SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_01: All right, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the first Sunday of Advent, so you can't tell because of the lights and everything, but actually one of those candles is lit.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaiah 9.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to turn there, it's great.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't, it's fine.
SPEAKER_01: But this is one of the most famous prophetic messianic verses in all of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought it was appropriate to start with this because of the message today.
SPEAKER_01: So let me read it to you.
SPEAKER_01: And you know part of it, but sometimes we forget the second part of it.
SPEAKER_01: It says this for unto us a child is born, for unto us a son is given.
SPEAKER_01: And the government, and the government will be upon his shoulder.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kingdom of God, government of God is upon the shoulder of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And his name will be called, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Of the increase of his government and peace, men and women, there will be no end.
SPEAKER_01: But the kingdom of God continues to flow across the world through imagers like us in all that we do.
SPEAKER_01: And so God has put his government, the government of all the divine counsel, upon the shoulders of Christ, that the kingdom of God would go forth, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord will perform this.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see the zeal of the Lord through the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: When you walk in following the kingdom first, the great mandate, which is seek first the kingdom of God is righteous, all these things being added unto us, the zeal of the Lord backs you up.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_01: The zeal of the Lord backs you up.
SPEAKER_01: So some of the stuff that we do, the zeal of the Lord does not back us up.
SPEAKER_01: You own your own.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Christian religion in general is rule-based because of the platonic worldview that we have.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, we're gonna talk about that today, it hinders what God can do.
SPEAKER_01: So here I debated till the cows come home about whether to go into the cross today with the title Christus Victor, or to talk about who we are.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm backing up to the fact that we have the play in two weeks, and then we also have uh Christmas Eve service, and I didn't want to get into demon possession on the Christmas Eve service.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01: Might not be good, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna talk about who you are in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: So go back now to Genesis, and we're gonna go to work, so everybody get ready, because I'm gonna make you jump around a lot, which is different than usual.
SPEAKER_01: But today I feel like on this theme of Croesus Victor, let's start with Genesis 1.
SPEAKER_01: Because Genesis 1 is the job description of humankind.
SPEAKER_01: This is a job description that you begin.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna call it, NT Wright calls it the Christian vocation.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna call it the vocation of the imager, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So listen to what he says.
SPEAKER_01: So this is in the very beginning, verse 26, starting in verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps in the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just stop for a second here.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to note that we're not to have dominion over people, we're to have dominion over resources.
SPEAKER_01: So God created man in his own image, and in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.
SPEAKER_01: Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on earth.
SPEAKER_01: Do you get this idea that he thinks that we probably aren't getting it the first time?
SPEAKER_01: So he repeats himself twice in this verse about what really matters to God.
SPEAKER_01: So the imagers, that's us, create an image of God for a kingdom vocation.
SPEAKER_01: Write that down.
SPEAKER_01: That's really important.
SPEAKER_01: You have a kingdom of God vocation given to you through a job description from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_01: The original factory setting was for us to live like this.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna give you five observations.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do these really fast because of where we're going with the message.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to spend too much time here.
SPEAKER_01: We'll come back to it, especially when we talk about demon possession.
SPEAKER_01: But five observations about the purpose of the imagers.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, we were created in the likeness of God as his kingdom family.
SPEAKER_01: So earlier, when we were starting at the beginning, I talked about God created a divine council of principalities and powers in the heavenly.
SPEAKER_01: That was a kingdom family before Satan rebelled.
SPEAKER_01: And then we talked about the rebellion of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: I talked about the gap theory, I talked about Genesis 1, 1, and 2 and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: So he's got a divine council, still there, angelic spirits that are part of his heavenly family.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what God's doing is creating an earthly family that he wants to use to bring heaven to earth.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so number one, that.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, we exercise dominion over the resources of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So you have been given in the cultural mandate of the kingdom of God dominion over resources.
SPEAKER_01: So you're responsible for your finances, you're responsible for your job that you do, that you do it with excellence.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we do and sometimes we don't, right?
SPEAKER_01: But we have the blessing of God behind us, we have the momentum of the kingdom of God behind us, the zeal of the Lord's behind us, when we go to our job and we do it with excellence for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: It was Martin Luther during the Reformation that kind of turned Europe upside down by saying your vocation is worship.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the Catholic Church didn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: The Catholics said that worship is coming to a mass or being under the elements of communion and baptism of the priest.
