John 14:1 (A Warrior's Mindset)

A Warrior’s Mindset and the Call to Christian Warfare

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you. One of the most profound things that my sergeant said to me when I was in the army. Came right after a period of my whining and complaining.

Now the army, I don't know about the other branches, but especially in the army. We did a lot of things that I felt like were totally asinine. Extremely frivolous. You whatever adjective you want to throw at it.

We've inventoried this equipment in the 95 degree weather at Fort Bragg, North Carolina ten times in the last two weeks. Do we really need to do it again for one safety pin? My sergeant looked at me and he said Lankford or they called me Opie in those days in Andy Griffith reference.

He said Lankford if you ever heard about mind over matter. I Said yes, he said well if you don't mind then it don't matter. I didn't get the profundity of that statement at first I just thought he was being sarcastic.

Maybe he was but I've never forgotten it and over the course of the years I've realized that what the statements really getting at is that if you have a sort of mental Toughness a fortitude about you then you can become unshakable.

Where nothing really bothers you if you're mentally tough and you make your mind up that that this situation is not gonna bother me then You can kind of become untouchable in a sense that I'm not gonna let this bother me.

I do this every winter at least once a year. I walk in the snow barefoot and I'm like, I don't mind and it don't matter. Just to prove my superiority to this New England phenomenon you call snow. Our body follows our mind a lot of times our behavior follows our thinking if you want to change your behavior.

Oftentimes you have to change your thinking. Because it's your thinking that's wrong about whatever it is. In fact much of our stumbling mumbling bumbling and grumbling Come from either one of two things first We are ignorant of the truth and we don't know it or second.

We know it and we're ignoring it. Much of our problems in life come from those two things that we're either ignorant of God's truth or we're ignoring God's truth. And I would say that this has been a massive problem in the evangelical church in the last 50 years.

The Nature of Christian Warfare

There's so much in the Bible That tells us that we've been called into a war that we are soldiers of Christ that we're ambassadors that we are to conquer to be more than conquerors and Evangelicalism has spent its time in the middle of the battle throwing parties with light shows playing games.

Maybe we gather together and we complain about the government a little we struggle and snuggle with the same old sins. But we do nothing to take back territory that war that the Bible is talking about.

We're either ignorant of the fact that it's going on or we're ignoring it and we're trying to pursue our comfort. We've forgotten. By and large, maybe not this church, but the church at large has forgotten that we're in a war.

What is Christian warfare. Christian warfare is not jihad jihad. Christian warfare is not Grabbing a 10-pound Bible and whacking someone over the head with it. Christian warfare is a war with our flesh.

It's a war against our sin nature. It's a war the Bible talks about principalities and cosmic authorities demons. It's a war where we show up even when we're tired to praise the name of King Jesus every Sunday.

It is a war where we fight for holiness. It is a war where we fight for obedience and sanctification and to have our lives centered on the truth of Christ. It is a war. Where we wake up every day hoping to see Jesus Christ Kingdom expand in our town in this region into the ends of the earth where we joyfully Declare his gospel like soldiers on a run.

We're in a war. But we've forgotten. The world hasn't forgotten that it's in a war. And in just two months or maybe a month and a half from now the largest ever Convention of Satanist will occur in downtown Boston.

This is called Satan con. They haven't forgotten that there's a war. The LGBTQ activist and agenda has infiltrated schools so that now sex-edge. Curriculums are pornographic and disgusting. They've permeated all aspects of government so that Transgender influencers are hanging out with the president.

Trying to set agenda and policy. Making war against God's design of family sex identity. They even write songs on YouTube we're coming for your children and they say it out loud. They haven't forgotten that there's a war.

Christians are people of grace people of joy and people of mercy. But dear brothers and sisters do not forget that we're also in a war. That there is an enemy. There's a triad of enemies the world the flesh and the devil.

And the world around us is fighting for this Battle much harder than we are whole Bible is about warfare. Think about our salvation. Jesus fought his way into the enemy's camp so that he could save you and I from our subjugation.

We were POWs we were POWs and in a concentration camp and Jesus came allowed himself to be conquered allowed himself to be killed in action so that you and I could be set free. It's a war. He came from heaven deployed to earth.

To save and rescue those who were lost through his victorious resurrection. Do we not think that's warfare? While the demons were singing on the third day and while they thought that we have won the battle Christ exploded out of the tomb as the first fruit of a new creation as the Commander-in-chief of a brand new army to take back planet earth from the devil who he is now bound and who he is.

