January 17, 2021 - A Weak Man, a Strong Man, and the Stronger Man // Luke 11:14–26

[Music] [Music] hey there welcome to summit online this is where you'll find the weekend worship experience coming right to where you are in fact we have two ways to watch first you can access the full worship service on demand on our youtube channel so don't forget to subscribe this is a great option for families watching together or maybe you miss the weekend service and want to catch up later in the week second we host a live service on sundays at 9 or 11 a.m at live.summitchurch.com we never want you to worship alone so this is an awesome opportunity to connect with a digital community through the live chat option plus we have hosts actual humans ready to connect with you answer any questions or pray with you in our digital chat rooms if this is your first time joining us i am so glad that you are here in fact i believe god has a purpose in you being here today here at the summit we exist to create a movement of disciple making disciples here in the raleigh-durham area and around the world we pray this worship service allows you to grow deeper as a disciple of jesus christ that's what this is all about the good news of jesus so our service will begin shortly but before it does i want to let you know about all the ways that you can engage with us today first our desire is that families would watch this service together so we offer resources for all ages including today's sermon transcript as well as kids and student notes for your families to follow along second you can give financially all that you give goes towards all that we do to propel the mission of god forward and finally we don't want you to worship alone so can you think of someone that might want to join you today go ahead and text a friend and ask them to tune in with you for resources ways to give opportunities to connect and a free download for our first time guests you can text next steps to 33933 or visit summitchurch.com nextsteps we look forward to worshiping with you [Music] today [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey summit family i am so glad that you're joining us today and i hope that you are participating in the 21 days of fasting and prayer are you participating jonathan i am okay so what are you fasting from this would be really awkward if i wasn't um the i i chose to take seven days and fast solid food so i'm doing water juice and coffee but no solid food and i'm trying to do it for seven days i thought 21 days might be a little too much i'm trying it for seven days the other thing i'm fasting for is i've deleted like anything that would just be kind of a time waster on my phone apps or games or social media um and so i'm trying to take any of the time that i would just be kind of scrolling on my phone in time of uh that'd be a cue for me to just be in prayer right i love that like you said it's a cue just to go and talk to jesus i'm actually fasting from going out to eat so when i have that urge to go to chick-fil-a or to get a cup of coffee that reminds me that i need to go spend some time in prayer and that's what i love about fasting is that it really gives us that cue to go to jesus you know jonathan one of the things that i'm praying for is actually all the people online for you guys that you would continue to grow as disciples wherever you are and i'm praying that our reach would double because i believe that this platform allows more people to hear the good news of jesus and if people haven't started fasting and praying with us what should they do i'd say just start you can go to summitchurch.com prayer for resources you can sign up for daily passages of scriptures and way to pray even like ways that you can fast if you haven't started yet and i would just say just jump in and begin i think anything that is going to draw you and remind you of your need for god and praying and fasting is going to be worth well worth your time and the small things that you may begin in doing this the lord will surely bring to fruition i believe in your life so yeah i love that i actually signed up and so every day when that comes into my inbox i just take a moment and i can pause and pray for a few minutes and i love it but if this is your first time here i want to personally welcome you you know i have the privilege of talking to so many of you throughout the week actually jonathan just this week i got to talk to people from canada michigan indiana tennessee and right here in north carolina i don't even think we can go to canada right now so that's awesome so crazy yeah it's amazing and if this is your first time or you just haven't even connected with us yet please text the word welcome to 33933 and you'll hear from someone on our staff well before we begin i want to remind families that we have resources available to help you and your kids and students engage with today's sermon you can actually just text the word next steps to 33933 and it will just take you to a page with all of our weekend resources as well as some information about all that is going on in our church and kids listen up we are about to sing a song called great things so when you hear those two words great things i need you to spread out your arms like this great things got it okay great thanks all right summit turn up the volume let's worship together today well welcome summit family we're so glad that you could join us today wherever you're joining us from whether it's your living room or wherever you're at let's lift our voice together today let's declare the great things that god has done with the loud voice say come let us work come let us worship our king come let us bow at his feet he has done great things see what our savior has done see how his love overcomes he has done great things he has done great things [Music] you have done great [Music] [Music] things you've been faithful through every storm be faithful forever for your promises yes and amen you will do great things god you do great things you have done great [Music] lord jesus our savior unshakable hallelujah you have done great things he's done great things hallelujah [Music] and break every chain oh god oh jesus oh god [Applause] amen i mean this is who we worship our god who alone does wondrous the great things this is who we have gathered to worship so whether you are gathering online by yourself or in a home gathering we gather to worship this great god listen to psalm 84 verse 1 and 2. how lovely is your dwelling place o lord of hosts my soul longs yes thanks for the courts of the lord my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living god down in verse 10 for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere you feel that this morning this weekend you feel that i would rather be a doorkeeper keeper in the house of my god than dwell in the tents of wickedness for the lord god is a son and shield the lord bestows favor and honor no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly you know as a church family we've been going through uh 21 days of prayer and fasting we hope that you're joining us as we pray to the lord as we