Spiritual Warfare Simplified: 3 Forces You Need to Know

Here today. Are you guys ready to worship? Come on. We got the joy of the Lord today. So, no matter what the weather's like, we can bring the joy. So, come on, hands up.

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We sing, I'm on my way back home. I'm on my way back home. This time I'll bring a soul. In you I have my freedom. Your joy makes me strong. It makes me strong. You don't need my perfection cuz I'm living in your presence. Your mercy's overflowing. You are all I need. You're all I need. The joy. The joy. Oh, of the Lord rejoice. Oh, it restores. Rejoice of the Lord is my strength. Is my strength. You're doing something new in me. I want to keep this fire burning. The past has no hold on me. Cuz the price you paid has set me free to joy. Oh, the Lord joy. Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength is my strength. I'll keep on going full of the spirit guiding me all my way. Joy of the Lord is my strength. Is my strength. Joy is our rhythm. Joy is our strength. Spirit moving us in the flame. Your morning lift up your name. His kingdom forever. Your joy is our rhythm. Your joy is our strength. Spirit move in us as we stand the flame. We'll praise in the morning and of your name. Cuz yours is the kingom forever. Rejoice. Oh, [Applause] rejoice. Oh, rejoice. Rejoice my joy. I'll keep on running. I'll keep on going. Full of faith. The spirit is guiding on my way. Lord is my Come on, church. You ready to keep praising? Come on. You ready to keep praising today? Come on.

I'm clean. Sin was stained on me and shame was running deep. But your love was built on Calvary. Oh, hallelujah. I'm clean. God, how can it be? I'm ransom and redeemed. I'm standing in your victory. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water. Washed in the blood. I'm as good as new. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water. Washed in the blood. All because of you. Oh, hallelujah. I'm leaving. It's not what I have done, but what you've done in me. You paid it all upon that tree. Oh, hallelujah. I'm clean. Your love has overcome. Hey, and your mercy is supreme. Hey, I'm living in your victory. Oh, hallelujah. I'll be washed in the water. Washed in the blood. I'm as good as you. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water. Washed in the blood. All because of you. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water. Washed in the blood. I'm as good as you. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water. Washed in the blood. All because of you. Oh, hallelujah. Cuz you took away my s. Come on. And you nailed it to the cross. You got me running out the grave. Hallelujah. Woo. Cuz you took away my s and you n to the cross. You got me running out the grave. Hallelujah. Here I come. You took away my cuz you took away my s to the cross. Hey, you got me running. Hallelujah. You know my to the cross. You got me riding on the grave. Hallelujah. Ille.

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Come on everybody dance. Holly Holly Hallelujah. Hal Holly Hallelujah. Come on. Holly, holly, hallelujah. Hal, holly, hallelujah. [Applause] Holly, hallelujah. Come on and rejoice. I've been washed in the water. Washed in the blood. I'm as good as new. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water. Washed in the blood. All because of you. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah.

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>> Come on. This morning, can we just realign our hearts? Remind our souls today that the reason that we're here, the reason we're worshiping is not what we can get from God, but it's what we can give to him. And we can give him our worship. We can give him our praise. No matter what your day looked like, your morning looked like, this is why we're here is because of Jesus. It's all about him. So Jesus, we just thank you right now. This is all about you. We realign our hearts. We remind our souls, God, that this is all about you. We set our eyes on you and we worship you because of who you are and what you've done for us. Not for what we could gain.

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Coming back to just me and you. Just a heart song singing out of. I remember the simplicity. Just to feel you here was everything. Stunned by your beauty. This is my offering. Not for anything that I could get. just to honor you and bring you praise. Like a fragrance broken on the floor. Let my worship be pure. There's no motive. There's no motive. There's no hidden catch. Here's my all and I don't want it back. Like a fragrance broken on the floor. May my worship be pure. Find me. Find me like a child again. Full of wonder, full of innocence. Before anything got in the way, any dream or any accolade. You make it easy. You make it easy. Easy to bring me. Not for anything. Not for anything that I could gain, just to honor you and win you praise.

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Like a fragrance broken on the floor. May my worship be pure. There's no motive. There's no motive. There's no hidden catch. Here's my all and I don't want it back. Like a fragrance broken on the floor.

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Let my worship be pure. Pure thanks, pure praise. Nothing in the way. My heart, my love, this is all you want.

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Heat. Heat. Heat.

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Oh,

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you

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like you.

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Oh, this is all about you. Come on, we sing that. It's all about And it's all about you. All about you. And it's all about you. All about you.

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Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat.

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Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah, I could just honor just to honor you and bring you like a fragrance broken

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I worship. There's no there's no

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here's my like broken

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mayorship.

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Heat. Heat.

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Heat.

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Heat.

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all about you. This is all about you. And it's all about you. And it's all about you. All about you. And it's all about you. All about you. And it's all about all about you. All about you. And it's all about It's not for anything. Not for anything that I could gain just to honor you and bring you praise. Like a fragrance broken on the floor. May my worship be pure. There's no motive. There's no motive. There's no hitting cash. Here's my all and I don't want it back. Like a fragrance broken on the floor. May my worship be pure. Oh Jesus.

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You're worthy of my worship. You're worthy of my praise. There's no one like you. There is no one like you Jesus. You alone are everything. Holy, holy, worthy, worthy. All the glory to the There is no one. There is no one like you Jesus. You alone are every holy, holy, worthy, worthy. All the glory to the one more time. There is no one like you Jesus. You alone are everything. Holy, holy, worthy, worthy. All the glory to the king. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, we just thank you. As we stand in God's presence right now, I want you to just see God is looking at you face to face. He's not looking down at you. He's not mad at you, but he's calling you up. He's looking at you right now. He knows your name. I don't know why, but I just I feel like there's some stirring that's going on right now. And there's an uncomfortable feeling you might be feeling, but it's because God is saying that the day of just comforting you and the same old same old thing, God is stirring the waters right now in your spirit. He's stirring the foundations of your soul. He's stirring up some things that you didn't realize. There's some things that are going on inside of you right now that you're wondering why it's happening. Maybe you're watching online and you have these questions, but I mean in this moment right now, I want you to see God is standing right there. He's saying, we're saying, "Here I am." But God's saying, "I'm ready for a people who haven't even been calling on me. I'm ready to help those who haven't even been reaching out to me." And now you got to reach out. You got to reach out of your heart. You got to say, "Father, yes, I answer the call. I answer the call." Because it's not about something coming to you. It's us taking a ho hold hold of what's in us and releasing it. So I want there's a lion in this place and there's a roaring that I feel is about to come out. And I feel like God is wanting to stir us up so that we're not going to just settle because guess what? Conference didn't end two weeks ago. This is the sixth session. We're going to keep going. We're going to keep moving up. We're going to keep shouting louder. Come on. I want to hear life changers. I want to hear some life changers. Let's go. Let's go. Let that lion roar that's on the inside of you because God has a plan and it's time for us Life Changers Nation. It's time for us to ready ourselves.

>> So, this is like a place right now where we're safe. We're good. It's good. But I want you to get ready to shout. I want you to start to recognize that the day of you just being the same, the mediocre, and letting somebody else do the praising, letting someone else do the healing, letting someone else do the praying, letting someone else do the prophesying, letting someone else do the singing. No, I'm talking to everybody. Everybody in this house, God is stirring the waters. And you got to jump in. You got to jump in. You got to start to sing. You got to just start letting it out. Just let it out right now as the Holy Spirit leads you. Let out that voice. Let out that shout. Let's go. Let's go. Hallelujah.

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Come on. Come on. Keep going. He's worthy. I want everybody. He's worthy. He's worthy. He's worthy. He's worthy. Come on. I don't hear you. I don't hear you. He's worthy. He's worthy.

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We are the dreamers of the dream. We are the atmosphere conductors. When you walk into a room, demons walk backwards.

