The Church of Eleven22 - Sword of the Spirit: Stand Firm - Wk 7

Episode Date: August 25, 2024

Throughout the Stand Firm series, we’ve been learning how to defend ourselves against the enemy. But as we learn about the sword of the spirit, Pastor Joby digs into what it means to play offense- to fight back against Satan and deal with the temptation that each and every one of us encounter. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Hey, if you got your Bibles, we're going to end up in Matthew chapter 4. Kelly, I forgot to bring a water. Can you bring it to me? Matthew chapter 4, and I would just say, thanks. It is good that we are here. Thanks for the prayers. In case you haven't been here the past couple weeks, first and foremost, thank you so much to Pastor Britt for holding down the fort man and just delivering the word incredibly well. And I will tell you, so I need a lot of grace tonight.

So I had the flu. It was actually kind of a combination of the flu and pneumonia. Pastor Brick called it the flumonia. I went to camp with your kids. I told you to send your kids to camp with me, and you did. And one of those little dirtbags tried to kill me, okay? That's just true. But I told you when this series started on spiritual warfare,

there's an unseen world that affects the seen world. And that is what happened. There was some, you know, there was this thing that I caught. And I didn't see it. I'd have seen it. I'd have run from it. I'd have fought it off. but an unseen thing took me down.

Spent a couple days of mayo, coughing up lungs. I did lose 15 pounds, so if you need to do that, you know. Well, I didn't lose. I left it. I can show you where it is if you want to go see it. So I need a lot of grace because I can't quit coughing. But when we started this series on spiritual warfare, I couldn't wait to get to this week.

This was the week I wanted to get to. And so my inability to say about four sentences in a row without coughing, is going to be a pretty good example that the power is never in the mailman. The power is never in the messenger. The power is never in the delivery. The power is in the Word of God. So I need your grace because I don't want to be distracting. And there's this poster that I have back here between my office and the steps to get on stage.

I try to look at it every single week before I get the opportunity to come up here. And it's from 1st, Corinthians, chapter 2. and it says this, and this is what I'm praying tonight. Paul says, and I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. And I would add coughing to that verse. That's the message remix. It's okay. And my speech and message. were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit of power, and so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So give me a little grace as we choke through this, but here we go. We are at war. I promise you, when we

map this series out six months ago, I had no idea that the war in our culture would escalate to the point it is now. But we are at war. And just because the war is spiritual does not mean it's not actual. Just because our battle is not against flesh and blood does not mean that we don't have an actual battle. And for six weeks, we've really been talking about

the pieces of the armor of God that are primarily defensive. What do you do when the enemy comes at you? Today we're going to shift gears and we're going to get offensive. we're going to learn how to fight back. Like if this is a war, which it is, and we know that the victory has already been won by the empty tomb, then how do you and I actualize the victory that is ours?

Like when the thief comes at you, I'm not talking about like the y'all general, like the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, as an idea. I'm talking about when he comes at you, like second row three over you. How do you fight against him when the only thing he's trying to do is not trip you up and him you up, as my good friend Charles Martin says, he wants to cut your head off and put it on a silver platter and brag about it. So if the victory is ours, how do we walk in the kind of abundant life that Jesus promises? Well, here's the answer.

The sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. So this message is only for those of us that deal with temptation. Okay? So if you don't deal with temptation, you're too dumb to talk to anyway. Okay? So no problem. See you next week. It's going to be awesome.

Hope you're entertained. But how many of you deal with temptation? Anybody deal with temptation? Great. There's two groups. Those of us with our hands up and the liars. that didn't raise your hand. Sweet. And I don't know about you, but I thought, I don't know why I thought this, no, but I don't think anybody explicitly told me this. I'm 50 years old, man. I've

been a Christian for a minute, many minutes. I'm like a professional Christian. I literally studied my Bible like 20, 25 hours a week to get ready for this thing. And I thought I would be much further along in my sanctification today than I am. Anybody with me here? How about this? Anybody 50 and have the same struggles you did when you were 15? That's not good. Doesn't seem good. And what we're going to find out here is that Jesus himself was tempted. Now listen, man, temptation is tempting.

You should write that down. Nobody ever amen's when I say it. I say it all the time. Like if it's not tempting, then it wasn't temptation. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like if it's not a thing that even though you know you shouldn't do it and you don't want to do it, and you're like, what's wrong with me? By the way, that's all of Romans 7 and about a 7.

sentence. And the enemy is really, really good at his job. He's been doing this for a really, really, really long time. And yet in Ephesion 6, we find out that you and I have been equipped by the spirit of God with the tool that we need to live in victory over the temptation that the enemy throws at us. Go to Matthew chapter 4. The Bible says this. Then Jesus, was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Maybe this is why in the Lord's prayer he said, Lord, lead us not into temptation, because he did that one time and it wasn't awesome, okay?

