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That's what it has to be. It has to be from overflow. Your life, you don't have to perform for God. How many people know that? You just live in an overflow. You ask him to fill you and allow him to overflow.
So, I titled this message today, Stand Your Ground. Everybody say, "Stand your ground." >> Stand your ground.
Um, so I I was watching this this video. It was talking about or like a news thing. It was talking about this uh this legal um I guess a law here in Texas where a stand your ground state, right? I know some of y'all, my 2A guys may know what that is. Uh, but what what it means is that if you are legally entitled to be um in a location and you're not provoking an altercation and you are not already engaged in criminal activity, if something pops off and somebody tries to attack you, you have the right to defend yourself. >> Yeah. Amen. All men said, "Amen." >> And the crazy women said, "Amen." >> Amen. >> Pop your nails off. Right? I'll stand my ground. Right? So that's that's the law. You don't have to run. You don't have to retreat. If somebody's attacking you, um you can stand your ground. Thank God we live in Texas. Amen. >> There's some states that require you to run. Uh, we're not one of those.
But did you know that this law applies in the kingdom of God, too? This is what I have learned. Stand your ground. Matter of fact, the Apostle Paul doesn't ask us to stand our ground. He commands us to stand our ground. So it's not just a right or a privilege. It's a responsibility to stand your ground. >> To the moms, stand your ground for your family. To the dads, stand your ground as a family. To the people of God, you stand your ground no matter what happens. It's it's it's in the word of God.
So check this out. The the law is that you have to be legally entitled to be where you are, right? In order you can't be somewhere illegally. Like you can't be trespassing, right? Breaking the law, trespassing, and then something pops off and you're like, "Well, I was just defending myself." Bro, you shouldn't have been there in the first place, right? You're trespassing. You have to be there, right? But what I want to tell you in the kingdom of God, this is this whole series that we've been talking about is that we are in right standing with God. Amen. We are in an entitled location legally. We are in the kingdom of God because what the blood of Jesus Christ has done to us. Amen. >> Amen. So, we have the right to be here. It is. We're We're legally here to be able to stand our ground.
The next one is that you didn't provoke the altercation, right? You didn't start it. How many people know the Bible says that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy? >> It says that he he roams around, prowls around like a roaring lion, right? He's the one out trying to start the fight the moment we got saved so we can fight back. And lastly, you're not engaged in criminal activity. Uh, hopefully you are not. And uh uh sins with God have been washed in the blood of Jesus. So the moment you got saved, all three of these conditions have been met. So now you can stand your ground in the kingdom of God. And this is what I want to tell you. This is the uh the main idea here is if you know whose ground you're standing on, you won't run when the enemy attacks.
When you know what ground you're standing on, you don't have to run. You won't run. It's not just that you don't have to. you won't run because you understand that you don't have to run and that God has not left you uh without power, without weapons, without authority, without influence. You will understand that God has given you every single thing that you need to stand your ground. And you might like you ask like, man, we've been talking so much in the kingdom of God. It's great. We we've learned that if you give to the kingdom of God, God gives back. We've learned about tithing. We've learned about serving. We've learned about church governance that whenever you get under a covering and under authority, there is protection. All all this kingdom stuff that is going on. It sounds all nice and great. Then why are we h talking about having to fight, right? If we if we're in the kingdom of God, why are we why do we have to to fight? Well, because we still live on earth, right? And we have a real enemy who would love you not to experience the kingdom of God knowing that you're going to go to heaven after you die. He wants to make you a living hell here here on earth. >> And so you're going to go through warfare. And the enemy would love an ignorant Christian, a a Christian who's naive and does not believe that the enemy is going to attack. And so today, we're going to put you on. Amen. >> Today we're going to we're going to find out that not only is there real spiritual warfare, but there is a real God who has your back if you stand your ground.
>> If you don't stand your ground, he's like, "Well, you chunk deuce, right? you're running that way. But when you stand your ground, you're going to find out that God will do the fighting for you.
