S2.E11 - Thank God its over

In this episode we praise the Lord, discuss all things deliverance and salvation, and thank God that the world cup is over. 

Transcript

Intro

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Yeah, howdy folks, and welcome to episode eleven, the final episode of the season of football the turnover. Potentially maybe the the the the final the last episode, the final episode of all time. Who knows? The Lord knows. I don't know, but it's definitely the final episode of this season. England have been knocked out against Argentina. Surprise, surprise. Please note my sarcasm there. We shall come to that. We'll come to that in a moment. Overwhelming sense in me, thank God it's over. Thank God. Praise God that it's over. That it is over, and that means there's so much more to say about that. And the Lord, I pray the Lord in his spirit shall shall breathe life into that statement. And God, it's over. Praise Jesus. And so, yeah, we're gonna talk about a few things. We'll talk about the game, we'll talk about the World Cup, we'll talk about Jesus. We're gonna talk about Jesus. Before we do, we're gonna thank him for his mercy. We're gonna thank God for his mercy. The Bible says, where sin abounds, grace abounds more. Where sin abounds, grace abounds more. And the Lord's grace is greater than our sin. Our sins there are our sins they are many. Yours and mine, everyone else's that's ever lived and will ever live. Our sins they are many, humans, as a species, our sins they are that our sins they are many. His mercy is more. And that's twofold. There's a recognition of our own sins and our own neediness for help and forgiveness and for God's love to sweep in and save us and help us and lift us out of this terrible, terrible place called the world. We're in an evil age. Sin and death reign, and we need deliverance from it. We need to be set free from the power of sin and from the curse of death. And we have been, God sweeps in and saves us. He saves us by reconciling us to him by revealing himself to us through his Son Jesus Christ, who is God Himself, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. They are all God. God is a triune King. The one true living God is triune, that's who he is. And what sweeps in in that recognition of our own sin and our own neediness of of God, the ultimate power and authority to say, You're okay, you're forgiven. What sweeps in there is his love and his mercy and his grace and his power and his forgiveness and who he is. And that's what we want. We want him, you want to wrap your arms around him. You don't want to put your hands on a World Cup. You want to put your hands and your arms around Jesus. You want to grab his face and kiss him and say, Thank you, Lord. You want to crack open the alabaster oil and pour it all over his feet. You want to sell everything that you have and buy the treasure in the field and buy the field because the treasure's in it, you want to run towards him and leave everything else behind because you have nothing without him. Praise Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

His mercy is more than a little bit.

His mercy is more

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Fresh. Get a fresh delivery of mercies every morning. Because undoubtedly, somewhere in the day you will sin. You can sin by a conscious action that you do, you can sin by a mission, knowing something you should do and not doing it. The point isn't to make you feel terrible about yourself. The point is just a that's how it is. We're in a we're in an evil age, that's what we're in still. Doesn't mean there isn't goodness in the world. Praise God, Jesus is the light of the world. And we're an evil age. Satan still has some we're still roaming around. And many of us many of our broth many of us are still caught in the trap of sin and death and need to be set free from it. Many of us still have those chains and shackles on us. Many of us haven't yet come to know the Lord. And many of us haven't yet drank joyfully from the well of his salvation. Coming back to the lyrics, what love could remember no wrongs we have done. Omniscient, all knowing, he counts not their sum. Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore. Our sins they are many, his mercy is more. Praise the Lord. So Bible also tells us, God tells us through his word that He takes all of our sins, your sins, my sins, all of our sins, and he throws them into a sea of forgetfulness, and so complete he forget he remembers them not, he just takes them, wipe, throws them away, wipes us clean, we're washed clean, wiped completely clean. Why and how? Well, the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death, that death is required for all sins, that's how it goes. That's why animals were sacrificed by the Jewish people, all pointing to the one and all-sufficient sacrifice that brought an end to those animal sacrifices in the temple, Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and so his sacrifice is so great that it covers all sins. So it's about Him, it's about His great sacrifice for us, and that's in part where our joy and our celebration is that His sacrifice atones for all sins,

