Big Trouble Ahead - Are You Prepared? [Spiritual Gifts, Weapons, and Tools]

i want to begin with a question and to be honest it's a bit more of a direct question than i would normally plug into the beginning of a of a talk and it's personal it's not necessary that you answer aloud but i i want you to stay with it until you arrive at an answer do you imagine that coveted 19 to be a greater threat than the wrath of god i know we're in church and we all go oh no the answer is jesus pastor but it's a legitimate question because i watch the way we've responded to covid19 what we've been willing to endure how we've rearranged our lives and rearranged our patterns and our habits really got prompted one morning this week the the first bit of news i saw was a screenshot with the the death rate from the previous day for covet 19. and it was approaching 3 000 people the peak for our year almost and the next line beneath it said that that's almost two persons a minute it's tragic information we're in the midst of a battle it's not fiction it's not political manipulation it's real you need to live prudently and wisely with awareness of your vulnerabilities and do the best you can to be secure but we have to live we have totally rearranged our lives in response to this virus everything about us our churches our businesses our airlines our schools our government offices our sports activities from professional to our kids in schools vacations have been rearranged parties take place in different ways our plans have totally been show everything about our lives is different than it was a year ago right now all driven by our response to a virus rate that's peaking at a little less right now than 3 000 lives a day serious matter but our response is in very stark contrast to the fact that for many years we've sacrificed our children at a greater rate than the toll of this virus at its peak it's uncomfortable it's awkward to talk about in fact we would prefer for the most part not to talk about it but on average for many years we have sacrificed more than three thousand children a day seven days a week year upon year if you're mathematically oriented that means every 30 seconds a child's life is terminated in case you've missed it and you've been distracted by the virus there's a battle raging in our nation and it's not a political battle nor is it a health care battle it's a spiritual battle and it seems to me there's a not very covert attempt to completely overthrow the values and principles which is god have guided us from our founding until today you know as a nation we have overcome global conflicts internal stresses we have even overcome the immoral treatment of one another and those victories have been made possible through our long history because of the biblical principles which gave us a standard to strive for we didn't always measure up to it but it was the standard that we knew we were striving to adhere to well in an election just a few weeks ago more than 70 million americans voted in support of unlimited abortion federal funding to terminate our pregnancies even into the third trimester more than 70 million people since it became the law of the land and we've had immoral laws before it's not our first time more than 60 million children have been sacrificed the primary defense of that whole enterprise in recent years has hinged on one idea principally on a woman's right to choose we've heard it ad nauseam no one has a right to tell me what to do with my body it's a woman's right to choose nothing we have been told over and over and over again is more sacred than the right to choose what you can do with your own person until 2020 and suddenly our right to choose is not so sacred anymore it's uncomfortable this isn't about someone else this is about us and what we tolerate and what we look away from what we set aside abortion clinics have remained open while our churches have been closed we've tossed aside our children in many ways this year we've ignored god's directions regarding marriage we refuse to be constrained by biblical standards of sexuality we're consumed by envy and greed we discard the truth too frequently in revel in deception and i'm not pointing a finger beyond the walls of the church all those behaviors are more than prevalent within the church what will the outcome be it's an important question and to be completely honest with you for america i think the answer is very unclear today not unclear because of an election but unclear because we are standing between the decision and i don't think we have made one yet i talk to christians a lot and many christians these days are a bit rattled frustrated even after all they say to me we prayed some of us even repented some of us went without food and called upon god we didn't get outcomes that we thought we should have and there's disappointment and despair over choices that have been made there's another group of people that say with some authority and confidence that we need to move forward to return to civility and cooperation i would submit to you that our assignment is not to cooperate with ungodliness and immorality to be clear we are called to show love to all people jesus gave us that commandment it's unequivocal but we're not given the assignment of calling evil good and good evil and i don't want you to confuse the two responsibilities they can exist together the church is comprised of people from every nation race language and tribe we're not centered in a geographical location the church is not an american institution or an english-speaking institution the church is defined by a kingdom from another realm and the head of the church told us that while we are under the sun on this earth that we're to be salt and light our effectiveness comes from being dispersed distributed not always just huddled together jesus said no one lights a light and then puts it under a basket loyalty to the country where we live is important but our ultimate allegiance is to the kingdom of which we have been invited in the primary the primary definition of our lives begins with that kingdom affiliation i'm not an american christian or a southern christian or any other kind of a christian i'm a