Derrick Overholt: The Lord is really walking through this uh Pastor's Choice Sermon series where each pastor's kind of talked about what's been on their heart.
Derrick Overholt: Um over this year, God has really been telling me three big things, and really the one that I'm gonna talk about today is kind of a fresh one that the Lord's been dealing with me on.
Derrick Overholt: And so I'm gonna switch mics.
Derrick Overholt: There we go.
Derrick Overholt: So I don't have to carry this thing anymore.
Derrick Overholt: I just realized I was still holding a mic while I had another mic right here.
Derrick Overholt: And so the Lord's been really walking with me through it.
Derrick Overholt: And so uh to begin today's service, uh I just want to take a moment of silence.
Derrick Overholt: And so if we could just be here for a moment, is it awkward?
Derrick Overholt: That was two minutes of silence.
Derrick Overholt: And what's become awkward is actually a gift from God.
Derrick Overholt: The reason why I wanted to start this, I felt like the Lord laid it on my heart to say, you can't be quiet.
Derrick Overholt: It's uncomfortable for us.
Derrick Overholt: And this is what he's been saying to me.
Derrick Overholt: And what normally happens why at the end, did somebody pick up their phone, play with their phone for a minute?
Derrick Overholt: Did somebody start whispering to one another?
Derrick Overholt: Did somebody look at me like this dude's gone crazy?
Derrick Overholt: Is he alright?
Derrick Overholt: Right?
Derrick Overholt: How long is this going to be?
Derrick Overholt: Does he know what he's doing?
Derrick Overholt: But it's it's a gift from God to step into silent spaces.
Derrick Overholt: And so because we are so afraid of silence, we take out this phone most of the time, we take out iPads, we take out the TV, and we fill this blank space, and we instantly have to fill it with Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, TVs, books.
Derrick Overholt: Most of us in the room can't even go to sleep without having some type of noise going on.
Derrick Overholt: Running around.
Derrick Overholt: The world gets louder, louder, and louder, and our lives become crazy and chaotic, and we can't even hear the voice at all.
Derrick Overholt: If we're low key at all.
Derrick Overholt: We might hear a single word from God.
Derrick Overholt: This was an example.
Derrick Overholt: Thank you guys.
Derrick Overholt: That was a lot of work for them to even do that four minutes of thing here.
Derrick Overholt: But that is what our lives look like on a daily basis.
Derrick Overholt: This thing right here, the watch that I took off this morning, they're a distraction.
Derrick Overholt: And not only that, there's so many other distractions.
Derrick Overholt: So a couple of weeks ago, when I opened the service, I felt like the Lord gave me the word about distraction, and I spoke about it for about four minutes with Mary and Martha.
Derrick Overholt: And there they were in the room with Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: And Martha was so consumed with all of the things that needed to be done that she missed the point of the king of glory being in her living room.
Derrick Overholt: Mary didn't.
Derrick Overholt: And she sat very quietly at the feet of Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: And it was not by coincidence that Patty's talking about why she had this morning.
Derrick Overholt: We have crazy anxiety.
Derrick Overholt: We struggle with our minds being all over the place and racing and going through all this stuff.
Derrick Overholt: Many times it's self-induced.
Derrick Overholt: Because we've always got to be feeling the quiet spaces up.
Derrick Overholt: This year, the word that has been, one of the words that we're given was sharpened Christians are prepared for crisis.
Derrick Overholt: Well, how many people know how to sharpen a knife?
Derrick Overholt: Not a lot of us, because like it's precise, but it's some of us.
Derrick Overholt: Can I sharpen a knife by taking the knife and banging it on a stone?
Derrick Overholt: But it makes noise.
Derrick Overholt: Why ain't that working?
Derrick Overholt: Can I sharpen a knife by running it through cardboard?
Derrick Overholt: No, that's worse for them than anything, really.
Derrick Overholt: No, we have to lay that knife down on a precise angle and slowly bring it over the right kind of stone.
Derrick Overholt: Just because there's noise going on when I bring a knife to a grinding wheel doesn't mean I'm sharpening the grinding wheel or sharpening the knife.
Derrick Overholt: I'm destroying the knife.
Derrick Overholt: It will not get sharp on a big loud grinder.
Derrick Overholt: But when we lay it down and quietly and precisely pull it over the right kind of stone, the edge of that knife becomes sharp.
Derrick Overholt: It's not the chaos and stuff.
Derrick Overholt: And that's what we're doing in our lives.
Derrick Overholt: We're dulling ourselves on a constant basis with all the noise of this world.
Derrick Overholt: And we're not ready for if crisis meets because we can't listen.
Derrick Overholt: Oftentimes we hear that we are the army of God.
