Angels, Demons & You — Discernment — Aware of Angels and Demons

[Music] it's good to be with you again we're going to continue our study on angels demons and you how do we understand spiritual forces and their impact upon our lives from a biblical perspective this isn't about our opinions you know everybody should have an opinion that's a good thing but ultimately we want the scripture to inform our opinions so from a biblical standpoint what are those spiritual forces that impact our lives and how do we deal with them well in this session we're going to talk about discernment that's the ability to recognize the spiritual forces that are impacting you it isn't just recognizing unclean or demonic forces it's recognizing what the spirit of god is doing in our world very important topic is we're living through this season of tremendous turmoil with deceit and deception and all sorts of craziness in the world around us we need not only wisdom we need discernment to recognize those spiritual forces so we know the appropriate response god will help us we're not alone spiritual things are not the discussion for crazy people or spiritual fanatics spiritual forces are a part of the life of every christ follower that means you and me grab your bible get a notepad most of all open your heart to what god has for you today the primary role of government is to protect its citizens i mean that's what if the government doesn't do that the rest of it makes very little difference you know it's more important than clean energy it's more important than a lot of things that are talking points these days and to be honest if the government fails in that the government's a failure and we're just a casual glance at our world right now and there's questions and this is not about a political party or a particular politician what you've watched what we've all watched together in afghanistan involves the state department the military the politicians there there's enough responsibility there to share you can't preside over evil just to protect your job and the church is going to have to find our voice folks that's us not somebody else you know we see chaos and confusion in afghanistan our some of our finest lost their lives this week uh honestly ten days ago it all the appearances where the americans had been abandoned and if it hadn't been for the outcry of the people when they realized that i think that situation would have gone forward unrectified that's my opinion you know i think if there is a lesson in this we can learn that our voices do matter if we have the courage to utilize them but on top of that our borders are open more than two million people this year are coming across that border that's the people that we know about the contraband the other things that are coming across that border illegally we don't have any idea about lawlessness and violence or escalating in our cities day after day week after week and it's difficult to watch and proc it's so illogical it's difficult to reconcile what you see and what you hear we left billions of dollars of weaponry equipment weapons and ammunition for the taliban a recognized terrorist organization the same people that made those decisions want to take the weapons away from law abiding american citizens it makes no sense you know if there is a benefit i think watching the pictures of afghanistan and what's happening in the airport and the areas surrounding it there's there's some hope in my heart that we could gain as americans a sense of gratitude again for our nation you know we are witnesses on a daily basis if you watch much news or listen too much to what true oppression looks like people imprisoned are murdered because of the clothing they choose to wear or refuse to wear because comments women oppressed violently so you know maybe the professors and the political leaders and the professional disruptors who sort through our history searching for its worst chapters so they can gleefully announce them to us as a failed nation perhaps we should just bundle them up and drop them in afghanistan we want them back home we want them back home safe and sound we just need a field trip so you get up close and personal on what real oppression looks like in fact this is not my preaching time so don't take it off of that i had a breakthrough idea i think we can fix this we gather all those people who wanted to defund the police let them select the social worker of their choice and deploy them i think by the time we want them all home safely i think by the time they came home we could have a a conversation about better ways forward folks we need god's help we need god's help and the church has got a role to play in this so please don't be angry screaming at your television being angry at a politician or a political party or somebody else is not the solution it's a spiritual problem it's broken out in too many places there's too many expressions of it and i believe when god's people fast and pray he will respond but tonight i want to ask you to join me in praying for the people that are so desperately trying to find a pathway through that place will you stand with me for that prayer whichever sanctuary you're in whichever worship space if you're online you can stand with me at home physically stand hallelujah father i thank you for your church in the earth i thank you for the believers in afghanistan lord those men and women who don't have a way a place to go there's not an airlift coming for them but they're your people and lord they're not limited to afghanistan they're scattered throughout the earth and we stand tonight in our comfort and our convenience and we cry out to you on their behalf be merciful to them send your angels to stand guard around them give them wisdom far beyond themselves may those who would seek their destruction or their harm fail in their plans and their schemes and their attempts and we pray for the americans that are still left in afghanistan lord that those who would like to come home there will be a way for them open pathways but i pray for the men and women who are serving on our behalf their standing guard i pray you'll protect them deploy the angels may the plans of the wicked fail lord give us leaders who will make decisions that honor you and care for our citizens give each of us the courage to use our voice in the places where you have put us to speak and choose the truth we thank you that you're a god of mercy and a god who delivers in jesus name amen hallelujah you should have outlines when you came in they would have given you a copy of the scriptures we're going to use are included there