Today, I want to talk to you about five lies the devil tells us to try to get us to quit five lies. The devil tells us to try to get us to quit. We've been talking about strongholds. And I want to talk about how these strongholds are lies from the devil that are built up in our mind to try to control us and to try to get us to give up our faith and to quit on God. The word stronghold in the Bible means a strong walled military fort or prison, a strong walled military fort or prison. It's either built to protect what's inside of it or to imprison what's inside of it. Now, every one of us needs to learn how to pull down the strongholds that are trying to imprison us. And then we need to learn how to build up the strongholds that are designed to protect us. And it's all about how we think and the mindsets in our lives. A stronghold is an incorrect thinking pattern that has molded itself and melded itself to our minds and molded itself into a way of thinking that has become a mindset. I want to say it again. A stronghold is an incorrect thinking pattern that has molded and melded itself into our way of thinking and has become a mind set, a mind set. It affects how we feel, how we respond and how we make decisions. It affects how we feel, how we respond and how we make decisions. Remember, it is a mindset. A stronghold is a mindset. Now, just as you have a thermostat in your home, as we talked about last week, you don't set the thermostat based on the temperature that it currently is. You set the thermostat based on the temperature that you want it to be. And when you set your thermostat, what ends up happening is it demands the mechanical instruments in your home to elevate everything else to the temperature that you have set your thermostat at. When you set your thermostat at that 70 degrees temperature, no matter how cold or how hot it is, everything will come to that level and rise to that level, which is what your thermostat is set at in the same way. That's what a stronghold is. It is setting our mind set at a certain temperature and then keeping it there. And all of the issues of your life and all of the circumstances of your life will eventually rise to the level of that mind set. It is a mindset. A mindset is just like a thermostat. Set it on God, Isaiah. Twenty six, verse three says the mind that is set on God or the mind that stays on God, God will keep him. Isaiah twenty six, verse three. God will keep him in perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on you? You keep him in perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on you or whose mind is set on you. So a mind set. It means I'm keeping my mind on the things of God, setting my mind on things above, setting my mind on whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report. This is a mindset many of us have a mindset of defeat and failure and shame. And we set our mind there, we keep it there. And our life begins to reflect the temperature of shame, the temperature of failure, the temperature of defeat, or we set our mind on the temperature of victory. We set our mind on the temperature of success. And as long as we keep our mind there on God's promises and on God's words, our life will eventually catch up to whatever we set our mind at. Can you say amen to that? But you see, God gives us weapons that are not like this world's weapons. So in Second Corinthians, chapter ten, verse three, it says, we don't war according to the patterns of this world. Second Corinthians 10, verse three, we don't war according to the patterns of this world, we don't walk in the flesh at war according to the flesh, but the weapons of our warfare, verse four are mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. What are our weapons mighty for? Our weapons are mighty for pulling down strongholds. So now it's really important that if we're going to pull down strongholds and the King James Bible, if you can look in the King James, you guys can put up the King James version of these verses in verse five, he says, and casting down imagination's and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now notice what he says. He says three things. This is how we win in spiritual warfare. We pull down strongholds, we cast down imaginations, and we bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And when we do look at what verse six says and when we do that, it says in verse six and having in readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. In other words, what happens is when you deal with your thought life and you deal with the thoughts, bring every thought, pull down the strongholds, cast down imaginations and bring every thought into captivity to Christ and into obedience to Christ, then your obedience will be fulfilled. In other words, as you deal with your thought life, the rest of your life will follow our soul and our thought life follows or our excuse me. Everything else in our life follows our thought life. So if we if we are thinking God's way, if we are casting down imaginations, imaginations and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, our lives, our lives will begin to fulfill obedience. You cannot truly obey God until you've taken the thoughts captive to to obey God. When your thoughts obey God, your life will obey God. When your thoughts obey God, your behavior will obey God. When your thoughts obey God, your actions will obey God's will. The focus for our lives needs to be on getting our thoughts captivated to the obedience of Christ. When the thought comes, you're a failure. You're a loser. You'll never make it. That's that's how Satan operates. To bring you down and to bring the temperature, set your temperature at a low level, and then everything in your life begins to follow that temperature that your mind is set at. But it's really important as we as we win in spiritual warfare. Back in verse five, it says the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. We need to understand how to use these weapons. But