Derrick Overholt: But with the example I just gave and all the noise going on, how in the world are we ever going to hear the marching orders?
Derrick Overholt: We're not.
Derrick Overholt: And the truth is, is I don't want to be in a war that I don't even know I'm in.
Derrick Overholt: Right?
Derrick Overholt: So I need to be quiet and I need to hear what the commander is teaching and what he's saying and which direction we're going.
Derrick Overholt: One of the big things that I felt like the Lord has given me this year is that we are, and I talked about it with the youth this week, that we are in a spiritual world and we don't even notice it.
Derrick Overholt: See, in the book of Genesis, God said, Let us make man in our image.
Derrick Overholt: That's the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit together saying, Let us make man in our image.
Derrick Overholt: So we are made in the image of God, in the image of Him, He created us.
Derrick Overholt: So we also have spirit.
Derrick Overholt: You don't deny this because where do we go when we die?
Derrick Overholt: Our spirit goes to heaven until the new earth is made and we raised up, right?
Derrick Overholt: So you already believe that.
Derrick Overholt: But how much do you really believe that?
Derrick Overholt: Because have you thought about what's going on in the spiritual realm of your life right now, at this day, when you woke up this morning?
Derrick Overholt: No, I haven't.
Derrick Overholt: And it it just came to me that I am living a physical life.
Derrick Overholt: When the battle that's actually being raged for my soul is in the spirit.
Derrick Overholt: Ephesians chapter 6, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers and against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Derrick Overholt: We are fighting a battle in the physical that's actually in the spiritual.
Derrick Overholt: And we don't understand why our anxiety is so high.
Derrick Overholt: Because we're not actually paying attention to the devil's schemes all around us at all times.
Derrick Overholt: Now I'm bringing this to you today as something that I'm currently walking through.
Derrick Overholt: These sermons like this, they hit hard and they get a little solemn because I'm walking in it now.
Derrick Overholt: So if it's hitting you, welcome to the game because it's hitting me as well, and it has.
Derrick Overholt: I've been jumping through scripture and praying over the church over the last few months, and the Lord's been showing me this uh this clear blueprint of what the animals and the enemy's tactics have become.
Derrick Overholt: And the main tactic that the devil has right now is to stay incognito, means to stay out of the limelight.
Derrick Overholt: Listen, the devil doesn't have to show up in our community and manifest himself and start flopping around on the floor.
Derrick Overholt: The devil doesn't have to show up in the community and wreak havoc over here to get somebody's attention to worship him.
Derrick Overholt: Because our culture is bowing down to him at every moment.
Derrick Overholt: So you don't have, he doesn't have to do anything.
Derrick Overholt: He's already got the world.
Derrick Overholt: And that's why the scripture says that he is the ruler of the world.
Derrick Overholt: So a few weeks ago, it was about six weeks ago, I guess, I taught, I had a sermon on a word that God gave me called desensitization, which I have learned how to say now.
Derrick Overholt: And if you haven't heard it, I encourage you to go back and listen to it.
Derrick Overholt: But instead of sudden things that he would do to bother you, he brings in small little things.
Derrick Overholt: And the Lord gave me the word sin shots.
Derrick Overholt: And that's one of the big ways that he comes in and he gets us.
Derrick Overholt: And then isolating the spiritual, which is what I'm talking about right now, the ultimate goal is to trap people entirely within the bonds of physical world, keeping our eyes locked on the things around us, keeping our eyes locked on immediate gratification on material success, on our anxieties.
Derrick Overholt: We completely forget that we are on a spiritual battleground.
Derrick Overholt: If we come to the realization that we're in a battle in the spirit realm, but that the Lord's already won that battle, then we can come and we say, Lord, I see what's going on, I see the enemy's plan, but you won the battle.
Derrick Overholt: And you've given me the authority through the blood that you shed for me, and I will no longer deal with those things.
Derrick Overholt: Then our eyes turn to the Father.
Derrick Overholt: Instead of our eyes looking at the physical of what's going on.
Derrick Overholt: Well, I can't pay my bills and I've got my job, like if I'm fixing to lose a job, or I've got this going on and I'm sick, and I've whatever of all these physical things turn our minds to the real battle in the spirit.
Derrick Overholt: The Lord has already won that battle.
Derrick Overholt: He's already won all battles, but we turn to him and we see that, devil, you do not have a place and you will not wreak havoc on my mind without me realizing it.
Derrick Overholt: Because, see, the devil, if we're not paying attention to the spiritual realm, the devil's throwing images at us and things constantly to make our mind this anxious mess of chaos.
Derrick Overholt: And we're not turning and going, get out in the name of Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: We're going, what is going on in my life that this is going on?
Derrick Overholt: Why I don't understand?
Derrick Overholt: Why is this going on?