Plundering his kingdom. This is a war. To bring his dominion and his government to the nation's. Isaiah 9 says the increase of his government will see no end. It's a war. Now, why do I say that we've forgotten this.

There's this term in the army called garrison and then there's this term in the army called deployment. I'm sure the same thing in other branches in garrison you show up with shiny boots. You show up with with the with the crease in your in your uniform that could cut through a slice of ham.

Your hair is nice. Your beret is perfectly pressed. And you do that day in and day out. Because you're at peace garrison means that you're not at war. I Think Christianity has adopted a garrison approach where we show up and we have our nice clothes on our Instagram filtered life.

And we forget that we are at war. The shiny boots are gone. The reason I say that we forgot is because we are not Living as though we are engaged in a battle. Think about this. Let's say all of us. Everyone in this room by some stretch of the imagination is drafted into a war and we go to war with let's say China.

I Example. Go back to the Jude series, I predicted it imagine all of us were there and you saw me with my feet propped up. Drinking a really nice craft cold brew coffee. Maybe I had a Dominican cigar.

I don't even smoke cigars very much. But imagine I had one. Bullets flying bombs being dropped people are being pinned down and you look at me and you think that man is crazy. He's got his feet up. What is he doing?

He's reading a book. You would grab me you would shake me and you would say get your head in the game. Don't you know there's a war? Well, I want to say that to the entire American Church get your head in the game.

Don't you know there's a war? We say with our lips that Christ is Lord over everything over time and space and over all creation. We don't live like he's King. We don't fight like he's King like this territory already belongs to him.

We act like we're imposters. I Don't want to offend the world in their space. It's not their space. When Christ rose from the dead, he said all authority and heaven under has been given to me. That's they're borrowing our space.

It's Christ space cosmos belongs to him. We don't praying like we're in war if we were in war and we were praying like more. Let us take the next hill and let us take the next hill and what that sin in my life.

Let that sin die a thousand deaths Lord. Wouldn't we pray differently if we thought we were in war? Do we live lives? That threatened the soldiers of hell. Do we advance or? Do we let discouragements? reign over us.

Do we let comforts captivate us? Do we allow the next gadget to distract us to our excuses to gain? Ascendancy, do we have our fear to cripple us? Because if we do we're in good company. It's the same thing.

The disciples were doing maybe not the gadgets. They did have nice new pots that came out every season though 2 ,000 years ago. Jesus is speaking into the same thing the tendency towards lethargy the tendency to live in the fields and to die in the discouragements you Remember the setting from the past couple weeks.

Judas has betrayed Christ. Christ identified him as the betrayer through the dipping the bread and the wine or in the oil and he's left. Satan has gone into him and Peter's like I'm willing to die for you.

I'm willing to go to war and Jesus. It's like are you kidding me? You don't have a warriors mindset right now Peter. You're gonna deny me in front of a little girl in the temple courtyard three times.

Peter you're not ready for war. Jesus understood That the thing that stood between his disciples and the calling that he was giving them was the Discouragements that would cause them to lay down their swords and give up.

As he was sitting in that room 24 hours before he died 53 days before he went back to heaven he realized That the discouragements that they were getting ready to face were their greatest enemy. He had spent the last three years preparing them for this and yet they weren't prepared when the moment came.

Every sermon Jesus gave every miracle every late-night Conversation around a campfire every parable every Bible study every every time spent with them developing camaraderie with them all of that He was doing to prepare them for the war that he was calling them when he left to reign over the kingdom on his throne.

He was preparing them for this and yet at the moment that he was getting ready to leave They were ready to give up and give in and fall down. So what we should see In these passages Is that Christ in his sovereignty Understands the frailty of the human heart and as they near the moment where Christ is going to die He's going to teach them how to have a mindset like a warrior.

How to live as a Christian in a battle where the world the flesh and the devil is going to be attacking you constantly. Jesus is going to speak into this and give us three things so that we will understand how to Fight against our sin fight for holiness.

Bring Jesus's kingdom to all the nation's reclaimed territory for Christ. Plunder the dragon's kingdom one soul at a time preach the gospel first to ourselves and then to the nation's. He's gonna give us three things today To help us understand how to fight.