before we can use these weapons, we have to understand a couple of things, three things. Number one, that we don't need to defeat the devil. We just need to defeat his lies. We don't need to defeat the devil, we just need to defeat his lies. Number two, Jesus cannot defeat your wrong thinking for you. You have to defeat your own thinking for you. Jesus cannot defeat your wrong thing. He defeated the devil. Now he's given us the equipment and he's given us the tools and the resources to defeat the lies of the devil. We don't have to defeat the devil. We just have to defeat his lies. But we have to expose his lies. And I'm going to expose five of them today. But it's very important that we remember Jesus is not going to defeat your wrong thinking. You have the responsibility to do that. He defeated the devil. Now we need to defeat the thoughts of the devil that come against us because no one can control your thinking except you. Am I in the right place here today? All right, now, number three, Satan is the father of lies. Number one, we don't need to defeat the devil. We need to defeat his lies. Number two, Jesus cannot defeat your wrong thinking. You have to. But he's giving you the ammunition. And number three, Satan is the father of lies. John, 844, says he's always speaking lies. He's the father of lies. He will whisper anything in your ear as long as it works. It doesn't matter if it's true because he doesn't speak truth. He speaks lies. And he'll say to you, you're a loser. You'll never make it. You're a failure. You're not educated enough. You're not smart enough. You're not obedient enough. You're not godly enough. You're not holy enough. You're not rich enough. You're not pretty enough. You know, skinny enough. You're not smart enough. You know, he'll go through all these lies to try to tell you why you should see yourself low and why you should see yourself as a failure and why you should see yourself being defeated the rest of your life. Because if he can get you to see failure on the inside of you, that's your imagination, then failure will come. Whatever we imagine is going to come to pass. And that's why we need to cast down imaginations that are contrary to God's word. We need to cast down imaginations. Now, what is a stronghold again, a stronghold is an incorrect thinking pattern that has become a mindset. What is an imagination? It's the fears that we imagine. It's the what ifs, the what ifs. Everybody say it's the what ifs. What if my kids get in an accident? What if my kids don't make it with my kids, end up on drugs? What if my husband leaves me? What if my wife cheats on me? What if we don't have enough money? If we can't pay the bills? What if she finds out? What if he finds out? What if this happens? What if this happens? What if that happens? We need to realize the what ifs. That's your imagination. If you keep thinking what if, what if, what if, what if. What if you're eventually building an expectation for those what ifs to come to pass, you're creating negative expectation by continually picturing something bad happening to you, you getting in an accident, something negative, you getting in a car wreck, you're getting in a plane crash, somebody's taking something from you. Somebody's taking advantage of you, you failing, you not making it at your job. Somebody's giving you a pink slip and firing you and you start imagining those things. What if my boss comes in and fires me this week? What if this is my last week? What if something happens? What if I don't get another client for my business? What if what if, what if that's imagination's? And then we must bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So any thought that does not agree with God's word, any thought that is not does not agree with God's promises is a thought we must take captive. I'll show you how in a minute. In a few moments. But then as we take those thoughts captive, it it begins to erase the imagination that has been created. And as the imagination is erased, the stronghold loses his power and the stronghold comes tumbling down. And we'll show you how to do that as well. But what are we going to do about these thoughts, these imaginations and these strongholds? Look at Mark, chapter three, verse twenty seven, Mark, chapter three, verse twenty seven. No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first finds the strong man. Now notice what he says here. You if you enter the strong man's house, you're not going to be able to take the stuff that he's got in that house. You're not going to be able to take the stuff that the devil has stolen from you. Unless you first find the strong man, then you can plunder his house first, find the strongman and then plunder his house. Now, what he's telling us here is this is that the strong man, the enemy has built a house inside of your head with walls, with lies. You have a certain set of thinking and mindsets and lies that are built up in your head that Satan has built. He has put that he is he has built the house with walls and built the house with a roof system. And he's built the house inside of your head that we got to go in there. We got to get into our head, go back into our head, and we've got to begin to pull down those walls, tear down those walls. And what our walls built on walls are built on lies or walls are built on truth. We've got to tear down the lies of the enemy and build up the truth of God's word in our life. Because the Bible says if the truth makes us free, how many know the truth makes us free. And if the truth makes us free, then the lies of the enemy put us in bondage. If the truth makes us free, then lies imprison us. They imprison us to a life of failure. They imprison us to a life of of of of limitation. They imprison us to a life of defeat. They imprison us to a life of discouragement. And what we have to do is we have to tear down the walls that are imprisoning us, tear down the walls that are holding us back, and how do we tear down the