Derrick Overholt: Well, the third thing I feel like the Lord is talking to me about and us is the flood of noise that we just had an example for.
Derrick Overholt: The enemy doesn't want to force himself outright.
Derrick Overholt: He just simply wants to keep us very busy, overstimulated, bombarded with a ton of notifications, distract us with entertainment, keep the modern chaos of this world at the forefront of our mind at all times.
Derrick Overholt: You don't understand.
Derrick Overholt: Most of what you see out in the world is actually Satan's scheme to keep your eyes off of Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: That TV show that makes you have some fear inside, that's the devil's plan.
Derrick Overholt: The agendas that's out here in the world that are totally against the scripture, but that have been brought in over the last 50 years silently, little by little, that's the devil's plan.
Derrick Overholt: He's gotten you okay with them.
Derrick Overholt: And in the spiritual rim, he's dulled us.
Derrick Overholt: And we're no longer sharp.
Derrick Overholt: We're a bunch of dull blades with rust all over them.
Derrick Overholt: And they're not good for much of anything.
Derrick Overholt: You know, they find a knife under the water that's been rusting for 200 years and they try to pull it out, it does nothing.
Derrick Overholt: And that's what we have become because we're not paying attention to what the devil's schemes are.
Derrick Overholt: Because the devil knows that the very moment that we get quiet, his grip on us slips.
Derrick Overholt: He knows that when we're quiet, we will hear conviction.
Derrick Overholt: Conviction brings repentance, which brings us closer to God.
Derrick Overholt: We will hear direction, we will hear God's plan.
Derrick Overholt: But it's alarming how blind we have become.
Derrick Overholt: We even have internal negotiations with ourselves.
Derrick Overholt: Well, you know, I probably shouldn't watch that.
Derrick Overholt: Well, then why are you?
Derrick Overholt: Why am I?
Derrick Overholt: Oh, but what if that no, no, it's really not.
Derrick Overholt: I'm overthinking this.
Derrick Overholt: No, like listen to the spirit.
Derrick Overholt: Stop playing it off.
Derrick Overholt: Why are we trying to talk ourselves into things that will definitely dull our blade?
Derrick Overholt: So many things in our life that we we make a decision, we have to look at the spiritual side of it.
Derrick Overholt: You know, when I go on vacation, I have to think about where I'm going and what I might see to be sure that I keep my eyes and my ears safe from the devil's schemes.
Derrick Overholt: Because all it takes is on the first day to see something and get locked in and be dulled all week long to a place that could have been a type of relaxation.
Derrick Overholt: See, we we have to look into the Word of God and realize that there are a number of warnings for us.
Derrick Overholt: Now, unfortunately, today a lot of people see the Bible as a set of rules.
Derrick Overholt: It's not just like uh your kids not sticking their hand in a fire or playing with a stove, it's not just a set of rules.
Derrick Overholt: If the creator of the universe put together words from thousands of years that all came together and tells you about a loving God who created his favorite creation, who then fought for his favorite creation with his son's blood to buy it back and gives us a way to follow him.
Derrick Overholt: If he has some things he says, do not do, it's the exact same thing as you and I looking at our child and saying, don't put your hand in the fire.
Derrick Overholt: But no, the world right now, it's really sad because some of us have even done this, and some of us are doing it right now with our families.
Derrick Overholt: We look over at our growing child who's a teenager, and we see them sticking their hand in the fire, and in the spiritual rim, the skin is falling off.
Derrick Overholt: And yet we look at them and go, yeah, it's okay.
Derrick Overholt: Let me help you figure out a way to live with your hand in the fire because that's really what you want to do.
Derrick Overholt: And I'm gonna keep helping you, even though I know that this is destroying your life.
Derrick Overholt: And you look, well, but my child's gonna think I'm just a bunch of rules and I'm like.
Derrick Overholt: Okay, that's your job, is to protect them from getting burned.
Derrick Overholt: And if your whole life needs to be turned upside down to keep our children from being burned, then that is what we do.
Derrick Overholt: Because we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but against the devil's evil schemes to destroy our life and our families' lives.
Derrick Overholt: So when we look at the Bible, we have to stop looking at it like it's just a bunch of rules that I gotta follow.
Derrick Overholt: No, hello.
Derrick Overholt: The creator of the universe knows what's best for his creation to keep it safe.
Derrick Overholt: So when you look at all the things in the Word of God and it says, don't do this or don't do that, or hey, I got a warning for this and a warning for that, it's to keep you from being burned.
Derrick Overholt: It's to keep you from constantly being burned.
Derrick Overholt: And it's to keep other people, his creation, from being burned.
Derrick Overholt: So let's look at the word of God as more of what's our Father in heaven trying to protect us from?
