Know your Enemy

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week,

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Pastor Don Filsex preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation.

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Let's listen in. Good morning, Recast Church. Happy Father's Day. To those of you in the room who are fathers, and those of you who have a father,

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I would encourage you to respect and honor your dad today, whether that's taking him out to lunch, or making a phone call, or going to visit, or whatever that might be.

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But it's really cool that there's something in our nation that identifies that as valuable, and at the same time, there's something in the

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Word of God that identifies that as so valuable that it made the top ten list of things that God said he wants us to do or to, in that list of avoiding things as well.

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And he said, honor your father and mother. And so, today's a day set aside to honor fathers, and excited about that.

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Thanks for being here this morning. I'm Don Filsex. I'm the lead pastor here, and just want to say welcome. I recognize a couple new faces, and so glad that you're here as well.

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And know that there's coffee, there's juice, there's donuts over here. All of that stuff is free, so you can take advantage of that at any time.

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We're going to have a connection time here in a few minutes, where you can get up and meet other people, and a few minutes for us to interact and tank up on that stuff if you need to.

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Just to let everybody know, I'm just kind of thinking about history, and sometimes I like to just remind everybody where we're coming from. Recast Church started seven years ago as an intentional church plant.

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Now, I use the word intentional there, because some churches get started accidentally. Like, there's a church split, or some people don't agree, or they're not getting along very well, and so then they go off and do their own thing.

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Ours was intentional. A church in Portage said, hey, how about we check things out and send a few of our people out to start a new church.

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And the cool thing is, they did a really— it would be very easy for a church to send out people they didn't like.

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You know, I say that tongue -in -cheek. But they actually sent out people who were engaged, who were involved, who were teaching

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Sunday school classes, or really involved on the board of directors. I mean, people who were really working hard, and there were five couples who joined together with two other couples here in Matawan.

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We did a bunch of research, landed in this community as a place that was in need of a gospel -preaching church that was reaching out to the community.

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We began meeting in the basement of a family in Trussell Creek in the neighborhood north of here.

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We started with the core values of replicating community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth.

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And if you notice, that actually is an acronym that forms our name. So, replicating community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth.

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I really miss having that on the wall behind me. When we first started meeting in a storefront, those words were on the wall, and they were constantly in front of us as a reminder.

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And I like us to remember what we stand for. We want to be a church that spreads the kingdom of God. We want to be a church that is a blessing to our immediate community here in Matawan, or the place that you live, your workplace, and your neighborhood.

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We want to be a church where we mourn with those who mourn, and celebrate with those who are celebrating. That's that authenticity component, where you don't have to come in and act like your week was great if it wasn't.

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We want to have people that you can share, this was just the pits this week, and people will engage you on that level, or equally, where you can say,

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I got a promotion. Sometimes I think it's worse, and I say this often, but I think it's worse to celebrate alone.

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Like, I mean, mourning alone, sometimes I want to be alone when things have gone bad. But man, when things go good, and you're alone, how many of you have ever, that's not a fun place to be.

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And so, celebrating with those who are celebrating, mourning with those who are mourning. We want to be a church with a simple level of programming, intentionally, so that we have free time to engage in our community.

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That's part of the simplicity, we don't have a high level of programming, so that we don't have something each night of the week for the intention that you might engage, whether it's your kid's little league, or whether it's having your neighbors over for a barbecue, or whatever.

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We're going to try to remove the excuse that you have something at church to do, so that you can't have a barbecue with your next door neighbor.

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So, we want that to be off the table as an excuse. But lastly, and I would say even most importantly, the last one ties everything together, that is that we are driven by the truth of God's word.

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Now, I would suggest to you that the majority of churches would say that they value the word of God, but we want to be driven by the word of God.

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That's why I open the word of God, and we read large chunks of it every week, and we study it, and we walk through it, versus just one verse, and then a lot of my thoughts about things in life.

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So, we want to be driven by God's word. And this morning, we're going to be digging back into the book of Revelation again, I'm going to kind of set the stage for where we're going, and the band's going to come lead us in worship, and then we're going to take this apart, and hopefully let the spirit of God put it back together again in our heart.

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Revelation chapter 12 is where we're going to be. And again, we're marching through this book, a difficult book, a challenging book for us to take on, for us to understand in our modern time.

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And I want to point out that preaching through the pages of scripture, chapter by chapter, forces our discussion to go down pathways that God wants us to go.

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When I'm sitting down, if I were sitting down, and actually when I was an associate pastor, and I didn't preach through an entire book, and I was just said, hey, why don't you preach this one week this month?

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It was very hard to just kind of pick a topic, or pick a subject, or pick a chapter. But going through forces us to work our way through.

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And so, a sermon about the status of Satan would not make the cut, wouldn't be high on my list if I were just going through and saying, here's what

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I'm going to preach on over the next year, and I'm just going to pick something each week. But that is what God has us looking at this morning.

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A cosmic view of Satan that results in praise and worship for those who belong to God.

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Do you ever think about, as we track the history of the evil one, through the pages of scripture here, through this chapter, it results in praise, the praise of God's people.