walls? We tear down the lies that are imprisoning us. We tear down the walls of lies that are holding us back. That's what we're going to do today. We got to bind the strong man and then we're going to take what he has taken from us. Now, the devil has stolen your time. The devil has stolen your health. The devil has stolen your family members. He's stolen some of your joy and your peace and your money and your opportunities. And we're going to get all this stuff back. But we can't go and plunder and get back with the enemy is stolen until we bind the strong man. So as we learn to bind the strong man and learn to tear down strongholds, then we will begin to get back what the enemy has stolen from us all the years that you've lost. We'll never come back to you until you first find the strong man. All the health that you lost is never going to come back to you until you first find those lies of sickness and disease that you'll never recover from the sickness. You'll never overcome this disease. You'll never overcome this problem, this mistake that you've made. No, no, no. We are tearing down those lies and we're binding the strong man so we can plunder the enemy's house and take back what the devil has stolen from us. The devil's got some of your stuff. He's got some of your mama's stuff. He's got some of your grandmamma stuff. He's got some of your inheritance from generations ago. And it's time for us to bind the strong man. And then we're going to be able to take back all the stuff that's been stolen from us. I'm sick and tired of letting the devil take my stuff. How about you? But you can't just say, hey, devil, give me my stuff back. You got to bind him. You got to pull down these strongholds, cast down these imagination's, take these thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. And once the strong man is bound, then indeed you can plunder his house and guess what's in his house. Guess what's in his house. What's in the enemy's house is your money, your blessing, your health. He stolen your time. He's got some of your stuff. He's got you've been wondering where all that stuff disappears. You think it's behind your washer and dryer? No, the devil has stolen it and he's got it in his house. And we're going to tear down those strongholds and we're taking our stuff back. Have you ever wondered have you ever wondered where your second blue sock disappeared to? Why is it that every one of my pairs of socks is missing one of them, they all go in the same washing machine, they all go in the same dryer first, they start in the first, they start on my feet, then they go on, then they go in the hamper, then they go in the wash, then they go on the dryer. But guess what? They don't end up in the basket and back in the drawer. Tired of the devil steal my socks, I'm tired of the devil stealing my time, my opportunities, my money, my family, my health, my my peace, my joy. But you got to first find the strong man and then we're going to take back our stuff. The next couple of weeks. We're going to learn how to continue to bind the strong man, and then we're going to learn how to plunder his house and get our stuff back. It's time, man. It's time for you to get your stuff back. But how are you going to pull down these strongholds? You can't keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can. Sure keep them from building a nest in your hair. We can't control. Listen, you can't control who knocks at your door, but you can certainly control who you let in. Right? So there are going to be thoughts that are coming. And listen, what you have to do is you have to look at your life like your life is like a secure building in a downtown city, whether it's downtown Chicago, downtown Manhattan, wherever you live, you've got to picture the most secure building that you can imagine when you walk into an office building, a 100 storey office building, a 50 storey office building. The first thing you meet up with is a security desk where you have to sign in and you have to tell them who you're there to see. And you and you've been to some buildings that are harder to get in to the office to see somebody than to see the president of the United States. You know, there's such security in these buildings these days that you have to check in at the at the at the reception desk. And when you check in, the receptionist or the security person asks you your name and if your name's not on the list, then you're not let being let in. If your name hasn't been invited in, that you're going to be you're going to have to go out the other way. And this is how we have to treat our thought life is how we have to treat our mind. Every thought that comes to us, we need to be standing at the door when every thought comes and we need to check and see. Does that is that thought on the list of God's promises? Is that thought on the list of God's word? Does that come from the Bible? If not, then it's time to send that thought packing and send that thought back out of the building. Don't let that thought in the elevator. Don't let the. Hey, and you know what? Some of these thoughts are going to come to you and say, hey, I don't I don't want to stay. I just want to use the bathroom. You need to say no, this restroom is reserved. This restroom is reserved only for people on the list. You're not getting in. You're not borrowing our bathroom. You're not borrowing an umbrella. You can't stay in from the rain. We're not letting you in. Your name's not on the list. I checked Second Corinthians, and that's not a thought that I'm supposed to allow in my head. I check it Ephesians. That's not a thought I'm supposed to allow in my head. I check Galatians for Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians. I've checked them all. And your name is not on the list. Your thought is not. Oh, sickness has come to deliver a package into my building. I'm sorry, but last time I checked, Jesus paid for that sickness. We are not accepting any packages of sickness. We're not