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What to Know About Your Enemy | For Such a Time as This
Is the devil real… or just a scary story? 😈 In this practical message from the For Such a Time as This series, Pastor Mark Carter breaks down what the Bible actually says about your ancient enemy — and how he uses fear and deceit (especially online) to divide Christians and make us fall away from Christ. No fear-mongering here — just common-sense tools to stand firm in truth and love. ✨
You’ll learn:
✅ How fear on social media fuels division
✅ How subtle deceit breaks relationships
✅ How to resist and recognize the enemy’s tactics without paranoia
Hey, welcome everybody. Welcome online friends. We're so glad that you're here. Thank you everybody for coming on out. Thank you, thank you for prioritizing your relationship with Jesus. We're in a reeling week right now.
Speaker 1:For those who are listening later on, this is the weekend after Charlie Kirk was assassinated and the world is still kind of ripped in two and and everything's really hard. And it's it can be. Yeah, it's, it's hard. If you're not understanding why this is hard, it's because Charlie was a Christian. I was a Christian that talked about Jesus all the time and talked about the gospel as the way back to God, to be in relationship with him. So, whatever else you think about anything else he's ever said, we're even more sad because he's, he was a Jesus man and now we're really happy because he's in the presence of Jesus. But his assassination is indicative of other things that have been going on in the world recently, and it seems like things are getting darker and darker and darker. So he's just one.
Speaker 1:Before that, there was the attempted assassination of president Trump. We'll see that picture. There you go. There was the attack on Paul Pelosi. There was the attempted kidnapping of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. There was the murder of Minnesota speaker of the house, melissa Hortman and her husband. There was the murder of health executive Brian Thompson. There was the attack on representative Steve Scalise.
Speaker 1:It's a dark time. It's dark stuff, man, and here's what we're finding out. Here's what you know, and hopefully this sinks in today a little bit Evil and murder. Do not care what your party is. Evil and murder. Do not care what your party is, it will play any side. It wants just for more evil to be sown and to come to pass. There is a hidden agenda going on under the visible agenda. Hopefully, if this has done anything to many of the humans around the world, it has reminded folks that life is short, it can be taken at any time and there's a reality, for for many of us, we know this. Maybe it's others are tuning into it. The day is coming, and maybe coming quickly, maybe tonight, when every person will stand in front of a holy God and they can either present their own report card I don't recommend it, by the way or they can present the report card of Jesus Christ, who takes all their fails on himself and gives them all of his A pluses instead, and that's the only good plan at that moment, when you stand before God is to present the record of Jesus. But meanwhile, while we're back down here, there's horrible stuff happening. What I want to do today, see, I don't want to talk to the nation right now. I want to talk to my people. I want to talk to my church. I'm a local guy, dude. I don't care what they do, I care what we do, I care what's going on in our hearts. Okay, so there's stuff going on out there that you're going to see, you're going to experience this, but there's something under the surface that we're going to find out.
Speaker 1:During World War II, hitler thought the Allies were going to land at Patakala. He thought that's where we're going. In fact, the Allies convinced him that's what they were going to do. They convinced him they made up this elaborate fake attack that was supposed to happen when Normandy really happened. So they had inflatable tanks, they had entire you know radio conversations that were about misleading Hitler to put all of his strength over here while they were sneaking around over here to bring the invasion of Normandy. And it worked. So Hitler was like oh, I've got to put all my best stuff over here. And so there was a plan that he thought okay, these guys are doing this and they were trying to emphasize yeah, we're doing this, hitler, we're doing this, but really, while you're busy with that, we're coming over here and we're planning the attack that's really going to give us a hand up in the war and cause this whole thing to start to go our direction.