Derrick Overholt: We shouldn't look at it as, oh man, if God's real, he's taking all the fun out.
Derrick Overholt: It's really fun to be burned all the time.
Derrick Overholt: It's really fun to lose my heart.
Derrick Overholt: It's really fun to have all these troubles and anxiety.
Derrick Overholt: Oh, that's really that fun.
Derrick Overholt: No, sin's miserable.
Derrick Overholt: So it gives us some scriptural warnings in the spirit realm.
Derrick Overholt: Now I'm only going to bring up a few because they're all over the place in the Word of God.
Derrick Overholt: But 1 Timothy 4, chapter 1, verse 1.
Derrick Overholt: Now the Spirit expressively says, of course, that's the Holy Spirit talking here, that in latter times some will depart the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.
Derrick Overholt: Y'all, that is in so many churches right now.
Derrick Overholt: My wife and daughter went to a church the other day with certain types of flags hanging all over the outside.
Derrick Overholt: And the moment she said it, I had a vision of the name of the church, Church of Satan, was what popped up in the vision.
Derrick Overholt: And yet it has a lot of members at the Church of Satan down the street.
Derrick Overholt: And we ourselves could do the same if we continue to walk away from spiritual things, seeing that the devil's plan is to quietly, over a number of years, get us to be okay with the things that are ungodly.
Derrick Overholt: Little by little by little, we could become apostate.
Derrick Overholt: We could become the church in Revelation that God's like, I'm gonna spew you out of my mouth.
Derrick Overholt: Lord, help us to never be that.
Derrick Overholt: Ephesians 4, chapter 14, warning us not to be tossed to and fro by the waves of carried about by every wind of doctrine, by humankunning and craftiness of deceitful schemes.
Derrick Overholt: And Jesus, even talking with the parable of the sower, said, and he directly warned that the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the word.
Derrick Overholt: All this noise chokes out the life.
Derrick Overholt: The devil's schemes are to be quiet and to let you fall into a pit.
Derrick Overholt: Because it's all around us.
Derrick Overholt: Just turn around.
Derrick Overholt: Follow the world for one second, and you're in its pit.
Derrick Overholt: So God has given us this thing of silence.
Derrick Overholt: And when I say this, I'm not saying that you just be quiet all the time.
Derrick Overholt: I'm not saying just like what we did earlier for two minutes.
Derrick Overholt: But yes, in prayer time we should.
Derrick Overholt: Problem is, is we talk too much because we're trying to fill up the space.
Derrick Overholt: We're not the first ones to do it.
Derrick Overholt: It was written about in the 12 disciples.
Derrick Overholt: I mean, there's Jesus on a mountaintop with Moses and and uh Elijah.
Derrick Overholt: And was it Peter that says, Well, do you want me to build something right now?
Derrick Overholt: I'll do it right now.
Derrick Overholt: Could you just be quiet and be here for a second?
Derrick Overholt: Be quiet and listen.
Derrick Overholt: And at that moment, was then God's voice came out, and those two disappeared and said, This is my son.
Derrick Overholt: Right here.
Derrick Overholt: Look at him.
Derrick Overholt: Stop just trying to work it all up all the time.
Derrick Overholt: Stop trying to figure out a plan.
Derrick Overholt: Listen.
Derrick Overholt: Put your eyes on him.
Derrick Overholt: Follow him.
Derrick Overholt: Well, I don't know what's going to happen next.
Derrick Overholt: You don't need to know what's happening next.
Derrick Overholt: Look upon your leader, our Savior in heaven.
Derrick Overholt: A few scriptures to kind of point toward that is Psalm 46, 10.
Derrick Overholt: She said it earlier.
Derrick Overholt: Be still and know that I am God.
Derrick Overholt: One of the good ones that I love is in Ephesians chapter 14, and Moses is leading the Israelites out to get away from Pharaoh, and Pharaoh's coming at them.
Derrick Overholt: And there's a huge sea in front of them.
Derrick Overholt: And you again kind of mentioned this as well.
Derrick Overholt: Mountains in our way.
Derrick Overholt: But here's a sea in our way.
Derrick Overholt: And thousands of people shouting at Moses, how could you bring us here?
Derrick Overholt: Was there not enough graves in Egypt that you want us to be buried here?
Derrick Overholt: And the noise, could you just imagine the chaos that was going on?
Derrick Overholt: What was Moses' words?
Derrick Overholt: The Lord will fight for you, and all you have to do is be silent.
Derrick Overholt: Did he really say that or did he look at them all and say something else?
Derrick Overholt: Could y'all just no, I'm won't say it because there's kids in the room, and my wife hates when I say that.
Derrick Overholt: So all we have to do is stay silent.