So, we're going to be in uh the book of Ephesians. But before we get there, I want to tell you a little background on Ephesus. Ephesus is not some some small quiet little Christian town. It is a massive like a central hub. Uh, I think it was Artemis that was there. One of the seven ancient wonders of the uh the known world at the time. Check this out. Did not know this. Ephesus was a global center of magic and occult practices. The city was famous for something called the Ephesian letters, which were magical formulas people believed to carry supernatural power. Can you believe that? People were running around with little scrolls on their they didn't scroll on their phone. They scrolled. What are you doing? I'm just scrolling. Little witch, right? Little witchcraft right here. Trying to do a spell on somebody. Yeah, they uh they they they were known for these Ephesians letters. And if you remember in the book of Acts, whenever Paul went and set it off, there was revival, all these people were taking these books and they were burning them. These were those books, $50,000 or of silver pieces, which was millions of dollars at that time. Can you imagine going into a place, a very liberal place, witchcraft place, and then having a revival, and then all of a sudden in the middle of of the city, they start burning everything that that city's about? You're going to get some attention, right? You're going to get some backlash, right? Can you imagine going to an infamous city for being liberal and and coming against Christians, aka Austin, and going over there, right, and setting it off in revival. You're going to get some backlash. there is going to be some opposition. So these people were not u ignorant to opposition and spiritual warfare. They were they they understood it. It was all around them. So when the Apostle Paul when when he's talking about the armor of God, they knew exactly what it was for. Uh, they they faced that battle all day long. Can you imagine the moment that the Christians got there and they had this revival, they had enemies all around them in the city. Welcome to Christianity. Amen.
So, all right, let's pick it up. Ephesians chapter 6, 13-4. And the word of the Lord reads, >> "Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist in the time of evil." Do you believe we live in some times of evil right now? >> Absolutely. You could turn on CNN and Fox News and both of them are going to tell you it's evil. Then after the battle, you will still be standing firm. Verse 14, stand your ground. Everybody say, "Stand your ground." >> Stand your ground. >> Oh, you're going to get it by by the time we're done with this. Stand your ground. Putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. I like some of the NLT, but I like the other version that says the breastplate of of righteousness.
So, this is what I want to tell you. Remember the first part of the stand your ground law is that you have to legally be entitled to be there. So, my first point is this. In order to stand your ground, you have to be standing on the right ground. In order to stand your ground, you can't stand your ground on someone else's ground where you're not supposed to be. >> You got to be standing your ground on the ground of where you are supposed to be. I'm going to explain a little bit more. But you cannot be trespassing and try to say, "Oh, I was only defending myself, right? Trespassing, you're trespassing. At that point, I'm defending myself." Right? It's the same in the kingdom of God. You cannot trespass against God and think that you're going to be able to stand your ground. Trespass. It's kind of cool that how uh the Lord's prayer says, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others trespasses." And if you're trespassing, you're not on the ground that you're supposed to be in. You cannot be in sin and expect the power of God to be on your life to protect you. God's like, "Hey, you're on your own on this one, buddy. Get right with God." Paul says, "Put on the breastplate of righteousness." Now, I understand righteousness can mean in a moral state, alignment with God, getting uh right with God, and the idea of character, moral behavior, and things like that. But if you don't understand the foundation of imputed righteousness, what righteousness actually means, all of this isn't going to make sense anyways. So, I want to make sure that you understand that real righteousness before God does not mean right behavior. It means being in right standing with God. >> It's not about being good. It's about being with God. >> That's what it really is.
