Battle Ready! | Prayer Sermon Series | Pastor Luis Burgos

nehemiah chapter 4 and i want to talk to you for a few minutes i really won't be before you long today that's not just preacher talk in jesus name but i want to give you some um some keys and some uh i want to say maybe some weapons amen to what god is doing in this season i don't know about you guys i can only speak for myself and so if you don't want to say amen today that's why i'm going to preach to me today i have been going through a battle in my life i'ma say that again for the people who just are ignoring me online church please help me out in the comments i have been going through a battle [Applause] now i don't know about y'all but i know that for the last couple of months especially rich i've been minding my business trying to love god serve the lord do the work of the kingdom and here comes the devil messing with every area of my life with his whack demons and his dumb spirits i wish i had a witness and it never fails that they're trying and sometimes successfully so if i'm being honest to get up in your head and to mess up your lives i digress for two seconds to let you know that not everything is a devil sometimes you've been living in sin my father used to say do dub stuff win dumb prizes so don't look at everything in your life and be like the devil it might be that you are mismanaging money and you're broke it's not the devil after your money it's you not managing it might not be that you know the devil's after your household it's just that you're sitting there living in sin at home and that's the open door for the devil to come in it might be you have no prayer life and you don't have no communion with god and he was trying to warn you but you couldn't get it and and he was trying to tell you about a dream you had and and you were sitting and thinking it was the tacos you had sometimes it's spiritual immaturity that leads us into spiritual attack but there is times and seasons in your life where you have done things right not perfect but right and you've walked with the lord and you have been praying and you've been studying and how about that message on fasting last week come on give it up for dc what a phenomenal message and you've been fasting this be any sad people here any sappy people here amen i'm living that that fasting life this week i'm on day seven and i'm like hey you know what like this is gonna be a great week and the devil just sitting there i'm on round 12 dj i'm on round 12 with the devil he just and this whole season has been a warfare over these past months of the stories i'm getting of people dealing with anxiety the demonic attack on their life through anxiety and stress and people dealing with all manner of discouragement in the body of christ and you might be new to church but i'm going to use a term that might not be so new to some of you is something like amen but some of you might not know what i'm talking about sometimes we take the benefit of church and think that people know what we're talking about and it's just term called spiritual warfare well i got a couple of um i knew i prophesied see that a couple of amen and spiritual warfare is a very real thing now if you're new to church that might sound spooky but it shouldn't be but it low-key is spooky maybe not low-key high-key it's spooky i mean except for the fact that demons and unclean spirits and all these things are trying to destroy you and that satan hates you and that all of you know evil world is against you but god loves us you don't have to worry that's creepy that's scary stuff at times but here's the truth right it's not some horror film it's real life and we see in ephesians 6 where paul talks about this idea that we're not wrestling against flesh and blood but against these huge principalities these cosmic rulers these demons and unclean spirits right and these guys have major authority in the kingdom of heaven so to speak over the second heaven and we're contending daily against these things and here's the problem that if you're not living life with a spiritual lens you will think that your kids are just out of control you will think that it is just your job and your boss acted up and you'll start hating people rather than understanding there is a spiritual battle that is raging the moment i'm going to give you a clue if you're in spiritual warfare the moment you look at somebody with a negative thought that spiritual warfare because god thinks negative of no one here's the truth the unseen realm the things that you can't see the spiritual world it gave birth to the natural world according to a hebrews 11 3 the spiritual world gave birth to the natural world and what you think and know is real is not half as real as what you cannot see for that which you cannot see the spiritual realm is much more real than this earthly physical realm are you with me so far this physical world is more is not as real rather as the real world of the spirit that gave birth to what we call the physical realm and we're in this cosmic battle we're in this fight between good and evil and the fight is already won but the battle's raging and they don't know it yet and the reason the reason why it's raging is the enemy is trying to drag as many of you as possible to his destiny hellfire and brimstone getting even more more of it praise the lord there's good news coming i swear now over the past few weeks we've seen this activity i have i'll talk about me i've seen this activity grow more and more and the more i pray the more i face i decide to fast all hell breaks loose i get on my knees in prayer and it's just like my kids want to argue i i'm sitting there loving jesus serving the body and people