christian first and every other identifier of my life has to come in line behind that primary affiliation now even if the outcome of our election were to be corrected our assignment transcends the government our problems aren't going to be resolved in the halls of power in washington dc again i love this nation i would take up arms to defend her even today but i have a higher allegiance and our assignment has not changed or been negated nor minimized i want to invite you to consider aligning your hearts towards the lord with a never-before-demonstrated intention beyond attending church or affiliation with church or adherence to a set of rules let's pursue god with an abandon that exceeds our determination to avoid covet 19. now we've made some crazy efforts to avoid that virus we've done things we said we would never do we've tolerated things that are far beyond inconvenient they're more than costly they've been more than disruptive we've done all of that to avoid a virus surely we could make a greater effort than that in the pursuit of our lord and king let's walk a path of faith that we've never traveled before if we'll make those commitments and understand the reason we're doing them 2020 will be one of the greatest years of blessing that your life has ever known we're at a decision point and the outcomes are not clear to me and i'm not talking about an election the future of who we will be as a people is in play our assignment of the church is not that assignment is steadfast and it reaches beyond political parties and assignments and the rulings of supreme courts that has stood the test for more than two millennia now and we'll be evaluated one day evaluated one day before the judge of all the earth on how we respond to those assignments my topic for this particular talk is big trouble ahead aren't you glad you got dressed up for this little nugget and then the real issue is are you prepared and ready and i don't really want to enter into an eschatological debate how you think the world is going to end that's a place and for another time but i can tell you that between where we are and the return of the lord there is trouble ahead jesus described it in terms of birth pains i've never given birth some things you can't choose no matter what they try to tell us these days but my father practiced veterinary medicine for many years and i've seen a lot of things come into this world and it looks really stressful and jesus used that analogy for what we would face at the culmination of the age and i believe a part of my assignment is to help god's people be prepared so as much as i would prefer to talk to you about easier topics i believe it's of the high utmost importance that we be prepared i want to start with a series of scriptures i'm not going to spend a lot of time unpacking them you can reflect on them at your leisure revelation 13 revelation is the book that describes for us the big trouble it's what tribulation means it's a big trouble now the good news in the book of revelation is the trouble only lasts three and a half years so it's a relatively brief period of time but there's one verse in there and i i'm not here really to unpack it but i want to hand it to you it says he the the antichrist was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them and he was given authority over every tribe people language and nation the book of revelation is a triumphant book at the end things work out fabulously but the pathway through that book is challenging mark chapter 1 jesus is beginning his public ministry says he went to capernaum and when the sabbath came jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach and the people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority not as the teachers of the law just in a man in their synagogue who had was possessed by an evil spirit cried out what do you want with us jesus of nazareth it's not the man crying out it's the unclean spirit the demonic spirit within him what do you want with us jesus of nazareth have you come to destroy us i know who you are the holy one of god jesus replied sternly be quiet and come out of him it's worth noting that the demon understood who jesus was and the authority that he represented there's no struggle being described there it's simply an expression of fear and a recognition of authority that demon had been tolerated in that individual and in that synagogue apparently for quite some time but the arrival of jesus presented a challenge jesus in our world threatens darkness amen james chapter 5 and verse 16 says the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective elijah was a man just like us and he prayed earnestly it would not rain and it didn't rain on the land for three and a half years and again he prayed and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its crops the thesis in that passage is the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective and then there's an example given from the biblical narrative elijah prayer is powerful and effective one last passage is from ephesians chapter six and i took this from the message i understand it's not a scholarly translation and if you're offended please forgive me but i like the wording and that about wraps it up god is strong and he wants you strong so take everything the master has set out for you well-made weapons of the best materials and put them to you so you'll be able to stand up to everything that the devil throws your way this is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours this is for keeps a life or death fight to the finished against the devil and all his angels be prepared you're up against far more than you can handle on your own take all the help you can get every weapon god has issued so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet truth righteousness peace faith and salvation or more than words learn to apply them you'll need them throughout your life god's word is an indispensable weapon in the same way prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare pray hard and long pray for your brothers and sisters keep your eyes open keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out this talk really emerged from some