Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <silence>
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Good morning, Villa Church. Good morning. Good morning. If I have not met you, my name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here. Um, it's funny because there are certain times of the year where I take off of preaching, and then, um, there are people who come to church at the beginning of the time that I take off, and then they come back and they're like, who's that guy? And so, if, if you like, are new to the church in the last three weeks, I'm the lead pastor here. Um, and, and so it's my joy to open up God's word with with you. And, uh, we're in a series on discernment. Um, I wanna tell you where the series came from because, uh, earlier in the year, back in, it was January, early in the year, um, the elders and I sat down and we talked about some of the major topics that we want our church to learn about, or maybe some of the challenges that have emerged where we want our church to be uniquely trained in the word of God.
Speaker 1 00:00:53 So about 80% of the year we teach through books of the Bible. We're gonna jump back into Leviticus in a couple weeks. Um, and so, but we take about 20% of the year, we kind of pull back and we say we want to train and teach our church on some specific things. Uh, earlier in the spring, um, we did a series out of these elder discussions called Healthy Souls. We taught on really four big threats to our souls, grief, anxiety, disconnection, discontent, and all of that came out of those elder discussions. And so back earlier in the year, um, we set aside, uh, six sermons on discernment. You've heard three, I'm gonna give one today. And then actually in November and December, I'm gonna do the last two. Uh, in November and December, I'm gonna be teaching on discerning false teaching and discerning false teachers to separate sermons.
Speaker 1 00:01:44 So that's gonna be in the fall. Today, I have the joy of teaching on discerning demonic spirits. Anyone else wanna be up here with me while we do this? <laugh>, um, next week, and this is particularly, I think, relevant, um, next week, uh, a good friend of Village Church, his name is Peter. I can't pronounce his last name because it's Ugandan, so I'm not even gonna try. Peter is gonna be preaching. And, um, Peter heads up a ministry that rescues children who have been victims of child sacrifice in Uganda. So they run an orphanage. And, uh, I want to strongly encourage you, um, come, because last time he was here, do you guys remember what happened? So he gets up to preach and the fire alarm goes off, the fire department comes, we all have to evacuate and go outside. And I thought to myself, clever trick devil.
Speaker 1 00:02:42 So second service, kind of more people came back and, and, and all the 11 o'clock people came and he's just a little bit into his sermon. And, uh, guess what happens again? The fire alarm goes off. We all have to go outside and church was disrupted. So I am sort of interested to see what happens between now and next Sunday morning or what happens on Sunday morning, because whatever it is that Peter from Uganda, uh, wants to share, uh, the demonic realm has zero desire for the people of God to hear that. So, um, I encourage you, if you can't be here, um, listen to that. You can hear more what's going on, um, in his ministry and life. Um, I wanna do to start, uh, I want to define discernment. And what I wanna encourage you to do is if you take notes, this is gonna sort of function as a hybrid sermon plus training session.
Speaker 1 00:03:32 Okay? And so, um, I'm obviously not going to be able to talk about every single thing you want me to talk about. So I'm gonna try to be as, as laser beam focused as I can in the 97 minutes. I have to preach. Here we go. Discernment is the ability to determine what's happening under the surface. It's the thing behind the thing. It's really easy to see what's happening. If you have half of your senses working, you can figure it out. It's, it's a totally different, it's a totally different challenge to see why something is happening. We'll go even deeper to see who behind the strings, who, who behind the scenes is actually pulling the strings. And so, um, even more focus, what we're gonna be talking about is a spiritual gift in the Bible called the Discernment of Spirits. And, and here's what it asks.
Speaker 1 00:04:33 It, it asks who is behind this, and there are gonna be three major options. The Holy Spirit, the flesh, or the demonic. Okay? Why, why is this important? And number number one, because as a Christian, the Bible gives me different weapons or strategies to use when I discern the Holy Spirit is moving and I want to fan the flame of the spirit, and I don't want get in front of the Spirit. I wanna, I want to prop that up. I want to, I want to support what the Holy Spirit's doing. And then there's a different set of weapons that have to do with taming the flesh. The Bible has a, a protocol for that. But when you discern that maybe it's not the Holy Spirit and it's not my flesh, when you discern that there might be demonic activity involved, there's actually a different set weapons in a way that Christians approach things that we are concerned have a spiritual or demonic impact to it.
Speaker 1 00:05:31 So we wanna make sure that you're able to grow in your discernment so that you can kinda look at life in circumstances in your own heart and say, all right, what's going on here? What personality or person is actually pushing some of this? The the second reason this is really important is because the Bible actually tells us to discern this. And as we said, there's an entire spiritual gift devoted people in this room, given a calling and a ministry by God to be able to look at what's going on in the world and to uniquely say, um, that actually that's the Holy Spirit, or that's the flesh or the spirit at work here. It's not from God and it's not for good. Look at one Corinthians chapter 12. This is verse seven to 10. It says, to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good, a spiritual gift or things that the Holy Spirit has uniquely gifted you to do that when you do them, the spirit manifests or makes himself will say, seen or begins to work uniquely for one is given through the Spirit wisdom.
