Act Like Men Session 2

Cornerstone Church

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May 2, 2023

CCLI Streaming License CSPL128101

00:02: One voice in the dark, a song that lights up the stars
00:14: One breath that gives life, one sovereign in power
00:23: Who speaks with thunder and fire, one
00:29: Lord, one King There is no other that can compare to You You are the
00:41: One alone in greatness, the One who never changes
00:49: Jesus, You are the One who grows in power
00:57: The One who reigns forever, Jesus, the
01:05: One true God One man on the cross, one light of the world
01:23: One name, one word, one way to be saved
01:31: One land that was slain, one love above all
01:41: There is no other that can compare to You You are the
01:50: One alone in greatness, the One who never changes
01:57: Jesus, You are the
02:03: One who grows in power The One who reigns forever,
02:11: Jesus, the One true God You're the
02:19: One true God And we have seen the glory of the
02:27: One and only Son of God And we have seen the glory of the
02:36: One and only Son of God You are the
02:43: One alone in greatness, the One who never changes
02:52: Jesus, You are the One who grows in power
02:59: The One who reigns forever, Jesus, the
03:08: One true God You're the One true
03:13: God You're the One true God And we can live in freedom in that All sufficient merit, shining like the sun
04:08: A fortune I inherit,
04:14: I know what I've done My righteousness
04:20: I forfeit at my Savior's throne
04:27: Where all sufficient merit, did what
04:35: I could not Love me condescended, eternal now in time
04:49: Alive without a blemish, a labor made to die
04:59: The law would never save us, while all this bliss had won
05:08: Until the pure and spotless man had finally come
05:17: It is done, it is finished, no more dead
05:25: I own Paid in full, all sufficient merit now my own
05:43: I lay down my garments, many empty loaves
05:53: Good works all corrupted by a sinful oath
06:03: Dressed in my Lord Jesus, a crimson robe they wipe
06:12: No more fear of judgment, His righteousness is mine
06:22: It is done, it is finished, no more dead
06:29: I own Paid in full, all sufficient merit now my own
06:46: All sufficient merit, firm in life and death
06:55: The joy of my salvation shall be my final breath
07:05: And when I stand accepted before the throne of God I'll gaze upon my
07:17: Jesus and thank Him for the cross
07:23: Yes, I'll thank Him for the cross It is done, it is finished, no more dead
07:36: I own Paid in full, all sufficient merit now my own
07:47: It is done, it is finished, no more dead
07:55: I own Paid in full, all sufficient merit now my own
08:18: You make it easy to love You You are good and You are kind You bring joy into my life
08:34: You make it easy to trust
08:39: You You have never left my side
08:46: You've been faithful every time All I want is
08:56: You, Jesus! All I want is
09:06: You! You are the refuge
09:13: I run to You are the fire that leads me through the night
09:21: I'll follow You anywhere There's a million reasons to trust
09:33: You Nothing to fear for You are by my side
09:40: I'll follow You anywhere
09:47: Jesus, You came to my rescue Took my place upon that cross
09:58: You gave me what I had lost My whole world revolving around You You're the center of my life
10:14: You're the treasure, You're the price All I want is
10:25: You, Jesus! All I want is
10:34: You! You are the refuge
10:41: I run to You are the fire that leads me through the night
10:48: I'll follow You anywhere There's a million reasons to trust
11:00: You Nothing to fear for You are by my side
11:06: I'll follow You anywhere Wherever You lead me
11:18: Whatever it costs me All I want is
11:26: You, Jesus! All I want is You!
11:33: Wherever You lead me Whatever it costs me
11:41: All I want is You, Jesus!
11:47: All I want is You! All I want is
11:56: You! Jesus, all
12:02: I want is You! You are the refuge
12:12: I run to You are the fire that leads me through the night
12:21: I'll follow You anywhere There's a million reasons to trust
12:32: You Nothing to fear for You are by my side
12:39: I'll follow You anywhere I'll follow
12:47: You anywhere I'll follow
13:14: You anywhere
13:48: We're blessed to have somebody like Michael and the rest of this worship team up front. And words come off of our mouth and through our lips.
14:01: Where is it? Where is it, guys? Wherever You lead me Whatever it costs me
14:11: And then we sang, there's a million reasons to trust You. I challenge you to take out a piece of paper.
14:21: Now, don't do it right now. But I challenge you to take out a piece of paper and see how many reasons you can write down why you trust
14:28: Him. And here's the thing, when you start an exercise like that, you might come up with three or four.
14:37: Say, okay, well, I did my best. But I would challenge you to not stop there.
14:43: I would challenge you to think of words like, wherever You lead me, whatever it costs me.
14:49: And then stop and read what you just wrote down and say, what else, Lord? What else,
14:54: Lord? I had a professor, one of my classes, we were told to take a passage of scripture, just a verse.
15:05: And make 20 observations off of that one verse. And the first time we had to do it, it was like,
15:11: I got stuck after three. But if you do this type of a thing, if you spend time, slow down, whatever it costs me.
15:24: If you slow down, you'll amaze yourself how many things the Holy Spirit is going to bring to your mind.
15:31: Guys, that's worship. Just singing these, and by the way,
15:37: I agree with what you said last night. How amazing is it? First of all, it's the smallest room.