>> You have God's presence. You have the fire. Revival starts inside of you. So, I want us to just not be passive anymore. I want us to just get passionate about the Lord right now. And I just want you to stir yourself up. And I just say whatever's heavy, there might be a heaviness inside of you that's been trying to hold you back. And I just bind it in the name of Jesus on us and hold us back. Every yoke that's tried to tell us, "No, you're going to look stupid. You're going to look silly." I mean, I just thank you, Father, right now that you're opening up the there's the fields are white for harvest at your job, in your neighborhood, in your family. And God is awakening you right now. He's awakening you to stand up and rise up and be the light. You don't even have to say anything. You just got to be that fire and be that light of revival. Wherever you go, God is going to stir you up and stir up the world around you. So, Father, we just thank you. We receive your presence. If you receive that, lift your hands. Now, we've had a lot of Walter calls up here and we've had a lot of time. Now, we've made a lot of decisions. I want with your hands lifted that you just begin to see yourself that I am going to lead the way. If it's going to be it's going to be me. I'm going to worship. If I'm the only one, I'm going to worship with all my heart. I'm not going to hold back. Now, there's some things you're holding back. There's some things that you've been trying to hold on to. Let it go today. Let it go today. Let it go today. Let go of the pride. Let go of the worry. Let go of the fear. Let go of the shame. This is your day. Don't wait to come down here. Don't wait for pastor to pray. Come on. right now. Let go of that shame. Let go of that fear. Let go of that sickness. Sickness is trying to hold on to you. Some of you in your gut. I feel like in your gut, there's somebody here hurting in their gut. I don't know what it is, but maybe there's a tumor. Maybe there's something in those inner organs, but we just speak peace. Peace. Like a river now from that belly are going to flow. Rivers. Rivers of living water. Healing waters. Healing waters are being stirred up right now. Coming up. Coming up. Coming up. coming up out of your mouth through praise, through a song, through life. It's coming up out of you right now. Just let that river flow. Let that river flow. Let it go. Let go. Let go of the worry. Let go of the past. Come on. God's washing you. He's awakening you. He's stirring you up. Come on. Let's praise him.

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>> All about you. And it's all about you. All about you.

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It is all about you. All about you.

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all about you. There is all about you. Jesus, we thank you for who you are, that you're here in this room, that you're amongst your people. God, I thank you that we have that lion in our souls, that lion in our spirits, and we're going to speak with boldness. We're going to move forward with boldness. We're trusting your leading, God. We trust you. Our job's the trusting. Your job is the timing. But in this waiting series, in in this waiting season and period, Lord, we're going to plead the blood over our lives. We're going to plead the blood over our church, over our city, over every single person here, every single family and household. Lord, I thank you because of your sacrifice on the cross. We can identify in righteousness and we have the power to plead the blood over our lives, over our families, everyone. And we thank you. We're going to continue to speak in that confidence. We're going to continue to speak in that blood and we're going to plead the blood and we're going to believe that everything is going to work together for good for those that love you in Jesus name. Can we say amen?

>> Amen. Amen. Come on. Let's go. Let's do it.

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Now, don't get quiet on me. We're going to sing these words with power. City Chicago. Come on. We want to hear you guys from where you're at. Let's go.

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Say, "Here and now." Here and now. I draw boundaries against every weapon that's formed. The thief and his plans will pass over when he sees the red on the door. I plead the blood. I plead the blood of Jesus. I plead the blood. I plead the blood of Jesus. Come on.

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Come on, declare this. The enemy can't take my family. The enemy.

>> Why? Cuz this song belongs to the Lord.

>> Yeah.

>> So I'm not afraid to remind. Come on, use your voice. And he has no claim in this world. I clean the blood.

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I plead the blood of Jesus. I clean the blood. I blood Jesus. We thank you for the blood. We thank you for the blood. Come on. Let it rise up in your soul and in your spirit as we declare my future is glory. Come on. My future is glory to glory. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

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Heat. Heat. Heat.

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We know we

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know we the blood of Jesus.

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Come on. This is our battle cry. This is our fight song,

>> our declaration. What can wash away my sin? Come on. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood. Nothing but the blood. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood. Nothing but the blood. Nothing can for sin at all. Nothing but the blood. Nothing. Come on, let it build up. Let it rise up.

>> Nothing good that I have done. Nothing but the blood. Nothing. Come on. We say what can wash. What can I s

>> I can't hear you, church. Come on. What can make me all I can say? Heat. Heat. Heat. Nothing but the blood. Nothing but the blood. Heat. Heat.

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Heat. Heat. Heat.

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I Jesus is more than enough for a future. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. I Jesus. The blood of Jesus.

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Hallelujah. Come on, let's Oh, thank you for the blood. Come on, give him praise today. Give him praise. Give him praise, Jesus. We plead the blood of Jesus. We plead his precious blood. Father, we thank you that the blood of Jesus is over all of our families. The blood of Jesus is over our churches. The blood of Jesus is over all of the people that we work with and work for and walk with. him. Lord, we thank you that the blood of Jesus is over our bodies, the blood of Jesus over our souls, the blood of Jesus over our finances, the blood of Jesus over our past, the blood of Jesus over our present, the blood of Jesus over our future. The blood that still speaks. We give you glory. We give you praise. We give you praise. We give you glory. I just want you to stay. And I want us to stay in this worshipful atmosphere and this de declaratory atmosphere concerning the blood of Jesus because there is no there is no culture. There is no generation. There is no demon that can stop. There is no culture. There is no generation. There is no demon that can define us. Nothing can confine us. The blood of Jesus removes the limitations off of our lives. The blood of Jesus commands Satan to walk backwards. The blood of Jesus makes demons move backwards while we move forward. And I want you to know how prophetic today's service is. Everybody, I want you to just stay in this this this this ministry moment of the blood of Jesus as a as true spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is communing with the body and the blood of Jesus. God spoke to me today. And I had forgotten a lot of the lyrics of this song. But then as I as I as we were singing and as we were worshiping, I looked at my notes and I'm and my notes are exactly what this song is singing. And spiritual warfare is communion with Jesus. And he spoke to me and he said, "The battle, this is from Ephesians chapter 6. God just spoke to me earlier this morning. The battle, your battle is not against flesh and blood. Your battle is not with flesh and blood. Meaning it's not against human flesh, human blood, human people. It's not it's not our battle is not against people, not against flesh and blood. But he said, "But your victory is from flesh and blood. Our battle is not with flesh and blood, but our victory is because of flesh and blood. When we take communion, we are we are eating the flesh of Jesus. When we take communion, we are drinking his blood. And I I'm going to just get us to this moment of communion together. But I I want you to understand and hear this. Spiritual warfare is three things. I'm going to tell you the first one right now. And then we're going to we're going to take communion. Spiritual warfare is communing with Jesus. Spiritual warfare is communion. It is communing. It's an active participle. It's a it's a present participle. Means it's an active thing we do continually. Communing with Jesus is spiritual warfare. If you are talking with him and he is talking with you. If you are eating his flesh and his blood. If you are drinking him, if you are meditating on him, if you are walking with him and talking with him, there is no demon that can stop you. There is no force on earth that can stop you. There's nothing that has to confine you. We don't have to fight this battle that the world is fighting, the cultures are fighting. We're not fighting those cultures. We're not fighting those battles. We're We already have the victory because of the body and the blood of Jesus. Amen.

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I want you to see how powerful this is. Spiritual warfare is communing with Jesus. And in Exodus 25, I believe it's verse 30. Exodus 25:30. just say this scripture to you because I want you to understand the Bible describes the the bread that we eat in communion as the bread of his presence. It's called the showbread in the scripture. It's the bread of his presence. One translation says it's the bread of his face. And I heard Pastor Grace say as she was praying and prophesying that I want you to see yourself face to face. Face to face with God. He's not talking to you from He's not talking to you from above. He's not talking to you from be behind. He's not talking to you from uh to the side, to the right, or to the left, but he's talking to you face to face. And this is what's the Bible describes as the showbread. It's the it's the bread of his presence. Maybe use that translation if you guys can find the translation that says it's the it's the showbread here, but it's the bread of his presence. And you know what his presence does? His presence makes mountains melt like wax. His presence brings joy. The Bible says in his presence is fullness of joy. And here is that translation in the ESV version. And you shall set the bread of the presence. The presence is the bread of his presence. Amen.