if you're joining us digitally in some fashion you can download that from the website or the apps we've been doing a study on angels demons and you the and you part is the punchline that moves it from the theoretical into the personal for this particular session we want to talk about discernment it's kind of a fancy religious word it's it really has to do with your awareness of angels and demons we've got to move from the theoretical to where we understand the impact they have in our lives the spiritual discernment is one of the gifts the manifestations that come with the spirit of god within you if you're a christ follower the holy spirit lives within you and one of the evidences of that is that you will have greater awareness of spiritual things if you have little awareness of spiritual things you have you're receiving little input from the spirit of god that's a dangerous way to be in the world today so we're going to spend this session trying to understand discernment a little bit second king 6 and verse 17 elisha the prophet prayed prayed for his servant the city where they are has been surrounded by a foreign army many of you know the story his servant is panicky he's a bit anxious he broke nervous and elisha prays lord open his eyes so he can see and the lord opened his servant's eyes and he looked and he saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around elisha it seems in the context that elisha was aware they were there all the time his servant was oblivious to them so i want to pose a question or at least put an idea on the table that it's possible to be totally unaware of what god is doing while you're standing alongside of someone who has an awareness why would you want to be the unaware person i want to make whatever changes i need to make i want to make whatever course corrections are available to me i want to ask for whatever gifts the lord has available to me so that i can be as aware spiritually as is possible for me to be now that means you've got to give the spirit of the lord permission to take a look at your life see if you're hiding things or dodging things or disguising things or excusing things you're reluctant to invite the spirit of god in you think maybe you've negotiated eternity and you've got god fooled and all the rest of it so i think a lot of times we have little discernment is we have truly little desire for a full review by the spirit of god we're going to talk about that some more but i want to start with a series of i call them screenshots but they're really just momentary glimpses of jesus and his church and what i want to ask you to notice with me is the spiritual activity around jesus in matthew chapter 4 to the it's we're in the the midst of the temptation of jesus following his baptism remember it is baptism the voice from heaven said this is my son with him i'm pleased the holy spirit in the form of a dove descends upon him so there's you have god the father god the son and god the holy spirit in one of those screen shots right there at his baptism and jesus comes away from the jordan river and he goes into the wilderness for 40 days he's tempted or he fasts and prays and at the end of that 40 days he's tempted by satan and this is the last of those temptations matthew 4 and verse 8 the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor all this i'll give you he said if you'll bow down and worship me jesus said to him away from me satan for it's written worship the lord your god and serve him only do you believe in the devil i mean i know we're in church and on a saturday night but when you're not here and when you're trying to figure out life and decisions and pressures and problems is there is there a place in that equation for the involvement of satan and his kingdom because it's very clear jesus believed in him away from me satan he said and then it says then the devil left him and angels came and attended him so in this one little screenshot you've got satan himself tempting the incarnate son of god and then god's provision beyond that for jesus was he sent the angels to serve him so if you don't believe in the devil and you don't believe in angels you're going to lose the jesus story completely let's push a little further first corinthians 2 i need two passages to make this it's really centered in jesus crucifixion but we don't get the full picture from a single passage so first corinthians 2 and verse 7 it says we speak god's secret wisdom a wisdom that has been hidden and that god destined for our glory before time began and one of the questions people often ask me is has to do with the frustration because they don't understand as fully as they would like or they don't have the insight as completely as they would prefer but god doesn't give us just total access a part of the nature of this relationship is he invites us to seek him to pursue him to actually care about him not like some heavenly vending machine you know if you are world class at something and it may be a hobby or some passion or some interest or it may be your parenting whatever it may be if you do it well you've cared enough about it to learn to study to refine your your responses to correct mistakes i mean it's a living dynamic thing that you have focused a great deal of time energy attention and resources upon does that sound right do you think that the creator of all things deserves lust from us secret wisdom he says none of the rulers of this age understood it now it's plural i don't believe he's talking about earthly rulers he's not talking about the roman emperor or the judean governor none of the rulers of the age this age understood god's wisdom for if they had they wouldn't have crucified the lord of glory see paul is writing to the church at corinth and he said the power behind jesus jesus crucifixion were the rulers of this age it wasn't about caesar or pilate pilate knew he was innocent it wasn't even caiaphas that was a spiritual attack that played out on golgotha that day spiritual forces of darkness orchestrating jesus execution did you hear what it said if they had understood god's wisdom they would never have done it that's why you know it's not earthly rulers jesus crucifixion didn't cost pilate it didn't disrupt caesar's pulling numbers but it totally disrupted the kingdom of darkness because through that cross through that death burial and resurrection jesus won an eternal complete irreversible defeat over them and if they had understood that they would have never done it now matthew 27 this is jesus on the cross so this is the physical scene acting out what paul was talking to the