15:44: It's kind of like singing in the shower. Okay? And we've got 30 male voices singing.
15:51: Many years ago, I was at a men's retreat of a Keswick, America's Keswick. Our church was just one of many that were there.
15:59: And the large auditorium, there had to have been somewhere between 500 to 700 men in that auditorium.
16:07: Singing praise and worship songs. We were lifting the roof off of that building.
16:16: I had this wild imagination, you guys know me. You get a bunch of Christian men together, and there's somebody who's aware that there's a bunch of Christian men together.
16:27: And that would be Satan, and if he can do anything he can to distract what's going on, he probably sent a whole host of his followers to make trouble.
16:36: And when 700 guys, when 30 guys in one room lift their voices together, there's a million reasons to trust you.
16:46: That just hurts his ears, and they go to sleep. Think about that, guys. This is one power that we have, the power of worship.
16:53: I'm going to ask you a question, and if somebody wants to answer it, fine. If not, think about it in your mind.
16:59: So there's an announcement from the pulpit that there's going to be a men's retreat. I'm going to tell you what it's going to be all about.
17:07: There's going to be a men's retreat. What motivates you to come? Anybody have a thought?
17:14: Men. Iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another. We sharpen each other up. Okay, we've talked about that.
17:20: Thank you, it's iron sharpening iron. We have a calling from our Lord to lead, spiritually lead.
17:29: We talked about that all yesterday. What did you tell your wife why you were going to be leaving
17:37: Friday and Saturday? Well, let me put it to you this way. What did your wife tell you why you should go?
17:46: A million reasons. It's a million reasons. We need a break from this.
17:57: Although sin has entered into the world, and we know the curse that was laid on womanhood as of the fall, her desire would be over the man.
18:07: I firmly believe that the image of God is still there. I firmly believe that it lightens up, it excites the heart of a woman when her man is a spiritual leader.
18:21: Guys, that's why we're here, to grow closer to God.
18:27: Another reason we come here is for fellowship. I learned some things this weekend. This has been fun. I met my brother
18:33: Bruce for the first time as we were coming in. Brother, I had a good time with you. I learned from Dave Wilson.
18:42: He's very observant. He was watching the pier that goes out there. There's a whole lot of shells on the pier.
18:49: What's this all about? But he's observant. He noticed that the birds would dive down, grab a shell out of the water, drop it, and it would crack on the pier so that they could eat the clam.
19:00: That's why we have some observant people. I also learned that my son -in -law is not going to be disdained from getting rid of a guard.
19:09: He will pick him up and carry him away. I also learned that mini -me is a better shot than the original me.
19:25: Everywhere but the free throw line. That's what you and Shaquille O 'Neal have in common.
19:31: He could not shoot a free throw to save his life. Guys, we've had an amazing time together.
19:38: I've got a question. I've got a statement. Again, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. Does this apply to you?
19:47: I feel like I'm in a spiritual battle. Some of these phrases I'm going to say can be answered a lot of ways.
19:54: In fact, they can generate some amazing discussion. You might be in a spot where God is giving you a break, and so you're not feeling it right now.
20:03: Or you are. There's a lot of reasons. I haven't felt the spiritual battle in weeks. Is that you?
20:13: I can control my spiritual life, and I don't feel like Satan is really a threat to me because I've got the power of the
20:21: Holy Spirit within me, and with him I can control it. This is not a problem for me.
20:27: How many of these deceptions does Satan use to put you in a position where you're not prepared for what he's got in store?
20:45: We learned yesterday, as Michael mentioned, that the singing was amazing.
20:52: The prayers this morning were amazing. Why do we sing? Why do we pray before we go into the teaching segment?
21:01: I would say at least two reasons. One is to prepare our hearts, because we're going to be...
21:09: There's a lot of distractions out there. Prepare our hearts. Get ready. Jeff and I have been talking about...
21:17: I'm throwing this one at you, Michael. Where are you? I'm throwing this one at you.
21:23: Should we intentionally have two minutes of quietness before we actually start the service and invite people to...
21:33: Let's kill the conversation, and let's just prepare our hearts before we get started. What a way to get your heart ready.
21:41: But I think another reason we do it is to prepare this room because I think, as we gathered together, there were a number of Satan's minions waiting to do trouble, and when those minions hear 30 male voices singing there's a million reasons to trust you, and they go running.
21:59: I really do think I believe that. That's part of the power that we have.
22:05: You see, we've got to get ready. We've got to get ready. Jesus, the
22:11: Son of God, fully God, yet fully man, the night before He actually identified the 12 who would be called
22:22: His apostles, who went into His quietness and prayed all night to the
22:29: Father. And if Jesus, all God, finds it so important to spend an entire night before making this decision, well,
22:41: I think that maybe is something that we need to do, too. If I'm going to give you one thing to carry through my time this morning, it's be prepared.
22:49: That's my one thing this morning, is be prepared. The year was 1985.
22:57: Michael Jordan was the rookie of the year. It would take a few years before he would win a championship.
23:05: The space race was going on. The race for conquering the space between the
23:10: United States and the Soviet Union was in full swing, and in fact, did you know that the Soviet Union was the first to land a probe on Venus?
