Somehave buried our children. Some of ushave battled terrible diseases. Some ofus have gone through financialcatastrophes. Some of us have seen ourmarriages fall apart. Father, we knowwhat evil feels like.

And tonight,Father, we're asking that you'll guideus and give us wisdom so that we canpartner with our savior Jesus Christ andwe can gain victory over these attacksof Satan in our own lives. So speakthrough me and for me, Father. This ismy prayer in Jesus name. name I ask.Amen. All right.

So, this is going to beour journey tonight. Uh we're going tofirst of all talk about how Satanattacks and then we're going to look athow we overcome Satan and then we'regoing to come to our conclusion. So,let's start out by saying how does Satanattack? Let me ask you the question. Ifyou're a Christian, does that mean thatSatan leaves you alone?

Yes or no? No.If you are if you bear the name ofChrist, Satan has a target on your back.He wants to discourage you. He wants todissuade you. He wants to um uh causeyou to separate from your faith inChrist. So the moment you say, "I bearthe name of Christ," all the forces ofSatan and his fallen angels, they'retargeting you to cause you to lose yourfaith.

So there are some examples in theBible of when Satan attacked people. Themost famous is the story of Job in theOld Testament. And Job was one of thewealthiest men in the Middle East.He had literally um thousands andthousands of various kinds of animals.And Satan said to God in Job chapter 1,he said, "Job only worships you becauseyou protect him."And God said, "Well," he said, "Well,we'll put Job to the test, shall we?"And he gave Satan permitting to attacksa um Job and his possessions. But Godput a strict limit beyond which Satancould not go. And so Satan attackedJob's property.

All his animals died,his his businesses fell apart, his 10children died. Even his wife turnedagainst him, it seems. And finally, andGod gave permission to uh Satan to putboils all over Job's body, but he wasnot allowed to kill Job. And this iswhat we call harassment. Harassment iswhere um Satan or his demons are justattacking you and attacking you andattacking you to cause you to losefaith.

But in the story of Job, we seethere is a point beyond which God willnot allow evil to pass in your family.That's good news. That's very good news.Then you have the story of the ApostlePaul, maybe the greatest of the apostlesto ever live. And uh we think of Paul asa brilliant scholar. We read hiswritings in the New Testament. You know,the thing about the Apostle Paul was thechurch of Corinth.

They say, well, theysaid Paul writes these incredibleletters, but he's a really puny prepreacher. Now, he can barely speak infront of the audience. And that's howthey spoke about the Apostle Paul. Butthe Apostle Paul um he had incrediblerevelations from God. Um before hebecame a Christian, he was a Phariseeand he was an he was uh involved in anecstatic version of Judaism where theytried to get him into the presence ofGod.

And that the Jews believe there areseven levels of heaven and there's aangels guarding gates at each levelseach of the seven levels. Marava maravamysticism marava means battle tank. TheIsraeli main battle tank today is calledthe marava. It's after that that thatfiery chariot that goes to heaven likeElijah. And so Paul he went into thethird heaven.

And uh but in the middleof his ministry Paul realized that hewas under attack. And he says this in 2Corinthians 12 and:e 7. He says, "Evenconsidering the exceptional character ofthe revelations, therefore to keep mefrom being too elated or proud, a thornwas given me in the flesh, a messenger,the word is angalos or angel of Satan totorment me to keep me from being tooelated or proud." Now Paul had aworld-class education and he was aworld-class thinker and a world-classtheologian and he could outar argueanybody on Judaism or Christianity. Butthe problem was he was always tempted tominister in his own strength. And so Godallows in this passage here, God allowedand Paul to have a thorn in the flesh.And people say, well, what was thisthorn in the flesh?

Did he have badeyesight? That's one of the theoriesbecause Paul had a secretary write outhis letters for him and he would writehis greetings at the end of the letter.He says in my own hand. So we know thathe had bad eyesight. But the textactually tells us what this thorn in theflesh was that the phrase there is anangalos to satinu that is an angel ofSatan. So God allowed an angel of Satanto torment Saul.

Why? Because Saul wouldbe daily dependent upon God forministry.We don't think of Saul in those ways.But God allowed a messenger of Satan oran angel of Satan to torment Saulso that Paul would depend upon the graceand the power of God for his ministryrather than minister in the strength ofhis own brilliance. Then you have theapostle Peter and [clears throat] inMatthew chapter 16 Jesus is telling thedisciples that he has to go toJerusalem. He has to be handed over tothe chief priests and the scribes andthe Pharisees and they're going to handhim over to the Romans and he's going tobe executed and then he's going to riseagain. And Peter takes Jesus to one sideand it says Peter rebuked Jesus and hesays, "Lord, this is not going to happento you." And Peter probably didn't wantJesus to die because Peter wanted to bethe prime minister in the new kingdomthat Jesus was establishing.

And G Peterhad no need for a dead Jesus. He neededa living Jesus if he was to become theprime minister. and he rebuked Jesus.And uh the verb to rebuke epimeato inthe Greek that's used whenever Jesus isspeaking to spirits, fallen spirits. Sowhen it says when Peter rebuked Jesus,it's implying that Peter thought Jesuswas operating under some kind of satanicinfluence and Jesus turns around and hesays to Peter, he says, "Get behind mewho? Satan.

You are a stumbling block tome for you're setting your mind not ondivine things but on human things." SoPeter was not possessed but he wasdirectly contradicting a plain teachingof Jesus. And when a disciple of Jesusplainly contradicts a pl contradicts theplain teachings of Jesus, they'reallowing Satan to work through them inthat moment. They're not possessed.They're not being harassed, but they'veyielded control of their mind to Satanin that moment. So when Jesus said toPeter, "Get thee behind me," he doesn'tsay Peter, he says, "Get thee behind me,Satan. you are a stumbling block to me.And then you have the other example inthe New Testament, Judas.

And Judas wasthe conference treasurer. He was a manwho was trusted. We know he was goodwith finance because Matthew, one of the12 disciples, was a tax collector. Andso logically, Matthew should have beenthe treasurer for the disciples, butJudas was the treasurer. And we know hewas really good at being a treasurerbecause in John 13, we realize thatJudas was stealing from the commonpurse.