SPEAKER_01: And then Martin Luther comes along and says, that's great, but there's something way more important, and that is that you have a Christian vocation.
SPEAKER_01: Be the best blacksmith you can be, be the best mechanic that you can be, be the best lawyer.
SPEAKER_01: That's worship to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So that's where that came from.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, we are created male and female to reflect the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: So the first equal rights amendment is right here in Genesis 1.
SPEAKER_01: Male and female creating the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: So no woman in this room, no man in this room is a greater imager based on your gender.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: We all are male and female like a mirror, like an angled mirror reflecting God's glory to the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And in different ways.
SPEAKER_01: I loved going, uh, you know, we have wholehearted men on Tuesday morning, and I mean that's man food.
SPEAKER_01: We have man food, man.
SPEAKER_01: We have four smoked meats, and we've got grits, and we have eggs, and we have, you know, you guys know what we have, right?
SPEAKER_01: So 400 guys show up every Tuesday morning for that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So that's awesome, right?
SPEAKER_01: Well then yesterday was woman food.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like souffle stuff, you know, and all that, you know, and everything.
SPEAKER_01: And and quiche.
SPEAKER_01: It was kind of like kind of like it wasn't a quiche, I forget what they call it, but it's kind of like that, you know, and I loved it.
SPEAKER_01: And what I like going is because I think sometimes their food's better than ours as far as health.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, there you go.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women are different, man.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: We reflect the image of God in different ways.
SPEAKER_01: Number four, we're blessed by God to be fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_01: So you're supposed to be fruitful and multiply in everything you do.
SPEAKER_01: Not just own it yourself, but to look for others that God can use in a mighty way and make them fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_01: It's an abundance mentality.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that you only get half of the pie, it's that there's still half of a pie.
SPEAKER_01: And so we come with a mentality, I want to make others fruitful and multiply too.
SPEAKER_01: That's multiplying your image into them.
SPEAKER_01: And then fifthly, we're promising abundant life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jesus says the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I came that you may have a life and more abundant life.
SPEAKER_01: So this is this is, you say, what is the abundant life?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the abundant life is everything that I've just said.
SPEAKER_01: It's being an imager of God, it's male and female, and be all female.
SPEAKER_01: Be all male, be who God created you to be, and don't let the culture define that for you, let scripture define that for you.
SPEAKER_01: So the purpose of the imagers is the life of the kingdom of God, reflecting God's image with fruitfulness, freedom, and dominion.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty exciting.
SPEAKER_01: But what we have in America and what we have in the West is what I call a Platonic worldview, which is get to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Get to heaven, don't go to hell and follow the rules.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So we've turned a relationship of power and anointing, a kingdom of God revolution into a religion.
SPEAKER_01: So instead of being a revolution, we've become a religion, which is get people to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We have more evangelists of all the spiritual gifts, we must have way more evangelists than anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Because everybody's trying to get everybody to sign on the dotted line, walk the aisle, say the prayer, whatever, and we still lead the world in pornography, we still lead the world in immorality, we still lead the world in drug addiction.
SPEAKER_01: If you want, by the way, if you want to be a counselor, a professional counselor, America is the best place to be.
SPEAKER_01: Because we have more people that need more counseling that are more depressed and more anxiety-driven than any other nation in the world.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a Christian nation, folks.
SPEAKER_01: It's a mentality, gotta get them to heaven, don't go to hell, follow the rules.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, the vocation of God is way bigger and way better and more powerful than that.
SPEAKER_01: Some N.T.
SPEAKER_01: Wright, in one of his books called When the Revolution Began, which is great, powerful book on the cross of Christ, he talks about a works contract of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, earning God's favor.
SPEAKER_01: And in the case of what we're talking about now, is that was birthed in the next, in two chapters later.
SPEAKER_01: So now turn to Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_01: So in Genesis 3, Satan comes on the scene in the form of a serpent in the garden to steal, kill, and destroy the vocation of God as imagers that we were created to be.
SPEAKER_01: Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord had made.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
SPEAKER_01: And the woman said to the servant, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it lest you die.
SPEAKER_01: Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
SPEAKER_01: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
SPEAKER_01: She also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate.
SPEAKER_01: Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves covering.