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It results in rejoicing in heaven, and kind of go, well, how is that going to break down? Well, we're going to read that here in just a second and see.

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But I would humbly suggest at the start of this sermon that many of us have some fundamental misunderstandings about life.

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That sounds kind of arrogant for me to say, but I believe that I have that same issue, I have that same problem, where I will walk through my week not attentive to the things that I can't register, or measure, or see with my eyes, or hear with my ears, or touch, or manipulate.

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But there's something else going on, isn't there? Is there something else going on, a large chunk of stuff that's going on behind the scenes that our eyes can't take in?

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Are there a lot of things going on that our ears can't hear? And that's really what it means to be a people of faith, is to say, well, fundamental to our faith first is that there is a

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God. And we haven't seen Him. We can't measure Him. We don't hear

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Him with our ears, right? But we believe that He is. And so that's very fundamental, is this idea that there are things going on around us behind the scenes that often define our days, our weeks, and our years.

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And we can be oblivious to those things that are going on. We often function on the day -to -day, if we're honest.

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If we're honest, we often function as materialists. We trust what we can take in with our five senses.

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But this morning, God grants John a vision that John shares with us. He's given a vision, and then he's in turn told to write at the beginning of this book.

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And so he's recording these visions, these things that he's seeing. And the fact of the matter is, you and I have a real enemy, and he's identifying that for us.

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We have a real enemy, and he is powerful. He is terrifying. And he is hungry.

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He is bent on destruction. He is moving on this world scene to try to set against the people of God and the

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Messiah of God, the Chosen One, Jesus Christ Himself. And according to this text, he's powerful, he's mighty, and he is losing at every turn.

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He just keeps losing. He will one day be fully expelled and fully punished.

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And the one who is called the murderer, the one who is called the deceiver, the accuser, the fallen one, the one who tempted

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Eve in the garden, the one who brought about the fall, the enemy of every single person who bears the image of God, that's everybody in this room, each one of us, and he is our enemy.

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But this enemy has no place in the kingdom that is to come. He will not be there in the end.

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A day is coming when he will be barred any access to heaven, and his fate will be tied to the fate of this earth.

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And we see that in our text. We've seen, we've seen in our lives and in our world and in the headlines, we have seen the flailing of the evil one.

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Have you seen that in the last week? I'm reminded of the events of just last weekend. This past week we have seen active evil in our nation.

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We see evil in natural disasters and the effects of the fall that Satan incited. In our own hearts we experience the rebellion against our maker that Satan initiated.

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And so when we come to a text that highlights God's final protection from the rage of the dragon, our hearts are called to rejoice.

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So let's open our Bibles to Revelation chapter 12. If you don't have a Bible on your lap or a means to navigate to one, maybe on a device, if you'd do me a favor and just raise your hand.

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And the only reason I'm asking you to raise your hand is that somebody would bring you a Bible. We want everybody to have a copy of God's word. And there's some guys back here with Bibles just to bring one to you so you have one on your lap.

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So you can follow along and see that the things that we are, that I'm talking about, are coming from Scripture.

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They're not coming from just my notes up here or something like that, but you can reference that during the morning.

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And again, if you don't have a copy of God's word at home, just take that one with you. We want to give those away, and we want everybody to have a copy of God's word.

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But follow along as we read together Revelation chapter 12 in its entirety. Recast, this is the word of God, deserves our respect and our attention.

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It is what he desires to communicate to you and I from his very throne this morning. Revelation 12, 1.

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And a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

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She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains, and the agony of giving birth.

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And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on his head seven diadems.

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His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.

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She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.

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But her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1 ,260 days.

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Now war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.

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But he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.

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He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,

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Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come.

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For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our

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God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

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For they love not their lives even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heaven, and you who dwell in them.

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But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short.

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And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to a male child.

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But the woman was given two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time.

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The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.

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Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring and those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

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And he stood on the sand of the sea. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning.

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Our Father in heaven, your name is great. Your name is holy.

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Your name is awesome. It is to be exalted among us. May your kingdom come to this place, and may your will be done here on earth just like it is in heaven.

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Give us this day exactly what we need. Forgive us of our sins in the same way that we forgive those who sin against us.

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Lead us not into temptation, Father. Help us to avoid those sins that would so easily entangle us and corrupt us.

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Deliver us, Father, from the evil one. We look forward to that final day of deliverance when yours is the kingdom, and yours is the power, and yours is the glory forever and ever.

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Yeah, go ahead and you can be seated. And I would encourage you to get comfortable during the next half an hour or so as we dig into this text.

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Keep your Bibles open to Revelation chapter 12. If you have that on your lap, it's going to help you to be able to see that the actual text itself is my outline.

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And so we're going to walk through it verse by verse and thought by thought and dig into Revelation 12. Remember that if at any time you need more coffee juice or donuts, you can get up and take advantage of those.

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If the seat you're sitting in gets uncomfortable, you can get up and stretch out in the back. It's not going to distract me. But all of this for the point of trying to keep our focus on God's Word here for about a half an hour or so.

