Larry Waters had a
healthy fear of ice. He'd been around it
and lived near it long enough to
know that it wasn't anything to play around with. And that's why he parked
at the edge of the lake and unloaded his four Wheeler
and decided to take that across and not the heavier vehicle. With his wife
Chrissie on the back, he cautiously began the journey
across the lake noticing that in the layer of snow
that covered the surface there were tracks from cars
that had evidently gone through it rather recently. And so he assumed if the
heavier car, the heavier truck, could make it
across, then he could too on the much smaller,
lighter vehicle. He was kind of whizzing
across and at the halfway mark he heard and felt
at the same time the ice cracking and
the vehicle jolting. And then it pitched
forward and in his words, before he knew it
had stopped, dropped, and rolled straight into the
icy waters below the lake. The vehicle sank to the
bottom like a stone, but he and his wife Chrissie
they were floundering there in that hole. And both of them instinctively
made their way to the edge and sought to do what all of us
would do at the edge of a pool. That is, of course,
to push yourself out. But on the frozen edge,
the ice, his hands-- They just couldn't get purchase. No matter how they tried they
couldn't get themselves out of this hole. And soon their hands were numb. And he says they were
clawing at the edge and they just couldn't do
the one thing they were telling their hands to do-- pull us out. With their wet clothes and
their feet now filling shoes. They were also full of water. They were heavier than normal. They just began to realize. It dawned on them, we're
going to die here today. Larry swam over to
his wife Chrissie and with his few moments of life
remaining he gave her a kiss and told her he loved
her and they accepted that they were going to die
cold, afraid, and alone. And those words that couple
experienced that day, they have rang true
for me on so many days. As I've laid in bed
lurched from a dead sleep and found myself
completely unable to do the only thing that I
wanted to do, rest peacefully. But my mind was on fire. Frayed, worried, my wheels
spinning 1,000 miles an hour. Anxious thoughts,
fear filled thoughts, thoughts of self-harm and harm
coming to those that I love. Horrible things happening. Scenarios that just
worried me and left me feeling so completely
and totally helpless. We're trying to
rise like a wolf. That's what the series is about. That's what this book is about. How to rise up like a wolf. But what I've discovered is
that I'm not the only wolf. You're not the only wolf. In fact, the Bible
describes evening wolves. This is the book of Habakkuk. Chapter one, verse six
and eight describes an enemy coming against
the nation of Israel that's his hasty, and bitter, and
terrible, and dreadful. Swifter than leopards and more
fierce than evening wolves. Charles Spurgeon described
these evening wolves as being the things that
come against you by night. The attack, the assault,
that comes for you when the sun goes down. The reality is, escaping
the version of yourself that you feel held hostage by
isn't just a daytime affair. Matter of fact, I'm convinced-- I don't think he takes much
time off during the day, but I know the devil works
the night shift shift. I mean I'm just convinced of it. There's just something
about two AM, there's just something
about three AM where just things seem worse. Things-- they just
they seem darker. And really they've
said even if you live in a part of the country
where you get fewer sunlight hours, it can become more
difficult to have good morale. And you have to actively
fight against these evening wolves that come our way. And I've dealt with
it for so long. I remember vividly it beginning
really in middle school and just that difficult
time of so much transition, and so much hardship. Also, all of a sudden
having this new component of the psychological battle
and warfare of my thought life. And all of sudden having these
horrible, bombarding, invading, unwelcome thoughts in my
mind trying to smother me. Trying to pull me below the ice. Trying to pull me
down into the icy waters of fear and desperation. And the reality it's happening
so much more in our day. Just anxiousness,
and worry, and fear. Anxiety seems to be in
our day the new normal and worry just a
part of everyday life for so many people. And depression-- this dark
cloud that oftentimes has such a stigma attached to it. Unlike a broken arm,
which you wouldn't be ashamed to tell
someone my arm's broken and you would want
a cast for it. Oftentimes when it's
going on inside the head, and it's not a broken arm
that you could put a cast on, but it's something inside
your mind or something inside your blood,
oftentimes there's the stigma of unholiness
attached to it. As though it were somehow a
betrayal of your love for God to say I'm hurting in this way. And people just kind of want
you to pray and be better. Or you know, just have
you ever thought about not struggling with that anymore? And really unhelpful things. But then there's
also things we do that cause these things to
be more and more prevalent and can even at times