Speaker 1:Is it possible that, as much as you see online, as much as you see on TV, as much as you see around the world, there are things that are really true and really happening and they're really bad? But there's something else also going on under the surface, not by the good guys, though, by the bad guys, by the enemy of your soul and my soul, by the prince of darkness, by Satan himself. Now, I know some might be like I don't know if Satan's real, that's okay. If you don't know, jesus knew he talked about Satan not just like he was a force, not just like he was like a bad you know atmosphere somewhere. No, he was a real guy. He's a real personality with a real will and a real evil heart and takes real action on planet earth. And that real enemy, he's showing us one plan in the natural that we see, but I want to submit to you through God's word. There's another plan going on under the surface. Here's what. Here's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I don't want us fierce to just be aware of what's going on in the news. I want us to be aware of how the enemy is trying to abort the personality of Jesus from your heart. He's trying to get you. Here's a different way to say it. Now, this is going to be extreme, but just listen, he's trying to get you while you're not looking. He's trying to get you while you're not looking. He's trying to get you to embrace subtly, inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter. Sometimes he's trying to get you and I to embrace the ways of demons, the ways of the kingdom of darkness, and you're like, I don't know about that. That's right, cause I got you for like another 40 minutes. I'm going to convince you before we're done here. Okay, so we're on our way.
Speaker 1:It is totally appropriate, when evil happens, to want justice. Thank God, there is a God of justice. Thank God, nothing that happens on this planet is actually the last word. There's an after this, and that's where the king of justice says yeah, this is how it's going to go now. This is my perfect way in and my perfect justice and my perfect consequence for what has happened. So that's just like, that's a real thing. But the enemy wants us more than to just want justice, wants us more than to just be sad. He wants us to not notice us trading in a heart that resists the ways of the world to one that just you know what dog God, I'm just gonna embrace it. It's what these guys do, so this is what I'm doing, that's what they do, so that's what we're doing from now on. And, my friends, you gotta know that is a subtle, subtle trap.
Speaker 1:We've been in this series on Esther and we just happen to be on the weekend where we're talking about a great big background plan that we didn't see coming, that was going on under the surface, that is going to ultimately try to bring down the people of God. So we started in week one and you'd really have to go back to look at the rest of the series and go to fierce. You can go to fiercechurch slash, I think it's messages or something. Just go look at previous messages to find the whole page on this particular series. Get to know the story. If you're not familiar with it, you can also just go to our YouTube channel and you'll find all the messages there.
Speaker 1:But it started off with Queen Vashti. She's kicked out of being the queen because she doesn't want to do a little tra-la-la dance for the king and all of his drunk buddies. And so she's she's removed and they're like hey, we're going to make a law and everyone in the land is going to know that hey, don't mess with us, cause we're just, you know, we'll make laws and kick Queens out, and so that you women just always have to do what you're told. It was just a ridiculous farce. Well then, after that, the next weekend, esther kind of appears and she goes through this whole traumatic trafficking process and ultimately she ends up queen, and there's this whole story that we think is going on. And now this week we're going to find out.
Speaker 1:There's actually something else going on. There's an ancient enemy at work, and this ancient enemy has a plan beyond Vashti, has a plan beyond Esther. He wants to take out the people of God. He wants to destroy the seed, the seed that was promised all the way back in Genesis, chapter three. The enemy of our souls is a real person, according to Jesus he knows the prophecy was in Genesis, chapter three this hero is going to come and he's going to crush the head of the serpent. And so all boys go like, hey, dude, I got to stop this. These Jews are the chosen people and the seed is going to come through them. I've got to destroy them. That's what he's after. That's what he's about. So let's pick it up. You'll see how it connects in a second. Esther we'll start in two, verse 20. Esther continued Remember, she was keeping her family background a secret.
Speaker 1:She continued to keep her family background and nationality a secret. She was still following Mordecai's directions. That was her older cousin who had raised her just as she did when she lived in his home. One day, as Mordecai was on duty at the king's gate okay, king's gate Picture. This is more like a court situation. This is a place of, of administration. The gate is not like your fence okay, it's like a big building that is also like functions as a gate, but it's where a lot of uh, legal matters are happening.
Speaker 1:Mordecai works there, so he's an official, like he's in the king's uh, you know, administration and he's there at the king's gate. He's at there, and two of the king's eunuchs, big thana and teresh, who were there at the king's gate. He's at there and two of the king's eunuchs, bigthana and Teresh, who were guards at the door of the king's private quarters, became angry at King Xerxes and plotted to assassinate him. Well, you know, I'm not surprised, given what we know about this guy so far. They're like, hey, he's so cruel and so wicked and just so willy-nilly, does whatever he wants with souls. We're going to attempt to assassinate him Now. It's not going to work. But historians tell us eventually an assassination does work on King Xerxes because he he dallies with a lot of his soldiers' wives. They end up ultimately killing him. But we're not there yet.