Salvation & the court room of Heaven

SPEAKER_02 8:48

all the worst. Hitler, Mussolini, wherever you want to go, all sins have been paid for on the cross by Jesus. It's a question of whether or not that truth that you accept that, you accept that you've sinned and that you need forgiveness for them and that and and that that forgiveness is there, and God's love can sweep in and pick you up. And so it's it's one way, a huge the main way that God shows his love to us, for he so loved the world, for he so loved you and me, that he gave his one and only son, so that all that all that may believe in him shall have eternal life. Praise Jesus. And so the enemy, Satan, is called the one of his names, is the accuser, and so he's uh saying, Oh, you did this, that person did that, that person did this, this person did that in the courtrooms of heaven. The way in which you're because we're all guilty in those courtrooms, however, because of Jesus' sacrifice, Jesus can stand there and say, those sins have been paid for. I paid for them, that person is free, sinless, blameless, because I've taken the penalty. So if you're in court and someone's already paid your fine, if you owe a thousand dollars or someone's paid that thousand dollars, it's done. Someone's served your time. So you've got 20 years in jail and someone served your time, you know double jeopardy, right? That's how it works. You might say, well, that doesn't feel right. That doesn't how have I got away with that? You haven't got away with it. Jesus died for it. Something something massive actually happened. Jesus was torn limb from limb. Well, his his many of his many of his bones were broken. He was bruised for our inequities, pierced for our transgressions. He was marred more than any man. There wasn't isn't another man that was marred, has been marred more than Jesus. His body was beaten to a pulp. His beard was plucked out, it was spat on, shamed, disgraced in public. And this is this is God. This is this is a completely sinless man. Sinless man. It did no wrong in thought, word, or deed. Perfect, perfect in every way, shape, or form. The creator in human form, the Father's Son, sent here. And humanity the evil that existed in the world and in humanity beat him to a pulp. God knows that was gonna happen. He knows the beginning from the end. He's he created creation, and so nothing surprises him, catches him off guard. It's not like he's watching creation like in a movie, and he goes, Ooh, better get involved here, it's going a bit this way. He knows the end from the beginning, it's all it's all everything that's playing out and everything is about

Everything is about Jesus

SPEAKER_02 11:28

about him, everything's about Jesus. Everything's about Jesus, and we're invited to that. We're invited to that, to to to partake in his glory, to know him, to to partake of him. He is the bread of life, he is the light of the world, and partaking of him, eating the bread of heaven, partaking of the bread of life is even as I say it now, it satisfies the soul so deeply. It's incredible, incredible. Breathtaking is breathtaking is the best word that I can use to describe it. Breathtaking. Exhilarating, breathtaking, magnificent, truly magnificent. And I'm able to experience that and to know that because of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit, which is also God, is the third person of God. It's not an it, it's a he, it's a person. Lives inside of me. Because I've received new life, I've been born again. That's something God did for me. He made that happen, it's his doing. I'm someone that's been chosen to be in his family to receive that, and I'm an extremely grateful recipient of it. That's it, folks. I haven't done anything to earn my salvation. The only thing that I've contributed to my salvation is the sin that made it necessary. That's the same for all of us. So I'm not in a special boat where I'm better than anybody else, or I'm all of a sudden perfect. I'm not going to be pray hopefully, hopefully, praise God, I'm not going to be going around with any kind of self-righteousness, having a righteousness of my own. I've not contributed anything to my salvation other than the sin that made it necessary. The Bible tells us that, so no man when no man can boast. I have nothing to boast in other than Christ, other than Jesus and who he is and what he's done. Simply point to him and say, Look, look and be saved. Look at Jesus, look at who he is, look at what he's done. Look at what he's done for you, look at his love for you, receive it, know it. Let it smash the door down of any pride or arrogance in your heart, any hard heartedness, let that be shattered into pieces. And may you may your heart and your b and your soul break into a thousand pieces joyfully on the shore of the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Back to the song, What Patience would wait as we constantly roam. Praise God, come on. What Father so tender is calling us home? He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor. Our sins they are many, his mercy is