Speaker 1 00:06:36 And then we have knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy. But look at this to another, the ability to distinguish between spirits. Now you might say, that's not me. Now here's, here's what we know. Just because you don't have the gift or the calling to be a discerner of spirits, are you still obligated to attempt to discern spirits? Yes. Lemme give you an analogy. Um, if you don't have the gift of service, are you still called to serve? Yeah. If you don't have the gift of generosity, are you still called to be generous? Yes. If you don't have the gift of teaching, are you still called to teach someone, kids, grandkids, people in your life with the word of God? Yes. Just because something isn't your gift or your ministry or you're particularly skilled at, it doesn't get you an eye off the hook. And it's the same with discerning of spirits.
Speaker 1 00:07:33 Discernment asks, who is behind this? The Holy Spirit, the flesh, or the demonic? I'm gonna give you a simple answer and then we're gonna unpack this. The simple answer is you'll almost always know them by their fruit. All right? Open up your Bibles, Galatians chapter five, as you turn there. Um, anytime we begin talking about spiritual realm things there, there tends to be an anxiety that can fall on a, a bunch of Christians. And so what I, what I wanna do is I want to take our, I wanna take a moment and I want to, as you turn into Galatians five, I wanna just ground our minds and our hearts in biblical truth. So if you have personally trusted in Jesus Christ, I'm gonna read a handful of scriptures just to kind of center you before we dig into some of the darker things here.
Speaker 1 00:08:29 If you have trusted in Jesus, these apply to you. And the first one is for kids and students. I dunno if you've ever heard this verse in the book of Matthew, it is one of my favorites. Matthew 1810. Jesus says to a bunch of, uh, let's just say hypocritical adults see that you do not despise one of these little ones. And who are the little ones around Jesus? Kids listen to what he says. For I tell you that in heaven, their angels what? Always see the face of my father who's in heaven. I'm just gonna pause. I'm not gonna read too much into it. I don't wanna, I don't wanna take away the beauty of this. There seem to at the least, be Allegion of the angels designated for the protection of children who have full access to the very throne of God and makes sure that the Father knows every single threat to a child.
Speaker 1 00:09:36 Amen. I mean, this is awesome. And this is one of the verses where people have kind of gotten the idea of, of guardian angels like that would be reading into this. It may or may not be true, but that's where some of these ideas come from. Minimally speaking, there are angels who watch out for little ones and report to God, to his face, letting him know everything going on that might cause one of these little ones to stumble. And Jesus says, it's better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck to be thrown into the sea than to make one of these little ones stumble. And by the way, for the, the Hebrews, the sea is the place of hell for us. We think of hell, we point down, we point up to heaven. They looked at the sea, that's where hell was.
Speaker 1 00:10:14 And he says, it's better for you to go to hell now than to make one of these little ones stumble. Now for every person, adult and child who is trusted in Christ, James four, seven, submit yourselves therefore to God. I love this. Resist the devil. And what's he gonna do? Flee. He is obligated by the spiritual laws of the universe. You might be scared to death buckling at the knees as you face him. If you stand firm, he is obligated to leave you. Colossians two 15, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities, and I love this. He put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Luke 10 19, Jesus says to the disciples, behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall hurt you. Revelation 1211, and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.
Speaker 1 00:11:13 Um, my favorite one, John, four, four little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Lemme just say this again. He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world. If you have trusted in Christ, give me a hearty amen on that one. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. So our objective today is not to increase fear, but to kill anxiety and empower every one of us who called Jesus Christ our Lord, to discern, to open up our eyes and not just see the thing, but to see the thing behind the thing. And that will allow us to respond appropriately. If I need self-control over my flesh, I'm gonna deal with that differently than if I'm in the middle of a spiritual attack.
Speaker 1 00:12:06 All right, so let's identify the three main persons, personalities or spirits that could be influencing. And then the third one, we're gonna spend the most of our time focusing on the first source of fruit. It's very simply the fruit of the spirit. It's why you're in Galatians five. If we could summarize the nature of the spirit's fruit in one word, it would be this life, whatever the spirit touches, flourishes or moves in the direction of of life. John 10 10, Jesus says, I came that they might have, what's the word? Life. And they would have it a little bit. They would have life abundantly. Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit. When you see them moving, whether it's conviction of sin or whether it's growth in a righteousness, it is all pushing towards life. Now, Galatians five, verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Speaker 1 00:13:27 How do you discern the spirit? You look at the fruit. Now, if you see someone or something trending in this direction, that's a really good clue that the Holy Spirit might be up to something. And when he is, I want to get behind that. I wanna fan the flame of those things. The fruit or the side effect of the Holy Spirit is this gen, generally speaking, when someone is being controlled by the Holy Spirit, love, unity and connection, grow. The Holy Spirit does these kinds of things. And internally it doesn't increase our anxiety, but it brings these fruit. I want more of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. The second source of fruit is the fruit of the flesh. And if we could summarize this fruit in one word, it would be this self, the flesh. It is by nature, self-obsessed, curious, indulgent, hungry, protective, defensive.