are out of control but when you see attacks on your health on your children when people are being crippled with anxiety and people are getting all these non-stop spiritual attacks you have to stop for a moment and begin to wonder jesus is there more to what i'm facing or is this just life being hard and here's here's the clue it's not just life being hard it's the signs of what is about to transact in the spirit you have to as a new believer or old believer jesus always talked about watching and praying now he's not talking about watching tv amen he's not talking about watching non-stop tick tocks he's not talking about getting lost in just foolishness he means watch and not in the physical because you could watch you people you could people watch all day i was laughing i went to my mother-in-law's house other day and she fixed up her sunroom in the front of her house and and it's just a couple of chairs there and there's nothing else i'm like she must just sit here and people watch because it's just what people do on the east side i guess you just you just you just people watch i'm like what are y'all doing but you can people watch all day you won't see a thing but when you look in the spirit through the lens of the word of god and so if you haven't been praying you haven't reading your word your glasses are physical and natural and not spiritual amen now i really prayed this week on what to share i was telling pastor john from spanish church i didn't know what to preach and finally i had a whole half a sermon i had two points already done and the lord said just scrap that i'm like lord it's thursday don't play with me god you know my schedule's tight jesus i gotta be on a flight tomorrow don't play with me it's thursday and he took me to nehemiah chapter four i'm gonna read verses 1 to 18 a little bit longer than we usually read but that's okay the bible says now when sam ballot heard that we were building the wall he was angry and greatly enraged and he jeered at the jews and he said in the presence of his brother then of the army of samaria what are these feeble jews doing will they restore it for themselves will they sacrifice will they finish up in a day will they revive the stones out of this heap of rubbish and burned ones at that and then to buy the ammonite was beside him and he said yet what are they building if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall hear oh god for we are despised turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in the land where they are captives do not cover their guilt for let not their sin be blotted out from your sight for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders that's nehemiah talking there so we built the wall to the person next to you so i built the wall and it reads on and all the wall was joined together to half its height where the people had a mind to work tell the person i got a mind to work but when sam balot and tobiah and the arabs and the ammonites and now the astrodites heard that the repairing of the walls of jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed they were very angry and they all plotted together to come and fight against jerusalem and to cause confusion in it and when we pray to our god and set a guard as a protection against them day and night in judah it was said the strength of those who bear the burdens is failing there is too much rubble by ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall and our enemy said they will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work and at that time the jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times you must return to us ten times you must return to us i think every day and ten is a prayer the enemy is gonna try to discourage you he said to us ten times you must return to us so in the lowest part of the space behind the wall in open places i stationed the people by their clans with their swords their spears and their bows and i looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people do not be afraid of them remember the lord who is great and awesome and fight for your brothers your sons your daughters your wives and your homes and when our enemies had heard that this is known to us and that god had frustrated their plans we all returned to the wall each to his work and from that day on half of my servants worked on construction and half held the spears shields bows and coats of mail and the leaders stood behind the whole house of judah who were building the wall those who carried burdens loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other and each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built and the man who sounded the trumpet was beside me come on let's go before the lord and prayer father we thank you so much for your excellent word we ask you that it would be blessed according to your word and according to what you desire to speak to our house and to our church when we ask you now to open the spiritual ears of our hearts and our spirit man to be able to hear you this morning come on let the church say amen now the book of nehemiah is an interesting book in the bible and it details a story of a man whose name is you guessed it nehemiah now nehemiah is the cupbearer of the king and he's in an interesting position as the cupbearer of the king that might not seem like a prestigious type of a job but that was a very high place in the court of the king and over the course of time nehemiah's heart is beginning to be grieved at the condition of the walls of jerusalem but god was on the move already years prior god had sent a queen into that same empire whose name was esther and now esther's stepson sits on the throne artaxerxes and this man who