Speaker 1:Mordecai heard about the plot. We need to see that even the fact that this is a bad king, mordecai still has a level of loyalty to him. He's doing what's right. Mordecai heard about the plot and gave the information to Queen Esther. She told the king about it and gave Mordecai credit for the report. When an investigation was made and Mordecai's story was found to be true, the two men were impaled on a sharpened pole. Dang, that's how they do it. This was all recorded in the book of the history of King Xerxes reign. That book's going to come into play later Now, you'd think, and they would think even people reading this would think okay, mordecai just saved the day, man, he should be rewarded for some reason, for some sovereign reason, for some providential reason it's just forgotten about.
Speaker 1:The queen knows, the king even knows, but now he forgets about it. And instead, sometime later, king Xerxes promoted Haman, the son of Hamadathah, an agagite over all the other nobles, making him the most powerful official in the empire. All the king's officials would bow down before Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by, for so the king commanded, but Mordecai refused to bow down or show him respect. Now I'm going to tell you what's going on there. You're going to see it in the text, so we'll start with just what's happening here.
Speaker 1:An Agagite, an Agagite. Okay, this is this Haman, this Agagite. He is an ancient enemy of the Jews. Agag was the king that King Saul once upon a time was supposed to put to death, and he didn't. He was an Amalekite. These are the ancient enemies of the Jews. They're the first enemies of the Jews as they made their way from Egypt going to the promised land, and so they have this vendetta. There's this thing going on between them, and Mordecai sees that this is, this is an agagite, dude, I can't bow down to my ancient enemy like this. And so he just refuses to Verse three.
Speaker 1:Then the palace officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai, why are you disobeying the king's command? Mordecai? What's going on here, dude? They spoke to him day after day, but he still refused to comply with the order. So they spoke to Haman about this, to see if he would tolerate Mordecai's conduct, since Mordecai told them he was a Jew. Okay. So for some reason. Oh boy, he tells Esther, don't tell anybody you're a Jew. But for him he's like dude, I can't even stand that, agagite, I'm a Jew, I'm not bowing before him. So he lets the cat out of the bag. When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow and show him respect, he was filled with rage. He had learned of Mordecai's nationality. So it wasn't just that he was met, he learned about his nationality.
Speaker 1:So we decided it was not enough to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he would look for a way to destroy all the Jews throughout the empire, the entire empire of Xerxes. He says I have an ancient feud with an ancient enemy. Oh, he's a Jew, is he? Okay, then it's not enough to impale him on a sharp pole. I'm going to find a way to kill all his people. I'm going to get back at him. I'm going to like end this once and for all. I'm going to kill the Jews. Now you need to know.
Speaker 1:This happens in scripture several times in different places. There's humans that in some ways are representative of the enemy, that in some ways are representative of the enemy. They're doing things and it's them. It really is them, but they're also representing the personality of Satan. This happens most clearly with Pharaoh. Okay, in the book of Exodus, we clearly see that's Pharaoh, but that's also how the enemy thinks and behaves. We see this with Sanballat and Tobiah in the book of Nehemiah. Okay, they're them, but they're also like. This is how the enemy responds to these silly Jews, thinking they can go back into their land and rebuild the wall.
Speaker 1:And the same way, haman is Haman, but he's also representing and acting like the way that the enemy acts. So he wants to destroy. Just like the enemy wants to destroy the people of God, he wants to destroy the Jews as God. He wants to destroy the Jews as he has century after century after century, as he did in Adolf Hitler's Germany. He wants to destroy them, he hates them and he hates. If you're a Christ follower, he has the same level of hatred for you because the King of heaven loves you. Now he knows he can't take on God. What's he going to do? He can't do nothing, but he knows. If I can hurt them, or if I can even get them to join my side, that will break the heart of God.
Speaker 1:Verse eight so Haman approached King Xerxes and said there's a certain race of people scattered throughout all the provinces of your empire who keep themselves separate from everyone else. Their laws are different from those of any other people and they refuse to obey the laws of the king. So it's not in the king's interest to let them live. Just letting you know, Xerxes, you don't need to deal with these people. Verse nine if he please, the king issue a decree that they will be destroyed and I will give 10,000 large sacks of silver to the government administrators to be deposited in the royal treasury. Now the king probably thinks this is a good idea because, if you remember from last week, they just got back from wasting a ton of money trying to defeat the Greeks and they didn't. So probably the coffers are pretty empty. So oh, haman's got some money. He wants to throw it in. Hey man, do it If it pleases the king, issue this decree.