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Some call this chapter, Revelation chapter 12, the centerpiece of the book of Revelation. That's not just because we're at the physical halfway point, although we are.

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I don't know if you realize that. We just crossed over the threshold into the second half this morning in the book of Revelation.

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But the content of the assurance of the victory over the dragon is a major, major theme throughout the pages of Scripture.

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That there is indeed an evil one who fell from God's grace sometime in ancient history, in ancient past.

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We know that it preceded his fall, preceded at least the temptation of Eve in the garden.

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So it's sometime way back when. And he is a theme throughout the pages of Scripture.

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He is a real being created by God, an angel. And we see this as kind of a centerpiece of the beginning of the loosening of his grip on the world here in our text.

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And we're going to see that he's made attempt after attempt after attempt to thwart the plans of God. But God's plans cannot be thwarted.

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Just as Dave was mentioning, the sovereignty of God, God's will will be accomplished in the end. And we ought to be extremely grateful and rejoice and be thankful for that.

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So the content of the assurance of victory over the dragon here in our text is wrapping up a major theme that began all the way back in Genesis chapter 3.

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Satan and his fallen angels have been at work all throughout human history. So when we come to the first verse here, we don't start right away with Satan.

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We start with a separate sign. And we're going to talk about two different signs. And this first one is called a magnificent sign or a great sign.

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Great not meaning size, but great in this context meaning magnificent or awesome or glorious.

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Signs and symbols are representative. And so we know immediately that the sign that we see, the next thing that John tells us he saw is going to be symbolic for something.

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It's a symbol for something. Signs point to something else. And that's exactly what this is.

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And in the heavens, John sees a woman. She's wearing the sun. She's resting her feet.

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She's using the moon like an ottoman. And she wears 12 stars for a crown on her head.

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She is meant to inspire awe and wonder. This is a glorious, majestic image that we're given right here.

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We are meant to immediately acknowledge that this woman, whoever she represents, whatever she represents, is a very big deal.

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As glamorous as you can get, ladies, in your fashion, you are not going to go out and buy the sun as a dress.

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You are not going to capture 12 stars for your tiara. You will not make the moon into an ottoman to rest your feet on while you get a pedicure.

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I mean, you've got to have something to shoot for, though, right, ladies? I mean, you're worth it. But first we should note the fact that this woman is a sign.

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And that demonstrates that we're not looking at a mere woman here. She's about to give birth to the

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Messiah. And the symbols of her attire would have turned the first century reader's minds to a dream.

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Remember that the only scriptures that they had accessible at the time when they're sitting down to read this is the Old Testament.

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And so all of their religious reading, all of their understanding would have come from the Old Testament. And the book of Revelation is just full of allusions to and pointers back to the

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Old Testament. And so what would a Jew or somebody who understood those

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Old Testament scriptures have thought when they saw this woman who has the sun, the stars, and the moon at her command?

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Well, they probably would have likely, just like many scholars identified, thought about Joseph back in the book of Genesis.

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In that dream, the sun, the moon, the stars all bowed down to him and they were at his disposal.

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Despite a few varying opinions, many believe that this woman is a symbol for believing Jews down through the ages.

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Not all who were born, by the way, to Jewish parents, not all who were born in Israel as ethnic

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Jews all throughout history, not all of them were genuine followers of God. But this woman represents those who hoped for and trusted for the

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Messiah's arrival. There was an expectation amongst and always has been an expectation amongst groups of Jews and a hope that God would send the rescuer that he promised way back in Genesis chapter 3.

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One who would crush the head of the serpent who tempted humanity and caused their fall.

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One who would crush his head. And that was a promise given all the way back in Genesis chapter 3.

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And so there was a hope for that in the Jewish faith that those who were following that hope to its logical conclusion were saved through the acknowledgement that there was a

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Messiah coming, there was a provision for their sin, there was one who was coming who all that sacrificial system pointed to.

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Abraham exhibited that hope according to the book of Hebrews. Many of the prophets, all of the prophets throughout their writings exhibit this kind of hope.

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King David in his psalms and throughout his writings had this kind of hope. And these

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Jews who hoped for the Messiah are our brothers and sisters in the faith. And they shine like the sun with the crown of the twelve tribes.

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But this woman, this woman who is representative of these Jewish faithful they are pregnant so to speak.

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But beyond pregnant, in John's vision she's already past the point of identifying her as pregnant.

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She is in labor. And she's not just in labor, I would suggest to you that she's in transition. Maybe she's even past transition.

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She is in heavy labor. This baby is arriving now. There's an anticipation, but it's not a long -lived anticipation in the text because this baby is being born right now.

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Who could that baby be? Well before the text answers that, we get to our second sign.

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Before it identifies who that baby is, another sign appears in heaven. And this is a huge, giant, red dragon.

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This is not a great sign, but a great dragon, the text says. This isn't magnificent, this isn't awesome, this isn't glorious.

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This is a huge dragon. He's described in verse 3 in ways that are meant to instill fear and awe in us.

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We might lose some of that. And although you might go, well is this mythology? Remember this is symbolism, it's not mythology.