Now, if you've been around a Bible study, or you can just look in your Bible, you can see that the thing that precedes this event is a high holy moment for Jesus. The thing that precedes this event is the baptism of Jesus. And I'm telling you, for all of eternity passed up until 2,000 years ago, Jesus, God the Son, second person of the Trinity, lived in a perfect, unadulterated relationship with the Heavenly Father,

where the Heavenly Father lavish love upon the Son all the time. And then, for at least 30 years, he experiences some sort of separation when he puts on flesh, humbles himself, and becomes a man, and shows up on the scene. He's about 30 years old. He walks out. He walks to the Jordan, his cousin, John the baptizers, out there baptizing people. He looks at Jesus and says, Behold, I'm of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus walks out into the water. They had this little argument about who's going to baptize who, but then John finally baptizes Jesus. Jesus gets baptized. He comes out of the water, and the Bible very clearly says that the heavens open up and God the Father speaks out loud. And remember what he says? Behold my son in whom I am well pleased.

You think that was a high holy moment? look man you think you feel pretty good about you when your daddy says good job imagine it the heavenly father said out loud behold my son in whom i am well pleased this is a high and holy moment for jesus the next sentence and he was led into the desert to be tempted pay very very close attention pastor britt mentioned this a couple of weeks ago oftentimes it's on the heels of our highest moments our mountaintop experiences with the lord that the enemy tries to come in and and steal away what God's been doing in your life. And the reason I'm trying to prepare you for this

is because we're getting ready for saturated. And I'm telling you, that saturated? If you pay attention, you're going to see the heavens open up and hear God the Father say over you, behold my son and daughter in whom I am well, please. And right on the heels of that, the enemy is going to show up in your face and try to take it away.

And so, it says, in Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry, you think? You ever notice how when you decide to fast how hungry you get? Sometimes I accidentally fast, I don't mean to. It's like Monday at 3. I'm like, I haven't eaten. I'm not even hungry. But when we declare a fast and I wake up on Wednesday, I'm like, oh my God, you know what I mean? So maybe Jesus is prepping for the actual spiritual warfare

he's about to go through. But notice this. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry, and the tempter came. Jesus is hungry, isolated. and tired. Pay attention to what the enemy tries to do to you when you're hungry, isolated, and tired. And the tempter came to him and he said to him, watch how he starts, if you are the son of God. You see, the enemy is a liar. He's a tempter. He's a twister. Everything God creates, he tries to corrupt. And ultimately, like, listen, honestly, he doesn't even care what sin he can get you with. That's not the point. He wants you to not believe that you are who Jesus says that you are. He's trying to, he's trying to chip away at the very identity of Jesus. And when he opens his mouth, he lies,

because that's all he knows how to do. And the only thing he wants to do is kill and steal and destroy you. Now, you may ask yourself, so why am I still tempted? Like, I love Jesus. I show up to church, I worship with my hands up, or read my, I try to do the things. I'm actually, into the Jesus thing, why is it that I'm still tempted to do these things when I know that it leads to a path of death and destruction? Why are these things still tempting to me? Well, I'm glad you asked. Go to Romans chapter 12. Here's what Paul says in Romans chapter 12. Paul says, I appeal to you therefore brothers. And any time the word therefore is in the Bible, you've got to see what it's there for. Now he's talking to the brothers, which means he's talking to Christians in chapters one through

in the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul has laid out the gospel. He says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation. He says, we have all sin and fallen short of the glory of God that none of us by works of the law will be declared righteous. Our sin has separated us from God, and we cannot be justified in and of ourselves. So God sent an alien righteousness who the whole Bible has talked about and the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And this alien righteousness, who is his son, Jesus Christ, if we would put our faith in him, we would be justified and forgiven because he demonstrated his love for us and this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. And though Adam gave us sin,

anyone who believes in Jesus gives us life. And therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's like chapter 1 through 8 in about 90 seconds, okay? And so then chapters 9, 10, and 11 are about the role of Israel in God's redemptive plan for all of humanity. So when he's saying by the time he gets to chapter 12 is, because you know the gospel, 1 through 8, and you know the role of the church, God's people, in redemptive history, I mean chapters 9, 10, and 11. Therefore, now this is how you ought to live if your life has been infected by the gospel. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies

as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Remember the Shema? Shima Israel, the Lord of God is one. and you said, love the Lord of your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. In other words, he says, when you see God for who he really is, the logical or normative response is that you would give all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength to God. By the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

And you go, okay, Paul, how do we do that? And Paul says, I'm glad you ask. Here's how you do this. It's two steps. process. Number one, do not be conformed to this world. Number two, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Here's why you're still tempted by sin. The moment you got saved, you got a brand new heart. The Bible says that God reaches in and rips out your heart of stone and gives you a new heart, his heart. Your soul was changed forever and ever and ever, and the spirit of God was deposited into

your soul. Good news, good news. Bad news. You should. still got the same mind. He did not change your mind. You still got your same birth order. You're still your crappy eneagram number, whatever that is. You've still got your Myers-Brigg is still J-E-R-K or whatever it was. Like, God didn't just wipe all of that out. And so for a bunch of you, you know, like thousands of people have gotten saved here at our church this year, and many of you are adults. And all of that crazy you have been living with all of these years has been the pattern by which you think. and so the apostle Paul says is what it looks like to love God with your life is you got to do two things. First of all, don't be conformed to the pattern of this world.