things i've been engaged with over the last several weeks in the past few weeks i have been involved in dozens of conversations and interviews with christian leaders people in the media both secular and christian it's been an intriguing journey some of it related to the book that we gave you it's really a compilation of some sermons on god bless america again but the responses fall into two primary categories from the secular conversations and they've been with celebrated media outlets the secular response is they just have no understanding why christians insist on gathering together what possible reason would you have for thinking it's important to be together with other christians they'll say that to me a pastor and i don't really think they're trying to be belligerent they have no imagination the other thing i've heard and i've heard this with greater frequency christians ask this question what can we do with almost a sense of anxiety panic almost what can we do i've been hearing that for months now then i'll begin to give them say wait a minute we have to do something more than just pray and my conclusion is for the most part we really don't trust or understand the weapons that we've been given so we're pretty ready willing to set them aside and pick up something else that we see being used against us the power of the media something we think the weapons we've been entrusted with are pretty inconsequential in fact it seems to me that most christians have the feeling that we've been outgunned we seem to think our adversary has a better plan in truth i think 2020 has exposed some things in the church of which i'm a part and a lifelong part i think we were caught in some ways unprepared unaware and untrained but i'm grateful to report that there are multiplied thousands of people across our nation and around the world that are changing you know at the beginning of the coveted battle the health care professionals and people responsible believe that we had a shortage of ventilators in our nation that there weren't enough ventilators that might be required for people that would need them and for a few days there was panic until some clever people got together and decided to cooperate what a novel thought then automobile manufacturers retooled to make ventilators and as everything played out we had more ventilators than we have warehouses filled with them we've shipped them all over the world and in response to the virus we've manufactured vaccines at a pace we've never seen before nothing like it nothing comparable to it in our history in the midst of all the viral challenges we've learned how to treat the virus something we've never seen before 2020 in a few short months with focused attention and committed resources and dedicated effort we've come up with treatment protocols that make it far less threatening more than 99 something percent of us who test positive survive hallelujah but just as we've seen those things in the medical arena i believe god is awakening his church just as we saw automobile companies crank out ventilators i believe we're learning to follow god in new ways we're we are in training we're not just enduring we're learning lessons and perseverance that we never learned before we never dreamt of having church outside in july or december and convenience were all paramount in our list of where we attended and when if it's convenient for us if it's comfortable when we get there maybe we actually gather together now when it's inconvenient and uncomfortable we're learning to persevere we are realigning values which have hindered us we're having to reassign priorities to things that we thought were top priority with some humility we have to say to the lord we're sorry we're learning those new priorities and god is mobilizing i believe in army it's not about our number god can save with many or few but he is gathering for himself a group of people who will make jesus of nazareth lord of all they are i want to be a part of that group now i want to use a category to talk to you for a moment are really three categories about the resources available to us because they have to do with our ability to flourish and to thrive in the midst of the big trouble and the categories aren't perfect and the lists are not intended to be all inclusive but it will begin the conversation for us the first of the categories is gifts physical gifts god gives every one of us some physical gifts this has to do with the circumstances of your birth your dna your birth order the location of where you're born some of us are really tall we can play professional basketball and some of us are not so tall and we can ride thoroughbreds but god's given you some physical gifts and the second category are tools the tools that accumulate in your life this can be your time your health your perception your intellect the resources that you have the money that you have they're all tools at your disposal and the third category i want to introduce comes to us in the context of our faith and i label these weapons i know some are offended by this but throughout the bible god is identified as the lord of the armies and i'll show you some scriptures in a moment but the weapons that we've been entrusted to have to do with god's word and the things that come to us through the redemptive work of jesus the authority in his name the power of his shed blood praise prayer proclamation truth is a weapon let me unpack it in just a little more detail those gifts i mentioned they're personal those are yours you are unique there's no two of us alike did you know that there's not another one like you i saw some article this week that said there's six people in the world that look just like you scary thought but you're unique nobody's got a thumbprint just like yours everybody have a thumb hold that rascal up that is the evidence in the sight of god and everybody else you were kind of half-hearted with that there's not another one like that in all the world imagine that only god could if government made thumbs we'd all have the same one they'd be back ordered all right there'd be some bureaucrat at a desk 40 layers deep in the organization grinning because he had a warehouse full