accepting any packages of failure. We're not accepting any packages of discouragement, depression, fear, anxiety, worry or anger. No, we're not accepting any of those packages. You're going to have to leave right now. And what if that thought, what if the person that comes into a building says, oh, I'm not on the list, well, I'm staying anyway, then you're going to have to bring some extra security. So you're going to have to call for some for some security. So not only are you going to have to speak one scripture, but you might have to speak a second one. In other words, call your call up. Call the other officers of protection of your building, call the other scriptures from the word of God and begin to speak it and speak it and speak it and speak it. And what's going to happen is that thought, no matter how much it fights, is eventually going to leave. But you have to be willing to put up a fight because the Bible says this is the spiritual war that we're in. We have to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Are you still with me? And you go home today. Come on, now, now, now, watch this. Watch this. First, we have to identify what the thoughts are. We have to identify what the stronghold is, what the mindset is, and then we got to be fed up with it. We talked about this verse last week. I want to show it to you again. Genesis twenty seven, verse forty. Look at this verse. Genesis twenty seven, verse forty by your sword you shall live and you shall serve your brother and it shall come to pass. When you become restless then you shall break his yoke from your neck. In other words, you're not going to pull down a strong hold until you're restless, until you're like I'm not going to sleep, until I speak God's word. I'm not going to sleep until I deal with this thought. I'm not going to sleep until I deal with this anger. You've got to get restless. You've got to get sick and tired of being sick and tired. You got to have this violent spirit. The Bible says in Matthew, Chapter 11, verse 12, the violent take the kingdom by force, the violent take the kingdom by force. We have to be people that take the kingdom by force. It says that means that you're not you don't just you don't just stand idly by and let anything come rushing into your head. You take it by force, you take it captive. And the word to take a captive comes from the Greek word, which means to conquer with a sword, to conquer with a sword. So the way we're going to take our thoughts captive is we have to conquer the thought with the sword of God's word. The spoken word of God. God has given us his armor, God has given us the power of the tongue. God has given us the power of prayer. And we need to use these spiritual weapons to take our thoughts captive. Well, how do you do this? Well, it's really simple. So let's say let me let's do an exercise. We've done this before, but for the sake of argument, let's do it again. What I want you to do is I want you to in your head. I want you to count in your head silently. I want you to count to ten when I say go. Ready, go. Now, yell out your name, what did you do when you yelled out your name, you stopped counting. Why did you stop counting? You stopped counting because your words have more power than your thoughts. The spoken word silences the silent thoughts that are going on in your head. The spoken word silences the thoughts. So when a thought comes to your mind, you're a loser, you're a failure. You're never going to make it what you need. The voices on the head and not the tail. I'm above only Nappanee. I'm blessed. Come in and I'm blessed going. I'm more than a conqueror through his love. I'm. I'm more than a conquer because he defeated the enemy. Greater is he that is in me than he is in the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world. Even my faith. And you begin to speak those words. You are taking those thoughts captive with the sword. You are conquering those thoughts with the sword of God's word. This makes sense so far, so we have to identify the thought, then we have to be fed up with it and then we have to exercise our authority over it and death in life or in the authority of the tongue. So we exercise our authority by speaking God's word. Now, go over with me to Nehemiah, chapter four, verse one, and I want to show you the five lives that the enemy is trying to get us to believe. The five lives that are trying to build a stronghold of deception in your life and get you to quit. Now, it's really important that we understand Satan is trying to get you to quit. It's Satan behind the the the the thoughts that are coming to you that want you to quit. And there are five of them in this in these passages we're going to go through quickly. There are five of them that want to get us to give up. Now, I want you to see in the King James Bible of Hebrews, Chapter 12, verse three. In fact, go over there real quick and then we'll come back to Nehemiah in Hebrews Chapter 12, verse three. Satan's goal is to get you to give up. See, he can't defeat you through his power, so he gets you to quit. And let me show you how he gets you to quit or give up or faint, it says, for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. Lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. We don't faint in our bodies first. We faint in our minds. We don't quit in our bodies. We quit in our minds. Exercise is doesn't exercise is not something that people people don't resist physical exercise. They resist the mental exhaustion that comes from physical exercise. It's the battle of your mind. Even if you want to lose weight, even if you want to get in shape, even if you want to go go to a gym or get or workout or exercise. It's mental. It's meant to your body is capable of persisting. Your body is capable of running or walking or jumping or leaping or lifting weights. Your body is capable of doing that within reason. But your mind is where you give up first. Your mind is where you give up in your marriage