Speaker 1:The king agreed, confirming his decision by removing his signet ring from his finger. Giving it to Haman. That's like giving him his signature. Let me just sign whatever you want. Amen, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. The king said the money and the people are both yours to do with whatever you see fit.
Speaker 1:So just to summarize what happens after this it's decreed via Haman, but also with the king's signature, on one day, almost a year from here, all the Jews of the land are going to be put to death. Everybody in the land is to go out and kill Jews Sound familiar? And you get to take all their stuff after that and you have a year to prepare. So go ahead and get ready. And, by the way, it's a law and it can't be broken. And if I wasn't crazy, I'd say it almost reminds me of October 7th 2023. Does it not sound familiar? Go in there and kill as many Jews as you possibly can Do?
Speaker 1:You see that there's a hidden influence under the things that are happening on earth. There's a dragon under there and he wants to destroy everything that God has ever loved. That's what he wants. He wants to get rid of it, and this is where Haman shows us what our enemy is really like. Can you accept it? Can you think that through? There is a hidden influence behind a lot of the things that are happening on planet earth and his purposes? I want to show chaos, I want to show destruction. I want to show God that his humans aren't worth it, that I can turn them into killers of one another very easily. That's what he wants to be able to brag about.
Speaker 1:Whether we would intuit it or not, it's actually very helpful to know that you have a hidden enemy. I mean, just think about this for a second. Okay, let's just say for three hours. We don't want to do it for the rest of your life, just for three hours. Every 10 minutes, an invisible man is going to punch you in the face. Now, you don't know he's there. Okay, so you're just like, every 10 minutes you're walking around. Oh my gosh, what the heck? Now, after three, you'd be like something is wrong with me, dude, what? You'd go to the ER. You're like what the what is this? Am I sick? Am I crazy? What is happening? It's really helpful to know. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You're not crazy, there's not. You're not sick, there's nothing wrong with you. There's a dude punching you.
Speaker 1:That would be helpful to know because if you know that, a couple of things could take place. One, you could learn to maybe resist him. You could learn to be like okay, dude's trying to punch me. First, thank God I'm not psycho. Second, I bet I can learn how to fight back. I can learn that obedience weakens him. I can learn that I don't just have to take this and the authority of Christ. I can rebuke him. I can slow him way down. I can even see him coming a little bit. I can see what he's working on and I can resist it. One of the greatest tools. My friends and I know that maybe in some churches you don't hear about this, but I want to be the. I want to be the guy to tell you if you haven't heard it One of the greatest tools you can have as a Christ follower is just to ask the question occasionally what is the enemy trying to do here?
Speaker 1:My trials are not random. What is he trying to do? What is he trying to take my eye off the ball of? What is he trying to like what virtues are slowly going into the background. I'm forgetting that they're a thing. What new vices am I embracing? It's just subtle, it's just slight, but it's happening more and more and more and more and more. Friend, that's the enemy. It's really helpful.
Speaker 1:Did you ask from time to time, god, what is the enemy trying to do in me right now? What new temptation is he leading me toward? What is he trying to harden my heart toward? What is the enemy trying to do? What am I not paying attention to? And so what I want us to do this morning is I want us to pay attention. I want to show us the fingerprints of the enemy. There's more than just what's here in Esther, but there's at least three right here that I think are really timely right now to talk about. So what do we need? We need eyes to recognize the enemy. He seems invisible, but you can actually see him if you pay attention to his fingerprints.
Speaker 1:Here's the first one fear. His first fingerprint is fear. They spoke to him day after day Mordecai, mordecai, don't do this, man, hey, hey, don't mess with, don't mess with Haman, because he's the king's guy. You're in for trouble. Hey, mordecai, no, no, no, no, hey, just back up, just obey, just submit to it, just crawl in. Just don't make any noise, dude, just sit back and fear. Fear me. That's what the devil wants.