So, I I love this illustration because I sometimes we get so much in this kingdom thing where we talk about uh praying and fasting and we talk about tithing. We talk about, you know, lifting up your hands and opening up your voice because I I believe all that is important. opening up your mouth and and shouting to God. The scripture literally says to do all of those things. It's important. But did you know you can do all of those things and still not be saved? Yes, sir. >> You can you can give you can tithe. You can give 10% of all of your income and experience the kingdom of God in a sense because those laws are universal uh and still not be saved. >> Right? Uh, I heard I heard somebody say you can do righteous behavior but it doesn't make you righteous. Bill Gates gave away a lot of his um fortune and he got a lot in return. Got some criminal stuff coming his way too. But but but is giving to the homeless and to the needy righteous acts? >> Yes, it is. But does that make him righteous? >> Absolutely not. Not on that island. No, sir. >> But what I am saying is that you can check box the Christian all the the the Christian boxes, but it doesn't make you righteous. You can do righteous things, but it doesn't make you a righteous person in nature. I want to remind you, this is so important because I would hate for us to to learn the checkbox Christianity. And we didn't really tell you that there's only one way to get saved. Like, you have to actually believe in God no matter all these things that you do. And it's not about works that no man's supposed to boast. It's by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen. But if you don't understand that, we might be setting you up for failure because you like, I did all the things. And he says, "Depart from me. I never knew you." But you you understand that.
I love this part. I want to tell you. So, Adam and Eve uh in the garden were connected to God. They were clothed in righteousness, right? They they were righteous. They before God. They had a perfect connection with God in Eden, which was a form of heaven. Everything would have been perfect if they would not have listened to the snake. Instead, they ate the fruit. What they should have done is cut the head off the snake, ate the snake, put a little belt on, right? And they would have been good. And guess what? If they would have stayed in righteousness, in right standing with God, if they would have had a baby, guess what? That baby would have been uh imputed righteousness. They would have been born righteous. They would have been born going to heaven in heaven connected to God. But because they sinned, the glory of God, God's righteousness came up off of them. They they are now unrighteous because of sin. Remember, they try to cover themselves with fig leaves. That's man's own work. And God ends up killing an animal and covers themselves uh w- with animal skin, which is the first animal sacrifice for covering of sin, right? And he says, "Well, who told you you were naked?" He makes him confess. Did you eat of the tree? And why? And and really, God already knew, but he wanted to give him an opportunity to confess sin. And now we see the power of of confession of your sin. And and then there is forgiveness. He goes, "Thank you for your confession. Here is your covering." But it's still not good enough because at this point it's just an animal covering. So now whenever they have a baby, guess what? That baby is born unrighteous. So now that that's why we say born sinner. That's why when we say you're born going to hell, it's because our greatest grandparents, Adam and Eve, messed this whole thing up for us, right? So it it's not about good works at that at this point. You understand that that but they say I heard this person say but is my gr my granny is is she not going to be in heaven? She was a good good lady and but she didn't believe in Jesus. Uh, mind you, it's not about being good. It's not about it's the fact that she I we all of us were born separated from God and there's only one way back to God. It's not about being good. Remember Bill Gates did a lot of good things. It doesn't matter about being good. It matters about being righteous.
So, I want you to just think about this real quick. There's a dividing line right here. Here is the wall of hostility that the Bible talks about. This is unrighteous. This is the kingdom of darkness. This is death. And on the other side is where God lives. This is the kingdom of God. This is righteousness. This is the kingdom of light. This is life on this side. This side is where if you die, you go to hell. If you die on this side, you go to hell. There's no easy way to say it, right? No matter how much good stuff you do, can we all agree? that if you die on this side, you go to hell. >> I know that sounds kind of crazy, but we got it. It It is It's going to be way worse if you don't catch this one and you end up passing away. Amen. And you don't believe in God. So, let's just get real. All right. So, on this side is unrighteousness. And there is a wall, a a wall of hostility that divides the unrighteous and the righteous. God is on that side. He cannot be around sin. So, the only way that you whenever you die and you go to heaven, that means that you're on this side, which is called righteousness. Have you ever heard righteousness means right standing with God? So this is what this means. I am standing right next to God. I am in right standing with God. I made it to the other side. Now welcome to the kingdom of God. This is whenever you are in the kingdom of God. It does not mean that attacks have disappeared because you're still on earth, right? It does not mean that everything that gets super easy. But I want to tell you that you can legally stand your ground because you are on the right ground. You can stand your ground. You're in the kingdom of God and you are in righteousness. Why? Because you have been transformed. You have been changed. You have been made righteous before God. The Bible says that he who knew no sin became sin so we could become the >> the righteousness of >> God.