>> What happens when his presence manifests? Psalm 68:1 says, "Let God arise." And you know the rest of the verse. Let God arise and what?

>> Let his enemies be scattered. Let God arise and what? Now, come on, say it like you mean it. Let God arise. Enemies be sc Now say it together. Say, let God arise and let his enemies be scattered. This is what happens when you take communion. This is what happens when you commune with Jesus. This is what happens when we take take this moment together. God arises. His enemies are scattered. All those that hate him have to flee and run away. Amen. Every demon has to flee. Every devil, every darkness, every former version of you, every twisted version of you, every perverted version of you, every enemy within you, every enemy outside of you, every enemy around you, it has to flee. Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered. Come on. Who believes that here today? So, I want us to take this precious body. I want us to take this precious body. I believe in the very presence of Jesus. When we take communion, I believe his presence is in this in our hands. His presence is going to be in our body. His blood is in our hands. His blood is in our body. I want you to say this with me. Say, in the name of Jesus,

>> I believe

>> that when I take communion,

>> I am receiving

>> the presence of Jesus.

>> The very presence of Jesus is arising. the the bread of his face,

>> the bread of his presence

>> that your body Jesus

>> is going to be the showbread. It's going to show all my enemies that I already have the victory. It's going to show all my enemies

>> that you are with me. Not not people are not my enemies but every enemy every spiritual emotional mental enemy must flee when I take communion because I'm communing with Jesus. Let's receive his body today. I want to invite our Chicago campus to join us as we take communion. I want to invite our global community, our online community. I want you to take communion with us. Hopefully, you have some elements with you because right now in the name of Jesus, the enemy has no power over us. because we plead the blood. The devil has no power over us because we plead the blood. The plagues of death and darkness, the darkness in our cultures, the darkness in our world, the darkness in our environments do not have power over us. They do not have us. They do not control us. We plead the blood of Jesus. We plead the blood. I want you to say this. I plead the blood of Jesus over my life, my family, my body, my mind, my emotions, my finances, my home, my church, my purpose, my calling. I plead the blood of Jesus over my past. I plead the blood of Jesus over my presence, over my present. And I plead the blood of Jesus over my future. Let's receive the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Now, I want you to know there are things that are fleeing from you right now. There's sickness and disease fleeing from you right now. There's debt and poverty fleeing from you right now. There's fear and anxiety fleeing from you right now. There's deep depression that is running from you. There's deep depression that is fleeing from you. There is depression right now. I want you to hear this. I want you to get a hold of this. There is mental illness. There is depression. There is anxiety that is on the run now. It is running from you. It's not running to you. It's not running to you. It's running from you. Sickness and disease, cancer, and tumors are disappearing, fleeing, melting like wax. people that have been afraid to testify, afraid to declare you're a Jesus lover, a Jesus disciple, a bearer of Jesus' image in your life. That fear is leaving you right now. It's leaving you right now. Boldness, boldness is coming. Boldness, boldness. We're going to be bolder than the previous generation. Bolder than our own past, bolder than our anxieties, bolder than our insecurities, bolder than how we used to be. We're going to be bold to pray for the sick, bold to love the unlovable, bold to speak the word of God, bold to pray great prayers, bold to speak great prophecies, bold to have dream great dreams in Jesus' name. Come on, let's plead the blood.

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I blood Jesus the blood.

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I breathe the blood and I bleed the blood and I brea the blood is more than enough. I the blood of Jesus my shield and my sh is my defense. I claim it over and over again. My shield in my shel is my defense. I claim it over and over again. My shield and my shoulder

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is more than enough. with the blood of Jesus.

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Come on, if you believe the blood of Jesus is more than enough, can we give Jesus some praise like we believe it?

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Amen. Amen. Do you receive that this morning? Anybody thankful you showed up to Life Changers Church on a Sunday morning? Oh, it may be a little gloomy. It may be a little rainy, but the Holy Spirit is definitely falling like rain this morning. Come on. Are you expecting for more of God's power today? Oh, I think we got to take about five or 10 more seconds and just give God Come on, Chicago. Let's give Jesus some praise. Let's lift the roof off this place. Come on. He's worthy of it. Man, I am so thankful to be found in the family of God this morning. And I'm so thankful to be here, especially with each and every one of you. Hey, before we're seated this morning, come on. Can we spread some love and just turn to somebody? Give them a hug, a handshake, introduce yourself. Come on, Chicago. Before you're seated, greet somebody. And then you can find your seat. Take an extra second or two. Find somebody you don't know. Introduce yourself. Amazing. Amazing. Well, uh my name is Rob. I'm so uh honored and and just humbled to be here with you. Hey, I want to give a special warm welcome to anyone that is here in the room or in Chicago uh for the very first time. If this is your first time, come on, church family. Can we let them know how much we love them and are thankful for them. It's your first time here, thanks for being with us. Listen, we we really really believe that you would feel at home uh this morning and uh we don't need anything from you. We just want you to feel like this is family and you can just be yourself. Uh we do have a gift for you we'd love to put in your hands before you leave. And there's a card on your seat. Um it says uh well it says welcome home. And um that's just our our hope for you that you would feel that. Um, but on that card, there's a few things you can fill out, just your name and some info that we can follow up with if you would like us to. Um, let me answer any questions you have about who we are as a church. And if you're looking for a church to be a part of, we'd love for you to consider making life changers your home. We are here for you. Um, but take that card to the guest lounge. Uh, it's in our cafe and out there in our lobby in Chicago. Uh, but we've got a gift we'd love to put in your hand. And we got just some of the friendliest, kindest, warmest people uh at our guest lounge team. They're so amazing and they would just love to greet you. And if you need prayer for anything, we'd love to pray for you before you leave today. Answer any questions, we're here for you. Um, but we're going to continue right now in our worship as we come around our giving. Anybody come ready to give this morning. Listen, we are a church that deeply believes in honoring God in our finances. Uh, this is something that we believe at the core of our being that we are called to do. Um, to put God first. Uh we don't think of God as an afterthought. We actually think of him as the first thought. And uh when we show up to church, he is everything. We we're singing about it today. We want our worship to be pure. So we put God first in our finances, too. Not just with our words. And uh there's a verse of scripture. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6, uh verse 33, he actually says, "Put seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you." And he's actually saying this coming off of a of a of a note about anxiety. And he says, "Hey, hey, I I know you're anxious about what you're going to wear, what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink. Um, but your heavenly father knows what you need." He actually knows more about what you need than you know about what you need. And uh so he says, "Seek first the kingdom." When you do that, oh man, everything's going to be added to you. And we just believe this. You know, I know if I'm being honest, I think we we would all agree that at times we we wake up on a Sunday morning and and the first thing that we think about is what am I going to wear? And I love that Jesus is so relevant in what he's saying here because that's a real thought. And I don't know about you, but I I just I see this as a challenge and as a call up from Jesus uh to let my first thought on a Sunday morning not be what am I going to wear? What am I going to eat? But what am I going to give today? What am I going to bring to the house of God? What am I going to contribute today? Oh, come on, Chicago. Did you come ready to to contribute today? This is what we're about. And so there's ways to give. I want to invite you to do that right now. Ways to give on the screen behind me. Uh if you need an envelope today, our team is going to give it to you. Uh if you want to give by cash or check. Um but scan the QR code if you want to give that way. Um you can also text to give 77977. You can send the details that are on the screen. And I also want to encourage you to to consider becoming a recurring giver. Make this a regular part of your worship, a regular part of your life. Um where this is an automatic thing. That's my favorite way to give is just set it up and let it rip because uh I'm seeking first the kingdom. How about you? Amen. Listen, we really, really believe in this principle. And I want to encourage you. I want to challenge you if you haven't taken this step yet and make today the day. Make today the day that you say, "Man, I'm not thinking about the kingdom of God as an accessory to my life. I'm actually thinking about the kingdom of God as the foundation of my life. And it's the first thing that I seek." Amen.