Speaker 1:And fear is a fantastic tool for him because it keeps us trapped. It actually keeps us dumb, it keeps our minds reeling oh, I just don't want to get hit again. And we stopped thinking forcefully, we stopped thinking like no, no, no, I'm an agent of change here on this planet earth. I can do stuff. I don't just have to sit here and take this. Fear is also dude. It's a bit of a gateway drug to other evils, like when we start in fear. If I'm afraid, well, if I'm afraid, I will lie. If I'm afraid, I will get angry when I feel a little bit threatened. If I get a little bit angry, it might turn to hate. If I turn to hate, it might turn to murder If we just amp it up enough. Fear is a gateway drug to a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:Think about the Israelites, back in numbers 13 and 14, a whole different time than when we're in Esther. But God challenges them Okay, go into the promised land Now. Moses picks 12 spies. Hey, go in there and check it out. And what turns them back?
Speaker 1:Fear, fear and unbelief. They walk in like, oh no, no, no. I know like God just brought us out of Egypt and like, did great signs and wonders and pretty much opened up the ocean. I know he can do that, but he's no match for these Canaanites. Man, they're giants up in here, we can't do this. And so they shrink back in fear. And there's consequences. Guys like, all right, well, so much for that reward for you. You guys can take a seat, sit on the bench for 40 years, your kids are going to go in. But your unbelief has cost you the very thing that God wanted to give you. Did anybody just hear what I said? Your unbelief has cost you the very thing that God wanted to give you. You can't stop the fear from coming, but you can stop capitulating to it. You don't have to say yes to that thing, you can say no.
Speaker 1:I believe 21st century people, dude, we got to watch out for fear, bait, fear, bait. So I'm assuming most folks within the sun of my voice are on social media quite a bit. Maybe there's some of you sweet people out in the hills and you just got the internet yesterday with a wire that you kind of dragged through the yard. But for most of us, we are online and we see stuff okay, and one of the things I don't know if you've noticed is people spend a lot of money now, a lot of time, a lot of effort on thumbnails. You're on YouTube. They're spending money trying to get that just right, to get you to click. They want clicks, man. See, if you click, oftentimes they get money. So they want a lot of clicks and they know if I can get them to just be a little bit afraid not to click, that'll be the best way to get them.
Speaker 1:So that's why I feel like you'll see this, okay, it'll be some version of this. You'll see a thumbnail and you see some guy or some gal on there and and the face will be something like and the caption will be something like should we be worried, banks? Should we be worried? The Lions aren't doing quite as good this season as they did last season. Should we be worried? Trump got a new golf club Connections to Putin. They want you to click.
Speaker 1:Baby Might rain today. Should you be worried? Tom Cruise joins Barbie too. Should we be worried? Have you seen this? Am I the only psychopath who sees this? Yes, there's, there's fear bait. It's like click so I can tell you what else you're not worried about yet. But you should be now here's more fear bait, and we got to understand dude should be now. Here's more fear bait, and we got to understand dude.
Speaker 1:If you can't help but click on fear bait, maybe you should think about how often you're online. I mean just for real dude, if you can't, if you can't wake up and not 47 seconds later be like I'm mad about this and angry and fearful. We went to the beach the other day and, um, you know, we went to Illinois Beach State Park and there's just a sign with even like a spotlight thing on it saying hey, man, if it's yellow or red, don't go out there because riptides will kill you. That's the condensed version, but that's what I was saying. I was saying, hey, man, it's your fault. If you go out there now and this thing is red, you might die, and that's on you. It gave us the warning and I maybe just want to give a loving affection to Christian. Warning Dude, if you can't be online without getting sucked into a bunch of fear, what do you?
Speaker 1:Maybe just cut back a little bit, you know, maybe just turn it down. Maybe not so much, or maybe you can just learn to and practice with God's help. Die to fear. Do you know you can do that? Like you can pray fear away, and that's smart. Like the earlier the better. Like let's get in there.
Speaker 1:God, help me, you. You call me to be afraid of you, not afraid of other things. You've not given me a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and of self-discipline. You've given me a spirit of courage. Like you give me a spirit of a conqueror. You give me a spirit I don't just need to listen to whatever they say. In Jesus' name, I'm Jesus' boy, I'm Jesus' girl. I can take whatever land he gives me. I don't care what your clickbait says. So you can have that kind of self-talk. You can also just say in Jesus' name, it is not for me to dread, I'm not going to dread whatever this is what, what, what, what? I'm not doing that? My God works everything together for my good. My God directs my steps. He's determined the number of my months. It's up to him whatever I do. So shut up fear bait. So I think you can do any of those.