Verse 16. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith. I said hold up. Oh my God. In addition to all these, hold up even that sounds like a hold. >> Y'all are animals. In addition to all these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. My next point, you stand your ground by lifting your shield. >> It's going to make sense. I know right now it sounds cool. You're like, "Man, that sounds good." But what do you do? How do you do that? What does that actually mean? In order to stand my ground, you got to lift your shield. This is what I want to tell you. You can't both stand your ground and try to dodge an arrow. You stand your ground and you lift your shield. You can't duck and dodge the enemy and stand your ground. You see what I'm saying? You can't run with your shield behind your back and stand your ground. It makes no sense. The Bible doesn't say duck and dodge the enemy's arrows. No, it says stand to your ground and lift your shield. >> So when the enemy hits, you don't negotiate with the enemy. You don't go back and forth with the enemy. The only thing that you do in that moment when the enemy hits, the enemy says a lie. The enemy says something about you. The enemy brings up your past. The enemy says, "Well, you still struggle with this. You still think about this." You don't go back and forth with the enemy like, "Well, yeah, that was just a hard season in my life." You've already lost. When the enemy hits you, you just bam, hit him with the shield. Bam, hit you with with my faith. All you have to do is you lift up your shield. Come on.
You know what's awesome about the uh the shield in the Roman times that they had this thing that called the tortoise formation that whenever the Roman soldiers on the left side, they would they would put the uh shield on the left. Those in the back would cover the back. In the front, they would cover the front and the right. And then everybody in the middle would put the shields over the top. So whenever they were getting attacked or they were taking new land, they were completely covered. >> Which means that you have to be connected to somebody else to have this type of covering, this type of formation. You know that the enemy loves to get those who are isolated. Pastor Juan said something so powerful at the marriage conference. He says whenever you are in isolation, you only get your counsel from the devil. >> When you're isolated, you're getting counseledled by the devil. You think you're having a conversation with yourself, but you're really talking to the devil. >> When you isolate yourself and you're sitting there and you're convincing yourself it's everybody else's fault but yours. >> You're sitting by yourself building a case against everybody but yourself. You should be building a case against yourself. It's probably you the reason why you got but the enemy is convincing you that everybody's the problem. But whenever you get counsel from those who can actually do something about it, you get back in the fold and then you get the covering and the shield of of faith that was supposed to be happening in the first place. So he tells him to lift up the shield. Now I want to tell you, you don't negotiate with the devil. >> You don't dialogue go back and forth with the devil. You command that. You tell him. The Bible says to resist the devil and he will flee. It says, "Submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee. You don't go back and forth with the devil.
Check this out. The Greek word for shield is the a large Roman shield shaped like a door. Oh my. Designed to cover the entire body and extinguish flaming arrows. You know what they would do? They would cover the uh they would they would drench the shield in water and then they would put oil anointing oil or olive oil all over the shield. So whenever those fiery arrows would come their way, those those arrows had two two tactics. Not only to hit you and kill you, but what they wanted is for it to hit and spread a fire. You know, sometimes whenever the enemy hits you and you're on fire, what you end up doing is going to other people and catching everybody else on fire as well, >> vomiting and and and and venting out everything on everybody else without any counsel from God to be totally honest. But whenever your shield is anointed and it's soaking in water, which is the word of God, the oil is the Holy Spirit. When the enemy hits you, it quenches those flaming arrows. Praise be to God that he did not leave us on empty. You gave us access to the fullness of God. But the but the Roman shield is shaped like a door. Now check this out. The word shield is the Greek word theorius and it is used only one time. One time in the New Testament. The root word of the is thora and is the Greek word for door. It it in itself the origin thora denoted the entry or doorway rather than the door itself. All that to tell you the apostle Paul knew what he was doing when he used this word. It was used only one time in the Bible to explain the word shield. He said to lift up the door. To lift up the door. And and and and it's not the door. You see that? The door right there, the wood. It's not the door. It's the outside. It's the It's the the frame of the door. >> It is the frame of the door. It is what you walk through. >> John 10 7-9. And the word of the Lord reads, >> "Jesus said to them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door thorah of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door, the thorah, by any man. By me, if any man uh enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. He is the door. He is the door.