Here's what this means. I've told you this before. Have you ever poured concrete? Of course you haven't because you live here. Has anybody ever poured you some concrete, all right? On our Jessup campus knows what we're talking about. We're going to put one in Palacca. They can tell you how to pour concrete.

All right, listen. If you ever run on a mission trip, here's what you do. when you pour concrete. You build a form. You mix up the concrete. You pour it into the form. And it conforms to the pattern that you built. This world has a form.

This world says, this is how we do life. This is how we do sex and money. This is how we do forgiveness. This is how we do pride. This is how we do. And what Paul is saying here is whatever you do, don't pour yourself into the form of this world, but instead be transformed.

How am I going to be transformed, Paul, by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Here's what this means. This world has been lying to you and me. We've talked about this all through this service, I mean, through this series, that the spiritual battle is primarily a battle of the mind. because the enemy Listen, if you're in Christ,

you cannot be possessed by the devil. 1st Corinthians 6 makes it very, very clear you are not your own, you were bought at a price. So if you've put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are the possession of Jesus. And so the enemy's got no claim on you. But if he can get you to think a thing,

it'll make you feel a thing and you'll believe a thing and then you'll begin to do a thing that leads to death. And so, the war, the war, this spiritual warfare is really a battle of the mind. And what we've got to do is identify the lie that the enemy has lied to us and we take off the old and we put on the new. That we are not conformed to the pattern of this world, but we are transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Our main text, Ephesus chapter 6. Paul says it this way. He says, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, not your rule power. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand. That means fight against the schemes. That word is methodia against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. We talked about this several times that our battle is not against people. Our battle is not against a political party. Your enemy is not your boss. Your enemy is not your ex. They're not. Our enemy is an unseen evil realm that is trying to steal, kill, and destroy. So when we think about spiritual warfare, you can't think about your wartime movies. Most of our minds, when we think warfare, we think World War I, World War II, we think Ukraine and Russia,

we think two equal and opposing forces gather together to fight against one another. That is not how the enemy can try to attack the church. Why? Because he's already been defeated. I don't know if you know this. I'm a super Christian. I've read all the way to the end of the book. There are multiple chapters dedicated to the eternal defeat of the enemy. I know he's a big scary dragon, but he's bleeding out of his head and he's about to die and be sent to hell. That's how it's going, all right? And so, I've mentioned this before. We, as Americans, we have enemies all over the world. but what are they going to do? They can't just get on their little wimpy boats

and ride over here and try to attack us. What would happen? It would be just, America, that's what would happen. It'd be over like that. A part of the reason the enemy is not going to manifest himself at you and show up in the parking lot and I, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, it's because if you did, it might actually cause you to get into the fight. So our enemies, as Americans, all over the world, it's a dirty war campaign.

It's a misinformation campaign. There are bot farms all over the place that drop just the right mean tweet into your algorithm so that you'll hate the person that doesn't look like you. And they're doing a really good job at it. This is the similar kind of way that the enemy fights against us. It's primarily in here. Our battle is not against one another. Colossians 2 says,

And you who were dead in your trespasses And the uncircumcision over your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses By canceling the record of debt that stood against us With its legal demands, He set aside, nailing it to the cross, He disarmed the rulers and authorities

And put them to open shame By triumphing over them in him. So, if we're fighting a toothless, clawless line, lion, then why is it kicking our butt so bad? It's because he wins the battle of the mind. It's because we conform to the pattern of this world. It's because every time he speaks, he speaks lies. And if we begin to believe those lies, we begin, the way Pastor Britt said it the other week, is he bread crumbs us down a place, a path that leads to destruction. So what do we do about this? Well, Paul in Ephesion 6 says, our battle is not against flesh and blood.

but against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Now, I call these the whispers. Do you ever get the whispers? I have them right now. Literally, I'm like, should I even be doing this? I mean, I can't quit coughing. God, am I being a distraction?

You see what I'm saying? Like, where do you think that comes from? You think it's my heavenly father? going, I don't think he should preach. Nah, man. I don't know if you know about this, but because this is love, not that I love him,

but he first loved me and sent his son as the propitiation for my sin, and the perpetuation is the payment that satisfies. This means that God cannot be dissatisfied to me because I'm in Christ. I don't know if you know this. God really likes my preaching, even when I cough.

I'm not saying, it's that good. I'm just saying like a good dad is really pumped over their children. You know, you ever coach a little league team? the parents are just as proud as the terrible kids as the good kids. You ever notice that? As they should be. And so what the enemy can do, the enemy begins to whisper these lies, just like he did to Jesus in Matthew 4. If you are the son of God. You see, what's crazy is the enemy wants us to doubt our beliefs and believe our doubts. Think about that. The enemy wants to

doubt our beliefs and believe our doubts. God wants to believe our beliefs and doubt our doubts. Then every time the enemy says, who do you think you are? If the person next to you knew the things that you struggle with, knew the things that you do, knew the promises that you have made that you were not able to keep, they would look down their nose and say, what are you doing here? Let's be honest, you ever feel that way? Can I just plead with you?