Speaker 1 00:14:45 It is all for itself. It has an appetite and it is hungry. And every one of us in this room, we have a nasty flesh. Every one of us, our bodies, we, we do it in different way. We all have proclivities and tendencies to different struggles. But man, if you are in this room, our flesh is alive and active. And we thank God having been given the Holy Spirit, the word of God, self-control the people of God so that we no longer have to be a slave to it. But sometimes it is strong. Sometimes it takes all of our might and energy, sometimes we give into it and we have to throw ourselves onto the blood of Christ and say, God, thank you for the blood of Christ. Forgive me. You already have, uh, thank you for second and fifth and 50th and a hundredth and billionth chances, and thank you for that.
Speaker 1 00:15:33 And, and one day the flesh is gonna be gone when we get resurrected bodies. But for now, this is, this is our battle. The flesh is rarely future oriented, by the way. The the flesh is typically obsessed with the now. And and this is Galatians chapter five, verse 19. And I want you to just notice this. The works of the flesh, they're evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like, and things like these. I I want you to notice that generally speaking, the fruit of the flesh is obsessed with either protecting myself or indulging myself. And so there's a difference. The Holy Spirit brings life to you and others, but the flesh, when it's at work, you just see this sort of selfish narcissism. It's me. I want what I want.
Speaker 1 00:16:29 I'm gonna get what I want. I'm gonna do what I want. I'm gonna be reactive. I'm not gonna think too much about it. And don't get me wrong, some of you, you've, you've trained your flesh so that it does sin willfully, intentionally and think about the future. But I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt from most of us in this room, the flesh is that thing that we usually, we react. Again, it's not thinking about all the consequences. Because if we really did think about the consequences of indulging our flesh, if we really thought about it logically, we would probably stop every time knowing that the outcome of indulging our flesh, we'll never bring glory to God. We'll never bring life to our souls. And it's definitely not gonna bless the people in our lives. Amen. So we see the flesh now here, here's what a life committed to the flesh results in Galatians five goes on.
Speaker 1 00:17:11 He says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. The non-Christian who will not repent of their flesh, their sin will be separated from God forever. And hell, and and there's an interesting connection here because if, if there is a Christian who is willingly unrepentant, it seems pervasively just living in the flesh, I mean, that is, that should make you step back. And you need to discern what's going on in your heart and your soul at that point, right? I'm not talking about the struggle I'm talking about when there is no struggle to indulge your flesh. Every one of us this week, I guarantee have indulged our flesh. God willing, there was a struggle. And, and I think what what I'm gonna address right now is more just this. Like, you don't even seem to care.
Speaker 1 00:17:58 There's not even a conscience that's pricked. There's not even this like, ah, I probably shouldn't do that. You know what I'm saying? And if you're there, like, man, go sit down and talk with a pastor or spiritual leader because that's really concerning. But, but here's what you will find for the Christian who finds themselves in seasons of indulging the flesh, you're gonna find that God feels very, very distant from you. You guys know what I'm saying? Like he didn't actually go anywhere, but like the connection with the Lord is gonna get more evasive or elusive. Alright? The third source of fruit, and this is we're gonna focus the rest of our time. This is the fruit of the demonic. And if we could summarize the nature of this fruit, in one word, it would be this destruction John 10 10, the thief comes only, that's, that is a limiting word to steal, but, but it's not done with, with the stealing and then to kill, but it's actually not done by killing.
Speaker 1 00:18:58 It wants pure destruction. And so this is one of the hallmarks that you're like, okay, wait a minute. The Holy Spirit life flesh is sort of this selfish, indulgent thing. But sometimes you're gonna look at circumstances in yourself or out in the world and you're gonna think to yourself, Ooh, that went dark. Now the scriptures, they teach us the primary ways in the primary place that the demonic realm is going to attack. And or, um, sorry, I'm gonna go back. It teaches us that the, the primary ways that the, um, demonic realm is going to, yeah, attack. And so here, here's how it does it, it does it by showing you, by telling you the names of Satan. Because here's what happens. Like you, nobody actually knows, quote unquote the devil's real name. We only know the names given to him. And they are names given to him by what he does.