Patient & long suffering

SPEAKER_02 14:10

more. What patience could wait as we constantly roam? God is patient and long suffering. If God was to have punished evil, if God punished evil today, so many of us would be swept up in that punishment because we have committed evil in the eyes of the Lord. We've lived with our backs turned to him, we've lied, stolen stuff, cheated in some way or another, we've lived with our backs turned to God, we haven't wanted to know him, we've lived for other things, we've worshipped other things, we've exalted other things, we've done so many things that let's say are offensive to God. However, his since there are many, his mercy is more. His patience He abounds in patience. And so um I'm so grateful for his patience because if his patience had run out before I was saved, then I'd be I'd be in hell. I'd be doomed. I'd be and no way to get out of it because I I can't get out of my own sin. I can't undo my own sin. I can't wash myself clean. I'm guilty of sin before I thought I'd solely God. And so I need someone. I need these sins to be paid for because the the courtrooms of heaven are the courtrooms of heaven, it's the way it works. I can't go but but the Bible tells us that we will have no excuse, no one will have an excuse come judgment day, and so the only way to get out of the punishment for your sins is to accept the one that's paid for them. Good news, folks, he's already paid for them. We are on this side of the cross, he's already paid for them, he's already been to the cross. Your sins have already been forgiven. It's just receiving something that's already happened. Receive it, receive it. Human nature is to want to try and do something to earn it, to earn it in some way. We're so effort-oriented. However, this is a free gift, the Bible tells it, it's a free gift from God. Eternal life is a gift from God. Praise Jesus. Again, why? Because to show off his goodness, his mercy, his grace. It's a free gift. It brings glory to him, not us. And when it when he gets the glory and you're filled with that truth, you feel better than any moment you could have with your glory. And anytime you you are you experience some kind of success in this world and this life, I promise you that it's gonna be so it is so much sweeter when all glory goes to God. When you you you link it and you connect it to him and you say, Thank you, Lord, for this. Don't want to get caught up in the praise of and the w the praise and the glory from from men that can pervert us and divert us from from our relationship with God. And so when we're firmly rooted in that, we just know that his will is done. We want his will to be done. Whatever it is, he knows better than us. Of course he does. And so we praise God for that and we can rest. We can rest in his finished in his wonderful, beautiful, finished works, trusting that he is all powerful, all-knowing, uh omnipresent. And he's doing what he's doing, and he will do what he what he will do when he wants to do it. Praise God. You don't need to worry. He is taking care of everything, he is taking care of everything. He is mighty on his throne, he cannot be dethroned. Cannot be dethroned, praise Jesus. What Father so tender is calling us home, and he calls us home. He calls us home. Through his word, through his gospel, through his spirit, through his son Jesus. He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor. And so what some of us can do, and I I I would be guilty of this 'cause I've probably done it probably done it can't pinpoint at time, but I dare say I have no, I would have done it, is judging what we might see as the worst of society. I think Brene Brown once said we judge those we judge the most in areas where we ourselves are have the most shame. Maybe. But certainly what we can do, and this can be let's say we might not know it fully on the surface, but we can point out the sins of others very easily and become self-righteous and ho haughty and on our high horse about things when we've sinned. It's like okay, yeah, we can point these things out and talk about them, but from a place of taking the plank out of our own eye from acknowledging that yeah, we've all sinned, you might sin differently to me, but can't go around saying we're better than other people. That's that's we don't have that right, don't have that right, and that's one of the beauties of the gospel is that it actually levels us all out, and we can see each other as brothers and sisters. You've sinned, you need a saviour, I've sinned, I need a saviour, we've got one. Let's let's get together and rejoice and say, Praise Jesus, praise Jesus, He's set us free, He's set us free. What does that do to you after you receive that? Well, he does He finishes the works that he starts in you and He transforms you from the inside out, gives you a new heart and a new spirit, praise Jesus. This is all in his word, and a mighty, incredible change is afoot in your life. That's what I've experienced and I'm and continue to experience. You become way more conscious of sin, you can sometimes get caught in a in a how can I how can I do anything right situation which I I've experienced and the Lord in his in his in his in his wonder brings me back and says, mate, his sins have been forgiven. And I'm once again filled with the joy of that. Like he came and saved me when I was miles away from him at sort of peak peak lostness, right? He didn't come to me and say, I'm only coming to you if you you know, he came and saved me. And when he came and saved me, he didn't then straight away say, Right, mate, well, salvation depends on X, Y, and Z. Of course knowing that my sins are forgiven isn't a license to sin, that's like as Paul says in the Bible, that's like treading on his grave or sending him back to the cross. And the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and convicts us of righteousness. And it's just a journey of life with him through it all. And my recommendation is to continue this to draw near to him, to stay as close to him as possible. He's the best thing you can ever have, the best thing you can ever experience, he's the best friend you've got without a shadow of a doubt. And yeah, we some of us can be offended that let's say okay, let's say for example, if Hitler genuinely turned from his sins, and this might offend some people, if Hitler genuinely turned from his sins for for and turned to the Lord for forgiveness, his sins have been paid for on the cross. Why? Because of the size of the sacrifice, because of the size of the sacrifice. Well, who is it that Jesus. God