So check this out. Whenever Paul is saying to lift up the shield, what what he is saying is to lift up the name of Jesus. Whenever the enemy is attacking, all you have to do is lift up Jesus. It is the shield of faith. You have faith in the shield. The shield is the door. The door is >> Jesus.
Let's go back to my first point real quick. Can we? >> Shall we? There is the wall of hostility, right? There is the the the border wall better than Trump's wall could ever make. No one can climb over this one. He's like, I don't know about that. It's a golden wall. All right. Sorry. On the other side is God. It's righteousness. On this side is the kingdom of darkness. No matter what good you do, if you die on this side, you go to hell. It's raw. It sounds crazy. Isn't that weird to hear that? it gets all quiet. You're going to go to hell. Everybody's like, >> I think if we talked about that more from the poor pit, it wouldn't be so scary, >> right? We can't only talk about all the good stuff. You got to talk about why we come to church. Why it's important that you get your kids to church. >> Why is it important that we all come to church, why we spread the gospel? It's because people are burning in hell. And it doesn't matter how good you are and what you do. None of your good works will get you to the father. Matter of fact, there is this wall of hostility right here that that that you have to get through. You can't get through. You're like, "But I tithe." Boom. You try to kick it down. You can't. But I give. I I signed up for the group. Room to grow. Great. You're supposed to do all those things. Thank you. Thank you. Growth path. You did it. Thank you. Those are all necessary, very vital. Check, check, check, check. Do them all. But none of that gets you to heaven. None of that makes you righteous. Those are righteous deeds. and thank you because you're going to have a lot of rewards whenever you get to the other side. But that's not what gets you to the other side. You cannot get to the father. The father is holy. No sin can be around him. No sinner can be around him. So, so Jesus says, he says, "Nobody can get to the father except through me the doorway." cuz you got to walk through the door. He says, "I am the door. I am the door." And all you have to do is go through him. It's none of these works that saved you guys. Only requirement for salvation is to go through Jesus. Bam. I'm washed in the blood now and I am in right standing with my father.
You see the word of God in the Old Testament in Exodus whenever the the plagues were coming down and God said that he's going to kill the firstborn of everybody. But he put his people on and he told him, "What you're going to do is get a perfect blemish free spot-free uh uh lamb and you're going to kill it. And what you're going to do is on Passover, what you're or or during this time, you're going to put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost at the top and the sides." And guess what that makes? >> It makes a cross. And where do you put the blood? On the door >> frame, not on the door. You put the blood on the door frame. The door has blood on it. >> Jesus is the door. And when they pierced him in his side, he had blood on it. And whenever the death angel came near that door, guess what? Death cannot come near that door or that household or the people that are on the inside of that. So when a death angel came by, guess what? Guess what happened? When the death angel came by and they saw that door with blood on it, which represents Jesus standing his ground in the middle of death, the death angel had to pass over. So we celebrate Passover because of what Jesus did. And and and and Hebrews says that there is no lamb, there is no animal that is sufficed to do what Jesus can do. In the Old Testament, animals did it for a moment, momentary time. There was an atonement to cover sin temporarily. But Jesus, whose blood is perfect, whose blood is divine whenever his side was pierced, his blood brought forgiveness once for all time. It is done. The moment you get saved, you are on the side of righteousness. You are in right standing with God. Welcome to the kingdom of God. That's all you have to do to get saved. No works required. Matter of fact, there is works to get saved, but they're not yours. They're Jesus's works. All you have to do to get saved is to believe that that doorway is the only way to the father. Not Buddha, not Muhammad, not nobody else. Not my good works, not praying 721 times doing this and and eating this and not eating that. None of that. Great. Do all that stuff, but it's not going to get you saved. There's only one thing that's going to get you saved, and that is to go through the door that has blood on it, and that is the blood of Jesus washing you to get you to the other side.