cause them to come into being where they were not. Where there was not mental
illness, where there was not this anxiety. And it really becomes
a downward spiral. Here's why. Because what happens
when you're worrying, or what happens
when you're giving your mind over to anxiety,
as we can choose to. It does come our way
without us inviting it, but we can choose to worry. We can choose to do these
things because Jesus said do not worry. And if he said do
not worry, that means it can be
a choice as well. Where it wasn't that we can
choose to worry and what happens is cognitive horsepower
cannot be doing two things at the same time. Think about it. The horsepower in your
engine can't be going forward and backward at the same time. The cognitive
horsepower in your mind which you have to choose
to allocate over to worry. It can't be allocated
to worry and to worship at the same time. So here's what happens. This is from the book
Emotional Intelligence. Which is a lot about
what the book's about, self-management,
emotional intelligence. It says this in the book. The number of
worries that people report while taking
a test directly predicts how poorly
they will do on it. If you've ever thought
while you're taking a test, I wonder if I'm going to fail,
I think I'm going to fail, I'm afraid I might fail, I
don't think I know the answer, anything you're worrying about
is horsepower this not focused on the test. So listen to me very carefully. Worrying makes you worse. Worrying makes you worse. You do worse anytime
you're worrying. So anytime you're
choosing to worry, just think I'm
allocating and dedicating necessary, precious, finite
horsepower in my mind cognitively that I could be
choosing to put over here. That I could be choosing
to put over there. And so I'm saying these
wolves come and what happens is we give them
more than we should. And we give them more
space than they should. And they put their foot in,
and we let them in the door, and we give them a moose,
and we give them a muffin. Next and they want to have a-- [LAUGHTER] Don't give
mooses muffins, y'all. [LAUGHTER] Don't
give pigs parties. Don't give mice cookies. The whole enterprise. I'm telling you something,
you just give yourself away. And now in our day
what's happening? We've chosen as a
culture collectively just to accept worrying
as the new normal as though we had nothing to
do about it and those who deal with it on a serious
level, on a systemic level, on a deeper level, we sort
of shame them a little bit into silence by the way
we treat the subject, or the way we don't
talk about the subject, or dishonor the subject. We don't speak about
it and so now you have so many people looking
to answers that can't possibly give relief. Did you know that
in our day one out of five Americans-- one
out of five Americans, 22%, have a drug problem. An illicit drug problem. One out of five
have an addiction to drugs or taking
drugs that they're looking to give them relief. It's not just the illicit drugs. It's also prescription drugs. Did you know that one out of
10 Americans-- one out of 10 of us, is on an
antidepressant of some sort. One out of 10. And now pain medication,
prescription pain medication, just beat car accidents
as the number one cause of accidental death
in the United States. People who are
looking to pain pills and overdoing it
trying to numb that emptiness and that
problem the heart. And so now you have all of these
factors swirling in together and it's this
horrible cocktail that goes downward, and downward,
and darker, and darker, and you're being
pulled below the ice. And now so many people suicide
seems like a viable way to make the pain go away. And you have this horrendous
problem with suicide. The CDC estimates that
the suicide last 20 years has gone up by 25%
in the United States. In just your lifetime and
mine, many of us, suicide has shot up by 25%. And in many say those
numbers are probably too low, all of the estimates. Why? Because so many people try
and make their suicides look like accidents,
especially men who want to have
their family provided for by insurance policies. They do everything they
can to try and not nullify the policy by making
sure no one knows what they did was actually
an act of taking their life. And here's where we're at where
we're dealing with these wolves and it's a problem. And it's one that we
need to face head on. This war that is being waged
within that we know full well the enemy is behind. And that's why it is
essential, listen to me, that you do not merely act like
a wolf, and speak like a wolf, and think like a wolf, but
y'all, you gotta fight like a wolf. Because you have an enemy
that's fighting against you and as much as God is for you,
a the devil is opposing you and wants to wipe you
out and take you out. He's a thief who's come to
steal, and kill, and destroy. And God's got great
plans for your life and the devil doesn't want to
see any of it come to pass. He doesn't want you to reach. He doesn't want you to dream. He doesn't want you to build. He's a murderer. He's a liar. He's a father of lies. He wants to take you
out so he can keep you back from all that you're
great and mighty King shed the blood of