but he's not going to give you one god gave you a thumb you're unique now your adversary wants you to be dissatisfied with your gifts he'll do everything in his power he'll attack your mind your emotions he'll put voices around you to convince you that if you'd have just been taller you could have played in the nba folks if you were six eight and you had all the gifts to do that you'd be disqualified from many other things it wouldn't be worth a hoot riding thoroughbreds on the track the enemy wants you to be dissatisfied don't buy that lie he'll make you unhappy with the family you were born to the part of the country where were you born the accent you speak with whether your hair is naturally curly or straight really we will give emotional energy we will spend our days discouraged and invite in heaviness over goofy things you are unique well not everybody likes me psalm 139 says you created my inmost being you knit me together in my mother's womb you want to know when life begins i praise you because i'm fearfully and wonderfully made your works are wonderful i know that full well if you struggle if there's an attack in you about whether you're too tall or too wide or to something take psalm 139 13 and 14 and memorize it but then we've been given tools and the most important characteristic of these tools at least in the way i'm categorizing them is the tools are temporal the tools that we have are tools that are available to us in time when you step out of time the tools are irrelevant you're not taking your tools with you you're given tools to use with your journey under the sun between your birth and your death there's some tools that will come to you and you're not going to take them with you you want to use them fully now you want to wear them flat out those tools can be i mentioned them already things like time or your strength your intellect your perception your money those are all tools now tools can be used for good or evil you choose what you use them for and most of us compromise in some respect with our toolkit and your perseverance your diligence with your tools will determine whether you're a master craftsman or you're a novice and the real distinction in that will have to do with time and effort not the things that are available to you but how much time and effort you invest in those tools i'll give you lots of examples of scripture but in in hebrews chapter 5 and verse 11 it says we have much to say about this but it's hard to explain because you're slow to learn in fact by this time you ought to be teachers but you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of god's word all over again you need milk not solid food anyone who lives on milk still being an infant is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil we've talked about this in various formats through the years in many respects but you're birthed into the kingdom of god but that's not the completion of the assignment you're supposed to grow up and we don't just grow up in spiritual things we don't just grow up in spiritual we grow up with the tools that have been given to us to utilize them for the kingdom of god if you haven't imagined that you should use the tools of your life for the purposes of the kingdom you're immature i don't want to see saint peter at the pearly gate with a pacifier in my mouth i don't want to meet the apostle paul wearing pampers i want to grow up and it's been more convenient we've imagined that our faith really didn't have to intersect with our broader life that we lived in a stable enough world and an abundant enough world and an orderly enough world in a world that was ruled by the set of laws that had enough godliness in it that we felt like they would protect us so we didn't have to think about the tools that we'd been committed in terms of godliness we've been immature ii timothy 3 verse 16 says all scripture is god-breathed and useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of god may be thoroughly equipped for every good work this last election more than 14 billion dollars were spent trying to persuade us to vote for somebody 14 billion dollars in a matter of a few months it's okay i'm grateful we have the resources i'm grateful we can choose i got no heartburn around that one individual invested 100 million dollars in the state of florida to try to impact the outcome in kentucky north of us more than 200 million dollars was spent on a senatorial race which means half the people that gave that half that money that was invested wasn't effective because the person they wanted to win didn't imagine what would happen if christians were that committed what if in 2021 we spent 14 billion dollars in the united states talking about jesus take a deep breath i'm not taking up an offering or launching an action plan i'm telling you we have not imagined the tools at our disposal were useful for the kingdom of god we wanted god to do something apart from us david had to know he was good with the sling before he had the courage to say goliath is not walking out of that valley today and we have not held that imagination the third category were weapons and the most distinctive thing i can tell you about weapons is they have supernatural power they're beyond us they don't reflect our physical strength or our collective resources they have an influence far beyond our ability to cooperate and organize in fact i've told you on many occasions but it bears repeating at this point that we'll not out organize evil we won't outwork it we won't out fund it that doesn't mean we shouldn't work or utilize our resources it's an acknowledgement that we need the power greater than ourselves because the only thing that evil will yield to is a power greater than itself when jesus stepped into that synagogue in capernaum the demon in that man knew its authority in that place was finished and it's time for the church to wake up to the weapons with which we have been entrusted that means we have to understand the inventory we have to know what they are we have to understand how to deploy them and i need to tell you candidly that our adversary has access to tools and weapons as well he has access to resources he also has access to