knows about the jewish people and he knows about their history he knows about their plight and he probably has a soft heart because his stepmom the queen esther hadassah is still around and nehemiah is there and he says to nehemiah why are you downcast and nehemiah says well my home country israel jerusalem that city it lies in ruins and he got the favor of the king to go rebuild the city and the king said we'll pay for it oh y'all you should praise god when god says i'll pay for something if you can't thank god for nehemiah he might never pay for something for you i'ma say it again so you can get a chance to be like yes praise god for they am i his blessing and he said to nehemiah i'll pay for it amen now nehemiah goes back with an onslaught of people and he begins to build the walls again yet the people in the region began to be just up very upset and disturbed that israel and the jewish people were rebuilding these walls around jerusalem and they began to mock and they began to jeer and they began to sit there and make fun of god's people and begin to remove every type of distraction and rather cause every distraction and bring all types of issues against god's people sound familiar listen nehemiah was walking in the grace of the king nehemiah was walking in the favor of the lord nehemiah was given by the king all the supplies he needed but yet not everybody was in agreement with but the king and what god had put on nehemiah's heart you don't need everybody to be in agreement in your life even though god agrees with you you will still encounter battles even though god agrees with you and god is on your side and the favor of god is with you you will still incur enemies and so they begin to mock they begin to insult to begin to talk trash they began to talk junk they began to plot at every interval and i began to pray and i'm like lord why do you why is there such a break out of demonic activity in this season here's point number one if you're new here preach with three points here's point number one and what the lord shared to me while i was sitting in my hotel room just the other day before every great breakthrough the enemy tries to break out before on the threshold of every breakthrough when you're about to get to a new i don't want to say level i hate that word but a new place in god or something's about to shift that you have been contending for and praying for the enemy tries to break out against your life and we see this pattern in scripture we see it in the story of moses when the deliverer was coming and and the pharaoh began to hear about the prophecies of a of a deliverer coming to israel he sends out all of his abortionists to kill all of the male children who were being born in israel at that time when elijah was about to break through against this diabolic cult of baal and he killed 500 of the prophets he sent a spirit of fear through a woman named jezebel to come against him when we see jesus about to be born and we see the savior coming we see hear it he sends out his abortionist in all of judea to kill children who would be about the age of this savior every time we see when paul was going to various cities the people would send people over there just to follow him and start trouble whenever the spirit of god is about to break through the devil tries to break out have you been going through something at home have things hit a level you can't even make sense of is it getting stupider and dumber and the arguments are getting wilder and you're sitting there like why do we get to this place i'll touch two people time i feel breakthrough i feel breakthrough coming wherever the enemy is trying to break out it's because he senses the lord's breakthrough and we see this over and over if you're under attack you are also under construction if you're under attack you are under construction god is building something in you and he's breaking something through you and the enemy seizes and he comes to where god is working he doesn't go to regard as idol he doesn't bother people who are living in sin he leaves them alone because they're doing a good job but when you got some prayer going on when you turn the fire of intercession on when you have gone into a place where god has a purpose on your life when you have gone to a place where god is trying to elevate you and lift you up he's like no no no no no no i'm gonna get your kids to act up i'm gonna have your job mandated vaccine so you don't have to be able to go to work and now you're feared of losing your job and i'm gonna i'm gonna have i'm gonna cause the upset in your finances because you've been tired i'm gonna mess you up right now i'm gonna go after your marriage i'm gonna cause your husband to act up i'm gonna cause your wife can i get an amen to act up i'm just kidding but i'm gonna call something in your house to steal your peace because if i can get you off the wall from building i can get this thing to stop if i can get this from stopping i can get my foot in your life in verses 1 to 3 and verses 7 to 9 the enemy is so upset at the rebuilding first they begin to mock and ridicule and they begin to plan an attack and they spread rumors of attack they had no intention of attacking they were just spreading rumors they were just talking junk the goal of the enemy is to hinder the work of god and discourage him from building something in your life and from breaking through in your heart and in your mind and in your churches this is the verse where we begin to see that this is spiritual warfare because you were talking about in a minute ago pastor spiritual warfare this don't seem like spiritual warfare where it actually is because we see in verse 4 nehemiah's response to a physical