I never, ever, ever, ever want you to feel that way at the church. of 1122. We were a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And your invitation to this church is not me. Your invitation to this church is that cross, the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus. And the reason that we need a savior is because we are sinners. We don't clean ourselves up before we come to church. That'd be like waiting for the bleeding to stop before you go to the ER. It makes no sense at all. That we are just a gathering of saved sinners to make much of Jesus Christ. And you can leave the fake you on Instagram.

She's doing just fine. But a real Jesus died on a real cross for the real you. And so he whispers and whispers and whispers and whispers. And we believe him. We believe it's lies. Because we live in a world that lies to us constantly. Or you even have people that have had my position stand in front of you.

and tell you something opposite of the good news of the gospel of Jesus. So Paul says, when the enemy lies to you, when you find yourself in this spiritual warfare, then therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm, stand therefore, and again, Stan means to fight, having fastened on the belt of truth,

which we know through His Word, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, which is about identity, which we find out about through his word. And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, which we preach the gospel, which is his word. And in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith. Faith comes by hearing his word, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation. And here we are, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And when it says word here, the word it uses is Ramon, not Logos.

It means a very specific scripture is what it means. It says, and take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. This is the offensive weapon. Now listen, the word of God is not a sledgehammer to kill Kathy in the cubicle next to you. That's not what it's for. Please tell the Christians on the internet, because they don't know this. Okay? It's a sword to fight against the devil.

It's not a sledgehammer to bang up people that don't believe like we believe. It's a, it was a really small sword. I got some bigger swords over here. It was actually like a little small sword that you'd stab people with. And so how does it work? The enemy's lying to you. And then Jesus says, but I have equipped you with a sword. of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Here's how it works. John chapter 8, verse 31, says this. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. That word abide is a relational term. That word abide means to like stay close. It means to like, honestly, it means like to cuddle. It means to hug.

It means to get, like in John chapter 15, when Jesus says, come here, come here, come here. abide in me and I will abide in you. That's like a relational term. Like moms, you want your children to not just know that your mom and know that you provide and know that you're the boss. That's not enough, right? You want them to want you to be their mom.

And you want them to know how much you love them. This is the kind of language here that Jesus uses in John chapter 15 and Jesus uses in John chapter 15. hate. Listen, I've shared this with you so many times. I don't know how to make you love what I love. I don't know how to make you love what I love. You know, that's a hard thing. Do you ever try to make somebody love something you love? I try to get Gretchen of love sweet tea. I don't know what's wrong with that girl, but try to get you guys to love the bulldog, some of you still lost. That's fine. And all that doesn't matter. I don't care. I love the word of God. I love the Word. And I

know a bunch of you love the Word of God. This is a Bible-loving church, man. When my friends get to preach here, the first thing they say is that's the, that's the coolest place to preach ever. And I'm like, I know, right? Okay, because you guys love the Word of God, especially, like, you front row people, taking notes and all that. You just make my heart warm, okay? But listen to me, I don't know the person that's in a deep, abiding love relationship with God that does not love the Word of God. And listen, man, I know what's confusing. Peter said it was confusing. He's like, ever read Paul? Oh, that's a tough one. No problem. No problem. And I know some of you old heads will be like, well, I can't memorize stuff, you dummy. You memorize what's important to you.

Every person in here, my age still knows the whole first verse to Ice Ice Baby. And what's that doing for you? Nothing, nothing. And every single week when we get in here together, this is what we're going to do, man. We're going to open up this word. And listen, man, I know we got people from, We're a movement for all people. And so if you're a little baby, even if you're not a believer in your life, I just want to see what it says. Cool, man, come on.

I'm going to teach it to you, all right? I would highly encourage you to read it for yourself. Most of the critics out there of the scriptures have never actually read them. Not only is the Bible true, it's trustworthy. It's from the author of life. It is a gift to you and to me. And what I mean by trustworthy is not only are the things in the Bible true,

but you could lean the weight of your life on the claims of the scripture. And when we do life God's way, I promise you everything goes better. I promise. Now, maybe not better in the temporary. But when you abide in His Word, you abide in Him, and we don't follow after Jesus because he makes everything better. We follow after Jesus because He is better than everything this world has to offer. And so I need you to dig in, man. I need you to dig in.

This is a great season to dig in. Read Gretchen's DeVos. read through the scriptures that she's going to walk us through. You got to get into this yourself. You know what can happen so many times, especially at a church like ours? Because it's big and the music's so good and occasionally I can entertain you.

That is not the point. I am going to, I promise you, man, I'm going to feed you. I promise, I'm going to feed you. And we're going to go meat and potatoes. Now, if you're a baby Christian, I put a bunch of little stuff on the bottom shelf so I can explain it and we can, little apple sauce open up, no problem.

But you can only do that so long. And there's a whole bunch of church people. And spiritually speaking, you're just a fat, worthless baby. You just show up about what, once a month? Would you big diaper full of crap, milk-crusted on your lips and whining and complaining and complaining about everything? And you waddling here with your umbilical cord going, feed me, feed me, feed me. Look, you fat, worthless, baby.

Pick up the word of God. We'll give you a state knife and a full. and eat up. Because here's the thing, man. And the confusing parts, I've got really good news. God has given us his spirit to help you understand his word, and he will teach you exactly what you need to know when you need to know it. He promised that.