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So Satan is not a dragon, although he's imaged in that way. Why would they use the image of a dragon as a symbol of Satan?

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Fear. Awe. How many of you, if there was really, literally such a thing as dragons, that would instill fear in you?

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Would that be a terrifying thought? I mean I might not go in the woods anymore, right? I might not adventure too far outside of the house.

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You know what I'm saying? And so there's a fear factor there that's intentional. And this dragon is not a lightweight.

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This text, as we walk through it, you are not meant to kind of say, oh well, this poor dragon, he just keeps getting thwarted at every turn.

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The image that we get at the beginning, this is not Puff the Magic. Okay? He is red like blood, not that green little guy with the rosy cheeks.

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Do any of you even know who I'm talking, when I said Puff the Magic, okay, all right, I'm not, some of you are my age, you're older, so good.

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I think everybody who's younger goes, I don't know, they're on Google right now looking it up. But he's red like blood.

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He's red like war and death. He has seven heads, ten horns that demonstrate his power on each head, and he wears a royal crown, a diadem, the crown of authority.

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There's a couple of Greek words for crown. We only have one because we don't use them that much. Well, I guess we've got tiara too, but we don't use crowns that often, but there's multiple words in the

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Greek language, and this is not the victor's crown. He is not the victor. It's important that you recognize he is not wearing a victor's crown, but he is wearing one of cheap authority, his self -demanded authority.

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He is wearing a crown that he has developed for himself, and he wears these crowns on his head.

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John utters the Greek exclamation over this dragon here in our text, which seems to always lose force in the translation because we don't use that word.

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So when you're ready to show your friend some video that you saw on Facebook or something, do you say,

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Behold! It would be really funny, and I used that this week, right? But, I mean, what do you usually say?

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What do you say when you see something super hilarious online and you want to show it to somebody? That's this word. Whatever you say in that moment, check this out, check this out, you've got to see this.

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Whatever the words that you use in that context is the words in Greek that John wants you to, you've got to see this to believe it.

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I mean, I can't explain it. The words that I'm talking about when I'm trying to explain to you this dragon, you're not getting it.

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You've got to see it for yourself. Check this out. Behold this dragon. It's powerful. It's mighty.

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It's scary. It's devastating. This is a nightmare that he's having here. This is not just some academic observation of this dragon.

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This is something that instills fear in him. He wants you to check it out. He's calling all of us to behold this dragon.

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He wants you to see it. And in passing, this dragon is described, just in passing, as if to demonstrate the power and might of this dragon.

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In passing, he swept a third of the stars out of the sky with his tail. One swipe of his tail, a third of the stars fall out of the sky.

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Now, these are not the literal stars. This is not, you know, all of those, you know,

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Procyon and all those Sirius and all of those stars that are up there. These are angels.

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Throughout the Greek and Roman times and back into even Hebrew culture, the stars were symbols for angelic hosts.

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And he swept a third of the angels in rebellion against God out of heaven. We know that that happened at some point in the past, and we're going to see here in just a moment another fall.

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And I'm going to explain that here to you in a moment. I don't think they're synonymous. I think there was a time in history when one -third of the angels fell with Satan.

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But we're going to see that they still have some limited level of access to heaven that one day is not going to be granted to them any longer.

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This dragon, according to our text, has one thing that he wants to accomplish here. The reason he's interrupted, the reason this sign interrupts the other sign, we didn't find out who the boy was going to be who was born yet.

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We didn't find out because he wants to devour that child.

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He's dead set against this child. He wants to devour him from birth. He's waiting, just waiting for the baby to be born.

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He's ravenous in his hunger. He's drooling at the thought that this baby will be born, and he will snuff out the life of that child.

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She gave birth to a male child. We find some definition to this child. He is male.

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He will rule with a rod of iron. There's a beautiful, beautiful thing that we miss here.

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When you hear the rod of iron, you might have in your mind scepter or some kind of a ruling, you know, something that demonstrates his rule.

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But the word that is used there is definitive. It is a shepherd's club. It's a rod that was used to protect a flock.

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It's a rod that this child will stand with all of his people, with his flock to his back, and the rod in his hand, and will say, take your best shot.

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That's what this rod is all about. Not a rod to beat the sheep. A lot of people have a relationship with God that feels like that, don't you?

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You're like, you have God facing the wrong direction in his wrath. You have him using his club in the wrong way.

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You have an unbiblical perspective on the way that he treats his people. He's not facing you with wrath with a rod.

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He is there as your protector with the rod. He protects his sheep.

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We see that all throughout the book of Revelation so far. His love and compassion towards us. Can we suffer?

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Yes. Can we be defeated? No, we can't be defeated. But can our lives be taken? Yes, they can, but they can't.

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He doesn't win. Satan doesn't win by taking your life or mine. Because of resurrection, because God is indeed on the side of his people.

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And that club, that rod of iron, this is Jesus. I hope you see it as clearly as I do. This is Jesus Christ.

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This is an account of his birth here in the book of Revelation. And we have the entire life of Jesus summed up in verse 5.