Jesus so you would do. So Teddy Roosevelt. Did I
tell you about Teddy Rosevelt? We began the book
with Teddy Roosevelt, so I guess you'll be
appropriate for us to end the series with him as well. Teddy Roosevelt is who
we're talking about. And Teddy Roosevelt, when
he died at the age of 60, the sitting vise president at
the time said this about him. I love this so much. He said, "Death had to
take Roosevelt's sleeping for if he had been awake there
would have been a fight." My God. If that ain't just
powerful, right? And he's right. The guy was a stone cold killer. Not only was he a Rough
Rider and the leader of them, not only was he the
original OG barbwire crosser, right, but but he
also just so many things. Wrote 26 books. Let me tell you something,
having written three, that's a guy who's a fighter. Writing 20, I'm like,
God, no thank you. No, no. No Lord, not me. Your will, but not
me, but not that will. Anything but that, Lord. Don't make me write
26 books, good Lord. But but to think about that and
to think about all that he did. One time he took down pirates. Pirates, yeah. The pirates stole his boat. He was so mad, he got
two of his friends and he hunted him down
for like eight days. Right? And snuck up on them. Arrested them. Couldn't put them in handcuffs
because it was so cold their hands and feet would
have fallen off in the night. If they were handcuffed
they couldn't move them to keep warm. So he took their boots away. Right, and he just sat there
with a gun for eight days. Don't you steal my boat. Just this guy. You're wondering how tough
Teddy Roosevelt was, right? Campaigning-- He was campaigning
to be president a second time. Because the first
time he was president it was because the guy who
had the office got capped, got assassinated. So he's just innocent president. Youngest president we ever had. Right, just instant president. So he had a campaign to be
the president the second time. And while he was doing this
crisscrossing the country on a train y'all. Right? That's different than a plane. Just going back and forth
stumping everywhere, OK. He gets up at one time to give
a speech and someone shoots him. Tries to take him out and
they're like, oh my God, Mr. President! They tried to take
him to the hospital. He says, no, take
me to my speech. You just got shot! He's like, I don't care
take me to the speech. So he goes to the speech. He spoke for 90
minutes before he's like all right you could
take me to the hospital now. He lost that
election by the way. Maybe he was crazy,
I don't know. But anyhow the guy the guy was a
fighter and you need to be too. There needs to be some
fire up in your spirit because this life
is not a playground. It's a battleground. And the stakes are high and
there's people everywhere we need to reach. And you have to have
a different mentality. Once you've declared war
your mentality shifts. Once you realize, oh my gosh,
this is not peace conditions. We are at war and that means we
need to live that way as well. And that's what I
want to turn you to in Second Corinthians,
chapter 10. Paul tells us really. This is just kind
of-- this passage plays so much into
the end of the book but but I just I want
to bring it a little bit different way
here as we read this. This is Second Corinthians,
10 verse three. It says I do live
in the world but I don't fight my battles the way
that people of the world do. The weapons I fight with are
not the weapons the world uses. In fact, it's just the opposite. My weapons, look at this,
have the power of God to destroy the
camps of the enemy. I destroy every claim
and every reason that keeps people from knowing God. I keep every thought
under control in order to make it obey Christ. Jesus just speaks something
fresh to our hearts and if a single person
here doesn't know you, draw them to yourself. And if one person listening at
Fresh Life Church, or church online, or in any church is
listening to this message is struggling with
suicidal thoughts we pray you bind the enemy. And that even now
God, you would help them to choose life for you
are their life and the length of their days. And help them God to trust that
as bad as things are, that you have a plan to
make them brighter and to make them better
if they would just fight. We prayed you'd save
lives through this moment. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I want to just give you a
couple principles that I think are essential if we're going
to fight like the wolves that we were born to be. Not just against ourselves, but
also against the other wolves. Because wolves, man, wolves
they have a lot they deal with. Wolves deal with so much. I'm a little bit on a wolf kick. Because of the book I've
been researching wolves. I actually cried reading a book
about a wolf the other day. And told Omar you need to
read this and you'll ugly cry. I just cried a little. You'll cry a lot. In our relationship that
means it's really good. You know what I'm saying? Anyhow, basically you know,
wolves they deal with a lot. The number one thing that
kills wolf pups is starvation. A lot of times because
the parents get taken out and then they eventually
starve to death. But but wolves get kicked