Speaker 1 00:19:51 For example, I'm just gonna show you a list here, Satan, I don't even like calling him that 'cause we don't know his actual name. Satan is called all of these. Number one, the Satan, which Satan just means accuser the devil, or the Diablos in Greek is the slanderer Alba is lord of filth. Abbadon a pollan, same word, aans in Hebrew, a pollis in, in Greek means the destroyer. The serpent is the creature who deceives the angel of light is the angel who deceives the dragon, the creature who destroys the lion, the creature who devours. So when we come up with this word destruction, this is really rooted out of his character. And these are the primary methods of destruction the evil one uses. When you just kinda take a step back, you look at all of his names and you're like, interesting. These have been his tactics literally since the Garden of Eden.
Speaker 1 00:20:52 Whenever you see these principles at work, you stop, you step back and you pray, God, would you give me your eyes to see the thing behind the thing? What person or personality is controlling? Is this the Holy Spirit? Is this the flesh or, or is there a, a deeper, darker influence going on? Because, and we're gonna get to what this looks like later, depending on what it is, determines how you respond to it. So even, even right now, some of you're thinking about your work environments, things moved past competition and self-promotion to destruction. Some of you're thinking about your homes, things have moved past selfishness, complaining and arguing anyone else's home. I mean, there's selfishness, complaining, arguing in my home like everyone, but they've, they've moved to something really destructive and ugly. Some of you're thinking about your, your friends as they've gotten older, they've moved from innocence to like filth.
Speaker 1 00:21:55 And you're starting to see, like this really happens later at elementary, junior high, high school. You start watching some of the, the filth and it becomes really, really hard to stomach. Some of you're thinking about your private lives. There, there are things in your life that have always been a struggle, but there's something, it feels bigger than your flesh that's pushing you to go further. You know, deep down inside, like it will destroy you if you take that next step to go deeper. You don't know if you're gonna be able to get to get out of it. All right? So discern to, to grow your discernment of spirits, we need to train you on really three things. And here are the questions we're gonna answer. Where do demons attack? How do demons attack? And then what are the signs? And, and we're gonna dig in here of uniquely of demonic influence.
Speaker 1 00:22:43 And lastly, so what do I do with, with this? Number one, where do demons attack? So scripture is super clear. Demons target for destruction, anything that mirrors to mirrors or points to the gospel or the image of God. And I wanna show you this. And so as you kinda step back at your life, we're gonna kinda show you this. And I want you to know that there are primary targets and these are primary targets because each of these reflect either the image of God or the gospel of God. Now, the demonic realm hates the gospel because it is the means. If you believe it, if you hear it, understand it and believe it, you will be set free from their power. And they hate the image of God because they hate God himself, because they loathe him. They rebelled and they were given over to their sin.
Speaker 1 00:23:46 Anything that mirrors the gospel or reflects the image of God, they hate, number one, demons hate Jesus and his gospel. And they will do whatever they can to make Jesus look bad in the culture's eyes or to fuzzy the gospel so that when people hear it, they can't actually get it or understand it. Number two, demons hate your body. Your body is part of being made in the image and the likeness of God. It does not matter who, it does not matter who you are. Every human's physical body is a reflection of the image and the likeness of God. And when they say, see you, their hatred for your heavenly Father bleeds through demons hate your redeemed mind. They want to stop you from taking mental ground in believing truth in reality. So like right now, there is no demon that wants you to hear this message, period.
Speaker 1 00:24:49 Not, they're not interested in you being equipped, they're not interested in you knowing any of this. They're not interested in you self-reflecting. Your phone's probably popping up right now. They're probably distracting you. Thoughts going on in your brain there. I mean, you, there are a gajillion things and reasons why you shouldn't pay attention to this or don't want to. And they will do whatever they can to keep you from paying attention. Ignore them. Demons hate your marriage. And by the way, all romantic relationships, because what does this kind of love image, the gospel demons hate your children.
Speaker 1 00:25:25 God. They, they know that children are near and dear to the heart of God. It's the byproduct of marriage and, and relationships and love. And so they, they hate children. Demons hate your church because the church is the bride of Christ. Demons hate your elders because they are the front lines of protection for numbers one through six in, in a local community. Question number two, how do demons attack? So demons accomplish destruction in three primary ways. One is a very uncommon way, or at least it's uncommon to really recognize it and see it in front of you. Uh, one is a fairly common way, but one, uh, which will be our main focus we all deal with on a daily basis. So here's the first very common way it is possession. Um, I think this is fairly rare, particularly where we live now, but it's pretty unmistakable.