23:18: So that was all going on in 1985. Super Mario Brothers was released. We were talking about video games earlier today.
23:27: There were some dramatic, dramatic catastrophes. There was a volcano in Colombia that killed 23 ,000 people.
23:36: There was an earthquake in Mexico City that killed more than 9 ,000 people. Some of the talks were going on between the
23:44: Russia and the US. The Vietnam was over, but the Cold War was, people were scared of the bomb.
23:52: Life between the US and the USSR was scary.
23:58: I served, and I know what it was like to be serving during the Cold War. We knew each other, but we were frightened of each other.
24:06: We didn't trust each other. We were in competition, and there was fear. The United States had this feeling of superiority in many things, and one of those was in the world of boxing.
24:21: The United States would define who was the world heavyweight champion. That was our right.
24:28: Along comes Ivan Drago. The Soviet Union had this massive specimen of a man, probably enhanced, and they're going to take on, but nobody can take on Ivan Drago.
24:48: Except Rocky. Well, the first one wasn't Rocky. It was Apollo. The first one was
24:54: Apollo Creed. So Apollo Creed from the United States says, we cannot let this guy have his way.
25:00: So Apollo Creed, even though he was not the world heavyweight champion at the time, he had been, but he said,
25:05: I'm taking on Ivan Drago, and we're going to show him what for, and so they fought.
25:12: Not only did Ivan Drago beat him, he killed him. And so Rocky then steps up.
25:21: What was the difference between the two, other than age? Apollo Creed never prepared.
25:29: He was so confident that he was from the United States. He was so confident he had been the world champion.
25:35: He was so confident in his past exploits, and this is just another out of the evil empire,
25:42: Soviet Union. He was so confident, he did not prepare. He went into the battle.
25:47: He didn't know how strong his foe was. He didn't know his foe's strength. He didn't know his own. He was unprepared.
25:54: He went into the ring, and not only did he lose, but he died. And so the movie then shifts scenes, and you have
26:01: Rocky, who goes into the outer reaches of Russia, away from everybody else, and the most rudimentary of equipment, he trains and trains and trains and gets ready.
26:14: And it's interesting, because the film will go to Rocky doing this, and then
26:19: Ivan Drago doing this with all the high tech. Here's the point. Ivan Drago was also prepared.
26:27: But Rocky, he had to be prepared. Now, they fought in the ring.
26:34: They fought a physical battle. We see that as a battle between good and evil, if you would, but clearly it was a physical battle.
26:45: Gentlemen, ours is a spiritual war. Ours is a spiritual war. Somebody has Ephesians 6, got handed out.
26:52: I gave, Greg gave it. Oh, you haven't got it out yet? All right, Greg's going to be handing out slips of paper and reading.
27:04: While he's doing that, Mike, I'm going to ask, while he's doing that, get Ephesians 6, verses 10 to 18.
27:11: There will be various times I'm going to ask you to read out of there, but if you would read the whole passage, Ephesians 6, 10 to 18.
27:19: Okay? We get, Finally, be strong in the
27:24: Lord, and in the strength of His might, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, over this present of darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil, in the heavenly places.
27:47: Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand any evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
27:57: Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
28:09: In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.
28:17: And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the
28:25: Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.
28:35: We're in a spiritual battle, and I don't think any one of us can deny it. You may not feel it right now.
28:42: I'm going to throw this thought out to you. If you don't feel spiritual battle, and if weeks can go by, and you don't feel spiritual battle, maybe it's because Satan doesn't think you're a threat.
29:03: Maybe it's because you have got such a deluded, watered -down version of faith, and willingness to listen to the
29:10: Great Commission. He knows he can't take you away from your salvation. All Satan can do is make you ineffective.
29:19: And maybe your life is so watered -down that you're not a threat, so he's not going to jostle that cup and maybe wake you up.
29:27: If you're not feeling it at all, maybe start praying about it. But here's the thing.
29:32: We cannot wait until the spiritual battle to get ready. And so the question is, why is it necessary to be prepared for a spiritual battle?
29:43: And I would say, first of all, out of this passage, our battle, our war, is not against flesh and blood.
29:50: It's not against flesh and blood. There are battles that are going on that are beyond our nature to be able to fight.
29:59: We are built as men. There's the fight -and -flight syndrome. And most of us, at the right time, whatever it may be, we're going to stop and we're going to do moral combat because combat is there.
30:11: But we don't battle against flesh and blood. Ours is against, it's a spiritual battle.
30:17: There is one who knows about you. I'm here to tell you that Satan is not omniscient.
30:25: He does not know everything about you. But Satan is tenacious and does not give up and he will continue to try things that are going to maybe impact you in your specific way.
30:38: And he's got a database and it says, Joey, that's a good one. I got that.
30:45: And he shares it with all the minions. Joey's got a weakness over there, guys. If you need that one, pull that card out.
30:52: He is our foe and he is going to be on the attack. He has such a need to replace
31:03: God on the throne. And he even said that when he was up in heaven, I will make myself like the most high.
31:10: And he has to fulfill that proclamation. And the way to do that right now is to take each one of us 30 who have bowed the knee to the
31:19: Lord and make it so that when we leave this room and we go out into the world, we are not going to be that witness.