in the head by Buffalo. That'll happen, you know. Can you imagine getting
kicked in the head by Buffalo? But that takes some wolves out. And of course, they're taken
out elk, five, six of them, sometimes one of
them, if a she-wolf. There was documented wolf
in Yellowstone, a she-wolf. And she was she could take
down an elk by herself. She was just
punk-rock, all right? Alpha wolf, all right? But anyhow, their
opponents are so many. But the number one thing
that kills adult wolves is other wolves, not poachers,
not hunters, other wolves. And these other wolves
that come against us, we have to have that fight
in our spirit to know that, when these wolves come, these
night wolves, these evening wolves that often
come, where there's the anxious thoughts,
and the fearful thoughts, and the thoughts of
self-harm, and whatever else the enemy just tries
to insert into your head. It's not going to work out. And you're terrible. And they'd be better
off without you. No one loves you. You have to realize these
as the wolves that they are. And that's why,
number one principle of fighting like
a wolf is you've got to control the high ground. Jot that down. Control the high ground. In the text, he talked about him
as enemy camp's, enemy camps. But the scripture in
the Greek actually uses a word picture
that describes a stronghold of
the enemy, which is always in battle time, high
ground, always high ground. Whoever controls the high
ground controls the battlefield. Snipers are looking for
elevated positions, right? The enemy that has the elevated
position can shoot down on you. You have to come up to them. So gravity is on
their side, right? And then think about someone
attacking someone up a hill. The sun is always going
to be in the person's eyes at the bottom of the hill. So you think about the fact
that high ground-- there is a fight for the high
ground in your life. And the Bible uses heart,
emotions, mind kind of interchangeably. And these are the arena,
these are the theater of war. And the high ground is essential
for the control and the outcome of your life and your story. And what components
are there in this? There are so many. We could talk honestly
about addictions. We could talk in
here about habits. Anything you do mindlessly
without thinking about it, that can become high ground, reflex,
things that are built in, baked in. Emotional responses. These things are relatively
set, they say, by your 20s. So young people, listen to me. When you are 12, when you
are 13, when you are 7, when you're 17, it's
a critical time, while you're young, when
you choose to respond, and when you get mad, when you
choose how you respond when someone slights you,
the things you do now, it's going to be
relatively baked in. It's not to say
that God can't work when you're in your 40s, or
70s, or 50s, or whatever. But the point is, it's
going to come a lot harder. So it's easier if you can
choose-- even when it's hard, even when it's hard-- to
say, I do the hard things. And choose to do right even
when you don't feel right. It's important. You're controlling
the high ground. And you're not giving the
enemy a fortified position. But I think even little things
like sleep are important. And hydration is important to
the high ground of your life, and what you start and
begin your day with, what you start and
end your day with. That's why I want you to
jot this down, 8-8-8, 8-8-8. What does that mean? What if you got eight hours
of sleep on average a night? I know sometimes you're
going to get four. Try and get nine the next one. What if your goal was eight
uninterrupted hours of sleep? What if your goal was eight
glasses of water a day? What if your goal was,
I'm going to drink eight glasses of water? I know that's like, oh,
that's different for everyone. Just, eight would be good. It would be better than
two sodas, and a Lacroix, and three cups of coffee. Eight would be better than
whatever you're doing normally. And so what if we got
eight hours of sleep? What if we drank eight
glasses of water? And what if the first and last
eight minutes of every day were given over Jesus. Would you even recognize
the version of yourself you would become? Would you even notice-- huh-- would you
even notice it was you walking by if
that was your norm for the next year of your life? I mean, think about it. Think about how dysfunctional
we become through lack of sleep. Think about how dehydration, and
how straight to social media, ending with The Walking
Dead, and I can't sleep? Well, I don't know why? You watched someone
eat someone's face off two minutes ago. I just can't sleep! So, like, no, no,
of course you can't! I'm not saying you
need to watch Little House on the Prairie all day. I'm just saying, guard
the first and the last. Guard the first and the-- you're like, eight minutes,
I spend 1800 hours-- OK, great. You're holier than
all of us are. I'm just-- what if you
started with eight, though? Because Some of us have struggled
to even read one verse before our day begins. If you set the
bar low, and said, I'm going in eight
minutes to Jesus, one worship song,
one or two minutes of prayer, couple
minutes of verse, start that, you can
grow out from there. But start with something