And so in John 8, Jesus says to the Jews who had believed in him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. You see, the enemy lies to you. The enemy wants you in bondage. Jesus wants you to be free. And you're going to learn how to do that by reading his word. The crazy part is the people that he was talking to memorize the whole Bible.

And he's looking at him. He's going, you're missing the whole point. You know the words in the Bible, but you don't know the word of life standing right here in front of you. The point of the Bible is not the Bible. The point of the Bible is to point you to the author of the Bible so that you can know him better so that we can be equipped with the truth. He goes on to say,

you are of your father to the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. And when he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. That's just who he is.

Now, if you've been around for a while, this part's going to be review, but there are three primary lies that the enemy tries to get us with. I told you this before. Part of the reason that the enemy is beatable is because he's predictable. He can't read your mind. He can't. But he does have all the game film on you. And he knows what you go for. He knows what your tendencies are. A great question for you to ask you is this. If you were the devil, how would you take you out? And the Bible says in 1 John chapter 2 that he's got three primary lies that he goes after us with. 1 John 2.15 says, do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, and I like the way the King James says it better, is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

It is not from the father, but from the world. Those are the three primary lies that the enemy has. the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Now, when you hear the lust of the flesh, you think sex, and it is sex, but it's way more than that. It is this desire to feel a thing. It's when you get home from work and you say, I deserve a drink. Now, is a drink bad? For most people, no. Unless you put fruit and beer, then that's a sin.

That's very clear. You have to be in Mexico to do that, okay? So that's in the Bible. But what begins to happen is when you begin to talk. yourself into that third one? And how warm does your face have to be before you go to bed? You see, the sin is not in the substance. The sin is where you're putting your hope. And when you begin to think, I deserve to feel a certain way. So I'm going to medicate, whether it's ice cream or a drink or a drug or whatever it is, or a person, then this is

the lust of the flesh, that the enemy takes a good gift from God and then tries to corrupt it to kill you with it. There's a lust of the eyes. This is about stuff. This is about possessions. This is when you didn't even know you wanted one of those until you saw it. Like I hope we got some people in a cyber truck right now, you dummies. Oh my gosh. How dumb do you have to be to drive that ugly thing, all right? It's so dumb, so dumb. Who do you think you are? You dummy? I'm serious, man. Look like a two-year-old made over. There it is. Go fast, all right? Sweet. Okay. Now, if you've got one of those and you're really getting defensive right now, you're ruling, all right? And here's why I say this, because some of you might say to me,

yeah but pastor i heard you just got a new harley yeah but that's cool everybody knows that's cool right see the difference say your stuff is sin my stuff is cold don't you know that now in all honesty is anything wrong with a truck or a harley only if you put your hope in it only if you put you hope in it or if you're being greedy towards god so you can be rich towards you that's called a sin it's not a struggle. You're greedy. You're greedy because you're falling for the lust of the eyes. And the last one's the pride of life. And that's about status. That's about blue checks. That's about power and position. That's about complaining and comparison. That's about ego and insecurity. This is about the applause of man instead of the applause of God. And here's the thing. If he can't get you with one,

he's just going to clip that bait off and try another one. And he's going to continuously try to lure you. The thing about a lure is it's alluring, and every lure has a hook. And the moment you think, I got this, he's got you. Now, again, if you were the devil, how would you take you out? I would highly encourage you to share that with one of your mat carriers. That's what I'd do with the elders. The elders have a list for me of like, all right, if I was the devil, here's how would, you know, I would pick a fight with me at a Jags game and then I would kill him and go to jail and I couldn't be the pastor anymore. Okay, so watch me on that one. That kind of thing, seriously. And so share that. Why? Because the enemy is beatable because he's predictable.

Second grade in use 211 says, we should not be outwitted by Satan for we are not ignorant of his designs. Like if you know how he's coming after you, then paying attention. The Bible says the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour if an actual lion was after you saturated shirt if he was after you tonight and i was like hey dude we got a call from the zoo and the lion got out and for whatever reason he likes guys with the southern swoop hairdo and saturated shirts okay so you would walk you you would your day would change when church was over you wouldn't just walking out, and I don't know if that's how you walk, but you wouldn't just like beep up out to the car. You would get out of the lobby and be like, um, hey, welcome team. Has anyone seen a lion?

Like, yeah, we saw one at public, so like, okay, I'm gonna wait, right? There's actually an enemy trying to steal, kill, and destroy you. So pay attention to this, pay attention to his schemes. Why? Because he's trying to kill you. And he's going to use whatever He can. Now here's the good news. He's been doing this from the very beginning. If you go all the way back to Genesis chapter 3, when the very first man and woman sin,

guess what the temptations were that he threw at Adam and Eve? The first thing he does, I don't have time to read, first thing he does is come up to them and say, did God really say you can't eat that? And if you look, that's not what God said. God actually said, you are free to eat from every tree, but stay afraid from that one, it'll kill you.