31:26: This is a spiritual battle. The risks of not being prepared because the spiritual warfare will come.
31:35: And the first risk is that we tend to underestimate the thought.
31:44: Culture has done a great job of normalizing the existence of Satan to where on Halloween there will be kids dressed up as a cute little
31:54: Satan. There are TV shows about witches.
32:00: Everything is done to make them seem okay. And so we underestimate the danger and the power and the abilities because you see, we believe as men that we can control what's going on based on our experiences, based on our own value, self -worth, self -strength.
32:20: We have to know that our foe is Satan. That cannot be minimized.
32:26: We have to understand the reason why he's going after us. Because my passport says citizen of the kingdom of God, same with you guys.
32:38: That's what my passport says now. And there's no expiration date. My passport has my birth date and my rebirth date.
32:47: Okay, he knows this, but he wants us not to pass 101.
32:53: And so that's his agenda. Get in our face. And he is so powerful.
33:00: I think that we minimize the power that Satan has.
33:06: Daniel 9. It's an amazing chapter. It's not going to be until sometime in the fall when we teach it.
33:15: Daniel is reading the scroll. The nation is in captivity and it's been proclamated by God that there will be a year for every time that the nation of Israel did not give the
33:29: Sabbath rest to the Lamb. And it turned out they would be in captivity for 70 years. It was proclamated.
33:35: And after the end of 70 years, if my people who are called by my name will pray,
33:40: I will answer their prayer. He goes, it's just about 70 years he prayed.
33:50: And I think you spoke about this yesterday. God sent Gabriel. He couldn't get to Daniel.
33:58: Gabriel, the messenger angel, could not get to Daniel because the devils were holding him back.
34:08: He couldn't get away. God sends Michael and the battle is on and Gabriel is free. Do not underestimate the power of your foe,
34:17: Satan. Do not underestimate him. By thinking, I've been a believer for a long time. I'm solid in my faith.
34:23: I have the Holy Spirit. Do not underestimate the power that Satan has because it's real.
34:31: We have to get prepared. The second big risk is overestimating yourself. Thinking that you are going to deal in the battle when the battle comes.
34:41: Plenty of time. Plenty of time to take care of it when the battle comes. I gave
34:49: Romans 12 to somebody. Does somebody have that? Go ahead. Yes. For by the grace given to me,
34:56: I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
35:05: Don't think highly of yourself that is appropriate. Don't. But you know what you do have?
35:13: You've got faith. The faith appropriated when it's appropriate, when it's taken on hold, is going to be the shield that you need.
35:22: It's going to be what we're given. Galatians 6, 3 is going to tell us that when somebody thinks he's something, when he's nothing, he's deceiving himself.
35:33: The risk of thinking too highly of yourself, that spiritual battle, is not going to be a problem for me.
35:40: Proverbs 3, 5 says, trust the Lord with all your heart and not on your own understanding. Having this opinion of yourself that you are more than you really are puts you at high risk for that spiritual battle.
35:56: The nation of Israel, I was going to ask my brother Jeremy, where are you? You know the story of the two battles of Ai?
36:04: Okay. Nation of Israel. Nation of Israel goes into the promised land, beginning of Joshua.
36:11: And God says, fear not for I am with you. I will go before you. I will fight the battle for you.
36:16: They go to Jericho. There's no way they beat Jericho except they walk around the city, six days.
36:23: The seventh day they walk around, the trumpets blow, the walls come down. Total victory.
36:28: And so now they go into a camp after Jericho and the next city up is going to be Ai. Just a little thing.
36:35: It's not recorded that Joshua ever turns to the Lord. In fact, it's not even recorded that they weren't aware of the sin that was in their camp.
36:45: And so they went totally unprepared and they were routed. They came back, confessed, got right, sought the
36:53: Lord, fought the battle again, and won. Don't overestimate yourself.
37:02: Joshua was convinced, I already won a great war, I know how to do this.
37:08: Do you see the word Ai in that approach? And it wasn't until they stopped saying
37:13: Ai and said You, Lord, that they finally won. Don't overestimate yourself. So what does it mean to be prepared for a spiritual battle?
37:25: Verse 10 in what Michael Reddington tells us to be strong in the Lord, not in yourself. Peter. Here's a character for you.
37:35: Though everyone else deny you, I won't do it. I've got news for you,
37:41: Peter. Before the cock crows, you're going to deny me three times. He had a problem of self, self -worth.
37:53: Thinking that he could take care of it and not be... Jesus is walking on the water.
38:02: Peter goes, Oh wow, it's you, Lord. Come on, come on in, come on in. He goes running until he hears the first wave hits him on the side of the face.
38:08: He looks at the water and he goes down. Help me, Lord. Be aware and be strong in the
38:16: Lord, not in yourself. First Chronicles 29, who's got that? Go ahead. Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty and indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth.
38:31: Yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh, and you exalt yourself as head over all. I'm going to challenge you guys to memorize that verse.
38:41: First Chronicles 29, 11. And if you memorize that verse coming out of this, will this work?
38:51: I don't know. Put you in a good position to get ready for the spiritual battle.
39:05: Matthew 20, 19, 26. It's a story about Jesus talking to a rich young ruler.