corinthians about when jesus had cried out in a loud voice he gave up his spirit and at that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom god tore that curtain into we're not told there was an angel standing there in the holy place with his hands on that curtain but it certainly seems probable to me the curtain was torn into the earth shook and the rocks split the tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life they came out of the tombs and after jesus resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people wow in the moment of seeming triumph for the kingdom of darkness when jesus says my god my god why have you forsaken me and he gives up the spirit in that moment of absolute triumph it sings for the kingdom of darkness god demonstrates his power and gives us some hints of his purposes and plans the holy of holies the the place where the spirit of god was said to dwell in the midst of his people only the high priest could go and only once a year and only then with the blood of the lamb that place was opened up for everybody and the tombs opened up and many dead people came to life again and the kingdom of darkness still didn't get it in one scenario again we see spiritual forces of darkness and the power of god at work simultaneously we've read the bible all of our lives many of us but we haven't paid much attention we still have these debates about whether or not we believe in satan or his kingdom or or unclean spirits or whether god does miracles we have no story unless we understand it in the context of that conflict and we think well if god is moving if god's doing supernatural things surely there will be any opposition or any pushback or any difficulty or any confusion but again when we read the story in the midst of these tremendous breakthroughs and miracles and victories we see right in the midst of that satanic opposition so if we're going to see a move of the spirit of god in this season i would submit to you it's only logical to imagine that there's going to be opposition and it's not going to be theoretical it's going to bump you i'm not being negative some of you just your confession meter just went off i'll give you one more example ephesians chapter one it's a snapshot it's a screenshot of jesus exalted in triumphant church his incomparably great power for us who believe that power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in christ when he raised him from the dead and he seated him in his right hand in the heavenly realms the greatest description of the power of god available to paul when he's writing to the church at ephesus was jesus crucifixion and resurrection the greatest demonstration of the power of god available to him was the most difficult season of jesus earthly life we know we followed him to gethsemane we got to listen in on his prayers god i don't want to do this turns to his friends and he said before the the sun comes up you're all going to abandon me tremendous stress in his life and paul says to us it's the greatest demonstration of the power of god he exerted in christ when he raised him from the dead he seated in his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all authority and power and dominion he's describing the kingdom of darkness he put him above every expression of spiritual darkness that sought to destroy him we know in philippians he wrote to the church there in chapter two he said he gave him a name that's above every name that the name of jesus every knee would bow in heaven on earth and under the earth in every realm of existence every title that can be given not only in the present age but in the one to come and god placed all things under his feet and appointed to be head over everything for the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills everything in every way it's a portrayal of the kingdom of god and the kingdom of darkness it's a celebration of the power of god's strength and it says that that power that's at work within us has value in the present age and in the age to come folks we need discernment we need to be aware of the angels we need understanding of the spiritual forces of darkness that are arrayed against us or we'll think it's a people problem or an institutional problem or a political problem or a medical problem or some other kind of a problem will be completely oblivious to the root cause there has to be a difference in the people of god and the people who don't know him and the difference has to extend further than where we sit for a few minutes on the weekend and certainly it has to be more than the holidays we celebrate or the moral code we keep that first century jewish audience were all in on religious rules and holidays but they lack the discernment to recognize the messiah we don't want to be that group of people lord give us discernment we're going to have to have the courage to invite the spirit of god into our lives we're going to have to stop the sloppiness and we're gonna have to stop telling god what we won't do before we'll cooperate what nonsense i have a feeling if one of us were stranded in kabul tonight and somebody had three things we needed to do to get out we'd be working on our punch list you know you need to eat a piece of pita bread well i really don't like pita i bet you'd be chewing on some pita we haven't been desperate enough we haven't been desperate enough we could go on and on through the scripture place after place where we see in very close proximity god moving and the spiritual resistance to what god is doing and the human beings involved in that dialogue in that confrontation and it's happening all over our world tonight and we need the discernment to recognize it now i think it's worth stopping for a minute to establish that satan truly does rule the kingdom he's not a fictitious character not some subtle theme of scripture first corinthians 2 and verse 8 says no we just looked at it none of the rulers of this age understood it understood the crucifixion for if they had they wouldn't have crucified the lord of glory they didn't know what was happening there that's good news they know many things the demons recognized jesus before any of the disciples they knew his purpose there was a demon that interacted paul in the in a marketplace she understood what he was doing in that city what his objective was long before the inhabitants of the city did so it's clear from scripture that there are some insights that the spirit the kingdom of darkness has but it's also clear that they don't have complete insight that's good to know ephesians 2 and verse 1 as for you you were dead in your