The cup of wrath

SPEAKER_02 21:00

God came, lived as a man, and took all and took the wrath of God upon him, so God poured out all the wrath and the punishment of every human being that's ever lived, all sin, past, present and future, through th throughout the throughout throughout time until he until he comes back, till ju till the till the day of the Lord is here, till judgment day, all those sins have been paid for, and it would have produced a very different person. And I don't now don't know don't know Hitler personally, but I'm just saying Mother Teresa needs the same grace and mercy that Hitler does because Mother Teresa's also sinned. Has she sinned as much? Has she sinned in the same way? No, but she still sinned. Why? Because everybody's sinned, that's what the Bible says. Everybody's sinned. So don't look around and say, Oh, that's good. We can sometimes blind ourselves or convince ourselves that the world tells us what's good and what's not, what's right and what's wrong. Best way to explain it, folks, and then we'll move on to the next point. And Pastor at A pastor give this great example. How much do you want a video to be played to the world of all your worst moments? Just uh highlights one after one of your worst moments, your worst thoughts, your worst deeds. Stand there watching it if you know all of those things, that's Jesus paid for all of those. You're you they are all forgiven and they're thrown into a sea of forgetfulness. The Bible tells us that God separates us from our sins as far as the East is from the West. That truth will bring about a change in you that will bring about a desire to live for God, a desire to live a holy life, to repent, to turn away from your sins, to to live clean and holy and set apart. Not the remind, not the constant reminder of your sins, and you again Satan's the accuser, not Jesus. The Bible tells us that there is no guilt and condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because He took it all, He took it all on the cross, all been paid for. And so it's the joy and the love of the Father that leads to a renewed uh renewal and a new life and a changed life because it's that it's that it's how much we're loved and cared for and what we have in him that will blow you away. Will blow you away, and you just want to run to him, whereas you maybe once run you ran to something else that you ran to something else that might have met a need. Tony Robin talks about human needs, the six main human needs love, connection, growth, significance. Can't remember. Can't remember. Anyway. Got a TED talk about it, it's very good actually. And how we can meet though need meet those needs with uh high vehicles or low vehicles. So for example, my need for significance could be met by volunteering, you know, volunteering, let's say. Helping somebody out in a positive way. Another way that significance can be met, which is anger and rage. Tony Romans talks about people that pull a gun on someone, they might have a higher need for significance. Why? Because maybe they've felt insignificant for various reasons, the world has crushed them, and they feel insignificant, and so they want to be noticed, to be seen, they want to be respected and so often they can do that in a n with a negative vehicle. But essentially what's going on there is they're meeting a need for significance. Bible tells us that God meets all of our needs, all of our needs are met, all of our needs are met in Him, and so and this can be a process, of course. Things we once turn to to meet needs, God will meet those needs, He'll replace them with something from Him, and He would deliver you from all that oppresses you. Praise Jesus. Alright, I'm just gonna have to sip in my coffee. Highly recommend seven eleven coffee, guys. Coffee in Australia nowadays, a medium soy flat white with one sugar is averaging out about seven bucks. You can get a nice coffee from 7 Eleven for two or three dollars. Praise Jesus. Someone told me that 7-11 is satanic numbers, and it's anyway. The coffee's alright. The coffee's alright. Okay,

The World Cup is over

SPEAKER_02 25:22