first. Your mind is where you give up in your health first. Your mind is where you give up in your diet. First, you don't give up with the hand reaching for the food. You give up in your head, seeing images of lollipops and seeing images of chicken dinners and seeing images of cotton candy, or seeing images of ice cream and and seeing images of all this food. And then your hands reach out for what you are seeing and imagining in your head. We give up in our mind. That's why he says we faint in our mind. And this is why we need to gird up the loins of our mind. The Bible says we need to gird up the the belt of our mind, and that's how we resist the lives of the enemy. But back to Nehemiah, chapter four, verse one. So what happens is Babylon has taken Israel captive. Babylon has taken control of the children of Israel. But in the midst of Babylon, God speaks to Nehemiah and he tells them to build the wall. He tells them, I want you to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and begin to separate yourself from Babylon and separate yourself from the Babylonian control. So Babylon Babylon has taken the Jews into captivity. And in the midst of that, in Nehemiah chapter four, verse one, God speaks to Nehemiah and the whole chapter before that Chapter one and chapter two. In Chapter three, he tells them, Here's what I want you to do. Here's how I want you to build the wall. And here's here's how fast I want you to get it done in. But as soon as he decides to build the wall and as soon as he starts building the wall and building the wall, rebuilding this wall is you and me rebuilding our lives and we rebuild our lives from the inside out. No matter what failure has come, no matter what defeat has come, no matter what mistakes you've made, no matter how far your life is off course, God says he wants us to rebuild our lives and we rebuild our lives by rebuilding the wall. We tear down the walls of strongholds that are imprisoning us, and then we rebuild the walls of God's promises that protect us. And this is what God's called each of us to do. So this is a picture of the Christian life. God gets us saved and we start coming to a church that is teaching us God's word and what is the devil do? He begins to mock you. He begins to get angry at the progress you're making. The wall starts going up. You start believing that you are who God said you are. You start believing that you're the head and not the tail. You start believing that God's on your side. You start believing that you're that you're that you're blessed coming in and blessed going out. And Satan gets furious. He hates that you're building brick upon brick. You're building upon Second Corinthians five seventeen. You're a new creature in Christ and you're building on Romans five seventeen. That that through the through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, you reign in life and you're building upon Romans eight thirty seven. You're more than a conqueror because. Of his love and you're building on Romans eight thirty nine that nothing can separate you from the love of God. And as you build your life upon the bricks of God's promises and build a wall of protection that no weapon formed against, you can prosper. No evil can come near your dwelling place. No place can come to tell you stop building brick upon brick. This is what's making the devil mad. This is why the devil didn't want you to come to church today. This is why the devil didn't want you to go to church in this place, because he was mind you go into a church that's not handing you bricks, but we're handing you bricks and we're giving you bricks and whoa, whoa. There's one brick on Romans twelve to renew your mind, another brick on Romans, five seventeen and another brick on Romans three twenty. And there's an Ephesians for fourteen brick and there's a first Corinthians six sixteen brick and there's a Galatians chapter three, verse thirteen brick that you redeem from the curse of the law. And the devil hates that you are being given bricks in this place to build your wall against him. That's why Satan attacks churches that are teaching the Bible. That's why Satan attacks. When we came out with fasting from wrong thinking a few years ago, God gave me this idea to fast from wrong thinking. And I can tell you this. I have not faced more opposition in my life than when we started talking about fasting from wrong thinking I got hit with everything, whether it was financial attacks or emotional attacks, attacks against my family, attacks against our church, attacks against our every area of our of our lives. Why? Because Satan is furious. Notice what it says when it came to pass, when San Balut heard that we were rebuilding the wall. He became furious. This is the picture of the devil. He's furious that you're here today. He's furious that you got another brick in your hand and he wants you to use that brick to throw it at another Christian. And God wants you to use that brick to build your wall. Come on. Are you hearing this? He became furious and very angry and he began to try to get the people to give up with the lies that he begins to speak. And this is exactly what is happening in your life. Satan sees that you're rebuilding your life upon God's word. You're rebuilding your life upon the promises of God. Does this make sense to anybody? And he and he says, you know what? No way. I'm not going to let him do it. So he begins to speak these lies because if he can get you if he can get you to believe his five lies, he'll get you to quit. You'll put down your bricks and you'll walk away from the wall. But we've got to stay at the wall. We've got to maintain our position at the wall. We've got to keep putting more bricks into the wall because Satan wants us to put down our bricks and God wants us to to connect our bricks and stay faithful, to believe what God says and continue to expose the lies of the enemy. What are they verse to Nehemiah. Chapter four. Verse two. I'm sharing this from the new