And none of the disciples pickedup on that in three and a half years. Sohe was really good at embezzlement. Hewas very good at covering his tracks.And uh when Jesus uh well the first timewe encountered Judas's scariot is inJohn 6 and Jesus speaks to the 12 and hesays that he says there did I not chooseyou the 12 yet one of you is a the wordin Greek is diabolos. We get the worddiabolical from that. One of you is orin one of you is a devil.Now,in John chapter 13, when Judas decidesto go out and betray Jesus, it says thatSatan entered into him.

And but soJudas, nobody knew he had a demon, butJesus knew he had a demon. Jesus neverfailed to cast a demon out of somebodyum if they asked him for help. But Judasnever asked Jesus for help. And so Jesusnever set him free. There is animportantlearning point here.

um for you knowdeliverance ministry in casting outdemons which are real which is thisJesus never forces somebody uh into thiskind of process somebody has to askJesus to set them free before Jesus doesset them free and uh you know we we maythink well past divine line this is the21st century aren't we beyond demonsthese days no we're not demons are veryvery real uh we talk about the realitythat Some families have what is known asan ancestral spirit. And somebody atsome stage in the past has has made adeal with the devil. They've beeninvolved with the occult. Maybe thereyour grandmother was a medium. And whenyour grandmother dies, um that the thedeal she made was that her bloodlinewould belong to Satan if in hergeneration she got knowledge and powerwithout moral accountability for how sheused it.

And so when the grandmotherdies, suddenly the teenage granddaughterstarts cutting herself.And everybody says, "Why is she suddenlycutting herself?" Well, she's cuttingherself because there's this existentialpain of a demon now attacking her andshe can't express it. And the ER doesn'tknow how to process this cuz they don'tbelieve in demons in the ER. At leastmost doctors and nurses don't. And so,but the reality is this girl has anancestral spirit and it's attacheditself to her through no fault of herown. And you find this in many Africancultures.

You find it in in Haiti. Youfind it in the Caribbean. You find itall across Southeast Asia andincreasingly we're finding it in Americabecause Western secular Americans areplaying with the occult and they don'trealize the effect it's going to have ontheir children and their grandchildrenand the succeeding generations.So there are three kinds of demonizationwe see in the Bible. There's harassmentand almost every Christian experiencesharassment of some kind.Um [clears throat] somebody says, "Iwant to study the Bible." Fair enough.We'll come by your house every Tuesdayat 6:30. And the first week you get atext that says, "My dog died at 6:00."Okay, I'll come next Tuesday.

NextTuesday at 6:00, you get a text saying,"My dog's at the vet." You think, "Ithought it just died last week." "Oh,it's a new dog. I'm sorry." The thirdweek, you get a text that says, "The dogate my homework. I have to redo it." Andthe fourth week, you get a text thatsays, "My car's in the shop. I've had anaccident. Don't come by this week." Andyou realize that all these bad eventsare happening on Tuesday afternoon tothis family just before they have to doa Bible study that wants to do a Biblestudy.

And so you realize that Satan'srunning interference. Then you haveoppression. That's where you where youyield control of your mind to Satanoften because you have an a particularcherished sin. The most common cherishthese days that lead to oppression ispornography. And then the third ispossession.

And you do see someChristians with possession. They'reoften Christians who've been in themission field. Um, but it's often peoplewho've become Christians in theirprevious life was heavily involved inthe occult. And so, how then do weovercome Satan? It's an interestingquestion.

How do we overcome Satan?Well, the first thing is we pray fordeliverance from the evil one. And tolook at to learn this, we go to theLord's Prayer in Matthew chapter 6,which says, "And lead us not intotemptation, but deliver us from what?Evil." [clears throat] But that's notwhat the text says. You know, the KingJames says, "And deliver us from evil."That's not what Jesus says. Uh thephrase in the Greek is apoto, apoto,which means from the evil one.Now Jesus is not saying pray for deliverme from evil. That is don't give me Iwant a nice day for my wedding.

I don'twant any storms. That's what that's notwhat Jesus is teaching us here. Jesus isnot teaching us deliver me from evil.That means I don't want a big tax billthis April 15. That's not what he'stalking about. The phrase from evil, thebest translation is from the evil one.So Jesus taught us in the Lord's prayerto pray to our heavenly father anddeliver us from the evil one.

And howoften are we to pray the Lord's prayer?Well, on a daily basis. Why would I saythat? Because the Lord's prayer says,"Give us this day our daily bread." Soif you want to eat today, you ask Godfor your daily bread. And in the middleof that Lord's prayer, you also ask yourheavenly father. Our father which art inheaven, hallowed be thy name, etc.There's that phrase and deliver me fromthe evil one.

When Jesus taught this tous, what he's saying is you are underdaily attack from Satan. And your onlyway to avoid this or to gain victory inthis is if you ask your heavenly fatherto deliver you from the attacks ofSatan.So I want to encourage you today. You[clears throat] know many Christiansdon't don't pray the Lord's prayer verymuch but the Lord's prayer is the mostprofound prayer you found in script inscripture. I want to encourage you everyday morning or evening to pray theLord's prayer and to start askingyourself what does it mean for instancethy will be done.Let me ask you do you have any controlover what anybody else does in thisworld?No. So when you say thy will be done,the only area where I have control is myown life.

So thy will be done means mayyour will be supreme in my life ratherthan my own fallen will. I'm going tofollow your will this day, father,rather than what I want to do. So how dowe cooperate with God in this gainingvictory over Satan? Well, in Actschapter 19, you read a story there, andthis is where um Paul is preaching inEphesus, western Turkey, and it saysthere in red, the first red bit, itsays, "Also, many of those who becamebelievers confessed and disclosed theirpractices. A number of those whopracticed magic collected their booksand burnt them publicly.

When the valueof those books was calculated, it wasfound to come to 50,000 silver coins. Sothe word of the Lord grew mightily andprevailed. So 50,000silver coins is about 150 years wagesfor a day labor in those in those days.That's a lot of money. Think how muchyou earn on a daily basis. Multiply thatby 150 years.

That's kind of the valueof the books that were burnt. In thosedays, you couldn't just order somethingon Amazon. It would come. These bookswere copied out by hand on papyrus. Theywere very very valuable.