transgressions and sin in which you used to live when you follow the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air the spirit who's now at work and those who are disobedient satan is described as the ruler of the kingdom of the air the kingdom he provides presides over has its seat of authority somewhere between god's heaven and our earth you can you know it's a little disruptive i think to think of it as three layers in a cake god's god's throne when the bible talks about three heavens the word heaven and genesis one is plural but think of it rather than think of them just stacked in a layer think of them as different realms and satan is the ruler of the kingdom of the air and he clearly has access to what's happening in the earth john 12 verse 31 jesus is speaking now the time for judgment on this world now is the time for judgment on this world now the prince of this world will be driven out but when i'm lifted up from the earth will draw all men to myself he said this to show the kind of death he was going to die he refers to satan as the prince of this world prince is a title of authority in first john 2 and verse 15 don't love the world nor the things in the world when the new testament talks about the world that's not talking about this ball of matter hurtling through space it's talking about the present world order when jesus comes back folks he's going to rule and reign on planet earth you're not going to spend all eternity in heaven sitting on a cloud listening to an endless succession of preachers i know you're disappointed me too jesus is going to rule and reign but this present world order the order that is in place is going to pass away it's temporary don't love the world or the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father but is from the world the world is passing away and also it's lusts but the one who does the will of god lives forever now there's some simple things we can deduce from that satan's kingdom is not eternal because his kingdom is enmeshed in this present age and when this age comes to a conclusion his role is coming to a conclusion his judgment is coming so the closer we come to the end of this age and i believe we are approaching it the more feverishly he's responding makes perfect sense his kingdom's not eternal he was defeated through jesus death burial and resurrection but you and i are deployed in the midst of this conflict jesus victory has not been fully established in time just yet but let's go back to those verses because i think they're helpful for us don't love the world or the things in the world for everything in the world and it says the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life it's not from the father this world is passing away how do you cultivate discernment how do you cultivate an awareness of spiritual things how do you how do you raise your threshold how do you become a better listener how do you have eyes of faith one of the obvious things is to to ask the lord to help you see the places where you're too connected to this present world order where are the places that you're just a little too connected to engaged to invested we're in the world i'm not asking you it's god's creation he made it for all of us but this present world order isn't going to secure your future it won't make your children a success it won't bring them contentment those things come from the kingdom of god not from this present world order so if we're going to elevate our discernment our ability to recognize the spiritual things unfolding around us it's going to require us to disassemble some of those connection points we've had with the world i appreciate your restraint on that so that you didn't distract one another ephesians 6 and verse 12. our struggle is not against flesh and blood if it weren't printed in the bible i would lose that because it feels most of the time like the struggles in my life have to do with people does it not feel like that to you you know i don't doubt there have been spirits assigned to disrupt the completion of the road project you're laughing if i didn't believe that i'd be camped out at tdot but i think there's more happening than people involved it may be nothing more than distractions or busyness or lots of reasons our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms again this is not some subtle theme of scripture it's describing for us a spiritual hierarchy satan is the ruler of a kingdom it's an organized well-structured kingdom he saw the kingdom of god he mimicked it and we have these descriptions of the ascending and descending realms of authority that are a part of this kingdom of darkness the primary arena of conflict is your person [Music] your mind your emotions sometimes your body we've looked at some of these examples where spirits affected people unclean spirits affected people physically where they've affected their emotional state or their mental state see we have this mistaken idea that we're just too sophisticated for evil we have medicine and psychology and i'm an advocate for both but they don't change the reality of the spiritual conflict in the earth and they don't hold solutions for all the problems that we have again i'm grateful for both it's it's not an either or equation but we're going to have to live with a heightened awareness not to be afraid this is not a discussion to instill fear and anxiety uncertainty you've been given a tremendous victory we need to know who we are in christ how to put on the armor of god that's been provided to us we need to understand the authority of the blood of jesus and the power of jesus name that we've been entrusted with it's why we read our bibles to understand a god perspective what we have to yield to and what we do not but see ignoring the facts ignoring the tools that have been given to us doesn't remove you from the arena it just makes you highly vulnerable luke 11 jesus is speaking when an evil spirit comes out of a man you emotionally prepared for that that unclean spirits can inhabit a human being you're willing to believe that the holy spirit can't it goes through arid places seeking rest and doesn't find it then it says i'll return to the house i left when it arrives it finds the house swept clean and put in order and it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself i talked about a hierarchy you know when we did the angel studies one of the things that i draw your attention to is the bible talks about some angels being very powerful and other angels having specific realms of authority one was assigned to the waters other held certain aspects of judgment under their