SPEAKER_01: So the strategies of Satan and demons is now to attack the imagers and to steal your vocation.
SPEAKER_01: To steal that vocation away from us of being a kingdom of God revolutionary that God called you to be.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not gonna go through each of these, but I'm gonna give you seven tactics of Satan and demons.
SPEAKER_01: You might want to jot these down, and either next week or after Christmas, I'm gonna go into detail about each one because this is where we get into demon possession.
SPEAKER_01: This is where we get into the influence of the demonic powers even in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So, number one, question God's goodness.
SPEAKER_01: First thing he does is he comes in and he says, he questions God's goodness to Eve.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, he questions her true freedom.
SPEAKER_01: Questions your true freedom.
SPEAKER_01: So question God's goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, question your true freedom.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, create discontentment.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, some of you in this room are so phenomenally blessed that you get discontented.
SPEAKER_01: And so and so that's what the enemy does.
SPEAKER_01: He comes and he creates discontentment where it wasn't there before.
SPEAKER_01: Number four, think that there are no consequences for our sin.
SPEAKER_01: You can be like God.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, there's no consequences for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, there's a lot of consequences for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: And you can blow it, and we've all blown it in this room.
SPEAKER_01: Christian life is two steps forward and one step back, and it's never three steps far.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's a battle, right?
SPEAKER_01: So, but but we but we can't determine the consequences.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the great things that we learn as we mature in Christ is to think consequences before we do something dumb.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: We don't do that when we're young, but as we get older, you start going, if I say yes to that, I know where this is going.
SPEAKER_01: This is not good.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, number five, enticement to rebellion through the eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Enticement to rebellion through what you see.
SPEAKER_01: Number six, shame and escape.
SPEAKER_01: Number seven, hiddenness and fear.
SPEAKER_01: Now we talk a lot about shame around here, so we'll we'll cover that because I think it's actually the seed bed of the garden that grows a tree that becomes the rebellion in our life.
SPEAKER_01: So Satan's kingdom on earth is idolatry, slavery, and death.
SPEAKER_01: Evil is life spelled backwards.
SPEAKER_01: Evil is life spelled backwards, the exact opposite of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so God wants a kingdom family, you guys, and he came, and his death on the cross brought the victory.
SPEAKER_01: And the word I'm using here today in this brief message is Christus Victor, which is the Latin word for Christ the victor.
SPEAKER_01: And the element of the atoning work of Christ that emphasizes the triumph of Christ over evil powers in the world.
SPEAKER_01: So here's one of the most powerful passages in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You should memorize it.
SPEAKER_01: It's huge.
SPEAKER_01: It's the cosmic war passage of why Christ came.
SPEAKER_01: 1 John 3.8.
SPEAKER_01: Write down 1 John 3.8.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to turn there.
SPEAKER_01: He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Now he did not say the whoa, he didn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't say that the Son of God was manifested to get everybody to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that the Son of God was manifested that he might be sure a lot of people don't go to hell.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the Son of God was manifested that he might cause a bunch of people on the earth to follow the rules.
SPEAKER_01: No, he came to destroy the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: And guess who he does it through?
SPEAKER_01: You and me.
SPEAKER_01: So he did his job, and now under that victorious Christ that lives in you, we can say with conviction, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Now that is the victory that we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so your vocation is being re-established from Genesis 1 through putting your faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm, of course, I'm a big believer in evangelism.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hear me say anything otherwise.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying it doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_01: That's just the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: So being born again, I like being, well, I like using the phrase in J from John 3, being born again because you've been born again.
SPEAKER_01: So anybody had babies in here?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm so glad you guys have the babies and we don't.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the great benefits of being a male.
SPEAKER_01: Irregardless of whatever they tell you in the culture right now.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm not gonna get pregnant, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But we we have this child, and I don't think that we have that beautiful child in front of us, and we just go, I just want them to just go to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: No, I think most of us think, I want this child to thrive, I want this child to make an impact, I want this child to bring joy to the world, I want this child to be a part of the blessing of this earth.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's in you, that's in you, with the vocation of Christ that's being reestablished through the cross.
SPEAKER_01: So turn to Colossians 2.
SPEAKER_01: I told you we're gonna go to work on a few things.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna jump around a little today.
SPEAKER_01: So look at Colossians 2.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 2, starting at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 2, 13.