How to have a warrior mentality. Those things are those three things are number one. We have to forbid ourselves from getting discouraged because you're in a war. It would be silly to think that the enemy won't fight back.

It'd be silly to think that you're not gonna get wounds and get shot and have missiles fired at you. I Think that's a silly story and the light from the browser Caused one of the Iraqis to see us and he fired an RPG right at me.

If it weren't for a brick wall, I wouldn't be here today. And this was the area that the army had set up for us to email our folks. So I was there thinking that this was a safe moment. I had my guard down.

I wasn't. I didn't have a warrior mentality at that point and because of what I was doing. The shot came and I was discouraged. We have to forbid ourselves from being discouraged because the shots are gonna come the fight is here.

Second thing is we need to command ourself to believe. The third thing is is we must persist in hope until Jesus returns those three things if you can grab hold of those three things. You will have success in the battle.

You will fight and you will not give up. Let us pray. Let us read from John 14. Lord God, we know. We know that we are in a battle that began in the Garden of Eden. When the enemy came in and seized control over Adam and over Eve Subjugated them imprisoned them and took control Over much of the history of the entire Old Testament.

There are beautiful moments Where your people were set apart for a purpose and yet Lord they continued to lose little by little until the Old Testament ends and What seems like certain defeat? And at just the right time Lord you arrived on the shore and you started the invasion and You brought the gospel the gospel of the kingdom to this place.

Where light would now shine out of darkness. Where your kingdom would grow to where eventually it would cover like we sang earlier every Square inch of the earth like the waters cover the sea like the rivers to the ends of the earth.

Lord, I pray I pray for us that We would not get caught up in the busyness of the day-to-day in The mundane tasks that we're doing and forget that all of this is our warfare. Lord, would you help us today?

Based off of these passages to help us to know how to fight. To help us to know how to stay in the fight. To Help us to know how to persist in hope while we fight. Waiting for the day that Lord you return and you put away all enemies foreign and domestic you put them all under your feet.

And you bring us into your kingdom. Lord would you help us today in Christ's name? Amen? John 14 will be in verse 1 primarily, but we will dip into 2 next week. We will deal with 2 a little bit more. John 14, this is how it begins.

Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms. If it were not So would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you? Now in this first line Jesus even admits that there are troubles.

Like a good general he's gathering his troops together and he's instructing them on what the battle is going to look like. He is not promising them sunshine and meadows of tulips. He's saying there are troubles That are coming in.

In fact the entire upper room discourse is like a great war manual. This is what's coming. This is how you live in light of it. Jesus uses these final moments to prepare these men For the battle. He doesn't say men the enemy's gonna be glad when you come.

He doesn't say that they're gonna throw you a parade. He doesn't say that when you preach the gospel to your neighbor that they're gonna they're gonna say thank you so much for that. Maybe praise the Lord if they do but what you're most likely gonna see is.

The nation's are going to rage at this gospel. They're not gonna love you and celebrate your arrival. They're gonna hate you because you love Christ. He tells them that they're gonna have troubles. He says do not let your heart be troubled.

Why would he say that if there weren't gonna be any troubles? He says do not let your heart be troubled because there are troubles that are coming that are gonna come after you and there's all Kinds of troubles that are gonna accost you and afflict you in every aspect of your life.

There's spiritual troubles that the enemy is going to fire at you. When I say enemy I mean world flesh and devil. Sometimes your flesh is a greater enemy to you than the devil himself. There's moments where discouragement comes on you and you have no idea where it came from and you're just in the depths of despair.

That's a spiritual attack. Jesus would say do not let your heart be troubled. Don't give in to that don't sit down in that don't receive that and live in that. This is not an exhaustive list, but here's some other areas where we get attacked spiritually.

Depression. Defeatism. A loss of spiritual hunger. Unusual bouts of doubt. Incessant negativity. Increased irritability. Heightened periods of temptation and giving into temptation. Excessive guilt and shame.

A prevailing sense of failure. Feelings of rejection. Confusion over doctrine. This is ten things. There's millions of things that we could list that are spiritual attacks upon you that Jesus is saying do not let that win the enemy's goal in attacking you.

It's very simple. We give the enemy a lot of credit. The enemy's goal is that you will put down your sword. That's it. If he can discourage you and frustrate you and get you to throw your hands up and say I can't do it anymore.