seek his face we ask great things from him we attempt great things for him [Music] one of the ways uh that that we engage with god and we hear from him we're changed to be like christ is engaging with the word of god it gives us language to approach him so you think maybe the idea of praying or prayer seems overwhelming to you use this bible use psalm 84 we're going to put it back up on the screen and just give you a few moments to voice a prayer to god from these verses let it shape your prayer let it give you content for your prayers families you might want to help your kids pray these things my soul longs but help them understand what you're praying right there help them understand what it means to to say for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere i'd rather be with you than anywhere else you take a moment spray some of these passages together and then we'll continue to worship [Music] yes the world will bow down and say you were gone every man will bow down and say you are king so let's start right now why would we wait king of glory fill this place we just wanna be with you [Music] we just wanna be with you king of glory [Music] yes the world will bow down and say you are every [Music] are man [Music] so let's start by now why would we wait we can [Music] [Music] glory we just wanna be with you oh we just wanna be [Music] we just want to be with you so we'll sing hallelujah till you come again and we'll dance in your presence till you come again and we'll dance in your presence till you come again we will sing hallelujah till you come again and we'll dance yes we'll dance in your presence till you come again hallelujah is [Music] we just wanna be with you we just wanna be we just wanna be with you we just wanna be with you yes we do we just wanna be we just wanna be with you we just wanna be with you i just wanna be with you [Music] [Applause] [Music] well summit church i want to open up today by leading us into a time of prayer around three really important issues this this weekend the first is um this is sanctity of life sunday this weekend uh this is a nationally recognized sunday on which we lament the terrible tragedy of abortion the date for this sunday is always whichever sunday is closest to january 20th when the supreme court legalized in 1973 the the killing of children in the womb summit we want to be a place that is clear about the tragedy and the unqualified injustice of abortion but we also want to be a place that extends forgiveness and healing um and a place that seeks to understand that that often those decisions are made in a lot of pain and confusion so we not only want to be clear about what is right and wrong we also want to be a help and a resource to those who feel like they have nowhere else to turn i actually will be preaching a message on this next weekend lord willing but today today on sanctity of life sunday we want to acknowledge this and and mourn it and pray for it because um because we join with other churches around the country in doing this second is monday of this coming week is martin luther king jr day that is a day in which we express gratitude for the progress that has been made in becoming a more just and fair society it is a day which we affirm on which we affirm the dignity of all peoples and it's a day in which we acknowledge the ongoing work that needs to be done in this regard and recommit ourselves to that work and so we want to pray for that also by the way um just in case you are curious about this we don't commemorate these two dates together because we believe that you can't talk about one without talking about the other it's simply because both are nationally recognized days on our calendar we don't have any control over that but i want to pray for those two things and then third i want us to pray for for our nation um what a difficult what an incredibly difficult couple of weeks and probably more than ever we are aware of spiritual forces that are at work in our society that seek to divide to sow anger and hatred and what a great time for us to be giving ourselves as a church to these 21 days of prayer and fasting and regarding the events of last week let me just just say this i want to urge you to avoid any temptation any temptation is the body of christ to excuse evil as a means of accomplishing good the apostle paul warns in romans 3 about god's wrath on those who say we must do evil that good may come i know some of you have legitimately righteous things that you're worried about in this election many of which many of which those concerns i share but as the people of god we must avoid the temptation to wink at excuse or justify evil lies slander or the like as a as a means of accomplishing that there is a time to vote there is even a time peacefully to protest but there is never a time to excuse evil in the name of good and and there's always a time to pray so i want us to do that together now whether you are joining us at home online if you're by yourself if you're with your family group or if you're one of our campuses let's bow together and let me voice a prayer to god on our behalf father i want to pray from the position that you have given me just as a representative of the body of christ and you put me in this community at this time to plead for your help to plead for your power to plead on behalf of a community for forgiveness god we pray that you would change these things that so grieve our hearts and and know that grieves yours even more god we lament the tragedy of abortion and god we ask for forgiveness on our society for for tolerating and even celebrating god this injustice we ask god that you make this church a place of healing we ask god that for those that even this weekend are struggling with that choice or maybe the regret that comes from having having gone through that god we pray that we will be able to extend the blessing the forgiveness of christ and for them to be able to see that you stand with open arms not an accusing finger but open arms to receive and forgive and restore god we ask that you use us to advocate for justice and we ask that you cause a swift end to this terrible scourge on our nation that has seared our conscience god we rejoice in this weekend on a lot of the progress that has been made in becoming a more just and equitable nation we thank you for that but god we also mourn god some of the the legacy and the continued pain that results from um from years of this uh sin and racial strife god we know that you are the prince of peace and only you can work peace so god begin it in this church god as we love each other and and and listen to each other and humble ourselves before each other and seek to regard the interests of one another as even more important than our own god let us be zealous for for justice and and fairness god we thank you for what you're doing we pray that you would do more in this church and we pray that would overflow into the community and finally father we pray for our nation god we are aware that's we wrestle not against flesh and blood but it's against principalities and powers and so god we ask that you use this