39:12: He says, I've kept all the laws. What do I have to do to enter the kingdom of God? And Jesus says, sell everything you've got.
39:18: And he was distressed because this was one bridge too far. And Jesus said, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
39:32: He says, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
39:39: Being prepared is allowing the strength of God to be your guide.
39:45: For yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For all that is in the heavens and the earth is yours.
39:53: Yours is the kingdom, O Lord. You are exalted as head above all. We are then told with some practical steps to be prepared for the battle.
40:02: And it's in Ephesians 6. We are told to put on the armor of God.
40:10: The first thing that you want to do before you put on the armor is take inventory of yourself. See, there are things about us that we hold in awe.
40:21: I don't know about you, but there are things that we are in awe of ourselves because we are so capable.
40:30: I can read that book and I can talk to people about that book. I pray 13 times a day, whatever hit the eye in it.
40:41: We are in awe of ourself, but the things that don't matter are the things that are of self.
40:47: It could be stamina, it could be strength, it could be insight. If it's of you, they don't matter in the spiritual realm.
40:55: The things that do matter are things like the Holy Spirit, the gifts that He gives us, the word of God, prayer, the armor, the church, and one another fellowship.
41:05: These are things that God ordains and gives us. They do matter. Start out by acknowledging the battle is there and that you are vulnerable in the battle against Satan.
41:20: We need to know where the battle occurs and we need to be responding accordingly and be prepared before that battle ever starts.
41:29: God's armory is listed. Give me verses 14 -18 again, please, Mike. 14 -18?
41:36: Yes. Give me those again, please. Alright. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flirting darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the
42:07: Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.
42:13: To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all things. Truth, righteousness, the word of God, the gospel, faith, salvation, the word of God again, and prayer.
42:26: These are, this is the armory. This is the armory that when, when we know we're going to be in spiritual battle, we need to go to that armory before this starts and to appropriate these.
42:43: The belt of truth is that which helps us to withstand counterfeit. And that's one of the first attacks that Satan is going to give at you is truth light.
42:56: The first one he's going to give you is going to be some deviation to the truth. I don't know all of you that well.
43:04: I'm getting to know many of you better. But if somebody came up to our pulpit up front and said, brothers and sisters,
43:13: I now know what God wants. He wants us to have a gay pastor. You would say no.
43:21: It's too far. It's a bridge way too far. But it's that first subtle thing.
43:27: It's that first subtle thing. And if you know truth, you see truth is not a relative thing.
43:33: Truth is not something that you get to define for yourself what is truth. There is one truth.
43:39: It's God's truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the light.
43:47: There is no room for deviation or for swaying away from that. One truth.
43:53: And the more that you know that truth and you've put that on as a belt of truth, when those little deviations come, you'll recognize it.
44:04: And by the way, the more that you know it and it's there and you can say, I don't agree with this because of this verse.
44:13: It's not because I heard my pastor talk about it. Although that's a good thing. But you should follow up hearing what the pastor says and read it for yourself and know the passage.
44:24: Having truth enables you to withstand and to recognize and to see falsehood.
44:31: The second one is this breastplate of righteousness. This was a piece of armor that was worn over the torso.
44:38: This is a piece that was very defensive and very protective and it protected the heart.
44:45: It protected you by the grace of God. This breastplate of righteousness.
44:53: Because in and of me, I have no righteousness. In and of me, I cannot stand.
45:00: We sang about that this morning. My righteousness is nothing. If I put on the breastplate of righteousness, that says
45:08: I am allowing the shield of God to protect my heart. That says in things of my life,
45:15: I'm aligned with truth. In other words, when I'm tempted to go down that aisle in the drugstore where I know there's pornography,
45:30: I'm protected from that. I'm going to go in a different way. Having this protection from those things, my life is going to be aligned with God.
45:39: With this breastplate on, my life journey is defined by righteousness.
45:46: Not by convenience or pleasure. Peer pressure.
45:53: Young folks, you're going to be going through various stages of school where peer pressure cannot be underestimated.
46:05: They're going to make it sound bright and fun and everything. They're going to attack. Guys, when you're in the workplace and it comes to be
46:12: Friday afternoon and all the guys are going to go out and knock a few down before they go home, they won't understand why you're not.
46:19: I want you to walk with the breastplate of righteousness that defines. You should eschew.
46:25: You should avoid those habits that maybe you had before you were saved, but maybe they're creeping back into your life.
46:34: One of the comments coming out of my psychology classes is a good habit takes two weeks to establish.
46:45: A bad habit takes one day. And I wonder why that is.
46:50: Who's really motivating one side or the other? But the other part of the breastplate of righteousness is to be transparent before God.
47:00: What is it that destroys that breastplate of righteousness? It's sin. It's unrighteous acts.
47:08: And you know through the guide of the Holy Spirit when those things are happening.
47:14: Be transparent with God. Confess it. Repent it. And restore yourself with that breastplate of righteousness.
47:22: Now, shod your feet with the gospel. The gospel is the good news. It's the good news that I am a sinner.
47:29: God sent his son to die for my sins, ordained from before the foundation of the earth.
47:36: There was nothing I could do to fix my sinful problem. He died on the cross. That one moment in time, the father turned away because the sin was on Jesus on that cross.