American standard Bible because I think it identifies these five lives most accurately. The first one is he says this. So he spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria. And he said, what are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer worship and sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble, even the burned ones? Notice how Satan comes with a question mark. He's always questioning God's word, questioning the bricks, questioning what God can do in your life. Did God really say not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? He's always coming with questions, questioning the Bible, questioning God's word. The Pharisees always questioned Jesus. Who gave you this authority? Where did you come from? Who you who gave you this power? Where'd you learn this? We know who your parents are. We know who your sisters are. We know who your brothers are. Where did you get this kind of power? Where did you get this kind of authority? Satan's always asking questions to get you to doubt his God's word in the first one is. What are these feeble Jews doing, what does he mean by this? Well, lie number one is you don't have what it takes, your feeble, you're weak. You don't have the strength to make it all the way. Who do you think you are? You're not strong enough to make it. You're not strong enough to rebuild your life. You're weak. You can't make it. You don't have what it takes. Well, how do we deal with this lie? Lie. No one that says you don't have what it takes, you're weak. We need to deal with that with the scripture. The Bible says I am strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Ephesians six ten. The Bible says greater is he that is in me than he is in the world. First John four. And the Bible says I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me Philippians for thirteen. What do you do with these lies? You, you, you contradict these lies with the truth. You counteract these lies with the truth of God's word. And Satan is always coming in the form of people. He's always coming in the form of a person named Sand Ballot or he comes in the form of your husband or comes in the form. Now listen, here's what we've got to understand. When Jesus said to his disciples, I'm going to the cross, I'm going to die for the sins of I'm going to die for your sins and the sins of mankind. Peter pulls him aside and begins to rebuke him and says, No, Lord, you're not going to do that. And Jesus looks to Peter and says, Get behind me, Satan, get behind me, Satan. Notice he didn't say, get behind me, Peter. He saw through how the enemy was trying to use Peter and how the enemy was. The real problem was the devil, not Peter. We got to realize, folks, people are not our problem. Our battle is not with people. Our war is not with people. People are not our enemy. It is Satan. It is Satan working in their life and through their life. You don't know what that waitress is going through that server at the restaurant. You're mad because she burned your bacon. She you're mad because she burned your toast and you're mad at her, but you don't realize what a tough day she happy you're like all that waitress is really angry, but you don't know what she's had to deal with in court. You don't know if her husband left her and isn't paying the bills and isn't given any child support. You don't know how hard it is to raise those children. You don't know what she's going through. You've got to stop seeing the problem in the person and see the problem behind the person and realize it's not the person, it's the enemy trying to destroy them, trying to defeat them and try to use them, trying to use them to get you mad. Devils trying to the devil, it's not ladies. The problem is not your husband. There's a demon behind don't get mad at your husband. It's the devil. Don't call him the devil. Call the devil out and say, get behind me, Satan. Now, I don't know how that's going to go over in your household, but when my wife says, get behind me, Satan, I know to take notice right away that she's seeing something that I don't see Jesus saw through this lie. And he spoke to the enemy behind it. We've got to stop. Thinking that our battle is against flesh and blood. These feeble Jews, these you're weak, you're never going to make it live, number two, are they going to restore it for themselves? Line number two is you have a wrong motive. You're selfish. You only want to be blessed because you're selfish and you're greedy. And all these Christians are greedy and selfish. You just need enough for yourself. No, it was God's idea to bless you. He said, I want to bless you so you can be a blessing. You can't be a blessing. If you don't become a vessel of receiving God's blessing, you will not be able to give God's blessing to others. God blesses us so that we can be a blessing. And the devil wants to tell you, oh, you have a wrong motive. You just want more so that you can, you know, so that you can have it for yourself. You're selfish, you're you're greedy. You have a wrong idea of God. But no, folks, it was God's idea to save you more. God wanted to save you more than you wanted to be saved. God wants to heal you more than you want to be healed. God wants to bless you more than you want to be blessed. We got to realize the promises of God were God's idea. If you hold on to all 7000 of God's promises, you would not have a wrong motive. It is not bad. It is not selfish. God wants to do more in your life so you can do more and he can do more through your life. Hey man, can anybody say amen to that? I'm telling you folks, the devil is a liar. And he was. And because if he can get you to think, oh, you can't ask God for that because you're being selfish, then you'll never ask God for anything because do you really need anything? I mean, you're not starving. I know we say, oh, I'm starving. Why, you just eat three hours ago and you're like, Oh, I'm starving. You're not really starving. And the fact is, is if you really starve