church to push back the tide of darkness god let us not compromise our witness let us not compromise our message by by excusing excusing evil in the name of good father we pray that you would use us to be a pointer to the hope that is only found in jesus and god heal our land you told us that if we would humble ourselves and pray as we're trying to do in these 21 days of prayer and fasting god we pray that you would heal our land and point our community to to jesus and give them a hunger for righteousness and justice we pray these things because god sometimes we don't know what else to do and god we know that's the best and most important the first thing we ought to do so we pray together in jesus name and all god's people said amen amen well you could have a seat if you were not um already seated you can take out your bible and uh if you're there at home and go run grab your bible if you don't have it i want you to open it to luke chapter 11. um it is hard to believe as you're turning there i'll tell you it's hard to believe that this year will mark 20 years since the 9 11 attacks two decades they say that those attacks rewrote the book on how nations think about warfare modern nations in previous wars you had a defined entity like germany or japan but the 911 attacks were carried out by citizens of countries who were our allies some by people who lived right here within our own borders um after the attacks if you recall congress felt like a declaration of war was appropriate but they weren't even sure what to call uh what to call that war previous wars have been known as the war with england or the war against the axis powers but this was a war against terror so the media dubbed it the war on terror and the strategies for fighting that were were different you couldn't just build up an army and go after the enemy there were no territories that they really called home so we started to hear about things like sleeper cells or radicalized operatives these these realities were required different strategies for fighting and different security protocols and of course that gave rise to new dangers like the invasion of privacy or or racial profiling many of the hit drama shows at the time and i realized that we got a lot of young professionals and college students that weren't even alive during this time yet but but a lot of the hit drama shows of the time shows like 24 or alias they played on the premise that this new war this new kind of warfare was very dangerous and we better learn the new rules of engagement or we would never survive well i share that because i think you'll find parallels in how jesus instructs us to approach the christian life in luke 11. he says that if we don't recognize the real nature of the enemy then we're going to be ill-equipped to survive the battle you see just like in the in the war on the so-called war on terror our enemy in this battle is not one entity that we can isolate and identify he doesn't have a headquarters somewhere like hollywood or big business he's not at work in only one particular culture that you can identify and isolate nor is he isolated to one political party you're going to certainly find him at work in each of those things but he's also at work in our churches and in our families and even in our own hearts and see that requires different strategies of engagement by the way in illuminating these things for us here in luke 11 jesus also is going to answer a question that a lot of us ask particularly around around the new year and that is why do we struggle so much to bring real change into our lives why do we struggle so much to bring real change into our lives most of us have things that we'd love to change but many of us are discouraged at our persistent inability to do so some of you did not even make a resolution this year because you don't need anything else to feel guilty about failing that amen listen jesus is going to explain that that's because spiritual forces are at work in us the reason we struggle sometimes to bring actual lasting change is because because we are wrestling not just against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces and apart from his power any attempt to change is doomed to fail because we are wrestling against the power that is greater than us and so we're doomed to fail even if for a little while he's going to show you even if for a little while it looks like you succeed let's take a look let's take a look luke chapter 11 verse 14. now jesus now jesus was driving out a demon that was mute or that was making the man mute now let's just stop right here because some of you might say really like jesus actually believed that some physical or psychological problems were caused by demons short answer yes and that is consistent throughout the bible there's a lot more going on behind the scenes in in these things than we might realize maybe that strikes you as naive you say well now we know here in the 21st century we know that diseases have viral causes and emotional and spiritual problems can be explained by psychological and and sometimes even physiological stresses or the result of past trauma and by the way i don't think jesus would disagree with you that is not in inconsistent with what the scriptures teach about these things and and it's why god gave us the scientific method but that jesus would say that if you think all of life's issues can be explained by merely physical factors well then maybe you are the naive one do you really think that that the root of the holocaust was just a man with chemical imbalances do you really think that the strife and and the division we experience in our own society now is simply owing to differing political ideologies when we see the rage that animates the discussions that we're in how can we not see evidence of evil spiritual forces at work whose intent is to divide and to destroy today when we look at our society's disregard for the lives of innocent babies in the womb and the and the dogged determination to celebrate our right to discard them how do we not see the evidence of spiritual forces at work when we think about the tragic history of of racial blindness or blindness on racial injustice how do we not recognize in in in that tragic history the hand of the enemy so yes evil in our world has physical explanations but if you think that physical factors alone explain all human evil and suffering perhaps you perhaps you are the naive eve when jesus would say and that's why the vast majority of people throughout history even today the vast majority of people around the globe have recognized the reality of supernatural spiritual forces at work it's one of the things that almost all religions have in common and that's not because everybody else around the world is so naive and we alone are so sophisticated now to be clear this is not to say that every problem is directly connected to demonic activity not at all just that according to jesus these things are sometimes at work back to verse 14. when the demon came out the man who had been mute spoke and the crowds were amazed but some of them said no no he drives out demons by beelzebull