SPEAKER_01: The cross disarmed principalities and powers.
SPEAKER_01: Jot that down.
SPEAKER_01: The cross disarmed principalities and powers.
SPEAKER_01: And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he is made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.
SPEAKER_01: Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I talked about the Platonic worldview is to keep the rules.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the rules have been nailed to the cross, which was contrary to us.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, you were not created by God just to obey rules.
SPEAKER_01: You're created for so much more than that.
SPEAKER_01: And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them and triumphed over them in it.
SPEAKER_01: So he's using a Roman imagery of a conquering general, bringing the prisoners of war with him that everybody can see, saying, My rule and my reign here.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the kingdom of God is, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of God literally means the reign and the rule of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So it is, it is imagers like us, having Christ in our lives, that we begin to live a life that brings increasingly so, the rule and the reign of Christ in all of our relationships.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I believe Jesus is referring to when he says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
SPEAKER_01: The righteousness part, we think, is rules.
SPEAKER_01: It's not rules he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about right.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a good definition of righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: It's right relationships.
SPEAKER_01: We walk in right relationships in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: You walk, you show me a man or a woman who walks in right relationships, and I'll show you someone who will never feel isolated.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the number one way in which the enemy works is isolation.
SPEAKER_01: To create an environment or a situation in which you feel like you have no friends, you have no one who's got your back, and you have no bloodstained allies.
SPEAKER_01: And what Christ wants you to do is He's creating a family.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you're at the road.
SPEAKER_01: You're at the road because you're smart.
SPEAKER_01: And you're smart because you know you need family in your life, because that's what you were created for was family.
SPEAKER_01: Family on this earth.
SPEAKER_01: We need spiritual family, we need physical family.
SPEAKER_01: And as we see the devolution of the family by satanic and demonic powers, more so, we need a spiritual family.
SPEAKER_01: And that spiritual family grows with time, and that's why you put in the time.
SPEAKER_01: And we miss out.
SPEAKER_01: We miss out on the joy of being in family.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what he's talking about here.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about disarming the principalities and powers through the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And then in Romans 5, 10 and 17, don't turn that, it's going to come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
SPEAKER_01: For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness again, there's that word again, will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, that is not a Platonic worldview.
SPEAKER_01: We're not just to get saved, we're to reign.
SPEAKER_01: We're to reign in life.
SPEAKER_01: We're to walk with our chest out, our head up, and be proud, and I mean that in all the good sense of be proud that you're a Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_01: Walk in confidence, not in self-confidence, but in God confidence.
SPEAKER_01: But but don't let the enemy come in and put you on the defensive with all the insecurities of your past, because that's what he whispers.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, look what happened, look what you did over here, and look what you did over there.
SPEAKER_01: And he's shaming you.
SPEAKER_01: And you've got to be able to put that under the blood of Christ and say, look, he has disarmed all the principalities and powers, and you get out of my life, demons, in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And you've got authority and power to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I'll do it, I'll cover that a lot more next week.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul here is telescoping the new world order of the kingdom of God through our lives, church.
SPEAKER_01: This is huge.
SPEAKER_01: The word reign and life is basilia in Greek.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same word we get the word basilica, which is where we get castle, which is where we get the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Basilia is the same word.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying I'm calling you to be the kingdom of God in life.
SPEAKER_01: Reigning in life.
SPEAKER_01: The choice by the translators to say reign in life, I love that choice.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: But it could have been to be kingdom people, to bring the kingdom of God to the earth, and it would be of subject to the Greek there.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 15, but now Christ is risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_01: For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
SPEAKER_01: When he delivers the kingdom to God, the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess who he's doing that through?
SPEAKER_01: He's doing it through us, not through studying who the Antichrist is or some eschatological view, but rather reigning in life wherever you are.
SPEAKER_01: Starting with your marriage, if you're married.
SPEAKER_01: If you're single, walking in the beauty of the kingdom as a wonderful and awesome single person.
SPEAKER_01: With your family, with your church, with your job.
SPEAKER_01: We come and we put enemies under the feet of Christ by being Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you don't even know what happens when you tell the truth.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you're in a situation with your boss or something, and you're tempted to lie or to embellish your numbers or whatever, and you choose, I'm gonna honor God.
SPEAKER_01: Probably won't get the raise then, but I'm gonna honor God.