that's not intimidating. If you started your
day with Jesus, you ended your day
with Jesus, if you were drinking more
water, and getting sleep, I'm telling you, some
of these symptoms-- I'm so depressed,
I'm so anxious, it's just merely you not
doing the little things that you're called to do. And God will never do for you
what you can do for yourself. Some of are praying
for a breakthrough, praying for a healing,
praying for an intervention. And God's like, yeah, the
water's right over there. Hey, your pillow's
right over there. Why don't you shut the
Xbox off and go to bed? Why don't you charge your cell
phone in a different room? These are little
tactical tweaks that can be the difference
between living and dying on the battlefield. 8-8-8, control the high ground! These are just ways that
the enemy gets a foothold. And whenever he gets
a foothold, it's because he wants to
get a stronghold. That's the devil's MO, he
tells you it's just for this. And it's always for that. He will take you further
than you want to go. He will keep you longer
than you wanted to stay. And he will never,
ever, ever give you back anything he promised he
was going to eventually give you back. He's a liar. He plays chess, not checkers. He wants to slit your
throat and gut you. He's not your friend. He's not on your side. And he doesn't
play by the rules. And any time you say, but
you said, it doesn't matter. He loves to say, just once
more, and then we'll be done. Just once, more, and
then we'll be done. I could quit at anytime I want. I'm still in control. That's what he
wants you to think. Meanwhile, he's stealing your
peace, stealing your joy, and keeping you back from
the great and mighty things the great and mighty King
has planned for your life since the foundation
of the world was laid. And I'm mad about it. I want so much that
God wants for you. And I want you to be
mad about it, too. I want you to be
filled with indignation at the thought of what the
devil wants to steal from you, and why he sends these evening
wolves howling your way. Pray for your children. You claim the name of
Jesus over your children. You get on your knees
at their bedside and you beg God to
do mighty things. And you beg God to protect them. And you speak life over them. And you model for them what you
want to see emulated by them. Don't pray for things
for them that you're not willing to fight for
in your own life. Believe it. And then seek, by God's
grace, to live it. Control the high ground. Starve your fear. Feed your faith, too,
while you're at it. So I said that real casually. But it's important. Anything that causes
you to fear, if it's CNN that makes you fear? Starve that fear. Starve that fear! Go on a CNN diet. Go on a news diet. Oh, well, I need my MSNBC. It just makes you anxious and
unpleasant to be around, right? Whatever makes you fearful. Is it your Facebook page? Is it seeing what your
friends did on Friday night on Instagram? Starve your fear. Whatever's making-- I'm
afraid of [INAUDIBLE],, I'm afraid of-- my church
isn't going to do this, I'm afraid I don't get this
opportunity-- starve that fear. I met someone the other days. I said, what are you up to? I said, although, I
feel stupid even asking, because we all know,
because Instagram. He goes, actually, I've been
taking a little Instagram diet. I said, that's
probably pretty good. He goes, I just realized
I was comparing myself every single day. I'm just taking a little diet. And when you're dieting,
you don't eat nothing. You just don't eat a lot. He goes, I'll check
in here and there. I just found myself
for hours on it. And I found myself
more and more anxious. And by the way, they've
linked binge-watching TV shows to depression. So we can actually
bring on the things that later we're asking for
prayer about in our own lives. So control that high ground
by starving your fear, feeding your faith. Make sure you memorize
some of the verses that I put, lovingly, in
the back of this book. So you could have them
in difficult days. And be ready to
pull them out when you need to shank that devil. Shank him with that toothbrush! Come on, shake him with that! Sometimes, you might be
lying there in the night. It's like, hold on
a second, shank! Just a minute, let
me worry the-- shank! Right? I don't even take it anymore. I mean, I just go straight to
the jugular, the name of Jesus, over the situation. Right then and there in
that moment, pull over it. I'm not messing around. There's way too much
that I want to see God do in my day to
be just given one more second over to fear, and worry,
and narcissism, and loneliness, and all these things that
cause your wheels to spin. Life giving, other people, these
are the things that bring joy. The secret to a miserable
life is to focus on you. So control the high ground. And then, secondly, fight
fire by being on fire. Fight fire, the enemy
fire that comes your way, by being on fire. That's what you gotta do. Look back at the
verse one more time. I think this is 3 and 4. I love how it's put in
another translation. The text says this, it says
there's a divine power. "I don't live in the world. But I don't fight my battles
the way the people of this world do." Then notice the next part,