assault and a verbal assault is this hear o god for we are despised turn back their taunt on their own head and give it to them to be plundered in the land where they are captives do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders again when threats are made in verse 9 and we pray to our god and set a guard as a protection against them day and night both times in chapter 4 when the people are coming against nehemiah and they are facing opposition god told them to do what pray they had a spiritual response to this physical issue nehemiah recognized that there is other forces at play here this is not just sam bala and tobiah this is not just all these different nations around us and people who hate us there is a very demonic agenda here nehemiah saw he wasn't wrestling with flesh and blood he wasn't sitting there arguing with his best friend he wasn't sitting there arguing with his spouse he was like there's something more at play here he didn't just say oh yo my wife is out of control hey my family's bugging out right now yo my job is tripping hey i can't get rid of this anxiety i don't know what's wrong with me he said yo there is other things at play and he says god hear this he brings attention from god to the situation do you see what's going on yeah do you see what's happening here do you see what this is and god's like gonna respond here's point number two spiritual battles require spiritual responses spiritual battles require spiritual you got to stop getting mad at people you got to stop letting anxiety get you all messed up and afraid stop arguing with your kids or your spouse stop being mad at people at your job when you guys say that's just conviction because amen means so be it you're like i don't know about that there's some people over there who about to catch these hands that's ebonics for fight everybody who doesn't know praise god spiritual battles require spiritual responses but we see you're getting angry stressed out depressed we're sitting here like i don't know woe is me and you want to cut kick for the pity party and god's like yo get up and seek watch and pray you're falling asleep from sorrow do you not see that this is a spiritual battle you are dealing with their response was prayer not a preemptive attack their response was intercession calling on the nature of god to intervene the response was spiritual to a physical issue you need to know your enemy your enemy is not your friend your enemy is not your family your enemy is not people it is the principalities that are operating through people and before you think it's only operating through them it might be you it might be you with your spirit of offense it might be you with unforgiveness and bitterness it might just be you and you are sitting there sour as all day you're mad at everybody you're sitting there in your soul stewing over over just things that are offenses and you're sitting there nurturing the nature of this offense rather than the nature of christ you're like in this season i'm just alone god called me to be by myself just gonna pull away from people i'm gonna separate myself to see what god wants to do he wants you to forgive some of you pray about stuff god already told you to do what should i do with this person here we told you to forgive him he told you to love him their response was prayer you need to know who your enemy is according to paul our enemy is demons it's principalities and here's the thing nehemiah jesus only gave us authority over demons and unclean spirits he never in scripture never listened to me he never gave us authority over principalities there is a spiritual order of things and he never gave us authority over them and that's why when daniel prayed god sent he sent gabriel and michael to fight on his behalf our only job when it comes to these other things that we're wrestling with is to call on the heavenlies and to call on the authority of god for prayer is giving god license to engage in your behalf it's giving god a permit to come in and to fight on your behalf because he's giving us dominion over the earth and so you got to call in an airstrike sometime you got to call them for the lord to come in god i need something bigger i can't do this one it's not just demons and runs and spirits god i'm dealing with some principalities over this region and i need you to interfere lord you need to know your enemy but anxiousness is your enemy it's demonic that depression is demonic those negative thinking you have it's demonic that sickness in your body that keeps on coming at certain intervals you get closer to god it's likely demonic in your life and you need to call it what it is and call it out but realize that spiritual battles require spiritual responses so nehemiah prayed nehemiah prayed this breakthrough that's coming in this season is why you see a break out of the enemy remember every spiritual attack needs a spiritual response the enemy continued to spread rumors and harass god's people and many of them were afraid but nehemiah with the wisdom of god began to plan accordingly and prepare the people of god from being caught off guard i'm almost done james i don't know where you're at can you come up i didn't tell you when to come up today i apologize here's what nehemiah does number one he organizes the workers by families knowing that they will fight harder wherever their family is at in case an attack does come wow can i tell you the importance of family in this season the importance of the strength of your marriage the importance of the strength of your household to be able to stand against the works of the enemy in this season because when you fight for family you fight harder if you're best friends in a fight