Derrick Overholt: When you're in the battles in our lives, remember we're in a spiritual battle.
Derrick Overholt: The devil's trying to grab at us.
Derrick Overholt: Turn to the Lord.
Derrick Overholt: God, I know you've won this battle.
Derrick Overholt: Satan, I command you to leave me alone right now in the name of Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: And then sit in silence and listen.
Derrick Overholt: God, what do you want to say right now?
Derrick Overholt: Are you trying to show me something in my life in this trial that I might be bringing this trial on myself over and over again?
Derrick Overholt: 1 Kings chapter 19, Elijah looked for God in the great wind, the earthquake, the fire.
Derrick Overholt: God wasn't in any of the noise, he was in the low whisper.
Derrick Overholt: And then we even see it into the New Testament as Jesus himself, the Savior of the world, pulled away on a regular basis over and over again.
Derrick Overholt: We see one in Luke chapter 5.
Derrick Overholt: But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Derrick Overholt: Well, I don't have time to, I'm so busy.
Derrick Overholt: Really?
Derrick Overholt: Jesus had three years to do his ministry and yet he did this all the time.
Derrick Overholt: Yeah, I know we're in ministry.
Derrick Overholt: But if we don't pull away and hear the marching orders from our Father in heaven, what are you marching for?
Derrick Overholt: So, as I said earlier, I'm totally dealing with this personally.
Derrick Overholt: To give you a little bit of confession, I even while preaching, I feel like I always have to earn something.
Derrick Overholt: I feel like I always have to fight through, constantly have to be filling in all the quiet times, working on projects, even here at the church.
Derrick Overholt: I feel like if I'm not physically doing something, then I'm not, I don't deserve to be here.
Derrick Overholt: But yet I have worked myself into a frenzy.
Derrick Overholt: How many of you are doing the same?
Derrick Overholt: So if I'm honest, it's not just about a strong work ethic.
Derrick Overholt: It's an intentional strategy to keep noise so busy that I can't face the quiet.
Derrick Overholt: My racing thoughts demand me to build a project because it won't be quiet.
Derrick Overholt: But it'll also stop me from seeing the true condition of my heart.
Derrick Overholt: When the Holy Spirit says, Hey son, I'm trying to get you to stop doing that.
Derrick Overholt: That's what's bringing this on.
Derrick Overholt: Hey, son, I'm trying to get you to move over here.
Derrick Overholt: Let someone else do that.
Derrick Overholt: And I don't.
Derrick Overholt: Silence is a gift from God.
Derrick Overholt: And just as much as we get up every single morning and prayerfully, this is what you do, you at least brush your teeth.
Derrick Overholt: I don't know, some of you are shower at night, shower in the morning, but you have personal hygiene that you do every day.
Derrick Overholt: Spending time with Jesus is more exp more uh important than that.
Derrick Overholt: If you're to go out in the world with stinky breath, it's terrible.
Derrick Overholt: But what's even more terrible is when we go out in the world with stinky attitudes.
Derrick Overholt: Not convicted.
Derrick Overholt: Just lukewarm.
Derrick Overholt: So I found five things that we can do to help battle against these things.
Derrick Overholt: We got to guard the gates, the eyes, and the ears.
Derrick Overholt: Talked a little bit about it six weeks ago, but it's good.
Derrick Overholt: We need to hear it on a regular basis.
Derrick Overholt: It is time for us to look out for what's all around us and remember that on those TV shows, the majority of them have an underlying scheme of the devil to pull you away from the Father God.
Derrick Overholt: TV shows are meant for you to get caught in and binge them.
Derrick Overholt: And then we spend eight hours in a weekend watching our favorite show, and we spend three minutes talking to the creator.
Derrick Overholt: And then we go, why does my life seem so upset right now?
Derrick Overholt: I'm just telling you my exact experience right now.
Derrick Overholt: I'm not pointing fingers at anyone.
Derrick Overholt: But if any of this steps on your toes, it's not me.
Derrick Overholt: I'm sorry.
Derrick Overholt: But we have to guard what is going on around us at all times.
Derrick Overholt: These are stopping us from hearing the word of God.
Derrick Overholt: Are you listening?
Derrick Overholt: This can be a great tool.
Derrick Overholt: It's a lousy master.
Derrick Overholt: One of my favorite sayings from Pastor Neil.
Derrick Overholt: This is ruining our lives because we're stuck on it.
Derrick Overholt: And when we took our two-minute little thing earlier, how many people's immediate reaction was to reach into pocket and pull out the phone?
Derrick Overholt: It would have been mine if I didn't know what was going on.
Derrick Overholt: And I know this because throughout this week I tested myself in many areas.
Derrick Overholt: And somehow, this thing is living, somehow, attached to my hand.