authority some were described as very powerful some were clearly messengers guiding john through the scenes that he was being shown do you have the imagination that there are spiritual forces of darkness with different realms of authority different levels of strength it says in this case this this unclean spirit goes and finds seven spirits more wicked than itself and they go and live there in that person that they were evicted from to begin with and the final condition of the man is worse than the first unclean spirits harassing people seven spirits more wicked than himself again those different levels of authority we know a third of the angels fell when satan did and we don't know an exact number on that but we know there's lots of angels jesus had 70 000 assigned to his protection detail or as many as in one scene in revelation we see a hundred million angels in one snapshot lots of angels so if a third of the angels were lost their place in heaven when satan fell there's a significant entourage with him the bible doesn't really tell us what the unclean spirits are that it describes the demons unclean spirits demons unholy spirits they're all synonymous for the same thing it doesn't their origin is not really revealed to us in scripture i have some opinions but they're tormentors see an unclean spirit won't knock on your door and say i'm making a call unholy spirits are us and you've been gaining a little too much momentum with that daily bible reading stuff and you've been to church like three weeks in a row got there early didn't even complain about where you parked you smiled at three people while you waited in parking after church so i'm here that's not at all how that happens in the midst of your life and your business and your assignments something will disrupt your emotional state or your mental state and you'll be angry and you may ignore it the first two or three times it knocks on your door you may be focused enough or busy enough or rested enough or insulated enough that you don't yield but but if you don't recognize that there's a there's a battle taking place in your life evil is unrelenting that's why it's evil evil doesn't play fair that's why it's evil evil will take advantage of you at the most vulnerable point at the most vulnerable time that's why it's evil do you understand that so the goal is to minimize those points of vulnerability live with greater awareness it's why things like prayer and praise and thanksgiving keeping short accounts you can't afford unforgiveness you can't afford to be sloppy with your emotions you just can't there's a conflict going on you can't afford to be casual with what you watch and think about and listen to [Music] don't create entry points for unclean things to harass you don't tolerate thoughts that are ungodly oh they come they come to all of us everyone and i'm not just talking about immoral thoughts they can be discontentment is far more destructive at this season i think than immorality we're the most blessed society in history [Music] we are discontent we're tearing down our statues and hate one another and can't have a civil discourse we're aware of all of our problems and shortcomings and failures and there's a plethora of them it's a spiritual battle discontentment you are not welcome here i'm blessed or it'll remind you of what you don't have or how somebody looked at you or what somebody didn't say or what you think you're entitled to recognize it it's some unclean spirit that has come to torment you if you give it a place it will gain authority you don't want that we've got to have a little more discernment again you have to be weird weird is not spiritual words just weird you know some weird people that aren't spiritual at all we think weirdness is a shortcut to spiritual maturity it's not it's just a shortcut to weirdness you know as a general rule of thumb if the lord gives you an insight and you're going to share it with a friend you don't have to tell them the lord told you if your character is not strong enough if they don't know your word to be good enough and your emotions to be stable enough that when you share something with you then they recognize that it's beyond you telling them the lord told you it isn't going to help much you're already weird some of us have to rebuild some things see there's such a desire in us it's normal it's a part of our old carnal earthly self we want to be perceived as mature or spiritual so you know we gotta have a better spot top that testimony you know i had no food in the house and i prayed and a dozen eggs were on the front step well that's nice but we had no food in my house and i prayed and there was a side of beef on my front step well that was nice but i had no food in the house and i prayed and on my front step there was a grill and three racks of rib almost perfectly cooked when i opened the ground all of a sudden your eggs back there seem kind of insignificant don't do that now i want to our world changed last year and i don't mean our location or the trees or the seasons but the way we were interacting with our world the way we were conducting ourselves changed and first they told us if we just hang on for two weeks we'd go back to normal but we've missed that and normals moved and it's left us a bit unsettled some are agitated some are angry some are resentful some want to blame someone to blame a politician others are ignoring it and doing their best to carry on as if nothing happened but the world has changed from our borders to our cities to what we're doing in afghanistan i mean the the evidence is overwhelming the censorship the lack of free speech churches closed the world changed and we're not quite sure what to do with that because we haven't seen change on this magnitude in quite some time but i thought our bible reading today was helpful we're reading through the kings if you're doing the daily bible reading with the church we we've got a little passage every day you get it from the website or the app and we're working our way through the kings right now and as i was doing today's reading i thought that helps the passage today was second kings 18 it's hezekiah hezekiah is a good king there aren't a lot of those in fact most of them are knuckleheads knuckleheads is a hebrew word meaning someone god won't bless that's not true so when you get to hezekiah kathy says me i'm glad i got to hezekiah finally we get some good news and i was reading i put it in your notes ii kings 18 when the third year of hosea the son of ella king of israel hezekiah the son of ahaz king of judah began to reign you're like what you know