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Look at it with me. It's a funny verse. The entire life of Jesus, one verse. Brief life of Christ.

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Would you agree with me on that? I mean, you can fill in a little bit of the blanks, fill in a little of the detail with the

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Gospels. Let me encourage you to do that. You know that there's more to the story than this. Before he was born, the evil one wanted to devour him, but he was taken up to the throne of God.

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That's the summary of his life according to this verse. This abbreviated life of Christ is a good summary of Satan's attempt at devouring this child, of thwarting the plans of God through Jesus.

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Now, when you think in terms of the relationship between Satan and Jesus and interactions that they had, now you might say, well, there's some things that John's leaving out here that we know from the

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Gospels, right? Do any of you recall a couple of interactions between Jesus and Satan? The temptations in the wilderness, him encountering

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Satan through Judas and the kiss of betrayal. You see, there were times when there was interaction between the two.

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Even Jesus saying to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan, when Peter was saying, oh, no, no, certainly you don't have to die.

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Certainly you don't have to go to the cross. And Jesus looked at Peter and said, get thee behind me, Satan.

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Not that he was Satan, but that he recognized that that's a lie, that's an untruth that came through Satan.

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So we could talk about all of those interactions, and so is John missing something? But what

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I believe is kind of cool here in verse 5 is that all of this is set in the context of the desire of Satan to devour the chosen one.

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And his feeble attempts through those encounters that Jesus had with Satan don't even deserve an honorable mention in the book of Revelation.

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It's like, okay, a mosquito, when it bites you, is pretty small, right?

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And is it pretty insignificant? But I think it leaves a little bit of itch and a little bit of pain enough to not warrant an illustration of Satan to God in the annoyance of that.

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It's kind of like, it's not, he doesn't even, I mean, really as far as mentions go, as far as how successful was

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Satan in his attempt to devour this child, not at all.

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Verse 5 intentionally shows us how inept Satan was at his goal. There he is in this text, do you see him?

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This great dragon, it's not to show you how weak the dragon is, the dragon is powerful, the dragon is strong, but who's he up against?

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Who's he set his mind against? His entire desire is to devour this child, and God takes him up to heaven to be with him.

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By the way, gives him a throne as well. Do you see how the simplicity of that verse is intended to kind of go, like, okay,

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Satan, powerful, terrifying to you and I, to God? Like, done.

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I just flick him off the shoulder, done. It's not anything difficult for God.

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He's hungry and his every desire and every energy is focused only and ever to devour the Son of God. God took him to heaven, set him on a throne.

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He is thwarted as he attempts to devour the child, so he turns his attention to the woman who gave birth to him.

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The woman is indeed protected for a season. Remember when we're talking about the woman, we're talking about the Jews who believe in Messiah, and I think our chronology gets kind of confusing in here, and it just is, and I can't solve the chronology for you,

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I'm not going to be able to fix it for you, but just like the ancient prophets could speak of their present day and age and they would prophesy and it had an application to where they lived, but also looked forward to an age that was to come,

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I think that John does some of that to us here, and time is conflated in verse 6. Remember that the main interest of Revelation is the final kingdom and the final defeat of the evil one, so we are talking indeed about future things.

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So the woman that is faithful Israel will go through a time of three and a half years of protection.

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I think that's meant to image the protection that we've seen all throughout the text so far of the 144 ,000

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Jews. Remember the church has been raptured at this time. We were told earlier in the book of Revelation 144 ,000

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Jews from the tribes of Israel were sealed on their forehead with the seal of God, that is they were saved and they are the witnesses on the earth while the church is in heaven, and so that's what's going on here near the end of the tribulation, and they will be protected for the second half of that seven year tribulation.

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Just like the way that the city of Jerusalem was overrun for three and a half years in chapter 11, but the inner court, the people of God in the inner court, those who worship

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Him and the way that He has set forward are preserved in our previous text. The evil one can rage, but God has the power to protect

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His chosen ones, and we see that here in our text. In verse 7 we shift to a new image, a new thought, a new movement in the history of the dragon.

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A day is coming when a war will arise in heaven. Michael, the archangel, and all his angels will instigate.

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Who's the instigator according to verse 7? It's Michael, it's the angels against Satan, and they will initiate a final war against Satan, and Satan himself and his demons will fight back.

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But for a second time the dragon is thwarted. He is no longer welcomed back in heaven, and he is cast down, and the way back for him to heaven is barred for good.

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Now we might have all been taught that this is a past event, and even going into my study this week,

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I kind of thought, okay, I know this, I know this text, I've read this text, this is about the fall of Satan in the beginning, but the context here in the rest of scripture gives a different picture.

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Throughout human history, Satan and evil spirits have currently some access to the throne room of God.

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Remember that in the book of Job, Satan came and presented himself to God along with the good angels that were there, and the evil one is all too eager to step before the throne of God and give accusation to him about his people.

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Of course they worship you, look at all the good things you give to them. If you took away the good things, did you think they'd follow you?

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Accusations of the authenticity of our faith, accusations about our lifestyle, accusations about the sins that corrupt us and entangle us, and he is eager to bring those up and sling those at God.