And the devil wants you to think that God is the God of no, but God is a God of freedom. And so he says, did God actually say? And then he begins to lie to eat. He says, God can't be trusted. God can't be trusted. Because if you eat of it, he doesn't want you to be as smart as him. And fundamentally, what Adam and Ead is,

Eve both believe is, you know what, we got this. And the Bible says three things about the forbidden fruit. It says, when Eve saw that it would be good for food, you know what that's called? It's called lust of the flesh. And when she saw that it was a delight to the eyes, that's called lust of the eyes. And when she saw that it would make one wise, that's called the pride of life. That she took of its fruit and ate and also gave some to her husband who was with her. So here's the reason I share. All of us just intro. Now I'm going to start preaching. Okay. So what do you do when the enemy comes with that mind game where he's spitting lies? Did God really say? Because that's what he wants you to do. He always wants us to doubt the word of God. I mean, this is how he does it in our generation.

like, hey, you actually believe what this book says. You know what this book says about sex? You can't believe that, can you? God didn't have a dating app. You know better than him, right? And so I know that might be true for Christians for the last 2,000 years. And I know a bunch of preachers say

that sex is for married people and marriage between a man and a woman and God makes us in his image is either a man or a female. But that's different. Like, I get a pass because I get to do what I want. And the enemy begins to whisper,

no, no, no, this is okay for you because you're married in your heart. There's no such thing as married in your heart. You made that up. That's a lie. You're buying into the lie. And you're just saying, forget you, God, I do what I want. Or what the Bible says about money. The Bible says that we are to bring our first and our best to him. That everything we have is his. The only thing you can do with money is bring some to him, buy some stuff, and leave the rest. You realize that. And the moment you begin to say, oh, forget that. I know that's what the Bible says, but God didn't know about the stock market. God didn't know about this real estate opportunity.

All that I have is for me, and I'm going to tip him at the end with whatever leftovers I have. I mean, you could do this, but what you're doing is you're buying into the lie of the enemy. Or forgiveness. You can say, well, I know the Bible says, you know, Jesus has forgiven us, therefore we should forgive. But it doesn't count in this particular situation. And whenever we're doing that, it's because that crafty serpent has slithered into our minds. And he is saying, did God really say? And we begin to believe the lie. So what do we do? What do we do when the enemy attacks us with lies? Here's what we do. That we are not to be conformed to the pattern of this world. We don't believe the lie. We have to identify how he's lying to us. And we take off the

old, and we put on the new, which is the word of God, the sword of the spirit. This is exactly what Jesus did when he was tempted. Back to Matthew chapter 4. It says, then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter said to him, if you are the son of God. command these stones to become loaves of bread. Now, I hope you've got your temptation goggles on,

and you can see that what he tempts him with first is the lust of the flesh. So Jesus, you're hungry, right? I am. Then why don't you make you feel the way that you want to feel? Now, is there anything wrong with bread? Well, in America, it's not even actually bread because the FDA is from the devil,

but that's a totally different sermon. But you know what I mean. No, no, no. The problem here is the lust of the flesh. When you begin to talk yourself into, I don't have to go to the Prince of Peace for Peace, but I'm going to go to some kind of pill or some kind of substance,

whether it's cookies or crack, to try to feel a certain way. This is the lust of the flesh. And the enemy says, if you are who you say you are, command these stones to become loaves of bread. Now can Jesus turn, can he pull it off? again, if you can do water to wine, you can do stones to sandwiches, no problem. He can do this.

But look what he answers. But it is written. But it is written. The son of God is going to quote the sword of the spirit, the ramah of God. He's going to quote specific verses because he's not buying into the lie of the enemy, but he's going to stand on the truth of the word of God. I mean, this is why I have these swords up here. The sword of the sword of the Spirit. When the enemy comes at you, God has equipped you with something that can take him out. Now, this is very, very important when it comes to the Bible. The Bible is not there so that we can have victory over the devil. The Bible is there to remind us that Jesus has already accomplished the victory over the devil. The reason that we have, it is written is because he pushed up on

his nail pierce feet and says, it is finished. And if the tomb is empty, any, is possible and that anything includes you walking in victory over those areas where the enemy has been taking you out over and over and over, but you need a specific, it is written to combat against the lies that the devil is telling you. And so my question is, do you have it? I don't know if you realize this, but Jesus does not have to, like, get out his iPhone and look up Bible verses. Now, I know he's Jesus, and he's also the author of the book, but Jesus,

had the it is written's ready to go the moment that the enemy began to come after him. He answered, it is written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. That's Deuteronomy 8.3. That's what he does. Temptation number two. And then the devil took him to the holy city. And he said him on the pinnacle of the temple. and he said to him, if you are the son of God, again, that's how you know it's the enemy when he begins to spew the lies of condemnation. If you are the son of God, throw yourself down. And then watch what the devil does. For it is written. He will command his angels concerning you. He quotes Psalm 91, very much out of context. And on their hand, they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against the stone. This is the pride of life.

He takes him up to the temple and he's like, come on, Jesus, make the angels serve you. This is bosses. This is when you walk in the room and you're like, you see that name badge? You know who I am? I'm the assistant to the general manager. You will give me some respect. This is the pride of life. Now, just because the devil has a verse does not mean that he is quoting it correctly. So be very, very careful. Just because somebody has a verse out of context, like all you potheads with Genesis 2 about the, he's giving us every seed bearing plant. That's not what that means, okay? Okay?