you need a little background there's actually one people the jewish people these 12 tribes in the promised land but they had a civil war and they didn't manage to bring healing so there's two nations one people two nations the northern kingdom is israel the capital of israel is samaria the southern kingdom is judah and the capital of judah is jerusalem and so when the historians are giving you the history they're going to tell you the history of both nations because it's one people now israel the northern kingdom is not going to have a single good king but the the literary device they use to tell you the story is to use the chronology of the kings to provide the structure for the story how long the king ruled is the little window in which they're going to give you some vignettes from the rule of the king and so you're going to read this in 10 or 20 or 40-year blocks of time because this king's going to reign nine years and that king's going to reign 40 years so you're going to get a little block of time this is what happened in that 40-year reign in hezekiah's case he was a godly king he said he did some really good stuff and god blessed the nation under his raid but it's just a little short 20-year window his father before him was wicked and the one that comes behind him is going to be wicked israel's the lord of the kingdom's already been subjugated to the assyrians they've already faced judgment well i think it's important to realize it it relates to what we're doing right now because we have had a rather long season of stability i visit nations in the world where you can't get a home mortgage if you're going to buy a house you have to pay cash because they have zero imagination there's enough stability in that nation to loan you money for 10 years let alone for 30 years we've had so much stability we've just presumed that everybody lives like we live that nothing could ever disrupt it that we have enough resources to outspend whatever problem we would face that is so uninformed and naive about the rest of the world that we're easily manipulated by these knuckleheads hebrew word for people that god won't bless well the bible does not present that kind of a static story there's challenges and learnings that are necessary for these seasonal change how you lived when hezekiah was king is going to be different than you lived when his father ahaz was king well we don't want to think about that we're like no no no no i just want to be a christian i want to say the sinners prayer i want to take communion when i want communion i want to get baptized i want my kids to get blessed and i want to go to heaven that's all well i appreciate it when you become god you can work that system out but between here and there we have this book to help us and what jesus taught us to pray was give me today my daily bread help me today not to fall into temptation today i'm going to forgive those that need forgiveness that need forgiveness because today i'm going to need some forgiveness folks we've accommodated wickedness we've accommodated evil we've had all kinds of reasons it was family it was convenient it was a job opportunity god is developing a people that's what this book is about god developing a people through the unfolding of history god's purposes never vary he's cultivating a people for himself right now we're different than we were 18 months ago every one of us could give a testimony to that we're different than we were we're going to have to be prepared to follow to learn to grow there are responsibilities new to us in front of us i'm going to i want to walk you just real quickly you know these stories but i want you to start with me in exodus the book of genesis concludes with joseph and his extended family coming to egypt in the book of exodus opens and said there pharaoh arose who didn't know joseph joseph is far enough in the past that he doesn't have any longer have any political influence his memories are dim the hebrew people are flourishing and the egyptians see an opportunity so they enslave them that's where the second book of the bible starts the first time we have any concept of god having a people they're slaves before the book of exodus there is no people of god there's a family we get all 12 brothers we could talk about a a clan of people but there's no nation we've got to get to exodus when there's this enormous multitude of people and the book of exodus is about freedom they're freed from egypt they have to learn the lessons about becoming a people you'd think after hundreds of years of slavery it would be an amazing thing to be set free but you know the story you've read it in exodus and numbers and leviticus they struggled in a mighty way the earth swallows them up they grumble multiple occasions they say yeah we liked it better when we were in egypt you're reading the story and this has got to be the most stubborn group of human beings that ever drew a breath on this planet but once once they left egypt they never had one day of familiar habit everything was new to them they'd never had man on the ground they'd never had water from a rock they'd never worshipped in a tabernacle they never had priests they didn't know about ten commandments they didn't know about the passover land they never followed a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire everything was new and it's god's freedom they're getting a graduate course and change and leadership and obedience and they're struggling with it in fact one whole generation of them failed the course they died in the wilderness so joshua leads the the next generation into the promised land book of joshua book of judges they occupy the promised land for 400 years 12 tribes no central government no capital city when there's an external threat god raises up a leader and there are external threats because the people can't follow the lord they can't hold it together for a generation they'll have a 10 or 20 year block where they do pretty well usually when god's given them a leader samson or gideon or deborah or barack or somebody but they can't hold it together so they drift off into idolatry and immorality and wickedness and god said you can't do that i'll lose the whole lot of you so he disciplines and he brings them back and they cry out to him and he raised that's the book of judges well they've got a tabernacle and they've got priests and they've got holidays and they've got a dietary system they didn't have that when they left actually egypt but they still can't keep it together they said if we had a king we'd be better if we had a king we're tired of this yo-yo thing give us