So when the Apostle Paul says to lift up the shield, he's saying put the devil in this place. Let him know that you have been washed in the blood. Let him know devil by everybody flex and put your shield up. You let him know I'm washed in the blood. I'm not perfect. That's what the blood is for. >> But I'm standing on the right ground. I'm standing on holy ground, righteous ground. I'm in the right standing before God. and devil, there's nothing he can do about it. That's why he says in in Ephesians 6:14, the word of the Lord reads, he says, "Stand your ground putting on the belt of truth." In order to stand your ground, you have to stand on what's true. You have to stand on what's true. Listen, church, if you don't stand on truth, you will always fall for a lie. And the enemy doesn't have to destroy you if he can just deceive you. He doesn't have to destroy you if he can just get you to bite the bait. I'm done with church. I'm done with organized religion. I'm done with institutionalized. I'm done. What you're saying is you're done with the Bible in in a form of rebellion.
I'm going to show you this. So So check this out. The shield rests on the belt. Did y'all know that there was a little hook? You put your belt on. Move your holster to this side. You put your shield on this side and and it rest on the belt, which means your faith better be resting on truth. Don't put your faith on something that's not truth. Cuz I see a lot of people going wild off of lies. I see standing on business that's actually a lie. So make sure that your faith is connected to truth, which is the word of God.
I want to tell you this from the heart. This this last year, two years may be the hardest thing in the world for pastors, not just me and all of the pastors that I talked to. It is hard competing with Tik Tok disciples. It is hard competing with people who scroll so much more than they read the word of God. It is extremely difficult in this time and age. The average Christian in America sits under about sits under about 40 minutes of biblical teaching a month. That's if you're in a church that preaches the Bible. So that's most Christians in America on average go to church once every three weeks. Some two times, some once. So it's about 40 minutes a month. But they also scroll more than 15 hours of social media every week. That's conservative on the low end. Go to your battery right now and check how long you've been on social media this week. Don't do it. You'll be unpleased. Some people have a full-time job scrolling. But I want to tell you this. There's nothing wrong with being on social media and YouTube and all that. But what I do want to tell you is that if you don't understand the word of God, everything that you're being shown on social media is discipling you. That means that you're taking on a world view of the world. what people are saying and you don't understand confirmation bias and the way that the algorithm is set up and you will watch one video once and then you watch another one there there's a um there there's an effect I I'll preach on it one day but your brain would rather just believe what it said than go to research something else and so you just it's like elucary effect it's like an illusion and you just believe it and then confirmation bias the algorithm knows that you like that video and then it says it over again and before you know know it. You're doing what the world is doing, saying what the world is saying, and you don't know one thing about government, acting like you do. You don't know one thing about illegal immigration or ICE, but you're standing on whatever somebody else tells you. You don't know one thing about what the word of God says. I'm just telling you, people will go crazy for politics and government and be quiet when it comes to the word of God. I wish you would keep that same energy when it came to the word of God. I wish whenever they talk about ICE and they're like, "Oh, I hate those people." Or they talk about illegal immigration, they're like, "Ah, can't stand these immigrants." I wish you would keep that whenever people would come against the word of God. Or whenever your own sin or something like, "Dang it, I hate displeasing God." Your heart pounds. You don't read the word of God and your heart pounds. You watch something and your heart pounds. You get angry and you get mad. Do you get mad at the devil like that? I'm just saying I'm not saying to have a a a holy discontent or not to get mad when things are happening and there's injustice and all that. The Bible talks about that. But what I am saying if that stuff moves you more than the word of God, you got a problem. >> You got a I don't care who you are or what you say, you got a problem. I'm telling you, before God, you have a problem. The word of God should be the only thing that should move you like that. And if something happens, cool. But look at it through the frame of the word of God and then approach it accordingly.