guys, so that's his mercy is more the world cup is over. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus, the World Cup is over. So, what do I mean by that? Well, England have been knocked out, so for me, for me, the World Cup is over. My journey, this journey of cheering on England in this World Cup is over because they're no longer in it. And I'm relieved, I'm grateful that it's over because it's gonna be over one way or another, either going to win it the whole thing, or we're gonna lose at some point, and so I'm grateful for that. So merry go round, but that somewhat of a roller coaster ride is over. It's been a very interesting World Cup journey for me, I must say. I must say, and so I'm somewhat pleased because I can let's say get on with my life, and that's the best that's one of the positive things about living in Australia when England gets knocked out, is I just turn the TV off, turn my phone off if you like, and just you know, go back to what I was doing before and be like, whoa. This happened to me, this is this is what's happened to me in the 20 years that I've been living here, and obviously there's a bit of a disappointment. I am thankful that I'm not in the UK because there obviously will be a you know, whatever that's going on there. I was once watching in England, I think it was England, Portugal, where they England lost on penalties. I was in a a beer garden in Leeds, in Headingley, and a great atmosphere. And as soon as England lost, the place it was like beers got beers were flying everywhere, fights broke out, I was like, God, get out of here, get me out of here, please, Lord. And that is part of the part of the call it the tax. It's part of the if you if you subscribe to the theory of the elites and energy looshing, which is that they create these things to to so we all get swept away in it, and at the highs and the lows, and that there's an energy tax there, which they somehow feed off like a like and get pleasure andor energy from, or some sense of control and power. Don't know. It's a theory that's out there. That it is an example of how we can attach ourselves and place joy and happiness, sadness, rage, anger into something so fickle, something so fickle, because unless you win it, right, and unless you win it, you know, that's what's coming down the pipe. And if we did win it, what would we do? Well, there'd be a celebration, no doubt. But you know what? The next tournament comes around in two years, and we've got to do it all again. And so for me, there's like a m what the Lord has been doing with me in through this is is in a sense he's been delivering me from the World Cup, and my what I call it, yeah, let's say uh energetic attachment to or a energetic invo an energetic and emotional involvement in professional sports, and in particular, yeah, these these these big events, these big events. And so the bigger the event gets on the world stage, the the the greater the hype, the greater the talk, the greater the noise around it, the greater the uh the emotion, the energetic tax. So much on the line, it becomes like you know, what does Alf Ramsey say? Football's football's not life and death, it's much more important than that. I mean, that for me is one of the worst, just ridiculous thing to say. You know, with all due respect. With all due respect, that's just not true. And sometimes we can lift up these statements in these people and say, look what they say, and then it's like, well, there's only one there's only one source of wisdom as far as I'm concerned, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, that's God. And so I've said many a thing in my day that I think look back to and go, gosh, what a goose, what an idiot, and that's just how it is. That's just how it is. And so yeah, it's not as important as life and death, obviously. And there's many out there that go, it's just a game of football guys. Of course, there's the there's the the tribalism, there's the replacement of the battle, the hunt, the kill games and what they bring and all of that kind of stuff, and of course, it can keep the mob happy. You might have seen the post that goes around sometimes about if you give them bread and circus, then that keeps everybody happy. You know, the Romans give them some more games, the mob the people want more games, give them games, give them bread and circus. And how on some level, high-level professional sports, it's the same is the continuation of that, of that, where the mob is satiated to some degree and kept happy and distracted through games. And yeah, I dare say that there's a gonna obviously people are gonna say I've already seen one post that said it's too cool to blame. And so what will come will be the analysis to blame game. Where do England go from here? 60 years of hurt, hasn't been 60. I'm not 60 years old, I haven't lived for 60 years, but it hasn't been 60 years of hurt for me. I mean, they these things get thrown around, and it's like you know, we can as human beings get so caught up and swept away in it. Anyway, as the World Cup's gone on, praise God, I've been delivered from that, and so praise Jesus for that. And so what I came across recently, probably in the last two weeks, it's also folks centraled around the Conor McGregor fight, is I came across a podcast by yeah, Apollo