That's the goal. That's the win. Jesus is saying do not let that happen. He wants to take you out of the battle and what happens when that occurs. You avoid time with God because of discouragement. You deep prioritize time in his word.

You become prayerless. You lose hope. You lose faith. You lose you give in to despair. You become disinterested in the things of God. You lose a zeal for Sunday morning. Maybe maybe for a while. You're just you're trying to get here.

But then all of a sudden you're like, I've got better things to do or I can't make it. These are things that happen when we give up the fight. Increase focus on entertainment. Worldly pleasures become more important to you than pleasures of God.

We forget ignore Family worship. We stop catechizing our children. There's so many different things that we could say the enemy's goal is to depress you and to discourage you and to attack whatever vulnerability you have in your armor so that you will lay down your sword and leave the battle because a Christian who is in the fight threatens hell more than anything else.

He wouldn't attack us so hard If we weren't threatening because the Holy Spirit inside of us. Look at what Paul talks about in Ephesians 6 10 through 12 and also verse 16. He says finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might put on the full armor of God.

So that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes and the wiles of the devil for our struggle is not against flesh And blood but against rulers against the powers against the world forces of darkness.

Against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And in addition to all of this verse 16 take up the shield of faith. With which you will be able to extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the evil one.

He's saying the arrows are coming. We might not like it, but they're coming. Do you have the shield of faith? To extinguish those attacks. Are you letting them land? Are you letting discouragement in your job in your marriage in your family in your home in all of these here.

Are you letting those arrows land? Because if you are it won't be long before you're putting down your sword and you're getting out of the fight. That's the goal. The goal is for you to quit for you to stop for you to tap out and for you to give up.

We must resist. It's not just spiritual trouble. So they're physical troubles. Aching bodies. How many get discouraged by that? Not you Graham. Do not raise your hand. You've got a couple decades before you can raise your hand on that hormones addictions.

What about mental troubles discouragements and disappointments. Depressions anxiety fear cowardice fear of looking foolish in front of other people? Insecurities worries. They're all there to make you quit.

They're all there to make you stop. They're all there to make you give up. Think about the worldly troubles that we have the governments that create these laws that say You can't do this or you can't do that.

Think about libraries who say you can't read a book to children and they want to kick you out. All of these things are there to meant to cause us to quit or give up. You think about persecution in America.

We don't really have persecution like they do in other countries and other countries like Nigeria. Which is now the world's most dangerous place to be. If you're a Christian, they will kill you for believing in Christ now.

They'll try to assassinate your character. Now. They'll dox you. I Remember it wasn't even long ago. The very first story hour that we did when people were releasing my phone number on social media. Because we wanted to share Christ at the library.

These things are meant to discourage us. These things are meant to make us quit. We all have troubles in various areas of our life. Troubles at home troubles in our marriages troubles with our friends.

Troubles with our singleness. Troubles in the world at work the church even the church. There are many troubles and all of these troubles are aimed at you to get you to stop. Fighting. I think that's the greatest temptation.

Under every temptation is a temptation to quit. And to stop pursuing Christ stop running stop fighting stop caring give up. Everything in Scripture is predicated upon war. So why wouldn't temptation? Be the cessation of that.

You think about worship. Worship is warfare. You ever thought about it like that we live in a spiritual world. Satan demons all of that our worship is saying no. No, no, we serve a greater King. Our worship is oriented to him.

We're rejecting all of this. Our worship is warfare. Our worship is fighting against our flesh that doesn't want to worship. Our worship is warfare. You think about repentance is warfare against yourself.

Repentance is I'm the problem this sin of mine is the problem and when I repent I'm turning away from it. I'm fighting it. Romans 8 13 says you put it to death. That's what warriors do. That's what soldiers do.

You're fighting you that's warfare. Discipleship is warfare. The world and their system is not right. So I want to help you understand how to follow Jesus. That's warfare. Evangelism. Sneaking into someone else's camp telling them the gospel and doing what Jesus did for you and helping bring them out that's warfare.

Love. True Christian love is warfare. Don't let the world define that term for you. Love is not placation. Love is not acquiescence. Love is not I'm gonna agree with you to make you feel better. Love is doing what's right according to God in every situation for the one you're trying to care about and What's right sometimes hurts and what's right sometimes afflicts our ego.

The best friends I've ever had had the confidence to come up to me and say you're wrong. They didn't say you do you that's unloving and that's despicable and I don't want friends like that in my life.