So let me show you what this looks like. Number line number one, follow your hearts. It's what what we hear in the world today. I'm not going political either. That's why I hit both sides, ICE and illegal immigration. No matter where you fall, I'm coming for everybody. >> You hear it everywhere, right? Follow your heart. You hear it everywhere. their songs or in Instagrams. Just follow your heart. Do whatever your heart says. Do whatever your heart says. But I want to tell you that the word of God is far from what that statement is. Matter of fact, Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things. Follow your heart." And and and the word of God says, "Don't do it." Hey, just follow your heart, sister. The word of God says it's the most deceitful thing that you could do is just follow your heart. What is truth? Truth doesn't follow your heart. Truth says this, don't follow your heart. Lead your heart with truth. Your feelings change. God's word doesn't.
Lie number two. You are enough. You are enough. You are enough. Culture tells you the answer to your problem is believing in yourself. But the Bible does not say believe in yourself. The Bible says in John 15:5, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." You are not enough. You're like, "Oh, the pastor told everybody I'm not enough." You are not enough. You are not good enough and you are not enough. Bam. But Jesus is. And Jesus still chose you. Your strength comes from abiding in Christ, not believing in yourself for trying harder. With God's help, you can do all things, but apart from God, guys, you could do nothing.
Lie number three, live your truth. Just live your truth. Hey, live out your truth. This one is everywhere. Speak your truth. Just live your truth. That's probably one of the worst things you could tell somebody. Hey buddy, just live your truth, girl. Just live your truth. You're going to send somebody to hell with that. For real. Don't live your truth. Live out the truth. And the truth is Jesus. The truth is the word of God. Truth is not personal. Truth is Jesus. If truth changes from person to person, then it's not truth. It's an opinion.
Last one. God just wants you to be happy. This one sneaks into Christian culture all the time. But God's goal for your life is not comfort. It's holiness. 1 Thessalonians 4:3, where Lord reads, "God's will for your life is to be holy." God is more concerned about your character than your comforts.
Ephesians 6:14. One more time. I'm going start it over. stand your ground putting on the boot uh belt of truth because if you don't stand on truth, you will always fall for the lie. And the enemy doesn't have to destroy you. He just has to convince you of the wrong story. You stand your truth. You stand up against lies. I like confronting that. I you you want it to challenge you. You don't want it to feel good. You want to come to church and you want to have your worldview disrupted, your politics, your this, your that. It doesn't matter because this is the word of God and it should go first.