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So I believe that Satan has access to heaven for now, but a great day is coming when he will be cast down to earth in finality.

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The great dragon, the ancient serpent, the devil, Satan, which means accuser, the deceiver of the world, as the text goes on to describe him, he will be cast out once and for all, and his demons will be cast out with him.

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And the cry of celebration over that victory, which is not the final victory. This is the beginning of the fall of Satan, the beginning of his final demise.

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He's barred from heaven, no longer to stand in the presence of God to accuse you or I anymore.

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But the cry over that is powerful and beautiful. The salvation, we will shout.

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The power, we will shout. The kingdom of God and the authority of his Christ have come.

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For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. The one who has perpetually accused us day and night before God will no longer have access to God.

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I want to be careful to say and agree with C .S. Lewis who said that we can gain an unhealthy interest in Satan and demons.

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I wouldn't encourage any of us to study him deeply. I wouldn't encourage you to set your mind about a big thing.

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I've been in prayer meetings where we started off praying to God, and by the end,

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I just had this eerie feeling come over me, and I just realized that people in the group had begun to pray to Satan.

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Now, they weren't praying to Satan. They weren't asking for things from him. They were talking to him, though. They were addressing him in their prayers.

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Now, maybe some of you have been in that context where it was, Satan, you have no room here. Satan, you be gone. Satan, by the blood of Jesus, you...

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And have you ever heard that before? I wouldn't recommend that you go there.

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Who do you pray to? Let's talk to God. That's good enough. You talk to God and ask him what you would like and ask him for the protection that you need.

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But there's a passage. There's this little known passage in the book of Jude, and I don't have the reference up here.

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If you ask me afterwards, I can look it up for you. But there's this little known reference in Jude where it says, even the archangel

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Michael would not verbally revile Satan, would not verbally speak a word against him, but would say, the

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Lord rebuke you. Jesus rebuke you. But he refused to. Now, he's going to war with him, but without the power of God, without the authority of Jesus, he wouldn't even address him.

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We've got to recognize our place, our rightful place. This is a powerful being who has been there since the beginning of time.

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I mean, I would suggest to you that if you in your finite ability could live 200 years, would you know a lot about people?

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Would you be able to figure out a lot? Now, Satan isn't omniscient. He's not all -knowing.

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He's not ever -present. He's not in all places at once. But let me suggest to you that he is cunning. He is wise.

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He is a student of humanity, and he knows how to get to us. Be careful about your interest in Satan.

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This text is certainly one that is focused on him, and at the same time, is not meant to be a springboard into your engagement and study of Satanology.

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We do know this, that our rejoicing over this text will only be in proportion to our understanding of the power of the evil one in our everyday lives.

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We won't be moved to worship that much if we don't really understand how much he's impacted us.

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You and I live out the effects of his rebellion every single day in our lives. From a broken economic system, to terrorism, to bike accidents, to mass shootings, to gossip, to lust, to embezzlement, to racism, to false religion, and the list can go on and on and on.

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These things are Satan's playground. These are the things that he loves, and adores, and encourages, and delights in.

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And so the casting down of Satan in preparation for his final defeat is a great cause for rejoicing.

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This passage is just full of Satan's plans coming to nothing because God is having his way. Satan wants the child, so God protects him.

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Satan wants the woman, so God protects her. Satan is defeated and denied access to heaven.

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And further, in verse 11, he is being conquered by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.

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His plan to put us to death is part and parcel of his own demise. The more that he puts us down, the more that he kills the church, the more that he seeks the destruction of believers, the more the church grows.

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Testimony of Christians in China who would say, don't pray that the persecution is taken away.

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Rather, pray that we grow in the face of the persecution. And that's what's happened.

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That's what we see. The church in China, where it's illegal to proselytize, where it's illegal to gather together as God's people.

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In a place like that, the church is growing hand over fist. Apparently, Satan didn't learn his lesson from trying to kill

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Jesus, and his strategy hasn't changed much. The end of verse 11 ought to leave a challenge for all of us.

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How do we defeat the evil one? How are we going to push him back in our own lives? By the blood of Jesus.

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You and I don't have control over the blood of Jesus, but by letting the blood of Jesus have control over us, by recognizing that our only hope is to be washed in that blood, to have his life as a sacrifice for us.

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But also by not loving our own lives. According to the text, some will not love their lives even unto death.

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And the question is, do we love our lives more than we love our Lord? We've got to ask ourselves that. Jesus said the following in Mark 8, 34 through 35, and calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

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For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake in the gospels, in the gospel will save it.

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The calling to us from Jesus is to seek first his kingdom. We should let our priorities be upside down from the world around us.

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How much time are we spending in making a good life for ourselves here? The church is only defeating the enemy in as much as we are willing to trust in the blood of the

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Lamb and boldly demonstrate our testimony through sacrifice. When Satan, in verse 12, is cast out, we see that all of heaven rejoices, but on the flip side, a doom, a woe is pronounced on the earth because Satan's wrath in those days will be great.