And the biggestbuilding in Ephesus is still there tothis day in ancient Ephesus. There's thethe facade of the single largestbuilding in ancient Ephesus where thestory took place. And that building wasthe library.It was the biggest building in town. Sothere was a monster library in Ephesus.And when those people heard the gospel,rather than taking all those books orthe rolls, papyrie scrolls to thelibrary of Ephesus, I'm sure they'd havebeen delighted to receive that donation.They could have given it to the libraryof Ephesus, but no, they burnt thosebooks. They wanted nothing more to dowith them.What does this mean for us today?[clears throat]It means that if you ask God to set youfree from Satan's attacks,you have to close those doorways whereSatan can enter your life.If you have rats behind your house, thechances are it's cuz you've got garbagebehind your house.

If you want to getrid of the gap, the rats, you don'tshoot rats every night. You clear thegarbage away. If you get rid of thegarbage, the rats don't come backanymore. Does that make sense?And so when we ask God to deliver usfrom the evil one, we cooperate with Godby getting rid of the garbage. That'sshutting the open doorways to Satan inour life.

These people in Ephesus, theydidn't hand those books over to thelibrary of Ephesus. They burnt thosebooks.How do we shut those doorways to Satanand attacks in our lives?Well,it means we get rid of anything in ourlife that we cannot give as a holyoffering to a holy God.I would sayat least a third of the people heretonight are watching porn on a regularbasis.Statistically, it's probably 50 to 70%.Well, that's me generous, maybe 30%.And um you people start out with eroticthen softcore then hardcore then violentthen they call pedosexual which is therape and killer of children and theykeep going more and more extreme inorder to get the same dopamine hits andthen like Ted Bundy you say I no longerwant to watch this I need to actually doit myself the jumping off space and thatleads to the to the to the uh terribletreatments of women and children in oursociety.There is a clear progression here.And I work with a lot of people, lamemen in particular, who are basicallyaddicted to porn and they're desperateto get rid of it, but it has thiscontrol over their lives and it'sdestroying their marriages and it'sdestroying their children and theirchildren's bodies and they don't knowhow to get out of it. They they say it'scompulsive behavior. It's addictivebehavior. They say things like, "I don'tknow what came over me.

I can't stop it.I find myself doing it. I hate it withmyself when I'm doing it. All theseexpressions keep coming back at you. Butwe cooperate with God by closing thoseavenues to Satan in our lives. Askyourself this.Or let's let's just put it this way.Jesus came to die to save us from thevery things we turn into entertainmentin the West.and the garbage we put into our mindsand the moral filth we put into ourminds, the extreme violence, the darkmovies and the horror films, uh thethrash metal, the death metal music andall the rest of it.

We are we areshaping our minds so they are in tunewith the mind of Satan rather than withthe mind of God. So, I want to encourageyou tonight to do as the Ephesians did,which is to get rid of anything in yourlife that has any connection with Satan.Any tarot cards in the basement, anyOuija board sitting in a box in the inthe in the garage, did you go to Haitifor a holiday and come back with awooden face mask? Those wooden facemasks have often been devoted to aspirit. You find that in West Africa.And when you bring that into your home,you're bringing a fallen spirit intoyour home. You're giving it permissionto be in your home.

and uh that spiritwill will wreak havoc on your on yourfamily. So um I I've worked with peopleand I say to them, you know, there wasone girl, she was at Andrews University,she was a seminary student and she washaving these terrible nighttime attackswhere something was strangling herthroat every night and she knew it was aspirit and she didn't know what to doabout it. So I we had a phone call and Isaid, "Did you ever play with the occultin your youth?" And she said, "Yes." Shesays, "I've got an Ouija board." Andwhere's the Ouija board? Oh, that's athome in Pennsylvania. I said, 'You needto go and destroy that Ouija board.' Shesaid, 'Well, it's it's um spring breakcoming up.

I'll drive home. I said, 'Howlong will it take you to get fromMichigan to Pennsylvania?' She said,"One day."It took her 4 days to get from Michiganto Pennsylvania.Everything that could go wrong wentwrong on that trip. Blown tires, roadaccidents, going into the ditch, creditcards getting stolen. It was likesomebody didn't want her to get back toher home in Pennsylvania. And when shefinally got back to her home inPennsylvania, uh, she said, "What do Ido?" I said, "Take out that Ouija board,put it in your backyard, pour gasolineon it, and burn it."And she did.

And guess what? Thosenighttime strangulation attacks ceasedimmediately. She'd close the doorway toSatan. So, I want you to uh invite youto sit and ask yourself, is there anypart anything in my life, in my home,that has any connection with the powersof darkness? And if there is, I'm goingto go home tonight and I'm going toremove them physically from my house.

Iwant them no more in my life. It couldbe gemstones from your grandma. It couldbe in a Ouija board. It could be violentmovies. Uh I some sometimes people say,"Walk through my house, pastor, and tellme what I need to get rid of." And youliterally look in every single drawerand every single cupboard.

And then themost the thing that people never wantyou to see is the search history ontheir in on their browsers.Because your viewing history on yourbrowser tells you more about somebodythan anything else. And when you say,"Let me see the browsing history." Yousay, "No, pastor. Did you ask me to comehere or not?" "Yes." "Well, let's take alook at the browsing history." That'swhen you see stuff that is borderlineillegal, not just immoral.And say, "That's your problem, brother.We need to take care of this in yourlife." So, the second thing we do is weput on the armor of God.Paul says in [clears throat] Ephesians6, he says, "Our battle is not againstflesh and blood, but against thespiritual forces of evil in the heavenlyrealms."You know, it's it's tempting in Americato get caught up in the politicalbattles that go back and forth,Republican or Democrat. There's the MauiCouncil elections coming up. I've beendriving around.

There's some guy Bobbysomething running for election andthere's a bunch of other names outthere. I mean, I've been watching theseads as I drive around. Um,[clears throat] it's easy to get caughtup in the politics of where we live, butthe Apostle Paul says that our battle isnot against flesh and blood. It'sagainst spiritual forces of evil in theheavenly realms.And so, because the battles we face areprimarily spiritual against spiritualbeings, then we have to put on the armorof God. Four weeks ago, I was inSlovenia, an island, a country justsouth of Austria and east of Italy.

Idid an evangelistic series there. Andwhen it was over, I went to the hotelowned by a very famous national figure.And um he had a lot of influence in thatcountry and he wanted to talk with usabout what we've been preaching about.And uh he said I said, "Well, this is abeautiful hotel. It's on a lake." Isaid, "Tell me about the hotel." Hesaid, "Well," he said, "We asked thelocal shamans." Shamans are spiritualworkers who see spirits. You see thosein West Africa in particular. These arewitch doctors.