SPEAKER_01: And you tell the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what happens in the heavenly realm when you're a truth teller?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God's gonna open doors that no man can shut.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how many times, and you guys heard me say this before, I'll just say it again.
SPEAKER_01: How many times we get ourselves in these jobs or these situations where the doors are closed and we don't understand why, and then we either blame God or we are frustrated about it when what God's saying is, when are you gonna grow up?
SPEAKER_01: Because you keep lying and you keep manipulating and you keep hurting people over here.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna open doors for you just because you go to church?
SPEAKER_01: Or just because you go to the road?
SPEAKER_01: Nope.
SPEAKER_01: No, and then but but see the opposite's true.
SPEAKER_01: It's called a secret history with God.
SPEAKER_01: Where you do you do the right thing and you continue to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody knows but God.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody else notices but God.
SPEAKER_01: And then the doors open.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, man, I don't just why did that happen?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's because of 15 decisions you made over the last three years where you did the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't lie, you didn't cheat, you didn't look at that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you followed him.
SPEAKER_01: So, well, Steve, are you talking about like a rights, sort of like a rights relationship with you where we earn God's favor?
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm talking about the scriptures say about the consequences of walking in the freedom of being a godly person.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: When you keep doing the right thing, you're pushing back dark principalities and powers.
SPEAKER_01: And guess who wants to keep you where you're at and keep you limited in your integrity and limited in your destiny?
SPEAKER_01: Principalities and powers.
SPEAKER_01: Demons do.
SPEAKER_01: But when you do the right thing, the light is shining into the darkness, 2 Corinthians 4, and it's driving them back.
SPEAKER_01: And you're walking in a new kind of freedom that he has for you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it continues in 1 Corinthians 15 to say this.
SPEAKER_01: As was the man of dust, so he's going back to Adam, talking about Adam, Genesis 1, so also are those who are made of dust.
SPEAKER_01: As in the heavenly man, so he's saying the heavenly man is Christ, he was made of dust, he was both divine as well as human, so also are those who are heavenly.
SPEAKER_01: So now he's talking about us again.
SPEAKER_01: That you're dust, but you can be heavenly.
SPEAKER_01: And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.
SPEAKER_01: So, church, he's taking the Corinthians back and say, guys, remember the first chapter of the book.
SPEAKER_01: Remember Genesis, remember the Torah.
SPEAKER_01: In there, you are created in dust with a vocation, with a calling.
SPEAKER_01: It's being re-established by the heavenly man.
SPEAKER_01: Now, turning your Bibles to Ephesians 1.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 1 is huge because it's a prayer for wisdom, revelation, understanding of the riches of our inheritance in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I felt like I had to go there.
SPEAKER_01: I have to camp on this a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Because in Ephesians 1, Paul is challenging the Ephesians to get it.
SPEAKER_01: Look, this is your divine vocation.
SPEAKER_01: You're called to be imagers of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Starting at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: So look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.
SPEAKER_01: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
SPEAKER_01: That the eyes, your eyes of understanding would be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of your calling.
SPEAKER_01: He'd say this is this is more about, it's not about going to heaven, folks.
SPEAKER_01: This is about the hope of your calling on earth.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: The hope of your calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I've been a pastor, I've done a lot of funerals for people, and I don't want to go anywhere near sometimes certain families after the funeral.
SPEAKER_01: Because everybody's giving up the inheritance, and it's really not fun to watch.
SPEAKER_01: You've been given an inheritance from Jesus, from the Father, from the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The Trinity has given you an inheritance of glory, the kingdom of God, that he's saying, I want you guys to understand this.
SPEAKER_01: And what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power.
SPEAKER_01: So he's saying, this is my desire for you, Ephesians, this is my desire for you guys at the road, is that you would discover all the power that's available to you in the vocation of being imagers that bring the kingdom of God even to principalities and powers.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.
SPEAKER_01: So that power is the same power that seated Christ at the right hand of the Father, of which he says he will not get up from his seat until all his enemies are footstool under him.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the that is a pressing out of the kingdom of God through the church.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: And he put all things under his feet and he gave him to be head over all things to the media.
SPEAKER_01: Oh no, no, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: He put all things under his feet and he gave him to be head over all things for the U.S.
SPEAKER_01: government in Washington.