the ruler of the demons now quick note here um beelzebub means the ruler of demons or lord of dung scholars say it was a bit slang kind of a curse word in those days calling somebody the lord of dung but using the the curse word for for doug calling jesus the the lord of the demons the lord of dung was a way that the religious leaders could explain away his power i mean jesus obviously had supernatural powers nobody was denying that but they didn't want to acknowledge that he was from god because if they acknowledged he was from god then they would have to submit to him so the only alternative was to say that he got his obviously supernatural power he got that from satan verse 17 knowing their thoughts by the way by the way have you noticed how many times this phrase occurs in luke it's another hint by luke that jesus is god because he always knew what everybody was thinking right away so he told them he told them every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction and a house divided against itself fells if satan also is divided against himself how will his kingdom stand now this is as logically simple as it gets right how does it make sense that satan would empower jesus to destroy satan's other works if satan is the one behind certain diseases and afflictions if he loves to spread spread dung into people's lives in the form of disease and death and strife why would he then turn around and empower jesus to clean up those very things satan's works go the opposite way of jesus's verse 19 jesus continues he says and if i drive out demons by be eligible by whom do your sons drive them out for this reason your sons your the people your leaders are going to be your judges here here's his second piece of reasoning if i cast out demons by satan's power then by whose power are your sons casting them out by what standard in other words are you going to say that my power is from satan but their power is from god if my powers are from satan maybe maybe your powers are also what he's doing is he's showing them the inconsistency of their accusation theirs is not an honest intellectual objection they're just making up objections because they don't really like jesus by the way i found that exact same insight really helpful when i'm talking to people about the gospel today a lot of people come up with objections but they're not real objections because they would never apply those those same standards to themselves many muslims for example apply a historical cynicism to christian history that they would never apply to their own they believe all these conspiracy theories about the bible but would never look at their own history to the same lens or maybe on your college campus you will hear professors apply a cynicism to the historical evidence for the resurrection or or the writing of the bible that they wouldn't want to they would wouldn't want to apply to any other event in history they assumed that for this one event that there was some elaborate almost inexplicable historical ruse or or they'll raise questions and objections from christian history like what about the crusades and they'll imply that that those things invalidated christianity itself and when you respond by saying well well yes the crusades were indeed a tragic a tragic chapter where christians departed from jesus's teaching and you say but i'll see your crusades and raise you mouse of tongues china and stalin's russia which in the name of atheism committed genocides exponentially larger than anything that happened in the crusades when you say that they they respond well that's got nothing to do with the intellectual integrity of of atheism and jesus would say to them as he says to these people why are you applying a cynicism to me that you would never apply to yourself perhaps your cynicism has less to do with intellectual honesty and more to do with a dislike of jesus and his claim of authority over your life so jesus continues after two devastating pieces of logic he says verse 20 and if i drive out demons by the finger of god but then you should know that the kingdom of god has now come upon you this finger of god image here is a reference that every one of those religious leaders would have recognized the finger of god was a phrase that the egyptian sorcerers used to describe the power that moses displayed in the in the plagues of the exodus in the exodus you might recall this god did a series of miracles to convince pharaoh to let the jews leave egypt you remember this well for the first couple of plagues the egyptian magicians were able to to use some trickery to replicate some of the plagues so for example moses threw his staff on the ground then it became a snake and the egyptian magicians had this little trick rod where they could make it look like they had that same power um and now it doesn't tell us whether they were merely you know doing some kind of optical illusion or if there was some kind of sorcery involved but either way in exodus chapter 8 moses raises the stakes and this time he takes his staff and he throws it into the dust and as the dust you know kind of poofed up into the air it turns into into what you remember this turns it the dust turns into gnats and from there gnats multiplied and covered the land well the egyptian magicians couldn't duplicate that they couldn't replicate that created an optical illusion where it looks like a staff turns into a snake is one thing but but this creating gnats out of dust well they couldn't touch that and so they they tell pharaoh privately this is exodus 8 19 this is the finger of god we can't touch this even the pagan magicians knew the finger of god when they saw it jesus is now saying your jewish exorcists can do some impressive things but they can't do anything like what you're seeing here and it's safe to conclude that if the finger of god is present then so is the messenger of god the power of the kingdom indicates the presence of the king and you should see that the kingdom of god has come upon you jesus continues verse 21 when a strong man fully armed guards his estate his possessions are secure but when one's stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him then he takes from him all his weapons that he trusted in and he divides up his plunder now stop in this analogy who is the strong man you got to get this straight who's the strong man in this analogy satan and who is the stronger man that's jesus jesus is the stronger man that overpowers satan and plunders his possessions in this parable and this is really important who are you right you're the property you're first owned and controlled by the strong man but then you're liberated by the stronger man the implication is and this is really important you're either going to belong to one to the strong man or to the other the stronger man you can't be free of a strong man until you're under the control of the stronger man see what he says in verse 23 verse 23 anyone who is not with me is against me and anyone who does not gather with me scatters neutrality toward jesus he says is not an option and so if you are not actively pursuing and serving jesus you're against