a king so god said all right he chooses a king for them and the king runs off the rails saul let me try again david david will be a good king david is a good man after god's own heart it says in the book of acts god could trust david to do anything he asked him to do anything he asked him to do man david's an adulterer and a murderer one of his sons is a rapist and another one leads a rebellion and an insurrection i mean his family tree's got a few knuckleheads and you're reading through the monarchy right now and you can see what a tangled mess it is until finally god said you can't stay in the land anymore your hearts are too far from me your sacrifices mean nothing to me your religious festivals are irrelevant to me your dietary rules i'm tired of them your hearts are far from me so i'm going to hand you over to your enemies 7 21 the assyrians take the northern kingdom 150 years later 587 bc the babylonians take judah and the southern kingdom and god's people live in exile they're outside they're still god's people and he's still raising up leaders and that's where we meet daniel one of the most remarkable men in all the scriptures where we meet esther she's a jewish living in persia she becomes the persian queen but she's hidden her ethnicity because it's a detriment she thought but she found the courage to use her voice and stand up and her entire people were spared amen could you be queen promoted by god and then be threatened with losing everything yeah it's another one of those little snapshots there's nehemiah he's got a great job he's the cupbearer for the king but he hears about jerusalem and he can't get it off his heart he can't stay in the convenience that his life represents and know that his brothers and sisters that are left behind are without any defense so he uses his authority and his position and the favor with the king to get the resources to rebuild the walls of jerusalem ezra goes back reinstates the worship they build the platform he reads the book of the law the people weep and cry they're so far away from it you get to the new testament the story doesn't really change i mean the circumstances change jesus a rival the messiah is here the long-awaited messiah we've been looking for him for hundreds of years but the temple leaders are too carnal to notice they got nice houses and good jobs they got good seats at the restaurants and their kids are on the fast track no time for some itinerary rabbi from that galilee the injustices continue in the midst of the people there's so much opposition there's roman occupation he couldn't be the messiah we're subjugated to the romans they abused our women they exact taxes jesus ministry for three years he does miracles he heals the sick he raises the dead he teaches with an authority they haven't seen he expels demons three years of training his disciples of invitation to others into the kingdom and the window closes it's not a 40-year window it's not a 50-year window it's not a 100-year window i had about a 36-month opportunity there jesus goes back to heaven acts chapter 1 is the ascension acts chapter 2 the holy spirit comes the arrival of the holy spirit signals the the church is open for business jerusalem is shaken the arrests begin the persecution begins the gospel spreads you know the cities now because they occupy the balance of your new testament corinth and galatia and ephesus you get to the book of revelation and the first thing that god the first message god delivers isn't about the end of the age it's to the seven churches and to every one of the churches he said i know your business i know your deeds [Music] and they get a little diagnosis their weaknesses and their strengths and the corrections they need to make i belabored the point for a moment but but i want you to recognize something with me that the the things that the exodus generation had to learn in order to flourish in their generation was not the same thing that david had to learn in order to reign in jerusalem and what hezekiah needed to know was different than what they needed to know when the judges were in the land oh they needed to know god and they needed to know how to worship and they need to understand he was a holy god but what god was asking from them changes from generation to generation to generation make sense when jesus came the messiah was how much of jesus dialogue was about deconstructing the sabbath rules i am going to heal on the sabbath no you're not watch and then he talks to him about it and why it's wrong and they stay torqued up about it and he came from the wrong city so he couldn't be the messiah and while the disciples were with jesus if they had a problem they took it to jesus they said this person came for help and i can't help this guy what are we going to do with this guy and she says i got this you of little faith and every problem they brought to jesus they brought the if they couldn't solve it they took it to jesus then jesus left bomber huh what are we going to do now they're hiding they're going to kill us now and he stepped into the room [Music] i'm back now wake up knuckleheads and they do they get a 40-day seminar on the kingdom of god now remember they've spent three years together they've traveled together they've eaten together they've been in seminars together they've been in the same they've had the same shared experiences now they're about to get scattered they've been dealing with an almost entirely jewish audience that's all they've known they have common history common stories common heritage they have a common understanding of the rule set they know the sacrifice it's a and now they're going to go talk to the non-jews by themselves peter it takes multiple angels to get peter to cornelius's house right and after he gets there he's going i can't believe i'm here and when he goes back to drew i didn't want to go but i had a vision and there was an angel here and an angel there and then the hokey pokey and you're in i mean that's not how we've had our faith we're not even in the same discussion well pastor that's just not the way i worship i learned to worship when i went to church with granny and she's a godly woman you telling me grandly wasn't godly we about to have a problem pastor she read the king james bible just the way paul wrote it and we've had this tiny tiny little narrow view [Music] and our lives have been so stable and we've had so much abundance we've had health care and our kids have had school we had so many churches you could pick churches based upon how long the service lasts i meet people all the time so i'm going to come visit your church