>> Hey, I'd love to pray over us as we give today. And let's let's pray and really believe that Jesus is he means what he says. God will add all things. Father, we thank you for this opportunity we have to partner with you to put our seed in good soil and to believe that you will provide for everything that we need. God, we know this seed is so much bigger than our own lives and our own needs. There are people, there are souls that need you, that need to hear about the gospel. Uh, and this seed is accomplishing that. We expect that it will it will produce a multiplication harvest not only in our own lives, but around this world by souls being saved and lives being changed. God, thank you for using us and we give you all the glory and all the praise in Jesus name. And everybody said, "Amen." Amen. Thank you for giving. Go ahead and give that. Um, and hey, can we thank our host team who are so amazing at serving us. These guys are just incredible. They make sure we got communion. They make sure we're able to give and be faithful. It's amazing. And uh, also, it was super rainy today and we had our parking team out there welcoming us as we drove in. We thank them, man. They are amazing in Chicago. We got our team out there in the streets just welcome us welcoming us in. And hey, listen. Um, I do want to give a quick shout to families, parents, parents, if you're in the room today. Um, we're celebrating the fall season. You know, it's October. Here we go. Uh, it's a lot of fun. A lot of fun for the fam. Um, and we want to help serve you and your family. And so, our kids team, which are amazing life changers kids, they're putting on a party on October 31st right here in Hoffman Estates. It's called Pumpkin Palooa and we're going crazy with the fall festivities. So man, if you got kids, parents, you're trying to figure out what to do um you know to celebrate this season, bring them to church Friday night, 5:30 p.m. 7:30, we'll be here for those couple hours just having a blast. Um listen, this is also a great way to invite friends uh that you haven't invited to church. Maybe you've been thinking about inviting them to church, man. Bring them to this. This is a this is a party. This is fun. And I know, you know, many parents are looking for what to do with their kids uh this next couple weeks here. So bring them to church and uh great way to invite them and kind of get them in the door and uh maybe open up their hearts to being a part of what God's doing at Life Changers. Amen. So give it up to Life Changers kids. Come on. They are amazing and they are taking care of our kids. It's awesome. Lastly, um we got a quick uh announcement for what's happening today after this service. And I actually want to invite Pastor Grace back to the stage cuz she wants to let us know what's happening. Come on. We welcome Pastor Grace as she comes to tell us what's going on today.

>> Well, today starts the kickoff for our next steps class. Now, I want to just encourage all of you if you haven't yet, you know, Rob was just talking about the amazing teams, our parking lot team, and I just want to say a big thank you to all the teams of people that served. Not to bring this up again because we're still in conference mode, but all the people who served at conference, our worship team, they were like non-stop giving us the best worship, supporting all of the people behind the scenes with hospitality. Didn't you all have a great time? And it took a whole church. It took a village. Someone said to me, "What really blessed me was that I could see how every team was working together. It was like everybody was on the same page. There was so much unity." And the Bible talks about the Queen of Sheba when she came to visit Solomon in his temple. how beautiful it was because everybody behind the scenes was getting along together. And there's something about this year. We said we were going to be knowing God intimately. We're going to be loving each other generously and we're going to reproduce ourselves exponentially. And I want to thank all those teams, all the people. God sees everything you do behind the scenes and he rewards you openly. And so maybe you're sitting here and you're like, "Well, I'm not really sure what my gifts are. I'm not sure." If you have not joined a team and we just talked about the lion rising up inside you today, it is your day to take that step. It's the next step for you. This is this church is a family and it's run by all of us. So it's all of us doing our part. Everybody, everybody, every joint supplying. Okay. So I want you to ask yourself, am I on a team? If you're not on a team, that means you need to come to the class because part of the team is getting you to be able to be strong. And you know what it does? It gives you a purpose. So when it's a rainy day and you feel like sleeping in, then you're like, "Oh yeah, I'm on the team. I got to get there." And then guess what? You get your yourself into the chair. you get yourself over here and all of a sudden you're getting in this worship and you're getting the fire and you're catching fire and you're getting you're hearing this love from other people and you're getting hugged and you're getting encouraged because if you can't we can't praise in here how are we going to do it in the world so this is all about equipping each other so I really take it seriously I really want you to ask yourself Chicago by the way you thought I wasn't going to pay attention to you I love you guys I miss you so much I want to give a big shout out to our Chicago team our core team you guys go above and beyond I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of how you give yourself and God is lighting a fire in all of us right now. So, next steps is happening in Chicago, too. So, get in that class. There's lunch provided. There's child care provided. I mean, this is living the dream. So, do it. Don't hesitate. Pastor taught us last week about not dragging our feet. Come on, children. This is our calling to worship God. Get yourself in the house and find your place. You have a place. And this is what it is. Setting the atmosphere, setting the tone, setting up somebody for a win because whatever you do for others, God will do for you. All right? So, sign up today. Come on. Can we give it up for the lovely Pastor Grace? Always encouraging. So, we will see you guys right after this service. Um, and there's be signs and everything in the lobby. If you got any questions, ask our team. But listen, did you come ready to receive the word of God today? Oh, come on. Did you come hungry, ready to receive? Can we put our hands together and welcome all the way in Chicago, welcome our pastor, Gregory Dickau.

[Music]

Oh, so good. All that's going on in the house of God and all that we're doing in this world. I've just I just realized my Bible was upside down. So, I'm turning it right side up. And we're turning the world upside down. Amen. Turning the world upside down. We are going to put God is going to use us to make things right, to turn things around, to bring revival back to our culture and our cities and our nation and the world, the nations of the world. And I want to pick up where I left off with communion because I had mentioned that there are that there are three forms of spiritual warfare or spiritual warfare is manifested and expressed in three ways for our purposes today. There certainly could be many other ways, but for our theme, for what God is speaking to our church in this season of our lives that spiritual warfare, number one is communing with Jesus, the bread of his body, the wine of his blood. Um, if we could go to um Luke 22, verse 14 in the New American Standard Bible, it says, "When the hour had come, when the time had when the time came, he took his place at the table with the apostles, and he said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer." In the New King James Bible, he says, "With fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." The NIV says, "And I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you." Notice God's desire. Notice Jesus desire has to do with you. Jesus' desire has to do with a table. Jesus' desire has to do with eating together and drinking together. He said, "I've eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." This theme of communing with Jesus is everywhere in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. In the book of Genesis, he comes to Abraham's home when they're 99 and 90 years old and the angel of the Lord appears and suddenly Sarah is able to give birth and has the child has her child Isaac. Abraham and Sarah have Isaac because Jesus shows up and communes with Abraham and with Sarah. And we see him showing up in the pillar of fire at uh at night in the smoke the pillar of cloud during the day in Exodus. We see in the book of Psalms that in the in the book of Ecclesiastes, the book of Song of Solomon, he's the husband. He's the groom and he's coming for his bride and we're his bride. Amen. And we're his family. And so we see him communing with people throughout scripture. And here at his at the moment of his death where he's about to offer himself up on the cross, he's having a meal with the people that matter most to him. I have eagerly desired to eat this meal with you. And I want to read it to you from the uh message translation. It says, 'When it was time, he sat down and all the apostles with him said and said to them, 'You have no idea how much I have looked forward to eating this Passover meal with you before I enter my time of suffering. You have no idea how much I've looked forward to eating this Passover meal with you. Notice, he has fervent desire. We have no idea how much he desires us. We are his greatest desire. We are his greatest idea and we are his greatest desire.