47:47: But then he said, just tell us, God, and something's finished. This is the gospel. This is something that we should be walking in the world prepared with the gospel.
47:57: Our feet, shod. That everywhere we go, this gospel message is on the ready.
48:03: It's with us. 2 Timothy 3, 16, 17 is going to tell us, all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
48:11: I know that love is powerful for doctrine, for instruction in righteousness. The man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished under every good works.
48:21: When I walk in this world and the gospel is on my feet, I have no pebbles in my shoes.
48:32: Having the gospel, having your feet shod with the gospel takes work.
48:40: Study. Meditation. Slow down when you read the scriptures.
48:46: You find a passage that gets your attention, just slow down. Pray about it.
48:51: Make five observations about a passage in scripture that got your attention. Meditate on it so that it's something you take with you during the day.
49:01: And then there's the M word. What's the M word? Memorize. There's no better way to be protected in the battle than to be prepared by memorizing.
49:13: By the way, that would be a good one for you to memorize. And then apply it.
49:18: When you read in the scriptures and there is a word in there that applies to your life, apply it and then celebrate it.
49:27: Repeat it back to God. The shield of faith. Hebrews 11, who's got that? That's me.
49:33: Go ahead. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen.
49:40: There's nothing that we do to control this other than live in it. Faith are things that we do.
49:47: It's the assurance of things that we're hoping for. It's the things that we have in the future. This isn't like I wish,
49:52: I wish, I wish. This isn't my future. This is my hope and I'm confident in that hope because I have faith.
49:59: And even though I don't see it, I'm convinced. I'm convinced that it's there. Self -defense is not sufficient in the spiritual battle.
50:13: Spiritual defense is sufficient in the spiritual. So take on with this faith.
50:18: The picture of the shield. The soldiers would be carrying, the front row of the soldiers would have these shields.
50:25: They'd be like 6, 7 feet tall. They'd be wide. And as they walked up in front, they would sit and they would sit behind the shield.
50:33: And the enemy lines firing arrows at the line wouldn't hit the person carrying the shield because the shield would protect them.
50:42: You're not stopping the arrow from being fired, but you're protected from the damage that that arrow could inflict.
50:53: The only protection you're going to have out of those arrows that are coming from Satan are this shield of faith.
51:01: Because my faith is in him, not in me. Faith changes the outcome of the battle.
51:09: But when the battle is going on, it's a little too late to try to make faith work and fit who you are.
51:17: Take it on, and the helmet of salvation signifies my new identity.
51:24: Think about a helmet that sits on your head. Many of you, I'm sure, have seen war movies.
51:31: And you can tell the Russian GIs from the
51:37: Germans. Their helmet looks different. Take that helmet of salvation.
51:42: This is your new identity. This represents protecting my mind against Satan's thoughts.
51:50: But where is he going to start to succeed by changing the thoughts in your mind? Put that helmet of salvation.
51:58: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things not seen. And then we get into the word of God.
52:05: We are told to take the one offensive piece of armor as the sword of the word of God.
52:15: My grandson has followed in my footsteps. I was a collegiate fencer.
52:20: That didn't mean I sold TVs. In case you were wondering. Fencing, all right,
52:27: Olympic -style fencing. My grandson has picked up on it. I've had fun giving him some thoughts because two things are going to happen in a match, in a fencing match.
52:36: One is your opponent is going to attempt to attack you. And what are you supposed to do? Parry. What, with your hand?
52:44: No, with your sword. With your sword. You push that attack out of the way. And then the other thing, after you've parried, what are you supposed to do?
52:53: Repose. Repose, you come back on the attack. The sword is actually a defensive tool, but it is the offensive tool that we have.
53:03: The foe is going to use his sword to damage you. His agenda is to injure you, to destroy your effectiveness.
53:15: And what you have that he cannot overcome is the word of God. There is no fabricated lie.
53:25: There is no accusation that Satan can throw at you. There is no attempt to derail you.
53:31: That can't stop the word of God. With that, you use it to parry his attack and to go after him.
53:39: I love the account in the wilderness where Satan attacks
53:45: Jesus. You can't answer this, Rich. You know the answer. What does
53:51: Jesus do on all three attacks? He uses the word of God correctly.
53:57: See, Satan distorted the word of God. And Jesus correctly used the word of God to deflect the attack and to go right at Satan's heart.
54:15: I want you to be careful of one thing here. There is a risk of being in the midst of a spiritual battle of some sort and saying, yeah, but God said.
54:34: Yeah? Who's got my book, Retraction? It's a paragraph and a half through.
54:40: Who did you give the book to? I've got it. You've got it. OK. A few months later.
54:47: Yeah. Is it at the bottom of the page? Yeah, right here. Yeah, OK. A few months later,
54:53: I left for Bible college to pursue a pastoral degree. During my first semester, I commuted with two other guys for the two -hour trip one way.
55:01: They were mature Christians, and I welcomed the opportunity to converse with them on all things spiritual twice a week with eight hours of road time.