"the weapons I fight with are not the weapons
the world uses. In fact, it's just
the opposite." And then he ends with this, "my
weapons have the power of God to destroy the
camps of the enemy." What he's talking about
is this divine empowering. And I think that's how the New
Living Translation describes it, this divine
empowering that kicks in when you're trusting
in God and not trusting in human understanding. What he's really
describing is being filled with and controlled
by the Holy Spirit. And I just think there's
so much that we miss out on when we merely have
given our lives to Jesus, but we forget that,
before Jesus ascended, he promised power
through the Holy Spirit. There's forgiveness through the
name of Jesus, and then power when we walk in the promise and
trust the power, day to day, of the Holy Spirit. And it's a part of the
routines of my life and the rhythms of my life
to go into opportunities, to go into new seasons,
to go into new days each morning by asking
for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. Because I believe
that, just like I got to keep putting
gas in the car-- it was like, I got gas! Yeah, six years ago
when I bought the thing. No, you need gas every
single day in that car. I need the Holy Spirit's
power in me every single day. Come on, you need to ask him
for his power to fill you up like a hand fills a glove
with his fire from above. Why is that the solution
to the enemy firing at you? Here's why, the devil can't
burn what's already burning. The devil can't burn. He comes your way. He's trying to burn it. You're like, ah-ha-ha-ha,
joke's on you! Already on fire, y'all! You can't burn what's
already burning. So live your life each day under
the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm just trying to help you. These are the things we need to
be doing proactively, not just when you get there,
before you get into that difficult situation. Then jot this down, number
three, raise your voice. You've been told your whole
life to not raise your voice. Don't raise your voice! Don't raise your-- I'm
telling you, raise your voice. You lift your head up and howl! And here's what
I'm talking about. I'm talking about when you
are in the fiercest battle when you are in the
thickest battle, your voice is so
much more powerful than the enemy wants you
to believe that it is. What do you what do you mean? Well, the ultimate
wolf was Jesus. Jesus was like a wolf. And before he went to his
greatest battle, which was the Garden of Gethsemane-- you're like, wait,
Calvary was it. No, no, the game
before the game was where he accepted the mission. The game before
the game was where he suited up in the
locker room, and was willing to walk out
onto that court, and faced the bright light. I'm telling you, it was
the game before the game. It was Gethsemane
that was the real time that he was sweating blood. Calvary, he was walking in
peace because he had got himself straight in Gethsemane,
on his knees. Because you can't rise up like
a wolf if you don't bow down like a lamb. And Jesus, in Gethsemane, he
got on his face, on the ground. And so here's what's amazing. In between the Last
Supper and Gethsemane, he did something that
I never noticed before. We talk about the last
supper, the bread and the cup. And we talk about Gethsemane,
sweat drops like blood. And we know, then, that
it leads to Calvary and, hello, Easter Sunday,
rose up out of that grave, OK? That's the end of that story. So in the end he
wins, y'all, right? So we're on the winning
team, never forget that. When the enemy reminds
you of your past, you remind him of his
future, all right? The Book of Revelations,
with that dragon in chains, and then, eventually, the
enemy in the lake of fire, so that's where he
goes in the end. Where do we go? We go back to this
earth that's going to be made brand
new to live forever on a recreated earth
with Jesus, face to face, and all God's people
living here, working here, playing here, exploring
here, obeying here. I don't got time to
preach about that. But I love it! So in between the last
supper and Gethsemane, there's a detail. It's Just one little footnote
Matthew 26, verse 30, here's what it says. It says, "when they
had sung a hymn, they went out to the
Mount of Olives." Hold on a second, when
they had sung a hymn, when they had some a hymn. The Last Supper's over. The whole deal's done. But not to the
Mount of Olives yet. Well, we gotta go, we gotta
go, we gotta get there. No, no, no, no, stop. Let's sing together. Stop. Let's sing together. They sang a hymn. And then they went on
to the Mount of Olives. And that is so powerful. Why? If Jesus knew that, before the
greatest battle of his life was here, he needed some time
to prepare himself by singing, how much more do we need it? Why? Because with this
battle looming, he understood what
we need to know, that worship is a
weapon against darkness. But it's not just a weapon. It's the whole war. Listen to me carefully. Worship is not just a
weapon that wins the war. Worship is the war. Worship is the war. It's the war of, what are
you going to honor the most? What are you seeking after? What's the master
passion of your life? Is it you? Is it your fame? Even suicide is an act