supernatural power so it is beyond foolish and naive not not to mention uninformed biblically to imagine that we will overcome the devil with our intellect we will not defeat the kingdom of darkness in ourselves alone we are dependent upon supernatural power and if you are one of the people who have occupied the seat of the skeptic and thought you know i just want to go to heaven just tell me what i need to do preacher tell me the prayer i need to pray and the beverage i'm not supposed to drink and the word i can't say i don't want to get caught up in all of that folks that's not an option there's not classes of disciples like super disciples and mediocre disciples and social promotion disciples we're just all called to be disciples first peter chapter 5 and verse 8 says be self-controlled and alert your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour it's a sobering statement isn't it then peter says resist him resist him well i got news for you folks one on one of the lion you're outgunned resist him standing firm in the faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings we stand firm not in our strength we stand firm in our faith our faith is what enables the supernatural that which is beyond us to influence our lives we're learning to stand in faith in ways we've never had to stand before we've stood in confidence in the justice that would come to us through governmental systems through elected personalities god forgive us second corinthians 10 it says that we live in the world we don't wage war as the world dwells how does the world wage war you destroy enough bodies people will capitulate it's the threat of physical violence just that's not how we wage war the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world the weapons that have been trusted to us aren't rockets and middles missiles and battleships the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world on the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds we have the power of god now we're given a whole host of biblical examples that we we talk about here frequently i'll give you story after story from scripture they're not they're not fantasy stories an assyrian army surrounded jerusalem the the the army of judah was completely outclassed both numerically and technology wise they had no defense they knew it was coming the assyrians had conquered one people group after another it was inevitable it was inevitable enough that the king hezekiah in jerusalem expanded the wall around the city you can see it today if you visit there the water sources were the most precious things they hadn't didn't have a lot of technical plumbing they had to get a water source they could protect and if the spring was outside the city they had to bring it inside the city so they dug a tunnel through solid limestone so they could bring this flow of the spring from outside the city wall inside the city wall they started on on separate ends and dug towards the middle and met to this day they don't know how they did it it's not a straight tunnel it's serpentine and you can see the point where they met in the middle because there was about two inches it was often it's not perfectly aligned but it's a line you can walk through it's hezekiah's tunnel in jerusalem today maybe there was a fissure in the rock where there was some water that was seeping through they did such a good job of digging the tunnel and then hiding the spring in the cadrone valley that as time passed the people that lived in jerusalem thought that the pool they had made within the city walls was where the spring originated they didn't know the spring was outside the city wall well the assyrian army standing out there and the commander of the assyrian army is taunting the the people inside the city of jerusalem speaking to them in hebrew and the commander of the the army of israel said please don't use that language you'll terrify the people he said i want the people to be terrified because if they don't listen to me we're going to slaughter them and hezekiah prays isaiah was the prophet you just read isaiah a few weeks ago isaiah was the prophet god sends him to hezekiah and said because you prayed you tell hezekiah not to worry about those boys they're going home and the angel of the lord came and put 185 000 people to death now historians it was common in biblical scholarship for a long long time to say that you know that was a mythical tale trying to exalt the power of the god of israel over the other gods of the middle east and it made its way into the mythic literature of the hebrew bible but in recent years the archaeologists have been able to excavate in the city of jerusalem in ways they hadn't been for a long long long time hundreds of years and they they began to excavate hezekiah's wall because it was built in a hurry it wasn't made out of finely cut limestone blocks like the the roman walls or some of the other periods when the walls had been built it was hastily thrown together and it was broader than those other walls because it wasn't finally cut and they needed the breadth to make it secure just guess what the archaeologist found on the outside of hezekiah's wall significant amounts of assyrian armor but yet but perhaps even more important what wasn't there there wasn't a burn layer you can tell when the city was destroyed because there will be a layer of ash and when they do the excavations you can tell when the city was destroyed and outside the wall is the armor of the assyrians who fled but the city was not destroyed now i can give you example after example from scripture where god intervenes weapons that have divine power to demolish strongholds ephesians 6 12 says our struggle is not against flesh and blood if you're mad at people today or institutions or organizations it's not fruitful that's not our struggle our struggle is against rulers and against authorities against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms how do you struggle with spiritual forces of evil you have to know your weapons prayer has to become something more than a cursory part of your life we have to believe that the name of jesus carries authority more authority than the names of elected