Speaker 1 00:26:25 Now, here's where I'm gonna just stop because I have four sermons on demonic possession and I don't have time to do them, and that's not gonna be the primary thing we're gonna be talking about. Um, so if that is a, a circumstance you are navigating or in, please, please get help. I do wanna say two things on this just to kind of relieve the pressure on this. If you have the Holy Spirit, you will not be possessed. The the two can't coexist. There is no biblical proof of that. There's no experiential proof of that. So rest assured, if you've trusted in Christ, that is a level of protection over you, your heart, your soul, that, that the evil one cannot touch. Number two, you might even be here and you're like, I'm not a Christian. What if I am in, in the spiritual realm? Demons don't just have permission to go to anybody they want.
Speaker 1 00:27:09 So what we see is that people actually have to give permission. They need to be invited in for that to happen. And what you see with kids, it's either you or a spiritual authority over you that actively willingly, intentionally, specifically invites them in. It's why you don't see possessed people all over the world all the time where demons are inhabiting them because there's actual spiritual laws that regulate and govern possession. Sound good? You can see I have a lot to say on this. We're just going woo, reign that in second something that's fairly uncommon. But I I have a hunch, if you walk with Jesus for a period of time, um, this will be something you experience. And this could also be a time where somebody who has a spiritual gift of discerning spirits might be able to help you see what or is what is or is not happening here.
Speaker 1 00:27:59 And the word is oppression. Um, and and most people when they think of demonic warfare, they think of possession oppression. Most people don't even know what oppression is. It's kind of this elusive term. And, and, and this would be primarily physical or emotional or that would be the way it would manifest. Usually they're event-based, um, maladies or disturbances or overwhelmed emotional experiences. So we are, we are body and spirit. There's an entire spiritual realm. And it would make sense that when spiritual dynamics are happening, even if we can't cognitively see them, they do impact our, our body. And so whatever happens in the spiritual realm is gonna begin to manifest itself emotionally and physically in the physical realm, like what you do in the physical impacts of spiritual and vice versa, right? So it's not uncommon that there are wars happening around you and that they begin to take actual physical manifestations in you or around you.
Speaker 1 00:28:55 Um, oppression though, and I think this is important, we see a pattern in scripture. Oppression requires Satan or the demons to get permission from God. Isn't that encouraging? So if there is like a level of oppression over you, you think about job. This is the the first example. Satan had to go to job, go to God and say, Hey, can I, can I have him? And then God says, yeah, you can do this and this, but not that. Then you get to somebody like Peter where Peter, Jesus looks at Peter and says, Satan came to me and he demanded to have you and to sift you like wheat. And what's really striking is as you read the, the text on this, that it seems that God said to Satan, yes, you can have Peter like that's a thing. You have, you have, you have Judas, I mean mean there are, there are these circumstances where it seems permission needs to be granted.
Speaker 1 00:29:46 I'm sorry not Judas, but Paul, where Paul says, uh, I had a thorn in my side. It was a messenger of Satan. I prayed to God to take it from me and three times. And what did the Lord say to Paul? No, my grace is sufficient for you. Apparently God wanted to grow more humility, or that's at least what Paul thinks, more humility in himself. So he allowed this messenger of Satan to continually make his life very hard. You have job, you have Peter, you have Paul, I have great news for you if you're gonna be oppressed, here's what you can know that had to go through Jesus before they were given permission to do that to you. And so whatever's going on, the grace of God in that circumstance will be more than enough to sustain you. And and there's a whole separate set of responses we should have in that time.
Speaker 1 00:30:27 But we're not here to talk about oppression. We're here to talk about something different. So I digress. That's another three sermons that maybe we'll do another day. Third, and the most common method of destruction is influence. What is influence? It's the use of trickery. I love this word trickery. The Bible calls it schemes and designs. It's the use of trickery to entice your flesh to go further for destructive purposes. Ephesians six 11 stand against the schemes. When somebody's scheming, they have plans and ideas and agendas and they're, they're working behind the scenes, right? There's a scheme going on. Second Corinthians two 11 says, we are not ignorant of his designs. He's stepping back and he's designing different things for people. And for you to fall into Second Timothy 2 26, the snare of the devil that these designs are, are, are, these schemes are structured so that when you step into it, it snaps you and you're stuck and you don't even realize it and that you're captured to do his will. Now here's my question and I, and Pastor Craig was so helpful, um, uh, in this, we asked the question, why, why is Satan so obsessed to influence, influence us? And somebody else said this, they go, why doesn't he just do it himself? Whatever the thing is. Here's what Craig said. He said, because he needs us to do what he can no longer do himself.
Speaker 1 00:32:16 He can't destroy you, but you can, he can't make you impotent spiritually, but you can. He can't make you believe anything you can. He can no longer usurp the authority of God, but you can. Satan couldn't even destroy Jesus. So he gets others to do it for him. Satan cannot control you. Isn't that great? You can, the fruit of the spirit is self control. Influence is powerful because it gets you to do for him what he can't do himself. I'm not above this, you are not above this. I mean, the New Testament is really clear. Be sober minded, your devil, the devil crawls around like a roaring line seeking someone to devour. And who's that written to? It's written to Christians. We need to be sober minded. We need to be looking and thinking clearly about what is going, what is going on. Now, one of, one of the, um, challenges that people have, I'll give you my 2 cents on it.