I Don't want people in my life who say if it makes you feel good do it true Christian love is warfare. Sanctification warfare. You're growing out of the world's habits and you're growing into the habits of of a Christian.

Justification is warfare. Jesus came. Jesus fought. Jesus bled. Jesus died. Jesus purchased you. He went to war. Holy Spirit's indwelling and fueling you towards mission is warfare. When you leave here on mission for Christ.

You're going into a world that hates Christ for the glory of Christ. That's warfare. Every aspect of what the Bible is teaching is under the canopy of Christ sovereign pursuit of establishing his kingdom across every square inch of the cosmos.

It's all warfare. 2nd Timothy 3 3. I'll give you a few examples. He says suffer hardship with me as a good soldier. He didn't mean that right? Yeah, he meant that. Philippians 2 25. I Thought it necessary to send you a paphrodite is my brother my fellow worker and my fellow soldier as A messenger and minister of the gospel.

Paul viewed his ministry partner as a soldier. Ephesians 6. We're not going to read all of it, but put on the breastplate of righteousness the Shodger feet with the gospel of peace dawn the shield of faith put on the helmet of salvation.

Wield the sword of the Spirit. Use prayer as an offensive weapon. All these things are things that warriors use. 2nd Corinthians 10 3 through 5 we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

We are destroying worldly Speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We live in a culture and please hear me graciously here for the last hundred years that has rejected masculinity and has embraced Hyperfeminization and has said that warfare is not biblical.

So we've become passive. We've become timid. 70 of people in evangelical churches are no longer men. 70 women. Because for a hundred years we've made men. Feel like that they're outsiders that their desires To see the Lord's kingdom grow to slay dragons.

Why do you think boys do that? It takes some woke activist mother or father to dress their boy up in a dress to suppress that and even then. It ruins their life. We need both sexes healthy. There are aspects of the feminine personality and character.

They're glorious. But they're not monolithic. We need both masculine healthy Christianity as well as nurturing feminine faith together. Paul says fight the good fight first. Timothy 6 12 put to death the deeds of the flesh execute the flesh.

Colossians 3 Paul says at the end of his life. He could have said anything he wanted. He could have said all kinds of things. He said I fought the good fight. He tells us in Romans 8 that we are more than conquerors.

David says God is training his hands for battle and he's talking about spiritual battle. James says resist the devil which is warfare. John tells us that we are going to overcome the world which is warfare.

The entire Bible from beginning to end is a story of war. Satan came in and Conquered humanity so that now it's through Jesus Christ who comes and rescues us back that now the kingdom of God Advances again to where we keep on fighting.

We don't give in we don't give up. We don't sit down. We don't sit on our laurels. We don't get distracted we go. That's the gospel. Now that he's done this for you go into all the nations teach them how to obey.

Teach them baptize them. Baptism is war when you say Christ is Lord. That's war. Did you know that in the first century? Caesar Said I am Lord. Did you know that that's what Caesars called himself? He called himself Lord.

Caesar also said that he was a son of God. Caesar Augustus believed that Julius Caesar was a god and that he was the son of God. So when Jesus said I am the Son of God, he was making a declaration of all-out war.

When he said I am Lord, he's saying Caesar is not I Am King. Caesar is not. The entire Bible. Until the very last chapter when peace reigns through victory is a book of war. It's a book of fighting. It's a book of extending God's dominion to the ends of the earth.

Now we know that we're gonna struggle. Any war movie that you've ever seen? There's two people fighting any basketball game you've ever watched and how. Just watched an awful one yesterday. Dukes out of the tournament.

It's cuz they didn't fight. Should I came to church on Sunday? There's things that are gonna discourage us. There's things that are gonna cause us to want to quit and give up and give in and tap out. Jesus gave his disciples three things.

Forbidding Discouragement in the Battle

To help them fight and those are the three things. I want us to Examine as we close. The first is we have to forbid ourselves from living in discouragement. Jesus says do not let your heart be troubled.

We seem to not allow it. Do not allow your heart to live in Discouragement as hard as that is. He's saying you are not allowed to throw in the white flag. You are not allowed to give up. I Don't let your heart.

He is not giving you a suggestion. He's not saying if you get around to it. He's not saying if you feel like it he is saying to not. Let your heart reign over you. Grab yourself is what he's saying. Shake yourself is what he's saying.