Speaker 1:But after fear comes deceit. Fear is a fingerprint of the enemy, deceit. Deceit's a big one, yo, deceit is a big one. You didn't notice what Haman said to the king? But they keep themselves separate from everyone else. Their laws are different from those of any other people and they refuse to obey the laws of the king. Did you notice that? That's a mix of truth and not truth? So yeah, they are different than other people and they do have their own laws.
Speaker 1:But we just saw with Mordecai, right up front, he totally he sort of got the Kings back. These guys aren't like subversive against the King, but he uses that lie to shape the truth in such a way to make it different for the King. And that's what lying does. And I guess it's not just out there, it's in here, like we lie and the little voice that tells us dude, if you just shape the truth here, it will go better for you. That's, that's the bait of a lie. Hey, you can make this not quite as bad or not quite as painful or not quite as awkward if you just shape the truth a little bit.
Speaker 1:The enemy is the father of lies and, my friends, the more we give ourselves to lies, there's a compounding effect. We're opening our hearts to the enemy's influence and the more control he has over us, because he's getting used to being at home in our tongue. And social media, baby, social media is a breeding ground for deception. Is anyone noticing this? Has anyone seen this yet?
Speaker 1:Now, some of us might be like Carter, I'm too clever. I'm too clever to be deceived. Are you, though? I'll bet you this. I'll bet you, if you, if you had like a little, a little kid, okay, so like a four-year-old kid, I'll bet you it would be pretty easy for you, because you're a higher thing and a smarter thing. It'd be pretty easy, honestly, to trick them, like you can tell them something about magic, you can tell them something about a lion in their closet, you can tell them all kinds of things. They'd be like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Really, my friends, there are devils in hell that are way smarter than you and I, and their whole game is to.
Speaker 1:I'm going to, I'm going to put here this, here and this, here and this here. I'm going to get them to just not really think about it, just jump in, just believe, just go with it. They've got things called, and you've seen this. False narratives, false narratives are. I'm going to shape the truth. I'm going to have a little bit of truth and a whole lot of unchecked lie, and I'm just going to get you to think. That's how it is. That's how these people are, that's how they think, that's how this other party thinks about everything and that's all of them.
Speaker 1:By the way, that's a false narrative, and you know what's trippy is there's false narratives in the Bible about Jesus. So Jesus casts the demon out of somebody and they're like well, hold on. The only reason he can cast demons out of people is because he's the prince of demons, the only reason he really hangs out with those hookers and those tax collectors. You know why he does that? Because he's a drunk. That's why you know why he's. You know why you haven't heard of him before? Because his mom is a woman of ill repute. Do you ever notice that? Remember when she got pregnant all those years ago? So so what is the false narrative about jesus? His mom's a woman of ill repute and he's a drunk prince of demons.
Speaker 1:Dude, that wasn't just like one random person said it. That was the false narrative that Jesus' enemies were pushing into the culture. Don't believe him. Ah, get away from him, because this is what's real about him. It was a deception, pretty simple deception. Those deceptions are happening all over the world right now about the people of God, about the people that God loves, about the people that God wants to get close to, about the people that God is trying to draw to him.
Speaker 1:False narratives are happening, and so we just have to have a guarded heart of, like my friends, my 21st century friends. We've got to grow up in our thinking. When I was a kid, my parents would regularly say and so would everyone else's parents, by the way dude, you can't believe everything on TV. Because, you know, as a little kid, I was like, oh wow, really, that commercial said this is true. No, no, dude, you can't believe everything on TV. Tv is not your friend Like. Tv is. It's entertainment, that's all it is. You can't believe what it says. Necessarily, I just want to grab a whole generation of Zoomers. You cannot believe what you read on the internet or what you see on the internet. There's lies there, there's false narratives you can't just buy in. Oh well, they said it on the TV. I got that what it is. No, that's not what it is.
Speaker 1:Now here's maybe even worse than the false narratives, it's worse for the people of god? Jeez, it is. It doesn't go by this name in this century, but this is what it is. It's gossip. It's gossip. It is you or me Roping somebody into a conversation where it's not their problem, they're not part of the solution. We just want to give them some. What did you hear about this? So and so said what is it? It's just gossip. You don't even know for sure. It's true, and yet you're.