Derrick Overholt: And I didn't even notice the devil had put this thing into my life and got me where this was what I looked at the most.
Derrick Overholt: Again, be a good tool.
Derrick Overholt: But when it becomes the thing that we do the most, I would venture to say that might even be our God.
Derrick Overholt: If we pick up that phone to be entertained at every silent spot in our life, it's probably our God.
Derrick Overholt: Because if we spend 20 hours a week on our phone, which you would be surprised if you looked at your phone and its battery usage, uh, the average would probably be three to four hours per day of it being used.
Derrick Overholt: Check it out.
Derrick Overholt: And how much did we pray?
Derrick Overholt: How much do we talk to the Lord?
Derrick Overholt: How much do we spend that time with Jesus?
Derrick Overholt: Again, this is my own conviction right now, but I know I'm not alone.
Derrick Overholt: So we need to take a digital inventory, we need to see what's going on, we need to see what we're watching, and we need to take and remove the things that are ungodly.
Derrick Overholt: Psalm 101.3 says, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes.
Derrick Overholt: So if it pricks our conscience the first time, it won't the next.
Derrick Overholt: So listen the first time.
Derrick Overholt: Put it away.
Derrick Overholt: You don't need another app on your phone.
Derrick Overholt: You don't.
Derrick Overholt: We all need to go back to stinking flip phones.
Derrick Overholt: I wish I could.
Derrick Overholt: We need to schedule digital fasts to reclaim the silence.
Derrick Overholt: I did this some time back.
Derrick Overholt: And uh, well, it was during our prayer and fasting time.
Derrick Overholt: It's 21 days.
Derrick Overholt: Oh, it's amazing.
Derrick Overholt: And I'm gonna do it again.
Derrick Overholt: I'm going back to my old fossil watch.
Derrick Overholt: How many people from my early 2000s wear fossil, right?
Derrick Overholt: I'm gonna pull it out of the drawer.
Derrick Overholt: I gotta buy a battery, put it back in it because it's been sitting there 10 years.
Derrick Overholt: But I'm gonna get the distractions off of my wrist.
Derrick Overholt: And I'm gonna turn my phone to where it only notifies me at different times.
Derrick Overholt: Because why does this need to be our boss?
Derrick Overholt: Why do we need to let everyone in our life have access to every area of our life at all times?
Derrick Overholt: Your boss calls you at eight o'clock at night.
Derrick Overholt: Why?
Derrick Overholt: This is your family time.
Derrick Overholt: That boss does not need to call you at eight o'clock at night, and you don't need to answer it.
Derrick Overholt: People in your life don't have to be able to call and get you immediately.
Derrick Overholt: Listen, this was me just last year.
Derrick Overholt: You could call me and call this phone at any time.
Derrick Overholt: I would always answer.
Derrick Overholt: That's not my family deserves better than that.
Derrick Overholt: My wife and kids, they deserve better than that.
Derrick Overholt: So after 4:30, I'm sorry.
Derrick Overholt: I'll catch back with you at some point in time.
Derrick Overholt: It might be today, it might be tomorrow, it might be next week.
Derrick Overholt: That's just the way it is.
Derrick Overholt: Let's go back to the days of the 90s when I had a cord on my phone that was attached to a voicemail that I went to check a couple times a week and go, oh, dude, Uncle Dan called me four days ago.
Derrick Overholt: And you call him and you leave him a message, and then a month or so goes down the road and you finally talk.
Derrick Overholt: It was actually kind of nice to not have all of the news and everything traveling around at lightning's pace.
Derrick Overholt: Why do I need to know what's going on in Venezuela two seconds ago?
Derrick Overholt: Why?
Derrick Overholt: I can't do anything in Venezuela.
Derrick Overholt: Like, why do I need to know everything that's going on in Russia 30 seconds ago?
Derrick Overholt: Like, I can't do anything about it, but I can pray for them.
Derrick Overholt: So I don't need to sit for 30 minutes and see it all and get my brain all in a messed up place, right?
Derrick Overholt: So silence forces us to confront the true condition of our heart.
Derrick Overholt: A Holy Spirit to convict us and heal us and speak without competition.
Derrick Overholt: We need to put on the full, this is number three, put on the full armor of God daily.
Derrick Overholt: Now, if you've missed a couple of weeks of our Wednesday nights, go back, listen to them.
Derrick Overholt: They're talking about it.
Derrick Overholt: It's really great.
Derrick Overholt: So we need to put on all of the armor of God.
Derrick Overholt: And this is from later on in chapter six of Ephesians.
Derrick Overholt: It says, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.
Derrick Overholt: We are in the evil day right now.
Derrick Overholt: We are there.
Derrick Overholt: And having done all, stand firm.