since they fix that road i'm like nah we're good because that's the depth of the commitment we need the space we may be outside by the time you get there it can be hot it might rain and we're not moving [Music] but you see god started something he's purifying his people he's asking us to to listen to him i've done i don't know dozens and dozens of interviews since coven started it with people across our country and i'm asking one question consistently across all those formats different people some religious some not so much you know what can we do what can we do and if they're christians they're like you know i know we're supposed to read our bible and pray but what can we do we've been frightened and it's been chaotic i got an email this week from from a friend very influent far more influential than i've ever been i won't just read you see this is there's a quote the chaos is crazy takes your breath away and i find myself trying to figure out what to do other than pray thank god we know how the story ends but my heart is broken for those who are suffering and that's the hardest part for me can i get an amen don't we all feel that when i read it i thought yeah that's it i've been asked that question a hundred times then i don't think we mean to imply that the tools we have are inadequate but i think it's the feeling that we have and i've been walking around thinking about this a lot and it seems so clear to me when i walk back through that history that we just touched on so quickly that every generation has to listen and obey every generation has to listen and obey the purpose of reading your bible the purpose of learning to pray the purpose of meditating on scripture the purpose of practicing obedience there's a purpose to those things they're not just mindless deeds to torment you the purpose of those things is that we're learning to listen we're learning to trust the god of abraham isaac and jacob then when we're given an assignment when we're invited to participate we're ready to take our place [Music] but if you haven't read your bible if you haven't learned to pray if you haven't meditated more in the word of god than the local news if you haven't spent more time asking the holy spirit to give you insight into what god's doing then you've spent into securing your financial future you're not capable of hearing when the message comes and you're not going to be able to be obedient because the spirit of the world will have such a hold on you this present age will have such a gravitational pull we won't be prepared remember what we've been talking about god shaking the earth i believe he's trying to get our attention pay attention listen get your bible out begin to talk to me talk to the other find people that that are listening to me there are assignments coming my bible says the eyes of the lord search to and fro throughout the whole earth looking for men and women whose hearts are right towards him not so he can give him a participation trophy there's an assignment for us somebody that can withstand the temptations so they can walk through those difficult places that has the courage to say i believe god can deliver and will deliver the evidence of the conflict is all around us folks are we not paying attention 3 000 children a day to abortion how long are we going to tolerate that it's not the politician's fault they've redefined marriage on our watch family structure and its significance it's just been dismissed out of hand within the church we're lovers of pleasure more than we're lovers of god there's a conflict in the earth so how do we prepare my time's up i'll give you three ideas and we're going to say a prayer together we'll work on this some more in the next session one is repent and believe that was the beginning of jesus message repentance opens the door to belief it's not the pagans that need to repent it's the believers you see until you have until you have yielded your heart fully to repentance you're not really discernment is awkward for you and i'll tell you how to kind of walk through that are you reluctant to be around people that you think have discernment do you have to shape your story have you got faces for one place and faces for other places repent and believe secondly start to develop your listening skills jesus said my sheep know my voice the most consistent characteristic of the people of god from genesis to revelation is they listen develop your listening skills and then third make no provision for the flesh it's a biblical phrase i like the notion of provision because what we're watching in afghanistan reminds us of that we've left behind a whole lot of provisions folks that used to be riding donkeys are going to be riding some upscale vehicles don't make provision for your flesh don't entertain it don't excuse it don't justify it the bible the prescription for our carnal nature is to crucify it don't make provision for it repent listen make no provision for the flesh god has an assignment for you of tremendous significance folks darkness in our earth is unprecedented we need light we need it in the schools and the offices you know the story i brought you a prayer let's pray it together once you stand with me [Music] exactly it's actually it's a proclamation of hope in my prayers it would bring some encouragement to you you can take it with you and use it throughout the week let's say it together i put on the garment of praise and hope i choose the joy of the lord as my strength i lay aside the spirit of heaviness and raise my voice in praise of the living god may my eyes be opened to the provision of god and my ears attentive to the sound of his deliverance holy spirit help me and you i find power in revelation god has restored my broken heart and set my feet on a path of victory i have hope for today and the strength to complete the course you have chosen for me let the people of god arise triumphant and may the name of jesus be lifted up throughout the earth in jesus name amen hallelujah [Music] hey this is pastor allen thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it like it and most importantly share it with your friends if you want to be notified when there's new content when we post new material if you'll just subscribe to my channel and hit the bell you'll get the notification most of all i pray god blesses you as you continue on your spiritual journey and open your heart to the lord god bless [Music] you

Channel: Allen Jackson Ministries

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Id: mpTh0jBpz0M

Length: 63min 2sec (3782 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021