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When the day arrives and he is finally cast out, once and for all, no longer to have access to the throne room of God, he will know he has only a little more time to play, and he will unleash his final plan of disaster and havoc.

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Satan has always had a thing for the people of God. True Israel has always been in his crosshairs.

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It will be even more so as the end approaches, and we've seen that theme throughout the end, throughout the book of Revelation, but I find it interesting that the pursuit of the

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Jews by Satan is almost provable on the world stage. It's almost provable.

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It's almost like he's overplayed his hand in the sense of giving us one of the most definitive evidences that this cosmic battle is really happening.

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I say that, and I don't think I'm being overdramatic to say, I mean, think in terms of antisemitism.

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It really is almost nearly incomprehensible without a spiritual understanding that there's so much animosity globally for the

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Jews. Isn't that weird? Well, think about that. Put anti in front of any other ethnic group, and it doesn't really happen very often anymore, does it?

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Do you see what I'm saying? I mean, how worldwide that thing is, it's kind of a little strange.

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Israel has very little resources in the global scene. They don't even have oil.

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They're in the Middle East. They didn't even get oil. For real, I mean, if I was a Jew living in Israel, I'd be like,

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God, really? The milk and honey thing, flowing with milk and honey, but how about a little oil to go with that?

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You know what I mean? I mean, olive oil, they can do that. Extra virgin, really good with a stir fry.

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It's really healthy. But as a nation, they have not been, and people will disagree with me on this a little bit, but they have not been particularly aggressive in relationship to initiating atrocities on a global scale.

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They're pretty tame as far as that goes. I kind of go to, some of you are thinking

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Exodus, a little bit of stuff going on back there, and then the whole host of the whole scope of history.

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Yet they've been a whipping post for many other cultures down through the ages. The dragon has indeed, and will in the end, have it out for the

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Jews, on a scale beyond what we see. I believe on a scale that will make the

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Holocaust look like playtime. It's going to be tragic and devastating in the end.

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Verse 13 through 16 gives another look at Satan's plans for the Jewish people. When he's thrown down to earth, he will turn his attention to pursuing the

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Jews, but once again, the Jews will be protected. Just as verse 6 highlighted, the Jewish believers of the end times will be protected and nourished by God for a three and a half year period of time.

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Some of you maybe haven't made this connection. I don't think I've made it explicitly. When it says time, times, and half a time, that's three and a half years.

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One plus two plus a half, three and a half. Also, you see that number 1260, 1260.

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If you take 30 day months, like they would have done with a lunar calendar, rather than a solar calendar, you end up with, are you ready for it?

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Three and a half years. So when you're seeing that 1260, or you're seeing that time, times, and half a time, you're talking about the same period of time.

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You're talking about the same duration there. And I mentioned in a previous sermon that whenever we see the eagle mentioned in the book of Revelation, America, right?

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That's where your mind has to go, right? So I mean, you see in our text that the eagle, with the eagle's wings, they're gonna be carried out in protection from Jerusalem, from Israel, and so you're kind of going, whoa,

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America at the end. So the left behind series are quick to identify, they really are quick to identify an

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American airlift in verse 14. Like that's where some people literally go there with this.

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Some have even identified the location of the airlift for the protection of the Jews. So America comes in, sweeps in with their helicopters, picks up Jews, carries them away to a safe zone.

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Some have identified that the pickup location is Petra, which is just east of Jerusalem. The safe zone is

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Basra in modern day Iraq. And some have gone so far as to even identify

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Carrier Air Wing 6, okay? I mean, we know, we know, right? You see it right there in verse, what is it?

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Yeah, verse 19 through 20 of this chapter. You see it there? Don't look for it, because there's not verse 19 through 20.

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But you can add on whatever you want. Which, Carrier Air Wing 6 was based in the

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Mediterranean from World War II on into the Cold War, a carrier group that was basically, in that area, moving through those waters on a consistent basis.

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So, of course, when some things were written, that was pretty likely that that's the, if there's going to be an airlift in the air, it's going to come from there.

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I am not confident that this is the imagery that John was shooting for in his first century audience.

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I don't think this is the imagery he was tapping into. A military airlift was probably a little bit removed from his mindset.

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Especially when you kind of get to the exodus and the way that he talks about the exodus and God carrying his people out during the exodus on eagle's wings.

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He uses that imagery. I think it's probably a little more likely that he's tapping that idea of an exodus from the

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Old Testament. To his audience, they would have thought immediately of the exodus and the way that God protected his people.

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But I give you all, you can write it down in your journal or in your notes or whatever or in the flyleaf of your

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Bible, you all have permission to laugh at me if this actually ends up being an airlift from Petra to Basra.

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And you get bonus points if it is Carrier Air Wing 6.

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Okay, I'll give you bonus points on that one. And we'll be on the new earth laughing about this sermon. But I'll give you,

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I'm going with what I think he's talking about here. I think he's giving allusion to the exodus. Further, I think there's a little bit of an allusion to the exodus when water is used by the evil one to attempt an eradication of the people of God.