It's just true, man. Don't send me an email. And so what Jesus is going to do when the enemy lies to him about the pride of life is he's going to go right back to the scriptures. Then Jesus said to him, again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. That's Deuteronomy chapter 6. Jesus is saying, I do not come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many. He's directly not conforming to the pattern that the enemy says.

Listen, every decision you and I get to make, we can neither do it the world. way or God's way. And it's going to cost you, man. It's going to cost you. And again, the enemy is trying to trick you. Of course he wants you to not worry about your character in order to get ahead at work. Why? Because he's trying to kill stealing, destroy you. And every single time we hear the voice to the good shepherd, which is what the Bible is, and we do what he says, it always leads to life and life abundantly. And every time we reject him and we buy the life, it leads to death and destruction. And then the third one.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Notice, showed him. This is going to be the lust of the eyes. And he said, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Remember, we talked about this the very first week. The devil has wanted to be worshipped in the heavenlies

from the beginning. and at the fall of mankind, he is the prince of the heir. And what he is offering to Jesus, he's like, let me show you the kingdoms of this world. It's the lust of the eyes. And why don't we skip the cross and let me just give you the crown? You see, I don't care what the ends are. God will not bless unholy means,

even if you think it's a holy end. And so what's Jesus going to say? And then Jesus said, be gone Satan for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve that's 1 Samuel 7 3 and then the devil

left him and behold the angels came and were ministering to him again so what do you do when you're tempted not if you're tempted what do you do when you're tempted you identify the lie suit up with the armor of God know who you are helping a salvation breastplate

of righteousness girded up your loin in the truth of the Word of God, feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel. And then you identify the lie. Here's the lie that the enemy is coming against me with. And then you don't conform to the pattern of this world. You take off the old and you put on the new. And this is what Jesus does. And God has given us His word, again, not to defeat the devil,

but to remind us that he has already been defeated. Because it is finished. Here's the point. Our enemy of the devil is the father of lies. do not believe the whispers but stand on the truth of the word of God. You need some it is writtens in your life. The three most important words in all eternity, it is finished. The three most important words from now until you go to heaven is it is written.

In the newspaper that we gave out on the very first week, there are 13 lies that we have a tendency to buy into. And for every single one of them, there's the truth of the Word of God that you need to believe. Now here's the thing. If you've been believing these lies for a long, long, long time, then it's probably your feelings about it. It's not going to change overnight.

So take these verses, write them down, put them somewhere where you're going to see them over and over and over. Say them out loud because the Word of God is alive. It's active. It's powerful. It's sharper than a two-edged sword. It is a miraculous thing that we have here on this planet. It's actually the only perfect thing that we have, the Word of God.

It will not return void. You say these things out loud. And over time, with the help of the Holy Spirit in you, over time, maybe not overnight, your feelings can begin to line up with the Word of God. There's 13 lies in there. Let me tell you three that people here deal with all the time. I'll go real fast. Your money's going to lie to you.

The lie that your money is going to tell you is this. If you love me, I'll love you back. That's the lie. And I'm just, just trust me. I don't want anything from you. I want freedom for you. Money is a tool given to us by God. We're supposed to love God, love people, and use money. When you begin to believe the lie of money, you'll begin to use people and use God to try to love money. You see, because money will tell you, I'll satisfy you, and I'll keep you secure. It can't do either, I promise. And so maybe, maybe you need to really read a big old chunk out of Matthew chapter 6,

the sermon on the mount, but especially Matthew 6, 21, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. In verse 24, no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. another lie that is killing, killing a generation. If you're like 15 to 25, there's like an epidemic of self-hatred. Every single time we do a prayer and anointing when people come down and confess,

the overwhelming majority of 15 to 25-year-old say some version of, I'm so anxious, I'm so afraid, I hate me. It is a lie from the pet of hell. You need to write Psalm 139, 14, on your mirror and read. And that's not only a girl verse. Okay, boys. I know women's ministry, like, hijacked it about 20 years ago. I prayed over my little girl all the time.

She's 14. And the lie that the world says is, if you're not beautiful, you're not lovable. And by the way, beauty today was created by AI. It's not even real, okay? See the cyber truck. It's ugly. All right. So what the Bible says, I am fearfully.

and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. Let me tell you why I pray this over my little girl all the time. Because I want the truth of the word of God to be so deeply anchored in her heart that when some mean girl or some soon to be dead boy comes up and says she's ugly,

she'll go, that stinks. That doesn't smell right. And so if you're the kind of person that you look in the mirror and you're looking at God's creation and you don't like what's looking bad, it's because you're not believing the truth of the Word of God. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, reverently made.

That his works are wonderful. You're one of those works. And again, man, we live in a world that spends billions of dollars a day so you won't like yourself so you'll buy all their crap. So it might take a minute for your emotions to line up with the Word of God. Let me tell you another lie that we're buying into. sex is only physical and it's okay in my situation. It's a lie, man.