55:10: One morning, as we were making our way through the countryside on our way to school, I made a zealous comment about what the
55:16: Bible has to say on a certain subject. To my surprise, one of the guys asked me where the truth
55:24: I so confidently declared was to be found in the Bible. I still can remember holding my
55:32: Bible and sheepishly replying, I don't know for sure, but I know it's in here somewhere. Clearly, my answer did not impress him.
55:40: He might have been driving, but that didn't stop him from sternly looking my way and stating, members, you don't ever tell me something the
55:47: Bible says unless you can give me a book, chapter, and verse. Do your homework, guys.
55:53: Do your homework. If you want to make an assertion, this was really kind of fun last night at dinner.
56:02: Mason was challenging me on my theology of eschatology, eschatology of the end times.
56:09: We're talking about when's a tribulation going to occur? What about the millennial reign? And one of the approaches to the tribulation is called pre -wrath rapture.
56:21: And he said, well, what's their favorite verse that makes you believe in pre -wrath rapture?
56:30: I could quote one, and I couldn't quote the rest, but do your homework.
56:36: The spiritual battle comes out there. It is good to say, thus saith the
56:42: Lord. It's powerful to say, thus saith the Lord in Matthew chapter 5, verse 8.
56:51: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. And to be able to just throw out there that when my life is aligned with God and I'm walking away from the temptations,
57:05: I have a promise of being able to be in direct communion with God. And it says it right there in Matthew 5, verse 8.
57:12: That's a power. Do your homework. Even Jesus prayed, right?
57:18: And he even got prepared, because that's the next thing, is to pray.
57:25: Before the battle, pray. Nehemiah was a cupbearer in the king's palace.
57:34: And he had heard word of the disrepair of the walls, and it broke his heart.
57:45: Nehemiah 1, 4 to 6. Go ahead, John. When I heard these words, I sat down and I wept and mourned for days.
57:52: Stop right there. Read that again. Don't just let this one slide by. This is the cupbearer to the king.
57:59: Read that again. It was a little passionate. All right. When I heard these words,
58:05: I sat down and I wept and mourned for days. Wow. That's good enough right there.
58:12: He hears what's going on, and his reaction is to pray, and his heart is broken in prayer and in weeping, because there's something going on.
58:23: Where do I turn? I turn to the Lord. I turn to the Lord. As time passes now, he gets called into the king's chamber.
58:32: It says at the end of chapter 1 that he was a cupbearer to the king. And now he is called in to have counsel and to bring the cup into the king.
58:42: And it says, I had never come in his presence with a sad face before. Because you did not go into the king's bad presence with a sad face.
58:52: Off with your head, you come in as a cupbearer with positivity and everything else.
58:59: And so in the back of his mind is what's going on in Jerusalem. And in the front of his mind is
59:05: I have the opportunity to go talk to the king. Nehemiah 2.
59:11: And the king said to me, why is your face sad, seeing you are not safe? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.
59:19: But I was very much afraid. I said to the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins, and the gates have been destroyed by fire?
59:31: Then the king said to me, what are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of heaven. This is powerful, guys.
59:38: I call this a Nehemiah dart. Why are you so sad?
59:44: What is it that you want from me? And Nehemiah said, hold up, king. I'll be back in about 10 minutes.
59:50: I'm going to my prayer closet. I'm going to kneel down and weep. No, that is not what happened there.
59:56: Right on the spot, right on the spot, he shoots up a quick prayer. God, give me the wisdom and the guidance and let this be yours.
01:00:05: Queen Esther is in a position. Haman had convinced the king that the
01:00:14: Jews were all wicked. And the decree that all Jews would be killed. Esther is a
01:00:19: Jew. And Mordecai convinces her, go talk to the king. And her famous words, if I perish,
01:00:27: I perish. She's praying to the God and surrender. The opportunity to go into the spiritual battle is enforced by prayer.
01:00:40: When do we take on the spiritual battle? And I want you to have one word, if there's no other word in what
01:00:47: I'm going to get today, be prepared. Be prepared. Before the battle is on your doorstep.
01:00:53: It says praying at all times. It says being alert with perseverance. Not just when you think about it.
01:01:01: This is a lifestyle. We talked about how do you establish a mindset.
01:01:08: This is a mindset thing. Prayer is that which prepares you to even take on the armor of God.
01:01:18: Just for time, I know you have two other Nehemiahs, I'm just going to talk to them. Nehemiah is a great book for this, being prepared, by the way.
01:01:25: The nation is back. They're rebuilding the walls. Esther was allowed to go back and rebuild the temple.
01:01:32: And Nehemiah is sent back to rebuild the walls. But the kings in the area are dissatisfied.
01:01:39: And they're putting all these false accusations against them. Back to the king.
01:01:44: So Nehemiah recognizes Sambal and Tobiah and the Arabs and the
01:01:50: Ammonites and the Asterites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem is going forward. And the breaches were beginning to be closed.
01:01:56: And they were very angry. And it says, and we prayed to our God and set a guard as protection against them.
01:02:05: They did this before Sambal and Tobiah and the rest of them came. They set a guard.
01:02:11: They were prepared in advance. It's too late to learn how to put on the spiritual armor once the battle has begun.
01:02:23: A lot of you guys here are veterans. I know that from talking to you. Then you think about people like first responders.
01:02:32: You think about medical people. What do they do? What do they do? They train and train and train again.