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Remember, he's identified the exodus. He's talked about that a little bit with the eagle's wings. Deuteronomy talks about God leading his people out on eagle's wings.

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And perhaps the most defining miraculous event of the history of Israel was the parting of the

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Red Sea. And although the details are a bit different, I still think a picture here of a threat by water and God protecting through the attack is meant by this.

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All of this does seem to be pointing toward the exodus of sorts of the 144 ,000 after the final three and a half years where they will be protected.

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But whatever it looks like, the focus on verse 17 is clearly the thwarting of the evil one's plans.

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That's the theme throughout this entire chapter. He keeps wiping his claws, he keeps lunging with his teeth, but he keeps coming up empty handed.

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He tries to devour the child, but cannot. He seeks to destroy the woman, but she is whisked away. He seeks to accuse

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God's people, but he is thrown down. So he redoubles his efforts against the woman, but she is finally whisked away, so he turns to the rest of her offspring.

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He is furious. And at this point, we might be tempted to think he is inept and really not very dangerous.

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But he is a great and powerful ancient enemy. He is cunning, majestic, and intelligent.

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As we're gonna see in chapter 13, he's not done at the end of our text here. He is angry, but he is not ignorant.

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And he wants to take as many with him into destruction as possible. And so in verse 17, he turns his attention to the rest of the offspring of the woman.

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Well, wait a minute. There's 144 ,000 sealed Jews. The rest of us are in heaven. Who could possibly be the offspring of the people, the

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Jewish people? Well, it's the ones that they have led to faith in Christ. We actually saw that, that there was a big earthquake in Jerusalem, and the city basically bowed their knee to Christ at the testimony of the two witnesses.

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Do you remember that? So they've seen fruit. These Jews have actually seen fruit during this time.

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And where they go to be protected, there will be still some who will be open to the threat of the evil one.

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And here in the end, the rage of the evil one will be focused on the pursuit of any left on the planet who A, keep

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God's commands, and B, hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ. What is holding to the testimony of Jesus Christ look like?

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We kind of have a good idea about what it means to obey his commands. We think in terms of throughout the epistles talking about obeying the gospel,

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I think is a good way to think that through. It is a recognition that because we have been saved, then we in turn live for him.

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But what is the testimony of Jesus? Well, those who hold to the testimony of Jesus, I hope you here hold to the testimony of Jesus.

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Here are some of the things that he testified of. This is just barely scratching the surface. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, the testimony of Jesus.

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No one comes to the Father except through him. He and his Father are one.

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This is the testimony of Jesus. He will send the Holy Spirit. That is the testimony of Jesus.

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John 3, 16, the testimony of Jesus. Go to the gospels and you will see the testimony spoken, the testimony lived of Jesus.

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I'd encourage you, get familiar with it. It's part of what defines our lives. It's a central component of what it means to be honoring

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God as being one who follows the testimony of Jesus, who believes in it, believes what he said is true enough to live according to it.

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Those who believe what Jesus said and obey, what he said and obey the commandments of God, they are in the crosshairs of the evil one at the end.

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And in the end, he hatches one final plot that's going to be unveiled next week, but it starts with him standing on the shore of the sea, and that's where we see the dragon at the end of our text.

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So as we come to communion this morning, we would do well to remember that we have a fierce, powerful, and relentless enemy.

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He's thwarted at every turn, but he's not giving up. But on our side, on our side, is the blood of the

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Lamb. Our hope must not be in our might. Our hope must not be in a long life.

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Our hope must not be in a comfortable life. Our hope must not be set in popularity. Our hope must not be set in clout.

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Our hope must not be set in stockpiles of food and ammunition. My hope and prayer is that for all of us here, those of us who belong to Jesus, would come to one of the tables in the four corners of the room this morning and take up the cracker and juice to remember.

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To remember, take that cracker and remember that he gave his body in pain and death for you.

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Take the juice to remember that he shed his blood for you. And in that shedding of blood, he paid the price that released you from the grip of the evil one.

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We only defeat the evil one on the basis of the blood of Jesus Christ applied to us.

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So my final question is just simply this. Are you trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ today?

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the defeat of the evil one.

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Father, he sounds terrifying to me. The work that I see of him in this world, in corrupting and bringing us to sin so that we in turn are a corrupting force.

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The things that he tempts us with and the way that he guides and directs society and culture,

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Father, it's a terrifying thing. And we know that his wrath is indeed against your people. And so,

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Father, even that we are here demonstrates a level of protection that you have afforded to us. Father, I pray that we would be out on this mission of bringing others into the testimony of Jesus Christ, testifying of the things that he said of himself, that he is indeed the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one can come to you except through Jesus.

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And so, Father, that message that we bring can loosen the grip of the evil one on other people's hearts and,

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Father, that they might become part of your kingdom as a result of our testimony. Father, as we come to this communion table,

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Father, for those who are yours, I pray that this would be a great time of remembering the sacrifice of Jesus that has bought us back from the grip of the evil one.

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And equally, Father, if there's anyone here who does not know you, Father, that you give them the boldness to come and speak to me about starting a relationship with Jesus Christ even this morning.