It's a lie. The Bible says in 1st, Corinthians 6, flee sexual immorality. Everything about this, this whole sermon series is about how to fight the devil. Like if you see the devil in his evil schemes, put on the armor of God, stand firm, fight it. Like if you go home,

if you get out to the parking lot, the devil sitting in your car, me. We'll get him. We'll get all armored up. I've got swords right here, man. We'll go sword as a spirit. Well, you have an authority over this car because this car belongs to me and I belong to him. Get out my car and he's got to go. He can't stay. Okay? If your ex-girlfriend's in your car, Uber home. You can't get in it. Flea. The enemy's killing us on this one. Killing us on this one. And what God has for you is freedom and fulfillment in him. Listen, girls, if you've given yourself to somebody that has not committed his whole life to you in marriage,

it's because you don't know how valuable you are in the kingdom of God. That's what it is, okay? And the Bible says, in 1st Corinthians 13, if you do get married, you're going to have us read it in your wedding. And the first description is love is patient. So if he's being impatient with you, he can't be loving you. and you as a daughter of the king are so valuable, you're so valuable that it requires somebody to offer their entire life to get to know you that way. And fellas, if you're taking what's not yours, it's because you're believing a lot. And you think you're being the man and you're actually

acting like a boy. Because men give and serve. And if you're not, you're not, you're not not ready to give and serve, you're not ready to be a husband. And you're not ready to get to be with one of God's daughters. Because you're acting like a boy. I'm just trying to beat you up. I'm trying to equip you with the truth of the Word of God. And then last one. This is a lie that gets us all, man. Especially because most of us have screwed up in all the areas that I just said. And then the enemy comes along and says this, you are your sin. He wants you to believe that you are your divorce, even if it weren't your fault, or maybe it was. He wants you to believe that you are your abortion and that you are your addiction and you are your failed career

and you are your bankruptcy and you are your eating disorder and you are your affair. And you are, whatever the deep, dark night of the soul is in your life. And I've even talked to some people, some church people, and they said, well, pastor, it's the biggest thing that's ever happened in my life. And I'm here to say, no, it's not. If you are in Jesus Christ, then the biggest thing that has ever happened for you is that God willingly chose to give his life on the cross for you knowing exactly what he was buying when he was going to purchase you. And so what I would say to you is, listen, man, you should, you should, a great it is written for you. It will be 2nd Corinthians 517. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold,

the new has come. And so with the enemy tries to get you to find yourself by your scars, then you can remind him that you're defined by the scars of Jesus Christ. And so when the enemy lies, do you identify the lie and go to work? We got 13 truths right here to combat the lies. There's actually, you could use the Google machine. What does the Bible say about? Memorize these things. There's a guy at our church that made an app called Word of God Speak.

You can download the app. It's got all these categories. You click anxiety and a bunch of verses about anxiety. You're going to come. Anger. addiction. And when the enemy lies to you, you stand on the truth of the word of God.

Because he will and has already fought your battles for you. And here's what the scriptures remind us of. The thing that we are actually looking for can only be found in Jesus. The lust of the flesh is the desire to feel. How about this feeling? Jesus's invitation. Anybody worn out?

heavy burden. Jesus is like, come here to me. I'll give you peace and rest for your soul. That's a feeling no pill or vacation can give you. How about lusted the eyes? You want some stuff? Oh, have you read about the stuff we get in heaven? That we are co-heirs with him.

I mean, he's out there right now preparing me you a mansion, a house. And he said, if it weren't so, I wouldn't have told you, I'm going to come back and take you there. You need some bling and some shiny stuff. They got so much gold in heaven. they use it as asphalt. We're going to pave the roads with it. Let's go. Ain't going to be no 2.95 construction for 25 years up there. We'll get wherever you want to go.

On gold streets. And the pride of life, you want to be somebody? The Bible tells us that we are seated with him on his throne in heaven and co-heirs that God, the creator and sustainer of all things, looks at you and looks at me. You think a blue check is awesome? He's going to look at you and look at me and say, behold my son, behold my daughter, in whom I am well pleased. The sword of the spirit reminds us of the truth of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we're going to sing and we're going to bring and we're going to pray. The only people that should rush to the altar are those of us that struggle with temptation.

And that we want the Word of God and the Spirit of God to help us this week walk into freedom that God has purchased through His Son, Jesus Christ. We just stay and let me pray for us. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your living, active, powerful word. God, when we're confused by it, when we're offended by it, when we don't understand it, would you remind us that that's on us? God, I pray that you would use your word to do that.

just draw us to you, that you're a good dad, that you can be trusted, that God, would you please humble us, would you give us eyes to see the areas where we are believing the lies of the enemy? God, may we take off those lies, may we not believe those of the lies. God, there's some men and women in this room right now that may need to make some serious, significant decisions to turn away from the liar and the thief and turn to the good shepherd to not be merely hears of the word and so deceive ourselves but to do what the good shepherd is telling us to do. God, there's no chance we do that without the power of your spirit. God, we thank you that you love us. We thank you that you've given us your word. And God, may you fill us in such a way that we walk out of here in the victory

of Jesus. Because all the lies of the enemy were nailed to the cross and it is. It's is finished. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, let's respond. We're going to sing, we're going to bring, we're going to pray. If you need the help of the sword of the spirit and the spirit of God in you to overcome temptation this week, you'd be the first one to come on. Let's go.