of worshipping yourself. It's, I'm going to
take myself out. It's ignoring God's glory. It's ignoring God's plan. It's ignoring what
he wants to do. It's taking your
life into your hands. It's not honoring him, and
trusting him, and saying, thy will be done. It's an act that
says, my will be done. Anxiety, and choosing
to live there, worry, and choosing to live there,
giving in into depression-- I'm not saying-- some of
us have to have depression in our story, but
choosing what we do in the midst of
the depression, right? Some will need medication. Some will need to
see a therapist. I'm not saying any
of that's not true. But still, in the midst
of that, you still have to choose who or what
you're going to worship, who or what is at the center
of the glory of your story. And what we need to
do is do what Jesus did, facing a battle, we lift
our voice up and howl out and worship. Lift our voice and
praise and him! Lift up our voice! Come on, sing to him, and
to shout to him in triumph! Now, worship is
more than singing. But it's not less. Worship is more than singing. There's a lot of aspects to it. Giving is worship. Obeying is worship. Bible study is worship. All of that's worship. But it's not less than singing. Meaning, every time we
see a picture of worship, it involves singing. It involves this idea. Why? Because there's something
that shifts inside of you when you sing. There's something
that alters your mood when you choose to sing. So it's so important that
you raise your voice, but not just to God,
but also to his people. And that means, sometimes,
you pick up the phone and call someone and say, I'm hurting,
and I'm scared, and I'm alone. I'm thinking about
doing something bad. I need help. I need the encouragement. It means calling
that suicide hotline. I'm telling you,
Google it right now if you're thinking about that. Call that number. Talk to somebody. And if you have someone in your
life who you're worried about, reach out to them. Don't just pray for
them, send them a text. "Are you OK" could
save someone's life. Are you OK? You came into my mind. I'm worried about you. I'm concerned about you. You don't seem yourself lately. Speak up! If you see something,
you got to say something. You've got to raise your voice! Lastly-- we're almost done. Hope this is helping you. You got to fight. You got to fight. You've got to keep fighting. And then after that,
here's what you do. Keep showing up. And that is the fight. Keep showing up. Just keep showing up. Keep showing up another day. One of my favorite stories
I've heard in recent history is the story of the
company Leatherman. This is a simple pocket
knife that has pliers in it. You could take for granted
a pocket knife, pliers. Well, it didn't
exist till it did. And a man named Tim Leatherman
was on a trip to Europe with his wife right after
college, Oregon State-- shout out, Portland! And he and his wife
had a car, a Fiat 600, that kept breaking down. And he had a Boy Scout
knife and a pair of pliers that he kept doing
work on it with. And he said to
himself, if only they had one that was the same,
pocket knife, pliers. That would be
amazing. 'Cause then I don't have to change hands. It's right here. And you wrote it down,
things to do with my life, make a pocket knife
with players in it. Got home from the
trip, decided to do it. But it was easier
said than done. Two years into the project, in
his brother in law's garage, he broke down weeping
on his birthday because I can't get the players
and the pocket knife to behave. But he said, the next morning,
I got up and I showed up. And I kept going. On the third year,
the patent was issued for what we know
of today as a Leatherman. Only then, it was
called Mr. Crunch. He called it Mr. Crunch,
pocket knife, pliers. And then, at this
point, we would say, he made it, happily ever after! But that's not how it went. Even though he had successfully
made one and got it patented, he, for five years, couldn't
get anyone to buy one. Every store, every
hardware store, every company rejected it,
turned it down, said, no way, said there's no market for that. The company Stanley,
that makes the thermoses that everybody has fishing, your
grandpa had one going fishing with, Stanley wrote
him a letter and said, there's no one who
will ever want this. So we will not
purchase it from you. He was distraught. Year 7, he said,
I almost gave up. But a friend encouraged
him to keep going. He said, I'll work with you. Maybe there's some things
you haven't thought of yet. So they kept going. Year 8, a little known
company called Cabela's said, we'll buy 500 of them. 500 of what they had the
sense, by this point, to call a Leatherman,
not Mr. Crunch. And Tim's Leatherman, they sent
500 Mr. Crunches to Cabela's. And they, in return,
got $12,000 for it. And the rest, of course,
as they say, is history. The company, now, which is
headquartered in Portland, employs over 400 people. And there have been over
30 models of the Leatherman that have been issued. And it's a tale as old
as time, the success story of this company. And there's probably
a lot of people listening to this message who,
you have one in your pocket even now. They're passed down