They said, "We asked thelocal shamans for the be best place andthey said there's a lot of energy linesmeet in this lake." So he built a hotelby this lake. And then this guy says tome, he's a national politician in thatcountry. He says, "And the shamans tellme that there's unseen unseen beings allaround this property, but I'm not toworry because they're good beings.Now, this is a secular European guy in anational figure in his country with amulti-million dollar hotel and businessthere. And he's telling me justunashamedly, "I've visited the shamansand the shamans tell me there are unseenbeings all around this house." And thenhe said, "And what do you do for aliving, Pastor Vine?" I said, "Well,we just co-authored a book ondeliverance ministry and getting rid ofdemons."And he kind of went a bit silent. Isaid, "You know, these unseen beingsthat the shamans are seeing and tellingabout, those are fallen angels, andthey're going to destroy this hotel andthe people who come here.

You should notbe celebrating the fact that there aredemons around this property."I said, "This is a cursed place."Well, he said, "Well, send me the book."I sent him the book. He said, "I'llpromise I'll read through, and I haven'theard back from him, but that's a monthago."But the apostle Paul says, "Put on thearmor of God so that you can standagainst the ws of the devil."And so it says, "Therefore, take up thewhole armor of God so that you may beable to able to withstand that evil dayand having done everything to standfirm. Stand therefore." And so, so farin this passage, three times the ApostlePaul has said, "Stand."So some people say you've got to go outlooking for demons.But when you put on the armor of Godthree times, we have the command tostand. And if you're in the infantry andyou're told to stand still, are you inan offensive posture or a defensiveposture? Defensive.

You're not going outlooking for demons. But if demons comeknocking on your door, you can standfirm in the armor of God. You're notgoing to run away. So we don't golooking for demons in the 21st century.But when Satan comes knocking on yourdoor, we need to know that we should notbe afraid. We have nothing to fear.

IfGod be for us, who can be against us?Christ has never lost a battle withdemons. And if Jesus is fighting ourbattles for us, we have nothing to beafraid of. And so what is this armor ofGod? He says, "Therefore, fasten thebelt of truth around your waist. Put onthe breastplate of righteousness asshoes for your feet.

Put on whateverwill make you ready to proclaim thegospel of peace. Take the shield offaith with which you'll be able toclench quench all the flaming arrows ofthe evil one. take the helmet ofsalvation and the sword of the spiritwhich is the word of God. So if you wereto have a pictorial depiction of thearmor of God, there it is. It's kind oflike a a medieval knight uh clothed inhis armor.

He has the sh the shield offaith and the breastplate ofrighteousness and the belt of truth. Andon his feet he's he's shaw with shoesready to proclaim the gospel of peace.And on his head he has the helmet ofsalvation. And the only offensive weaponhe has is the sword of the spirit.So what does this armor of God actuallymean? Well, the first thing that hementions is put on um the belt of truth.[clears throat]Is everybody here wearing a belt?No. [clears throat]All right.

So, I wear a belt every day.Other except when I'm walking down bythe beach. I wear a belt every daybecause you hang keys on it. Sometimesyou put a flashlight on it. Sometimesyou put one of those multi-tools on it.You put your cell phone on it. Um, thebelt holds everything together.When you're young, the belt goes aroundyour waist.

When you get older, the beltgoes under your waist. All right?[clears throat] Those of you who arelaughing, that's a guilty laugh. Youshould have listened to Brother Erniewith his talk a few minutes ago. But aswe get older, the belt goes under ourwaist rather than around our waist. Andyou know you're making progress if yourbelt goes around rather than under.

Butthe belt is called the belt of truth.You see, for soldiers, um, everything isconnected to the belt to keep yourequipment in place. For a soldier,having the right tools in the rightplace at the right time is a matter oflife and death. But the loins alsorepresent the areas of reproduction, themost intimate areas between a man and awoman, the most intimate humanrelationships. And in old biblicaltimes, if men wanted to sign a deal,they wouldn't shake hands, but theygrasp each other on the inner thigh downhere. It was a very intimate act, but itwas a sign that we're now in agreementon something.

And this is the belt oftruth. And um the belt of truth isnecessary because um every relationshipdepends on how truthful you are in thatrelationship.If you go to the doctor and you got aproblem with your right shoulder and youstart complaining about a ringing inyour left ear,are you going to get the rightdiagnosis?Well, my doctor's like a hawk. I go in,I do my Google research, I figured outwhat I think the problem is, and shegets to the same the same diagnosiswithin like 30 seconds. I'm just amazedhow brilliant my doctor is. Sometimes Igive her a few, you know, little redherrings to go this way, that way.

Butshe always zones in and she asksquestions something. Now, why is sheasking this question? And um but Irealized over my years with a doctor isthat if you want the right diagnosis andthe right treatment plan or you want tobe healed, you've got to be truthfulabout your symptoms.And in a relationship, if you have ahusband and wife having problemstogether, the only way they can start tofix those problems is the starting pointfor the road to redemption is if they'rehonest about what's actually happeningin that marriage. If there is notruthfulness, there can be no healing.And if I go to a psychologist cuz I'msuffering from depression and I and Istart talking about maybe extremeanxiety, um it's not going to help thediagnosis process for the psychologist.There has to be truthfulness in orderfor there to be healing inrelationships. All of our relationshipshang on the extent of how muchtruthfulness there is in relationship.Now, sometimes you don't want to beexactly too truthful.

Does this dressmake me look good? Sometimes you're notquite sure how to answer that question.Um uh sometimes sometimes my wife says,"Did you like that food?" And what I sayis, "That food was really nice and whatyou prepared yesterday was really good."Then my wife knows that all rightthere's a pecking order for the foodhere and maybe I won't get that fedagain unless I've been a naughty boy. Soanyway, but without truth relationshipsfade and with truth relationships canheal. Jesus said this, "Sanctify themthrough thy truth. Thy word is truth."So when we face a personal crisis, whenwe're overwhelmed by negative emotionsor fallen desires, we're invited to turnto the word of God for guidance becauseeverything that is pure and worthy ofgood repute and noble and beautiful isfound in the word of God.

But then youcome to the breastplate ofrighteousness. And the breastplate ofrighteousness is an interesting concept.The breastplate covers the chest. Andthe two vital organs of the chest arethe heart and the lungs.Now, sometimes I go out deer hunting.When you hunt deer, what are the twoorgans you want to hit?The heart or the lungs? Not the head.The heart or the lungs? Cuz that's aguaranteed kill shot.