Lastly, 2 Samuel. Close with this. 23:11-2. The word of the Lord reads, "Next in rank among the three was Shama, son of Agi, the Herite, one time the Philistines gathered at Lehi and and the Israel Israelite army fled. There was a field full of lentils there, and the Israelite army ran away. Bashama held his ground in the middle of the field and beat back the Philistines. So the Lord brought about a great victory." This is crazy. So this is the one of the three. So David had like 30 elite soldiers and out of those he had three. So he had these three bodyguards, these three elite soldiers. And and and there was this this harvest in this nice fertile land in in a valley by the coastal plains and and it was fertile ground. And the Philistines, they wanted this. And so every time that the Israelites, they would plant all season long. And when the harvest season come, they're like, "Cool. We don't have to work hard for it. We're just going to wait until your harvest is ready and then we're gonna come rob you for it." Have you ever felt like you worked so hard for something and as soon it was time for you to enjoy the harvest, the enemy comes and it feels like he just takes everything away again? Like, man, we were right there. We were right there. We were so close. And the enemy, boom, he comes and takes everything that you work for. And you do it again. You're like, man, it gets defeating. You're like, I don't even want to do this anymore. I don't even want to do this anymore. I just want to be done. And guess what? It was time. The lentils, the beans. I was like, are these Israelites or Mexicans right here? They all, you know, they weren't me cuz they ran from the beans. They're like, I ain't running from these beans. The harvest was ready. And here come the Philistines. And guess what happens? these bold warriors who overcame the Philistines at one time. If you remember whenever David slung the stone at Goliath, they all they see it. They're like, "We're done." Because I don't care how bold you are, when you've been discouraged so long and exhausted for so long, you just don't even want to fight anymore. Bible says that they just threw in the tower and they all just left. They all just, "We're done. Have it. We've worked all year for it. It's harvest time. Just take it." But one man named Shama, the Bible says that that he didn't stand on the edge of the field. He didn't stand in the back of the field. The Bible says that Shama got in the middle of the field and stood his ground >> by himself solo and said, "All right, let's go." And the Bible says because he stood his ground, then God showed up and brought a great victory. And one man held it down and pushed all the Philistines back by himself because they were not coming for the land. They were coming for the provision. And he understood if you take the last of our food, you're taking from my family. You're taking from my wife. You're taking from our future. We don't have anything else. It was one guy who was fed up of the enemy taking everything from him. And he says, "Devil, you can't have it anymore. You can't have." He stood in the middle and said, "If I got to fight by myself, that's what I'm going to do." So, he stood his ground. Then the Lord moved. So, hear me out. Some of y'all are waiting on the God on God to move, then you're going to jump in the fight. That the Bible doesn't say that. That's not faith. The Bible says that he stood his ground, then said, "Look, I got somebody who's willing to stand up to the enemy." Then by faith, he came through and he took out the enemy solo and saved Israel. I'm I'm I'm searching for some moms and some dads and some kids today who are tired of running from the little that they have that the enemy has taken from them. But I want to put you on to what the word of God says in Proverbs. It says that whenever the thief is caught that you can command the enemy to give you back seven times for everything that he stole. So what I want to say is that everything that the enemy has taken from you today, we pray in the name of Jesus according to his word that he gives you back seven times of everything that he has taken from you. Every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every dollar, every sense of joy, all of your peace that he would return it. Provision back to you, joy back to you, laughter back to you, sobriety back to you, hope back to you, dreams back to you, your family, good days back to you, seven times with interest.
Can y'all stand up to y'all's feet as we get ready to close? If y'all want prayer after this message, we'll have some prayer partners up at the front, but we're going to close this out. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you, God, that you did not leave us illquipped or without what we need. God, you've given us authority. You've given us influence. You've given us power. The Bible says that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of us. Thank you, God. And I pray right now that any offense that people have, any unforgiveness that people have, any trespass that people have, that it would be washed away and that we would care more about your word than what social media says, politics, government, wars, rumors of war, what people have to say, racism or this or that. It does not matter, God. We put it aside and first we come to what your word says. We are more concerned with what you have to say than what the world has to say, God. And now that we are in right alignment, righteousness in right standing with you, we have an understanding that Jesus, you are the shield. It was by your blood that we are saved. We walk through you, God. Our sins are forgiven. We are filled with the spirit of God. And we're going to remind the devil today that we have been washed in the blood as we hold up our shield. By faith we are protected under covenant with you God under a covering God like those Roman should soldiers with that shield. We are protected. We will not isolate. We will not be counseledled by the enemy. We will not negotiate with the enemy. We will defend ourselves with truth and that's it. We stand on your word today. We stand our ground today. We resist the devil. He has to flee. It's your word in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen.
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