SPEAKER_01: Wait.
SPEAKER_01: He put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church.
SPEAKER_01: We are the sleeping giant in America.
SPEAKER_01: And it's time to wake up.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to use you and me to be his body.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the comma, all things to the church, comma, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
SPEAKER_01: And that happened at the cross at Calvary, and he has disarmed all principalities and powers.
SPEAKER_01: And if we'll just believe it, if every day we'll pray the Lord's Prayer, pray that prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You guys have heard me say this again and again.
SPEAKER_01: I just emphasize it here.
SPEAKER_01: Pray the Lord's Prayer, read Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_01: Read the Lord's Prayer if you don't know it yet until you memorize it.
SPEAKER_01: And then read Psalm 23 until you memorize it.
SPEAKER_01: But right there, there's power just in that alone that pushes back darkness.
SPEAKER_01: And we are made alive in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Go to chapter 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: And he made you alive.
SPEAKER_01: You were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once also conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We were that way.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you still are.
SPEAKER_01: We're by nature children of wrath.
SPEAKER_01: See, every time you sin and you choose to not follow Christ, you set yourselves up for wrath.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't believe you're gonna get wrath because you're a kingdom person.
SPEAKER_01: And as we've said so many times, it's not three steps forward, it's two steps forward and one step back.
SPEAKER_01: You know what it is?
SPEAKER_01: It's a chorallis fight.
SPEAKER_01: So when I was doing the Worshiper Warrior Intensive in Connecticut recently, I started, I ended my talk with this video.
SPEAKER_01: And if I I would love to show it to you guys, but every time you stream, then you take it off YouTube, then they shut you down, man.
SPEAKER_01: And I've got enough strikes against me, let me tell you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So look it up.
SPEAKER_01: You guys look it up on your way home, or look it up when you go, put in Corallis Fight, 10th round.
SPEAKER_01: Corallis, C-O-R-R-A-L-E-S fight, 10th round.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, it's really powerful.
SPEAKER_01: All the guys are doing it, and all the women are like, I'm not gonna look at some boxing match.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way.
SPEAKER_01: So what happens is Corallis comes out, it's a 10th round, probably 10 seconds into the beginning of your fight, bam, he goes down to the count of eight.
SPEAKER_01: And he gets up, and he's all messed up, he's bloody, and everything.
SPEAKER_01: The referee keeps it going.
SPEAKER_01: They go back at it again, about 30 seconds into it, bam, he gets hit again, boom, goes down to the count of nine.
SPEAKER_01: Gets up, barely able to do it.
SPEAKER_01: The referee says you can fight again.
SPEAKER_01: He goes into his corner, gets his mouthpiece, turns around, and he's a new man.
SPEAKER_01: He's a new man.
SPEAKER_01: Consider one of the greatest boxing rounds in boxing history, and he knocks that guy out.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, that is a picture of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody here been knocked down a few times?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been knocked down dozens of times, but you're here.
SPEAKER_01: But you're here.
SPEAKER_01: That is what we go through in this life.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the enemy knocks us down to the count of nine, but you get back up.
SPEAKER_01: You get back up, you go into your corner with some bloodstained allies, you get patched up, and you come back and you fight again for another day.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_01: So you do not have to be perfect, but you have to show up.
SPEAKER_01: And so keep fighting, folks.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let past mistakes get in the way of the victory that Christ has for you.
SPEAKER_01: He continues.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: But God, who is rich in mercy, but God, I love that, but God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, even when we've been knocked to the canvas several times, he made us alive together with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: By grace you've been saved, and raised you up together, made you sit in the heavenly places with Christ, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward those who believe in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You get it?
SPEAKER_01: You get it, you're not alone.
SPEAKER_01: The victory of Christ is you being seated with Christ in heavenly places right now.
SPEAKER_01: And when you get knocked down and when you get pummeled, and you will, you get back up and you and you come back to Christ, say, Lord, I want to walk in the enthronement that's mine.
SPEAKER_01: Christus Victor.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna bring the kingdom, I'm gonna bring the love, I'm gonna bring the mercy, I'm gonna bring forgiveness to all those around me.
SPEAKER_01: And men and women, you don't even know.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know, I'm sure, what happens in the heavenly realm when we start walking that out.
SPEAKER_01: It pushes back darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steveholtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.