They'll run away50 yards, but then they'll drop dead.You aim for the head, you're probablygoing to miss with a shotgun. You aimfor the chest, the front lower part ofthe chest, you get the heart of thelungs. That deer is dead. And thebreastplate of righteousness covers ourheart and our lungs. And why is this soimportant for us?

Well, the heart is thecenter of our response to God. Ephesians6:6 says this, that we do the will ofGod from the heart. And Psalm 51:10recognizes the importance of having aclean heart and a new and a rightspirit. The Psalmist says this, "Createme a clean heart, oh God, and puts a newand a right spirit within me." So allthe issues of life spring from the heartwhich is the center of our relationshipwith God and with others. But the othermajor organ in our chest cavity is ourlungs.

And the other center of breathingand prayer is the breath of the soul.So if we are to be if we are to standfirm against the attacks of Satan, notonly do we want a clean heart, but weneed to have a regular prayer life.Deliver us from the evil one.Some some people here maybe you don'thave a regular prayer life.I want to tell you thisand God knows the motions of your heartbefore you talk to him in prayer. Youcan't say one thing to God in prayer andassume he doesn't understand what'sreally going on inside. And the HolySpirit takes your words anyway andtranslate them for our heavenly father.So I want to encourage you to talk toGod as to a friendjust to be open with him. Just be honestwith him. There is no set formula forprayer other than talking with God aswith a friend.

And when we have thebreastplate of righteousness, we'reprotecting our lungs among other things.Is because we want to protect our livingconnection with our heavenly father.When we pray, we learn to listen toGod's voice coming back to us as well.Then you talk about the shoes of peace.Now for soldiers, footwear is a reallybig deal. If you're going to walk longdistances and you're going to walkthrough damp areas or watery areas, youneed good you need good footwear. Um,you know, in the British Army in WorldWar I, the most prized possession amongthe soldiers in the trenches was drysocks.Everybody wanted dry socks cuz whenyou're standing in two feet of water inthe trenches for months at a time, youget trench foot and you're out of actionbefore you know it. And it's hard torecover from that. And so the shoes ofpeace are very shoes are very importantfor soldiers.

The book of Isaiah saysthis, "How beautiful upon the mountainsare the feet of the messenger whoannounces peace, who brings good news,who announces salvation, who says toZion, your God reigns." And so feetrepresent our service to God. Itrepresents us sharing our faith as wewalk the pathways of life. And God'speace provides a buffer between thus usand those who can injure us. Isaiah62:26:3 says, "Those of steadfast mindyou keep in peace in peace because theytrust in you." You know, uh 2014, I wasin northern Iraq. ISIS had justconquered northern Syria.

They conqueredMosul. They'd killed most of theChristian men. The women had fled toUrbal in Iraqi Kurdistan. And I happenedto be in Iraqi Kurdistan at that time. Iarrived with a fellow pastor and thestreets were filled with Christianrefugees.

Women were giving birth on theroads. the roads. It was like 50 Celsiustemperature out there. The roads, thetarmac was soft. When you walked on theroads, you left a footprint behind you.And um my friend said, "What are wegoing to do?" I said, "We're going topray.We don't have armed guards.

There's noAmerican military out here just yet.We're going to pray that we don't appearon CNN in an orange jumpsuit."And you know what that means?Means ISIS has got you and they're goingto take your head off. And so we kneltdown and we prayed. We claimed thepromise of Psalm 37434:7. The angel of the Lord watchesround about him that fear him anddeliverth them. And we went to sleep andwe had a wonderful night's sleep thatnight.

The Bible talks about those ofsteadfast minds you keep in peace. Inpeace because they trust in you. Justthis morning, um, somebody wrote me thisletter about the peace they found withGod. I'm not saying who this person isor where they are, but it's not inHawaii. So, this email came to me thismorning.

It says, "Then about 10 yearsago, something shifted. I was walking innature. This is my time to talk to God.I took this time to repent for some pastsins that have followed me and I couldnot put behind me. No matter what I did,they followed me like a shadow. After Iwas done and honestly asked God forforgiveness, a weight was lifted.

I feltfreed for the first time. The feeling isstill here today. The feeling is stillhere today. At first, I was afraid totalk about it. I feared the weight mightreturn.

It did not. I'm so grateful andhumbled by the experience. This can onlybe done by an allloving andunderstanding God our father. It's abeautiful testimony just came today andI' I'd shared with this person that, youknow, if you confess your sins to Godand claim the promises of forgiveness,God will forgive you and lift thoseburdens of guilt from your from yourback that you're carrying throughoutyour life. Um, this individual didactually do that and wrote to me, youknow, after 10 days, God has taken theburden of guilt and shame from theirpast off their back and they now knowthey are forgiven by God.

And when weexperience forgiveness, we experiencethe pass of the peace of God thatpasseth all human understanding.And when we are forgiven by God, it'sharder for Satan to attack us bythrowing our past in our faces. Then youhave the shield of faith. The shieldprotects us from arrows and swords andspears and slingshot.Satan sometimes attacks you directly. Hegenerally attacks you indirectly. Satantends to stand a far off and shoots hisfiery arrows at you and you wonder wherethey came from.

Those arrows can be fearor doubt, rejection, wounding words,people spreading lies about you on theinternet, false guilt, depression,sickness, accidents and bodily injury,divorce, disease, drugs, dep despair,anything that can wound us and disableus in the battles of life. And the firsttime the word shield appears in theBible is in Genesis 15 where Abraham hasjust rescued his nephew Lot from beingkidnapped by some northern kings inmodernday Syria. And it says there afterthese things the word of the Lord cameto Abraham in a vision saying fear notAbraham I am your shield and yourexceeding great reward. So how does thisshield of faith work?But when Satan attacks us, he attacks usin the material world in ways thathumans understand. But the shield offaith means that we don't look at thatsituation through the eyes of men.

Welook at those that situation through theeyes of God.We look at that situation through theeyes of the God for whom all things arepossible. For whom Satan is already adefeated enemy. Faith looks at realitythrough the eyes of God, not that of hhurting men and hurting women. And sofaith shifts to faith allows us to meetthose fiery arrows of Satan by saying,"What does God say about the matter andthen we can leave the matter in God'shand." You then have the helmets ofsalvation. The most effective way tokill somebody is to hit them in thehead.