you might jump in but if it's your cousin you best believe ain't no fear ones if it's my family ain't nothing fear in the hood if it's family i wish somebody would touch my kids i will fight a five-year-old come here timmy i'll kick you in the face my daughter came home a couple years ago some girl pulled my hair what i'll fight her and her dad she's like daddy we shouldn't fight i'm like i know but i'm not totally saved yet god's not done on me i'm under construction but when his family is different i remember my mom when my sister was in the fifth grade she told my mom the teacher hit her man my mom went to that school to set it off and she walked up in there and all the teachers i think she i'm not sure she must have called them before she went because it was after school and we were i remember i remember pulling up i remember getting out the car i remember following my mom up the stairs i remember all of it and the principal and the secretary behind my mom now let's be christians my mom's like [Music] it all worked out we ain't beat nobody up praise god but when his family is different he says put in my family they'll fight different are you fighting for your family see here's the thing if he can get you to fight for your family he'll get you to fight with your family [Music] god wants you to fight for your family he wants you to fight for husbands for your wife satan wants you to fight with your family he put them all together secondly though he gave the men this this order he says don't just build the walls but be ready for battle put a a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other a hammer in one and a shovel in the other here's point number three and this is what i thought the lord tell me while i was sitting in my hotel on thursday he said you have to be ready in this season you have to be ready to battle while you build you have to be ready to battle while you build you have to be battle ready at all times and in this season god is asking us like nehemiah to be ready for war and ready to build because if you had no progress it wouldn't be a problem and here's here's the sub point number four here's a bonus it's your pro it's your progress that's causing a problem it's your progress in growth that's causing a problem in the eyes of the enemy it's your progress as to what god is doing in your life that is causing the enemy to come after you it's how close you are to a breakthrough in the spirit that is causing the enemy you can tell how close you are by how hard the fight has been now maya wasn't messing with just some demons and unclean spirits he was doing a regional work he was doing a bigger thing you think it's cool to be part of a church like this until you realize we got a regional vision which means we get regional attacks we don't gotta i don't i love the west side but i got a vision for the whole city i got a vision for every part every street every soul that everybody hears the gospel of jesus christ that we create the largest soul-saving effort this city has ever seen to transform it to cause a tipping point in this city to rebuild the ancient ruins of our city to be able to have god be birthed through every corner and every street and every little borough and every side from the hollow to the west side from the east side to the west end or from the south end to the east and i want to see god move on in every project's degrees and the terrorists i want to see god move in pt and i have a vision for a whole city you best believe you're going to upset some demons it's the principalities [Music] the attack might come because of what you're a part of you thought it was just a fun church because there's a big vision on this church and and we're sitting here making a regional nehemiah had a vision for the whole city gary every part of it every part of it there are principalities over this city who've been here long before we were ever born they don't mind you having a storefront they don't mind you having a small church they don't mind you adopting a blood they'll let you mess with your blood but once you start talking about the entire city you start talking about changing everything you start talking about upsetting the balance you start talking about inter-church relationships you start talking about bringing hundreds of churches to pray you start talking about being a global upper room in the city of bridgeport for 10 days you're talking about we have a whole 16.2 square miles to hear the gospel and we're going to get every opportunity we can to save souls we're talking about that we've got to respond to this mess right here so i got up praying and fasting last week and i was asking the lord why is this attack so different he kept bringing me today am i a 4-1 [Music] at 4-7 but when i read it in the niv it kind of made more sense for me i'll show you but when sam bala and sabai and the arabs and the ammonites and the people of ashdod heard that the repairs to jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and the gaps were being closed they were very angry did you hear that there's a key word there johnny there's a key word there he says when the gaps were closing [Music] when the enemy was about to have less because the lord told me here's the word access i said lord what's going on why is this so bugged out he said he said to me he said to be clear as day i i'm going to remove some access that the enemy used to have in this city i'm gonna remove some access he had i'm shutting some gates closing some doors and the enemy was upset at nehemiah because he was closing the gaps of that city and if he can do it in jerusalem he could do it anywhere else to any other city in judea he could do it all over judah and