officials i'm not saying elected officials don't have authority they do i'm grateful for godly ones i've been fortunate in tennessee our governor is a godly person and it's made a difference in our state this year that's true that we need spiritual weapons to overcome spiritual forces of evil what we're watching happen to us as a people could not be orchestrated through human interaction alone jeremiah 1 says the lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me i put my words in your mouth today i appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down to destroy and to overthrow and to build and to plant jeremiah's nobody he's got no army he doesn't own a tech platform he didn't invent the internet god said i'm going to put my word in your mouth and i'm going to appoint you over nations and kingdoms you'll uproot them and tear them down we have to change folks we thought of our church in these polite terms and if we began to have dialogue about spiritual weapons and their role we were so impressed with ourselves that we tried to impress other people with what we believed you don't have to tell everybody you know it's not our strength it's beyond us it begins with us believing it and beginning to orient our lives as if it's true now there's some training components that we'll have to implement if we're going to take the gifts tools and weapons that have been entrusted to us and bring them together for the purposes of god because we've used them predominantly for our own purposes and if we're going to do this there's some training components you know what training is it's engaging in a behavior that will enable you to accomplish something in the future you couldn't accomplish today no matter how sincerely you tried training it's a changing of your behaviors simple stuff we need to become better listeners this is number one and we've talked about this a lot this is not a new concept to us we've spent a good deal of time with it through these months we've got to learn to listen to the holy spirit we've got to stop talking about him like an it trying to decide if we're going to welcome into our lives or what we will believe or what we want i don't know if i believe in speaking in tongues or not you will be if you get desperate enough you know how i figured that out you know i used to make fun of preachers on tv be careful what you make fun of and on more than one occasion the lord took me to task for it but you know i was watching one guy one night and it was beyond my preference once you put your hand on the screen and you know i thought oh brother and you know i'll go on then you're sick and you're awake in the middle of the night you turn the tv on i mean you feel awful and that same person pops back up put your hand on i'm not putting my hand on him i'll put both hands i put my feet on the tv i will hug the tv you help me feel better i'm all in we have had some attitudes about the person of the holy spirit that are not helpful get your bible out determine what it says for yourself we've got to become better listeners we need to understand direction we need to know the manifestations of god's power we need supernatural responses in the midst of our lifetime we need discernment that comes beyond our training and our education and our experience we live in a time of rampant deception propaganda manipulation the spirit of witchcraft is alive and well we need the discernment that comes from the spirit of god you can't imagine that's just nonsense any longer secondly we've got to determine to sanctify ourselves now this is our assignment to sanctify means to set yourself apart this is plain language this is no unnecessary baggage this is hebrews 12 1-2 walk with the lord as closely as possible don't compromise don't tolerate ungodliness don't excuse it don't justify it don't give it another name don't find somebody with a phd that says it's okay don't shop churches until you find one that will endorse the sin you're protecting sanctify yourself no unnecessary baggage if the trouble that is ahead of us you cannot afford that luxury any longer you may have thrived with it in the past it's a new season it's important god will help you there's no habit that touches your life that's more powerful than the authority of jesus name and the power of his shed blood you can be free you can better listeners sanctify ourselves third we want to become learners which means we have to humble ourselves a little bit and stop pretending like we know it all we have to become learners and on this theme i would submit we have to become implementers and not just accumulators of information how many bible studies do we have to have before we decided to do something with the information that we've learned i think it'd be a fun way to do a class we'll teach you how to be born again but you can't come to the second class until you bring somebody with you that you helped be born again well well well well well well well wait a minute think of it as the difference between being a practitioner and a phd and they're both important i don't want to diminish one or the other i spend a lot of years in school but a phd accumulates the information codifies it understands it's writes perspective papers on it helps the rest of us understand it but they're not engaged in the in the practical distribution or utilization of that knowledge in the church world we've behaved more like we were professional scholars than we have practitioners we've got to change we've got to learn in new ways we've got to become lifelong learners and when you learn something you have to pass it to the generations behind you not just your kids stop that it's not a competition to make your kids more spiritual than your neighbor's kids number four we have to be both willing and obedient you can be obedient under duress you're obedient because you're in a tight corner and you need to do that and if i ever get out of this window i'm going to go back to my old way that's not willing in obedience you have to come with a willing heart my in my imagination this year is not about a diet where we've had to you know because we had some objective or agenda or something we changed our eating habits for a