Speaker 1:I'm going to share that and this is what's hard about the day and age we're in. You can share like that. You don't have to think very long now, even if you figure out that was a lie, and you even go back and repent. The problem is that went all over the world. Now, like now, that lie is everywhere that you participated in, even if you're repentant about it. When we're not part of the solution, my friends, and it's really not our problem and you don't have like a citation on it. You know for sure. That's true. Guys, we just got people of God. At least we got to grow up in our thinking. Dude, just don't go share, share. I can't believe that Did share.
Speaker 1:Do you begin with the spirit of Jesus and the spirit of wisdom, you got to know as much good as the online world can do. There's a lot of false narrative and gossip just swirling around. So one of the things we're doing with our digital missions right now, with yours, is we're trying to do things where, like, I give responses to people online Like they say something, and then I come on like well, here's pastor weighs in, you know it says this or whatever, and I'm I'm blown away by the people that they'll just get out and they'll just. Here's what I think and it's true. Now there's not even an argument, it's just an assertion. I believe this because I feel it, because I'm losing my mind. I'm like, dude, you proved no points and yet a lot of your followers think, because you said it and you just think it strongly, that that's like a reasonable argument that has nothing to do with anything. Just because you feel it. Who cares? And yet people are pumping this sewage into the atmosphere all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm a little passionate about it. I think we need to pray as if you want to be a Jesus person. God, give me a truth-telling heart. So just give me like. I don't know if I want to share that, because I don't really know. I know my friend's really passionate, but I don't know if that's true. So I don't know if I'm going to share. But there's also just a hesitation let's I want to make.
Speaker 1:I want to make this verse famous again Matthew 12, 36. I tell you the truth you will give an account for every careless word you have spoken on the day of judgment. Are we, are we here, like? Does that make you tremble a little bit? It makes me tremble with how much is going out all day long, everywhere. It makes me tremble.
Speaker 1:Let's do one more. A fingerprint of the enemy is fear. A fingerprint of the enemy is deceit, and a fingerprint of the enemy is murder. Okay, john 8, 44,. You belong to your father the devil and you want to carry a father's desires he's talking to the most upstanding citizens of the time, by the way. You belong to your father the devil and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.
Speaker 1:The playbook let's, let's. Let's peer under the surface. Let's go into the playbook of the enemy. Let's peer under the surface. Let's go into the playbook of the enemy. One of the chief plays in the enemy's playbook is I want to hurt them and I will hurt them so much that they begin to hate. And if I can get them to hate and not forgive, they will keep growing and growing in anger and ultimately that anger can turn into murder. And then if I can get a bunch of them together and they're just kind of like feeding off one another they're not forgiving, they're just hating and reviewing their hurts they will turn into little demonic murderers. That's the playbook of the enemy, that's what he wants. And even if he can't get you and I there of the enemy, that's what he wants. And even if he can't get you and I there, he wants to haunt our hearts with pain of bitterness, of unforgiveness, of here's what they did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I'm supposed to forgive, but they did this. I know I'm supposed to forgive, but they did that Dude. I know, yeah, I know that's hard, I know that that's not easy, I know that's not fun, but I know that's what the savior said was the only way to heal ourselves of that hate it's to forgive. It's to forgive Matthew 5, 22.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with his brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother idiot and you just might find yourself hauled in court. Thoughtlessly yell stupid at a sister and you're on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill. When Christians war with other Christians in front of non-Christians, the only one that wins there is the enemy. Let me say it again when Christians go to war with other Christians online in front of everybody, in front of non-Christians, the only one who won was the enemy. There's no winning that. So what do we do? Ephesians 4, 26. This is a word for now. It's a word for now.
Speaker 1:In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you're angry. The Holy Spirit invites you and me this week to bring our list of people that have hurt me, bring it into a little appointment with Jesus and go over these things. God, I'm hurt here. I'm hurt here. I'm hurt here and I think it's legit a lot of it, but I don't want the enemy to use it and turn me into a hater, because I will just keep meditating on this and meditating and I'm like oh, those guys, oh that drill, and it was just. It doesn't get any better. It's just like anger.