israel he can build other cities if he does that they have no more access to come in they have a fortified city again they have a place of refuge for people to come they have a place of safety for the people of god to be nurtured and to grow and i was praying so much on thursday i said lord what are you doing he says i'm eliminating access i'm closing some gaps of this city [Applause] [Music] he says louis it's your progress that's the problem [Music] come on stand to your feet we got to go we got to go [Music] i speak to you here today who been building with me some of you still been spectating i just keep it 100 with you you're still spectating some of you are sitting at home watching you don't want to come to church anymore sitting in the spirit of a fence i'm talking to you today sitting in the spirit of spiritual apathy complacency and the lord is calling us to build the only goal for the enemy in this season is to get you off the wall and to get you to stop building but man if you were battle ready while you were building yeah pastor lena sword in one hand and a trowel in the other for mortar [Music] come on a might to worship arlena in one hand but a sword for the devil in the other dj a guitar in one hand crystal drumsticks maybe just one hand from now on but a sword in the other tell someone next to you what you got in your hands what you got in your hands what do you have in your hands [Music] yeah some of you some of you might have to keep it real i just got my cell phone on my hands just got the remote in my hands men of god get off your video games in this season grow up grow up in the spirit prayer and fasting in this season you've got to be bad already touch two people tell them i want to be bad already i want to be bad already i want to be ready for what god is doing i want to be ready it's your progress that is causing problems it's because you're closer than ever you're closer than ever [Music] but if you don't act now the harvest will spoil in the vine [Music] you're closer than ever something like i just got here oh god somebody i just got saved i just got back to church i just got there's a parable in the new testament where jesus talks about a guy who's hiring people to work in his fields and he hires them in the morning and he hires someone in the evening and some at noon but everybody got paid the same people got mad well why gary get the same as me if he came at four o'clock we quit at working at five i've been here since 7 a.m and the master of the house said what is it to you tell me all about together what is it to you blessing you didn't earn it you just came at the right time was it because it was you maybe your first day here stick around you're gonna catch a crazy blessing [Music] [Applause] it's what is it to you god i don't care how long you've been here i'm moving on the whole house it's a whole house word because there's progress there's problems but there's a spiritual battle which these spiritual responses my hope and prayer is that during 10 days of prayer that this church members of this church members of this house maybe you haven't taken a class to be a member yet but you're always here people who come here all the time that you're fasting that you're getting there as often as you can and you're seeking the lord that if nobody else shows up citywide shows up [Music] that we sacrifice for 10 days and we give god everything so that he will be glorified spiritual battles require spirit joe responses [Music] i don't worry about who else god is talking to he's talking to you come on every head body of your clothes father speak to us father speak to us speak to us come on head about eyes closed there is an expiration date on every person's life in this room and if you don't know jesus you should really take care of that today [Music] each one of us has an appointed time and because of that god calls us to relationship with him if you're if you know that your life is not right with god you do not know jesus would you lift your hand as high as you can you want to make a commitment today to jesus thank you i got two hands up come on you know it's not right you want to make that commitment three hands up come on come on you know it you know it four come on five and six come on you know it but you want a point of difference today come on here's what i want you to do two things number one i'm gonna pray with you right now i'm gonna pray with you because i know that god's gonna move in your life and once you say this prayer might feel like nothing changed but according to the bible everything has shifted in your life everything has changed everything has changed but the second thing you have to do okay i can't do it for you i need you to go to the hallway in the front and find one of the connect team members and i want you to connect with them and tell them i just gave my life to jesus there are six you with your hands up god's gonna hold you accountable to what you do and what you don't do seven thank you let's say this prayer together with the church dear jesus your word says if i confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that i shall be saved so i confess it now [Music] you died for my sins i received that sacrifice i received that payment i ask you to live in my heart i ask you to strengthen me for i want to walk with you all the days of my life [Music] give me the grace to turn from sin in every area that i might love you with all of my heart in jesus name i pray come on celebrate that right now come on celebrate that

Channel: City Wide Church

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Id: D1FpekH6Mrk

Length: 37min 23sec (2243 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021