>> I want you to hear that. You are God's greatest idea and you are God's greatest desire. Now, if you would see yourself that way, your life will completely change. If you realize you were God's idea, then you'll sense value about yourself. Not a un not a an imbalanced value. Not thinking that you're better than anybody else, but you'll understand your value is so is so grand to God. It's so important to God. It's so high to God that you only know the value of something based on the price someone would pay to have that thing. You know, there are certain things that you there are people that have been famous artists that have just thrown paint on a canvas and because of the name of that person, because of that artist, that picture, though it's not real desirable, it doesn't look great, it's not pretty, it's not beautiful, but it's by a certain artist, its value in increases exponentially. Um, I guess they say that the Mona Lisa is one of the uh most valuable pieces of uh of of a painting, the most val one of the most valuable paintings uh in the world. I think it's valued at almost a billion dollars. It's insured up to a billion, but I think it's worth more than that, but the insurance will only cover about a billion if somebody's able to get into the the Louvre and find their way. Just just finding it is a miracle. If you ever have been to Paris and try to find the Mona Lisa, you got to dig deep. You go through walls and ceilings and basement and all over the place to find this. And then you you you look at her and and you're like, not feeling it, right? Am I right? She's not pretty. But because of the artist, it has such value.

>> You have been made by the greatest artist of all.

>> You

are his masterpiece. You're his idea. You're his art. You're the love of God's life.

You're his sole desire. He didn't come to die for buildings. He didn't come to die for animals. He didn't come to die for cultures. He came to die for people.

When it says God so loved the world, it doesn't mean that he loved the world's environment. He made nature. He doesn't mean he loves the world's nature. He made nature. It doesn't mean he loves what man has built. When he says he loves the world, he doesn't love what Satan has done to this world. He loves the people of this world. God so loved the people of the world. He doesn't love the world system. It's screwed up. It's messed up. He doesn't love our economic system. He doesn't love our political system. Doesn't love our uh uh the the s our societal systems. And so many of them are um are are are imbalanced. So many of them are are inequal. But we were created in God's image. And he we can only understand our value when we understand our who our creator is.

Amen.

It's not what country we're born in that determines our value. It's what somebody would pay to have us. So the value of the Mona Lisa painting is that somebody would actually give a billion dollars for that. Therefore, its value is at that level or higher. And what somebody would do to have that piece of art or that thing, whatever it is, its value is determined by what somebody would be willing to pay. So when God pays for us with his own blood, that shows us how valuable we are to him. That's right.

Our value is determined by the fact that we are his idea and the fact that he would give anything to have us and he gave everything to buy us back from the bondage of Satan's system.

Amen.

So spiritual warfare is communing with Jesus. How he eagerly desires you. He eagerly wants to fellowship with you. He wants to have intimacy with you. We've we've learned this year about knowing God intimately and how intimacy with God is there's emotional intimacy, there's physical intimacy, there's experiential intimacy, there is spiritual intimacy. Uh there all of these intimacies, this intellectual intimacy God wants to have with us. He's given us scriptures that will stimulate our intellect. He's given us scriptures that will heal our bodies. He's given us scripture that will bring us close to him. He's given us scripture that will heal our emotions and our souls, our damaged emotions, our traumatized emotions. Spiritual warfare is communing with Jesus. Every time you talk to Jesus, you're waging war against darkness and you're bringing light to a dark world. You're not even having to do it through any effort. You're just talking to Jesus. You're taking communion. You're lifting your hands. You're coming to church. You're communing with Jesus. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. He wanted to eat with the children of He wanted to eat with Adam and Eve. He wanted to eat with the children of Israel. He wanted to eat with Moses. He wanted to eat with Joshua. Wanted to eat with Abraham and Sarah. Wanted to eat with the with the people of the Old Testament. Want wants to eat with people in the New Testament. Wants to eat with you today to dine with you, to commune with you. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Revelation 3:20. And if anyone opens the door and hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and I will dine with him. I will suck with him and he with me. I will experience him and he will experience me. They will experience me. She will experience me. We are experiencing Jesus by receiving him, by hearing his voice. We're experiencing Jesus by coming to church. We're experiencing Jesus by opening up our Bibles. We're experiencing Jesus by lifting up our hands. We're experiencing him. This is conducting your warfare for you.

You don't have to shout at demons. Commune with Jesus and demons flee.

Commune with Jesus and worry flees. Commune with Jesus and anxiety stops.

Commune with him while I still have anxiety. Keep communing.

Keep talking to him.

Keep listening to him. Keep coming through the doors. Keep bringing people in your tough times. Keep praying when you don't feel like it. Keep talking to God when you're mad at him.

Or be silent and listen to him because he'll tell you he's going to make it right.

He's going to finish what he started.

He's going to fix what's broken.

He's going to take care of what you are have been taken care for. He doesn't want us to take the care and him to take the care also. take your pick. Either you can carry your cares or you can cast your cares on him.

That's why he wants to commune with you so you can cast your cares on him. He doesn't want to commune with you so he can give you your marching orders. He wants to commune with you so he can show you how much he loves you and so that you can love him and back and so that you can share that love with others. You'll fulfill your purpose by communing with him. Because if you don't know what your purpose is, you'll find it by communing with him. How do I do that? Read your Bible. Speak God's word. Pray in tongues. Pray in your language. English, Spanish, um, whatever your language is. Nigerian, whatever your language is, speak to him. Talk with him. He's listening. David said in Psalm 116, "I love the Lord because he hears me when I cry."

I think about that. He doesn't say, "Stop crying, baby. Cry, baby." The Beatles said, "Cry, baby, cry. Make your mother sigh. You're old enough to be to know better. Cry, baby, cry." Jesus is not singing that song to you.

He's saying, "Go ahead, cry. I've wept." Jesus says, "I've wept." He wept at Lazarus's tomb. He wept over Israel and Jerusalem when he knew that they weren't coming to him and they were staying in their in their religion and self-righteousness. He wept over the city. How many times he said, "I wanted to bring you into my arms like a mother would bring her children into her arms." Jesus said that about Jerusalem. You can see his heart for people, his heart for his creation, his heart for his family. We have no idea how much he looks forward to eating with us. We don't even we can't even find somebody to ask on a date. And they and if we ask them, they won't go with us. And yet Jesus desires. He longs to go on a date with you. Some of you guys have been on some dating apps and there's nothing wrong with those things except most of the people are fake. Not really what they look like. How do you know, pastor? I don't I'm just saying from what people had told me. I remember the first uh uh in uh internet wedding that we had at the church. It was like early 1993, 199 like when we first church first started. I remember the face of of both the husband and the wife. I remember them. They had met online. It was just such a new thing at the time. It wasn't any apps or any cell phones like that, but on computers, there was some online dating at the time. And first one, the first ones, man, they were the first ones to get married in the church. And they were the first ones to get divorced in the church. I think they got divorced out of the church. They I don't think they came back for that part. And they're saying no no harm. Like it was so they made a mistake. God is merciful. Maybe they married somebody else. Maybe they they found the love of their life after that. I'm just saying Jesus wants to go on a date with you. And that's a date that will blow your mind.