Speaker 1:You can't give yourself to anger and like get less angry. No dude, you get an unslakeable thirst for lust. If you keep giving yourself to it, if you keep giving yourself to hate, you will just hate more and more and more. But we can also turn it around on the enemy. No devil, I know, I know it does hurt, it's bad, it sucks, it's horrible, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:But in Jesus' name, I've been forgiven much more and I'm going to forgive. I'm going to let the King of heaven, the, judge. He knows about it, he's on the case, he's sovereign over all the universe, he knows and he's going to do. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as Christ, just as in Christ, god forgave you. Guys, I'm telling you that's the only medicine. I'm telling you that is the only medicine. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as Christ. In Christ, god forgave you. Can I give you a super big challenge for some of us today, super big For those of you who've been wounded and affected and like just the world came crashing in when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, did you want to give the devil a heart attack?
Speaker 1:Forgive his killer Today, today, in Jesus name. I might have to do it again tomorrow, but I forgive him now and the Lord will do it. Was that mean he's going to get away with it? That's. You don't need to worry about any of that. The king of heaven is is a good judge. He makes sure everything happens the right way. What it does is it frees you and me not only from the bitterness and unforgiveness we have, but from the danger of spreading bitterness and unforgiveness to others.
Speaker 1:The only cure is forgiveness. Now here's the deal. We can't do it on our own. Forgiveness like when you've really been wounded. Man, some of you will testify to this. When you've really been wounded, forgiveness is a miracle, like it's. It's not a human, humanly attainable thing, it's like God.
Speaker 1:I have tried to forgive her. I've tried again and again and again. I need you to just give me forgiveness for them, like supernaturally. I need you to download in my heart. I need you to take away the sting. I need you to actually make me love them. I need you to make me like them. I need you to make me rude for them, be sad for them, whatever it is. I need you to give it to me because I'm at the end of my rope and I can't do it, and that's when God enters the picture.
Speaker 1:Then we allow God to be God, then we allow God to do whatever he wants, but at least as far as we're concerned, we allow him to heal us. So, dear friends, dear fiercers, the enemy has a playbook that he wants to use on you and me in our time, right now, and it's not just kill people, it includes that, but there's even something underneath that, and that is while he's doing it use it to turn you and I into something that so resembles the kingdom of darkness that if we ever were to bring up Jesus to somebody, they'd be like you're not any different than anyone else, and that would be a super shame. So what do we do today? I want to challenge you for real, this week, to make your list of offenses you need to forgive, and today I want to ask for God's help, god's comfort, because the spirit of God is a comforter. He comes. He doesn't say, hey, get over it. He says I'll be with you in it.
Speaker 1:But let's start making the journey toward forgiveness. For some of it, it might be that you need to forgive somebody out there. For some, it might be someone in your home. It might be someone from the past. It might be somebody that's waiting for you at work. It might be yourself, for some things that you can't seem to receive forgiveness for. Whichever one it is, my friends, today's the day we decide we're gonna be in the world but we're not gonna be of the world. We're gonna watch it kind of lose its mind sometimes.
Speaker 1:But you know, in every century, in every generation, horrific things happen and the enemy has a plan and God is still God on the throne, just like he does in Esther, just like he does in the cross, the very thing that the enemy thought was his silver bullet, the cross of Jesus Christ. God says watch this. And he turns it around and works together for his maximum glory and for your and my maximum good. And I can promise you, on the authority of scripture, that's what he's going to do now. Let's bow our heads, god. You were the same God yesterday, today and forever. And we are reeling. Many of us we're wounded, we were hurt, or sometimes we're angry and we don't understand why other people are wounded or hurt. But we see what's happening in front of us and we don't want to become the secondary casualty of the enemy.
Speaker 1:God, would you come in and would you give us a differentness? Would you help us to resist deception? Would you help us to slap fear in the mouth? Would you help us to rebuke hate and anger within ourselves, lest it lead to murder? God, would you forgive us, and God, I'm asking for the miracle of forgiveness. Would you give us forgiveness for the people that it seems like there's almost no way to forgive them. Jesus, you can do it. If you would do it, enter in and we give you praise in advance. Thank you that ultimately, you win every time. In Christ's name. Amen, fierce in your life, please consider paying it forward with a financial gift at fiercechurch. If you want more resources like this, check out all of our channels at YouTube, tiktok and Instagram. Check out our podcasts and check out our blog at fiercechurch. If you haven't already, please consider sharing this to help people you know take their next step. We'll see you next time.