Coincidence Joey

SPEAKER_02 31:25

the Original and Joey Coincidence, where Joey Coincidence is talking about basically how high-level sports, the bigger, the bigger the the bigger the occasion, it talks about energy illusion, but he talks about how it's basically all fixed and corrupt. He goes into numerology and I think it's gematria. I'm not sure, not sure what it is. It's basically letters as a numbers, so A is one, two is B. There's other types of ciphers, but he goes into that now. That's a whole other world, and I've peeked enough into it to go, I understand the core principles of what's going on there. These these numbers are all symbols, they're all representative of things, and it's one way in which the say the enemy sections of the enemy secret societies, Satanists, Illuminate, Freemasons, all that kind of stuff, are saying one way in which they control things, control, attempt to control the world, siphon energy, um keep us all keep us all busy, distracted, dumbed down, all this kind of stuff. And it's very hard to ignore, to be honest. I had a good look at it and I was like, yeah, I um it's hard to ignore some of it, just you can't be, it's very difficult to be coincidences. There is to some extent where if you want to try and find a number, you can there's one guy that I I saw who was like, I mean, this guy's like dedicated probably the last 10 years of his life to it, so he's way, way more into it than I am. But he was it would be like Donald Trump's mother was born on this day, latitude, longitude, that equal you know, it's like you can find a number if you if you're looking for it. But that being said, some stuff's just ridiculous, some stuff is ridiculous. Anyway, I recommend watching that watching that podcast, watching some of that podcast. Make your own mind up, of course, but check it out. It's hard to ignore, and it also talks about how the enemy, the powers of darkness, use magic. Now, some people say magic is in light, you know, get a magic trick, close-up magic. I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about magic with this ends with the K. All form lots of forms of magic, witchcraft, sorcery, there's plenty of that that goes on in the world. I've I've had my own experiences in that with that in those worlds, let's say, and so I know that that's that's there, talks about in the Bible as well, and wouldn't surprise me if wouldn't surprise me if that was at play, and they could they absolutely could could do that in a absolutely use that to influence the flight of a ball to give a to give somebody more powers, like 100% it it could be argued that the reason why Messi Manado are still going at this level is because they are accessing a sort of a a form of dark energy and power from the powers of darkness, 100%. Yeah, you know, train hard work or tr la la, but 100%, like 100%. I I know that. I know that too. I know that's something that happens for a fact. Whether it's happening with them or not, I'm not I'm not saying for sure, but 100% happens. Why would it not happen at that level? We talk about the corruption that's in sport, tralal. Again, the higher the higher, the bigger the event, the more likely we're gonna see. You can see you can have a look at some of the symbolism in some of the ceremonies. Like just wait till the half time. Look at Justin Bieber's post about with the green background with the fact that he's gonna be on the half-time show. You look at these half-time shows, the opening ceremonies full of satanic symbolism, Illuminati triangle, one hand over one eye. I've seen pictures of so many professional soccer players that do the the pose of the boy next to Baphomet. I mean, it's just like that's right there in front of you, and so it is what it is. Part of me was like, I think I went through a little bit of a grief process with it because I was like disappointed, bit angry, disbelieving, because you go, like, well, there's so many people out there seem to be giving it a right go. And I'm not because again, some people will be in the account that it's all fake, it's all it's all fake, everybody everybody's in on it, and I'm like, Well, all professional athletes are in on it. That's a hard one to take. It may be that there's just a a few of them, probably the ones that are the most famous, the biggest, the highest profile, is at least one argument, and again, that is hard to ignore when you look at things, when you look into things, and so I'm not gonna go on about that too much here. I other than say if you're interested in checking that stuff out, have a look at Apollo the Originals and Joey Coincidences podcast, it's the Apollo the original podcast. Have a look at it. You can take you can have a deep dive from there if you if you're keen to. And so when that came along, I was like, Yeah, took the shine off it for me. Started to take the shine off the World Cup, which was wasn't a bad thing because I I started to go, yeah, you know, gotta be careful here. And the Lord said to me, Be careful, don't take things to heart, like don't take things to heart. And the Bible tells us to guard our heart and our minds. And as England were playing Argentina there, it was 1-0 to England, and it was about, I don't know, probably a couple of minutes before Argentina's first goal. If I go into the game a little bit, if I go into the game a little bit, what did England do as soon as they scored? It just went ultra defensive, right, and just did the thing that Thomas Tigra said in the first game against Croatia. It was like we went into protection defensive mode, invited attacks, right? We just did it again. The cons the the the view that it's all fate would say that's that's part of the plan, right? Now, if I was there, I'd say, right, guys, anybody goes defensive and sits back, I'm just gonna take you off. Like you just have to punish to be consequences for just going to that. Anyway, yeah, Argentina brought on attacking players, chalala. But it would so like the pattern was there, right? I was like, could we really gonna do this again for 35 minutes against Argentina? Painful to watch in many ways, isn't it? Painful to watch. Like we've got them on the ropes, just scored, like bat you know what I mean. But anyway, anyway, yeah. I just started praising Jesus, started praising Jesus. The Lord brought a worship song to my mind, and I just started praising him, and I was like, Yeah, I'm not gonna put my peace and my joy and my happiness in the game in the game of football, not doing it, praise God. And so, hey Presto, what happened? Argentina came back, scored two, but by that point I was already praising the Lord and starting to feel relieved that at least it's over, at least this journey's over, just get it over and done with. And so, yeah, the World Cup is over for me. I can't imagine I'm gonna be anywhere near as I'm gonna be Lord willing, if I'm still around by then and there is another World Cup, that I'll be anywhere near as invested, to be honest, unless I'm coaching the team, in which case, what a journey that would be. What a journey that would be. But anyway, or I'm involved somehow. But yeah, for me it's like, yeah, the the likelihood of the of the involvement of the powers of darkness has taken in a way joyfully taken the shine of it for me. And so that's why for me the World Cup is over. Premier League stuff like that, don't know, but when you look at the World Cup and see the size of the event, all the eyes on it, the famous people, the symbolism, the ceremonies, you just go, yeah, just ceremonies after ceremonies that one. And I don't mean I don't mean the opening ceremonies on the pitch, I mean ceremony after ceremony. There's plenty of stuff going on around that place that you would be shocked and horrified by if you saw it, no doubt. And okay.