And how much better he is than even what they say about him. How much better he is even than the pictures. You know, I have in my wallet. I don't have my wallet with me. Does anybody still have a wallet? Carry a wallet. Um I carry a wallet usually and um I have a lot of credit cards, but I have um not credit debit, you know. not trying to get into debt. Um but you know, various membership cards and and car wash certificate, all sorts of stuff in there. Just a little wallet like so. But um I have this picture of Jesus in it and it's a picture of uh Jesus as he is depicted in the shroud of Turin. And um as if you look at it, it's like a reflective thing. thing. I wish I would have brought it as a as a prop or as a illustration, but um but you can see what his face would look like based on what his crucified face looks like imprinted on the shroud of Trin, which I happen to believe is a legitimate piece of cloth that Jesus that Jesus was wrapped in by um the disciples, Joseph of Arythea, who wrapped Jesus in his in his uh clothing. And it was and the light of God's glory shone through his body on the third day and left an imprint like a negative onto the cloth. If you see the cloth, you'll see for yourself that you really can't argue against it. You can try to make up stuff and say, "Oh, no, that's not man made that." It really isn't something man could have made. But on the little the little picture that I have based on the light, you can see what you can see his image on the shroud of Turin. And then you can see what his face would have looked like based on that. And there are there are uh online pictures now that you can find where they've kind of where AI has portrayed a picture of what Jesus would have looked like based on facts and based on the evidence that we have in scripture and in histo other historical documents. My point is is that I don't even know. But you go, you know, the point is Jesus wants to go on a date with Yes, Jesus wants to go on a date with you. And he is I carry him with me every reminds me of his presence. And I have a I have a reminder three or four or five times a day. Be mindful of God's presence. Be mindful of God's presence. Boy, there's nothing like his presence.

Spiritual warfare is communing with Jesus. You don't have to do all the fighting when you realize all you got to do is plead the blood.

In Zechariah chapter 9 11 he says, "As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant," watch this. Zechariah 9:11, "As for you also," he's talking to you and he's talking to me, "because of the blood of your covenant," that's Jesus blood covenant. "Because of the blood of my covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. because of the blood of my covenant. One translation says, "The blood of your covenant." The blood of Jesus establishes a covenant between God and man where God will never leave us. He will never forsake us. He will never judge us anymore about our past sins. He will not come back in reference to your sin. When he comes back for the second time, he will come without reference to your sin. Because of this blood covenant, he sets us free from waterless pits. He sets us free from living beneath our purpose, beneath our calling, beneath our privileges, in pits. We don't have to live in these pits once we embrace this blood covenant and realize that he made this covenant with us in his blood. It doesn't require our blood. It requires his blood. And his blood is perfect. And we just drink his blood. And you can drink his blood anytime you have communion. And you can sing about his blood and talk about his blood and read about his blood. And that is warfare that the devil will run from you. He will flee from you when you talk about the blood. When you think about the blood, when you partake of the blood, when you speak of the blood because of the blood of my covenant, he said, "I'll set your prisoners free." You're no longer going to be in bondage to your past anxieties. No longer going to be in bondage to your past habits. No longer be in bondage to your depression. no longer. It's not going to be your depression anymore. Jesus took it upon himself so it's not yours anymore. It's his and he nailed it to the cross and he buried it with him in the grave and he rose up without it and now he's raised you up and now we're seated with him in heavenly places. That's how powerful the blood of Jesus is. We're no longer prisoners. We're no longer in bondage. We're no longer under the addictions of this world.

The blood of Jesus has set us free from prison. Amen.

And set us free from a waterless life where we're always thirsty and never satisfied. Jesus satisfies us with living water.

And he said, "I'll give to you water that is called living water and you'll drink from this water and you'll never thirst again."

And he said, "And I'll bring you and free you from this pit." What is a pit? He said, "He pulled me out of the pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock. Whatever has buried you, whatever has put you down. Whatever has lowered you, whatever has crushed you, whatever has pushed you further towards hell and darkness, yet Jesus says, "I will lift you up. I will bring you out of that pit. I'll bring you out of that pit of destruction, out of that miry clay, and I'll set your feet upon a rock and make your footsteps firm. I'll put a new song in your mouth, he says, and a song of praise for our God. Many will see in fear. They're going to see where you came from. They're going to see what you came out of. They're going to see that you came out of that pit. You're the person. We ran into this guy at a restaurant a few months ago and he may be here today, but he was the manager of this restaurant we were at and he came over to me and he's like, "Pastor, how are you?" I'm like, "I'm doing good. How are you?" He's like, "I'm the guy." You're like, "What?" I'm like, "What? You're you're you're the guy. You're the guy." You know, I I try to act like I know people when I see. Oh, yeah. Of course, you're the guy. I know. He's like, "I'm the guy." I'm like, "Can you just be a little more specific?" Because there are a lot of guys that life changers. He said, "I'm the guy that was homeless and your church gave me money, helped me out, got me some clothes." He said, "My life is completely changed. Here's my card. I also serve on the board of directors of such and such." This is a guy that was homeless. because that's what Jesus can do and that's what God will do in your life and that's what God can do in anybody's life.

Communing with him is the place of victory. I could talk about this until eternity until we live before Jesus face to face. But spiritual warfare is the second thing. It's it's identity warfare. Spiritual warfare is identity warfare. No more. There was never been a time in this world where there's more identity theft and fraud and people trying to get your passwords and your passcodes and your money and your property and your identity. that get your your your social security number or uh some access to any other private account you have or w you know crypto wallets or any of these things that if people can get them they will they'll try to if they can get to it they will if they can break through the walls if they can break through well see we have to understand our identity cannot be broken through we have to understand that spiritual warfare is to get us to put our guard down it's to get us to doubt who we are in Christ. It's to get us to doubt that we are the the people that God says we are. It's to get us to it's it's to get us to think that we are what other people say we are or that we are what what our upbringing was. You aren't what your upbringing was. You aren't how you grew up. You're you aren't how you aren't the person that your parents raised. And your parents don't even want you to be the person that they raised. They want you to be a better person. You don't when you go when you leave your family, you know, when you leave living with your family at 18, whenever you leave from living with your family, 18, 20, whatever it is, uh your par your parents don't want you to stay at that level.

They want you to grow beyond that. They want you to be unrecognizable by the time you're 30 or 40. They want you to surpass them.

Don't you see? That's what God wants to do in our lives. And he he wants us to understand that our identity is not found in how we grew up. We need to let God continue to grow us up and we need to grow ourselves up, but we need to not let the enemy steal a revelation of who we are.

Because when if you if you boil it down to the Garden of Eden, if you could just picture there's two trees in the Garden of Eden. Now I know there were many other trees but the primary trees of the garden e garden of Eden were the the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life and God said you can eat freely from the tree of life just don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in fact you can eat from any of the trees in the garden just not that one and what is that tree that it represents and what is the what is the tree of life and what is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil well I believe that those two trees are significant ificant because they represent the tree of life is the tree of I am and the tree of knowledge of good and evil is the tree of I am not. Because when Adam and Eve were persuaded or Eve was persuaded by Satan or by by the serpent who the Satan was operating through, he convinced her that she wasn't who God said she was. God had already said, "I made you in my image according to my likeness." And so Satan said, "No, you're not like God." He doesn't He wants He just He doesn't want you to eat from that tree because if you do, then you'll then you'll be like God. You see, so that tree is the I am not tree. I am not equal with God. I am not made in God's image. I am not fearfully and wonderfully made. I am not more than a conqueror. I am not. That's the tree of I am not. But the tree of life is the tree of I am. I am the head and not the tail. I am above and not beneath. I am what God says I am. I am a son of God. I am a daughter of God. I am blessed coming in and blessed going out. I am a royal priesthood. I am a king and a priest in God. I am a part of a royal generation. I am a son or daughter ruling and reigning with God. I'm washed by the blood. I'm loved by the lamb. I'm made a king and a priest by Jesus himself. He's made me his co-air. I am a joint heir with Jesus. I'm a co-air with Christ. Hallelujah. Listen, that's the I am tree. And the devil wants you to eat from the I am not tree.

I'm not enough. I'm not pretty enough. I'm not strong enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not rich enough. I'm not this color enough. That color enough. This uh this background enough. That background enough. That's the I am not tree. That's what this world system wants you to focus on.

So that you'll always feel slighted.