When you go fishing, what do youdo to a fish when you put it in theboat?You hit it on the head. In England, wesay that you priest the fish becausepriests would touch children on theirheads like this. So you pay take awooden um piece of stick and you whackthat fish on the head and the fish isdone. And so that's the quickest way tokill a fish. And so we have to protectthe head with the helmet of salvation.And why do we protect our heads?

Becauseyour mind defines who you are. It's thecenter of your personality, yourmemories, your character. All that isgood and bad in your life is stored inyour head. You know, when you getmarried, you don't marry a body, youmarry a mind.So, I'm just saying this all youngpeople here, don't fall in love with abody, fall in love with the mind.Because bodies get bigger and bodies getsmaller. And bodies have bits choppedoff and they have bits added into them.All right?

And by the time they're 50 or60, don't look so good. Some of you aresmiling. What you marry is a mind.You want a meeting of minds when youmarry. You want someone who isintellectually and spirituallycompatible with you because the bodiesare going to change through life. Butwhat matters is the union of minds whenyou get married.

And so we are to wearthe helmet of salvation on our headsbecause the the decisions we make in ourheads determine our eternal destiny. Sothe mind must be protected from theenemy that is salvation. And what doesthe word salvation mean? The wordsalvation um the Greek word verb soo iteither means to save or to heal. It hastwo meanings.

When Jesus says to thewoman um with with the issue of blood hesays go in peace your faith has savedyou. That can also be translated go inpeace your faith has healed you. So inthe eyes of of the New Testament, in theeyes of Jesus, physical healing andspiritual salvation are the one in thesame concept that physical healing is togo alongside spiritual healing. And sothe helmet of salvation is necessarybecause until our minds and our thoughtsare healed, it's our broken minds andour destructive habits that ruin ourlives and give doorway doorways forSatan to enter our lives.uh 2 Corinthians 4 and verse4 talksabout how Satan has says in this intheir case the god of this world hasblinded the minds of the unbelieversand so there's a battle for our mindsgoing on every single day your mind is abattleground Satan wants to control itand God wants to give you his HolySpirit to guide you in how you think inways that will lead to human flourishingthe Apostle Paul says for the weapons ofour warfare are not merely human, butthey have divine power to destroystrongholds. We destroy arguments andevery proud obstacle raised up againstthe knowledge of God.

And we take everythought captive to obey Christ. And howdoes this happen? The Apostle Paul goeson to say, "Do not be conformed to thisworld, but be transformed by therenewing of your minds so that we maydiscern what is the will of God, what isgood and acceptable and perfect." Thatword renewing is metamorphosis. It meansthat when you become a Christian,God wants to so change your mind thatthere's no hint of what there wasbefore.Just as a caterpillar turns into abutterfly and if you didn't know that abutterfly was once a caterpillar, youwouldn't believe it if somebody toldyou. But a a caterpillar metamorphosisis metamorphosis into a butterfly.

Andthis verse here says that we are not tobe conformed to this world. That is weare not to allow the world to shape ourthinkingin fallen patterns of thinking inselfish patterns of thinking andself-destructive patterns of thinkingbut we are to allow God to renew ourmind to to give us a metamorphosis inour minds so that we are transformed sonow we reflect the will of God ratherthan the negativity of Satan in ourlives. And God does this when we invitethe Holy Spirit each morning to fill ourminds and to change us day by day. Thenyou have the sword of the spirit, thelast item of the armor of God. It's theonly offensive weapon in all the armorthat we find here in the Bible.

A swordis not a standoff weapon like a spear ora sling or a bow and arrow. It's apersonal weapon used for one-on-onecombat. Now, let me tell you this.Having a sword turns a non-warrior intoa warrior. And even if you have all theother armor of God, but you don't havethe sword of the spirit, you are still anon-warrior, you're not going to survivewhen Satan attacks you or your family.So what is um the sword of the spirit orthe word of God? Well, Jesus is the wordof God, but uh for the purposes of thisdiscussion, the Bible is also the wordof God.

And in this world, the onlything in that I know of that is 100%true is the word of Godbecause I'm a fallen human being.Nothing can can come out of my lips thatis 100% absolutely true unless it is theword of God. That's the only thing inour lives that we know is 100% true. Andevery dis every temptation or attack ofSatan is based on a lie. If you do this,it will somehow be good for you. And theway that you respond to lies is not withpower, but with truth.

Truth is theantidote to error. And so when Jesus wastempted by Satan, Jesus modeled this forus. Says, "The tempter came and said tohim, if you are the son of God, commandthese stones to become loaves of bread."But he answered, "It is written, onedoes not live by bread alone, but byevery word that comes from the mouth ofGod." Jesus modeled for us how werespond when Satan attacks us. And werespond to Satan's attacks by quotingthe word of God, saying it out loud.The word, the sword of the spirit is theword of God. The word for word in Greekis logos.

In the beginning was thelogos. The word the word was with God.The logos was with God. And the logoswas God. The word was God. Logos is themost famous word in the New Testament.But that's not the word that Paul useshere about the sword of the spirit isthe word of God.

He uses the word rama.Rama means the spoken utterance of thewordmeans you speak the word of God. And youspeak the word of God if you'vememorized it. You've hidden it in yourheart. So sometimes people wake up atnight and there's a pressure on theirchest and it's their hands around theirthroat. Sometimes they experience like asexual assault at night and it's ademonic presence.

There's a darkpresence over them and they say what doI do pastor? They said uh well the bestthing to is just say the name of Jesusslowly say it loud and loud and louderand as you say the name of Jesus thatthat pressure will leave you and it willbe gone and then if you have if you ifit's not doing that but you can actuallysay something you say the Lord rebukethee Satan in the name of the Lord JesusChrist I rebuke thee and then you youquote something from scriptureand what do you quote from scripture?Well, [clears throat]Satan puts lies in everybody's minds.Every time I step here,I get this boom coming back at me. Maybeit's the amplifiers here.Satan puts lies in everybody's minds.Lies such as you're not good enough. Godcould never forgive you. You're beyondthe reach of God's mercy.

Um uh look howlook at the condition of your life. AndGod God doesn't care about you.Each one of us knows what those liesare.And I want to encourage you tonight toask yourself, what are those lies?And then find for the top three liesthat Satan tells you and find threepromises in scripture that directlyrefute those liesand memorize those. Put them on yourlaptop. Put them on your fridge with amagnet. Put them beside your cardashboard.