Derrick Overholt: Stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth, which means that we're going to have to uh push off the lies.
Derrick Overholt: And having put on the breastplate of righteousness, which means we're going to have to let the Lord call out sin.
Derrick Overholt: And as shoes for your feet, having put on readiness given by the gospel of peace, we're going to have to walk in the truth that God's got all this.
Derrick Overholt: In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, all times, all day, every day, all the time, with all prayer and supplication.
Derrick Overholt: This is putting on the armor of God.
Derrick Overholt: Daily.
Derrick Overholt: Wake up.
Derrick Overholt: Lord, I'm putting it on now.
Derrick Overholt: I need you.
Derrick Overholt: Number four, we need to stay anchored in the flock.
Derrick Overholt: Wolves go after the lone sheep standing out in the field.
Derrick Overholt: When that sheep got distracted, it was once apart just a couple weeks ago.
Derrick Overholt: But he got distracted over here and he's moving over here and he gets devoured.
Derrick Overholt: Completely devoured.
Derrick Overholt: We need to be in the flock.
Derrick Overholt: Because when we are together, the wolves don't want to come inside.
Derrick Overholt: So surround yourself with a few trusted, mature Christians who have the permission to look into your life.
Derrick Overholt: Listen, guys, one of the greatest freedoms that I have received in the past five years is accountability.
Derrick Overholt: Wait, what?
Derrick Overholt: You have to tell everybody your deepest, darkest stuff that you're dealing with every moment.
Derrick Overholt: So freeing.
Derrick Overholt: Because the devil can't use it anymore.
Derrick Overholt: It's been exposed.
Derrick Overholt: I've got somebody helping me to keep away from it.
Derrick Overholt: It is the most freeing thing that I have experienced is accountability.
Derrick Overholt: And if you are you or I are too prideful to let somebody into our life, then it's clear that there's a sin holding you back from God.
Derrick Overholt: Clear.
Derrick Overholt: Because you shouldn't be hiding anything.
Derrick Overholt: Husbands, if your wife doesn't know the code to this and have full freedom to walk through it, you need to check your spirit immediately, right now, and go repent to your wife right now.
Derrick Overholt: Women, the same thing.
Derrick Overholt: There should be no secrets between a husband and a wife.
Derrick Overholt: Husband and wife should be the type of friend that they know everything about everything.
Derrick Overholt: But you also, if you're going to have that type of relationship, you have to be all right with them screwing up every now and then because they're human.
Derrick Overholt: So stop condemning just because you did what?
Derrick Overholt: And then it's like a week.
Derrick Overholt: Yeah, of course he's never going to tell you what he did ever again.
Derrick Overholt: Because you didn't give the grace that you would hope somebody would give to you when, not if, when you do the same.
Derrick Overholt: So we should not have any locked areas in our life.
Derrick Overholt: I get people now and then they grab my computer and they're like, hey, can I use your computer?
Derrick Overholt: I'm like, yeah, yep.
Derrick Overholt: They're like, well, uh, do you want to type in a code?
Derrick Overholt: Nope.
Derrick Overholt: Here's the code.
Derrick Overholt: Alexandria 626.
Derrick Overholt: Have at it.
Derrick Overholt: Because there's nothing on it I'm hiding.
Derrick Overholt: I ain't worried about it.
Derrick Overholt: Right?
Derrick Overholt: If you can't do that, there's a reason.
Derrick Overholt: Check your spirit, talk to Jesus, repent now, find accountability, and move into freedom.
Derrick Overholt: The last one, number five, practice immediate repentance.
Derrick Overholt: Something that I found that the devil really loves to do is use condemnation.
Derrick Overholt: And so when we take a sin shot, I'm horrible.
Derrick Overholt: Man, I can never get over this stuff.
Derrick Overholt: It's never gonna be ending.
Derrick Overholt: I'm always gonna live this way.
Derrick Overholt: I'm always this, that, or the other.
Derrick Overholt: And then two or three hours goes by, and oh, this is terrible.
Derrick Overholt: Or what's worse, and one thing that I do with my wife, and I try to do it as much as I can when I wrong her or the family, my children, I apologize to them a lot.
Derrick Overholt: And I try to do it immediately because if I let 20 minutes go by, just 20 minutes, a hardened wall begins to block inside my heart.
Derrick Overholt: And I start getting prideful and thinking it's their fault.
Derrick Overholt: They did it, they got me to this point, they brought me here, they this, they that.
Derrick Overholt: And then all of a sudden, four or five hours goes by and I'm still dwelling on what they did, what they this, and not dealing with what I just did.
Derrick Overholt: So soon as you do it, immediate repentance, immediate.
Derrick Overholt: I've stopped in conversations and said, wait, I am so wrong, and I need to repent now.