him because you're still under the control of the strong man you're like well i'm not against jesus i'm not really a fully devoted follower of his jesus would say that category doesn't exist unless you're actively pursuing and serving me you are against me we're going to come back to that but let's first let's finish this parable because jesus makes the point even clearer in verse 24 when an unclean spirit comes out of a person it roams through waterless places looking for rest and not finding rest it then says i'll go back to my house that i came from returning it finds the house swept and put in order now jewish law demanded these rigorous cleaning techniques after you'd gotten rid of any kind of disease or defilement it even applied to your property for example if you had a mold problem in your house you couldn't just clean it up with soap and water or a bottle of clorox leviticus said the book of leviticus in your bible said that you had to remove that whole section of the wall and if the mold came back you had to burn the whole house down jesus uses this kind of extreme zeal in cleanliness as a picture of the person who tries to use the law to clean their life up what does that look like well they get rid of their bad habits throw all their bad habits out of there out of their house and cut them out they get rid of bad relationships right they get their addictions under control they turn over in every way a new leaf they are serious about change radical change but verse 26 then that unclean spirit goes and brings seven other spirits even more evil than itself and they enter and settle down there as a result that person's last condition is worse than the first because now they've got not just one demon they've got one demon plus the other seven which makes a total of eight the demons don't mind the cleanup in fact they kind of like it and it certainly does not stop them from coming back in much bigger numbers the use of the number seven by the way there is intentional it's meant to imply completion that's what what's what seven always means in hebrew it's like saying the last state of that man is infinitely worse than the first state listen religion and self-improvement religion or self-improvement apart from jesus opens the door to more deceptive and more dangerous demons in your life that's not something you usually hear in church but it's true religious change or self-improvement is often accompanied by pride and judgmentalism and a sense of self-sufficiency and those things are infinitely worse than alcoholism or or a bad temper tim keller uses this illustration he says say you got a little boy who falls down and scrapes his knee up and and let's say that he's really being overly emotional about it right and so his dad comes over and his dad says something like son get up be a man you don't want to be a little pansy for the rest of your life do you stop crying okay here's my question can that motivation help that little boy stop crying it can his dad's words can help him sweep his house tame his emotions get some control but but what's very subtly has happened in that little boy's heart now the little boy didn't just take himself back from being overly emotional no now he's given himself to a new master and that is the master of of being afraid of looking weak and let's say that becomes a driving force in his life never look weak because weakness makes you deficient as a person so you got to cover it at all cost and despise it in others now i want you to imagine this guy's marriage one day you can't have a healthy marriage if you're always scared of looking weak and despising those who do or if you're always shutting off your emotions so yes the dad's motivation through the dad's motivation the little boy was freed from being overly emotional got rid of one demon but he did so by giving himself to a new master a worse one the medication had worse side effects than the than the disease did so yeah you conquered alcoholism but you developed a judgmental and arrogant spirit that's seven times worse you overcame your insecurity by becoming a driven domineering and self-sufficient person that's seven more demons you avoid conflict by by retracting inward and just not having any friends anymore and shutting yourself off emotionally seven more demons you avoid pain by never committing to anybody never giving yourself to anybody seven more demons you see jesus is the only master who can free you from your demons and make you whole again it's ironic but freedom in the christian life only comes from giving yourself fully to jesus so now that we're here at the end of this passage let's ask what does this passage teach us what does it teach us about about how to change how to change both our own lives and how we impact others with change well see jesus teaches us in this passage that there are two conditions for real change two conditions for real spiritual power number one is in verse 23. write down number one total surrender again verse 23 anybody who's not with me is against me you're not actively with me if you're not pursuing me then you are against me and anybody who does not gather with me scatters until you are under the full possession of the stronger man's authority you are powerless to fend off the domination of the strong man satan no matter how much you want him gone clean up or self-reform or pledges to do better aren't gonna do it you're either all in with team jesus or you're still on team satan to be on team jesus means that you have surrendered a hundred percent of who you are not just your bad habits but all your hopes all your dreams all your ambitions all your ideas all that you ever hope to be you've given that all to him now you say oh pastor hold on hold on no way i i may not be a fully committed christian but i don't belong to satan well look your argument's not with me your argument's with jesus yes you do it's what he said when i was a student pastor years ago when i was first getting into ministry i had this little illustration i used with with teenagers and i actually thought about doing here with you today but i just thought it might be a little much but i'll do part i i'll give you the gist of it i used to put up chairs like this um in front of them and say this represents a fence and i would get up on here and say this represents the person who's in church right and they're not fully committed to jesus on this side but they're also not like you know tried to be a bad person and i want to go you know i want to get rid of god and i want to follow satan and that represents this side of the fence and there's like i'd say a lot of high school students maybe even most high school students in church they're kind of riding that fence pretty hard not fully committed jesus not not totally rejecting him either and then in this in this little like bearable skid i would have um different people come from either side representing somebody trying to get them to go to that side so you got somebody that that comes in from the the devil side and they're like hey let's go do drugs and let's go you know rob stuff and the person's like no that's not