to death. You'd go to heaven. And you live forever in eternity, so we got to stop being afraid. Of what might happen in our lives and start having faith and expectation, but the point is, is the devil wants you to think, oh, if you ask God for that, you're being selfish. You ask God for that. You're being selfish. God has given us 7000 promises for us to ask so that he can be glorified. He said, asking you shall receive that your father will be glorified. And your joy may be made for God wants to answer your prayers so that he can be glorified, it's not selfish to ask God, it's not selfish. What are these people just doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? You're only doing it for yourself. Folks, we have to take care of ourselves so that we can love ourselves, so we can love others as ourself. We have to take care of ourselves so we can be healthy and we can take care if you're sick and if you're broke and if you're hurting and suffering and in bitter and unforgiving all the days of your life, you can't you are of no good to anybody. You're blessed to be a blessing. So we need to pull down that thought, that lie, that stronghold. Number three, he says, are they going to try to worship and can they offer can they really offer worship and sacrifice? He's questioning whether you can worship. You know what this guy is? This is line number three. You can't worship God. It's not doing any good. You can't worship God. Look at the sin in your life. You can't lift your hands, put your hands down. You put your hands down. You can't worship God. You don't deserve to worship God. And the devil is trying to lie to you and say, you haven't done enough. You're not holy enough, you're not godly enough. Put your hands down. You can't sing good enough. You can't praise enough. Look at what you did. Oh, you're going to glorify God now. But you know, you were cussing you cussing somebody out yesterday. You know what? Yeah, you probably were. But you know what? You can still glorify God. You can still praise God. You can still worship God. We don't worship God. We don't worship God because we're worthy. We worship God because he's worthy. And we need to realize how powerful our worship is. The devil wants you to be late for church. All the singing doesn't matter. That's just singing. And that's not my style anyway. And they don't sing my song and they don't sing, you know this and they don't sing that. And, you know, I don't like the drummer. I don't like I was telling the earlier service I come to this church because of the drummer. If he leaves, I'm leaving. That's how I figured in my life. But we got to stop saying, oh, they don't sing and write songs they don't do. It's not about the song, it's about the worship of your heart. Do you believe he's worthy to be praised, then praise him and worship him and speak in your own language and sing your own song and lift your hands. The devil say put your hands down. There is going to say Shut your mouth. But you know why the devil wants you to shut your mouth. You know why the devil wants to silence you from praising God and worshiping God. Because He knows when you praise and worship God, it silences him. Look at look at Psalm Chapter eight, verse two, Psalm Chapter eight, verse two in the NIV Bible. It says this Through the praise of children, you have established a strong hold against your enemies. Notice your praise establishes a strong hold. And what does it do? It silences the foe and it silences your avenger. It silences the devil and it silences all the demons that work for him. And the devil wants to silence your praise because he knows your praise will silence him. And that's why San Balut said these feeble Jews, what are they doing? Offering sacrifices they can't worship God. Look at your life. Look at your past. Look at all the things you've done wrong. Put your hands down. You're not worthy of worship. You know what, devil? You're right. I'm not worthy of worship. But Jesus is worthy of my worship. And I'm worshiping him because he's washed me in his blood. I'm worshiping him because he's forgiven me my sins. I'm worshiping him anyway. Well, what good is Your Worship going to do? So the devil will say Your Worship isn't going to do any good. So don't don't get there early. Don't get there on time. Come late, miss the songs, miss the worship because it doesn't matter. What good will Your Worship do? Satan says, what good will Your Worship do? What good will our worship do? Well, let's ask Paul and Silas. What good did their worship do as they worship God? The prison began to shake. The walls began to shake the prison doors. We had open the chains, came up with their hands and feet. What is your worship going to do? What good does Your Worship do? What have we asked? Joseph said in Second Chronicles Twenty when he sent out the prisoners. And as they praise God, the enemy roared at each other. What good is Your Worship going to do? What good is Your Worship going to do? Why don't we ask Abraham when he said we're going to go and worship the Lord? And while he was worshiping God, Aram was caught in the thicket and God provided for the sins of mankind and said, because you offered me your son in worship, I'm going to offer you my son for the sins of all mankind. What good is your worship? Why don't we ask? What good is your worship? Why don't we ask the people that marched around the wall of Jericho seven times and then they blew the trumpet of praise and worship and the wall came tumbling down. What good is Your Worship? Let me tell you something. Your worship is so good it silences the devil. Your worship is so good. It opens the prison doors. Your worship is so good. It causes Satan to tremble in his feet, at his feet. Let me tell you something. How good is Your Worship? What good is Your Worship doing? Why don't we ask Habakkuk in chapter three? Verse seventeen. Though there be no fruit yet. I will praise him. I will rejoice in the Lord anyway. And the harvest begins