Speaker 1 00:33:38 Um, uh, the, they'll ask the question, can Satan read my mind? Because one of the things that we know is that somehow in the spiritual realm, the ability to put intrusive thoughts or to influence to different ideas is a real thing. Which is why regularly when Paul especially talks about spiritual warfare, it's a mind game. 'cause the influence, the primary place of influence that happens up here, I don't, I'm not even gonna pretend to know how it works. I've, I've, I've never actually like separated from my body and seen the spiritual realm and walk. You know, like I just don't know how the dynamic between the physical and the spiritual works. There is no biblical evidence that the evil one can read your mind, but he can read your body, right? Like most people, you look at them and you can see what's going on.
Speaker 1 00:34:22 And if you are able to actually see them and follow them along, you can probably get a pretty good idea of what's going on in their head and their heart. If you listen to their words, they lead with what they think and believe. And, and so if I am really smart and I have designs and I have schemes and I'm trying to set traps for you, I'm probably gonna like, facilitate environments so that you kind of fall into these things and you get influenced for destructive purposes. But I wanna come back to this, this primary method, method of influence. It is the enticement of my flesh To go further.
Speaker 1 00:35:00 A design for you is gonna look very different than a design for me because we are tempted in the flesh, all of us in very unique and different ways. So it's not an accident that if there's gonna be a design created for you, it's going to exploit or cause you to take your unique proclivities of sin to not just do them. But here, here's where you start to like, like if you're discerning, ah, the flash or the demonic, you begin to go further than any person should. It's no longer about indulgence or protection, it's about destruction.
Speaker 1 00:35:36 And so here's what he does, does, he looks for the weak spots and then he lies. He lies about what God thinks. It's not that big of a deal. He lies about the outcome, you'll be fine and then offers you more. See, nothing happened. Let's go further. It's not that big of a deal. You'll be fined. See, nothing happened. Let's go further. And where do we see this for the first time? The Garden of Eden. And you know what's so silly? We know that story and every one of us in the room have fell for it. All of us. It's not that big of a deal. You'll be fine. See, nothing happened. Let's go further.
Speaker 1 00:36:24 And number three, what, what are the signs of demonic influence? Number one, look at the fruit. Let's talk about discerning my own self. Are my behaviors or impulses trending more destructive to either myself or to others? Are, are my behaviors or impulses trending more destructive to either myself or others? And when you're discerning other people, are their behaviors pursuing spiritual life? That would be evidence of the Holy Spirit, selfish ambition, which is the flesh or are they beginning to teeter over into the realm of destruction? This is often when you see unnecessary destruction, often a telltale sign of demonic influence. What are the signs of demonic influence? Number two, temptation. Recognize temptation that pushes you or tempts you to go. And, and here's the word, further, further, Matthew 26 41, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Why does Jesus even say this? Because he knows that there is a tempter who schemes and designs to exploit your unique proclivities, to sin your flesh, to not make you go all the way. But just further, see, it's not that big of a deal, you'll be fine. Nothing happened. Let's go further. James four seven, submit yourselves then to God resist the devil and he will flee from you. I wanna I wanna just take a moment.
Speaker 1 00:38:28 Some of you are about, for the first time to go further. I dunno who you are, but you know it and, and you're counting the cost. Is it that big of a deal? Is God gonna care? Can the blood of Christ cover us? Ah, it'll be fine. Nobody will find out. It's just once. It's fine. And I pray that in that moment, when you are tempted, when the scheme, the design, the trap set for you tells you it's gonna be fine, that you remember this and the Holy Spirit brings to your mind discernment. This is moving past the flesh and it's moving me to destruction. You might be here and this weekend you actually crossed that first line where you went further. And I'm telling you, you can stop any time. Amen. You don't need a third and you don't need a fourth. And my prayer is that you're even here right now and you're listening. And the Holy Spirit is like, listen
Speaker 2 00:39:30 To what he's saying. He's talking about you.
Speaker 1 00:39:35 And you might be years down the road, and this is what I love about the blood of Christ, it can cleanse anybody from sin. And so you, you might even be here and man, how many times I heard this, I'm too far gone. I'm too far gone. God can never forgive me. I'm like you, you so underestimate the goodness of God, the love of God, the kindness of God, the power of the blood of Christ to cleanse you from all of your unrighteousness. And then the legal authority that God has to forgive you, exonerate you, and then to release you into this world is a forgiven, forgiven sinner. Isn't that so good of the kindness of God and the justice of God? What are some signs of demonic influence? Number three are others warning me of demonic influence. Somebody does not have to say, I have the gift of discernment of spirits for their warning to land. And if someone looks at you and says, I, I just need you to be careful, this, I have a sense that there's a spiritual something going on here beneath the scenes, pay attention and and figure out and ask the Lord what is going on.