Command yourself to cease from your discouragements. If the enemy wants you to be discouraged and that's the greatest attack that he can render on your life don't sit in it. Don't let him win. I've never seen someone I've been in Iraq before.

I've never seen anyone say here. I am Shoot me. How often though do we stand up and we give up and we say I'm just gonna sit in this or I'm gonna be mad At this person and be discouraged or I'm gonna be bitter or I'm gonna hold on to this grievance for decades of my life.

It's just the same thing here. I am shoot me. I want to not be in the fight. Jesus saying do not let that happen. Maybe you're here today and you're saying My marriage is not worth fighting for. Maybe you're here today saying I can't win the battle of purity.

I've tried I keep giving in. Maybe you're here. An addiction has got you a hundred times before and you're discouraged. Maybe you don't want to go to church because you feel like nobody cares about you when you hear nobody says hello to you.

Maybe you don't want to read your Bible because it's confusing to you. Maybe you want to sing because you're out of key. Maybe you don't want to pray because it doesn't feel like that. God is listening.

There's a billion examples that the enemy is going to throw up in your life and they're not valid. Take the dagger of discouragement out of your chest and fight back. Your marriage is worth fighting for not because your spouse is worth it.

And not because you're worth it because Christ the King is worth it. Your purity is worth fighting for. Murder your flesh again and again and again until you have victory because Christ is Lord and he is worthy.

Going to church and being in the presence of God with your co-belligerence is worth it. Fight. Fight to not be absent when the troops gather. Mothers, I see discouragement hit mother so hard so many times.

Your kids may not be listening very well to you this week adult or younger. You may be behind in your homeschool curriculum that never happens in our house. The laundry may be piling up your husband. Could possibly be insensitive and not notice how wonderful you are.

Do not let your discouragement quench your fight. Women look in the mirror and say devil get out of my house. Get out of my heart. Shut up. My flesh is gonna listen to me now. Discouragement is gonna hunt you down.

Ladies and gentlemen Discouragement is gonna make you want to give up. Tell your flesh to stop and to listen to the truth of the gospel. Listen to what Jesus says. Do not let your heart be discouraged.

Say to your flesh. No. You will not afflict me any longer. You have to fight back if you don't fight back. You're a victim. You're an open target. I've let depression win in my life for seasons six months twelve months.

Because I was feeling so sorry for myself that I laid down my sword and I didn't fight. Every one of us have that potential. Pick up your sword and hack away your flesh and get back in the fight. Lay down your discouragements.

Hope in God forbid yourself. From disappointments disappointments that calls you to stumble. John Piper amazing quote. I'm probably gonna say it in the exact same way. He says it on the sermon jam because it's stuck in my head.

The only possible attitude towards out-of-control desires is an all-out declaration of war. I hear so many Christians Murmuring about their imperfections and their failures and their addictions and their shortcomings and I see so little war.

Murmur murmur murmur. Why am I this way make war? Don't lay your shield down. Don't let the arrows sink into your chest make war. That's the first thing the second thing is. You've got to command yourself to believe.

Commanding Yourself to Believe

There are many days where you're gonna have to command yourself to believe and I don't mean what we normally consider is belief. Which is mental. Cognitive ascent to a data point or a fact on My worst day when I am in the glums of melancholy sadness.

You can come up to me and you say to Jesus raised from the dead. Yeah. I'm not talking about that kind of belief. I'm talking about what the word actually means in the Bible the word belief. It's not an ordinary word.

It's actually what's called an imperative in Greek. You have case endings at the end of verbs that tell you what kind of word they are. Whether they're a regular verb a past tense verb or an imperative an imperative is not a suggestion.

It is a command command. Yourself to believe this word pisto is one of my favorite words in the Bible. It's even it's even better than a 150 list as we talked about. It's probably on my top three list of biblical words.

The word does not mean a mental fact. The word does not mean Something a precept or a concept that you that you say no I believe that that you can write down on a piece of paper. The word means loyalty.

The word means allegiance. The word is word used in war. When a commander stands in front of you and you stand at attention and you salute and you say I'll follow you wherever you go. That's what this word believe means.

We take it as a sort of yeah, I accept that fact that's not what it is. It's whole body allegiance to Christ. It's total mental commitment total bodily commitment. It's hey Jesus if you go and attack that hill I'm with you.