So that you'll always feel less than. So that you'll always feel inferior. That's the world's system. That's not the that's not a a a system that Satan is not involved in. That's a system that he himself created. the system of I am not to make you feel slighted and disadvantaged all the time to make you bitter so that you will it'll divide and it will cause conflict continually when you feel like you're less than you're always fighting for more to be more than but when you know and you start eating from the I am tree then you no longer have this victim mentality you no longer are are living from a deficit it. You no longer are uh uh constantly offended and feel slighted or feel inferior or less than. We all came into this world inferior, but when we're born again, we're kings and priests in Christ through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. We reign as kings in life. You have to understand when you live like you are at a disadvantage, then you are going to live bitter. But when you start realizing, wait a minute, how am I at a disadvantage? Because if I've been raised with, if I died with Christ, if I was buried with Christ, I was raised with Christ, I'm seated with Christ in heavenly places. I rule and reign with Christ. I'm the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. I have power over the devil. Behold, he gives me power and authority over the devil to walk upon demons, to cause them, crush them under my feet, to walk into the room and demons walk backwards. That's you're never going to live a life of sadness and sorrow because you've been slighted and you've been uh and and you're you've been marginalized. Jesus fixed the margin.

Whatever the margin left you less than, God made you more than.

You're more than a conqueror now. You're not even just a conqueror.

You're not a conqueror because you don't even have to do the conquering. You're more than a conqueror, which means you get to enjoy what the conqueror did. Jesus is the conqueror. He did all the fighting. He said tedelest. He said it is finished. He said the the debt is fully paid. He said the sentence is fully stir served. And he said the battle is fully won. So he said here you can have the victory now. Now you're above and not beneath.

We're more than conquerors. He did the conquering and he gave us the victory. That's what makes us more than conquerors.

We don't have to spend our energy doing the conquering now.

We just go spend our energy taking back the souls, taking back our own soul, taking back the souls of our family members, the loved ones.

Amen.

Listen, spiritual warfare is identity warfare. Satan comes to steal and to kill and destroy. What does he come to steal? He comes to steal the word. He comes to steal the word. What word does he steal? You know, there's so many people that are preachers now on social media. They're all They're all preach. Everybody's a preacher. Everybody's a pastor. Everybody's anointed. Now, I believe everybody is anointed, but not everybody's anointed to be your pastor.

That's right. That's good.

And we we got to start we got to stop thinking everybody we listening to everybody's voice that we're not listening to God's voice.

When a person is pointing you most to the cross and most to intimacy with God, that's your pastor.

Go find somebody that's going to point you to him more than me. And that should be your pastor, not me.

But I I dare you. I double dog dare you. What word can the devil steal? Well, according to Jesus in Matthew 13:19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was swn in his heart. That is the word that Satan can steal. He cannot steal what you can understand.

He can only steal what you can't understand. And that's why when you listen to all these voices and one person saying the rapture is here and you're like I'm left behind and then someone's saying no it hasn't come yet and you're like thank God hasn't come yet. I still got a chance to clean up my act. Yeah, well you better clean up your act. That's wrong too. You don't you can't clean up your act. Only Jesus can clean up your act and you already did it with his blood. You've been washed by his blood. But you're listening to all these voices and what is happening is the word that you're hearing through these people, it's getting stolen because you don't understand it. because you're listening to so many people and you're listening to everybody's opinion and you we we make everybody we think everybody's an expert. They're not.

They're not and they're not called to be.

That's where Satan Satan will steal the word that you don't you don't understand. If he if if if you hear that your salvation can be lost through your bad behavior, then the word of salvation will be stolen from you because you don't understand that salvation's a gift.

But so and so said, I don't care what so- and so said,

but you know, brother so and so, sister so and so, who cares? Have you ever had an argument with your brother or sister? You didn't they weren't defined by what they said was right. You all you you guys went to the parents and they they said no this is right this is this is wrong. You don't learn it from your brother or sister. What I'm trying to say is you understand what I'm trying to say.

Who cares what brother so and so said or sister so and so. Stop giving weight to everybody's opinion.

Don't doesn't matter how many followers they have. The the number of followers that Jesus had at the cross was three.

He had John, he had Mary, and he had his mother. Those are the only people. So, you can't base something on how many people follow.

You You know how many people are Muslim? You know how many people are Hindus?

They don't know Jesus. They think Jesus died. They don't believe Jesus even died on the cross. You know how many people? There billions. There's a billion of each at least or close to it. It's not about And then when Jesus rose from the dead, there wasn't that many more. Yeah, it was more than three. Now they had 11 disciples. Judas was gone and they had some and when he sent the Holy Spirit, there was 120 of them. And then they started to grow and multiply. All right. My point is Satan comes to steal the word that you don't understand. When you don't understand it, that's when he can steal it. He comes to kill the prophetic seed.

He comes to steal the word that you don't understand. He comes to kill the prophetic seed. In Exodus 1:16, the Bible says that they came to kill all the babies so they could get to Moses because they wanted to kill Moses. So, they killed all the boys, but Moses was saved by Pharaoh's daughter. In Matthew 21:16, they heard about Jesus. And King Herod sent all sent everybody to sent his people to go kill all the children two years and younger to kill them. All the male children from two years and under in Matthew chapter 2:1 16. In 2 Kings 11, this evil uh queen was killing having all the the royal bloodline killed. The mother of Aziah saw that her son was dead. She arose and destroyed all the royal heirs. But but Jehoshab but Jehoshaba, the daughter of King Joran, sister of Ahesi, took Joash, the son of Ahazesi, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were who were being murdered. And they hid him and his nurse in the bedroom so that he was not killed. It actually says um in the translation that I have that they they hid him in the temple. They hid him in the temple. They they hid this boy in the temple and he reigned after that. What I'm trying to tell you is the devil is always after what's hidden in the temple.

He's always trying to kill what's hidden in the temple. Jesus went into the temple and was there as a 12-year-old and he was hide. He was hidden there. God, he wasn't deliberately trying to disobey his parents, but he was hidden there. And he he shows us there's a place we need to hide. We need to hide ourselves in the temple. Hide ourselves in the secret place of the most high. We need to hide ourselves and hide our identity from the devil so he doesn't try to steal it. We need to know who we are on the inside of us so Satan can't steal it. We need to know who we are, not based on how much money we have or what position we have. We need to know, we need to know that we are sons and daughters. We're the prophetic seed.

And the devil is trying to kill us. He's trying to kill the next generation. Satan fears whatever is hidden in the temple. And for time's sake, I'm just going to remind you of something that I said about three forces. Spiritual warfare is these three things. It is communing with God. It is a warfare that is identity warfare. And you have to clarify. Spiritual warfare is communing with God. It's clarifying your identity. It's clarifying. It's having clarity about your identity and it's conducting atmospheres. I've been talking about that for the last two or three weeks. Spiritual warfare is conducting atmospheres. It's from the passage of scripture that I shared with you um last Sunday I believe it was and even it maybe was the Sunday before that as well but we talked about this passage in 2 Chronicles and I want to read it to you again. I have decided it's from the message Bible 2 Chronicles 29:10. I've decided to make a covenant with the God of Israel and turn history around so that God will no longer be angry with us. So he God did that. Jesus did that. 2 Chronicles 29. So Jesus made a decision to make a covenant with us with God and then we are the benefactors of it to turn history around. The blood covenant turns history around. The blood of Jesus turns the world upside down. The blood of Jesus changes history. Everything is marked by the birth and the death of Jesus. Everything in this world follows the birth and the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. Every major holiday is about Jesus. Every calendar is revolved around Jesus. All history is revolved around Jesus. Why? Because he is Lord.

It's not an accident. It's not some conspiracy that people could conjure up. These are guys that ran away from Jesus that when they were filled with the Holy Spirit became bold testifiers, bold martyrs for the glory of God. They didn't even care about living their life. They cared about preaching the gospel and spreading Jesus everywhere they went. And people said about them, "These people are uneducated, not smart people. They're they're neither smart nor they're educated. But we recognize them because they are speaking like people that have been around Jesus."

Amen.

Amen.

I want you to see that you are that person now.

You are the person that you become something and you carry weight in this world because you've been with Jesus.