And when Satan puts thoselies into your mind, you say out loud,"The Lord rebuke thee, Satan. It iswritten." And then you recite thatpromise from God. And literally whathappens is you're creating a new neuralpathway. Satan puts a lie in your mindand it goes to a negative emotion likediscouragement or fear or anger orbitterness. And now when Satan puts thatlie in your mind, it's met with thetruth of the word of God.

You'vefortified your mind. And rather thanthat that that lie of Satan going to anegative emotional place in your lifeand you feeling down or bad about thingsnow that lie from Satan is met with theword of God, it literally bounces out.You've created a new neural pathway. Andrather than that lie leading to anger orfear or bitterness, now that lie isleading to a greater trust in God onyour part.And so on the screen there, these aresome some cards I put together with somecolleagues. These are simple promisesfrom the Bible that God is these thingsand this I am certain other things. Andwe put these these promises togetherbecause we we said to people what arethe most common lies that Satan tellsyou in your life.

And then we we puttogether the Bible promises that refutethose lies. And um if you want later Ican come and speak to me. I can give yousend you these by email. And when peopleare asking uh for deliverance fromSatan, we take people through like a amulti-step process. We here have it upon the screen here of rebuking Satan andconfessing sin and forgiving thosewho've hurt us and repudiating Satan andhis works and so forth.

And um it's avery effective way to remove the attacksof Satan out of somebody's life.Brothers and sisters, this is absolutelyreal.It's not something to be played with.>> [clears throat]>> And you say, "Well, does this reallyhappen in the 21st century?" Let me askyou, when Ronald Reagan was makingdecisions of when to bomb Libya,what important tool did he use to makethose decisions?Well, Nancy Reagan was gettinghoroscopes drawn up,literally, and Nancy Reagan was tellinghim, "Because the stars are in alignmentnext Tuesday, you should bomb Libya nextTuesday."And so this kind of astrology wasguiding American military policy in thetime of Ronald Reagan, um, this stuff isvery real. And if you want to know, doour social elites get involved in this?I say, well, what happened with JeffreyEpstein? What was happening with thosechildren?What was happening with those rituals onthose islands? They weren't playingaround. This was the worship of Luciferby our social elites in America.

They'regaining power and knowledge withoutmoral accountability. And the last thingyou want is for Satan to be attackingyou and not know how to get rid of theseattacks.The third and final thing I think ourtime is up. I don't have a clock here,but I sense my time is up here.Is we fast and we pray placing ourproblems in God's hands. Jesus spokeabout casting out demons. He says thiskind of demon does not come out exceptby prayer and fasting.

[clears throat]Why do prayer and fasting go together?Well, the average person spends abouttwo hours a day preparing food, eatingfood, cleaning up after food. Yes, maybemore than two hours. I spend 10 minuteseating food and no time preparing food.There's a painful story in my family. Ichopped off my big nail. My wife askedfor some soup.

I chopped off the bignail in the grater with a flesh and Idecided not to tell my wife about it. Iput some um beetroot in there. I juiceit up. And for my sins, I've never beenallowed to prepare food ever again.[clears throat] I won't re I won'trecommend it, but um one of thestruggles I have in life is I'm notallowed to prepare food in the kitchen.It's a very painful burden I have tobear. But Jesus said prayer and fastinggo together.

Why do prayer and fastinggo together? For a number of reasons.Number one, if you if you do not eatfood tomorrow, you will create at leasttwo hours free in the day when you canpray.Just like that. No food preparation, noeating, no feeling drowsy afterwards. Ifyou fast, if you fast, you've got timeto pray. You take a lunch break at work.Now, it's called a prayer break.Okay?

So, fasting and prayer go togetherum like a hand goes into gloves.Secondly, when you fast for 24 hours,you feel irritable.You fast for 48 hours, you start tostink because you're detoxing and yoururine stinks. You fast for 72 hours andit's like you're taking off from theairport and after 72 hours you getthrough the low hanging clouds and theturbulence and you're in the clear bluesky and from days 4 to 15 and I've donethis you your mind is incredibly sharp.It's sharper than you've ever had beforeyour mind. Now I'm not you know you mayhave uh blood sugar problems. You may bediabetic. You may have hypoglycemia.

I'mnot recommending this in those cases,but if you have physically good health,praying and fasting for seven days or 10days or 15 days, you have immense umclarity. Your mind is like a sharpknife. You're physically weak, but yourmind is is so sharp and you you yourgifts of perception and discernment areare greatly enhanced. And so when you'recasting out demons, you pray and fastfor three or four days, your ability todiscern, is this mental health a healthproblem? Is it a demon?

is is is greatlyenhanced by the act of praying andfasting. The third reason why you prayand fast is fasting is an act ofhumility before God.And the final reason that you fast isthat you're saying to God that when yougive the victory, it's in your strength,not in my strength. And to you be thehonor and the glory. And your name willbe glorified in this. Praying andfasting go hand in hand.

When somebodyasks you to pray over them because theyhave a demon, set aside some time. Say,"I'll meet you next Sabbath and we willwe will meet together." And before thenyou have a team of people praying andfasting so that person can indeed be setfree. You know when I was in WestAfrica, Muslim mullers would send theirfamily members to the Adventistmissionaries because the Muslim mullersknow that Muhammad is dead but Jesus isalive and Jesus can cast out spirits.It's a known fact in the Muslim worldthat Jesus casts out spirits butMuhammad is cannot because he's dead andburied in Medina. And Muslims know thisand animists know and Hindu priests knowthey can invite spirit possession. ManyHindu priests do the devas, the holy menof India.

But it is only Jesus has theauthority to set you free from theforces of Satan.And what we've been going through thisafternoon, this evening is is some umsome ways in which we can cooperate withJesus in this battle. So what do we sayin conclusion here tonight?Evil [clears throat]is not just a politician or a roadaccident or a tax bill.Evil has a supernatural origin in ourworld.And the only way we can survive theattacks of Satan and this supernaturalevil is when we have a savior who hasauthority over Satan. And that savior isJesus Christ. The Bible tells us thatwhen Jesus gave his his first um speechsermon in in Nazareth, he said this. Hesays, "God has sent me to proclaimfreedom for the prisoners and recoveryof sight for the blind, to release theoppressed, and to proclaim the year ofthe Lord's favor." So Jesus did not comemerely to teach us how to live ourlives, but Jesus came to set us freefrom the attacks of Satan.