Derrick Overholt: Please forgive me.
Derrick Overholt: But then when I wait, man, the type of effort it takes inside of me to open my mouth and repent, it's excruciatingly painful.
Derrick Overholt: But do it right up front.
Derrick Overholt: That's pretty easy.
Derrick Overholt: There's grace in that moment.
Derrick Overholt: So immediately let the Holy Spirit convict your heart.
Derrick Overholt: And the moment you feel it, the moment that you feel you're in the wrong, stop everything.
Derrick Overholt: I am sorry, I just said this and I know I shouldn't have said it.
Derrick Overholt: Please forgive me.
Derrick Overholt: I'm gonna work on this in the future.
Derrick Overholt: Let's back up a little bit and start this conversation over because I totally took it down the wrong way, you know, and deal with what has just happened.
Derrick Overholt: But immediate repentance keeps the soil of our heart soft and maintains clear spiritual vision and completely breaks the legal right of the enemy to have a stronghold in your mind.
Derrick Overholt: Because when we, it's almost like I've construction, we see it all the time around here.
Derrick Overholt: But when you've got, if you've seen the machine that rolls over and makes things compact, have you anybody ever tuck a shovel or something and tried to dig into that?
Derrick Overholt: It's hard.
Derrick Overholt: But has anybody ever walked up to a pile of dirt that a dump truck has just dumped?
Derrick Overholt: You can just go real easy.
Derrick Overholt: That's what happens in our soul when we don't repent immediately.
Derrick Overholt: Every minute is a steamroller over and over and over and over until the soil of our soul rocks hard and the devil takes hold and says, now it's a stronghold.
Derrick Overholt: I can get you there.
Derrick Overholt: And every single time he tries to get you.
Derrick Overholt: What we're gonna do now is just take a couple minutes on the flip side.
Derrick Overholt: We're gonna pray.
Derrick Overholt: Jordan, if you come up and play some.
Derrick Overholt: I'm not gonna make it super awkwardly quiet like earlier.
Derrick Overholt: But during this time is not a time of us to uh ask God for a word for the church or anything like that.
Derrick Overholt: It's between you and Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: If the Lord gives you something, I highly encourage you to write it down.
Derrick Overholt: Please take a pen, pull out the notes on your phone, put it in there.
Derrick Overholt: But don't pull out your phone to look at Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, any of those.
Derrick Overholt: Leave those where they are.
Derrick Overholt: Some of you need to take your watch off.
Derrick Overholt: Go ahead, take it off, put it down.
Derrick Overholt: So we're gonna let Jordan play just a little bit.
Derrick Overholt: Father, I'm bringing this uh message today from self reflection, what I'm currently dealing with and what I feel like you have set in.
Derrick Overholt: My life and I pray and I believe for the church as well that we need to heed the spiritual warnings, Lord, of this desensitization that's happening inside of us and inside this world.
Derrick Overholt: God, that uh we are isolating into the physical world only and we are not looking around at what the devil's trying to do.
Derrick Overholt: We're not paying attention, and the flood of noise in this world is causing us to stay distracted so much that we don't hear your voice.
Derrick Overholt: So, God, I pray right now, Lord, for just want to take this moment to practice what it means to stop and listen.
Derrick Overholt: In Jesus' name, Dad, give us strength to push off the things of the world and focus on who you are.
Derrick Overholt: God, I pray, Lord God, that we would clearly hear your voice at all times, in every moment of every day, in the troubles, in the trials.
Derrick Overholt: Even when we're in the valley of the shadow of death, help us to fear no evil.
Derrick Overholt: For you are with us, your rod and your staff that comfort us.
Derrick Overholt: God, that you would, in the midst of everything that's going on, prepare a meal in front of my enemies so they know we aren't scared.
Derrick Overholt: We're gonna enjoy a meal with the one who already won the battle.
Derrick Overholt: Help us as we walk out into this week.
Derrick Overholt: Help us to be missionaries in everything we do, that we don't live two-sided lives.
Derrick Overholt: Help us, Father, to see the schemes of the devil so that we are totally uh in tune with you and see shin send shots before they ever come in our direction.
Derrick Overholt: God, that you would quieten the noise.
Derrick Overholt: Quiet the noise that we get used to peaceful silence to hear your voice.
Derrick Overholt: Not just one word here or there, but sentences, conversations.
Derrick Overholt: In Jesus' name.
Derrick Overholt: Touch my brothers and sisters.
Derrick Overholt: Fill them with your holy presence.
Derrick Overholt: Give them strength this week.
Derrick Overholt: Give me strength this week.
Derrick Overholt: Touch us all, Father.
Derrick Overholt: In the holy name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Derrick Overholt: Amen.