season we've had to choose a new lifestyle willing and obedient number five we're going to have to lead lives that are more aware you're going to have to lift the vision of your life above you know those under the roof of your home it's more than about get all you can can all you get and sit on the can because if we're not aware of the circumstances in which we're living if we're not aware of the season in which we're living jesus had some pretty harsh words he said you know how to interpret the signs in the sky to know what the weather will be tomorrow but you don't know the signs of your times the gospels are the story of the the arrival of the incarnate son of god with the announcement of the angels in the fields of bethlehem and the wise men coming from the east and the miracles and the teaching with authority and the dead are raised to life and all that goes on and the overwhelming majority of the people were totally oblivious and those who had a clue chose not to be obedient because it threatened the good life they thought they had we've got to be more aware church the awareness we held in 2019 is not adequate for 21. it's a new season and then finally we've touched this so i won't elaborate the gifts tools and weapons that have been entrusted to you we're gonna have to become master craftsmen we're gonna have to push our tools into the center of the table all in i don't think we've thought about it rightly i want to close with two scriptures i'll just read them to you i'll give them to you for your own reflection first john 4 says every spirit that doesn't confess jesus is not from god this is the spirit of antichrist of which you've heard that is coming and now it is already in the world but you are from god little children and have overcome them because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world whatever you see whatever you hear however dark the horizon may be or great the threat that is presented to you the unchanging declaration of the creator of heaven and earth if you're a christ follower is that greater is the one who is in you then whatever is arrayed against you amen and i'll add to that one other verse romans chapter 8 and verse 31 if god is for us do not get ahead of me if god is for us who can be against us it doesn't matter it's like we're picking teams and i get god you can have whoever you want amen we have wrongfully imagined that our future was secured by the stability of where we lived or the strength of a dollar or whatever else it may be and i pray that where we live remains stable and that the principles that have guided us to this point are reinforced and extended for another generation it would be a tremendous gift for our children and grandchildren but it isn't automatic they didn't come to us freely and they're not going to be extended to the next generation freely they've come to us upon the sacrifice of many people and if they're extended it's going to have something to do with the sacrifice of this generation and that isn't clear to me what is clear to me is the assignment we have is the people of god and it extends beyond nationality and your preference is under an existing legal system or economic system there's trouble ahead and it's not about political trouble or economic trouble it's far deeper than that the root of it is spiritual and we've been awakened this year and god has begun to train us i'm excited about what it means if god put us in this season of history it's because he's given us everything we need for life and godliness we don't have to respond with fear or anxiety the only thing that would inspire fear and give it a deep place in your heart is if you're clinging to the systems of this world they're passing away and if you recognize that you can begin a trust transfer begin to say to the lord lord i'm sorry my heart's been filled with desires for things that are temporary teach me to desire your eternal kingdom because greater is the one who's in me than anything that stands opposed to me and if you're for me what is it that's against me the church will be triumphant we have an assignment get ready it's going to be amazing we don't want to be like the generation that came out of egyptian slavery and got to the shores of the jordan river and looked into the promised land and says it's an amazing place but we're really tired we don't want to do that we're going to be like caleb caleb came back 40 years later he's 80 years old he was one of the two that gave a good report the first time around and 80 40 years later he's 80 years old and he said i want to take that mountain my strength has not diminished and my eyesight hasn't dimmed let's go this is not about your life season this is about your heart's condition i want to close with a prayer i think you know it it's the lord's prayer jesus taught us to pray that should capture your attention jesus didn't teach us to invest i mean other than in his kingdom he didn't teach us to read hebrew but he taught us to pray we're going to get better at it won't you stand with me they'll put it on the screens in case you don't know but i suspect you do know this prayer let's read it no matter which sanctuary you're in if you're watching online you can pray it with us wherever you are if you're going to pray it with us out loud where you are tell us you did it say i prayed right along with you i can't hear you real well through that camera but i can read it if you tell me you did together our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever amen hallelujah god bless you

Channel: World Outreach Church

Views: 14,737

Rating: 4.9361701 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Allen Jackson, world outreach church, world outreach church Murfreesboro tn, spiritual gifts, spiritual weapons, spiritual tools, sermons 2020, churches in Murfreesboro, spiritual weapons in the Bible, woman's right to choose, Is Covid-19 a bigger threat than the wrath of God?, woman's right to choose abortion, What will America's outcome be?, Beginning of Birth Pains, The Lord's Prayer, You Are Unique, Big Trouble Ahead, Are You Prepared?

Id: ex3KSZBlB5U

Length: 50min 55sec (3055 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 06 2020