And whatwe've been discussing this evening areways that we can cooperate with Jesus inthat process of being set free. So whatare those ways? Number one is this. Prayevery day the Lord's prayer and say,"Lord, deliver me from the evil one. Putit in God's hands." Number two, put onthe armor of God.

All of it. And uh dosome more study as to what this means,particularly the sword of the spiritbeing the word of God. be able to quotescripture when Satan is attacking you.When you quote scripture, Satan fleesfrom you. And thirdly, learn more aboutfasting and praying. And when somebodyhas a problem or you have a problem oryour child has a problem,rather than going to Google,go to Godand start praying and fasting and gathersome prayer warriors to be praying andfasting for three or four days.

and thenyou may gather together and you're goingto pray over that individual. You'regoing to anoint them. You're going torebuke those spirits and command them toleave in the name of the Lord JesusChrist. This is not a gift that Godgives to a few Christians. This is thepower of God that is supposed to flowthrough every Christian.I want to encourage you tonight.

Don'tsubcontract this to somebody else. Takeresponsibility in your own home, in yourown marriage, in your own life, in yourown body for cleaning out and closingthose doorways where Satan can enter sothat your life and your home and yourmarriage can be filled with the presenceof the Holy Spirit and you canexperience the fullness of life thatonly God can give.So, our time is up.I've been sharing a lot these last threedays about spiritual warfare and how wegain victory over the attacks of Satan.I just want to plead with you tonight.This is not a joke. This is deadly real.The occult is everywhere in Americansociety. People are attracted to itbecause it's knowledge and power withoutmoral responsibility for how you use it.At first, you think you can control it,but before you realize it controls you,and then it destroys you. Have nothingto do with the unfruitful works ofdarkness.But there is a savior who delivers hispeople.My one of my favorite verses of theBible is this.

The angel of the Lordencamps round about those who fear himand deliverth them. Oh, taste and seethat the Lord is good. Happy are thosewho take refuge in him.Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.You have to live this by faith. Then yousee that God is good.You can't just hear about this. Youcan't just read about the power ofChrist.

Jesus is willing to set us freetonight in this room when we go home toour bedrooms. He's willing to set usfree from the attacks of Satan. Not justtoday, but every day for the rest of ourlives. We say in America that there arecursed families like the Kennedys. Yes,the Kennedys are a cursed family.And um that's kind of a popular termthat this is a cursed family.

Somepeople seem to have accidents all thetime. Some people everything goes wrongin their life all the time. And peoplewonder why is this? The chances are, andI say this after 30 years of ministry,the chances are is that they're in thegrip of Satan and they just don't knowit yet. But I serve a risen savior.

He'sin the world today. I know that he isliving no matter what men may say. Iused to sing that song in the roads ofAfghanistan when the Taliban were thereand there was a lot of shooting andfighting and killing going on. And Iwould comfort myself in the roads ofAfghanistan, never knowing if I'd gethome alive night after night by singingthese songs from cradle roll. He walkswith me and he talks with me alonglife's narrow way.

And I'm only heretoday and alive and in one piece becauseSatan's tried to attack me in multipleways. But by the power and the grace ofJesus Christ, I'm still in the fight.And all of God's promises and blessingshave come true in my life.And our Sunday night together,we spoke aboutGod is in control of historyand God is inviting us all into hiskingdom when Jesus comes again.On Sunday, Monday night, we spoke aboutwar in heaven, war in Eden, and war whenJesus came to earth. And we saw thatJesus has ne never lost a battle toSatan.And tonight I've spoken about how we canpartner with God in this process ofgaining victories over the attacks ofSatan. They're real. Take thisseriously.

But there is one with us andfor us and who is will willing to beinside of us who is far greater thananything that Satan can throw at us. Andthat is Jesus Christ. I'd invite youtonight whether you are a Christian ornot. Maybe you've lived in the Christianchurch all your life, or maybe this isthe first time you're hearing aboutthis. Um, don't go home and say, "Well,that was interesting." Forget about whatI've been sharing tonight.Jesus came to destroy the works of thedevil in my life and in your life.And if you want Jesus to destroy theworks of the devil in your life, youhave to put your hand in his, the handof faith, and ask him to fight thebattles you cannot fight for yourself.And if tonight you want Jesus to fightthose battles for you, maybe you want toraise your hand here.

We're not going toask you to come to the front. But if youwant Jesus to fight these battles foryou in your life so that Satan is drivenaway and you can live in the fullnessand the abundance and the purity and theblessings of life that God wants for us,maybe you want to raise your hand heretonight. And and as you raise yourhands, we're going to close with a wordof prayer. We're going to place thesematters in the hands of our Lord andSavior. So I invite you uh for those ofyou watching at home or online or thoseof you in the hall here, bow your headswith me and we'll close with a prayer ofconsecration.Our dear heavenly father,we know we're living in a messed upworld.Everywhere we see signs of brokenness.The environment is broken.

The economyis broken. Our politics are broken. Ourbodies are broken. Our marriages and ourhomes have got cracks in them. And someof them are truly broken.And tonight, Father, [clears throat]maybe for the first time, we're askingJesus Christ to fight the battles for usthat we know are there but cannot see.Jesus, we invite you to rebuke Satan, todrive de Satan and his demons away fromour homes, our hearts, and ourmarriages.

We're inviting you to gainvictory for us that we may give praisesto you that we may walk in the light andwe may tell our neighbors and ourfamilies of the mercies of a lovingheavenly father.So Jesus, please do for us what wecannot do for ourselves. Fight thebattles we cannot see. Give us victoryover those giants that stalk our homes.And may you be glorified in every aspectof our lives. We ask this mercy in yourholy name. Amen.

Amen. And so tomorrowwe're going to come back together andwe're going to look at uh the greatestum promise, the time prophecy that wasever given in the Bible. It wasn'tDaniel 2 somewhere else in the Bible.We're going to look at what it means forus today. Uh so we look forward toseeing you tomorrow night uh 6:00 withsome wonderful food, some more healthnuggets. Um maybe not diabetes.

What arewe discussing tomorrow?>> Parasites.>> Parasites. parasites, right? So, if yougot children come along tomorrow,um [clears throat] they may haveparasites. You may view them asparasites, but they may have bringparasites into your home. But tomorrow,we're talking about parasites for thehealth nuggets, and then we're talkingabout the greatest time prophecy in theBible and how it relates to us tonight.So,