Speaker 1 00:40:42 Number four, am I, am I being tempted to substitute what I know to be biblical truth for my feelings, my truth, compassion, sometimes the name of compassion, we substitute cultural mantras. Here's number five, last are sinful ideas, temptations and their influencers bombarding me all at once. You know that, that the design that was set for you, the trap to say it's just once, try it further. Are you finding that there is a whole bunch of that all at once happening around you? Maybe you're in the middle of a design or a scheme put together to ensnare you. Alright, so what what can I do? Number one, differentiate the weapons that fight the flesh and the weapons that fight spiritual war. All right? So when the Holy Spirit is working, we fan the flame of that. We pray, we get behind it, we support it, we champion it. We use our words, we build up other people. We use our spiritual gifts. Got it. When it's the flesh, we confess we are accountable, we are self-controlled, right? This is, you have everything you need to tame your flesh. And when you fall, we confess, we don't keep things secret. 'cause ugly things grow in the dark. We shed light on them. And so this is what we do. This is how you tame the flesh. It's really important.
Speaker 1 00:42:19 But when the demonic is at play, we conquer not with our fists, not with our words, but we conquer with prayer. And the word of God, here's striking. Jesus is in the wilderness and Satan is tempting him and trying to get him to stumble and sin. And of course he's Jesus. So he doesn't, and you know what? Jesus rebukes him with Deuteronomy. How awesome is that? Only would've been the only thing that would've been better is if he rebuked him with Leviticus. And, and, and here's why He was in the wilderness. He was in the wilderness to fast and pray. And in the fasting and the praying and in the spiritual war, it was these things. It was the prayer and the word of God.
Speaker 1 00:43:07 And this sounds so simple. Can I, can I just tell you that the evil one hates every time you pray to God, hates it with a passion, despises it. And when you find yourself and you're like, I think this is influence, there's something that's pushing me or someone around me or something's going on that I'm like, this is about destruction. The weapon is to get on your face before the Lord and to pray like crazy. And here's the challenge with most of it. You're not gonna get a play by play of how God responds to your prayer. I want that. Anybody else want that? I'm like, God, I don't understand this thing. I'm gonna start praying for it. And, and, and, but here's what I, I know because I'm a, I believe in Jesus Christ when I pray He is able to do far more than my feeble, self focused words can do.
Speaker 1 00:44:03 And so we pray, I I wanna say this again and I want you to, I want you to hear this, but the Bible gives different weapons for the fanning the spirit, taming the flesh and conquering the demonic. Second Corinthians 10, three through five. For that we walk in the flesh, we're in these bodies. They're frustrating. We're not waging war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they have catch the guys divine power to destroy strongholds. Anybody want divine power to destroy a stronghold? Stop fighting with the flesh against the demonic. We destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. And we take every thought captive to obey Christ. And here's what I love. If you find yourself in a position where in your family or in your life or whatever you sense that there's demonic activity going on, right?
Speaker 1 00:44:56 You still have to do, by the way, one and two. One is you need to fan the flame of the spirit, right? You still need to be building and following what the Lord is doing. You also still need to be self-controlled, confessing sin. And on top of that, you'll be prepared to actually effectively go before the Lord and use prayer and scripture to fight against demonic warfare in your life. Now, if you try to do that without any confession and living a secret life, I have a feeling you're gonna have a hard time. So what number two, know and reject the behaviors that leave you unnecessarily vulnerable to demonic influence. Okay? We did a training session with our staff on this a while back, and I'm just gonna do a, a, a quick version of this for you. But, um, if you want all of this in one place, we'll put together a P d F and and send it to you.
Speaker 1 00:45:45 What specific behaviors? Leave me vulnerable to spiritual attack. Here are the scriptures that teach. When you do or don't do these things, you open up yourself and those around you to demonic attack. Number one, becoming an elder and being young in the faith, one Timothy three, six, he must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. There's something about being new to the faith that when you get spiritual leadership, it can corrupt you. And you're like, look at me. I'm an elder. I'm awesome. No, you're a target. Number two, becoming an elder with a bad reputation in the world. One Timothy three, seven, moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. So right off the bat, the first two we see is if you wanna pursue spiritual leadership, you put a big target on yourself.