from father to son, and generation to generation,
and generations to generation. And you think about what it
took for him to keep showing up for eight years when he
was being told by experts, this'll never work. And that war, and that doubt,
seeing alone in that garage, on his birthday, weeping,
wanting to give up, wanting to quit. Some of you can relate? Winston Churchill
once said, "success consists of going from
failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm." And I just wonder, where
are you at on that journey? What are you thinking
about quitting? What do you think
about giving up? What dream are you
beginning to lose faith in? And where are you
at in that journey? Because what I'm saying to you,
if what a fight looks like, it's not just one
round and it's over. It's not just, well,
there, I fought. I tried to control my thoughts. I tried to speak differently. I tried to plant the church. I tried to write the sermon. I tried to start the business. I tried to work on the marriage. That's not a fight! A fight is bloody round
after bloody round! A fight is getting knocked
down and getting back up again! A fight is spitting your
tooth out in the sink! A fight consists of going
from failure, to failure, to failure, to failure
without loss of enthusiasm. And I just want to speak
life over your tomorrow. I want to speak
over you that God loves you, has a
plan for you, wants to do more through you
than you would ever know! But you got to fight! What about Larry? We left Larry and Chrissy
drowning in the hole. He kissed his wife goodbye. But he said, just
before he began to sink, he reached down and felt a
Leatherman in his pocket. And God only knows why
or how he thought of it. But he opened it up,
and, using the pliers, he said he was able to
dagger the edge of the ice and pull himself up and out. And he said he
immediately pivoted around and was able to
pull his wife to safety. And here's what I want
to leave you with. Yes, you are fighting a
difficult, bloody battle. You are trying to
win the war within. But you are not the only one. There are people all around
you, people in your family, people in your life,
people, you don't even know their names yet, and
they're trying to win it, too. And if you give up, how will
God ever use you to reach them? Tim never knew, in the
garage, at year six, about Larry and Christy. But God knew that
him showing up, and him not giving
up, was going to lead to saving of life for them. And I want to speak to
you that, as you continue to fight the good
fight, and keep living, it's not just for yourself
that it is essential that you must win. But God wants to save
lives through you. In Jesus' name, amen. And father, we thank you
for this time together. And we believe every
single word that we've read about pulling
down these strongholds and taking the enemy
ground being essential. And now, we pray for
your spirit to put that resolve inside of us, to
put that steel in our spine. If you're here today, as we
have this moment of prayer, and you would say, I want to
commit to fighting this battle, I want to begin fighting. I've thought of giving up, maybe
quitting a job that's hard, maybe leaving a marriage
that's difficult, maybe ending your life. If you would say, in this
moment, I want to fight, I want to fight, I'm willing
to fight like a wolf, if that's you I'm
describing, raise your hand, at every location, ChurchOnline,
every church listening, put your hand up. I'm going to fight, God. I'm going to fight, God. I don't know how. My hand is shaking, God. But I'm going to fight. As you raise your
arm, some of you have scars from cuts that
you've inflicted upon yourself. Some of you have emotional
ones from others. Some of you have bruises
from other people. But as you raise
these scarred hands, know that the scarred
hands of Jesus Christ hold them up in the air. You are not alone. You are loved. You are chosen. You are called. You are equipped. You are a son or daughter
of the King of kings. And he is going to use you
to save other people's lives. But first, you must
let him save yours. Thank you, Jesus. Give thee strength. I pray a blessing
over their lives. I pray you'd shine your face
upon them and give them peace. I pray they would overcome by
the word of their testimony and by the blood of the
lamb, and that they would not hold their lives dear to
themselves because they were bought at a price. I pray this in the
precious name of Jesus. Well, I hope that message
challenged you and blessed you as you listened to it as
much as it did for me as I prepared it and preached it. If you live anywhere near
Portland, Oregon, Salt Lake City, Utah, Jackson
Hole, Wyoming, or really, anywhere in Montana,
we would love to have you come in person
to a Fresh Life Church where you could engage
with God's people together. There's so much that's
happening with our Fresh Life kids, and the students, and
the small groups of our church. And we would love to have you
come take part in it in person. Also, want to throw out
there, if you haven't yet, please subscribe to my YouTube
page at YouTube.com/LeviLusko so you don't miss any of the
new content we're putting out. Well, thanks a lot. And God bless you.