to come. What good is Your Worship going to do though? Someone's against me, yet I will praise him. What good is Your Worship going to do though, that my body is hurting, yet I will praise. And what good is Your Worship going to do though? Hell is waging war against me, yet I will worship him. How good is Your Worship going to do, Your Worship? Put your mind right, Your Worship. Put your body right. Your Worship is offering to the Lord a living sacrifice which honors him. When we present our bodies, we are presenting a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable to God. What good is Your Worship doing? It is honoring God. When this world is dishonoring him, it is honoring God. When the devil is lying to you, it is honoring God. You look good as Your Worship. Do let me tell you how good Your Worship is doing. Your worshiping is silencing the enemy you're worshiping is putting chains on the enemy's hands and chains on the enemy's feet. What good is Your Worship doing? What good is your worship doing? I wonder, I wonder what will you worship is doing? Let me read something to you. Some 50 Psalm. One hundred and forty nine, I believe it is Psalm. One hundred and forty nine. What good is Your Worship doing? What good is your praise? Shut up. Silence yourself. Shut. Put your hands down. The devil says no. No, Devil, we're not listening to you anymore. We're not listening to your lives anymore. We're taking those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. Some. Some one forty nine says in verse six, let the high praises of God be in our mouth. And a two edged sword in our hands. To execute vengeance on the nation's punishment, on the people's which. We're our battles against flesh and blood, so it's punishment upon the demons and the forces of darkness to bind the kings with chains and their nobles with feathers of iron to execute upon them the judgment written every time you praise God, it is judging a demon. Every time you praise God is silencing a devil. Every time you praise God, it is silencing the enemy. What good is Your Worship? Do the devil wants you? What good is Your Worship doing? The devil keeps wanting to question you. Question Your worship. What good is that. What good is coming to church on time and lift in your hands. What good is singing a song that's not even your favorite song? What good is Your Worship doing? It's honoring God because you're not here to honor yourself. You're here to honor Jesus Christ. You're here to glorify him. We're here to worship and adore him. Line number four. Line number four. The enemy says. Oh, he says. Shall they finish in a day, we're in Nehemiah, chapter four, verse two, shall they finish in a day? What does the devil mean by that? You're never going to finish. You're never going to last. You don't have what it takes to finish. So they finish in a day. Well, the good news is, is that you don't have to finish. What you started because he who began a good working you, he will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ, how do you deal with this life? Can you even finish? You're not going to finish on time. You're not going to make it. It's not going to happen. We don't have to finish in a day. God is the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews, 12, one and two says you'll never finish. The devil is trying to tell you you're never going to finish. But God says, I started this in your life. I'll finish it. Just keep speaking God's word. And five, will you try to revive the Stones and the heaps of rubbish when they're already been burned, even the burned ones? What is the devil saying here? What lie is he telling us? The lie he's telling us here is it's too late. Your life is too ruined. Your life is too far gone. You've already blown it. Too bad you're to burn. You're too scorched. It's too late for you. Really. Was it too late for the thief on the cross while he was dying when he said, Remember me, Laura, when you come into your kingdom and Jesus said This day you shall be with me in paradise. Was it too late for Abraham when he was ninety nine years old and God gave my son name Isaac? Was it too late for Sarah when she was 90 years old and God gave her a son name? Isaac. Was it too late for David after he had committed adultery and committed murder and lied to cover it all up and God ended up turning his life around and he became a man after God's own heart and finished the purpose of God for his generation? Was it too late for David? Was it too late for Saul of Tarsus, who was murderous? Threats were coming out of his mouth. He was putting Christians in prison. He he he rejoiced at the suffering and the death of other of Christians because he thought that it was a good thing that he was doing for God to get rid of the Christians in the world. Was it too late for him? No. He became the apostle Paul and wrote two thirds of the New Testament. He wrote a Ephesians Philippians, Colossians Galatians. He wrote First and Second Corinthians. He wrote Romans. He wrote the book of Hebrews, most likely wrote First and second, Timothy and Titus and and all these books in the Scripture. Paul wrote the Scriptures. Is it too late for him? Was his life to burned? Was Rahab the harlot? Was she too far gone when God used her to save the nation of Israel? And the walls came tumbling down in Jericho because she told about the spies that were coming in to defeat the children of Israel and God protected them through a prostitute. God protect them through a harlot. Was it too late for her? She's written about in the Book of Hebrews. Now she's written about in the Book of Hebrews. It's not too late. Your life is not to burn. God is now finished with you, silenced the lives of the enemy and begin to believe that God is going to finish what he started in your life. And it's not too late for you because it wasn't too late for them. And God is no respecter persons. We are over time. But praise God we kicked a field goal and we win. They'll stand together.