Speaker 1 00:46:42 But number three, let's get more personal into your everyday life refusing to forgive. Listen to second Corinthians chapter two, verse 10 to 11, anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive indeed what I have forgiven, if I forgiven anything has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan for we're not ignorant of his designs. One of the designs is you're wounded, you grow bitter and you don't forgive. And guess what happens to the bitter wounded person? We become uniquely open and susceptible to demonic influence. Number four, generally speaking, just being ignorant of his designs. Like one of the reasons we're teaching you this is so that you can be aware of how he works. Second Corinthians chapter two, verse 10 to 11, uh, same thing so that we would not be, uh, witted by Satan. So what Paul does is he wants them to know here's how he works.
Speaker 1 00:47:39 And I gotta imagine, like if I was sitting with Paul, I'd be like, if he was teaching me in training the elders of village church, he'd be like, here's like all the different like tactics and tools. So I just decided to pull them all out and do them here. Here's number four, going to bed angry. This is so good, guilty by the way. Uh, Ephesians 4 26 and 27. Be angry. Be angry. There's some things you should be angry about. Amen. Next week when you hear Peter talk, get angry, like that's, it's ugly. It's disgusting, not him. What, what he is rescuing children from. And, and so there are things that we should look at and be like, that's, that's just destruction. But don't sin, don't let the sun go down on your anger and or therefore give no opportunity to the devil. What is anger?
Speaker 1 00:48:28 That is undealt with unforgiven unresolved. It grows into bitterness and bitterness defiles many people. Number six, withholding intimacy from your spouse. For, for Corinthians seven, five, don't deprive one another except perhaps, I mean if you're going to by agreement for I love Paul, so funny for a limited time that you may devote yourselves to prayer. So if you're gonna do it, it's not gonna be for any, you're gonna, you're gonna go pray, but then come back together again. Why? So that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self control. Don't you love how practical the Bible is? By the way, number seven, false ideas. Second Corinthians 10, four to six for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. They have divine power destroy strongholds. These strongholds. Now you're gonna see they're in the mind. This is where the influence happens.
Speaker 1 00:49:17 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. Not just people who disagree with you, things against the knowledge of God. We take every thought captive because where's the influence happening here to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. Satan can rarely influence a self-controlled praying, Bible saturated believer. You guys get that? Not so great. Like you're like, what's the S of the sermon? Praying? Read your Bible. No. Yes and no. If that's what you walk away with, I don't know that you've heard much. These are your weapons for life. But if you're in them, if this is like a regular part of your life, the protection you experience is beautiful. Finally, lastly number three, if you're a Christian, don't be afraid. Again, one John, four, four little children, you are from God and you have overcome them.
Speaker 1 00:50:17 For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. There might be some of you here. And we've noticed over the last couple years particularly is that people's awareness of spiritual realities is growing more and more as atheism begins to die a slow, ugly, painful death. Culturally, people are being aware and awakened to the reality that there are spiritual things going on. There is a good and evil and visible behind the scenes. People are becoming aware of this. If you are here and you have never trusted in Christ after hearing this message and you realize you do not have the protection of forgiveness from God, the Holy Spirit inside of you, and you want that today, this is just one of the many privileges and blessings of coming to Christ and being a son or daughter of the most high God.
Speaker 1 00:51:12 Our heavenly Father is a protector. And if there are gonna be things he allows us to go through, it will always be for our good and for his glory. And one of the things I love about being a Christian is the protection that God gives us through the Holy Spirit, through his word, through his people, through his church. God is so good. And if you have never trusted in Jesus Christ, I cannot think of a better way to end this message than to say trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ today for your sins and your behalf so that you might be free, not just from hell and not just from Satan's attacks, but from your sin. And that you would be given what the Holy Spirit gives to everyone who trusts in him, which is life and life abundant.
Speaker 1 00:52:00 And if that is a decision you want to make today, you can pray to God anytime you want right now. God, I love you. Forgive me of my sins. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins, was raised again from the dead. Save me. It doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to be just like that, but, but if you believe those things, tell him and then tell somebody you came with or after the service. If you wanna talk to somebody, there's a prayer booth to my left. We'd love the opportunity to pray over you and with you and maybe answer some questions. And if you're ready to trust in Christ, let today be the day it will be the greatest decision. You don't just make today, all week, all year for all of eternity. You'll look back to the day you personally trusted in Christ as the pivotal moment of your existence.
Speaker 1 00:52:43 There is no better decision than you can make than that today. Lemme pray. Father, we love you. It is a joy and a privilege to be on your team, to be sons and daughters forgiven by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Thank you and we love you. Would you give each one of us in our own lives and our family and our church in this world? Would you give us discernment? Would you by your Holy Spirit and your word and this community, give us eyes to see things for not just what they are, but why they are and who is influencing? And then would you empower us to be self controlled people of prayer, saturated with your words, so that the devil cannot get one of his ridiculous designs and schemes through and when we fail, thank you for the blood of Christ. May we never doubt it's potency and what it is accomplished in our life. We love you. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