the kind of person i am i've got morals i don't want to do that and then somebody from the other side would say like hey let's go let's man let's let's let's study the bible let's let's really you know um let's give ourselves to to jesus and his work and ministry and a person's like no i'm not like a bible banger i'm not a jesus freak i don't want to do that i and and three or four people come on and the person resists every time so they're like no i i'm not comfortable either totally walking away from jesus but i'm also not comfortable yet fully giving myself to him and then at the very end of this thing and you have one person comes in that represents um uh that represents uh the devil and one person that comes and represents an angel and the angel takes the people that are fully following jesus this way and and the devil takes all the people that followed him this way but then at last he grabs this person upon the fence and says you belong to me too at which the person strenuously objects and says no no i never chose you i never said i wanted to to run away from jesus and i wanted to go with satan and and uh the the the demon kind of smiles and says oh but you don't understand see the devil owns the fence the fence is actually part of his property and until you've gotten off of that fence and onto the property of of being fully surrendered to jesus you still belong to satan because the devil owns the fence that you're standing on so what that means is is what jesus is saying in verse 23 that you're either fully surrendered to jesus you've either taken your hands off of everything or you're still a possession of satan i know that's hard to hear but it's true jesus doesn't or sorry satan doesn't care if you if you if you don't recognize that satan doesn't care that you don't call him master because you still belong to him you say well no no i wouldn't be like those i wouldn't be like those religious rulers who called jesus the ruler of dumb and crucified him yes you would because there's only two teams it's like we often say here at the summit church in every heart there's a throne and a cross in your heart there's a throne and a cross if jesus is on the throne well that means you got to be on the cross means you have to die to control of your own life that's what the cross represents death to your own control but if you are on the throat if you're still calling the shots well then jesus has to be on the cross now he doesn't come just to somebody to walk beside you he comes as lord and master and the only response is surrender so the only question is are you fully surrendered because if you're not fully surrendered you're not on team jesus it reminds me of c.s lewis's analogy c.s lewis said we we come to jesus a lot of times like people who recognize that our house the house of our life is in disrepair disarray it's dirty it's smelly the carpet is old-fashioned and worn out and we hear we hear that jesus can fix those things and so we ask him to help us clean it up and he does but then he starts knocking down walls and you're like wait a minute jesus i just wanted to clean up i wanted to help tidying up my my room my marriage some help tidying up my habits and my career and my kids and etcetera and jesus says well yeah i can help you with all those things but to get that help the house has to belong entirely to me i don't come just as your divine servant to help you become a more and better you i come as the owner i'm not here to take requests i'm here to take over and if i'm not lord of all then i'm not lord at all and so it means that if you come to jesus the only way to come is in total surrender to say jesus all that i am all that i have all that i ever hope to be i now and forever offer to you we don't come to god see us lewis said we don't come as bad people who need to be made into better people we come as rebels who must lay down our arms that's how we come total surrender we're not here to turn over a new leaf we come and surrender to receive a new life listen before we go to our our last point i actually want to stop right here and i want to do something that we do often in church but i i want to to give it a particular angle today to take an angle on and that is we're going to take communion together communion represents the the the the wine and the bread represents our union with jesus christ it's represents the fact that the person who belongs to jesus has given himself fully to him and his blood has washed away our sins and and his body his broken body is now our sufficiency and our strength and it's it's what gives us the power of new life um if you were one of our campuses when you came in you were handed um this coveted safe uh uh communion packet that has both the bread and the cup there together i want you to take it out i want you to open it up if you're at home you might even want to pause this video if you don't have the stuff in front of you and get something that um can be the juice and the and the bread for you um we're going to take this together as you're pulling this out i want to say this okay this is for people who have already trusted jesus and already received him it's a symbol it reminds you it declares to yourself and to others i belong to him there's not something to do to try to get close to god it's not something that that he looks on with favor just because you did it so that means if you're not yet a follower of jesus if you've never received him then this is not for you don't take it a scripture even says it can be spiritually harmful for you if you do but i have an invitation for you and here's that invitation you right now as this is in your hand if you've never surrendered yourself to jesus this could be your surrender you could be saying lord jesus i receive you i'm ready to surrender i'm ready to give my all to you the point is not the taking of the uh of the element the point is is is whether your heart has been given to jesus so if you never have in this very moment why doesn't this become your offer of surrender say jesus i believe that you died on a cross to pay for my sins and i give myself totally and completely to you if you'll take this out right now if you don't have it out take the bread jesus said for those who have received me as their savior for those ready to surrender fully to me this bread represents my body which is broken for you he said take it and when you do it remember me in the same way he said this cup represents my blood that was poured out for the forgiveness of your sins it's the only purchase price of salvation it's the only thing that is capable of saving you jesus said i want you if you have received me as a declaration to others as a declaration to yourself if you know that i you have received me and and i've forgiven your sins and i want you to take it i want you to drink it and i want you to do it in remembrance of me [Music] right now there with heads bowed eyes closed i want you to express to god your thankfulness for jesus as your stronger man for jesus as the possessor of you as his possession his forgiveness of sins and promises of eternal life and just say thank you jesus if