Deliverence & being set free

SPEAKER_02 39:49

Alright, we've got the next point here is yeah, deliverance and being set free. So as I mentioned, it's an ongoing journey with the Lord. I felt like he was delivering me from football, from from sports. Oh, yeah, the Conor McGregor thing, same thing. The Conor McGregor thing was woven into this. If you the the more I look at that, again, Conor McGregor's interview with Tucker Carlson in the Masonic Lodge, it's like either either way, you can they want you to just stay involved and watch it. Or is it this, is it that? It's like just for me, it's like tap out, be like, nah, guys, too much of a charade, too much just whatever, like just garbage nonsense, isn't it? Like yeah, I'm glad that's over too, to be honest with you. And so, yeah, all of that stuff. So praise God for setting me free from energetic traps that are laid within professional sports. Praise God for that. And so, yeah, I pray that that the Lord will deliver you primarily, of course, from sin and from the power of sin and death, from this world and all that's in it, and this world that's all that's in it. And where do you go when you deliver from this world? Well, you uh your eyes are open and you're in his kingdom, you because you know him, you know the king, you know who he is, and he starts to tell you and teach you and guide you as you live life in his kingdom, awaiting his full return, where this world, the world that we're born into, you you're out of a womb, you're born into another world called the world that doesn't know Jesus, and then you're delivered from that world by Jesus into another world, you're born again, and you become aware of his kingdom, you're translated, you transferred from the kingdom, from the world, the kingdom of darkness, which Satan has a rule over, some of a rule of it. He's not the king of the earth, the earth belongs to God, the earth belongs to Jesus. Satan is the rule of this world, he fills it with lies, he's the father of lies, and um you're delivered from that, and then you live in the world but not of it, until either you die and you go to heaven, or Jesus returns, and this world, and all that doesn't all that isn't going to be taken forward into God's kingdom is is taken away, the wheat is separated from the chaff. And I pray that you are somebody that is in God's kingdom and you're one of his children, and so the Bible says if you turn to him in faith and repentance, that he will lift the veil, he will lift the veil that exists between you and him, he will lift that veil, and you will you will have eyes to see and ears to hear. Praise Jesus.

The cost of salvation

SPEAKER_02 42:30

Salvation comes at a cost. Salvation comes at a cost, yeah, that's an interesting point there. Like I said, for me there's been a journey of like okay, disappointment in some extent, some forms of grief about the recognition that I don't get the same enjoyment from sports from watching it, which to be honest with you, this is a good thing. And so that's a very small price to pay because I I'm I whatever attention I was giving now just give it to more to the Lord and what he has for me. So praise Jesus. But there is a deliverance for that. Now the ultimate cost that was that was paid was that Jesus God's son died on the died on the cross and he uh took his took the penalty of our sins upon him. I'm just gonna read from Isaiah fifty-three. Who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Some say the arm of the Lord is the same as is is is the is the Lord the the the angel of the Lord. Is the Lord. The arm of the Lord is the angel of the Lord. And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. This is about Jesus. And this is however many hundreds of years before Jesus was born. So this is prophesied Isaiah, one of the Lord's prophets, foretelling, looking forward to Jesus. This is in the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh the Torah, the Tanakh. So if think who does this sound like, guys? He had no formal majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the inequ the iniquity of us all iniquity reference to sin. And so the price for the price for our sins, the price for our deliverance from the world, the price for our reconciliation to God, God the Father, is is what his son went through. He bore he carried our sorrows upon him, upon his shoulders, upon his body, his body was broken for us. He took all that for us. He was pierced for our transgressions, his hands were pierced, his feet were pierced, his side was pierced, he was crushed for our iniquities, and so again the Bible tells us that the wages for sin is death. There is a cost for sin. Somebody must pay. And God doesn't want us to pay for it, but they have to be paid for, and so that those the the eternal price for our sins against an eternal g against the eternal God, the one true living God, is an eternal sacrifice from his eternal son, and so it's the gr it's the price that he paid for us, and that's a reflection of his love. Who no greater love is there than someone who would lay down his life for his friend, and so that's what God Himself has done for you and me. That's what he's saying. He's saying, I've done it for you, I've done it for you because I love you. I want your my children, I'm your friend, I'm your brother, I'm your father, I'm your God, I'm your king, I'm your lord, I'm your saviour, I'm your redeemer, I'm your counselor, I'm your healer. Like he's got he wins the archetype bingo, guys. And so that was the cost of our salvation, the cost of our salvation comes at a cost. And so if if that price wasn't paid by Jesus, then you and I would experience it. We would experience forsaking, which is to be completely left by God, to be sent far from him. And the reason why hell is sounds so bad and is so bad is because it's as far away from God as you can get whilst remaining alive, it's just horrible, horribleness because um it's the opposite of being in God's presence, because he's good, he's life itself, and so it's an eternal death, it's an eternal forsaking. And Jesus didn't just take that all that physical torment and torture, you know, publicly shamed, a sinless man. He experienced whatever it felt like to be forsaken by God for all of humanity. Like I don't I can't even comprehend what that would even begin to feel like. But certainly, if you look at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus' prayer saying, if it's possible to take this cup from me, please take it from me, but your will be done, not mine. And so Jesus knew he was gonna do that. He knew he was gonna do that from before the beginning of time. And so, yeah, I've been