In Acts chapter 4, it says they recognize them as having been with Jesus. They were doing signs and wonders like Jesus and they said, "Wow, these guys have been with Jesus." because they're doing the things that Jesus did. Being with Jesus doesn't mean that you are smarter than everybody. Being with Jesus doesn't mean you go around telling people what to do. Being with Jesus causes you to be to be recognized as one who has been with Jesus. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, remember these guys ran away at the cross. But when they saw the boldness of Peter and John after they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, they perceived that these were uneducated and untrained men and they marveled and said, "Wow, we realize these guys have been with Jesus."

Wow.

That's why they were able to heal the guy in Acts chapter 3 at the beautiful gate. These two men, Peter and John, did a healing in Acts three that blew people's minds. And the people looked at them and said, "It's not about what they just say it. Look at what they did. Look at the mark they left on that man. He was paralyzed for 40 years. And now look at him walking. Look at him dancing. Look at him jumping. Look at him leaping. Look at him talking about Jesus. Look at him clinging to John and Peter. He was clinging to Peter and John and they and he said, "I want to go where you guys go. I want to be with you guys."

Are you somebody that people want to be with? Because if you've been with Jesus and if you're communing with him, you're going to become a person that people want to be around.

This is who these guys were. And I want you to get a hold of this. This this is our spiritual warfare now conducting atmospheres. You see, it wasn't just the worship leaders that were here to lead the worship. It was you and me. You know, sometimes they can have the perfect execution of a song. And it not be powerful because you're not conducting the atmosphere along with them.

You're just a spectator. God is delivering our our God is delivering the the church, the body of Christ. He's delivering the church from a spectator religion and a spectator point of view. We're not supposed to be spectators and celebrating all the the Dove award and Grammy award winning worship leaders. We're supposed to be the worship leaders.

Did you hear me? We're not supposed to be h that's so that's so awesome. Whoa, that's so anointed. You're anointed. You're awesome. Wow. The way they sing, the way you sing. God loves the way you make a joyful sound. God loves the way you walk in with a leap and a pep in your step. The way you start, hey, the way you start dancing. I know I know somebody said on the worship team today, come on, start dancing. And I I I did the charismatic twostep like this, but I did something. I wasn't just standing there. I'm moving because something happens when I'm conducting the atmosphere. Something happens when you're conducting the atmosphere. Something happens when you stop thinking that this group is anointed and start realizing you're anointed with them. They're leading the way, but you're leading the way. And if you'll be like, "Yeah, woo. Come on. Hallelujah. Glory to God. These guys are going to be even more fired up. And you're going to feel even more of the power because you're changing the atmosphere. And somebody's going to get healed because of your praise. Somebody's going to get delivered because of your praise. Somebody's going to get born again. Somebody is going to have a miracle because of your worship. Conducting.

You're a conductor. You're a communer. Communing with Jesus. Spiritual warfare is communing with Jesus. Spiritual warfare is clarifying your identity and understanding who you are.

And spiritual warfare is conducting atmospheres. Everywhere you go, you're bringing the atmosphere. You're the thermostat, not the thermometer. You don't read the temperature, you set the temperature. You're not waiting for somebody else to do it. You're doing it. You're not saying from sitting from a seat and saying, "Wow, the church should really do that." You know, when you have a when you're sitting in a chair and thinking what the church should be doing and how the church should improve this or improve that, that's because you're supposed to be doing that.

That's because you're supposed to be coming up and say, "Boy, they really need they really ought to get somebody to and pay somebody to do such and such." You know what? You should use your pay and do such and such since you're the one with the big idea. Bring that idea and back it up.

But see, that's when people stop wanting to do it. when it costs them something, they don't mind communicating or saying what they think the church should do, they don't mind saying that, but when it comes to doing it, that's why these guys weren't recognized just because of the things they said. They were recognized because they did the things that Jesus did. They healed the sick. They raised the the the dead. They spoke life. And they they they they witnessed boldly for the for the glory of God and for the Jesus for the cross of Jesus Christ, the finished work of the cross. They were ministering. We're ministers to the Lord and then we're anointed to be ministers to everybody else. My job as the pastor or as the founder or whatever I am, it's not to make sure that I minister to everybody, but it's to make sure everybody's ministered to because I'm not going to be able to minister to everybody. But you can take up your cross and say, "Okay, I'm going to be I'm going to do what Jesus died for me to do. I'm going to walk in my destiny. I'm going to be a atmosphere conductor. I I'm taking a little extra time because I want you to understand this is spiritual warfare. Stop walking in the place and go, "Wow, it's it's heavy in here." Start praising and it's going to all of a sudden feel light. Not just for you, but for everybody else.

Don't walk into an environment and say, "All right, I wonder who's in charge." Walk into that environment and say, "I'm here to serve because the greatest among you is the servant of all."

Amen.

Like we have to we have to shake out of our mentality that this is reserved for the people on the platform and we have to realize that now we're not meant we're not supposed to just just do this without order and without without organization and unity. But you understand you have the power to prophesy.

It's not just the prophets that prophesy. It's all the sons and daughters. It's not just the apostles that lay hands on the sick. Jesus said, "These signs will follow those who believe."

It's not just the super spiritual that speak in tongues. Jesus said, "These signs will follow those who believe. In my name, they'll speak with new tongues." You see, it's not reserved for a a few of the upper class because there's no upper class. We're all the body of Christ.

And the the the eye can't say to the foot, I don't have any need of you. Good luck. Hi. Good luck seeing where you want to go but not having a foot to get you there.

Good luck.

You see, we need each other.

Even though we might think, well, I'm a I'm a mouthpiece. Or I'm, you know, I'm I'm I'm the face of the body. I I'm really pretty. I no we have to realize everybody's equal in the body and the importance and needed in the body but we have different functions but we're equal. If you will walk out of here and go I'm I'm I'm walking in spiritual warfare by communing with Jesus. I'm walking in spiritual warfare by clarifying that I'm I am what God says I am. And I'm walking in spiritual warfare because I'm conducting atmospheres. When I get in my car, I'm setting the atmosphere. When I get to work, I'm setting the atmosphere. When I go to my home, I'm setting the atmosphere. When I'm at a gathering, I'm setting the atmosphere. Not in conflict with somebody else, but I'm setting an atmosphere of joy. And I'm bringing peace. And I'm bringing I'm bringing humility. I'm bringing generosity, whatever is needed. I'm I'm setting that thermostat. I'm a thermostat. You're a thermostat. Amen. Let's stand together. Thanks for the extra time today. I really appreciate it. I want you to say this. Say, in the name of Jesus,

in the name of Jesus,

I don't battle against flesh and blood.

I battle against

But I have the victory

because of Jesus. Flesh and blood.

Therefore,

Therefore,

I walk in spiritual warfare

by communing with Jesus.

By clarifying who I am in Christ by clarifying

and by conducting atmospheres.

I'm an atmosphere conductor

everywhere I go. in Jesus name. Now, if you've never received Jesus Christ into your life, I want you to pray this prayer. Everybody pray this with us. Heavenly Father,

I invite Jesus Christ into my life.

I believe Jesus died for my sin and rose from the dead. From this day forward, I'm a child of God.

If you prayed that prayer on the count of three, I'm going to ask you to raise up your hand on the count of three. If you prayed that prayer to receive Jesus, on the count of three, raise up your hand. One, two, three. Come on, put your hand up. You prayed that prayer. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you here. Who else? God bless you here. Who else? God bless you here. Who else? Who else? God bless you here. Come on. Who else? God bless you. Come on, Chicago. Who else in Chicago? Who else in our global family? Come on. Praise God for these people. Keep your hand up. Keep your hand up until one of our team members spots you so they can give you this book, The Power of a New Life. This is the next steps now that you're saved. And the next steps as a as a believer in Christ is going to be talked about at the next steps class at 12:30. Otherwise, you're dismissed. We love you guys. Have a beautiful rest of your day and a beautiful week. And we'll see you next Sunday right back here. Go be an atmosphere conductor. That's who you are.