you've never surrendered yourself to him right now or jesus this represents the giving of myself to you all of me to you now for all of you i want you to ask god give me the wisdom to understand and apply what i hear next open my heart to your truth in jesus name amen really quickly right last thing number two write down prayer the second way to access the divine power is through prayer earnest unrelenting prayer if you look at uh we didn't read this part but in the passage right before this one the first 13 verses of this chapter of chapter 11 jesus had been teaching about the power of prayer you can go back and read it later but he tells a story about a man who had unexpected visitors in the middle of the night and he needed bread to feed these guests so he goes over to his neighbor's house in the middle of the night knocks and knocks and knocks and knocks on the door until his friend finally gets up and gives him the the loaves that he's asking for and this jesus says again this is first part of chapter 11. um the chapter we read from today he said this jesus says is how you should pray right persistently unrelentingly and then he concludes that teaching by saying this verse 13 if you have your bible look at it if you know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will the heavenly father give the holy spirit the stronger man to those who ask him then jesus tells the story goes right into the story about the demons what he's saying is this if you want the power of the holy spirit if you want the spirit of jesus the stronger man in and through your life that's the holy spirit then you're going to get it not only not only through surrender but you're also going to get that through desperate urgent unrelenting prayer jesus reinforced this in another place by the way mark 9 there was a man who brought his son who was afflicted by a demon that caused convulsions in his son um this man brought that son to jesus like the story we looked at a couple weeks ago with the friends lower the guy you know jesus help him this father brings the son to jesus and says help him and well first he brings them to the disciples but the disciples are unable to cast the demon out so they bring the father and the boy to jesus and jesus cast the demons out after the incident was over right in their sort of debriefing time the disciples are like hey jesus why couldn't we drive the demon out we tried all the you know said all the right things and we pointed and we you know put our hand on his forehead yelled demons out why couldn't we why wouldn't the ball go in when we shot it jesus told him mark 9 29 it's because this kind come out by nothing except for prayer mark 9 29 by the way some manuscripts add the words and fasting this comes out ex only by prayer and fasting god unleashes the power of the stronger man through us into the lives of others into the sun that has the is afflicted by the demon he releases that power through desperate urgent unrelenting prayer listen to me what your friends what your kids what they need is not your sweeping and cleaning efforts in their lives i don't care how thoroughly how extensive that sweeping is what they need is the presence of the stronger man your cleaning efforts cannot expunge the demonic activity from them it takes the power and the presence of the stronger man and that only comes through prayer so if that's true well can i not our heads of that why then do we spend so much time thinking about how to talk to men about god and so little time talking to god about those men you see summit summit church that's the reason we've begun this year with 21 days of fashion in prayer we want to see the finger of god in our community and our church and our families amen we want to see it here in our church we want to see it we want to see it on our children don't you want to see that the answer is yes you see that only comes jesus says by fervent unrelenting prayer the good news is that the stronger man the strong man right more powerful that that he be more powerful than he may be than us this strong man is no match for the power of the stronger man verse 22. you see it when one stronger than he attacks and overpowers him when jesus attacks and overpowers satan he takes from him all his weapons that he trusted in and divides up his plunder it's a route jesus plunders him humiliates him you know i kind of both love and and um a little disappointed in how the book of revelation depicts the final battle um here's why because it's kind of anti-climactic you got all these battle forces arrayed against jesus and they're all ready to do warfare against him and and they show up there and you're expecting some kind of lord of the rings style epic battle but jesus walks under the scene and just speaks a word and all his enemies basically evaporate and i was kind of like man i wanted a little more action after all revelation i want a little more action there i want a little more lord of the rings stuff but see the point is actually even better their power is no match for his he just speaks and they're gone he's the stronger man he is the finger of god you see the good news is that god has called you and i to bring the power of the strong man into other people's lives again verse 22 when the stronger one then he attacks and overpowers him he takes from him all his weapons that he trusted in all his weapons that he trusted it um and he divides up his plunder what's satan's plunder it's the souls of people around us that satan holds captive it's our children it's friends headed toward destruction it's friends in decimated marriages they're held captive by the strong man we want to bring them the power of the stronger man friend what jesus wants to do with you is just it's more than just help you survive or endure the christian life he wants to use you to plunder satan's kingdom he didn't just come to give you peace like a river in your soul or warm fuzzies on a cold night he wants to use you to plunder the works of the enemy around you but when one stronger than he attacks and overpowers him he takes from him all his weapons he trusted in and divides up his plunder we'll see if you knew how to give good gifts to your children how much more will the heavenly father give the holy spirit the stronger man to those who ask him missionaries that work in places all around the world where satan holds people captive under earthly governments that keep people in bondage from hearing the gospel hey this promise is for you for those of you who are at work in our city in places where there's poverty and injustice in pregnancy centers where women consider what to do with a precious unborn baby that satan wants to destroy this promise is for you do parents that are discouraged and feel overwhelmed by the influence of the world on your children to husbands concerned with what is happening in in the life of your spouse or or wives that are concerned in this this promise is for you you're like i don't know how to defend off the strong man i've tried everything i've cleaned and i've cleaned and it's just useless this promise is for you to those you who know somebody that