Facebook post

SPEAKER_02 48:45

having a conversation with some people on Facebook recently. Someone shared a post about Christians killing indigenous people and then giving them a book saying thou shalt not kill, and so pointing out the hypocrisy of Christians, or it just in particular Christians that came to that killed it that travelled across the seas and killed indigenous people. I think it's a bit of a cop-out. I think it's a it's a lazy thing. This often I've heard this before, sort of what gets now bear in mind I'm Christian three years. Certain pe people can point out things that have been done by uh so-called Christians, let's say, pedophile priests in the Catholic Church, the crusades, religious wars, all this kind of stuff, right? Now I wouldn't know enough about these things to get too involved. A couple of points I would make is look, not everyone that says they're a Christian is a Christian, you know. Donald Trump professes Christ, but I wouldn't necessarily if I said to him, right, Donald, let's get together and start praying in tongues, I'd be very surprised. I would be very surprised. You never know. If it'd get right in there with me, I don't necessarily see and hear what I'd imagine I would hear from someone that's truly been born again, but he is someone that's saying he's a Christian. Would he would he give Christians a bad name? Well, some of these quotes, yeah. There's a difference between Catholics and Christians. Not every Christian is a Catholic. I'm not a Catholic, I don't bend my knee to the Pope, I bend my knee to Jesus Christ. So not everybody knows these things. Not everybody knows these things, plenty of things I don't know. With that particular post, it was like wasn't clear which indigenous community it was, what Christians when, it was just a very lazy cartoon and a bit of a cheap shot. That level of horrific genocide and violence is perpetrated by non-Christians as well. It's a it's a reflection of sin and evil that exists in the world and in mankind. And so I think it's an easy way to it's an easy way to try and avoid or distance yourself from Christianity. On a very deeper level, this can be done, Satan can put this in the world to make it give people reasons to think, you know, oh religious wars, yeah, but what about oil? You still you'll be you know you haven't got a problem with you don't have a massive problem with oil if you're putting it in your car. Wars are fought enough to reason there's loads of reasons for it. So to single out Christianity and make it bad or make it something that it isn't doesn't help. It doesn't help you with your relationship with God, it doesn't help you with your relationship with Jesus. One thing to point out there is to say, well, what about your own sins? And so there is a there is a moment that's worth talking about, not to labor on, but just talk about what are you gonna do about your own sins? Because the Bible tells us that there's a it's a death penalty, it's an eternal death penalt penalty. So that's the bad news. The good news is it's been paid for, and so some people will say, Oh, well, Ivan, I'm not as bad as there, I didn't do this. Again, that's not going to cut it, it's worth spending time just with yourself with the Lord privately, quietly, if you haven't already, because that's it's a good and healthy thing to do, and it's it shows humility and it shows it's the right thing to do, it's the right thing to do. And so if we point out hypocrisy and self-righteousness we must take the plank out of our own eyes and be careful where we're doing it, we're doing it ourselves. Me included. Me included. And of course, the key of course the key difference there is that you can look at religion, these things, and what's missing is your personal relationship with Jesus, your personal relationship with God. It hasn't been revealed to you in the way that you would be born again yet, and so once that happens, your tune changes because you've got a new heart and a new spirit, you undergo a heart transplant, and a true, genuine, only true, genuinely, genuine spiritual awakening, where you're given a new spirit, spirit is made one with the spirit of God, praise Jesus. Spent a lot of time before I was saved being interested in trying to experience spiritual awakening, only to realise it's that's just a load of garbage. The garbage, it's all garbage unless you know Jesus essentially, and so but I'm grateful for the opportunity to go into that space to talk about Jesus and what he's done for us. For me, I like to focus on what truly unites us. Indigenous people, or no one indigenous people have sinned because they're people. The Bible says everybody sinned, and Christians shouldn't be self-righteous, arrogant people that think they're better than anybody else, or that go around telling people that you go to hell because of your sins. The difference between a Christian and non-Christian is that a Christian essentially has acknowledged his or her sins and their need for a saviour and has received that saviour in Jesus Christ, and so it should lead to humility and it should lead to humility. I appreciate Christians who've done very bad things, it doesn't help Christianity. Again, I don't know them personally, I don't know if everybody that has said they're a Christian in the past is a is a true Christian, a true disciple, a true follower of Jesus Christ. Can't speak for that, but let's not get caught up in these things and avoid the main point, avoid the main point here, guys, which is God is real. We're born disconnected. He's reconciled us to him through his son Jesus Christ, who died for our sins. We're forgiven, we are loved, we are cherished more than we know, and I pray that that would that truth would reach you, reach into you, touch you, and change you and transform you if it hasn't already, and if it has already that it continues to ripple throughout your life into those around you, and your homes and your communities and your neighbours. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thats a wrap

SPEAKER_02 55:31

Alright, God, that's alright, God, alright guys. Badunch. That's a wrap. That is a wrap. Thank you if you've if you've if you've followed this podcast journey, whoever you are, and or you're listening to this one. England are out. Thank God it's over. And it is finished. It is finished. Amen. Praise Jesus.