01:02:41: So that when the event happens, they're ready just to do because they're trained.
01:02:48: And it's just a reflexive action to do what they're supposed to do. Train and train and train some more so that you're ready.
01:02:57: Don't wait until that emergency shows up in the ER to figure out, I better open the book and figure out what to do on this one.
01:03:05: It's too late. An incoming missile is coming towards your ship. How do
01:03:10: I defend against this missile? It's too late. It's too late. You train, you know, and you know.
01:03:16: The other thing you need to do in advance is know the tendencies of your opposition.
01:03:24: The NFL has something called practice squads. What are they? What's a practice squad?
01:03:32: They emulate what the opponent is going to do. Why do they do that? To get ready, be prepared.
01:03:41: Their people actually learn the tendencies of the opposing team, and they go on to the field of combat, the football gridiron, and they emulate what the opposition is going to do so you can practice what's going to happen.
01:03:56: Know the tendencies of your opposition and be prepared. And how do you do that? You pray.
01:04:02: How do you do that? You seek after the Holy Spirit. How do you do that? You take the time to do it.
01:04:09: In Nehemiah 4, verses 15 to 17, it's then going to say, and the men were on the wall, filling the wall with a sword by their side, with a sword by their side.
01:04:23: So they knew that the attack was going to come, and they were going to be ready to address the attack and not say, oh, here they come.
01:04:30: I'd better go get a sword. They were already out there. And then this passage says something very beautiful.
01:04:42: It says, pray for one another. I have 29 brothers in the
01:04:47: Lord here, and I know that I have the ability and the privilege.
01:04:55: Bruce, we just met yesterday, but I know I can pray for you. OK? Greg, I can pray for you.
01:05:02: I can pray for Charles Shorty. I can pray for you. I call him Shorty. He calls me middle -sized one.
01:05:10: But I can pray for you. And then I should be able to have the confidence to know that you've got my back.
01:05:19: We are in this together. So what are the obstacles to be? This all sounds good.
01:05:25: It sounds obvious. What are the obstacles? And the first one is that you trust yourself too much.
01:05:32: Proverbs 28, 26, it says, he who trusts himself in his heart is a fool. That doesn't sound like a good idea.
01:05:40: Proverbs 3, 5 again, trust in the Lord, not on your own understanding. We trust ourselves way too much.
01:05:49: I'm not afraid of this battle. I got this. I got this. Ambivalence is another one. It can't really happen to me.
01:05:56: Things are going good. I don't need to worry about this ambivalence or the wrong priorities.
01:06:01: I have too much on my plate to spend time working on the spiritual armor. 2
01:06:09: Corinthians 11 is going to tell us that Satan is subtle. My brothers, I can't enforce this too much on you.
01:06:19: Satan is subtle. He has worked on every single one of us.
01:06:26: Ivan, he's worked on you. I don't know what it is. I don't need to know what it is. But Satan knows where your weakness is.
01:06:33: He does. And he keeps a book on it. He is going to find that subtlety to compromise your truth.
01:06:46: But here's another big one. Unconfessed sin. If there are things in your life, if you have been opening a pornographic page, if you have been cheating on your taxes, if you've been spending too much time flirting with a girl in the neighborhood or in the office, whatever it is, nobody else knows about it.
01:07:09: I've got it under control. Unconfessed sin is an obstacle to you spending time putting on.
01:07:21: Satan cannot defeat you. He can only displace you. You have a passport.
01:07:30: It's got your picture on it. And it has a birth and a rebirth date. And it says you're a citizen of the kingdom of God with no expiration date.
01:07:42: And he cannot take that away from you. But he can distract you. He can push you off to the side. Unconfessed sin is that tool that he has to push you off to the side.
01:07:55: Did I give 1 Peter 5 -8 to somebody? Please. Be sober -minded.
01:08:02: Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
01:08:11: My challenge to you is to understand this. You are under attack. It feels good when we're on this mountaintop experience here in a retreat.
01:08:24: But the most vulnerable time you're ever going to have is on your way home and when you get home because you're off of the mountaintop.
01:08:29: But in all places, please, please, know you're under attack. And this is a spiritual realm of battle.
01:08:36: Now is the time to be prepared. In all things, in all things, especially in spiritual warfare, rely on the
01:08:45: Holy Spirit. Ivan, you introduced us to the word korondeo, the mindset of God.
01:08:54: Those who are saved, those who are saved are not, cannot be prevented from the korondeo.
01:09:05: You cannot be prevented. You can be distracted. But you've got the Holy Spirit. And I love that challenge that you gave.
01:09:15: You've got one life. Use it. Would you close the bride?
01:09:22: Father, we thank you so much for this gathering here. We thank you, Lord, for the truths that are given to us today, the challenges here.
01:09:31: Lord, we thank you, Lord, for just this awakening that we are in a battle every day.
01:09:38: We lift all our brothers here today, Lord, as one unit, to face this world,
01:09:44: Lord, to help this world, to honor you in doing that, Lord. We pray for ourselves and the struggles we have every day,
01:09:51: Lord, and also to celebrate with you the victories that we have. So in the remainder of this day,
01:09:57: Lord, guide our minds, guide our truths, guide the voice that is in us,