that you sense is afflicted physically emotionally spiritually by our enemy this promise is for you right you don't need any more sweeping techniques you need the stronger man and he's ready to use you but see these kinds go out only by prayer and fasting to see as we close i have a two-part invitation for you the first one i'll repeat from a moment ago are you surrendered are you ready to surrender did you do that during the time we celebrated communion in fact everybody bow their heads if they would everybody to bow their heads with me if you haven't yet surrendered and you're ready to it just sounds like this jesus i believe that only you can save me and i surrender myself to you hey if you're doing that today whether you did it a few moments ago when we did communion or doing it now if you're at one of our campuses could you just raise your hand just hold your hand up for just a minute i can't see everybody but just raise your hand there if you're at home or if you're in front of a computer i want you to text the word ready r-e-a-d-y to three three nine three three just text the word ready to three three nine three three here's the second part of my invitation some of you've been doing battle with the strong man you've seen the strong man in your kids you've seen it in the friend around you there's something that you sense is more than just physical it's the enemy what do you need to who do you need to pray for is it you is it somebody else at all of our campuses if you're one of those campuses we're going to have prayer counselors that are going to come and rather get it into place right now all right i want everybody at all of our campuses or if you're in one of our home groups right and you is it it works i want you to stand okay everybody at our campuses i want you to stand and i want you to come right now if you've got some burden that you need to pray for something that we can just side by side with you go and with great prayer say god deliver them from the strong man and god the stronger man come and take over once you come right now don't wait till the end come right now they'll be here after the service yes but come right now to them you're stepping out now and you're coming all right if you're at home then and and this is you and you're like there's no way to go and pray with i want you to click the request prayer button you'll see it right there if you're there on your computer click request prayer and a live host an actual human being will will pray with you right now in the private chat and if you're watching on on demand you can email prayer at summitchurch.com and somebody from our team will reach out to you okay father i pray for those right now that are unleashing burdens we pray god that this would be a church characterized by the presence of the stronger man we pray this god in jesus name amen [Music] what gift of grace is jesus my there is no more for heaven now to give he is my joy my righteousness and freedom my steadfast love my deep and boundless piece [Music] to these i hope my hope is only jesus [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in [Music] his power is [Music] [Applause] me [Music] [Music] the future shore the price it has been paid for jesus played and suffered and he was raised [Music] is oh would you rejoice in him and with every breath long to follow jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day i know he will renew before [Music] is my hope is only jesus [Music] shall repeat i but through christ in me [Music] amen uh man summit family one of the things that pastor jd shared and he shared this before but you know in every human being there is either a throne or a cross and if you are on the throne then jesus is on the cross but if jesus is on the throne in your life you are on the cross and it really does mean that we have to die to ourselves we have to surrender um but one of the things that i've found in my just time following jesus is that there's a way to a man that feels like life that in its end it actually leads to death and there's also a way the way that jesus taught that actually kind of feels more like death but its end brings life to us and so as we surrender to him it's amazing how much we receive from him and how much he meets us in our needs wow that's incredible and if that's you if you're ready to go on the cross and fully surrender so that jesus can be on the throne of your life then you can text the word ready r-e-a-d-y-33933 or we would love to just pray with you right now right now if you're watching live you can click the button request prayer and a live host will pray with you right now in a private chat room and if you're watching on demand please email us at prayer summitchurch.com and we would love to pray with you if you are in the area we also have in-person gatherings available for you at many of our campuses also as our in-person numbers have increased we've been really thinking about as a church leadership team how best can we continue to worship god in our gatherings together but how also can we keep everyone safe so actually beginning january 24th next sunday we'll be moving to two services on sundays at 9 00 and 11 a.m to open up even more space for you to feel comfortable as we worship together that's awesome and if you choose to stay online in this season or if you're watching from out of town then we will still meet online every sunday live at 9 or 11 or you can find the full service on our youtube channel perfect hey if you do call the summit church home i want to encourage you to give towards the mission here you know we put our weekly resources we give to local organizations that serve our city we support our missionaries globally and continue to use all that we receive from you to advance the kingdom of god here in raleigh durham and around the world so if you'd like to give you can text the word give to 33933 to set up a one-time gift or a recurring gift as one of the pastors at the summit i just want to say thank you so much for your continued generosity the lord is truly taking it and multiplying it and using it to meet the needs of people all over the world amen well summit family i want to encourage you as we begin as a church in these 21 days of fasting and prayer that as you are fasting when you feel those hunger pains or maybe you feel that inclination to get on your phone and scroll use that as a cue to turn to god and trust that he is going to provide something new as you trust him same thing in our prayer like we're praying for our families we're praying for ourselves we're praying for our cities we're praying for our country and we don't just pray believing that god is impotent to meet these needs we pray believing that the god who who tells us come ask seek knock come and ask and i will give to you that he's going to answer in amazing ways for more information about this as well as other resources to help you grow spiritually be sure to text next steps n-e-x-t s-t-e-p-s to 3-3-9-3-3 summit we look forward to seeing you again next week you are sent [Music] you

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Published: Sat Jan 16 2021